Longmen Europe

I attended the Longmen seminar in Sweden in September 2011 and the feelings were many and intense both before and during the seminar.

Before the seminar
I had plenty of doubts whether I should participate or not.
The first doubt was related to the fact that my free time is limited and instead of that week I could probably spend time with my family as a nice mini-vacation.
The q was that Master Wang is a grandmaster and I didn´t know if I´ll be able to reach a level of understanding that would make my participation meaningful.
The third doubt was because I had back pains and I did not know if I´ll be able to sit during the long meditation sessions.

I felt also a strong attraction and curiosity to participate, as a grandmaster does not come to Sweden every second week …

It was difficult, but after many forth and backs I decided that I shall attend and do the best I can during the seminar.

The trip to the place of the seminar was an adventure. My connection train was cancelled, the train that replaced the first one was heavily delayed and I managed to catch the buss for the last segment just because Pernilla and Elisabeth convinced the buss driver that I will arrive any second. And finally, when the buss driver was about to drive, my train arrived in the station and I just had to run to catch the bus.

During the seminar
Once arrived at the location, Tom made sure that everybody felt welcome.
The second day we started with breakfast and after that the first meditation started.

Meeting master Wang was a very interesting mixture of feelings: before meeting him
I was wondering how does an extraordinary man look like? and the answer was: just like an ordinary who in addition has a lot of joy for life, calm, childish way of telling stories, warm, and also explaining, for me, unusual things, in an easy to understand and very natural way. I perceived him also as extremely open and kind.
So from the first moment I met him, I decided to pay a lot of attention to his teachings.
I expected a lot from meeting him, but my expectations were exceeded by his way of being and teaching and also by his deep knowledge that he shared with us in such a direct and ´simple´ way.

After a short theoretical part, we had the first meditation and it was hard. I felt a lot of pain and I was happy when the first session ended. Master ´promised´ us that the coming sessions will be longer and increasingly more painful. And they were 

Lian did a great job helping us, every morning and afternoon before the meditations, with clarifications and explanations and we could take notes.

In the beginning, during the meditations my body started to oscillate back and forth. After few meditations the oscillations continued but from left to right. All the meditations were painful, but I perceived the pain afterwards like a ´happy pain´somehow leading to a better state. During one of the meditations I ´saw´a strong light in my left eye. t was so strong that I thought that very strong sun light came in the room. As we ere told not to open the eyes I didn´t. I also felt my internal organs warm and I was able to move them (the perception was very vivid).
I was pleased that I could finish all meditations despite my back pains and my back got slightly better.

Tom was making everything he could in order to compensate for the unexpected events related to the logistics and he succeeded to keep all of us well fed and able to attend every session.
It was also a pleasure to mingle with the other seminar participants and everyone contributed to a nice atmosphere.

After the seminar
I had to leave early due to a business trip and it was quite a jump from the days dedicated to meditation to the hectic business life … it took few days before I managed to find some time to reflect to what the seminar meant to me and what I want to do from now on.

So, I felt that I got in touch with a new way of looking at the world, a very exciting one, and very inviting one. I want to learn more about it.

I do practice every day, even if my practice is very simple, walking meditation and in some of the days, the tree meditation. From time to time I also do the sitting meditation.
My back is better and in general I feel that the seminar was for me definitely worth participating. I intend to practice a bit more every week and to attend the seminar in Dalian in April 2012.

Wish to thank you all: starting with master Wang, Lian, Tom, the other students for a life changing week!

All the best and looking forward to meeting you again soon
Tavi

I have been pursuing my spiritual interest for more than 20 years now. Having seen many ways from Indian and Chinese traditions over the time gave me some strong reference point – at least for an European – on evaluating the path, techniques, progress, goals and objectives of the practice.

I am happy I got a chance to study Longmen Taoist practices with Master Wang Liping. First because the methodology is well established and today we can benefit the hundreds of years of experimentation the Longmen ancestor did. Second because master has very good ability to transfer the knowledge and to subtlety influence the disciple’s body, energies and mind.

This is not an easy path. I think this is a good sign, I understood so far that acceding higher realms implies some sort of effort and suffering. Every bit of pain I suffer tells me I am coming closer to the place I want to be.

Richard