One of my last Facebook posts of 2009 is, “The Visas for China Arrived!” In 2010 I was to finally return to China. I had unfortunately had to cancel an earlier planned trip due to my joints and had not been back since the disciple ceremony four years prior. By now my joints and my immune system, while not fully recovered, were well enough for this level of travel. In fact, I was taking my students with me! In March of 2010, nine Moonites and I embarked upon a three-week adventure to the Middle Kingdom.
But before we travelled to China in March, we hosted Jan Silberstorff for the first time during a wet and grey Seattle January weekend. I had met Jan off and on over the years and attended a seminar in San Diego with him a couple years prior. I felt an instant affinity for Jan, not only for his deep knowledge of the Chen System (remember Jan was the first westerner to become CXW’s disciple, living with CXW for several years – but those are his stories to tell!); I also felt an affinity for his depth of knowledge of the Tao Te Ching, meditation and woven spiritual history of Christianity, Buddhism and Taoism within the martial arts training. Jan has a unique and well-honed embodiment of the combined martial, historical and spiritual with our lineage and over these past ten years he has brought a welcomed depth to our school’s training. Jan remains one of my teachers and has become a good friend too. (In fact, stay tuned later this spring for information on a program Jan will be offering in 2021).
Its March and off to China with the Moons. I suppose none of us thought we would return – not to China but to the US! We all had huge suitcases of way too much stuff. I wish I didn’t have to remember how embarrassing it was to hoist and schlep those monsters on tiny buses, trains and cars, but remember I do. To our defense, we did have to prepare for the conditions for two weeks in the Village at that time – when the food was… well, when the toilets were… well, when the sanitation was….well…. Never mind!
We had an remarkable time. The crux of the trip was two weeks of training in Chenjiagou, one with Chen Xiao Wang and one with Chen Bing. The first week with Chen Xiao Wang was a large international seminar and disciple ceremony, this time with an even larger group and media crammed into the temple. It was special for me to have my students get a glimpse into what I had experienced 4 years prior. We saw lots of our training pals, Bill & Allison Helm, Ben Milton, Khiang Seow and more. It was March and a bit chilly still, but much of the training was outdoors on the big concrete area in front of the school. I remember our large group stomping and punching our way through the Laojia Erlu while villagers and other students lined the side channels practicing Silk Reeling, empty hand forms and weapons.
The second week was with Chen Bing at his school. The construction and growth of the Village as it is today had not yet begun, but CB was the first one to have Wifi! Because of it 2010 is the year I began to blog my experience, a practice that sustains to this day. Every morning I woke early to bababa’s below my window as the sheep herder shepherded his flocks down the road and through the Ditch. I wrote and then joined the others for calisthenics and Standing on the large dirt training field. We trained Sword, Broadsword and Tui Shou with Chen Bing on the field and the platforms in the famous Ditch as it was then, which was right behind his school.
My best memory of that time with Chen Bing was all of us walking with him through town during Market Day to a seller of trees. He bought a couple dozen young saplings. We carried them back through town, CB like the Pied Piper leading us through all the Village eyes agape. That afternoon we helped plant all those trees for what was to become shade his training area. Every year back to CJG I would visit those trees until one year they were gone, in service of the future development of the Village.
Before during and after our training we travelled around the region. We visited Kaifeng, the Yellow River, the beautiful Longmen Grotto and of course many of the must-see sites in Beijing including the Temple of Heaven, The Forbidden City, Beihai Park and of course the Great Wall. We also visited the Shaolin Temple where we had a lesson in the Ba Duan Jin Qigong with the monks there. I know for sure they didn’t expect much from us because the class began with one of their kids as our teacher. We trained so hard however, running laps around the room, performing push-ups and sit-ups and standing in deep horse stances that the elder monks came out to watch. Finally, one of the senior teachers took over and gave us quite a tough lesson!
The rest of the year brought continued stabilization and depth to the Moon. Having the group go to China was a real boost to the school. Their enthusiasm and growth from the experience spilled over into the classes and was a shot in the arm to the overall level of skill and commitment. So, 2010 had the tremendous influences of Jan, CXW, CXX, CB and Gaspar. 2010 with Gaspar was particularly legendary: a six-day intensive in the Siu Luohan, the second set in the system. It is said when done at a clip, the Siu Luohan takes two hours. What has not been said yet is Gaspar followed European training time. We trained in the morning, took a long Siesta mid-day and then trained into the night. It’s a good method, but we were not used to it. Though exhausting it was deeply enriching. I think the only person that worked harder than we did was Gaspar. To this day he remains one of my most profound teachers.
