Dear Friends,

I wanted to thank all of our many students, friends, fans and teachers of Jiulong Baguazhang from around the world who attended the Gathering of The Circle last week in Albany New York following the Tai Chi Gala (Formerly know as the Zhan San Feng Festival).

We had a great time spending five full days examining the Qigong health and martial benefits of Jiulong Earth Palm. Loretta Wollering the producer of the Tai Chi Gala was our host and could not have been more gracious. Loretta and the hotel staff went out of their way to see that we were all comfortable and had everything we needed to make this year’s event a success.

Mornings at 6:30 we gathered for Quiet Sitting and Zhan Zhuang after which we adjourned for breakfast. At 9:00 AM I taught a class in Human Feng Shui Qigong that helps students find a personal direction based on Yijing numerology to align themselves to the magnetic fields of the earth attaining maximum benefits from meditation and health. Each student was given four directions of energy and shown four other directions that are not as beneficial for Qi development to them personally. We also explored a series of Jiulong Baguazhang postures for standing and circle walking based on the same principles. As my class was in progress Shifu Robert Castaldo was instructing a select group of advanced students and Jiulong instructors in principles and concepts of Bagua push-hands and teaching methods for training students in our arts.

At noon we broke for lunch and more discussions of the art as well as lessons in Wu-de (martial etiquette) held at table, then it was back to the hotel for a short nap to reconvene at 2:30 PM for our afternoon session. Afternoon sessions focused on applying principles of our Dragon Rolling The Pearl basics program to the Earth Palm concepts and then proceeded into application drills and other games designed to teach how to discover the feminine (Yin) side of defense and attack using the Earth Palm.

At 5:30 PM we stopped for supper taking advantage of the many fine restaurants’ in the area. Most wise students who were not used to so much twisting and turning on a daily basis went to bed early while the instructors group representing our schools in Europe, Canada and the USA gathered in the board room for meetings and presentations on teaching, marketing, and our new Instructors Training program.

My thanks go out to Dale Dugas for working so hard not only to be a good student but also to help promote and sell the products associated with our art and to Eric Reynolds the manager of our Jiulong Baguazhang Preservation Society for his tireless work in all things Jiulong. Also to Rick Krausman and his students for seeing to it that Shifu Castaldo and I were well looked after at dinner and during the Gathering.

THANKS TO JOU, TSUNG HWA

One last note should be my thanks to my late friend and mentor Master Jou, Tsung Hwa, During the Tai Chi Gala preceding our Gathering we were honored to have Liz Jou, the daughter of the late Master Jou, Tsung Hwa attend the event. Master Jou was founder of the original Zhan San Feng Festival at his Tai Chi Farm. I was fortunate to have lunch with Ms. Jou where we discussed her father’s work and goals to preserve both the health and martial aspects of Taijiquan.

For those of you who are not familiar with my history with Master Jou I will just say that he was very fond of my work in de-mystifying the concepts of Chinese internal arts for both health and martial applications. He was also a major influence in the creation of the Jiulong Baguazhang preservation society, providing his farm to us for a week each year so our students and instructors could gather there to study and grow in these arts. Master Jou asked me to continue working to promote fellowship and understanding among all teachers of all systems and styles so these arts could flourish without partisanship. Beyond these things he also aided me in my studies of the connections between the Li family Baguazhang and the Yijing.

Although Master Jou was not my internal arts teacher he was a true mentor and friend, without whom the Jiulong Association would not have reached the levels of success it enjoys today, with eight full time schools around the world. Then there are the 30,000 law enforcement officers from the USA to England all using the Jiulong methods through our American Rangers programs. So thanks to my Shifu Li, Long-dao and Master Jou we are still growing with new schools and trainers to be announced soon, Thank you Mr. Li and Master Jou we miss you both very much!