China Day 15

Today is one day past 1/2 way through the trip. We started with morning Qi Gong. The group is bigger now than just me, Zach, Drew, Matt, and Bowen (who were initiated what seems like months ago in Tianjin). Now Val, Christine, Josh, Chris, Rhonda, Charles, and Polly are in the group. Master Wei showed up and went through the whole form again and then came around to give us a little something while we were practicing. It's not really my thing to be getting up at 630 every morning, but it does feel nice to be outside (not directly in the city) around some trees getting some practice in.

After the form today, we went over to the area where the statue is that I took pictures of yesterday and did a sun salutation of sorts. We sit facing the sun and absorb the Yang. I quite liked it. Sitting for me is much easier than holding a ball of Qi between my hands with another ball inside my arms and another one under my feet while I think about nothing and breathe correctly. So far I need a lot of practice cause I am not so good at shutting off the thinking while I have so much to be paying attention to. Sitting and absorbing the Yang is much more my style!

Some of us showed up for the continuation of the "conference" today. We were told that participation was optional, so understandably some people didn't go. This is fine, except that the rest of us who were there had to wait around for a couple of hours for everything to start up because the people kept waiting for more of us to show up. We didn't know this until they finally started. Of course it was more of the same product demonstrations and not anything really interesting. One funny thing though was this guy, who makes these little bottles of apple cider vinegar plus something else that makes it better than just vinegar (enzymes or something), went off for a good 10 minutes about how doctors are killers and they get trained to point guns at you.. stuff like that. It as interesting, and extra funny because of how hard Shifu was laughing.

After the days worth of talks, we were offered a tour of the garden which I jumped on right away. I thought it was going to be different, but it turned out to just be a ride in a gold cart around a couple of the roads that gained some kind of elevation so we could see some kind of view. Not that we stopped for photo-ops.. =( I got a few on the fly shots, but there was so much vegetation that I stopped trying after a few.

After everyone got back from the tour, Shifu came over to see who was going to go to Master Lee's class. This is where everything got crazy. I heard her explaining what was being offered and I couldn't say no. She said that he was going to open our third eyes, and what this meant is that if it works (and it would work differently for different people) what we would get out of this experience is the ability to diagnose like she does. I know that saying it like that doesn't mean much, but that's the best way I have to describe it. The specifics were that we'd be able to SEE the meridians in our patients, see the flow of the qi, and consequently see where the blockages are with our eyes. We'd also be able to communicate with the spirit world, see spirits (I guess), and possibly be able to see events over long distances.
Now I would love to have these abilities, but the things that some of us were talking about before deciding to go to this class is the responsibility that a person would have to accept along with things of this sort. I think that's an important thing to think about and not actually one that I would have considered on my own. The other thing that was going through my mind is whether or not I believe that anyone can do these things. Right off the bat, I am very skeptical of anyone who makes such claims, but I've always wanted to experience and believe these things, and a few of the people on this trip know that. I just felt like this was a good chance to step out and see what would happen. I had to try.
That night I had one of the craziest (if not the most crazy) experiences of my life. The class had 2 sessions. One before dinner and one after. The first session didn't really hit me as life changing, although I did feel much more relaxed than usual and I just felt like I wanted to spend the rest of the night outside just staring at trees or the stars (if I could see any anywhere in China). This trip has had me pretty amped so that calmness was really enjoyable, and I think very necessary for the second part of the class after dinner.
I'm not sure how much of the experience I really want to write out. I'm a little worried that it will lose a lot in translation so I'm just going to say that I had an experience that I've never had before and it really shook me, mentally and physically. I was physically shaking for maybe 20-30 minutes afterwards, teeth chattering and everything. All of this from only a a few minutes of a breathing exercise followed by just sitting quietly. I was in shock for sure, especially when Master Lee said that I'd done a really good job getting to the quiet place that one needs to be in for the 3rd eye to open up. Of all people, I least expected myself to have something like that happen and I have to say that I got a little of what I asked for. So far the world looks the same and I'm glad for that. I don't think I'm really ready for too much more.
After class I sat with Chris, Kristin, Charles, and Bowen and had some lychee wine. We talked about our experiences. It really helped me to have other people hear me and bring me back to reality a bit.
I can't help but wonder what Qi Gong is going to be like now.. is it going to be any different? Will I have an easier time feeling anything there? I'll find out in the morning!