“Even as a kid I was constantly looking for ways to make mental activity, sports training, study and work more efficient. I read quite a few books on psychology and did various sports, including cross-country skiing, kayaking, hiking, karate, tennis. Yoga was a buzzword at that time so I tried a little of that, too. At the age of thirteen I ended up working as an assistant in an Orthodox monastery, which opened another dimension for me and I became interested in religious and monastic practices that took people to the heights of dedication and control.
My first exposure to Qigong first happened in 1999 when I met my first Katori and Aikido teacher. He followed a very traditional and holistic approach in his classes, and soon we were doing some foundational martial Qigong exercises to strengthen the body and improve coordination. Yes, like many Westerners I too began my way into oriental practices by learning traditional martial arts. I started with the Japanese art of armed combat of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu and Ryushinkan Aikido association led by Minoru Kanetsuka sensei, who was at that time based in the UK and taught throughout Europe.
Being in love with the mountains, I used to spend every summer going mountaineering. In 2001 I survived a serious mountain accident, however owing to the practices learnt - I was able to recover quickly. Being unable to climb as much, in 2002 and 2003 I started traveling and visited many special places in India, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and experienced more depth of the Asian cultures. Around that time I also started learning Hatha Yoga at the Indian Cultural Center in Moscow while continuing martial arts training.
Later - I met my future wife and joined the Chinese martial arts school where she was training. The “Golden Flower” school of Internal Kung-Fu in Moscow was led by Mikhail Gorbachev, a former intelligence officer turned kung-fu teacher after years of rigorous training at Shaolin and Wudang. Mikhail was sent to China by his superiors to study internal martial arts in order to pass it back onto his colleagues back in the organisation - the task Mikhail was unable to commit to upon his return as his very foundations were completely transformed by the experience, so he left the organisation for teaching ordinary people and kids what he’s learnt. The training at his school was intense with each session often lasting 5 to 6 hours in a row, and there were many outdoor camps and seminars.
The mountains, forests, clean rivers and the sea called however, and we decided to leave Moscow and move somewhere abroad where all of these were aplenty and closer to home. That is how we ended up in New Zealand - the country of many wonders. We continued studying Yoga after relocating to New Zealand. I also tried some local Aikido schools, none of them were engaging enough for me unfortunately, and then we met our next teacher - Mr Chen.
Wushu and Qigong traning
Mr Chen Jia Jun was a famous yet modest and unassuming Auckland-based couch, originally from Shanghai. His trainings were long and engaging, and his group felt more like a family to us. Every time we were in awe, wondering what comes next, what he was going to take out of his treasurebox of knowledge.
He was once chosen as 4-year old boy to be a student of the newly formed martial arts department at Beijing University of Physical Education. The department had many established martial artists among the staff. Upon finishing the Uni, Mr Chen trained the Chinese police and later travelled the world with Kung-Fu shows where he was in one team with actors such as Jet Li. Under Mr Chen’s tutelage we did a few different Wu Shu forms with weapons and not, and then I focussed on the internal style of Xing Yi Quan known for its practices aimed at the cultivation of Qi and alignment with Traditional Chinese Medicine. Luckily, Mr Chen’s Xing Yi Quan lineage was from Sun Lu Tang himself.
Consumed and intrigued by the energy practices, I was looking for more. In 2006 I started learning spontaneous medical Qigong called “Tian Quan Gong” (Heavenly Spring Qigong) from Dr. Sunny Lu in Auckland. She had many years of medical experience and was University-trained in TCM. Tian Quan Qigong emphasized “acquiring the Chi from the Universe” and guiding it through the channels of the body into the Earth. Alongside the process, the spontaneous movements happened, unblocking the channels and letting the Qi penetrate better. Few weeks down the track I was surprised how quickly I forgot about the nagging back and neck pain and other issues of a sedentary lifestyle of an office worker. I became so engaged that between Sunny’s sessions I practiced for hours by myself, complementing my Xing Yi Quan training with this Qigong practice.
Meetings with the Wang family
In April 2007 I went to Taiwan to meet a famous Qigong master who I heard of and who resided in Taipei. That very famous and very busy master did not have time for me initially, so on a side note, I decided to go and see Grandmaster Wang Chieh and his son Wang Huai Hsiang who came to teach in Xinglong park every day (unless it was raining).
Grandmaster Wang, a simple unassuming 82-year old man drinking his green tea from a flask, was the survivor of Chinese revolution who came to Taiwan a long way from Hubei province, where he started studying kung fu from the age of 4. He was a real master/teacher in sense that not only himself but all his students “had kung-fu”, the “ultimate skill”. He taught quite the opposite way from Sunny - he emphasised the unity with the Earth. He briefly showed me some of the traditional Tai Ji Quan techniques of acquiring the Qi from the Earth and redirecting it through Silk Reeling (Chan Si Jin / 纏絲勁) into the hands. I practiced and practiced.
Wang Huai Hsiang’s motto was even more clear - “become one with the Earth and everything you do will become real”. He emphasised building the “structure” as he called it, which meant relinquishing all the subconscious muscular tension into the ground and purifying the energy channel system so it becomes a pure conductor of the Earth’s gravitational field. A healthy body should be able to stand on its on, he said, without any muscular effort. I tried to move him from this relaxed state of his, and I could not. I applied all my force, and I still could not. That was impossible. When he asked me to (softly) punch him - it felt like I was hitting a concrete pole wrapped in soft cloth. There was no human being there - all my force was simply redirected back at me at the point of application. If I hit harder - I would have probably broken my arm (and he confirmed that actually happened before). That was a very, very weird feeling. He called it the “Power nullification momentum”, or Xu Ling Ding Jin (虛靈頂勁).
The experiences I had through studying with these people led to an uncomfortable revelation that I did not truly understand or knew anything - all I had was an intellectual knowledge acquired from books and other people, which I regurgitated back when needed. What Mr. Wang Jie and his son did was absolutely impossible, it defied the laws of physics, at least the way I understood them. I was baffled and decided I had to do everything I could to grasp the principles they were embodying. It’s now or never, I thought - I won’t have another chance with my busy life back home.
In addition, some of the stress of the later years, and some deeply buried grief I experienced since losing my late brother a few years before - was surfaced by the currents of energy I was putting through my body, and manifested as a very acute and sharp pain in the heart area. I needed to do something immediately and I knew that going to hospital won’t help me resolve it.
Taiwan retreat and self-healing
I dropped everything else, including my ticket back home, and traveled to a small mountain in the deserted East coast of Taiwan, where I thought could focus. I became obsessed. With all my dedication I engaged into extremely intense spontaneous solitary Qigong training lasting a few weeks. I was training 24/7 occasionally succumbing to extreme tiredness, falling down for a few minutes to get a bit of sleep, usually at night. In a few minutes I would wake up and continue. I did not have time to eat. This intense training brought to me a relief from the heart pain, understanding of some concepts my teachers were talking about, and led to some of the most powerful spiritual revelations and experiences I ever had.
In essence, this training fused all the practices I did before together and into a kind of a new Qigong practice, a style which I called “Ji Quan Gong” - with “Ji” meaning the aggregation of both the Yang (Heaven) and the Yin (Earth) unity principles and “Quan” meaning the pure gushing source, a spring of both forces. The discovery of this fusion was a major threshold that happened spontaneously and decisively. I suddenly became “empty”, free of the acquired so-called “knowledge” I was so proud of, thus gaining access to the real source of all true knowledge at once. This allowed me to sense vital points, perceive the energy channel blockages and gave me the ability to stimulate the points and project the Qi to remediate the issues. After that I decided not to focus too much on the martial aspect as my calling was obviously the health application of the practice.
Academic studies
Upon coming back to New Zealand I continued my training for a few months. I came to the conclusion that I must come back to the society and in February 2008 I decided to enroll in the New Zealand School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine with a hope to understand better what I was doing all along in my practice. I graduated in 2012 with the Bachelor degree in Acupuncture and with the NZ Diploma of Chinese Herbal Medicine in 2010. Since my graduation I also incorporate Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine and all other related modalities into my treatments, however at the core it is still Qigong and the intuitive healing acquired in Taiwan - highly personal and targeted.
Aftermath - healing and teaching
Over the years I realised that my story has some similarities to the story of Professor Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki. It started with Aiki and came to an intense 3-week meditation retreat on a holy mountain - here you go. Only the mountain was different. The mountain where he had his revelation, where Reiki was disclosed to him was called Mt Kurama, and my mountain (nowhere as holy as Mt Kurama!) - is called Niu Shan (牛山) - the “Cow Mountain”. Well, it kind of became a bit “holier” since Martin Scorsese shot his movie “Silence” on it in 2016.
So just like Prof. Usui I had no choice but to become a healer, and that was what I wanted, too. I have been practicing as a healer and Qigong teacher since 2008 and have seen many successful or sometimes even “miraculous” recoveries. Many of my students are now able to overcome their health and life issues using the tools they’ve acquired through their practice. And I am not really “teaching” them authoritatively, I just found the way to guide them to discover the abilities they already heave. Some other students have become healers themselves.”
