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With Taoist Grand Master Wang Liping in St. Petersburg

 

 It was May the 5th 2008 in Moscow, we just had successfully finished a first seminar of “Wang Liping‘s Daoist Lingbao tong zhineng - Art of Inner Cultivation” with a class of Russian students.  As it was Wang Liping‘s first formal seminar outside of China, we and his Russian students had prepared the event carefully for two years. 

Everybody was dedicated and willing to give their best. Wang Liping took painstaking care to lead the students and this teaching class turned out to be a big success.

After the event Viktor stayed in Moscow to deal with further organizational issues. The evening we finished teaching the rest of us rushed to the train station to get the fast train to St. Petersburg, scheduled to take off shortly after midnight. Our group of four [ master Wang: the man on the 2^nd right, his wife: the woman on the 1^st right, his niece: the woman on the  1^st left and me: Qin Ling, the woman on the 2^nd left) traveled in the same compartment. Wang Liping and his wife arranged themselves on the lower berth his niece and I took the upper berth. In the middle of the night I woke up and found master Wang sitting in deep meditation. Inspired by him, I too sat up to meditate, but fell asleep again after a short while. This time I slept until the early morning. When I woke up, Wang Liping was still sitting in the same meditation posture. Later I understood, that his sleep was following the rhythm of the sun. In this place far north it is dark night for not even one hour.

In the morning, master Wang asked me:  “Did you have a good sleep?” I replied that the last night I had been feeling very tired and slept soundly. Then he started to tell us, what the people in the compartments next to ours had been doing in the night, explained in detail the weather changes during the night and finally stated that there will be no rain during our stay in St. Petersburg. I was surprised and once again realized full of admiration how different his life experience and perception is to us ordinary people. Later it turned out, that during our three days in St. Petersburg the sun was always shining. But just when we took the night train back to Moscow it unexpectedly started to rain cats and dogs. Was that just a coincidence? 

We arrived in St. Petersburg in the morning and went to visit the Winter Palace the same day. In the evening we strolled through Neva Street and later had some coffee, totally unaware that it was already after 11 pm. It was the season for the famous midnight sun phenomena of the north, where the sun never completely goes down. We came back to the hotel late at night and I fell asleep in a heartbeat.

The second day we all had breakfast together and master Wang asked us how we felt about the last day. I replied: “It was great fun, but at the end I was very tired and slept through until the early morning.” Wang Liping than explained: “Qiu Chuji, the founder of the Dragongate sect came to Russia during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). He went to visit a place near the Arctic Circle, because he wanted to practice inner cultivation in a high latitude spot and experience the effects on the human body. I wanted to come to St. Petersburg for the same reason, to experience the influence of practice at high latitude on my body and mind. Yesterday I realized that my practice was going smoother here in the north. Furthermore, the position of the Dantian felt somewhat different. St. Petersburg is a really good place for cultivation practices”. Listening to his words I suddenly realized how wrong I have been, thinking that master Wang wanted us to go to St. Petersburg because he needed a rest and recovery time after the strenuous seminar in Moscow. In no way I was imagining that his purpose was to verify and explore the experiences of the founder of the Dragongate sect about the relevance of the latitude on the globe to one‘s practice. Master Wang continued, that therefore also Western people can study the Daoist arts of life cultivation. The only real barrier is the language.

Wang Liping‘s wife addressed him: “No wonder you were so excited last night and always pointing to the the sky calling my attention to this and that… you did not sleep the whole night…”

Whatever we were doing in St. Petersburg, sightseeing, watching performances of local ethnic groups, or walking along the Neva river, master Wang always kept the kind of innocent and joyful interest in everything, much like a child. In my opinion this is also reflecting an achievement through the Daoist cultivation practices.

This trip to St. Petersburg brought me tremendous insights and I felt the time was passing far too quickly. Wang Liping put it in words: “For this travel to St. Petersburg we all feel the same, time is much too short”. He than continued: “Daoism provides a unique view on the perception of time. For example, imagine you are waiting for somebody you are expecting urgently at a certain time. If he is late you will have the feeling of the time being very long, every minute passing very slow. Another example: Imagine a woman and a man who are deeply in love. When they hold each other, even if it is for a whole evening, they perceive the time as very short.” His words made me realize that the Daoist concept of time contains a very subjective aspect.

In my own experience, Wang Liping is a very friendly and approachable man. He does never ever behave as the “grandmaster” one might expect. Often at the beginning when people meet him it is difficult for them to understand and get a feeling for his unique way. It is most important just to stay attentive and open in his presence. He is at all times and places teaching the wisdom of Daoism, which is not available through any book. 

Notes:   This paper was written by Qin Ling and translated by  Markus Schiesser . Qin Ling is the madam in the middle, who wear black colored modified robe and grey pants.