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Healing the Body --
Enlightening the Spirit
by Gary Rebstock
Healing the body -- Enlightening the Spirit is the title Chunyi Lin, the founder
and creator of Spring Forest Qigong, has chosen for the 6th Spring Forest Qigong
International Conference, which will take place April 22-24 at the Hyatt Regency
in Minneapolis.
The title encompasses the Spring Forest Qigong experience for thousands of Chunyi
Lin's students. It is also a perfect reflection of Chunyi Lin's life and how he came
to be the renowned teacher and healer he is today. For those who know Chunyi's story
or have read the book I co-authored with him, Born A Healer, the connection is obvious.
For those who are unfamiliar with his personal story, allow me to share some of his
extraordinary life experiences with you.
 From
a terrifying childhood
Imagine for a moment you are just 10 years old, the eldest of four children. You
are home alone one night with your siblings and elderly grandmother. Your life is
already filled with turmoil. Your father has been seized and imprisoned by government
forces for reasons you don't understand and are never made clear. Your mother goes
to work in the morning but doesn't return that night. She is hours overdue and you
have no idea why.
The night is already filled with tension and growing more ominous as the hours tick
by. Giant claps of thunder in the distance warn of a storm that is fast approaching.
Then, without warning, a different kind of storm, much more ominous and threatening
arrives at your doorstep. In a matter of moments, your life will become a living
nightmare.
Suddenly, someone is pounding on your door. People are shouting. You open the door
nervously to find an angry mob of adults, screaming and cursing, demanding you turn
over your mother to them. Some in the mob are people you recognize. Some are people
you thought were your parents' friends.
Failing to find your mother, the mob orders you, your younger sister, brothers and
elderly grandmother into the street with nothing but the clothes on your backs. By
this time, the other storm has arrived and the rain is falling hard. Terrified and
confused, you run for your lives into the dark, wet night. A few hours later, hiding
in the shadows, you watch from a distance as your home is bombed and destroyed.
That is precisely what happened to 10-year-old Chunyi Lin. That night was the beginning
of weeks of living in hiding, often with no food and nothing but rain water to drink.
That night was also the beginning of nearly a decade of suffering and abuse for Chunyi.
Allowed to live but marked as a "devil child" for reasons that wouldn't
become clear until he was an adult. (Chunyi would ultimately learn that his family's
"crime" was that his parents were not communists.) As a teenager he was
sent into forced labor in the countryside on land so inhospitable that many starved
and others suffered crippling or fatal injuries.
Chunyi Lin survived the terrible times of the Cultural Revolution in his native China,
but he grew into an angry, bitter and severely depressed young man. It is almost
impossible for those who know him now to believe that he was ever filled with anger
and bitterness or so depressed that he had contemplated suicide, but he was, and
had.
It wasn't until he experienced his own, personal healing that Chunyi Lin would leave
his troubled and often terrifying past behind.
To healing transformation
In his early 20s, he had suffered crippling injuries to both his knees. The damage
was so severe he was often unable to stand, let alone walk. When he learned that
a Qigong Master of amazing ability was coming to his village Chunyi decided to go
see. Many of his friends told him he was crazy. They said the man had to be a fraud
and that qigong was only ancient superstition or wishful thinking. But, Chunyi was
desperate. No doctor, medicine or healing treatment he tried so far had helped.
So, he went to a soccer field where 10,000 people had gathered for a one-day event.
Sitting on the ground from morning 'til dusk, Chunyi followed the Qigong Master's
guidance and experienced for the first time the amazing ability the human body has
to heal itself with the right guidance. At the end of that day, he could not only
stand and walk again, he could run and jump. He was amazed and overjoyed.
What he didn't realize, until weeks later, was that his emotions had also been healed.
His anger and bitterness were gone, replaced with compassion and understanding, with
love, kindness and forgiveness. He had started on a new path, one of healing and
enlightenment. He was beginning to learn what he teaches today, that true healing
and enlightenment go hand-in-hand.
Since that day on the soccer field, a quarter century ago, Chunyi Lin has devoted
himself to the study and practice of qigong, to the study and practice of healing
and helping others. He has become a certified international qigong master and created
Spring Forest Qigong.
From traditional qigong
Qigong is an ancient practice in China, though it was outlawed during the Cultural
Revolution and wasn't openly taught and practiced again until the late 1970s. Even
so, much of the teaching is still closely guarded and revealed to only a select few.
Qigong is based on the principle that everything is energy. The sky, the air, a rock,
our bodies and even our thoughts are all forms of energy. Energy cannot be created
or destroyed, but it can be transformed. Qigong teaches you how to transform energy
for personal growth, health, healing and happiness. It involves a breathing technique,
movements, mental focus and meditation.
The basic concept of qigong is that energy balance is necessary for optimum health
and wellness. When the body's flow of energy becomes blocked, then illness or complications
can arise. The problem may be physical, mental or emotional. To resolve the problem,
the energy blockage or blockages need to be removed, and the body's natural energy
balance restored.
Traditional qigong masters still teach their students that it is necessary to follow
years of rigid adherence to very disciplined and often difficult techniques in order
to experience the benefits of qigong practice and be able to assist others. This
is how Chunyi Lin was taught.
To Spring Forest Qigong
However, after years of study with some of the most highly regarded qigong masters
in China, what became increasingly clear to Chunyi is that the traditional approach
is what has made qigong so difficult to learn. He realized that qigong is actually
easy to learn and its benefits should be made available to everyone. That revelation
led him to create Spring Forest Qigong.
Spring Forest Qigong is so simple that anyone can learn it while actually enhancing
the energy benefits of qigong practice. It's an approach that has already helped
thousands of people, an approach that many have called revolutionary.
In fact, Bill Manahan, M.D., an associate professor at the University of Minnesota
Medical School says, "Spring Forest Qigong is going to revolutionize the manner
in which we look at healing." Best-selling author Deepak Chopra, M.D., says
Chunyi Lin has created "an easy-to-follow program that will allow you to incorporate
the health benefits of qigong into your daily life." Easy to follow and revolutionary.
Chunyi Lin created Spring Forest Qigong so that everyone could have the opportunity
to experience what he experienced -- that we are all born with the ability to help
ourselves to heal and perhaps, more importantly, to help others to heal. Allow me
to share a few of the personal experiences from Chunyi's students that are detailed
in Born A Healer to help illustrate the point.
You were born a healer
Many years ago, Esther Trejo was stricken with a rare lung disease. Unable to get
her breath, she was placed on oxygen 24 hours a day. Her doctors tried many treatments,
but her health continued to deteriorate. Ultimately, a specialist at the Mayo Clinic
advised a lung transplant. Esther has never had a lung transplant, but today she
is feeling great and hasn't needed oxygen for years.
Tom Gow became ill with what his doctors diagnosed as severe aplastic anemia, a life-threatening
bone marrow disease. He was told that without a bone marrow transplant he had only
months to live. Even with the transplant, his doctors advised him he might only live
a couple of more years, if that. No suitable donor could ever be found, so Tom never
had a bone marrow transplant. It's now more than six years since his diagnosis and
Tom is not only still alive, but thriving.
Darcie Barrett was a fourth-grade teacher who loved working with kids. But, she suffered
from migraine headaches and other chronic, debilitating pain that was making it almost
impossible for her to work. Her doctors tried numerous treatments and drugs, but
her pain continued, becoming even more severe. Ultimately, she was told medical science
had nothing left to offer her and that she should be placed on permanent disability.
It was a diagnosis she refused to accept. Darcie Barrett is now Darcie Grim, married
with a child of her own. Her pain and headaches are a thing of the past.
Esther, Tom and Darcie share two things in common. All three of them credit Chunyi
Lin and his Spring Forest Qigong techniques with their recoveries, and each of them
use what they've learned to help others.
It should be noted here that Spring Forest Qigong is no panacea. Not everyone experiences
the same extraordinary kind of results as Esther, Tom and Darcie, though many people
have. Fortunately, most people are not faced with those kinds of serious challenges.
It should also be noted that Spring Forest Qigong is not only about physical healing.
That is just one benefit that many people experience. Spring Forest Qigong is about
creating balance in every aspect of your life -- physically, mentally, emotionally
and spiritually. It is also, most especially, about helping others.
In the hundreds of interviews I've conducted with Spring Forest Qigong students since
I first became aware of Chunyi Lin eight years ago, a couple of things stand out.
Most people come to try it out of curiosity and most people are extremely skeptical.
I certainly was. The most common comments I've heard are that practicing Spring Forest
Qigong just "makes me feel better," or that "it's changed the way
I look at life."
Healing & enlightenment conference
The Spring Forest Qigong International Conference -- April 22-24 at Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis -- brings together hundreds of people from all across this country,
as well as many foreign countries. It has proven beneficial to people who are brand
new to any kind of energy practice, as well as those who are extremely knowledgeable.
For the first time, this year's conference will include special focus sessions. One
is designed for beginners. Another is designed to help more advanced Spring Forest
Qigong students in detecting energy blockages in others and helping them to heal.
There will also be a session on how to sit in the full lotus position, which is the
optimum position for meditation. Another session is designed for health care professionals
on how they can incorporate Spring Forest Qigong techniques into their own practices.
The focus session for health care practitioners will be taught by Chunyi's long time
student, Patrick Dougherty. Patrick is a licensed psychologist in Minnesota, and
after years of trying, was granted permission by the state licensing board in 2004
to teach Spring Forest Qigong techniques to psychotherapists. As Patrick jokingly
puts it, "The board members were finally enlightened."
At the last conference, there was a dentist from Florida who shared an experience
he'd had with a patient who was suffering severe myofascial pain. The patient had
been to medical doctors, had been given the standard medical treatment but his pain
persisted. The dentist didn't know what else to do. Because energy techniques, such
as Spring Forest Qigong, are not approved dental practice, the dentist was reluctant
to try it. He was also new to Spring Forest Qigong. He'd only recently started learning
through a home study course. He told his patient what he knew of qigong and the man
told him, "Do anything!"
So, the dentist used the "Sword Fingers" technique that Chunyi teaches
in Spring Forest Qigong Level One for Health. He used the technique to remove the
energy blockage in the man's jaw and, just as Chunyi teaches, he repeated in his
mind, "Your pain is gone. You're completely healed." After a couple of
minutes of using the "Sword Fingers" technique, the dentist stopped and
said to his patient, "Your pain is gone." Much to his surprise and delight,
the man's pain was indeed gone.
The purpose of the conference is the same as the overall goal Chunyi Lin has established
for Spring Forest Qigong: reaching out to everyone in the world to share with them
the healing power of love, kindness and forgiveness.
As Chunyi teaches, the energy vibrations of love, kindness and forgiveness are where
the healing power comes from. Spring Forest Qigong is merely a technique for focusing
that healing energy.
The conference is one more step on the path towards one day realizing Chunyi Lin's
vision of "a healer in every family and a world without pain." Just like
the title of the conference, it's a vision of both healing and enlightenment.
For
conference information, please visit www.springforestqigong.com
Gary Rebstock is veteran television news reporter, anchor and producer. He has
received numerous journalism awards. He is coauthor with Chunyi Lin of Born A Healer
and has been a student of Spring Forest Qigong for many years. You can contact him
by email at gary@bornahealer.com.
Copyright © 2005 Gary Rebstock. All rights reserved. |
| April 2005 |
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