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[Saber]

I see that it was in 2009 that I wrote about the first experience with Master Ou in 2008 in the Bahamas.  It is a great pleasure to write about another healing session, now three years later.  Healing experience has come to mean so much more than it did three years ago.  From a certain point of view, healing is a "full-time" job all humans engage in.  We are always either falling ill, maintaining some level of health, or getting better. In terms of Pangu philosophy this makes sense because our souls are always moving into or out of some state of harmony with the heaven and earth. In January Master Ou was in Florida and many individuals had the opportunity to receive a healing and learn new aspects of the entire program.  You can see beginners with tranquility and surprise on their faces.  Many people come to begin this qigong, but not many continue.  I believe there are many reasons for that but principally they seem to manifest as a lack of understanding and a rigid habit of mind.

I went for my assigned healing appointment, and after a few preliminary questions about my health, translated by Olivia, the session began.  I must say that I struggled a bit to come up with a specific ailment, so I remarked that physically I was fine, without pains of any kind, and for a 60 year old man vitality of mind and body seem very good; certainly much better than a few years ago.  Healing for me lies in the emotional and spiritual realms which is why I began searching for this remarkable qigong (or perhaps destiny led me). If we master the emotional and spiritual, then the physical will become well.

Graciously Master Ou began his healing form.  As usual, the eyes were closed and I began to recite the password. I could feel warmth in the palms, similar to when we give healings to others.  Since most of you are Pangu Shengong healers, you likely are familiar with sensing vitality during healing.  In this case not only did I feel warmth from Master Ou, but also a sparkling sensation and light.  If I were to compare it with something it might be like golden champagne inside my awareness.  This sparkling energy traveled up the arms and into my body.  It was as though Master Ou was filling a bicycle tire with air, with each movement the awareness of my body was filling up.  I even began to feel a sort of pressure, as though this sparkling energy might might somehow over-inflate.  It was a state of remarkable fullness that can be described as blissful; the vaguest sense of time and space.  Of course time and space do intrude on our awareness, and Master Ou began the drawing out movement, and just as the tide of sparkling light had flooded my awareness, he began to release it back, literally taking the sense of pressure down to some "normal" sustainable level. 

Later his comments about love and his insights into improving my acceptance of others was equally valuable.  I mentally floated out of the room and for some reason was rubbing my stomach, as though I had just had an excellent meal.  Upon reflection, it was a most excellent meal, feeding my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies with qi. 

[sze]

Hi Saber

Thank you for sharing your healing experience.  I am very happy to know that it just like you had a most excellent meal, feeding your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies with qi after receiving the healing from Master Ou. 

[Beautifulice]

Hello George,

I agree with you-- "If we master emotional and spiritual, then the physical will become well."  I am so fortunate that I can receive Pangu Shengong healing energy at anytime anywhere when I do the practice.  I am very thankful to Pangu granting me the opportunity of learning this qigong technique and living in this wonderful big family.   

[Michael]

Hi George, thanks for sharing your experience.

I believe there are many reasons for that but principally they seem to manifest as a lack of understanding and a rigid habit of mind.

Only my two most recent students have told me they practice every day, so maybe they will continue. I think it' difficult to start new habits and/or break old ones, and it seems that the highest success rates come from people who are associated with PGSG practice groups that initially encouraged them to learn through lots of friendly suggestions (and maybe some friendly insistence).

I have tried to arrange follow-up discussions with my students in order to let them understand more so their daily practice will become more meaningful, but either I have moved or they have moved, or usually they just lost interest. If the practice doesn't have meaning beyond a rather simple habit, and if students don't have some additional confirmations of the benefits, they are likely to lose interest.

I think following the 5 practices, especially the Healing Skill, can confirm for students how useful PGSG is. I would like to take my students to the next step, but it seems that they have to make that decision on their own and then I can teach them more. The PGSG practice groups in Guangzhou probably offer an informal and low-pressure way to get exposed to more information and the Healing Skill at a person's own pace.

As a PGSG teacher, what tangible goal can I point to that a student is supposed to attain? I've healed my students' injuries and small problems and they still don't seem to understand how daily PGSG practice will help them. Any suggestions?

[Saber]

Hello Michael, and all,
I may not be the best person to ask about suggestions for helping people continue the practice because my students also stop and start, but I think the answer may be both obvious and subtle. The obvious part of the answer involves motivation. As a teacher we know that motivation is the key to learning anything; a student must want to participate and learn in order for even the best teacher to be successful. Many of the testimonials illustrate individuals inability to change their thinking. The subtle aspect is how to motivate.  But let me purposefully digress a moment. 

Each of us, individually, is one person out of seven billion (7,000,000,000) on the planet.  Somehow that brings some comfort.  As individuals we are almost insignificant in terms of a number of Pangu Shengong practitioners. Individual to individual we might never make a difference globally with anything.  Just as we might teach 10,000 new Pangu students this week, more than that are being born! In our lifetime we may never catch up... But, I think you know there is something more profound that is happening in the consciousness of humanity on this planet.  The great philosophies all state that our most profound level of connectedness in on the qi level.  This goes by many terms: consciousness, unified field, samadi, zero ground state, spirit, and the dao.  Back to the subtle aspect.

Master Ou states that starting Pangu is a matter of destiny, in fact most human activity is a matter of destiny.  Assuming that as a basis for analysis, then we are a fortunate few.  (Of course I do not exclude other qigong schools or true seekers of truth, for they have their positive destiny as well.)  But the decisions each of us makes (all seven billion) are based on previous experience or antecedents, cause and effect. In effect, we are all blind to our potential.  Even the miracles of all the saints in all times did not convince humanity to lead a more compassionate life. I believe that the best way for us to help others is to be profound in our practice, and sincere in our daily life.  According to Master Ou, a portion of Pangu's spirit is in us all, it is one unified spirit; somehow we are all connected.  I believe that as we activate that spirit in ourselves it may cause a change in others' destiny.  If it is a matter of destiny, we need only change destiny.   

In Ecuador a woman asked me why she should practice Pangu Shengong when she already prayed.  I asked, "For what do you pray?"  She replied, "For good health and a better life."  I said that Pangu was the answer to her prayer.  I told her a story about a man caught in a flood who was praying on the roof of his house to be saved.  He refused several boats and a helicopter rescue crew because he was certain that god would save him directly.  Well, eventually the flood carried him off and he went to heaven where he asked why he had not been saved.  The celestial authorities asked him why he had not accepted the boats that they had sent!   What do you think?

[Raymond_Oh]

Hi Everyone, this is an excellent discussion thread and is indeed inspiring! One that I'd really enjoy participating. But first let me summarize everyone's contribution to the topics so far:

George: 1) PGSG has wonderful healing power;  2) To significantly expand PGSG's reach, it needs to be done faster than the rate of population growth (Wow! I was thinking about this exact same point last week!). 3) Learning and participating PGSG is "matter of destiny"; 4) Continuing practice takes strong motivations; 5) PGSG practitioners need to collectively demonstrate good spirited, good-willed conducts in order to create a butterfly effect necessary to influence those who might but hesitant to join us.

Sze: Sharing [is one of the most import part of the PGSG culture].

BeautifulIce: [PGSG as a ] big family.

Michael: 1) new habits are hard to start and old ones die hard; 2) friendly suggestions and friendly insistence; 3) encouragement through healing; 4) Master Ou's 5 practices.

It's amazing how we all are connected ! You have pointed out all the essential characteristics of PGSG and its culture in one single thread!  George and Michael thank you for discussing the challenging aspect of teaching new comers and helping them to persist in the pursuit of healthier lives.  Here's an easy analogy I give every time I talk to someone about PGSG: almost everyone knows jogging is good for their health but how many people jog?  Michael, I think you've already answered your own question: persistent friendly suggestions and friendly insistence, encouragement through healings, and keep doing Master Ou's 5 practices.

Now let me try to expand on this somewhat if you allow me.  We can borrow from history as to what major religions in the world do to keep their faiths going generation after generation. They have done it through helping the needed, community sharing, family participation, children and adult educations, physical, spiritual and emotional healings, and more.  PGSG participants/teachers are already doing many of these daily.  But perhaps if we could start with small changes in our ways we could speed up PGSG's spread.  For example: "children learn PGSG for free" and we tell every current participant to bring their sons, daughters and grandkids to learn the moving form. (Anyone ever seen a restaurant commercial that says: children eat free?)  The PanGu Research Institution could help by creating a children's book/CD that include a simple story of Master Ou and Pan Gu with colorful illustrations.  I think parents who bring their kids for a free lesson would be happy to buy the book/CD.

Massive marketing could also work. There are free or low cost massive marketing channels such as radio talk shows that are available in many large metropolitan areas.  Our well-connected and articulated PGSG representatives can go out there to the general society / communities to make this happen.
 
Religion is a sensitive topic but in many of his lectures Master Ou has pointed out that there is no conflict between PGSG with religions. I totally agree in principle. Path of Life however does include many stories of Pan Gu and Master Ou that are similar to that of God and Jesus Christ in the Christian Bible.  We shall leave this topic for another time.  BeautifulIce has mentioned in another thread that Olivia wants keep the specific contents of Path of Life out of this forum so that those interested parties can explore and enjoy on their own - I totally respect this.

While encouragements usually come from outside, motivations are generated from within.    My motivation for keep practicing PGSG is to see myself reaching higher levels of Qi and to heal others with illnesses as well as my own.  Based on Path of Life, student testimonies, my observations, and talking to Master Ou, I think PGSG could enable its followers to: 1) Become healthier and heal their own illnesses via exercise forms;  2) Help others using Qi healings;  3) Achieve higher Qi levels that including but not limited to: sense a patient's troubled body parts, emit high quantity electricity or obtain super human capabilities, and even to communicate with beings beyond the human world; and finally 4) Attain reverse aging and enjoy extra long and healthy life.

125 is the oldest age on record in human recorded history.  I truly believe 70 and even 100 years later Master Ou will be still looking and acting the same way as he does today.  I hope on that day I would stand next to him with a straight back and shake his hand without my hands shivering.  And I think all of us PGSG students are on the same page, aren't we?

Happy practices to all!
Raymond Oh

[Michael]

George and Raymond, thanks for your suggestions.  I like to talk about it in order to keep it on my mind so I might think of some new ways of approaching these common problems.

Michael: 2) friendly suggestions and friendly insistence; 3) encouragement through healing;

Raymond, it makes sense and I like what you said.  I would like to comment on something as a point of general discussion among PGSG teachers.  There is something I have experienced both as a student and as a teacher, which is the phenomenon of the student who wishes to minimize or temporarily stop contact with their teacher at some point in their learning. Sometimes students are overwhelmed for a time and need to digest new ideas and practices, or they have gotten to a "stopping point" where it is difficult to continue because of changes they are experiencing that essentially bring into question their previous worldview or cultural identity, so I generally think I should let students initiate their next step, although I try and make it easy for them and also make it obvious how they can do so.

For example, as an English teacher most of my students tell me directly they are nervous speaking to m because I'm a foreigner, and their tone of voice and body language is similar to PGSG students that seem to be a bit shy about making second  contact after learning the Moving Form. 

I have reached at least a couple of stopping points as a PGSG student, such as when my body sensing ability first became really good.  I found it overwhelming, so I turned it off...for a few years.  I guess I just wasn't ready for the threat to my own identity of actually feeling another person's perspective.  That's been very difficult for me and I don't think I'm the only one.  I think I have recognized other PGSG students struggling with the idea of broadening their perspective enough that it calls into questions, explicitly and implicitly, their previous sense of who they are.  I can't quite put it into words very well, but perhaps you know what I mean.

I just wanted to bring this up as a point of interest.  Perhaps you have noticed something similar?

[Raymond_Oh]

Michael, I am glad that you want to discuss further on the topic of PGSG practice motivations.  I think you should be proud of your achievements in your abilities to give healings and be able to sense other people's illness.  I would love to have that ability.  I do have stopping points along the way myself: they were mostly due to laziness and other life constrains.  In one of the articles in Flowers of Beauty and Kindness, there's a story/testimony by a very senior student in China about him being able to communicate with the dead after practicing PGSG non-moving form.  He was able to help a friend and his family to restore peace of mind after a death in the family with this newfound superhuman capability.  After I read that story, I thought about it a lot and was bothered by it for a while.  But I am now completely at ease with it since talking to Master Ou about spirits and the supernatural world.

To delve deeper into your concerns, let's take karate for a comparison:  if you were a karate coach, then you would not have these problems because there're no stopping points and identity crisis for practitioners in the karate community.  Karate students learned to punch and kick and then they go for their colorful belts. These belts give them senses of achievement, honor, pride, and glory.  They have a collective identity that are all proud of.  PGSG students, on the other hand, don't go through this path.  Most of us come to learn PGSG because we wanted an alternative way to cure our disease(s).  On the macro level, we know that Master Ou has never ranked his students base on Qi levels.  And he does not encourage students to compare amongst themselves on the basis of Qi achievements.  However he does stress the fact that PGSG is a Qigong that could heal people and save them from their sufferings.  He inspires us to do the same as he does while he teaches us the "dual training" of the body and the soul.   And it's really up to the students to practice daily and help others and thus advance their bodies and souls to higher states of health and happiness. On the micro / individual level, we can: a) be inspired by greatness (not just by Master Ou, but also by many of our 'classmates'); b) learn and research more about the scientific and philosophical theories behind PGSG; c) participate more in the group activities; and d) follow Master Ou and go inspire others to do the same.

In my humble opinion, there are benefits of setting up official PGSG Qi/practice Levels for practitioners to follow.  It's not for students to compare who is better, more powerful or stronger.  But it could be used to guide novice beginners to set goals, measure progress, and instill self-directed motivations to move along the learning curve.  It would also make it easier for the instructors of PGSG to carry out their explicit and implicit obligations.  It's like: you have to have a box in order for people to think inside the box or think outside of it, right?

[Richard]

  Michael, have you tried the music therapy?

  For example, ask your students together with you, to listen Master Ou's Music (Please use this cd: http://www.owwrecords.com/cat_pop5e.html),

which will take you about one hour for the healing. After that, you can share the feeling each one. We have found it more effective way for health and healing with joy and pleasant. Just Keep Peaceful to enjoy, that's enough, thing would change better or may attract more students to join if you keep trying. Hope you good luck!

[Michael]

Hi Raymond, thanks for your comments.  Generally, I agree that a bit more codification would be helpful to show students, especially new students, various guide posts along the way.  I especially would like to help newer students reach the point where they get enough meaning from PGSG to be able to carry on independently.  I think the Healing Skill gives a lot of opportunities for students to get more involved with the 5 practices and get more meaning from their solo practice.

I think I remember the first time I got some perceptible feedback from giving a qi healing, and luckily since I'd read about it in testimonials it didn't really surprise me.  After that patient, I wondered why I didn't get feedback more often.  In my case, it seemed that doing face-to-face qi healings put me in the mode of sending a high volume of qi and seemed to put me in the mindset of showing off or sometimes even feeling self-conscious about waving my arms around.  When I did it quietly from my room with no one present, sending qi long distance, I was thinking more about the patient than myself.

Hi Richard, I don't know about that particular CD, but I'll check it out.  I did have a group of prospective students once for whom I played what I think was Teacher Ou's first set of songs, and these were my Chinese students in my English classes, and they did not show any appreciation for that music.  Different people like different things, I guess.  I haven't really gotten into the music myself, so maybe the new CD will prove interesting.

Best,
Michael

[Richard]

  Hi Michael, 

      When you "thinking more about the patients than yourself", things would change to be different, more positive.

      Actually, now Master Ou has created various music albums and the latest two CD Ngahyin (similar to modern Cantonese)Ancient Chinese Chanting, many of us have benefit a lot from these great "treasures". You never know how great and effective while keep listening day by day, months by months. We say "Music Therapy", a real effective way for energy healing, relaxation, peace and harmony. You may forward to the link:  www.owwrecords.com