NO TIME OR SPACE FOR MENTAL PREPARATION OR EXPECTATIONS
No time and no space in Transcendental Big Universe
Sifu Fleur Chapman
Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung Healer
9th January 2011
It's been three months now since this incredible course, and it's still really hard to find words to do justice to the experience. But.... I'm sitting in the beautiful snowy north, preparing for another course with Sifu and I wouldn't feel right about starting that without trying to thank him for his wonderful teaching and transmission.
So please bear with me if what I say is inadequate.
The course enabled me to rediscover the wonder I felt when practicing chi kung with Sifu for the very first time. Within one second of the opening session, I felt my spirit set free to a degree I've never experienced before. At that point, if Sifu had said 'Ok, course over, you can all have three 30 hour days', I would genuinely have gone home very happy.
I've come to realise lately that the 'entering chi kung state of mind' session at the beginning of each course is so important because it contains the essence of that course. Just as the first few patterns of our kungfu sets contain their essence also.
Anyway I had a feeling the course was going to be very very special. And to me it was actually 'perfect' – a course full of spiritual joys, and cosmic realisation.
I don't know quite how to put this, but my personal experience was that the course somehow manifested the Heart Sutra. In retrospect the Yi Jin Jing course last February similarly felt like a manifestation of the Great Compassion mantra. It was an excellent preparation for the Small Universe course in many ways.
Please note - I am not saying the Yi Jin Jing (or Small Universe) is a sutra! We have been there already, and that was one bizarre discussion. Just that Sifu's transmission gave me direct experience of those particular spiritual teachings, in a way I haven't got close to before. This is purely my own interpretation, and I don't know if it's correct.
Sifu often gives the same instructions from course to course, and this wasn't the first time I'd heard him say 'you are already enlightened'. But it was the first time I understood -- at my current low level, anyhow.
My feeling is that our training is less about attainment than working our way back towards the perfection that is already there. This takes a lot of time, and effort, but many layers of rubbish and defilement can be cleared in an instant with Sifu's help, and the course was really remarkable in that respect.
I'm sure that many of us are very appreciative of how much Sifu gives in his teaching, and marvel at this from time to time, but he does so with such a light touch that maybe sometimes we take it for granted. Those who were there had some tangible evidence of just how much Sifu gives – it was very humbling. Although I feel that what we are aware of may be simply the tip of the iceberg.
I just want to mention the last session of the course, which exemplified the brilliance of Sifu's teaching. Sifu often refers to 'the grand finale' during courses, but this time after we'd learned the phenomenal big universe, he called us all to the front for some final questions. I wasn't quite sure if the course had finished and I think other people wondered the same thing.
Then he said quite casually that we'd have one last practice session; I really won't attempt to describe this, as it was utterly indescribable, but my point is that we weren't allowed the time or space for mental preparation or expectations which would have diminished such an incredible experience.
Thank you Sifu and Simu for your kindness and generosity; thank you Wei Foong Sije, Peter and Chun Nga Taisiheng for the organisation, and thank you Sifu Wuji for your helpful posts. Some people have mentioned it was a big course – in fact there were 90 people there. And at the chi kung review course in Penang, which I was lucky enough to attend, there were more than 100.
So a sincere thank you too to my Shaolin Wahnam family who made the whole trip such a wonderful, unforgettable experience.
With love and respect,
Fleur
The Small Universe class on Langkawi Island 2010
The above discussion is reproduced from the thread Small Universe in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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