In November 2008 I travelled to a small town north of Beijing called the Ming’s Tomb Gate Village. We arrived at dusk and the following morning after breakfast we began Emei Qigong teacher training. On that first day of training, during a break, the teacher and lineage holder of the eight hundred year old body of knowledge called Emei Qigong, Grandmaster Fu, looked at me and stated, "Gordon, you stupid!"
This statement coming from my teacher for whom I held great respect left me instantly questioning my own intelligence. In seconds, I felt anger, embarrassment, and self doubt.
"What’s he talking about. Am I stupid? Maybe I’m not even worthy to be a teacher?" flashed through my mind.
Glancing across the table at Ivy, my fellow student, I noticed a slight smile at the corners of her mouth and wondered, "What’s going on?"
The Grandmaster explained, "You angry right? You Westerners too sensitive, too much emotion, cause you many problems."
When we are too emotional, the negative energy from the emotion is stored in the micro particles within the cells of our body. Each micro particle within these microscopic cells, sometimes called the "heart", stores an entire universe of information. You can imagine the infinite amount of information that can be stored in our entire body.
The emotional desensitization idea builds on teachings from an earlier Emei Qigong course. The Emei Qigong "Yi Jing and Heart Energy Healing Method" teaches the correlation between traumatic events and various illnesses. For example, if in early childhood you were constantly called "stupid" by your brothers and sisters and you had never released the energy through forgiveness, it could later manifest as arthritic pain in the hands and feet. The hands and feet correlate to your siblings.
Each physical ailment is sourced in emotion. Another example is when a person encounters extreme fear in their life. This can cause kidney problems unless this diseased qi (energy) is released.
Thousands of these correlations have been documented over the Emei Qigong eight hundred year history. Each of the first eleven lineage holders were enlightened Buddhist monks. Starting at the twelfth lineage holder, the lineage was shared by a monk and non-monk. Grandmaster Fu, a non-monk, is the thirteenth lineage holder, so is able to travel the world teaching this amazing body of knowledge, while the monk remains in meditation in the temple preserving the purity of the teachings. The extreme intelligence and comprehensive integration of this previously secret "university of energy science" always astounds me.
Interspersed with the teacher training in the Ming’s Tomb Gate Village, the Grandmaster would poke and prod me bringing forth emotional responses in order to point out my unbalanced energetic state. When we are more balanced, comments like "Gordon, you stupid!" pass through our consciousness without bringing forth extreme emotional response. The intermittent testing by Grandmaster Fu slowly but effectively created a "thick skin" with the benefit of storing fewer negative emotions in the body. You can rest assured that the Grandmaster always knew the most effective buttons to press. If a person has an enlarged ego, then the perfect button is to call them stupid. Then, if they are taught the concept of emotional balance, they can raise their awareness and begin reducing their emotional responses.
Grandmaster Fu pointed out, "One month with me, you become much stronger. Six months even better!"
During the twenty-three day course in China, I became very aware of the desensitization training and wondered how I could carry on this training to become even more balanced and less emotionally reactive. I decided I would think of everyone as my teacher when I was insulted or triggered in order to keep my awareness higher and be less sensitive.
"People who less emotion, more successful!" taught Grandmaster Fu.
Some people confuse "sensitivity" with being "overly sensitive". When someone is sensitive in terms of kindness and compassion, it should not store negative energy in the body. When someone is overly sensitive and reacts emotionally taking things personally, that is when they are planting seeds for future illness.
The negative emotions that are stored in the "heart" of the body can be thought of as seeds of illness. If we do not clear or neutralize these seeds of illness, they will grow into each of the diseases or ailments that exist in the world. With perfect balance and no overreaction emotionally, we can be perfectly healthy.
"Perfect balanced emotions, you live three hundred years," theorized Grandmaster Fu.
Each emotional upheaval reduces the perfect life length of three hundred years. For example, someone cuts you off in traffic. You angrily question their parentage. This could deduct a day or two from the three hundred years. A bitter divorce and battle for child custody could deduct five to ten years. This view of our life span underlines the value of reducing extreme emotional reaction not only for proactive health but also for longevity. Desensitization training for proactive health is an ongoing process.
On the last day of training in China, Ivy purchased some orange, juicy persimmons which we shared during a break. It was my first encounter with this fruit and I was really enjoying them when the Grandmaster suggested, "You like persimmon?"
"Yes, very delicious!" I replied nervously.
"Ahhhhh, a lot of women like persimmon!" Grandmaster Fu prodded.
Gordon Keir is an Emei Qigong Master and will be hosting an Emei Qigong 4 day Level One Seminar in Marlborough, MA on November 5,6,12,13. See our ad inside the front cover for full details, or visit www. emeiqigongboston.com