Last week we spent 3 days just on meditating, eating lightly, and taking some Chinese herbs to build our chi. Our class has been talking about this for almost two years now, it was supposed to be something we did semi-regularly but we just now did it for the first time.

First Shifu bought all the herbs which we dried, steamed, and dried again several times before grinding them into a fine powder with this really ancient looking piece of machinery. Then we melted honey and some weirdly congealed bricks of donkey skin (Yes, I'm serious, it's supposed to be a blood cleanser) and mixed it with the powder and rolled it into 9 gram balls. Each day before meditation we would eat 1 to 3 of these "pills". We spent around 6 hours each day meditating. Morning session was 2 1/2 hours, afternoon was 2 hours, and evening was another 1 1/2 hours. We were allowed to eat fruit, a few cooked vegetables, and some special porridge that the cooks made for us with rice, barley, corn, beans, and lentils. I actually enjoyed eating only healthy foods for a few days, although I was dreaming about home-baked cookies from time to time!

I knew this was going to be challenging and it definitely was. The second day in particular was quite rough for me. I was in a lot of pain in my legs and feeling very discouraged pretty much all day but then in the evening we learned a really cool lying down chi gong which helped renew me for the next day. I woke up on day 3 feeling good and I really got a lot out of the meditation. I felt relaxed and calm, I was able to really focus on my dan tian (lower belly) and I think if we'd gone for 4 or 5 days, I would have had some powerful experiences.

Getting back to training has been interesting. I felt really good the first day, relaxed and soft and full of energy, now I'm pretty sore but I still feel more healthy and vigorous. I think we really did build up some chi over those 3 days, I just have to not waste it and continue to build more now. Although it was very hard, I'm looking forward to the next time we can meditate for 3 days, I hope each successive time will be a little bit easier and more rewarding.

Chengdu Trip

We got back this morning from our holiday to Chengdu. Some of you may remember Chengdu from the big earthquake that made the news several years ago. It's a lovely city with a small town feel and the people were quite friendly. We saw a lot of the local sights like temples, the tibetan district, parks, etc but the two main highlights were the pandas and Emei shan.

The panda breeding centre is on the outskirts of the city in a lovely scenic area. The place is full of flower gardens and pretty walking paths as well as adorable pandas! I was worried that the living conditions for the pandas might be inhumane (China is not big on animal rights) but it seemed really great. They had plenty of outdoor space, with lots of bamboo and it was very clean. The pandas seemed really happy and healthy and we got to see babies, teenagers, and adults. Seeing them on a television screen really doesn't do these sweet animals justice. They really were enchanting, even to the more stoic members of our group. We spent about 3 hours there but I could have stayed all day.

Emei shan is the name of a mountain we went to see that was about a 3 hour bus ride from the city. It was absolutely gorgeous scenery and the air was so fresh and clean. Apparently this area is where a lot of scenes from the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon were filmed. There is also a famous kung fu style that originated here and is still practiced today. The Fuhu Temple was incredible in itself and the surrounding beauty just added to it's magnificence, I really hope to take my parents there when they come to visit. Unfortunately we only had a day and a half here and so we saw less than 10% of the mountain, I'd love to go back and stay for 3 or 4 days to have the chance to see everything.

Overall the trip was great and we all had a really fun time. It does feel good to be back though and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight, sleeping on the train sucks!