News

Review of Manchester Seminar
– 19th April 2010

Tse Tai-Sigong’s (Tai-Sigong means Great Grand Teacher) seminars in Manchester are always well attended and tonight was no exception. The sense of anticipation was palpable as students from far-flung places such as Grimsby and Liverpool joined the regular members of the Manchester classes to learn Qigong, Chun Yuen, Chen Taijiquan and Wing Chun from the founder of the Tse Qigong Centre. Everybody sat down as Tse Tai-Sigong stood up and asked people what they would like to do. The brief silence was broken by one student who asked about how to heal serious injuries. Another student then asked if we could see Healthy Living Gong Part 4. Interestingly, Tse Tai-Sigong said that he had created some of this new form in response to a knee injury that he sustained while living in Hawaii and so the two questions were linked. In response to the first question about healing injuries, Tai Sigong said, “If we learn to cook then we should practice cooking, if we learn guitar then we should practice guitar and if we learn qigong when we should practice qigong”. He then proceeded to talk about using the principles of qigong to heal and knee injury and followed this by teaching us two movements from Healthy Living Gong 4, both of which were created to heal the knees.

I was amazed. Two weeks ago I dislocated my knee – it basically bent the wrong way. This was an old childhood injury but this fact made it no less serious. My knee was swollen, the ligaments had torn and I could put little weight through it. Immediately following the injury I felt quite faint as I was assailed with thoughts about the months of recovery I needed as a teenager and how this would affect both my qigong practice and teaching.

So how did I approach my recovery? As it happens, I did exactly what Tai-Sigong talked about, with quite astonishing results. Tai Sigong explained that, following an injury, the sooner you use your knowledge of qigong to heal it the better it will heal. Immediately following the injury I very carefully attempted to bend my knee, a little at a time listening carefully to my body, until I had almost a full range of movement. The following day I visited Moy Sigong and returned home armed with mediation techniques, massage techniques and herbal plasters as well as a good dose of wisdom – Uncle Choi! I spent the next week practicing an hour a day of meditation with my hands on my knees and lots of short periods of qigong ending the session when I my body told me to. Soon I could practice all of Balancing Gong and by the end of the week I could walk without much of a limp. The swelling disappeared by the end of first week and by the end of the second week I could practice the first half of Joint Opening Gong as well as being able to drive safely. I was walking normally by the time I attended the seminar last night and Moy Sigong said that, had he not known about the injury, he would not have been able tell by looking at the way I walked. The knee felt quite strong at the seminar (I even did a little bit of Chi Sau), although I still have difficulty putting my weight through the joint when my knee is half bent.

Now, as I write this article, I have just finished practicing Xing Sau and Da Bei – albeit very tentatively!

The exercises from Healthy Living Gong Part 4 were very well received by the students and everyone soon got to work learning and polishing. Everyone learnt as much as they could of two movements before Tse Tai-Sigong asked everyone to sit down as he demonstrated Balancing Gong, Xing Sau and Chen 19 form, stopping to answer questions after each form. Now, although we are encouraged to field questions to our teachers, sometimes the answers have to be found in our practice, and this wisdom was evident as Tse Tai-Sigong responded to one question with a story:

On hearing the news of their master’s impending death, all the students gathered to say, “Sifu, Sifu, tell us the secret before you di...”. Just as they said the words, the teacher’s hearts stopped and he dropped to the floor, stone dead.

I really like this story and it will stay with me for a long time.

The group then spilt up into three groups to polish Qigong, Chun Yuen and Wing Chun before the evening drew to a close with some Chi Sau, students having the opportunity to touch hands with Tse Tai-Sigong. A family photo ended the night and we were told that Tai Sigong would be in Manchester again in November to continue to “water the plants”.

Matt Laurie