tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79627224892669716392024-03-13T19:28:29.222-07:00The making of a Wudang discipleMy life as a sixteenth generation disciple of master Zhong XueyongBjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-72921703181335433342012-08-11T03:19:00.000-07:002012-08-11T06:48:21.408-07:00Half a year gone by<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The last time I wrote an actual story about what is happening in my life up here, I was living in my masters house training my ass off. That is now more than half a year ago. The events that have transpired since then are too numerous to recount in specifics, but I will try to give you the gist of it. Also, I have some cool news at the end.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Around the beginning of December last year, my master came into my room and told me that I would have to move into the other school. The reason for this is something I had known about, but assumed would work itself out in a less drastic way, the local police’s obstinate unwillingness to let foreigners stay in the locals residencies for extended periods of time. At the time, I’d been living in my masters house for approximately two months, and I was both enjoying and having severe difficulties living with him. I think I can honestly say they were the two most challenging months of my adult life. So, my reaction to having to move out was rather mixed. First, I felt rejected as a student and disciple, I didn’t really believe that the police was the only reason he was sending me to the other school (which he has almost no relation with now). I felt like he couldn’t really be bothered to teach me, and after training like a lunatic for the two months I was there, and following all of his directions, it hurt quite a bit. Part of the hurt was also, I’m sure, coming from a bruised ego. Wasn’t I supposed to be his disciple? Was I being degraded to an average lowly foreigner? Didn’t I have sparkly eyes, and rainbows shooting out of my ass? </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Writing this now, I notice I don’t much care for the part of my ego which enjoys elevating myself above others, and attaches so much of my self-worth to my position.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After the initial surprise at the prospect of a sudden change in environment, I also felt a sense of freedom. The thought of moving away from his constant scrutinizing supervision brought with it a palpable relief. </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I’d finished moving into my new room in the school, kindly gifted to me by Krishna, I realized how much pressure I’d been under for the past months. I was never sure, after all, when my master would barge through the unlocked door to my room and command me to walk Bagua circles for an hour, or punch out candles until I could punch no more. With the pressure lightened, the impressions started to crystallize into tangible thoughts, and I noticed that much of the enjoyment I used to get from training, now was not present like it used to be. After about a week of settling into my new environment at the school, I decided, for my mental well-being, that I needed to get away for a while. So I worked up the nerve to ask my master for some time off, went over to his house, and asked him if I could go to Thailand and meet some friends who lived there. His reply was simply, “Yes.” </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I came back from Thailand our relationship had somehow completely changed, and everything went a lot easier. I was training on my own every day, and went to him in the afternoons every other day to get corrections and ask questions about Daoism. This arrangement wasn’t without it’s challenges, training on my own every day, kicking myself out of bed early every morning without much threat of detection if I chose to sleep in, and pushing myself to train harder really put my self-discipline to the test. I improved a lot over that time, I think due to being given space to listen to my own body, and pushing myself as hard as I felt it was capable of going without injury. </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In March this year a group of students from Vestoppland Folkehøyskole (folk high-school) came to China for their yearly study trip through the cooperation of one of the teachers there, Viviann Alexandra Knutsen, and me. I planned the whole itinerary with Viviann, and I made all the bookings of hotels and drivers, and thus it was my first experience as a tour operator and tour guide. I was with them for two weeks, translating and guiding them through China as best I could. The high point on the trip for many was an eight day stay on Wudang Mountain where they learnt the 18 postures Wudang Taijiquan from my master. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmmH_rAIVU4" target="_blank">Here is a video they made of the trip.</a></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PcmLxeFZIlI/UCYk27zqxQI/AAAAAAAAAGs/8d-_nOSRgWs/s1600/DSC_0020_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PcmLxeFZIlI/UCYk27zqxQI/AAAAAAAAAGs/8d-_nOSRgWs/s400/DSC_0020_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">The group of students from Norway,</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> and as you can see, I have a ways to go with my strict-Kungfu-master smile</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Three months ago a master called Yang Qunli arrived at the school I was living in. He is a 63 year old man who has a considerable wealth of knowledge about martial arts. After seeing me practice on my own one day he said I should join the competition coming up in a months time. I was at first hesitant to join since I don’t enjoy competitions, but after about a week of relentlessly trying to convince me and waving my entry fee, I reluctantly agreed to join. When I spoke to my master about the competition, he said that this time I had to win a gold medal (he didn’t add the cliché “or else,” but it was implied), since last time I attended a competition I only managed to get bronze. </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When the group from the school turned up at the competition we sat down on the benches in the arena and waited. The competition was a little late starting off, but I was supposed to be one of the first on. After the competition began, I started to get worried I might miss my slot, and asked Pan Kedi (one of the teachers in the foreigners class), if she could check which arena I was supposed to be on, and when I should be there. We ended up running back and forth for the next half-hour or so until I decided to go outside and warm up, just in case. Three minutes later she ran outside looking rather frantic, and shouted at me, “You’re next!”. I had hardly managed to get warm at all, but I ran inside, passed shamefully along the side of the arena with hundreds of faces looking at me. I saw the guy who’s on the mat performing before me (doing an impressive spear form), and took my place at the side of the performance area with all sorts of thoughts flying through my head. After applauding the guy performing the spear form, and some last minute words of encouragement from the guys I’m with, I strode onto the mat, bowed to the judges and started the Eight Immortals Staff form. Even if I wasn’t really warm it went quite well, and I was in the flow. That was until I did one of the kicks and the athletes pass I was wearing around my neck hit me square in my face, “shit, in the rush I forgot to take it off.” Knowing that this wasn’t exactly the best of times to take it off, I refocused and forged on, trying my best to perform well without getting a second hit in the face from my unsuitable neck attire. I finished with a high, well executed kick, and bowed to the judges. I walked off to applause of the crowd, and I was happy that it’s over. By the time of my second performance the foreigners from the school had arrived, and my buddy Frode took this video from where he was seated.</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="236" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_nQaXoeEo3I" width="420"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gHwdsUT5OME/UCYkSjswScI/AAAAAAAAAGk/i6ESUHDcXBA/s1600/Gold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gHwdsUT5OME/UCYkSjswScI/AAAAAAAAAGk/i6ESUHDcXBA/s400/Gold.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Me looking very pleased with myself after the competition</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">At the end of the day I found out that I won a gold medal in both of the categories I competed in. Later on that evening I went out for dinner to celebrate with the guys who came to the competition to support me. During dinner my master calls me on my cell.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Hello master,” I answered </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“How did it go?”</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“I won two gold medals!” I said, quite happily.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Good, good. See you tomorrow.” *click*</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My master can be a man of few words as you see from the exchange above, and the next day I received the best direct compliment I’d ever had from him, “Two gold medals, that’s not bad!”</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After the competition the master of the Chinese groups kung fu class, who also joined us to the competition and helped me correcting my posture, invited me to join his class for free, as long as I performed for them at exhibitions and such. I was really exited about the idea, as I had been training alone for a good eight months, and the prospect of training with a group of able practitioners sounded fantastic. When I asked my master about it, he said no, to my disappointment, but I would soon discover the reason for it. </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A couple of weeks after the competition, my master called me over to his house. We sat down and he made the preparations to drink tea as he normally does, washing the cups, pots, and strainer, before pouring boiling water over the Oolong tea to wash it before brewing it. “I have decided to open up a school,” he told me. “I have rented a building close to Purple Heaven Temple, and in a few weeks I will start to receive students there. I want you to move there and start working as a part time instructor and translator.” I started smiling as he was speaking, this is exactly what I had been hoping he would do, and I was honored that he was inviting me to teach there. He then went on to explain what kind of school he wanted to create, which included lessons in Daoism, Chinese massage, and medicine. He also felt that people could benefit from a stricter environment then they have at other schools, which I agreed with. Many of the schools on the mountain have been getting laxer with the discipline over the last years. He also said he wanted to make school where people are taught deeply, not just a superficial form. And last, but definitely not least, he said that the school should have proper and good food, which I of course said HELL YES to (in my head, not out loud). </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">While I’m typing this I’m sitting in my masters new school on Wudang listening to 15 kids who are here on summer camp getting ready to go to bed. I’ll leave you with some photos of life here at the school.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NbOxKMQENqk/UCYoWCILUQI/AAAAAAAAAG8/jsSHCOrLaJo/s1600/20120809_193535.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NbOxKMQENqk/UCYoWCILUQI/AAAAAAAAAG8/jsSHCOrLaJo/s400/20120809_193535.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evening practice in the temple</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YPmHvywNe0o/UCYmfmhdhWI/AAAAAAAAAG0/MaVy4my85ak/s1600/20120727_215404.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YPmHvywNe0o/UCYmfmhdhWI/AAAAAAAAAG0/MaVy4my85ak/s400/20120727_215404.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everyone gathered in my room listening to Chinese songs.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O4Y81eNIsE8/UCYpwB-euiI/AAAAAAAAAHE/EVVcVvNY2ns/s1600/20120809_180306.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O4Y81eNIsE8/UCYpwB-euiI/AAAAAAAAAHE/EVVcVvNY2ns/s400/20120809_180306.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My master teaching the kids in yard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqM1F4YB_3k/UCYq1OKOcaI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/BcfpzP0hL9k/s1600/20120725_155724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqM1F4YB_3k/UCYq1OKOcaI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/BcfpzP0hL9k/s400/20120725_155724.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from outside my room in the morning</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8rZBKB54Veg/UCYub8R3ozI/AAAAAAAAAHg/VX98myHaiwU/s1600/20120810_170023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8rZBKB54Veg/UCYub8R3ozI/AAAAAAAAAHg/VX98myHaiwU/s400/20120810_170023.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bringing water from the well when the water and power was out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br />
<br />
If you wish to study at Master Zhong Xueyong's new school, introductions to him happen through me. Feel free to send me an e-mail at bjarte@taiji.no to enquire about conditions and curriculum.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Writing a blog about what has been going on here has been weighing on my mind for quite some time, It feels great to have finally finished it! Thanks for reading!</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">From Wudang with love</span></div>
</div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-77862114915403504442012-07-31T08:59:00.001-07:002012-08-01T00:18:35.694-07:00Some reason about excuses<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It's been a long time since I've written anything here. I haven't really felt like it, and if I'm going to be honest about it, one of the reasons I haven't written anything is because I've been afraid. Afraid that what I write will be of poor quality, afraid I'll be judged, and afraid of letting myself down. But it doesn't take a genius to see that these are symptoms of deeper rooted issues.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One of the facts of life (for most of us poor unenlightened saps anyway), are that we all judge one another, and usually the person we dole out the harshest judgement to is ourselves. We get trapped in an everlasting cycle of attempting to do something, and telling ourselves we're rubbish if we decide that we haven't made a satisfactory performance judged by our, or other peoples standards. It is true, sometimes we may actually have done a sub-par job, but, for me, this is often when I have been afraid of investing myself fully in it. The reason for this is usually played out on a subtle, not fully conscious level for me when I sabotage myself during a process in different ways ranging from telling myself I can't do it, to procrastinating until I don't have time left to complete the task in a proper way. The main reason I do this is so I can later tell myself that I could have done it well if it only wasn't for *insert excuse here*.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In many ways it is comfortable to live with these excuses, it enables us to live our lives without risking uncomfortable showdowns with our egos. If we fail to live up to our own or someone else’s standards, we can always brush it off by saying, “oh, I could have done better if I really tried.” Usually this comment is our own little secret, well kept in our own minds, and we turn up our noses when we hear someone voice those excuses aloud. It annoys us. When I’m teaching a class and someone I’m giving correction to drops out of the posture and says, “oh, my shoulders are aching so much from sitting on the computer all day, I can’t do it,” it irks me ever so slightly. “Yes, that’s why your standing in this posture, so you can teach your shoulders how to relax.” The reason it piques a nerve in me is because it reminds me of the excuses I tell myself when I’m struggling to maintain focus in training. Only I don’t voice these excuses to my master in the same way (If I did I would regret it).</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What I’m finding about myself is that when I decide to do something, I tend to go all in, investing myself fully in the project. For this reason I have a strong aversion to taking on new responsibilities, because I either do it, and do it well, investing a considerable amount of energy in it, or I let it sit there and take up space in my mind, and slowly sap my energy by not working on it. There is also the very remote possibility that I have a lazy streak wreaking havoc on some of my projects (like this blog).</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This tendency to go all into something can be a good ego practice when things don’t go as well as they should. This is especially true here in Wudang with my master who doesn’t hesitate to tell me if he thinks I’m crap at something. For example after practicing particularly hard at Baguazhang for a month, I ran through the whole form in front of his house, trying my best to perform well. After I finished he stands with his arms crossed with a look of distaste spreading across his face, lips curved down at the sides. “Very ugly!” he says while I stand there, out of breath, waiting for another comment when he repeats, “hmph, very, very ugly,” turns around and walks away, leaving me thinking, “it’s moments like this that make it worth all the hardship!” with a small tear escaping the corner of my eye. Obviously I’m joking (maybe not about the tear...), the harsh rejection felt very bad indeed. I had poured so much time and energy into making my form better, and after all the hard work I got such an overwhelmingly negative response. </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If you’ve been following my blog you’re probably not particularly surprised by the caustic retort from my master, and neither was I. But the rejection hurt nevertheless. It was hard not to take it personally when I by my own judgement had put all of my effort into it. In the end I’m happy that he tells me like it is. It allows for me to grow a thicker hide, and he’s not dithering about expressing what he really thinks. I still haven’t heard of any redeeming qualities in my Baguazhang, except for my circle walking which apparently is “not bad”. The Chinese way of encouraging takes on many forms, the most common of which is encouraging by pointing out how badly one does something. It can sometimes be a bit too much for delicate Western minds to hear the brutal truth about oneself, but at least it’s honest.</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What I am currently trying to incorporate into my life, is that instead of offering myself and others excuses, I offer reasons. For example after my Baguazhang performance in front of my master, instead of blaming myself for not training hard enough, or my master for being too strict, I look for the reason I have not yet achieved the desired result, and figure out how I should train for that result to manifest. And If I’m late for an appointment, and I was just sitting around playing solitaire on my computer, instead of saying, “Yeah, traffic was bad,” I could say, “I managed my time badly, and I attached more importance to seeing all of those cards finally come bouncing out of the screen than showing up on time to see you.” Being honest about what happened opens up for a possibility to look at why that was more important. Was it just my winner instinct gone wild, or was it social angst that delayed me?</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">From Wudang with love</span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-79502135670374338272011-12-20T09:53:00.000-08:002011-12-20T09:53:09.150-08:00Self mastery<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Life seems to be a series of moments in which I can decide to live up to my highest potential, or scrape along providing myself with excuses for performing at my absolute minimum. The liberating thing about time being manifest as consecutive moments, is that I can choose where I want life to go next when I become conscious of it. In times of extreme physical or mental hardship the equilibrium of my apparently solid determination is prone to upset, and that is when unconsciousness around my own emotions and negative thought patterns can result in a downward spiral into self-pity, and numbing myself to what I’m really feeling. Consciousness around times of intense emotion and stress is one of the hardest and most important practices I’m struggling to cultivate right now. When my mind is at it’s weakest and most vulnerable and I feel like numbing out, is also when I need to pay most careful attention to what I want from life. The desire for relief can sometimes get in the way of my mission, and once I start down that path it can take a while before I snap out of it. I’m present to the fact that there will inevitably be fluctuations. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There often seems to be a notion, especially in new age communities, that in order for our path to be successful we should be happy and loving all the time. If you are truly seeking truth on a spiritual path, I don’t think that is natural. The masters that we exalt and revere are seen as examples of how successful we can be. They are seemingly perfectly in balance, immune to emotional disturbance, and in possession of unattainable skills. I have been guilty of putting them on a pedestal many times. This illusion of them being somehow ‘better’ than us isn’t serving their egos, and it is definitely not serving us. They likely have their own flaws and weaknesses that we are not seeing. Masters should be seen for who they are, unique individuals, just like you and me, who have come a long way, but have their own issues to deal with. Rather than prostrating ourselves in front of them and praying and hoping that just possibly, one day, we might be just like them, we should be standing with them and exploring life with their wisdom and experience guiding us. A master may be extraordinary, but it is possible that someday, if you work hard, you may surpass them. In the beginning it will often seem unattainable, but I like to remember a famous quote: “Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To be clear, I’m not advocating disrespect for masters, but a perspective where instead of distancing ourselves from them, we are getting closer to them. Not through fake worship, or exalted adoration, but through a realization of our shared humanity and kinship.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Love from Wudang</span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-45077653954110567542011-12-14T09:38:00.000-08:002011-12-14T09:38:03.631-08:00Sharing without telling<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The unexpected twists and turns of life are testing my mettle. What am I really made of? What kind of man am I? Do I deserve to be in the position I am in? Is my life headed in the direction I want it to? I am in a space now that I didn’t think possible when I left Norway two months ago. My heart and mind is cracking open and it is taking me to places that are both beautiful and starkly revealing. I’m at a crossroad on my journey and at this point in time I am still not sure on which path I will continue to stride. Now I’m letting things crystallize and settle into place before any judgements are made as to where fate will guide me. What I am learning is that I am human, and so is my master. I create my own fate, but life will continue happening to me. What matters is how I handle the undulations that will inevitably come. Do I buckle, or do I stand firm? Do I wallow in despair, or do I use the potential and soar? Do I learn my lessons, or do I continue along the well-worn track of previous ones unlearned? I am uncovering a man that I didn’t see quite so clearly before, but the little boy inside is still afraid of letting go and stepping fully into what he will become. I sense a transformation on the horizon, and it’s both terrifying and exciting. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With love, peace and a fair amount of ambiguity,</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Me</span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-37229127864177317792011-11-28T03:26:00.000-08:002011-11-28T05:31:50.604-08:00Dealing with exhaustion<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Hi guys,</span><br />
<div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’ve been here in Wudang for five weeks now, and I’m slowly starting to settle in and find my place in the family (which means I’m at the bottom of the hierarchy symbolized by serving rice and doing the dishes after dinner). I’m making progress with my training, and I’m adjusting to life under what feels like constant supervision by my master. </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here's a video of my practice for those of you who are not on my facebook.<br />
</span> <object height="224" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="movie" value="http://www.facebook.com/v/10150455456890399" /><embed src="http://www.facebook.com/v/10150455456890399" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="224"></embed></object><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The first month here was more than anything hard on my psyche. The training was unrelenting, and by the end of the first month I felt like I was running on fumes. My mood was unpredictable, and thoughts of leaving and going back to a more comfortable life started appearing in my mind with increasing frequency. I started questioning if this really was what I wanted to do. What I think was the prime contributor to my feeling down, is that I was told I wouldn’t be allowed a day off. I had three months of nonstop training to look forward to before the spring-festival, and I felt trapped. I was questioning the physical soundness of training that intensively without any time to recover.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Close to the end of my first month back on the mountain, Hallgrim Hansegård, who founded the dance company Frikar, arrived in Wudang to continue working on his <a href="http://vimeo.com/23824675">collaborative dance project involving a group of Chinese Wudang Kungfu students</a>. We decided to meet up and have a chat while he was here on the mountain. I worked up my nerve and asked my master if I could have the day off to climb to the top, the Golden Summit, together with Hallgrim, and lo and behold he answered “yes” (albeit I would have to do early morning and evening practice). Now climbing a few thousand stairs might not fit your definition of a day off when you’ve been kicking, running, and standing in horse stance for the better part of a month, but I was ecstatic about the prospect of no kicks for an entire day! Master Zhong left the day after to go to his home town for three days to take care of some business, leaving his wife, the friendly Daoist, my master’s three-month-old baby, and me to take care of the house. The next day I met Hallgrim and brought him to the house of Master Zhong. He was invited to stay for lunch and when I during our meal told Master Zhong’s wife, Xia Lingfan that he was a professional “laus” dancer, she immediately asked to see a performance. After dinner her wish was granted when Hallgrim put on some traditional Norwegian mouth harp music and gave them a performance they won’t soon forget, spinning, yipping, doing acrobatics and topping off the act by kicking a hat off a bamboo staff I was holding up high. It was truly a surreal sight to see such an amazing display of traditional Norwegian culture, in the middle of the setting I had been kicking and sweating, to the sound of my master commanding me to speed my lazy ass up.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GmK30u6Iixo/TtNszdgh0LI/AAAAAAAAAFo/1txnPTCcsPg/s1600/DSC_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GmK30u6Iixo/TtNszdgh0LI/AAAAAAAAAFo/1txnPTCcsPg/s320/DSC_0003.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speaking of Norwegian culture: this is Master Zhong's daughter <br />
wearing a Norwegian hat knitted by my friend Hilde Barstad</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The day after our walk up to the top I felt reinvigorated. I had enjoyed good conversation and speaking Norwegian again. My energy was replenished, and I was enthusiastic about going back to my practice. I told Dong the friendly Daoist what an amazing effect that single day off had had on me, and he agreed that it is wise to have a day off at least once a week. "Otherwise the pressure becomes too great." “If only Master Zhong felt the same,” I said. “Hmmm, I’ll have a word with him,” he said and winked. If it wouldn’t have been hugely inappropriate I would have hugged him and professed my ever lasting love to the man right then and there. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">On the one month anniversary of my arrival in Wudang I got my first whole day off. It was a misty day, so I decided to use it for catching up on old e-mails I hadn’t replied to, and reading a book. At lunch time Master Zhong told me I had to leave the house and do something, or he wouldn’t give me a day off again. So, not wanting to tempt fate, I promptly left the house and went for walk up to the temple, muttering to myself about how unfair it was that I couldn’t even decide what to do with my own time on my day off.</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span><br />
I think most of my master's behaviour results from him wanting me to develop my "yi", which means my mind/will. I'm realising how much of this is just based on that. Without pushing myself and developing my yi, my Kungfu won't be going anywhere.</div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ultimately, I realize how blessed I am to be in this situation, and I’m often reminded of that when I’m down by my friends. I know there will be ups and downs during my time here, and my discipline and willpower will be put to the ultimate test, but when I'm down and feel like I've just been thrown out of a vehicle moving full speed, I take comfort in the fact that the only constant here in life is change. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 17.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Love and miss you guys,</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Bjarte Ling Yuan Hiley</span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-25458579770117262952011-11-13T06:10:00.000-08:002011-11-14T01:51:17.308-08:00Pain!<div class="p1"><span class="s1">Hi guys,</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">These last few weeks have been tough! I knew this would be hard, but... I guess you’ll just have to hear the story. </span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">A few days into my training I started to get anxious about when I would get a day off. He still hadn’t mentioned anything about a break, and wasn’t giving any sign of letting up on the pressure. Going for my morning run was a thoroughly unrewarding experience. I could hardly lift my legs off the ground as I was trotting, clumsy-hippo style, along the road at the pace of a turtle. On the sixth day my body felt like it had been through a meat grinder, and I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. I asked as deferentially as I could, “Master Zhong, when do I get a day off?” To this he simply replied, “Day off? You don’t get a day off! If you’re too tired you rest.” Implied in this was that I shouldn’t take a rest unless I really, <i>really </i>needed it. The mention of him bringing out the staff still fresh in my mind.</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">The weather had been foggy and humid since I got here, so the clothes I’d washed the day I arrived were still not dry. That led to me having to wear them dry, which after nine days straight of hard training inevitably led to me getting a cold. Luckily Master Zhong wasn’t completely without sympathy towards the sufferings of his new disciple, so he let me sleep and rest until I was better. On day two I recovered from the cold, and my legs no longer felt like divorcing themselves from my body due to assault and battery. After being on the receiving end of a string of insults about how appallingly out of shape I was, I started training again, regularly raising the number of kicks and extending the duration of the mabu. I was making progress with my stretching (my forehead is about 5 cm. away from my toes while my leg is straight), and I was starting to feel like this could be handled. </span></div><div class="p2"><br />
<span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Yesterday Master Zhong came up to me and said, “I haven’t given you a rest since you came here, why don’t you join us up to Five Dragons Temple for a walk.” I jumped at the opportunity to have a much needed break, and joined him up there with another Daoist who is living in the house with us, and we took some photos of the Daoist while he was meditating. This morning my master invited me along to do some work in his garden, we weeded it and harvested some sweet potatoes. “Whew, this is nice, finally a break!” I thought foolishly. Apparently he was just resting me up so he could break me back down.</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">A few pictures from a temple by Five Dragon Temple</div><div class="p1" style="text-align: center;"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-piAhi6HhPvU/Tr_EqdrqLLI/AAAAAAAAAFU/86VTb3Mika8/s1600/P1060001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-piAhi6HhPvU/Tr_EqdrqLLI/AAAAAAAAAFU/86VTb3Mika8/s320/P1060001.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="p1"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vF54DZA9mek/Tr_DdEB35hI/AAAAAAAAAFE/q1ND1ekGvNE/s1600/P1050991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vF54DZA9mek/Tr_DdEB35hI/AAAAAAAAAFE/q1ND1ekGvNE/s320/P1050991.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JgCVYqUVT14/Tr_E-ZbPMAI/AAAAAAAAAFc/4qr8Zbx_I1w/s1600/P1060004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JgCVYqUVT14/Tr_E-ZbPMAI/AAAAAAAAAFc/4qr8Zbx_I1w/s320/P1060004.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sXs5Omgth9Q/Tr_EBE8p4wI/AAAAAAAAAFM/WPZvDiQ7JlE/s1600/P1050996.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sXs5Omgth9Q/Tr_EBE8p4wI/AAAAAAAAAFM/WPZvDiQ7JlE/s320/P1050996.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">This afternoon I started my training again after a 24 hour break (except for my morning run and taiji). This afternoon is when training really started. After running three kilometers down the mountain, and three back up I came back to a little surprise, today Master Zhong was going to supervise the whole thing and increase the amount of kicks to 1500 kicks which should be completed in half an hour. After 1500 kicks while I was trying my best to keep my composure, avoid fainting, throwing up, and burst into tears all at the same time, while my master was shouting at me from the side, I completed the kicks in 40 minutes. I did not harvest any compliments for my apparently horrendously subpar performance, and was told to walk around for a bit and gather myself. Still woozy, I continued on to pushups, mabu, frog-jumps, pushup-jumps, and other “fun” exercises. After two hours of what felt like pure torture, I was told that I could rest, and I scampered into my room feeling completely - excuse my French - shit and demotivated. After I had a shower, we all had some food together, Master Zhong, his wife, the visiting Daoist, and me. The Daoist (who is a hilarious man), told a funny joke, and we all went off into peals of laughter. Master Zhong was even holding his sides because he was hurting from laughing so hard! It’s moments like those that make all the hard work worth it. I am starting to realize what I have embarked on. It will not be an easy two years, that’s for sure. Xuanwu, give me strength!</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Ok, I feel like I should polish this a bit, but I’m just going to post it as is, off to sleeeeeep for a few hours. There's so much going on, and I wish I could post about it all, but I just don't have the energy. Thinking about you guys back home!</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Oh, and I've shaved my beard!</span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><br />
</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Lots of love!</span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-82745153464693331882011-10-27T06:18:00.000-07:002011-10-28T03:52:11.697-07:00Getting started as a Wudang 16th generation disciple<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Hi folks!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I hope you enjoyed yesterdays little story. I know, two blog posts within the first week of arriving in Wudang Mountain, I’m on a roll here. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I’m not sure where to start telling this story, so I better just start at the beginning. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Sitting on the bus on my way up the mountain I am struck by how natural it feels to be here, slowly climbing the winding roads of the Wudang Mountain chain. My thoughts go back to when I arrived back in Norway last Christmas after becoming Master Zhong’s disciple. I felt like I was separate from the rest of society, I saw how foolish we all were, stressing around, grumpily trying to find gifts for everyone we cared for while they were fretting over the same thing. It did not feel natural. And here I am again in Wudang, almost one year later, riding the same bus up the friendly mountain to see my master, and it’s as if I never left.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hp_tWni7DhY/TqlW21kZR0I/AAAAAAAAAE0/Zijg1kK3Y9I/s1600/wudang+pano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hp_tWni7DhY/TqlW21kZR0I/AAAAAAAAAE0/Zijg1kK3Y9I/s400/wudang+pano.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful Wudang</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--QQtZp_Y1ss/TqlUpRugkoI/AAAAAAAAAEk/W4TT9pVTRXA/s1600/DSC_0013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--QQtZp_Y1ss/TqlUpRugkoI/AAAAAAAAAEk/W4TT9pVTRXA/s200/DSC_0013.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super-comfy wooden-mattress bed</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I arrive at his home as he instructed me to. I don’t know what he has planned for me, all I know is that he has prepared a room somewhere for me. I get to his place before him and wait for him to come back from some business he had to take care of. When he returns he greets me with a smile and tells me to bring my luggage into his house. He places my staffs up against the wall and suddenly asks me how tall I am, I’m probably looking a bit flustered by the abrupt question so he stands next to me and compares our heights. I’m only slightly taller than him. “The bed will be just right for you,” he says and points to the bed in the room, “I used to sleep in it too. You’ll stay here at least until next year, we’ll see then.” Then he walks off to let me settle in. I’m letting the fact that I’ll be staying in the same house as my master sink in, and start mentally preparing myself for what is to come. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I wake up the next morning relatively well rested, the reason I write relatively is because I’m basically sleeping on a wooden floor with a blanket underneath me... It takes some getting used to. Breakfast is prepared by my master, as was yesterdays dinner. I’m starting to get used to eating in silence with him, since every time I tried asking him a question while eating I get shut down by a slightly irritated yes or no answer. The training begins by him telling me that these first months until next year I’ll be practicing basics, starting with 900 kicks a day, working up towards 5000. I start stretching and he says that by next year I should also be able to reach the tip of my toes with my mouth while holding my leg straight. I stare at him in disbelief and say “Really? I’m nowhere near being able to do that.” “You will have to work hard,” he replies sternly.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hqm8Mu11lIA/TqlWH2LBEpI/AAAAAAAAAEs/axLi0KtXyaQ/s1600/DSC_0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Hqm8Mu11lIA/TqlWH2LBEpI/AAAAAAAAAEs/axLi0KtXyaQ/s320/DSC_0010.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My basic-training space and tea house in the background</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After my first training session and lunch we sit down in his tea house to drink tea and relax for a bit, and he goes on to tell me what his requirements from me as his disciple here are. “You should prepare to ‘eat bitter’ (in Chinese this means “endure hardship”), I will not always be here to make you train, so you will have to train on your own some of the time. If you don’t practice while I’m not here, I will know, and I <i>will</i> bring out the staff. You have committed yourself to train here for two years, so you have to remain here for the entirety of those two years.” “I understand and accept this,” I say, while what’s really spinning in the back of my mind is, “Oh shit! What have I gotten myself into?” The rest of our talk is about more pleasant topics, like what he wants to teach me during these two years. He wants me to become a true Wudang disciple, so I should not only learn the martial aspect, I should also begin to study the culture, meditation, Cha Dao (the art of tea), calligraphy, massage, Chinese medicine, and literature. “Prowess in martial arts is not the highest achievement, do you know what is?” He asks. After a short while I offer a tentative reply, “Dao?” “That is correct!" He exclaims happily, "Martial arts is only a small aspect of Dao, as is calligraphy, Chinese medicine, meditation, and Cha Dao, together they create the whole. I want you to treasure every moment you have here, and always make the most of it so you will not have any regrets.” To this I nod and agree wholeheartedly. I vow to not take this opportunity for granted, and truly value the precious time I will spend here.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After an hour or two an old Daoist doctor who is going down to town with Master Zhong comes by. I sit and have a talk with him before they leave while Master Zhong makes preparations for his short trip. He is a friendly old man with a big wispy beard protruding from his chin, I contemplate complimenting him on his beard, but decide not to. It turns out he came here for the first time some 30 years ago, and hasn’t been here since until this week. So I ask him what he thinks about the change on Wudang Mountain with the tourism blossoming and the renovation of all the temples. He simply replies “Tian Di Zi Ran”, which I think means something like “everything between heaven and earth is as it is”.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When Master Zhong is ready to leave I say farewell to the friendly Daoist, and get some last instructions from Master Zhong on what to do while he’s gone. He gives me the keys to the house, tells me that I can eat whatever food is there, and he tells me what to train (which is pretty much just kicks and horse stance). He leaves and says he will be back tomorrow. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 6px; padding-left: 6px; padding-right: 6px; padding-top: 6px; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P-IYdrRkxEE/TqlXgS_qR_I/AAAAAAAAAE8/f22GWa9PhWU/s1600/DSC_0011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P-IYdrRkxEE/TqlXgS_qR_I/AAAAAAAAAE8/f22GWa9PhWU/s320/DSC_0011.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">Master Zhongs front gate</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I stand in Master Zhong’s front yard alone letting everything sink in, and am not sure if all of this really happened or not. I look myself in the mirror in the courtyard and say to myself “You lucky bastard!” With a huge grin on my face. “Now get training before he grabs his staff and beats you.”</span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-16243515750312473322011-10-26T06:18:00.000-07:002011-10-26T17:20:08.930-07:00Travelling to Wudang<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Hi folks!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Wow, so it’s almost a year since I left my masters house after becoming his disciple (story in separate blog post below), and went back to Norway. I have now returned to Wudang Mountain for two more years of study, and practice.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">First, I just want to share a small story of what it’s like being a blond foreigner with a beard, I experienced on the train on my way down here from Beijing. As those of you who have been reading my blog for a while already know, I had a less than elegant departure from Beijing the last time I set off for Wudang. Well, apparently I will never learn since this was pretty much a rerun of last time, except this time I was lugging a guitar and two staffs in addition to everything else whilst tottering towards the departure hall and a boarding time deadline. Bucket loads of fun as I’m sure you all can imagine. Anyway, when I got settled on the train, and we were well on our way, I decided to go get some grub in the restaurant carriage. As I enter the carriage, the noise dies down and heads turn to look at me like some scene out of a horror movie, and the police man who saw me get on the train with my staffs whispers discretely (in China, that means hollering loudly while gesticulating with great enthusiasm), “This is the one practicing the staff.” Briefly acknowledging him, I swiftly move on to the chef sitting smoking a cigarette close to entrance of the carriage. He looks at me and makes a “shuffling noodles into your mouth” gesture, while looking at me with a mix of curiosity and confusion. I ask him "Could I look at the menu?”. He looks mildly surprised, and says “oh, he speaks Chinese”. This is then repeated by the waitress sitting next to him and subsequently by most of the other people in the carriage who are still staring at me quite flagrantly and completely unabashed. I order my food, and the chef who has had a ponderous look on his face for some time while I was looking at the menu exclaims “He looks like Liening! Am I right? With the beard and everything!”. “Who is Liening”, I ask. “You know, Makesi, Sidalin and Liening”(it sounds closer to the original names with Chinese pronunciation), he replies, hardly able to contain his amusement. “Oh, you mean Lenin”, I say ”Yes, exactly, Liening!”. “Ok” I say, and sit down to enjoy my meal while simultaneously being the subject of a discussion at a table close to me of which I couldn’t quite make out the topic of.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">So what do you think? I’ve been compared to many people since I grew long hair and a beard, Viking, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYKH5S93hT0">Techno Viking</a>, a Chinese posing as a Norwegian, a lion,Thor, Saint Stephen, the Kungfu King, and a few others I can’t quite recall, but never Lenin. Maybe it’s just the fact that many Chinese think all of us westerners look alike anyway, and that having a beard disguising some of my facial features just exacerbates this conundrum. Hmm, but the lion doesn't really fit into that conclusion though. Who knows, judge for yourself!</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xYBnWfRDUbY/TqgH5s4usYI/AAAAAAAAAEc/kEre5URYLTk/s1600/collage.001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xYBnWfRDUbY/TqgH5s4usYI/AAAAAAAAAEc/kEre5URYLTk/s400/collage.001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spot the difference</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ok, so this wasn't a Wudang blog, but I'll try to write one tomorrow describing all the exciting stuff that has happened to me since I began my life as a Wudang 16th generation disciple (which is a lot!) But right now my legs are hurting, and I want to sleep!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lots of love!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Bjarte Hiley 凌远</div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-2689863565362193152010-12-09T07:08:00.000-08:002010-12-11T02:29:53.795-08:00Closing and opening<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hi folks,</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My time in Wudang is over (for now), so I thought I would finish my trip by writing a short post about what’s going on over here. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As many of you know I was supposed to leave Wudang at the end of August, but I decided to stay three and a half months longer than planned. As these additional three and a half months have come to a close I am very happy I made the decision to stay longer. I have learnt so much about myself and my practice in these past months; the time there has been absolutely invaluable for me. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The greatest reward, however, I received on my last day in Wudang.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As a part of closing down the energy in my last week in Wudang I asked Master Zhong if I could ask him a few questions about what he thought Dao was, and what he thought Daoism could contribute to modern society. He agreed and told me to meet him in his home for some tea and conversation the morning before I left for Beijing. I immediately felt honored since none of us had ever been invited over there before.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The morning of the interview I was escorted over to his house by one of the Chinese masters and met Master Zhong standing in the courtyard in front of his house in his slippers, sweeping away the pine needles that had fallen the night before when the wind was strong. He smiled briefly and told me to go sit in the tea room while he finished up. I assembled the tripod and camera I was going to use to film the interview and made myself comfortable on one of the cushions. Shortly after I had taken a seat he entered, sat down and started preparing the tea. While he was going through the ritual of the tea ceremony I asked him the questions I had prepared for him. He spoke about how the world is changing and that there is a limit to how much stress we can put on it. He also spoke about how it is important for us to have compassion for each other, and help people even if we don’t know if we’re getting anything in return. He spoke at considerably more depth then what I just described, but I haven’t finished translating the recording yet so this will have to do for now.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After he answered my questions, we sat talking for quite a while. He told me that he thought I was training hard compared to the others, but that he still wasn’t satisfied with my efforts. He went on to tell me about what the training was like when he first started, and let me tell you, that is some of the heaviest training I’ve ever heard about! He told me they ran up to the Golden summit and back every day, they had to do 10.000 kicks every day, and they didn’t even learn their first form until two years had passed. After he told me this I immediately felt like I had been lazier than I could have, and I also told him this. He smiled when I acknowledged that. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Later on he was showing me some calligraphy -- painting with the tea water and a brush -- when he asked me which characters made up my Chinese name. I told him that I had recently grown unhappy with my Chinese name, and I asked him if he could give me a new one. He sat for a few minutes in silence pondering what my new name should be and eventually gave me the name Ling Yuan (凌远), which means something like fierce profundity. I thought that was a pretty cool name to be given by a Kungfu master! He then started writing characters on a piece of paper. As he was writing he suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, told me that he wished to make me the Wudang Sanfeng sects sixteenth generation wushu successor. I would be the first foreigner he had ever taken on as his disciple. I could hardly believe that this was happening, was he really saying what he said? Had I misheard him? The next words that came out of his mouth were a question: “do you accept?”. I was not expecting anything of this sort happening on my last day in Wudang, and my mind was reeling from trying to get to grips with what he was saying. After what felt like a long time -- but was probably only seconds -- I answered “I accept”. Master Zhong then finished writing what turned out to be a document saying that I was his disciple and that I was a lineage holder of the Wudang martial arts.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I am truly humbled and deeply honored that Master Zhong chose to make me his disciple, and even now a couple of days later it seems unreal to think about it. Why he chose me as his disciple I am not sure, but I will try my best to live up to the expectations that creates, and use the openings that arise wisely. It will obviously mean that I will eventually be going back to Wudang to continue my training there. For now though, I want to focus on what is just around the corner -- seeing all of you guys back home again. I can’t wait to see you all.</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Master Zhong and me in front of the tea room.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TQMdE_BY3qI/AAAAAAAAADk/H9TZpoIqbDM/s1600/PC070190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TQMdE_BY3qI/AAAAAAAAADk/H9TZpoIqbDM/s400/PC070190.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TQDwQq5-YdI/AAAAAAAAADc/mIs84U_T3jo/s1600/PC070190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Master Zhong teaching me in the Purple Heaven Temple </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TQMbQds8aXI/AAAAAAAAADg/lO4cz0759Xk/s1600/PB275161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TQMbQds8aXI/AAAAAAAAADg/lO4cz0759Xk/s400/PB275161.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">All the best from Beijing, China.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bjarte Hiley 凌远</span></span></span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-50337369360300766842010-06-17T03:23:00.000-07:002010-06-23T04:24:16.041-07:00The little extra I promised you :-)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hi folks!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I promised I'd write back soon with something extra. Well, </span></span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAN_eBNTGbU"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">here you have it</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. It's a video of me performing Xuangongquan form number three. I've just started learning it so there are still plenty of places in the form to smooth out. If you guys want too I could turn it into a regular thing uploading videos of my form to keep you updated on my progress. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hAN_eBNTGbU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hAN_eBNTGbU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I also just completed my No Woman Diet today! Six weeks with no distractions, six weeks of presence and focus on what I'm doing here. It was a hard, but immensely rewarding ride! The knowledge, and self-awareness I've gained is far beyond what I thought possible when I entered this diet. I will fill you guys in on this in a later blogpost. Now it is time for me to enjoy my reward: a bar of chocolate, and a cold light beer. Until next time</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> you'll have to make do with the </span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAN_eBNTGbU">video of my form</a>.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> :-)</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I hope you're having a nice summer back home in Oslo, or wherever you are! It's currently a sweltering 36 degrees here, and the weather forecast for tomorrow says 38. It's going to be a hard day for training Kung Fu.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bjarte Simon Hiley</span></span></span></div></div></span>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-69337355109895398392010-05-30T00:18:00.000-07:002010-06-24T01:52:52.922-07:00Wudang<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hi folks!</span></span><br />
<div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here, but i guess you’re accustomed to that by now... I swear, I have had every intention of writing here more often, but somehow it just gets postponed till later. That might change in the future though (stay tuned and you’ll find out why). So, finally time to fill you in on my life here on Wudang Mountain.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After a two day bout with food poisoning, sustained after eating at, wait for it, McDonald’s, (really, after 9 months of living in China, eating out of kitchens with hygiene standards so appalling they would make even a downtown Oslo kebab store owner retch in disgust, I get food poisoning from McD’s?) I say goodbye to my flat and landlady, and set off towards unknown impulses and new experiences.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My exit from Beijing is being made somewhat troublesome by the fact that my suit case weighs more than 35 kilos and has a broken handle, plus I’m wearing a pregnant rucksack bulging from the pressures exerted by what’s inside, on top of that I’m carrying a guitar case which ALSO has a broken handle. Thankfully, I manage to navigate successfully into the nearest taxi and direct him to take me to the train station. I’m safely in the cab, on schedule, and am happy to be on my way. Little did I know, a trial by fire awaited me.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We’re driving along smoothly, I’m talking to the driver about where I’m going and how exited I am to be going there, to the roots of Taijiquan to study with taoist masters, when suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a wall of cars big enough to rival </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> wall appears. We come to an almost complete stop behind the snaking line of cars that stretches into the horizon. I start to get worried as I planned some extra time, but not enough for the mother of all traffic jams. I express my concern to the taxi driver who turns around, smiles reassuringly and simply replies, “don’t worry, I know a way”. This provides me with some relief, but yet, knowing Beijing taxi drivers, I feel a nagging sense of concern.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We continue down the congested highway until we reach the next exit, the driver then suddenly veers sharply, careening down a narrow corridor on the hard shoulder. I’m hoping my pregnant bag will act as an airbag of sorts. As we get off the highway we zigzag through traffic, pedestrians are jumping out of the way as our car comes hurtling down the streets at breakneck speed, sending a barrage of honks towards anyone who is foolish enough to make an attempt at crossing the street. Now I’m clutching my bag, as if there was indeed a baby inside, tightly between my arms and chest. My driver graciously stops at the red light, although only after passing every other car in the line and positioning himself in front, ready to go! My heart is beating and my knuckles are white from clutching my bag. I contemplate telling the taxi driver that he can slow down, it’s not so important, I’ll get the train tomorrow, when the traffic lights turn green and my thought process is interrupted as we once again shoot over the intersection, facing a new onslaught of traffic as we crisscross our way across the Beijing map, moving ever closer to the train station. Dear god, why are there never seat belts in the back seat of Chinese cabs?!</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We finally screech to a halt across the street from the train station with about 30 minutes to spare. I thank the driver who nearly cost me my life, pay the fee and emerge sprawling from the taxi with my three cumbersome travel companions. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I realize I have yet more hardship to endure as I take in the scenery unfolding in front of me. It’s Chinese new year, also known as the largest mass migration of people known to man, and the area surrounding the train station looks like an anthill. After a quick survey of the area it seems I have to cross a walkway to get to the entrance of the train station. I look at the stairs leading up, literally jam packed with people, and think, “shit!”. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">28 minutes left. I push my way into the crowd, no time for courtesy, and start hauling my things up the stairs, one torturous step at a time. I arrive at the top of the stairs gasping for air, sweat already starting to soak my clothes, i think about taking off my jacket, but there’s no time and my rucksack is ready to give birth, better not test the seems. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">25 minutes. I start making my way across the walkway, flowing along with the thousands of Chinese going home for the new year. It’s a pretty awesome sight, it looks like a huge river of people streaming to and from the station, and I would no doubt be impressed and humbled by the sheer magnitude of people, if even a single fibre of me actually gave a crap amidst the increasing pain I’m experiencing in my arms as I shuffle closer to my destination. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">22 minutes. I arrive on the other side of the walkway and make my way down to ground level. I find this much more pleasant then going up. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">20 minutes. I’m shoving my way through the security check which, thank god, isn’t as tough as it is in the airports. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">15 minutes. I did it, I’m through. I’m in the pain sta... sorry, train station! I look at the boards to figure out which platform to go to, and set off on my last mad dash to get on the train before the 10 min check in limit. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Beijing train station during the Spring Festival</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.woaiphone.com/blog/156776_1200x1000_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://img.woaiphone.com/blog/156776_1200x1000_0.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">11 minutes. I’m getting close to the platform. In afterthought, I wonder what I must have looked like to the Chinese, a blond man lumbering through the station, my bulging, destroyed bags trailing me as I weave my way, as gracefully as a drunk hippo, through the masses of people, with a facial expression so twisted you wouldn’t be able to tell if I was grinning from ear to ear, or in severe pain. It was, of course, the latter.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">8 minutes. I come barging into the waiting hall to the platform, and come to a stop by the entrance. I take a quick look around and realize that the people who check the tickets are nowhere to be seen. Hundreds of eyes are all staring at me, this sweaty, clumsy, foreigner who looks like he is in absolute despair. It can’t be, after all I’ve been through I get beaten on the finish line? Just as I’m coming to terms with my defeat I see a head pop around the corner. A glimmer of hope. It seems she has heard the commotion. She comes towards me, my savior, my knight in shining armor. She smiles and says “you just made it”, I give her a big “thank you!”, and run towards the train, hopping on it with minutes to spare. I dump my stuff in the carriage, feeling like a hundred kg's had been lifted(It was pretty damn close to it) and realize how completely spent I am. I make a note to fix my guitar case before returning to Norway. I lie down on my soft-sleeper bed and think about all the cool stuff that is bound to happen over the next half-year, and doze off quietly, thinking happy thoughts.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My first class when I arrived at Wudang was... interesting. After arriving at the temple and paying our respects to the shrine there, we started running. Not just running on flat ground. No, we were running up and down the stairs of the temple. In the beginning I actually felt pretty good, but I quickly realized that I was fooling myself as I started wheezing like an old man who’d smoked a pack a day for the last 40 years. Feeling thoroughly exhausted from just the warm ups I sat down to do some stretching. I was starting to get into it when Master Li told us to line up. What now, I thought. Kicks! The students that had been here for a while started kicking across the courtyard. Rather relaxed I thought, as I joined in. But that was only the beginning. The next time they crossed the courtyard, their legs were flying up and down like crazy, and I, not wanting to be any worse, started matching their tempo, while the master was shouting “quickelly, quickelly, more powa!” from the sidelines in broken English. This went okay the first couple of passes, but as the kicks just kept getting more and more advanced, my heart started to work overtime as I was struggling to keep up with the group, completely drenched in sweat, gasping for air. There was actually one point during this hour long session, where I was afraid my heart might stop! It was fluttering like a butterfly, and I couldn’t really feel a steady rhythm. “This is it”, I thought. “Goodbye, cruel world... leaving me to die on a mountain in the middle of China”. But thankfully, as I sat down to regain my breath and composure, dizzy from the exertion, my heart regained it’s normal steady beat. The master ushered the other students on, while looking at me with what I think was a compassionate smile. Poor sod, he must have thought. He doesn’t know what he’s in for.</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This is me running up the stairs at the temple. Good times.</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIAI6y8scI/AAAAAAAAAC0/T47cS92s_ME/s1600/P1050664.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIAI6y8scI/AAAAAAAAAC0/T47cS92s_ME/s400/P1050664.jpg" width="336" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After a short break, we get broken into groups to study our respective forms. I get placed in the basic group. Good, I thought. An easy start. I was, as you may expect, wrong. I was made to stand in mabu (horse stance) and gongbu (a stance where your back leg is fully extended and held straight with force) for the remainder of the session. Both of these low postures require your knees to be bent at a 90 degree angle. I won’t go into detail on how that felt (too painful to recall), but if you read the last post where I was standing in wuji, you probably get the gist of it. </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Me and my class, it has since more than quadrupled in size</span></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TACHE5ww-xI/AAAAAAAAACE/iU75814M1hg/s1600/Class.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TACHE5ww-xI/AAAAAAAAACE/iU75814M1hg/s400/Class.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A cheesy picture in front of the Purple Heaven Temple</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIEJOgvTII/AAAAAAAAAC8/LV8PIP27JgA/s1600/P1050709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIEJOgvTII/AAAAAAAAAC8/LV8PIP27JgA/s1600/P1050709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIEJOgvTII/AAAAAAAAAC8/LV8PIP27JgA/s400/P1050709.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After the class I was called down to Headmaster Zhong’s office for a talk, I hobbled down there not quite knowing what to expect. I remember last time I saw him on NTS’s trip to China, he seemed very strict, serious, and quite intimidating. I arrived at his office pretty nervous, ready to break out my small reservoir of Chinese. I knocked on his door. I heard him shout “come in”. When I got in he had a huge smile on his face welcoming me. It seems he had softened up a bit since last time I saw him. We spoke for almost an hour about my training, and he explained the meaning of the character 道 “Dao” (or “Tao” as it’s transliterated in the Wade-Giles system) which was quite interesting so I’ll try my best to give you a short recap.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">道Dao:</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Do you see the broken and whole line on top of the character 自 in 道? They represent yin and yang. The character 自 means “self”, or “oneself”. Put this character and yin yang together, and you get the character 首 which means “head”. The last part of the character is 之 this can both mean “to go”, and “arrive”. So, to summarize, yin and yang coupled with self, means head. Finally you add “head” (首) to “to go” (之), then you get the meaning which he explained as something like, “bringing your head along with you as you go”. There you have it, the character 道 explained and demystified... or at least explained. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">During the course of our talk I told him I wanted to strengthen my body, so he recommended I start with basic Wudang Kung Fu forms, and work my way upwards. </span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">T</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">his is my view as I go to class in the morning. Beautiful.</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S_9ZGlb6_XI/AAAAAAAAAB8/HBXnm48lz0Q/s1600/wudang+pano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S_9ZGlb6_XI/AAAAAAAAAB8/HBXnm48lz0Q/s400/wudang+pano.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As you will already have guessed, my first few weeks here were pretty tough. There were intense kicking sessions, running up and down stairs, and fast Kung Fu forms until I was drenched in sweat, and close to passing out from exhaustion. When I got out of bed in the mornings, my body was so stiff from the training I literally had to use 15 minutes to get dressed. Thankfully, my body has gotten more used to withstanding that sort of punishment, so now I can get dressed in 10(sorry, mum’s bad jokes are rubbing off on me).</span></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As time has progressed, so has my Kung Fu and the flow of Chinese tourists visiting the temple. Throngs of them arrive at a time in huge groups, led by a tour guide shouting loudly into the megaphone, all wearing matching hats. During the kicking sessions they’re not shy to get in your way as you’re storming forward, throwing out kicks at full speed, staring blankly at you as you maneuver around them. Most of them stand to one side though, in a big semi-circle looking at us. Some days are worse than others. If you have performed Taiji outside in a park, or a similar location, you will probably know how distracting it can be when you are being watched by someone. One day during a taiji walking session, a group of Chinese decided to join in. This wouldn’t be so bad in and of itself, but on this particular day they encircled me, imitating my moves, laughing, and chattering loudly amongst each other. They were literally moving out of my way just as I was moving into the space they occupied. GAAAH! I just wanted to scream at them, “get the hell out of my way! What do you think I am, a circus monkey?” Thankfully, I calmed myself down, and managed to meditate my way through it without embarking on a mad killing spree. But at times we have been talking about practicing our sword forms on unsuspecting tourists here. </span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Part of the group doing Taiji walking on a day with relatively few and polite tourists</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAH3bH24bPI/AAAAAAAAACk/160bveY9Uco/s1600/P1050714.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAH3bH24bPI/AAAAAAAAACk/160bveY9Uco/s400/P1050714.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nico and Jeremie practicing Pushing Hands under the not-so-silent </span></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">scrutiny of some Chinese tourists</span></span></b></div></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAH4KxPld6I/AAAAAAAAACs/ToYn245A0xk/s1600/P1050715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAH4KxPld6I/AAAAAAAAACs/ToYn245A0xk/s400/P1050715.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">About a month and a half ago I received a visit from my family, and a few friends from the Taiji center. It was pretty surreal seeing them all step out of the bus in the pelting cold rain with a big smile on their faces. After exchanging some greatings they got settled into their uninsulated rooms, which were colder then outside, and had a small taste of what I had been through a month and a half earlier when I was huddled in front of my tiny heating fan with five layers of jumpers, a hat, and my duvet wrapped around me. I'm sure they still remember my sorry image from our talks on skype, shivering, and frost coming out of my mouth as I exhaled. Luckily for them the weathergods were smiling, and the sun was shining for the remainder of the trip. I showed them most of the places in the vicinity of the temple worth seeing, like the hermits cave, the graveyard of Master Zhong's master's, master, and the (r)ed army tomb. Master Zhong taught us some Qigong, and sitting meditation, as the group experienced first hand what the Chinese tourists can be like. Unfortunately they were only able to stay for a few days, but I think they all really enjoyed the teaching they received here. Later, after they had visited Anyang, and the Longmen Grottos, I met up with the group in Beijing. I was happy to be able to take them out to visit my Chen-style teacher Doctor Chen Lianyong, and give the a small tour of the hospital he's in charge of. Dr. Chen and I also gave them a demonstration of the form. I'm not going to elaborate further on this trip as I'm sure you've heard plenty already, but it was great seeing them all here, and I was very sad to see them leave.</span></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A picture taken after meditation practice with Master Zhong, on the platform where Zhang Sanfeng supposedly created Taijiquan. In the background is the cave of the hermit.</span></span></b></div></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAHrHT7rQeI/AAAAAAAAACM/EwG1aHzxRks/s1600/IMG_3282_72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAHrHT7rQeI/AAAAAAAAACM/EwG1aHzxRks/s400/IMG_3282_72.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Life here in Wudang brought loads of new challenges into my life, but I still didn’t feel 100% in touch with myself in this place. There were many distractions, everyone here was downloading movies and series, and passing them around, so it was easy to just waste my spare time away sitting in my room gazing absentmindedly at the computer screen. About a month ago I heard about this thing called the No Woman Diet. This involved no pursuing women(hardly a challenge up here in Wudang), no validation seeking(from women or anyone else), and no “feminine substitutes”, meaning distractions(this includes: movies, tv-series, fictional books, sugary food or drinks, alcohol, surfing the internet aimlessly (one can still use the internet to take care of things though, just no facebook, youtube etc.), and anything else one discovers is distracting one from being present.). As soon as I saw the program, I knew it was what I needed to bring that extra focus I was looking for. I started the NWD three weeks ago now(halfway through), and it’s bringing major results. In fact, without it you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog right now(This is why I might be posting here more often for those of you who have been waiting in suspense since the start of the blog). It hasn’t only given me extra focus for my training, it’s been quite revealing to me personally. It feels very vulnerable to be sharing this in such a public arena, but here goes. I’ve discovered that there are many areas of my life that have been ruled by fear and feelings of inadequacy. It hasn’t always been obvious, but it’s been lurking beneath the surface of almost every interaction. It’s been a fear of many things, like coming across as stupid or dimwitted, or just a feeling of being unworthy, and has caused me to hold back a lot of who I really am. Being on the diet has made me very aware of those tendencies, so I have been able to locate many of these beliefs and have started to shift them to become beliefs that are empowering for me. My life has been weighed down by them for long enough! </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">These last weeks haven’t been particularly easy, stuff that I covered up years ago is rising to the surface and causing a bloody mess, but I know facing it and getting it worked out will be worth it in the end. Why am I writing something so personal here, you may ask. I think it is part of my healing process, just getting what I feel out there and not giving a crap about what anyone else thinks. And maybe someone else will relate to it too, who knows.</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm loving pretty much every second of my stay here in Wudang, and I'm making some real progress in my personal development. Every day here is an amazing gift. It feels weird looking back at my life before I left for China last August, seeing a slightly younger and more insecure version of me not knowing exactly what is going to unfold over the course of the next year. Things have changed more then I could ever have imagined! I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Jan Andreas again here, he made this trip possible and I am eternally grateful for that.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thanks for reading. I'll be posting another blog within the next month with a little extra... Wait and see :-)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'll leave you with a picture of a performance by the guys who really know what they're doing.</span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIQulRJbUI/AAAAAAAAADE/3Mgo98w3aRk/s1600/P1050677.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/TAIQulRJbUI/AAAAAAAAADE/3Mgo98w3aRk/s400/P1050677.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Until next time,</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bjarte Simon Hiley</span></span></div></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-38879379913330153562010-02-24T01:04:00.000-08:002010-06-17T04:42:50.571-07:00An update long overdue: Practice with Dr. Chen Lianyong.<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hi folks!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In my last blog I promised I would write back about my meeting with Dr. Chen soon, but, as you probably know, we chronic procrastinators have our own definition of the word “soon”. Sorry for the long wait, and thank you all for the many encouragements and nudges in the right direction! Well, here comes the update which is, as the title states, long overdue.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Shortly after my last blog post I met with Dr. Chen Lianyong to set up my training schedule. We agreed that he would give me two lessons a week, two hours a piece over the next three months.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Those of you who joined Norsk Taiji Senter on it's previous trip to China, might remember the visit to Nankou hospital where Dr. Chen singled me out for some intensive correction. After about seven minutes of pushing and prodding my legs crumbled like a house of cards, and I was unable to stand any longer. Now, imagine a two hour private session with this guy. To say I haven't had an easy time training with him over the past months is to say the least.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One day during the course of my training I happened to mention that my friend Frode and I sometimes stood in the wuji-posture for one FULL hour. I immediately came to regret saying anything about this as he promptly made me assume the wuji-posture, and proceeded to mercilessly correct and push me down into the posture. I quickly understood that I had never </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">really</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> stood in wuji. A few minutes in, my legs were already beginning to ache and tremble. After ten minutes it felt like someone had set my legs on fire, and I was cursing myself for opening my mouth. Fifteen minutes in, sweat was flowing in rivers down my face, and I felt like I couldn't possibly go on. Twenty minutes in, my legs were spasming wildly, and it looked like I was doing my best impression of the Hammer Dance. But I gritted my teeth and managed to continue. Finally, after the longest half hour of my life, Dr. Chen took pity on me and said I could get out of the posture. In a daze I slowly rose out of the posture, my eyes straining to see clearly through the sting of the sweat in my eyes. Suddenly he burst out in laughter. At that point I was unable to find anything even remotely humorous about the situation, so I gave him a confused look. "So, how on earth did you manage to stand for an hour?" he said while snickering loudly. I made a mental note never to be boastful in front of him again.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S36SgZBTuvI/AAAAAAAAABc/Tlz1bAhFsjo/s1600-h/P1050058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S36SgZBTuvI/AAAAAAAAABc/Tlz1bAhFsjo/s320/P1050058.jpg" /></span></span></a></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I have just completed the Chen-style form with my teacher, and the experiences I have had whilst learning the form and in conversation with my teacher have been sobering in many ways. I have realized that I am no more than a fledgling when it comes to taijiquan, and probably life too. Actually, even that’s probably going too far. Sometimes I feel like I’m still not fully hatched, metaphorically pecking away at the inside of the shell, occasionally succeeding at making a hole, allowing another streamer of light to illuminate my ignorance. I have learnt that there isn't anyone else that can do the hard work for me, but every time I make progress it is my doing, and I own it. The keyword is definitely perseverance! Hopefully someday I'll be out of the shell, chirping, and able to start learning for real!</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Making me stand in taiji postures for extended periods of time, is not the only way Dr. Chen has tested me during the past three months. A few weeks ago he invited me along to the spring festival party at his hospital. I was happy to go along as I had never seen the inside of a Chinese hospital, and also had never seen a Chinese spring festival party. This is what happened.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The morning of the trip to the hospital I got up early to have a shower, eager to spend some time with my teacher without having to go through any physical or mental hardship. Little did I know... </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When I went out to meet Dr. Chen at 9am, as we had previously agreed, he shot me a weird look and mimicked playing the guitar. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dr. Chen "Where is it?"</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Me "Eeeeerm, in the apartment. But you didn't really tell me that I was supposed to play."</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dr. Chen "I told you two weeks ago during practice, I'm sure of it. Well, go get it." </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Me "Nooo... Really?" I'm still refusing to believe this is actually happening.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dr. Chen "Yes!" He had apparently already told his employees that a foreigner was coming to play them a song, and losing face in front of your employees is not particularly popular here. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I immediately felt a growing lump of anxiety forming in the pit of my stomach as I walked off to get my guitar. He had casually mentioned something about me playing and singing a song at the party a few weeks ago during one of our sessions, but he hadn't mentioned anything else about it since then. I assumed he had either forgotten, or that he wasn't really serious.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On our way to the hospital he mentioned that there would be about 70 people there to witness this event, which in my mind is sure to lead to calamity. Did I mention I have pretty bad stage fright? But I tried to put it out of my mind anyway and focus on all the cool stuff I would see.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S4aI49BH20I/AAAAAAAAAB0/HURg0YtL9sw/s1600-h/P1050375.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S4aI49BH20I/AAAAAAAAAB0/HURg0YtL9sw/s320/P1050375.jpg" /></span></span></a></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We arrive at the hospital and I got to meet many different doctors and nurses, and was also, luckily, able to print out the lyrics for "Idyll", which is a famous Norwegian pop song. Dr. Chen took me on a tour of the hospital, and I got to see everything from Chinese acupuncture and massage, to the maternity ward and the CAT scanner. I even received some treatment in the form of a wooden box with incense in it, placed on my lower abdomen, or the dantian as taiji practitioners would know it (picture above). I was told it was meant to have a beneficial effect on the acupuncture points related to the dantian.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 18.0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S4TXS99t1dI/AAAAAAAAABk/ci5VDERcvkg/s1600-h/Still+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S4TXS99t1dI/AAAAAAAAABk/ci5VDERcvkg/s320/Still+1.jpeg" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then came the time for the performances. I was, needless to say, pretty damn nervous, and I had only been able to do a couple of run-throughs of the songs. That's "songs" in plural, my teacher had persuaded me to play an English song first, the version of "Hurt" covered by Johnny Cash. I wasn't able to relax fully while viewing the other peoples' performances, playing over and over in my mind the imagined horror scenario that was about to take place. I was growing more and more nervous. I didn't even know when I was going on. Eventually they come to pick me up and say that it's my turn. I plugged in my guitar, wish them all a happy new year, and prepare myself for humiliation. I got off to a halting start when I completely screwed up the beginning of the Johnny Cash classic, stopped, apologised, and started over. Now I'm really starting to shake. The second time went a bit better, and by the end of the song I felt like I was getting warmed up. I finished the song, got a polite applause, and moved on to "Idyll". This went a lot better, that is to say, I got through it without the use of a mulligan. When I finished I got a decent applause and a few people even shouted "zai lai yi ge", or "one more song". Not willing to test fate any further I quickly said thank you and got the heck off the stage while breathing a huge sigh of relief.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dr. Chen Lianyong really has taught me a lot over these past months of private sessions. I think I've shed a lot of ego and my taiji has improved by leaps and bounds. Also, he drove for an hour to my flat two times a week for three months to teach me. I will always be grateful for that.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm leaving for Wudang Mountain in a few days to study taijiquan for half a year, and I'm getting a bit nervous. I know that what I have experienced with Dr. Chen is but a prelude to what awaits me when I get to Wudang. There I will be practicing for about 6-7 hours every day except Sundays. I'm not sure what it will be like, but what I'm sure of is that it will be an experience that I will never forget.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I've probably gone on for long enough now, but I hope I'll be able to write back soon with some more stories from China. I have just been to Chengde to visit Harry and his family and friends there. I might write something about that trip later. (For those of you who don't know, Harry was our tour guide on Norsk Taiji Senter's trip to China.)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the meantime, here's a picture of Harry, his friends, and me after a HUGE dinner and x glasses of Chinese booze. (Harry is the second one from the right)</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S4TklexkdSI/AAAAAAAAABs/xLNg0rDOGA0/s1600-h/Harry2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/S4TklexkdSI/AAAAAAAAABs/xLNg0rDOGA0/s400/Harry2.jpg" width="400" /></span></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hope you guys are all doing well back home in Norway!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bjarte Simon Hiley</span></span></div></div></span></span></span></span></div>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7962722489266971639.post-12343325059247226972009-11-12T07:11:00.000-08:002010-06-17T04:43:24.037-07:00First two months.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hi folks!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">OK, so this is my first time making a blog. Well, to tell you the truth I created this blog for my last trip to China, but I never actually got around to writing anything. My considerable skills at procrastinating, no doubt, came into play.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anyway, since I arrived in China two months ago a lot of things have happened. I've met loads of people from all around the world (most recently two Norwegian guys a few minute ago in the café I'm writing this in), enrolled in Tsinghua university, found a flat, and lots of other stuff that I'll write about later.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After saying goodbye to Mum, Benjamin, and Hanna, having my last pint of Guinness for a while, and buying a new camera, I got on the plane to Beijing and got ready for a long flight. The person seated next to me was a very talkative Chinese woman who was hellbent on refreshing my Chinese skills before I arrived in Beijing. She was very helpful, and even managed to get me three small bottles of red wine for free. I owe her thanks for being able to snag some sleep on my way over here. The plane touched down exactly 2009.9.9 09:00!</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/Svwmjd7OtaI/AAAAAAAAAA0/yLtcOn-jr5U/s1600-h/003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/Svwmjd7OtaI/AAAAAAAAAA0/yLtcOn-jr5U/s200/003.JPG" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After I recovered from the jet lag, I figured it was time to start looking for apartments. I had no idea what a gruelling experience I was in for. First, I tried seeking out some agents on my own. In just about every agency I went to, my blonde hair set off alarm bells and dollar signs appeared in the eyes of the agent. They told me that there were almost no apartments left, and that the only apartments left were either super expensive or extremely shoddy. I quickly understood that I needed some help. Thanks to Irene I came into contact with a Chinese guy called Fei. He had lived in Norway for a couple of years and also spoke fluent English. He was very kind and offered to help me find an apartment. His friend introduced us to an agency that was reliable, and together we conceived a devious plan -insert evil laughter here- of how to discuss the price without them understanding. Norwegian! We visited several flats, ranging from the really nice ones, to the, let us say, sub-par ones. But they were all either too expensive or too shoddy. We had given up and were going to get something to eat. And suddenly, in the last moment, the agent came through with an apartment that was perfect. I had finally found a place that met my three criteria of 1. not being in the same price range as Norwegian apartments, 2. having a kitchen, and 3. not being cockroach and mildew infested. All in all, I was happy!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/Svv2EfSMIHI/AAAAAAAAAAM/3cuQmvJA58A/s1600-h/ikea-china_48853918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/Svv2EfSMIHI/AAAAAAAAAAM/3cuQmvJA58A/s320/ikea-china_48853918.jpg" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Since then I've settled into my flat nicely, I have even been to IKEA to buy some lamps and pictures to brighten up my days here. IKEA in China is just like any other IKEA anywhere else in the world, with self-assembled furniture galore, and quaint Swedish names for everything. Except that it's filled to the brim with Chinese people lying around having a nap on exhibition sofas and beds, and students enjoying the free refills in the cafeteria while studying. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I've been practising taiji every morning from 8.00 -9.00 am, and studying Chinese as much as possible. I feel like my head is exploding with Chinese characters. I'm even having dreams about Chinese characters coming for me! But mid-term exams are coming up in a few weeks, so I've got to keep up the pace.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'm finally meeting with Dr. Chen Lianyong from Nankou hospital this weekend, so I'll hopefully be able to start practising Chen-style Taijiquan soon. I hope everyone back home is doing well, and that your Taiji is coming along nicely!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Here's a picture of Hans, Harry and me eating hotpot. </span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/SvweGhPIqAI/AAAAAAAAAAk/pcFgdKx76kM/s1600-h/GetAttachment.aspx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_be8mrI0T4pM/SvweGhPIqAI/AAAAAAAAAAk/pcFgdKx76kM/s320/GetAttachment.aspx.jpg" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There, now you're kinda updated on my life here(if you made it all the way to the end), I'll write some more soon, and hopefully get a few more pictures up.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Bjarte Simon Hiley</span></span>Bjartehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06931965989858040505noreply@blogger.com10