WISDOM FROM WUDANG

“INTERNAL MARTIAL ARTS JOURNEY”

*The Martial Cocoon,

*The Long Lost Discipline,
*& Guarding the Nectar adventure series

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BOOK ONE
CHAPTER ONE… Perpetual Motion
CHAPTER TWO…Circular Illumination

CHAPTER THREE…The Renaissance Disciple

CHAPTER FOUR…Making My Exit

CHAPTER FIVE…From Student to Teacher

CHAPTER SIX… Seasons of Change

CHAPTER SEVEN…Mo Pai (72)

CHAPTER EIGHT…The Manual

BOOK TWO
CHAPTER ONE…Crossing Paths at the Park

CHAPTER TWO…No Master, No Maestro, Accomplice

CHAPTER THREE…The Commitment

CHAPTER FOUR…Corporeal Inculcation

CHAPTER FIVE…Intellectic Arbitration

CHAPTER SIX…Gung Fu Hard

CHAPTER SEVEN…Induction

CHAPTER EIGHT…The Return of Wu

BOOK THREE
CHAPTER ONE…The Break of Dawn

CHAPTER TWO…The Wudang Mission

CHAPTER THREE…To Gain Leverage is Levity

CHAPTER FOUR…Found in Translation

BIGU FASTING NOTES

LONGEVITY SECRETS NOTES

The Martial Cocoon

Expeditions on Wudang Mountain
BOOK ONE

Introduction

The old saying, “Without an opening or closing there is no Taiji,” is actually

insider double speak. The reference to “opening and closing” is also a play on
words for “light and heavy” – “yin and yang,” and not only referring to the
actual beginning and ending of any given internal martial art set. Most
uncoordinated brutes snicker when they find out that Taiji means – The Grand
Ultimate. Those poor souls that think big muscles and long runs on the treadmill
are improving their health & well-being aren’t considering the human spirit-
body connection. Life’s tensions, both mentally and physically, are wrecking
havoc multi dimensionally inside the body and have left many people seeking
“the hard way” as a substitute for the true integral harmony of the internal arts. A
land-slide of transmissions and oral traditions has been passed down through the
many generations of Taiji family trees that include: Wu, Yang, Sun, Chen,
Wudang, and Shaolin in effort to preserve the lineages inside knowledge in there
respective arts. Outlandish scrolls, manuscripts and secret transmissions have
become illusive to the common practitioner and in most cases remain fictitious.
The longing for such knowledge and the quest for quick-mastery short cuts has
become the central reason for the success with books that don the word
“SECRET” in the title. If you see such words on a book cover, avoid it like the
plague, and regard it as a literary sin. A real secret is something that not more
than two or three people know about in a closed circle at any given time.

The reason that few practitioners these days actually understand Taiji is because
there are no “yin or yang” elements in their practice. They are going through the
sets like performing some kind of mechanically engineered stiff Kata. The
opening in Tai chi is one of the biggest secrets that Tai chi has to offer. How
many people understand this? Rising-Falling, Heavy-Light, Inhale-Exhale; all of
these things are interconnected in properly executed Tai Chi. When this happens,
players will be able restfully throw around novices in push-hands practice. Yang
Chengfu stressed that there is no double-weighted signature in true Yang style
Taiji. How many players understand the mind-heart connection in relation to
“offense and defense” & “fa-jing and deflecting,” an attackers energy?
Folks if you are not connecting “inhalation & exhalation” “contraction &
expansion” to each of your forms then you’re wasting a lot of time and have
reduced the forms into a mere robotical-dance; bearing no remnants of heart &
soul. The first wonder of Taiji is the profound positive health effects it has on
practitioners. Research has been done into the vast effects that include: reduced
heart rate, reduced blood pressure, increased blood flow to the extremities; (that
can reverse and treat impotence), strengthening of the bones, ligaments and
tendons; stretching & toning of the bodies muscles that can play a major role in
staving off macular degeneration in old age and sickness. How wonderful it is to
see a 90 year old man with great posture, vitality and a clear mind. Of course
there are many life style and health factors that interplay with Taiji calisthenics
that help to reinforce longevity and vitality into old age. Those that aspire to
martial art mastery and want to be street thug bad-asses should consider a few
things about the Taiji soft style. Most Taiji players are unaware and incapable of
Fa-Li, not to mention the ever ascending grades of Fa-jing.

For instance Yang Style Taiji has point strikes, jabs, hooks, over hand punches,
palms, elbows and advanced blocking techniques encoded into it. Few people
are aware of this and only see the health-style set being demonstrated without
any martial explanations. It is true that I am only aware of three or four masters
that have copious knowledge pertaining to the martial side of the art, and could
effectively utilize it to pulverize an adversary. Thousands of others have
competent balance coupled with Fa-li ability that could be used to ward off most
aggressors; handling them with elementary fighting skills. The true martial
elevation of this art lye’s in the ability of the practitioner to become like a
human-whip while striking; stable like an oak-tree while remaining impervious
against an attempted take down and blows to the lower trunk of the body. These
skills can take years and sometimes decades to develop, but when honed to
perfection they render the practitioner with excellent health and sound fighting
abilities. After all, self defense is something that most people with never need or
use in their life- time, but if needed in a situation, the best of techniques will be
at the player’s disposal; the strikes will be fast, solid, and pronounced.
This book is about my voyage into Internal Martial Arts that I undertook while
living in Wudang Shan China, and my eventual return to the US that in turn has
uncovered multiple layers of knowledge ranging from: Health Elixirs, The Tree
of Life, Qi-Transmission, Nei Gong, Tai chi, Street Fighting, Mo-Pai (72), and
Alternative Medicine. I would like to thank my wife, family, friends, and the
Almighty Creator for protecting me and guiding me into the unchartered waves
of profound information. Thanks again for your support!

CHAPTER ONE
PERPETUAL MOTION
There are no guarantees in life and even fewer things come with a warrantee. I
found that out early in my life while working like an indentured slave; earning
just enough money to come back to the old factory on Monday and repeat the
viscous-laborious cycle all over again. On an average weekend night my life
would change forever, and the tides of fate decided to bring treasures to my
seashore.
My grandfather had just passed away and before I could properly absorb the
whole ordeal—I had received a phone call that I was to inherit 150,000 dollars.
Consequently I would tell AMES Hardware Company that they could kiss my
royal backside, as I slipped my last measly paycheck for 350 dollars into the
back pocket of my Timberland blue-jeans. I recall the electric like air of
excitement and anticipation of a most needed change of settings in my life. I
would no longer be a rat on a running wheel—circling only due to the survivalist
instinct.
Which direction should I take, I sat thinking to myself. Most people in my
situation would remain capitalistically correct-- keeping their job, buying a new
car, stereo system, and possibly a new humble abode. My inquiries and
imagination were spinning out of control, and the only acceptable outcome for
my future was to get the hell out of the U. S. of A. as soon as humanly possible.
I was never much of a clutter bug so consolidating my belongings left me with
two suite-cases and a computer bag. I sold my satellite dish, receiver and TV to
the old Indian man living across the hall to my two bed room flat.
I decided to fly into Beijing China and take the train to Hebei while finding
some temporary accommodations. Then I would hope to find bus transportation
and head to the infamous Wudang Mountains. This would be my first step on a
long excursion to help me clear my head and to shake off the old’ work blues.
What I would come to find out on those mountain ranges very few readers might
believe. I promise full disclosure, but for now, back to the story. I informed my
family and what few good friends I had, after the funeral proceedings; that I
would be traveling to the far- east. I booked my flight and spend the last night at
my mother’s house eating split pea soup with pita bread and hummus.
Since the age of 15 I had become infatuated with working out and martial arts.
As a kid I followed the likes of Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris etc. from an early age,
and would soon develop a deep interest in the internal Chinese martial arts. Nei
Gong, Taiji, Bagua etc. There was a book by Robert W. Smith called, CHINESE
BOXING that propelled me to investigate the internal arts and work out as much
as possible.
I sat on a 747 to Beijing thinking about the details of my travel itinerary. “Sir!
Would you like the chicken or beef dinner” chirped a cute flight attendant. My
flight arrived late in the night, so I took a taxi cab from the Airport to Wangjing
and stayed at a Hostel called, Jade.
Then next morning after breakfast I decided to spend a few days in Beijing and
frequent a few parks that I knew some noteworthy masters & virtuosos would be
working out at. My Taiji really seemed to be coming along according to Master
Wang, Vice President of the Chen Tai Chi association, after besting a few
masters at Ritan Lu Park.
I would make the full circuit and visited almost every major park within Beijing.
This not being the central focus of my trip, I was pulled into the centrifugal force
of meeting so many nice masters and learning new exercises and techniques
from them; so I decided to pack my bags after one week and head for the train
station—my destination Zheng Zhou, Hebei. I nestled myself into a nice little
affordable hostel in Zheng Zhou; it wasn’t that I was short on cash to be so
reserved—seeing the recent 150,000 dollar deposit in my savings account, but I
didn’t like prancing around superfluously like some deranged aristocrat.
Mean while I was drinking grandiose amounts of exotic flavored tea. I don’t
know if the stuff was artificially flavored or grew like that naturally but the habit
of drinking tea had become overtly addictive. As I sat in a cozy little tea house, I
began to think cautiously of the moves I would have to make if I was to begin to
position myself around some real Taoist Monks. As such, my inquiries began to
bring me into the circles of many quasi-miracle workers and medicine men. My
goal was to gain access to rare internal martial arts and longevity techniques. I
was already aware of Mo Pai, Chi circulation, Kundalini yoga arts, fasting to rid
the body of the 3 intestinal worms, refraining from grains, exotic herbs, holistic
methodologies etc. I was looking for a real life guru in Nei Gong that knew how
to manipulate chi and create electrical discharges. I could live with out the
fantasy land chi development programs that the many zany Beijing Taiji
practitioners were preoccupied with.
Most were sufficient enough to employ exercises in their routines to see some
form of ‘internal grounding’ but none so far had displayed abilities such as the
ones shown by John Cheng, the famed Mo Pai practitioner from the Thunder
Sect of Daoism. Such abilities might be beyond the scope of my common reality,
but I knew that anything could be possible out in the no man lands of Wudang.
The next morning I sat inside a small restaurant watching the locals ride by on
their bicycles and motor bikes. I had to down size from two suitcases to a single
back pack before leaving Beijing, and left my stuff in a lock up safe room at the
Jade hostel. The local men moved about minding their business in an almost
Zen-like unconsciousness. As I would find out, the best restaurants in China
were Muslim ones.
I walked past a few non-Muslim Chinese girls and was given the usual verbal
greeting “Massage” “Sexy-Sexy.” “Oh, no thanks” I would say to them, “I’m
feeling just fine” I would say, at which I would receive a half smile and strong
rebuttal to go through with the invitation at a discount price. (“With a more
beautiful girl?” one added.) It seemed in China that this was the apex of their
decadence, since most common Chinese seemed, warm, welcoming, and drug
free. I made my way through an ancient corridor unto a street littered with paper
lamps and gift shops. I opted to buy a few gifts for a possible bribe or two while
roaming the Wudang Mountain Range.
I decided to buy a few gifts for any Sifu’s that I might need to persuade on
Mount Wudang. I picked up a few packets of exotic incense and the most
expensive aged ginseng root in the store—it wound up costing me almost 2000
Yuen. As I walked down a small ally back unto the main street that led to my
hotel I noticed a large group of people in a near by park area practicing what
looked like Yang Style Taiji. I entered the park and confirmed my suspicions—
they were practicing the Yang 108 Long Form of Yang Chengfu.
A small group of some of the better players gathered around in a circle for push
hands (Tai tui) practice with their master who was easily to identify as such due
to his flowing robes and black Taoist Priest hat. I nudged my way past a few
fellows and into the inner circle, and as soon as a student player stepped away,
the master waved for another to step in. I didn’t hesitate to step to the center and
offer my arm. The master looked a little shocked and caught off guard by my
forgivable intrusion. I faked a push with light tension and waited for the master’s
natural response. He immediately fell into my trap as he lunged into me full
force, anxious to impress his students – I stepped back using roll back, turned
my axis “rooted”, and almost knocked him over horizontally, diagonally
uprooting him. I received a few ooh’s and ahh’s from the peanut gallery, and
they seemed ecstatic that a Gui-Lo such as me could step in and do what most of
them might deem as impossible. The master wouldn’t fall for the same trick
twice and with in 30 seconds he was pulling and pushing me around the park
convincingly. I still felt proud that I held my ground and never really lost control
or complete balance of myself at any point during the push hands expedition.
After a few laughs and an exchange of a few pointers, I headed back to the hotel
full of enthusiasm and optimism.
The next day I rode the train from Zhengzhou to Wuhan (wuchang) and had
plenty of time to let my imagination run free, as the train ride was some tiring 11
hour trip. I dropped asleep in the closest hotel available, and woke up early to
catch the 8:05 am train to Wudang Town, that arrived at around 1 pm. I took the
first taxi to Tian Lu, the nicest hotel on the mountain that is within walking
distance from Purple Cloud Temple.
I visited the Purple Cloud nunnery, The Golden Palace, The Monkey Sanctuary,
and Tai Zip Po (the prince temple) in my first week, taking in all the scenery.
Most of the monks I ran into spoke almost perfect broken English, so I was able
to gauge my next move based on their opinions and ideas of the surrounding
areas.
The monks were dressed in mostly all white garments and rectangular pointy
hats. The elders seemed to don black robes with white interior dresses and
leggings. While monk eying around The Monkey Sanctuary, I bumped into an
exquisite man named Wang Pi, who would meet me every morning to teach me
the Wudang Taiji Long form. The moves where familiar with me due to my
working knowledge in Yang and Wu style Taiji, but the Wudang version paid
more attention to exotic hand movements & formations.
Wang had lived in Wudang Shan all his life and knew these stomping grounds
like the back of his hand. As it had turned out, his Master Ho-You wasn’t
interested to taking on any new Western Cadets. He commented that they didn’t
hang around long enough to learn anything of real use. Master You lived close to
Tai Zip Po, The Prince Temple, and decided to meet us for a late night shin dig.
His flowing Taiji was an exceptional display of full body mastery. He lectured
Wang Pi and I for a good hour or so on how Taiji and Qigong build the
foundation and power. His explanation was that one must master “raising” and
“sinking” in order to have any kind of operational striking power. His Xingyi
and Baguazhang style strikes exhibited an excellent display of mind dazzling
power punches and piercing palms.
His body seemed to wind up, or almost spiral from inside out—as one shake of
his body seemed to generate sufficient thrust power to knock over an opponent
or paralyze them with a lighting strike. We are talking about a man in his mid
60’s demonstrating movements with the dexterity of a 15 year old ballerina.
Wang seemed to be taking it all in, while at the same time going over his own
version of the 5 connecting fists in Xingyi Quan.
Finally Master Ho-You extended his warm greetings and told me that if I ever
needed a private lesson to just say the word and Wang could arrange it for me. I
told him that I was interested in studying the inner workings of Nei-Gong and
Qigong, and that I would be most humbled if he could spend 1 hour a day with
me dissecting Baguazhang and all its various applications.
Master You seemed to hesitate, but finally gave in after I presented him with the
Incense and Ginseng I had stuffed in my backpack. I felt a little cheap to offer
gifts in exchange for priceless knowledge, but he seemed to be gratified by my
offer and sincerity in the arts.
On the way back to The Monkey Sanctuary, Wang told me not to get too caught
up in the mumbo jumbo Qigong. I asked him what he was talking about and he
said that only hard work and practice could accommodate high level skill. He
said that the foreigners were always looking for secret techniques and
meditations.
The Chinese played into this big time, since it was an easy set up for making lots
of sideways cash. One old monk showed up one day around a bunch of tourists
and claimed to be 100, when he was actually about 60. After performing a fluid
8 Palms Bagua Set, he proceeded to sit on a rock and light up a cigarette. The
foreigners were stunned by this and asked him how he was able to smoke and
maintain such great health. He told them of a secret Qigong technique that could
protect the organs from damage. A few hundred dollars later he was twirling his
hands and arms around in mind boggling positions—promising them that this
was indeed the technique that produced such rare results. I guess it could be hard
to separate the Quacks and Quasi’s from the legitimate; but where does one draw
the line between reality and fantasy?
Wang explained to me that the foundation of power is build through slow muscle
stretching movements, and to become fast, one must first learn to be slow. This
was the cornerstone of Daoist teachings and philosophies. This is something
most novices didn’t understand, and while they were punching stiff hard and
rushing through their techniques, their Masters were practicing static, non-
moving, positions through out the night, breathing in Qi, early in the morning
when the dew was most prominent.
The next day I moved out from my Hotel lodgings to move in with Wang. I told
him I would give him 700 RMB a month if he threw in a couple of meals a day,
to go along with my modest sleeping quarters. This way I could have a more in-
depth look at this former Wudang Monks lifestyle. Although Wang was only 44,
he had Mastered almost every Wudang form and technique taught on the
Mountain. We trained together for weeks and my understanding of Taiji, Xingyi,
and Baguazhang seemed to reach its summit. I was digging for something
deeper, when Wang aroused my interest one day after lunch while drinking a cup
of plain green tea.
He told me of a recluse monk that used to be the best in Wudang named Zhang
Hsiang. Zhang disappeared for many years and hadn’t been spotted until a few
months back when Wang was hiking on a outback trail and noticed a small hut
that had been erected, with smoke billowing out of a make shift chimney. Zhang
evidently changed his name to Ma Hsiang according to Wang. I begged him for
days to take me to see the old monk, but Wang refused. We trudged through our
lessons and the mechanical sets seemed to be chaining down my free spirit. Once
in a while I would break into a free style Bagua session and do what felt fun and
explorative.
The days were moving slower than molasses in January and I was determined to
convince Wang that we needed to visit the old monk. I kept pushing Wang to
make me privy to some inside workings or secret teachings, and he claimed that
all this kind of stuff was fantasy and merely illusion. He him self questioned
whether or not immortality was really a possible feat. He told me that he used to
believe it could happen, but after seeing 100’s of people pass away before even
reaching 90, he seriously doubted whether or not it was actually obtainable. He
told me many old stories and said that all the secrets he was ever led into seemed
to be common sense. Such things as getting plenty of sleep and sunlight,
reducing food intake, fasting, and exercising were common sense, and hardly
something someone could consider as secretive. The old elixirs of immortality
he mentioned had actually killed many monks, making any sensible person
question the authenticity of the alchemy being performed. The new wave of
monks since the early 1900’s was more focused on physical cultivation and
fasting.
Wang was no priest and I felt his inner explorations came from yearning to sit
every morning next to a spring and commit to one hour of meditation. What he
would meditate on—I have no idea, but it seemed his glance was fixed on a tree
whose opulence was not to be easily overlooked. I would also sit and take heed
to his advice of clearing my mind and gaining focus. He taught me to hold me
my consciousness/mind within myself and to feel deep inside my body from
head to feet. Then he would tell me to project my mind outward toward an object
and focus on it using Wu Wei, or no-mind.
He said the correct way to breath was mentioned in the Yellow Court Cannon
and it was dubbed as Primordial Breathing, or the Embryonic Breathing
Technique. The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu states that, "the epitome of virtue is to
acquire immortality.” Whether this refers to spiritual or physical immortality is
open to free interpretation. The body's breathing function has always been
regarded, in the most ancient esoteric teachings, as the very handle to be used to
get hold of, or obtain the control of, one's mind and body.

“The breathing of the true man comes (even) from his heels, while men
generally breathe (only) from their throats- Chuang Tzu.
It seems that deep slow breathing from the stomach through the nose and mouth
is the most natural form of breathing. Wang told me to steer clear of strange
breathing techniques and altered states of being. He told me of a few monks that
had lost their minds trying to obtain Kundalini Qi or Fiery Qi.
“Qi exists in the human body without form, color or substance. The ancient
Chinese likened it to fire, and early Chinese pictographic characters depicted it
as "sun" and "fire." Within Daoist literature Qi was seen as a form of vital heat
akin to sunlight, without which life could not exist. Today, the most widely used
character for Qi depicts steam rising from cooking rice." - Davidine Sim and
David Gaffney.
His explanation was that this technique was mastered and past on by Daoist
devoted to the Thunder Sect. According to him, many of the priests are involved
with dark demons and so called entities from another dimension in our space
time. Master Ho-You had told him that the mastery of Yin and Yang in the body
would enable a practitioner to generate intense heat and electric charges
stemming from the Dan Tien or Lower Naval region of the body. The mind
would direct this energy through the body’s nervous system and could release it
from any point of the body, but was more efficiently released from the hands. I
think as kids at elementary school we all used to rub our feet on the carpet and
then walk around releasing electric shocks to unprepared class mates. From the
research I have seen of late from books like The Body Electric; electric
treatments seems to stimulate the healing and regenerating process in the body.
Breathing, Semen retention, exercising to nourish Yin and Yang, and Righteous
living he said were the 4 pillars to reaching this art. Anyone that practices
internal martial arts after a period of time starts to feel the heat generated in the
hands during a work out. Those depleted in Qi from over sexual exertion could
develop cold hands and cause stagnation to their Qi flow. Proper diet coupled
with exercise and proper breathing can help reestablish Qi after sexual depletion.

“As you go on breathing in this frame of mind, with these associations,

alternating between movement and stillness, it is important that the focus of your
mind does not shift. Let the true breath come and go, a subtle continuum on the
brink of existence. Tune the breathing until you get breath without breathing;
become one with it, and then the spirit can be solidified and the elixir can be
made." - Chang San-Feng.

"Viruses and microbes live best in low oxygen environments. They are
anaerobic. That means raise the oxygen environment around them and they die."
- Edward Mccabe.

"Breathing is the first place, not the last; one should look when fatigue, disease,
or other evidence of disordered energy presents itself." - Sheldon Saul Hendler,
M.D.

"Fear is excitement without the breath." - Fritz Perls, M.D.

Wang looked over at me and this usually meant our meditation session has come
to a close. To my satisfaction, it was time for lunch and Wang shocked me by
asking me if I would like to go visit Ma Hsiang at nightfall. We sat in his small
wooden chamber nestled in the trees eating vegetable soup and hot bread rolls.
Wang told me that Ma had spoke of a new Qi that he had called Light-Qi. This
Qi he only found in the submitted state, but told me that he would let Ma tell me
about it from his own mouth. Before the night covered the sky in a blanket of
darkness Ho-yue stopped by to remind us to come to the Tai Zip Po Temple. I
had been intentionally avoiding their daily services and prayers due to the fact
that bowing down to idols seemed ungodly and blasphemous to me. Praying to
ancestors, invoking spirits etc. was something that I felt inertly convicted not to
partake in. Maybe it was the Jewish blood in me, but I felt some of these priests
were breaking at least two of the Ten Commandments, and if I have a doubt
about something I have to follow my gut feeling and intuition. I still respect their
beliefs and right to practice them, so I felt it was better I remained silent, and not
to make much of a fuss over my uneasiness around idols and spirit mediums. I
wasn’t aware that the gathering was a funeral service and things fell out between
Master Ho-You and I after casually walked out of the proceedings. They say that
each man has to follow his Dao (way), so I was only exercising that right of free
will, just as they were by staying. A little after nightfall Wang and I set out on a
trek to locate the old monk’s hermitage. It took us a good 2 hours of hiking
before Wang located the a small path along side a stream nestled deep along side
a thick green wooded area.
Finally we reached a small opening within the small trail that revealed a small
make shift house built out of wood and stones. Wang knocked at the wooden
hinged door and motioned me to move in closer. My heart was racing like a
young horse at the thought of some horrific ghoulish looking man opening the
door—but instead a smiling six foot looking elderly man with a shinny forehead
and long beard offered us a few king words and a jovial disposition. He
immediately invited us in as Wang broke into a long winded rendition about how
we walked for ours from The Prince Temple to visit him, and to excuse our
unexpected intrusion. The old man smirked looking up at me and extending his
hand saying, “Hello my name- Ma Yi”
Evidently he was no longer going by Ma Hsiang. I first thought the correct
interpretation of his name was “intended horse,” but later found out that Ma was
Chinese for Muhammad, the Last Prophet of God.
Maybe I should have guessed it by his flowing white robes and white cap, but I
have seen Daoist monks wearing similar attire, but with black rectangular caps.
The inside of his house was impressive to say the least—seeing that we were in a
stone hut alongside Wudang Mountain.
The walls inside were draped with white sheets. No signs of pictures, a
sanctuary, or anything of the sort—just a large oriental style rug in the middle of
the floor with a big black circle in the middle. I wasn’t the eight trigram circle
you usually see being walked around in Baguazhang practice, but this one was
the same size—only it was solid black with no lettering or extravagant designs.
Monk Ma-Yi insisted that we stay the night and have dinner with him. Wang was
probing the old monk with razor sharp questions, as he would occasionally look
over at me and translate what had been said verbatim.
It turned out that Ma-Yi was 85 years old at the time of our visit. He told us a
story of how he used to study the I Ching intensively and follow the Daoist
Priest-hood rites to the letter; until one day he came across a wondering monk
that was a Muslim Medicine Man. The Muslim Monk’s Gong-fu had far excelled
Ma’s at the time Ma was 67, and the Muslim Monk was an astonishing 125 years
old. After a few days of seeing each other by a near by stream, the two
established a friendship, as Ma would help him collect herbs and roots from a
spot that was plentiful in botanicals and vast foliage. Ma dreadfully wanted to
learn a certain kind of Baguazhang the old Muslim-Monk knew called White
Dragon Palm. The Muslim Monk handed him a few manuals that were
translations of Islamic texts and told Ma he would teach him Dragon Palm, if he
would promise to read from them from “The time the cock crows, till the sun
rises.” The Muslim-Master taught him a three tiered system of Dragon Palm that
consisted of Nei Gong, form practice and tree striking. A vital piece of
information that the M-M gave Ma was a hand written recipe of an ancient anti-
aging elixir.
Ma claims that after his final lesson the M-M disappeared behind a row of trees
—never to be seen or heard from again. Ma said he dressed in all dark green and
carried all his belongings with him in a dark brown leather bag. Wang handed
me the recipe that was hand written in Chinese, and asked Ma if he minded us
making a copy of it. Wang replied that we could have his copy since he had
committed the ingredients to long term memory. Wang and I sat on a straw mat
and thumbed through my Chinese- English dictionary until we had translated all
twelve items. Most of items Wang had no clue about, but due to my background
in alternative medicines, I was easily able to make out the contents. The recipe
came with a foot note that the ingredients should be ground up and mixed
together with goat milk—taken 1 time a day after any meal.

THE DYNAMIC CHI RECIPE

2 crushed wolfberries
Chlorophyll oil, cooked green leaves
1 leaf Aloe Vera
5 crushed cannabis seeds
2 leaf Gingko Biloba
pinch of sea salt
thumb size Ginger Root
2 leaf Echinacea
20 seeds Nigella Sativa (Black Seed)
mouth full of Pure Honey & 2 full fruit jujube
2 Dates
thumb size Ginseng root

Ma excused himself after his third cup of tea and retired to a small cot behind a
black curtain in the back corner of his house. He lay there for a few minutes
before asking Wang if he would like to have a look at his Dragon Palm
Baguazhang in the morning. “I would love to, I would be most honored,” replied
Wang. Wang had dollar signs in his eyes, as I handed him the original scroll and
tucked the English translation into my backpack. Wang and I smiled at our
recent good fortunes and speculated on how good the old mans Bagua might be
in the morning. It was to be better than the best. We woke up to Ma reciting
scripture of what sounded like broken Arabic, a few minutes before sunrise, as
he prostrated his head unto a red floor mat.

CHAPTER TWO
CIRCULAR ILLUMINATION

I had many questions for Ma and I couldn’t wait to crack the chestnut, so to
speak. His Bagua was graceful and full of intent. You could really see the
potential for power strikes in his movements. White Dragon Baguazhang was
really different from other classical forms that I was used to seeing, like: Jiang
Roa, Cheng style, Yin Style etc. The White Dragon Bagua starts off twisting and
turning before the first palm change. The second palm change is a mirror image
of the first reversed. The third is complete with piercing palms to twisting
Dragon Chops Leg, to a double reverse strike; spiraling rapidly close wise from
the hand momentum, and central torque from his waist. The fourth change uses a
step back reverse strike ( rapidly both arms shoot back and up, as if carrying to
tea pots at head level, arms fully extended.) Ma was whirling through the set at a
slow meditated pace, using ferocious strikes and movements at key points in the
routine. His hands turning, blocking and piercing as again both hands dart out at
chest level with a double palm strike. Again he circled in the San Ti position
executing exacting chopping strikes. The 5th palm change he reversed stepping
backwards with a single reverse back kick and two swinging arms swinging
behind the body for momentum and repelling any would be attacker. Again the
arms swing forward and up into a double piercing palm position and front kick.
Now ones arms swings downward as the body drops with one arm raised high
into the snake creeps upward position or single whip style position in Taiji. Both
arms swing around like holding a barrel, as he twists with the momentum and
ends up in a single palm Dragon strike. Back into the set San Ti position he
again walked around the circle for the 6th Palm change which starts off with
double chopping strikes, mid gate block to midsection, again double strikes, a
twisting whirlwind like palm that sent Ma into a cyclone like Tasmanian devil
spinning around twice. The 7th Palm change is the double arch with the two
piercing palms facing outward walking the circle with the two arms looking like
as though an open jaw. Ma changing directions swings his arms around and
contorts his body bending back, and then spinning like a top with astounding
centrifugal force landing with his feet far apart in a horse stance position. Two
Shaolin like strikes proceed, with leg grabs, from both sides as he moves for a
step back reverse strike, again walking the circle until finishing the set. He told
me the 8th palm was a hidden Palm, but was actually just a figure 8 striking
technique that he excluded from the set, and practiced as more of a drill. Ma’s
push-hands was even more impressive. He was knocking me off balance
continuously as we played and was encouraging me by saying the last guy that
tested him in this had lost his footing and took a spill headfirst into a tree firmly
planted next our practice area. After our workout I huddled next to Wang who
was sitting on a boulder of a rock. I told him I needed his help to see if Ma
would accept me as his student for a few months. Wang used his charismatic
flare, and Ma-Yi accepted on the conditions that I was already semi trained in
Taiji and Bagua.

Ma agreed to let me stay with him for three months, three training sessions daily,
and only ask that at the end of my stay period I escort him back to his village; a
one day walk from his head quarters here in the woods. Ma has a 45 year old
wife, 6 kids and 2 grand children that he would like to meet at the summation of
our journey. And yes, at the old age of 85 Ma is potent and fertile. His youngest
son is also named Ma that was only two years of age. Incredible I though to
myself as I sipped from an old tea cup sitting in Indian style next to Wang. Wang
would stay around for a few days to translate abundant advice and wisdom.
Ma claimed that the human blood flowed more condensed in the morning time
around the head region, (to balance this he said we would train the legs, early in
the morning as prescribed by his Master. At noon we would practice White
Dragon Style Bagua Zhang in efforts to unify Yin and Yang energies from the
Dan Tien (naval region). The set varies from very slow to very fast at striking
points in the set. The key his teacher had described was to expand both Yin and
Yang potentialities by this exercise; thus giving the practitioner a wider
polarization of unified energy. Masturbation and excessive nocturnal emissions
were out, claimed Ma.
There are many variables that come into play while investigating the Chi
business. He claimed that advanced Yin and Yang abilities only came to him
after praying to the creator—this spirit force, though subtle, can not be felt
otherwise. A practitioner should strive for righteousness and good conduct in
hopes of cleaning the heart-energy field aura. He said that there are three
components to this: Heart, Mind and Sexual-Psychic Energy.
When these three energies are unified the body has great immunity and
resistance to disease; while shining with illumined brilliance. The mind-energy
he claims is a vessel that moves the heart-energy, and naval-sexual energy as chi.
Deep breathing and relaxation enable the mind-energy to magnify the ability to
move naval-sex energy, and heart energies.
He taught us that the Heart-Compassion energy creates great Yin, and the naval-
sexual energy can create great resources of Yang. The mind simply steers both of
these, he said. We questioned him about the concept of Wu-Wei and we were
shocked as to what he said next.

“Wu Wei exercises are not needed because no-mind comes naturally during
training while focusing. It is the minds natural and child like disposition. Rather
it is better to train your Will’—this can be done by becoming conscientious
during all activities and having wholesome and good intentions.” Visualization is
also not needed, only positive discipline.
By practicing daily: snow, rain or shine, three times daily; we start to discipline
ourselves and when we get lazy it is the use of “our will” that allows use to
continue and thus emboldening our “will power.” Master Ma continued to wash
and pray five times a day at fixed times; he smiled asking us, “Don’t you guys
worship your creator?” Wang said that he wasn’t sure and needed more proof of
such things. I told him that I did indeed believe and he asked me to join him in
sharing appreciation gratitude and repentance. I waved him off and he told
Wang, “What more proof of a creator do you need than all that is in existence
around us, including your own existence.” Wang sat almost dumbfounded by this
response and devoured a bowl of noodles as if aloof to what Ma was trying to
convey. In the night we practiced almost every variation of strike ever invented
against matted-together tree leaves that had been woven together and slung
around an old tree. Ma’s strikes seemed to shake the tree from its roots as I
fancied their imaginations and begin to pepper the matt Muhammad Ali style
with jabs, hooks, uppercuts and overhands.

Strikes he stressed “Must be connected whole body—foot to hand, or feet to

hands.” “If you strike something with your hand that originated from the feet
then you are gaining chi force ability.”
My strikes seemed about novice average, but Ma kept telling me to relax and
root the feet into the ground and imagine that in a split second a force from my
feet shoots upward spiraling, like energy transferred through a whip, and then
CRACK! It’s released. Another good analogy he said was, “imagine you’re
behind a door and you plant your foot at the bottom of it to stop someone from
opening it, pushing from the door handle in the middle of the door. If you relax
and plant your foot (full body weight) the person won’t be able to open the door.
Another words, set your center of gravity into your foot, and express this
firmness with relaxed fast hands, whip like. I started to catch on to this idea and
my push hands, deflecting ability and stabilization increased drastically.

The nei-gong drills we did stretched the muscles deeply and usually stressed
balance control. Holding weight on a single foot and then swinging the other like
a pendulum horizontally, back and forth in front of the planted legs knee,
swinging vertically, on one leg, while standing on the other.

Wide squats, dips, horse stances, toe ups, calf raises, and shin stretches. Variation
toe stretches, side bends, bob and weave drills, parrying drills, circle walking,
light calisthenics included, push ups, holding front dog position (yoga)
variations, isometric tensions using opposing force for neck, shoulders, chest,
arms and legs. Arm circle swings, across the body swings, behind the head
swings etc. we practiced to stay limber and agile.

The Qigong was basic but expressed his theory of heavy and light. Exhale and
become rooted/heavy and inhale while becoming nimble/light for movement.
Moving, dodging, and using agility was to be light, (breathing in deeply);
deflections, strikes, blocks etc. are to be done while heavy (exhaling deeply.)

Simple exercises we did included raising the arms above the head; breathing
naturally and deep through the nose from a shoulder width stance. Sometimes
we would breathe in as the arms were raised, other times we would breathe
outward.

Ma stressed doing Taiji very slowly while holding key positions statically, (to the
feel the deep root and balance while the axis-waist remains loose, as well as the
upper body, arms and hands. Ma’s trademark Qigong was to raise the arms,
palms down, in front of the body up and outward (like a grizzly bear) while
breathing in deeply, stretching the spine and abdomen.

Then he would exhale bringing the arms down slowly (sinking- rooting his feet)
until his hands would form an upside down triangle, thumbs touching and
pointer fingers with the naval in the middle of the triangle, made by the hands.
The three middle fingers of the hands would push into his stomach just below his
naval cavity, as he would flex his sphincter—like doing a Kegel exercise drill
done in the West.

Another secret drill is called the pop-sickle and was used by Master Chen
Mancheng to increase his rooting ability according to writer Robert W. Smith.
This drill is done by standing on one leg, arms down by your side, and head up
straight – use the elevated leg’s knee to push downward on the balanced leg’s
knee. You should be able to feel the weighted leg pushing harder downward into
the ground.

After three days of grueling fun Wang said his fair wells as we sat around a
small wooden table drinking copious amounts of green tea and honey. I
promised to come back and visit him with in three months time, and Ma gave
him his word that he would take care of me out in these wild outback of the
Wudang mountain range.

CHAPTER THREE
THE RENAISSANCE DISCIPLE

The next morning Ma and I watched Wang strut down a long wavy path that
served as the entry exit point of Ma’s hermitage. Ma looked over at me and told
me that today we would take another day off. Good news! I would use the day
walking around and writing in my journal. The break was highly needed in my
opinion.

The night approached as Ma made of his daily elixir drinks that were composed
of the 12 super ingredients given to him by the old Muslim Monk. I sat holding a
small jade cup of the super tonic that tasted quite disgusting, and If it wasn’t for
the miracle like benefits, I would take no part in such consumption of something
that tasted so putrid.
Ma had a big laugh at my reaction to the taste of the drink. He told me that one
day I would acquire a taste for it and yearn for its daily intake. That day would
be long off but he would end up being correct. I guess the mind conditions us to
eventually like things that at first are unpleasant.

I was surprised that Ma actually spoke better English than Wang. The first day
we arrived on site he gave me no indications of being a person that could speak
English with such precision. Sitting back against a wooden bench, Ma told me if
I want Qi then I have to pay the price. At this we had a big laugh, and I told him
that if most Americans knew what it takes to be chi-energized, they would pass
on the experience just due to the unorthodox fashion of it being obtained.

Ma looked up at me smiling and started to explain about the highest level of Qi

—Light-Qi. This he said was obtained when a person observed 3 things. Firstly-
sexual emissions must be kept to a minimum of twice a week. Secondly-the
person must exercise and workout with proper deep breathing in mind. Thirdly-
the person must eat in a manner conducive to natural things and moderation.
“Most people consumed way to much bread,” Ma would say. “Bread and sugar
are the two downfalls of the western diet,” he calculated.

“If these three requirements are met, and he wishes to increase he Qi further, he
must observe strict Monotheism to the Creator and become a righteous soul.
Then the Qi will break the through the crown of the head, and the whole head
will glow with light. “Beware of the light from the face that originates from
darkness,” he added.
We sat comfortably in his little make-shift home in the back corner of his house
that he had segmented off from the rest of the house by hanging a curtain with
rope around the corner space for sitting. It was furnished with a nice rug, a few
pillows, blankets and a little wooden table that had a hole cut out of the middle
for a small furnish that would heat his favorite black tea pot.

Ma kept telling me that it would be wise to get married soon, and I was
wondering why he would kept mentioning this to me again and again. I ask him
why he put so much importance on this matter, and he responded that the woman
was what balanced the man’s energy and psyche.

A person with too much seminal re-tension, or yang energy, would become over
ambitious and unbalanced mentally. A woman would help warm the heart and
give man a greater peace of mind. The joy of having kids, he said, was like no
other joy to the eyes.

I took his advice seriously and told him that first chance I had to fall in love I
would consider marriage. He nodded jovially and told me that this would be best
for my health and well-being. “Look,” he said, “ Always follow a bad deed with
a good deed, and never give praise to anything other than God, nor seek power
through anything other than God.
The only way to avoid superstitions and ignorance was through knowledge by
the creator, and this can only be found untainted in the Quran.” “ There is much
for you to learn about desires, ambitions, emotional unbalances, mental
struggles, and things that you can not see, but seek correct knowledge and you
will correct your ways.”

I thanked him for this advice as he again began to speak, “Watch out for things
that bring you pride and wild ambitions, for those things are highs that will soon
cause the lows and break ones peace and equilibrium.”

He told me to never prize fight, or to fight someone for money or esteem. He

explained that this was a great wrong, and how many teachers show off to their
students by throwing them around and hitting them, but this was also a mistake
he admonished. “There will always be a better fighter out there, but this game of
pride and competition only brings upon the soul the weight of false esteem and
greatness.”

He explained that I should train for self discipline and health, and if I was ever
confronted or attacked, that my skills would prove to be sufficient to dissolve the
matter with out anyone getting seriously hurt. He again warned me that If I seek
the way of showing off and testing other fighters, that I would live a life
ignorance rather than service to other people. “This pride and ego game is an
ugly matter- do you know that there is no greatness accept in the one that created
you from nothing?”
In saying all this he told me that all the training we did would create positive self
esteem if done for good health and discipline. There are a few more matters he
spoke on about combat.
He claimed that all these systems were watered down and that anyone that
learned them all would be over whelmed with techniques and have a hard time
using them in a real life situation. For this reason he said he would give me a
special training tool that should be practiced daily for 15 minutes. This he
claimed were the only tools one really needed if confronted in a physical
manner.

The basis of this is that there are only so many ways an attacker can attack the
body. We stood up and he showed me a drill of blocks and waist-head
movements that he created in response to the 7 paths of striking the head.

He showed me the angles of punches that started off as a downward hammer

strike or chop, a diagonal strike downward, a hook shot horizontally, an uppercut
diagonal shot, a straight uppercut, and finally a straight punch, palm or thrust.

These trajectories were the summation of possibilities when being attacked.

“Most people are only sufficient in about 3 of these striking methods, thus I have
created a blocking method, and head movement practice that addresses all these
angles,” Ma said.

As for kicks and grappling, Ma told me that a few easy techniques could render
any wrestlers ambitions useless, and kickers should always be rushed in on as
they kick and toppled. The center line should always be unhittable if one moves
and blocks correctly, he added on.
Ma went through each block with me one by one, and showed how they divert
and block the 7 trajectory strikes to the head. Protecting the torso and kidney
consisted of mastering 3 blocking techniques and correct body movement.
Protecting the head consist of 5 main blocks with correct body movement.

Suffice to say I was surprised as to what Ma told me next. All of these blocks are
hidden in the Yang 108 Long form, but are not all apparent.

Blocking Mid-Section and Kidneys

Brush Knee Twist Step – Block against kicks
The sweeping lower arm blocks against kicks while the other arm strikes
simultaneously.

Grasp Sparrows Tail/ Hold the ball or High Pat on Horse.

Crossed arms protect mid section.
Drop the arms down and cross arms.

Closing each section- Crossed arms across mid-section.

Drop the arms down to mid waist height. Elbows protect kidney region, forearms
protect lower stomach & groin region. 2nd pic is iron pivot, fist under the elbow.
The lower arm runs across mid-section and the open hand bats away shots to the
mid-line.
Blocking Strikes to the Throat and Neck
Closing each section- Crossed Arms Shoulder Height
This is used against throat strikes, and upper cuts as a last resort if you get
caught moving wrong. Moving out of the center of the attack is always the first
line of defense. Raise arms a little to about chin height.

Step Forward to Seven Stars- Arms crossed just above

forehead
This covers over-head strikes that are rare, or hammer strikes. This can also
cover against over hands and jabs if brought down to about eyes height. Also the
hands can be adjusted to form a square, or Philli Crab boxing stance.

To protect against a right or left hook, you can bring one of the arms up, with the
elbow sticking upward, and the hand tucked behind you almost like you are
scratching your own back. The other arm goes across your body horizontally
with the hand protecting the exposed arm pit. Raise arms up slightly above head.

Step Back to Play the Pipa

Parry with hands while twisting your axis waist. Left hand parries to your right
moving the head to the left while twisting your waist to the right, then bring the
right hand up and parry across your mid-section to your left and you bob the
head to the right, twisting your waist to the left.
Flying Diagonal

Block Shots to your center line, moving them outward with palm facing upward.
Cloud Hands

Parry to outside against midline strikes

The hands move up and outward deflecting any midline attacks.
Some extra blocks.

Ma excused him self for a few minutes as I sat sipping tea and pondering over
the wisdom that he had just imparted to me. I felt fortunate to able to absorb all
these things and also a little over whelmed. It was dinner time and I was started
to really crave bread. Ma brought out two bowls of vegetable beef soup, and two
bowls of rice. Ma only ate one roll of bread in the afternoon time for lunch most
days. My stomach was really growling and I was starting to understand how
having good health does take lots of focus and discipline. Ma gave me a few
dates and coffee for dessert and this seemed to really hit my sweet spot.

It was only 9pm and Ma told me to join him for some Tai practice and push
hands before calling it a night. We went through the 108 Yang style long form
and he paused to show me each of the blocks and how they were hidden inside
the set. Ingenious I thought to myself. I ask Ma how he had discovered this and
he told me that after going through the movements for so many years he picked
up on some subtleties that he had never noticed before. We played around doing
push hands for a good 15 minutes and Ma again went over the blocking drill
with me, as to engrain it into my head permanently. It was a great two man drill
and at the end he showed me how to dismantle any grappler by using weight and
body positioning.

Again to my surprise, he showed me how this was also encoded into the Yang
style set. The key was to always catch the neck when someone tried to wrap you
up or “shoot in” and drop to one knee controlling their body weight. Once you
make his face eat dirt by controlling the neck with your hand, you can then
commence to pound away at his neck, head, spine and exposed regions. All of
this from a simple move in the Yang set called, “Needle to Sea Bottom.”
Incredible.

The next morning Ma was up early as usual and I joined him for a morning tea
before his prayers. We started off the day as usual doing Nei-Kung that focused
primarily on the legs, waist and stretching. Then we made our way to the little
tree for our striking drills section as we did every day.
My skill was increasing and I was beginning to feel a lot stronger both
physically and mentally. By noon it was time for our Bagua session. I worked
hard every day to perfect the 8 White Dragon Palm set. Ma would tell me to go
through it very slow, and then very fast. Then he would tell me to mix fast and
slow together.

After our training session a young boy appeared out of the wooded area along
the front side of Ma’s hermitage. Ma told me not to be alarmed by this and that it
was only Guo, the village boy, who would walk there every week with two big
jugs of water strapped on the outside of a long stick that he had carried over his
shoulders. Guo put the jugs just inside the house and handed Ma two other little
bags full of fruits, wheat, vegetables, and herbs.

Apparently the boy would come by every week with water and groceries. Ma
told him to only bring water next week, since he had enough supplies to last him
through the next two weeks. I asked Ma about this after he left, and he said that
the boy does this duty free of charge, since I was helped to cure his sick mother
of a kidney infection. She now takes the Elixir everyday and does prescribed
exercises every morning and night to keep her blood circulation in the highest
order. We ate an egg, a bread roll, a banana and a orange for lunch—followed by
the ever present cup of green tea sweetened with honey. Soon it was nightfall
again and after Ma’s prayers we began to perform the upper-body Nei-kung—
followed by boxing moving and punching drills.
After this Ma showed me the correct positions and ways to create isolated
tension on the body’s muscles using Static Flexations. He told me that his is very
important and also helps strengthen the cartilage and tendons along with the
muscles. The flexes he showed me looked similar to a book I was saw by a man
named Maxalding. He exercises can be found online using a simple Google
search. Ma and I would flex each muscle in the body using these isometric
techniques. Ma insisted on 3 reps of 6 six second flexations on each muscle. This
he stated would help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol in the body. I have
recently did research on this and have found out that NASA studies have found
this to be true. They suggest full body flexations for 6 seconds, 3 reps, 3 times a
day if possible. Another day had passed and I was exhausted. After our Tai Chi
and Qigong nightly routine we retired early, only to wake up to a beautiful sunset
and the beginning of a new day.

CHAPTER FOUR
MAKING MY EXIT

The weeks went by like days, and the months came forth like weeks. It had
almost been three full months since I said fair well to Wang, and I had that inert
feeling that I had learned all I could from Master Ma. Ma congratulated me on
my training efforts and the morning we decided to make the long hike back to
Wang’s village- outside of The Prince Temple. We walked for almost 3 hours
straight before we dismounted our bags and sat alongside a wide trail to have a
drink of water.
It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes before we decided to get going again and try
to reach our destination by nightfall. We had left at about twelve-noon and
seemed to be making good headway. I was amazed at the condition of Ma, since
I was the one that seemed to be doing most of the painting and heavy breathing.
Finally we reached Wang’s house and could see him outside chopping wood as
his kids played about laughing and giggling. Wang, Ma and I walked together to
catch a bus to take us to Ma’s village a good 15 minutes outside of The Prince
Temple.

Ma’s family was ecstatic to see him and all his family gathered in his living
room as his kids sat on his lap and pulled at his beard.
We ate enough food to feed a whole village, and drank enough green tea to kill a
large elephant, as we sat up late into the wee hours of night discussing legendary
martial art stories. Most of them were border line Tall Tell Stories, but we had a
good time over-exaggerating fantastical legends and bull-shit fantasies. Wang
and I spend the night at Ma’s and the next day said our fair-wells. I promised Ma
I would return someday to visit him and his family in the near future. He doesn’t
know it, but I slipped him a nice little monetary gift under his Quran that was on
his bookshelf before I left. It was my way of saying thanks, since I figured he
would in no way accept such a gift if I presented it to him openly.
I headed back to Wang’s house as I told him of my hard training and all the
things that I had learned. It was a hard decision to make, but instead of renewing
my visa and continuing my stay in China; I decided to return to the US.
I never thought I would have such a desire to return, but I really started to miss
the commodities and luxuries of the US. I took a train to Guangzhou stayed in a
little hotel next to the airport for a 100 RMB. The flight back was long and hard,
but soon I arrived at JFK airport. It was a pleasant surprise to see people
speaking English and getting along in a crazy fashion as US people do. I spent a
lot of time on the plane analyzing my situation and trying to figure out my next
best move. I couldn’t shake the idea of buying a ticket and heading out to
California. My only problem was where to go in such a massive state? I thought
long and hard, and went back and forth in my mind trying to figure out if San
Fran. or San Diego were more suitable than Orange County or the Sacramento
area.
I finally decided on San Francisco and with out hesitation went to the ticket
counter to buy a one way ticket. I didn’t realize that it would take me another six
and a half hours to reach San Francisco, and I was starting to regret buying the
ticket due to fatigue. I figured what the hell! I boarded the plane one hour later
and spent almost the whole flight in a deep sleep. I immediately took a taxi to
the Westlake Village next to the Pacific ocean of John Daly Boulevard and ended
up staying at the Summit Village Inn for a whopping 139$ a night. The other
hotels where even more expensive and the Hyatt was over 200$ a night.

This is when the realization dawned on me that I was no longer in the Far East
where you can find a comfy room for under 20$ and a nice hostel room for about
8$ a night. I finally checked in a hit the bed like a nail hits a hammer. The next
day I woke up and checked out right before the check out time and headed for
Subway to eat a big sandwich. I was traveling with only one medium size bag
since, I had actually decided to leave my other luggage back in Beijing due to
the fact that I was in southern China, and to travel all the way to Beijing for a
few articles of clothing seemed unrealistic to me. Just some old shirts and pants
in an old Samsonite suitcase, nothing in my mind that wasn’t expendable.

I gobbled down a foot long sub and a bag Doritos and jumped in a cab to see
what they would charge for a studio room in the Westlake Village Apartment
complex. It turned out to be almost 1000 dollars a month, plus the security
deposit. I reluctantly signed the 6 month lease and with in hours had the
apartment key in my hand. Initially they had told me that they couldn’t rent to
me with out a pay check stub, but when I told them I would pay the whole lease
upfront, suddenly the general manager started to cozy up to me.

I was feeling how far away I was from Master Ma and how ones reality can
change so much in relation to ones residence. I phoned my mom and let her
know every thing was okay, and we had a few laughed as I told her of my
traveling adventures and excursions.
I took a long walk to check out my new surroundings and found plenty of
beautiful woman and much needed sunshine. This was a dream I thought to
myself. I always wanted to live on the beach and now I was just a few blocks
away from the Pacific ocean front. I walked all the way to Ocean Beach and
bought myself some new nifty swim trunks from a fancy surf shop and the most
exotic beach towel I could find.

I wanted to blend in with my new surroundings seeing all the fanciful females
prancing around me. I lathered on some old 40 screen sun block lotion and laid
out in the sun next to a few surfers and volley ball players. This was the life! I
knew I was a little out of my element but after a few dips in the ocean, I decided
to throw on my tee shirt and go through the 108 long form of Yang Cheng Fu.

It wasn’t long before I drew a crowd around me and the whole ordeal turned into
some what of an exhibition. I didn’t mind though and kind of liked all the extra
attention from the peanut gallery. It wasn’t long before some brut came hollering
at me saying, “What kind of baby kung fu bullshit you performing.” I paid the
guy no mind and kept going through the set in my slow motion pace that seemed
to have some people hypnotized. I heard some one yell, “Mike, leave the guy
alone,” and before I reached the ending of the third part, this guy was all in my
face as if he was jealous of me or had something to prove.

I told him I wasn’t looking for any trouble, although from the looks of his UFC
tee shirt I felt like he was ready to throw me in the octagon and go ballistic. He
told me to give up on the sissy tai chi drills and try some real sparring with him.
I didn’t think it was the time or place but told him if he wanted to test me out
right now, I would agree to a free form wrestling-jujitsu match. He agreed and to
make a long story short I really embarrassed the guy. He kept trying to take me
down and the more he used his muscle power the easier it was for me to knock
him over. This scenario threw him into a real temper tantrum and he insisted on
sparring with punches and kicks. I agreed to his conditions, but with gloves and
head gear.

The whole thing got blown out of proportion and the next thing I know a group
of about 8 guys and a few girls are escorting me to a few sports cars in the near
by parking lot. Mike told me he would drive me to the gym him self and then we
could really get it on. I sensed the pathetic nature of the situation, but thought
that maybe If I was patient something good might come out of the ordeal. We
drove past WEST gym and came to a nice size boxing gym where Mike seemed
to extra tight with the management.

The fitted me with some MMA gloves, and headgear, as I had declined the
mouth piece and sports cup, thinking that they were a little unnecessary. So here
I was being thwarted into a make shift octagon, and I felt that this might be the
closest I ever get to the real UFC.

Mike seemed real tense and to be almost flexing his over bulky build as they
explained to me the sparring rules. We would go three, two minute rounds, and
they would tally up the points for the winner. I could actually care less about the
whole point system thing, but I agreed to their conditions and I realized it was
serious when they made me sign a legal document releasing them from all
responsibility if I was to be seriously hurt during this little extravaganza.

We tapped gloves and they rung the bell as I got in my high guard left hand
stance position. Now I am right handed, so many people wonder why I usually
assume the Left hand stance with the Right foot out front. The reason is that I
can use my right jab with a lot more command and power than someone that is
jabbing with his off-hand and trying to set up the big overhand. Secondly my jab
is like a whipping snake and probably feels harder than some people’s crosses
and overhands. Thirdly I can lunge with this punch and have two effective
options if it doesn’t land.
If it doesn’t land then I quickly squat down and try to pick up the opponent’s
lead foot heel. My other option is to lunch and fix my lead foot somewhere in
between his legs and by squatting low; I can usually knock a fellow down with
one arm. I learned this little trick from a Baji master in Beijing.

Mike assumed the right hand stance and came charging in hard and predictably. I
side stepped him a few times and parried a few flurries of left hooks and right
over hands. His combinations seemed to be awfully similar and by the third time
he threw a jab, hook, over hand combination, I parried his over hand right and
caught him a stunning left hook. I rushed in quickly and caught him with the
right stiff to his nose. I positioned myself with my legs through his and wrapped
his head with a viscous Bagua turning Palm that sent him permanently into the
canvass.
There was a dead silence, and a few onlookers yelled at Mike to get up, but he
was convinced. The whole thing was over before the first bell rung. Mike came
up to me and actually showed some good sportsmanship and admitted that my
skills were beyond his.

He seemed disturbed and told me that he had a big fight coming up and he
wanted me to train him. His dream was to one day fight in the UFC and become
a champion. I told him that he had a long way to go and was he sure that this is
what he indeed wanted to pursue for his career. He nodded in the affirmative and
told me that this is all he had. He was 15-1 and was moving up in a local MMA
league.
We headed to the showers and he kept insisting that I train him, seeing that he
already had 8 years of boxing training I was surprised at his lack of overall
boxing skills. I tried to turn him down a few times, but he told me that there is no
way in hell he would let me slip through his fingers. He asked me why I didn’t
myself join the league and one day make a name for myself.

I honestly wasn’t interested in the money or the blood and gore that goes along
with such a profession; but for some reason I felt bad for the guy, and after I
stepped out of the shower I gave him the thumbs up. Mike was ecstatic and told
me that he could pay me 50 dollars a day for 3 hours of training. That works out
to about 1500 dollars a month, and although I didn’t really need the money, I
started to think that the 150,000 dollars I had sitting in the bank wouldn’t last
forever. I agreed on the conditions and told him that if he could pick me up from
Westlake Village everyday and drop me off afterwards it would seal the deal. I
have never seen a man so happy in my life and it actually felt good to mean so
much to someone that has a lot of fire and enthusiasm in what he’s doing.

CHAPTER FIVE
FROM STUDENT TO TEACHER

Months had passed like days and Mike Heartman was progressing at a rapid
pace. I was turning him into a fighting machine that would end up being a force
to reckon with. I showed him the films of Muhammad Ali and showed him how
natural relaxation and balance produce massive amounts of power. Those
flickering close range jabs arose like lightening out the sky shaking his
opponents with the power of inherent thunder.

We worked on his footwork endlessly until he was able to switch from right to
left stance with ease and naturalness. What we wore shooting for is called
“unorthodox rhythm, “a steady flow of body movement that connected with
spiraling and circular momentum. His punching was exceptional but I couldn’t
quite convince him that to be more internally stretched and limber would
translate into a deeper transcendent punching power. Taiji was not something
that he was willing to come to terms with and consider as a building block to his
boxing progression.

Two and a half months after I first started training Mike he had a fight lined up
against a real street brawler and ex con man named Anthony Caudwell. We
watched a few fight tapes of the guy and he was definitely employing the high
guard, street wise methodologies of Stato and Jailhouse boxing. I told Mike to
watch out for those wicked swirling elbows and tutored him on how to connect
when a opponent used the cross Philli guard and other blocks using forearms that
fell into the ballpark of 52 hand blocks.

I schooled Mike to the game so to speak and wanted him to understand the
possibilities of striking open targets or “gates” using exacting combinations.
Things were coming together for Mike and all the sparring partners that we had
lined up for him were falling faster than leaves in autumn. The only down side to
this was that I was sensing his ego growing more and more out of control. I was
simply teaching him the methods of controlled combat but he was in no way
advancing in his character and mood.
I wasn’t finding myself in the mood or temperament to rebuke him for some of
his social antics and philandering. I felt it wasn’t my place to make such
judgments and inquiries into his life. One night after a sparring session Mike was
abnormally upset. We showered and jumped in his car and he broke down crying
telling me that his mother had “cancer.” I told him that I was somewhat of a
specialist in natural medicine and homeopathies. I explained to him the story
Master Ma and the formulae I had come across on Wudang mountain. Much to
my surprise Mike was in no mood to hear of such natural remedies and actually
chided me for believing in homeopathies. His explanation was that it was the
synthetic medicines that were helping people and not the natural. I begged to
differ and explained that all the ‘synthetics’ were actually extracted from nature.

I began to realize I was talking to a stone bring wall, and Mike was in no way
ready to question or challenge the main stream medical establishment. “So be
it,” I thought to myself. There was no use in furthering my argument and adding
flames to his painful fire. He was angry at the world and was in the position so
many people end up in; questioning the meaning of life and the purpose of
existence. That ever present ‘why’ did this happen to me was resonating through
out his mind and drawing his mind into irrational emotional thoughts and
behavior.

I strolled up the walk way to my house on a beautiful summer night and decided
to turn around and catch a cab to go hand out a local Barnes and Noble for a few
hours to see If I might also be able to buy a few books to help me understand the
purpose of things in life.
I walked around the new book store holding my cup of Verona coffee browsing
through a few titles. I picked up a few books by Carl Jung and fingered through
them. Discovering the ‘self’ seemed to be a popular topic these days despite so
much written on the subject from past centuries and generations. I put a book
down whose main theme was on symbols and the sub consciousness and walked
around the religious section. My main aim was to find a good book on Chinese
Daoism even though I had read the writings of lao tzu, Confucius and the I
ching. What caught my eye was a Quran wrapped in a Gold cover that was
protruding from the shelf just above the eastern religions section. I immediately
thought of Master Ma and the advices he had given me. I had never read the
Quran before and something inside of me felt scarred and apprehensive about
buying it. I let go of my fears and walked to the check out counter to purchase
the book. The woman behind the counter gave me a frown of approval as she
scanned the book into the system. I handed her the money and she looked at me
with a fierce excitement and proclaimed “Jesus gives salvation you know.”

I said to her, “That’s funny because I remember reading a verse in the New
Testament where a woman ask Jesus how she can obtain salvation and he
answered that salvation is from the Jews (law).
To that she gave me a blank stare while holding on to the most unkindly of
dispositions.

Fortunately I found a quick cab outside of the store and enjoyed a quite peaceful
ride back to my apartment. It felt so good to be home and to unwind a bit. The
intensity of Mike was started to get under my skin and I felt that he was starting
to get a little big headed and annoyed at the advices I was expending to him. I
honestly didn’t care if he won or lost his upcoming fight. A loss might actually
bring him back down to reality and help him see things for what they really are,
and a win I am afraid would only peek his ego and feed his narcissism.
I put a pot of water on the oven for a cup of tea and went to the bathroom to run
some hot water for a much needed long bath. I set my cd player to blank and
jones and took a much needed deep breathe. I usually didn’t listen to much
music since most of the lyrics and songs were riddled with pride and egos, but I
still like relax music that was simple and resonant with the tragedies of life.

I took out my herbs from my kitchen cabinet and made an Elixir tonic with a
protein shake mix that I had recently purchased at a GNC health store. I took my
tea to the bathroom and sat the Quran on the edge of the bathtub. I usually do at
least a set of push ups before getting a shower or bath just on the basis of habit,
but tonight I was in no mood to address the physical part of my reality.

I jumped in the tub as the water was still splashing and filling the tub with hot
therapeutic water. I opened the Quran and read from a Chapter called
Explanation (Ch.41) verse 53: Soon we shall show them our signs, in the
horizons and inside their own self (souls), until it becomes clear to them that He
is the Truth (GOD). I felt as though the book was speaking to me after I read this
verse. I scanned to another page to read another random passage and amazingly I
came to a very important verse that would intrigue me due to my studies in
homeopathies and natural medicine.
Chapter Star v:14-17- the Sidr tree growing at the furthest boundary over the
seventh heaven beyond which no one can pass. This is a very special Sidr tree
which the prophet Muhammad was shown during the mirage. The prophet
described the tree as having large fruit resembling clay jugs, leaves as big as
elephant ears and four rivers originating from its roots. The two rivers where
hidden rivers in Paradise and the two apparent ones were the Nile and the
Euphrates located in Egypt and Iraq respectably.
This peeked my interest; what was the Sidr tree that was the original ‘tree of life’
that so many people sought after. After my bath I hoped on my computer and did
some research using Google search. I found out the tree mentioned is the Jujube
tree! Since I have a background in chemistry and pharmaceuticals I wanted a
chemical analysis of this fruit to see what potentially healthy chemicals and
ingredients it might hold.

I logged on to Dr. James A. Dukes website and amazingly his database was able
to give me a chemical analysis of the fruit. The Latin term for the fruit is
Zizyphus jujuba.

Here is the chemical breakdown:

3-P-COUMAROYLATE Plant: DUKE1992A

ALPHITOLIC-ACID Plant: DUKE1992A
ASCORBIC-ACID Fruit 460 - 3,882 ppm DUKE1992A
ASH Fruit 6,000 - 35,000 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 86,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
Seed 13,000 - 17,000 ppm DUKE1992A Shoot 108,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
BETA-CAROTENE Fruit 0.2 - 700 ppm DUKE1992A
BETULIN Bark: JAD Seed: JAD Stem Bark: JAD
BETULINIC-ACID Bark 10,000 ppm; JAD Fruit 48 - 1,800 ppm JAD Plant:
DUKE1992A Seed: JAD Stem Bark 15.6 - 768 ppm JAD Wood: JAD
CALCIUM Fruit 260 - 1,602 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 19,700 ppm;
DUKE1992A Shoot 800 - 21,600 ppm DUKE1992A
CARBOHYDRATES Fruit 145,000 - 926,000 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 72,000 -
753,000 ppm DUKE1992A Seed 748,000 - 950,000 ppm DUKE1992A Shoot
753,000 - 789,000 ppm DUKE1992A
CEANOTHIC-ACID Wood: DUKE1992A
CITRIC-ACID Fruit 4,000 - 12,000 ppm DUKE1992A
COPPER Fruit 7 ppm; DUKE1992A
COUMARIN Leaf 3,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
FAT Fruit 1,000 - 17,000 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 43,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
Seed 4,000 - 335,000 ppm DUKE1992A Shoot 17,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
FIBER Fruit 6,000 - 48,000 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 143,000 ppm;
DUKE1992A Seed 22,000 - 28,000 ppm DUKE1992A Shoot 301,000 ppm;
DUKE1992A
FRUCTOSE Fruit: DUKE1992A
GLUCOSE Fruit: DUKE1992A
IRON Fruit 7 - 170 ppm DUKE1992A
JUJUBOSIDES Fruit: DUKE1992A
KILOCALORIES Fruit 590 - 3,550 /kg DUKE1992A
LEUCOCYANIDIN Hull Husk: DUKE1992A
LEUCOPELARGONIDINE Wood: DUKE1992A
MAGNESIUM Fruit 620 ppm; DUKE1992A
MALEIC-ACID Plant: DUKE1992A
MANGANESE Fruit 10 ppm; DUKE1992A
MASLINIC-ACID Plant: DUKE1992A
MUCILAGE Leaf 40,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
NIACIN Fruit 0.7 - 53 ppm DUKE1992A
OLEANOLIC-ACID Plant: DUKE1992A
OLEANONIC-ACID Plant: DUKE1992A
PECTIN Fruit 4,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
PHOSPHORUS Fruit 270 - 2,120 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 2,000 ppm;
DUKE1992A Shoot 2,300 ppm; DUKE1992A
POTASSIUM Fruit 2,690 - 12,035 ppm DUKE1992A
PROTEIN Fruit 12,000 - 106,000 ppm DUKE1992A Leaf 118,000 ppm;
DUKE1992A Seed 23,000 - 394,000 ppm DUKE1992A Shoot 86,000 ppm;
DUKE1992A
REDUCING-SUGARS Fruit 119,000 - 392,000 ppm DUKE1992A
RESIN Leaf 60,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
RIBOFLAVIN Fruit 0.3 - 2.4 ppm DUKE1992A
RUTIN Leaf 15,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
SAPONIN Leaf 2,500 ppm; DUKE1992A
SCOPOLETIN Plant: DUKE1992A
SODIUM Fruit 30 - 130 ppm DUKE1992A
SUCROSE Fruit 122,000 - 208,000 ppm DUKE1992A
TANNIN Fruit 100,000 ppm; DUKE1992A Leaf 46,000 ppm; DUKE1992A
TARTATIC-ACID Leaf: DUKE1992A
THIAMIN Fruit 0.2 - 1.3 ppm DUKE1992A
URSOLIC-ACID Plant: DUKE1992A
WATER Fruit 162,000 - 830,000 ppm DUKE1992A Seed 213,000 ppm;
DUKE1992A
ZINC Fruit 21 ppm; DUKE1992A
ZIZIPHUS-SAPONIN-I Plant: DUKE1992A
ZIZIPHUS-SAPONIN-II Plant: DUKE1992A
ZIZIPHUS-SAPONIN-III Plant: DUKE1992A

This plants turns out to be one of the most balanced fruits in the world in terms
of nutrients. A few chemicals in the plant are unidentifiable as to date, and the
implications that they may hold may be mind blowing. You would be happy to
know that the Chinese have been using this plant in combination with licorice
for thousands of years as a harmonizing agent.
The fruit without water is 84% sugar, which explains its very sweet taste. In a
“serving” of 10 grams of desiccated fruit pulp (derived from about one-half
ounce of edible dried fruit with the pit removed), the only significant nutrients
for a modern diet would be 3.6–3.7 grams of protein and 30 mg of vitamin C.

There may be very little of any “active constituents” in the fruit. Most of the
reports of such active ingredients are actually due to errors of interpretation, in
that data is mistakenly taken from the analysis of seeds of Zizyphus spinosa
(Chinese: suanzaoren) rather than the fruit pulp of Zizyphus jujuba. Zizyphus
spinosa, known as spiny zizyphus, wild zizyphus, or sour jujube, yields
glycosides that may have significant pharmacological action.
Jujube became a major component of herbal formulas largely from the influence
of the Shanghan Lun (ca 200 A.D.).

About one third of the Shanghan Lun formulas in decoction form utilize a group
of three herbs in support of the main ingredients of the formula: fresh ginger (2–
3 liang), seared licorice (2–3 liang), and jujube (4–12 pieces, cut or shredded).
The unit of liang at this time in China’s history was around 15 grams; 12 pieces
of the jujube fruit (dazao) would be about 1 liang. According to the traditional
view, jujube and licorice aid in harmonizing the formula; jujube and ginger
regulate the spleen and stomach and harmonize the ying and wei qi.

Jujube, a moistening agent (this is mainly because of its sugar content), may
cause some abdominal distension, which is prevented by ginger. Ginger, which
is stimulating and drying, is toned down by jujube. From the modern view,
ginger and licorice would be the main active components of the trio, while
jujube would add to the sweetness and, presumably, reduce the sharp spiciness of
ginger, at least by taste.

The sweet taste of jujube (and licorice) was thought to counteract toxicity of
potent herbs. Jujube is described in the Annotation of Shen Nong’s Herbal: “The
herb, being sweet in taste, removes poison of any substance, and is used to
harmonize drugs in a prescription (4).” The book Chinese-English Manual of
Commonly Used Herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine (5) lists this action of
jujube: “to moderate the potency of drugs: for counteracting the toxicity or side
effects of potent drugs, such as genkwa, euphorbia, lepidium, etc.”

The use of jujube to counter side-effects of genkwa, euphorbia, and lepidium

was evident in the Shanghan Lun formulas. In Commonly Used Chinese Herb
Formulas with Illustrations (6), the traditional formula Tingli Dazao Xiefei Tang
(Lepidium and Jujube Combination) is listed, and this is mentioned: “To prevent
its violent action from harming the lungs, lepidium is subordinated to jujube,
which soothes the stomach and harmonizes the action of lepidium so that normal
respiration is not harmed.” Genkwa and euphorbia appear together in a single
prescription of the Shanghan Lun called Shizao Tang, literally, Ten Jujubes
Decoction.

According to Formulas and Strategies (7), “The name of this formula is a tribute
to the importance of the ten jujubes which are taken to moderate the harsh,
downward-draining action of the other herbs, and thereby protect the stomach
qi.” The hot, spicy herb evodia is a key ingredient of Wuzhuyu Tang (Evodia
Combination); according to Formulas and Strategies: “The envoy, sweet jujube,
moderates the acrid, drying properties of the chief and deputy ingredients
[evodia and ginger].

What is it about jujube that might have these functions? Based on our modern
knowledge, there is probably no actual effect on toxicity of herbs, but only the
action of making the decoction seem less drastic in taste, basically by adding
sugar.

Similarly, the “harmonizing effect” may actually refer to moderating the taste in
decoctions, so that they could be better tolerated, rather than suggesting some
other integration of the herbal actions. It is possible that the powerful taste of
the strong decoctions—when taken without jujube— overpowered some
individuals, making them react promptly—not just to any toxicity (which might
be there because of the ingredients used) but also because of the nauseating
flavor.

Jujube is included in some traditional style formulas that are made in pill form,
but it is probably not an essential ingredient in those cases: it is present in very
small quantities and not a factor in the taste of the formula (since it is swallowed
without tasting it). However, for those prescribing decoctions, or dried
decoctions (granules) taken in tea form, jujube may still serve the same purpose
as in ancient times: for affecting the taste. Most of the toxic herbs are no longer
used, so that there is not necessary to worry about counteracting their toxicity,
but several herbs with very strong taste are still present, such as coptis,
phellodendron, and evodia. The amount of jujube used must be adequate to the
task: about 10 grams of the fruit or 2 grams of the granules for a one-day dose.

The ancient claims about its extraordinary nutritive qualities may reflect two
aspects of jujube: first, persons who were especially weak and unable to eat
ordinarily might find the mild and sweet taste of jujube acceptable and at least
get some calories (e.g., about 40, still very little) and a small amount of protein,
especially valuable if jujube was added to a nutritional dish to make it more
palatable; second, persons who did not have much fruit in their diet might have
had a low vitamin C level, which could be corrected with a relatively small
quantity of jujube fruit or its extract.

There is some tendency to think of herbs listed as qi tonics in the Materia

Medica to be rather potent in their effect on qi. However, this is not necessarily
the case. If jujube was mainly used to ameliorate the taste of decoctions and to
lower the toxicity of potent herbs, it would be relied upon heavily, but not
necessarily because it would be a potent qi tonic. Its inclusion in that section of
the Materia Medica comes about mainly because of its sweet taste (and lack of
other dominant tastes that might shift it to another category).

We may examine one of the more famous formulas with jujube, the combination
of licorice, wheat (floating wheat grains), and jujube (Gan Mai Dazao Tang), for
treatment of emotional distress (8): Wheat (fuxiaomai) 15 g, Jujube (dazao)
14 g, Licorice (gancao) 9g
The main ingredient is the wheat, but we would be unlikely today to consider
this food to be a useful sedative. In the same manner, considering the relatively
innocuous nature of jujube, it would not be considered a strong sedative (but the
seed of the “spiny zizyphus” would).

Unlike some of the other mild herbs of Chinese medicine, jujube would not
become more potent by using a larger dose. At a certain point, the sweetness
simply becomes overwhelming, but there is not a large amount of another active
component that comes along with it. Therefore, its usual dosage, which would
correspond to about 6–15 grams of dried fruit, is adequate. A 15 gram portion
would provide the equivalent of about 3 teaspoons of table sugar.

Glyconutrients that include polysaccharides have been shown in studies done my

Fischer Medical Institute to effectively combat all forms of cancer. I sat at my
computer and did research on the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and its
relation to medicine and I was blow away. Here are a few things that I found
from the Prophet Muhammad who was considered the Unlettered Prophet (He
could neither read nor write.)

When considering the value of herbs, it is not their cost or exotic quality that
matters as much as their versatility. Many herbs have been used historically as
"cure-alls" or potent "tonic herbs." Among these herbs are black seed, fenugreek
and aloe vera, three of the Prophet's (SAW) favorite herbs.
Bukhari reports that the Prophet (SAW) recommended that we "use black seed
regularly because it has a cure for every disease except death."

The magazine Food Chemistry found black seed to be high in protein,

carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, B1, B2, C and niacin as well as
calcium, potassium and iron. These are the very nutrients that modern science
has found that we most lack. We are encouraged to drink milk for calcium, to
take supplements for EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids), and to consume niacin pills
to lower our cholesterol; however, black seed can provide many of these same
benefits. It also provides many of the same nutrients that the FDA recommends
to help prevent disease and slow down the aging process.

CHAPTER SIX
SEASONS OF CHANGE

That night I stayed up all night reading the Holy Quran and pondering over its
meaning. I was a believer. I studied the Jewish traditions long enough to know a
true prophet from a false one. Since this book was not intended as a comparative
religious book I will not over spend my time explaining my personal beliefs
beyond what is relative to the books main focal point. The smell of change was
in the air and before Mike came to pick me up for his workout he phoned me to
tell me that he was canning me as his trainer. I didn’t take it hard. I told him that
was okay and I would stop by the gym at the end of the week to pick up monthly
check. He agreed and apologized for any hard feelings. He must have been
surprised to find out that I was actually excited to get this monkey off of my
back.

I decided to spend the day doing things that I really wanted to do and after I
picked up my pay check I inquired to Mike about his mothers well being. He
wrote down her address for me on the back of the envelope he put my training
money in. I felt that it would be nice to send her a nice little package of natural
medicines and flyers explaining how they work.

I sent out the package with the return address to Mike’s workout gym with the
sender name as; From a Friend. Years later I would here that her cancer went
into full remission and she had kept using the herbs that I prescribed to her. To
this day that still makes me smile.

That day I spent my time at a local Mosque and converted to Islam. I would
learn to pray 5 times a day and to avoid alcohol and pork as a few of the major
laws prescribed in Islam. I kept Ma in the back of my mind and vowed one day
to go back to Wudang and visit Master Ma.

I would learn months later that Mike won his next to fights but finally fell to a
unorthodox brawler named Zicah Lee. I was no longer in touch with him and
decided to let fate transpire as it may and not to contact him and intercede with
the nature of his affairs. If he wanted my expertise the opportunity for contacting
me was always open.
I decided to use my free time wisely and to work on the internal side of my
martial arts affairs. I was waking up early every morning doing calisthenics and
Qi gong. After a satisfactory breakfast I would walk up the street to the park and
work on my 108 Yang Style Long form.

Late one afternoon I decided to take out my old back pack and take a look at
some of the notes that I had taken during my stay in China. As I was flipping
through the pages in my journal something unexpected happen to me that was
about to change into good fortune.

An envelope fell from the back of my note book that had something written in
Chinese on it and under it in visible plain English it said, “To William from Sifu
Ma.” I broke open the sealed envelope immediately and read the header attached
to the first page that read, “100 Mo- Pai Skills.”

I began to read as he explained that this knowledge had been passed on to him
from a disciple of Master Mo-Tzu. I had read the books about master John
Chang from Kosta Danaos entitled “The magus of Java, and Nei kung.”
I was eager to read what appeared to be a photo copied version of a manual
translated by Ma. If you have read Kosta Danoas books then you will be familiar
with the theory that Sifu Chang claims there are 72 levels to Mo Pai. Upon
evaluating his books I must say that he does pack a lot of valuable information
into his books, but the idea that some of the masters within his text were
reaching levels such as 20, 51 etc. seems to be apparent quackery.

In the attached letter and photocopied manual I received by Ma, Ma goes on to

explain the secret teachings and the reality of Mo-Pai. Whether or not these
teaching are authentic there is no way for me to know. Ma explains that the
actual meaning of 72 is in reference to Taoist Immortals. This he explains is a
dangerous road to lead someone down since these practitioners are in contact
with Spirit/Djin that Ma claims are not spirits of the dead, but in actuality
Demon/Djin spirits posing as dead spirits.

The reference to 72 also correlates with mystic Cabbalist that claimed the word
of God was a 72 Hebrew letter assembly. This Ma claims is pagan mystics that
came out of Babylon after the fall of King Solomon’s temple to King
Nebakanezer. To make matters more interesting in what historians claim to be
The Key of Solomon, 72 relates to the 72 chief Djin/demons that were under the
control of Solomon by the Commandment of God himself. Ma goes on to
explain that contacting these Djin, from where we get the word Genie and
Genius; is strictly forbidden by Gods last testament in the Quran. Contactees of
these Djin or Genies can be granted supernatural like knowledge and abilities
that transcend our normal space time continuum.

These Djin trick the meditator into believing that he is being given advanced
knowledge and abilities from his own state of being or spirit force. Kosta
Danaos’s books are loaded with examples of talking to these beings and how
John Chang lives and communicates with them. Not to demonize Chang, but it is
easy for an individual that is looking for ‘Powers’ to fall into this trap and John
even admits that his master appeared to him and gave him powers. These stories
are similar to ones I have read about musicians and spirit worshipers that have
received powers from guardian angels or spirits of their deceased family
members. Some of the more knowledgeable occultist have come out and said
that these Djin admit that they pretend to be family members and guardian
angels to bring the person into a state of Disobedience to God the Creator of the
Worlds. Kosta even mentions a story his book, “The Magus of Java,” where they
set up drinks, smokes, and incense as a gift to a Djin they were contacting.

Ma goes on to warn me against this and says that every person that seeks
enlightenment and to further their own spiritual state comes up against these
forces of darkness. This is the reason he slipped this into my notebook while I
was unaware. I walked into the kitchen and brewed a hot cup of tea and sat down
evaluating this manuscript. The 100 Mo-Pai he says is a pure form of Mo-Pai
that is not intended to give the practitioner super natural abilities, but is intended
to advance a humans Qi and awareness and can be used for healing God Willing’
Ma explains that the Mo-Pai is accurate in its ideas of piling up Qi by avoiding
excessive sexual emissions, but is wrong in its ideas of meditation and gaining
righteousness through meditative practices. The correct meditation he wrote is in
the form of Thiker’ in Arabic, which means Remembrance of God. The 100 in
the title correlates to the 100 names of God given to us in the Quran that we may
use in supplication for spiritual advancement.

Chapter Seven
The Manual

Ma relates that the height of this advancement in this art can only be obtained
through righteous living, repentance for sins, and marriage during sexual
activity. The first stage in this progression is to learn to breathe deep and natural
into the stomach in a Pole Standing position; feel about shoulder width apart.
The shoulders should be rounded and the arms pulling straight down, with the
palms open toward the floor, fingers spread slightly open. The arms are to be
extended below the waist until you feel the shoulders pull downward by force of
gravity. The spine should be straight with the butt slightly tucked. The head
should be lifted so the neck and spine form a straight line down to the butt, eyes
gazing naturally forward. Also the legs should be slightly bent at the knees with
the weight falling through the feet into the ground. Breathe in a full belly of air
through the nose until the belly can no longer expand. The expansion of the belly
and diaphragm is very important, Ma notes. As you breathe outward flex the
sphincter muscle and compress the air outward flexing the sphincter and
compressing the air in the dantien into the flexation of the sphincter muscle. For
every 10 inhalations and exhalations use the compression method only one time.
Thus one should take 50 breathes a day in this position and practice compressing
5 times in total after every 10 reps.

The body and mind should be completely relaxed in Wu Wei. This is the first
step. If this is done after remember the 100 attributes of ALLAH SWT, then
maximum results will follow. This should be practiced with righteous Muslim
living for 1 year unto progressing into level two, Ma relates. The second level
consists of getting into the San Ti position of Xingyi. Start with your dominate
arm first. Sink into position and use the formalized San Ti of the hand pointed up
used by Sun Lutang. Use the same 10 breathing method and on the 11th use the
compression method as stated above. This time you should feel a slight sensation
or electric current flowing to the middle 3 fingers. Use your mind to direct your
energy from your dantien through your arm. Practice this method 50 times in the
right handed stance and 50 times in the left handed stance. Total compression
should be 10 times a day and no more, Ma explains. More compression than this
will lead to draining, but the breathing exercises can be done without limit as
long as the mind does not direct the Qi outward and no compression takes place.

This should be practiced for 2 years before advancing to the 3rd and final level.
This level also uses a shoulder width stance with the arms in the downward
position as the 1st level. Now as you breathe inward raise the arms up and
diagonal until the arms are extended completely, and the fingers are pointing up
and outward. Now as you exhale bring the arms down into the starting position.
This time the conscious raises with the arms up and outward, expanding. As you
exhale compress and bring the arms down shifting the energy downward and
through the feet. Compress energy 1 out of every 10 full breaths, and practice
this 50 times a day with 5 full compressions. The mind should direct the energy
downward and you should be firmly grounded upon transference of energy.
“Practice this for 5 years and martial ability and healing potentiality will be
maximized,” says Ma. There is no limit after level three, and they are definitely
impossible to define or grade after level three. Talk of multi- layered levels in the
Mo-Pai 72 tradition seems to be a cruel and viscous hoax on the practitioners.

While healing and doing hands on work use the palm for wider Qi transmissions
and use the middle finger and pointer finger for precise laser like transmissions. I
sat in my living room thinking on how this method of training Mo-Pai differs
from John Chang’s. The compression of Yin and Yang is event at an earlier level
in Ma’s version. Also Ma’s third level focuses on expansion and
contraction/rooting, while Johns has no mention of this according to Kosta’s
books written on the topic.

In the final page of the manual from Ma, he states that the elixir he had given me
should be taken twice a day, when sexual intercourse was performed, or
nocturnal emissions (wet dreams) were evident.

In closing Ma states that the breath is like yin or ether, and the bio electric light
energy is yang. When these two are expanded and collided they create energy
like a super atomic collider. A full year has passed and I am now working on
level two and I can feel the energy emitted during compressions. I don’t seek
super natural phenomenon as Ma says that this is the door for Djin to work their
way into your life.

Advancements in Mo-Pai tradition for creating Jing

LEVEL - ONE
Step 1 Lower Body Dan Tien Stimulation

Figure 1 – Breathe in deep into the stomach until max point. Hold
Breath for 3 seconds
Figure 2 – As you release breath slowly bring arms outward
Flexing the sphincter muscle and compressing air downward
toward the tailbone stimulating the nervous system.

Repeat this 10 times, Morning and Night

(Sun Lutang)
Step 2 – Holding Low Static postures until failure.

This builds lower muscle and pushes the blood flow

downward. Hold positions until failure in low squat
as in picture below. Two times a day until failure,
Morning and Night = Four times until failure daily
(Liao Wu Chang)

Step 3-

Stand in Wu Wei Position and breathe deep into stomach and

Dan Tien until full. Note- The more the chest and lungs expand,
The more air they can hold through practice.
Exhale deeply compressing air downward to tail bone, while
flexing the sphincter. 10 times, Two times a day, morning and night.
(Sun Lutang)
LEVEL ONE SHOULD BE PRACTICED FOR ONE YEAR FOR BEFORE
LEVEL TWO ADVANCEMENT.

LEVEL TWO
Step One-

In the San Ti position breathe in again as in Level

One and compress energy downward into Dan Tien
While flexing the sphincter, energy should arise
From spine and kidney regions and flow through the arms.
Direct the Qi outward to the point of the three fingers on
The top hand.
Picture below is in the left San Ti position
Practice this in each position Five times, morning and night.
Step Two-

Same as step one. Breathe in until failure,

Hold breath 3 seconds, then release and step
Forward with right or left foot. Compress the energy
In Dan Tien and use the mind to direct the Qi
Outward through both palms.
Do 10 times, two times daily, Day and Night.
When stepping forward switch between right and left foot.
Step 3
Stand in Wu Wei and breathe in deep until lungs and stomach are full with air.
As you exhale compress air downward into Dan Tien and flex sphincter and
stomach muscles crunching forward as in second picture; place one hand in other
and press into Dan tien just below your naval. Hold compression for 3 seconds
and direct your Qi through both arms back around into your hands. Hold the Qi
in your hands.

LEVEL TWO SHOULD BE PRACTICED FOR TWO YEARS BEFORE

ENTERING THE THIRD LEVEL.
LEVEL THREE
Step 1
Inhale until lungs and stomach are full. Hold for three seconds.
As you release the air, slowly press arm out ward and down as
You compress the air into the Dan Tien and flex the sphincter.
Draw the Qi only through the hand pushing downwards, as in
pictures two and three. Do 5 times, two times a day on each side.
Step 2

Stand in Wu Wei position with arms down.

Inhale and slight raise your arms with your breath as in
picture one. Hold at apex for 3 seconds. Bring arms down
slowly as you breathe outward, as in second picture. As you
Breathe outward compress Qi into Dan Tien and flex sphincter,
holding the compression on a 3 count. Keep the energy in Dan Tien region and
do not expel energy. Also don’t over flex stomach muscles as in the other levels.
Keep posture upright. Do this 100 times a day.
Remember to inhale and expand energy upward with your mind in this
drill. As you exhale and compress drop the weight into your feet; holding
the energy.

STEP 3

This is the same as step three only you will

Draw out Qi on exhalation into clinched fists as in second picture.

100 times a day!

LEVEL THREE SHOULD BE PRACTICED FOR UP TO FIVE
YEARS BEFORE ENTERING LEVEL FOUR.
LEVEL FOUR

This time you will get in this position

from the starting point.
Breathe in deeply until lungs and abdomen are
Full. Hold breath for 3 seconds.
Exhale compressing Qi into dan tien and
flexing sphincter as in level three. Don’t move the arms
But as you exhale and compress, draw the Qi from
your dan tien out of both hands.

Do 100 times daily

EACH LEVEL SHOULD BE PRACTICED EVEN AFTER
ADVANCING TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

BOOK TWO
THE LONG LOST DISCIPLINE
INTRODUCTION

It has been almost a year now since my last book (THE MARTIAL COCOON)
rolled out of Lulu’s printers and into the hands of avid Internal Martial Arts
readers across the globe. Many things have taken place since then, and I figured
it was time to sit down and bring those stories into textual-life. The memories of
my fruitful meanderings through-out China will remain as a chiseled-blueprint in
my Martial Art-subconscious until the day that I dare take my last breath.

Since then, I have received copious emails concerning the practice of Mo-Pai,
John Chang & Sifu Ma. Like the man that hung himself trying to chase Qi past
the Jade Pillow point, in Robert W. Smiths book MARTIAL MUSINGS, people
have a tendency to go a little too far in their training efforts. The bar of
superstitious practices has been raised beyond the horizon of reason, and I see no
signs of it stopping any time soon.

Recently, while teaching a Chinese Boxing class, a colleague of mine asked the
students if they had any questions before the finality of the lessons. One boy
stepped forward and said with a look of absolute seriousness, “Is there a way to
hypnotize people using Qi, and how can we do it?”

Obviously he had been watching mock-mystics on Youtube and figured it was an

opportune time to get the inside scoop. I told him that if he believed in such
things, "I have a bag of ferry dust I can sale you at a discount price", after my
jesting, I waved my hands in front of him and told him there is a psychological
effect produced from fancy-feinting that can be usable. The students are also to
blame for playing into this kind of outlandish role game. I tell my students to
always resist when I show them a technique; otherwise they may submit to an
inferior attacker in a moment of weakness because psychologically they have
been prepped to do so (as in Aikido.)

Such people that engage in quixotic self-deception ignore the miracle of Gods
creation in search for cheap parlor tricks in hopes of elevating themselves upon
the grand-egotistical pedestal of Martial Arts and proclaiming themselves “Man-
King,” or “Monkey-King” depending on which school of Wu-Shu you adhere to.
I think “master” Wong (I am one to think that self-entitlement displays a lack of
self esteem) said it best when he declared on one of his Wing-Chun videos, “We
don’t teach no monkey-kung fu here!”

I find Mr. Montague out of England similarly comical in his exhibitions and in
one of his push-hands videos he openly professed, “Have you ever seen someone
take an attacker out by pushing him to death?” I paraphrase in this quotation, as I
admit to be on occasion an inherently-lackadaisical researcher of quotes. (In my
opinion, some things are just not worth the time and effort to look up; while
others your life could very well depend on it.) I had a hearty chuckle at Mr.
Montague as I actually like his method of teaching push-hands, but he forgets to
understand is that the push is a way of gauging one’s power. Actually a fajing-
explosive push is a very dangerous weapon in a well furnished room. After Chen
Manching bounced Robert Smith off a few walls, the whispers in the back of his
mind that were suggesting Internal Martial Arts as bogus began to dissipate.

Many “MASTERS” may forgo teaching this because they find themselves being
easily-manipulated by supposed lack-luster students. Word of advice, if you can
push-your Tai Chi teacher around and locate his center with ease, then it might
be high time for a much needed reimbursement, followed by a calculated
relocation of study.
From what I can see in their videos, both Wong, and Montague seem to have a
lot to offer, but you might want to test a few of their theories by method of sneak
attack during a class session—just to make sure everything is legitimate as it
appears on their resumes.

I recall in Robert Smiths, MARTIAL MUSINGS, a student telling Chen

Manching that she knew of a master Li in China that could propel his students
backward by merely waving his hand at the student, an apparent display of
advanced Qi development. Chen scoffed at this story and said, “I know Li, his
Tai Chi isn’t that good!”

Chen went on to explain that such feats are only acts of hypnosis, and only occur
by means of psychosomatic influence. Such techniques he said wouldn’t work
on an advanced practitioner. Another-words he was saying that it wouldn’t work
on an individual that actually had a “strong mind devoid of superstitious
bewilderment.” You don’t need to study Tai Chi to develop this mental-
astuteness, you only need to have the curiosity and thinking potential to question
things; testing them out for yourself before buying into the whole story.

Of all the stories of the famed Wang Shujin, the only one where someone
actually got a shot in on him was because the guy practiced pugilism
professionally—and was hardly amazed by the fortune-cookie origami-
techniques that were folding the average-Joe out of shape week-minded couch
potato. In the end, (after Wong took a heavy slap to the face) the boxer (Joe
Brown) was convinced by the efficacy of Internal Martial Arts.
Wang toyed and played with striking technicians (Karate players and Boxers)
with the utmost ease, proving to the probing-surveyors of his time the unique
power developed from practicing Internal Martial Arts.

An old Tai Chi guru once said, “While I was practicing Tai Chi in my twenties
the other guys in my age group would laugh at my undertakings. Then in my
thirties they would mock at my dedication, while most of them had quit their Wu
Shu endeavors… in my forty’s and fifty’s some of the guys still around my town
shunned me for playing games in adulthood. Then in my sixty’s and seventy’s I
watched them all pass away from ill health. Finally in my eighty’s and ninety’s
I taught their children under recommendation before their passing.

Tai Chi is more than just a fanciful choreography, it is a method of preservation

that has been tested and proven by many past generations. A few days ago I
came across a website that posted Yang Chengfu’s pictures of the complete long
form. The owner of the site went on to explain the history of the Yang style in
relation to the other styles and how it came into being by the founder Yang
Luchan. I almost fell out of my seat and shit my britches when he proclaimed
emphatically, “A student of one year in Kempo would beat out a Tai Chi player
of twenty years.” Such blanket statements only expose the writers prejudice and
narrow mindedness concerning the practice; although he professes to have
trained twenty years in Tai Chi himself.

A more accurate statement would have been, “I have seen Kempo players of one
year beat out Tai Chi practitioners of twenty,” or “I have been beaten my a
Kempo player of one year after practicing Tai Chi for twenty.”

In all fairness anything is possible, and the main objective in Tai Chi is not to
become an ultimate-warrior brut lost in the world of arena fighting. Those who
live by their bravado usually fall victim to someone else’s. I personally know a
few Tai Chi instructors in China that could send most of the elites in the Kempo
camp on a one way ticket to the “Dojo in the Sky.” The difference is that these
teachers would never actually do it because they respect human life and have
compassion in the face of ignorance. On the other hand, most MMA style
fighters and Dojo practitioners would love to get a chance to knock out an old
man so they could proclaim the inefficiency of Tai Chi as a “rule of thumb.”
Bring forth an old aging-geriatric MMA fighter and he would probably have to
put on the old gloves from the seat of a wheel chair.

At last, this book is not about measuring the girth of our neighbor’s package or
gearing up for some black belt pissing contest. Rather this book is about
longevity, restoration, balance and knowledge. It is for those that gravitate to
life’s subtle treasures in search for something deeper, and have trouble curbing
their out of control appetites for internal martial arts.
CHAPTER ONE
Crossing Paths at the Park

After 2009 I decided to relocate myself from my humble dwellings in Cairo,

Egypt to Tunis, Tunisia. I stayed three months in the US visiting my family and
friends to refresh the old psyche & pick up a few books and herbs that I would
need for my long stay in North Africa, Tunisia. My plane touched down on
March the 29th, as I jumped into an old cab outside of the airport ready to test
out my lackluster broken-Arabic. Kafa Halak ya Akhee, Sa’athab ela fundooq
Gamarth Dar. – Trans. How are you oh brother? I need to go to hotel World
Gamarth. With in the blink of an eye I was re-inlodged into the existence of the
unknown. Over the past seven years I have been transformed into an official
nomadic traveler. Maybe the truth was that I was more at home on the road than
I ever have been trapped in an apartment complex during my early twenties in
the US.

The taxi driver stomped on the gas pedal and made a turn unto a dusty road—the
smell of the ocean was in the air, as the hotel was located right on the coast of
the Mediterranean Sea. The car was shaking profusely due to an apparent
structural problem that was probably beyond the repair of a simple alignment. I
was beyond tired as the cab pulled up in front of the hotel.

I had a lay over in Casablanca, Morocco and had been awake for about twenty-
two hours since leaving JFK airport the day before in New York. I wasn’t
surprised to find the weather in Tunisia to be in the upper 80’s, although it was
only March. Despite paying a pretty penny for the room and board, I was even
less surprised to find out the air conditioning was turned off until July. I was
perturbed at this sudden realization but the long summers I spend in Cairo
conditioned me to such unexpected misery. I cracked the windows, threw my
bags in the corner and took a quick hot shower. At least the shower pressure was
good, and the floors were clean. I put on some light clothes, unfolded my prayer
rug and made my supplications before diving head first into bed.

The next morning revealed itself before I ever remember falling asleep. The
breakfast buffet was waiting for me and my appetite was beyond epic at this
point. Fruit, cereal, croissants, yogurt, and a coffee sent me into a relaxed-stupor.
I spend a few days unwinding at the hotel pool and walking on the beach before
I decided it was time to go city side. I changed hotels and ended up close to La
Fayette in downtown Tunis.

A few days there during The World Cup of Soccer was eventful to say the least. I
drank copious cups of cappuccino and spent all my time doing my favorite
pastime—Research.

I admit to being a lethargic book-worm at times, but to become a man of

knowledge is no small endeavor. Though I don’t espouse to the ideas of Don
Juan, I did find that his four common enemies blocking man from true
knowledge to be legitimate. The man was evidently a shaman hooked on
psychedelic mushrooms, peyote, & devils weed. He seemed to an out of the box
thinker, something that I like, but his means of altered mind states I find counter
productive and outwardly detrimental to health.

Finally I located a small apartment next to Habib Bourgeba St., downtown

Tunis. It was a small little studio apartment in a nice secure building next to Le
Passage St. After a few days I became acclimated to my new surroundings, and
started to feel at home. Tunisian food is wonderful, and I couldn’t get enough
helpings of fresh salads and fish. After I set my affairs in order the first thing on
my agenda-list was to find out about the state of existence in the Martial Arts
community. I opened up my Google browser and typed in two relevant words;
Tunisia, and Tai Chi. My search turned up profitable as I located a man named
Ariel Betti. After searching through his blog and checking out his pictures—I
came to a semi-conclusion that this was the guy I needed to get into contact with.
A young man with a long resume in: Wushu, Aikido-Jujitsu, Tai Chi, & Ninjitsu.
I gave him a ring and we decided to meet up in Menzah Six next to the Olympic
training center. We took a long walk to a nearby park and had an in depth talk
about Martial Arts and Tai Chi.
At the park we conceded to a push hands session and short form demonstration.
It is always fun to find a friend that shares similar interests and enthusiasm. Over
the next few months we made preparations for the shooting of a DVD entitled,
The Art of Boxing. Task completed—now we have a few more projects weighing
in the balance, and share a common interest in teaching Internal Martial Arts to
the interested population. Our home base for such in endeavor is located at a
small gym that sits on the border of the towns, Menzah & Ariana.
Since this time, we have become good friends and have shared much of our safe-
guarded knowledge to each other that consist of: advanced rooting training
techniques, Dim-mak strikes, special locks, & combat Jujitsu.

Something special in the universe occurs during the morning hours that is
unexplainable and compels a tai chi player to an opulent space inside the
proximity of a nearby park. The wee hours of the morning usually provide a
temporary safe haven from fixated-gazers that like to try and interrupt you in the
middle of a long set. It usually happens at the pinnacle of serenity when you feel
free from the weight of the world. “Excuse me sir is that Tai Chi?” It was till I
was interrupted. I have come to the conclusion that human life and random
conversation is more valuable than an exercise, so how could I not smile and
greet a possible new friend.

I would pass some wonderful mornings at a few parks with in walking distance
of down town Tunis. I always found time to be a formidable enemy in the fact
that there is so much to do within the span of one day. Destiny has a way of
revealing fateful events at the most unexpected times. One morning after
finishing the Yang Long-Form I came across an older gentleman standing behind
a tree in the corner of the park off a random trail I decided to walk around as I
was about to make my exit. As I came closer I recognized that he was indeed a
Chinese man of about 60 years, according to my approximation. I tried not to
come in too close since I like it when other people respect my training space. He
had a dark brown bag hanging from a tree with a green thermos leaning against
the trunk.

This was a scene right out of my days in China, I thought to myself, as I tried my
best not to stare walking to the side using my peripheral vision to sneak a few
peeks to see what he was doing. Immediately I recognized the circular
movements and twisting palms as Bagua-Zhang.

It took me seconds to deduce that he was indeed doing Yin style Bagua. His
movements were smooth and elastic. He was an advanced player, as his head
stayed level through the whole set, and his movements were screaming from the
rooftops with fajing potentiality. You know it when you see it because of the
subtle concealment of yang power that hides beneath the smooth surface of the
running yin movements.

I found myself ready to do what I had admonished others never to do—it was
time for a friendly hello after he finished his set. I noticed he was wearing a
Muslim Kufi on his head, and that was all I needed to see to know that a cordial
Asalaamualaikim was in order. I greeting him in custom, and asked him if you
would like to join me in push hands for a few minutes. While sensing hands with
someone, you come to know a person in a way that is deeper than words and
salutations. I asked him his name in Arabic and he responded by saying, “You
can call me Mr. Wu.”
Wu’s facial appearance was similar to that of Sun Lutang. He dressed reservedly
and stood about five foot nine inches tall. His posture at his age was impeccable.
He stood erect with a jovial disposition and always wore a brown pair of loafer
shoes.

Weeks would pass and I would catch up to Mr. Wu about four days out of the
week. His schedule seemed to be Monday through Thursday mornings 7a.m. to
11 a.m.—although I never officially asked him his training hours.

One Thursday he asked me if I would like to join him back to his shop and join
him for lunch. I concurred, as we made our way into the district of Ariana and
entered his small shop down a small road off a main street.

CHAPTER TWO
NO MAESTRO, NO MASTER,
JUST AN ACCOMPLICE

We walked into a little make-shift shop that had a long counter on the back wall
side. The walls were painted all white and the floors seemed mopped to a
pristine shine. There was a younger gentleman sitting at the end of the long glass
counter next to the register. At the front of the store there was food items like:
eggs, flour, sugar, milk, water, soap, veggies, fruits, chips, yogurt, & candy bars.
Behind the counter on the walls were wooden shelves that were made into little
boxes with labels on the front of them in Arabic and Chinese. Mr. Wu and I
made our way around the counter and walked into a back area that was blocked
off from the store area. He had turned his shop into a multi faceted store with an
assortment of odd inventory. “I have to keep a lot of stuff in here that can’t be
found in other stores, otherwise no one would bother with me,” he said in a
serious tone. “You would never guess what our biggest seller is,” he said with a
big grin on his face. “I have no idea,” I replied.

“Well go on and guess,” he insisted.

“Ummm…. Knowing Arabic men I would have to say Cigarettes.”

“I don’t sale those killers,” he assured me.

“Sex juice,” he said sharply.

I had a big laugh at him putting it this way. I first I figured maybe he was selling
Viagra, but it turns out that he had created a special concoction from Traditional
Chinese Medicine cannons that no one had ever heard of. He guaranteed
everyone that it was one hundred percent natural and safe.
His Arab worker helped him to draw in his clientele. After word began to spread
around town; middle aged and older men began to flood his shop on a regular
basis.

We sat down at a small table in a cozy little room behind his store room. He had
the entrance to the door blocked off with a black sheet. “This is my private space
back here,” he guaranteed me. It was a quant little room with a small kitchen
oven situated next to a small wooden table. Two wooden chairs that actually had
arms on them were furnished with cushions for extra relaxation. Wu implored
me to sit down and take it easy. “Tea,” he asked me.

“Coffee would be better,” I said.

“Oh this isn’t the time for coffee, how about a little tea?”
“When is the time for coffee?” I asked him.
“Only on certain occasions,” he remarked.
“Strange”…I thought to myself while looking at his big desk in the back that
was covered with books, memo pads and a laptop sitting square in the middle of
it. Finally the tea was done, as he poured tea into our little cups he sat back into
his chair contently as he took his first drink from the cup.

“So what’s in the libido formulae,” I asked him.

“Well, it’s supposed to be a secret, but you don’t look like you would be any
competition for my business, so I will tell you. Ginseng, Gingko, Ginger, Honey,
Black Cumin, and a pinch of powdered coffee; mixed up in water,” he added.

“Must taste like shit,” I said with a musing smile.

”It does,” he said.
I dare not ask him what people were paying for such a wicked brew. We soon
turned the conversation in another direction, one to my preferential liking,
Internal Martial Art’s.

“How long have you been practicing,” I asked.

“Pretty much my whole life,” he answered.
“I would be honored if you took me on as an apprentice,” I asked him.
“What do you mean,” he said.
“Well I have seen you in the park, and I see that your Tai Chi is top caliber,” I
told him.
He looked at me with sharp eyes as if he was almost sizing me up. Now I am a
pretty formidable fellow at two-hundred lbs. I do admit that sometimes I get
lazy, but I can still do a good fifty push ups on the spot, at any given time.
Mr. Wu though looked like he was cut from steel. I didn’t dare ask him his age
but he looked to be past sixty facially. His body on the other hand looked to be
of a man in his twenties. He glanced at me after sitting down his cup. “I train
hard you know. I have seen you in the park. Your Tai Chi is one of the best I
have ever seen. But there is a problem,” he said.
My heart started to sink. What could possibly be the problem that he was
referring to?

“Your Gung Fu is no good,” he told me.

I had a big laugh at this revelation. “I know I know,” I told him.
“This is the reason why I would like you to teach me.” Mr. Wu seems to be the
kind of man that pays great attention to details and nuances, I thought to myself.
He saw me in the park working on some boxing drills that I learned from Mr.
Ma. He was curious to know where I picked up such skills. Just when I started to
pat myself on the back mentally from his questioning (as I knew that such
boxing skills were rare and profound to say the least) Mr. Wu began to berate my
abilities in a constructive manner. “Your movements and skill are excellent, but
your methods are lacking,” he said sternly.

“What do you mean Mr. Wu,” I urged him on to explain in more detail.
“Well, I see that most of your boxing work is done with a clinched fist—this
exhibits the knowledge of an amateur. When striking the head there are two
better methods that supersede yours. If you strike a skull with the bone of your
hand it is sure to eventually break. For this reason it is wiser to strike the neck
and eyes with the finger tips. The heavy bones of the cheek, jaw, and head
should be struck with the open palm. This method is deadlier and more exacting.
On a positive note, your blocking techniques and guards look superb. I had to
take a few notes the other morning when I was watching you.” He was smart to
criticize me first and then to end his critique on a good note. He walked me out
unto the street and insisted that there were many things of importance that he
must get to.

“So do you accept me as a student?” I asked.

“Don’t mention such a thing. Consider yourself a friend that I will always
extend my best advice to. Don’t call me your maestro or master—just call me
your accomplice.” We both smiled as I knew what he was hinting at. There was
no need for such titles of bragging rights. Life was more than titles and labels. I
knew that I was in good hands with Mr. Wu.

CHAPTER THREE
THE COMMITMENT

It was a cheery morning and I decided to leave for the park a little bit earlier than
usual. The air was fresh, the sky was immaculate, the sun was dazzling, and my
optimism was transcendent. I should have skipped instead of walked, but
sometimes being over joyous has a way of annoying the grumpy pedestrians. I
circled the green-shrubbery that encased the park where we worked out at and
headed for the entrance area that is made of wood and has signs around it
showing pictures of exercises for aspiring athletes.

A gust of wind blew bye me and I could have sworn I smelt the scent of
Marijuana in the air. I was sniffing around like a dog when I realized the odor
was coming from me. How could this be? Words of wisdom for all banana bread
lovers out there—remember to change you clothes after baking banana bread
and put on extra deodorant if you have eaten more than two bananas in one
sitting. I must have smelled like a monkeys-den walking around that morning. I
shook my shirt a few times in the breeze hoping that the fresh cool air would
remedy my stench.

“William… have you been smoking the green dragon this morning?” asked Wu.
I tried to explain to him about the banana bread but I don’t think he even knew
such a recipe existed. I was wide awake and my eyes were white as snow, so he
must have believed me.

“Ready for lesson?” he asked me as he stood there stretching out. The nei-kung
that he was putting me through was familiar to me, but then he started to really
focus on the legs beyond what I was used to doing.
“You are stiffer than an old lady!” he said.
He didn’t look that loose him-self, but I like to have a sense of humor about my
inadequacies anyway.

“The legs are the most important thing to focus on, he insisted. They are the
trunk of the tree. If they are not healthy then there is no Gong-Fu, no longevity.”
He was right. I knew I needed a teacher like this to push me to the next level. We
did every kind of stretch imaginable. Side stretch, front bends, side bends, splits,
closed squats, open squats, horse riding stance, bow stance etc. We also
practiced the forty/sixty weighted step, or the 4-6 step, the lowering step, the
sitting step, the crouching step, the standing step and about every other step one
could imagine that pertains to good Gung-fu.

I also had practiced these steps on a daily basis, so Mr. Wu was satisfied by the
ease and balance that I was able to hold these stances in. What he wasn’t pleased
with was my flexibility. I seem to have great frontal flexibility, as far as touching
the floor and front high kicks—but my side-hip flexibility needed a lot of work. I
was a good foot away from being even close to the split position.

“In time it will come, as all things do with persistence,” he said.

“Have you ever heard of the concept of perfect timing?” he began to ask me.
“I have heard of the concept, but I am not aware of an exacting definition,” I
confessed.

“Well then you are in need of one. Perfect timing consists of understanding
spacing, velocity, trajectory, and the listening to your opponent’s rhythms.

“How can I gauge such factors by an attacker within the time span of split-
seconds,” I asked.

“This doesn’t only apply to attackers or combatants—this applies to all things in

life,” he added.

He went on to explain to me that in order to decode this information against an

attacker, it takes a knack of observation and intuition.

If he appears athletic, then his velocity should be ferocious. The spacing is

deduced by understand how many steps away the opponent is. The trajectory is
known by stance and hand placement. The rhythms are sensed by intuition and
are usually connected to emotion. The angrier he is, the more disjoined his
rhythm will be.

“If he has his emotions in check, then be on guard!” Mr. Wu warned me.

I wasn’t sure what to expect since this was our first day actually training under
the tutelage of Mr. Wu. I had my suspicions that it wasn’t going to be easy,
because good teachers want to make sure that they aren’t casting diamonds into
the pig pen, so to speak.

“William! Get into an on-guard stance,” he announced.

I assumed my boxing-guard position that I used for sparring, and he laughed

shaking his head as If I had broken a major cardinal rule of Gong-fu.

“Your stance is too high. If I attack you low, then you will be in big trouble. If a
swords man attacked you and you had a shield in hand, it would be smart to keep
the shield at mid-chest level until he indicated from what position he was going
to strike. This way you could protect your head and feet by a slight adjustment.
If you held the shield in front of your face, he would cut off your feet and you
might not even see the blow coming. He would cut you like cutting through a bar
of butter.
His made a good point. He situated my stance to the familiar San-Ti stance in
Xing Yi. Lead arm palm at head level, with the other hand down at waist level,
ready to cut off and deflect strikes to the mid-section and family jewels. For over
in hour, Mr. Wu had me standing in static postures. He loved the golden cock
stands on one leg posture.

I loved the San-Ti posture because it was easier on the legs. When the practice
was finally over, my legs felt like they had just been in an Olympic marathon.

“You passed the test!” Mr. Wu announced afterwards.

“I am really impressed you made it through today. I had another student that
wanted me to teach him and he failed miserably.

To this day he is probably still dancing around Gung-fu clubs doing fancy forms.
I had so much more to offer him than those quasi clubs, but he didn’t pass the
test. I can’t reduce myself to teaching quitters.”

Saying all that, I began to feel better. “Tomorrow we will get into the good
stuff,” he promised.
“Go home, get a nice shower, fill your belly, and get a good nights rest.
Tomorrow is a new day.”

CHAPTER FOUR
CORPOREAL INCULCATION

Mr. Wu seemed to be elated the next day I saw him. There was a form of
springiness in his step and ease was written on his face.

“Today I will take you to a special place, he announced unexpectedly. My wife

is arriving from China today and I haven’t seen her in two months. Today’s
lesson will be short and sweet, God willing.”

“That is a long time to be with out your wife. How did you bear not seeing her
for so long?” I asked him gently.

“Did know that it is distance that creates appreciation of things?” he asked me.
“Any ways it wasn’t that hard since we have internet. We talk daily by Skype. I
try to keep tabs on her as much as I can,” he said contently.

“The first lesson of the day is called THE BODY LAW. This law states that the
body of Tai Chi is worth more than its function. Do you understand? The
function is the martial application. The body of the art is for health, awareness,
relaxation, and discipline,” he continued.
“Yes, I agree with you completely,” I added.
We continued to walk until we reached a long road that seemed to have a small
garden at the end of it. If was smaller than our usual spot at the town park but it
was more scenic, more private and more airy.

Mr. Wu sat down his bag and jacket on a small wooden bench next to a flower
garden. He opened the back-pack and took out a beautiful Wushu-style silk shirt
and handed to me. Stitched into the back of the shirt was a peach tree.

“This is the emblem that was passed on to me that I am passing on to you, he

said. You will soon learn the meaning of it, but first I must quiz you to make sure
that you are ready,” he said with a dead serious look on his face.

“The art of Yang-style Tai Chi was created for substantial Fa Jing from a single
weighted step—double weighted striking is out. I saw from our first push hands
encounter at the park that you understand this thoroughly. My question for you is
this: Energy is transmitted during striking from where to where? Let me put it a
better way; energy originates in the blank, and is released in the blank. Your task
is to complete this sentence,” he said.
I took a deep breath and filled the sentence in the only way it was logical to me.

“Energy originates in the foot, or ground, and is released in the hands,” I said
emphatically.
“You nailed it on the head,” he said to me hiding a half-smirk that was growing
on his face.

“Before I reveal to you the meaning of the peach tree emblem, you must pass
one more quiz. Are you ready?” he asked me. I nodded in the positive.

Looking at the clear blue sky the sun rays were warmed my interior as I prepared
myself for the final question to become the next generation lineage holder of
Wu’s system.

“What are the three modes of transmitting energy?” he asked me. I thought the
question was going to be more sphinx-like but it ended up being within my
sphere of thought.

“The mind, the breath, and the sexual essence, or jing

(from the kidneys & sexual organ),” I said hesitantly.

“I couldn’t have answered it better myself,” Wu admitted.

He went on to explain to me that the symbol of the peach was a representation of
a technique that his teacher taught can excel one’s rooting ability. The technique
was called, “Squatting Monkey Holds Peach on Hind Leg.”

If you practiced this technique for ten minutes a day, the legendary Bell-Cover
would envelope the practitioner—making him impossible to uproot by dedicated
men.

Wu explained to me that this was only the introduction phase of his teaching and
the other two tiers where more important, from an advanced degree perspective.

To execute this technique, you only need to stand upright with feet touching
together, side by side. Then bend the knees and keep the head upright, and the
spine well aligned. Kick out one leg about a foot in front of the other one and
rest it on the heel.

Rest all the weight on the back foot, relaxing your whole body. Finally you need
to relax your arms and let them dangle between your lets. Point downward with
both hands and make sure the palms face each other about six inches apart. Point
the tips close to each about one inch, until our hands form a downward triangle.
Breathe deep from the belly, raising the spirit above the crown of the head.
When you exhale, focus downward through the floor or ground.
Wu gave me a big hug and said Asalaamualaikim. He was in a hurry to pick up
his wife Fatima from the Airport. The next day was Friday, Jummah in Arabic,
and we would meet up around twelve noon to head to the local Masjid for
congregational prayers. Life was again beginning to get interesting!

Same as picture, only prop out one foot on your heel,

hold all the weight on a single leg below the foot.

CHAPTER FIVE
INTELLECTIC ARBITRATION
Weeks past like the wind, and Wu always reminded me of the importance of
utilization of time. He had interesting little things he would do that were curious
to me. He would never drink socially and insisted it was only for serious
studying matters. According to him, coffee was a special mental activator that
should only be used sparingly, since it stimulated the adrenal glands.

I was starting to catch on to these little peculiars and even implemented them
into my own life. Another interesting thing was that he never let anyone wash
his clothes. I would visit him and he would be behind a big sink with a wash bin
scrubbing away. His motto was to never buy something you don’t need. I guess a
washer machine was out of the question. I had a hunch that he was also doing
this for other reasons. He has forearms that look like they belong to a grizzly
bear.

We spent the past weeks going over ever detail of the Yang Tai Chi Long form.
He corrected numerous subtleties in my form that seemed minute, but actually
made a big difference in the naturalness and chi flow during the forms. Today
there would be no lesson—Wu wanted me to come over the house for a chit chat.
Such occasions usually made me feel a little nervous, but in a good way.

We sat in his study room and the tea pot began to whistle. The tea was flowing
and after about three baby-cups, Wu announced that he wanted to reveal some
things to me.
“Our studies are coming along wonderfully. Today I want us to take a rest and
reflect on a few issues. I want to speak to you about something I call, THE
LONG LOST DISCIPLINE. We can speak frankly because we are both brothers,
Muslims.

In ancient China the learned men took up the art of many disciplines for various
reasons. Through out the past few hundred years the art I am going to speak to
you about has been lost. The reason that it has been lost is because the minds of
men have become robotic. They are no longer introspective and curious as they
used to be.

These days everyone is distracted by Hollywood and beautiful woman. This is

the reason I found the best believing woman I could that also possessed stunning
beauty. Now I am no longer distracted by other woman, because in my eyes she
is the apple of my destiny. You should also find one like this. You are ripe of
knowledge and your loins are made of fire at your age. At least they were when I
was your age.

I am an herbalist in my spare time. I concoct the best elixirs to keep myself vital
and full of energy. I practice Gong-fu with a reckless abandon to wield my body
into a fine tuned machine. More important than all of this is the soul’s journey
after death. We are Muslims and must act accordingly. The knowledge of self or
the nafs, has been explained in full detail for our revival. The key’s to the unseen
are with ALLAH SWT alone. Our only secret weapon is prayer and
righteousness.”
Wu was beginning to get long winded, but he had my utmost attention. “We
supplicate to our creator to help us, heal us, feed us, guide us, and forgive us.
Every man has a date with destiny. Our ultimate fate is death. It looms in our air-
space like the oxygen we breathe. Our faith is constructed from the signs (ayats)
that ALLAH S.W.T has laid out for us in plain view. It is written that even if we
live a thousand years, we will still face death. It is the allotment of every human
soul.”

“The question for us is how can we prolong it? No man of strong will would
willingly lie down and let death over take him. We are men of knowledge
seeking the best of wisdom from our Creator. This is the explanation of the lost
discipline. Men of old searched for immortality but could never reach it. These
are the facts of life. In the meantime I have come across a code written in the
books of God that may help us stave off deaths call. We know that we can die at
any given moment. This is the destiny of each man before his creator. Until this
time we must strive against the reaper. After our prayers, our recitations, our
obligations, this is the only noble effort we have left. My question to you is this.
Are you up for the task?”

“I am in the same boat as you. If you know a path or an approach, let’s give it a
shot,” I said enthusiastically. Wu would go on to reveal to me his plan of
approach. It is rather intricate but I will try to lay it out in the open for the reader
as best as I can.
The theory that Wu explained to me includes a few things. Firstly, the ancient
texts, such as The Lost Book of Enki point to a race on earth some ten thousand
years ago that had the technology for long life spans. They have pictographs
showing the tree of life for those with eyes to see. In order to decode what this
tree is, we had to turn to the Quran Chapter Najm (Stars) and read until we come
to the verse where the Prophet of God saw the tree in the heavenly abode during
the miraj (night ascension). The tree in Arabic is called Seraj Muntaha (the lote-
tree.) The translators say that this tree is no other than the Jujube-tree. The
pictures show a tree that resembles the Date-tree. This tree is also mentioned as a
food source for humans in Surah Baqara verse twenty-two. The word used is
thsamara, which is translated as fruits, but from my understanding of Arabic is
indicating the Date fruit.

In the books translated from the age of the Sumerians, the elites claimed to have
lived thousands of years and took sustenance from a fruit elixir. This is
interesting because the book of Genesis from the Torah also mentions fruits and
vegetation as a preferable food source for humans, before any mention of meat
and grains.

The first mention of grains around the time of Abraham also indicates the drop
of mankind’s lifespan. The ages drop from around four-hundred to one-hundred
and fifty with in the span of a few generations. Scientist’s are now showing that
the Gluten in bread is not so agreeable with humans compared to other foods.
This is also interesting because

experienced ancient-Taoist’s spoke of the intestinal worms caused from grains

that robbed man of his long life. Fasting from grains for ninety days is needed to
dispel the microscopic intestinal worms from the body. This they say is the key
to long life. This also fits hand and glove with the indications we see from
Prophetic scripture. Mr. Wu was onto something big, and I was just happy to be
around for the whole ordeal.

Grains are the first component as Wu explained to me. The others have to deal
with chemicals found in Astragalus root that prolong the life cycle of
Telomerase in the genetic code. Once the specific enzyme in the root activates
the series of gene codes in the DNA, the ability for the cell to keep reproducing
past the Hayflick limit is possible, which is about forty to sixty times in a
human’s lifespan.

According to Wu, the real secret is to reduce the amount of calorie intake in a
single day to the exact amount needed. Also the intake of fruits and vegetables,
rice and occasional meat would reduce the amount of work the cells usually
perform to process the wheat-grains. Eventually cutting out rice would also be
needed for advanced aging.

The unknown was in front of us, and the idea of prolonging life past a hundred
and twenty almost felt scary. Wither we succeeded or not made no difference,
Wu said.

The other side of the coin was a strict physical regiment. Wu was formulating a
strict system of Nei-Kung and Gong-fu that would be needed for strong bones,
ligaments and muscles, if the task was to be feasible.
CHAPTER SIX
GUNG-FU HARD

(The first mention in Chinese history of a system of movements, proper to

maintain health and cure disease, dates back to pre-historic times, the time of the
Great Yu, when the country was inundated, and the atmosphere was nearly
always wet and unhealthy, and disease overflowed, so to speak, the earth.

The Emperor ordered his subjects each day to take military exercise. The
movements, which they were thus obliged to make, contributed not a little to the
cure of those who were languishing, and to maintain the health of those who
were well.

In the time of Yu, the waters did not flow on course-- the rivers did not follow
their ordinary channels, which developed a number of maladies. The Emperor
instituted the dances named Ta Wu, the Great Dances.

The native author, who reports this tradition, adds that the life of man depends
upon the union of heaven and earth. The subtle material circulates in the body;
and if the body is not kept in movement the humors do not flow, the matter
collects, and from such obstruction disease originates. The great philosophers
explained in a similar way the cause for the most part of maladies.
But that which is especially remarkable in the Chinese tradition is that moisture
and stagnant water are considered the source of the endemic and epidemic
maladies, and that an efficient means to prevent them consists in the regular
exercise of the body or in the circling dances.

These movements tend in effect to produce a centrifugal result, from the centre
to the circumference, very suitable to restore the functions of the skin, and to
give tone and vigor to the whole economy. These dances form part of the
institutions of the Empire.

We read in the life of Confucius that he applied himself to perfect himself in all
these exercises. Regular movements were used to develop physical force; skill to
maintain the health and to combat certain diseases. After the period of
movement for the cure of disease, came the period of healing by the virtues of
plants, according to Chinese tradition. Although Fu-hsi had begun thus to cure
maladies, the art is particularly ascribed to Shen Nung (about 3218 B.C.). He
distinguished all the plants, and determined their different properties. The first
Great Herbal is ascribed to him.

The term Gung-fu means work-man, the man who works with art, to exercise
one's self bodily, the art of the exercise of the body applied in the prevention or
treatment of disease, the singular postures in which certain Taoists hold
themselves.
The expression Kung-fu (#) is also used, meaning work done. The term Kung-fu,
labor or work, is identical in character and meaning with the word Congou,
applied in the South to a certain kind of tea. In China it is applied medically to
the same subjects as are expressed by the German Heil Gymnastik as: Curative
Gymnastics, French Kinesiology, and the Science of Movement.

Among the movements which are embraced within the domain of this method
are massage, friction, pressure, percussion, vibration, and many other passive
movements, of which the application made with intelligence produces essential
hygienic and curative results.

My attention was first called to the Notice of P. Amiot, now nearly thirty years
ago, by the following communication from a friend in Edinburgh, "The Chinese
have a mode of treating many diseases by various ways of breathing while the
patients are placed in previously determined positions, which vary according to
the nature of the disease. The treatment is called Gung-fu.”

Thus Gung-fu, in its primitive institution, appears as a souvenir of the Tree of

Life, under which man of the first days came, after his labors, to shelter his
forces and his health and conserve his soul, still pure, a docile instrument of his
will. Such are the principles upon which reposes the theory of Kung-fu of the
Chinese, like that of their chemical and pharmaceutical medicine, and also that
of their religious, social, and philosophic doctrines; for the Chinese, whatever be
their studies of man or the institutions which concern him, carry always their
considerations into all the elements of his nature and his constitution.) - Kung-
Fu, or Taoist Medical Gymnastics, by John Dudgeon
After my long chit-chat with Mr. Wu on his well plotted out project, I was
beginning to wonder if I really wanted to be an active participant in such an
endeavor. I was wondering how I would fare without eating grains. The truth of
the matter is that bread is one of my favorite food-stuffs. Even if I couldn’t
uphold my end of the bargain, I was sure that the information and experience
learned would prove to be invaluable.

While lying on my bed thinking of such affairs, my phone rung, it was Wu with
some urgent information. He would be leaving to China with his wife on
Thursday. It was already Tuesday morning, and he told me to again take a few
days to relax, as the real work was about to begin.

“On Friday stop in after the Jummah prayer. My worker has a key with
instructions for you to go to my farm house and train. I have already prepared
the accommodations for you. My wife and I are leaving tonight on some
business to Madrid. I won’t see you until I return from China, inshALLAH.

I need to visit my Sifu in Shanghai, and gather the proper herbs, roots, and seeds
we will need to further our experimentations. There is a golden notebook under
the pillow of the bed in the farmhouse. Read it well and begin your practice on
Monday morning for a thirty day training cycle. All the instructions for you are
in the notebook. I should see you in six weeks time. Train hard! Maa’ Salaam.”
I decided to relax for a few days before showing up at Wu’s store for the key. His
attendant was happy to see me and made me sit down to eat lunch with him. I
was anxious to journey to the country side and surprised that Wu had put such
great trust in me in such as short amount of time since meeting him. The truth is
that when you connect with someone on a spiritual level, your trust in them
becomes unwavering.

I jumped into the first cab I could flag down and handed the driver the piece of
paper that had his address written on it in English. I was about a twenty minute
trip outside of Arianna to a cute little plot of land that he had marked off by a
wiry fence, bushes and lots of trees growing around the perimeter of his
property. I knew that wood was scarce in this part of the world, so I wasn’t
surprised that his house was build out of bricks and mortar.

The door had a heavy duty bolted lock that snapped back after I turned the key.
The walls were all painted white with a small bathroom and shower in back left
hand corner of the house. This was one of the perks of having a farm house in
Tunisia. The plumbing seemed to be working well after I tested out the water
pressure, and flushed the toilet to make sure I wouldn’t die from my own odors.

The kitchen had a small marble counter top with a portable electric oven sitting
on top of it. A cutting board, knifes, silver wear, plates, cups, and pots were all
sitting neatly on a shelf next the dish wash soap. Next to the kitchen was a closet
that had clean sheets, towels, and soap in it. There was a mop bucket sitting in
the corner of the kitchen with a mop hand sticking out of it.
The place looked fully equipped and it seemed that Wu came here quite often as
a sort of retreat from town life.
The living and sleeping quarters were united into one big room. No T.V,
appliances or any other distractions existed in the room.

I walked over to a small double bed that was partially shielded by a curtain
handing from a small rope tied to two nails coming out of the opposite walls. I
sat on the bed and dug my hand under the pillow. The note book was golden-
yellowish about the thickness of a small journal book.

On the first page was a loose piece of paper that had written on it: Instructions
for William.

Follow the diet plan and workout regimen exactly as I have described in the
following pages. The herbs you will need to take are in the small cabinet in the
kitchen next to the dishes. You will need to buy other items at a small store at the
end of the farm road. The store owners name is Yusif Ali. He has fruits,
vegetables, rice, oil, milk, honey, etc. There is scale next to the bed with a note
book on the counter. Keep track of your weight and food intake daily. Write them
down in the journal. This is very important as I will use this information to
gauge calorie intake needed to sustain a human while performing my exercise
plan. Don’t do more or less. Follow the plan to a T and don’t exert yourself
beyond casual walking. The instructions are a written in the notebook. Keep me
in your prayers- Wu
I layed down on the bed and got comfortable. I opened the notebook and began
to read page for page the about the workout routine. The workout was to start
two hours after breakfast as instructed by Wu. I was to proceed into the Nei-
Gung stretching and movements and then I was to begin the 103 Yang Tai Chi
long form. After this I was to hydrate with a glass of water, and begin the Gung-
Fu plan that he had delineated in this notebook.

The Nei-Gung was the stuff we had did together, from what I could gather from
the pictures in the notebook. The Gung-Fu was the new stuff. Hundreds of
strikes, punches, and kicks orchestrated to work out the complete body. The
stance work was standard Buku intended to strengthen the legs, waist and lower
back. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, the end of work out seemed
to be the most strenuous.

He wanted me to run for thirty minutes around the perimeter of his farm. Then I
was to do various combinations of leg squats and bends.

Finally there was pictures of push ups positions, sit up variations, and what
looked like static yoga holds for upper body and shoulder strength. I didn’t see
the pull up bar when I first arrived on his land, but it sat just against the back
side of house. The pictures in the notebook showed many variations of pull ups
that were to be performed daily.
At the very end of the book were pictures of isometric contractions that showed
the amount of seconds to hold them, the positions, and the amount of sets. I
noticed an insert in the back of the book that looked like a stapled together
pamphlet. It was my meal plan, as Wu had calculated my weight and needed
calorie intake into a perfect formulae based on the exercises I would be
performing. I was starting to feel tired just from the thought of all the work outs.
I guess when you’re compelled to do something, the feeling always comes over
you to rebel and get out of the situation.

I couldn’t believe what I had gotten myself into. I don’t think I was really up for
all this discipline. I started to feel like I joined the military and tomorrow would
be the first day of boot camp. Shit! What have I done? I thought to myself. The
feeling started to dissipate as I walked around his land and grope the various
opulent trees that were growing there. Apple trees, Palm trees, Fig trees, and a
nice assortment of flowers and bushes spread out across his land.

I walked through a path of bushes and come into a small marked off area and
noticed a small green house. I walked through the wooden door and saw all the
pots and bags of fertilizer sitting around the inside of the place. No plants were
growing inside as of yet. It looked like he just started the operation and was
ready to transplant some seedlings sometime soon.

The aura of the place made me feel at ease and comfortable. I stood by the apple
tree and found a flat plot of earth to work on my Tai Chi postures. The air was
fresh and alive. I thought it would be a good time to head to the grocery store to
stock up on supplies. I had a quick glance over at the meal plan booklet inserted
in Mr. Wu’s golden notebook. Here is an example of some of the meals:

Breakfast
1 Apple
1 Boiled Egg
1 Cup Green Tea
Water

Lunch
½ Cup Rice with Mixed Vegetables
Cooked in Olive Oil with Onion, Pepper, Garlic
1 Plain Yogurt Natural
Green Tea
Water

Dinner
1 cut up Chicken Breast cooked with mixed
vegetables with spices of preference
½ cup of rice
7 dates
I counted in his booklet over twenty variations of different dishes that were made
up of rice, chicken breast, and fish. I noticed there was no beef on the menu to
my great disappointment. The other items were different kinds of fruits, salads,
and nuts. I wasn’t very fond of nuts so I stayed away from buying them.

Also Wu was very explicit about not eating any processed sugars. I was allowed
to buy honey to mix with my yogurt and morning mush (cooked rice, milk,
dates, banana.)
As I was walking back from the store I realized that there was a few items I
would need to return home for. I needed my shampoo, my coffee machine,
coffee, filters, etc. I also needed my warm blanket and a few more clothing
items.

Sitting in the cab, I starred out the window as night had drawn over earth like a
silent-phantom. Gazing at the city lights and the shop signs, I began to think of a
conversation Wu and I had about Mo-Pai. He claimed that it originated as an
offshoot practice from the mystical Maoshan’s of the Taoist priesthood. He told
me it gave the practitioner the ability to generate electrical force or jing at higher
propensity than usual.

“It is useless, Wu said. All of the abilities such as lighting things on fire and
shocking people can replicated by a simple butane lighter and a modern taser-
gun. It is unproven in healing people and I have seen many of its practitioners
themselves fall very ill at normal ages. The downside is that its practitioners
summon spirit/djin (in the west known as demons from which we get the word
genius and genie) and thus go against the law of the Prophets, as God has
warned us of its foolishness in the scriptures.”

When I asked him about abstaining from sex to build up jing he had a big laugh.
“Long life from storing up generative-sexual energy is a myth.

The very Priest that taught it died young. I have seen men practice nothing and
live to a hundred. So if they are teaching immortality and die at eighty, then what
does this tell us about the practice?”

I love how Wu spoke from logic and common sense. These are two qualities that
most hucksters don’t possess while being fooled into buying books like, Taoist
Yoga & Immortality.

I was sent this book in the mail by a friend that lives in Paris, France. I spend a
good half hour going through the book as I am accustomed to speed reading
before I really dive into something. I was shaking my head on almost every page
in disbelief. I don’t know if it was just me but it seemed that every page was a
rehashing of the last page. Words like elixir, dan tien, cauldron, and circulation
were used hundreds of times through out the text.
I wonder if the participants in practicing Taoist Yoga have ever asked themselves
how long the originators of the art lived. To get the answer to this question might
reveal a startling revelation of the authenticity of the practice.
Here is a review that I posted on Amazon.com pertaining to my thoughts on the
book, in jesting fashion.

TAOIST YOGA: ALCHEMY & IMMORTALITY

By P’ Chen Chao

Unsubstantiated tomfoolery,

This book is filled with fantastic-fictitious ideas. There is almost zero evidence to
substantiate anything that is written within it. If you loved this book, then you
must have been a "sold-believer" before reading it. I received this book in the
mail from a friend that thought I would be impressed by the lunatic-jargon
proposed in the various chapters.

I teach tai chi so he may have thought that I would be a "naive-sucker" for this
kind of balderdash. Folks lets get real. You will never be immortal, and definitely
not from "rolling your eyes certain ways," "swallowing spit," and "never having
conjugal relations." This book goes against everything natural in my opinion.
Falun Gong cults.
The so called secret methods fall in-line with the
Has anyone ever heard of "the placebo effect?" That's all
the benefits you will gain from this kind of book; if you
are deceived enough to follow this chicanery with any
kind of seriousness. I'm sorry to zero-in negatively, but
someone has to rebuke this kind of junk literature, so
people will wake up and smell the coffee. I could sum up
the high points of this philosophy in a few points.

1. Breathe deep and naturally.

2. Exercise, and eat healthy
3. Live a righteous life, control your sexual desires.

There you have it. God gave man light or chi. God gave us bio-electric nervous
systems, or jing. God gave us a mind and will power or Yi. These three
components can be maximized by righteous wholesome living practices. A young
child has more natural kundalini activation than these so called quasi yogi-
monks. The only secret to behold is that all this hog wash messes with the body's
natural mode of homeostasis. The summation of secrets is that the writer has
secured your hard earned money for leading another dumb-donkey to an empty
trough. Thanks for your time.
Good day.

Here is another short review that I wrote for the book about John Chang in
relation to Mo-Pai:

Nei Kung: The Secret Teachings of the Warrior Sages

By Kosta Danaos
Like most books, A-lot of hot air and little helium
Danoas is a creative writer but strays far off topic, in my humble opinion. If I
had to rate him on his writing ability I would give him four stars; but I gave the
book two stars for bringing the monkeys to the tree and giving them no banana's.
I left this copy and the Magus of Java in a hotel room in Tunisia. The reason, my
bags were too heavy and I knew that the book was "dead weight." The best
entertaining book I have read on energy transfer was, "The martial cocoon."
(AD FOR MY BOOK) What you find out in this book is these gentlemen are
contacting (Djin/Demon) like spirits, and this is the actual source of John
Changs ability. The meditation
only brings him in contact with these beings, as he calls on them according to
this book. This is actually sorcery. Beware!
I pray you glad tidings,

Peace!

These reviews didn’t fair well with some of the readers, but I felt it was
important to put a word out for anyone seeking the truth of the matter. A baby
has to fall many times before he learns to walk, such is the progression of mans
mental faculties.

When questioning Wu about sex he told me, “My Chi has increased with regular
relations with my wife. If people claim to be at loss, then they aren’t
supplementing correctly.”
On another occasion he said, “If it was true that the Chi lost during sex can never
be regained, I would rather die at a normal age and continue making love, then
to dream about immortality as a desperate-destitute man, never having
copulated. It’s about the journey, never the destination. If I die tomorrow then
that is okay with me if it is my destiny.”

And during another conversation he revealed to me,

“Chinese know a lot about Wu Wei, Song, and Chi, but they
know little about enlightenment. Sitting in a cave
dreaming about reincarnation is the summit of ignorance.
Enlightenment doesn’t come from the emptying of the
mind, but rather it comes by filling it up with the right
stuff.”

Once I walked in his shop and his nephew was watching something on TV. that
appeared gruesome. Wu scolded him and told him to turn it off, and to get back
to his studies. He looked at me and said, “Concerning things of sensory
information, such as: TV, Movies, and radio; if it is partially poisonous reject the
whole of it. It is not important enough to sift out the truth from such
demoralizing nonsense.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
INDUCTION

I finally made it back to the farm land before ten a.m. with my supplies. I turned
on a small lamp next to the bed and thumbed through the golden note book to get
a full understanding of the next day’s events. I washed up, made my
supplications, and tucked myself in bed. I slept like an anesthesia patient. It only
seemed like moments before I would open my eyes and hear the barking of
roosters before sunrise.

I washed up, prayed, and started making a hot cup of coffee. Wu would have
rejected the idea of such dark-oily drink so early in the morning, but I was my
own man, with my own bad habits. I boiled an egg while eating an apple and
walking around the small house. I noticed a small picture underneath the glass
cover on Wu’s writing desk. There was a small drawer and when I opened it, I
felt like I hit the jackpot. There was a stack of manuals written Chinese that were
signed with his name.

I wondered why he never mentioned it to me. I sat drinking my coffee scanning

through the pages looking at the hand drawn pictures on each page. One seemed
to be a manual on sword play. On the last few pages there was a technique that
showed how draw in close to a sword wielder without getting stabbed. The
movement was a zigzag stepping motion that reminded me of an old Apache
trick they used when trying to avoid getting shot by wild-eyed cowboys.
The technique in my mind seemed to work quite well. If you analyze the
movement of a fruit-fly, or a mosquito, you will notice that they love to fly in
those awkward zigzag patterns.

I refilled my coffee and opened up another manual. My interest had peeked at

this point, as the coffee was just starting to stimulate the inner core of my brain. I
love that feeling. I couldn’t read any of the manuals, but the pictures for me were
enough to deduce what message they were trying to convey. Some of the things I
won’t speak about due to the secrecy of the information pertaining to certain
techniques.

Another manual I called, “The Full Body Armor Blocking Book.” It has pictures
of various ways to intercept incoming strikes from the head down to the groin.
The main focus was to protect Dim-Mak points from being hit. At the end of the
manual it shows how to make a make shift forearm shield out of cut up socks
and a rocker’s spiked leather belt. Those little elevated metal nodes would serve
as a damaging landing pad for any would be striker.

The blocks are systematic from the crown of the head, down to the groin. The
manuals that I can’t speak on pertain to striking points and angle positioning
during combat. At the request of Wu, I have been asked not to provide this
information in any form of written literature or book format. I decided it was
time to get to work as two hours had passed bye quickly.
I took my time breathing the fresh morning-dew air and concentrated on each
stretching movement and position. I made it through the whole Nei-Kung routine
in about twenty minutes. Now it was time for the Yang style long form. I like to
take my time and focus on each position through out the form. After I completed
the three sections I could feel my body starting to warm up and my blood
circulation improving.

I didn’t start the Gong-Fu training until after lunch. I seemed to be fighting the
hunger pains as my body was calling out to me for some fresh baked bread. I had
to fight the feeling. I knew the first week would be the hardest. I have read
torturous stories of people trying to get off bread, and the pains that it involves.
It is not an easy task, in any event.

It was only day one and I was hurting. My body was calling out for more food,
and it was time to get down and dirty with the more rigorous training. I started
with the kicks, punches and postures. I began to break out into a full bore sweat.
The horse riding stance was starting to kill me. I was instructed to hold it until
failure, and then to reset the position to again reaching failure. I was to repeat
this until fifteen minutes past.

I finally made it through all the stances and began the calisthenics work. Push
ups, sit ups, squats all were done to fifty repetitions, three sets each. By the time
I made it to the pull up bar, I had no gas left in the tank. I could barley do five
chin ups. I decided to just hang on the bar for the remaining sets. It took me an
additional thirty minutes to finish all the static isometric work. I was in
shambles. I hurried to the shower and stood in the warm water for a good ten
minutes.
I put on my galabeya (white mulsim outfit for men)
and made my way to the living room for supplications. Afterwards I prepared
chicken, rice and vegetables for dinner. I sat on the bed for a good hour before
realizing I had another set of Nei-Kung and Tai Chi to do before bed.

I took my time putting on some light cotton clothes and walked out into the front
courtyard next to his garden. I waited to after the maghrib prayer (sunset prayer)
and finished my workout routine. I was ready to sleep before the night prayer,
but forced myself to stay awake. I took notes of the day’s activities as Wu
instructed and stood on the scale for my official way in. I was shocked. I seemed
to have lost four pounds in one day. I thought that this must have been mostly
water weight.

Over the next few days I would lose less weight, day in and day out. I was still
losing weight rather quickly, and after the first week I had dropped a total of
twelve pounds. The second week I lost ten, and by the third week I lost four. I
went from two-hundred and five pounds to about one-hundred and eighty
pounds in a total of four weeks. The last week my body kept its weight.

CHAPTER EIGHT
THE RETURN OF WU

After thirty days on the farm I decided it was time to head home to my apartment
in downtown Tunis. It almost didn’t feel like home when I walked through the
door. Two later I received a call from Wu to meet him at the park on a Saturday
morning. I had sweated out too many nights on that farm and it was now July.
The heat was on and I needed the accommodation of Air Conditioning.

I don’t keep a T.V in my apartment, so I didn’t miss such devices while on the
farm working out. I feel that it was actually good for my soul and my will power.
I felt a sense of accomplishment upon arriving home, and decided bread really
wasn’t that important. I was feeling and looking better than ever, so why go back
to the lecherous opiate?

Wu was at the park early stretching out as usual. We embraced and I handed him
his key.

“You look like a new man,” he said with enthusiasm.

“I feel like one,” I said.

“Did you find the manuals?” Wu asked.

“Which ones,” I answered.

“I guess you found them all then, good for you,” he said.
“Have you heard of Codex Alimentarius? He asked me with a concerned look
on his face. Those damn fascist communist want to restrict natural herbs and
supplements. They want to make it all illegal!

This was the main reason I left to China with my wife. I had to buy up all the
seeds I need for my farm before the hand of the law restricts it.”

I had heard of this in the news and was also shocked at such a proposition by the
government. It was another example of big government taking the rights away
from the citizens. It’s rather pitiful if you think about it. Every thing nowadays is
a law suite or restriction.

I sat down on the bench with Wu and took a tea break after our workout. He
explained to me that in order for us to reveal anything about the aging process
and grains, we had to stay away from wheat for ninety days. Then we should
start seeing real results and never go back to eating it. It was a sort of pact
between us, and in a way, we gained esteem from feeding off each others
optimism.
These kinds of things are often easy when done in a group to find support during
times of discomfort and doubt.
Wu and I spend the afternoon at his farm preparing the seeds for sprouting
before transplantation into the bigger pots. He showed me all the roots and herbs
he had bought in China. He had hundreds of bags of seeds that
he purchased at wholesale price for the lowest rates possible. These seeds should
last us a lifetime, he said. Since our plants and vegetation would produce their
own seeds, and the cycle should take us to the end of our lives.

I gave Wu my journal and told him that I followed his plan exactly as he had laid
it out. He told me that at this point it was important to start resting two days a
week. Restoration he claimed was the key to continuation. I told him about my
sore knee and he prepared a spot on the floor for a healing session.

“This is your last important lesson,” he explained to me.

“Remember when I asked you about the three modes of energy emission?”

“Yes I do,” I said while lying on a floor mat.

“Well there are actually four modes. The forth is light-Qi that is emitted by the
heart-centre. This Qi is the highest form of energy that I know, and only comes
from a clean heart.”
He started to rub my knee with what looked like hot olive oil and pressed deeply
into the inflamed area. Know I know where the saying “It hurts so good” comes
from.
Wu made a supplication and started by saying, “Bismelah Ar-rahman Ar-
raheem,” and rubbed with light pressure to my sore knee. It was the grace of
God because before I could hardly walk without a limp, and two days later after
two more sessions, the pain was gone completely.

Wu began to speak, “You see it is only God that heals, although he has given us
many ways of approaching the healing process. I gave you herbs, aloes, and oils,
but I also prayed to God, used the human touch and heart energy, to help remedy
your condition. All the modes of curing God created, as the Prophet Muhammad
has said, “For every disease there is a cure.” “

“All the gates to wisdom are opened through prayer. A man can ask God
concerning anything, and with patience he may come to a full knowledge of the
issue, inshALLAH.”

Holy Quran, Chapter Baqara 2, Verse 255

“ALLAH (GOD) none has the right to be worshiped but him, The ever living,
The all sustainer, Neither sleep or slumber overtakes him. To him belongs what
ever is in the heavens and earth. Who is there that can intercede with him but by
his permission? He knows what will happen to them in this life, and also the here
after, and none can encompass his knowledge except that which he wills. His
throne extends over the heavens and the earth; as he feels no fatigue in guarding
and preserving them, he is the most High the most Awesome.”

BOOK THREE
GUARDING THE NECTAR

INTRODUCTION
If you read, “The Long Lost Discipline,” you will have an inkling of what Mr.
Wu and I have been up to since I relocated to Tunisia. The struggles that exist
inside man that pertain to his belly are monstrous. The dieting practices of Bigu
are replete with inner turmoil and challenges. The tapestry of good eating
practices in the world of Bigu consists of eating various assortments of nutritious
foods, aside from grain and detestable’s (Pigs, Snakes, Scorpions, Bugs etc.)
The route of longevity is a long winding road that has few short cuts. Aside from
the eating aspect of fighting the aging process, the other dilemma exists in the
world of the physical. All the details of these processes are delineated in “The
Long Lost Discipline.”

Mr. Wu and I trained hard together in Nei Gung, Tai Chi, and Gung Fu. The
harder exercises like squats, kicks, leg stretches, and isometrics are usually
avoided by most supposed virtuosos in the Nei Jia (Internal Family.) Push ups
and Pull ups were the most rewarding in terms of molding the muscular system,
but they are the most difficult to approach in terms of having a joyful moment.
Work is just that, it is work. If you are having too much fun and your workouts
are easy, then you probably are beholding limited benefits.

If you enjoy pigging out on bread, donuts, pies, and cakes, then the traumatizing
effects of refined sugar and breads will begin to catch up to you and bloom into
full blown diabetes, cancer, or heart disease. The body just doesn’t enjoy
breaking down the large doses of gluten and chemically contaminated sugar.

Do you think there is a reason that most political elites don’t touch candy,
packaged sweets, and soda? There is a reason, although you may not like coming
to this realization. But in life, you must be optimistic and willing to bend to the
will of your knowledge.

Living in Tunisia, I am becoming more optimistic then an obese man in a buffet

line. I love to joke about eating because it is one of my favorite old-pastimes. I
am trying to learn to curb those ungodly cravings for horrible things like cheese
cake, and cookies. Only time will tell if I can continue holding back the
passionate cravings for those ill tampered sweetened foods. I have built a dam of
reason and logic as a flood gate, to hold back the shifting surging waters of
compulsive eating habits.

CHAPTER ONE
The Break of Dawn

The dusk crept upon the city of Tunis like an owl hunting down a field mouse.
The recent political uprisings sprouted out a full fledged insurrection here in the
capital of Tunis, Tunisia. Riots, blocked roads, gun fire, helicopters, barricades,
tanks, yelling madmen, and martial law all appeared into my reality within the
short span of a few days.

The last I had heard there was rallies in colleges against the government and
their Mafioso style business taxations. Stories of business owners being muscled
out of their money were common conversations amongst the average population.
A man set himself on fire because he had a college degree and couldn’t find
work. He did what any man would do and gathered fruits to put on a cart to sale
as a source of income to support his wife and kids.

He was banned by the government to partake in such endeavors. There would be

no free enterprise, and the man came to such desperate times that he set himself
on fire in protest of the laws and policies. Now I disagree with his decision to
engulf himself in a torch of flames, but in his withered spirit the disillusionment
took hold and the worst thing possible was the end result.

From this single event, the old president and regime would be pushed out of
Tunis with in the span of a week. Him and his family fled for their lives as the
anger of protestors could be felt within the ether of the city limits. For five days I
was holed up in my apartment with limited water and food supply’s. Once the
hard core demonstrations began, and the president was ousted, the old security
forces hit the streets in order to create chaos. The military had been asked to turn
on the protesting population but refused. Thank God.

For a few days you could here guns shots between the old security forces of the
regime and the Military forces. The military troops protected the civilians and
their business from the madness of the secret CIA style security mafias. For days
the Military spent its resources rounding up remnants of the old regime. Two
snipers were shot dead on top of a building when the Military located them from
the eyes of a black hawk helicopter. Snipers were reported to have been shooting
at civilians during the protests in order to provoke further unrest.

Communities and Business owners band together with families and formed road
blocks on almost every street in the country. The purpose of this was to catch all
the old security forces that were driving around with weapons creating havoc
breaking into businesses and torching the buildings. The new Giant food store,
which is called the Geant here in French or Arabic, was torched and looted.
A few suspicious men from Switzerland and Germany were captured at a road
block trying to get to the airport in a taxi. The search performed by civil security
teams located sniper weaponry and automatic machine guns. The European
newspaper reported that had gone to Tunisia to go Boar hunting and that they
were met head on by a mob. This is a laughable supposition since everyone on
Facebook saw the event unfold in front of their eyes via camcorder. Al Jazera &
Reuters reported on the event more honestly. I wasn’t surprised not to see this on
MSNBC or CNN. Selective reporting is running rampant these days, and I see
no signs of it improving.

Due to the velocity at which the whole ordeal took place, I wasn’t able to get to
the store in time to buy the items I would need. The day I realized all the stores
were closed, they had also imposed a 7 pm curfew on the streets. I walked into
my kitchen and made a quick inventory of my supplies. They were thin.

I had a bag of brown rice, two old bags of noodles (that I have stopped eating
since taking up Bigu) three grapefruit, a bag of tangerines, about twenty dates, a
half carton of milk, and only one bottle of water. I had no meat or vegetables in
the fridge. The only thing I had was garlic and green chili peppers.

The days would pass and my food supplies dwindled down to oblivion. I was
boiling tap water, and using it as drinking water. My stomach protested drink. I
felt sick, and the water tasted like chlorine, fluoride, and some other
unidentifiable chemical. After five days a small little snack shop opened up
around the corner of my house. All the other stores and grocers remained closed.
All they had was chips, soda, candy, muffins, chocolate etc.
I was not amused by the degenerate supply of snacks that I was reduced to
buying. I settled on a few packaged muffins, four tainted yogurts (the strawberry
flavored ones that are loaded with mysterious chemicals) a bag of chips, and two
bottles I thought were Sprite when I requested them for the purchase, but ended
up being carbonated water—which I was pleased to have over the sugary syrup
laced-soda death drink. Woohoo! They told me that they had no water or milk
for sale, but obviously didn’t know that the carbonated water wasn’t of the
sweetened variety.

A few more days would pass, and eventually my door man, who is a Godly man,
brought me eggs, French bread, yogurt, (chemically infested) and a good old
bruised apple. Thank God things went back to normal after a few more days of
wading around in my small apartment. Living through revolutionary times is like
trying to live with a root canal or rotted tooth; you just can’t seem to get
comfortable at any moment. A mouse fart could be mistaken for a hand grenade.

Sometimes having extra sensory perception can lead to extreme paranoia. Take
note if you are of the Kundalini breed. A laugh out load section in Glen Morris’s
book, “Path notes from an American Ninja” talks about his over obsessive
compulsion for yoga and Kundalini meditation.

One experience he reports that he almost passed out and died from the exertion
of energy transfused through his body, during a session. This and the Daoist
micro cosmic orbit exercises are versions of meditation gone extreme. Passing
bio-photonic light through the electric channels (nervous system) does create an
observable effect to the meditator. For what reason, one may ask. Just visualizing
heat into you hands and focusing on it can cause the same effect. The mind
directs the spirit (light) in or out of the body depending on ones region of focus
or intention.

A lot of quasi-gurus get lost in the sauce, so to speak. Their imaginations run so
wild, that they begin to believe in their own rare enlightenment illusions.
Enlightenment does not enter an individual simply because he sits in meditation
and directs his energy through meridians. Sensations occur even for the most
unenlightened sitters. Sensory perception may increase, but this in no way can be
quantified as the grand step into enlightenment. Egotistical power-hungry
meditation- men are of the worst breed. Their superiority complexes leave them
with a rare ugly feature of being unapproachable.

With the curfew ban on roaming the parks at night, I had no other choice but to
practice Internal Martial Arts indoor. I cracked my door open as a cool breeze
penetrated my living room. A light drizzle began to wet the glass windows on
my balcony door. The air was fresh and pleasant. I could see the last remnants of
rays from the sun dropping behind the skyline.

It was time for my evening prayer (maghrib.) I laid out my prayer rug and put on
my galebeya. Beyond the spiritual gifts of submitting to the creator there also
exists physical ones. While prostrating and bending in praise, the vertebrae in the
back bone stretch out—giving the whole spine a nice stretch out. It is the same
pulling effect internal martial arts teachers’ talk about when referring to
suspending the neck, straightening the back, and tucking in the tailbone.

I brewed a hot pot of green tea, and started to stretch out. Green tea never really
tasted that fascinating to me but I have to come to enjoy it more and more as the
years drift away. It’s easier on my system than coffee, and keeps me nice and
calm. It has a soothing effect that coffee could never deliver. Coffee on the other
hand can sometimes cause agitation and uneasiness in the drinker.

The winds blew smells from the adjacent apartments cooking their dinners. Most
Tunisians eat bread as a staple food. So when I told a man at a restaurant that I
didn’t need any bread with my meal, he almost went into a laughable frenzy. The
strictest of Bigu dieters don’t touch any of the grains and that includes rice. I
have found that rice is the only supposed grain that doesn’t contain Gluten, and
is highly agreeable with my digestive system.

I never feel bloated after eating it. I eat cream of rice every morning and have
never felt better since I stopped eating breads and pasta. I warn the reader that a
little bit of bread is needed sometimes since it contains the B complexes and
niacin that are essential. I can go weeks without eating bread and then I know
when its time to buy a loaf from the bakery. The feeling after eating it is of that
feeling after taking a drug like marijuana. Bread is a highly addictive substance.
You only understand the effects of it after getting off of it for long periods of
time. Its like that dizzy feeling you got the first time you tried to smoke a
cigarette.

Refer back to “The Long Lost Discipline” or my book “The Philanthropist” for
the codex and science behind the reason for bread robbing many years off of a
person’s life. Agricultural researchers list grain through out history as being a
relatively new diet fad. Although I slightly disagree with this argument, due to
the fact that grain was around in the time of Abraham and mentioned in Egypt,
during the plight of Joseph and imprisonment. I would opt to eat bread rather
than die in any situation. Bread tastes good and feels the belly like no other food.
It has saved many lives, so I don’t want to be misconstrued as saying it is a
useless grass. There is no arguing with science that confirms without a shadow
of a doubt the harshness of gluten on the human cell. It makes sense when you
think about it. The food that really makes you feel full is the one that satiates you
beyond easy digestion and absorption.

I poured my freshly brewed tea into a white coffee mug and sat it on my dining
room table. I flowed through the Yang style tai chi movements keeping my
vision outward, and moving as if my opponent was in front of me. If you can
stay relaxed for ten minutes doing the long form, envisioning the worst of
opponents in front of you, then it is relatively easy to relax in practice during
push hands, and in real life squabbles.

After the completion of the Yang style long form, I took a few sips of tea and
glanced out my window into the cool wet night. When the tea began to warm me
up beyond what is comfortable, I cracked the door back open and let the fresh air
massage my face. I sat the cup back down and thought to myself it was time to
get down to real business. This time during the opening, I closed my eyes and
went through the whole set blinded. This is a real challenge for the novice to
complete. Mr. Wu turned me on to this way to practice some weeks prior to the
insurrection of Tunis.
CHAPTER TWO
The Wudang Mission

I turned on my radio and sat looking out of my balcony door window. The Alex
Jones show seems to stick to the prevailing topic of Globalism. I feel deep down
that he is doing a good thing warning the population on what could happen in the
U.S if civil freedoms are taken from the people. During the show Alex’s voice
crescendo’s nervous excitement at least once every five minutes. You can only
take so much of the rehashing’s before you agitatedly flick off the digital radio
tuner from his daily live show broadcasted at Infowars.com

The day had past so quickly that I almost forgot to open my mail that was laid
out on my living room table. It was a letter from my Sifu Ma-Yi. The rush of
excitement filled my bones as I tore open the white envelope. I had sent Ma a
letter about two months prior to this event, and was waiting anxiously for a
response. I requested to him that he arrange some what of a meeting with the
hermit Muslim monk that he had told me so much about when I had visited
Wudang Shan. I getting those fidgety vibes and I knew it was time to make
another trip to China. I missed the simplistic life style of Ma and his cordial
continence. It was an itch I needed to scratch. I unfolded the letter and began to
read:

Dear William,
You have been missed in this part of the world. I hope that you will come and
visit us soon. Every day brings on new thoughts and strategies in this game we
call life. Alhamdulillah I have come across the old hermit monk that had taught
me so much, so long ago. He was on the brink of making a long voyage to the
Himalayas. I haven’t seen him in weeks. He must have departed on his own
time, as he did unannounced the first time I entered his company.

There has been in event that has startled me of lately. My brother in law had his
son visit us from England, as he stayed with my wife and relatives. I never invite
new friends to my hermitage in the wild. I was given two scrolls by the Hermit
Monk called, “The Nectar Scrolls.” He said that I had earned their safe keeping.
I took great burdens on myself to transliterate them into English. I only
translated the first scroll subtitled, “THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS” The second
scroll labeled, “THE SPIRITUAL ASPECTS,” has been misplaced or stolen. I
hate to make accusations and assumptions, but I had left them in my office
before leaving to my hut.

When I returned, my brother and laws son, and his son’s friend were gone. They
had traveled back to England. I just noticed shortly after that the scrolls were
missing. My youngest son said that he saw the two boys in my office the last
night before the departed China. I know that this may prove to be a burden for
you, but I have to ask your assistance in this manner, since you have passports,
and can attain visas of travel. I need you to go to London for me and try to
recover the scrolls that were taken. If you succeed, then photo copy them and
send them to my uncles email at WangXXXX@msn.com
I will be waiting anxiously for your reply. Email me your mails, as my uncle has
installed internet in the house, and my wife is able to type what I dictate to her. I
pray your good in health and Iman. May ALLAH SWT bring you wisdom and
truth, and protect you in the darkest hours. Amen.

Sincerely,
Ma Yi

P.S Included in this letter is the English copy of my translation from Chinese of
the first scroll. You may gain something from it. Although you are a bright boy
and may already know of its contents.

The two boys live in Kensington, Liverpool and train Ninpo at a Bunjinkon Dojo
nearby, according to my brother in law Guo. Their names are Mike Lee, and
Christopher. Guo forgot the other kid’s last name. Also his son Mike just moved
into a new apartment somewhere in the L7 District. Guo seems to not know of
his own kids where-abouts. Troubling facts!
Asalaamualaikim!

I sat up startled in my chair. How would I go to London and locate these chaps.
Also, why was his nephew studying Japanese Ninpo? I guess the grass always
appears greener on the other side of the fence. Nothing against Ninpo but it is a
fantasy art compared to the realities of the Nei Jia. My memories took me back
to the days when I would attend Taekwondo class with my friend Eric when I
was eleven years old. There is something good to be found in every class
scenario, no matter what the style may be.

But what was I about to get myself into? Traveling to England on a whim to
recover some lost scroll from the back lands of Wudang Shan, this was starting
to sound like a movie script. This was only a few dreamscapes away from, “The
Forbidden Kingdom” movie with Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. These were just kids
that probably got carried away in the moment and decided to use their Ninjitsu
skills to sneak in the closed quarters of Ma’s study room. An old scroll with
Chinese letters scribbled on it must have seemed like an excellent grab. First
sight of a few drawn images on the scroll would have seduced most young punks
to develop a hideous case of sticky fingers. Temptations like this reduce grown
men to the mental stature of Apes and Monkeys. Though stealing maybe a
degenerative thing to do, I had to have mercy for such actions when I think back
to my grand larceny days as a kid at baseball card shows. May God forgive me
for my lunacy during childhood.

During my long random thoughts on childhood I began to smell something

burning. It was the green peppers I was cooking in a pan with olive oil. I added
red chili powder and was going to wait to add the rice once the peppers started to
fry. The peppers were burnt charcoal black. My house smelt worse than a skunk
spraying down a dogwood tree. It smelled like a pepper bomb went off in my
apartment. The smoke began to bellow and fumigate. I swung open the balcony
door with my eyes burning from the fumes. I thought of the Ninja’s. Why didn’t
they use chili powder smoke bombs to deter their enemies?

I guess this is a good idea until a gust of wind blows the smoke into your own
eye’s and blinds you in the middle of a mission. On the other hand, a handful of
chili powder in an attackers face is just as good as, or better than mace.
I cleaned up my cooking disaster and sat back down after fixing a fresh pot of
peppers and oil. I wouldn’t dare making the same mistake twice, or the next door
neighbors might have a reason to escalate things to fisticuffs.

I took out Ma’s translation of the first scroll and kept one eye on the frying
peppers. I added the rice, water and salt prematurely so I could relax while
reading until the food was ready.

THE PHYSICAL ASPECTS

Q. What are the laws that govern the livelihood of the physical makeup of man?
A. Though your question is broad and wide, I will attempt to elucidate an
answer. The physical laws are secondary to the spiritual laws, thus hold
temporary importance. That which relates to the eternal is of the utmost
importance. Once you take head to the spiritual side of your being, you may take
heed and learn wise concerning the temporal physical.
I dare not say this or that is a law pertaining to the scientific theory and the ideas
of proving postulations. I can merely arouse your interests and steer your
thoughts.

Most men and women live to around eighty years if disease and misfortune don’t
cut them off short.

There are exceptions to this regularity. As some may die a natural death as early
as fifty. Only God knows the nature and makeup of each man. So we can only
speak in terms of generalizations.

A man of special will and education can usually live to be a hundred if certain
measures are taken.

Those that have lived beyond this point are rare and few. No one can gauge or
guarantee success of life span. All things that pertain to life and death are merely
speculation and conjecture. Beware of the soothsayers and poets. Meditate on
their deceptive craftsmanship to avoid much error and folly. Follow only the
prophets.

Q. What special measures can be taken to attempt to live past one hundred?

A. It is a multi faceted task. One must avoid excessive eating of the grains and
meats. This is no small accomplishment.

Secondly, one must train the body and muscles to stave off atrophy and
weakness.

The final step must be to understand the importance of balance is lifestyle and
herbal supplementations.

One may accomplish all these things and die young. No one is promised
tomorrow.

Q. What can you tell me about balance in life, cycles, and permutations?
A. I can tell you that no man can reach a perfect balance in his life, but one may
attain good-balance. Excesses in the spiritual and physical side of affairs must be
kept in check. The diet must change in accordance to need, sickness, weather
and season. Spices are great to cook into food, but too many spices can ruin the
dish. Take heed of this.

Q. how many times should one eat per day?

A. That depends on your situation and activity. Eat as much fruit, and vegetables
you like. Never each from packaged foods, refined sugars, and chemically added
foods. Supplement with honey, dates and natural sweeteners from nature. Eat to
you are comfortable, not till your stuffed. Try to eat a little meat here and there.
Eat a few grains here and there. The gluten in grains is a major player in over
working the body’s cells. This should be observed and noted upon.

Q. What of sleep cycles?

A. The best time to sleep, in my opinion, is after night prayers about two hours
before midnight. Then one may rise comfortably before morning prayers, wash
up, and supplicate with much vigor. Thus one should rise before sunrise and
sleep before midnight. Think deep on this.
Q. How should one spend the time of his day?

A. Very carefully, I may say. In the morning after prayers around sunrise, I like
to enjoy the morning sun, and breathe in the morning dew. I like to eat mashed
rice, honey, and dates mixed with milk. I like read my Quran and think on Gods
creation. Then I take to the outdoors after my food digests. Now I start my light
calisthenics and Nei Gung. After getting warmed up and going through my
balance drills, striking drills, guard drills, standing drills, kicking drills,
stretching drills, then I like to work out with Tai Chi and breathe in the fresh air.
I work on a few special techniques to stay sharp, and then I go for a few strength
training drills before my shower. These consist of mostly pushups, isometrics,
and squats.

Q. How do you spend you mid-day?

A. It depends on the day. I may take a walk. I may take in company. I may work.
I may take a nap. I may spend valuable hours with my wife and kids. What I
always do is pray my Zhur, (mid day supplications.)

Q. How many workouts do you do a day?

A. This also varies from day to day. I may workout one time. I may workout two
times. I may workout all day. Some days I don’t work out at all. To know when
and when not to do something one must learn the art of listening to your self,
staying in tune, and finding your truest intuition.

Q. Do you ever run or do rigorous exercises?

A. Rarely. I do jog lightly sometimes around my house. I never run. This is too
extreme for me at my age.

Q. What is the best method for fighting?

A. The best method is to get away. If this does not work, then
You may try talking calmly to the person. If this also does not work, then you
can get on guard and wait for his attack. If he has a weapon or intents to kill you,
then you should use strike methods to knock him unconscious, but never strike
with the intention to kill.

17. I understand this, but what is the best martial system in your
opinion?
 1. The best is Tai Chi, the Yang style.

Q. What is your reason and rationale for this?

A. It helps you to get a fighters vision. If you practice correctly almost none will
be able to overtake you with a fist. The principles teach you to relax and seek
victory through humility. If you root correctly on defense and offense, the
attacker should give up in due time. The hand positions for blocking, punching
are bar none the best. If no one can locate your center, who is there that can
disrupt it?

Q. What is the most dangerous strike in your opinion?

A. The aggressive one that lands dead on. The worst spots to get hit are the eyes,
the nose, the neck, the windpipe, the solar plexus, the groin, the kidneys, and
certain back spots.

Q. Do you believe in the death touch?

A. Not unless you were on the verge of death before he touched you.

Q. What is the best method for developing a deep root or bridge for fighting?

A. The absolute best is righteousness. The breast prate of righteousness is the

best. Also, single leg standing positions that drive the shoulders and weight
downward are the best. I will not show you my technique for its development.
You must find your own.

Q. Could a practitioner of Mo-Pai and advanced Fajing use their energy to cause
severe damage to a person’s organs?

A. Of course they could, if they struck the right spot on an amateur. As far as
hurting an advanced practitioner, I will put it this way, “Can a lightening bolt
disturb the sun?”

Q. What is the best method for training the abs?

A. The best and preferred way for me is standing up right. You can do kicks or
bends. I never lie on my back and do sit-ups. To do this would go beyond need
and fall into the bracket of narcissism and vanity. I am in no need of such things.

Q. What is the best posture for developing balance?

A. The single palm change is one of the best. Tai Chi in general will do.

Q. What is the greatest of blunders for an Internal Martial Arts practitioner?

A. The biggest mistake that usually goes unchecked is the relaxation of the belly
when rooting. Most Western people sub-consciously hold in their bellies instead
of relaxing and letting it hang out. There is a world of difference between rooting
with the belly relaxed, and trying to root with the belly flexed and stiffened.
Q. Is there a special Qi Gong exercise to help ground the body and balance ones
energy?

A. Yes, there is. It comes from three basic positions of raising falling principles.
The arms rise above the head to its apex, and drop back down to the side. The
breath follows the movement. In for rising the arms up, and out breath for
dropping the arms to the side, palms downward. Repeat this three times. Then
rise the arms up in front of you in the tree standing posture. Raise the arms to
head level and drop them to waist level. Breath is the same as the first
movements. Repeat three times. Finally the arms rise from the side to form a
triangle at the apex, as in the first posture, but drop down in front of the body.
When they drop toward the waist the hands turn pointing downward, both palms
facing each other until full arm extension is achieved. The legs bend slightly
only when the arms drop past the waist. All the body’s weight should shift to the
right leg on the first repetition of the last position. The hands should be placed
just around the thigh pointing downward, palms facing each other.

The second repetition the weight goes to the left side, hands in same position;
the breath follows outward as the hands fall and the knee bends. Finally the third
repetition follows the same order of affairs but the weight is evenly distributed to
both feet.

The mind should drive through the foot and into the floor on all sets. The mind
should follow upwards with the arms as they rise and exit the crown of the head.
Correct spinal alignment should be respected in all positions to maximize results.
The advanced part of this exercise I may not speak on. If it was transmitted to
the wrong kind of person, it may prove to be lethal, although its most used
effects are to heal. Any advanced practitioner would be able to figure it out on
his own. For this reason I hope to avoid premature ejaculation.

END OF FIRST SCROLL

I was enthralled by the writing and eager to get my hands on more. I sat eating
my spicy rice and began to book my flight and hotel accommodations to
England. I began to go through some plans in my head as to how I would handle
the situation with Mike & Chris. I wouldn’t try to be bold and go against the
grain in this matter. It would be best to show up to their Dojo and enroll in the
class. Then I could be patient and befriend them—gaining their trust. After this
time I would ease my way into their circle and find out whether or not they
really had the scrolls.

CHAPTER THREE
To Gain Leverage is Levity

The next morning I woke up early. The early bird gets the worm they say. Also
the second mouse gets the cheese. Did I say that in my first book? If I did, it
appears to me as a forgivable mistake.
I headed to the shower to let the hot warm water massage the back of my neck,
spine, and back. I love those long hot showers when the mind starts to drift
beyond space time. I dried off and put on some nice clothes. Today I would take
the day off. No training. Many people make the mistake of over training and
don’t give their muscles time to repair. The body needs to regenerate itself and
this is not possible if you are always training with a reckless abandon. Bruce Lee
made this mistake in my opinion. The way he was training was beyond the scope
of obsessive compulsive disorder. He simply ran himself into the ground—
literally.

The days passed in good measure, and my departure date soon arrived. I flew
into Heathrow and went through a miserable time with the customs people. The
security continued to route through my bags and belongings due to my many
visas stamped from all over the Middle East. I was pleased that they stopped
short of a full body cavity search. I flagged down a cozy little cab and headed
toward my hotel in Liverpool. The hotel had basic accommodations for the
ridiculous rates they were charging. It takes two dollars to equal a British pound
these days, so go figure. I wonder why the Brits were able to keep their currency
and the rest of the European Union countries had to flush theirs down the toilets.

I guess it comes down to good bluffing in the foreign affairs arena. The US
politicians are professionals at the old rhetoric con. Every one in politics must be
extremely bi-polar schizophrenic to get away with the empty promises they
deliver to the public on a regular basis.

I decided to go for the tea. No sugar and no biscuits. Bummer. Is it only me that
finds it hard to stick to strict diet plans while traveling. Passing up on the cake
and bread in the plane encouraged a few passengers sitting next to me into a
rubber necking frenzy. The over weight one won the bid on my cake. Nothing
like a double desert trying to fight diabetes on the verge of a lofty stroke. I hope
for her all the best.

I rolled up in some suspiciously sticky sheets after taking a shower and called it
a night. The next day I would check out the Dojo at the Kensington Community
Sports Centre on
Jubilee Drive. It was a nice workout complex. They had Ninpo classes set up for
Friday night and Saturday morning. The woman behind the counter was very
helpful. I signed up for the gym and immediately enrolled in the class.

I showed up early Friday evening to warm up a bit. The class started to take
formation and I introduced my self to the Sensi. I made sure not to inform him
that I had been practicing Internal Martial Arts almost the duration of my
manhood. Some information is best kept secret. I greeted a few Dads that had
brought their kids along. It was a highly diversified age range. I hadn’t ordered
my uniform yet, so I was the odd ball out of uniform. You know how that goes in
those Martial Arts classes. I was perceived as the inferior, although all that
would change once we hit the mats.

There was two many people in the class for me to pick out Mike and Chris. I
wasn’t even sure if this was indeed the place they worked out, as I spotted
another Dojo on the internet located in Liverpool. This was the closest one to
their living sector, so I figured it was the most probable place they would
workout at.
My intuition served me correctly. I knew I had spotted Mike because he was half
Chinese, half British. Chris was a blond haired boy with blue eyes. I could tell he
was the one with the attitude. They paired me up with him, so I decided I better
take it easy and massage his ego a bit, if I was indeed going to become a friend
of his. Instead of playing stupid, I decided to go the other route and impress him.
I was using heavy rooting methods and the other students started to take notice.
Chris was excited to know where I had studied previously to joining the class.
“Here and there,” I said to him. “Most of the stuff I learned by myself, the rest of
it I learned in China.”

“Oh my good friend Mike has family close to Wudang Shan. We just came
home from a visit about six weeks ago,” he said with a look of sincerity. We hit
it off quick.

After the Saturday late morning class Chris invited me to come over his
apartment with Mike to hang out and check out some new movie flicks. I was
game. Chris living with his wealthy aging mother and had a gigantic room. He
had a bookshelf that ran wall to wall filled with Ninja books.

“I am somewhat of a collector,” he announced to me.

“Yes I see that,” I replied.
Mike turned out to be really humble guy. I didn’t think he could have been the
one to take the scrolls. I didn’t want to assume it was Chris but my sub-
conscious was screaming to me that he must have. Then the bombshell dropped.

“Mike is working on getting this scroll here translated,” he said to me with a

look of wonderment.

“Oh Cool,” I said to him.

“I will have to get a copy of the translation when you’re finished if that’s okay,”
I said

I was wondering where the second scroll was when he spoke up.

“We got rid of the other one we had. Sold it on e-bay for a nice little boon,” he
added.

My heart began to sink.

“Where was he from,” I asked. The question was out of line and apparently
suspicious, but I couldn’t fight my intensity to know.

“Where was that guy from Mike? Do you remember?”

“I think Hawaii,” mike said. This was getting uglier by the minute. I had a flash
before my eyes of me roaming Hawaii out in tin buck two. This would turn into
a nomads land adventure that might not end on a good note.

Then I regained my vigor. “We photo copied both of them. We are trying to sell
this one for an even thousand pounds. What do you say Mikey?”

They led me in front of a small apple lab top sitting on Chris’s desk. Both copies
of the scroll were formatted into PDF’S sitting right on his desk top page. I tried
to hold back my eager intentions to get them. To ask them right out would be too
suspicious. Although they didn’t know what they had, I thought to myself. They
would probably give it to me soon any way with out me having to probe them. I
started looking at books on his book shelf. He had a lot of interesting ones. I am
also a book hound, so I was feeling the need to be curious.

“Do you mind if I borrow a few of these,” I asked Chris.

“Oh no problem bro. Just make sure you return them,” he said with a look of
little concern.

Chris walked out of the room into the main living area and told Mike that the
pizza would be ready soon. Mike walked over to the DVD player in the main
room and starting shuffling through DVD’s. Chris walked into the kitchen and
began whistling a tune. This was my chance. I walked into his room and moved
the touch pad. He was connected to the internet. This would be easy. I opened
my Gmail address and clicked on “compose mail.” I emailed myself and clicked
“attach documents.” The PDF’s were relatively small at around 2 MB each. They
uploaded quickly and I began to perspire. I wiped my hands on my pants and
clicked send. It went through.

“Do you want cheese or pepperoni,” asked Chris as he waltzed into his room.

“Oh I’m Muslim bro, I’ll take the cheese.”

I felt guilty but is stealing from a thief really something to feel conscious about?
Of course not. I was simply retrieving Ma’s property back to its rightful owner.
They turned out to be nice kids. We watched a new ninja movie and pigged out
on pizza. I threw Bigu dieting out of the window to celebrate this special
occasion. The bad thing about it was that I felt bad to just meet them and to be
soon taking the first flight out of dodge. Well life sometimes throws you a few
knuckle balls that are hard to hit. Besides, I couldn’t stand another Ninpo lesson.
Their Taijitsu was more like Tai Shit Su. Pardon the pun. On the way out, I told
Chris and Mike that I was just in town for a week visiting a friend that lives in
London. They looked saddened, and I made sure not to borrow any of Chris’s
books.

CHAPTER FOUR
Found in Translation

Back at the hotel I made sure my email went through. It did. Since the scrolls
were written in Mandarin, there was no way to read the final scroll in the
comfort of my hotel room. The pages of the scroll were scanned and converted
into pictures inserted into the PDF. Other wise I would have used a good
Mandarin/English translation program to decode the writing. I bought the first
ticket back to Tunisia. It was a next day flight that departed at eleven am—
perfect.
I landed safely in Tunis and took the first cab to Mr. Wu’s store. He was sitting
in his back room laughing about something his worker said. To add to the joyous
moment I revealed the scrolls to Wu, and asked him to translate for me. We sat
with a hot pot of tea and went through the PDF. We stayed up all night
translating the text and prayed the Fajr Salat (morning prayer) together, before I
said goodbye and headed back to my much appreciated humble abode.

THE SPIRITUAL ASPECTS

The First Law

The spirits imminent importance precedes the physical concerns.

Q. What is the gate way to the spirit?

A. The door to the spirit is quietness, stillness, and intention. Beyond this there
are two main paths, the right and the left.
Q. What are these paths, and where do they lead?

A. The right path is the one of submission. Its sign is humility; its product is
repose and trust.
The left path is the path of egocentrism. It is the path with many diversions, and
multiple sub paths. Its sign is pride, and its product is the need to control,
possessiveness, greed, and fear. This path has 73 main branches that crop out
from the right path.

Q. what are the indicators of the right path, what are its goals and functions?

A. The right path comes from guidance (huda) and its sign is simplicity. Its
knowledge creates freedom from the bondage of ignorance, prejudice, &
superstitions. Its men were the prophets, their minor sign is enlightenment, and
their major signs were prophecies. Their means were prayer, supplication and
meditation (thikr). The goal of the right path is to seek the best in this life and
the next life. The unavoidable is the day of judgment. This day brings purpose to
the life that the creator has created. The reward is eternal paradise. The
punishment is eternal suffering. Just as the rain makes the sun pleasurable. Just
as hunger accents food. The law of opposites creates the perfect balance of
purpose in existence. The major law that governs the purpose of man is “cause
and effect.” There exists no origin without its destination. There exists no
journey without the starting and end point.
Q. What are the main blunders of the spirit, and what are the superstitions from
ignorance.

A. The first blunder is idol worship; seeking power and glory from things other
then with the creator. Thus the creation is always infinitely weaker than the
creator of it. Thus all means of power, magic, sorcery, divining, astrology etc.
are foolishness. They are a major deception keeping man from relying on God
for help.

The second major blunder is innovation from the path or (bidah). This means a
person other than the “true prophets” claims to have a different or better way
than these prophets. This is a major deception. Thus it can be deduced that no
man can find a better way than the way that has been shown to us through
prayer, fasting, giving, remembrance of God (meditations), and pious living
according to the divine tenants.

The first major doubt is visibility. Since God has not shown himself outwardly,
most ignorant people will claim disbelieve in the message, the prophets, and the
laws. The remedy for this disease is declared in Gods scriptures through signs.
There are many of them. Some were miracles performed by prophets, the other
signs are informational, and encoded into the mathematical creation, and the
governing laws of creation. The basis of the signs is logic and reason. There can
be no creation with out the creator. It has been said, “that if all of the contenders
to the creator gather together to oppose his rule they could not even take a drop
from the ocean of his kingdom (heavens and earth). And if all the creation gather
together and wish to add to his kingdom, they could not add so much as even a
drop from the ocean of his creation.” This means that man is in need of his
creator, and not the other way around.

Q. What are the major follies of ‘the nature man’, and their remedy’s?

A. This goes back to the nature of the soul. (the nafs) or the self. Many have
heard the coined phrase, seeking self knowledge. At the rudimentary point of the
existence of self is where we derive our egos, or the Id. The nature of the soul is
“self wanting” “needing attention” “seeking praise” “wanting to be better than
others.”

Also the male soul and woman soul have a natural attraction and desire to unite.
From this we can find many lessons in behavior. The struggle against the desires
of our soul is consciousness. The consciousness can be maximized by
submission through prayer and remembrance of God. This is the mental aspect.
The physical aspect is for us to avoid troubling situations, avoid temptations, and
avoid spots of interest where we know our desires are aroused. The major follies
are well known.

Impatience breeds anger. Patience is related to faith and compassion for others.

Jealousy comes from lack of appreciation for our own situation. Thanking God
and being grateful can help stave off jealousy.

Stealing and afflicting others stems from lack of love for God and yourself.
When you truly love someone or God, you fear to disappoint them and
disapprove of your actions.

A wealthy person should beware of laziness and gluttony. He should work and
discipline himself to work with his hands and feet, and remain humble through
charity and thankfulness to God.

One of the major follies is over talking. Silence is golden. We should restrict
ourselves from over talking. Gossiping is a major sin. Talking ill of another and
taking false testimony is a grievous act.

Humor can also be dangerous. Too much humor around people will cause them
to not respect you. When you feel disrespected, you will feel the inkling inside to
become impatient and angry. Thus too much humor can stoke the fires of anger.

Lust is another. Lust comes from desiring the possession of beauty and the thirst
for uncontrollable pleasure. One should guard his eyes against woman of the
streets. The first glance is natural. The second glance is the arrival of passion.
This can lead to grave sins such as adultery.
Q What and where are these areas that I should guard myself from?

A. You know them. If you don’t know them, then you don’t know yourself, and
if you don’t know yourself, then you possess little of consciousness.

To guard the eyes is a must in public places, markets, civic events etc. Other
follies include:

Money laundering and making money from money (interest) is another dirty
vice.
This encourages greed, corruption, black mailing, prostitution, gambling, and
destitution.

The number one unforgivable sin, is to worship something other than The
Creator. This is a monstrosity of a sin. Praising humans and adding to their
elation is actually a curse upon them. Taking idols, masters, praising people
above manhood, and condoning adulation toward something other than God is
the work of the evil one. Among such devastating sins is Magic, calling on Djins
or Demons, Divining, Astrology, Sorcery, Mutilations, and Homosexuality are
among the great evils.
The roads that lead to great passions usually involve music, art, alcohol, &
intoxicating drugs. Beware of them, and avoid them with great inclination.

Q What are the joys and things to involve one self with in this life?

A. The nectars of this life are: your worship, sexual relations (with wife), food,
herbs, spices, perfumes, playing with your children, and innocent hobbies with
friends.

Q. What is the soul and the spirit.

A. Many know little of this, including myself. From what I can deduce, the soul
is the composite of your mind, experiences, and the disposition of your
consciousness. Spirit on the other hand comes from God as light. This is also
connected to the mind and thoughtfulness. When you do what is right and live
righteously then God accords you light or spirit in different gradations according
to his infinite wisdom and ruling. All rulings are done with balance and fairness
in accordance other humans and life forms.

Q. What about Buddhist and emptying the mind?

A. What about it?

Q. What can you say on this matter?

A. All I can say is that many know how to empty the mind, but few know how to
fill it up.

Q. What about the way of the ninja and their hand signs in meditation?

A In the grand scheme of things this is inconsequential and petty. They wished to
make a physical link as a guide to the spiritual. The spirit and mind stand on
their own devoid of the body. It doesn’t matter how you hold your hands, it’s
your thoughts and intentions that are either right or wrong.

All mystics enter the void to the spirit, but gravitate to the left path and its vast
outskirts.

This question also pertains to the Tai Chi teachers that hold special movements
in the inner house of Tai Chi that is secret from the outer forms.

There are no secrets. Everything is accessible in terms of knowledge. Silk-

reeling techniques, special forms, and all such things mean nothing. The spirit
vibrates in the body regardless. The postures only guide the intention of the
mind, which can move the spirit. All the fancy dancing around is not needed.
The moves in Tai Chi are directed to self defense and combat. The intention
flows through the hands, feet and body at different times. The balance of the
spirit in the body is natural. It depends not on the way you wave you arms and
feet. It depends more on the righteousness of the man and the decisions he
makes.

Q. Can you tell me of the inner workings of what they call “The Kundalini.”

A. You are an inquisitive mind. This dovetails in with the spirit-mind

connection.

The body is composed of channels that carry blood, your life force, and a bio-
electric nervous system. When the intention of concentration is focused after
entering “the door to the spirit” or shutting off of the five senses, he may move
his spirit or bio-photons through his nervous system creating heat. This
movement through the “Jade Gate” and the stimulation of the pineal gland is
supposed to give the practitioner enlightenment.
This is a rather elementary understanding of the concept. Your senses become
stimulated from a physical stand point and you feel you understand things more,
and can even feel smarter. I liken this to the state of a marijuana abuser that
thinks he is becoming more creative through his abuse. The practitioner is
actually stimulating sexual energy since the focus comes from the groin region.
This meditation and also the microcosmic orbit meditations of the Daoist are not
useful for a few reasons.

Firstly, one must monitor the intention of practicing such a thing. Are their
egotistical underpinnings? Secondly, the altering of the humans’ balanced system
can cause psychological disorders and warped-mental impairment. The nervous
system is naturally stimulated for sex, and during sex.

Q. Then what about remaining abstinent and abstaining from sex? Is this useful?

A. The law of permutations states that “almost every rule has its exceptions.”
It is not useful in my opinion for various reasons. The storing up of sexual
energy only creates a crazy drive towards it, while punishing your self for
depletion. Secondly, the sperm only store up for a few months before they die
anyway.
Thirdly, orgasms create specific chemicals that are healthy for the body and
encourage loving marriages. Also the claim that sexual energy is the healer is not
correct.
The lower energy, or the sexual energy, (jing) is an inferior information carrier to
light. The higher energy that is never depleted is from the heart field. It is
depleted with the lower energy if you have relations outside of unconditional
commitment or marriage. The heart energy is higher, and increases after sexual
relations with a wife. For this reason, the storing up of the lower energy is
useless and only throws the body out of its natural balance.

Q. What is the best path for restoration after ejaculation?

A. That is simple. Milk, Honey, Water, Fruits, Meats, and vegetables are the best
supplements.

Q. What is the reality of reincarnation, and past lives?

A. They are both false and have no basis for truth. A soul may be similar to one
that has already lived, but your mind is yours and no other. Reincarnation is a
theory to try and answer the question, “What happens after death?” To come
back to life on earth as a monkey or donkey has to be one of the silliest
hypothesis’s ever put into words. Such are the words of the soothsayers, mystics,
charlatans, shamans, witches, and warlocks. Watch out for them. They have
chosen opposition to Gods path. They are the ones that are deluded with
illusions.
Q. What are the ways of a mystic?

A. His ways are usually conceived for taking advantage of others monetarily. He
wants money, woman, possessions etc. For this reason he is on the left hand
path.

His methods are slow rhythmic talking that can tickle the nervous system. It’s
like the feeling you get when a woman whispers in your ear. They are also not
novices of language. They bewilder and enchant by playing off of your fears,
and things you don’t understand. Their promises are empty and almost always
outrageous. They can play off your curiosity using strange and eccentric
combinations of imagery and wordplay. They play both sides of the coin and
often come off as bi polar eccentrics. Beware of them.

Q. How do differentiate between right and wrong. Good and evil?

1. The grey areas one should avoid like the plague. If you have a doubt
in your heart, then it is probably wrong. Study the words of the prophets
and watch your own intentions and desires. Sometimes your own desires
and passions can fool you into thinking something bad is actually good.
Also you can ask the advice of others around you if you doubt. A
consensus amongst God fearing men is usually the right way.
Also try to avoid information intake that is partially laced with evil and bad
things. Trying to filter out the evil and separating the weeds from the flowers
also affects the heart. Think deeply on this issue. The pursuit of knowledge in an
evil book will not bring you about any good.

Beware of your sensory perceptions. Stay away from things that are sprinkled
with bad amongst things that appear innocent. This is the way that the seducer
leads one gradually by way of curiosity and interest. Beware music can enchant
the likes of snakes. Think what it can do to a human?

THE NECTAR ELIXIR

*Pomegranate
*Aloe
*Honey
*Astragalus
*Date
*Jujube
Take the essence of each one and combine them with
fresh water.

“The grandest achievement is action after having

knowledge.”
-William B.

END OF SCROLL

REFERENCE NOTES ON BIGU

YOKED TO EARTH APPENDIX

This paper was written to gather, as much as possible, the scattered and often
contradictory lore of an elusive practice rooted in ancient China. The materials
available on the subject seem incomplete and are largely unavailable in English
or online or are hidden amongst larger works on Daoism or China. I make no
claim to any original scholarship on the subject, but hope that it may humbly aid
those interested in but who are lacking access to certain texts. I was going to
entitle this paper with the rather “on the nose” Against the Grain as it subtly
expresses the Daoist paradox of integrating with a higher order rather than
“going with the grain” of society both in metaphors of food and carpentry. But
there is a diet book on the subject entitled “Against the Grain” and well-argued
books on agricultural. “creation of culture of scarcity” (Manning 2005.) and
many articles on various subjects with that title with which I did not want to be
“unequally yoked.” The Wade-Giles/Pinyin situation is usually dependent on the
author cited.

Curses and Culture Bearers

“Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of
thy life” Mysticism and diet have always had a complicated relationship from
ritual meals to food taboos. The shaman or priest’s knowledge of stars and
seasons dictated planting and harvesting as well as the precise time of hunting
expeditions or nomadic wanderings. As “civilization” emerged from loose-knit
horticultural hunter/gatherers to hierarchical agriculture settlements the
accumulated wisdom, from plant/animal husbandry to medical knowledge,
would form part of the basis for an authority literally rooted in the peasants
struggle against the earth.

The Daoist Immortals are often described as “abstaining from grain” (bigu) as
part of their training and progression in the Dao. Many scattered and
contradictory writings have appeared on this elusive practice of bigu from
reducing it to another ascetic practice to modern works touting it as the next
weight loss and health panacea. This paper seeks to brave the wild tangle of
references and to separate out the chaff. I wish to immediately point out that
cultivated cereal grains are a relatively recent addition to the human diet and
“represent a radical departure from the foods to which we are genetically
adapted (Cordain 1999.)

Likewise, the “abstention from grain” of Saints must be seen to be a fundamental

technique of achieving immortality, perhaps only inferior to a magical plant or
elixir that would instantly fulfill the same function as the practice of bigu.

Beyond the tension of the “raw and the cooked” is the fundamental dreariness
and difficulty of an agricultural existence. The book of Genesis, already in
chapter 2, implies man’s very creation was anticipated to work the fields
possibly indicating that it was his sole purpose at that early stage of creation,
“and there was not a man to till the ground.” Adam, of the red dirt, is punished
for tasting the forbidden fruit with the odious warning that “In the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread.” Many ancient myths describe rituals and rites seeking
to arbitrate and articulate the deep sense of misery of man’s fall from a garden of
plenty. One such example is the Gardens of Adonis of ancient Greece that
represent, as Detienne (1994) writes, an “anti-agriculture” where the “frivolous”
female potted cereals stand in marked contrast to the “serious” farming of the
males.
Detienne’s research reveals the complex relationships between families,
bloodlines, human and plant husbandry and the wilder side of weeds, harlots and
sex outside the state/reproductive paradigms that informed the Greek reality. His
discussion on vegetarianism as an act of political revolt outside the communal
sharing of blood sacrifice (Detienne 1998) as refusing society is extremely
relevant as context to this discussion of the Daoist practice of Bigu.

As I have discussed elsewhere (Dannaway, Piper and Webster 2006), there is a

significant body of literature in Jewish and Islamic sources that identify the
forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden as wheat. There is surely some statement
for a prejudice against agriculture in the refusal of Cain’s offering. Cain was the
“tiller of the soil” whose name means “to acquire, get, or possess,” identical to
the word for “sprear” and cognate with “to forge” and “reed or stalk” in
associations that are found in this Chinese context.

Of course not all agricultural myths tend towards the depressing. Many involve
gods or legendary heroes who spread the beneficent technologies in civilizing
acts of mercy to a wild, desperate and starving population. Shennong (literally:
Divine Farmer) , the legendary Emperor of the Five Grains, helped the masses of
starving huddled in the bush to learn the secrets of plants organizing a
pharmacopoeia as well as teaching agriculture. There is an organizing principle
at work combining the idea of a hierarchy (an Emperor and dynastic families
that trace their origins to them) and the subservient collective that must "join
together...in order to root out and destroy the weeds that covered the land (they
must) cut down the flea-bane, the mug-wort, the false-hemp, the star-thistle"
(Granet 1930). Contrasted to the cursed punishment of agriculture of Biblical
myths is the Chinese notion of a divine nutritional salvation that rescued the
population from living the savaged lives of beasts and scavengers.
Hereo/divinities such as Shennong and Hou Chi, the Lord of Millet Grains,
would receive special sacrifices as tribute that would be collected by families
(such as the Chou house) and tribes that appropriated the gods’ clout to
legitimize their rule (Cannadine and Price 1992). Millet appears to be only grain
to have been deified in ancient China (Girardot 1983). There is also broader
evidence of Indo-European “praise of famous grains” in various mythological
contexts (Watkins 1977).
What becomes evident in the study of the tensions between Confucians and
Daoists is a fundamental difference in their assessments of the prehistorical
period of China. The Confucian’s viewed primordial times as period of
starvation, of violence and wilderness, to loosely paraphrase and translate Levi
(1982), contrasted to the Daoist view of a golden-age of uncontrived Eden-like
bliss. “Zhuangzi praises that idyllic age with these words: ‘Spirits and gods show
their good will and nobody dies before his time’” (Levi 1982). This is anathema
to the Confucian view that it took a civilizing divine-potentate to rescue
humanity from its own ignorance and helplessness in a brutal wilderness. This
expresses a fundamental cosmological orientation that is the foundation for
much of the social movements in China, perhaps even into modern times.
“Ancient man imbibed dew” and “fed on primordial breath and drink harmony”
and ate not the toilsome, vulgar crops of the red dust that are exemplified in the
Five Sacred Grains (wu ku).

Cereal Killers, Celestial Snitches and Agrarian Crisis

"Now, the people of mysterious antiquity, they reached old age because they
remained in leisure and never ate any grains.” From Most High Numinous
Treasure

“Cutting stalks at noon time, Perspiration drips to the earth. Know you that your
bowl of rice, Each grain from hardship comes?”
Cheng Chan-Pao

The peasant was yoked to the earth in a diabolical scheme of death and taxes
and back breaking labor in furtherance of the state agenda. When famine or
natural disaster altered the already precarious relationship between man and the
land it was the poor who bore the brunt of the burden, this eventually birthed the
“esculentist movement” (Gwei-djen and Needham 1968). When the situation
became critical there was exodus to the mountains. The sedentary existence of
an agricultural society was thus at the mercy of the elements and prey to all
manner of social ills and class exploitation.

The gifts of beneficent legendary emperors is bitter-sweet and the paradox at the
heart of this relationship informs much of Daoist cosmology and practice. If the
“Five Grains” are taken literally as representing rice, glutinous millet, panicled
millet, wheat and soybeans then it must be noted that all these foods require
significant cultivation, “farming” and converted land. This must be kept in mind
when discussing the wild, uncultivated foods of the Daoist adepts such as pine
resin, needles and nuts and fantastic mushrooms and minerals. As Mollier (2008)
writes, “the damaging effects of cereals were denounced in 3rd century BCE in
the documents of Mawangdui.”

Famines, plagues, wars and corrupt/ineffectual governments characterized

much of China’s history from the pre-historical period (Schipper 1993). Scholars
note that after the fall of the Han dynasty more and more people refrained from
eating cereals (Pregadio 2008). In 1406, a famine or 'Salvation-in-the-midst-of-
desolation- herbal,' was compiled by Chu Hsiao (Reid 1977)who also set up
“famine gardens” (Christopher 1985). The options were few in such a
predicament and something of a spiritual ultimatum arose that continued to
characterize Chinese religion. This can be distilled to the choice of either armed
revolt or social activism of sorts or “dropping out” into autonomous reclusion.

Armed revolts by peasants are many, the most famous perhaps being the Yellow
Turban Rebellion initiated by Daoist adepts who proposed an alternative world
view to restructure society from the Yellow Heaven. The struggle was not
against society per se as much as it was frustration at the loss of an “idealized,
primitive agricultural community…or a nostalgia for a prefeudal or Neolithic
communal society” (Girardot 1983). Needham’s discussions of the Hun Tun
myths as the formation of class distinctions and imposing of a feudal system
describe the atmosphere that crystallized some of core facets of the Daoist
Immortal. Zou Yan of the 4th century wrote of his cosmological theories that
related grain to earth (square) and qi to heaven (round) thus making them
incompatible.Therefore the adept sought to ingest a higher or more refined type
of qi connected with the heavens. Beyond this, the leisurely Daoist might ake a
dismal view of the cost/benefit ratio of labor-intensive agriculture.

A quasi-mystical primitivism that was essentially pragmatic would be ill-served

to be labeled as asceticism, a point I will return to later. Chinese mystics were
not “above” ascetic practices and self-mortification but generally they certainly
do not approach the level of, say, Indian yogis who undergo severe austerities
and mutilations (though there are exceptions).

Even if Needham’s theories prove narrow and exclusive of esoteric

implications (as some allege, though this an unfair and uniformed criticism of
his work) they must be seen to elegantly describe a crucible of strife that
permanently altered, or even created, this expression of Daoist arts.

The uncertain situation of a tumultuous social order would eventually leave all
classes from Emperor down to some degree at the mercy of fate ultimately
linked to diet. The nostalgia for a primitive golden age inspired mass revolts on
one level, often resulting in disaster for all parties, and a hermit’s seclusion on
the other. As more and more land was converted to agrarian pursuits the
mountains become the potent symbols of the wild, natural and untainted source
of power. Eventually monastic orders arose as a compromise between the
secular and spiritual realms, marking an important point when a cult or
movement must reach a compromise with society. This is especially true in
Daoism particularly during periods in and out of court favor. This would reflect
the influence and competition of Buddhism as well as no other alternative other
than to establish non-confrontational communes after all the rebellions basically
failed.

Retiring to a mountain, then as now, would require an inordinate amount of

training, planning and discipline. Following Maslow, the aspirant’s first concern,
especially in times of famine and strife, would be nourishment. This essentially
puts the person back in the same situation as before the advent of agriculture.
The Daoist masters in some sense decide that in the face of continually
crumbling social orders, with intermittent prosperity, to have done with the
charade and to face the situation on their own terms.

To be able to minimize or abstain from food (especially the Five Grains) and to
thrive by way of subtle arts would be tantamount to freedom from the feudal
system. I emphasize “to thrive” here because it is quite different from some
forced fast where the person simply wastes away. Modern mystics, such as the
“Buddha Boy” Ram Bahadur Bomjam of Nepal claim to abstain from food and a
recent documentary on him featured an Indian yogi who underwent 24/7 CCTV
scrutiny by doctors and was found to not have ingested anything. There are also
Chinese practitioners who perform Bigu for lengths of time enclosed in glass in
public to prove the practice is possible, though a discussion of modern Bigu will
be found at the end of this paper.

The Daoist, turning his back on the feudal power structure, must be self-
sufficient or to join groups that formed, especially later as monastic orders, in
small utopian communities modeled after the “primitive agrarian collectivism”
that is well described by Needham. From the time of the Yellow Emperor, and an
especially in a Confucian context, there existed the “legendary rebels” who
“would not submit” and thus were exiled by force to remote lands. These mystic
incorrigibles are the prototypical source for eccentric and lunatic adepts that
inhabit Chinese history.

The legendary rebels were part of “metal-working confraternities” or

“metallurgical initiatory brotherhoods” who were “leaders of pre-feudal
collectivist society…[and] would have attempted to resist the earliest feudal
lords, and to prevent them from acquiring metal-working as the basis of their
power” (Girardot 1983). This provides much of the symbolism and vocabulary
for the various mystical alchemies, inner and outer, that used metallurgical
technical terms as code.

Intersecting this mythological complex, that weighed on the collective

unconscious of China much like the doctrine of “original sin” in the West, was a
system of “magical medicine” that fought pathogenic corpse-demon-worms that
were bent on their hosts destruction. These parasites, which sometimes took the
form of actual worms in the body, also existed on a more subtle dimension and
were of great concern to Daoist aspirants (though it may well be presumptuous
to refer to them in past tense). Gradually there was conceived as being an
equally grand heavenly hierarchy—as above, so below—that was to torment the
ethereal souls in a multidimensional fashion. There are many variations and
numbers, but the majority of Daoist schools recognize three major “worms”
(san-ch’ung) or “corpse demons” (san-shih) that feed on the cereals, or “The
Five Grains,” ingested by their human host. The three worms shorten the
lifespan of their host by snitching to the celestial bureaucracy of his or her
misdeeds.

Each infraction, depending on if it’s a misdemeanor or major offense, will

accordingly result in time deducted from the host’s allotted days on earth. The
worms are motivated to incite such transgressions to hasten their own salvation
from being a parasitic demon-informer. This may have been deduced from crop
infestations to the observation that organic parasites entered through feet and
inhabited intestines.

The three worm’s or again three corpses. depending on the text, reside in the
head, torso and lower body (three elixir fields dantian) and are assisted by a
pernicious group of nine worms that do everything they can “to incite people to
evil or ill.” Upon his death the host is cast into hells and the worms are rewarded
by feast of the poor soul’s corpse. The Upper Worm is named Peng Ju, is white
and blue color, and focuses on tempting the adept to long for delicious food and
other “physical” delights. The Middle Worm, Peng Zhi, is white and yellow and
incites the adept to greed and excessive emotions of joy and anger. The Lower
Worm, Peng Jiao is white and black conspires to entice the mystic to the worldly
pleasures of sex, alcohol and fancy attire (Eskildsen 1998) or vitality-sapping
wet dreams (Eskildsen 2004).

Ko Hung (283-343) writes of five sorts of corpse-demons in his Prescriptions

Within Arm’s Reach for Use in Emergencies that according to Strickmann (2002)
“enter as the invitation of the three corpses that are the regular residents of the
body’s interior.”

1. Flying corpse’s roam about a person’s skin and bore through to his
inner organs. Their action is manifested in intermittent stabbing pains.
2. Reclusive Corpse, attaches to bones and enters flesh from within,
burrows into veins and arteries and blood, symptoms break when it
beholds a funeral or hears the sound of wailing.
3. Wind-corpses, course “exuberantly” through four limbs until person is
unable to pinpoint pain, leading to dizziness and blackouts, outbreaks
provoked by wind and snow.
4. Sinking corpses, enwraps the vital rogans and strikes the heart and
ribs, causing knotting, slicing sensations, when ever cold is encountered.
5. Corpse-infusion or corpse-infestation (shih-chu) and “is the dire
culmination of the series. Victim’s body feels “sunken and weighted
down” with confused vital spirit and oppressive feelings of dullness and
exhaustion, vital breaths are shifting and changing in body’s every joint,
leading to major illness. (Strickmann 2002).

Strickmann’s often witty research reveals a further relationship with other

demonic villains, the seven p’o, who have appropriately terrifying names such
as: corpse-dog, hidden dung, sparrow-sex, greedy-guts, flying venom, filth-for-
removal, and rot-lung. This complex of corpse-demon-worms also invades the
aspirant’s dreams, appearing in the guise of three men in “rather old-fashioned
costumes.” As the treatment, exercises and drugs take effect, the ascetic is
tortured with nightmares of horrible murders of his kith and kin or that he is
being mutilated by the five types of punishments which are taken to mean that
the demons are about to be destroyed (Strickmann 2002). Depression,
incubi/sucubi scenarios and other types of sinister mischief can ensue to try and
shake the adept’s determination.
The Three Cadavers and Nine worms (san-shih chiu-ch'ung):

The scrolls in their hands likely hold information on your misdeeds. The
Baopuzi (320 AD) states: There are three corpses in our bodies. The three
Corpses are made of matter, yet they are not fully corporeal: they are real like
heavenly souls, numinous powers, ghosts, and spirits. They desire to cause
people to die early, at which time these Corpses are able to act as ghosts, to
move around freely, and to partake of peoples sacrifices and libations.

The Chu sanshi jiuchong baoshen jing (Scripture on Expelling the Three
Corpses and Nine Worms to Protect Life) prob. 9th century gives the following
details:
1. The Upper Corpse, Pengju lives in the head, symptoms of its attack include a
feeling of heaviness in the head, blurred vision, deafness, and excessive flow of
tears and mucus.

2. The middle corpse, Peng Zhi, dwells in the heart and stomach. It attacks the
heart and makes its host crave sensual pleasures.

3. The lower corpse, Peng Jiao, resides in the stomach and legs. It causes the
Ocean of Pneuma ((qihai) corresponds to lower dantian) to leak, and make host
lust after women.

In Japanese theory:

1. The “superior worm, is black and three inches long and lives in head,
stimulates love of horses, carriages and luxury clothes

2. The green middle, lives in the back, stimulates love of foods

3. The third, is white and lives in stomach, it stimulates sexual desires (Blacker
1999).

Nine worms, which cause corpse-malady (shih-chai) or corpse-exhaustion (shih-

lao) [(Strickmann 2002):
1. The "ambush worm" (fuchong) saps people's strength by feeding off their
essence and blood.

2. The "coiling worm" (huichong) infests the body in pairs of male and female
that live above and below the heart, consuming the host's blood.

3. The "inch-long white worm" (cun baichong) chews into the stomach,
weakening the inner organs and damaging the digestive track

4. The "flesh worm" (rouchong) causes itching and weakens the sinews and
back.

5. The "lung worm" (feichong) causes coughing, phlegm buildup, and difficulty
in breathing.

6. The "stomach worm" (weichong) consumes food from its host's stomach,
causing hunger.

7. The "obstructing worm" (gechong) dulls the senses induces drowsiness and
causes nightmares.

8. The "red worm" (chichong) causes stagnation of the blood and pneuma,
heaviness in the waist, and ringing in the ear.

9. The "wriggling worm" (qiaochong) causes itching sores on the skin and tooth
decay.

(Pregadio 2008)
Nine Worms

One wonders if these represent actual parasites found inside corpses or in feces
as they resemble real parasites more than Three Corpses above.

Yet another source of concern in this demonical situation would have been
relationship with the Stove God (Zaoshen). Since at least Han times, worship of
the Stove God and abstention of cereals had a clear link (Pregadio 2008) which
is logical if the idea of raw and cooked is excepted because the cooking was
done on the family stove or hearth. A certain adept, Li Shapjun taught to his
disciples, 1st century BCE, the “method of worshipping the furnace and
abstaining from cereals to prevent old age (cizao gudao quelao fang).” This
Stove or Furnace God, also known as King of the Stove (Zaowang) Lord of the
Stove or Royal Lord of the Stove, would likewise snitch on the family, of good
or bad deeds, to the Jade Sovereign once a year, either the 23rd or 24th day of
the 13th Lunar month. The family would paste up paper images on him on the
New Year and then burn them. Prior to this, on his days of informing, his face is
smeared with food to shut him up or with sweet stuffs to sweeten his words. The
cult of the Stove God first referred to in the Lunyu (Analects) of Confucius and
is a sacrificial cult that held placating ritual son the 8th lunar month. Like the
other tattling worm-demons his reports to the Director of Destinies (Siming),the
two became conflated in Tang dynasty, could lead to demerits and life units
could be reduced by 100 day units (suan) or 12 year units (ji) (Pregadio 2008).
Thus the individual is the likely victim of actual imperial spies in repressive
regimes, inner-demonic worm informers and even a spy in his very hearth and
home--there are a litany of prohibitions to observe when near the stove.

The Three Worms, as mentioned, feed off the 5 Grains (rice, millet, wheat, oats,
and beans) and bloody foods while yoking the body “firmly to the earthly realm
and to prevent any refinement of internal energies or attainment of immortality
(Arthur 2006).” A primary method of eliminating the Three Corpses was to
simply cut off their chief source of nourishment, namely the 5 Grains. This is
essentially the bigu practice which in practicality varied in any given context.
Arthur (2006) believes that the simple avoidance of grains was the original
intention that gradually evolved to mean a complete avoidance of ordinary, or
any, food. Other terms such as duangu “to cut off grains” or quegu “to eliminate
grains” or xiulang “to cease cereals” and jueli “to abandon staples” would
corroborate this assumption. Arthur (2006) believes that prior to the Tan dynasty
(618-907) the practice was for short rituals fasts for ritual purifications “while
long-term bigu practice did not avoid but merely limited food intake” while
“ideally combined with other cultivation methods.” One my speculate that given
the Stove Gods function and the cult of incense in Daoism if foods were
accepted or rejected based on what was good for the inner stove or furnace of
inner-alchemical Daoism.

Arthur’s view of bigu original objectives and practices cast it as a balanced

approach to magico-medical system of real parasites and demonic cadaver-
worms that were thought to feed off staples. Eskildsen (1998) views the earlier
practices as much more intense and radical in the objective of ceasing all eating
with the idea that such a practice itself could lead to immortality. He cites texts
that use bigu “to avoid grains” with bushi “do not eat” and concludes that when
it is said that grain or cereals are avoided what is really meant is food in general.
This becomes a rather complicated issue when the full implications of total
abstinence from eating food are understood as a means to immortality by way of
depriving the Three Worms of sustenance. No food at all would be ideal as the
production of feces was particularly odious to inner gods and the constant cycle
of hunger and defecation just seemed frivolous to spiritual pursuits. The adepts
bewail the people’s diets and lack of Daoist cultivation with such as verse as
“Lamenting That People Only Know How to Eat and Defecate, without Ever
Assigning Their Minds to Their Nature and Life that went:

The grain cart enters, the manure cart exits.

They take turns coming and going.

When will it come to an end?

Even if [people can] cause their life to span over a hundred years, This is only
36,000 days (Eskildsen 2004).

Although the next section and appendix will deal with specific techniques and
recipes for accomplishing bigu and suppressing hunger, there are divergent
methods that must be articulated. If the goal was abstinence from food, not as
Eskildsen suggests from a particular food taboo (like Pythagoras and beans for
example) but rather from a magico-medical standpoint of eliminating disease
causing pathogens, then it may indeed be proper to call bigu an ascetic practice.
This is more in line with the severe austerities of penitents or certain Hindu
sages who starve themselves or live on a bit of milk or a few hemps seeds as did
the Buddha in his more severe stages of the path. But the Daoist adept, ideally
anyway, employed all manner of practices to achieve this end from herbal
formula to alchemical elixirs to body cultivation. In the past, it was the spiritual
elite that could successfully, and situationally, remain in the sanctified state
heedless of bodily concerns:
“Commoners eat grain, and when the grain is gone, they die. The Transcendent
nobility eat grain when they have it, and when they do not, they ingest pneumas
(Bokencamp 1997).

The Three Worms eventually obtained a heightened state of power and their
obstinacy was no match for the old ways and “can no longer be expelled by mere
concoctions of crude herbs but require rituals measures and ethical purity”
(Arthur 2006)

…or some great elixir or esoteric technique to cease eating. But the cessation of
ingesting food, or the restriction as Arthur suggests of its earliest intentions, was
not meant to plunge the adept into starvation and physical discomfort, though
this was no doubt the result for some who attempted such an arduous practice.

The Daoist cultivation techniques of “eliminating grain and eating qi” (Quegu
shiqi) when accomplished with success is ascetic in the original Greek sense of
“exercises” that enabled one to replace, not just abstain, food with the more
subtle spiritual nourishment of qi. Daoists did follow regimes of asceticism that
were similar to the Greek Christian practices of repression (especially of lust in
the Christian and certain Daoists contexts) and abstinence but bigu posits a
higher form of sustenance, qi, available to those who “go against the grains” of
civilization. The Five Grains are replaced by the Five Sprouts of celestial
essences.

The term qi presents its paradoxes as well in terms of bigu and Daoist
cultivations that could range from alchemical or macrobiotic treatments, to
sexual arts and gymnastics (or practices very similar to yoga). There is a massive
amount of data on Daoist arts and absorbing qi from the above mentioned
techniques to talismanic waters and rituals that will aid the adept on in his task.
Again, the initial stages of bigu are fraught with dangers and there is a period of
“weakening and decay” until “orthopathic qi” becomes dominant and illness
vanishes (Englehardt 1987). The adept must purge the wayward, defiling “grain
qi” of ordinary foodstuffs with the refined “primal qi” (yuanqi). It is interesting
to note that certain immortals, as mentioned above, are intimately linked with the
discovery of agriculture and that many were thought to be essential to a good
harvest by means of their supernatural powers. As Schipper (1993) notes, “one
of the most recurrent themes in the legends of the Immortals is that they don’t
eat grains” and yet “from Antiquity on” there are terms like ku-hsien or
“immortals of grains” that combine the hsien concept of forest spirits with the
rites of slash and burn agriculture of ancient China. Schipper (1993) posits a
taboo “based on the fact that the spirits who help the cereals grow do not
themselves partake of these foods.” The Daoist goal of zhenren defined as
lightness, luminescence and causing levitation would incompatible with grain
diet that produced much fecal matter and “putrid exhalations” which appeal to
three worms (Mollier 2008).

But these scholars who debate on if there is a true taboo in the abstinence of
cereals miss or ignore some critical references in Levi (1982). These represent
the “veritable horror” of cereals and the reasons they are so abhorred because as
the “germs of death” and the cause of every illness. They are not just dangerous
to humans, “: “when barbarians eat rice they become leprous; horses get a heavy
foot when they eat wheat and wild geese get cancers all over their bodies when
they eat this poison” (Levi 1982).

Other dietary precautions, such as in rich foods, meats and wine are discussed as
some times proscribed at other times embraced but there is nothing of the
severity in the opinions on cereals. Levi’s discussion of Shennong’s relationship
with the fire-element Yandi, the Burning Emperor, or Chidi, the Red Emperor
and the connection with slash and burn agriculture is truly inspired. The dynamic
of swidden, hunting and agriculture in a tricyclical, seasonal mythology of fire
mastery and cooking meat and cereal growing put an end to raw food and
civilization was forever linked to fire (first protection, heat and cooking then
mastery of metals and similar technologies).

The barbarians, like the famous example of the hairy-beast concubine who was
caught after hiding and the woods and died after cereals, represent nostalgia for
the primitive*. Like Gilgamesh who suffers from the civilizing factors of the
world and is thus alienated from the wilderness, “barbarian tribes” would
develop disease when exposed to “civilized” food. Of these tribes, “They are
called Ti in the East… some eat their food without cooking it.

They are called Man in the South… some eat their food without cooking it. They
are called Rong in the West… some eat without cereals. The Ji are to the
North… some eat without cereals” and they likely faired as well brushing up
against civilization as did indigenous tribes to colonial explorers.

There is a deep meaning here in the fire god and the food he cooks being the
nourishment of parasites that are in constant conspiracy against the human. Levi
also connects a similar ritual complex and identification with the stove god and
the latrine and Stein (1970) likewise extends the affinities of the Fire god to
debris, and thus to the excrement produced by cereals.

As Levi (1982) notes, “A beginning of corruption is hidden in each cooking. The

word lan “boiled, cooked” means also overcooked, withered, rotten, or the
beginning of putrefaction” again reinforcing that there is at least an ambiguous if
not dual attitude to cooked food. The adept’s almost lycanthropic
transformations of beastly hair or suddenly growing feathers, yuhua feathery
transformation, are well attested to in Daoist myths. There are countless
examples, but here is one: Wo Quan gathered herbs and his only food were pine-
seeds only. He had long hairs all over his body and he moved himself with the
speed of a galloping horse (Shoushenji,1. 1b) (Levi 1982). Imitating animals
may well be the foundation of certain types of martial arts and it is linked with
various bigu techniques such as the sage who fell down a hole and learned from
a turtle to stretch out his neck to the sun in the morning and to thus imbibe qi and
dispense with ordinary foods.** The sages bizarre, madness or lunacy is
likewise a symbolic break with the ordinary world of social conventions which
the adept express from diet to remote hermitages and befriending wild animals,
to his or her primitive diet. Again Levi (1982) quotes ‘“they behave like beasts
and they have a tiger’s or a wolf’s greed’ (Xunzi, p. 188).’ I would add that an
entheogenic substance, especially Amanita muscaria which is linked to beserkers
and wild mystics worldwide, would be a fitting sacrament to social and sensual
reversion to chaos. Its effects on tiger-men who can gallop like horses would be
consistent with such effects I have discussed elsewhere (Dannaway 2009).

The Immortals always are just off in the distance, just a bit further out to sea, just
a bit higher up the mountain. Beyond modern constructs that burden myths, there
are examples of the Shuli, “the cooked ones” and the Shengli, “the raw ones of
Limu-mountains. The “raw ones” live in the impenetrable heights of the
mountains beyond the reach of the civilizing hearth and beyond them at the top
of Mt. Limu are the immortals, which are as far away as possible from
civilization while still remaining on earth. The proximity to civilization, like
graded levels of health or longevity the higher up the mountain, often determines
the vitality of Immortals and power plants. Levi (1982) expresses this in the
context of a “refusal of orthodoxy” in favour of a primitive Golden-age where
Daoist “dietetics are not a collection of good house-woman recipes or a proto-
scientific hygienic diet” but an act of protest. Gradually it evolved as well into a
mystical practice to defeat demon-snitches to the celestial bureaucracy that was
ever vigilant to pass judgement and issues life-draining demerits.

The pictogram for qi is of “air, cloud, breath or vapor” rising from fire or the
cooking of cereals (Engelhardt 1987) or the logogram of rice/millet (or steam
rising from rice as it cooks). This implies an evolution of the term into a broader
meaning of nourishment from food to “that which fills the body” meaning life,
breathe, vapors or energy.

(There is a system of grain depots in the country and body-- as within, so

without—thus infinite microcosmic worlds). There were significant debates on
these subjects within Daoism and between Daoism and Buddhism. Some are
critical of Laozi and other Immortals, with such passages as: “I do not
understand why Laozi did not give people this essence (yellow essence or huanji
discussed below) but made them eat the Five Grains which rot the intestines.
Moreover, the Three Sovereigns [Celestial Masters] were all spirit men. Why,
then, did they not make their descendants Kings in the Country of Long Life?
Instead, they left them with rules about offering five pecks of grain…praying
they continue…pursuing shortened lifespan the very foodstuffs that chisels
human life away and rot the intestines. Laughable that!” (Kohn 1995) The Third
Immortal King tells the Sovereign Emperor “People live long and reach old age
because they do not eat the Five Grains” which contrasts the to revered Huahu
jing [Scripture of the Conversion of the Barbarians] which prays for unbroken
generations and that “the Five Grains would continue to grow in this Country of
the Gods” (Kohn 1995).

Daoist, and Buddhist, legends feature movable or celestial cuisines (tianchu) that
arrive to the successful bigu practitioner served Jade woman and Golden boys
served in jade vessels (Pregadio 2008). Mollier (2008) discusses Daoist and
Buddhist texts of Kitchen scriptures or sutras, depending on the context, and
ensuing controversies of origin and accusations of plagiarism from both sides in
their spiritual and political rivalries. These feature methods to abstain from
eating, in some cases simply “abstention from cereals” that each group seeks to
link as being taught by their founder, either Laozi for Daoists or the Buddha
himself for the Buddhists. Both groups practiced the secret rites for the same
goal, which was to have visions of the Celestial Kitchens that contained aromas
and foods that permanently quenched the adepts need for mundane food. Mollier
(2008) suggests the” five kitchens practice may be assimilated to the avoidance
of cereals duangu or bigu, absolute, partial or reserved for legendary saints.”
There is evidence of Buddhist concerns with the Three Corpses in scattered
sources and abstention from grain as well. For instance the San-chieh chiao, who
had their assets seized and were dissolved 713, were at one time given an edict
declaring that they were “only allowed to practice alms-begging, long retreats,
abstinence from grain and observance of precepts and sitting in meditation,
anything else would be illegal (Tokuno in Buswell 1990).” There is earlier
precedent for Buddhist abstention from grain Huijiao (497-554) in the
Biographies of Eminent Monks (Goaseng zhuan) relates Buddhist monks
abstained from cereals, ate only mineral vegetable substances, wild fruits,
mushrooms, pine seeds, resin needles (Mollier 2008).
There is talk of “abstention from grain” in the Buddhist context of self-
immolation. Some hagiographies have saints like Sengqun being able to perform
abstention from grain (jueli) after drinking magical pond water near his hut.
Huiyi, before his self-immolation, stopped eating grain and ate hemp and
sesame, incense pills and oil to prepare their body as fragrant incense (Benn
2007). Benn notes that this may have a foundation in Buddhist dietary practices,
the Three Whites, and not the Daoist bigu though he must not have read Levi
(1982) linking of fire-mastery, abstention from grain and self-cremation. The
Daoist adept takes drugs or performs energy circulations until he is literally
burned from the inside, perhaps from taking some seriously toxic compounded
alchemical drugs! The relationship between rains, funeral pyres and burnt
offerings in agricultural myths to incenses, self-immolation and burnt talismans
and books expresses a primal “magic” of fire being of the gods. Daoist
cremation seeks to “abolish” between the two universes.

Hindu ascetics have similar practices of fasts that involve the shunning of all
cultivated food. Parry (1994) notes the fasts do not mean a complete abstention
from food, but rather the avoidance of all cultivated grains and food to which
salt has been added. The mystic eats only phalahar which consists mostly of
fruit. He explains this by suggesting that the ascetic has abandoned his domestic
hearth and therefore can not cook for himself but makes

the pertinent point to this discussion, “the crux of matter is that phalahar
excludes all crops cultivated by the plough” and that “that ploughing is
represented as an act of violence against the earth and insect life, thus making
the food uncongenial to the highest spiritual states” Parry (2004). Modern
account of Hindu women include fasts that exclude cultivated grains (anaj),
Ekadasi vrat (Pearson 1996) for certain periods of time as well all of which
suggests there was a specific Indian doctrine of avoiding the fruits of
civilization’s agriculture.

Girardot (1983) discusses the Hundun legend and early myths of “anusless”
people “needing to neither to eat nor to piss” --to which we must add “to
defecate” --though its puzzling that Girardot never mentions abstention from
grain in his otherwise exquisite treatment of the subject. The cessation of
moving the bowls and purging of excrement, like the medical colonics and detox
regiments of modern times, was an obsession in many Daoist texts. One quote
should suffice from the Dayou Jing [Scripture of Great Existence] that tells us:
“That the Five Grains are chisels that cut away the life. They make the Five
Inner Organs stink and shorten the life span. Once this food has entered the
stomach, there is no more chance of longevity. If you aspire to complete
avoidance of death, you must keep your intestines free of excrement”

(Kohn 1995). [Footnote Huangting jing (nei) (Concordance: 3.3) says that
those who don’t eat cereals if putrefaction free. Liang Qiuzi commentaries
explain that by getting rid of cereals you free yourself from the garbage
retained by your body. Ge Hong in Baopuzi (15 p. 267) quotes the ideas of
certain sects which say that “to achieve long life you must have pure
bowels”. Wufu xu (2.23b-24a) says that the 3 Worms, fed by the cereals’
breath, bring putrefaction (lan chu).]

This again extricates the bigu practice from a mere taboo and places it in medical
framework. The existence of worms in the digestive track and intestines would
only have confirmed the deep suspicions the early shaman/physicians had of
fecal matter and the substances that were eaten to produce them. Corroboration
of this can be found in the herbs used to facilitate bigu, many of which were
anthelmintics.

There were fair amount of sceptics of the practice of bigu, as there was of many
of the breath and gymnastic practices, such as the sceptical Wng Chong of the
1st century who mocked pretending ascetics and alleged longevity (Levi 1982).
Many Daoist texts abstention from cereals on its own is not sufficient to attain
immortality. Even the Great Recipe to smelt cinnabar, which can resurrect the
dead, ward off starvation when avoiding cereals and compel spirits is not enough
to effect longevity (neibian, 15, pp. 273-274 in Levi 1982).

Likewise, Levi cites the Shenxian zhuan repeated statements that abstinence is
not enough and interprets this that the practice is really more of a doctrine in
distinct groups and perhaps not a common feature of Daoism in general. But a
footnote (Levi 1982) tells of a collection of hagiographies of the 13th, which
includes saints from all traditions, and that attests that all those elevated to
“sainthood” practiced abstention from grain. The practice is perhaps the most
fundamental in lightening the body so that the feathery adept may toss off the
yoke and alight into the air.

The Japanese medical texts are full of similar demon-worms, some requiring
magical or potent treatment or vigils on Koshin day. These are from an
anonymous 16th century Osakan medical text the, Harikikigaki
Ways and Means

"You attain the Tao by avoiding all grains. You will never again have to follow
the rhythm of the moon and plant or harvest.

Now, the people of mysterious antiquity, they reached old age because they
remained in leisure and never ate any grains."

"As the Dayou zhang (Verse of Great Existence) says:

The five grains are chisels cutting life away,

Making the five organs stink and shorten our spans.

Once entered into our stomach,

There's no more chance to live quite long.

To strive for complete avoidance of all death

Keep your intestines free of excrement!"

From Explaination of the Five Talismans of Numinous Treasure (Taishang

lingbao wufuxu)

The above, perhaps appropriately chaotic, descriptions of a system of celestial

espionage by way of demonic worms and all sorts of domestic deities hopefully
defines the dire situation the Daoist adept is up against. He has gossiping foes all
about him --as within, so without—but there is some hope, at least in theory.

These methods range from all night vigils, macrobiotic drugs, and rigorous
practices that were sometimes practiced in focused concert for long lengths of
time to remove the pernicious snitches. Many of these techniques no doubt
formed what has become Traditional Chinese Medicine and the systems
influence can be seen around Asia, sometimes bringing with it the doctrine of 3
Corpse-worms and abstention from grains. One method, associated with
gengshen or monkey day, diffused and evolved from China into Korea and
Japan.

The all night vigil, as mentioned above, is the observance of gengshen which
originated during the Six Dynasties, day the 57'th day of each sexagenary cycle,
that constitutes a “Daoist year” (which could explain some longevity stories?)
On this night the worms leave and report to heaven so people remain awake on a
vigil which was thought to weaken the worms. “Three such vigils were thought
to severely weaken the worms, seven to cause them to perish together with
misfortune and illness, extension of life” (Pregadio 2008). In China the occasion,
the observance of which became widespread during the Tang, had quite a sombre
tone as aspirants tried to thwart the worms with abstinence of sex and meat while
undergoing purification rituals and meditation. Linking the interesting
connections of intersecting doctrines of Buddhism and Daoism above,
"assemblies to observe gengshen (shou gengshen hui) were held also by
Buddhists from 9th to 12th centuries” (Pregadio 2008).

During the Tang, in around the 7th or 8th century the observance spread into
Korean Peninsula though its not known when exactly, or how, it reached Japan
though some speculate it was during Heian Period (794-1185) or as even earlier
by the ommyoji and esoteric Buddhists (Minoru 1969). The Japanese Buddhist
pilgrim Ennin (793-864) mentions the day in 838 in his travels “in search of
Dharma.”

Known as Koshin in Japan, it was more of a social festival of general merriment

and feasting to stay awake compared to the austere Chinese observance. The
Japanese built up a significant cult around the day and associated gods, spirits as
well as developing their own distinct theories of demonic parasites. Both the
Chinese and Japanese terms, of geng and ko, as in gengshen and koshin,
respectively mean monkey thus it is a “monkey day.” One is tempted to conclude
from the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” of the monkey worship and
monkey iconography associated with the day that there is some basis in the
myths that glorify the primitive, uncontrived purity of the monkey culture
compared to humans. Levi (1982) writes of “the appearance of monkeys, the
wild version of humans, after that millet stopped swelling, and also the
separation of gods from men because of rice fragmentation” which speaks to a
direct relationship with the mythology and symbolism of the very day seeking to
lessen the parasitical influence that seems born of civilization. One can assume
that the golden age was Corpse free and at liberty from the soil and stove
god/demons and their domestic espionage.
The monkey's significance becomes clear in the context of avoiding the grains,
the three worms and gengshen/koshin night when the monkey's "link" to
primitive man and his role as diety of the harvest is understood. The Japanese
likewise practiced various dietary abstentions: nikudachi from meat, shiodachi
from salt, kokudachi for abstention from the Five Cereals and hidachi or from
cooked food (Blacker 1999). Japan’s famous sages, such as Ryosan retired to Mt.
Kimpu eating only leaves, or Yosho who diminished his intake to a single grain
of millet and then ceased altogether and vanished only to be seen flying like a
“unicorn or phoenix” (Blacker 1999). The Japanese have a specific practice,
“tree-eating” or mokujiki, to help give up the cereals, which consists of eating
berries, bark or pine needles. Blacker mentions, Mokujiki Shonin, the Saint
Tree-eater, which is applied to ascetics since medieval times. (cizao gudao
quelao fang) demonstrates a more devotional form though existing in China as
well.

Daoist would practice gymnastics (daoyin) and breathing regimens that evolved
into such practices as Taiqi and qigong. Daoist scriptures are replete such
techniques and are exemplified by such methods as Quegu shiqi (Refraining
from Cereals and Ingesting Breath). Zhuangzi wrote of those that do “not eat the
five cereals, but breathes wind and drinks dew...” and we have mentioned the
fellow taught methods by a turtle for imbibing qi from solar and lunar essences.
Fasting itself was a method to “destroy the 3 worms of the cereals” (shamie
guchong) and foods were thought to block channels in the body.

The production of feces along with certain specific foods, especially grains and
the Five flavours of acrid, sour, salty, sweet and bitter. "As the Verse of Great
Existence (Dayou zhang) says:

The five grains are chisels cutting life away,

Making the five organs stink and shorten our spans.

Once entered into our stomach,

There's no more chance to live quite long.

To strive for complete avoidance of all death

Keep your intestines free of excrement!"

“Abstinence must be absolute. In Daoyou jing we can read: ‘Cereals are the
scalpels which cut life. They cause the 5 bowels to be rotten… Don’t hope in
eternal life if only a grain gets into your mouth!” (Taisho 52 n° 2103,148 B). In
the 2nd cent BC Huainanzi quotes a common saying: “Those who eat cereals
are intelligent, but they die early, those who don’t eat them at all are immortal”
(Levi 1982).

Different groups proposed different times that stipulated the effects of fasts from
cereals. The Taishang shengxuanjing says a fast of 30 days kills the Upper
worm, 60 the Middle, 100 and so on as mentioned, but that even after the adept
purges the body he will still feel the urge to eat. This is explained that the refined
essence of grains causes a slimy membrane that coats the Five Viscera, Six
Bowels, the joints, muscles and vessels but perseverance for 20-30 more days
will make it disappear (as will moles, scars and blemishes). Some claim effects
will appear in the as early as three days on the health while others warn that
urine will darken and there will depression and a fierce spiritual/psychological
battle between the adept and the Three Worms. The putrid qi of cereals and
noxious fumes of excrement and the five flavours made the body inhospitable to
the easily offended gods that, along with the Worms, made the body their abode.
The “refined essence of grains”, like modern suspicions of high fructose corn
syrups, was thought to be especially deleterious to the health. Even in the
process of Eliminating Grain and Eating Qi (Quegu shiqi) there were six types of
qi to be inhaled, and five types of atmospheric qi to be avoided.

At this nexus of macrobiotic dieting and ritual observances and stove gods is
Daoist alchemical theory. This is contextual linked to the soma complex of
miraculous plants that grant immortality that gradually shifted to the production
of an immortality drug (Needham 1974) as well as decidedly psychoactive
incenses (Needham 1974, Dannaway 2009). Another aspect to the entheogenic
effects of such smokes and plants would be the possible suppression of the
appetite as the psychedelic experience, one hears, can likely make one nauseous
at the thought of food.

The inner alchemy (neidan) of visualizations, postures, sexual arts (locking

energy, semen retention, sexual vampirism) and even diet would converge on
macrobiotic supplements that would feed the inner alchemical cauldron.
Alchemical substances were complicated to prepare and the substances are very
difficult to determine with any certainty. The Jade Pillar Elixir (yuzhu dan)
contained cinnabar, vinegar, malachite and sulphur and when taken for one
hundred days it would produce the “celestial kitchens.” Pure lacquer was
ingested to make the “Nine Worms…drop away” and other ingredients call for
honey and lacquer to be used to fry cinnabar for similar purposes (Campany
2002).Needham (1976) did a cross-reference of Ge Hong’s twenty-seven elixirs
and cinnabar is found twenty-one times, mercury in eleven or twelve, realgar and
malachite eight times, potash alum, sulphur and magnetite in five, and mica in
three, but stresses these may all be code as oral instruction is essential.

Daoist survivalists and hermits in remote locations would be at the mercy of the
elements and, if they hadn’t mastered completely living of qi, would require
some modicum of nourishment. The hermit would have to be an expert botanist
and many texts offer systematic, though sometimes dangerous, techniques to just
survive and to comfort hunger pangs. These consisted not only of the mentioned
magical and alchemical methods dreamed up by the “recipe makers” or
“gentleman possessing magical recipes” (fangshi) that rose in prominence in the
Han period (Harper 1998) but also of wildcrafting herbs and minerals. Ge Hong
or Ke Hong, the famous alchemist, has many such recipes to alleviate hunger.
Though he is somewhat sceptical of the claims on diets and immortality, writes
“those who hide in the mountain or forests in case of troubles or famines in the
world will not starve to death if they know this method.” Some of the methods
employed by adepts are as simple as sucking on a jujube seed (Yue Zichang’s
method of Holding a Jujube Seed in the Mouth) or continuously swallowing air
and saliva while some employ decidedly toxic plants that may permanently scar
the stomach, or worse, giving a sense of being unable to eat. Pungent foods like
garlic and onions or Zhenghong ji ( p. 3a) speaks mentions fish pastes and all
foods with a raw meat smell as unhelpful to the process of corpse-expulsion.

Daoist use of plants like Poke root (Phytolacca species) and Arborvitae seeds
(Thuja orientalis) and strange fungi, as well as consumption of minerals like
mica or stalactites and powdered gem or semi-precious stones, was not
uncommon. Sometimes specific plants had precise recipes such as the reported
“method of ingesting sesame” of Master RedPine (Chisongzi) the Lord of Rain
under the Shennong the Divine Farmer, active “well into the time of High Toil”
(Kohn 1993) had many such recipes and associated calisthenics. Sesame was
known as Western barbarian hemp (huma) or “great overcoming” (jusheng) and
it was “not indigenous to China. It was no doubt imported from Iran, perhaps via
the Xiongu as intermediaries

….In the time of the Later Han sesame was not a commonplace cereal: it was
instead long thought to enable abstinence from cereals and to be a good for long
life (Kalternmark in Campany 2002). It is likely its barbarian associations, in
light of the above considerations and pure protein that led to its high esteem as a
bigu supplement.

Plants like ginger and pepper are said to increase qi, as are countless others, but
“yellow essence” or “deer bamboo” (Polygonatum species or huangjing) is
considered a tonic herb and emergency famine food for the avoiding grains yet it
is considered to inferior to actractylis. Of ingesting actractylis or zhu, Atractylis
ovata the Marvelous Arts (Yishu) written early 7th century states "The Herb
atractylis is the essence of the mountains; it unites yin and yang essences and
pneumas.” If one ingests it, one will live long and be enabled to abstain from
grains, and eventually reach the status of a divine transcendent." The Arrayed
Traditions state that adepts lived off it’s essence or combined with calamus, and
it is mentioned by Ge Hong for dispensing with grains (Ware 1984; Campany
2002.) It is not always clear that a plant is mentioned, as they shared common
designations with a variety of substances. For example, Campany (2002) notes
the confusion over an instance of huang jing in a text as being identified as a
plant (Polygonatum) or perhaps the mineral massicot (PhO). Even when the
specific plant is confirmed, there are special types, such as a special type of
Solomon’s seal that grows on Longvale Mountain which confers the ability to fly
into the heavens (Campany 2002). Campany notes of the identification of the
term “mushroom" is not definitive, “but is a generic word for protrusions or
emanations from rocks, trees, herbs, fleshy animals, or fungi.”

The herbs were, of course, combined and sometimes the results, from personal
experimentation are delicious. One was a special soup that is made of sesame
seeds, powdered tuckahoe (Pachyma cocos, or fuling), with small amounts of
milk and honey that the adept could take to “nourish the qi and moisten the
belly” (Eskildsen 1998) or other soups featuring “matrimony vine” (gouqi,
Lycium chinese) that could be taken four times a day. The diet of Immortals, as
described in such texts as Liexan zhuan and Shenxian zhuan include: “pine
seeds, pine sap, pine needles, mica, sesame seeds, peach and plum blossoms,
stalactite, lychee fruit, deer bamboo (huanghing), “stone grease” (a type of clay),
mercury, deerhorn, chestnuts, cypress resin, sulphur, lead, the zhu plant
(atractylodes macrocephala), rush and scallion roots, rape-turnip seeds, mallow
(malva verticillata),

turtle brains, limonite (“Yu’s leftover food”), cinnabar, bramble roots (rubus
tephrodes), cantaloupe, autumn root (aconitum carmichaeli) seeds, of the zhi
plant (iris florentina), the changpu plant (acorus gramineus), cinnamon, broom
plant (kochia scoparia),

“pine seeds that grow as parasites on mulberry trees,” niter, nions and scallions,
the badou plant (croton tiglium), realgar, sap of the arbor vitae tree (biota
orientalis), flowers of the shigui tree (rhaphiolus indica), and “red flower pills”
(unidentified) (Eskildsen 1998).” Other miraculous alchemical pills would
instantly produce a permanent state of complete inedia.

Fasting regimens were used to gradually live without eating and these included
many recipes, some which used rice for example, that allowed the adept to
reduce intake over time. Two prime examples are xunfun and “white rocks” that
were used by the Shangqing Daoists but were probably from older sources. The
xunfan is made of nonglutinous rice and leaves of the shrub nanzhu (vaccinium
bracteatum), the leaves which alone were thought to suppress hunger during
times of famine and poverty. (Eskildsen 1998). Eating this food, and some wheat
noodles, is said to allow the adept to gradually reduce eating until nothing is
required and he shall be “light and bright” by the end of five years. If the adept
wanted to hasten the effects, he could add hollow azurite (kongqing), cinnabar
(mercury sulfide, dansha), Tuckahoe (Poria cocos), jing (vitex negundo) tree
leaves. To “avoid grains and enter the mountains” the Zhengao writings mention
a technique by the immortal Baishizi or the Master of the White Rocks which
might be pieces of white quartz in black sesame seed oil, honey, mountain spring
water with shallots. The quartz pieces are ground into the shapes of tiny eggs
and tossed in after a retreat with breathing practices and chants and cooked for
five days, then swallowed whole with the leftover soup being consumed as well.
The process allows the adept to eat as much (without damaging his qi) or as little
as he wants. Other such methods are listed, and will be given in full in the
appendix, that use the Five Grains in recipes that are either to gradually reduce
hunger or that are “superfoods” of a sort that nourish the adept for ten day
increments such as the “The Divine Immortal’s Method of Eating Blue Millet or
for deer bamboo foods. Eskildsen’s remarks on the ideal of fasting and ingesting
only medicines, or qi, are cogent as there are recipes listed in the texts he
presents immediately following the recommendation to practice bigu for soups
and vegetable porridges. If the adept reaches “his limit” in his bigu attempt, he
can partake of dried jujubes and dried venison. “Anything raw or fresh is not to
be served” (Eskildsen 1998). There are also many incidents of geophagy and
magical clay-flours that suppress hunger in China (Laufer 1930).

The above mentioned plants/minerals are supplements for food or are stimulants
or toxic. Some are entheogenic, some perhaps due to toxicity, or thought to
contain qi or jing energies that would heal or otherwise help the adept to enter
retreat without food. Needham wrote of the Amanita muscaria as “doubtless
among the most secret arcane of the Tao Tsang” as was Cannabis sativa,
Ephedra species, which are three very prominent Soma candidates.

The mythological and cosmological objections that Daoist had to agriculture

products and refined, civilized foods is evidenced, at least in ideal, by the
extreme diets discussed above. The foresight and ingenuity in developing
survivalist foods in their precarious times was pragmatic as well as
fundamentally liberating from the worries of society. These worries of “the land
of famine” and having literally to “plough among the tombstones” as well as
social strife and invasions make the peasant situation precarious even in the best
of times.

But the other side of the equation, of what the population was eating, might
justify the Daoist intuition. The Daoist may be a lunatic, psychoactively altered
social-misfit preferring isolated hermitages to the fields and taverns, but what of
collective-hallucination that is the state and society?

Taken literally, the Five Grains are rice, glutinous millet, panicled millet, wheat
and soybeans which were cultivated since ancient times. Early Daoist “doctors”
may have noticed the allelopathic properties of rice and rice husks as well as
witnessed stomach disorders from eating leftover cooked rice, “fried-rice
syndrome” caused by Bacillus Cereus. It’s sticky, gluey nature, like the other
cooked grains, would have been thought as a detrimental to their goals of
excrement free intestines. It is perhaps the most benign of the five, but in ancient
times its production was limited mostly to the south. The Chinese word for food
or meal, fan which denotes boiled rice or millet porridge and for those not
inclined to Daoism at least, “only fan will satisfy hunger (Needham 1984). But
perhaps it was the very real environmental of social effects that widespread rice
cultivation wrought. The mastery of fire and the manufacturing tools spread rice
cultivation throughout China and its production was “used to strengthen
descendants and occupy wide new territory” (Xu 1998). There was a wild rice
exploited before agriculture, and rice was cultivated in both “wet” and “dry”
conditions, and though there is controversy, its hard to determine which came
first.

Swidden techniques were widely employed in rice cultivation, and rice was
planted with digging sticks in fertile river valleys that sustained relatively large
populations. But the overuse and abuse converted lush lands to wastelands, as
Xu (1998) writes:

“its abundant water and forest allowed people to gather and hunt for some
time.... How did this 80x30-mile sector change to wind-blown sand? If we think
Shayuan is named from Xiachuan, the first may have been influenced by the
latter and initiated agriculture. Slash-and-burn cultivation is not forest cutting
and clearing, but the making of endless widespread fires brought spring
sandstorms from distant deserts. One might blame over- or abusive use of
ground stone tools, where over-cultivation created desert, exiling people and
facilitating the birth of the stone axe. Thus, slash-and-burn cultivation opened a
new era.”
Perhaps then it was cultivated rice that was particularly undesirable. The Pen-
ts'ao Ching, said to be at the advice of Emperor Shennong prescribes Cannabis
preparations for beriberi (Jiao Qi), which has a long history in China especially
in southern China where peasants had mostly a rice diet. The disease was written
of from at least 200 BCE (and posed considerable risks during the Han and Tang
especially in Southern China), and was known as kak-ke and while it’s not clear
the condition was associated with rice deficiencies the treatments included foods
rich in thiamine (Simmons 1981).

By the Tang dynasty physicians were pointing out that polished rice lead to
beriberi, and that unpolished rice could help to cure the symptoms (Chen and
Xie 1999) which is ironic, and fitting, as it was thought that polishing rice would
make it healthier and easier to digest.

The disease became more and more prevalent in China from medieval times
(KaWai 2004) into the modern era as the taste of polished rice increased.

A diet rich in millet, as seen today in developing countries, can greatly enhance
chances of developing thyroid disorders and traditional methods of preparing
millet unfortunately retain most of the goitrogenic compounds. And while it may
seem silly to talk of potential poisons in these plants in light of the highly toxic
substance used to replace them, there is evidence of millet diets, which also lack
vitamin C and are low in niacin, causing a syndrome in Senegalese who subsist
of the mainly off the grain as similar to ataxic neuropathy (Osuntokun 1968). In
ancient China, the very foods that exploded populations and created cities
became the culprits in diseases that increased with population density and the
rise of porotic hyperostosis. It was in the times of the Longshan culture,
renowned for their millet, that “deterioration of community health” began and it
continued “Poor health persisted into the subsequent Dynastic period of Western
Zhao” (Pechenkina, Benfer and Wang 2002). It is beyond the scope of this article
to get into the paleonutritional breakdown of C3 or C4 plants but an increased
dependence on millet is linked with a larger breakdown in health based on
archeological findings. Pechenkina, Benfer and Wang write:

“Although millets have a relatively high iron content, absorption of

nonheme iron from plant sources is very inefficient and is further impeded by

the lack of vitamin C...almost all cereals contain minimal levels of largely
incomplete protein. Millets are among the poorest sources of protein; they are
particularly deficient in lysine, the lack of which can lead to a number of
physiological disorders, including anemia, anorexia, growth arrest, weight loss,
and low protein turnover, as well as collagen and myosin structural anomalies.”

Wheat rose to prominence in China towards the end of the Longshan eventually
replacing millet as the principle grain by the Dynastic period (Pechenkina,
Benfer and Wang 2002). It has been carbon dated from mummies dating to 2,650
BC suggesting a very old trade with the Middle East. Wheat and related species
present some interesting pharmacological features which Daoist adept might
have intuited or experienced based on the constant scrutiny of his body and the
reactions it had to certain substances and techniques of meditation. With clinical
data linking gluten to every thing from Celiac disease (Ch'ng and Kingham
2007) to schizophrenia (Eaton 2004) also selected as early as (Ross-Smith 1980)
to autism (Kawashti 2006) though this is debated (Christison 2006) and “brain
fog” there is a lot of convincing evidence for a wheat or gluten free diet, beyond
the chorus from various health fad diets.

There is evidence that “wheat, rye, and barley proteins as aids to carcinogens”
(Hoggan 1997) as well as spiking blood sugar and insulin levels and damaging
proteins (via advanced glycation end-products) especially if it were to be
combined with other factors such as genetics, poverty and population density
and supplemental diets.

The “brain fog” can be linked to opioid substances called gluten exorphins,
opioid peptides that have similar effects on the brain as narcotics (Fukudome
1992; Huebner, Lieberman, Rubino 1984, Fanciulli 2005). Gluten hyrdolysates
and gluten stimulatory peptide activate and block and bind to brain receptors at
once producing dysphoria, and to the sensitive, possibly psychotic symptoms.
Research confirms that they trigger more hunger, a sort of “comforting” lethargy
and then more cravings, so they actual cause hunger, something that Daoists
have always alleged. There is also evidence grains in the diet can incite
production of natural killer cells (Hoggan 1997) pancreatic disorders and even
ADHD.

Similar effects have been ascribed to products of the soya bean as well. The
bean, which has become health food phenomena in modern times as a heart cure
all and meat substitute has a dark side as well, especially unfermented. Studies
link it to Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive impairment in men and linked
with actual brain shrinkage (White, Petrovich and Ross 1996; White, Petrovich,
Ross, Masaki, Hardman, Nelson, Davis, Markesbery 2000).

Soy in the diet, even for relatively short periods of time can elevate
phytoestrogen levels in the brain and decrease brain calcium-binding proteins
(Lephart, Thompson, Setchell, Aldercreutz and Weber 2000). The high protein in
soy suffers from the potent enzyme inhibitor that act as "antinutrients" that block
the action of trypsin and other enzymes need for protein digestion which can
lead to chronic deficiency in amino acid uptake (Fallon 2000) as well impairing
thyroid functions (Divi, Chang, Doerge 1997;Ishizuki, Hirooka, Murata and
Togashi 1991) and damaging infants (Fort, Lanes, Dahlem, Recker, Weyman-
Daum, Pugliese, Lifshitz 1986) from soy diet breast feeding or soy formula
causing thyroid disease, diabetes, and effecting neuropsychological development
of the child. Fermentation may have protective effects on these disorders, which
may explain the reasons why it was not exploited on a larger scale prior to the
discovery of fermenting soy, which increase folate levels and produces
proteinases that hydrolyse proteins to peptides and amino acids (Huang 2000).

Old adages of “starving a cold” to monastic health regiments and fasts have
some validation in articles that stress caloric restriction (CR) as contributing to
slowing ageing and extending life span in humans and animals (Couzin 1998)
and by encoding inflammatory and stress responses on the genetic level (Lee,
Klopp, Weindruch, Prolla 200) and increasing memory (Witte, Fobker, Gellner,
Knecht and Floel 2008).

Some researchers propose a theory, Hormesis (or Mitohormesis ) hypothesis of

CR, that suggests that diet “imposes a low-intensity biological stress on the
organism” that “elicits a defense response” that inhibits the causes of aging. This
is similar to traditional medical wisdom such as is found in TCM, and especially
in the Unani system of herbalism which seeks to induce a health crises by
fasting, which releases toxins and stimulates bodies natural defenses. Other
theories of activating longevity genes to “insulin signaling” have been theorized
to explain the positive benefits of CR, in least in some cases. Some of the most
interesting genetic experiments on longevity genes and CR have been conducted
on, with almost diabolical irony, of all things: worms.

TCM researchers propose some novel theories for what they call Yan Xin Life
Science Technology-Optomized Caloric Restriction (YXLST-CR) though the
paper reads somewhat as part study, part advertisement for their particularly
“Technology-Optomized” bigu. But the research is interesting, with clinical
studies of those on bigu for some eleven years or more, and they deduce that
hormone leptin is the “key element of the physiological system to regulate food
intake and energy homeostasis” (Yan, Li, Lu, Chin, Shen, Wang 2002). that
corroborates and earlier study (Shimokawa and Higami 2001).

“Leptin is produced in fat tissue and reports nutritional information to food

intake regulatory centers in the brain known as the hypothalamus” and
“decreased levels of leptin stimulates food intake” while an increase lessens food
intake. These responses involve a neuroendocrine trigger in response to dietary
constrictions that also retards the aging process.

Another theory is that the qi described by Daoists essentially may be gamma

radiation (Schwarz 2002). This theory, based on the fact that there is evidence of
gamma ray and high frequency x-ray absorption/emission and radiogenic
metabolism, fits the ability to sustain life without food in a broader category of
“systemic memory” as cognate with the wu li or “organized energy” of Chinese
physics. This is certainly a more elegant theory that confirms the ingestion of qi
as Daoist texts insist. The scholars mentioned above with the technologically
optimized bigu also ran tests of cells in vitro that were deprived of essential
nutrients and left at the mercy of qi imparted to them by a Qigong master.
External qi treatment as a medical treatment has a long history and basically
consists of a master summoning his “energy” and then basically pouring into his
patients. The test, on mouse cells that usually require specific nutrients to
survive in vitro, were treated by Dr. Yan Xin with all the appropriate control
groups. The results were that the qi-treated cells flourished despite lack of
nutrients, while the group deprived of nutrients and qi wasted away (Yan,
Traynor-Kaplan, Li, Wang, Shen, and Xia 2002). The findings, and the massive
anecdotal and clinical evidence of qi therapy, point to a distinct cellular action to
bigu.

Out of the mass of clinical data above, it takes the eloquence of a poet (and
expert ethnobotanist) like Dale Pendell (2005) to summarize the true effects of
the Five Grains. He discuses rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum vulgare and
spp.), barley (Hordeum vulgare), oats (Avena sativa), rye (Secale cereale),
sorghum (Sorghum spp.) pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), raggee millet
(Eleusine corocana) in the context of a broader context The Hallucinogenic
Properties of Maize. He “describes their chemistry as “complex, highly active
carbohydrate chains that trigger massive physiological response” which is subtle
understatement. His description of “The High” they produce demands a full
quotation:

“Deliriously subtle. Usually taken for granted and appreciated most when
absent. Affects blood-glucose levels and secondarily adenosine triphosphate
reactions throughout the body, essential for thermal statis from oxidation, in turn
supporting the grandest of all hallucinations. Fields of bosons, leptons, and
energy are experienced as form and color, actually a completely arbitrary, if
creative, mapping. Electromagnetic force fields, mediated by photons, are
experienced as solidity. Even the experiencer is experienced—as a discrete entity
called the ‘self.’ Something called ‘volition’ is involved in a way that no one
really understands, this also true for perception, sensation, and memory.

The myth of sobriety is our fundamental delusion (Pendell 2005).”

Bread as a gateway drug?

Bigu in the Modern Age

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls”

Bigu survives in the modern era amongst scholars, health fanatics, martial artists
and those interested in finding cures for modern ailments. It is somewhat ironic
that bigu is touted by online Qigong masters and TCM herbalists for weight loss
when its origins where likely born of starvation conditions or survival situations.
Of course abstention from grains was largely medical in terms of longevity and
dispelling Corpse-Worms and it would have been seen, if done correctly to
harmonize the body. This would be consistent with weight loss or gain as the
situation dictated. I have read many modern accounts of bigu, mostly if not all
very positive of the practice. Some caution that “if you are hungry you are not in
bigu” which is more consistent with the ideal of living off qi and not just
elaborate fasting or forced starvation.

A diverse groups of scholars, from The Pennsylvania State University and

University of Arizona and abroad, as long with health practitioners from various
acupuncture and and Qigong groups held a conference in Pennsylvania with
some 500 participants. Elaborately titled as the “First National Conference on
the Bigu Manifestation, Health Effects and Scientific Research of Yan Xin
Qigong” it was truly historic and attracting some highly revered scientists from
numerous fields. Presentations ranged from displays of qi to clinical histories of
bigu practitioners as well as explanations of the suggested blood chemistry that
express the metabolic states during the fasts.

There are also the modern hagriographic type novels such as Opening the
Dragon Gate (Kaiguo, Zheng, Cleary 1996) which relates the “making of a
Modern Taoist Wizard. The entertaining narrative is sprinkled with quotes from
various Taoist scriptures on abstention from grain with descriptions of effects
and the caution of controlling one’s speech. There are details on the Dragon Gate
method is divided into three stages:
“The first step is not eating grains, just consuming enough fruit and vegetables
to maintain life. This practice greatly reduces the burden of the digestive track
and purifies the internal organs; it must be continued for at least two months,
preferably longer. While working on this step {continue normal affairs, inner
excercises}.

The second step is fasting, abstention from all food, just drinking a cup of cool
water in the morning and evening. When practicing this exercise, there is no filth
in the body; there is hardly even any urine. With the mind aleady clean, the body
is purified. One only exchanges energy with Nature, feeling as if the body has
been put in totally different realm…preserved in this exercise for three days…
body had rosy glow and a crystalline sheen…The third step, “suspended
animation.” This means to sit in complete stillness doing inner alchemical
exercises to such a degree, for weeks, that one “dies” with no respiration nor
pulse. Then a mock funeral is held and the disciple meets his ancestors. The
modern example of gradual reduction to a complete state and subsequent “death”
is interesting and consistent with ancient accounts.

The few scientific articles, possibly prompted by the conference, that attempt to
describe the mechanism or method of bigu, that has proven the possibility of
long-termed fasting without starvation, are few though the broader topics of
longevity and caloric restriction must eventually converge. In addition to these
few references I have amassed a small collection of pamphlets, booklets and the
life on bigu or pigu that advertise special types of meditation or qigong to enter
full or half-pigu (Tam 2006, others in Chinese or unlabelled).

For the most part these books purport to teach a special or unique method that in
on Tam’s school “can be done watching television.” Modern bigu teachers never
mention the Three Worms or more esoteric doctrines associated with the
practice. One reads of anecdotal (and quasi-clinical) reports about children, the
elderly (in short nearly anybody) going into the state quite easily or from a qi
catalyst from a Chinese doctor or qigong master. One such master reports to
have only had to recommend eating, or breaking the fast, to 30 patients and
others “guarantee” success and weight loss for the quite expensive special
treatments or teachings.
 All of this is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the reported troubles and
agonies in the early literature and drastic attempts to overcome hunger. In the
interest of full-disclosure I have had successful encounters with the practice of
bigu on and off over the years that ranged from semi- to full-bigu that fluctuated
more with a streak of hedonism and debauchery (no doubt instigated by those
Worms) rather than any pressing biological need to eat. The biggest difficulty
was not entering or even sustaining the fast, as perhaps a hypothyroid is at work
in my case, but rather the isolating social dimension with respect to families and
friends. This demonstrated on a personal level the fundamental communal role
of sharing a meal and its reaffirmation of the family structure and society by
extension.

As an almost lifelong vegetarian I am quite used to saying I do not eat this or

that to an understanding host and in an age of Atkin’s diets its not uncommon to
forgo carbohydrates. But it is indeed quite another matter to inform one’s mother
that one is “off food” or to explain it as an experiment in fighting Worm-Corpse
demons.

also duangu stopping cereals,

juegu discontinuing cerals
quegu refraining from cereals
xiuliang stopping grains
jueli, to abandon staples
pigu to cut grains
etc.

• "During the reign of Emperor Cheng of the Han, hunters in the

Zhongnan Mountains saw a person who wore no clothes, his body
covered with black hair. Upon seeing this person, the hunters wanted to
pursue and capture him, but the person leapt over gullies and valleys as if
in flight, and so could not be overtaken. [But after being surrounded and
captured, it was discovered this person was a 200 plus year old woman,
who had once been a concubine of Qin Emperor Ziying. When he had
surrendered to the 'invaders of the east', she fled into the mountains where
 she learned to subside on 'the resin and nuts of pines' from an old man.
Afterwards, this diet 'enabled [her] to feel neither hunger nor thirst; in
winter [she] was not cold, in summer [she] was not hot.']

The hunters took the woman back in. They offered her grain to eat. When she
first smelled the stink of grain, she vomited, and only after several days could
she tolerate it. After little more than two years of this [diet], her body hair fell
turned old and died. Had she not been caught by
out; she
men, she would have become a transcendent." (Campany
2002) notes from by F.R. Dannaway

NOTES ON LONG LIFE

Light illuminated my bedroom as I lay in bed almost

paralyzed to the idea of breaking my slumber. The
checker-board of deeds in my life seems to be hanging
over my head like a subconscious loom. Who of us can
read the signs, signals, and gestures that lead to a more
superfluous existence? Many people have become
sequestered from inquiring inquisitively about life,
namely, the most important of questions that serve as the
reason for our livelihood in the midst of all the verbose
congestion. I sat up in my bed and thanked God Almighty
for my health and good fortune and then leveled my
thinking patterns beyond the sphere of the five senses. I
washed, prayed and sat down on my sofa reflecting on
the riddles of life that remain like the sphinx in- lodged in
the Egyptian sands. “Soon we shall show them our signs,
in the horizons and inside their own self (souls), until it
becomes clear to them that He is the Truth” (GOD)-
Quran

Good old Lou had put me in contact with some Olympian

acquaintances. I perceived life as circular in its chain of
events that return again and again in a mystery of
repetitiveness that could be measured according to
propensity of degree. There is three-hundred and sixty
degrees in all circles, most adepts are only aware of some
ninety. The phone rang robustly,
“Sir William, it is good to talk with you again. I am Vlad
Maximillion. Have you come to know of the laws of
permutations my good friend?”
Vlad was a bag full of laughs. This being only my third
time speaking to him he came across as having known me
my whole life-time.
“Will, did you consider my invitation to join the order of
St. Germaine? If you wish to live well past ninety you
might want to take the invitation as more than just a jest.”
“Vlad, I am not interested, nor will I ever be. You should
know by now the source of my uncompromising
devoutness.”
“Yes you are Muslim. Would joining our order conflict in
any shape, form or fashion with your convictions?”
“Regrettably it would Vlad. How has your search for the
Tree of Life been coming along?”
“Excellent, though nothing has arisen from my
meticulous analysis of yet. I’m sifting through the same
old sources, Sumerian, Phoenician, and Hebrew. As of
now we are much satisfied with our monatomic, adrenal-
hormone concoctions.”
These guys were in deep. Drinking hormonal excretions
from menstrual and fetal blood to stimulate the pineal
gland and rejuvenate the organs through blood
assemblers. It is disgusting and abominably carnivorous
in my opinion, to partake in such aberrant cannibalism,
all for the lust of immortality, and the high hopes of
physical transcendence. I guess it is typical behavior for
those who join occult circles to further their greed for
power and longevity. St. Germaine was undoubtedly
perceived by some of his peers, such as the unrestrained
Casanova, as being well educated in the arts and sciences,
but purely a con-man perpetuating the fantastic ideas of
what every human plays with in their dreams (The
fountain of youth.) St. Germaine was seen dining
amongst the elites of his time, but never devouring even a
single plate of food. He claimed his elixir of life was all
that he needed to drink and this was his sole source of
sustenance to nourish his body and enable him to live
beyond the boundaries of what is considered humanly
possible. Did he know the secret to immortality or was he
just merely igniting the libido of phantasmagorical star-
gazers. He was definitely on the right path with alchemy,
monatomic super metals, semi-vegetarianism, and his
inexorable diet restrictions. He was no doubt an
egalitarian luminary with vast connections to hidden-
hand secret societies with in societies, rubbing elbows
with aristocrats and holders of information privy to
selective ears.

Drinking blood or bodily fluids is strictly forbidden in

Orthodox Judaism, Hanifism (Abraham), and Islam. Such
views according to Vlad’s perspective were that my
religion was limiting my free-thought and hindering my
prospect for mental transcendence. What mental
transcendence actually means, I have absolutely no idea.
Sounds like some mystical bean dream to me. The
monotheistic religions forbid it as far back as in the times
of Noah, and indications from Islamic scripture show that
it was of all prophetic messages. Laurence Gardner points
out that after it had been forbidden, according to the book
of Genesis, the life-span’s of humans went down
dramatically, from the time of Methuselah who died at
the age of nine-hundred and sixty-nine, seven years
before the advent of the great flood. Then the generations
after Noah, who lived nine-hundred and fifty-years,
began to die off prematurely compared to their elder
ancestors. Peleg lived two-hundred and thirty-nine years
according to Genesis 11: 18-19. This was the first notice
of an erratic drop of in life-spans. A few generations later
Abraham would live as a prophet of God and die at the
tender age of one-hundred and seventy-five. We do know
that it is may be possible to live to a thousand as the
Quran says, “even if man live a thousand years, he will
still meet death and face the day of Judgment. What was
the real reason for the drop off in life expectancy? After
doing some research on the subject and cross referencing
information, this is what I came up with.

“During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields

and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his
mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some
of your son's mandrakes." How does wheat as a food
relate to this puzzle? The answer is that wheat has a
substance called gluten that is very hard for the body to
digest and can cause celiac disease, furthering absorption
problems of needed nutrients in the body. This is
interesting because I have read rare Taoist manuals of
Monks that claim wheat is the cause of shorting a
person’s life. The also claim that it feeds three intestinal
microscopic worms furthering damage and instability in
the body. Whether or not this is true, is open to debate
amongst microbiologists. The drop off in years lived
amongst the early Bible personae’s is correlative to the
first mention of harvesting wheat as a food source. We
read in Genesis that the life of a human is set to about
one-hundred and twenty after the time of Noah.

“And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive

with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be
a hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3)

This seems to serve as a conveyance of approximation to

the Prophets and not a rule of thumb, since we know that
many individuals have lived past this marker. Laurence
Gardner on the other hand claims that is due to the lack of
Star-Fire absorbed or menstrual blood. This can be
logically refuted since these occultist’s have been taking
it, according to Masonic sources, and still die off around
the ballpark figure of one-hundred years. Another reason
he claims has to do with the Gold that the Annunaki from
ancient Sumer were digging up to make Monatomic
Gold, or Manna. I feel this is also inaccurate if one
utilizes simple deduction. I am not surprised a Laurence’s
proclamations due to the fact that in my opinion is way
off the mark in his interpretations of the origins of our
Universal Creator, and the transmission of a message to
his creation.
The reason Monatomic Gold has no play in longevity is
simple, the Israelites including the Prophet Moses took
Manna, the white powder gold, according to the Torah’s
revelation. According to Exodus 32:20

“And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt
[it] in the fire, and ground [it] to powder, and strawed
[it] upon the water, and made the children of Israel
drink [of it].”
Exodus 31 The people of Israel called the bread manna.
It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers
made with honey. 32 Moses said, "This is what the
LORD has commanded: “Take an omer of manna and
keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the
bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you
out of Egypt. "

The children of Israel were taking this as food during

there forty years of wandering in the desert due to their
disobedience to God. They all seemed to have normal
life-spans and no records exist of anyone having a long
life due to the ingestion of this substance. What has been
shown is that by ingesting it the atoms lock on to the
double helix of the DNA and light it up, like a light bulb.
This bio-electric effect on the cells creates a great
resonance energy field and could prove to be the answer
to cell related diseases and disorders. So you man ask,
“What is the relation between the Manna the Israelites ate
and the white-powder Manna made from
gold?”

The answer to this didn’t come to me until I read a report

by a scientist named David Hudson who has shown
through advanced spectral-analysis of plants that this
substance exits naturally in Aloe-Vera. This was my
reason for trumpeting its positive effects at the beginning
of this book. Here is a graph that shows the percentage of
Manna occurring in nature according to Hudson.
In Gods infinite wisdom he placed this substance in herbs
and some fruits such as grapes and carrots according to
some of Dr. Hudson’s recent findings. What we can
conclude is that this substance is great for stimulating
healing, but in no way, shape, form, or fashion the elixir
of life. I knew the main component in the elixir,
according to the Quran, and Genesis, but whether or not a
person could actually live to the age of nine-hundred has
yet to be seen.

What Vlad did know was that Chlorophyll was almost

effective as a blood transfusion. If the common person
understood these things, they would be buying up green
tablets like tic-tac’s.
The only difference between Chlorophyll and
Hemoglobin in the blood is that the molecule in
Chlorophyll posses a Magnesium atom instead of an Iron,
as in Hemoglobin. Vlad was very familiar with the order
of Mechizaldek and the legend of Rex Mundi, King of
the World. Mechizaldek according to the bible has lived
through out ever generation, and whether or not this is the
person that equates to the Quranic Khidar (Green Man) is
not known. Khidar is mentioned in the Quran in the
Chapter entitled, The Cave. Jewish traditions talk about
the Rabbi’s that entered the cave in search of secret
wisdom, but most came out mad or insane. In interesting
fact is that this Chapter was revealed to the Prophet
Muhammad (SAWS) during a time when the Rabbi’s were
questioning the Prophet about the story of the Cave. This
Chapter was a response to their questioning of some of
their own traditions and knowledge that was safe guarded
by the elect Rabbi’s (Sandhedrin).

The story of Khidar relates how God told the Prophet

Moses (PBUH) that a man existed on earth that held more
wisdom and knowledge than him. To Moses’s surprise he
sought out Khidar and the story relates how Moses was
not able bear in patience with Khidar things that he did
not understand, which led to the eventual ‘parting of
ways’ between them.

The Green Man or Rex Mundi, according to Masonic

traditions, was always connected to Vegetation and
Herbs. Some people today have posed the idea that Rex
Mundi in the Masonic traditions is actually Pan, or the
devil himself, but this misunderstanding of history and
misconstruing of references has led many to believe Rex
Mundi is actually Lucifer himself. I would be more
inclined to believe that Rex Mundi may be no other than
Mechizaldek. This is merely conjecture on my part and I
have no information to back it up as fact. It is worth
mentioning that the mystery of Gog and Magog are also
mentioned in this Quranic chapter. They turn out to be an
ancient artisan people, large in number, they have been
pinned between two mountains in an under ground
chamber by Thul-Qarnain (Double Horns). Some have
postulated that this may have been Cyrus the Great, who
ventured into the lands of the north-east mentioned in the
Quran. Gog and Magog seem to be related to the Anakim
mentioned in the Bible, and may also be ancestors of
some form of easternized Scythians.

Digressing a bit, the wisdom of eating green seems to be

verifiable through the passages of the Torah.

"See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which
is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit
yields seed; to you it shall be for food." (Gen. 1:29) The
tree of life mentioned in the Quran Chapter, The Star, is
no other than a fruit baring tree called Ziziphus
zizyphus, or the Jujube tree.

If we look back and consider that no mention of eating

wheat during the time of Adam to approximately the time
of Noah, we get an inkling of the effects of eating only
Fruits and Herbs. The average life-span today is only
around Eighty, as a high estimate. During the time of
David and King Solomon, (PBUT) when the eating of
Wheat grain was prominent we read from Psalms: “The
days of our years are threescore years and ten; (70
years) and if by reason of strength they be fourscore
years (80 years).” (Psalm 90:10)

This is strikingly similar to the amount of years that

people are currently living to. The conclusion is that
glutens from Grains may over work our system and aid in
the aging of our cells divisions until our eventual death.
By eating foods that are easily processed and more
compatible with our digestive systems we may be able to
extent our life spans indefinitely. But how many people
are willing to get off grains completely? The problem has
been diagnosed by old Chinese Monks that claim there is
an actual addiction to these grains. They claim after 90
days of not eating grains the body transforms and the
three intestinal worms die off, ridding the body of
harmful stress on our biological immune systems. Each
cell is like a human being, in that it takes in oxygen and
nutrients and dispels wastes that are carried out the body
during a bowel movement.

Everyone is familiar with the studies on rats that show by

cutting their food intake in half, the can also double their
life span. Many elites know this and work towards this
objective in their eating habits. Few people have tried to
rid themselves of grains, eating only vital herbs: fruits,
vegetables, honey, protein, and dairy. Also rice is gluten
free which may explain the link between the long life-
spans of Asians that live on mostly fish, vegetables and
rice diets.

Omega-3 has been shown vital to healthy heart and brain

function, which are the cornerstones to sustainable
longevity.
I don’t suggest anyone become vegan, due to the fact that
studies have shown that O-Blood types don’t react
positively to this kind of diet due to the difference in
antigenic reactions of various blood types. Meat is rich in
Iron and is a vital mineral if we wish to sustain good
health. The old Taoist Monks eat dried meat and have
reported some of their adherents to live past two-hundred
years. Whether this is possible or not is yet to be seen. If
we start raising our kids with this understanding, then we
should see a rise in life expectation with in the next
hundred years or so. I can’t imagine giving up those
succulent T-bone steaks, so I am pleased with such
findings concerning grains.

What Count Vlad and I were corresponding on was a

project to hunt for the tree of life. He was aware of it
from pictures of Sumerian slabs of rock that showed
depictions of such a tree. The legend of Gilgamesh details
the story of a man’s pursuit for everlasting life. Vlad was
stumped, but satisfied with the current elixirs held within
his order that he felt was sufficient for long life. It was
time for me to blow his phone receiver out of his hands
with a bombshell. “I found it,” I proclaimed, “It took my
only three days to locate it.”

“By what means? By what source? By what force!” Vlad

exclaimed.

I read to him this verse,

“O you who have attained to faith! Do not ask about
matters which, if they were to be made manifest to you,
might cause you hardship; for if you should ask about
them while the Qur'an is being revealed, they might be
made manifest to you.” Ch.5 v.101

The fact is that there are means by which to elevate ones

consciousness, and recited the Quran is that method.
To raise the level of reception to any question one must
concurrently expand ones consciousness. Enlightenment
can come from only from ‘The Source’ The Creator of the
Universes, Al-Nur, The All Enlightened. Enlightenment
is like a permeation of light throughout ones being, this
can only be achieved through submission to the God’s
jurisprudence. I wanted to make Vlad work a little for
this almost unobtainable information.

There is no appreciation without perspiration. “Vlad- it’s

in the Quran,” I didn’t tell him where, also the answer to
the riddle wrapped in an enigma could only be found in
Tafsir, reference on verse based on Hadith, and
transmissions from the Prophet Muhammad SAWS, since
no exactness of the word has been translated into the
English language. I was puzzled by this realization and
came to discover that most Arabic speaking Arab’s didn’t
know what the Arabic word actually meant, since it’s the
fruit from an uncommonly eaten tree in some parts of the
world. The word is Arabic is Shajarra Sidr, The Christus
Ziphanous, as I have stated earlier in the text.

We read in Qur.Ch. 53 V.15 “near unto the garden of

promise” v.16 “with the lote(sidr)-tree veiled in a veil of
nameless splendor”

These verses were explaining some details of the Prophet

Muhammad’s Mirage, which means journey in Arabic,
Miraj, and has come to be known as ‘an illusion’ through
mockery of the disbelievers to the believers. During the
journey to the heavens, The Prophet was given the details
of Salaat, Muslim Prayer, and was shown the seven
heavens where he witnessed the Sidr Tree on the
outskirts of the heavenly abode, which is the ‘Tree of
Life’

“Well Will,” said Vlad. “I will read the whole Quran in

one sitting if you are so convinced.” “I beg you for a
clue”
“It’s in the second half of the book,” I exposed. Now this
may prove to be tricky for him since the book reads right
to left in some translations. I’m sure his Google search
for “Tree” in the Quran will prove to be profitable. Vlad
said farewell and disappeared from behind his phone
faster than a Bat bolting out of a cave. A fitting analogy
for such a man I must admit. Vlad would soon be onto
something stout, God Willing.

“One in the hand is better than two in the Bush,” as the

saying goes. I looked at my clock and it was ten a.m. My
day still needed to be planned with positive intentions.
Surely a failure to plan is a plan to fail. I sat at my
kitchen table sipping my coffee eating a vegetable-cheese
omelet. I craved for the toast, but my will-power and
recollection of realizations I knew to be true fought off
such wisps.
Good thing it’s an even day I thought to myself. I felt a
sense of uncanny potential in my day, but as the saying
goes, an ounce of potential is worth two pounds of shit,
how deplorable and decadent the mind can be at curious
unimportant moments in time. notes by William Beattie

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