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[Saber]

Recently, for the last couple of months, in fact since Master Ou's New Year retreat, I have been having an unusual yet pleasant sensation.  At one time or another we have probably all used some medical cream for a muscle pain or strain.  It could have been Tiger Balm, Bio-freeze, or Icy-hot; something like that.  Well, that is how the sensation feels, as though I applied Icy-hot cream, except that I haven't applied any.  The sensation sometimes comes and goes during the moving forms, which one might expect as a "qi" sensation.  Now though, when I think about Master Ou, or when I hear his PanGu song, when I open this website, or sometimes just in a contemplative moment, the sensation surfaces.  Principally it is appearing at the base of my spine and the heart area.   I thought it might be something I ate at first, or how I was sitting, but it is too frequent and not correlated to those actions.  I feel surprised and then just grateful for the experience.  The sensation may be growing, in frequency, duration, and intensity, if that makes sense.  I think that if this continues I will seriously need to rethink about how I interact with the world; how does one engage in the same activities while feeling that cool heat is pouring through their chest?  One more thing, since the retreat, I have been much more regular with the non-moving form, even if it takes me an hour to finish, I see it through. What all this means, I am not sure, but I feel it worth mentioning.  Is anybody else experiencing something similar? 

[Beautifulice]

Hi George,

Thank you for sharing your extraordinary Qi sensation with us.  Your experience is very interesting to me, and your detail description makes it more live.  I had somehow similar feeling once.  Last year I attended Master Ou's concert in Hong Kong.  When I returned to US and listened to his songs from his album, I felt that my heart had very special strong feelings, as if it could understand and echo to his singing.  My heart and soul were totally touched.  And then I felt the very intense energy feelings all over my body.  I felt very pleasant and peaceful afterwards. 

[conrad]

Hi George,

Thank you for this excellent post. I think I am experiencing something similar to your sensation.   After I had become a nonmoving form instructor since last year, I felt my heart was getting more sensitive than before. Sometimes when I do or think anything concern with Pangu theory, I can feel an unusual sensation in my heart area . It can be changed in different occasions.Basically there are two kinds of sensations I can describe in English, one is cool and the other is warm. But it is quite different from a “Qi” sensation. When it appeared I was feeling more like my heart was illuminated by a beam of moonlight or sunshine which comes from deep inside the universe. I can’t figure out what all this means but I guess it’s something guiding me to realize myself and this world from a new way .Whatever it means, I think the most important thing for us is to keep peaceful mind and open heart as possible as we can.

[Richard]

  Thank you for your sharing, George!  I "envy" all of you have this "Cooling heat"

  To me,  I really had the "heat" sensation when I listened the lecture of Master Ou in Hong Kong last year. It was on the left center of my heart, a current of "heat" flowing for a little long while during Master's speech, feeling very warm that I haven't had that experience. Hopefully, I can feel "Cool heat" together in future though I know naturally feeling is the top most important 

[Saber]

I just returned a few days ago from the Shivananda retreat center in the Bahamas with Master Ou.  It is so close to Florida that I could not miss the opportunity to learn from him again.  Of course we went to a Chinese restaurant one evening and the owner knew both Vincent and Master Ou. She referred to Master Ou as “Sifu.” It seemed very appropriate.  But the purpose of this post is to convey an experience while there.  Master Ou was leading one of his guided meditations for the group of new students.  Many of you have experienced these, and you know that the experience can vary.  As for me, I fell into about six different dreams during the process, so I thought, “fine, another purification.” Then Master Ou asked the group if they would like him to sing a song in the manner in which PanGu speaks to him.  There were enough “yes” responses for him to begin, although I suspect that most were not really clear about the profound connection between Master Ou and PanGu.  He began to sing softly, in a beautiful Cantonese.  Of course I cannot understand the language, but my mind followed the sounds.  The vowels and tones shifted up and down, somewhat like a boat traveling down a river.  Finally, the song ended with the word, “hannn,” peacefully.  With that a sensation began in my stomach. The entire front of my abdomen felt as though it was sparkling, it was very blissful.  I was caught somewhere between amazement and laughter. Imagine a bottle of Champaign sparkling and bubbling inside you, something like that.  The group then wanted to have a picture taken with Master Ou, so we walked to the dock, but I tell you, subjectively, I was in a state of amazement. I really could have jumped into the water, even though I dutifully took the pictures and had just a smile on my face.  Later I mentioned this to Master Ou and he explained how the refined tonal language of the ancestors allowed the real feelings of the speaker to be expressed.  Reflecting on today’s languages, it seems we say a great deal without any feeling.  Thus I am brought again to a richer understanding of the password: “speak with reason, treat with courtesy, act with emotion, accomplish results.” Maybe the listener can culture himself to: “listen with an open mind, treat with respect the words, feel deep emotion, and enjoy the results.”  There were a few other insights that I am happy to share in another post.

[Beautifulice]

Reading your post is such a great enjoyment to me!  Thank you so much for sharing your remarkable experience and deep reflection with us.  They help me expand my knowledge and broaden my horizon.  I definitely feel the necessity of refining my words and expression in order to express my real feelings.  More importantly I need to refine my heart and soul according to PGSG passwords, so that my better inner qualities can be expressed.  Your interpretation of “the listener can culture himself to: ‘listen with an open mind, treat with respect the words, feel deep emotion, and enjoy the results.’ ” is indeed wonderful!  I look forward to reading your next post.  ;)

[Saber]

Here is another experience to share from the Bahamas.  These things happen so naturally around Master Ou that one almost begins to think that they are everyday events.  I saw a remarkable cure by Master Ou while there. A woman was attending his lecture to learn the moving form when her back began to hurt.  She returned the next day almost unable to move, with her back in spasms.  The result of an older injury, she said.  She could barely stand without pain and was clearly in distress.  Master Ou calmly placed his hand on her head for a couple of minutes.  Vincent and I just looked on.  When he lifted his hand off, the woman's eyes opened as though she had been in a dream, her body also shook slightly.  Master Ou explained that the pain was the result of the positive qi energy moving against the negative energy that had been in her back.  Casually he began to investigate a seed pod on a bush adjacent to her, opened it, took out the seed and crushed it between his fingers and then threw it to the ground.  He and Vincent walked back to his room while I escorted the woman back to her room and suggested she lie down and practice the non-moving form.  Vincent came back to find me, slightly worried, I suspect, that I might not understand what I was seeing.  In fact, while I have much faith in Master Ou, my Western training is quite capable with bringing up a question or doubt.  However, the next day I saw the woman up and moving around, shifting the chair on the stage and bending over picking things up.  Wow, I thought, and she was all smiles.  I commented to her on how much she had changed, yes she said, she felt wonderful.   A day later I saw her again at the common dining area, eating and chatting with a friend.  To witness such a cure from such obvious pain is impressive.  To see these dedicated souls in the ashram coming to Master Ou for a healing and treating him (and us) with such respect, one begins to realize the responsibility that being a student of Pan Gu Shengong entails.  In a way, people are putting their souls in our hands; that is a special trust.

[Saber]

The final insight from the Bahamas trip is somewhat indirect, but hopefully interesting for the reader. The Shivananda ashram environment is centered on an Indian yoga system of knowledge.  They value many of the Indian classics, and of course welcome wisdom from all spiritual paths.  Among the books their students read is the Bhagavad-Gita.  It is considered to be a jewel of Vedic wisdom.  While with Master Ou at the ashram, I had been thinking about Pangu culture’s ideas on destiny.  As you know, Master Ou has written often on the idea of destiny and/or predestination.  The ides are expressed in The Path of Life.  In short, 95 % of what we do is destined, thus leaving us with a subjective control to influence events in the 5% area.   In his book Master Ou questions this concept with an argument he has with Pangu.  His writing is very much like the debate between the warrior Arjuna and Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita.
I often wonder about this concept of destiny.  It certainly seems valid when we look at the broad universe; what influence do we have over the slightest event in the backyard, even our bodies are on automatic pilot, thankfully.  So where does that leave a poor soul?  Here is where the Bhagavad-Gita sheds some interesting light, Chapter 3, verse 27 and 28.

“Actions are in every case performed
By the gunas of Nature. He whose
Mind is deluded by the sense of “I”
Holds “I am the doer.”

But he who knows the truth about
The divisions of the gunas and their
Actions, O mighty-armed, knowing that
It is the gunas which act upon the
Gunas, remains unattached.

This is no place to expound in detail on the concept of gunas and destiny, but here we have a comparative view, from a text thousands of years old and from Master Ou.  The gunas of nature are the elemental forces behind the changes of creation.  Most importantly, I think, is the idea of the self, or soul, standing apart from these changes, witnessing the creation, knowing that it is not the “doer.”   Which leave us with the other 5%: our minds and will and the ability to subjectively understand this tempering.  As is oft quoted, “we seem to be spiritual beings having a human experience.”