A Collection of Sacred-Magick.

Com < The Esoteric Library

"w

THI MACUS

OFJAVA

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

THEMAGUS

OFJA\A
'li:achiqgs
of an AuthenticTaoistImmortal

KOSTADANAOS

TTi
Iturcr Trditions
Rochester Vermont

For Doris

CONTFNTS
Ione. Tiaditions Intemational
Roche.ter,Vmont 05767
w{w.lnnerliaditions.cm
CopydshtO 2000 by Kosia Danaos
All rishts reseryed No prtfthis book my be .producedor utilized in any
form or by any means,electronicor nechnicI,includins phorocopyins,
rcording,orby.y i.tomation storageandretrievalsystem,{ilhout permissin

Introduction
ChapterOne

Looking through the Mirror

in w.iting lrom the publisher

ChapterTo

Lifeforce

Librry of Cons.e$ Cata,osins-ir-Publication Dt

ChapterThree

Beginnings

Chapter Four

The Immortals

35

ChapterFive

The Story of Llao Slfu

61

Chapter Six

Lessonsto Be Learned

76

ChapterSeven

n and Yang

99

Chapter Eight

The Vill of Heaven

116

Chapter Nine

The Keris

133

ChapterTn

The Nature of Reality

147

Epilogue

ForaBreathlTrry....

162

Appendix One

Notes

177

AppendixTwo

Obsenrationsand Speculation

200

The Masls of lava: teachinssofanauthenticToistimmoftl/ KostaDans.

lncludesbibliogphical .eiere.ces.
I S B N0 - 8 9 2 8 18 1 1 1 G l k p a p ,
L Chans,John.2 Taoists-lndoneria
Indonesi Java Biosaphy l tle.

lava

Biosnphy 3. HealeE

8L1940.C426D36 2000
299'514092-dc2I

tBl
oa-o36942
Printed and bond in Canada
1098765
Text desicn a.d lyout by CryslalH H Robfts
This book was typeset in Veisswith SchneidlerInitialsas the displaytypeface

vii
1

t2

INTRODUCTION

Imaglnea world where the mind and soul of rnar are foeeto rech
thchgreatestpotential,where powersonce consideredsupematurl
or paranorrnalare a simple fact of life. lmagine a place where disciscs hitherto thought incurablecan be tretedwith the uncomplicltcd administrationofthe healersown abundantlife energy,a place
where mankind caD readily communicatewith earthboundspirits,
whcre powerful yogis can speakwith their Creator Cod Himself.
Vouldn't it bewonderfulto dwellin sucha domain,the stuff of fairy
talcs, myths and legends,storybooks, and Hollywood celluloid?
Vouldn't life have a distinct flavor,a tangy zest,if suchthings were
lndcedtrue?
Velcome to my world. I live in such a place,where all the extraordinrythings that I have suggestedare real and incontrovertlble. In my world Vestern scienceand Easternmysticismwalk hand
In hand, embracedand inseparable,miror aspectsof the samerealIty, equllyfactualandvalid. The opportunity to grow is thereevery
waking moment, the gift of our own $eat potentialYoumight supposethat sucha destiny is fr awat but in truth it
ls at mankind'sdoorstep.There can be no doubt that humanity is
once again in the processof chnging. Traditions ar evolving as
crosscujturl baffierc continue to fall. Old values,idals,and conccptsare no longerblindly accepted;peopleof allcreeds,races,and
nationshve becomelesshesitantto question,to askolry

The mindofman is in a frenzyasoeverbeforeitechnologygrow,

ing logarithmically by leapsand bounds.Ve have set foot on the
moon and touchedthe bottom ofthe ocean.Ve havemovedat many
tims the speedof sound and have viewed the facesof the planets
around us. Ve control the power oa the atom and can replace a
crippled humanheartwith that ofa suitable(andwilling) donor Ve
are a stpaway from creatinganartificial,silicon basedintelligence
Ve haveeven invadedthe sanciry ofthe gneand createdclones.It
seemsthat our quest for knowledge;s constrainedonly by energy,
time, and financialllocation.
Ve havemademuch socialproeess.Despitediscriminatorydis
t.ibutioo, ducationlevelsareat an all-time high for the humanrace.
The phenomenonofhurnan serfdomandsub;ugationis on the wane,
rebellionjsvideni all overtheworld. Peopleareawareofrheirrights
andare willins to fisht-perhaps evento die-forrhem. (No simpte
thing, this, whn you consider that the economiesof all historic
empireswere foundedon slavery) Evenmore stirring is the fact that
many individualsare now wjlling to fight and die for otrelpeoples
rights, perhapsmoresothan in anyotherperiod in ourhistory. Vhat
is equally important is that the seli-sacrificeof rhesheroesis nor
basedon any specificreligio6 belief or practice,but rather on the
simple conviciion that human righrs deseweto be protected.
There is a backlashto thh, ofcourse.Ethnic and.eligiousfanaticism is on the rise.Fascismtroublesus once more.Multinational cor_
portionsbusetheir power t will for $eater profits, bribing corrupt govrnmentsto rpetheir land and usetheir own cirizens.The
planett ecologicalbalancehasbeen destroyeo-permanenuy,some
people claim. Our flora and fauna are dying, rhe planet suffering
The Almighty Dollarnrles, andconsumerismis the creedof the day.
It seemsthat for all our power-for we are powerful-we have
yet to answerthe fundamenralquestionsof life.Wbo areoezWlweare
wegoh4t Why areae hrel Wbataft oxrjeft t cababiliths,
ohat ourJinal
potentiabDo welio?o't aJterdeath,asis belkoedz
Whatts troehappilrr;s
dnhow
cdltue ftocbit/ Is there,
hdred,a GeatorGodtThe list is endless,asold as
man hirnself.
Ii rossiriefof us ro nswerrhesequestions.The secretro a successfulresolution of thesebasicinquiries,howevet is that we must
viii

makea committedeffort asa specin,

not asnationsor groupsof people,
to find the answers.Th method required is as sirnpl,and as difficult, as that.
Humanity hasdevelopedalong rnany different lines.There are
as many cultural approachesto life as there ar naturaland sensory
stimuli. Some culturesare visu|,others acousric,others olfactory
othersintuitive. It is hard to quantify humaoculturewith prcision,
and suchan anlysisis far beyond the scopeof this book. Howevea
it is possibleto say (speakingrery generally) that, as a dominant
tendenct Vestern scienehas turned outv/ard, its intnt bing ro
quantity and modiymani environmenrto suit manswishes.Eastern
science,on the other hand, hasturned inward, attempting to quan
tiy and develop the innate capabilitiesof the human speciesand
undrstandits rol in the schemeof things. Vhile it is vry danger,
ous and unscientificto make statmenrsof this sort, for rhe time
being it is important rhat I tak this srandpoint,if for no other reason than to clarify the purposof rhis text.
Let me return to the phrasea cohtniued.
e|Jon
asa stsc,es
This starement impliesthat we humanbeingsmust pierc through our ethnic
andnationalbarriersandwork together Historytells us thai incred,
ible events have unfolded whenever we rvere able to remporarily
crossourself-imposedthresholds.The HellenisticAge, for example,
clearly showsus what can be achievedthrough cdtural inreractionr
in the fourth century BcEancintCreecemet with ancienrIndia, and
the destiny of the world was forever,and quite radically,changed.,
The exploits of Kins Alexanderand his men, howeve, ar not
directly pertinentto this book. The point is, rhere is no reasonthat
we todaycannot duplicarewhar the ancientsachievedthen,and that
is to learn from eachother in ordr to grow, to survive,prhapseven
to thrive. In the nineteenthcentury Kipling wrote, 'asr is Eastand
VestisVst, andneverthetwainshallmeet."*
Hewaswrong.Eastis
meetingrl/est today,andwillcontinue to do so if we canjust nurture
their union. To realize this, we must ensure that both cultures

l Seeappendix I for this and all other numberednotes.

*
RudyardKipling,'The BaUadofEastand Vesr, tss9.

approachechotherwith mutualrespect,
openthemselves
completely
to eahother, nd shartheir conclusions.It is not an easytask.
Chineseculture, and more specificallyTaoistculture, hastaken
the Vest by storm. Acupuncturcis prcticedeverywhere.Chinese
restaurantsare ubiquitous.Kung fu moviesand TV showsare popuIar farandwide. Meditation hasbeenrecognizedasa bio,behavioral
state by Vestern medicine.* The Tao T Ching is being read by
unive.sity studentsall over the world, and many Westernbusinfss,
men are using the I Ching and feng shui (Chinsedivination meth,
ods) in their day-to-daydcisionmaking.
Andyet, despitethe popularappealof ChineseTaoistculture, a
fine fusion of astand \Xr'esthasonly begun ro take placein recent
years.Forthe most part, peoplein the Vest either entirely reject the
Easternapproachas mumbo-iumboor embrcitwith religiousfervor asmore ancientand spiritualthanVestem science.Both o[these
attitudesareenoneous.The first presumptuouslyrejectsthevalue of
Chineselearning,the secondtakestried andpmven biophysicaltechniques developedover millennia and turns them into dogm.This
problem is compoundedby the fact that mny \Testernersand Chinesealike are too eagerto pushwhat little tidbits of knowledgethey
have down consumers'throats in a desperatequestfor moneyThe Chinesethemselvesare responsiblefor much of this. Thre
is, unfortunately,no such thing as Clirne science.Instad,there are
Janily and clar sciencesand arts developed by the people of the Chinesenationovermillennia.The knowledgedevelopedby the Chinese
was'l.rerwidespread,not evenwithin China itself.lt wasthe prerogative and the powerbaseof the privilegedfw and their families.
In the past a ChineseMasrer nevr taught his apprntices100
percent ofhis knov/ledge.!nsteadhe retaind,say,rhe forenost t0
percent for himslf alone.Perhapshe would wrire down the rest in
a document fof his favorite student, to be opened after h;s death.
The result ofthis approachwas that the sum of eachclan'slearning
decreasedby l0 percent with each generation,until some charismatic student was able to decipher the mysrry and return ro the
* Herbert Benson,7'eRala'rnor
R$po'n (New york, Villiam Monow
andCo., 1975).

ritiltusol thc original teacher,at which point the cycle went on

wlth ,i, students,
and so forth.The apabilities
and exploitsof the
Mastcrsbecamethe stuff of legend, and later the sroryline of the
( lhincscopera.Today they are the essenceof all kung tu movies.
'l'o
make mattersworse, the Mastersa,most nevel worked tolclhcr. Th concept of a Vestrn university,where knowledge is
rharcd and experiencesare compared,was an alien one for them.
l\rwcr was meantto be used for profit, materialand spiritual.More
l|ltcn than nor rnartialMasterschallengedeach other, much knowl,
cdac ws forfeited in this manner becausethe bestedMaster fre(lucntly lost his life as well. To our Vestern culture, such an approachseemsshocking,to sy the least.Inlormation dissemination
lI cvident evrywhere;indeed, it is very difficult, even undesirable,
Lokcep knowledgsecretor propritaryin our society.'?
Yet there is a way that a complete union of thesetwo cultures
crn be accomplished,and that is simply by the creation of a 'so
flclcncethat is nitherEasternnor \X/esternbut a union of both. Bold
vlsionariesof gnerationspast have foretold such a discipline.I be'
llcvc that it is mankind! destiny to come together in this fashion,
nnd that such a science,cornbining the orthological* approachof
thc Vest with the mysticaldisciplineof the East,is beins forsed in
our day and age.This story, in essence,representsth future directlon chosenby humanityt awakeninsdesir for a better life and a
hlgher truth. You will find many prallelswith readily availablexlliting texts. Th main difference,however,betwenthis book and
any other is that it is representativeofa working, extant system,not
historicalaccountof somethingthat once was. lt is fact, nor supposition or a dogmaticsystemof beliefs.
There is a man in Indonesiawho is a masterof the ancientChi,
nsescinceofrsi[{'rr, or "internalpower."His nameisJohn Chang,
and h is my teacher.Mr Changv/asfirst presentedto the world in
the award-winningdocumentaryseriesRi'4 oJFrre,rfilmed by the
brorhersLorne and LawrenceBlair;his privacywas protectedbythe
{

From the Creek oriro meaningcorect, propet straiaht-and "loaic "

Ortholosical mans"having proper logic."
1 Lorne and LawrenceBfai, RiU oJFift' EastoJ:vdkdtaa,ts88.

rather ignominious psetd,onyrilDynaflaldc& In this documentary

Master Chang shockedthe world by demonstratingthe impossible:
First he generatedan lectrical cunent of high arnperagetrstls 1'5
our bodyto heal Lorne of an eye infection, and then he "zapped"
Lawrence(and their soundrcordist)utilizing the sameenergy.*In a
dramaticonclusionMaster Chang thn usedthis bio-energyto ser
a crumpled-up newspaperablaze,warning the researchers
rhat the
power
same
that had healedLome could readily be used to kill a
man aswell.
It was the first documenteddemonstrationof neikung givn ro
tbe Vestern world. \/hat is evenmore amazingis ihat tens of thousandsofpeople aroundthe world (myseJfincluded)readilybelieved
it, and that the two brothershad no idea what itwas theywere filming at the tim.
In order for you to fully undrstandwhat the term neiha4im
plies,you'll hve to workyourway through thts text. \X/hatis impor,
tant at this poirt is that, for the first time in hrrmandevelopment,a
man who accordingto Chinescultureis a rstri',aTaoist immofal, is
willing to come forrh and revealto the Vesr the truth behind his
teachins.John Chans is unique in the annalsof mankind. Like the
Jedi Knights of the StarWan saga,he hasamazinspreternaturlabiljtis,telekinesis,pyrogenesis,electrogenesis,
relepathy,Ievitation,rcmote vie\rins, evnastralprolectton(for lack of a better term).Thousandsof people have wihessed him do rhesethings. My teachert
power is cntathomableto the \(esrern miodi smll perenrgeof
its accumulatedenergy can inslantly overpower,or heal, a human
being or largeranimal.Andyet Mr. Chang tsa Vesterner A resident
of urban Java,he visits Europeand the United Statesoften. He has
searchedthrough China fo. others like himself with the intenr of
leamins and sharing a unique trair for one such as hc, as you will
discovr It could be said that Mr. Chans is the ultimate combina
tion of Eastand \X/estor, morc poeticall, rhat in rhe bidge between
Eastand Vest, he is one of the loundation rowers
r M i n t a i n i n Ap h y s i c acl o n t a c rw i t h h i n
a t t h a r p o i n rw o u l d h a v eb e e n
like puttins onei hand tn a wllsocket. I havc called rhis ability electro
senesis(or clectroge.c.at ion ) for lack of a b*ter rerm

This tcxt will essntiallycover the life history and preliminry

rcach;ngsof John Chang. I have attempted to follow the method
suggestedby theJedi and presentasternconceptsin a mannerthat
ll \flesternerscan undrstand.As such, I pray that this volume wlll
be up to the task,and honorJohnChangand his teachings.
Perhapswe are indeed fortunateto be living in that time in our
developmentwhen Cod has decreedthat the separatebranchesof
humansciencecomtogether Perhpswof the r/estneedthe East
to saveour world from ourselves
Kosta Danaos

Chapter One

LOOKINGTHROUGH
THE MIRROR

FIRST
CONTACT
I am by training a scientist,and have degreesin two fields of engineering. Among other things, I have been employed as a senior
project engine(by one of the largestcorporationsin the world.
Logic and socialstereotypingwould dictate rhat I am not the sort of
personwho readily believeswhat he hears or seesin film format,
that things would have to be repeatedlyproven to me for me to
question my establishedpattern of beliefs. Vhen I saw the documentary however,I did notdoubt its credibility fora second.I knew
thatwhat I waswitnessingwasreI,that itwas neitherspecialeffects
nor haud. I wassureofit. Prhapsit is the comingofthe newmillennium tht allows this, that a rnanschooled in Vestern thought and
sciencecan look at a deviationfrom the acceptedlawsofnature and
say, '"fhis is ral."
As I mentionedearliecthe well-donedocumentaryby the broth
ers Lorne and LawrenceBlail called Rra4oJIrre, depicts a nondsript Oriental man doing what is impossible according to our
$/estern branch of medicalknowledgeand our Vestern scienceof
physics:using his own intrnal bio-energyro light a newspaperon

fire. Thls was accomplishedwith a minimum of fuss, almost

nonchalantly.The man waiteduntilthe film crew wasready,looked
up to check with the cameraman,steadiedhis right palrn over
crumpled newspapr,tensdhis body, and set the paper ablaze.lt
was obvious to the viewer that somekind of potnt nrgywas be'
ing generatedfrom the mant open palm-so much so that the newspaper burst into a roaring flame.
There are at least two ways that this feat could have been ac
complished as an illusion.One is that the filmmaken were collaboratingwith the man and,through specialeffects,perpetrating hoax.
Th other is tht it was the rnan himself who was tricking the re
searchers,having slipped a piece of phosphorusor some other in'
flammableinto the crumpledpaperandtiming his displayto coincide
with the chemicalt oxidation.But I knew that neitherwasthe cse'I
knew that I was looking at the real Mccoy, so to spak.
There were reasonsfor this, th most impoltanl beig tbe man
himself. He was a well bilt but smll Oiental, srnilingand unpre'
tentious.He apperedto b of indeterminatage,with a fullhead of
thick black hair and thc skin of youth, but his eyeswere the eyesof
an ancient,nd sincerityshonethrough them. His voice was caing
and compassionate,without glrile. He was even nervousin front of
the cameralMost important, it ppearedthat the man had nothing
to gain lrom the displayrneither his nme nor his location v/asdis,
closed by the researcbers,
and he certainly was not asking anyone
None of ihes things occurredto me at the time, ho\ever.In
that momnt when I first sawthe video, I knew only one thlng, that
I had finally, after twenty-five yearsof searchinsimet my mastr It
was shocking, I looked at him and knew htm, and nothins could
sway me from going to hjrn.
Lik many people of my generation,I had been studying the
rnartialarts for a longtime.I hadstartedat the ageof ten and drifted
through a seriesof Orientalfighting artsto finllysettle onJapanese
jujutsu in my early twenties. \/hat I had been searchingfor was
simple, I wantedwhat the actor David Carradinehad so eloquently
portrayed in the now classichit serisKnr, Fl,l.lwanted an artwhose
Msterswere wis, nlightenedphilosopherswho could kill a tiger
2
LookingthrouShthe Mirror

with a punch if they had to, yet abhorredthe violencethey trained

for I wantedan art whose practitionerswould acnrallygow strottger
with age rather than weaker. Iwanted an art through \{hich my
tcacherwould indeed teach me about myself and the world around
me. I wanted to r? Kwai Chans Caine.
I had searchedaround the world for such a mentor, and what I
had found generallyfell into thre categories,enlightenedphilosopherswho could not punch their way out of a paperbag given the
opportunity; total animlswhoweregreatfighters,bur whom aciviIized man would not invite into his houserand individualswho appearedto b exactlywhat I wassearchingfor but proved inadequate
to the task,ultimatly dispiayingeither lack of judgment, inhrent
weakness,
haudulentmotives,or emotionalinstabil;ty.It is lsoquite
possiblethat it was I who was not worthy of them, and left them
before I cameto understandthem.
In the past I had rpeatdlyrejected the Chinse martial arts
becauseof the notable scarcityof authenticknowledgeinherent to
thir disseminationin \X/esternsociety.In the 1970sand 198Osthe
Chineseartswere notoriousfor their lack ofcredible techers.Tiust
worthy instructorswerc, in general,much harder to find than impostorscashingin on the popularity ofkung fu movies.Also, Icould
not enter Communist Chlna to searchfor a true masteruntil 1992
becauseof my profession.And yet I had, like all diligent marrial
artists,read the books by reliableresearchersand teachers.I knew
th thory behindthe Chinesemartialarts,and Iknew that the man
lhadseenon the filmwasChinese.lalsoknewr,vhat
I hadwitnessed
was calledneikung-the manipulationof internal power.
I had to find him.
I knew it wasnot going to be easy.I didnt know the mansname.
The documentaryhad indicatedthat he l;ved somewhereinJava or
Bali,but I had nowayofknowing if eventhatimplication wastrue
they could have filmed him in San Francisco,for all I knew. And I
spokeneither Chinesenor Malay.
Tndayslaterlwasonaplanetothelndonesiancapitalofjakarta.
After n eighteen-hourtrip, I checkedinto the cleanestof rhe dirty
motels found onJalanJaksand restedup for the morro\r. I knew it
would be tough going.

3
LookinS
throughthe Mirror

The next day I pocketedthestackof photographsI had takenof

the video sequencein Rin4olFn and,setoff tor Jakarta's
Chinatov/n,
a district called Clodok- My plan was to visit all the Chinesephar,
maciesand acupunctureclinics in Clodok, askingrhem whether or
not they knew the rnan in the photographs.It seemedhke a good
idea at the time.
They thought I was insane.
I must have made their week. It was my first trip to lodonesia;I
had expectedthe worst and was dressedlike a \X/esterntourist on
satari.Some shopkeeprslaughed in my face; others just politely
told me to piss off. One of them even rhrew me outl Afrer six or
sevenhours of constantrejection,wlking among beggarsand lepers and being followed by a pack of street kids, I spied an ancient
Chinesetemplein the midstofit allandwalkedin. Immedtately,
the
noisewent away and I was Ieft alone.
The templ caretakerswere curious.'/hat was I doing there?I
was too shy and too embarrassed
to tell them. They bought me dinner and gave me water to drink and sent me on my way.
I rcturned to Clodok the following day, my resolvestrength,
cncd and anned with note my motel clerk had written out for me.
| [tcr learnedrhrr w\ar he hadwrrtrenwas
Honoredsir or madam,
I am a very stupid foreignerwho has been tricked into coming
here allthe way from Crece.Thesearepituresofa man Isaw on a
video, I am looking for him I do not know his name or where he
lives.Do you know hirn?Thank you.
This is probably why people were more polite and why I saw
more smileson my sccondday. After a few hours of diplomatic rejection, I rnade my way back ro the temple, thinking that lwould
meet with yesterdayi friend.
They were delighted to seemc aod twice as curious as before
This tim I was the one who bought them all lunch, we sat rogether
for a time, laughingand communicatinsin broken Englishand sign
language.As our camarader;edeveloped,they grew cufiousenough
to pressureme ior details.
"Kosta,tell us, what are you doing here?"
'\o,
rt. rtupid,you donl wanrro know

l:inally thcy werc so i,rsistentthat I relented and, rather thn

cxplaining,handedthem the note.
Suddenly I was faced with group of statues;thetr smileshad
bccn replacedby distnrst.A chill went up my back One man whispcred someth;ng to a young boy, who ran off. As one, all rny
ncwlound frlendsstood.
"Stay here,"a burly man said
Ten minuteslater a wiry Chineseof indererminatease rod up
on a bicycle. He offered me his hand and sat down.
"My nameisAking," he said."l am a studentof the manyouseek."
Aking grilled me {or almost a week, asking rne questionslike
"Vho sentyour" and "Vhy did you come to this place?"It was ludicrous to him tht I could have found a lead to his teacherso easily,
coming as I did from Creece*of all places-wirhout cle as to
Iocalcstomand geography.He wassureI wasa spy in the scruiceof
some intelligenceagency;he even mademe sunendermy passport
to himl Afier a week Aking finally gave me an addressin a ciry in
easternJava
and told me to fly out therthe next morning, the man I
had seenin the documentarywould be expectingme, I was told.
\/ell, I didnt believehim.
It had been too easy,too Lrnbeltevably
easy.I thousht rhat these
plying
Chinese
were
ajoke on the foreisnel sendinghim
srinnins
on a wild goosechaseand having a laugh at his expcnse.I boarded
the plane wjth hesitation,felt like a fool when llanded, felt even
norellkea foolwhen ltook a taxi to the addressIhad beengiven and
was told the man was out. Come bck at two o'clock,they said.At
leastthey spokeEngl;sh.
I spenta few hoursfuming in my room at the dirty motlwhere I
was staying.I vowd etcrnalvengeanceon the peoplewho had sent
me out here. I would teach them to bewareof Creeks.Hahr Hear
about the Tiojan Var, my friendsr Youe about to trade p. I felt
ridiculous,like a jackass,stupid; I kept telling myselfthat the whole
thingwas a hoax, that I hd spntway too much money coming out
here,that I was an idiot and stupid and usting and naiveand. . . .
I went back at two o'clock The man was there.
I cannotplainlyconveythe shock,the.;oy,andthe reliel of findins
Dynamo Jackstandingin hont of h;s home. I had beenan imbecile,

LookinSthroughthe Mirror

5
Lookinthrou8hthe Mirror

succumbingto my all-too-readyanger'No one had been plaving a

practicaljoke on rne,th studentImet had actuallvtriedto help rne'
sndingme on to his teacher.
Ve shook hands and he invited me in He said, quite simplv,
that his namc wasJohn.Tlre surnameon the doorbell saidcHANcin
Latin characters,a common-enoughnamefor a Chinese Joh Chang
was the equivalentof JorflSn, io the Unitd States,a nameanvone
could have.
I introduced myself formallY
"Kosta," he said, rolling the word around on hls tongue. The
nme must have soundedstrangeto him. "How did vou find mc/'
His English was simple and lichtly accented
"l sawyou in a video . . a documentrv,"I rPlied.
"Ah. That wassomeyearsaso Thev told me it would be for sci'
lorthm
entific research,othelwiscI would neverhavcdemonstrated
"Vhy not:"
"Becaset pfomisedmy Masterthat I \a'ouldot Vhat can I do
for vour Vn havcsone kind of problcmr"
to the traditional
Irhn was a hcrlcr Hc applieclacupuncture
passins
his cl]'i his
gfeatlv
bv
its cltcct
l,Lrlsupt)lcr.ntccl
t)orrrts,
l)i(, c,,rray il yrru will, throrrghthc needlesHe had hcaledhun
I
wh<,nrVcstcrnmcdicinecouldDotaid,sonrethins
rlrrrl' oi 1,c,,plc
( l i ( lr o t I r ( , w i l l h c ! i m c .I w i n g e di t
"Vcll, two thinss " I had rehearscdthis part mnv times "l do
havca problcrnwith nyjoints aftersomanvvea$ of polrndingthem
in mrtialarts training . . uh, somethinglike osteoafthritisBone
He smiled. "Too rnany years of impropcr trinins, I think lt's
possiblcthat I could help you l'll have to check voLrout first."

a radar,scarching,weish;ng, feeling.I gaspedand almostfell over

"Yourheart is vry sood," he said.
I noddedand gulped. I must have looked odd, but he was probably used to it. The streamof bio-energyhe was sendingthrough
me mademy musclesjerk unconttollably.
"Lungsareokay.Kdneys aregood.Livey'sall right."Vhile he was
talking, I felt like I was going through somkind of high-intnsity
ultrasound.I could feelhis power insideme,the energybuildingup as
he becamemoreconfidentof my physicalcondition.
"Oh," he said."l have it. lts ;n the blood. Yo blood chemistry
mkesyou prone to calcium deposits."
"Can you do anything about it?"
"l'm not sure. \yy'ecan try. \yy'hereare you staying?"
I nmedthe motel.
He nodded."Ve'11findyousomeplacebetter Vy'hatelsedidyou
"l wanted you to accept me as your studentl" I blurted out. It
came in a rush, and I was immdiatelydisappointedwitb rnyself l
had preparedsuch an eloquent speechfor lhat momnt, and lrrateones,t that-pln B shouldplanA fail, and so on. Iv.as thirty
fiveyearsold at the time, and had experiencedmuch;I wasnot prone
to staseffight, butwhere I shouldhavebeenmatufc I felt like a child
beforethis m. More precisely,like a punk kid.
"No," he said."Oh no no. Idon't acceplstudentsanymore.Bul
you can come back tomorrow moroing if yo want us to get started
on your treatment.'
I was crLrshed.I wanted to fly back homc, msically transform
myself into a five year-old,cfawl into my motheri lap, and cry. InsteadI went bak to my cheap,dirty motel room, and waited.

"Okav."
"l'm going to haveto touch yoLr.Don't be alarmedat what vou11

TAOISM
PRACTICAL

I took off my shirtandhe put his handson nlv chestand ppef

lrnaglnea powerful,continouselectricalcurre.t passingthfough
your body. Ingine that, despiteic impact,vou are somehowaware
lhat this cur.ct is benvolent,notdamging lrnagineitworkinglike

Taoismis a millennia old systemof beliefsthat has,alonswith its rival

andantipodeContucianism,shapedthecourseof Chineseculture.To
'Taoism
quote the Ixcycloi?di,r
Bitamicd,
lbl a religlo'philosophical
tradjtion tht has,alons with Contucianism,shapedChineselife for
more than 2000 years.The Taoist hetitage, with its emphasisorr

6
I oklnthfoughthe Miror

LookinSthroghthe Mirror

indlvldual freedon and spontneity,laissczfaire government and

soial primit'vism,mysticalexperienceand techniquesof selftransformation,rpresentsin rnanywaysthe antithesisto Confucian
concernwith individualmorlduties,communitystandards,aodgov
rnmentalresponsibilities."*
Many things popularly thought to be Chinesein the \vest ar
actuallyTaoist,and havebecomewidespreadeven io China only in
the pstcentury. Amongthesearemany prcticesthathave become
"brandnames"in Vestern society,suchasacupncture,t'ai chichuan,
fengshui, and the I Ching. The truth is, it is now impossibleto separate Taoismfrom Chineseculture,tbe two have,in our age,becom
one and the same
Taoism has been categorizedby sinologistsas having both a
philosophical and a religious tradition complctc with formalized
doctrine nd a relisioushicrarchy.The Vesthas been flooded ln the
pasttwnty yerswith bookslaining to be iirr authoritativetxt on
Taoism Maoy of thesebooks are valid, some lessso, while others
arc sirrply a hodgcpodgeol ridiculousthcories Evenmore frustrat'
of mcdievalChinesetextsthat
irrra,
mny0rc cxccllcnltrandations
simplytrccause,
as translations,
they are subjectto
arc rrrislcatlirrr
(filnrlatorfs
intcfpreltion'
the disparities
in meaning
cx(l n(livi(lurl
lhr( y(trr.iI lirrclhctwccnlincs in the lranslatedtextswheo you
, , u , s ' , r r,,, r ' ,. u r r h , ,wr ' r ha r r o t l r ol e s h o t k , n g .
li,l,o (-hans, rhe leacherwhosel;fe and theoriesare the focusof
this book, is thc Headmasterofakung fu lineagewhoseroots can be
tracedback twenty four hundredvears.John himself deniesthe ap
pellation laoist perhapsrightfully so, becauseTaoism has coe to
be considereda religion by the world. However, since the teachers
of Master Chanst lineasebasicallylived within the confinesof historical toist retreals,and since the word Taoisrhas becomea generic term in the \?est for "ntiveChinesephilosophy,"l will continue
to call my teachera Taoist. Perhapsit would b more accuratcto
refer to hls teachingas"practicalTaoism"to differntiateit from the
Toismof other sourcesorlineages.JohnhimsellcallsToisma'philo'

Encydopedio
Bnhna Ol lma''Ioism."

a
LookinSthroughthe Mirrof

sophicalscience,"the simple study of naturallaw, for reasonsthat I

will outlinebelow
Of ll the spiritualdisciplinesTaoismis perhapsth most con
fus;ngand difflcult to defin in tht it began its developmentas a
phllosophical school,tumd into a religion, and waspropagatedasa
seriesof folk beliefs. However, there are many ways by which to
differentiatea religion from a philosophy and, mor so, from a sci
ence.In our specificcase,two justifictionsare most clear The first
is that a religion is basdon beliefs that calrol betror.n, that are a
matterofeach individual'sfaith. V aspracticalTaoistsconsideror
tcachinga sciencethat gives testimony to naturalphenomenathat
both the studentsof our generationand pastMaste of our lineage
by
have experiencedfirsthand,a tbarcanh 4rotuta rxperin
othnsat anf tin?.T'his ]s the most important distinction and one that
I cannotstresssufficiently.To put the argumntmore simply,a high
school student studying physics and algebrawill inevitbly reach
certainconclusionsand developspecificcapabilities,duplicatingthe
experiencesandthe logic of his tachenand of thosein pastgenerations who passedthesesciencesalong.There is nothing "religious"
in the experienceof physicsnd algbra;they are tools of knowlcdge and power,w'th no doctrine or systmof beliefs.Algebraand
physicsoffer in otherwords,what hasbecomethe key term of Vest
cn sclen e, reirodncibhftsult\. They basso'1rcthinl tbat cawot beProocs.
This approachis preciselywhat someonegoing ihrough training as
John Changkstudentwillexperience,he will follow in the footsteps
of thosewho carnebeforehim, enounte.the samphenomena,reach
thc sameconclusions.
The secondreasonI assertthat "practicalTaoism"is a naturalis
ric scienceis that the word |giorhas come to imply a falling-out
bctweenman and the Divine on that the proffered doctrine can
rcconcileby acting as n intermediary.*\Ve can f'nd no proof ihat

' 'l'he

'1o tie fimly," sggestingunion

orrginal Ltin verb nli4aEDer!
with the Divine; assuch it is much closr in concept to the Snskritwo.d
yotra(from which comesthe Enslish/ol'), ralher than the concept of
rcjoLninathat the word d/rqiorhas coe to imply today

9
LookinthrouShthe M iror

mn hasever fallen from Cod'sgrace,*assurningthat there is a Cod;

instead.here seemsto be considerableevidencethat man is evolv'
ing to becomewhateverCod intendedhim to be. As "practicalTaonocarrot
ofredemption,no salvation,
ists"weofferno specialmeans
to make the donkey run. Rather,we offer a method of enhancing
existence,makins each individul mor of what he already is aod
movlng him toward what he can hope to become.\Ve are, simply
put, a philosophicalscienc.
Perhapsyou will understandthe distinction a bit better if I an
lyze the Chineseterm [ '4t Many peoplethink tht it mens"martil afls," but this is not the case.(The Chinese terms fot martial
technique nd martial arts are now ox rr{ aod r,/ yt, rspctively.)
arevery difficult to translate,indeed,we must
The two words iraa4Ja
absolutelystudy Chinesewritins to omprehendtheir meanins.Let's
mke the attempt.
Kur4Jr ls composedof the ideograms,

nrcrns,"the constftrctionand developmentof onesenergyover time,

tlrrough daily effort, sLrchthat in the end one obtains maturepowr
ind the spiritualdevelopment
of a Master."
KrrgJa,in other words,is a path of continualdisciplineand training, of nonstop growth over your entir life. This is preciselythe
path chosenand representedbyJohn Cbane 3

trt 1,,
FU

KUNC

Now, thc firct lcrm, kung, is written as a combinatioof the

chamctcrskul (I.) and li ( f). Kru4 means'to build, to construct."
secondterm,Jr,is rnadeup ofthe
limcans "powerorstrength."The
sinsle haractert ({), which is a complex ideosram to interpret.
Ia is derived frorn the characterfor man (^.), witb added widespread arms and an adult mani hatpln through the character (in
medleval China each adult male wore a hatpin throush his hat and
hair). The implication is of a mature, large, responsibleadult man
or father figure; the characteris also used in other contextsto denote someone'shusband.In other words, the term hu4! actually
*

Or, con'ersely, that the puaosc of existenceis sihply suffering,

sansara,from which human beinss shold strive to escape.lt was not my
intent to harp on JudaeoChristianity, I simply wnted to keep this
scction as bdel as possibl

l|)

LookinSthro8hthe Mnror

11
Lookin8throuShthe Mirol

arrtlwhllc thc calcilrrndeposilsin my right arm did not go away

(thcy had bcen thcre for twclv yeart, rhosein my lcft arm (which

ChapterTwo

LIFEFORCT

A CARRIDT
"l have to go to my prawn farnrthis afternoon.You can com with
It ws aboul two wcekinto my acquaintancewith the manwho
wds t() l)cconrcrly tcchcr For two weekshe had stuckacupuncture
ncccllcsinto rrry clbows,knees,and wrists,sendinsa steadycunent
ol ch'i (litc cnergy)coursingthroLrghmy body. As I progressedI was
ablc to rclax more and more during th treatment, and John methodically incresedthe intensitywith echsession.I had discovered
to my surprisetht he useda cunent intensity of no more thn O.5
percentof his total powrto treatpatients.lt wassiaggering.Normal
people,even the strongestrnen,couldbe knockedoutby 2 percent
For two weeksI had askedhim every day to acceptme as a student He was lwaysfirm in retusins,but he neverinsinuatedthat I
should "pissoff" (to put it bluntly), and he alwaysinvited rne back
for furthertretmentthe followlng day.I did;ust that, nevermissing
a chancefor a session,gritting my teeth againstth pajn and nying
to rerleat into meditationasJohn'trppeclthe current,"increasingthe
intensity of the power he snt into me 1()the highest levelsI could
stand.Itvas indeedpainfulbut, more important,therea! an effect.
It seemedthat vith evry sessiomy joints fell better and better,
12

hir(l bccn lorrnins for a year or so) dlsappearedcompletely.John

rlv, slt<,wcdmc a set of"exercises,"ahe calledthem, to supplernent
thc hcaling process,and I practicedthem rigorously every day
Ilc had stunnedme the firstweekofour acquintance
by takinga
r llrpstick and nonchalantlypushingit throush arrinch thick board (l
lclrcd latcrthat he could do thrsatwillwith a six, or eisht-inch-thick
l,icccof wood, thicknesswasirrelevant).You mustunderstandthat he
(lid ,rot hammerit in with his fist or anythingof that sort. He simply
bmcedhis palmagainstthe backof the chopstick,and itlourcl tnto the
board.John handedme the board and I tried to pushthe chopstickin
Lr(hcr; it would not move,but when I pulledit outi it camequite eas
ily. The reasonfor thls wasthe chopstick'sconicalshape;it narrowed
honrbaseto tip. To pushit in farthet l'd haveto crushthe wood around
it, asJohn ha4 when I pulledit out, only air resistedthe movement.
"Youunderstandabour yang and yin:" he had asked.I nodded.
In this day and age few people in the Vest had not heard of these
lwo opposinsrniversal forces."lnsideourbodies,both llow in equal
nmounts,"he continud. "These energiesare oppositesithey cao
ncvcr meet Yin and yang oormally run parallelto cach other, never
ldting go of one another I use my yin and yang together as one;
thal is why Ican do what I do. By itself, yang ch'i cannot passthe
limits of the body."'
"Neikung,"I had said.
"Yes."He seemedpleasedthat I knw the word.
Vhen he askedmeto go wirh him to his businessestablishment,
I lcapt atthechance toget to know the mn btter Did I want to gor
ls the PopeCatholic?
John was a highly successfulbusinessman,and quite v.althy.
He ws a contractorand an exporterofboth manufacturedand perishablegoods.The expairiateChinese,if they may be called rhat,
are often referredto as the'Jews ot Asia," and with good reason.
l-ike their Vestern counterparts,thy cont.ol the mjor arteriesof
cconomic developmentin SoutheastAsia. John was such a man. I
was to discoverthat he had been born in abiect povertr hov/evet
and that he was a self-mademillionaire.
13

Ve went to the prawn trm by car John drove,quite tasrbur nol

recklesdy.Vhen we reachedeighry eishr rnilesper hour I becamea
bit concernedbecauseneither rhe laws nor the traffic conditions of
the country he residedin allowed for such a vetocity.(And ber in
mind that I am a Creek and, as such, am used to borh hish speds
and deplorableroad condirions.)laffic was very heary and, after a
tjme, the inevitablchappened.
Johns cellular phone rang and the call was important; he began
speakingor) the unit in shorr, rapid sentnces,cradliog the phone
underhis chin andbasicallydrivingwith one hand,nottwo. To com
pllcate thtngs, he beganpassinga seriesof cars-quite illegally, as
ther was a double dividing line in the center of the road. His lane
was clear beyond thosecars,and he was in a hurry.
John hadcornpletedhis maneuverandreenteredhis proper lane
when suddenly a truck, intnt on passinga similarly slow-moving
vehicle in front of it and having hadJohns speedyapproachmasked
by that vehicle, enteredour lane.The carswe had passedwere less
than one hrndred yrds behind us, minute distancat our spced.
I gripped thc consolcand wassuddenlyvery gtad I waswearins
nry scrLbclt Vc wcrc doingaboutninetyrthe oncomingrruckwas
go,n8ar lcastsirty,andJohnwasdrjvinswith onehandwhilespeakirrt (, lhc phonc I wase rhatwe wereheadingfor a maloracci_
(lcn(nndwastl\ankfulrhatourcarwaslargcandstrong.
Crittins my
tcc(h,I poin(cdat the oncomingcar and bracedfor impact.
Iohn harcllylookcdup. Vithour skippinsa bet or pausinsjn
convcrsalion,he swervedonto the soft shootderof the road, passed
the rruck, nd returncdto his lane.He checkedrhe rearviewniof
to cnsurethar the iruck had succcsstullyavoidedthe cafs rhat had
bcen behindus as well, and we wenl on. After a ninute or so he
finished his conversatrcnand clicked off the phone
"My eyesare still good," hc said to nre dryly. He was tifty-seven
a1thc time and lookcd forty.
"Do you alwaysdrive this fast?"ws rhe only responseI coulcl
think ol
"Vhcn I'm by mysclf I Lrsuallydrive fasrer,about I l0 to 125
milesper hour or so. I like speed,you sce Vhen I have orhcr peoplc

1+

irr thc car I usr.rally

stay below ninety becauseothnvise,if anything
lrappcns,
I can'tprotectthem."
"Have you everhad an accident?"
"Only once. I broadsideda truck doing about a hundred."
"Vhat happenedz"
"Nothing happened.I used rny power to absorbthe impct on
my body. They had to cut me out with chain aws.The witnesses
thousht it wasa miracle,that Cod or somsaint had protectdme."
I was stunned.Vhat he was telling me was that his body, ausmentedby the powerslri neik ns irainins had siven hirn, had withstooda stressgreaterthar the yield strengthofsteel.I tried to iftagine
the metaland glassshardsflowing aroundhisbody, unableto pierce
hmanflesh. Certinly, plastic defo'mation as plannedby the cari
designersallowcd for much, bt thefe was no denyins that the mo
mentunrhe had absorbedhad been phenomenal.
\(as it true?Could a humanbcins rcacha statc in which hc vas
imperviousto exterior harm?lt seemedtoo much to swallow.
"Youknow,"he contlnued,"when I wasyounger I wanted to be a
Ilollywood stuntnan,slnceI couldn'treallybe hurt in crashes
beyou
powcr
I
ih.rught,
no,
il
do
that
too
many
caLrse
of my
But then
rimespeoplewill wonderaboutyou,andlxsidcs,I hadpromisedfty
Masterthat I would not usemy power to make moncy."
Ve drove on lor while ir silerce. He besan to questionmc
about Crcccc. He undertoodabout the BalkansHe had been born
penniless,
and he ,*,asChrnese.
"My father died when I was four,"hc sald "l grew up very poor
Llasically
I wasa streetkid.Though my mothcr worked vcry hard,she
did not bvethe money to sendlre to school.I did finish hish school
latcr on, though, but I ncversrudledat any collese or univercity."
"Risht,"ljoked. "Youll,sthve Ph D in becomingn,perhunn."
"No," he replied seriin,sly,"you mu\tn'r thjnk ot me as beins
athlcte Not
superman.
I arnlike a fishtefpilot of a hanrpionship
cveryonecan becomelike me-there arecertainqualifications but
so ,:pcoplccan.Vhat I arnis a productol disciplineaod tfainingas
nruchas naiu|al talcnt.
"My wife real1yhelpcdmc," hc coDtinued1'lexplainedto her

15

v/hen we were marriedtht I could not do anything else,tlrat I had

to spendall rny spartime training. She agreedto this."
He had been marriedat eishteenand had sevenchildren.
"l worked as a driver for almost twenty years,you know" He
smiled."So you see,you needn'tbe so concernedabout my driving.
I know theseroads."
\yy'edrove on in silencefor a while. "Do you really understand,"
he finally asked,'hat we meanwhen we talk about ch'i:"
"l think so," l replied. I reckonedI understoodthe basics;I had
read all there was to read,after all, and had studiedmartil afis for
Ch'i, or bio'enersy, is a phenomenonthat has been much dtscussedin recent years in the \X/et l/ith the establishmentof rh
new K'r'g F! series,David Carradineonce again contributed to the
\X/esttnderstandingby uttering the word on televisiont leastonce
a week.Acupuncture,too, is now commonplace,and there is hardly
a doctor an''where\sho hasnot spentro"rdtime looking into it. The
phenomenonof bio-enersy is thu under pronouncedmedical and
physicalinvcsligation.*
Thc orisinalChincscidcos.dmfor c i is bestrenderedas "va
p(,r"in lrnslish 1thasalsobccnrcnderedas"vitaliry,"
but ch'i is very
( I(,srly associ;rtcd
with breaih (thoush it would be better to saythar
b,cathcontainsch'i) Othercultureshavegivenitothernames,The
lllndus call it prard,the betans lx,, (which means"wind"),the
1 lcbrewsruac(wind), and the PactficIslandersmd"a,while the an
cient Creeks called rt p"e!,ra(spirit, wind).r Ch'i is imilar to elctriciry flowing through a wire; it angenerateheat or work or encrgy,
but none of theseresultsidentifiesch'i itself.
"So you know that our bodieshaveboth yin ch'i and yng ch'ir"
"Vell," I smiled,"l readbout it in the To T Chins."

I hope that this text will cortribute io sch reserch

T It is interestingto note that the Latin rptitB also eans "breath,"and
tht the Creek word fof the rcspiratoryorgansol our body lthe lnst r
,t'nno, (lrom which we sct the word prrnoric, for examplc)

16

"Ahl Lao'tzu (he Toist," he said. "He was a wise man. Vhat
rlocshe sayabout ch';r"
I thought at the time that he was testing me. Later Iwould dis,
covcr thtJohn had neverreadthe To Te Ching. "Vell," I replid,"
hc saysthat ch'i has both yin and yang components,and that it is
lhc intractionbetweenthe two that makeslife possible."5
Suchfeedbackbetweenthe positiveand negtivepolesofexist
cncewasthe prime componentof our lifeforce,when we asa species
bcgin to understandthis phenomenonfrom a technicalperspective,
wc will begin to understandlife itself. (twould later discover,how
cvcr, that our bodies are briefly capableof storing both pure yang
aodpureyin ch'i in differentaras,thoughthisstateof nonequilibrium
is subjectto entropy.)
"l ntraction."Joho rolled the word around on his tonsue. "Like
rlcctricit/, positiveand negative7"
"lguess."
"Not quite conect-" He paused."B[t you know, one time I ]et a
studentof mine hook me p to a voltmeterand an amperometerHe
registeredno voltage,but I blew the amp meteroff the scale.l burned
the machin1"
"Are you telling me that ch'i has amperasebu1 does not have
voltager"
"l think so. For example,I can withstand householdelectical
current indefinitelywithot pain, but I canoot light up a lightbulb. I
lravetried, many times."
I thought about that. CIiDicalinvestisationin medicallaborato
riesseemsto i'rdicatelhat the electricalresistnceofthe skinchanges
markedly at acupuncturepoints. There are "electricalacupuncture
machines"that make use of thjs phenomenonto locat the points
for nophytes.This is an indication that ch'i and voltage are somehow inverselyrelated(thoughother explanationshavebeenoffered).
But Iwas to find out yearslater thatJohn waswrons. His ch'i in lact
displayednither voltage nor amperagerrathr, it w an entirely
different phenomenon,basedon very dtfferent forces.
'And
other than beingmore powerful,isyour ch'i differeot from
tht of th averageprson!?"
John simply smiled,but did not answer'
17

\)/e nived at the larm. lt was ol medium size, about rwenty

people were employfd there. I roamedaroundwhile h finishcd his
business.A young girl brought out a bowl of fruit and a decantrof
coffee for me, the tropical fruir was delicious,the coffee rned;ocre.
John walted up and sat down, helping himself to some cofle
"People are so stupid," h said. "My shipment is bins held up jn
customsbcausesomelocalofficilwants bribe. Thatt the waywe
operatehere,you know"
"lts the sameall over the world," l said."Youhave to sreasethe
whelsfor them to turn "
He was delishted by theclichd Enslishmetaphorand committed itto memory."Ve havea sirnilarphrasehere.It'strue thatpeople
oftn abusetheir position in society fol thejr own beneftt. In the
eod, iti all about powei,"he said.He seemedto rhink abour rhe last
word for a second,then turned suddenly toward rn. "Vhat is the
differencc betweenc';lmg and raitar4r"he asked
"Vell, clilua4 meansto developthe energy of the body.,.. .,'
'?ll
over the body, yes. \X/hatabout nejkunsT"
"N.ifur4means'internal
power"'
"Ycs,blrl intcrnal to what?"he asked.
I hcsirarcd,
and.,ohndrcw rhreeideosrams
on a napkin:

J t-

rt

KUNc

NEI

"This isae;tazg.
The first ideosram,'ei means'rnnnrerinsa house.',
"Yes."
"Sowhen we practiceneikung,we purch'iirsirie,but insidewhat?,
"Uh . . the dantienr The bonesr Chakras2"I was graspinsat
John grinned. "Vell, well. I seeall the boots you read did sonr
good. Vhat is the dantien?"

18

-fhc

rJantien,
or'clixir tield,"is the primary bio,energywarehouse
ol thc humanbody.Locatedfourfingersbelowthe navelin them;ddle
i,l thc tono, thiscenterhasthability to storevstarnounrsof ch'i.For
lhis rcsonit is alsoknown asci:i i:ai(oceanof ch'i). But it is a mistke
l{, rhink that the dantien itself gnratesch'i, as presentedin many
tcxrs.Rather,it is possibleto storc therthar ch'i which th practirioncr intakesfrom thcuniversearoundhlm.It ls practiceandpemistenc
that leadto "dantienpower";suchpower is notan impliedcharacteris
ric of the humar body. I can perhapsexplainbettr with sirDile.Say
thai a specificyothhasexcptionaltalenrin a givensport.Neverthelcss,he still needsto train and work hard-to hone his skillsand his
|nindeverydayin orderto becomea championship
athlete.The dantien
is similarto that youth. Yes,it canstoreseeminglylimillessamountsof
cnetw, but tlldtesegynun bef,tt therc
Jortb(ddnri\ iolrflcro" k will not
soakup, nor will it genrate,powerof its own accord
ItoldJohn asmuch.
He nodded, somewhatpleased."All right," he said. "l'll show
you one morethrngroday Cne mt a banana
Ireached;ntothe basketand pickeda bananaat randomfrom
one ofthe two bunchesin thebasket.I had lredyetenthree(imagine the smallerfruit found in Asia, not the overgrovn and afificially
ripenedbananasthat reach our tablesin the Vest)r they werc deli
ciousand completelyuntmperedwith John took the fuit fmm rne
andheld it in plainishrin his lefrhand.He extendedrhe indexand
middlefingersof his righthand, foldinsthe orher rwo into ththumb.
Tnsing briefly, he passedhis hand in a slicins motion about three
inchesawayhom the banana;therewas an audibleclicft,and hall the
huit fell to the floor.
I was long past being arnazedat this pointi the whole thing
seemedkind of matter of fact. He handedme the other half of the
h!it. lt was shiny, as if cleavedby a hot knil that had tused the
surfaceof the bananainto a slassymass.
'This,"
he said,"is like
John pointed to the center of his palm.
sholgun." He extendedhis two fingers again and pointed to their
tips. "This," he continued,"is likc a laser."

t9

TH[,MARTIALARTSAND CHl
There can be no denying that the marrial arts are as old as man.
Beginningperhapsas a derivativeof th hunting skills of primirive
tribesmen,the martial arts developedas man pirted himself against
man. Vith the appearanceofempires and the establishmentofstate
governmnt,thesearts developedto such an extent as to approach
and prhapssurpasstoday'sfightingarts. There arewallpainrings in
Beni Hasan in Egypt dating from 2000 DcEreminiscentof modern
judo, and if the archaeologicalrecord left behind is any indication,
the ancintCreek martialarr ofpar&rario,(datedat leasrto 1450Bc)
was much more comprehensivethan karatehasbecomin our day.
One aspectoften neglecredby hoplologists*and martial histo.ians is that, for some reason,the martial arts were alwayscloselv
tiedtoandalignedwithreligionorspirituality.Tmplewallsall
over
the world-in both Eastand Vst-have, since rhe dawn of time,
been adornedwith scenesofcombat. The heroic sagasof allnations
ar consistenton two thems:a seriesofconflicts throughoutwhich
the hero triumphs,and his inreractionwith gods orCodin doing so.
The OldTestament,for example,is undoubtedlya martialepic,much
like the Indian Ranraynna
and the Creek ll,arl.In Chia this precept
holds true in both rhe Buddhistand Taoisttraditions.
Chineseboxing, urasba,is undoubredlyrhe art of fighting. perhaps at first it involved only muscularforce and srraregicapplication. Over time, however, the Chinese martial arts came to be
influenced by Taoist and yogic meditative-respiratorytechniques,
which perhaps\rere firsr applied for health purposes,but were later
found to have martialapplications.There is every indication rhat all
aspectsof Chinesmedicine and divination were extant and complete by 1000 DcE;il v/ould not be an outrageoG extrapolationto
assumethat the Taoisrmartial artsor at lasrmartiai a.ts influenced
by Taoismwere alsocompletby that time. MasterJohn Chang has
recordsof martialartistshke himselfliving in China almostiwothou*

A hoplolosist is an archaeolosisror hisrorinwho siudiesweaponsand

their useth.oughout hktory

2Q

sandycarsin Xhepst.It is alsointerestiog

to notethat the Chinese
madc mofe limited use of metl armor historicaily than would be
oxpcctedconsideringtheirtechnological developmenr,before Iundcrstood the true cpbilitiesthar ch'ikung imprted to the prditioner, I usedto wonderwhy. In any case,the martjal arrswerc well
underway in China long before the arrtvalof Buddhism.
PopularIiteratuledemndsthat th rnartialafts in China be tied
to the arrivalofthe IndianprinceBodhidharmaat rhe Shaolintemple
in Honan province.But, this is inaccuratero say the leasr.\Y/hatis
hue is thal China is a vasrcountry inhabitedby many ethnic gfoups
with an often poorly rccorded history.To try to trace the history of
the martial arts in this quagmireof recordsis an arduoustask. The
literatureon Chineseboxing is full of sapsand srnotheredby ambi,
guitiesin many places.Still, we can trace the maftial arls reliably to
-fhe
the Chou dyoasty (t l2l 255 BcE).*
Sprk4 and Autmn Ar,''ak
(722 481 BcE)of that dynasty,as well as rhe lireratreof the Var
ring Statesperiod (403-221 Bc[),mention displaysof archery,fenc
ing, andw.restlinsperformedby nobles.Ihave alreadydtscussedthe
cvolution of philosophy during ihis iime, ir is evident in rhe litefaiure thatyogic respiratorypsychophysiologicalpracricewere much
in useby the sixth centuryrcEaswell. Indced,the LaaTzuaad,Chuatg
2, are both ftrll of referencesto vital erergy and Toistyoga.
Mens-tzu (Menciut, the orsanizcrof Con|t,cianismand a con
tmporaryof Chuang-tzu,wa amongothersproficient in rhe culti,
vationof ch'i,somethingpopuldrconceprion
hardlynricrpatcs
fronr
a morallstConfucian He promotedthe approachthat "if the will
6,t) is concentraled,the vital enersy[c'i) wi]l follow it and become
active."Mencis alsowrote, "Vill [y;) is of the hishcst imporrancci
vitality [cir'i] standssecond."I have heard the sameconrmentfrom
anotherstudentofJohn Chang.
Accord;ng to Chinesethought, there are basicallytwo types of
training involving olrr vital energies:ch'ikung and neikung.It is dil
ficult to say where one ends and tbe orher begins, but essenrially
.

Draeger,DonnF, andRobe*\Tl Smith,Cospr.r.nr

ir. Asian
Filbtiq Arts
(TokvoandNew York,Kodansha,
re80).

21

ch'ikunscenrerson the development

and controlof yangch,i (also
alledli; ch'i or "fire" ch'i), while neikunginvolvesthejojnt employment or yang ch'i od yin ch'i (called ',watel' ch'i or lanr ch'i). ln
truth, yin andyans energiesrun parallelto eachother in our bodies,
and both re vital to our continued health Like yin and yans, it is
impossibleto separatech'ikung from netkung,indeed,the latter is a
higherform ofthe samearr. Perbapsrhe distinctionwscreatedsimply to help define rhe abilities of rhe adepr.yaog ch,i cannot pass
beyond the confinesof the physicalbody, while yin ch,i can and so
may rmpart to rhe practitioner preternaturalabilitiessuch as those
demonstratedby Master Chang
In the second century cE Buddhis. monks began ro arrive in
China. Then circa 500 cE came the Zen patriarch Bodhidharma
(Tamo)andthe Ch'arn(Zen) sect Tmoarrivedatthe Shaolintemple
to preach to and subsequeotlystay wirh the Buddhistmonks, pass,
ing o' to them two methods,the Y Cin Ching, which is essentially
ch'ikuns,and the Shi Sui Chins, which is essenriay neikuns.It i,
from these two forms that the Shaol;n chool developed.Appar,
ently the ncikuog techniqucswere losr within a few generarions,
:nd only thoseof the Yi Cin Chins relined.Many of todaysrar_
tial arls, cspeciallyrhoseoutsideChina, are descended
fro[r the
Shaolrnschoolwirh a stficrlych'ikunsapproach.
Thc Taoisrmarrialarrsremainedvery muchalivcinsidcChia,
howcvcr,spccificallyin placcssuchasVu Tngmounrainand other
Taolstretrcats.Broadlyspcaking,it can bc saidthat rhcif approach
is guided nlore by the interplayofyin and yang than the gencrarion
of power evident in Buddhisrnarrial arts like thc hard style Shaolin
torms. I have noticed a tendency to move thc weishr conpletely
from one foot to the other in Taoistarrs,in both externaland intcrnal styles,as opposcdro the sotidstancesof the Buddhisrarts.In
addition,thefe secnsro bc more of a llowing and bendingof ihe
spinein the tormcrrhanis evidentin thc latter Again,thesccom
parjsons
arevery generdland,in truth,therehasbeenso rruchinrer
aclionbetwecD
Buddhisiandloisr
tcchniqucsand
philosophiesth at
it i\ difficultto separate
thc two. I haveecnrelercnces
to'Taoist
brcathing'and"Buddhistbreathtns"in thc lirertlre,for example,
brt sucha distinction is inaccurareCrcful reeafchshowsthat i1 is
22

rrocnsytaskto discngage
the rwo philosophies
ar thispoint,ar least
rr{)t in China
\X/hatcverthe path, martial artistsquickly saw.hat by applying
thc csoteric techniquesused by the seekrsof enlighrenmentand
imnrortalityin their quest,they developeda power baseand capacity much broaderthn thoseachievableby muscularstrengtha1one.
Practitionrsof ch'ikung acquiredprodigious strength, they werc
bleto balancetheir entire weighr on on finger, for example.Prac
titioners of neikung discoveredthat there were wys to escapethe
limitationsof the physicalplane of existence.Pyrokinesis,telekne,
sis,telepathy,levitation thesabilitiesand othersbecarnetheir reward for a lifetime of dediationand discipline.Ve will seein the
following chapters\a.hatsuch a quest was like, d where ir coold
take the practitioner . . . and still can today.

23

Chapter Three

BECINNINCS

John had more than a dozen patienrsto seeon rhe last day I was
in
the country He never chargedanyone a dirne
for therapy:nd alway$ made rime for whoever came olrr to see
him, oltn without
priof arraogement.I had seenmiraculousthings
during the month I
was there,A stroke victim had regainedthe use
of a p;alyzed limb,
a woman who had Lrlferedfrom chronic sprnarpain
was suddenty
hcillc.l lohn spccilizedin rrealingneurological
,iisease,though o.thopcdicailnlcnrsand chronicinfectionswere
alsoright up ;sal,
lcy. I oltcn assisrcd
him with his parientsia processthat basically
i , , v , , l r d\ r a n d i n B
r h e , er o u th r n gr h ep r r i e n r
a . r r n ga r a s r o r r n d
"nd
rorJonn bro-electri(tty
I had been treated rnyself for a month. \X/irh
the xceprion of
two very 01dclciumdepositsin my right arm,
myjoints were tine. I
never misseda chanceto askJohnwhether
or not h would accept
me asan apprentice;he alwayssaidno. My self-esteem
wasat an all_
rime low dnd I hd no ideawhat to do \41 rrroney
war runnrngour
but I did not wanl lo leaverhecounrruw,rhoL,rlohn
a, qu,-, -g ro
at Ieastsend me on to somestudenrt studenr.
Anything, just don,t
order rne away,please.. . .
I waited my turn for treatmenron thar day,
helping John out
with the orher patients; he left me for last. He
knew I would be
leaving the following morning. Ve were alone
in his clioic when I
askedhim forwhat I thoughtwouldbe the finaltime
ro eitheradmit

nrc as pupil or at leasrsive me a nameand an addressI could apply

to. Ididnl careif he sentme on to the lowesrmanon the totempole;
ljrst wanted to study what he had to teach
Iwas lying face up on one of his therapycouches,my kneesand
elbows full of acupunctureneedles.There was no way I could have
chnged position even it I had wanted to, all sudden movements
were dangerous.I slowly turned to faceJohn, who had sone quiet.
Hewas studyingme carcfully,his softeyeslooking jnto my fceand
beyond, a smallsmile playing on his lips.
Thlsis theno'1ddt4elotl'nan h theWesunoot, I thought. I was a
head and a hlf tallerthan he was,andsixty poundsheavier,andyet
there was no way I could withstand 2 percentol his power
Cood thing he wasbenevolent.
'Actually,"
he said,"l havealreadyshownyou the trainingmethod
torLevelOne. Now, when you finish with that, Ican showyou Level
Two."
"Does that man . ?
He had caughtme completelyby surprise.I choked backa flood
oftears; itwas my opinion then that it would not do ro becomeemo
tional whil pinned down on a tablelike a fly on paper In any case,I
did not know what more to say to him at rhat point. I had already
promisedhim my obedienceanddiligencefor the restofmy life should
he acceptme as an apprenrice,and had meanteveryword I said.
Tiadit;onallyunder thesecircumstancesrhe apprenticewassup
posedto kneel before the Master and pledgeto him once againthat
he would be a loyal and hardworkins student ln my casethat was
impossible,becauseI couldonly turn ny head.144dLthehelt,I thoushtt
lohn k a Westemer
as wellasa MasteroJr,eikug
I wassilenrfor a rime,nd he respected
that silence.
John1irup
cigarette,took a few pults,and seftledlt inlo aDashrrayHe wiped
his handswrth alcoholand beganpullingout the needles,
wipins
edchareadown wirh alcoholashc went alo,rg.
''fhnk you,"
I said finally and sat up on the edge of the couch
nodded
and shrugsed.H kept smilins
John
"l don't know what to say,"I continued.
"lt doesn'tmtter,"hc said."Have a nice trip back home."
25
Be8inninSs

Two yearslatr,sitting on rhe balcony of h;s hornewith my girl

friend, I elaboratedon the abovestory for her benefit.John sar si
lently smoking while I wenr through the morions,and Doris, who
had lreard it a hundred times in the past,simply waired politely for
me to finish.
"Youthinkyoll hd a hard rime?"Johnaskedwhcn I hd fioished.
"Yourcasews nothingr There are peoplewho have searchedfor me
for nlne yearsbefore they finally found me, and then there was no
guaranteethat I would welcome rhem asstudcnts."
"Have you ever sent peopleaway:" 1asked.
"Many tinres."Whata sS'aiklWestemt,his glanceseemedto say,
and I felt sheep;sh.Finally I Iookeddowo, unablero rneethis
saze.
''l saw your
conins in a dream,"he said softly,',three monrhs
before youcame to standatmy doorstep.The day you arrived,I was
v/aiting for you."
"Yeahr"
"Yes."Hc paused."Do yo wanl to hearwhat I \a.entthrough to
be acceptedas a student by n7 teachcr:"he finally asked.
V/e both jumped at rhe chanceandJohn beganthe srory of his
apprenticcship.I discoveredthat I had gottcn ofl,rD. easily.By the
time hc waslinished,DorisandI vere rollinson thefloorwirh laugh,
ter, John wasa very good storytcller,with an expressiveface,and he
renrcnrbered
cverythingvividly
"My Master! nnrewas Liao TsLtTong,',he said in his pleasanrly
accentedEnglish,"and he wasfrom trainland China I ftrst mer him
when I was ten ycars old. I loved kung flr from the besinoins and
had trained with variosteachersalmost from rhe momcnt I could
walk, but I had a friend-Chan 1ien Sun was htc name_who kept
telllng me that he wasstudyingavery powerfutkung fLrsystemfron
an old man in his neishborhood.Chan kept sayins that the old man
\4asa gret healerand an eminent Master of the martial arrs.I was
curious,so I went with him to the old m:n! house. . .

The Apprentice
Vhen the young boy ftrst saw the old man, he was DoLovefty im
pressedHe hadcome only becausehis childhood fricrd had insisred

26
8einni!3s

The old nransold bananasfor a livins, the people in the neishbo

hood clled him 'Mr Banana" Some people even calld him "Mr
Vcird Banana"becauseit was saidthat the old man wasvery stranse
ifld difficlt to understand.
Chan had declaredthatthe old man was a greatMastcrand that
he had healedmany people who were seriouslyill. The young boy
had heard the stofies,too, thoush il seemedthat rhe old mn was
very picky about whom he treated Sone people he kept witing fof
days outside his houseand then sent way uncured, conharily, he
would hcal othersuifererswho didn'twanr his help evenagainstrheir
will, so'netimerchasingthen into thei. own honelt (Later the boy
would learn rhat the Master was able to seeeach individual'ska.ma,
and would heal the peFon or not basedon that obseNation) Anywa, he wasn'tall tht kcen on studyirg with the old man, brt, well,
nen Sunwashis best friend and had insistedthat theytrain tgether
"Vhat doyou want here,boy?"the old man askedthe !hallboy
he found standingon the stepsoutsidehis home. Master Liao studied
the child carefully The boy was esscntiallya streetkid of Southeasr
Asi,dressedin simpleclothesand qune rough aroundthe edgcs.He
had probablybeenin lishts from dre momenrhecouldwalk. The old
Masler saw that the boy's lo*unes had taken a turn for the bener
.ecently,but the sisDsof past malnutrition were still therc He sw
muchpain+n orphanr\Vhat type oleducationhadthe boy.eceived?
He sawsomething else,too/ somelhingthar excited him considerably,though he did not show it, oicou6e. The boy had the talent.
Not o.e man in one thousandcould bccomc like he was His
skillwas similarro that of the greatestOlympic arhleres,not only did
you haveto havetheCod-brnsift, but you alsohd tsuffe.thrcush
decadesof hrd disciplineto reachthe finalprize.It wasno easytask.
MasterLiaowasinhis late sixties,almosrsevenry,andhad rincd
i n t h e n a r t i l a r t sa l l h i sl i i e ,s i n c er h c m o m e n th e c o u l d w a l k H
. e had
been in Javafor more than six ycas and had seenlew pcople il thar
timewho possessed
all the rcqifementsto nake itthroush to the end.
Could this strcetwaif accomplhthe trainingr
"l . . . l'm a good friend of Chan en Sun,Sfi,*" the child sturtercd, "l would like to ltudy kung tu with you as well."

" The term actually means"father teacher,"though "masrei'is widely

uled in the Vest as the trBlation.

27
Be'nnins

The old Master laughed He was alrnost seventy bt looked

younser "There are so many kung fu teachersin this cityt \x/hy el
If I acceptedyou, what would your purposebe in studyingwilh mer"
"Vell, for seldefenseand lor sport, too."
"l see.Seldefenseand exe.cise.\X/htis your ne7"
"Chang, Situ.JohnChang,"the boy said,but he wastakenaback.
The old man was nothing like he had inasined He had seenmany
teachrs.Most wre pro(rd and anogant, some were more civil. But
this old MasterlTherewassomethinstherehe could nottouch, somethins irdefinable that alnost scaredhim. The old man was beins
ironic, but there ws compassionevident at the sametime He certainly Ddr strange,just as people said,it was as it someagelessc.ea
ture was lookins t him from acrossthe centuries,lull of experiences
he couldnot fthom. Liao Situ ploceededro askhim many quesrions
bout his lite and his familyj he seemedvery kind at thar point, almost fatherly The boyrealizedhe wasbeinsgiven atest ofsorts and
tried to answerasbest he could
'Cone
back tooftow at a p.M.,"the old nan finally said.'r/e
can talk more t that tirne."
Thc next day John aived prompdy at the specilidtime, but
thcold man ws no\i,heretobe lourd. Hwaitedon the stepsfor rhe
rcst of thc afternoon Lio Sifu finally showedup t sven
"\vcll," hc said ro the disappointedbot "it! roo late to do anything Dow.\X/hy dont you come back here tonorrow at roun
'l'hc
smethins happenedoo rhe next day And th nexr. And
The young boy was very diriUusioned.It was obvios to him
tht the old teacherhad no intention of acceptinghnn and wasjust
hving fun at his expcnse.He resolvedto drop the notion ol study
inswith nen Sun and tell the oldhan to forsct the whole thing Bur
somethingkcpt hin comingback, somethinghe could not quiic put
OD th fifth day Liao Situ kepthis four o'clock ppointmcnt and
qucstionedthe yong boy again,this tiore they tlked for almosttwo
hours.The Masterkept him on the steps,however,he did not invite
ll went on tor a month. The old techerwould mectJohn o. e
stepsoutside his hosc, tlk to hir for a few ho(6, and tlen send
hi home. The boy was disheartenedand bored. He would havc
given up exccpt for the factthatnen Sun encouragedhim to keepat

2r3
BeSjnnings

i t , i n s i s t i n gl h a t L i a oS i f u w a sa g r c a tM s t e . S o J o h np u t i n n a p n " ' r r 1 . . c \ e - y d a y h o p r n gr o r w " y t r . r " a .h e r

After a month the Master save the boy hope.John arived outs l d eo l L i a o S i [ u !h o u s ea r 4 p M . ,t h e s p e c i f i e d t i n r T
eh
. e o l d m a nw a s
jst seking off to run an etand He sreetedthe bor bsan to walk
away,then tu.nedto look athim. "KuDgfu isvery difficultto learn.[t
is very heavy tnini,rg. Are you capableof itr"
T h c b o vw : . c , . , : t i c . \ o h ) e \ r ' h c . d , d .
"Then come back tomorrow at noon, if you feel that yor: are
That night john was so excited he could hardly slep.At lastl
He would start training on the next day with the mysteriousLiao
Sifu. He had heard morc bout the old man drins his onth of
waitins and was really beainni'rs to be in ave of him. Frnlly he
would bc able to sharein the secretsof theold manlsmartialsciencel
T h c s d , h d db e e nw o , , F, , I . n S J . w a , n s l . l
The next day,when the boykepthisappointhentatthe Maste*
hose,he wsinvitedin for the first tihe in a month. He sawthatlhe
neishborhood was quit correct in callirg the 01d man "Mr. Vcird
Banana" There was no lur.iture t all in the house, not even a bed
The boy thoueht, lfl,.t lds r.5l(pr There wasa hole in the.oofthat
let in the rain, it had beeDlek open,with no sign ofattcmpted repai.
LiaoSitu spokeabruptlyto him. "Cleathehousewith thtbroom
and that mop over thc.e Use the rakethat you wrll lind in the backyardtorakcup all the lcavcsaroundthe house.Oh, and,whileyou're
at it, fill up the storgebasinwith wter from th well, wouldyou:"
The old man turned to go "Youcan cone back here tomonow
at noon, if you wish," he said to John Then he was gone. The boy
was lelt alone in the house.
John was puzzled. If he! such a great Master,he thought, why
does he live like this? (Later he would realize that the Mastcr r
tained nothins any other pe6on misht desire ) But he did do the
wo.k requestedand left the house spotless.Hc knew that kung tu
Mastes often tried the patienceard detcrminaiion of their pprenticesand hd decidedthat he would show the oldman he cou{dbe a
\Y./trenhe came bacft the next day, the old man told him once
asain to clean the house,and left him to it. (WhotJon I jnstchawdil
r6kdoy! Atd r$erenathiq in lEretolet dinr, lohn thowllt. ) The boy per
formed thejob againasdemanded,despitethinking it a wasteoi time.

29
BeSinninSs

Vhcn the samethingoccured asajnor thc two followingdays,

the boy besan to wonder if he would ever be taughl krng tu orjust
be an unpaid leant for the rest of his life.
On the fourth day after beins allowed into Liao Situs hosc,
John discovredthathis praatorywastob sjven a newdimension.
The old man was congenil on that day, almosi jovial. He offered
John tea, and they drank together for a time, saying nothing, the
Master studyi'ra him. Suddenly Liao Situ looked inro his cup with
distasteand sc tinizedJohn with impromptu inspiralion.
"You know," he said,"l have a friend down the road, about five
hundred yards away,who has a wellwith wondertulwater"
"Yes,Situ,"John replied hesitatinsly He did not like the direc,
tion the convcrsationwas bginning to take, bsides,he knew rhat
the well water all over the areawas the same.He had learnedabout
such things in schoolr iigation and sanitationwere very important
"l wanl you to carry water frcm his well to fill my sto.agereser
voir here Come with me "
They went out onto the balcony and the old man showedhin
where his hiends housewas locted.
"\X/hatlswroas with thc water frm your well here, Sifu? the
"lti not rood. lt rnakesthe te tastebirtcr.'
'llut
Sil!, thc warer i! the sameall ovcr the netghborhoodt"
"\I/hy can'1wejt usethe water lrom this welb'
Thc old nran stood up "lf you dont want to do the work, you
can eo home, youknow But don't come bck ' He walked away and
l c f t J o h ns t a n d i n go . h i s b a l c o n y
The yorng boy was angfy but he was llo terriljed of the old
man.John had heard even more unusualthtngs about him, Lio Sifu
was beconins a leeend in the neishborhood So hc did rhe chores
erpected of him, waitcd a while fr Liao Sifu to .erurn, then wenr
h o m ew h e nh e d i d n t .
It went on forweks. Every day the young boy wold go out to
the Mastcrs house,cleanthe inte.iof, rakeard tidy the extcrior,and
carry water from the well a quarter mile away lt took hin all after.
noon, ard the oldnan alwayssenthim ho'e alLerwardwithotrfte.h,
ing hin lhing nen Sun kcpt him ar it, encc,uraginghim everytinre

30
be$nnings

thcy mct, iDsistingthat Liao Silu rvasgreat and that soon he would
b e g i nt o t r a i n J o h ni n e a m e s t .
"Dld the sane thlng happento yo(?"John askedhis friend altcr
a month had passed.
Chanlookeddown."Vell, no. Hestartedto teachme risht away."
The boy was instantly turious.The old man was usins hitl H
held on to his angerallthat nisht andthe nextmorning.\{/hen it cane
time to go to the old mans house,he barffd right in and conkonted
the Master The childs stndinsup to him amcd the old man.
'Are
y o u e o r n gr u r e a h n e L n gf u o , n o , '
"Vhats your problemu
"Char nen Sun said tht you started teaching hin right awa,
that you acceptedhim as a studentright awayf'
"Ah, I see.' Liao Situ kept his face serious."He is wrcns, you
know. So far i ha"e neverhad a studentin my life. You f.icnd is not
"\vhat? Uut he. . . " Suddenlylobn felt very small and fright
"l teachChan llen Sun becausehisfamily helpedne oncewhen
I was very ill. I was stficken with lve. and helpless.\X/henI did nol
'llen
appear for three days,
Sun! father entered my home and his
Imily gaveme wter and food Later,they bousht me the medicine
l r e q u e l t e da n d I r e c o l e . e d . I f n o tf o r t h c i r h c l p , l w o u l db e d e a d .S o
I teach thir son to repay y debt to them. Do you undestand:"
"YsSifu. But I've been comins here every day fof two months,
working ha.d, cleanins,and so lryo havent sbown me nythingi
Not onemovemeDu"
Dcspitc his pfctcmatuEl power! ofconce.tration, Liao Sifr hd
to tLrn away to hidc his grin from the boy. "Kune fu i! very .lifli.trlt
t o l e a r n ,h
" es a i d T
. h e n h e l e l t t h e h o u s ec, h o k i n gd o w nh i s l a u s h t e r .
Ihe boy immediatelybcgan to cleanand perlo.n.hisdallychc'.es
H e w o n d e r e di f h e h a d b l o w n i t f o r e o o d .
Liao Sifukept hin wo.king lor tu,o norc nonths Vhen thc boy
had completed lotrr onths of seNitudc, thc Mdsler sl'oKc ro ,,n,,
" N o r vr v ew i l l s c e , "t h e N 4 a s t es.a i d ," i f y o u a f c c a p a b l co f r r a i n i ' r e . "
J o h nw a sc c s t a t i c .
" l w a n t y o u r o s t a n dh e r e l l k e t h i ! " L i a S i f u s h o w e dh i n r h e
basic cntry nrto what has been popclarly called the "Horse Rrdlng
S t a n c e '( M a B r i n C h i n c s e )J o h . e a s c f l yc o p i e d h i s m o v e n r e . t ,

3l
6eEnnin$

as$rmins the stance.Liao Situ grunted in approval, correctd him

brlefly, then toJohns horror tumed and besan to headout the doon
"Situt"the boy cried. "How lons do you want me ro stand hele
like this?"
The Masre.scowleddown at him. "\X/hr for aslongas you cani
of couset" he said,then walked out of the house.
Johnt tial went on for rwo mo.e monrhs.The Masrer persisred
in makins him clean the house and the swroundings nd carryinc
water hom the distntwll; when he finishedhis chores,lohn had to
standin the Horse Ridins Stnceforhou at a rime. TheMasrervas
relentless,never sivins him a minte! resr Through this ordeal,the
boy persisted.He even becamecheertul I *udn,l klq Ju btJore
I cabe
here,he $o\tsht, b ftM lik tbis!
Durins the fifth month, the boy noticedsomethinsunusual.The
Master had bought a few piecesofbsic iurniturefor the house.These
items were rarely usedbut prcsenr Anong them was a large table,
touryards long by one yard wide, which Liao Situ occasionallyused
On the lirst dy of rhe sevelth month of his tdal, Lio Situ de
c i d e dt o a c c e p t h e b o y a s as t d e n tH e h a d r e s t e d h i m
forsixmonths
a n d h a da g o o d i d e ao f h i s c h a r a c t eTr o i n i r i a t et h e c h i t d ,h e d e c i d e d
to sivc hifl a. cxhibirio. of the most bastcskills he possessed
Th. boy was mystilied.Liao Situwasunexpectedlyco ndescendins on Lhit day ToJoh.! suryrse, he hndedhim a sharp knife and
l r m p c d u p o n t h c t a b l e " C l i n b u p h e r e ,b o r " h e s a i d
I o h n d i d s o , p r z z l e d a n ds o m e w h aat l r a i d
"Dont worry," rhe Mastc. sid "l wont hr1you "
The boy siood there.
"l want yo to attack me wth that knife. If you can nake me
jnp oll the table o. touch my shirt with rhe blde,you win "
The boyjabbed foMard with the knifejokinsly.
"Don'tplayL"theold mansrowled."Artckme of leavemyhouser"
John mde a halfhearredlunge The old man hardly noved
Then suddenly somethins slappedlohn acfo$ the face, hard
Hcwas thrown Irom rhe tabie,theknife flying from hishands.\X/hat.
ever happened had occuned so quickly he could not rea.r. (The
Mastef had simply cuffed him acrossthe face, novemenr roo fast
tor the boys eyesto follow.)
John stood up, shakingwith pain and anger His face stung and
was turnins red where he had been struck

32
BeSinnings

Theoldmanwasscowlincdown
at him fromthe table."Youcan
eitherattack
mewith thekn'feor I will slapyou asainandaaainuntil
The boy leapton the table He lunsedforwardwildly,fully iniendinsto hrt theoldMasterTherewasnowherefor him to esape
to, he thousht.He will havto eitherjumpdovn o. be cut.
wasalmoston him,theold manleptcompletely
JustwhenJohn
overhisheadandlandedbehindhim.
at tullspeed,
Johnwentberserk.He turnedandattackedwildly,
cafinglittle if he shouldhu.t the old manor not. Buttry ashe misht,
he couldnot touchLiaoSitu.It seemedthat the old Masteralways
movedat the lastsecond,justwhenthe knife$,asalmostuponhim,
suddenlyhe wasno longerther.The techerneverblockedadash,
neverresisted,
nevertouchedhiln. He just movedaroundtheboy as
ifJohnwerenot there.His clothinsvas not cut ndhe did not leap
off the table.
It waslike fiahtinga ghost.
Suddenly,
the boy hadaninklingof thebreadthofthe old man3
knowledge
andpowerThis wasnoordinaryhuman.He threwdown
the knifeandknelton the tablebeforethe old teacher.
forcivemy arroeane
"Maste"he said,"please
andncerPlease
cceptm asyour student."
The old mnsmiled.He ppered
srelaxedas
everasif he had
exertedno effortat all.
"Verywell,Mr Chang,"he said.'Todaywe beginyourappren'

John walkedus out to our taxi and bid us a sood evenins.I wassilent
asw were driven back to our hotI. I thousht of the eveninskstory
andhow fortunateI hadbeen to hearit. The tale hadbeenvivid and,
knowing John! personality,it was as if I had been a witnssto the
eventsrather than hearingthem secondhand.Th scenesunfolded
before me on th movie screenof my mind
"Youre very quit," Doris said.
"l was thlnklng how lucky I am, how lucky we allare," l said.
"Yes,you got offvery easywhen you think about it. John didnt
give you hard tim at all."
"That'snot what I mean.Ican only hope I deserveSitu'strust-so
far I'vemadea messofmy training and fortunatelyhet very tolerant.

33
BeSinninSs

No, lwas thinkins of]ohn himself, how different he is foom Liao

Sifu and yet how similar"
'John is a
Vestemel" she said,"aswell as an Oriental."
"Yes,"I replied. "You know, I get the feling that the old man
knew this all those decadesago.Perhapshe simply sawth changes
that were going on around him even at that time and extrapolated
what their effect would be on the future.Or maybeit wassomething
more than that, I dont know I man,his whole life must have been
one ofconstant changeandcontinuousturmoil, tking into account
that he came from China nd berins in mind how old he was. He
must have witnessedso much: the Opium Vars, the Boxer Rebel'
lion, the fall of the emprorand the institution of the republic,the
war between th Russiansand the Japanese,the period of the warlords, the invasion by the Japanese,I mean, all those things happened while he was still in China Maybe he could feel the Vest
breathingdown the back ofthe East'sneck.Ormaybe, somehow,he
could see ahead into the future and knew that John would be the
right personto bring his lineageinto the twentieth century."
"Ofcourse,"shesaid.Shehad pickedup on it hom the besinning.
Vomen are so much more perceptivethan men.

34
BeBinnings

Chapter Four

THE IMMORTALS

THEMASTER'S
STORY
Itwas a temperatenight, and a cooling wind wasblowing. I had gone
to my teachelshouseto seehim, as I did every eveningtht I \asin
Java.Johnhdjust finisheda gameof Ping-Pongwith his sonand was
pleasantlytired; his sonJohannhad carriedthe day andwas ecstati
(the cnidge match had been going on for five years,neither parb/
willine to sunender).In the distanceth two mn lookedthe same,it
washard to tell who was the fathel and who the son. I had watched
them play their gmein th past many times and it was alwaysvery
amusing.John moved like a kung fu Master,torso upright, slipping
awayfrom the incoming ball andounteringasif deliveringapunch.
Hissont kinesiologywasthat ofan experttabletnnisplayr,weight
on the toes,croucheda bit forward,anticipatinghis opponentl moves.
Ea'rmeets\(/est,lthought.loohng ar rhem.
"You'r,ust in time for dinner,"Johnsaid,and I felt awkwatd as
always.It seemedthat everytime I cmeto his houseI wasgiven fre
board, after a while it mademe feel like a freeloader.
John and h;s sonshowered,andwe satdown to the usualendless
coursesof Chinesefood. I finishedlast, asalwaysruntil I visitd the
Eastfor the first time I had alwaysconsideredmyself a rapid eater.I
had been indoctrinatedby the Chinese,however,into the oncept

35

that when youeat, you eat,there\{ould alwaysbe time forconversation later It went againstmygrain asa Creekrin myountry, dinner
is an excuseto socializeand often lastsfor houn.
.lohn wolfed down hls food and rose from the table."Okay," he
said,'v/hen you finish, I want to seehow far along Level One you
are. l'll give you a tst."
'You're
kiddingl Ijust ate."
"So whatz It makesno difference."
Oh great, I thought. This hasto be ajoke. My belly wasswollen
not from ch'i but fiorn toiedrice and Szechuanbeef. I forced myself
to calm downr no matter what happened,it would be interestiog.
Ve went into his acupunctureclinic and I sat on the floor in a
half lotus, the back of my palms on my knees.I had never been
through thisr my heart was bating a mile minute.
"You'retenset"John said."Rela"x.
Concenrrare.
"Hard to when you're being tested."
'You get
usedto lt," he said and laughed.
I forced myselfto relaxand succeeded
in parttallyenteringmeditation. It was enoush forJohn. He brought his index fingerscloseto
my open palms.I felt ajolt; currententeredthe centerofmy palmsand
crossedinto my body, down to my dantienin th centerof my belly
"Abour 20 percntfuII," h said.
I wasdisappointd.Ihdbeen hoping formuch more.l didleam
a lesson,however,and tht lessonws tht the most minute derails
matteredvery much in this sort of training. You couldspend a lot of
elfort training i ncorrectlyand get nowhere,and I hadbeen making a
lot of mistakes-I was never a good student and training long distance allowed for a lot of leeway.
John was not disconcerted,he seemedhappy that I was training
at all. "So many peoplehavecome to me,"he said,"askingme to ac,
cept them asmy studentsand then neverdid any of the training They
think I can giv them a pill orsomethingand give them my powr"
"Like rhe old Chinesealchemisrs."
"Somethinglike that. It takesdiligence and efforr, Kosra.I my
self studied for eighteenyears,you know"
\Ve went out onto his balony and sar in the warm night, sippiog tea.
36

"l have alreadytold you," he said, "the story of how I met my

Master and was aceptedas his studnt. Do you want to hear the
"Of courser"
"lt would make a good rnovie,Kosta.You can write the screenplay in the yearsto come."
He sttledbck in his ha;r and looked off into the distance.
"l have told you that when I was a child we were very poor' we
didn't knov if ve would eat from day to day. I had to work oddlobs
to help my mother keep us alive, and so I could not go to school."
Johnsippedhis tea.
"11i terrible," he continued, "to be in despair,never knowing
what wlJl happen the next day, wondering if you will suwive the
month, hungry,often thirsty. For an honorablepersonsuchcircum
stancesareevenworserit is easyto slip into decadencor into rime
when confronted by a repressivefate.The c'ime ratesin the shettos of the major cities all over the world are veiy hish, and that is
understandable,human natre being what it is. It takesn xceptional prsonalityto make a stand and say, "Despite this karnr,I
will not fall."Ve neverdid. My mothrkept us clean,honcst,and
hardworking."
His gze went off into the night as bitter memory intruded to
breakirto h's soliloquyIt wasstrangeseeinghim like this,so human. More often than not nry teachervas beyond such thing, or
perhapsI simply saw hin asbeing so But at that momcnt I noticcd
sriel and sadnessin his face, though noi a trace of nser \a.asevi'
dent.Vhat washe thinkins?
"My sistcrmar.icdwhenI wseight,"be continued.
"l\4ybrother'
in 1awwas,lets say,middleclass,and hadsomemoney,o I wentto
live with them in their house He scnt mc on to schoolas well' I
startedat eightyears old and had to work very hard to catch up, but
I did manage.I havealreadytoldyou how I met Liao Situ when lwas
"Yes.It was a great story."
John grinned "He had a senscof humor bt ve never caught
on. Anyway, I studied kuDg fu with Liao Situ every day for eight
yearsnonstop.I trinedruaryday, literally. I was manied at eighteen
?

so I had to train intrmittently after that becauseof my increased

responsibilities,but I never stopped.Liao Sifu neverlet me."
He pausedto sip his tea "Vhen I turned sixteen,I starteddriv
ing a mini bus, transportingpeople and goods around town, I was
lorced to drop out of schoolbecause
of our increasingfinancialproblems.Despitemy difficuhis,Icontinuedro practicemy kung fu and
medltatlon every day. Oh, I forgot ro tell you that Liao Situ had
shown me the meditation for LevelOne, the sameoneyou arework
ing on noq when I was fourteenyearsold.
"Not erlier2"
"No. It is better if the newoussystemof the traineejs fully de
vloped bfore training starts.Also it is good to be past rhe beginning of puberty."
"l see."
"Liao Situ knew everythiog Idid ar all times. tt mystified me, I
could not figure out how he did ir. I ven thoushr he had people
spying on met He knew, for example,whether or not I had fined
on a specificday andwhen I purposefullytried to avoid trining. He
could tell when I was lying, too, you know I recall one day when I
visited his housand he askedme tf I had rneditatedrhr day.To tell
you the trth, he had never explained anything ro me nd I con
stantly wondered why I had to do all that uselessmedirarion,so I
tried to avoid it when I could. The scenewent softethig ljke this:
"Liao Sifu, Did you meditaretodayl"
Yes,Sifu "
"Liao S;fr, Dtd you meditateroday2"

"YoungJohn,
"YouneJohn

Yes,S,tu',

SLAPtJohn goes llying acrossthe room.

"Liao Situ, Yo re lyinst"
I burstout laugh;ng.
Johnjoindin brie,,y.
"After that," he continued,"Liao Stfuwasl;ke a god to me. Since
he knew everything I did, there wasno poinr in tyine to him, and so
I decidedI had betterdo eractlywhat he sked.Ibecamea diligent
shrdcnt,never missinga da1,,putting in many hours. lt scemedthat
during my latcr tenageyearsI was either working or training, not

38

"l was nineteenbefore I was given an inkling of how powerful

my Master truly was.He called me to him one day and announced
that I had finishedwith LevelOne. I had no ideawhat h wastakins
"Vhat is LevelOne exactly?"Iasked.'Youveshovn meth train
ing method, but we've never talked about what I'm supposedto be
doing,"
"ln Level One you fill up your dantien with yang ch'i. You must
be in actualmditation to achievethis, nd it is tim dependent. In
Level Two we shapethe yang ch'i to our specificationsso that the
practitionr can push it out of his body. This is what neikung is,
really."
"Vhat about Level Three:"
"Ve can talkabout thatwhen the tim comes.I will tellyou this,
In LevelFouryou bringyouryin and yns ch'i tosether and besin to
"How many diffrnt levelsare therc?"
"Seventy-two."
"Vhat?1"
John smlled."No one said it was easy.The levelscorrespondto
xhen(mber of chkrasin the humanbody. You know what a chakra
is?An enrgycenter?'
"Thesedayseverybodydoes."
"PerhapsThe lastchakrato open, Level SeventyTvo, is at the
very top of your head."
"l know of it I usedto practiceBuddhistmeditation."
"l see.I myself knew nothing about those mattersuntil the day
my teachrcameto me and told rne I had finished\eith Level One.
On that eveninghe gaveme a demonstrationof innef power,neikng."
"Vhat did he do?"
"Do you rernemberthe long table that he had in h;s house,on
top of which we had our fightr It was four yards long. He placeda
bowlon one end and satat the other He put lour flngersof h;s 'ight
hand on top of the table; hls thumb was below it. \{et,l he pshed
forwardwrth hr, {rnger. the bowl exploded.
"At first I didn't believeit. His thumb wasunder the tabletop,so
I immediatlybesan to look for a button or a wire or something.I
39

thought he had rigged the ashtraywith an explosive,rhar it was a

trick Liao Sifu laughed and askedme to bring rny old friend the
broom over. I began to clean up the piecesol the bowl but he said
no, bring the broom over to him He askedm wherheror not it was
a tlick broom, and I said no, ofcourse not. After all, that broom had
becomea good friend of mine rhe past nine yerstHe took it from
my handsand laid it againsrthe wall. Then he passdhis right hand
over it nd asked me to pick up the broorn and sweep the floor
\(hen I did, it crumbledto dust at my toucht"
John took a sip of tea."ltwas at that rime,"he said,"that I began
to ralizwhat my teacherwas.He mademe promjsl\rould meditate andxraindiligendy to obtain this power,and Iagreedreadily,of
"Sifu,"I said,"you meanto tell me that you trainedwith him for
nin yearsand he nevrshowdyou, not onc, what he could do?"
"Cood Codt"
John laughed."lkeep tcllins all my studentsrhat they haveit easy
and that I spoil them constantly.Maybe now they will believeme.,'
He turned to lace me. "Youknow," he said,"it was doubly hard
for me not to doubt what I saw,being a modern Chinese.Powers
such as his were the stuff of Chineselegends,and I had been taught
in sclroolthat thesethingswerurter nonsense.It wasthelate 195Os,
when peoplebelievedthar all things\X/estemweregood andallthings
of the Eastsuperstition.But I knew too that Lio Sifu was a great
healerwho hadcured many peopleof terrible diseases
that Vestern
physicianscould do nothing about."
"Did he useacupuncture,lik you?"1asked.
"No. Nevert Insteadhe would heal foom a distance,passinghis
hands over the ptient, and what rhey would feel I could describe
bestwith the wordsa9olla earSometimeshe wouldsupplemenrthe
treatnent \i/ith herbs He could even curecancer,which I cannot.,'
Iwassilent, havingjust lo$my fatherto rhr diseaserwo months
in the past.John nodded,readingmy thoughts.He had managedto
convey the power of Liao Sifu to me in a simple sentencethat had

40

'Anyway," he continued,'rl kept at it

over the yarc.Ifinishd
LevelTwo andwas into LevelThree when Situ calledme to him one
evening.He told me that he wanted 1o rcst m again,the sameway
that he had when I was a boy, so we jumped up on the table and
wentat it, thistim barehanded.Now,l wasalreadyintokvelThree,
which meansI had some power, Kosta, b t the Master said not to
hold back, to attack him as hard and as fast as I could. He ordered
me to try to kill himl I knew better than to refuseby then.
"\fle fought for about six or sevenminuteswith no end result;I
was happy that I managedto stay on the tablel Suddenly I leapt
forwardand hit him on the chest,and Liao Sifu was thrown off the
tabl. I used a techniquew call Meng Hu Chu Tong,'fierce tiger
charging out of the cave.'
"He appearedhurt,"John said."l leapt down from the table nd
helpedhim up. He wasgrabbing his chestwhere I hit him. I apologized immediately,but hejust laughedand told me that Iwas great,
that I had reachedthe point wher I could overwhelmmy Master I
imrnediatelypuffed up with pride, and from that point on I was al'
wys very bve-cock, actually.Before that incident I was quite
timid, you know He did that to removethe fear from my heart."
"Youhadn't really hurt himr he let you hit him," I said.
"Ofcourse, KostatLiaoSitu wasLevelForty-Eightatthat time, I
was LevelThree. Do you have any ide what that means?"
"Vell, no. I can't imagine."
"l had about as much chanceof injurins him as a tiny buttrfly
has of injuring you. But at the time, I really did think I wasgreafl"
"l see."
"Andthe downsideof the incidentwasthat I becameunbearably
arrogant.I would fisht with people all th time, and lwayswon.
Usually it would end with only one punch, and I hardly usedeven
the power I had t irdl time. lwas young and proud. You know, I
usedto f;ght ;n bare knuckletournamentshere in Java,for Chinese
studenxso[kung fu only, and I was the undefeatedchampion."
He straightenedunconsciouslyand a smile flitted over his face
as he recalled his youth. I had to grin. Then he suddenlybecame
serious."ln 1962my Mstercalledme to him asain and saidihat he

41

I signedthe tu with a drop of my own blood and Liao Situ burned lt

on a pier. Then he mixed the ashesvith another drop of my blood
and made me drink it. It bound me, Kosta; I had to do exactlywhat
I promised."
John becamesilent and then continued in a soft voice. "He left
for China on board a ship with two hundrd other people. I knew
one of the people he wsgoing over there with, so I kept askingthe
mans family for information.Liao Situ had reoted a smallhouseand
was enjoyins the time he had letuvery peacetully.He ate the food
he favored,took walks,that sort of thing."
"He had no family over therer" I asked.
"No. No one," John replied, speakingeve more softly. "l will
tell you his story some other day, mayb tomorro\{. I went !o the
mank houseevery day, asklng for news,and one day th expected
messasarrived. Liao Situ was dead, as he hlmself had predicted,
nd he had died on th very day he had foreseen.I askedthe mans
fmily how it hadhappened,and hadto wait almosta month for the
reply.Liao Situhad askedhis neishborto buy him a newspaperaround
six o'clock in the afternoonon that day, then sat in his rocking chair

on his porch to read.Atseven o'clocksharph died in amoststrange

manner.Blood came out of what we call the svenorifices of his
headiyou know, the eyes,the ears,the two nostrils,andthe mouth.
Maybe a massivestroke or something,I don't know."
\)/e sat silently for a time. I realizedthatJohn was talking about
the death of the man he consideredhis father I didn't know what to
say,and was becomingemotional myself."He must hav loved you
very much, Sifu,"I sald.
John smiled. "Yes.I know he did. But it was much later that I
realized,from his actions,that he waswilling to give me everyrhing
he had,includinghislife.l willtellyou aboutit someothertime.But
lre nevertold me in words that he loved me, you know, not once."
"Maybe it was not in his culture to do so," I said.
"Of course,"Johncontinued."Anyway,the yearspassed,Kosta.
I kept training and finishedwith LevelThree. One year after that, I
achievedLevelFournd becanto developm) powel
"\/hatwas that like?"I asked.
'The first time that I
"Like ridins a buckins broncol' h rcplid.
wassuccessful,I fainted and could not hold on. There was so much
power therel I hve alreadytold you that in Level Four our yin and
yangch'icome together The power that is generatedthenis inctedible, like having a lightning bolt in your belly. Th secondtime I
tried, I was unsuccessful
lso.But the third time . . . the third time I
held on to it for ten minutes,then forced it into the very center of
rny dantien.At that point the power vs mine, forver"
"How old were you when you achlevedLevel Four?"I asked.
"Thirty two."
"And then?"
"Life went on, Kosta.Renember,I could not usemy power for
personalgain.I continuedto work sa drivt andwecontinuedtobe
very poor I also kept on with my training and proceededthrough
LevelsFive,Six,etcetera.lhadreadln the textthat Liao Situgaveme
how I coulduse this power in combinationwiih acupunctureto heal,
and I beganto do so. I cured many people, Kosta.And I could not
take money after the factLI mean,peoplewould offer me money out
of gratitude and I had to say no. Not even to pay for food for my
family.Somedayswewouldgo hun$y; we could not aftodanything

42

43

had only three months more to live. I believedhim, and askedhim

what his plan was. He saidthat he wantd to die back in China. He
still had no money,so we collectedtundsfrom all the peoplehe had
healed to pay for his iicketr \,/e pid his bills and still had a good
chunk of money left over to last him through his dyiog day.
"Beforehe left, I went to his houseevery nisht for the following
t1Momonths. One eveninghe gave me an ancient book containins
the scretsof inner power all the way up to LevelSeventyTwo. He
mademe promisethat I would not open the book and read it until I
had finished wilh Level Three. And I went through a formal Taoist
ceremony; Uao Situ made a cham, aJ" as we cll it. He drew the
charm on a piece of paper and I had to writ down the following
three promisson the samepieceof paper,
That if I finishedwith Level Four,
l I was not allowed to usethis power for evil purposes.
2. I was not allorvedto rnkemoney with this power
3. I would ot demonstrateto anyon exceptmy students.

to eat, and I had a larse family by that time. One day a rich man I
had healedgave my eldestson somemoney while he was at school,
and I was forced to order him to give it back.And later I threatened
the boy that I would throw him out of the houseif he ever accepted
money from anyone again!Ii wasmaddening.
"But five yeaslater my life changed,"he went on. "l wasthirty
sevnyers old at th time, and Iwas desperate.Ve were ating
every othel day, my children were crying, and I had my back up
againstthe wall, so to speak.I becameangry,very angry at the situation. After all, the only thing I neededto do was open a kung fu
school and I would have millions, thre
around who
coulddowhat I did. That aftrnoonI wasin our bedroomandbegan
to screamup at heaven in rage. I kept crying up at Cod, Kosta. I
shouted up at Him,'\flhy did you give rne this power?To torture
me?\/hy? Doyou hate me?V/hat have Idon to deservethisz'(and
also many other things I am not so proud of)."
John looked me in the eye. "Then suddenlyI heardmy Maste/s
voice in my ear, he said, John, don't wony, your life will change
soon.'At first I thought itwas my mind playing tricks on me, but the
voicewasso real,l lookedaround.Andthere Liao S;fuwas,sirting in
the corner,as solid asyou or I1
"l rubbed my eyesand staredaaainai him. I thought that I was
going insanefrom the stressoftryingto makeendsmeet. He looked
so real, though, that I thought Iwould try to speakwith him.
"Master?'I said,timidly.
"Liao Situ laushed,'Ys,it's me. Yo Ddn'tbe so amazed.'
" ' B u t . . . y o u a r e . . y o u ' r e d e a d ts' a
l id
"'Uodeniably,'he replied He seemedvery amused
"'Vhat are you doing hereT'
"This is thespcialtyofourtype oftraining, that after deathyou
retain the charactefttics and powersyoLthad when you were altve.
Vhen you passLevelFoul you can take allyouryang ch'iwith you.'
"l didn't know what to say,Kosta,"Johnconrinued."l didn't really believewhat I was seeing,but there he was,asbright asday and
ashuman as the last day tht I sawhim. lt is hard to doubt the testi
mony of your own eyes.

44

'meditate,look forme,
"'Vhen you have troubl,'Liao Sifu said,
and I will come to help you.'
"And I did, Kosta, and bedid. I called him almost every dy at
first and there was no one who could not hear him, though only
about l0 percentof the peoplecould seehim and then againin varying hues. I think you have to have a lot of yin ch'i to see spirit
plainly. Aryway, to some people he was transparent,to others s
solidasyou or L But no one doubtedfora momenttht he v/asthr.
Evenwhen they could only hear hirn, they felt a physicalsensation
when he was around, like an lectromag.etic field or something."
John paused."Youdon't seemshockedby what I am saying"
"No," I said."Storieslike this were the reasonI camelooking for
you in the first place.I would have been disappointedif they were
"And do you think that peoplein the Vestwillbelieve it as\,/ell?"
"l think that peoplein th Vest arradyto believeit. The 1950s
were a long time ago.'
'Aryway, Liao Situ helped me
John lauched."lndeed,"he said.
curemany sickpeople,dirctingmeon which traditionalmedicineto
useandwhat technique.He was alwaysright, and the ptientlways
got bettr The funny thing is that he neverused the samformula
twice for the smeillnessrit dependedon the individualeachtitne."
basis."
"lt was alwayson a case-by-cse
"Yes.I tried it many times, you know I would give a different
patient with th sameillnessthe sametreatment as a patint who
had been cured by Liao Situt spirit, and nothing would happen Finally I gveup on it."
"Bt all Chlnese medicine is like this, right? ltt always case
dependent."
"Yes.That'swhatmakesitso difficult. Chinesmedicineis really
an rt form, not a science.You cannot opn a prescriptionbook and
dispnsmedication,like a Vestern medicaldoctor"
John pausedfor a while, then ontinued."Ihen one day a very
I had helped cmeto m and askedif I wanted to
rich businessman
be parinrsin ajoint venturewith him. I saidI had no money and h
said, it's oka, you just do the work and I will put up the capital l

45

askdmy Master jf it was all right and he said yes, it vas oky for
peopl to be erateful as long as I did not directly take mony for
srvicesrendered.So I took the job, so to speak,aod made a good
pieceofchange. And sincethen I havestudiedandlearnedth ways
of the businessworld with the samedilignce that I spnrstudying
kung tu. As you can see,I did okay."
Hn hourewar wonh srxmilliondollars.
"\vy'hatyoure telling me," I said slowly after he had finished,,,is
that you proved to many peoplethat thre is life after death."
''Io
hundredsof people,Kosta,"he responded."t can still prove
it to anyone at any time. Vould you like to met a spirit?"
I jumped up in response.
'Very
well," he laughed."Tomorrowwe willgo on a shon trip by
car; it's about half an hour away from here.Ve can talk more about
it then."

THEHSIEN
It would be neglectfulto go on at this point and not giv you some
backgroundon what is popularlyconsidered"immortality"byToist
alchemists,nd what the theory behind the sta.e of immortality is
per the school of ner-larTaoistbelief Immortlsar thousht to display abilities similar to those of John Chang, nd the warpins of
acceptdnaturallaw is saidto be commonplacearoundthem. How
ver, I must caution you that the technique and method of Master
Chang differ greatly frorn those used by othr sysrems.Also, as I
statedearljer,Johnt techingshave norhing to do v/ith religion. lf
the outlinebelow leadsyou to other books,l musrwarngarnstpracticing the methodology ourlined in rhose publicarions,I have no
idea whether or not the proceduresdescribedare fact or fancy (or
whether or not thy are dangefousro rhe student).
The perfected,;mmortalhumanors;r (ltterally,'/mountainman,')
is a centralfigureof religiousToism.The techniqueswherebypeople
sought immortality were grounddboth on internaland externalalcheny. The external school (uti laal developedrechniquesbased
on chemical experimentarionand dietary regimensand hoped for
actual physical immortaliry; there is strong evidencethat they did,
46

In lact, come up with an elixir that provided at least some partial

such
rquvenation(lhave heardthat Chinat modem leadersconsume
(neia potion to retain theirvitlity andyouth). The internal school
dan)stressedbreathcontrol,yogicexercises,medjtation,andsexual
tcchniques.Through breath control and the trovement of one's
llfeforce (ch'i) throush the fields of the body, the individual both
prolongedlife in this body and achievedimmortality through the
'tpirit
body" (sl'r"),which be
nou.ishmentwithin of an embryonic
camethe immortl self after death.* Throughout its developmnt,
threethemscameto b central to the teachingsof nei-danTaoism,
l The philosophyof rur-pei(spontanityand noninterference)
coupledwith a profound reverencefor life and an enhancedperception of th workings of natureon all levels.
2. The yogic alchemyfor transmutingthe endowmentsof the
worl.
mind nd body into an immortl spirit uitii loerooertbephysical
spirit
body,
the
shen,
was
created
and
nourishedby
the
disfilla
This
tion of Iife enersy (ch'i) augmentedby the power iohrnt in purified semen[clirg). This "purification"was a meditationalprocess.
:. The yogasof absolutemedittion wherby passionand dewere
vanquished,allowing tbe yogi to eter into a condition of
sire
enlightenmentwherein the spirit body can exist independentofthe
body and ernanateto "ride the clouds.'t
The word sio in Chineseis composedof the ideogramsfor ruorl(!rr)
tdi
andman (,,! ), andmeansjust that. It is thousht that,though
mountainsthemselves
arcyang,so,rmountainsaretull of the pnmalyin
of
the
universe,
and it is to that energythat Taoistseekeflocked
energy
in
to "chargetheir batteries"andenjoy the stillnessofthe surroundings
I
hom
a
mountainous
area
myself
andcanverify
that
meditation. come
when trainins in the hishlands,the energyI leel is hundredsof tlmes
what I experience
when tranringh the city vhere I norrnallyreide.
Thewei-dan school,whicb soughta chemicalforrnulafor actual
physicalimmorlality, is not directly pertinent to this text. Thc nei
Toists,who
dn, or internal school, on the other hand, is Ne/-cDia
" Ercy.lofeia
Btitan i& Onlir', "RelisiousTaoism."
t Blofield,lohn, I4,s.. Ii,.Rodl roL,od4l,r)' {Boston,Shanbhala
P u b l i c a t i o n s1,9 7 8 ) .

followed this school,soughta meansby wh;ch the condit;on ol human existencecould be transfomd into one that would last indefi,
oitely,but noi necessarilyin
physicalform.To achievethjs,thyworked
exclusivelywith the tooh naturehasgivenus,thoseofourmind, body,
nd spirir.The'elixirof immortaltty'wasbrewednot in somecrucible
usingpotionsolarsenic,mercury and pearl,asin the wei-danschool,
but in the body itself,usinsthe indjvidual! own life enersies.
In China th threqualitieo I man! energyarecalledtbe Sarltao,
or "three treasurs./i
They are ching, ch'i, aod shen,or essence,en
ergy,and consciousness
By transmurationofth threetreasures
from
coane to subtleform, and by subsequentinrcneacron, a mysteflous
"something'isconceivedThat'tomething,js the spirirembryo,which,
like any baby,requiresfurrhercsrationprior to finalbirth However
shouldthe Taoistyogi be successtul
in developtnsthe spirit body, he
can exist independentof his physicalbody and;s assuchtmmortal.
Central to the belief tn the spirit body is the tener that, while
man doeshave a soul that liveson after derh,the soul is not immor
tal and will also die after time I person y believethar thjs felisious
doctrine came into being sirnply becausethe yogis could not pcr,
ceivethe spifilsofspecificdcceased
individats
aftera sivnpcriod
at tima-oheftas heJore
thdt foixt theycould.Neither lailure nor isno
ranccis widely toleratedin China,yor cannotsimplyy,,1don't
know." Thus th loi(r teachershad to come up with sor.il,in4,nd
thc dosm outlined dbovewas the reL,lt you' fjnd that there is a
basistor my assumption
in followingchaplers
Ching-ihe tcrm essentiallynreans"esserce',-js the primals!uff
of I;ie.Many belicvethatyou aregivena fixcdarrountoi ching for
yor lifetime, and rhat if you use it up, you are out of luck. ln thc
malc,ching is presentin coareforn in the spem, and is depositd
in the lesticles.In more refincd fornr chins circulatesthrolrsh the
bone marrow of thc body, and is stofcd in rhe kidneys * Therefore,
" \X/henI began to study the litcnnre on Taoisn, I was surpised
by how
many conceptscincidcd with tolk beliels in ny native Crcece Upon
ensaAingin a tor.id lovc affair with a new siflfriend, and subsequently
sho\rins up to tech my iujursucla$ somewhardazed,I was colnseled
by the oldest mn in tlrc clals to ".efrain from los,,,Bmo m.n lpermi as
you will beein to losc yorr bone marow"

48

whax was of crucial importancewas to preserveessence;it is this

npproachthat led to the theoriesof spermretention and controlled
cjaculationthat have become representativeof Toism in popular
Vcstern literture.Some teachersstatd that ching had a natural
tcndencyto flow downward. They thus forbadesexualintercourse
ior a thousanddaysat a time while training, so that the ching could
"pile up" andenliven the energycentersof the body. Others allowed
ior a minimum amountof sexualrelease,the philosopherSun Szuemo recommendsthe following program,"For men in their trMnties,
one jaculationevery four daysrin their thirties, one in eight days,
in their forties,one io sixtendays;in their fifties,one in twenty one
days.From the age of sixty upwardsemissionshould be avoidedaltogther,though a sixty year old v/bo is still robust may allow himself on ejaculationa month."
This isa far cr.j'from th exorbitantsexualstimulationevident in
Vesternsociety.InEuropeyoucanhardlywalkdown thestretwithwomen pout down from the covout thinkingofsex; large-breasted
ers of magazinesin every corner kiosk (some nude, some scantily
clad), while their mal counterpaftspump iron and promisefemale
reademendlessrepetitiveorgasmswith their saze. lt is hardly natural;we needonlylook at the animalkingdomto realizethat attempted
reproduction is not something a mammal should ngagin every
day.*My dog can outrun me in his sleepand has kept abreastof a
snowmobil in deep snow; the averagehuman could not hope to
parallelhis physical prowess.He breedswice a year. Perhapsit is
this naturalconsewationof ching that allows other mammalstheir
tremendousphysiclabilities.
I havediscussedch'i. Shen,th final treasure,is a bit more diffi,
cult to identify. In corsform it most crtainly means"mind, self,
soul";Iwilluse the term, rsowl aaarness.
As determinedearlier,many
Taoistsblievethat the spirit itself cannotlast indefinitely,and must
be'enhanced"so that the prize of immortalitycan be captured.There
semsto be a orocessfor this.

I am awareof both the naturalinclinatior and the reproductivecyle of

ihe dolphin, for readerswho think they havecaught a faux pas.

49

I havesaid that ching, the essenceof life, is firsr transmuredand

refined into ch'i. I have seenmany proceduresfor rhis in the litera
ture, ranging lrom the sedutiveto the painful.uThe most common
approachis, simply,sexualabstinence
coupledwith yogic brething
If you're notjcing that the emphasisis on the male and sperrn,
you are correct, there is little written in toist te(s thar is ofuse to
women seekinsthe\Vay.Neverthless,
historica yand in myth thrr
have been Taoistimrnortalsand Masten who oer women. Ir is as to
lou they developedtheir powersand achievedimmortality that th
literature is silent (shoft of takins a pill, which we must discount).
Once ching had beentransmutedtoch';through meditationand
yogic brearhing,the pratitionefdiscardedthe entanglements
ofmun
dne life and "sousht stillness"so that he could tufther enliven the
shenthrough the ch'i. (Reportedly,the areawhereihe seedlinssben
residesis betweenand behiDdrhe eyebrows-the third eyeto some.)
But once the shenwas conceivedit had to gesrare;once gestatctit
had to be born; once born it required nourishmenr;and so forth
until it could stand or its own. The proceduredemandedthe con
tinuous rtinment of ching into ch,i and the transferenceof the
energy of ch'i to the shen.Needlessto say,it took a long time, per_
haps the prctitionert entire life, and was not somethingto be un_
dertakenlightly.
For the Taoist alchemisr,the dantienwas rhe crucible in which
the elixir of immortlfty wasbrewed.It was rhere rht ching was re
fined into ch'i, whjle from the danrienpurifiedch,iwassentup to the
"SpiritValley"berweenthe eyebrowsto give birth to the embryoshen.
Needlessto say,the dantienwasa very prciouscommodity and one
carefullyprcserved(inded,it is commonin China eventoday to wrap
onet belly asinstthe cold, leavingthe chestand armslighrly clad).
There was a further step from that point on if the yogi truly
desiredeternity, The independentshen had to be mergedwirh the
Sourceof All Things, the To. In essence,what rhe teacherswere
saying v/as rhat the personaliryhad ro unite with the flow of rhe
whol universe.If such a thing is possible,it can only be the final
stagein human development.

50

There is a clear reference;n the Tao T Ching to th seedling

after death,
shcn and th continuation of the consciousnss
Thosewho retaintheircenterndre.
Thosewho diebut continueto existareimmortal
This particularsection of the Old Mastr is very imporiant and the
rcadershould berit in mid in the chaptrsto come. It hascaused
much consternationand confusion among sinologistsin the Vest,
with the questionbing, how do you "die but continue to exist"?I
siocerelyhope that this text will help clear up the quandary.'
Letme repetmy word of warningbefore Igo on Though much
has been written about it in numerouspublications,the San Bao
method is not prciselythat followed by Master Chang, tberc are
somesiilarities, and many of the conceptsare pertinnt (vhich is
why I included them here), but in essenceboth the approachand
method are different. By no meansshould you follow the San Bao
methodwithout dirct, competentguidncein an attempt to generare abilitieslike my teacherk;that way lle madnessand death.

REVTLATIONS
The next eveni.g I wasin a carwith myMasrcr and his family headingtoward a placeon the outskirtsof the cityhe livedin. I wasquiet;
t find it difficult io talk when there is much weighinc on my mind,
and that night there was Johns ommentson the previoqsdav had
shakenme greatly.Once gain,I did not doubt him for a second;I
was anxiousand wary of wht I would seeon t al evening
"Ve are going to the houseol a friend of mine,"John said "He
hasheardstrangenoisesa! night while his family hasbeensleeping,
and he is quite afraid that there is a spirit there. Thev iust moved
into thai houe,by the way."
"So the storiesof huntedhousesare true," I sid
"Ofcourse,"he replied."Spiritsare boundby spacend time the
sameway as anything that exists,but on a different level because
they afe part of the yin vorld. \/e ourselvesareyang, thev re vin "

51

"But we have yin energy i our bodies too, right?',I asked.

"Correct,"hereplid. "However,a pure spirit existsin a djfferent
space-timecontinuum than we do. One year for us is one day for
them, and thy (e not limited by the presenrmoment but exist in
the immediatfuture and past aswell. Do you understandr,'
"l rhink so." I rook out a pen and paper."Do you mean sorne
thing lik this?"On the paper I drew,

TIME

MAN

"Exactlyt"he said."Youkno,Mhow in meditation we slow down

our breathing and our pulsezltt becausewe move more and more
into our yin consciousness."
"l see.But are you sayingthatwe havetwo separatebodies,a yin
body and a yang body, and that our consciousness
can move from
one to the other2"
"No. It is notso simpleandeasyasthat. \X/hatlsaid is that everythingo/ the earth is yang,though th earthitself is yin. \X/e,ashuman
beings,are yang creatures,bur v.e have yin nergy as well. It is rhe
combinationof th two that givesuslife. Vhen \re die,when we cease
to havelife, our awareness
movesto rhyin stareofbeing.,,Hepaused.
"tsutit doesnot remainunalteredin the process,"he continued.
'AndrMhat
we are going to seetonight, if there is one ther, is a
human spirit, right?" I said.'A . . . ghosr?"I hated using that word.
"Yes,"he said.
"l see.Sifu, what about what we are told about the afterlife_
heavenand hell, reincarnation,that sort of thing?,'

52

Hc was silent for a very long time and I thought that I hd of

lcnded him. Finally he spoke."l don't know," he said.
"llut you have seen so mny spiritsi spoken with yo Master
alterhe died,and.. . ."
"l didn't saythat I haven'thad experiencewith life fter death,"
'r/hatI said is that I don't know what the final state
interruptd.
he
of the afterlife is like."
John lit up a cigarette."l will tell you what I do know," he said.
"There appearsto be an intermediatesttbetweenthis life and the
next.Icallit the whitewavandtheblackwave.The spiritsofthose
who havebeen good in their livesgo into the white wave,thosethat
havebeen evil into the black wave.lt is very much like the concepts
of heavenand hell except for one thing-neither condition is pr
maneot.At some point all spirits shoot straight up to Cod. \fhat
happensto them at that point, I don't know It depeodson whom
you ask,I suppose."
"You mean to say that there is a heaven and a hell:" I asked,
astonished.
"Thats not what I said,is it? I said that thre seemsto be an are
characterizedby a field of white yin energy into which the spirits
with a positive karma enter There they ar given allthat they desire, and they lo des;re.I have entered into th white field, people
were gathercd around celebrating,eating and drinking, only there
was no food really present.It is all an illusion for their benefit' thev
just lrtuk that they are eating and drinking. Maybe they have to en'
joy what they were denied in lif in order io go on, I don't know
Perhapsthey think thal they are still human."
"But they are not?"
of the averagespirit
"No. The mentalandemotionalperspectives
tho'e
r
human
being.'
hom
of
arcvery dilierenr
"ButnotyourMasters. He looked andsoundedthesamedeadas
he did alive."
"Yes.A spirit with ven a little yang energy is very different. A
'
spirit lik r'ry Master retainsall its human characteristics.
Ithought about the classiclines from the Tao T Ching, l;nes
that had causedso much controversyamong scholarsin the past,

53

t"

Thosewho retaintheircenrerendure.
Thosewho die but conrinero existareimmortal.
Their meaningwasclear to me at that moment. According to Toist
thought, to continuebeing humanafterdeath,you had to br;ngsome
of your yang eneEy with you \(/as the "center"that the Iao Tzu
rferred to the dantien, which filled up with yang energy in Level
Oner And accordingto Cbang Situ,to remainconpirisb.
humanafrer
death, you had to bring all your yang energy with you-that js to
say,to complete Level Four Like Liao Situ. Like my Masrer
A shudder ran through me. \X/asevolution at play hefe? \/as
humanity no more than rhe breeding ground for higher spirirs?I
thought abot how an embryo came into being, Out of millions of
spem only one becane a baby \7as this the casefor us also, that
from a million h(mansonly one was destinedto becomea hsienl
And ws it for entities of this sori that all the fusswas abouQ Or
were we evolving as a speciesto rhe point whereall of us could live
on vithout our physicalbodies?
I desperatelywanted to chanse the subject,but there was no
dodging rhe issue.I thoughr about the netaphysical ,,waves,,ofre
wardandpenance
lohn hadspokenof. Conceptssuchasheavenand
hell, the Elysian Fieldsand Hades,were as otd as the human race
Vere they realr
"And what about the black wave2"I asked.
"lf you ever reach Level Four,remernberthat I said never to
so
into the blckifyou canhelpit. k is not a pleasant
place.The spirits
thre desir, thy hurt, they cry, and are denied everythingr it is
pitch dark, you canno. seea thing. The only good pojnt about the
black wave is that it does not last forever,afuera time those spirits
are freed,when their kafma hasben tulfilled',
"Situ, what is krma?"
"The consequenceof their actions,thoughts,motions,and de
sires--of their lives,ifyou wnt."
k was getting to be too much, too anthropomorpnrcror me ro
swallow,like somethingout of ancient myrhology,or the most eso,
teric beliefsof the worlds major religions.

54

He seemedto guessmy thoughts.'l don't have any final answersfor you, Kosta,no dogma to respondto the questjonspeople
haveabout their existence.I can only tellyou what I haveseen,you
canchooseto beliveme or not. Considermea metaphysicalscien
tist. I have not toldyou anything of my own religous beltefs,and I
willnot."
"\X/hynot2"
"Because
ldont want to interferewith anyone! religton,"hesaid.
"Sifu, what you descr;bedls so . . . basic,so primitive a model
that.. . ."
"lt! too hard to swallow in our scientific age where everyrhing
has to be complicatedand mathematicahVell, you can judge for
yourself.Maybe the whole problem with our day and ge is that
wele steppedtoo far away from the primitive, rejectine our essen"And Cod, Sltur YoLr've
menrionedCod rnnytimes,both today
past.
and in the
Is there really a Cod, a force that caresfor us, the
centerof our existencez"
"l know there is."
"Vhyr How do you know there is a Cod?"
"Someother time, Kosta "
Ve reachedthe house."Sifu,"l askedas we got out of the car,
'hy
is it that sornespiritsare earthbound,like this one-if ther is
He shrugged."Vhy do you live where you dor It dependson
eachcase.For the most part spirjtsstay away from towns and ciries
and preferthe wilderness."
\/e were met at the doof by my teacher! frind and his farnily.
The housewas pleasanteoough, a two story, three-bedroomaffair
Itwas quite modernandhadbeen built only in the lasttwentyyears.
Itwas certainlyno centulies'oldcastle!Morepeoplearrived,indeed,
quite a large group gatheredto seethe show John joked with rhe
men, talking about soccer,the latest trnds in world business,and
whethelol not a rstaurantthat had rccently openedwasany good.
It seemdthe thing they all studioudy ignored was whether or not
the housewas haunted.

55

Afteratime they decidedto go aboutthe business

at hand."Okay,
Kosta,"John said. "Come on."
\Ve went up the stairsto the top floor, and everyonegathered
together.There were so many of us that we could hardly ftt ;n the
room. Tbe ownerpulled out a table,and on ithe participantsplaced
various offerings to the spirit. Tlere was a stick of incense,a cigarette on an ashtray,ted withour sugal coffee without sugar,cakes
without sugar,nd water.It wa stfessedto m that sugarwould of
fcnd the spirit
"lle can smell the offedngs,"my teachersson said to me. ,,lt!
what thcy en;oy."
I thought about the period somyearsprior when I had studied
lltretan Buddhism I had lernedthat rhose entities in perpetual
stateofspirithood\i/erecalledscenr-eters.I
hadalsobeentold then
that most pcople were reinarnaredwithin forty days,I thought of
the conceptsof dosma and proof.
My teachersaunteredover 1<>
where Iwas stding.',lfthefe is a
spirit," he said,'you will seethe offeringsmove ashe takesthem."
"Youmeanthatthey haveenoughpowerto moveobjects:"Iasked.
"No no no. I will enter total meditaiion-like the borderline
between sleep and waking, okay?Ar that poinr he v'ill be able to
take yang ch'i from me, and he wtll move the objects."
"Yes,"
Isaid,"bLrthow do I knowrhatit is norsimplyyoumoving
them: I mean,I've seenyou usetelekinesisbefore."
He laughed,delighted,he was not offendedin the least.,,tfyou
pull up your yin ch'i like this, you my be able ro seesomerhingas
well." He showed me the method. "l don't think you will be able to
seethe spirit himself,becauseyour yin is very weak,"he contjnued,
"but you may seesomething.Especiallyif be is a blck spirit."
Ve all gatheredaround the table. Someoneshur otf the lishts
Only a few dim candleslit the room. (Lisht, beingyang, woutd drive
the spirit way.)Everyonequieted down, andJohn beganhis meditation. I did asmy teachersaid,pullingup myyin energy.There was
an intensequiet, a total absenceof sound,and then suddenlythings
beganto happen.

56

lheard a soundlikethe windblowingr the incensestick appeard

split
in two, as if I had doublevision. | rubbedmy eyes.The stick
to
beganto movetIt bobbedin the direction ofmy teacher,\,/ho immedlately begantalking. He spoke in Chinese'I could not undrstand
th words, but I could tell from his tone of voice thai he wassooth'
iog and haping praiseon whatverws there.
The cup of tea beganto move on th table, and I heard a sound
ol satisfaction (aaabhh) I thought, Yor'ni",l ts playtug trickson you l
pulled up rny yin and tried to concntrate.Soneiri,, was over the
table-lt was indefinableandvague,like a heatwaveover hot tar/ bui
therewas no denying that my vision blurred when I looked in that
direction. It was actuallybard to stareat it, il seemdthat the phe
nomenonwent awaywhen my eyes(my o,ll:) locked on to it. But I
could see it larly with my peripheralvision. If I kept my line of
sight down on th tabletop, I could sea sort of cloud dancing and
yafl41lsthatIbere.lsoll
playing over the tabfe.I wondercd.Isaureyes;ght
I cahw it t'ly aith y ,eriPbenlokion)
John was talking up a storm, everyonestarted laughing, and I
felt llke the odd rnanour. Suddenlythe incenseburner flew off the
tableto land at my Maste* feetrit was porcelainand shatteredinto
Instantlythe lightswretumedback on and peoplebeganclean
ing up the mess.I walked over to whereJohnwas sitting. He lookd
"Vhat happenedz"I askedhim.
"Stupidspirit."
"l couldn't seenything,just a blur"
"Becausehe is a white spirit," John rcplied. "lf he were a black
spirit, you would seehim."
"V/hy did he knock over the inenseburner?'
"Becausehek a Muslim," John said, "and the incensstjck offendedhim. He considersincenseasbeing somethingfrom the Bud
dh;st religion."
"\Mhat?Howcan a spiritbe aMuslim-orany otherreligion, for

57

t-

John laughed."They are in the intermeditstate,Kosta.They

have not had their questioosansweredyetand, believeme, they are
much more anxiousabout the afterlife than we re. Direct interest,
yousee.Manyspiritsretain
theirreligiousbeliefsakerdeath;
indeed,
somebecomevery devout,much more so than they were in life."
"Oh boy."
'Too
much: Didyou hear the wind when he came in?"
"l guessI could swearto it ln court."
"Ah. Yor yin is weak,you know You will haveto work on that.
Iwill show you how later. There is alwayswind associatedwith a
spirit.Mymasterwasso loudthathe soundedlike a helicopter Everyone could heal him cornins."
I stood there stunned,feeling Iike a goon. I thought about the
words that variousculturesaroundthe world hadusedto describeour
life enrsy, the Chinesecb'i,the Creek pra#na,the English'pi"i the
Hebrew ruac|,the fndianpran, theTbetzn rl rg.They allmeant'wind
orvapor" lt madesense,too moch damn senseto ignore arymore
"Here,"John said,"you all have to move back a bir. There'sioo
much yang energy aroundthe table, and he is afraid."
"You'resoios to call him asain?"
"Oh yes. That wasn'tpolite, you knou If he had just asked,I
would have put out the incense."
John Iit anotbercigarettead placed it io the ashtray.I walked
over to where myteachey'sson wassitting and sat down next to him
"Can you translatelor me what your father is sayingr"
"Sure.Basicallymy father asksthe spirit questionsand then articulatesthe replies he gets out loud, so that we can hear them as
well."
"lt won't bother hlm ;fyou talk:"
"My father: Vhen hei in meditation, you cannoi disturb him
even ifyou wished."
The hghts went out again.Everyonesat down on the floor far,
thr hom the table, only John remained in front of it. I concen
trated as before on the end of the iit offering, in this case the
cigarette'once againit seemedto spht in two, and once againthings
beganto suddenlyhappen.Theteacup beganto nrove,spilling some
of the tea, the glassof watet the cigarette.John began to speak,

It weotsomethe conversation.
ind, with hissonshelp,Iunderstood
thing like this,
"Yes,yes, I understand.You are a Muslim and we will not leave
out incensefor you. \/emeant no offense.Did you enjoy the ciga'
rctte?Cood, good. Vhy are you hete?Ah, Cod sid you must stay
here and you are not Ieaving no matter what. That's okay. Can the
pcople stay in this house?Oh, you like theml Yes,they are good
people, aren'tthey? You like bananapuddingr Of coursethey will
Icavesomeoutas an offering to you. EveryTuesdaynight. Okay. But
you must promise to protect them and oever hy to hurt them. If
ther is a problem, you can come to me. You do promise?Cood.
They alsopromisethey will giveyo bananapudding everyTesday
night.Andcigarettesalso:Okay.Cood, good.I'm gladyou arehappy.
lly the way, ,rho do you think will win the soccergametomo.row?
No, try harder,bcauseI want ro make a bet with my friends.Ah,
good. Yes,they are my favorite team aswell."
Peoplestartedlaughing.The lights went on. The owner of the
housewrote down the spiriti request.One man helped himself to
someof the cakesand the coffee that had been put out as an offer
ing. The atmospherewas very congenial;there was nothing mystical about any of it.
It was the most naturalthing I had scenin my life.
I was envious,incredibly envious.I thought of the Vest and
how death is treatedthere, rhe separationand th fear that people
feel for their dead, beloved or not. Here were people who
nonchalantly took everything in stride.Just s the most primitive
culturecouldspeakto the deadthrough their shaman,th spiritworld
was no st.angerto thm. Death really lrasa verifiabletransition,the
consciousness
moving on to somethingdifferent. It was like grow
ing olderl most people realize and accept that they will reach old
ageand makeplansforretirement. It is prt of life, afterall. But what
plansdo we make in the Vest for our'etirement" alter deathr Our
only comfort is religion, indircct and distant, with nonverifiable
dogma at its core and a whole hlerarchy of intermediariesbetwen
us andwht is io come.But herewassomethingnyonecouldtouch,
somethingmatter-of-fact.John hadtalkedaboutsportswith rhe dead,
for Cods sakeL

58

59

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

I looked at myMasrerwith new awe.lwalked over to him
ash
joked around with his friend and his tuiend,s
wife.
He glancedoverat me. ,,S/ell,Kosta,"he said.,,Newexperience?,,
'Yes,
Sifu.\XAy did you ast him aboutthc soccergame
tomorrow?.
"BecauseI alwaysbet with my friendsabout who is goig
to win
the game.An averagespirit can seeinto the future about a
day orso.
I cheated."
"ls it a hundredpercent?I mean,can theypredidtlte futurewith
"lt dependson the spifit. The strongerthey re,the
more accu,
rate they are aswll This one wasa very smallold rnan,
so I do not
trust him all that much, but he was a nice fellow in the end.,,
"Vould he lie to you-try ro trick you?.
"No. A spirit cannot lie, not evn a black spjrit. They
can either
speakor not. But rht does oot mean that they are alv/ays
right.,,
After bidding me a goodnight, he sent me back to my hotel
in a
_
friends van, alongwith a group ofother people.I wasso numbed
by
what I.hadseenthat I couldhardly speak.One man in the
van spoke
Englishwelland tried to engageme in conversarion,unsucessfully.
l m u . t h a r ei n s u l r e hd r m T h e m a n w a . o tS u m a u aenx t r a r r r o n
and
he startedtelljng rhe othen that Greeksreally were racistand
preju,
diced againstdarkr-skinnedpeople.I intervenedonce
Iunderstood
the gist of the conversation,explainingto him that I
simply did nor
\vant to talk; I was shakenby what I had seenthat evening.
'Oh1'he
said.'!/as this the first fime you had seena spiriP,,
I nodded, and he looked puzzled.
"Dontpeople die in yourcounrry?,he asked,and
I didnot know
what 1o say.
Hamlet had calleddeath,,theundiscoveredcountry hom whose
bourn no traveler returns.,'Thesepeople had lost all dread
of that
othr place. For them there was no,undiscovered country,,,
;t had
been explored and charted.
I wondered if anyonewould believeme

60

Chapter Five

THESTORyOF
LIAOSIFU

It waslate eveningwhen I next satdown to tlk with my teachr.He

had just finishdwatchins a soccersame on television,and his fa
vorite team had won. Knowing John, he had probably wagereda
good sum of money on th outcome-and presumablywon aswell.
As a result,he was in a good mood. !fle moved to the outsidebal'
cony once againad sat down for the customarytea.
"l promisedyou thar I would tell you ny Masterrsstory todan"
John began."l have alreadytold you how I found him and he ac'
ceptedme as his apprntice.Vhat you must understandalso is the
great degreeof differencein bility betweenLiao Situ and myself.
My powersare nothing compared\rr'ithhis."
I noddedandkept silent,though I feltlike Iaughinshysterially.
It wassunealto hear him speakof his capabilitiesin this manner As
yetJohni own power were incomprehensiblto me, and I had only
witnessedasmallfractionof his energy.In the threeyearsI had been
with him I had observedtelekinesis,pyrogenesis,telepathy,
electrogeneration,th displacementof matter, th manipulationof
Ievitation,the absorytionofenormousamounts
chancecircumstance,
perhaps
and
even communiationwith the spiritsof
of mornentum,
the dead.ThesewerphenomenaI myselfcould testityto, andwould
61

be willing to do so under oath. The full power ofJohn Chang was

beyond blief, ifwhat I had been told by otherswas true (and I had
no reasonto doubt them), I certainly could not imaginethe extent

"Neither could they. So they fought, each clan trying to force

tbe other to move away"Now," he continued,"inJiangsiprovince,almosta monthtjorney given the resourcesofthe age,therewasa famostachercalled
Pai Lok Nen."
"Vhen did this happen,Sifu?"1 interrupred.

"Oh, this part of Liao Sifus story takesplace roughly between

l9l5 and 1925,give ortake a few yearseitherway.Anyway,because
ofthe waa Llao Situ did not marry and generallyled a very turbulent
cxistence.Maybe their region ws like Bosniaor Kosovo in our day.
\X/henhe was in his midthirties, his life changddramtically.One
of his relativeshad studiedwith Pai Lok Nen. This man returnedto
Lee Hwa Kang at somepoint, and it was evident that he had devel
oped great abilities. BcauseLiao Situ was a dedicatedand sincere
martialartist,and (lett faceit)becausofthe war, the relativwrote
a leiter of rcommeodationfor Liao Sifu to also go and study vith
PaiLok Nen. So Liao Sifu madethe journey and eventually,because
of the letter,wasacceptedas Pai Lok Nen'sstudent.He styedwith
Pai Sifu for flve years,at which point h returnedto his home vil'
lage. At the tim he was alnost forty years old and had achieved
LevelTwenty-Slx."
John sealed back ;n his chair and assumeda more comlotable
position."Now," he continued,"baf in mind that thesewere differeot times. News did not travel very fast, if at all, and most of rural
Chlna lived;n third world conditions.Vhen Liao Sifu returnedto
his home,he foundthat hisclan hadbeendecirnated.Therewasonly
one man left alive,and he was crippled,unableto walk. The neighborskept him livewith theircharit/. Liao Situwent crazywith gieft
he had lost all hic loved ones.Can you imgine,Kosta,leavingyour
home for five yearsand retumins to find that alJyour brothersand
your cousins,aunts,uncles,lovers,andfriends,hadbeenkilledr"
sisters,
"Yec,I can," I saidsoftly. "l'm flom the Balkans."
"Youare, aren'tyou?"Johnsaid."So maybeyou can underctand
such pain, or perhapsthere are similar ircumstncesin your family
history. Liao Situ wanted to rush over and attack the neisbborins
village. But his clansmanwouldn't let him.
'They
havek;lled us
"'Youarethe lastoneof us left alive,'hesaid.
all. Eventhough you are LevelTwenty Six, there ar many warriors
in Pu Chia Sians, a'd you are only one man. Pe'hapsthey will kill
you instead,and thn the Liao cln will be lost.
The clansmanwas his senior,and siven the Contucianethic of
his dy, Lio Situ had to obey him. The man sent him back to Pai

62
TheStoryof LioSir

63
TheStoryof LioSifu

"Liao Situ was born in a village namedLee Hwa Kang in China!

Santong province," my Master continued. "He was part of large
clan-the Liaos,as the name implies.This clan had its own style of
kung fu, which they calledLiao Chia Chuan. Ltao Situ beganstudyingthe familyart at the aAeoffive andcontinued
studyingitunrilhe
was about twenty, by which poinr h masteredthe system.He became quite good at both the external and internal elementsof the
martial arts,and a good fightr
'And
fishr he did, I'm afraid.You see,next to his villase, a few
milesaway,therewasano.hervillag.This villace wascalledPu Chia
Sians,which basicallymeans'thePufamily village.'Betweenthe t\r.o
villageswas a spring, the only one in the area(it was quite a barren
place,Kosta) ltwas overthis supplyof fi.eshwater rhat rhey fought.
Their clanshad been fighttng for a hundredyers,and many died."
"lt must have been horrible," I said, "fighting over the fight to
drink."
"Yes,"John said."The rishi ro sufvive,you mean.Yorrknow how
in AIricathc lionsgithcr arrundthe springsandwair lor theirprey?
\X/cll,irrrasinc
sonrcthinslikc ihis,nd you will be closeto the way
il w! kn thcnr Irvcryday of rheirlives,because
a rnanneedsfresh
w:r(cfto livc, right?"
"-fhcrc was no water anywhereelse?Not i/r?"
"Not a drop, I'm told. Oh, maybethere waswater rhirty or forty
nrilesawar but anyou imaginemaking a trip like that to get wter
for your tam;ly, and canying it back?"

Lok Nen with the promise that he would study for a further five
years.Liao Sifu did this, swallowinghis rage and pain and putfing
them aside.He thought of revengeall the time, thoughr he could
not let it go. Vhen he returnedto hisvillage, five yarslater,he was
morethanLrvelThirty.Thatisaveryspecialturningpointforpeople
like us, you know Itt sort of graduation."
Iwanted to presshimfor detailsbut John becamesuddenlyquit,
staringoff into space.At lengrh he spoke.
"Vhen Liao Sifu returnedto his home, he found rhe body of his
clansman,piercedby a spear.They had not evenhad tlie decencyto
bury the mn, th corpsewas rotting where it lay. Then Liao Situ
went mad. kwas asifthe floodgatesofthe dam hadopened,the pain
he had suppressed
a1lthoseyearscould no longer be containedand
camerushingout. Itwas asif his survivingrelativewerethe lasrbridge
to reason,with him gone Liao Sifuwent crazy.He gavein to his anger
and his hatred andwent to Pu Chia Sians to rakebloody revenge.
"For one hour he killed anythins thar moved, and they were
helplessagainsthim. It was as if the Angel of Death had anacked
their villag and thc warriorsof Pu Chia Siang could do nothing to
stop him. Men, women,chtldren,and animalshe killed,eventhe
chickens So great was hts anger,Kosta, that he wanted the village
to bc wipcd off thc laccol the earth,with nor one life renaininsin
it ti, p(,is,nrLhcIand.Spcars
andswordsbouncedoff him like paper,
lrr q,lrl<lrrot bc hurt, and yet he killed lrom more tnan ten yaros
lwny with blatsol ncikLrng
energy.Nothing escaped
him. Vhen
rh.y fnrr,hc caushtihem,whenthey hid, he foundthem.
"Altcr onc houl as he srood amongthe rui.s of the village, the
n,adncs
lclt him andhe sawclearlywhat he haddone.He knewhe
had abuscdthe power that Cod had blessedhim v/ith ald had be
come a demon. In ooe hour he had taken more rhn one hndred
human lives. Liao S;tu was a good man, he really djd not wanr to
hurt anybody,you know. His hearrwasrushedltkc broken glassby
his crime, and he turned deadinside At thar moment he kne\i/pain,
the very real agony of remorse,before which the sufferinghe had
tclt lrom his anger wasnothins Also, Liao Situ v/asa toisr Master,
hc kncw aboul thc spilir wofld and about life after death. He knew

64
The Story ol LioSifu

lre would have to pay off the karma of his actionswhen he passed
away.So he becamevery afraid for hls soul.It was in despairthathe
ran back to his teacher,Pai Lok Nen."
John took a break and sipped tea. I was silent, shockedby what
I had heard. "l alwaysthought," I said finally, "that yo( hd to be
good and moral to be ble to develop abllities of this sort. That
power went hand in hand with divine integrity. How is it possible
that Liao Situ had not progressedbeyond thoughts of revengeat
that level?"
John laughed."Youle read too many Vestern books, Kosta, or
watchedthe TV seriesKa g I too oftn. Ahuman beins is a human
beingrdon't think it is so easyto stop being human!Liao Situ knew
he knew that what he was doing was wrong, but
the consequences,
he still took revenge,and bloody revengeat that. He was a man,
after all, not Cod, and his family had been wiped out. Vhat would
I looked down. "l don't know," I said.I thought of the depictions
of th Buddhaon betan ird ld, they normally showed a Buddha
attendedby a bodhisatwa of compassionon one hand, and one of
power on the other. I tho[ght of the icons in my native Creek Orthodox Church, The Virgin, personifictionof compassion,was a
central theme, but the Archangel Michael, whom I can salely call
on tough dude,was ubiquitousaswll. I beganto understandthat
power and clemencyare indedtwo separatethings.
"Of courseyou do,"John continued."And lateryou would have
repented;t aswell, as Liao dld, and you would have had to pay the
price, as h did. Themes of revengeand regret are everywhrein
human literature, Kostar it is not so easy to become Cod and for
sive. ImasinetheJe\.ish people forsivins th Nazis."
The crimsonpast ofthe Balkanswas bred into my genes'he was
ight nd I knew it. I told him as much, and he nodded.
'Yes,"he
said."lt is difficult to be pov/rfuI,twice as difficult to
be powerful and good, but that is what we flt]sl do. That is our des
tiny. You know how little children are rarely sood by themselves,
how they have to learncompassion2"
"Oh yes,"I said.I had bitter memories.

65
The Story of Lio Situ

"A childi mind will give you an idea of mant basicnature.Our

purposein life is to becomemore than whar we arc born as.Most
people arc not successfulat rhis; they just think that they are And
you know this is why it is so important for us to pick our students
carefully.Ve do not want to createmonsters.'/
John looked off into the night ashis dog camerunningup to be
petted. He playedwith the animalfor a while, and I scribbleddown
my notes.A seruantbrought more tea, and, after a time, Joho contind his narration.
"PaiLok Nen lived on a mountaincalledLung Hu Shan,'dragon
tigr mountain,"' he said.
"ls that the Lung Hu Shnthar the lineseof T'ien Shih Chang
had made their homer" l asked.r
"Yes,"he rcplied. He seernedpleasedthat I knew about the htstoryofChina. "But Pai LokNen wasnor a memberof their sectrthey
respectedhim sreatly and so offered him spaceon rheir land. Pai
Lok Nen was a hrmit, the Master of the school of Mo-Tzu,, he
lived on an islandin the middle ofa lake.My teachersaidthat it was
an inaccessiblearea,iis warerswere very difficult to traverse.Liao
Sifu used a seriesof trees to get across,jumping from one to the
other like Tarzan,but Pai Lok Nen just threw a leaf on the waters
and floated across."
"Cood Codt" l said."Vhat level was he:
"Level Filty One."
"l can'timagine."
"No,"John replied,gainnjng,"you can't.Now, Chinawasplagued
by many bandits at the time, and Pai Lok Nen was lwaysthere to
help people. He fousht fo' the villagersand kttled many bad men.
He had kllled more than a hundredhimself, I'm told, many of them
with a very high level of skill. Pat Situl causewasjusrified, thoush,
becausehe fought to protect others,not for his own Cain.There is
still karrna associatedwith this type of omba., bt nor so much,
especiallyif one engagesin it wirh no thoughts of glory or ego Pai
Lok Nen was a hermit H did not fighr to become famous,or so
that he could seducewomen, he fought becauseit fell to him ro be a
protectorofthepeoplearoundhim.He wasa healeraswellandhad

66
The Story of LioSifu

curcd hundreds.You know he sparedthe livesof many banditspro'

vided that they would repent nd stop bingthievesand murderers;
that mercy was to be his undoing in th end."
"He just let them gor" I asked.
"No. He alwaysmadesuretheycould no longrtenorize people
beforehe allowedthemtheirlives andliberty.Sincethe notion seems
to shockyou so much, Iwill tellyou now the story of a very bad man
at an incrediblyhigh lvI,nd his final encounterwith PaiLok Nen.
That man'snarnev.asLim. . . ."

Duel of the lmmortals

Lio sat before a roaring fire, deep in thousht. lt was a cold atuernoon, cold enough for him to seekthe heat to warm his bones.He
was over fifty'five, bt with the constitution and appearanceof a
much youncer man; people thought him a hsien, an immodal, the
apprenticeol the irnmoltal Pai Lok Nen. On the rare occasiorsthat
he ventu.ed into the local villages,they bowed before him, treatins
him to their modestfar with th estee resefled for divinity.
IJ they o y tueD that I dn notbi$! b a nttd.ftt, h thought. Th
decimationof Pu Chia Sianc plaeled him constantly,and h knew
that one day he would haveto pay the price. In restitution Liao had
committedhimslt at Situt sussestio,to the monasticlife he would
try to reachthe hiahestlvel of powerhe could in this life and help
asmanypeopleasdeservedhisaid.Maybe then, whenthe timecame
forhim to enterthat otheiwotld, the Lord Codwouldbe mercitulin
Hisjudsment.
Hou quld I hau killedchildnt
Liao staredinto the flames.The truth was,he did not need the
walmth of the fire to stay comfortable ny more than a snow bear
did; he was beyond such thinss. But wby waste internal enersy to
warm hlmselfwhen a good fire was available,and much more pleas'
ant to boo" Liao had stayedwith Pai Situ on Dragon nger Moun
tain lor many yearssince that fateful dat meditatig, traioina, and
studyiDs rhe systemof his Maste/s lineage.He had learnedmuch
and progresed to Lvl Fo.ty' to his chaelin, his lask had srown
more difficult, not easier,as he increasedin level. Level Four,which
he had thought ea h shatteringat the time, had been aseasyas pie

67
The StoryofLio Situ

in comparisoD,he srinned as he thought of some of the younger

studentsh knew,strusglinswith LevelsThreeorFourandso proud
of that fact They were in for a rude awakening
Pai Sihi was gone for one of his ren day ret.ars,leavins him
alone wirh the OId Robber Pai Lok Nen's method of trainins was
very cleve., He would meditate for ten days somewhereup in the
mountains,then comeback down ro theirsmallhouseforren dysto
recuperateand preprefor the nexr session.Moderation and persis
tence were the keys to success,Liao knew
Th OId Robbersname\irasAsam, and he was almost seventy
yea6 old. Assamhad been a highwayman and terorized the sur
roundina countrysideuntil he'd had rh n1isfo.tuneto pick Pai Lok
Nen as a victim. Vhen beaten by ihe nonchalntimmortal, Assam
had pleadedfor his life, promisins that he wuld do anything if he
couldlust be spared;he wold nevrstalfrom or injureanyoneaaain
Pai Lok Nen had not knowr what to do with the man; he coutd not
vry well leve him where he was, becausethe tandit was surely
untrustworthy.He finauy dcidedto rakehim with him asa seruant.
T o m a l e \ u r e r h a rA r n w o u l dn e , r h e ri n i u r ca n y o n ea 8 d . nn o r r u n
awar he had lmd him by partially paralyzinAthe grearerscitic
nerve i. the robbers nshr les. Pai Situ then brousht him out to the
island, where ii was impossiblefor rhe man ro escape.Now Assam
hobbled around everywhereon rhe isle, the thumpie of the rhick
staff he used to suppo* his weisht the old man! tradema.ksound.
Liao had sent the Old Robberoui to sther some fifewoodr ihe
old maD had gone sulkil, not appre.iting the directives of the
younser Liao H whined constanrlx but what could he do2 After
all, Liao was a hish level studenrof the Master and Asam had no
power to speakol. He had tried repeatdlyto convince Liao thathis
beiDs Pai Lok Nens seNant did not men he was Iiaot sewant as
well, but the youoger man was not buying ir. And sinceAssamwas,
with sood reason,terified of Lio! powers, he did whar the orher
But he didn't hveto be quick about it And so he took rhe whole
aliernoon to complete an hourl cho..
Liao was quite alone when he heard the sound. It came softly,
stealthily,and there was a threar drawing nearvith it, Liao knew A
man was approachinathe house,a caretul man checkins his way as
he went, awareof dangers A man at war, Liao thousht. An enemy2

68
The Story of LiaoSi{r

He rosea'rd stalkedover to the door Beyondrheirsmall sarden

a drk lorm approachedcautiously.It halted when it sensedhin,
waited, then beganto approachagain.
Liao sawthat it was a man with a drk cloth tied over his ys.A
blind man "Coodafternoon, brother" Liao said.Thiswas no normal
blind mani Liaodid not needto observethe way rhat ihe otherwalked
to know this. The man had mad it to the island, rhat in itsell was
enoush.
"Coodafternoon,"the rnanreplid."ls this xhehomeoftheMster
Pai Lok Nenr"
"lt is."
'Ah.
Cood. I am ar old hiend of his. \I/e have not seneach
other in twelve years."
"Pleasecome in and warm yourself.Pai Sifu will return soon."
Liao stood sideto let the blnrd man past He noticed rhat the
man enteredthe hut carefully,as ifchecking for possibleattack. He
also saw that the man vibrated and hummedwith a power similr to
that ofhis teache. S.elymore rhn LevlFifty, Liao rhought Could
il be that he was highef than his Master?
Vhen he sensedthat there wasno one elseithe room, the man
gratelully sat by the fi.c and beganto warm his hands Liao sw that
hewasanoldefman, in hiseighties,aboutthe samegeashis teacher
"Can I offeryou some tea, Mr . . r" Liao asked
"Ah, Li'n. My nare is Lim. Yes,please.I would be most appre
"How do youkDow PaiSituz"Liao askedwhile brewins rhe ra.
"Ah. Ve met twelve yearsback, as I said It is to hi rhar I owe
mycffent...power"
"1see Are you a studentof my teacher! lineage?"
justasold andjs1aspowertul."
"No. I stqdiedwithanotherschool,
L i a oh d n d c dr h eo . h p rm a r a r r p o f I ' o . . c r
L i m s i p p e di t w i t h r e l i s h ' T h a n k y o u , 'h e s a i d ' T h e t e a i s m o s r
appropriateon such cold day."
"Yesit is. You havereacheda very hish level, good sir"
"Yes.Ii took a long time and gfeat dedication,but I have nanagedto becomes lam afterten yersof fircetraining. I think thr
yor Masterwill be quite surprisedwith y power"
Li ao staredat the hooded face."He maybe surprised,butwillhe
be pleasedr"hc askedfinally.

69
The Story of Lieo S'frl

The other put down his cup. "\X/hati5 your name?"Lim sked
finally.
"Liao Tsu Tong."
"Liao Tsu Tong, if you do not inrerfe.e when we fishr, I will
sparyoq.life thi, day,in sraritudefor the tea you haveofferedne,'
"Vhy do you hate him sor"
The other man untied rhe bndageover his eyes, rwo empty
socketsyawned back at htm. lt was the face of a demon.
"He took my eyesfrom me. I cannor forsive him," Ljm said.
"lunde6tand," Liao said."l also havewastedmylife in searchof
revense But Pai Sifu has alwaysbeenjust in his punishments.\(hat
did you do to deseruesuch a sentence:"
"lt does not marter"
"Ofcou.se it doesrCodljustice must be undererood."
"Oh? Did you follow Codijusrice when you rook reverser"
Liao looked away.
Th blind man laushdironically."l supposenor, ehr" Lim said.
"And who is Pai L.okNen to speakfor cod, an).way2Yor name is
tmiliar to me, Liao Tiu TonA, s it is to all China, though untilthis
moment I did not know that you were Paissrudent.
Liao searchedthe tortured face. "Vhat do you mean that my
name is known to all China?"
"lfyoubehave and do not interfere,lwill letyou liveto discover
"l myeli hve.srtted my actions.After twelve yeare,hasyorlr
rage not been temperedby time?"Liao asked.
"Tmperedby time? Are you a baby to ask qesiionslike
that? Fof ten years lracrificed my life, doing nothins but rrainins
everydar thinkina ofnorhins but findins him nd takingvengeance.
It took me two years to find him; the people in the areaprotecred
him, the fools. No one would answermy questions!Bur find him I

"Perhaps.lt is not for you tojudse, destroyerof Pu Chia Sians."

"He sparedyour life. He was mercitul."
The teacupinstantlycrumbledto dust in Lim'shand and the hot
tea boiled away assuperheatedsteam.Liao fearedlorhis life in tht
lnstnt."A thousandtimesthat he wouldhave killedrnel" Lim roard
"lwas powertulandhe made meweh Vhatever I desired,a woman
or jewcl, itwas mine for the tkind lwas the kins of my land, and
h turned me into a bggan"
Liao kept his seai.
After a roment Lim calmed down and turned towald the fire.
ote h,\ e\c\ on.e dsdin.
H e r r a p p e d t l . eb a n d a e e
"\fould you like somemore tea?"Liao asked."Youseernto have
Lim laushd."Yes,you areundoubtedly very braveman I would
indeed like anothercup."
Liao stoodand went over to a srnallcirpboard.He brousht ovef
a cup and offIed Lim tea. "You knoq" Liao said,"Pai Sifu is not all
"$?hat do you mean2"
"He was rippled in ficht. He lost the use of one lg and now
"Hmm. It must have been someenemy.I'm slad that the othr
didnt krll him' that h left him for me."
"Yes,but Situ is not the Mastr that he usedto be. He'sold and
ffippled now and has lost his powei."
"Are you that young and stupid or ar you just 1rying to tempt
fate andmy patince?You know aswellas Ithat hls physicalcondi
tior has nothins to do with itr He c as powlul as ever Berides,I
hatehim so 'nuch that evenif he were deadI would deftoyhis arave

what was your crie2"

The otherws silent. "Youare eithera very brave man or a very
stupid one. I was a warlord in a eishboring province My band of
wador demandedtribute hom the nearby rowns. At one point I
becmesrcedy, nd an old man caUedin Pai Lok Nen. My bandwas
desfoyed and my eyeswere taken from me."
"lt soundslike you got whar you deserved"

and desecmtehis corpse."

"l se. I pity you, Mr Li. Havins felt such hatred myself, I
knowwhat a worm like thatcan do toyoursoul. Mayyou find peace."
The other man'sreply waschoked offby the soundof someone!
approach.They both heardth heavyfoohtep, the rhythmic thumpinsofthe cane.Lim stoodsmoothly andr$,ifxlyto facethe door He
pushedLiao to the wall behiod him. "Don't intenupt or else,"Lim
whisperedsoftly. "Reftemberwhat I said."
Assmws canyins a load ol firewood, and th soins had been
difficult for the old man. He easedthe heary stackofl his back and

70
The StoryofLio Sifu

The Story of Lio Sir

'And

laid it down gently in corner ol theerden, rtiU ticd with rhc ropes
he had usedto 'nake his bundle. He woutd be damnedif he,dbrins
rhe wood into the house for Liao as well. That pstart was almost
fifteen yearEyounser than he was, after all, and should have rd,,
respectfor his elders lt was enough that he had sone out ro set the
woodat Liao!.equest, too bad for the young punk ifithadtake, the
Insidethecottage Lio sawthc mans silhouettedarkenthe door
wy. He had o misconceptionsaboutwhat would happen,and knew
that Lim sensedthe othefi approchaswell. Lim slood before him,
his back to hlrn nd facms rhe door. He was redy to fight. Vell, so
He was at Level Fo.ry hinself, bur he knew that Lin was mch
hisher. Srll, ti,r,rri borft,he thousht.
'Look
outt ki a trp he yelled 1o Assam,and r the samerime
h i t L i m w i t h a l l h i sp o w ri n t h e a . e ao l t h e k i d r c y s( a n d o n l yf r o ma
yardt distance) He erpected the other to fly foturd from the im.
pact, at which point he was ready to hit him repeareory.
Nothins happened.Lim was unaffected.
Liao was allowed a fraclion ()1a sccond in which to curse thc
.ircumstanceswith thc worer proianity he cold think of. Then Lim
hoved like whirlwind He kicked backward,hit Liao, and kDocked
him co'n pletely th rough the wallto land in the ga.denoutside,where
he lost conciousncs At the same tie he hit Assam three times
hom llvc yardswaywilh enefsy blasrsgeneratcdfro thecenrerof
h l s p a l m A s s a md i e d i n s t a n t l yw i t h t h e i i r t b l a s t b
, u t L i m c o u l dn o t
bclicvc Lhat Pai Lok Nen would be so easy ro deieat (for indeed,
L i a o t s f a t e g yo l p a s s i n s A $ a mo f l , P a i L o k N e n h a d w o r k e d ) a D d
stru.k agarnard again
When Liao cane to, his Mter was srandingover hiln. k was
nor.ins He had been unconsciousall nishr.
"Are you all rishu" PaiSifu askedhin.
L i a o s a t u p a n d c o ( s h e du p s o m eb l o o d " t r h i n k s o , , , h es a i d
"For somc reasonhe wanted to keep me alive.Assam?"
"Dead. Cone. \Y/ho did this?"
"Lim He said his narnewas Lim "
"Lim? I dol't k.ow any man na.nedLim "
Lio wasbdefly exsperated.
Ii semedthat hc teacherhadkilled
so many maraudersthat he had forsotren the detailsof the encounters."He was blind. He said you had taken out hts eyes.,,

72
The Story of LiaoSilu

Pai Lok Nen was astonished."Hir?The warlordr Yes,ofcou6e,

hh namewas Lim, thts right, I remembernou But howr I mean,he
wasat a fairly high levelwhenwe fought, but nowherecloseto thk."
"Hatred."

"Sorryr"
"Hatrdtueledhistrainins."
Pai was silent "Of couree,"he said finally. "l .esrct leavins him
alive. Manywill sufferbecauseI thousht to show mercy.Somemen
are beyond redemption."
Liao stood on quaverins legs He saw the hole in the wall his
bodv had madewhen thrown backward.
"Help me with Assam,"Pai Sifu told him brusquely.
They walked over to the other mans remains.Of the body itself,
only ajellied ass v,asleft.
"Do you know why your stratesyworked2"Pai Situ askedhim.
"Maybe. I think it was becausethe man \i,asso obsessdthat he
was blind in more ways than on."
'No. It was becuseLim is obviously more than Level Iifty. A
blow from a manlike thatrunsthroush the bonemanowandcrumbles
the bone to dst.Assamwas hit at leastthree and maybe fourtimes,
asyou can see,thre is not much left of him. His skull is mush; Lim
was unablto inspectthe body to seeif it was me or not."
"ri7hy did you trick him into believing tht Assan was fte?"
"Because
honestly,Situ,the nan frishtenedmeand Ihad no idea
which ofyou had more power."
"Andyou thought nothins of sac.ificinsAssam'slife?"
"Beforeyour own, Situ, no."
"Andyou thought nothins of scrificirs yorr own life asweu, I
"lt ws my duty, Master."
They buried Assam!body. It had no strucrurand was difficult
to pickup, it wasas if the old man hadbeen turned into a siant, dead
invedebrate.Paiwssilentall that day.Vhen eveningcame,thy sat
by the fire. Pai Lok Nen handedLiao a large book and somescrolls.
"ln this book,'Sifu told him, "are the secretsof ioteroal power
allthe way up to LevelSeventyTwo. Thesescrolls desiflateyou s
myheir. You are nowthe Mastc of my school of Pa Lei Chu (eisht
ways thunder boxirs). You may leavethis place or stay her asyou

73
The Story of Lio Sifu

"YouargoinAfrerLim."
"lt is fly duty.I haveunleashed
a monsreronthe landandmust
laceup to the consequence
ofmy acrions.I forbidyouro comewith
meiif that ii whtyou weregoingto ask.'i
"Master . ."
"l fo|bid itL"
"But of course,"John continued, "Liao Situ did not listen to hirn
\/hen Pai Stfu left, he followed at a distance,stayins away frorn his
techerbut nverlosingrrack of him. k took pai Lok Nen a week to
find Lim, but find him he did. They mer in a junsl. Liao Situ was
closeby but he did not dare intrude."
My teachertook a sip of tea.
"For three days and three nights they fought,,,he said softly.
"They were evenly rnatchedin the end; both were at Level Fifty,
One. They destroyedthe jungle around them in rheir struggle,and
still no on could ger the upper hand. Lke the ancient gods they
foueht, throwing rhunderand Iightning at achother, Kosta.Finally,
on the dawn of the fourrh day, pi Situ in despertionused a tech
nique called Ching Tjik Tue Lik, whih in Chinesemeans,,Colden
Roosterstandson one leg." lshowed you that movementyesterdayr
it is a vcry dangeroustcchniquein tharyou can hit threepoints with
onc movemcnt, but you lso open up wek poinrs yourself,which
thc opponent can strike Of the three points attacked,Lirn managed
to block two, bufihe third blow caughthim in rhe chest,atthe same
time, however,he manaeedto kick pai Sifu in the chest.They both
fell over and lay still. Then Liao Situ emergedfrom hiding and ap_
proached;before that point he had not dared interfere,as I said,'
''ther
is thar rnuh differencein power between LevelsForty
and Flftyr'l asked.
"Yes,and betweenLevelsTwenty and Thirry or Thiri.J/and Forty
aswell,"John repl;ed.''tihe forestwas as if it had been desrroydby
bombs, Kosta. Liao Situ checkedthe bodies.Lim was dead,but pai
Lok Nen was altve. L;ao Situ buried Lim and srayedwith pai Situ,
trying to nursehim back to health. At sornepoint, though, pai Lok
Nen passedaway. L;ao Stfu buried hirn and stayed in the rea fo,
lorty days,then moved on."

l4
The StoryofLio Sifu

"\vhere did he go?"I asked.

"He was in for a surprise,"John said."He went to a large town
ncarbyand saw that he was famous.The governmenthad put a re
wardon his head,he wasthe mostwantedcriminalin China."
"The village massacre,"
l said.
picture
on them were everywhere.He was
"Yes.Posterswith his
lorced to flee first to Nanchang city in Jiangsi,where he remained
for a tirne, then out of Ch;na. He finally settledas a pennilessrefugee in Java."
"lts exactlyllke the oldTV showKan4Fr, with David Canadinef'
I said.
John thought about it for a while. "l neverwath that show,you
knoq" he said at last. "l mean,I've seensegmentsof it from time to
time on television,but lve never actuallysat down ro watch n epi
sode.Listen,you don't think that they heard bout Liao Sifu'sstory
from somewhereand copied itt"*

'Sch

is not ihe casetK'i4F,

the orisinalseries,
wasan exampleof art
imitatinslife,asit were;the herowasa Buddhist.atber
thana Taoist
monk,andhe hadkilledthe emperorisonratherthann entirevillse.

75
The StoD. of Lio Sifu

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

\-napter tx

LESSONS
TO BE
LTARNED

THEEXAMINATION

il

It was raining heavily when I next saw my Master. He had been

gone for a week,out of the country on business,t hadspent the tjme
lravling, rading, aDd digestingthe teachingsof our previousencounters as best I could My wait hadnt been all that much tun,
bccauseI had seenmost of the country already,and rhe ciry he lived
in was a boring place.John telephonedon the day that he returned.
I took my usualtaxi out to his home in the late afternoon,eagerly
anticipatingseeinghjm again.
Ishook the rain off my windbreakerand enteredhis home.There
were many peoplethere, and there was considerableexcitementall
around.The atmospherewas that of a party waiting to happen.
Jobn yelled out a greeting."Kosatyou arevery lucty tonight. I
will test pair of studentsfor LevelTwo. r/eare preparingnow,'
I had never seen such testing before and immediately became
excited myself. Ir had beeo worrh the week of waiting. perhapsthe
most importanr rhing abour rhe abilitjs my teacherdisplayedwas
that they are an acquiredskill, what he hascan be passedon to oth_
ers. That evening I would seeproof of such a transmissionfor th

lirst 1im. lt should be noted rhat not everyone can become like
l:hn Chang, ;ust as not everyonecan becomean Olyrnpic thleter
still, almost every able-bodiedperconcan be taught to run, and i[
not to run, at leasrto jog Levelwo is somewhatlike that. Almosr
anyonewith the right degreeofperseverance
and disciplinecancomplcte it (tbogb it mighr rake as long as fifteen years).As far as becoming like Chang Sifu, howeve perhapsooe man in thousand
can achievcthis. lf that many.
An).wat I was quite eagerto seewhat rhesetwo men could do.
They were the only ones there who did not seemprticularly
happy.Both were very neffous, excusingthemselvesio run to .he
toiletonoccasion
andspendingquire
a bit oftime on ihe balconyin
editation, trying to regaincontrol oftheir minds and bodies.I was
told that it was not up to the studentwhen he would be tested;John
himself often p;cked the rime and place and said, "Now." That was
the whole point of rhe test, they saidito catch rhe studentunawares
so tbat he would learn to be ready at any point in his life for whar
ever might occur to him.
I was glad it wasn'tme. One of the men looked particularly
An argumentenuedia studentofJohnt whom I knew well and
who was there as a witnessbeganprotesting loudly. Another man,
evidently a seniorstudent,took no reeard.lgnoring the others dis
approval,he selzedthe mant cigarettesand shook them out of tbeir
container.He handed the loose cigareftesback to my friend and
kept the pack The slighted party went ove. to a corner nd sulked,
stulfingthe cigarettes
into a pocket.The seniorstudenrihen producedtwo more empty packsof cigarettesand stackedthem atop a
table alons with the pack he had;ust pilfered. The empty boxes
(hardpacksL)
were laid on their bases,threein a row, rhebrand names
all facing in one direction.
It wasup to the men bing tesredto move them with telekinesis
frorn more than four feet away.
John saunteredup to me. "You undemtandwhat we arc doing
heretonightr" he asked ! nodded.'They will havero movethe pcks
from a distanceof five tirnestheir forearm length, this is oul tradition." He lookedat my long forearmand longer fingersand grinned.
77
Lssonsto BeLerned

"ln your case,"he said,"it will have ro be more than one and a half
yards away."I squirmed,and he was delighted.
John was a prdicaljoker I had been with him on an elevator
on evening long with twenty oth* people. The elevator was a
glasswalled unit that fenied people up and down the floors of a
shoppingrnall;there wasa steelrail;ng all aroundthat peoplerested
their backs on. \X/ewere going out to ear that evening at a local
resturanton the top floor of the mall.
Suddenly a burst of current pulsedthrough rhe steelbackstop.
Vomen screamedand everyonepulled away,suspec.rnga short crrcuit.John had pulled awar too, as Ihad, but I neededonly one look
at the barely suppressed
grin on his face to realtzewhat had really
happened' He had sent a pulseobio enersy throush the railinsl
The elevator attendantcautiondeveryoneto stay away from the
backstop,and, as we reachedthe top floor, he radioed for maintenanceand shut the unit down.
All rieht, so it ,r,rstunny.
In any case,the studentswere newousashell They would have
to knock over all three packsro passthe tesr.
The f;rstmanbeganhistrial.Thy measured
hisforearm,hand,and
flnsersanddrew a line beyondwhtchhe couldnot cross.Johnstoodon
thc line itsclfandscowledarthe studentashe approached,
makingsure
that thc man would not darecbeat,not even a liftle. The mao stood
bchind Lheline in rhe HorseRidingStance,brouehthis right palm up
cvcn with the line, took a breathto calm himsell andbegan
Fle pusbed h;s ch'i through his palm and toward the cigarett
boxcs. One of them fell over.
"He missed,"amannextto mewhispered."Buthe willpassforsur.',
John reprimandedthestudentandrhe mant'ied asain This time
there was no hsitation;he knew he could do it. He concenttd
fiercely and p,lsrrd
All three packetsfell over on the tablerop.The first was pushed
so hard that it fellotrhe table. The studenthad passed.
There was a pausebefore the second mn'strial, and Iwas allowed to approachth tesringarea.
"Okay, Kosta,"Johnsaid."lnspecteverythingcarefully.,'
And I did. I looked for magnets,for wirs,for fans,for anything
78
Lessonsto Be Lerned

clcctrical or chemicI,with allthe expertiseI had gainedaftertwelve

ycorsin the engineeringfield. Nothins. The tablev.aswood; I pickd
It up off the ground.Ther were no wires or strinss an)'where.The
packsof cigaretteswerejust thatr they had oot been tamperedwith,
fhort ofbeing emptidof cigrettes.I pulledout of myvest pocket a
snall compassI alwayscany with me in th Orient, and ran it over
thc table and sunoundinsarea.No masnets--or at leastno residual
nragnetismwasevident.I could find no indication of the presenceof
chcmicalsof any sort. The roorn was brilliantly lit, nd everything
had happenedin plain sight. There was no hocus-pocusgoins oo.
The inspectionwas superfluous;I did it for everyoneelsei sake
rathrthan my own. I hd no doubtsabout wht I wsseeing.In ny
cse,the group gainednothing by tricking me.
"l wanr to makeone more inspectionwhen the testingis over,"I
saidto John, who readily agreed.
The secondman! turn came up' this man was very nervous.It
wasobviousto everyoneexceptme that he would not succeed.The
group repeatedthe procedurefof him, draving ew line; he, as
had his broiher student,took his place.
And failed.Nothing happened.
John encouragedhim, told him to relax and try again.
He did, andwas unsuccessful
once more. The man was in a bad
emotional state.I thought they would stop.
They didn't.John allowedthe man to try from a yards distance,
the packetsnot only fell over, theyjeru off the table to land a good
yard away.At that moment I realizedsomethingof importance,The
field phenomenonassociatedwith this action dgradedexponentially. That is to say,its behavior followed this paftern,

1
STRENCTH

DISTANCE -------------->
79
to BeLerned
Lessons

Soneday
I wll nap itsresponse
andchdracteriz(
tbeprccas,I thought. I had
alreadyfigured out how to do it.
The man wasgiven anotherchance,which he alsofalled.At th;s
pointJohn let him stop. He would be given anothertest the follow
ing year, but the opponunitieswere not indefinite, at somepoint, if
you failed, you were deemedan inappropriatestudent and not allowed turthr instruction.
"Vhat additional examinationdidyou want to dor"John asked.
I pulled out a pocktknifeandcut an empty pack of cigarettesin
half. lt was not lined with metalr there was no way it could have
been affectedby magnetism.Asain, I did it more forthe groupt sake
than my o\^m,it seemedvery importantto them that I be convinced,
and I bad to prov that Iwas.
I was good at that sort of thing. The previousyear a friend of
Johns had tried to play a trick on me He had offeredme a srick of
gum, which I took, then askedme if Iwould like to seehis power I
hd replid affirmatjvly,and he dlpped the wrapper in water.
"Now hold it ln your hand and squeeze,"he said.
I did not need Johni look of disapprovalto know rhat I was
being hoodwinked;dipping the wrapper in water had given the man
away.Solirn naal, I thought,andonly pretendedtosqueezethewrap
per. It waswax coated,squeezingwould breakthe coatingand allow
the sodium to recl with the water,generaringintenseheat.
Thc man bccamedisconcerted,
he expectedme to dropthe\rrp,
pcr in pain.I disappointed
him. "Youcanlet go if you feelthe heat,"
hc said."Don't burn yourself."
"No, itt not hot at a11,"
I said innocntly."See?"I gaveh;m back
lhe wrapper,which I had caretullypressedlnto a small ball. A look
ofpuzzlement cameonto his face,andhe took the wrapperfrom me
andsqueezedashard ashecould.Suddenlyhe grimacedanddropped
it. He lookd at me in wonderment,why hadn't the trick worked on
the foreigner2
John had loved it. nyway, Iknew I had to convince them on
that evening that I believedwhat they were doing was real, and so
cut the ernpty pak in half.
"How lons have you ben studying2"I askedthe man who had

"About twelve years,"he said.

"And how much training did you do every dayr"
"Only about an hour a day.Thats why it took so long. But what
could I do? I had to work for a living."
John came over and held a long discoursewith the man. He
lccturedhim profusely,then let him go and pulled me over.
"l told him that he had to be very careful from now on," John
rold. "Vhen you f;nish with Lvel Two, your ch'i is alwaysready to
move.Much of it is governedby your emotions.If he were to hit a
man in anger noq the ch'i would run into that man'sbody and de
rtroy his heart.The man would die."
"S/hat if h hits him on the arm, sayr"I asked.
"lt doesn'tmatterwherehe hits him. The ch'i will alwaysnrn up
to the other'sheart, and it will kill him. And you know, no Vestern
lrospitalin the world can help a man hit in that manner He ruilldle
unlesstreatdby someonelike me within tweoty-four hours"
"You'reright. He should be very carefulfrom now on."
"Yes.You know, when we teach new studenls kung fu, we alwavs
move slowly,nd alwayswithout power Safetyis our primary con_
ccrn.Peopleseethaton occasionandthinkwe arewakrbadmistake."
"Situ, what they just did, we call telekinesisin the Vest. Did
thcy managethat with their own power or didyou help lhem a bit?"
He looked atme, amused."l'helped them a blt,'asyou say They
cn passch'i romtheir body, but it is only yang ch'i. Dutingthe test
I myself generateyin ch'i and act as an opposite pole by standing
ncxt to the packs.This inducestJ?iryng ch'i io extend over to my
yin, and that action allows them to move the igrettepacks The
lcst is relly to seehow rnchyang ch'i the studenthasin him "
"lsee.So when you saythat if they hit a personthey wllltransfer
clr'itohim, theymust touch that prsonphysicallyto do so,corrct?"
"Yes.Becausethey stilluse only yang ch'i. To do it lrom a distance,theywould haveto useyin andyang iogether That wouldbe

80

81
Lessonsto Be Le.arned

Lessonsto Be Lerned

LevelFour."
"Situ,"I asked,"physiologically,what is the differencebetween
wht ljust sa\vand tvellour?"
Ve moved over to a table andJohn beganto jot down notesfor
nrc."Look,"he said,"l havealreadytoldyou that LevelOne is simplv

to fill up your dantienwith yang ch'i, right?Thar requireseighty-one

hours of absolutemeditation.Now, a beginningstudentcannothold
his concentrationforlong. Perhapsin on hoof sitting,he is actually
in meditation fo; t.3 minutes.That meanshe is meditatingonly 2.2
percentof the time, rMhichmeansthat if he sitsfor one hour a day,he
needsten yeaE of trainingto get his eighty-onhoursofmeditation.',
"\Vhat is actualmeditat;onlike/'l asked.
'There
are no thoughts and there is no senseof time. Ifyou are
thinking, you are not in meditation.Ifyou are awareofyourself, you
are alsonot in medittion.Youmustbcomelike a baby in thewornb,
there and yet not therc. Meditation is lik the borderlinebtween
sleepand waking, betweenconsciousness
and unconsciousness.',
"Very difficult."
"Not so difficult, Kost. You srayedin medjtation for long peri,
ods when you were an embryo and a baby, and you passthrcugh it
no\. eachtime you drift offto sleep.Youjust haveto rememberhow/'
I felt uncomfortable."\X,/har
about LvelTwo?,'lasked,to change
the subjct.
"ln Level Two we fillup th channelsin our body with yans ch'i
while at the sametime shapingthe ch'i in ourdantien to our specifications.Then w can push our yang ch'i out of our body-though
not through space.Vhen a student becomesproficient ar this, he
can passth test that you witnessedthis vcnrng.
'Aod
level Threer"
"Level Three is very difficult ro pass.Ir rquiresat leasr rhree
continuoushours of training a day, perhapsmore.
"Youdon't want to talk about it; okay, fair enough. Level Fourl,'
"Level Four is the point where we begin ro bring yin and yang
togethel
en youfinish with LevelFour,the two sit in your dantien
like this," he continued, and drev/l

a2
Lessonsto Be Lerned

"Like the yin-yang symbol," I said.He nodded. "\Vhy is it thal,

in popularlitrature,thy put the tuo dots in centrof the opposing
circles,and say that yin hasyang in it and vice versa?"
"l donl kno\.v.I think that they my hvebecomconfusedover
the passingof time, or maybe their knowledgehas become sorne
Tlere is alsoachan
whatmixedup dueto political circumstances.
I
myself
am
wrong."
that
B t I orbtit,I thought. "Becausemany poplehave witten that
yin changesto yang nd so on with the flow of tim," I went on.
"Nothing is as simple as it seems,"he replied.
"They also\,/rit that a man progrsses
from yin and yng to tai
chi..."
"This is t'ai chi. Thats correct."
". . . and from there to wu chi," l finished.
"Vhat is wu-chi?"he asked.
It was my turn to be shocked.Vhat had just occurrdwas the
equivalentof Mohammedthe Prophetasklnga Muslimiust who this
Allah was that they kept rcferring tot wtr-cri is a concept central to
Toisrn,and I was being askedby a man I considereda ToistMs'
ter, in no uncertinterms,exatlywhat it \{as that I va talking about.
"Er . . . wu chi is like this; beyond yin and yang," I stammered,
and drew on the papr,

"l see.I have neverseenanythins like this,"John said.

"But all the books on Toismrefer to this," Isaid. "it! the final
step,the transformationwhereahuman beingretumsto the Sourc."
"l see.As l've toldyou many times,I'm not a Toist."He raiseda
hand to silencemy protest."Yes,I know, Iknow. There are many
-faothings about my teachingthatyou willsay areunquestioningly
ist, and my teachen camefrom a Taokt mountain. You have evety

83
Lessons
to BeLerned

right to be confused.I considrmyself,howevet simply a practirioner of neikuns."

He looked down at the circle I had draw".
"ln ourschoolman can neverbecomelik this. Human beingsthosewho can completeLevelFout that is to sy-stay at t'ai chi all
the way up to Level Svnty,Two.Ve are ever at wu-hi Perhaps
in other lineags,like the Mao-shanPai or the Vutang-Pai,0 they
have discovereda method to accomphshthis, but I do not know of
it, norhave I everwilnessedit. In any case,we in the Mo-Pai* do not
use it. \yy'hatelsehaveyou been readingr"
Int' aJta$tatian1 I thousht, ,rr tlsis /ot tetrne."Tlre problem
with the printedword is that anyonecan write whateverthey want,

Situ,"I sid.
"Okay," he said,"you write a book."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes.I want to teach peoplebout ch'i-thar it is real,and what
its natureis. I want them to knov/ that ch'ikung and neikung are not
hocus-pocusbut a science"
WhooyaytI thought. Tineto baoesone
fur.

A, ChineseStory
In the days be{ore his passingLiao Sifu frequendy lecrurdhis two
studentson the desiredmode of behavior acco.dina to the Taoistf
canonsof his own Iineage.On one such eveningthe followins inci
John Chns, then in his earlytwnties,srar the feet ofhis Mster alons with his brother studentChan en Sun Liao Situ was du
to laveforChinawithin a month, andhewouldbe deadwithin two.
"11the three of us were suffering from a fatal illness, and sud
denly a bottle ol medicine that could cure this illoessappearedin
you. palm,vhatwouldyou do,lohn?" Liao Situ asked."Bearin mind
that there is enoqh edicie thre to cure only one peFon, and
thal the other two must die."

The schoolof Mo Tzu.

1l usethe termTao,,iin p{aceof the moreappropriateidtioea,$in6e

a4

John did not hesitate.There was one thinathat had beensnawIns t his hart and mind for a lons time, He loved the old man
Drokrselr withort reseryation,and had never been able to teu him
so. The mastrhad been a fatber and nore to him, bui he was also
vcry much a part of the old Chlneseculture.Accordinsto the Con
fucianethic that had dominatedChiDesesocietysinceKungFuTzu!
passing,it ws not appropriatefor him to voice rhe citer emotins
he felt lor his teacher,or vice vesa. Duty and honor were fine, but
love was for poets.Even thouch Liao Situ was a Taoist, he still held
himself i. resewe;a British lord would have been proud of hrs com
posure,and would probably have told him rhat his "stiff upPer lip"
John himsel{was a product of the modern ase s well as beinc
Chinese; his thoushts and feellnss had been influeced bv
multicultural stimuli and by the information dissetuintionhom
\X/este..civilization.As sch,he hadmanyoptions to considerasta.
aswhat was to be deemedproper socialbehavior Liao Silu had told
hln that he would soon be dead, and that he would be leavins for
China to seehis home on last tim How couldhe tell the old man
that he loved him, that he had been Iike a lather to him? Comins
right out andsayingitwas unacceptable.Perhapsthis momentwould
be one ofhis last opportunitiesto exptessit at all
"lwouldsiv ittoyo, LiaoSitu,"he toldhisteacherwithffection
Dsal Gol, the old tea.her thousht. Ho cdf I tedchtbis boy tbdt ht
flun *e dbonebisaar t^tions,bisoM 1ik/5and dislik6,to ser|eth tliite as
a rolet Hou car I teacbhin rb tue loacco s Jro bedrer,thlt ndn 4s d
beiq cor atly taa closeto tbisBsercelHe mtst Dlae hunanity abo"Nhisol
pesowlloouatd,lsimtln an instant Liao Situ knewwht he had to do,
andhardendhis head for it.
The old man moved like a blut and the blow was powerful; he
dappdjohn acrossthe facewith such forc that the younsr man
wasthrown acrossthe room. Liao Sifu stood, seeminslyturiouswith
his ppil.
"Becauseyou spoke with yow heart and noi your mind, I will
forsive you this time," he said toJohn. "l struckyou so thaxyou will
rememberthis instanceallyorlife. The truth is that ifsuch a medicine did indeed exist th thre of us would go to war with each
otheroverth right to drink it, fo.life is th most precioustreasur
ofali, and no one sivs it up readily.The fact that this tdicine has
appearedin your hand meansthat it is tdrr destiDyto consumeit,

85
to BeLerned
Lessons

Lessonsto Be trned

the.eforeyo, msr drink it and no other Fix yourslf first and then
you cn help orhers!Do you understand?4
John nodded,stung He would indeed never forget the lesson.

PO\/ER
I couldn'tsleepthatntght. The more I thought aboutwdting book,
the more I realizedwhat a problm ir would be. The project would
have to involve both a rext and a videotapedocumentary,I recog,
nized, and it would be no easytask. How do you convince people
thatwhat theywere seeingwasreal?Almosteveryonewould think it
was a scam perpetratedby specialeffects and willing henchmen.
And I was a scientist-an e'ritrrerfor Cod,ssake,wirh an inbred dislike ofspacecookiesand everythingunsubstan
tiated.Oh,l watched
and,enloyedTheX-Fihsas much s anyone else,but I was primarily
concrnedwith reality, not fiction.
"You know, I really dont think ir would be such a good idea to
do a book," I had toldJohn after thinking about ir for a fv/ minutes
(much to my dismay) I wasrarionatizins,Suhan effort would
have
mny repercussions/
and ir would be difficult ro plan for every contingency.My main concrnwasprotctingmy teacher,s
privacy.On
thc othcr hand, I really rlil want the information I had acquiredto
bcconrc cornmon scicntific knowledg,if for no other reasonthan
to salcguardpeoplefrom half tnrths.
It hi1 me in rhe middle of the night like a ton of bricks and I
wcrkeup, excird. I knew how to do il The approachhad occurred
10 me in my sleep.John \Lould get his book, and peoplewould real_
ize that the world was not as dull and gray as our materialisticsociety made it out to be.
Joho was a scienrist,too, he wasjust a different ful,l ofscientist.
It was true that he was the stuff of Chinesemyths and legends,but
that was okay. I knew from my own homelandthat rnanyscholarsin
the ninteenth century wre posiriv that Troy was a myth before
Schliemannbegan excavatingat Hisarlik, additionally, many emtnent professorcvehementlyopposedthe rheory that the Mycenaeans

86
Lessons
to BeLerned

were Creek until 1952,when VentrisdecipheredLinarB. All those

people had been wrong, and the few dreamerswho dared stand
againstthem had been right. Even in our day the establishedcommunity o[ scholarstended to regard anything outside thir norm
with dismay,and often fought tooth and nail to crush it. The Inqui'
sition had burned Ciordano Brunoat the stakein 1600 for insisting
that the sun.and not the arth, wasat th centerof th solalsystem.
I wonderedif the estabhshedscintificcommunity would try to burn
m at the stakaswell.
No matter,I thought. Giordano Bruno was an honest ltalian, I
was a wily Creek, and I would use a tojan horse to batter down
their walls.
John was the stuff of legends,it was true, but he was /rdl,just as
Tioy was real,just as the MycenaeanCreekshad surelyexisted.
\X/hat was scienc,after allz Our \Testern approach had been
founded on two major premises,careful and obiective obsewation,
andreproducibleresults.As longas I followed thosetwo main crite'
ria, I could be doubted,but neverseriouslychallensed.
Now. I was surethatjohn had no inclintion whatsoeverto go
around to every local university and give a demonstrationfor the
Drofessorsthere; nor did I want him to do so. However, there oat
prcedentfor whai I was planning. In 1978 the Laetoli fooiprints
had been discoveredin the Serenseti.They wre thre and a half
million yean old and provedconclusivelythatearly hominidswalked
upright in a fashionequal to, lf not better than, modern man. The
footDrintswere made in a volcanic ash that had com again to the
surfaceafter millennia of erosion' they were very fragile and could
not be preservedfor long. To record them, the tam of scientists
them, they
madeplastercastsand took carefulpictures.To presr1r'e
buriedthem once againdeepin the sand,with disastrousresults.The
snd they usedwas that prefened by the local Africn vegetation,
lhere are now acacrdlree(growingover lhe
and d\ d conquen(e
sit, whose roots are undoubtedlydestroyingthe very prints the researcherssoughtto protect. Nevrtheless,scoresof documentsand
analyseshadbeenwitten basedon the plastercastsandth pictures.
had seenth actual tracks themselves?
And how many researchers

87
Lessonsto BeLerned

Perhapslessthan a dozeo. yet no one doubted thar the tracks

xisted (orat leastlal existed),simply becausetheir presencecouldbe
ascertainedby digging up the site again.
The "docurienr-and-bury,,approachwas common ror archae
oiogists in my native Creeceas well. The country had been settled
for five thousandyears,aod rherewre ruins everywhere,jt was
difficult to dig in one'sbasmentwirhoutuncovringsofisirin,As
such,
when a buildine$.asin its preliminarystagesof fabrjcationand
ruins
were uncovered,the archaeologistswere called in; usuallytheyjust
photographedand documentedthe site, coaredit wrh a prorective
resin, and allowed construction to go on.* There were typically
enoughwitnessesto go aroundthat no one doubied the buried
sites
existence,or suspectedthat anyone had mde ir up.
Veil, I knew that thousandsof peoptehad seenJohnand could
testify to his abilitiesin court. He h imselfcould reproduce demon
stration at any tim, should he chooseto do so. I realized
rhat all I
had to do was docurnenthis powersand those of his students
before
a panel of reliable witnesses,and I'd be home free. The important
thingwouldbe to carefullychoosethe one eyewrtnessno one would
dare dispute.
Iv/as so excited that I rushedover to hts housethe following
morning uninvited, wirhout calling headfirst. That was a faux pas,
and something I usuallynever did. It was ten o,clock andJohn
was
still in his pajamas.He tooked ltke a truck had run over him.
"l couldn't sleeplast night,,,he said.,,Theair conditioner
broke
down in my bedroorn."
h;mself a cup of coffee, and I started laughing, I
_Te loured
couldn't help myselfrJohnChaq, flat1oJ contrasts,
I thought. This late
riserwasth sameyogiwhocouldstophishearratwjlland
hadonce
spenteighr days in total meditation,hardly breathing,his vital
signs
so faini a doctor would have pronouncedhin dead. I real;zed
then
*

| have seenone insrancein which a contractorws so taken

\rith rhe
Romanmosaicucovered thar he made it a pa.t of rhe buildinss
majn
entrance,-sacnficing
an entjft apartment! worth ofsquare footage in the
process._Cood
for hinr h cosr him prety penny, but t e p.o,eJ li.r,.tf

how important this mn was to humanity, it was.he first time in

history that sucha hcrmanbeingexisted.Here wassomeonewho on
the one hand could be the life of a party vhen he chose,spenddays
watchingsoccer,or cut a high-dollar internationaldeal involving industrialproducts;on the otherhand, this samesomeonewas equally
happy in the wilderness,wearingsimplecotton cloths\,r'hileimperviousto heator cold. Here wasa man who could killa grizzly with a
puoch, a man who had once spent two years living in an isolated
cavein the mountainspracticingmeditation (srwiving on roots and
plants),a man who spokewith spiritsand healedthe patalyzed
A tme man of both worlds.
"l know how to go about doing your book," l sid.
He glarcd at me. At the moment h was rnore interesxedin his
coffee. I caught the drift of his thoughts, Why dorl yor nn olJnne
wherea play,littlehoy.I grinned evenwider,and suddenlyhe couldn't
help laughingalong with me. "AIl right, tellme," he said.
I did, outlinins my approach.
He was grumpy. "l see,"he said. "You know I can demonstrate
only in hont of studentsor patients."
"That will be a stumblingblock, but I'll seewhat I can do."
'And
Ican't makemoney frorn the dernonstration.Ifyou film me
demonsbating,lwon't be able to earn a penny.Remembermyvow"
"So donatethe money to a harity."
He shot me a piercinsslance.He liked the ldea."Youknoq" he
said, sipping his coffee,"l have alwayswanted to build an orphanage."Johnstraightenedandlooked atrnewith renewedinterest."Not
that I think that it would sell," he continued. "Neikung has always
been for the few Can you imginethe averagemn practicinghours
"No," Ireplied, "btthe averageman doesnt study nuclearphysics either That doesn'tmeanthat therc ar no suchtbincs asnrcleaf
power plants."
He smiledand sippedhis coffee."Letus hope thatyourexample
is not appropriatand that the smwillnot happenwith.eikungas
did with nuclearpower"
"You mean the chanceof its being useddestructively2"

8a
Lessonsto 8e Lerned

89
L-essons
to Be Lerned

"l.don't think so. Not if everyrhing

rs open, abovboard,and
a\ailablero allmankind.,N4y
marnworrv i\ proreiringvour privary...
tron r 'er on(ernedaboulr har.Ko\r.
"t mean,redorrers
will come from all over the world and
harass
''Ihey
cannot enter my horne if I do nor
allow them to, and if
,
.n.r^"*:":
rmpotire.I wi sendrhemaway.
""1.,1"g "nd
6rn I r houghl.John
wara pracricrliokerd\ wellar being
a para
normalrI pitied the poorjournalistwho
went
too
far,
anricipatingan
exctusive.,Also, you will be swamped
by thou*ra, .f.,..t o..of.
hoping for a cure.,
'Youie_not
going to print my address,are youu
"No, of coursenot.',
"Fiae.Then if those peoplecan f;nd
me, ii js their karma to do
c o . i n d i r w i l l b e m y r o yr o r r e a
r h e ma i r h a . a l u a y s b e e n ,
a b o u tr e n p r r i c n r .a d a y u r u a l r vi n r h e
m o r n r n gI.
. . " ] . : ' " . : -be
wantectto
sure thar he understoodit might go
up to f;fty a diy,
and told htrn so. He was unperrurbed.
"1haveconstdrredallthis before,Kosta.
Noneofit marters The
,
real,,problern
will be the Chinese,who may come
over ro challenge
"Vhac" I was flabbersasred.
are t lasrten Masrersin China
who re like me,,,he
,"ere
said."One of them or all of them
may wanr to come over and chal
"Vhyr \t(hat the hell forr,,
"Becauseitl trdition.,,
"You'vegor ro be kjdding mel,,
jl,wrs.Joins,n ro be amu<d.
twd serins hor
rou oon I needro rproar
h rc. Kosra.he *ard. lundentandyou

h"le shownmerepeateary
thatyourerrydo
not
::fi:r.i";::i".,
undrsrandChinese{ulture.

Unfornrnately,we Ch;neseare, for the

most part, raist and ethnocentric.
There is the chance that many
kungtu Ms(er<
w,ll be afhonredby our openrngup rhe
rnrrhbehind
e:rec<(ien,e ro rhscrurinvor rhe\)/e<r
Now Lhrredlty
:n':_:e
ooesn
r matter/since many of those insulted
p.obably do not kno*
the precisetruth rhemselves.
Also,thereis a cuituraltradition in
China

that one kung fu Master may challengeanother in order to deterlnlne the most powerful styler mny mrtial art'stsdo nor question
this,but lollov the rraditionwirhout hesittion.It is what isexpected
of them, you see.
"One ofmy dreamsis to be ableto go to the Chinesepeopleand
hov/them five studentswho have completedLevel Four,one frorn
cachraceofman. I would Iike to go even farther and put one sucha
,na,rin each country if I can. Like you, lbetieve that it is time for
humanityto move on and leaveth restridions of the pastbehind.
llut thereare peoplein China who, havins beentrained in th traditlonal manner,have beliefs orher thn my own. Some of them are
tnuchmore powerful than I, those are the onesyou dont haveto be
afraidof, Kosta.Since I am no threat to them, they will do nothing
agrnstme,
"Llke when Liao Sifu, who was at LevelFory, attackedMr. Lim,
who was at Level Fifty-One," I said."Lim just shruggedit off.,'
"Yes,"he said, 'tecause it was like a child attacking a nan, you
see?Tle rel dangeris from someonewhois plusorminus five levels
lrom me, becausethen he will want ro fight. In that cseit comes
down to martial technique, not levels of power,,He took a sip of
coffee.'One of us may die,' he addedsoftty.
Likebell, I thoushi Youaft too lt?ciausto h tndtlity to r,sl. ,,How can
someonebe so advanced,"l said,"and still be so stupidr,'
"Dont be so quick tojudge," he said.'Most of thesepeoplelive
in the wilds of China and have nothins to do v/ith the modern day.
Their traditionsar all they know"
I thought of the television seies Highlo e\ dr.elof the tmmortalscome to life . . . how asininel
One ofJohn! studenrsenteredrhe room at that point. He had
been removing his shoesat the entrancend had heard the gist of
Iknew the man. Hewas a LvelThre student,a forrnerkungfu
Master of the praying mantisstyle, and qufte a good fighter
"Vhy are you so opposedto honorablecombat?,'he asked.
"Because
combatfor the sakeofcombatis stupidr,,llmostshoutd.
"Look, we Creeksgaveup suchnonsenseafter rhe Tro;anVar more
than three thousndyears agot Thatt why we came up wirh th

90
Lessonsto 8 Lerned

91
Lessons
to BeLerned

Olympic Camesin the first placeiw were tired of

our bravestmen
killing ach orherjust ro prove who was rhe better
fighter,,
'And
what if I were to challengeyou:,,
"To the deathr"
"Not necessarily."
.Ihen
I would fightyou in the spirft of a contesr,with
my prime
interestbeing that neither you nor I were hurt. I
would rather lose
than hurt you, tor example.',
The abovewasnot true,l hatedbeing challengedas
nuch asthe
next rnannd would rise to take the bait liKe any
othr seiiousmartial arrist.I had even injured a few peoplern re process.
tt rrrs trx,
however,thar Ifelt sick to mystomachfter everysuch
evenr,and at
the moment Iwas representing point ofview, nor
my own faults.
'And
if Iwere to challengeyou to a fighr to th death?,,
"\Vhar forzJusoseewho wasthe betrerfishter?Iwoutdconsider
it an act of war andgo afreryou wth everythjngI had.
That is, I would
use technology and chemistryand modern techniques
until I killed
you. I wouldshootyou tn th darkfrom two hundrtd yards
awaywith
a sniperrifle given rhe opportuniryrI havebeentrajned
ro do so.,,
'And
if the two of us had perconaldifferencesrSeriouspersonal
I squirmed;he had me. I was all for duel;ng and severely
disap,
pointed that it had been rnade illegal. In my
opinion dueling had
been outlawed by the ruling classesin the pasrcenrury
to prvenr
I her ncrer\inglvll((id progenyfiom berngslaughrered
on lhe rield
ot nonor.I wa5rrvrngro convincerhe orhr\ rhough.
rhat hghlng
to the deathjusr to seewho wasthe more skillea figtrterwas
stupi
ashell.
y battlewhenyoucouldinsteadbecomefriendsandshare
a few beerstogetherr
'"Ihen
we would fight face to face,',1srowled.
He laughed. "ln the Orient you Creeks have a reputation
for
.
bing fiercewarrioru,both in the pastcenrurjesand in
moderntimes.
Your peoplewon honor in Korea, for example,,
"Yes,damn it, for life and home and to protect the
innocenr,but
not just fo( the fuck of iu Never for thfl,'
wasdtspleasedwirhmy outbursrand stoodup from
his seat
_John
and went away.
en he cameback, I had catmeddown.
92
Lessonsto BeLerned

"Can you imagine,',I askdhim, ,what ir would be

like jf four or
_
llvc people like yourseif could get rogerherand work in
harmony,
Nomethinglike a \i/esternuniversityor a researchcentea*ratherthan
[lghtingeach
orhen Canyou imagineshanngnotesandexperiences
wlth a man Iike yourself2',
"l havewanted to do so, you are preachingto the choi, Kosra,,,
.
hc said sofdy. "l have sone to Chin twice looking for people
like
myself,hoping to find a brorher i was unsuccessful
both t;mes.,,
"Butyou know of their existencenowr,,I asked.
"Yes,"he said."l know that there are for suretwo and
I can sense
clght more. I think thar there are at leastten.
He leanedback
in hischatr'A fewyearsback,,,he
said,,three
of
my Level Three studentswent to China and stayed for a month,
looking for neikungpractitioners.They serchedeverywhere,
Kosta,
ln Taoi\t cenreN.ar rhc haorrnrmplc.in rhe mdjor cirie5
I hey
t o u n dn o i h i n g n o r h i n C
d t a l l f i n r l l y .o n r h ed \ b e f o r et t e y w e r e
due.toleave,a shopkeeperin Beijing said to thern, ,Hey, I hear you
rre looking for neikung masters.Vell, you can be ar such-and
such
! parkat fouro'clock in the morning.There is an oldman who
comes
lnd practicesr'ai chi chuan rhere;h is a grat Mastr.,
"Sothey went to rhe specifiedplaceand hid in the bushesnearby.
_
Promptly at four o'clock,an old man did appearand bgan prac_
to
rlceir r i (hi. \X/henhe frnishedhir rorm he walkedover
Loa large
boulder/rhey rell me rr wa, a r ard rall,and pa.redhr. hand
overrr
Then he steppedaway fiom it and, from a djstanceof ten yards
or
more, hit it v.ith ch'i. The bouidercrackedin two.
"My studenrsieapr out and kneeled, asking for permission
to
speakto him, but he ignored them and walked away, they did
not
darestop him. He had known they were there all along, of
course,
lnd had simply wanted the ro know rhar rhey were nothing,
that
lheir abilirieswer those of ch;ldren.,'
"Sifu,"I asked,"do thesepeopleunderstandthe shape
the world
ls in and what lies aheadfor us2Do rhey know how much
they can
I

Actually more like a library ol an academyin rhe Alexandrian

sens
lhan a modern university.

93
L.essons
to BeLerned

contribute, thar possiblyv/ith their assistance

we can averrdrsaster
for the whole humanrace?You,the ten ofyou rhat remain,you mnsf
work togetherl"
"Kosta th innocent dreamer,"he said. ,,Do you expect that w
will all meet, suddenlybecomegood friends,and crearea new science out of the traditionsof rhe pasr?'
"Vhj, notzThere are so few ofyou left thateach one is prcious
beyond compare.\(hy rot cratea new scince?you know, Iike the
Jedi in Ceorse Lucas'sStarl[ars, who combined technology with
internal mastery The best of both worlds, Sifu.'
He smiledkindly. "lt is a good dream,Kosta,,,hesaid_,,Unfortunately,I am not the one you have to convince.
"Do you want to know what I believeinr,,I asked.
To my chagrin both men groaned.,,1,mnot sure,',Johnlaughed.
"But I dont think rhat we'regoing to b given a choice, in any case.,,
"l believerhat humanityhaserown long rwo differentpaths,,'I
said."ln th Vest we have taken a yang approach,tuming outward.
Ve modify and catalogour enviro.ment to suit our desires.Our sci
ence !s a yang science,our livsare yang lives.In the Eastyou have
takenayin approach/turninginward.Youmodify andtrin thehuman
being,in both mind and body,to becomepotent andcompletein the
environmenrthatnahre hasalreadycreatedfor you, ro reachyour full
potentialwhile alteringnothing. Both pproaches,
Easternand Vest
ern, have to do wirh cultivatingpower,bur sinceeach hasbeen pur_
suedalong differenrlines,neitherapproachrsconcr or compreton
its own. \gell, the time hascome foryin and yang to come together,
Iike trvef Four k is time for humanity to develop yin yan4 kwg."
There were so many other things that I wanted to say to them,
but the languagebarrier preventedme from doing so. Intuitively, I
knew that they had understoodthe gisr of what I hadjust said,but ir
was the details rhat I wanted desperatelyto dtscusswith them \Ve
had gone too far in the \Vesr,and ir was time for people likeJohn,
the last true represenratives
of rhe opposingpole of mans develop_
ment/ to saveus frcm ouselves.
The industrialprocesshad certainly been both a blessingand a
cursefor the hurnanrace.It had allowedus to reach new heights of

94
Lessons
to BeLerned

technologicaldevelopment.On the other hand, in separatingthe

craltsmanfrom his product, it had begunwhat wasto be a long processoi segregating
poplefrom eachotherand from th world around
them. In essencboth the industrilprocessand consume.ismwer
groundedin the processof isolation,of separation.Eachindividual
did his litd part, only those in the upper rungs of society could
bring italltogether The East,however--and Taoismin particular
were foundd on synthesis;it was in unity with the world rhat the
individual found hls streneth. The true Taoist did not build walls
betweenhimself and the world, human or otherwise.
\trehad to larn that all over again.It was time.
"Look,"John sid kindly. ''r/eall approachlife in a way that re,
vealswho we really are. No one is ever abovethis. Sometimesit is
life itself that testsus, xposingour weaknesses
to scrutiny.Practitionersofkung fu systemsare not exempt;somtimescircumstances
draw us into battle with eachother, it is our karma,ifyou will. These
peopleare not evil. k is simply theirway to test themselves.Can you
understndthis?"
I kept thinking of the HlrlaalerTV series."l undentand your
words,"I said,"but I disagreewith this reasoning."
"lnteresting,"John said suddenly,stood up, and walked away.
"You know," the other man said conspiratorially,'John htmself
usedto challengepeople,and be challengedby people,all the time
when he was younger. He alwaysfought; he never tumed down a
challenge.I myself am an example.I usedto practiceand tach the
mantisstyler I defiedJohn becauseI didn't believethe storisabout
him. He beat me and sincethn I have becomehis student."
"\X/hathappened:"
'\vhat
do you think?k is impossibleto fighr someonewith powr
like that. For him, it was like fighting a baby."
"But he didnt hurt you."
"Of course nott Do you want to hear the story of a typical
challenger"
"Suret"
'John
had gone to the United States,to California, becausehe
had heard that there were peopl io the Chinesecommunity there

95
Lessons
to BeLerned

who had masteredch'i. He looked everywhereand found nothing.

Finally he did find one guy in San Franciscowho was a ch'tkung
marrer Iohn a.kedro.ee a demon,lrdrion
"Vell, the iran rook two clay pors, one in each hand, and
squeezed,exhaling with force. The pots shatteredinto pieces.The
man )ooked at John; John said nothing. Then the rnan took a nail
and drov it into a tabletop, pounding it in with his fist. StillJohn
saidnothing.Finallythe manaskedastudentofhisro germachete;
he stood there performing rhe h'ikung called Iron Shirt while allowingthe studenrto artackhim with the machete.The studentcould
not cut through the manl flesh.
"Johnturned to one oflis stLrdenrs,
whom he had brought along,
andsenthim out on an enand.Then he addressedthe
ch'ikungmaster
"'Finishedr'Johnasked.
"'Yes,'theman replied, a bir put off.
"'Cood. Do you hve any coins?'
"'Coins?\X/hatsort of coins?'
"'Oh, anythins will do.'
"Tlre man gavehim two qualrers.Johnput them in the centerof
his palmsand squeezed.He handedthem back to the man folded in
half. Vhen the man sawthe coins,his eyesalmosrpoppedour ofhis
head.
"'Do you have a chopstick:'Johnasked.
"The man found a chopstick for him, and John pushedu into
and through rhe tableropwirh his palm, right next to the nail. The
ch'ikung masterwas stlent.Then Johnt studentcame back, he had
managedto find srraightrazor at a local cutlery shop.John gave
the h'ikungmastertherazorandaskedhim to cut hirn an).wherehe
liked. Try as he might, the man could not hurtJohn, even though in
the end he put all his power and emotion jnto rt.
"Vhat happenedthent" I asked.
"Nothing. The man had lost the contesr.
"Dld he becorneJohnt studen"
"No. H was too proud."
"Do you know why the man losn" John askedsuddenly from
behind us. He had crept up silently and v.aslisteningin
"Because
he had only yang ch'i?"1 rplied
96
Lessonsto BeLerned

"Thatk correct. He was a dedlcatedpractitioner,but he didn't

have all the proper information.Vhat he did was ch'ikung' but not
neikuog.A man can train all his life and not get anvwhereunlesshe
is conect in his training. It doesn'tmtterhow tflncbyou ttaint only
Loruyou traln ln whatevertime you do practice.
"For us in the Vest," l said,"medilation is difficult "
"Yes,"he said."lt is difficult to sit still in our dav nd ase, but
stillnessis the key to successin the end. Ve are overstirnultedbv
our environment.11is hard to keep vour thoughts in the prcsent
moment, isnt it? You re alwayslooklng ahead,Iooklng back' worried bout this, ngerdby that. You must put vour mind on where
you are 'lo'1J,
not where you were or where you want to be
"How do I do thatr"
'l
cdnnoitell you Fachmu.t frndhi' own wa1
"Sifu, LevelFour
/ r' a aqeit \otnedav l asked',
G/edtI thousht. HoJ,s
it1'
isnt
by
mediration,
is compltedstrictly
"Yes,"he sa;d."Meditation is most impoftant You balancevour
consciousnd unconsciousminds when meditating.In this dav nd
agewe have come to ignore our limbic system,our stem brain, conntratinginstadsoleiyonour forebrainsaodplain logic But this is
unnaturaland limits our capabilities.It is like using onlv on hand
when you have two available"
"But how can we be unaffectedby all the stressand hurrv in oul
livesr"I asked.
"Dif{icult. You hav to make consciouschoicesrgrdingvour
lifstyle. For xmple,to cornpleteLevel Four' I left mv home and
v/ent into the jungle for a year' I did thi in order to reacha stteof
total calm. I revertedto the primitiver this is most important. Your
mind must be utterly still for yang andyin to come together'I mvself
managedto complete Level Four within a vear of finishing Level
Three, you know."
"Vhat was it like?"
"You becomevery weak in the endeavof,perhaps\teaker than
you were when you startedtraining in the first place You coax the
two centersto go together like lovers, positive and ngative The
flrst tlme I was successfuland they met, the power was such that I
fainted,as I told you before.But the book mv Master hd siven me
97
Lessons
to BeLerned

on inner powr said,'lgnorethe pain. Don't focuson it, ifyou do, it

will becornetoo much.' I followed that advice,but the nxt time I
tried, I couldn'l etandit eilher. It was on my third ry that I grabbd
the power and held on to it for ten minutes.Then it was mine."
"And then you becameasyou are now?/
He laughed."Of coursenotl I still had to progress,Kosta. You
know, when you areat LevelFour,you hveto sweatandstrugglefor
fifteen minutes for the power to come out. lt was when I finished
with Level Five that I beganto usit."
"Soyou havethe battery in your belly but you still haveto hook
up the cables."
"Of coursetAndjust how powertulyou becomedependsonhow
many cablesyou are able to hook up, at first.
'Yes.
lt become.moretomplicareda* you go on.'
"But when someonecompletesLevel Four,h is a hsien,an im
"Not in my opinion. I think tht someonehas to be more than
Level Thirty to be considereda hsien."
lwas going to askwhy, but lcould seethatJohn was in no mood
tocontinue ihe conversation.His sonJohannsavedthe day,he came
over and challengedhis father to a gameof Ping Pong
John could neverresista challenge.

Chapter Seven

YIN AND YANC

Titanl to whose immonal eyes,

The sulferinssof mortalit, seei' their sad realit,
\Y/erenot as ihings that gods despise'
Vhat was thy pity s recomPense?
A silent sufferitg, and intenserthe rock' the vulture, and the chain'
All that the proud can feei of pain
Ceorge Cordon, Lord Bvron' Promei'Nrs
Andreas was an Aussie of Polish extraction with all the exuberance
and openness of the stereotypical Australian----a youngr form of
Paul Hogan, if you will. He was a brother studentt we had met in
Being around
Javaat Chang Sifus horne during one ofmvtripsthere
Andreas meant belng around his lncessant deluge of beer nd ciga-

rettes;usuallyit v/asfun.
Andreashad alsoencounteredChang Situ under circumstances
too bizarr to be coincidental,having searhedfor hirn previouslv
lor nine yearsafter seeingRin4oJFne.Ve had sharedmanv strange
underthe guidanceof our teacher,andtradednoteswhen
cxperiences
and where we could.
At the momnt we were once agin on ouf way to th prawn
farm,riding in avan at high velocitvasJohnnegotiatdthe Javanese
roadswith his usualflair Vith uswasHandoko, a Chineseman who
wasalsoa brother student,a good friend, and our reliabltranslator

98
Lessonsto BeLerned

99

to Chang Sifu during those times when the discussionbecametoo

"deep"for conversationalEnglish.*Handoko had a problemwfth his
right leg, a congenital neurologicaldisorder that had rernaineduncured until he h;d met Chang Sifu severalyearsbefore.After con
tinual treatment, his leg was coming back, nervesthat had been
dormant for thirty yearswere springingto life. It was incredible to
witness.Each time I visited my teacherI could seemy hiendt leg
becomingstrongerand strongr,the musclesmore pronounced;th
circumferncof his thigh, onceatrophtedand ernaciated,
waslargr
and more powerful on every occasion.
Sifu was keeping us entertainedwith a steady flov. of stories
about hisyouth, his training, andhis teacher He bad promisedusan
unusualdemonstrationtht eveningaswell, on by which he would
show us what the opposing forcesof yin and yang were truly liker
we were al1eagerfor th show and excitedby thejourney. Situ hirn
self had askedus out to rhe prawn farm, and this was itself unusual;
he typicallyjust told us to wait until he had returned.
I had finishedtvel One andwasbeginningLevelTwo,the hardestpartswereaheadofme So far Ihadnot trainedseriouslybut rather
matter of-factly.A long seriesof personalproblems,rangingfrom my
fathersdeath frorn lung cancerto a string of financialsetbacks,had
impededmypracticeconsiderably.
Theseproblemswerecompounded
by the fact that I had managedthus far to read eveD4hingin print in
Englishon neikung,ch'ikung,andTaoism,the manyrheorjesandmeth
ods put forth hadconfusedmegreatlyandmademe wastea gooddeal
of effon. It was ooly recentlythar I had come to understandthe two
pointsmy teacherhadput forth from the beginning.The firstwasthar,
althoughthe teahersofhis lineagehadcornehom Taoistcentenand
many of his theoriescoincidedwith toist principles,he himselfwas
not reallyaToist.Andsecond,therewereasmanymethodsof nejkung
and ch'ikungastherewere ChineseMasten;you reallyshouldoot try
to proeressby studyingwhatis in print. "Youwillonly confuseyounelf

thatway,"Johnhadsaid.I hadfoundthat,asfar asmy own practicewas

concemed,h wascorrect. Neikung and ch ikung were essentiallymanifestationsof Chinesscienceand philosophyrthey had adoptedvariousreligioustrappingsover time simply in order to survive.Bingby
narurea scholar,though, I had to put it all tosether historicallyand
culturallybeforefollowing a given pth. Having satisfiedmyselfthat I
had done so, Icould concentrateon my training.
\X/estopped at a roadsiderestaurantnd wolfed down sizble
portions of stalefood. My teachersplace of businesswas closeby;
he drove off to run an errandand left us there.\Mesat rounddrinking warm Coca-Colas.
"
t do you think he'sgoing to showus tonight?"Andreassaid.
His pronunciationwasratherlike CrocodileDundeeiwouldhavebeen
aftera weekof drinking Foster!in theoutback.Andreastried to shove
a cigarettemy wayi his fingrswre nicotine stainedfrom the habit.
"!flho knows. Something amazing,"I sa;d, mak;ng a face and
throwing the intct cancerstick into a nearbybin with relish. I was
tired and austic.A stomachdlsorderhad left me ten poundslighter;
my clotheshuog on me like rags.
"Oh come on, Kosta Don't be sucha grouch;lighten up a little."
"You know," Handoko said to Andreas,"Kosta is your senior;
you must alv/aysaddresshim respecttully."
"Bullshit."
'Myself also.r/eare older,you are youngeriwe have seniority."
The strong Confucian ethic that bound all exptriatChinese
we did not agree
wasan endlesssourceofsuffering to us'/estemersi
with it and often got into troublebecauseof this. As a Creek,rvhile I
believedthat ageshouldbe respected,I also knew that thre were a
lot ofstupid oldmen out there.The thought of kowtowing io someone simply becauseof his age(orwealth) mademy blood boil.* You
shouldunde$tand that, while in the Vest we repeatedlyfind in lit
eraturethe imageof th prentdying to savehis or her child, under
the Confucianethic theserolswe(e revesed,it \ras th child who

Hndoko is p.esenrin every deep conversationin rhis book, it is only

lor reasonsof expediencythat his contribution has been rernoved.Many
of the major philosophicalpoiDtsare Handoko! tunslarion ofwhat
Chans Sifu was tellins rrre(and orhers)in Chinese.

100
Yn ndYnB

Vealth and educatlonare tied tosether for the expatriateChinese,the

conceptwe have in the \fest of a highly educatediddle cla.s is noi

101
Yn ndYn3

dutifully died for the parnr.It was an alien and srrangephilosophy

tor me, and I wasn'tbuying any. In the yearsthat followed, my contempt for Confucian morality would get me into trouble.
Andreassimply could nor stomachthe thought of me being his
"Kidt gettins hot," I said,and we all finally laughed.
"l'll tellyouwhat I'veseen,"I told Andreas."Lastyearjohnwanted
to show me what th yang was like. It was night. He had;ust fin
ishedpJayingPing-Pongwith Johann,asthey do everyevening Situ
took the Ping-Pongball in his left hand and held it in th center of
his palm He opened hts hands and held his right palrn about two
feet away.Suddenlythe ball pulsedwith a bluish-violetlighrr ir made
a noise, too, sort of like a canarysinging. Bluish white sparksflew
hom the ball toward his righr palm, rhey were like miniaturelight
ning bolts. He kept it up for a few secondsand then handedme the
ball. It wasn'toverly hot, but ir was warm. I did my usualth;ng and
cut it in hlf on the spot, which pissedoffeverybodt becauseit was
the last ball in the houseand they wanted to continue their game.
But I had to makesurethat therewasn'tany circuitry insidethe ball.,'
"Bi! Tro$bhin Liuh Cbhq'Handoko said, referrins to a similar
scenein the opning sequenceof th filn byJohn Carpenter.
"Yeah,"l nodded,but my mindwas elsewhere.Iwas thinkins, as
I hadtheeveningofthat pafticulardemonstrarion,
of Vilhelm Reicht
work in the 1940sand 1950s.Reich had sripulatedthat the particles
of the unknown lifeforcehe haddiscovered,which he hadcalled the
orgone bions, were blue. This was almost the samecolor the yang
ch'i had become before rny very eyes when my teacher bad contained it by force of will. And ch'i was,essentially,l;feforce.
Tberewerereasons
why rhispaticular dernonstrrion
wasthe most
importantof ll that I had seen,It deftnedthe natureofthe yangch,i.
Firstof all, the Ping-Pongball'ssurfacewas madeof solid nonporous
plastic,while the ball itselfwashollow I had trnmediatelyaskedJohn
if he could duplicatethe demonstrationwirh a solid-rubberball, and
he hd repliedin th nesativerthe ball had to be holtow for this particulrtest to work. His starementimplied thar what I had witnessed
was not a surfacephenomenon.Rather,the energy had been transferreditide theball,whereit had shonemuch like a commonlishtbtb
102
Yn ndYn8

On the scaleof molecularphysics,this also meant tht the enrgy

John calledthe yang ch'i was neithra particlenor a wave,but both
I was convincedthat this demonstrationindicatedthat the vng
stipulated
asthe Chineseclassics
cnergywasa solarphenomenon,just
Vilhelm Reich had died in federalprison in 1957 following a
wilch hunt by the U.S. govrnmentduringwhih hiswork and nots
were seized-Had he discoveredthe yng ch'i and been persecuted
by the powersthat be, who didn't want such knowledgeto become
common?Thisquestionfrightenedme,l wasalarmedbv what I would
be facingwhen it camtime to do Sifut book
The possibility that the yang ch'i was colord blue was impor
tant to me personallyfotone additionalreason.Throughout the eastern Meditnaneanpeoplehad historicallv worn blue beadsor blue
talismansto ward off the evil eye. This practic dates bak to
Neolithic timesand conrinuestody.Could it be thatthe v/earingot
blue wassimply usingcolor ofyang as defenseaginstthe pov/erol
yin energy?It was an xciting specultion
"His right hand becamecompletely vin, his left hand vang' so
sparksflew betweenthe two," Handoko said
I nodded,still thinkins of Reich and his orgone
Thatevenjng,sittingon a couchinJohns cozv office,the threeof
usbroachedwithhim the questionof the exctnatureofvin andvang
Johnlookedat our faces,orderedcoffeefor lour,andsaxbckcomfortably in his oflice chair;he knew itws going to be a long conversation
"Yn and yang," he said softl, "existin the world Thev are uni
versalforcesfound in all of nature,frorn one end of the univereto
the other. They are not poetry-thev are actual, phvsical forces'
tlrerefor all of us to experiencand obsrve"
"Vhere doesthe yang ch'i corne from?"I asked
"lt is in the ir.Naturecreatesit,lifeusesit Allthings that arealive
haveboth yin andyang ch'j."He poundedhis desk."This is vang Of
itselfit is lifeless.Fortife to exist,a body msthaveboth vin ndvang"
All thhgs carry th yh onrbeirbacksaunJolyat4 uitb| hetlth'.ila
e$rg| k crted bamoriarsly lhis stanza from the Tao T
cobi1ft,liJes
Ching lept into my mind once again;it was intriguing how Chang
Sifu'steachingsboth complementedand contradictedthe avaiiable
lilcrtureon Taoism.

103
Yn ndYng

,t

"Vhen you sayalllivingthings,doyou meanplanh,animls.

. .2,,
"EverythinglEverythingrhat is alive hasyin and yang ch,i."
"Vhere doesyin ch'i come from:,'Andreasasked.
"From the earth. The yin comesfrom the earth. Ir is some kind
of field phenomenonthat feedsour lifeforce. It can be btocked by
insulators.For exarnple,if you have a carpet made from synthetic
materialsin your house,the yin ch'i cannor passthrough ir. Thatt
not so good for your health.
"The yin ch'i entersthe body through an acupuncturepoinr that
we call huiyit, he added."ltt located berweenthe urinary tract and
Won,I thought Iarler Sly and Mother
Earth,you dahdee
liee us tiJe.
lust asa1ltheatcient culnrcsoJtheoat belh,,ed.And,we as a specieswere
destroying both in our questfor gold. I wondered;f there would be
clean airenough in rhe frture forthe next generationto ger its share
of yang ch'i. Or even find a place with tres jn it ro sit quierly and
gather yin. Probably not.
"Vhen we train for Lvl One, do we gather only yng ch'i?,,
"No. You gather both yin and yang, becauserne t\{.o alwaysgo
together,siruggling,one alwaystrying to complementthe other But
insidyour dantien,you put only yang ch'i. The yin ch,t goeselsewhere in the body It is uselessto you beforeyou fin;sh LevelFour'
'And
for Level T\i/o,' I asked,,we cornpressthe yang ch'i in our
"Yes" John said. He pulled out a sheet of paper, picked
up a
pencil, and drew a circle on it. "Saythis is the dantjen,right? First
it
is empty; then we fill it wirh yang ch,i. So:

LEVELZERO

LEVELONE

104
Yn ndYng

"Then, for Level Two, we compressthe yang ch'i and actually

inlroduce twice asmuch into the sameara.\/e make it hard, so to
speak.This is what you are working on now, Kosta. As you know,
you must be sexuallyabstinentto cornpltethis training." On the

I
-

I was not very happy about the sei:ualabstinencepart, but the

resultswereundeniableandthere wasno wayarond it. Chang Sifui
explanationhad beenvery differenrfrom rhat put forth by the orhr
theoriesI had read Accordingto mainseamChinesel;terature,the
ideawasthat the energyin the spermofthe male (the Ch;neseword
ci:ia4rneansboth 'tperm" and "essence")
was transformedtnto ch't.
Chang Situ had simply saidthat sxualabstinencekept "the gatesof
the dantien"opensothat the ch'icouldbecompressed.
Ihad no idea
whether the actual methodology followed one or the other model
or both, I dil know that when taining consistently,I had no problem with not ejaculating,whether I had nonorgasmicsexor simply
ws abstinent.I had no idea if that meant that the ching v/asbeing
transformedinto ch'i.
"And LevelThree:" I asked.
He surprisedme by answering."ln Level Three we make the
dntienmobile. \X/ecn make it move, in other words. Like this,

105
Yn andYan

"\Ve move it in thesefour directionsat first, like an

Xr after that
we can make the dantien move anywhere,'he continued.
I thought about thar. I hada hiend in Creecewho
was a Korean
Master of Tng Soo Do and a practitioner or neikung.
He had on
.ever| occa\ioncpubl'Llydemor,rrared
hrsprowe\\bv bredking
rvoDv-roJrwooctenbcm\ rnvr(inadnvoncin rhe dudiente
ro arrempr
the feat betore he did (no one had dared).This man
had a ,,ball,,in
his belly at the dantien point, a solid massrhat he moved
aroundat
wi1l. Manipularing the ball asJohn had indicated,
this man could
passch i energy into his armsand leg5.One physician,
upon xam
inins him, had rhousht rny frtend had cancerwhen
he felt the huge
lump;.the doctor had gone rhrough rhe roof when rny
friend had
causedthe ball to dancearound.I said as much toJohn.
"lt is the sameforus,',he.epliedaftera Iong
,,This
silence.
manis
t leastLevel Three."
"You mean the ball that movesafound in his belly
corresponds
to our Level Three/'l asked.
"Yes.Itis a solid lump of hardenedyang ch,i he
can tap into, and
ue,ar will."

106
Yn ndYng

"Sifu,what is thedifferncein ability between,for exampl,some

one at Level Five and Level Six?"Andresasked.
"The power doubles,"John saidsimply "Foreachlevela_frer
Level
Three, the power doubles."
"Vaii a minute,"I said.Handoko, Andreas,and I looked at each
other, shocked "Sifu, do you meanto say.. "
"Yes.Eachlevel hastwice the powr of the previous."
"So LevelS;xhastw;ce thatof LevelFive,LevelSevnrwice that
of Level Six, and so on," Handoko said dowly.
'Yes,"
John replied simply.
Handoko and I looked at eachotheragain.My mouth fellopen.
It must have been very surral,like a silent movi
'.lesus,"I
said.
The implication was that the levelsof power progressedxponentiallr followins the algebra;claw 2("3).Someoneat Level Four
was two times stroogerthan a human being. Someoneat Level Six
was2 x 2 x 2 = I times more powertuLAnd someooeat LvlThirry
was 2r7tirnes (or roughly 134 ,,l;llioxtimes) more powerful than the
avragehumanbeing, at least from the standpotntof lifeforce. Oh,
I was sure that there ws an algorithm involvd and that the numbers did not exactly follow a linear progressionasJohns tradtUon
seemedto suggest,but even if he were off by 50 percent,so what?
Someoneat Level Thlrty would still be . . . a 4ol for all practical
Iwas glad I was sitting down. Itwas imperativethat such power
not fall into the v/rong handsin our day and age.That includednot
only the criminal element oohn's stories had indiated rhat such
power could be achieved regardlessof an tndtviduall ethics) but
ConsumerProductsInternationalaswell. There was no telling what
a multinationalcorporationcoulddowith sucha torce behind it. Or
even a governmenragency.
"Youknow,"Johnsaid,"in theentire history of China, therehave
only been two people who have mad it all the way up to Level
Seventy-Two. One was Tamo, or Bodhtdharma,who taught the
monks at Shaolin.The other was Chang San Feng of the VutansPai,who was alsoone of the Headmastersin our schoolt lirreage."rl

107
Yn ndYng

"\X/aita minute, Sifu,"Andreassaid-"ls this the sameChang San

Fengthey say foundedt'ai chi chuan?"
"lcn't tellyau whetheror not he foundedt'ai chi,"Johnreplied "l
lo know that h studiedforwhile atthe Shaolinmonasteryand tht
aftera time in isoltionhe madit up to LevelSeventy-Toby studv
ing Toism.He lil found the intemal school ofkung tu, of which we
are Dart.\l/e traceor lineageback to Chang SanFeng,you know"
"Situ,"I askedslowly,"when do you ihink that Chang SanFeng
lived?"
"Almost a thousandyeasaso," he replied. "\/hy?"
Surgdyasty,I thousht. J $ lilc $e nornsaboutbin clain "Becatse
different rcordsplacehim at different times in Chinesehistol,," l
said. "Some say that he lived to be five hundred yearsold. Others
say that he is still alive today,that he never died."''
John was silent."He was Level Seventy Two," he said simply
"Could he stillbe alive?"
"No. He lived to be two hundredand did like any man. So did
Bodhidharma."
"Sifu,"Andreassaid,"will you tell us about LevelFour nowr"
"lf you wish. Vhen we r finished with Level Three, we send
our yang down to the hui yin. There it gathersas much yin as we
have sentdown yang.After time, maybevenmonths oryears,yin
and yang rise togethel like this,

'Thewhitecircleis theyang,theblacktheyio.They floataround

lnside the body, and the pain is incrdible,constant,unbelievable.
Only if yoLrhave the discipline to ignore it can you control them
and put their power insidc yourdniien. At that point, they become
squeezedtogether and take this shape,Iike the t'ai chi symbol."

108

I hadseenitbefore, and so was not assurprisedasthe othertwo'

"lf you are successtul,"
John contlnued, "bv forcing the t\rr'otogether,you also force them to react Remember,thev are oot like
electrical poles; they do not ttract each other, but repel This is
how the spark,the lightning boll betweenthe two is generated,and
you begin to becomeas I am "
'And if we are not successtul:"I asked
'-fhen you will probably die,"Johnsaidsoftlv "Theris no point
in doing this type of training unlssyou afe readv to die for it "
There was an awkwardsilence.
"For example,"John continued,"Do vou know of Mo-Tzu:"
"Mo'Tzuwas the founderof our lineage He knew aboutvin h'i
andyang ch'i, but he had no ideahow to put th two togethe' So he
experimentedv'ith his students;he told one man to try it this way,
anotherto try itthat way.Many peopledied' to thesemen we owe a
debt, becasewithout theiYsacrificewe would not have discovred
the precisemethod of bringing the two energistogether"'
I did not knowwhat to think of this, it wasceftainlv cold' order'
ing men to their deathsin a sort of humanlaboratorv'On th other
hand, few cared to rememberhow our governmentshad gleefullv
absorbdthe informaiion derivedfron1the Nazis'laboratoryexperi
ments on Jwishprisoners.And how much of ou' currnt medical
knowledgewasbasedon this data?As a sociery we had forfeited the
right to judg such things.
I asked.
"Vas Mo-Tzu himself sLrccesstulr"
"No. He never managedto make vin and vang met. It was an
unknown teacherof the school ofMo-Tzu, the Mo Pai,who finallv
maoagedit hundreds of years later' After him there were various
Headmastersat different levels,until Chang San Feng,who became
the first to reachLevelSeventvTwo He left us a book outlining the
109

mthodr ir was this book that Liao Sifu left to

me. If and when you
reach Level Three, you may copy it. But you
have to learn to read
ancient Chinesefirsr.',
"Can you show us what yin and yang are
like, individullyt,'
"Yes.Touch rny hand.,John extended his
arm, and Andreas
touched his fingers with h;s own. John sent
burst of ch,i to his
linsertipsr immediately Andreaspulled his hand
back as it he had
been,burned.I had sufferedthesamedtsplaymany
t;me. in the pust.
"Hot, isn'tit?"Johnlaughed.
"So.when you demonstrareby sefting a newspaper
on tire, it,s
yang ch'i that you send down to it?',
"Yes.,'
"And wht is rhe yin ch,i like?,'
'Th
yin is passive.It can only follow, never lead.
It can absorb
energy bur never initiate motion. you know the
rites where pople
walk on coalsnd suhthings?',
'Ve
h a v er h e mi n C r c F L e 5w e l l t b u e d , n . $ / e L a l t t h e m r h e
.
Anastenria.Andreasglaredar me
'Vhenpeoph
watk on coat, ius vin (h., rhar rheyrre u,ing
, , \rd.'\omerime\
John
r<rheyrn or lhe,,own bodie\,somerrme\ir
is th yin ch'i oispirirs The yin absorbsthe yans
of the iire ,*
htcresti4, I thousht. Accordtngto Chinese
med;caltheory, the
acupunc.urepojntyo,r4nanwas found on the bo
om of th foot; ir
wa. d.,o(iarcdwith rhe krdneymendranwhr.h
wa, con.rderedro
be vin w\ v,n chi \ro,edIn rhekidnev, rnd
drd rharch r somchow
ruD down that meridin to rhe sole of rhe oot
ro proret an individual walking on coals2
'1..an.how.ouuhar
r h e v i n r . l t e t o h n r a i dJ u \ r a m , n r ( e .
He drsrppedred
for a tew mrnure. Vher he rerurnedhe was
h o l d ' n Bd n d i r n t l e r h e l r n d r h a vr o p u m pu p p n m e ,
ro
n dr ( r d Dodrdpackof lcadpellcts
" Manyrererchos hne postulated
rhe existenceof an unknown fotce to
e x p ' i nh ' r w l t , n s b e L d , F e
b o r h r h I p , d e n r r o ,er r j a r n d t h e r m a ,
c o n o ir , , , t y t d w , \ c i h I n c u f i rire n ro n r h e . r
owr,

lt0
Vn ndYng

He picked up an empty lruitjuice canrthe alloy wasnot the rhin

alumirrurrof Coca Cola cans,but rhe thicker "tin" meial found in
Lunacns, ior example.John began to pump up the air rifler ftr
about twelve full cycles,when he could no longer pressdown the
leverwith muscularstrcngth,he insefteda lead pelltinto th charn
bcf. He put the can on the ground with a thick phone book behind
it. Placingthe muzzle of the rifle about an inch away from the can,
he pulled the trigger
The can was pierced rhrough both sidesdiametrically.The air
rifle had power, it could easilywound human flesh.
"Okay, Handoko. You first," John sa;d. He handed rne the air
rifle' I pumped it twelve times and placeda pellet in the chamber
John told Handoko to place hts palm over rhe muzzle of the air
rifle. "Vhen I tellyou to shoot, pull the trieger immediately,"John
Standingbehind Handoko, John placed the first knuckle of his
risht index finser into the smallof Handokot back."Shoou"he said,
and I did. Tlre rifle went off with the characteristicci:lJfmade by
Handokoopenedhishand.The pelletlay in his palm.
It was undeformed.Vhatever had absorbedthe momentum o[
the slug had not damagedit in any way. Nor had Handoko been
harmedln the least.Neithr had he felt anything.
"Me next," l said. Ipulled a lead pellet out of the packet V;th
my penknife,I scratchedthe surfaceof the slugi point. I would recognizeit in thismanner,itwouldbe impossible
forsomeone
to swap
itwith anoiher I pumpedupthe airrifle twelvetimes,put the mrked
slug in the chamber,and handedthe weaponto Handoko. I grasped
the muzzle in my r;ght hand.
Johncameupbeh;ndmeandpulledmy shtrtout ofmy pants.As
with Handoko, he put a knuckleup againstthe smallof my back, tn
the areaof my kidneys
SuddenlyI felt l;ke I was being pumpdup with air I coLrldfeel
my belly distendins and my bladder being squeezed,I wanted to
pee.There ws no other sensation;no cold, no rush of energy,no
electricaldischarge,nothing. Just the feeling of fullness.
"Shootr"John
shouted.
l
Yn and Yang

heardthc c4fland

lookedinro
.l
,n-ked
p.rr.t,,,ndeio,,,,.fi;
;;.ii;lj;Jil,:l:,f:::;l;
*':ri'-Ii'::T-'the

rishtest
touch'butthatwasail

Jvas intrigued; rhe.air rifle

had pierced both sidesof rhe ,,rin,,
-"-

,1;*m,,:,,*
:{,!ii;ry:i};:..:h:rffi
j
ffi;liirT:i,i
'lli:::;i;i:i:;:t*;iff
j:l

no way we would nor have

beenwoundedby tfr.
o.il.,, n .f,""la

do\r.n
ro thebone,cuttinsthroush
muscre

H:.""."11i*i"

And the slugwasundeformedt

Vhateverhad protectedus
had
prore:red
ir dwell Thi\ wd\norninv,.ibt.
f,"ra,fl,aa
,i"
r n o r v r d r , d td \ \ o m e d u r h o , r ( , \
\ e e r n l o \ u g g e \ r \ V h a r e , e"-r"a
r*a.rh.,e

;:i:::"::,:;,

rhe
wc,horer",h-.,,,,,";
"", "r, enerev

,.;;

rwl\ dr1zy.
rhatenbv rheimprrtarron
rheFrrsr
^,
raw
or If:ufenlv
hermodynamir\
did nor <e"mro applvrn rhi,,
are.
Ano rohnLoutdrrdn\rerrhr\
for(e ro olhe^.

' . l;:':l::;:i:'lj;nkrng

orrhepowerrurge"jns
'|heir
hnd\
on

-\.4,ner,,
Andrea\Jmo.rl.apr our or
hr\.harr

rohn..
d
,^".i:i,;:it:ll:il*l:::f ;;:l;e,,".,"nr
-o immediatlv
besanto pumpaptheairrifre

*nn',f,j;.o""nt"o

"Twelvetimes, no more,,,John
warned,nc.

e .hn,..,
^.,,ii:i:;t1*::*:.:l i::i,:.r*-dhe
and,oo(ed
Andr
ea.rah,,";,.." ;:;;i :;l;. i."ji;1
il;,.

r1e rdlrer"d.t. dn loo( mean

whenI wanrro.Balk"n,*,ut
,.o,ur.,
tohn rhouredand I did
Therewa,d shorkedtook
,,.\h*],
qndre\sld(e. hc wd\
on
worlred.He e\pcredrhe wor\t
pe er tetl oll hA.beltv.
Thereua, a <maltred bruise
rhere
rrhe

.,.ii:;"jl:;T:::.::d

rooked
at,hemark''\y4r"."...
";;;;;;l;

"Because
of Kostar He had a look on his face like
he ,ratltedto
"Nonsense,,I said.,'l normally use
a sawedoff shotgxn fo. that
sort of thing. Lesschanceyou'd get up.,,
John glared at me, then turned to Andreas.,,tf you
are fr;ghte n e d o r y o u r e m o r i o n \ d r c s o i n s s i t dr h ey , n
r n , n o rb e r r j t e
J n o I r n n o rp r o t e L\ro u r , m u ,h a , w h e n
v o u a r er a l m . f h a r s
why you were bruised,,
I picked up the iead pellet. It was undeformed,
as before. I said
asmuch and showedir toJohn.
Oh y:: he rard I g"re hrmrhe vrn enerev
heru.rrhrewa brr
,
01rr oui or his body by be,ngafrard.,,
r.anwe hold rhi\ vrn Fnergyvou 1dn\le.
ro u. rF.ideoLJl
, ,"ifir.
Dodres
ior long pelod5of hme-',I a5kd
No.Youranonlvte.pa,muchvrna,vou
h a v e r a r g $ / h e nI
,
oo
d demonsrrdlion
trkerhrs rhe vrn energyI grveyou lea,her
trom
yourbodv dtmo,trmmedrdlelv
lr r\ d wd\rcot .nv own energywhi.h
I have to replenishby rneditation.,,
"So yoLrdon't like to do this very o[ten...
'Of
cowse not I did ir for you students,so rhat you
can undefstandwhar the yin ch,iis like.,'
"Thank you, S;tu,,we all chimed in together
I was silent for mosr of thar evening.The
exisrenceof yin en
ergy as a phenomenonrhat was associated
with rhe.n..gy iield of
our plamrroutdposrbll irll in manygap,,n
held rh.o,y ; s.";.J.
w rar wa\ ilr rohnhad\ardlhI ir\ behdvrorwa\
rrmrlarro rharol an
elec.romagnetictield, rhat an insulatorcoutd
btock it, and thar its
flow could be easilydisrupted.Howcould
any scientisrcharacterize
a phenomenonhe could not trace?And how
couro any screntjstresrstsuch_
a challengerFor example,germsand bacteria
float around
ur dnd rh'oush u5 bv rhe bi ,on. bur we
eannordr.ecrtvpercerve
d r . c o r e no r , h c m , c , o , . o p <r h d h e )
: i ,b
,,"", ":,j",:r,h"
(: iould
tla(ed J do r\e rme to, yrn enejgvwe would
havc to
L e e u u c n h o e kr , n d a w d v r o q u a n r iabn d m e a s u r e
:',., :"1.""."
rl, nd rhenu\e thr\ info.mrionlo precenr
\ r\t\leni e lo I he \cten.
trrrLr on"munrry
ol rh" wnrld I warmoreextiredbv rheyrn rhan
rhe
yng; I was fairly sre that the yang
ch'i would be discoveredand

112
Yn ndYng

3
Vn ndYn

quantified soon, with all the work being done on vital energieand
psychic phenomena.But of the yin, wll, the \Y/estdid not yet lravc
There would be a Nobl Prize for the scientistwho idenritied
either yang or yin energy,of this I was sure-I also knew that thc
current shapeof the world wouldchangeonce we understoodch'iand for the better. Lif and naturewould no longer be denied.
John had mentionedthat a studenthad to be at leastLevelThrec
to be ble to snsethe yinr that a humn being, by his own naturc
yang/ cannot sensyin energy dirctly. Rather,a human sensesthe
trcse$c.of yin by its raction to the yang. Here is an unidenriijed
force that leavesno traceofitself, thatwe cannot feelinsideourown
bodies even in excess(unlike electricit, but perhapslike gravity),
but whose resultsI had v.itnessed,experinced,nd felt
It ws a frustratingposition for an engineerto be in. I had seen
the "ether"but neededa way to prove its existenceto the world.rl
Vhat was also intriguing ws the fact that most people in the
\ftst think ofyin and yang asphilosophicalconceptsrather than as
actual physical energies.A sriouspresentationplacing the rwo in
an orthological vein wouldbe revolutionaryat best.Oh, rherewerc
plenty of reterencesin the litrarure to yin and yang s physical
energies (particularly in maftil arts books and related texts on
ch'ikung), but most sinologistsconsideredyin and yang oo more
than dualistic modelins, much like computer binonials. Similarly,I
had seen many respectedauthorstrcat Taoism like poetry, rathr
thn the collection of adual biophysicallearnng rLwas.
I flnally grinned, a particularlyevil grin, thinking of the trouble
I would stir up given the opportunity.
Later thi nisht I traded ooteswith Andreas,who had studied
physicsat college.He washorified. "Keepthis quiet," he said "Let's
digest it nd seewhere it takesus. Maybe the world ts not ready for
information of this sort at the momnt. Maybe it neverwill be."
I grumbled somethinguncomplimentaryin return and wished
him a good nisht. To bellaith yo r Jean,[il, I rhousht. Tn ro one
Andreashad nevr actuallyread Coethe! Fact anyway.I could not
deny, though, that he had a point Andreas'sconcernswere justifiable ifyou soughtto simply quantifyJohnl powersit ortrhe proper
114
\4n nd Yn

rplfitual iosight, in cssenccsubjugatingEasreDsciencto Vestern.

l-lcll dld indeed gape wide irs doors ar th end of rrri road. But I
r.ckoncd the trajl to successfollowed a more precipitousroute. \Me
htd to rcris?Vestern physicaltheory and convrncescrenrsrsro emIlncc the conceptsof yin and yang ch'i. In doing so, the boundary
hctwccnphysicsand metaphysics$.ould inevirablyfall, altringrhe
worldk destiny forever.For th better I hoped.
The role model we had to emutate here was not Faust, bur
l'tonrctheus.I coLrldsee that John burned with the compulsion to
Itrlng the knowledge of this particular fire to mankind. \/hy etse
lCccpl \l/estern stlrdents?My main apprehensionwas making sure
thnt the informarion would becomepublic knowledse. I wantd to
lhnkc up the statusquo rock the chairsar rhe top and the founda
ll0ns at the bottom. I had thought of a hundred applicarions,and
worked out n approchtoward quanrifyingthe phenomenon.
Iwondered if the gods would chain me to a boulder and have an
ltgle eat out my liver if I rnadethe attempr
l)crhapsit would even be worth ft. I would wait and see
I slept like a baby, eaming ot Byron.

115
YinndYn

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

wi!h Chincscphilosophvin the Vest'"
isnrhasbeconc synonyrnous
"Yes,but for us Chinese,Taoism is the sameas Tao chiao, the
Taoist religion. \X/ein the Mo-Pai afe not Taoits You \X/estetnrs

ChapterEi6ht

THEVILL OF HEAVEN

\7e were having a heatedargument.The issueat hand was, once

again,whether or not what John was teaching could or should be
labeledTao;sm.
The combatantswere
rnyselfandVei Chin, the Level
Three student who had previouslytaught the praying mantis style
of kung tu. Handoko was the referee,and Andreasthe audience.
The ring was John! front porch, as usual,and the fisht was very
bloody. I had rny opponentcornered,but he wastough, he managed
to slip and slide on the ropesal vill, avoiding my "blows."Justwhen
I thought I had him in the crushinggrtp of reason,he wriggled free
and punchedback hard.
It was tun. No on \r.aswinning.
''Ioisrn,"
\x/ei Chin said,"is a religion \X/eare a school of kung

tu."

"Yes,"Isaid, "but we are a school ofkung fu whose Headmasten

camefrom Taoistcenterslike Lung Hu ShanandVutang-shan.Also,
much of the trining is vry basicTaoist internal alchemy,just like
you read about in the litemtu:e, and the resultsare very much the
"The training method is very differentrit is not at all the same."
"Okay, but it dealswith many of the sameconcepts.Inthe Vest,
when you talk about yin and yang, or the t'ai chi stateof our Level
Four,or neikung,then you are talkins dbout Taoism.The word Tao-

116

It was an interestingdile[rrna Vei Chln was verv educatedin

Chincsehistory and culture by traditional schooling;I had read cv
erythins publishedin Englih on Chinesephiiosophv.
All four of us were speakingat once when John came outside
carrying a cup of coffeerwe must havebeen like somethirg out of a
cartoon to him. He stood and watchedsilentlv for a vhile' amused'
"Vhat are we arglringabout?"he asked
'Taoism,"the manti ieachersaid.
Johnjustnoddedandpullcdup a chair "Okav,"he said"'tonisht
t will tellyou abot my owo spifitual beliefsand expcriences.Then
you can comparcmy beliefswith Taoismasvolt wish."
There was a stunnedand suneal moment of silenceon the facs
ofus two Vesterners,to be replacedbvlooks ofavid greed l shut up
completely,and Andreasdrew closer'
"Vhen Iwas young,"Johnbegan,"l reallvdld not pavattention
to the different things that my teacher,Liao Sllu' had told me about
metaphysics.I was not really interested,vou sceiI wanted implv io
learn to fight and to have power But m:nv of the things cameback
to me latc. I have already told you how, eventuallv,after I corr
plted Level Fout my Msters spi'it found me and grridedme for
many years.He would alwayscome when I called hlm' and some
times when I didnt call hirn, more ofren than not to scold me for
somethingthat I had done wrong "
He took a sip of collee and looked at me
"Liao Sltu performedmanymircles,vou know lt is unfortunte
that none of the peopleinvolved are now willing to come forth nd
testily.'
"For examplez"I asked.
"Okay, two cases.One is a student of mine who was riding on
his motorcycle when he suddenlvgot an intensefeeling that something wsvery wrong. He pulled over to the side of the road lnside
his wallet h kept my picture' he pulled it out and pravedup to the

117
The\/illofHeven

heavensaloud:'LiaoSifu,'hesid,'pteas,
S,-ft,,4,*whatevri1 is
that is happeningand is a threat, pleseprotect me and my fmily.,
At that very moment this mant brother was crushedby a truck in a
constructiirn accident. Everyonethought that he was dead, it was
impossibletht he was alive, for a cement truck had failen on him.
Vhen they clearedthe truck from his body, though,they foundthat
the man aliveandnharmed"
John searchedour facesand saw acceptance.Ve had seen too
much to disbelieve
him
'Another
incident," he continued, ,as the case of the highjncome slrrgeonwhose daughter had developed
bone cancer She
was hospitalizedin Singapore,nd the only treatrnentrhey had for
hr was to amputateher right leg before the cancerspread.In desperation he came to me asktngfor help, he was not a student,jusl
sorneonewho knew about rne. I cttedmy teacherand askedhirn
whetheror not he would help the doctor, and he said,,Oh, him. He
always refusestreatment to thoe who cannot pay him and deals
with Deoplelike cattle. You tell him that if he wantshis dughterto
becornewell, he must firsr sive a third of all his wealth to the poor,
and then every night for a week, from midnight to five in the morning, he must stay a{/ake and beg Cod for forgiveness.Only then
\Vill I give him the medicine to help his girl.,
'Meanwhile
the daughterwasunder a time constraint;they had
to amputatethe leg lrjth;n a lew days to savehr life. But the man
believedin us becausehe had heardso much and decidedto rrustus.
He gave away his money as Liao Sifu had ordered, and spenr hjs
evningsin repentance.Vhen the weekwasup, he cameto me ask,
ins forthe medjcine,but Liao Situ would not answermy call. So the
man went back to Sinsaporefuriousand cuning me. \/hen he got
thre, he put his daughterthrough a completeexarnination,hoping
that there was rime to amputatethe leg. Of the bone cancer,they
c o u l dn o r J r n d ar r a r e i t u a . r o m p l e r e l y g o n e .
He took another sip of coffee.Ve were all sjlenr,enthralted.
"Liao Sifu! spirit was with me for abour fifteen years.In that
time it was jmpossiblenot to develop a deep intrest in the meta
" Literallr'?ridfather-teacher."
118
TheWiliofHeven

I beganto 'ee splttt'

ohvrrrl.sncc I dcahwrrh iLrlmu'r cvcrvdav
and I srrllrememberrhe rrrsrrrmerhdLI
'..'.
ii."r,.' r
"or'
""""a
nrvselfwas out of mv phvsicalbodv'"
off into
He leanedback "l was lving on mv bed when I driftd
bed
on
the
mvself
meditation. Suddenlv Istood there looking at

iii"*r,

sotbiso.tsrbenv vinbova
' *."*nr' il,, t is tttvtdl1sbodv'

prove io
h* ^*d Jrolttoeto theotherSo I wanted to
^n **,a^*"
over to the
,,i,r."tl ,t'u, *t u, ** f'uppeningwas real First I walked
nothins
but
click'
the
iinf',.*i,.1 *a tried to turn it on l heard

il"i...i,

ad
t6. r;grrtstavedoff o[av. I thorght'I'll ualkoutside

it ajar'
So I openedthedoorand walked out' leaving
hi'*'d"*"1*
were sometaxi drivers
Itookawalk aroundthe house Outsidethere
I rnemorizedtheirtaces
sittingaroundonthesidewalkplavingcards;
of their cars' and
nmben
licene
-d Jhrt th.y.,.l... *.arins' the
opn andwent
wentback inside.I madesureagainthat the doorwas
Valking towaro
to the bedroom,where I saw mv bodv on the bed
wereo{r
lrghLs
1
he
ir I wa. .uddnlvdwakc h rngdown | 'rood up
I thosht Then I
and rhe.qrtch had not be'n roved :rr'!eorr
there' it was locked
walked to the door to scewhat had happened
O[al
o' r l"a left it bfore lvins down on the bed'
".Jl"lt.a,l',t
ThereIdidinded
srri[etuo, I thought So I went outsidemv home
plaving
cards'th same
them,
just
seen
asI had
find the taxi drivers,
faces,th samevehicles.'
Kosta' The
He looked at me "l know what vou are thinkins'
risht?
time'
th
romsall
smthing happensin hospital operating
point
,lr. ,i-., it wsa new experinceAnd trom that
S", f.. .J
"t
did
people
who
on t.o.,ta una.rstund*hat washappeningto those
wasimplv mov
their consciousns
haveout of-bor1vexperiences,
ltwas not mch later
ing from theiryng energvto theirvin energv
that I learnedto do so at will'
'nnvay," hecontinued,"allduring thosefifteen vears'Liao Sifu
the mountainsand
kept telling me tht it was mv dutv to go up to
and women Frnallvtn
soendtirnein r"treat dwrv lrom orhermer
w o r l df o r e t e rh t qt e t mo t
r ' g o : ' , , , - " r , , n ei o r h r mr o l c a v er h i ' 'This
is vour lastchance"
penunc.lvu,o'ne,*d h. couldgo up to Cod
'f,t
or nver''I had no interst in soins awav' I
i. .lta . *..
"*
time' nd mv businesses
likd my life just finer I was having a good
119
The Will of He.ven

weresuccesstul
liut because
I had promiscdt_ioSjlu that I woutd,I
finally did leave.One day I put on comfonableclorhesand shocs,put
my passportin my pocket,and took a fcw hLrndreddollarswith me. I
alsowor my RolexbecauscI vanted somethinsthat kept time wetl
and that I could trade lor money tf I becamedesperare.
I had no idea
wherc I would be sent, Ithought the Himalayasor somerhinslike
that So I told my wife I wasgojog down to rbe prawn farm for a few
daysand kissedher and rhe children soodbye On the way I handed
rny chauffeura letter explainingeveryrhing,then I told hjm to stop
for a while on the side of the road so that I could buy cisarettes.I
disappearedfrom sight. After a few hours of looking for me, he re
turned home and handedthe lefter to my wife. She cried and cried,
and so d;d the children,but becauseI had alreadyarrangedfor their
protectionand their welfare,therewas not much more I coutd do.
"l finally wound up in rhe junste, along the border between
Mlaysiaand Borneo.The closestsmallvillagewasa three-daymarch
awayr I was isolatedfrom socity.I hated the place at first. Vhen
night fell, I could not seemy hand in front of my face, jf I tried to
light a fire, so many mosquitoescamethat they would eat me alivel
tsutit was there that my teacherhad ins;stedI go.
"Therewasnot much to eat;I had to huntwild boarandscrounge
for benies and fruit. The funny thing was that there was a tribe of
Dayak nativesrherewho harassed
me and finaily attackedme openly
with spears,and on one occasionarrows.I pulled down a large tree
and set it ablazewirh my ch't, after that they left rne alone. It rnust
have been very lrightening for rhem. I ber they are srill sarins
naughty children with storiesabout me "
\(e all laughed,I could imasineJohn rhe practicaljoker retishing the occasion.Poor natives.
"Anyway,"Johncontinued,"ir u.asthere that I stayedand lrredi
tated, living in a cave.lt rainedfreqLrently,
and food wasscarce.De
spitethat, aftera moDthI could standit reasonably
well, aftersix
months I did not want ro leave.
"ln time, somethingvrystrangehappened.I could spendlonger
and longerperiodsin neditrion, once I didnot move foreight days.
And my consciousness
wouldfly allovertheworld asIdesired.Isaw
rny family in their home soins abot theilbusiness;Isaw rny friends
120
The wll of Heeen

and felatives,veryonend anyonc I wanted to. All I had to do was

wish to seesomethiogand I was there, if I closed my eyes,actual
eventswould flashacrossmy mind asif I were watchins television.I
wrote Iettersto family and friendstelling them what they were do
ing on specificdays,then madethe trek to rhe village ro mail thse
lettersto them. They were very surprisedwhenthey receivedtheml
lrememberevenwatching them asthey receivedihesletters.----seeing the look on their faceswhen they readwhat I had written.
"ln tht mountainI sawmany spjritsiindeed,spiritsand animals
were my constantcompanions.And when my consciousness
had expanded,I could seespiritssoinsup rgularly.One day Ibecamecuriousanddecidedto follow them, to seevhre they were going. I sent
my awareness
out of my body and accompaniedthem asthey wnt.
'"Ihe earth
recededbelow me, and somehowthere was a shift, I
cannot explain what I felt. I was suddenly in a wave of blackness,
around me there was much pain and anger and hate and jealousy I
left that placequickly ro find myself in a field of whue, there I saw
many spirits around rne wlro were very joyful. Someof them were
makingmotionsasiftheywere eatingand drinking nd invited me ro
join in. O[l)', I thousht, I'd lik?d rteceoJcrtcln. Vithoui warnins, a
tastydrumstickapparedbeforeme,wben Igrabbed;t, though, I saw
that it \Lasnot real,that it wasan illusjon forthe benelit of rhe spirits
in that place \{ho ihought they were still human. Still, I saw other
soulssoing hisher and higher. I follo\i/ed rhem rhroush two more
levelsofwhite energy,andbeyondthat point I couldpassno farther"
Iohn paused,and I checkedan urse to interrupt him. Therewer
so mny questionsthat I wanted to ask He was,after all, describtng
"After a while," John cootinued, "l becarneworried about my
physical body, becauseI knew that tlrne passedvery differently in
tbt place, and I had no idea how long I was gone. I decided to
return to the earth. In doing so, I passedonce again thro{rgh the
black wave. I was curiousryou cannot see anything at all in that
place,but you can hearthe spiritsmoaning.So I approachedone of
thm and askdhim,'Hey,how areyou doingr'(Yes,Kosta,assimple
as thatl) He said,'Oh,I hurt, I'm in pain.'Suddenly
I becamevery
afraid,and with that strong emotion I woke up back in my body."
121
TheWillofHeaven

Vhat do you say in responsero a story like that2 I had heard it

in short form in the pasr,but that had not had the impad of this
longernarration.That he had catledspiritsbeforeme Ino longer
doubted, on three separteoccsionhe had spoken to the shades
of the deadwith me as the silentwitness.Vhile I could not, as a
scjentist,swearin courarhat he was not producingan illusionfor
my benefit through hts Lrndeniablepowers, I would have to ques
tion the motivation lr producing a fraud of this sort. He certainly
had no need to trick us. I did nor doubr rhat john could make me
seesomethiog that wasnot thre should he choose,but why woul<1
I recalledthe shaman;sticorigins of Taoistpractices;,a
what he
hadjust describedwasvery similarro thejourney of the shamaninto
the spirit world, inluding rhe various levels. I was very sure that
Joho had never readJosephCarnpbell;he was describingwhat he
had seen.And he gainednothing by fickery. Indeed,he sacrificed
much becausehis powerswere very real.
"ls there any way of telljng if someonewill becornea white or
blackspirit?"1asked
John shot me a piercing look. ,,Youar thirkjng of your father,,,
he said.'rvell,ys,ifthirpassage
is not duetovioleoceoraccident,
then usuallyyou can tell by the look on their faceswhat w;llbecome
of them. They get a glimpse of what lis in srore for them before
they completely leaveour world.,,
My father had died wh retiefafte, fishting rh cancerfor half a
year. Indeed,he had died conscjously,wairing for all of us to gather
aroundhim beforele$ing go of his finalbrearh.Isaid asmuchtoJohn.
"Your father is probably a white spirit now,',h said.,,Butyou
know, becausehe had no yang to take with him, his natu.eis much
sirnplerihn you think."
"Vhat do you mean,Situr" I asked.
"l meanthatatypicalspiritisbasically
likeourunconscrous
mrnd.
He cannofthink deliberarely,
makedecisions,orcreate.He is subject
to whateverhe hasbroughtwith hjm.,'John\,r'as
silenrfor a time, then
caught my eye and held me wrth his gaze. ,For example,,'he said,
"your fathercan remembereverythingabouryou He knowsthat you
are his son. He rernembersholding you in his arms when you were
122
The \\/illof Heaven

to love vou "

born. Vhat hc cannotrcmcmberi$ whal it waslike
Ve were shocked,all oi us
'to what detinesthir
"They haveonlv vin," he continuedsoftlv'
That is whv it is so
conlinuation is simplv their karma,good or bad'
your time coms'
lmportntto haveyang to take with you when
that wav vou retain vour humniry" l whisperd John
"Because
dntien somenodded approvinglv "Does having vang ch'i in our
how lessenthe effectsof karmal" l askedhirn
be re"No. You still have to pay for what you have done- or
all around' and
warded.But having yang with vou makesit easier
more deliberateeither way.'
"Heavenand hell," Andreassaid
"Not really,"Johnanswred"None ofthe conditionsIdescribed
"
is permanent.After a time all spiritsreturn to Cod
sinc
Andthre itwas, the bigquestionthat I had dancedaround
I dared' "tell us
I had come io know him. I could not resist "Situ"'
Codwas
aboutCod. Youmention Hlm frequentlv" Andmentioning
between
notvery Taoist,I thought, perhapsthis was the disiinction
John'steachingand mainstreamTaoism
one bv one "All right,''he
John leanedback and looked at us
of hearts'I did
sald."BeforeI went up to the mountain' in mv heaft
everv Sundav'
not real1ybellevein Cod Oh' I usedto go to church
Ct'ristian' but I hd no faixh;I went to church
...i""ttv
f., f
"
"to expematter-of factly Vhen I was up in the mountain' I wanted
rienceCod for mvself,to seeif He was real or not
"l prayedandl pravedfor weets, askingCod to revealHimseli
mv awreness
to me. Finally I sat down in depmeditation and sent 'Cod'
please
asking'
I
kept
out asbelore. Everv dav,every rnoment,
Piease'
correc
tell me the trlth aboutthe afterlife;which rehgion is
peristnce
it
with
at
I
kept
Lord, tell me.' I receivedno answef'but
me
"\lgithout wrning,on dav a voice boomed in the ir above
It was like a thunderclap,and it saidto me:
ned
"'Rligionis like a walkins stick Vhen vou arevouns' voLr
needa cane'
help from yout parentsto walk \Vhen vou are old' vou
a cane' it vou
Vhen you are a healthv adult, vou have no ned for
like thatr to ch
tty to *n, ,t *ill onlv hinder vou All religions are
'
Cod directly, and vou will have no need of them

123
TheWillof Heven

"l came out of meditarionwirh a srart, ir was so strong

and so
realt I had felt the words like a vibration inside m. Ar fircr I
was
ecstaric,but when I tried to reach the voice again,there was no
answer So after a time I beganto doubt; finally, I no longer believed
that it was Cod, just some strong spirir hving fun with rne. I had
had many experiencesof the sort with L;ao Sifu, remember,and
I
knew that rhe.e were many such beingsour there. Finally I became
very angry.l roamedaroundthernounta;ntopslike a madman
scream
lng up ar neaven.
"'lk to me, Cod,' I screamed.,lf you do not talk to me, I
will
not believein Yout"'
John chuckledto hirnself 'You cannorjnlsinewhat Iwas Iike,,,
he said."l wasvery thin becauseI d;dn,thavemuch to earrmy beard
and hair were long becauseI had nothing to shavewith. My clothing hung on my body, and Imust have smelledvery bad I moved
foom tjmes of extremely deep meditation to moments of extreme
rage as if someonewere throwjng a swirch inside mei I oftn
sat
down in the lorus position in Deditrion and rhen suddenlyleapt
up
all in one motion to go running around the mounraintops.All rhat
time I had only one thought in mind, to speakwith the Lord
Cod. I
wanted proof rhar He was real.
"Eighrdayslaterithappened.Iwas in meditationat
the moment
and begging Cod to let me come ro Him. Suddenlya star
bright
ened incredibly, like a second sun, and fell out othe sky wi;h
a
crashto land before me in an explosionof earrh and dust. k made
a
huge hole and lay there,burning. A wind like a thousandhurricanes
buffeted my body and shook the ground.
"'You are not yet cleanenoughto come to Me!, voice said,and
Iknew it wasHim
"l came out o[ meditation \.rith a srart and opned my eyes.
In
hont ofme wasa larsecraterin rhe eround.And Iknew one thing
in
my heart that made me happy beyond belief: Th vojce was
still
with met Cod was allowing me to speakwirh Him.
'Many
thinss I askedHirn in the daysthat followed, Iwanted to
know what sort of behaviorwas right and what was wrong. For xample, I wanted to know if fjghting was okay,sioce I was a kune
fu

124
Ihe \)(/illofHeven

Mastcrand had becnin nranylishts Thc voicetold me that it was

mdnv
all rightto dclcndnryscll,but Ishouldneverinitiateaggressioni
thinss werc Ndsed by how vou felt inlde lf I was afrajd for mv
safety,I could evenrtlrcl lirst to protect mvself and mv familv' but
there were no fine lines governing behavior' it all came down to
how you felt ins;de.
"l askedHlm about hunting and killins same l detectedamusemeot in Hisvoice when he answerdthatquestion'becauseHe said'
'You are asking Me about thls becausevo killed a wild bor last
week to eat, didn't you? It's okav to kill for food, all of nature is a
strugglefor sLrwival.But you must never kill for sport or for pride,
becauseall of natLrrebelongsto Cod."'
John bowed his head. "Anywav, manv things like that I asked
Him, to somequestionsI receivedanswers,to othersnot " Helooked
up at us and smtled.
Andreasbroke the silence."Sifu, are vou saving that vou spoke
to Cod:"
"l think so,"Johnsid."l spoketo an unbelievablvpowertul sentience.\X/heiherit was Cod or somekind of angel or other spirit, I
really don't know to this dav But soflrlrin4cme and answeredmv
que\lion..dnd stavedwrrhm< lor a Iong time
"How long were you up in the mountains2"l sked
''Iwo years,"he sald."l cameback down becausernv son devel
oped rheumtoidarthritis. Vestern medic;necould do nothins for
hlm; my hiends took hlm to nativc healer,who simplv said,'Onlv
the faiher can cure ihk boy.' So I cameback "
"Did you ure him2"
"Yes,with acupuncture,within two monlhs "
"And you iust lrohe was illi no one sent vou a message?
"l have alreadytoJdyou that, when I was up in the mountins,I
couldseepeopleand placesfar awavdlrrins the time lsPentin meditation. I watchdlny family a lot, it helped me feel lesslonelv"
A sewant carneout with tea, which we gratefullv accepted No
oBewaswillingto strtupthe convenationagain Vhatwe hadjust
heard had shockedall of us more th:n anvthingJohn had ever said
ordone. Herewas a man who statedvervsimplv nddirectlv that he

,|
TheWillofHeaven

had spokento Cod, it was the pinnacleof humanexperiene,

and
there was not much anyonecould add to rt.
There were a thousandthinss thr I\.ranledto askhim. \(/e have
lost the luxuiy in this dy and ase of being able to speakin such
personaltermswhen describingthe erernal,societyand scjencebe
ingwhat they are.Peopledonljust sit down and askCodquestions
The Lord Cod Himselfi
\Xfty the hll not2I beljevedrny teacher.At leastI believdthat
he was neither a liar nor delusional.He had seen . . something.
I darcd the question."Sifu,when you spoketo Cod, dtd you ask
Him what happensto our soulsafter we drer
He looked puzzled. "l have aheady describedthe btack wave
and the white wave ro you," he said.
"Yes,and you said thar neither cond ron was permanenr,that
aker a time all spiritswenr up to Cod "
"Yes."
"Sowhat happensnext2Do we reincrnate2
Do we live only one
iife? Do we ceaseto exisP \X/hart the story?,'
"l have alreadytold you rhat I dont know
"But. . . ."
"He never answeredthat question."Johnpulled out a cigaretre,
lit;t up, and leanedback."lcd, tell you what Imyself, as an indi
vidual, believe.This is not somethios that Iteach, I have students
who areChristian,Buddhist,Muslim,skepticslike yourself,andmore.
NeikuDg has no basisin religioustheory. lf you wanr my own oprn,
ions,you arewelcometo rhem,btrrrcmember,they arenothingmore
than my own opinions."
"Okay."
"l believethat ir is logical for reincarnationto exist,sinceCod is
very just and very fir. !/hy should someonesuffer for sorneth;ng
that they havn'tdon: Vhy shoutdone man be born a cripple and
anothel with everything?It doesn'tseemfir or even logical. So et
thr the univrseis unjust or, if you believe in a just God, then He
hasplannedforjusticein our lives.So I beleve rn rejncaroation.,
I did not want to debatehim, different religjonsin rhe historyof
humanity have even postulatedthe exisrenceof an nj sr Cod to
explain lifes disparatedisrributionof blessiBs.
126
The \(illofHeven

"You have rnentionedkarma* to mc in the past,"l continued.

'"Ihe consequenceof our actions?"
'Action and reaction.People paying for bad actioosand being
rewardedfor good ones.Makes sense,doesn'tit?"
"Doyou believethtsomonecaniestheirkarmawith them from
one life to the other?"Andreasasked
"Yes.I personallyas an individual,yes,"Johnanswered.
I had studied Buddhismior many years;one of the issuesnot
addressedsufflc;entlyby tht religion (in mv opinion) is the very
obviousevolution of the specisgoing on continuouslyaround us,
as if by divine p)an. And man'spresenceand developmenton the
planet cannot be accountedfor with satisfaction,even bv modern
science,giving rise to theorie of little green men performing ex
perimentson primatesand what not "Sifu, is evolution directed?"I
cha.gedto drive the point hom.
"Sorryr"
"DoesCodhave a plan for man and the earthr Is therea gidins
intelligencebehind everything?"
"ln rny opinion, yes."
And there it was,the core of religion'sdebatewith science.
"And is this God a judge:" I continued "Does He decide
everyonetkarma?"
"No. Ve dec;de our own karma Cod HllTrse]finterferesvery
fter oLr
little in our livesand in the judgment of our consciousness
deaths."
"But what about the white wves and the b]ack wave vou
described2"
"Vhat about themr"
"Doesnt God decidewhosespirit goesinto which areaand how
long he remainsthere:"
"Not rallyr krma decidesthat. Cod baslcallvintercedesvery
little in the courseof affairs.Ve call the will of heaveniolo in Chi'
nese.Forexample,thatyou Kosta,andvouAndreas,arehere isiodo

or"actron
The Sanskritwo.d means"consequence"

127
Thewillof Heven

Do you know how many peoplchavecomesearchinslof me ancl

could not find me?It is the will of heaventhat you are here.',
Ve lookedateachother Ve hadcertatnlyboth foundourreacher
under inusual cjrcumsrances-tflpo5sir/s
circumstances,starisrically
speaking.
"Sifu,"l insisred,"\(/hy isnt findingyou merelyjust good karrna:
l(hat rs the differenceberweenjodo and krnal
'lodo
comefrom Col,'he said."Karmacomesfrotr ls "
"So Cod hsa pln,butit is rp tous ro live up to jt,,,Andreassaid
"Yes,"Johnanswered"And you will reapthc consequcnceot a
your actions,whether good or bad. Karnrais purely naturallaw, like
jodo is the wjll of heaven.I cannotmakethiogs
biolosyandphysics;
any clearerthan thar. For mosr people,jodo simply decidesthe tine
and placeof thetr btrth and the tirneand placcof their death.Bui
bad karmacan alsomakeyour Iife shortcri if you aredestinedro live
a hundredyears,you may wincl rrp living lifry rnsreao.
"For example,"he continued suddenly,,,I_iaoStfu coutd sce an
individuali kama and dcidero hcalhilr) or not basedon thatkarma
He could also seejodo, the will of heaven,as it approached.Let rnc
tellyoutory..."

a r r a n g e m e nxxosv i s i l h i m o n a g i v e nm o r n i n ga n ds e to u t t o t h e m a n s
house.Itwas roughly ten o'clock when he arrived.A seryantopened
the door and Liao was usheredinto the manl inner chambes. His
hirid roseto Areethim.
"Liao Situ," he said,"once asain you ho.or me."
Liao stoppedbriefly in his tracks,stunned.He could seethat the
mnwas soins to die at noonrJodo,thewiU olheaven, was standina
He tousht back an urse to sit down. Outwa.dly, his lriend de
tected nothinA amiss in the old Master! composurerindeed,what
had seemedlike an endlesspaurto Liao had beenlessthan a quarter
ol a secondin real time, undetectableto the other.
"l cannot stay at the momnt, my friend," Liao said,"but I wart
yo to do me favor"
He noved with preternaturalspeedand stole a blank sheet of
pper fron his kiend! desk,seeminslypllins it out from urder his
"Do you have an enveloper"he asked.
His f.iend handed him one, and Liao folded the pper inro the
envelope.Afterwritingsomethingon ihe top andscalingit, he handed
'At

exactly elevenforty-tive,l wantyou to take this envelopeto

t h e t o p o f t h e h i l l a t w h o s eb a r e y o u . l a n db e s i n s , n d l a v ei t t h e r e , "

The Letter
Old l.iao had fev friends, becusemost people consideredhim a
srange and alien being, and so he held his true friendsvery dear He
hd enjoyed himself gready i. Javai for the fiBr timc in his tifc he
had bcen a nember ot a boisrerousand conle.reo numan socrery
Neitherthe ci.cumstncesof his yourh no. thc iolarionolhis middle
yeas hadoffercdhin much hopeforjoy in Iife, a,ro Lneconseqence!
ot his ceat cfime haunted im conriuoudy with evil forcboding
Liaohad foundpeaccin Indonesia.He had any d.q
fricnds, and he was widely respectedas a sreat nerer.
Andhe had the boy at his sidewho'n he had come to tove like a
son. Liao knew drar rhe young one woutd reach the upper levcls of
nastery/ rhoush how hish the chitd would so, he did not know.
One ofh6 hiend! wasan affluentbustnessman
who wasa learned
scholar of Chinee histo'y and cultute as well Vith this man Liao
spentlong houresippingiea andwagingendlessdebate Hehadnade

128
ThewillolHeeven

"But lhave an agpointnentat noon, and, asyou know my house

bordea on the;ungle.Thathilltop is almosthalfa mile into thejunsle."
"l will have to changeclothes nd

."

"Very wll, Liao Situ. If it is so important to you, I will do it.'

"Thankyou."To the manisrprise,Liao Sifu save him an almost
Thc oldMasterwent lmmdiatelyback to his own dwellins and
beganto prayearnestly,centeredin deepmeditation,reque!tingrhat
Cod prolonc his triend'5life and lift whateverkarma had made ir so
short. At eleven forty-live his ffiend, impatient with having to go
into thejurgle and everythirs that action entailed,gavethe lerterro
a sewant instead,with the instruction rhar he tak it iDto rhe foresr
and leve it at the top of the hill. The man himself ser off for his
appointmeDtin the city

129
The willof Heaven

At noonp.ecisely,
ashc crossed
thc roadiDlroDrot Lhecityposl
officeon rhe way to his appointmenr,
he wasstruckandki ed try a
Ths LiaoSilu learndrhrthe wilt ot reavencannorbe over-

"So, Kosta,"Johncontinued,',teltrne now Am I a Thoistz,,

"ln my judgment as an educatedman, you
are very much a neichia Taoisr,Sifu."
"l see.And il I told you that I practicedch,ikuns and neikuns
strictly lor martlal artssktll, as I am the Headmasterof a marrialarts
school and not a plicst, what would you say to tha Remembel I
only becameexposedto the realm ol spirjtsaJkr I had developed
yin yang kung-Levels Four,Ftve,and so on. I wasth irry sevenyears
old when I first saw rny Master,sspirit; besjdesv/hich, I only devel
oped a knowledgeand an inrerestin maftrsof the spiritr.[i?/Iwent
up to the mountainsfor my retreat in I992. In other words, Idid not
originlly pursueneikung for any meraphysicalgain ir offered, nor
becauseof any specificspirirualbelief.,,
"Okay, if you are not a Toistlchemist,what are you, then7,,
"l'm the Headmasterof Pa Lei Chuan, a school of kung
tu. I arn
the teachrof a Chinesescienceclled neikungrhat involvesstudy,
ing, enhancing,and finally combining the energiesofyin and yang
in the body, rhe particularneikungIteach is of the lineageattribute
to the sageMo-Tzu. Beyondthis t arn s;mply a man l;ke any other,,
I did not know what to say ro all rhar.There an be litde doubt
in our day and age thar consciousnss
is as much a product of rhe
physicalsof rh spirftual_Descartessaxiomsseparatingthe psych
from the flesh have long sincebeen proven wrong. An injury to
or
illnessof the brain would readily affect someone'spersonality,mod,
ern medicinehasmillions oI documentedcases.Our,tonsciousness,,
is the result of rhe intermingting of the mind and rhe body, of the
spiritand the tlesh.Had the ancientphilosophersof China stumbled
onto th!s secretin their investigationof the energiesofyin andyang?
Had they somehowisolatedthe bodyt energiesand seenhow rhy
could be transfenedcompletelyro rhe spirit?Is this howTaoism the

130
The\)villofHeven

rcligionhad developed2
And whal can the scienceof neikungoffer
to the world in our time of rapid technologicalgro,/r'th?Here vas a
man who had many of the answersin his pocket.
"l suppose,Sifu," I said,"that you are whateveryou $.ant to be."
He smiled at that, and I looked down at the ground. A brief
discussionof plantsfollowed,John supportedthe postion that they
had awarenessand were telepathic,and Andreas,an avid botanist,
wasagreeingwith everything he said.
I wsuncharacteristicllysilent for a while. Finallt in the pause
that followed, Iasked, "Sifu, w;ll you teach us?\Vill you teach the
world bout neikung?"
"l am alreadyteachingyou."
"No,lmean,willyou teacheveryone
in the world,willyou dem'
onstrateopenly and explain what you are doing?"
He was silent himself for a momnt, then said simply, "Do you
know about Atlantisr"
"Of course."
"Do you know why the islandof Atlantis was destroyedr"
"ln my culture we saythat it is becausethe gods werejealous."
"ltwas becausethey had gotten too loseto the secretsof heaven.
\/hen humanity today sets too close,we also will be destroyed."
"Vhat the hell for?"
"Because
the humananimal is not yet ready to becomea god."
"Then why createus in the first placel Logicallyiwe were either
cratedto developtoward somehlgher purpose,or we are the play
thinss of a hisher sentiencewho simply wants to keep us as slaves.
To say that Cod Himself will destroy us makesme think much lss
of Cod."
That blunr.raremenr
shockede!eryone.
'So you think I shouldcomeforth compltel, shareallmy knov/l
edge, becomefamous,andwin the Nobel Prize,"John said.
"Yesand no. I think you should offer the world concret,repro'
ducible proof that yin and yang ch'i exist,without specificinformation as to their precisnature.That would be enogh tor you to go
down in history asthe mnwho helpdhumanity evolveto the next
plateau,"I rephed.

131
TheWillofHeven

"lt has never beenthat way in human hisrory.'

"Ve have neverleeaat this point in human history before,Sifu.
Look at yourself,forexampletYou ar the fjrst Masterof the Mo-pai
to accepJl,)/esternstudents.Mankind is evolving, EastmeetsVest.
There is no hard evidence.hat Atlantis everxistedany.way;*maybe
itsjust a story that capturedthe imagjnarionofa Greek philosopher
centuriesin the past-man aginstthegods.,,lmdea silent promise
to buyJohn a copy of Platot works Knrtasand limrers.
"And perhapsit is a true story t follow the w;ll of heaven,Kosra.
I rvill do what Cod wantsme to do."
He stood up
"But I will think about what you have satd,',he finished.
And with thar, our evning lessonwas over
On theway back to ourhotelAndreas beratedme coniinuously.
He had beenshockedby my confrontationalapproach.,'Vhatwould
you do," he asked,"if you were Sifu:"
"Bring fire to mankind,"l answeredunhesitatingly.
'nd
be chained to a rock by the seawith an eagleeating ot
your liver for all eternity. . ."
"Prcmetheusttorment didnt last for all eternity,Andreas.After
a time, the godsset him frebecausethey felt guilty. He did\,r'hathe
did out of pity-to ajd humanity,you see,'
"Are you sureit wasn'tpride2"
It was my rurn to be silent. He had struck a point horne.
'\X/e
didn't say much for the rest of rhat evening, each of us
wrappedin ourown thoughts.Andreas!commenthad brought home
somethingvital,somthingI hdalwaysknown in my heartbtthat,
obfuscatedas it was by my own prid, I had not clearly seenbefore.
I wasno ntan; irwas notup to me.OnlyJohn could play prometheuss
role and sharehis secretswith humaniry.Our missionwas to convince him to bstow such a gift and, jn so convincins, shouldera
portion of the consequeoces.

Though there is linguistic nd ci.cumstantialevidenceas such.

132
TheV/illof Heven

ChapterNine

THE KTRIS

There arenore thingsln heavenandearth,Ho.atio,thn.e

dreamtof io yourphilosophy
Hcnlri,Act I, Scenev
nd friend
Chrnese,a localbusinessman
Henky wasanotherJavanese
of my Master for over twenty years.Henky had attemptedthe MoPai trainins s well but had unfortunately not progresscdvery iar'
Stlll, he had garneredbenefits'he was over litty but looked much
younger perhapsearly forties,vith a slim figu.e nda springingstcp
A dedicatedspoftsman,he exerclsedand ran on a daily basisaswell.
Henky wasvery much a product otJava.He spokenot a word of
Chineseand was ignorant of Chineselristoryr rther, he spoke flu'
hc hadsoneto a Dutchschool.
ent DutchandgoodEoglishbecause
A devotd siudent of the hrstory of hls own home nation, He,1kv
Hindu empire,
was particularlyan experton the MajapahitJavanese
which had held swayinJava and the surroundinsislandsdurins the
fourteenthcentury cE.
keriss,all antiques,llmore than five
He owned threeJavanese
from
the time of the Majapahit state
years
all
datis
hundred
old,
They were rnagicallycharged.
BeforeI proceed,it would bc usefulto go into the history and
mythos of this particularbladedweapon.There was a time when all
Javanesemen, from the ge ot three on, were required to wear a
133

I
krisi it is still worn today in formal ceremonies.The shethsand
hilts of the keriswere often exquisitelydecoratedwith carvingsand
j\rels, \1,.hileommentson the blade itself were thousht to provide
additional protection from misfortune. The keris blade often has
undulationsflol), usuallysevenor nine, though up to rhirry one have
been counted.An odd numberof lok assuresthat luck will b sood
The wavy blade is also thought to createa more damagingwound,
though the kefs is a difficult blade to wield in combar.
Kerises are consideredto be magical by all Indonesiansand
Malaysians Tladitionally, o1d kerisesare kept as family heirlooms
and are passedfrom generationto generation.The mak;ng of the
keriswas a work involving great power and artr the orrr, or "smith,"
was considereda holy man, and his work was frausht with ritual.
Once ayear the keriswastakenout of its scabbard,cleanedwjth
lime juice aod arsenic,and sacrificedto. Incensewas bumed to it
and prayen offered, the blade was oatedwirh a fragrant ott. The
number of times the weaponhad tastedblood addedto its power
Magicalkerises(not todaystourist fare)arerhoughtto be ableto
speak,fly, changeshape,and even father humanchildren.They can
protectthe wearerfrom harmor destroyhis enemies.
They arethought
to rattle in theirscabbardsto warn theirownrsof impend;ngdanger.
In general,they areob;ectsofgreat reverence,ndarevery powerful.
Vhen Henky offeredto showme h;skeris! powers,I vas tmpred
to laugh, except for the fact that he was a good friend ofjohnl. In
truth, I had alreadyseenso much frornJohn himself that I no longer
knew how to approachsuch clairns,I no longer had the luxury of
skepticism.
"A magicalkeris:" I asked.
"No, three of them."
"Vhat can they dor"
"Many things,ordngputiir,*but for you they rnay move around a
bit, andyou canseeJohntalkingto them."
'John
can speakto a pieceof metal?"
"They are notjust piecesof metal,they are aware,just aswe re."
I glared at Henky out of my left eye, the mean one. My face is
*

Oiq purih" rtanslates as "white man"

134

e)rtremelyexpressivc,part of my Mediterraneanheritagc,and some_

what bimorphicr t am sentle and kind on the risht side and mean
and nastyon the left. I havea lot ofNeanderthal genesin me aswell,
xhersuttof millenniaof Balkaninbreeding,which givesme an edg
when I wnt to look either dangercus,sintl, or stupid'
"You'rserious,right?" I sked.
"l'm alwaysseriouswhen I talk about monev or things ot a spiri
My money had run out, and Henkv wasbuving me lunch l was
lot of weight on
settins tird of Chinese food, lndeed had lost a
what I called"therice diet," so Henkv wastreatingme to a Vestern
style steak.I was,ery gratetul
'All right," l said,"l'll bite Doris is flvins in this afternoon;mavbe
we can make an appointmentwith Sifu tonight l'm sureshe'dlove
to seethis aswell."
My girlfriend, Doris, had been mv constantcompanionduring
the yearsI hadknownJohn Chang and, asa result,had sufferedthe
sameassaulton her establishedperceptionof realitv thar I had duringthat time petiod. Shtendedto acceptthings much more readilv
than I, though, being more intelligent and having lessof a temper'
''fhe kerisesaresentientin their own wav
"l meanit," Henky said,
"Sure."
"Look, I could tell you manv stories,but I will sttlelor thi one'
A few yearsago my dauchter$'as going to go on a trip with some
frlends.They pulled up to our housein their jep and shestated to
go out the door, suddenlythere was a banging soundfrom the cup
board where we keep our kerrsesVhen I openedthe cupboard'mv
most povertul and oldestkeriswasshakingin his scabbardl told mv
daughternot to go on the trip, but sh insisied;new bovfriend' vou
see.\(ell,lcould not let her go unprotected,so I gaveherthe kerisio
take with het with firm instructionthat he protect her' That night
they had an acidentand the ieepwnt off the mad TTev rolled over
three timesbeforethey hit a treerth vehicle\tas a total loss'but no
one ws hurt, not even a scratch They were not wearingseatbelts
and were thrown aroundinsidethe jeep considrblvasit rolled"
I did not know wht to think and had no wav of judsins his
slory. Certainiy thete were enough mvths of magical s$'ordsand
135

legcndsot scnticntwcaponsin gcncralin cvcrycultLrrc

rll (,vcf th,
world (think Ircalir'rr. CoLrldthey be rruc rhc way John Charrr
wasreal, the way Tioy, which had been considcrcda myth by nrany
learnednien ior generations
beforits discoveryby Schliemannirr
the ninctccnth entury,was real aswell:
I had seentoo much of the spilit world around my tcachcr to
scoff; the word si:anran
suitedJohn a well as the word Taot,if yoLr
could truly distincuisbthe two. Indeed,as I wrote this book, Iwa\
ttoubledbywhat I shouldpresentresardinsJohn and the spirit world
Could I discountmy own eyesand ear lfjohn was pulling a scam,
he was fooling thousandsof people.There were other plausibleexplanationsfor what we were seing one of which was simply lhr
John was imposinghis will and imageryon the minds ol the partici
pants,a sort of masshypnosis.But even if tht were th case,it was
a power worth notins, and I would have no problem walking into a
courtroom and testifying to the experience.To say nothing at all
would sirnply be cowardly,and unfair toJohn aswell.
Lft me sharewith you one such encountelwith a power{ul and
benevolentspir;t.Judgefor yourself.

The Prince
Hefcles (no reltion to the hero) was a cousinol ninc whom I had
brousht with ne to Indonesiarlohn had been kiDd enough to allow
him toloin ourgroup and witne$ the summoningof a spirit who had
died at Level Three. This spirit was rcpted to be so powerful that
anyone could hear him, and some people could see hin s well, at
L e v e l T h r e eh, e c e r t a i n l yh a d a l o t o f y a n g c h ' l .
The ghost was the spi.it of a sixteenth-centuryprince, and his
sravesitewas situtedin the PuncakPassnear Bogof in centralJava
Hc hd slainmny enen,esdurins hi! lifetime, and his kamrawas ro
watch ovc the island of Jvain retribution. For the last four centu
ries or so the lonely shosr had linsered on the hillrop rhat bore hk
grave,suardins his native land. Peoplecamc to sleepthere and ask
hin for lavor and protection,whlle Indonesiasleders,even in this
moder day, olten visited th site with variouspsychics
A largepay ofus walkedp the trail to th gravesite,an Indone
sian minister had pved that path wilh concretefor his own conve

nlcncr FIcr. was er<citedand anxious.l-lc had fist metJohn on a

husincsstransactionI had arranged,knowin8 nothing at the tie of
nry tcacheri powers.This trip had changedallthat;John hadshowed
hlm rnuch and welcomed him i'rio his home. But seeins this ehost
(wcll, hearinshim, anlvy)ws soins to be the picede rsistance.
I
yers
prince
for
to
hrd beenbeggingJohn
takeme tovisitthe
Hehad
linally .onented,adjust in time, In a few short monthsthe princ's
{piriLwouldbe goingup into the white waveforever Hercwas lucking
(,(t Vith us we.e Handoko, one of lndonesiasindustrialleaders,a
l.w hicnds,nd someofJohns stdents,fifteen peoplein all
"Did you brins yourriocassete recorder:"Handoko askedme
" N o p e .1 f o r g o ti t i n m y h o i e l r o o m "
"Peoplehave ried to record him ir the past,and all that comes
out G a kind of squeakinsnoise."
"Maybe he speaksdirectly to th b.ain centereof the people
present,"I said. "Maybe it's not sound t all, but simply seemsthat
"Yeah.Or maybe the spirit simply doesn'twant to be .ecorded,
and erasesthe tpe ech tifte."
"lnterestins phenomenon,thoush," Isaid. "lt alsoshowsthat Situ
hasnt planteda wirelessnicrophone somewherein thc area."
"Cood point," Handoko said.
Ve reachedthe area,and my brother stdentsimmeditelybegan to clear up and prepa.ethe site. As I had wiinessedin the past,
they laid out floweB and food for the spfit, nd lit up an incense
AU fifteen o{ us gatheredclose to the offerinss andJohn went
into editalion, summoningthe prince. lmediately we heard the
loud and shrill whining of the wind, th mark of a spirit. I saw th
incensestick move. Suddenly,to the risht of the offerings and di
rctly in frcntofmymaster, therewasano.ngglow Asweet,gertle
voie spoketo us in Indonesian.
"Creetings,Brother Chans," it said to my teacher "l am happy
that you a.e here with me again. You have btousht many iriends
today . . . many new faces Vhat are thir nanes?
"Handoko,"John began
"Handoko," the voice whisperedgently. "And next to him there
are white me'. Are thesemen from Hollandr"
"No,"John said quickly,"Dari,rdr,
. . from Creece."

137

I
'Ah r)/hai
a r et h e i rn a m e s ?t "h e p r i D c ea s K e d .
"Kosta nd Hercules,"John answered,and the spirit fepeated
I concotratcdas hard asI couldon the shini ng orangeltght and
made out a slim hand da.cing in it, but try as I might I could see
rothine more. The convBarionweni on, roo difficult for me to
understandwith ny poor Indonesian;atera rime,
.lohn thanked the
spirit and he left.
I immediarely approchedmy Master.'\X/hy did he ask if we
were hom Hollandr" I asked.
"tsecause
he sawHercules,s
blo,rdhir \T/hilethe princewasalive,
the white men who werecomins toJava were Dutch, and he was not
fond of them. He wonderedwht you were doins here, rhats ll ,,
Brr I thosht. Cood thins he under$ooo we were not hrs an
cient enemies."Did evryrhingAo well?" I asKeo.
"Not really. I wanted to ask him about a friendofine who was
dyinA, \aherheror not he could help, the spirit simply said that my
friend had developedbad ka.ma, and that it was the wi ot heaven
tht he die now He sussestedI remind my inend thar rhere wa!
a
Cod, to trust in Him complerely,and nor resistwhatever punish
ment his karma brousht him."
Iwas quiet. My teacher'swords hd movd me, and I realizedat
the sametime that he hd done us a grear honor
Ve were the fst white rnn thar rhe spirir of the prince had
seenin lour hundred years,rhe Iiret thar my Masrer had brought
up
r o t h e P u n .a t P d \ w , r h h r
I didnt know what ro say ro my teache. Once asain he had
honoted me beyond all words. HuggingJohn was out of the question;lava k not the Mediteranean, and the Chinesedidnotgo in for
displaysofaffedion in senerat.I hopedthat in the tuture I would
be
r b l " r o r e p a vh m r o . t h " m d n ys i l . L e h d d
s , v e nm
Ve met John in the late venjns and had dinner at his house,
as
usual Later, after the cstornary pleasanrries had ben exchansed
and $.e were sippiog rea our on his terrace,
John asked Henkf to
bring out his kerises.
There werc three of them, as Henky had said, one mofe beauti_

tul thanthe others.The btadesof the firsrrwo wereundulared,

bur
the lastand mostbeautitulhad a straight,unwaveriogblade.The

$udaccof the mctalwasblackcncd,

coarse,anddamascenedi
aswas
thc customin Malysiaand Indonesiarkeriseswere etchedwith hot
llmejuice andarsenicupon fabrication.
The kerisessmelled fra$ant, the
ace of the bladescoated
with a sweersmellingoil. I askedHenky what it was.
"The oil of a tree that we use for this purposein Indonesia,"he
saidsimply."lt is thir lvorite."
"lsee."
"You must usethe oil foom a living plant on a keris, nver a p
troleumderivative."
"Okay."
"So am L How much doesone of thesethings cost?"
"Betweenrwenty andforty thousanddollarc,if it hasrealpower"
"l doubt I'll ever own one, Henky, but thanks for the tip," I said.
"Youmaydesireone to pmtect your family in the future,"he said
simply.
John steppedin. "l think we should show Kosta and Doris what
the keris can do," he said."You must all sit down on the ground."
Doris complied immediately.I wasstupidenoughto ask,"Vhy2"
"Becauseitt better,"Johnreplied, simply enough.
Ve clearedthe coffee tble betweenus of the tea xensilsnd
cupsandsat down around it. I satacrossfromJohn; Doris wasto my
left, Henky acrossfrom her.
John took a saucerand fhpped ;t over, settins it down on its
face.He took a stick of incenseand lit it, laying it down carefullyon
the back of the sacerto protect the tabletop, which \ras Formica.
He took the smallestkeris and laid it out on the table, the blade
restingon the sheath.
Vithout warning he was all concentration,and my belly shook.
His facebecamelike a statueand I could almosthearhisheartslowins,
stopping Everythingseemedto condenseinto a spherearoundhim.
Suddenlythe blade turned to move over the incese.
Doris smiled.
John picked up the keris, played the incenseover it, and re'
turned it to its sheath.
"This one doesn'thaveall that much power,"he said.
139

He took out the seondkeris and laid it on the table rhe samc
way as he hadthe first. Agin he concentrated,rhis time briefly. The
secondkristurnedalso,rotatingto come overthe incense.lt seemed
to be eagerlyonsr-rminsthe
smoke,vibratins slightly asit did. Iohn
pickedit up.
"This one is in a very bad mood tonight," he said.'Iyy'ewill not
He set the point ol the keris into its scabbard.The keris pulled
the scabbardovr its "body" with much force, making a loud clack
rng norse.
"l'd like to seethat asain,"l sid
John smiled."All risht," he said. "Here, hold the scabbard."He
removedthe blade from its wooden sheathand offeredthe latter to
I took the wooden scabbardin my right hand, holding ftrmly.
John insertedthe tip of the blade into the sheath.Hewhispered
something to the keris
The scabbardwasjerkedfrom my graspwith considerableforce,
the keris blde pullins the wooden sheathover itself.
"As I said,"John remarked,"this one is in a very bad mood and
does not want to be bothered"
He removedthe blade from its sheath,playedthe incenseover
it, and retumed it to the scabbard.He placed it to one side.
Henky handedhim the lasrkerjs,the onewith the straightblade.
''Ihis
one is very powerful,"Johnsaid."He was madeduring the
early yearsof the Majapahit empire,and his narneis Samar"*
lohn laid the weapo on the table in a sirnilar manner,and it
immediately spun to settleove. the burning incensestick.
"SifLr,"Dor;s asked,"how do yo know its namer"
"He told me,"John answered."He rememberseverythiDsabout
hjs mkjng,the circumsrances
andthe time. He remernbershis name
as well. He is over five hundredyearsold."
John picked up the kerisand passedthe incensestick under it. If
piece
a
of metal could appearcontent, that one certainly did John
-

Since to know the nameol a keris is ro hve power over ir, I hve
chnAedthe weapon! nametD protect Henky.

14{)

to lhc wcapon,thcrls'riit down on thc table

whi{pcrcdson1clhing
siickbckon the dishandttrrnedto Henkv The
t't" pur thc lrrccnse
two m(:nsPoketo each other brictlv
evenins con
I looked at Dorls, who secmedverv happv That
viih spir{irrrcclfor her what I had told her of mv own expcriences
ils in John'scompanyin the Past
"Sihr,"sheaked,"how cn the kc'is do vhat it dos?
"lt
all practical
"Becuseit has vin power"' he answered is' for
'
purposes,a spirit
saucel lt had
Ireached out to adjst the incenestick on the
tht it mislrt
rolted near the edge of the saucer,and I was wonied
roll
'- off and burn the Formica
to ct me l
ifl. f.-o SarnarspLIna'ound verv fast and tied
gasped
pdled my hnd backin tim just asevervoneother thnJohn
"Becaretull"Henkv said. "Tlev have a mind of thir own' vou
this "l'm
I looked at the keris; somehowI knew how to handl
"liustwanted
said
notifngtotake awavvour incense'mv friend"'l
to adiustit on the tabl "
go aheadand
"ile doesnt understandEnglish,"John said "But
tru to make hinds with him "
witb one hand
I picked the weapon up ginglv bv the handle
oiherr I concenand passedthe incensestick ndr him with the
asI wouldhave
much
tratedan,1tr;e,1topro;ectappasingthoughts'
a dislike to me'
done with th pet of a friend that had taken
fecl the vibrventhoueh I was expectingit, it was thrilling to
tion in my hand asthe keris seemedto hum'
'
"Apologv accepted'''Johnsaid "Put him down
I did so.
what he can
"He is actullvvery nice and nov wanrrto show us
rh' teapon bLl' In ir\ '(dbbd d and 'er rr
do lohn sard He pr.rL
lohrr
and lookedat u'
do.n rhe h'lt l* 'ng rowardhrm'eh
"nied
said' andthe
tfu,"t tt n.'H" to"t.aat the kerisbriellv "smrl"he
the tabl
across
weapon leapt completelv out of its sheathto skip
andj mp into his openhand
\fle were delishted
said ves'
"Vant to seeit again:"John asked'and we of corse
141

He calledthe kertsagain,andoncemoreit jumpedoverto him

"He seemsvery eagerto please,"Doris said.
I was reminded of a golden retriever I knewr rheir dispositions
seemedabout the same.
JohnpickedSamarupbythe hilt andra|lrhe incnse
stickunder
him Th kerisvibratedin contentment.SuddenlyJobnlaughedand
put the wapon back in his sheath,haoding it to Henky.
"Like a bab9" he said."He hashtsown mind and his opinionsare
JustthenJohn'sLhasaapso,caltedLovely,trotted up to my heels.
I reacheddown to pet rhe turry back. Lovety sniffed around a bit,
wrstldbriefly with Do.is, then seroff to find somethingmorc in,
terestjngro ocupy her time.
'A
keris spirit is somethingltke that,,'Johnsajd,pointing to
Lovely. "lf you pet him and stroke him and feed htm regLrtarly,
he
will be loyal and happy.Ifyou starvehtm and ignore hirn, kick him
and beath;m, he canbecomeunpleasant.,'
"Their intelligenceis about the sme?,,
I asked.
"No. The kerist sentienceis not so developed.,'
"Situ,"Doris sid,'you can speakto him bccauseyou havecombined yin and yng, correct?"
"Correct."
"And how about usr Can he hearusr"
"Oh yes. He can lrearyou and seeyou and senseyou in ways
you cannot understand.Ir isyo who cannot speakwith himi you
must be into LvelThree to senseyin powei unlessyou learn how
to useyour drearns.'
"There is a lbetan Buddhistdreammeditationcaltedthe nr;lan,"
I saicl.
"Yes,and in Indonesiapeopleoften go to the gravesof Muslim
saintsand sleepthere," Henky said, "hoping to communicatewith
them. Frequentlythesespiritsdo speakto rhe peoplein rheifdreams
and give them a|swersto their quesrions',
"Sifu,"I asked,"doesthekerishaveyanglIsthat how he canm ove,",'
"No. He hasyin power rrappd inside a frame of meral He is
taking yang from me at my requesr But sincehe hasyin power, he
can absorb yang and so protect you. If an individual managesto
142

combine yin and yang, thcn he can makea keris movc and speakto
him t will."
I wanted to clearup somethingthat was gnawing at ihe back of
my mind, somethingthat would be incredibleif itwere true."Sifu,"l
asked,"Samaris a crsated
beins, isn't he?"
lookedt
me
wjth
interest."No, Kosta,you aremissingthe
John
point. Nice try, but no cigar, as they say. Samar is not a creted
beingar all, he s rh. exren.ionof a manwho ont e wa'.'
"Can you explainthis, Situ?"
"Vhen I first developedrny power,"John said, "l was curioos
about the abilitiesof the keris.In an antiquesshop I found a keris of
power that was rusting awayrthe storekeepercould not sensethat
the keriswascharged,you see.That weaponwas five hundredyears
old, but he thousht it was;unk and treatedit as such.lbought;t for
a few dollarsnd took it home,where I investigatedits origins using
my own skills.In the very centerof ihe keris, bLtriedin the layemof
metal,was a strip of pperon whlch a charm waswritten in Sanskrit
Ieiters.It wsvery similarto a Chinesetalisman,a fu. At that point I
undentood the techniqueof fabrictingthe keris."
"Vbatt a fur" Doris asked.
"A charm,aTaoisttalismanof protectionandhealing,"Iaoswered
quickly
her
and turned toJohn.
'A tu comesfrom oLrrown person,"Johnsaid.'Vhen we makea
and our power into the charm, and
fu, we extendour consciousness
thre that power can sruea specificpurpose.For exampJe,when I
speakto a keris, it is actuallythe spirit o{ the kerisi maker whom I
am speakingto, this m has,in the past,entendeda part ofh;s own
lifeforce and spirit into the fu in the heart of the keris."
'A
He leanedback.
tu is like an antenna,"he continued. "You
young
and wantedto medltate,Ihad ser;ousprob'
know when I was
lemsat nightbecausetherearso manymosquitoesherein theTiop
ics. \/e could not afford screens,and chemical repellentshad not
of their
yet beendeveloped,so I had problemsconentratinsbecause
fu
tbat
would
me
how
to
make
a
constantattacks.Liao Sifu showed
attract mosquitoes,I would focus,draw the charm on a pieceof papet andputpoverinto it. Then I wouldplacitin my bakyatdnd,
in this manner,be left in peacefor as long as I wanted to meditate.
143

After I finished,lwould tearup the fu and rcleascrhe mosquirocs;

there were alwayshundredsof them there "
"YoumeIl the mosquitoeswould be attractedto the paper?"
"Yes.But itwas my own lifeforcethat made the charm possible."
"How long doesa tu last:"
"All of theseitems have a time span,and their enersieshave to
Lrerenewedconstantlr"John answercd."ln the caseofthe keris,the
metal body naturallyholds the yin power well. Vhen the keris is a
family heirloom, its power is renewedon a ycarly basisbecauseof
the ceremoniesssociated\r.ith its keeping Butyou know, to makea
tu, the pnctitioner must hve abilitics like myself, and even then
perhapsmakesonly one or tvo fu in his \,/holelifetime. lr is no easy
thing The tourist'trade
fuyou seeforsaletn Toistrempleshaveno
rcal powr, they rc imitations,like a fake Rolex."
Doris was qit. "lt soundsalnost like magic,"shc said ftnally.
John shrugged."Perhapsin a way.Mdric, or sorceryifyou will, is
by definition the use of outsidc energiesro fulfil a specifictsk or
desir.Strictlyspeakjng,
sincea fu comesfrorrrour own pcrsor,rr rs
not nragic. One does not invoke spirits to rnakea fu. In any case,
Doris, even il you were to considerthcse kerisesrnagical,they are
oot m/ doine I am no sorcerer.Thc neikungrraining I have done all
my life sinrply givesme power over such things "
I thouthtover the conccpt of the fu as an ntennato thc dcad
makcr'sspirit. "Siftr,"l said,"you told me oncc ihat a spirit cannotlie.
That meanshe cannot createaswelli is that correcc"
"Yes,Kosta. It is the coming together ol yin and yang that al
lows crcation, it is specificallythis attribule that makesall lile on
earth special.The humanbeing is even more unique in that he possessesthe biological qualificarionsto |nakefulluse of the ability ro

@ E
(b)

of typicalChineseBuddhisttu usedlor prctection

Fig L An xample
lorcesis shownat (a) The Sanskntsvllableusedto charse
sainstneaative
the inasebv itselljs not
is depictedin (b). Ho,^,ever,
thtalisman
for youto copvit andattemPtto etplov it.
"charged'-itwoldbeuseless
"Yesand no. The personalityof the makerwas establishedduling his lifetime by the interaction of yin nd yang, now that h is
orcreate.I seewhatvouaresaving'
onlyyin, he cannotdevelop,lie,
though; hi decisionsare filtered by the fu and constrinedbv th
fact that h is a spirit. Tht is conect."
Doris looked at John. "ls h right? Is this writing dovn of the
characters-whether Saskrit or Chinese-during the talismant
making a kind of pro$amming?"
"Close enough,"John said. "lti a way of initializinc a process
Aren't you yourselfthe result of programmlngrYour brain, which js
a type of cornputer,read externalstimuli as input when you were a
baby.lt processedthe dat,and, through the yars,vourpersonalftv
was fomed. It is much dre same,excpt that you as a humanbeing
possessboth yin and yang in equal balance le keris does not
Making a fLtis like giving birth, in a way. You are essentillvputting
a part ofyourself lnto somethingelse,and this antennawill continu

"So this fu in the keris,this aotenna,ir feedsthe maker information and allows hirn to act on rhe earth aswell," l sid.
"Yes,but only with yin power,"Johnanswered.
"Fair enouch. How strong his influence is dependson the fu,
right2 It! Iike computer proramming,isnt ir?"

fol a given duration."

John pausedto hght a cisretteand leanedback "The problem
is,"he said,"thatmany IndonesiansandMalavsianstreartheir familv
kerisesas articlesof worship rather than the loval companionsof
mediocreperceptionthat they rea1lyare "
Doris iooked at Henky, who grinned
John smiled."Not Henky. The truth is, I doubt that a keris will
everwin theNobelPrize in physlcs,becauseofthe doubleconstraints

144

145

"Our brains"

tht we menrionedearlie.Samaris n exampleof a highly inrelli_

sent ooe A kerisshould be treatedlike a pet, fed and cared fo1 bur
neve. worshippdlike a sod. This is a very seriousmjstake,and one
I constantly'reproacbmy frtendsfor Somepeopleevenpray to their
kerisest"
Lovelycametrottingupagain.John
pickedherup,puther in his
Iap and beganto per her ''fhis is how a kerjs shouldbe treated-or
any fu, for that mafter like a loyal friend and protector. you can
caressher ifyou wish, bur I doubt you would everpray to her,would
you?There is only one Cod, and He aloneshouldbe worshippedby
Ve could not really addmuch to thar simplesratement.perhaps
ot all the thinss I had seenaroundJohn,the kerisand the concept ol
tu were the most shockins.I could seethat Doris wasshakenaswell
by the rmificarions.
Could all the myths and legendsof humanity indeed be true?
Suddenly many things were clear to me. Yearsof academicschooling stoppedbuftjng headswith yearsofsearchingfor esoterictruths,
.he momenrsI had spent with.lohn rushedthrcush my mind like a
hurrianeand I was grantedanswersto quesrionsrhat had plagued
I had graspedan undersrandtngonature.
It remainedto be seenwhat I would do wirh it
John studiedme caretullyand nodded.Perhapshehadseensome
lhing in my fcethr mirrordthe thoughtsracingthrough mymind.
Awkwardly, Doris and Istood up and said our goodnishts. It vr'as
Since that day I haveseenhundredsof kerises,somewith great
powel others with less,but each with its own distinct prsonality.
The phenomenonneverceasesto amazeme. I willclose this chpter
with the simple affirmation rhat I have becornconvinced that the
magic of the keris is genuine.For the moment, to sayanyrhing more
would be pointless

146
The Keris

Chapter Tn

THF NATUREOF
REALITY

It was at sunseton a bach on the island of Evia, north of Athens,

that I finally enteredinto hypernormalstatesofconsciousnessI \vas
seatedin a half lotus, engagedin my LevelTwo exercises,prtlling in
yang ch'i, se,rdingit down to my dntien, aod compressingit tbere
by yogically holding rny breath.
Suddenly there was a whirrinc noise, like a helicopter or the
propeller of a boat (indeed,at first I thought there wa boat pass
ingby). The noisekept gettinslouder andlouder Vithout warning,
everythingwent black: CoodGod,I'nbaoinga strokr,lthought kwas
not an uncomfortablefeeling, howeveri indeed, the sensationws
ratherpleasant.lobsewed the phenomenonfor a while, complelelv
awareandconscious,beforeI beganto teelafraid and pulled mvch'i
back up.
The world carneback to me and I reeled,dizzy for a few seconds.I felt powerful,notweak; thiswas no stroke.Vnting to finish
the set of exercisesI had begun,I sent my ch'i back down lmtnedi'
ately,the whirring noisebeganagain,but this time I wasapprehen
siver I interrupted the processand pulled away A third repetition
yielded the sameresult. It was gtting to be too much l stood on
shakylegs and walked over to where Doris was waiting
14?

She was furious."l thought you said you were only going to be
twenty minutesor sol" shesaid.
"Vell, I wqs,I mean,Ithought. . . . Vas llater" Istammered.
WlJrftdithetine40, I thought. A yogic repetition usuallytook me a
minute; I had wanted to do twenty before we went to dinnr t a
"Vhat are you talking about?I'v been waiting hete watching
you for forty-five minuteslYou didn't rnovet all for at leasttwenty
minutesone time. Iwas worried."
I wasshocked.lt seemedthat,for twenty minutesor more, I had
of time.
held my breath and lost all awareness
I immediatelycalledJohn.
"Congratulations,"he said.
"Vhat do you mean,congratulations?"
"Cood experience.It meansyou're progressingwell along l-evel
Two."
"lt was supposedto happenr"
"Sure."
"\i/hat ws the whirring noise?A Sufi friend of mine sidthat it
was the dantient chakrawheel as it spun."
down to
He laughed."Oh yeahl Youtransfenedyour awareness
your dantien,thats all."
Thatl alll The miraculoushad apparentlybecomeroutine and
the sublimecommon aroundJohn. How could I go about brinsins
such knowledge to the Vestern world without being ridiculed or
condemnedzVhat was the best \{ay to proceed?And how to kep
my own ambitionsand hopesat bay while I did so?Tiese thoughts
were formost on my mind at the time of the above incident, and
with good reson.
You will recall that Liao Situ made my teacherpJedgenever to
demonstratehis powersin public, nor usethem for profit or for vil
purposes.Vhen lohn made the decisionto so aheadwith a book
and film in May 1996,he consultedwith his Master,who had djed
mor than thirty-four years earlier and gone up in 1992.To reach
Liao Sifu'sconsciousness,
John fastedfor more than ten days and
out nd avy. Liao
entereddep mditation,sendinghis awareness
Sifu told him that it would be okay to proceedrthe time was ripe,

r48
The Ntureof Relity

runtlhunanity wasrcady.tlc alsowarncdJohn tht w would bear

rhc karmaof the effort lfwe could teachhumaniiv about the factual
l)cocfits of meditatioo, ch'ikung, and neikng, then the blessitss
would be greatlndeed,it it backfired,andw createda Frankenstein
rhenrhe tarma wouldbveD bad.
nr,,n,ter,
Vhen initially taking up the task of producing a book for mv
tcacher,I had quickly senthe need for a noted scientific authoritv
to lend credibil;ty to what I was writing l was lso acutelv awareof
thc limitations imposedbvJohn! oath to his own Master' A public
clcmounder chnlcal conditionswas not permitted The plan I came
up with to overcomthis obstclwas simple'John was allowed to
lrcat anyonewith a real illness,andthe phenomenonof electrogen
csishe used during theseacupuncturetratmentswas enougn or a
demonstrationfor any clinical phvsicist.Mv strategvwa to tind a
distinguishdauthority who was ill, set up a therapv sssionwith
u
John, and hopetully induce this man or womn to support John
students
front
of
those
coLrldthen do a f"ll demonstrationootlttr in
o[his who were alsodegreedscientists,there vere quite a few ofus
It would be enough,with the right personin ourcorner I spentlong
lrours feeling peoplc out and setting up contactswith eminent rescarchers.ln two such casesJohn got cold feet at the last possible
lnstant,and I was left with making the necssaryphone calls to the
rnen (who were probablv convincedat that moment that Dvnamo
Jackwasa fraud).
Aftermany frustratingmonthsI returnedto Indonesiain November 1997,whereI met with AndreasandHandoko At that tim Chans
ques
Sifu reaffirmedtous that a public demonstrationwas out ofthe
tion, \trhile he had receivedpemission from his teacherto do a book
and film, he wasstill bound bv his promiseto Liao Situ ln the round'
rable discussionsthat folloved, Andreashad the idea of bringing
LawrenceBlair*into the prolect,asa filmrnakerwhohad alreadvwitnessedwhat our Mastercould do, and becauseRrrg oJFnehad been
our introduction to.lohn in the first place h was a good idea The
next mornins I boardeda plane(or Bali and beganlooking for Blair

S e er h e r n t r o d u c n ^ na n d c h a p t e rI

149
The Nture of Reliq,

Now, LawrenceBlirandJohnhadnotspokenlof tcn ycrs;thc

latter was ansfy with the former, for he beltevedthat Dr. tslairhad
rricked him. Accordins to John, the orisinl foot{refor Rr 4 oJFre
had bccn fllnied for the purposeof scientificldcnftrridrlo,of his abili
ties,not lor commercil
use.LawrcncewastenifiedolJohn dnd had
stayedaway from him for ten yearswhen he heard that my teacher
I mct with Dr Blairthat sameevenjns in his housein Ubud, ac
cording to him, a mimnderstndingwast the coreol the mdttcr Blail
had Lrsedthe Malay word/ollunoriairwhilespeakinsvithJohr, Chans
Sitr! had construedthe $.ord to mean "documentatior,"while ar the
samctnne Blairbelievedhe had carteblanchcto usethe footase.
I brought the two ften tosthef that wek, with thc intcnt of
having Lawrenccdo a seconddocumentaryenploying rhe existing
footage he had from R':4 oJFrre.
Apparently that meetinsv/ent very
well bccauseJohn
reachedan rrnexpected
decision,Dr Blairwasgiven
pennissionto shoot a rsxrdocunentarv on John, wirh Henkyt assis
tance.I breatheda siebof relief,freeto continuewith .ny ovn pfoject.
I had an agendato keep. I wanted to reach out to those ltke
myseli, peoplewith \(/esterntechnicaldegreeswho were alsoexpe
riencedmdrtialartists,peoplewho couldandwouldcombineJohn!
neikung training with an orthological approachand \X/esternsci
cnce. lt had tken humanity a long, long tjme to evolve such stock,
menandwomenwho werenitherEastnorVest but a littleofboth.
Itwas timeto cashin on the investmnt.PerhapsthosewhomCeorge
Lucashad namedtheJed; would come in the flesh.
But it would be no easytask,for the rulescould not be broken I
knew first-handwhathappenedwhensomeonebrokean oath around
John. Let me shareone such incidnt \i/ith the reader:

A ChanSjein the Weather

I wasdrivine backdown toAthens frornmy villagein northernCreece
when the rainstormhit
\X/rth me in my V\v Colf was Spiro, a twenry-isht-yearold
pilotwhows both a tiiend andmy studentin the martial arts Itwas
sprinstime, llowerswe.e everywhere,and Easterhad come and sone.
The sun was shining and ther was not a cloud in the sky.

150
The Ntureof Reliry

Q u i L cs u d d c n l ra n d i n v i r w o t d r c l a c t t h a r S p i . o t t h e rh d
jus1lost a kidncy ro infectioD,rhe ropic of our conversationrurned
t o d e a t ha n d t h e p o t e n t i a l o f a na f t e r l t f el h a d k n o w n l o h n f o r a b o u t
year at the time and ws b(6ting to tell so'neone,anyone,what I
had witncssed.I was,however nderst.icr ordersnot to discusswhat
I had seen,alrd had promisedJohnas much
Scizing the moment, I told Spi.o whr I had learnedin Indone
sia, how there was no longer any dobt i. 'ny mind that there was
life after death. I describedthe whiie wave and the blck wave and
whatJohn hd tught me.
Suddenlya massof water struck the windshield I couldnt see,
and tu.ncd the wipeB on.
\X/ewere passinsfreshly turned fields '\fe musr have pa$ed
ihfotgh a sprinkle.,"I said to Spiro. Srnge that I hadn'r seenit.
Half a min(te or so went by as I drove on \yater kept poudng
down on th windshieldwith unbridled ferocity,I clickedthe wipe6
to their highestspeed.
"No, its a rinstonn,"Spiro said He was puzzled.As a profrsionalpilot,he krew aboutwearher,and therehad beenoo indicarions
wewould be havinga showel let aloneone ofsuch inteDsiryThe rai
continucd to pummelus wilh vigor so much th1I could hardly see.
\N/erode on in silence After abour a mile I noriced sonethiDe
stmnge The ca6 that e.e conine toward ne in rhc oppolite laDc
didn't hve their wipe.s on.
I lookcddown aLthe ground aswe paxed. kappcaredto be dryr
"Vhat kind ol fockins raiDsrormis thisr" I said ort loud
At the same oment I hcrd a snall and frishLnedwhimper
kom the pasengers scat "LIh, did you do somerhingyou weren't
supposedto when you told re bout all thisz"Spiro sked I looked
over at him He was white with fear and amazemcnr.
"l don't knoq" I said The situation was sureal, like a cartoon
broughtto llfe, and I wasbeeinninsto enjoymyself.I adually srinned,
then looted up at the heavens.
"l'm s.,.ry Sif!," 1said "lt won'r happe. again."
Spatteing s with the rattle of a few final drops, the rain sud
denly stopped I pulled over to the curb aDdwe sot out quickly.
M y W w a s s o a k e d . Iht a d t h e l o o k o f a c a rt h a t h sb e e nl e f t i .
tropicalthnderstorns for aweek. Other cars,conpletely dry kept
psins us left and riaht aswe stood on the side ofthe road.The sun
was shiningras before, rherewas not a cloud in the sky.

151
The Ntureof Reality

Spiro cauaht my cye. "Okar" he rid, "either it didn'1happen

and I walk away from you, or it did happenand t haveto start tfain
ing " He qausedfor a secondand smiled "Vhen can you show me
Level Onez"
I c a l l e d l o h na ss o o na ! l s o t b a c k h o m e ,d e s c d b i n st h e i n c i d e n t
to him. He let me have it, holding nothing back
"lt was hom my Master" he said."Next time, when you make a
promjse,you keep it no matter whau"

Since that day I have kept every promis I have made. I fear my own
pride and $eed, yo see, and try to be av/arc of thm as rnuch s
possible. In writjng this book, forexample, in presentingJohn to the
\7est, I am walking on a tishope. I, too, will have to pay the karma
of my action nd intentions, good and bad. I dread the latter, my
heart is far lrom pure, andrny hands notas clean as lwould Iike them

RFINVENTINC
THT\(/HTL
As I've statedrepeatedly,the point is not to subiugateEasterosci
ence to \/estem,but rathr to createa rri, sciencethat is neithr
Eastnor Vst. Scientifictheory is always to paraphraseDr Frlqof
Capra*-at bestan drproxindtior,
someone!attemptto modlor doument the underlying nature and processesof physical reality. Fol
example,classicalNewtonian theory was quite adequatelor illus
tratingthe behaviorof large,slow'moving masses,
but had problems
charcterizingelectromagneticfields and even more problems on
th atomic scale.The trials and tribultionsof the world'sthinkers
can be amusingto follow (ifyou're the type of individualwho enjoys
watching intelligent peoplerunning headfirstinto brick walls).Two
hundredyearsago,for exarnple,peoplebelievedin somethingcalled
loln]'on,an imasinarysubstancethought to exist only becausehumankinddid not prope yunderstandcombustion.The failureto come

up with an adequatemodcl for combustionwas an insurmountable

obstacleagainstreal progressin chemical theory. Never willing to
say"l don't know,"the scientistsof the day announcedth existenc
of the imponderablephlogiston, substancecontinedin all materialscapableof sustainingoxidation.There is,ofcourse,no suchthing.
I could not, asa scien.ist,discountwhat Ihad seenwith my ov/n
cyes,and, unlessJohn was the greiestmagicianin th world (or a
genetic mutnt), there was no way he could be tricking so many
people. You can compltely discount the rnetphysicalaspectsof
this text as Johns own impressionsor delusions,but ther was no
discountingth energiesthat I and thousandsof people had wit
nessedand experienced.In addition,theassumptionthatJohni powers are the result of a genetic mutation is not vlid, becauseall his
studentsencounteredthe energish describedv/ithinour own bodies
during our training. In a sparringsession,for instance,I accidentally
nearlykilled one of my own students,who had surprisedme with a
quick punch. In raction I hit him in the chest with my right palm
while blocking with my left. The man a strapping,powerfulCreek
villager-immediarely suffereda mild heart attack and collapsed.
There wasno rationalexplanationforsuch a reaction,nolcouldany
clarification of his condition be found in a hosoital. He was. and
thankfully still is, exceptionallyhealthy.
Th cornerstoncof our body ofknowledgeis the scienceof physics.Most peopletoday take quantumphysicsfor granted,or look at
that sciencewith distrusr,indeed,its immdiatepracticalapplication,
nuclearpower,will plgle usuntilwe cometounderstandthephysics
of fusion.In 1905,when Albert Einstin(then a clerk in the Swiss
patntoffice) publishedhisnow classicpaperson relativitsr/
andwhat
wasto becomequantummechanics,theresponefrom theestablished
community of Newtonian physicistsv/asquite vicious.Despitethis
outcry within two decadesa teamof dedicated,brilliaot men,*work
had irrefutablysetthe foundationsof
ingcrossinternationalborders,
quantumtheory The point is that manl perceptionof the universe

Capn, Fitjol,'I\e TdooJPrlicr (NewYork,BantamNew AgeBooks,

1977).
152
The Ntureof Relity

Heisenbe.s,
EMin
Einstein,Max Planck,NielsBohr \Y/erner
\X/olfgang
Pauli,PaulDirac,andLoisde B.oslie
Schrdinge.,

The Nture of Relib/

changedradicallyand suddenly,destroyingthe establishedconcep,

tions of the scintificcommunity in a short and bewildering twenty
years.\X/hile it is more comforting to think that scientificthory is
constant and on top of things thus reducingthe insecurityin our
own lives the truth is that scientific theory is ever changingin its
attemptsto describrealiry And I use the tem eovchan4n4rather
than mabh4 purposely,becausein many casesthe departurefrom
establishedpatternsof thought hasbeen quite revolutionary.
Imagincthe shockto the establishedscientificcommunitywhen
the realit/ of the atom came to be understood.Until then people
had supposedatoms to be incrcdibly hard, indivisible part;clesof
solid rnss,qonturn rnechalics (and the discovery of the X ray)
showed thm to be mostly space,existing only in relation to ach
other and definableonly by the lawsof probability.
Relativity theory and quantummechanicsare, of necessity,holistic and ecological,however as far as humanityt social evolution
goestheir discoveryis fairly recent,andtherehasnotyei beeneogh
time for them ro have a benevolenteffect. (lndeed,their initial de,
rivative nuclar power-has to date been negative) It is certaio
that we will see their poitive sid in the next fifty years;for the
moment it is reassrringto know that thc creatorsof quantumtheory
thmselvesquickly ppreciatedhow closely their new physicsfol
lowed the model of Eastrn mysticism.Many of thern beganstudy
ing the wisdorn of the Eastin ordr to bfler understandtheir own
bfainhild. Niels Bohr visitedChina in 1937 Vhen he wasknishted
ten years later by the king of Denmark, h chosethe t'ai chi (yin
yang) symbol as his coat of armsto acknowledgethe harmony be
tweenancrenrFarrernand modcrrr\{esrernriences
Letus assurnefor a secondthat bothJohnt abilitiesandhis theories prove tru. Iwould like to iouch upon what such information
could offer humanity.(For a more detailedapproach,turn to appendix 2.) ln the third century cE Chinesesagesdescribedthe process
by which things were createdfrom the Sourceand would return to
it.r5To symbolizethe statebefore time and spacebegan,thosewho
would come to be calledTaoistscameup with the concept ofwu-cht
(literally,"ther is no extremity"),symbolizedby a circle. \/u-chi is
thecondition ofstillnessinwhich allthings areund;fferentiatedtoom
154
The Ntureof Relity

thc ultilr]ale. lirom this statc a point ol moveDcnt, of pure yang,

shinesoutThereis interactionbtwcenyin andyangleadingto the
stateof t'al chl (the supremeextrmity)' here yin and yang are emlrraced,distinct yet togther,countractingeach others forces.

(d)
Iis 2. (a)\/ chi, pureyin. (b) and(c) A lprkof movementin the
(illness;yansin th centerofyin.(d)T'ai chi;yin andvangetbraced

IfJohn! theoriesand the modelin fisure 2 areaccurate,thn our

own archetypeof the universeis missinga key ingredient:the fact
rhat the substanceexistingbefore the "Big Bang"*is in constntinuiverse,stillDess(vin)
terplaywiththelabricofourpresentphysical
and motion (yang) foreverbalancedasone. It ls safeto saythat such
a postulatewould accont for the many discrpanciesin physial
theo)y that scientistsaroundthe world have obseruedand reported
The yin is not preciselythe "ther"sought by Hendrik l-orentz and
Jules-HenriPoincar,i'6but it /o?roffer many exciting possibilities
*

Assuminsthat there @a5a Big 8ang.The Chinesemodel also covemthe

possibilitythat eners'l'is constDtlybeing Prodced,and the universe
hasno bsinnins or end.
t Intrestinslye.ouch, whn Poincarpostultedthat a clock slowed in
rime s it moved irto the ethet he ws describinsone of the attrib(Itesof

155
TheNtureofRelity

John dkclosed the following key sraremcnrro rne on one occasion' "Everythingoathe earth is yang, but rhe earth irslf isyin.',Fof
me, asa scientist,this impliesthatyin energyis associtedwithgravitational,wellssuch as planetsand singulariris,and that the balance
describedby the t'ai chi symbol existsin the universeas follows,

STAR,/SOLAR
ENERCY
CREATER
YANC

C
Fig 3. Mac.ocosmic
yanAandyin.
This simplediasramsusgestsincrediblethinss. First of all, I am
fairly certain that the yang ch'i is a solar phenomenon.*John had
said,'The yaDgch'i is in the air; oaturcreatesit.,'l haveseenit ro be
blue in color, as I noted e(lir As a neikung traine,I can feel the
yang ch'i constantlystored within my dntienrit is hot, just as rhe
classicalChinesetextsdescribeitto be. Both.heseobservationsmsh
perfectly with Vilhelm Reich,swork on the orgone.It seemsaswell
that the conceotrarionof yang ch'i increaseswith increasingelevationi in otherwords,yangch'itendsto breakawayfom
enviry (v/hich
is why yogis flock to the mountains).I can feel the yans ch,iwanrins
to go up within myown body, ifrhat is ny indication.The existeDce
of the yang ch'i clearlyshowshow insanewe are asa species,Considering that our currentlifestylis benr on dstroyingrhe environment,

Indeed, I believethat, like lisht photons,yaosc6'i is neithe.a particle

nor a wave but borh.

156
The Ntureof Relity

ind asslrmingthat oaturccirculatcsand propagatescsseorillife en

crgy,thenby eliminatingnaturewc arekillingourselves.
The greatsurprise,however,inJohni model of the univene is yjn
cnergy,becauseit simply behavesunlike any otherrecordedphysical
phenornenon.
Nothingaccountsforit nottelekinesi,notmindcon
trol.John passedit tnto my body on severaloccasions,
andthe sensa
lion wasunlikeanythinselseI haveencountered.kwas a coldrush, a
winter breeze,the vacuumof outer space.ClassicalChinesetheory
calledthe yin ch'i larr (watel) in an artemprto describeits texturcr
likewise,ir had calledthe yans ch,i l;i (fire). Both namesare apropos.
The law of conservationof energyis a foundationpillar of phys
ics.Duling the incidentat the prwn farm,whenJohn passedthe yin
ch'i into our bodiesand we caughtthe bulletsfoomthe air rifle, rhere
hadbeenno deforrnationofthe lead pellet,norany radiationofheat.
This suggestedthat the bullet'senergywas not conservedbut rather
somehowceasel
tonrsr llndercunent physicallaw,thjs is not possible.
The prospectthat such a continuumexistsin our v/orld, passive
but everpresent,is mddeninglyexcirig.The yjn is the primalchaos
that existedbeforematterand space-timehad corne;suchorder aswe
haveln our world comesfrom the interactiondefinedby the tai chi
symbol.YinJor{4rt
againstyang,but the balanceof their forcescreated
life.I reckonedthatunderstanding
rhe natureof yin andyangch,iwould
givehumanityantignvity,faster,than-light
speed,andalmostcertainly
cluesto the riddle ofrime; Ihadvalid reasonsfor theseassumprions.

Levitation
Ve were in Barcelona.John ws tourins Europein the company o{
th lndonesianminister of th inrerior; he had conlided in me jokinsly that the man fek saferwhen he was a,ound
John came into my horel room nunchtng on Indonsianpenuts, he tossdme a bas and slumpedinto a lounge chair For a few
momena we madesmall talk; thn, quite sddent, rhe topic turned
to the subjecrof ch'i in relatjon to the biophysicalsciences.
"You cannot study ch'i undel a microscope,"John said ,,Ch'i is
the study of our.xridc., not simpl matrer Forexanple, ifyou have
ch'i,yoq can bypasslvhatwe definerody asnariallaw you can walk
throush walls,you can risfrom the ground,you can doanythinss.,,

157
The Ntureof Relity

"You mean levitation," I said."So the sroriesof yogis lcvitaring

off the grond in meditation are true. Can you do tharz"
"Of course/'he replied.'1t took me only a lew monrhs to learn
ihat t.ick, bu1 i1! lto bis deal You just rtse up abour yard off the
Croundand sil thert, yocannotmovein anydirction,just backdown ,,
"Yes,but...."
"N butst"heitempted. "Anyone withch'i cn lea.n howro do
this.Itl nothingl" He rhought thatstatementover for a second,then
added,"But firsr yo hust have ch'i "
"Car yo show me rhis, Sifr17"
John looked at mc with disappoinrment."Surc,"he sid,and sa1
down on the 1loo.,crossinshis leesin a fullloxrs. He becamestlll; it
appearedthat his brearhingstopped. He was a sratueof an Eastern
mystic lor a timc.
Smoothly and suddenl, almost matter-of-factly,he rose horr
the floor at lesieisht iDchcs,and remainedrhere.
My breath causht in my throat, alter half a minute or so, John
cmeback down
"Thecarpet is synrheti.,"he said,sindinsup, ,,rheMiseIwould
have risenmch more."
I thankedhim repearedly,he seemedsurprisedthat I was so impressed.Forhim it hadbeer nosrct fear{ pa.lortrick, funcrionally
uselcs exceptasa demonstFtion of the inhercntcapaciricsoinan
"\/e'regoingolt t dinrcf," he saidat the door "CominAwith us:"
"Chineselood asin)" I asked
"Yes.The.es a sood Chineerestaurntdown the s1reer.,,
The little hairson thc back of my oeck stoodup.
" S i t u , I"s a i d ," r n a yI a s ky o u s o m d h i n s :Y o u ' v e b e etno F I o l l a n d ,
Cermanr Arstri, Swirze.land,Italy, Nice, and now Spain, richrl,
He nodded."All this time, hveyou only eatenChineseloodz"
"Ofcourse not " he replied iDdiAnantly."Sometieswe earThai

For an immediate outlook as to how modern marhematrcs cn b

applied to Johnt theories, look at the work of Dr. IIya Prigogtne.* In

Bestknown for his confiburions to nonequilibriumstaristicatmechan

ics and his theorieson the role of time in ireversible processes.

154
The Nture of Relity

l!)77hc rcccivcdLhcNobcl llrizc lor showinsrhatcomplexchemiintoltructuredrelationhips

calsystems
tendto organizihcnrsclvcs
vords,
that
ol their own accord in othcr
self organiztionis fLrndamentalcharcteristicof the universe.Thesechemicalsystcmsbe
havc in such a manneras 1rlalmostbe alive, except for the fact that
ihey do not generatcor reproducccells Suchseli organizedsystems
seemto be the halfijr'aypoint betwccnwhat can be consideredlive
and whal cannot. lndeed,in recent decadesour establishcdconcep
tions of what life really is have receivedsevereblows. Viruses,for
example,cannot rcally bc consideredalive as we deiine the term
today becaueoutsideof a livirlg ccll they have no real "stateof be
ing." It is only when they have infected a host and pcnctratcda ccll
thar they form a systernin conjunctionwith the cell, this systemdors
function in a self organizcdwy Cotrary to most othel examples
of the biological cycle, howcvcr, the vi'us cell systemt purposeis
not the slrf,/ivalofthe system,but simply the gcnerationof hundreds
of nev vimsest the expenseof the original ell Perhapssuch be
haviorcanbe explainedby the simpleinterplayofyin andyangforces.
Mrusesaside,I arn convincedthat complexityand chaostheory
hold the mathematicalfomrula for modeling the intraction of yin
and yang. As such, I sincerlyhope that this rext will provide the
impetusfor sucha model to be formulated.I cannot stress
necessary
enoughtht the yin-yangimagemadepopularby modernculturehas
beenmisinterpreted;yin andyang are,asI havesaidrepeatedly,0ppo5'
i''4 forces.*Yet life itself is a combination of yin and yang energies
runningin parallel.As such,thc archaict'aichi synbol Geefieureab)
describestheir balancefar bette. than the modernsymbolusedtoday
(figure4a).The configurationsuggestedby figrre 4a is a descriptio
of yin andyans in flow andby natureincorstant. lt could be saidthat

'The

newer gre is alchemical,describiDgthe transition and flu of

nrgy with time rather than a steadystatesituation.The cunent
asttophysicalmodel of the evolutior of stamhelps us understandthis It
would seemthat the growth of a sta. to the red-siant stage,and its
subsequenttrandormation i'o a black hole, sugsests transition ko
greateryans to yin. Check appendix2 for turthe. analysis.

159
"l1leNture of Relity

(")

(b)

Fis 4 Yn andyaDsin balance.

Tbe figrreshownin (a)is undertension,
it relatesto LevelsFouraDdFiveof neiknstraininsadrequires
heishtenedstatesof enersy.This symbolis erroneously
usedin poputar
vo.k to describethe naruralstateof our li feforces,
balance,
which is
moreaccurarely
depictedin (b) (ThirdcenturycEdepiction)L?

into the yang with each poch. It semsunlikely that the ncient
Chineseunderstoodthe evolutionaryprocssbetwen1000BcEnd
300cE,when the yin-yang theory wastully developed.Moreover,as
statedby the Tao I Ching and confirmedbyJohn, in order forlife to
exist,Iiving beings(plants,animals,bacteia) must haveboth yin and
yang ch'i running parallelto each other A wooden tbl is simply
yang and lifeless,whlle a tree has both yin and yang nd is alive.
Vhat I am saying,in summary,is that the reality of yin and yang
energislendscrdnceto ourhopesthat thrersa CreatorCod, and
to the idea that t ' 'rirrfse uasactualized
uith th htat oJtrrodnngl: axlJ.
And thls, ln our age ofrigid logi, is perhapsthe most shocking
realizationof all.

the archaicmodel better depictsyin and yang in their most productive balance,at rhar moment when the rwo energiescombineto create life, whereasthe modern symbol better describestheir l,rocess
oJ
cbd|e ovet tlme. (One xamplewould be that of a star in the red
giant phase*greater yang transforminginto a black hole, or lesser
yin. More on this in appendix2.) In the humanbody the moderntai
chi symbol is stricrly alchemicaland requiresheighrnedstarsof
energyto exist (though once ach;eved,it is permanent).
I will closethts chapterwith one final bornbshell.Considerthe
yin sthe primal qualty beforespacetimi the anragonisticcomple
ment of our own yang nature.John himsell senssyrn energyby ,rs
interactionwith yang; he feelsan electricalcurrentwhen the two enersiesare brousht together(asdo we all). Sincerhe yans ch'i is both
a prerequisirro and a resultof life-,--andassumingt is, as I believe,a
solafeoerg./-ahen its precenceimplies thar rnerewas n intenr be
hind the crationof mafter l/ecn setestimonyof our continuous
growth from the yin toward the yang in the evolurionaryrecord of
life. \Y/hile our universeis a balanceof yang and yin forces,some
things are more one than rhe other. \X/ateris considereda yjn ele
ment. Life besan in the oceansin the form of ltuid one celledcre
tures,evolvedinto plants,into fish;and finally steppedawayfrom the
yin to the solid shore iD the shapeof amphibians.Our evolutionary
processcontinued on the land, we are still growis more and more

160
The Ntureof Relity

l6t
The Nture ofRelib),

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

Epilogue

FORA BREATH

r TARRy....

THELIMITSOFCRO\/TH
A human being is a part of the whole, altedby us'Llniveree.". . .
The delusion(of separation)is a kind of prison for us . . . Our task
must be to hce ourselvesfron this prjson by widening our circle of
compassionto enbrace all ltving creaturesand the whole oi nature

mean that everything Chang Sifu belivesin is scientificallyverifi'

able, nor that it should be taken as gospel.As a scintistI cannot,
and will not, arguewith this mode of thought.
I can take such a functional analysisa step farther Let me as_
sumethatyou acceptboth myown sincerityand thatofmy teacher:
Everything I have written here is fct and you believe it. The.e is
still room to wonder v/hat the point behind all the effort is. I mean,
why botherz \trht is to be practically gained by the lessonspre'
sentedin this txt?Evenif everythingstatedhere is factualandtrue,
how and why should it affectyour day-to-dayexistence?
The answris quite simple.Ifour day-to-dayexistencewere not
injeopardy if we didnot nedthe lessonsprovidd in this workthe demonstrationswould never hav taken place, nor would this
volume hve everbeen writtenIt is a stpleof rhe Chineseesotrictradition to void intervention in the courseof the affalrsof the world at large.Ve have seen,
however,that historically this tradition has been broken from time
to time, and that many masten (suchas Pai Lok Nen and Mo'Tzu)
havewalked a fine line, mersins theif karmawith the world'swhere
they aw fit. No Taoistmstet not even on at hvel Seventy-Two,
is a god; they all remain human beings,with the desiresand motions of a human being, however refined. Foremostamong these
emotions ar love and concern for their fellow men and for the
progressofhuman cultwe. They lo give a damn,so to speak,aod do
not lwaysstndby and watch. Sometimesthey step in, and this is

AlbertEinsrein
This book may have been no more to you than journey throush
Vonderland. A logical man might not wish to so too far in concurring with wht he has read. For exarnple,if I myself $.ereoutside
looking in and oor intimately involved wirh rhe project, I would
probably be very hesitanrro expressa positivejudgmenr. Cranred,
thousaodsof wirnessescan affirm thatJohn Chane hasuniqueabili
ties Perhapsa hundred rnore,*ch as myself, would be willing to
come forward aod swerin court thar he possesses
the knowledge
whefeby most men can developsomeproficiencywith whar we (un,
til now) have labeledparanormalsktlls.To the skeprirhis doesnot
162

I do not know Chang Sifu'sreasonslor opening up his teaching

ro the world, but I do know my own. Therefore, in this sction, I
would like to speakfor myself. \(hat follows is basedon my own
idealsand opinions,and doesnot necessarilydefinethe teachingsof
Chans Sifu. However,nuch of my rationaleis grondedin my experiencesvith him. Therefore, any errors are my own, wbile any
credit belongsto my tacher
\]/e live in problematicworld. It is readily apparentthat greed is
our major sin, the major cancer inherent in our Vestern lifestyle.
''fhls much is enough," and that has been our
Ve can never say,
163
EpiloSue

downfall. Most of us are not aware,or simply do not cre,that our

standardof living is in fact destroyingboth our planetand ourselves.
I will addressthe destnrctionof both our bodies and our wortd, but
before I do, I would like to addressthe issueof sreed.
It is very d;fficult to dealwith an intansible. How do we define
gred? Most dictionariescal! it "an ardent and selfish desire.,Itt as
good a definition asany.I prefrtouse th trm shortsigbtercss,
which
implies that the personsufferingfrorn greed is not awarthat in the
end he is doing his own self harm. He simply does not have the
perception to seethis.
Properperceptionis an all-importanttrait and a djfficult one to
understand.Ve must be able to disengageourselvesfrom events,to
look t them completlydetachedlyin order to be ableto assess
cri
teriacorrectly.Ther is rhe much,usedmodel of the antelopeand the
biologist, for example.To a herd of antelopes,a lion is an evil ntity,
intent only on killing and rend;ng.To a biologist, however,the lion
hasa purposein the schemeofthings, the predatorjs in fct ensuring
the continued survivaland health of the prey. Insidenaturessystem
otchecks andbalances,one cannotsurvivewithout the other Butthe
antelopedoes not havethe percptionro seeits dependencyon the
lion, and thereforewould like nothing btter than to be rid of it.
It is unfortunate that life is somwhattike this example.Our
dsiresand preconceptionsinduce us to look at the \rorld stnctly
from our own standpoint.The twin axiornsof ignoranceand greed
often serveto further separateus from reality as wet1.Sometirnes.
people as a masscan persistin a distorted standpointto the extent
that they wind up doing rhemselvesor others damage.Many cultures have reachedannihilation in rhis manner.r/e in the modern
day, too, have pushed the limit fat but luckily we have also been
given time and the meansro stop our self destrudion. Most people
do not realizethat we have becomelike the gods of old mythology,
for we have almost unlimited power and \i/ealth but lack the common senseto useit corrctly.'3
Man is by instinct andevolutjon a pack animal,mor content to
follow than to explor and individually decide for himself. Vhen
under the direction of the leadersof our society,we commonly let
things go until we are hard pressedto ignore them, regardlessof
164
Epiloue

whetherthis hasa positivcor ncgativeoverallellect on our well'

is
being.It is a mitaketo think thal the scienceof sociodvnamics
any lessadvancedin our day and agethan, sav'plrvsicsorchemistry,
the degreeof control that world leadershave over the populaceis
staggeringwhenanalyzed And the world can be a very/unforsivins
placewhen we live in it so narrow-mindedlv Most pheomenain
nature tollow the law of exponntialprocression;this cardinalrule
hasled to our undoing from the beginning
In 1972 an internationaltam of scientisisheadedbv Professor
Dennls L. Meadows of the Masschusettslnstitute of Tchnologv
publishedthe rsLtltsof a study,prformdat MIT undef the dirc
tion of the Club of Rome, in which a compter sim(lation tracked
the decline of world resourcesbasedon existing trends Th same
conclusionshad been reachedbv other scholarsin th past, more
notably by the geologist M. Kins Hubbelt in the earlv l95os, but
the MIT study wasthe first that world politicianspaid anv attention
to. Dr Meadows'sresearchwas eventuallvpublished {or the mass
*
marketand becamethe classicbestsellerTlr LiaitsoJGrootl which
sold rnillionsof copiesin the I 970sbut appearsto havebeen forgotten in the I990s. Basicalty,the simulation projected the death bv
strvationof a third of the world population bv the vear 2100, the
destructionof ourcosystemand the collapseof the world financlal
basewill induce and acco'npnvthis worldwide farnine
Manifestationsof the phenomenonare alreadv evident in Af.
rlca, Indla, and SoutheastAsia Few popleseemto care ln Creece'
for example,more sweatis spenton whether hemlinesshouldrisein
a siven year,or a new talk-showhostesshachad breastimplants(are
ttry reah),than on the hungry millionsin nearbvAlbaniaandKosovo
So given the continuing phenomenaof greed and ignorance,
howclosearewe to the destructionprdictedbv ProfessorMeadows!
model?At the moment, the simulationis uncornfortablvon track
There can be no more denyinc, for example'tht global warm
ing causedby irresponsibleindustrializationand deforestationis a

Meadows,Denris L., et al.,TtrlimiB oJGroo.L(NewYork'Sisnet

Books,The New AmericnLibrarv,1972).
165
EpiloSue

fct. The United Nations and the \Vorld MeteorologicalOrganiza

tion haveestablishedthe lntersovernmentPanelooClimateChange
to monitor the situation and propose an actjon plan. To date the
IPCC hasanalyzedwhat we can expect in rhe tuture as far asglobal
warning is concernd.Here is a brief surnmary.
The averagetemperalureof the planet will rise by one degree
centisrade by the year 2025 and ao additional two desrecsty the
year2100 That may not soundlike nuch, but bearin mind that rhis
rise will not be uniform all over the planet.The remperatureat thc
poles may rise much more than at the equator and the air wjll be
much warmer over land mssesthan over th seas.(Another model
suggeststhat, follo\eing the initial meltdown of the poiar ice caps,
the poleswill actuallyger colder, initiaring anorherice age at high
latitudes).
Establishedwind patlernswill change,El NiRo is one such example.Asian monsoonsftight becomeAmericanmonsoons.There
will be a worldwide increasein rainfaU,but this increasewill ako be
unevcnlydistribded. At [roderatelatitudeswe might seean increase
of 5 to l0 percentin anDualprecipitarion,but rhe areasof the planet
that arealreadydrywiilbecome evenmoreso PerhapsrheentireU S.
Sunbelt,for example,will at somepoinr becomeone endlessdesert.
There will be an increasein severeclimatjc phenomena,hurricanes,
srorrns,and floods.Ve arealreadyseeinerhisif ihe severefloodand
stormsin the lstthreeyearsof the pastcenturyare any indication.
Vithin the next fifty years,landscunently used for griculrure
will become arid and useless,cultivation will have to take place at
higherlevationsto ensuregrowthin the lorthcominghotter climare.
The ice cap is indeedmeltiog, scientistsexpect a srx centimererrise
in the level of the oceansby every ten yeax from now on.
And the ozone layertSevenyearsago a sunblockfactor of 2 was
acceptablefor thoseofus of Mediterraneandesceot;now we havero
put on sunscreenrated level 24 andheed "sunintensity warnings',to
In March 1997 the National Science Foundation esrablished
beyond a shadowof a doubr that the fish in the Aotarctic were suffering incrcasedmutationratesandgenericanomaliesduero elvared

166
Epilo8ue

theozone
lt confirmcdthat,duringthe springseason,
solarradiation.
level ir the Antarctic drops to 50 percentblow the limit that en'
suresproteclion from UV radiation This is just the beginning
Havingsaidalltheabove,letme alsoaffirmthatsvnthticmatedals are unquestioninglywonderful for usein their proper place As
I willdiscus further on in this scction, thre can be no doubt that
polymen and synthetic rnateriaishave givn mankind the kevs to
the future; the advanceswe are seingin technologv and medicine
would not be availablewithout them.
No, the issuesI am addressingre subtleones:grd and igoo
rance,nothing else.I havelivedunder primitive conditions;ii is not
that great.My point here is that what Vestern civilization oeedsto
succeedis a caretulbalanceof objectives,actions,ad responsibili
ties. Our children and our childrent children will have to pav the
price for our decisionsand our inaction todv, as such,our love for
thern should temper our desires.
" You don't alwavs
The word lama trans]atess "consequence
hav to act to b responsiblefor something'vou can also,bv inacVe in theVest haveallowedour elected
tion, promote conrequences.
to act asthey havertherefore,we alsomust shoulder
representatives
part of the blame.Andwe will. A studentonce askedme if I thought
the citizens of Iraq deseruedto watch their homes destrovedand
their loved ons killed iust becausea power'hungry dictator ruled
theircountry Irepliedin the affirmative,becausethev uniortunatelv
bore the collective consequenceof allowing him to control their
lives in the firt place. Ltnder the rule of exponentialprogression,
they had allowedSaddamHusseinto srow in might until he became
too powerful to deal with. Nature is not very forgiving
So what doesall thls have to do with Chans Situr Noth;ng and
everything.The hotrorstoriesoutlined aboveare simplv the factsof
life, but they cn also seweas examples.John Chang agreedto this
book for one reasononly, to expandthe horizons of peoplearound
the world and show them, beyond a shadow of a doubt' that their
livesare not as limited asthey think. Sometimesit is noughto give
peoplea hint. All sortsof miraclescan happen l am remindedof the
memberof Creenpeacewho, having clandestinelvtaken a position

Epilo8ue

as a cook aborda tuna boat, brought the tuna industryto its koces
aftr filmins the wholesaleslaughterof dolphinson tuna boats.That
man struck the sparkthat started fire. I am hopins that this book
will work in a similr mannef.
Chang Sifu! lessonsare intendedfor the leadefsof the world as
well as the common man. "Look," he tells the powers that be, "the
universejs not as simple and plain as you once thought it was.You
cannot act as you do with no thought for the future or regard for
retribution. You will have to pay for the consequences
of your ac
tions. Therc are aspctsof the human state of being that you are
unawarcof at the moment." Perhapsthe leaderswill not care,you
say.Hasn'teveryreligion in the world issuedthe samewrnins?Many
powertul people feel exemptsimply becausethere is no proof of th
validity of thci. personalreligion or creed. H;story has shown us,
h o w e v e rt ,h a r. u t h a n a t r r r u drer e r r o n e o u r .
The aforementionedCreenpeacemembernotwithstandins,it js
astonishinghow often the effortsof one man can affectthe courseof
history. Our cunent Vestern civilization is essentiallystillbased on
the approachand methodology of two seventeenthcntury scholars:FrancisBaconand RenDescartes.
Baconwasthe founderofthe modem scientificempiricalmethod.
ph;losopher
A
and poiitician, he wrote that mn should "seizeNa
ture and force her to sewe us." Baconassertedthat man should es
sentiallymkenaturchis slave,that he should"tie her hand and foot
and torture herso thatshewillrevealher secrts."Todaysuchwords
may sound insanerhistoriansrealize that the famous philosopher
wassimply echoins th judicial systemof his day.One wonden how
he would have enjoyed a tour through a nuclearwastedumpsit.
As for Descartes,there can be no doubt that h v/as a brilliant
man; therecan alsobe no doubt that jt is to him we owe much ofour
current misery.Dscrteswas a profound mathmatician,scientist,
and philosopher,butunder his direction Vestern man begana sepa
ration from the earth, naturalforces,and his own kind the extent of
whichwe areonly now beginningto relize.Indeed,Descartes's
most
famous line, "Cogito ergo sum,"definesthat separationclearJy.In
severingmind and body and making the flesh worthlessand subor-

168
EpiloSue

dinate to mind, Descartesdrove a wedge betweenman and the uni_

verse-a wdge that doesnot, nd cannot,physicallyexist.It is well
known, forexample,tht Descartesvivisectedliving animals,ignoring their cries of pain and despairin order to determinthe struc_
turesof their bodies.His was the mechanisticapproch,naturewas
a machineto be analyzed,nothing more. Functionalanlysiswas to
be carriedout in ever-increasingdetil so that, in the end,eachcornponent would surrenderits final specificsecret.lt was undoubtedly
the Cartesianmethodthat putman on the moon. On the otherhand,
it is apparent that, by embracing the Cartesianmethod, we have
concentratedso much on the garsthat we hav lost sight not only
of the machinbut of the road this machinhastaken aswell.
I have used the wo '?Pantiotlasain d asin (much to the
chagrin of the edltor of this text, l'm sure)simply becauseI believe
that it is ided separationthat definesthe Cartesiansystem(and,
unfortunatel, todays Vestern society).The industrial process,for
example-anunmistakablederivativeofCartesianphilosophy has
separatedthe craftsmanfrom his product. In other words, by work
ing in an ssmbtyline, eachemployeefabricatesonly tiny part of
the entire project' his self-worth is only as greatas the partial product he shapes.In contrast,the medievalblacksmithtook greatpride
in his work bcauseit wasl,isfrom beginning to end. Today! axembly Ilneworke who rnaydo no rnorethan drillholes in a dtail Part
(which will be rivetedinto placeby someoneelse),hasno regardfor
hls chore and can hardly \,,/aitfor the weekend(or 4/y time when he
isn't working). Dspite the progresVestern society has made toward advancingthe rights of the individual,employmenthas once
againbecomeserfdom.
Conversely,the Japanesehave enjoyed immensecommercial
succss
with their factory goodsbasicallydue to theirpolicyof inte
gration.The presidentof a companyoften goesdown to the assem
bly line and assiststhe workers; all white-collar enrployeesare
expectedto hav spent their time "on the line." This approachfostrs the idaofunity and pride in the product,which, in the manner
ofthe craftsmanof pastcenturies,hasld to peopleconsideringtheir
work important.As such,their merchandisehassold well.

169
Epilo8ue

A further exampleof arroperarionthat thrives on separationis

todays food industry.The processof meat producrion is an abomi
n1ionianimalsaresequestered
in stalls,not allowedto move,stffed
with hormonesnd recycled foods, and subsequentlydaughtered.
Their livesarea Iivinghellandhavenothingto do with the pleasanl
ranchesand wide-open spacesof the past. Meat is processedand
packagedand put on displayin neat csesin the supermarket,most
children thesedays haveno ideathat they a:e earingwhat was onc
a living animal. Fruits and vegetablesare unfortunatelyjust as bad,
The arnountof chemicalsand pesricidesusdwould causemost of
us to quit buying fmit altogetherwere we awareof therr The con
tinual and incessantrapeof the seasand marinewildlife is evenworcer
in a few decadsthere willbe no fish lefr to cd!.
The point is, all ofthis canbe rumed aroundif societyasa whole
adoptsth proper attitudc, if we cn realjzethat rhe lifestylewe re
following has no real placein the world. I have seenmany \/estern
medicaldoctorswhopreviouslydisregarded
Chinesemedicaltheory
completelystop in their trackswhn someonesimply spoketo rhem
in their own language.Contrary to Descartssexpectarions,the
bodyt cell structureis rot a consrantand mechanisricrhing, indeed,
cellularbiology is somev.hatlike quanrumtheory.The pancreas,for
example, replacesall ;tscellseverytwnty-four hours,while rhe stomach replacesits cells every rhreedays.The body! white blood ells
ar renewedevery ten days,while 98 percentof the proteio-based
tissuein that most complictdandwonderfulof organs,the human
brin, is replaedonce a month. Ve can thus approachmedicaldoc
tos with the simpleexplanation
that Chioesemedtctneis basedon
the lrocsss
of contilual change-not the detailsof pnary natomy
focusedon by our Cartesian-based
Vestern rnedicalsystem Ceneraliy that distinction suff;cesto breakthe ice and seizethe audience!
To closethe loop and get back to Chang Sifu, ir is apparenrthat
your viewpoint of the vorld can govern your efforts and axioms,as
well as your resultingsocialdirection. It is ro the holistic vievr'point
afforded by Easternmysticisn (and modern Vestern science)that
we must turn if we wish to surviveas a species.For most of us, the

170
Ep'lo8ue

common peopte,thc lcssonsol thc Eastare simpl \Ve ned not

indulg in consumerismor blindlv follow the dirctivesof spcialinterestmanipularorsVe are eachcapableo( thinkins and decidins
lor ourselves.The road of lif is on of balance,consequence,and
simplicity,
Taoist doctrine statesthat th universeis comprisdof heaven,
\J/e have
earth, and man, and that all embodv a patt of the Tao'
reachedthat stagein our developmentwhere we mosldccept this
truth. Everything and everyonearound us has the right to life, in
deed,all life is a preciousgift and should be treatedas such For all
our power,do we reallyrrlerstanllifer Tlre wisdom of ancientChina
tells us that everything begins in and returns to the Tao Similarlv'
our tchnology can tell us much about the origins of our solar svs
tem and life on earth, and what we have learnedgives us causeto
wonder.The assumptionthat our world is simply the resultof a ran
dom agglomerationof elementsis no longer vible The eafth is
roushly four billion years old. Even taking into account the latest
devlopmentsin complexity theory' there is no way thal we can
ccouniforthe factthat life, in the form ofbacteriaand single-celled
jnto the earths
animals,beganroughly four hundred million vers
existence.A singlebactriumcontinstwo thousandenzymesiour
most liberl estimatesof the time it would take for th random assembly of such enzymesto give birth to bcteria is roughlv forlv
bill;on years,two orders of masnitud off The secondprobJemis
that evolutio seemsto haveoccuned in much too orderedand pur
posefu1a fashion,our currentmthematicsandcurrent theoriesim
ply cannotaccountlof the evidentcomplexitv and interdependenc
of livins beinss.
It seemstht if indeedeverything is a part of the Tao, then we
are quite a way frorn understandingone of its components,life on
earth.Andwhat abot man himselfi Our own evolution is puzzling
Modern humanbeingshavebeenon this planetfor about fov ou
saDdyearsrhow and whv did we come to f'e aswe atc?The size oi
our brains explodedin evolutionaryterms, doubling in lmost two
million years.lndeed, the increasein brain size was so sddenthat
the rest of our bodjesdid not have a chanceto catch up As a result

lV
Epiloue

of these larser brains,which could not passthroush thc mother's

birth canal, human infanrshad to be born very early in their devel_
opment. (The size of a humanchild,sbrain doublesin rhe first year
of lif.) The ihfants of most mammalscan walk within a few daysof
theirbirth. Conversely,humanbabiescannot walk forayear and are
helplessfor lmost thre. Thesetotally dependentchtldren restruc
tured the order of societyrthy had to be protecredand taught to
function. The evolutionary history of the human animal seemsto
de. both the srandardprocessof evolution and the principles of
slf-orgnizationoudined by complexirytheory. It is evenmore per
plexing if we examineclosely the history of mankind through rhe
last ten millnni.The wheat plant, forexample, mutatedquire sud
denly teo thousandyearsago, almosras if ir oarrel .o be made into
bread by the people of that age.And there is still no evolutionar/
justification for the pleasanteffects that the fermenrationprocess
has on milk, grape,and grain.
So in daling with earth and man, have we finally come to addressheaven?Is evolurion directed?Ic there indeed a Codr As we
have seen,MstefJohn Chang believesstrongly in Cod, and is un
doubtedly a creationist.I myself am a product of my age and so
questioneverything. Oh, I firmly believein unconditionaluniversal
principles:Iove,justice,consequence.
Ibelieve tht thereis an after,
life and that I have seenspjrirs.As a scientist,howevel I feel more
comfortable wirh the Easternnotion of heaven in rhe senseof an
indefinable, incomprehensible,quantum-physics-likeabsoluteen
compassingthe enrireuniversePerhapsthereisa penonalCod whose
domain is this planet, who has seen to our growth. perhapsHe is
even the mnifestationofa UniversalSpirit that encompasses
allthe
extant galaxies/ssuggestedby the Christianconcept of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. I do not know, and I am much too small to
judge, so all I can do is hope.
$/e as a specieshavebeen given, and conrinueto receive,great
opportunities. \]/e are also in grer peril. From now on, therefore,
we have to act carefully and with forethoueht-like responsible
adults-in order to reach our full potential. Ocrrworld will tolerate
no ,nore mistakesor loolishness,no more childishness.The human

172
Epilogue

anirnalis, a a rcm:rkablcman so eloqucntlypt it so long ago,at

Childhood\
End*
And there hope for the future
Ve are neitherborn into the worldwithout sufferingthe pain of
vithot experiencingdoubt and
birth nor passthrough adolescenc
heartache.Humanity s an entity hasjust passedthrough pubeny
and standson the threshold of adulthood.Like a teenager,we have
and inrpulses,
sufferedfor a time andbeen subjectto ourweaknesses
but now we aregrowingup. As we enter the third millennium of the
Common Era(morethan the fourth millennin of recordedhistory),
hurnniryis indeed readyto becomea responslbleadult.
Look how far we havecome in lessthan one hundredyears,and
how rapidly we are progressingat this pointl Let us concntratefor
awhile o. ortriurnphsratherthan ourfail tes.In the faceof nuclear
wa1 for instance,reasondid prevail; the superpowersof the world
took a stepback hom thir ColdVar antaeonism a war tht/ aher
all, was fought over an economic systemand nothing more. Ecological organizationsare more powerful now than ever before. Information disseminationhas become worldwide, and litracy is
growing in third vorld nations.Medical knowledge is soarine;we
can now performmiracles.lmaginetelling a nineteenth-centuryphysicianthat it would bcomeroutine to rip out the sickenedheart of
an ill man and replaceit with anothet storedfor that purpose,from
a sujtabldonor (andwith the donorsconsent-itself no smallthlng)r
Or imagin telling the smedoctor that, harnessingthe power of
light, we can perform surgeryon the delicatehuman eye, that we
can open and closethe humanbrain:
Citizensaround the world are nowmore than everwareof their
ights and willing to standup and flght for them, not only tht, we
do not hesitateto stnd and light rcniolntly for the rights of ottr's.
Evenmor surprising,this rystmworks, andworld leadersare ready
to concedeto itl Chandi would not have had a chancin medieval
Europe.

'Arthur

C. Clarke, foryounger readers

173
EpiloSue

Despite setbacks,we have indeedset foot on thc moon and arc

making pfogresstoward conquering the solaf system.Ve rray be
close to a new form of cleanenergy.Legislationhasbeen passedtn
the \trest restricting corporationsfrom inesponsibleecologicldarnage. Technology is advaocingso rapidly that electronicsare often
obsoletewithin a few years.Vonderful new materials-<rated by
our investigationson the molecularlevel will allowus to reacheven
fartherthan before.Very soon,ascompurersDecomemore and more
powertul,we willbe creatinsintelligentlife ourselves.
Ve havecloned
mammalsand are closeto undrstandinsthe fabric of lif irself.\/e
can map the DNA strand,the very building block of organic exist
ence.Perhapssomedaywe wil! be able to scientificfiypinpoint the
loction of the soul irself
Five thousandwindmills jn the TehachapiMounrains norrh of
Los Angeles, Calitornia, produce I 6 billion kjlowtrs of electric
ity-mofe than all the householdsof San Franciscouse in a year.
Studieshave shown that vind farms in the vindiest 1.5 percent of
the surfaceof the United Statescould produce 25 percent of the
electricity that counrry uses.Evn more amazing, prcphit theIl.S
goo.nt 1tLdrelisteh4. Similar stodieshave shown that if 4 pcrcenrof
the world's desertregionswere coveredby commercialsolar cefls,
thiswould provideenoughenersyro satistywortd\i/idedcmand.(This
equatesto an arearoughly five hundredm;lesby five hundredmtles,
and capiralinvestmenrsftdlhr
than that requiredin the tutureshould
we continue to useoil a|d fissionasfuel sources.)Once agaiopoliri
cal leadersaregiving the ideseriousconsiderarionithe majorsrum
bling blocks are special-interestfacrionsand the need for various
. o v e . c i e In d r i o nr\ o s o r l r o a e r h eBr u l i l , , , o m i n g
On a similar nore,biological fermenratjollfarmsfor the production of electricityhavebecomea fealirysince1995.ln rbe Unired
Statesone such farm,usinga combustioncll tht burnsmillet, pro
vides a i&oasanlhouscholdswith electricity while ar the samerime
usins only 250 acrcsforcltivation ofthe miltel There doesseemto
be a real desireto useevironmentallyfriendty tuels in conjunction
with future technologiesForexample,the Russianaircrafrrnanufac,
turer Tlpolew, in partnrshipwith the German giant Daimler-Benz
Aerospace,is readying an aircraft for production in the year 2010

thar will usc hydrogcnas a lucl. llydrogen burnsclcanly,Lurnins

into watcrvaporwheo oxidized.
Thc point is,hadwe not gonethrough phaseol rapidindustri
alization and technolosicalsrowth, we would not hve developed
the knowledgewe now have that makessuch dreamspossible.lt is
our.11lr./tmarerialand physjalsciencesthat have handedus these
rewardson thc proverbialsilverplatter The world of the futurc will
because
the major
indeedbe"clean"from an ecolosicalstandpoint,
ity of peopleon the carthud'i il to be.
This book is also a good cxample of how far we havc cone.
Even thirty ycars ago, in the heyday of the 1960s,I would ncvet
havedaredto wfite thesewords, nor presentthe conceptsI have,ior
fear of retribution. In truth, I rnysellam very much a produc! of the
yoke forged by earlier gene|ations,a person neither Occident nor
Orient but both * Moreover,it is certainthat MasterChang himselt
would not havc bothered to come forth in tbe past, for lack of a
uiiableaudience.But in orday everyonehasseenSldl"l'fdfr on the
silverscreenandKln4 Fr on television,many ofus both in youth nd
middle age, and such things:re more readily acceptedas natural

Epilo8ue

Epilque

lf any of us needsmore proof of our growth as a species,then

nore than our accomplishmentsit is our lreansthal w must exam
ine. Vhere do we ud"i to be2Vhat is it that we covet?Look deep
into yourself.Do we, in fact, not covet the stars?Can there b any
doubt of this?There is catch here,however,asIhve triedto rnke
clear in this chapter, In order to reach the starswe hunger for, we
must first presrvethe womb that bore us, this very planet earth
There is no way aroundthis.
" Other than the peFonl erperiencesinvolved, nothing in this text
should be consideredinnovative.As far back as t93a, Piofe$or \v Y
Evans'\/entzwas talking about torging a new sciencethat was neither
East nor Vest in his book TbetahYold and SrcretDoctrirts
I I retum to Ceorge Locas! work asin and asai' simply becauseI feel
that it has benns on where we as a speciescould be heading TheJedl
combine technologywirh
are all-iftpoltnt in that they successfully
mysticism,and in doins so, touch peoplesheads all around the wotld.

So how doesneikumg
cnterthe picture2
Vell, whatifverything
,_
I hav written is true2Can it be developedand nurtured?And if so,
where will it lead us2
I bel;evethat such inqrdry wilt guide us ro rhe thresholdof the
starswe so desire.Neikung rsthe studyofour lifes energiesandmore,
it is the study o[ our exisrnceirslf.Mnyofthe answerswe seekare
hidden wirhin the acrivitiesof yin and yang Vhen we arereadyand
able to unlock thesesecretsfor all mankind,only then will we stp
into the tuture promisedby our dreams.lbelieve that in rhis unfold_
ing epoch, the boundary betweenphysicsand metaphysicswill fall
for good (if it was ever really there in the first place),and that even
death will begin to lose its terro. Conceivably\Le s a specieswill
come to perceivrhe answelsro the questionsthat have plagued
us
sincethe dawn of time, Why areoe hero And Whueqft aegoin4,
Sucha world isJohn Changs sift to humaniry.

AppendixOne

NOTES

r . Alexanderof Macedon "King of the Creeks"in the words

of Kiplings Mat Who Worll BeKug-swept across Asia from 334 to
326 BcEwith an army of forty thousandmen to rech the northern
bordersof India. He was stopped only by the unwillinsnessof his
men to go on; they rebelled,refusingto march eastwardbeyond the
and their descendantspenHyphasis River.Alexander! successors
etratedeven farthrinto India,creatingkingdomsand becomingthe
stuff of legends.Somehistorianssay that the list of Creek kings in
India ls as long as that of the kings of England from the Norman
invasionto the prcsentday.* In any case,what is important is that
the two cultureslil meet and interactedin a waveofmutualadmiration and rspet.The resulting exchangeof ideasand infomation
had a profound effect on the history and developmentof both the
Eastand the Vest.
From the Creeksthe Indianslearnedsculpture,architecture,astronomv.andmathematics.
Fromthe Indiansthe Creeksleamedabout
the inner workings of manl mind and body. Many Creeksbecame
Buddhists;in fact, one Hellenisticking, Menandros,is honoredas a
Buddhistsaint bv the Theravadandenomination.There can be no

*'/oodcock,
Ceorge,Trr creefrs
if Llid (London,IaberFaberLtd,
1966).
176
Ep'lo8ue

1n

denyingthe pronouncedeffectthat Indianthoughthadon the Creek

philosophersof the period and, as a consequence,
on later Vestern
development.Since it wasHdls"ticthought and sciencerhar subse
quently influencedthe Romansand, through them, the early Euro,
pean natiors, I can safelystatethat the phtlosophyof the Eastdtd tn
fact strongly affect the history of the Vest. The two peopleshad
spokenwell ofeach other evenbeforeAlexande/scoming.The Brah
min leadersof lndia, in the classicIaos oJ1aw,placed the laoanas
(the Sanskritword for "Creeks,"from'Iorveor e,o-nes,asthe Creks
ofAsia Minorwere called) in the warrior (Kshatriya)castrrhereis a
referenceto the Creeksin the Indianepic Mrrararafaaswell. In the
fifth century BcEthe CreeksHerodotus(a hisrorian)and Hekateus(a
geographer)affirmedthat "of all barbariansthe Indiansare leastbarbaric"(a strong statemntfrom the ethnocentricclasstcalCreeks).Bv
Hellenistic times the Creekswere speakingof the Indian sageswith
open admiration.The famousphilosophersApolloniusand Plotinus
bothwentto India in searchof esotericknowledge,andmanya Creek
diplomat in the court of Indian klngs wrote bestsellingbooks describing India to the Creeksback homet*.1
Many scholarsare of the ooinion that it is the Greeks them
selveswho were responsibleforthe Mahayanaschoolof Buddhism.f
If this was th case,and taking into account that it was Mahayana
Buddhismthat spreadto China, Tber, Korea, and Japan,then tlre
Vest did inded strongly influence the history of rhe East.Conversely,there can be no denying the pronouncedeffect that lndian
tbought had on the Greek phiiosophersol the period and,asa con
sequence/on later'!?esterndevelopment.The phtlosopherPyrrhron,
for example-who followed Alexander to Indi and returncd ro
Creeceto influenceallthosewhocameafterhim (Xenoand Eoicurus.
amons othfs)-was for all practical purposes a student of the
Digambara(sky'clad) secrof theJain religion.s

The consequenccsof th Hellnistic A8 spreadall th way to

ofthe Silk Roadt
China in the first centuryBcEwith the estblishment
technology
that was a bvthe cotinuous exchangeof learningand
product of the silk tradeaffectedpeople! lives from Spainto northern China.
:. I had often wonderedwhat prornptedMao Zedong to turn
so dramaticallyagainstChinesecultureand science,attackingbasi'
cally everyth;ngin sight first in 1949and thn again so bloodilv in
1966 with the Cultural Rvolution. I have come to believe that it
was this litism and sequesteringof knowledge,this continual con
flict among the powerful, that the man resented.There can be no
doubt, howeve that Mao botched thejob and destroyedmuchthat
would have othe'wise benefitedhumanity.
quite rightlv, havedespaired
3. Manysinologistsandtranslato|s,
of everconveyingthe proper meaningto Vesternersand havebeen
content to use tbe term "energy{ime" for ltan4ir, duplicating the
simplicity of the Chineseideocrams.I\,r'ouldlike to take a moreJedi
approachto the ideograms'meanin.Ve cannot hope, asVesternofthe Chinesecharcterswith words.
ers,to duplicatethe coniseness
However,we can useanother\X/esternapproach,that ofmathemat
ics, to duplicteEasternculture. Io short,

ENERCY

TIME
-

For example,
Megasthenis!
hliar lats andDiimachuss
O,Itrl.
neitherof which is extanttoday.
I oi.ou, Nit
tl, G.,i B!/tra (Athens,Nefelipublicarions,
r98a)
".,
+ Durant,\v., Irs S!,,1,,JCi,liza.io',vol. II (Ceneva:
Edito SeNice,te63).
3 Dimo,ri,r Ci..l Brdlta
178
AppendixOne

Iig. 5. KnsFu = Jt F(,t)dt, whereE=enersvan.]t=time

In otherwords [u4la is equlto the intgral of the energvspent
in training pr day, over the total anount of time spent in traiingl
179
AppendixOne

The areaunder the cuw, the integral, definesthe total power that
you have achlevedthrough your efforts.You wilt seelater on how
precisethis definition is. (Yocrcan also see how a trainet fforts
vary from day to day; &rrrj,r refersto the total power accumulatedin
the process.)It seemsthat there are indeedtwo English words that
convey the meaning of km4Jr, and those are barduorkt
4. The theory that Taoismhasmademost famousis rhat of two
opposinguniversalforces,I am referringof courseto yin and yang.
It is hardto imaginen areaoi the worldwhere thesetwoubiquitous
wolds hvenotbeen heard.(lndeed,wheretheyhaverotbeen heard
is where the conceptsare probably stillrefened to by otherwordsl).
As I typed th;s text, I activatedmy word prccessortspellcheckorogramrrt did no( pdu\eIor eitheryn or yang one moreindrcrion
of
the words'acceptancein the \X/est.
The twin forcesof yang and yin are complet opposires:mal
and female,white and black, light and darkness,hot and cold, posit;ve and negative.The Chinseideogramforyar,, maybe translated
as"th sunny side of the mountain",that ofyil as,,theshadyside of
the mounta'n."Our physicalbodies areyang, the energy and being
of spirits is yin. Conversely,yang comesfrom heaven,yin from the
earth. Both forcesare presentin everything aliv on this planet,but
they are not harmoniousforces,as often representedin the !?st.
Instead,they are in constantstruggle,neverable to meetyet always
intercting.It must be stressedthar this clashis a struggleof natural
universalenergies,not a co.tention of sentienrdeitieslNeither yin
nor yang has anything to do wirh good and evil, they are independent ofpurposeandmorality.lt is very intereslrngronote rhat many
diverse cultural groups have made use of the same imagery.The
Navajo Indiansdraw FatherSky and Mother Earthin rheir sandDaintings rn.uch a wav rhat evenrhe morr naiveobcerverwill rhrnkof
yang andyin. The ancientCreeksmadeusof the sameidea, asserr
ing in their rnyths that everything on the world was createdby the
.natins of FatherSky (Uranus)and Mother Earth (Caia).
By 1000BcEthe concptsof yin and yang had been refined and
the patternsof the two forces'interactioncharted,the date indicates

180
AppendixOne

that this philosophy existd loog bclore the concept and word ot
%olsnwere developed
5. TheTaoistphilosophicaltndition (To-chia)is associatedwith
the classicaltexts Tao Te Chins br LaoTzr), ChuatlgTzu,LiehTzu ad
others.It hasbeen saidthat next to the Bible andthe BhagavadCita'
the To Te Ching is the most translatedbookin the \Torld Much also
hasbeen saidabout the conflict betwenConfucianismand Taoim,
which in popularnotion portravsKung Fu Tzu as the glorified civil
servantstressingobdienc,while lao-tzu is the mysticalhemit r
siding somewherein the mountainwildernss.The truth' however'
seemsto be that both were simply men of their age,strugglingwith
conceptsgerminatingnd developingduring their lifetimes
fuo:zx (old mastel)is the honorific given to Li Erh Tan, a minor
official of ihe Chou state who lived around the fifth century lct
(Ve have no way of proving or disproving this information ) After
his death and for the next hundred vears, savingswere collected
that were attributd to Li and presentedin a volume called the lao
Tzu.Of Lao tzu the man we reallvknow nothing Vhat is important
is that this work, which came to be known as the Tao T Ching
sometimebetweenthe first century BcEand the first century cE,sets
the basefor phllosophicalToism Ho\tever' it is crtain that Lao'
tzu did not call himself a Taoist.Insteadthe l,o Tzl, like the works
of Confucius,is more concerndwith providing a basefor correct
politicl leadership-a manualfor rulers,ifvou\sill lndeed,the title
fto 1?Crir4 tells us much about the volume
Tro (simply translatedas "the wav") is the nameless,the origin
byond orisins. It cannot be definedbv human beinss it is untold
times beyond us, aswe are abovethe amoeba The To is unknowable,etemal,without shapeor endvet havlng allshapesand all end
ings.Formless,it petmeateseverything and is the goalof all existence
Teis an equally difficult concept lt can be translatdas "integ
rity," "virt e," "the proper mode of behaviorin relation to th will of
'ttrength effused
heaven,""power,""inner potencv,""knighthood,"
with honor" The key issueis that both Lo-tzu and Kung Fu Tzu
thought that te is somethinga good ruler should have Thev were

141
ppendixOne

not too fdf apartin thcir bsicidcasrit was thcir appfolchcsrhaL

diffcred. ContuciLrssaw the Vay as being a sct of rules that hcavcn
had bequeathed
ro nan, hterarchical
in naturcand lull of ftltaldc.
pendencies
with clcarandunyieldinsrdnkines.
Materialrewards
and
staluwere compensationsior correctly following the \\/ay. Hencc,
wht wasto be stresedwaste (sincete cafte frorr heaven),thc Vay
would then takcareof itself.(Because
Confucianism
emphasized
obedience,it is obviouswhy the rultng classeswere 11for its adop
tion by their subordinatest)
Lao tzu did not follov the sameroure.He counseled"sagehood"
andstressedthe Vay for its own sakeratherthan forrhe comnunityi
profit. Just as all bcingsassuredlyretirrnedto the To in death,so ir
was necessaryin life for eacb indivtdualto rerurnto the original pu
rity nd simplicity of his basicnature.The key was to "nlanifcstth
sinlpleand embracethe prirnal" Taowas likencdro f' , rhe "uncaNed
log," the best metphor for expressingthe simplicity of the Vay.
"Thoughthe uncarvcdlogis
snall,"Lao tzusaid,"nooncin thworld
darcssubjLrgatc
it." The key to achievingthe Tao wasor-ort, sponta
neity nd noninterference "going\a.ithth Tlow,"tousea New Agc
ism. However, it shoLrldbc understoodthat wu wei does not irrply
passivity.Rather,like a wise swimmercrossinga deep and powerful
river, the Taoistswirnsoi* the current ratherthan againstit
The particular section ol the bo Tzu I quoted ro John Chang
goes as tollows, 'All thinss carry the yin on their backsand enfold
the yang withinr when the two combine,life! energyis createdharmoniously."(Tao Te Chins, section42)
6. Since ching is associated
with the reproductiveprocessand
apparently flows downward, some Toists {and Buddhistsof thc
Ch'arn sect both-the two dogmasare not rhat far apart) took to
using the Chlnesetheory of"opposing flows"to makethechingrise.
This theory says,simply, that if you want someihing to rise, pull ir
down, and vice vexa. To makethe ching ascendto a higherposirion
in the body where it canbe relined into ch'i, thesepractitionerstook
to hanging and swinging heavy weights from thejr peniseslI have
seenphotos of a monk hom the Shaoli. temple suspendiga sixtypound stone from his organwith ropes.I am unawareif he achieved
142
AppendixOne

thc ascendance
ol ihc ching throughthis practice,but hc had mot
certainlt overmany yersof repetition,developedwhatis colloqui
Conversely,how many men
ally called "an enormousscboarstaecfter"
have sufferedlmpotenceor damageas a resultof this practice,I do
not know (and I say this by way of warnins, becauseI know that
there is not a male out there who did not, upon readingthis, irnme
diately think, "AharSo thatt the \,r'ayto do it!").
Othr Taoiststook io what is euphemisticallycalled "double
cultivtion,"aod is atuallynonorgasmicsex.That is to say,the practitionerenggesin the serlalact up lo the point of orgasrn,atwhich
he withdraws and or ceases.The next step is to yogiclly forethe
collectedsemento rise, once again,to an areaof the body whete it
can be processed.I have seenmany books in the \Vest describins
thistechnique,but, onceagain,I hvenovrificationof itsefficiency.
7. Becausethis is sch an important verse,and one that you
must understandin order to conprehend the metphysicaloutlook
ofJohnl school,it would be best if I presenteda literl translationof
the Chineseideograrls.They are,

To die (a parent stndingover the death bed of a child)

bui ( m stache)

T
not (a seedunder the cround)

vanish,perish (a man in a crypt)

#
he who (an old rnanspeaking)

Eir
immortality, Ione life (lons lifc)

183

Many diflrentiDterpretations
olthisstanzhavebcenaftcmpted
in order !o make rhe passage/ifit/'into \Y/esternphilosophiclmodls.ln truth its meaningis very literal.An exattranslationwouldbe,
"He who dies but doesnot perish has lons life.', I chosea more pe
remptory usage:"He who dies but continuesro exist is i,nmortal.',
The passasetmeanincis simple,Individualswho llikeJohn Chang)
havereachedCaichi andcombinedyinandyansinsidetheirbeinss
retainallawareness,
mmory andab;lity afterdeath.They,,taketheir
yang with them," asJohn so aprly put it.
8. No accountofreligioustoismwouldbe compltewithour a
presentationof Chang To Ling Born Chang Lins during rhe Lte
Han dynasty in Szechuanprovince (probably in the year lsO cE,
thoush others say 35 cE), he was child senius.At sevenhe could
read and elaborateon the To Te Ching, and by eight he had masteredthe art of fengshui(divinarjon).As an adult he dtsplayedpreter
naturalabilitisandrremendoushealingpowers,on both the physical
and psychologicallevels.But Chang Ling was unique in more than
justhis capabiliries.Hewas alsothe first Taorsrmasrerto organrzehis
followersinto a movement
Chang managedthis by insrituting a lifetime fee for healing or
for mediation wirh the spirir world. Now it had ben customary/
sinc primeval times for the village to support rhe shamn,but no
on priorto Chang Ling had graspedthe conceptoforyanizarioo so
tundamentally.Chang chrgedhis patienrsfive bushelsof rice each
year for lfe (the American Medical Associationwould approve of
this approach) This is a lot of food, and tne payment was guaran
teed for manyyean. Itwas a lifetime fe also in the sensethat ifyou
pid the fee, it ensuredunlimited medial and spiritul treatment;
there was no extrachargeeachtim you becamesick (sort ofa combined churchand HMO). Th;s tithe enabledChangto satheraround
him a large goup of followers,whom he promptly graded into a
hierarchy basedon each individualt abilitiesnd latent talents.So
unusualwas this innovation rhat his group becmeknown as the
Five BushelsSect. In all fairness,however,it is said that he workd
miracles;the pralyzdl;l walk and the btind lil se,so to speak.

184
ppendixOne

Otherwise,he wouldncvcrhvebeenableto pullirof,not in China

(for reasonsI will explore io lurther chapters)and crtainly not in
the tei ond cenLuryLE.The manhad power
Chang Tao Ling and the peoplewho gatheredaroundhim were
uniquin one more specificway (indeed,in this casehis perspedive
goesradicallyagainstthe popularimageof the Toisthemit, indifferent to society).ChangLing, byorganizinghis followersand agreeing
to keeppeoplehealthy and happy through his powers,andby agreeing to fight with evil and exorcisedemonsand evil spirirs,consdrtel
to
ifliercede
in thecou$eoJhffitanityaberebccould-where karma allowed him
to. This was a profoundstp for a Toist,primarily becausein doing
so, he accptdthe consequences
of his actlons.Rememberthat, accordins to his beliefs,if he did well, his karmawould be good, if he
failed,he would haveto pay for it. Bearin mindalso that Chang lived
during the secondcentury cE, bfore MahayanBuddhismv/ith its
ideofth bodhisatwaand self-denyingsacrificeenteredChtna.You
shouldbe able to seeby now that the imageofTaoism propagatedin
the \(est is not at all accurate.
Chang assumedthe title T'kn Shih,"heavenlymaste/' (or T'rer
SrJr,"heavenlyteacbey'';it dependson whom you ask) and passedu
on to his offspring (he l,l have children-once again in contrastto
the imageof th Taoist hermit). His descendants,after a history of
variouswars followed by the short-lived estblishmentof a Taoist
theocracy,eventuallysettled on a mountain called Lung Hu Shan
(dragontiger mountain)inJiangsiprovince.Over the centuriesthey
practiceofintredinginhumnitylaffairs,storingin
continLredthe
their hlls,arnonsothrthinss, thousandsofjars in which iheyjailed
the powerfuldemonsthey hadexorcised.OtherToists,not oftheir
denominatioobut looslyaffiliatedwith thern,andsharingtheirbelief that rnan blessedwith power should aid humanity, congr,
gated on their mountain,there they were given shelterand a place
to meditatein peace.One such man will be central to this book, as
we will seelateron.
In 1927the Communistsectionof the NationalistArmy brokeoff
andattackedLung Hu Shanwhile en routeto Hailufeng.TTey forced
the monks in th temples,among them the hereditary Heavenly

185
AppendixOne

Mastr,to flee for their lives.The troops smashedthousandsofjars

and containers/relasiog(acordinsto the monks)thousandsof evil
spirits to once again walk the ea h; purportedly,it is rhesespirits
that causedVorld rflarII! The T'in Shih eventuallysettledon Taiwan, where they continue to ljve to th presentdy Vhat is gain
central to our story is that (ashappenedalsoon Mao-Shanin 1949),
someof the hermits on Lung Hu Shanwere not at all put off by the
armys appearance,they were so powerful that they fotghtenedthe
soldiersaway from their retreats!
9. Chancesarethat ifyou askedone hundredpeoplewho have
readup on Chinesephilosophywho Lao-tzuwas,they could all tell
youi some perhapsin great detail.The typical researchelhoweve
rnight be shockedto discovcrthat a man whose school was historically a greaterrivalto Confucianismthan Lao-rzu'sToismeverwas
is virtually unknown in our day. Such a man was Mo-Tzu or Mo T.
He is pertinnt to this text in tht rh schoolofkung fu inherited by
John Chans tracesits lineageback to Mo Tzu himself.
For the two centuriesfollowjns his dearh,the schoolofMo was
the main rival of Confucianism.Born in the stateof Lu in 469 BcE,
roughly ten yearsafterK'ungFuTzut passing,Mo Tzu wasextremely
well educatedas a youth and apparentlya martjal artist and master
oi strategy as well. Indicationsare that he was from a poor family
and may haveeven beenbrandedasa criminal, sinceMo-Tzl means
"Mr. Tttoo " TTe priociplesofjustice wer the driving force of his
ministry, howevr,and though by nature a stubborn and extreme
individual, universallove was the center of his teaching.Four hundredyearspriorro the bih ofChrist, Mo-Tzu is recordedashaving
said the following,
"lf people were to regardother staresas they regard their own,
and their neishbor as thy regard themselves,then they would not
ttack one another,for il would be like aitacking their own person.,'
Before I continue, it mighr be prudenr to say that there is
difficulty in usingthe wos Mi1)trtlloeeto describethe centralthem
ofMo-Tzus philosophy.Fromrny own standpoint thosetwo words
better depict a Vestern consciousness
than an Easternapproachto

ta6
AppendixOne

life (though I will continrc to usehioetsalloteIn the text for lack of

a better term). The reasonfor my insistenceon a distinction is that
Mo-Tzu ws prcoccupiedwith justiceas much as he waswith com'
passion,and did not tend to be a very forgiving fellow Contrarily,
in the Vest, as a consequenceof our Judaeo-Christiantraditlon,
universallove has become associatedwith the forgivenessof sins,
which is not really focal here. Perhapsa better word for Mo-Tzui
teaching would be rriuers4ltt* v.hich does a btter job of tracins
back to the entralessenceofToism and the concept of ka'ma. In
any case,the universalperson considen his neighbor tbe sams
hlmself, and the father of his neighbor the sameas his own fathr,
and acts accofdingly.
In 393 BcEPrince \/en of Ku Yang was planning to attack the
much smallerstate of Cheng. Mo-Tzu went to him and skedhim
what he would do if someof the laryercitiesin his country suddenly
raidedthe smllertowns, killing and plundering.The princ replied
tht he would punish them severely.Mo-Tzu then askedh;m if he
himself would not be punishedin the samemanner by heavenfor
attackins Chens. Prince\Zen replied that he wasjustified in his as'
sault, for the people of Cheng had murdered their lords for three
generations,and were alreadysuffering the retribution o{ heaven.
Mo Tzu askedhim how he would feel if, when punishinghis son for
somebad deed, his neighbor suddenlyappearedand beganhittlng
the boy, declarinsthat it was heavent will that he do sol lf the lord
ot a $eat nation attackshis neighboringstate,killing its peopleand
stalingiheir possessions,
then writes down how grand andjustified
he is for doing so, how is he different hom the simple mn who
attackshis neighbors?Price\ven realizedthe wisdom of his words
and backeddown from his plans.t
Mo-Tzu neverhesitatedto standup to the powertul and risked
his life on many occasionswhile doing so. His drivins force ws a
*

JM-Ttu,
Hstn-Tzu,
Vatson,Burton,ILe Basi.Witih4s
a Hat FdTzr
(NewYork,ColubiaUniversityPress,1967)
1 Bect,S"nae.son,
rl,r..!
o1Taosnad Mo-Tzuhttp,//www.san.beck.orel
ECt5-Taoism.httll

147
ppendixOne

pronouncedloveforjustic.Indeed,Mo,Tzui followerslaterbecame
the protectors of the common man and of holy places.Heaven is
awareof evrycrime that peoplecommit,hewrote, andheavenloves
justic add hatesinjustice.How do we know that heavenloves justic?In ajustworldthere is life, wealth, and order,while in an uniust
world there is death,povrty,and chaos.
Mo Tzu believedthat heavencherishedthe entire world universallyandsousht mutualbenefitforalllivingbeinss. This is a vely
simple, dirct, and eloquent statemenrattempting to describethe
To. According to Mo Tzu, heaven dsired rhat those who have
strengthprotectandwork for otheE, thosewith weairhshareitwith
others,thosein positionsof authorit/ work ethically for proper gov
ernment,while thoselabor;ngshoulddiligently carry out their tasks.
Vhen a stateor societyasa whole avoidsconfl;cr along its bordrs,
feeds the hungry, ministersto rhe ill, then that nation will flower
and prosper.Almost twnty-four hundred yearsago, Mo,Tzu had
written that if we substitutegood govemment for offensivewarfare
and spend lesson the army, we will gain many benefits;if a leader
acts according to the universallaws ofjustice and setsan examole.
then he will have no enernisand bring incalculablebenefit to the
world. As an exampleof this, Mo-Tzu noted how many hundredsof
officialsand how many thousndsofsoldiers ar requiredfor a mililary expdition.In the meantimeinternalgovernmentwasneglected,
farrnersforgot their crops, merchantshoarded their wares. If one
flfth of the suppliesand veapons were salvagedafterward,it was
consideredfortunate.Countlessmen died or were crippled in a war.
Mo-Tzu askedif it was not perversthat the leadersof the world
delighted in the injury and xte.minationof their own citizns.
Mo-Tzu ttackednepotismas well. Originally, h wrore, gov
ernmentwasintndedto beoefitandhelp the poor,bring safetywhere
there was danger,and restoreorder where there was chaos.Peoole
chosethe most capableamong.hemselvesasleadersso that govern,
ment could be unified under intelligent direction. However,admin
istrationin his day wascanied out by court flattery,while the reltivs
and friendsof thosealreadyin power were exclusivelyappoinredto
positions of authority. Since the citizens realized that rhese indi-

148

vidualshad not bcencommissioned

for the welfareof the people,
they resentedtbem and did not idntify with them, which fostered
revolution.Vas this surelynot insane?Mo-Tzu suggestedthatthose
in positionsof powerhonor the worthy and impartiallydemotethose
without abilitt to do away\rith interprsonalconflicts.
untortunately, no world leadefto date (other than Chandi) has
seenfit to listen to sch common senseMo-Tzut observationsare
still pertinnttodayrwe havelearnednothing in tvo millennia.Even
in our so-calledmodern democracies,"lt ain't what you knoq itt
whoyou know" and"Might makesright" are tundamentallyaccepted
principles.
Mo Tzu believedinnonhumanspiritualbeinss
andihespiritsof
human ancestors,asevidenc,h cornmentedthat countlesspeople
all over the world had experiencdencounterswith such entities
His philosophyandworldviewwere,from a metaphysicalstandpoint,
vry closeto the shamnistimodel.
Mo Tzu could be very extreme in his views, nd certainly hts
ascticsoutlook appealedmoreto disciplinedwarriorsthan to layfolk.
He wore only coarseclothins and had few possessions.
He practicedyoga and the martialartscontinuously.The historical (and sci
entific, by th standardsof the day) d,octrmentHui-nan ttu stated,
tht he nvrstayedin one placefor very long. Perhapsthe authors
main disagreementwith Mo-Tzu was his expresseddislikeof music.
Mo-Tzu thought that singing, dancing, aod playing music were a
\,r'aste
oftime, that suchan nlightenedindividual missedout on rhe
joys of crealive expressionis sd to say the least.*The celebrated
ToistphilosopherChung tzu himself,while calling Mo-Tzu "one
of the greatestof soulsin the world," criticizd him for economizing
on funeralsand music.Chuang-tzusaid that peoplewiJl sing when
happy and wail when in grief, and to attempt to stop such things
went againsthumn nature.I could not agremore.

Fol those who ar interestedin such thinss, I am an (untalented)

amateurmusicianwho livswith a talentedand competentprofesrional

189
ppendixOne

As statedearlier,for two ccnturiesafrer his dcarh in 391 J]c!,the

school of Mo-Tzu wasthe main rival to the schoolof K'ung Fu Tzu.
Mo-Tzu's followers becametemple safdiansand the defendersof
the simple manrmost of them were from common stock themselves
while alsovery educated(quite a contras!in the fourth century nce).
However, his school qLricklybroke into three branches,eachaccus
ing the other of heresy,and becauseof th;s confltct among them
selves and with Confucianism, they quickly lost power. By the
Conmon Era they had mostly disappearedor sone unoergrouno.
10. In addition to thc Lung Hu Shansect,there are three other
Toist traditions that have had an impact on Chinese history, all
were establishedin the fourrh to sixth centu.ies.One is th MaosharSbargch'in, (Mao Mountain suprernepurity) sect, which fol
lowed the teachinss of Vei Hua-ts'irn, Yang Hsi, and T'ao
Hung ching, among others.This sect did come closerro rhe pop
lar image of the Toist hermir, stressingpeacef l meditation nd a
reclusivelilestyle to obrain rbe prize of immorrality.The secondis
the Lins-po (sacfedjewel)scriptufaltradition, which wasbasedon
sacredtexts and emphasizedcomplexritalsandliturgies The third
is theVutang-Pai,whichemphasized
marialartstrainiogasa mens
io enlightenmentione of;ts members,Chang San Feng,is regarded
a th founder ol internal martial arts and is certainly perrinent to
our story.(Seenote 12.)
r r. The issueof lrimate enlightenmntor immonaltty ;s one
that hasbeen written boutin detail and.equiresseveralvolrrmes
to
address.In short, therc seemto be differentsragesto the game.From
the point ofviev ofJohni Iineage,the first stageis achievedbycornpleting Level Four (actuallyLevel Five,though I have not addressed
the dislinction to avoid confusioo),which ensuresthar you can tke
all your yang energy with you when you die. Such a spirir is still
bound by the lawsof karma,howeve and will remainso until Level
Thity is attained.In otherwords, to ensureescapefrom the cycle of
rbirth you must attain tvel Thirty or more while alive. Ukimate
enlightenrnntresultsat Level Seventy-Two,whn all seventy-rwo

190
ppendixOne

chakmsin thc body arc opcrrcdarrdthc very last, locatedat the top
of the skull,is allowedro bloom.At this point the yogi is one with
I have found Johni method to be similr to tbt of Kundalini
yoga and the nbetan BLrddhistyoss of Naropa (as well as some
branchesof Toismand shanranism),
but, as meniionedabove,
proper comparisonis bcyond the scopeof this book.
One issue,however,that I would like 10 address's the fact that
suchan approachis not lirniledto Eastern
mysticism.
ln my opinion
the ancientCrccks,Me5opotanria.rs,
aDdsyptians
allusedthe same
nethod. \(/hile the evidencefor this is circumstantialrather than
hard, it would appearthat the theory is on track.
The serpenris a synbol iound everywhcrcin rhc Creek archaic
relisiousrecord asvll asihc Esyptian.The depiction of rhe snake
retersto "carth cnersy"or, in the words ofJohn Chang, "yin power"
(yin ch'i risiDgfrom the earth).
Certain researchershave proposedthe theory that the chakras
olEastem mysticisn1areno more than d nctwork of"standingwaves"
in the field of yin enereytht surrondsand pervadesus.This standing wve network reflectsour personalitlesand our karma both, a
colrntc.pat to our genetic makeup
In figure 6a a simplifiedversionof the chakrasof Easternmysti
cism is shown (ihat is, the main seven,rather than all seventytwo).
Comparethesechakrasto the bsicstandingwaveofphysics (figlre
6b), nd to the stdff of Hernes (flgure 6c) usedasa symbol by physiciansaroundthe world. This symbol is actuallyquire old nd can
be seen on a Mesopotamianvase in the Louvre dated to 2000 B(:E
(flgure 6d). You could alsolook at the stafl of Asclepius,god of heal
ins (fisure 6e), or the snakecrown ofthe pharaohsofancient Esypt
(figure 6f). All the imasesrefer to the ascensionof earth energy.I
will leveit to othersto make a more detailedcomparison.+
" All of th.'. ."n..pt' *.re p.sntedby LefterisSarassin
traposmagazine,Aldebaranpublishing,Athens, Cleece,Jun 1998
The orisinal sketch of the vaseiD the Louvre was fi6t pblishedin
the newspaperletrroilpia, Athens, Octobel 4, I 998.

191

\t.t
211
U/

I11

>K
(b)

1
(e)

Fig.6. (a)The chakrasof Easrem

mysricism(b) A tandinswave.(c) The
staffof Hermes.(d) Mesopotaian
inase showingthe samenetworkof
(e)The staffof Asclepius(1)Thesnakecrownol Egypt
enereies.

12. One other semibistorical

figurewho hasa bearingon this
text is Chng San Feng An intcrnal alchemistof great power,he is
credited by many with originating the internal martil arts that is,
the applicationofnei-dantraining to martialtechn;que.John Changs
school of kung fu counts him as a prominent and highly successtul
memberolits lineage.
Amongotherthings,ChangSanFengis con
192

sideredby somethe originatoro f t'ai chi chuan,althoughhis legacvt

allegedinflunceon t'ai chi is an areaof controversy.I will stick mv
neck out and say that I personallyam convinced that Chang San
Fengt internal martialart did indeedinfluenct'ai chi (though I will
not at this point get into the whys and hows). Fengsnameappears
in historical Chinesetexts under two different spellings,as Chang
"ThreeMountain Peaks"and Chang"Three Abundances"(both pronouncedChaq SarFng). As such,someChinesewritrs suggestthat
Chang lived to be at leastfive hundredyearsold . . or more
The first referencewe have to Chang is from the seventeenthcentury scholarHuang Tsung Hsi in his frtidr, Jor Wa$qCbwgna4
who wrote, "Shaolinis famousfor its martial art. Howevet their art
stressesonly offense,which allows an opponent to tak advntag
of this to strik weak points. There are internal martial ans, which
a5soon a\ the dggret.o.'
employ.lillnessro over(omeacrivenes\.
thrown For this
are
immediately
com into bodily contaci, they
reason,Shaolin is regardedas an extemal martial art The internal
martial arts originatdwith Chang SanFeng IChang Three Moun
tain Pakslo the Sung dynasty [960 1279 cE], who was an alche
mist on the mountainof Vu Tang.He receiveda summonsfrom th
emperor Hui Tsuns. On the way to see him, he found the road
blockedbyagroupofbandits.ThatnighthedreamedthattheheavenJyemperorHsuan I/u, th Taoistgod of war, taught him martial
arts.ln the morning Chang killed over a hundred bandits"*
Of sisnificanceis Johnk insistncethat Chans was Shaolin
monkbefore hebecamea Taoist,somethingthat fits in well with the
seventeenthcentury scholar Huang Pai Chiat (Tsung Hsi! son)
statrnentthat"Chang SanFengwasa masterof Shaolin,but reves'
ing its principlesdevelopedthe Internal school."tThis is a distioc
to martialartshistorians,one that hasnot
tion ofsome consequnce
been sufficiently stressed(in my opinion) and that, most assuredlv,
'The

wordinsis rny own,basedon two transltions'

'lii
a. Huane,Alfred,Conrlar C,i,(Tokyo,CharlesE Tuttle,|993)
b Vil, Douslas,lot T'ai-ChiClasicsJro^ thelih al i4 Dyd\tv
(AlbaDy,
StateUniversityof New YorkPrss,I 996)
t Vit", il;/. I ."."-mend thisbook to the seriousscholar
193
AppendixOne

Taoistscholarcwill takeumbragewith. Anothcr importantpoint is

Huangi useof the word sfiil'ress
to describeinteroal martialarts He
is referringto yin energy It shoLrldbe noted that i nternalmartialarts
are not of necssityflowingand evasive,swe havecome to betiev
in .he Vest (sinceall movernntis of ncessityyang).Rather,in this
text, Huang is denoting yin in rhe context usedbyJohn Chang, in
other words asa "graviiationalforce"that absorbsenergyand warps
space-time.The pii4p,Jor WoU Cbng Mt offers considerablecir
cumstantialevidence that Johns schooi is indeed deccendedfrom
Chans San Feng
In the Ming historical text Mi", ShihFan Ci wan, we fiod,a
rcterenceto Chang San Fens;h is presentedas beins',big and rall,
with a cranei back."* Apparcntly, the first Ming emperor tried to
find him in 1392,but Chang dtdn't want to be found. Seventyycars
later ( jn rhe M ins texl,{4ifi ktl Yh Cbi ShouLei
Ko ) w find mention
ofhrm asajn That particularMinsemperorwassuccesstul,
for Chang
dcigned to visir him r
Othcr Mtng referencescatalog ChamgThree Abrndancesas a
nativeof the Yi djstrict of Liaoningprovincein orthernChina. Hc is
listed as beins a Taoisrleaderbetwccn the end of the yuan and the
besinnins of the Mins dynasry( r 368 cr) who eventuallybuilt a cot
tasc oo \yy'uTngmountainto devotehimclfto rhe studyofToism+
\/as thefe a Chans San Fcng who lived 1rl be more than five
centuriesold: Even five yearsago I would have said rhar claimslike
this wcre sherno,rsenseThesedaysIhesitatcto evenoffer an opinion on such matters.That thre od5a historical Chang SanFcng (or
sevcralof then), therecan be no doubt. Vho or what he really was,
however,
wecannotknowPerhaps
his issinrplyacaseotoncrnan
in
cachgencrationpo5ingashis predecessof-aqitecomnronrusein
world hlstory. Or perhapshc wasindccd an agctessToistimmortal.
The Taoistaurh{trl.iHan hsu,in 1844,uponputrlishinsabook
titled
Ttu C,kk Wks ol (:hd", Sd'JFn . claimedto have mer rhe Dran.
YansJwinsMins, Al,arcrdYd"4Sr,leTdiCnl
a-lL,,rUmaicaPlin,Ma$,
YansiMartialA,rsAssociation,
1987J
l Ya.clwinsMinc,riil
+ Huoc,Alhed, C-o,t1r.ni Cri
194

if he werestill alive,sharinga ioke at this

It world bc wondcr'lul
cxpense.
I'd
like
to
think that indeed he is, somewherein
author!
the mountinof China.
13. The question of the ethert existenceplguedscientistsat
the turn ofthe century.Besinninswith Clerk Maxwell! andMichael
Faraday!discoveryof elctromagnetics,the controversys to how
suchforcesshouldpropagatepuzzledscientists,who werc still work
ing with Newtonian mechanicsand mateial bodies.Over tim the
bhavior of a "field" cam to be understood,and in turn that of a
ins th natfeof lisht,
"wave."Allefforts then centeredononderstand
propdgated
in

substancecalledthe
with Fresnelitheory that Iight
luminiferousether being rnostpopular(this ether wasthousht to bc
at rest in absolutespace) In 1887 the fanrousMichelson'Morley
experimentprovd that a mechanicalether could not in fact exist
For eightccn yers this finding vas the center of dbai, but ws
finally acceptcd,despitefirce rcsistancefrom someof thc sreatet
scientistsof the day (such as Lord Kclvin, Hendrik Lorentz, and
JulesHenri Poincar).The issuewas scttled in 1905 with Albcrt
Einstein'sfamouspaperson quantum theory and relativity. Ther
were still adberentsto th old ether theory,howcver notably
Lorentz and Poincar,who introduced model whcrcby a clock
slowedas it nrovcd into the ether. I believethat they wcrc close to
the trulh.
14. The rootsof Taoismstretchbackto thc 'hamanitictradition that svcpt through all partsol the world beginning somethirty
people
thousandyears
aeo.*The word sbanarcones from the Tunears
of Siberia,who livcd on the northcrnmost bordersof the Chlnte
asa bclici
thatshmanism
world However,it is a mistketo assume
bcgan in Siberia.According to lhe rchaolosicalrecord,its ofigins
wasthe first |najorworld
werealmostcertainlyEuropcanI Sbamanism
'Pafincr,

Martin, Tir imortsof aorn (Sha{tesbury,Doret, Uement

B o o k s1 9 9 4 ) .
t Canpbell, I o'eph, Il,r WayoJttu AnindlpDts,Nttbolalts ol ttu Ctl
Hrrt (New York Harpe. nd Row, 1988J

195

rligion andreachedfrom northernEuroDeacrossAsito theAmeri,

can contjnents. Indicationsare that it dispersedthrough Asja into
North Americbetween 1t,000 and 8o0o BcE.
A shamanfunctionsby studyingnd knowingnature,and thus is
ablto reachoutto natureon all levels.The corebelief o[ shamanism
is that theuniverseis madeup of two parallelandoverlappingworlds,
the physicalandthe spiritual.Itreofthe physicalworldmav be influencedby those of the spiritual-It is rhusnecessaryfor an intermediary to communicatewiththe denizensof the spirirworldandintercede
for the dwellerson the physicalplane;this mediatorwasthe shaman.
The forcesofthe spirit world, who maybe deceasedhumans
or nonhumanin origin, canbringon goodfortune orbad, illnessor prosperiry Th shmanentersthe spiritworld throughth rrancestare,during
which he speakswith and/or becomesa mouthDicefor the sDirits.
The spirit world'smain directivusuallywas that poplefollow and
understandthe way of nature,indeed,the cosmologyof shamanism
tookthe firststepsin stablishingthat thererunsa Vay humanbe;ngs
could follow to be in accordwith the world and avoid sicknessand
disaster It is this primordial immediacy and undrstandingof the
naturalworld that shamanismhasbequeathedto Taoism.
The early kings of China were shamans.lr was to the first king,
Fu Hsi, that the spirits rvealedhow ro bring civilization to man,
reputedly around 3000 BcE.Fu Hsi tught his subjeds agriculture
and writing, among other things. He is also the patron of the Chi
nesedivination artsin that he first originatedthe ight trigrmsfrr&a) that led to the eventualdevelopmentof tbe I Ch;ng. It is said
that the secrtof the eight trigramswas inscribedon the side of a
horsethat rosefrom the RiverHo to revealitslf to Fu Hsi; thus this
pattern is called the Ho-t'u, and describsthe underlying nature of
all things. It is inte{estingto not that an ,riflal presntsFu Hsi with
the knowledge of the workings of the univene, and that Fu Hsi is
olten drav/nv/earingatigers skin and accornpaniedby animalssuch
as th tortoise.There can be no clearerties ro shamanism.
One of the greatestshaman-kingsto follow, and one especilly
reveredby Taoistsastbe traditional founderof Toisn, is the Yellow
Emperoa Huang T, who reportedly lived between 2697 and 2597
BcE.H is credited with inventing govemment administrationand
196
ppendixOne

medicine,amongothef things. Indeed,Chinas most famousmdical

(thot'gh
text is called Tte lloo Enperor\ClasicoJlrxrnal l'Leictue
chancesareit wass'ritten in the secondcentury8cE)Huang is also
reputedto be th inventorof the chimney,of plov.s,andofsilk looms,
but is bettr known for his experimentswith lnternal and external
alchemy and discoveryof the secretsof immortaliry Another sha
man-kingwasYue,who foundedthe Hsia dynas' (11os-1765 BcE)
t
people
his
heaven
to
lead
designatedby
it wassaidthat he hadbeen
io centuriespast,KingYu sawananimalemerge
Like hispredecessor
(in
this case tortoise from the River Lo) with a
from the wters
patternof eight trigJmsinscribedon its back.This pattern is called
the lo sll and is referredto as the Later Heaven pa-k'ua,while the
Ho-t'u is calledthe EarlierHeavenpa-k'ua.The Ho-tu describesthe
ideal ordr of things in the universe,while the Lo shu describesthe
order of fluxand change.It canbe senthat wht shamanismoffered
to Taoismwasth senseof a relationshipbetweenthe lawsof nature
and the ultimate power of the universe,including the concept that
changecannot be forced or haltedbut simply underctood.The idea
of "going with the flow" is s shamanisticas it is Taoistiindeed, it is
very difflcult to draw a line betweenthe two and specifywhere one
trad;tion endsand the other ommences.
ol thePar
Treltise
1 5. The saseKuo pts ChingJuq chag (Classic
third
century
cE,
clearly
tensoJtheGenLlontains),vritten during the
describesthe processby which things are createdfrom the Tao and
return to it. This work reflectsideastht had ben in existencefor
nlillennia od were confirmed by otber writers in the Suns dynasty
eight hundredyearslater*
The author begins,"ln the beginninCvs darkness,for the Void
i not visible."i Compare this with ihe ancient Crek myth (per
Hesiod) that the earth sprangtoom chaos,the unfo'med,+o' to the
.

Vong, Eva,Fog 51,,i(Boston,ShambhalaPublications,1996)

I vone,ibid.
+ Th word craosin it! original context has nothing to do with its neaning
today o[ "contusedcrazedfts." Insteadthe word (Xdo)comesfron the
Creek root meaniog"to open wide,".efenine to space,the indefinable

197
AppendixOne

Old Testament.
Vu chi is rheprimordial,thc Sourcelt is thecondition of stillnesswhefe all thinss are undiffereniiatedffom the ulti
mate. In this stat a poiot of movement-of pure yang shincsout
(scc fisure 7). There is interactionbetveen yin and yans leadins to
the stateof t'ai chi (the supremeextremity) vhere yin and yag are
embraced,distinct yt tosether, balancingeach othcis forccs.This
is the One referfed to try Lo tzu, the mother of "the ten thousand
fai chi hasthe
$ings" (all liie). Vhere \ru-hiis absolutestillness,
poteDtialof change.\(hen t'aichiis at rst,yangandyin areunitedr
when t'ai chi is in motion, the two opposingforcesscparat.Hercin
lies the secretof immortality.

(d)

werc wantonly slaughtered,but not rnanyrealizebow quickly it was

done, and by how few
In 1870 there were twenty million buffalo roaming the grass
lands; by 1889, lessthan twenty years later, there were onlv one
thor-rsandleft.
Fromthosethousand,carefulconsewationhasvielded
a herd two hundredthousandstronc in our day. \flby were the buf
falo killedr '/hat purposedid the elimintion of such an incrediblv
large food supply server
Iti simple. Nobody owned them. They were free, and could
feed the economlcallydisadvantagedof the nation without anvone
makig a profit. Vith the buffalo extant, the cattle barons,and the
poliiicians in thir pa, cold not hope to corner thc v/orld meat
market Thesemen had alreadydeterminedthat the srasslandwre
xcellent for raisins cttle, so they made the buflalo go awav.The
orpsesol the slaughteredanimalswere useiessas food, since thev
had normallv poiledby the time aoyonecouldset to themi instead
they wer arted off to plants like thc Michigan Carbon Vorks in
Detroit, wherc they were crushed into fertilizer. lnto Jcnilizer,lo(
Codi sakel
It was simply a caseof gfeed and ignoranceworking hand in
hand, as usual.Vhy did people do nothing at all bck then in thc
faceof sucb slaughter:Perhapsthey didn't care. Perhapsthev had
been told that killins the bffalo wouldn'r matter.Perhapsthev be
lieved that buffalo rneatwasiut no damn sood.

(a)Vu-chi, the To.(b) and(c) A sparkof

Fig.7 Ko'puspresentation.
yangi the centerof yin. (d) T'ai chi, yin and
movementin the stillnessi
yangembraced
andbalanced
16. Seemy text for note 13.
17. Seemy text for note 15.
18. A historic exampleof how much damageman can do in the
processofbeing greedyand ignorant is the corDpleteelimination of
the buffalo in the United Statesin the late ninteenthcentury Most
pople are awre that the great herds that once roamed the plains
198
AppendixOne

199
AppendixOne

A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library

Appendix Two

OBSERVATIONS
AND
SPECULATION

At thls point a truly academicdiscussionof the phenornenadelin

etedin the text is out of the questionbecauseno clinicalrials have
beenhe1d.Howwea I cannorhelp butspeculateturtheron the things
I witnessedin the courseof beingJohn Chang,sstudent,and in this
brief appendixwould like to offer additionarcomment.
It is xcitingto believetharw r,rillone daycom to understand
the nature of the energiesthat lendJohn his powers.yang ch'i and
yin ch'l govern the equation of life, as Chang Situ h;mself has repatedly stated-A brother student of mine once mocked my
psudoscientific
ttemptsto quantifyyin andyng by remarkingthat
experienced
rality directly,andthus had no need foiquantifi_
John
cation. He was not far from the truih. Nevertheless,while Chang
Sifu may not needsuchdiscourseh;mself,the rest of us certainlydo,
so we may as well attempt it.

OBSRVATIONS
Yn3Ener$y
.

energyinto a Ping-Pong
ballheldin hk left handwhlleat the
sametime genratinga yin pole in his right palm. The ball
pulsedwith a blu light while at the sametim emitting a
chirping soundsimilar to the sons of a canary.A continuous
streamof bluish sparkswas observedto flow from the ball
to\,/ardJohn'sright palm,in essnce
a miniaturelightning bolt.
kept
this
up
for
about
five
seconds
andstopped,fatigued.
John
Vhen questionedas to whether he could do it with a solid
rubber ball, he replied in the nesative, statins that the ball
had to be hollor,,r.
. Pyrogenesis.As seenin Ri', oJFirsnd capturedby myselfon
simplevideofilm aswell,Johnisapableof inducinspyrognesis
usingthe yangch'i.The typicalsubjectmtterisnitedis news'
paperor tissue,but he hasboiled water on occasionaswell.
o Energy blasts.Though I have not witnessedthisspcificphe'
nomenonpersonally(yet), I haveheard it describedby other
students,Johnis capableof issuingenersybolts of gratpowef
overconsiderable
distance,simiiarto lishtnins bol. (The color
of theseblastsis alsoblue; the energyusedis identicalto that
used in th Pins-Ponsball derno.)I cannot help but think of
Bi1 Trlblein Lttle Chind,or the
the flms Monal Conbat Pos,et,
god
Chineselegendof the
lei Krag (Zru in Creece).The ex
tent of thesepov/rsis unknown. I have heard that brother
studentsof mine at LevelThree are capableof strikins up to
eight metersawaywith the addition of just a bit ofJohns yin
enrgy into their bodies,v/hich allows their yang energy to
escapethe confinesof their own skin. (You can assumethat
our skin is a sort of Faradaycagefor our bodies'energies.
)
. X ray diflraction. In trials held manyyearsagoJohn and two
of his studentsat LevelThree allowed their dantieopoints to
b subjectedio frontI,donal, and lateralX-ray examination.
Johns dantienshowedup asa flatcircular disk,while thoseof
his studentsexhibited curvedglobular indications(alsoflat).

Yn Eneriy

The Ping-Pong ball demonstration.Outlined;n chapter 7,

this demonstrationbasicallyinvolvedJohnt transfenjnsyane

200

Telekinesis.I havecapturedJohnon film movins a matchbox

from one yand away.He extendedhis left palm toward the
201

box, which we had placedon the floor, generatinga yin pole

in that palm. The matchbox skidded acrossthe floor with
obsrvablaccelerationto rest in his grasp.
Absorition of energy.On two sepateocasions
John passed
yin energy into my body. I was then capableof catching a
bullet from an ajr rifle by plactng my hand over the muzzle.
Two differcnr air rifles were usd in thesetrials. The pellets
showed no deformationand there was neither generationof
heat nor any impct upon capture(chapter7).

Only time will tell if this assessment

is accurare.

Vn-YangEner6y
.

but rather this one,

Electrogenesis.The easiestofJohn's powersto witnessiit is

also the most difficult to qunti/. Tlre repulsive force between yin and yang brings about ihis dynmismias the two
energiesare"squeezed'togetherin ChangSifui dnrien.John
routinely ussthis ability on a daily basisto treat patients
with cupunture,pssingsaid energy into rhe traditional
points.Howevet repeatedtestingwithborh AC andDC voltmeters and amperometersindicated neither currenr nor pot e n t i a l ; n o r w a s m y t a c h e r c a p a b l eo f p r o d u c i n g
incandescencein a DC light bulb of the lowesr volrage (ro
ensurethat this /'currenr"v.asindedbeing passeddurtng the
trials,the aothoractedasground).Therefore,while this power
feelslike electriciry,ir is most definitely not. One characteristic worth noting is that the "current" generateddoes not
seemto follow the standardwaveform of physics,but instead
consistsof a seriesof peaks.I have no hard data to quantify
this statement,but I could feelth;s effecttn ChangSitut body
during electrogenesis.
That is, I receivedthe impressionthar
th power generateddid not follow this mode,

202

SPCULATlON
Yan6Energy
Tle Ping-Pongball demonstrationmentiond aboveand described
in chapter7very rnuchdefinesthe naturcofyang ch'i, should sucha
thing truly exist as an independentform of energy.The color blue
observedis reminiscentof Reich! orgone; indeed, many of the behavioralcharacteristicsdescribedar similar The necssiiyofusing
a hollow, plastic,seamless
ball to accomplishthe demo is most im
portant: It suggeststhatwhat lwitnessedvas not a surfacephenomenon, but rther ihat the energyhad penetratedthe polyrnericshell
and shonei/'idr the ball much like licht shinesin an incandescent
Iightbulb. This seernsto indicate that the yang ch'i is neither particle nor wave, but bo.h. I believethat it is a solar energy stored in
our earthi atmosphere.
The yang energy is roi. It is capableof incendtaryeffects, as
evidencedby the pyrogenesisdemonstrations.Moreover,there is an
interestinscorrelationbetweenChans Situs rchetypesand Reicht
observationson the orgone in the treatment of cancer Reich had
witten that cancercellsdie when placednearthe orgonebions.My
teacherhas successfullyusedan overdoseof yang ch'i to treat can
cer, stating tht cancercells"dry up" when exposedto strong yang.
(That said, I must at presentdashwhateverhopesI may have given
to thoseafflictedwith cancer.AsJohn hassaid,he cannot curecancer He has madeseventrials to date and has hd a 43 percentsuc,
cssrate. \X,/hilethree of those peoplewere instantly cured and are

203

|'
alive today, the other four died on the spot, their weakendframes
unableto endurethe blast ofenergy. Chang Sifu no longer attempts
this type of therapy.I have written this pssgein faith thar further
researchmay lead us to a cure. Once we undentand the yang ch'i,
\{ n illbe ableto curecancer) I am convindthat what Reichcalled
the orgone,w in the Mo-Pai have for the last twenty five hundred
yearscalled yang ch'i.
The phenomenonof X ray diflraction is alsoan interestingpoint
(w know that it is the yang enrgyinducing this effect by virtue of
the fact thatJohn'stwo LevelThree studentsalsoevidncedanindication). X ray diffraction may prove to be the method by which we
can correltand clinically prove bioenergy.

Fic. 8. (a) Fisfativesurfaceof spacetime. (b) Yin field

to "fall."

obiectbesins

Yn EnerSy
It is simply impossibleat this poiot to have a cleal idea as to what
the yin ch'i really is. If any of the propeltiesaccountedcan be clini
cally proven,then we willhave to revisethe FirstLaw ofThermody
namics.The demonstrationinvolving th air rifle is most precisin
defining the characteristicsof yin, The nergy of the pellet was rrof
conserved,there was ro deformation, o generationof hat, no impact (conservationof momentum). In a rccent conversationJohn
describedthe yin as "being like gravity in that gravity itselfwasalso
a yin ch'i." I have stuck my neck out in this lext repeatedly,not least
by statingthat understandingthe yin nergywill give us the secrets
to faster-thanlight speeds.Let me do so once again in this parano nowben,
sraph with another simple sentence,IJ etergycantisappear
thenit canbecreatetr
rotbirg
as
oe\.lnagine
what
a
blow
such news
rafr
would be to the energy industry;they would probably fight Iike ra
bid wolves to prevent such information from making the rounds,
even as idle spculation.
During the demonstration of telekinesisdescribed,lohn explainedthat he hadusedyin ch'ito draw th matchboxinto hisgrsp.
I belivethat what occurredduring this teleklnesiswasessentiallya
wrping of spaceand time in rhe direction of his left palm, much in
the mannerof a gravity well. In otherv/ords, to usea simple model,
what is transpiring is as shown in figure L Again, whether such an
assessment
is accurateor not remainsto be secD.

204

Yn-Yaryl
Energy
Perhapsthe clearststatementI an make rcgarding the power of
electrogenesis
displayedby Chang Sifu is to saythat it is most definitely /ot the resultof electron flow If it were, such elecxronmovement could have been recordedas a potential or a current ol some
in a
sort, andJohn would have been abl to prcduce incandescence
lightbulb. Nevertheless,anyone coming into contact with this en
ergy will swearthat he feelsan eletriccunent passingthrough his
body. In addition, this enersy is thoroughly transferrablethrough
conducton (metals,water), but not ihrough insulatos.If this cur'
rnt is not due to electron flow, then what is causingit?
Iwould like to take another shot in the dark at this point and
proposethat increasednularoscilltionmay be the causof this
Several researchers(Kevran, Komaki, Pappas,HilJman,
Coldfein)* have suggestdthat electrically induced nucler fusion
("cold" mrclearfusion)takesplace inside the body at all times, and
indeed may be the driving force that fuels the sodium-potassium
caretully.The
transferinsidethe cell. I havechosenthe word irarsJar
(called
proposesa
the
Sodium-Potassium
Purnp)
mainstreamtheory
mechnismwhereby sodiurnis exchangedfor polassiuminside and
'

Pleasecheck http,//wwpapimi.el

for related literature.

205

potential
out of the cell in an attemptto explain the transmembrane
ofthe cellmembrane.Howevea this modelhasneverbeenvalidated
and stumpstodays investigators.Proponentsof the biological cold
nuclear fusion theory, on the other hand, sggestthat sodium is
nuclearlytransmutedtopotassiuminsidthe cell,* andthat the processshould righttully be labeledthe Sodium-Potassium
Tinsmota
tion. This model is, of course,outside the acceptedboundaliesof
todayt physics.Taking everything into consideration,howevet it
semsto me quite sensibleto proposethatJohn! yin-yaog kung energy may be due to increasedstatesof nuclearexcittion.This en
efgy is geoeratedasa seriesof pulses,and is inducedbythe inteGction
of the solar yang energy with the "gravitational"or "dark-matter"
force of the yin ch'i. k is this increasednuclearxitation(or fusion)
thatJohn'spatientsand studentsfeel ascunent. (The differencebe
tween my viewpoint and that of the aforementionedresearchersis
that I do not believe that this tusion is lectrically induced.Neither
is it "cold," st.ictly speaking.)
You will see that such a postulateis most logical if we look at
thingsonceagainhom amcrocosmic,astrophysical
perspective.
Our
currnt scienceacceptsthe notion that, were it not for the dynarnism
of nuclear tusion servingas an expansiveforce, our sun would collapseunder the force of its own grvity. In fact, models dlineating
rhe evolution (life and death) of a star follow the archet.pei io fisure 9 (not to scalet).
Vhat this mansis that dll starsare batdefieldsbetweensravity
and some force providing outward pressure.Llnder normal conditions, the outward force exceedsthe force ofgravity, and a sun radi
atesenergy (9). In a white dwarf the pressreof gravity collapsesa
str when its "fire "runs out, creating a dnse'packedatomic structure (9b). A neutron star,the result of the explosivedeath of a star
two to three solar masseslarge, is even more compact, its atoms
crushedand their nuclei stackedtosether (9c). Finally we com to

v,; o
g

CASPART!CLES

K1

\-

(b)

(")
Fis.9 (a)Our sn.Its radiusis 1.4millionkm (b) Vhire dwa.f,radius
10,000km. (c) Neutronstr;radius60 km. (d) Blackholeiradius6 k1

the caseof a black hole, where spaceand time lose all meaningand
ve hve a singulariry(9d).
Ifyou look at the modern fai chi symboi below,vou cansethal
it accurtelydepictsthe transmutationof a starat peak solarpower
such as a red giant (greateryang), explosivelvtransformingito a
black hole (lesseryin).

Let! look at our t'ai chi model of the univene once again,nsing
the rchaicsymbol. It is probably begioning to makemore senseto

ENERCY
STAR/SOTAR
YANC
GREATR

-lollowi'srhi\lormula
1 , N a 2 1' r O l 6 f n e r g u ' 1 q K { 9
r Ld.ou J'an Picrre"Llnra.krnsBla,k Hol". " Srnrry',q'o^4n 280.\.
May 1999.
206

k)

207

Uoderstanding
fai chi is casieronce we redefincfundamcntal
concepts to coincide with the archetype. Let! start with graviry.
\X,4ren
most peoplethinkofgravity, they rememberthe basicsleamed
in high school, One massexertn attractiveforce on another,and
it is this attractive force that kepsus on the planet'ssurface.Lett
take this truism one stp farther and define things more precisely:
Craviry is that force in the universethat wntsallnaitarto collapse
into a singlemass,and ultimately into oflcsingularity.That is,gravity
is that force that seeksto compactspaceandrime into a single,massive black holei k is this dynamismthat absorbsenergyand sendsit
into nowhere Cravity is preciselyrhe intrinsic yin ch'i usedbyJohn
Changto achievehis spectacular,
energy,absorblngdemonstrations.
(l must reiterate,however,that while gravity ir a yin ch'i, the yin
field is not limited to gravity.Thre are other spets.)
Solal fire, on the othr hand, is rhe exparsiue
force thar defines
spaceand time and keepsit extant Vestern siencecalls this solar
torce nuclear fusion. The ancient scholarsof China called it yang
ch'i. lt is one and the sarne.Macrocosmicallythe combat between
the forcesof sravity and solar fire (yin andyans) definsthe naiure
of reality. Microcosmicallytheir interactionrelsour lifeforce.(lt is
losical to hypothesizethat should such a contestcompriethe tun
danentalnaturalconditionolourunivrse,
thenourown bodicsand
our very lifeforce would reflect it. The ancient Chinese,who knew
nothing of blackholesand rcdsiants, experiencedand deducedthis
struggleusing other methods.)
\Vhile true cquatioDgoverningsuchbehaviorwould be fractal
in nature, we could mathematicallystate th balanceol t'ai chi in
simplifiedfo.m as,

l-l

of the Creek wordneta/lor,(ptol,ov), which mens,quite simply,

"that which transmutes."Bettermen than I have found ancient cultures to be extremely sagciousin the ways of the world. Perhaps
the ancientCreekssimply understoodthlngs a bit better than we do
today.Leti closeon that thought.

I ,:,rt+-i= r

.h.r. ]-- I dcfinesthe narureof rhe yjn ch'j, o:t [+-] rhat of
the yans,nnd K is a constant.('nme,t is not applicable
ro the dcfi
nition of yin, because
it is a yangcharacteristic.)
Lct me shakething up evcn more for those who nray thi k I
have gone ofl the deep end. Chang Siftri "electricity" is transmil
table rhrough metal objects The Enslishword'cia/ is an adaptation

208

209

BOOKSOF RELATEDINTEREST
,

Nei Kung
The SecretTachingsof the \(arriorSages
by KostaDanaos

The Martial Arts of Ancient Crecce

Modern FightingTechniquesfrom the Age ofAlexander
by Kostas
Dcnmisaul Nektarios
Lykiaro1,oulos
The SpiritualPra(tk es o[ rhe Ninja
Masteringthe FourGatesto Freedom
by RossHeaoen
Qigong Teachingsof a Taoist lmmorral
The Eighr Essentialxcrcisesof MasterLi Ching yun
by StuartAloeOkan
The JadeEmperorsMind SealClassic
The ToistGuideto Health,Longevity,andImrnonality
by Snat AloeOkol
Iron Shit Chi Kung
by Martak Cbia
BoneMarrow Nei Kung
ToistTchniques
for Rejuvenating
the Bloodand Bone
by Nla takChia
Martial Arts TeachingTlesof Powerand Paradox
Freeingthe Mind, locusingChi, and MasreringrheSelf
by PascolFaiot
InnerTiaditions. Bear& Company
PO. Box3BB
Rochester,
VT 05767
-800-246-8648
t
wwr.v.
InnerTiadirions.com
Or conmctyour localbookseller