COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE IN TEACHING AND HEALING
It often needs great courage to tell our students or patients our sincere opinion
Question
As I mentioned before, Sifu, I am convinced of the power of our qigong, but I am not sure if I should express this same confidence to my students, lest they expect too much. In my case, I took a long time to see most of the effects, and I could have so easily fallen along the way, if not for Sifu's encouragement and the fact I got to see Sifu quite regularly. How can I do the same for my students?
— Sifu Zhang Wuji, Shaolin Wahnam Singapore
Answer
We guide our students, not take guidance from them. This does not mean we do not listen to them.
We guide our students based on the conviction of our beliefs and our sincerity in helping them. We do not take guidance from them based on their weakness, insecurity or their lack of knowledge and experience.
In fact, it is precisely because they are weak, insecure and lacking in knowledge and experience that we teach and guide them.
We are confident in our teaching and of the benefits that our teaching will bring because we ourselves have gone through the same process and have enjoyed the benefits. We have to inspire confidence into our students that they too can enjoy these benefits.
But we have to remind them that they have to put in time and effort, just as we did before them. They should also know that their journey to recovery or to mastery of our arts is long and not easy, though we have done our best to make it much faster and easier for them than what it was in the past and what it is in most other schools.
While what we claim is absolutely true, like overcoming illness or having vitality to enjoy our work and play, our students must know that they cannot take these results for granted or have unreasonable or over-expectations. For example, while it is true that we have helped many people overcome diabetes, kidney mal-function and many so-called incurable diseases, this does not mean that they too will automatically overcome these diseases just because they learn from us.
They have to do their part, which always takes much time and effort. Sometimes even when they have done their part, their diseases may still not be cured due to other factors, like they have gone beyond a threshold or the disease-causing agents are still affecting them strongly.
It is of utmost importance that we give them the confidence that they can regain good health, though we cannot guarantee that their recovery is a certainty. We speak with honesty and conviction. If we have any doubt in our ability to help them recover, we will not take up their case. If we know of any other sources, Western medicine or others, that can help them more effectively, we must direct them to these sources.
It often needs great courage on our part to tell our students or patients our sincere opinion, especially when it concerns their life and death. I faced such a situation often. Cancer patients often asked me whether they should continue with their conventional treatment, especially strong does of chemotherapy. When I was convinced that practicing our qigong alone would help them recover, I told them so, with conviction and confidence but without directly telling them to continue or not continue their conventional treatment.
I made it a point to tell them that it was my opinion, and they had to make their own decision. I am proud to say that particularly every one of those courageous students or patients who followed my advice recovered.
When the case was not fatal, but still very serious, I was more forthright. I am very proud of the case with Datin's daughter, whom I believe you have personally met. She could not stand because, according to conventional Western medical perspective, her legs did not have enough bone-density. She was also in excruciating pain. Two separate bone specialists told her to undergo surgery to have bone transplant. She would have to be in a wheelchair for some time after the surgery. According to the specialists there was no other cure. She asked me for advice.
As I was convinced that our qigong healing would cure her, I courageously told her not to go for surgery. And she courageously followed my advice. It is incredible but true that after just three days of attending my Personalized Chi Kung Healing Course, she could walk and run without pain!
Why was I so sure that she could walk again without undergoing surgery when it had been scientifically proven that her legs lacked bone-density? I knew something that the bone specialists did not know. It is flowing qi, not bone-density, that enables her legs to support her body, just like it is flowing water, not its iron structure, that enables a hydraulic pump to support a lorry.
Confidence in ourselves and in our students is necessary, and it needs great courage, besides knowledge of the situation, to instill this confidence.
Practicing "Golden Bridge" is an excellent way to develop courage and confidence intrinsically
LINKS
Reproduced from Questions 2 in Selection of Questions and Answers September 2010 Part 3