I encountered this Taoist Qigong lineage in 2015. At that time, I had about twenty years’ experience of regular practice, more or less intensive, in different forms of meditation: Shamatha-Vipassana as taught in the Vajrayana Kagyupa and Shambhala traditions of Tibetan Buddhism; then, in recent years, Vipassana according to the Theravada tradition. These silent and motionless sitting practices came easily to me, as I am calm and quiet by nature, albeit sometimes a bit anxious. But they also confined me to the level of the mind, with work mainly focused on the awareness of thoughts, which reinforced the existence of an “observer”.
It was the teaching of S. N. GOENKA that allowed me to discover a preverbal level of attention to bodily sensation, and really connected me to the body and then, beyond that, to Space. If this experience was, for me, one of the most revealing that I have ever had, I also quickly encountered real psychological obstacles to sustaining the intensive 10-day silent retreats provided by this tradition. These difficulties led me to the obvious fact that it was becoming necessary for me to orient my practice towards a greater mobilization of the body.
Qi Gong had already attracted me for some time, but the many classes available to me consisted more of weekly meetings to practice a form of Chinese gymnastics devoid of any cultural or spiritual background, where conviviality could easily take precedence over pure practice.
Until the day when, during my research, I stumbled upon a proposal for beginner levels taught at Dechen Chöling by Eva WONG. After making inquiries, the discipline ticked many boxes for me: Eva WONG was the holder of several lineages and transmitted her discipline in the purest tradition. What’s more, a Taoist Qi Gong, inhabited (therefore animated) by an authentic underlying philosophy and spirituality which, even if they were not familiar to me at the time, echoed the depth psychology of C. G. JUNG (in particular, the correlation of opposites) that I had practiced for years.
More precisely, the main lineage of Eva WONG (https://www.limitlessgate.com/), the Xiantianwujimen school, founded in the 11th century, was a lineage of purely alchemical meditators, transmitting a path of work and transmutation of energy capable of leading the follower to return to the Void (equivalent to Awakening among Buddhists) responding, again, to another of my main centers of interest: the alchemical process, first glimpsed in JUNG then approached a little more closely, as far as its external form is concerned, with Patrick BURENSTEINAS. There was no longer any doubt from my first levels 1 and 2, that this Qi Gong would take a central place in my spiritual life.
Today, with hindsight of my practice, I can testify to the efficiency of this ancestral health art, to say all the medical benefits, both postural and immunological, of musculo-tendino-skeletal strengthening (preponderant in the first stages of the practitioner’s development); I can describe the spontaneous improvement in the management of emotions (generated by later, slightly more advanced practices, oriented towards the regulation of breathing and energy centers). The ultimate goal of all this meticulously accomplished work is to develop, effectively and gradually, the aptitude of adepts for successful meditation and total harmonization with the natural environment.
But if I am, for my part, nourished by this spirituality and its most subtle aspects, this path excludes no one and is just as fully addressed to those who are motivated by purely “medical” aspects. As a professional of effective but rather curative Western medicine, I can only encourage and support any preventive approach…
This is why I am deeply committed to promoting and spreading this wonderful discipline.
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Discover the transformative power of Qigong with long-time practitioner Damien Sauvezie and join him for the Traditional Chinese Qigong Retreat in Dechen Chöling.
Available Dates:
Qigong Level 1 & 2 • 30 Nov – 1 Dec 2024
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