GRANDMASTER WONG'S FIRST ZEN AWAKENING
Abdominal Breathing
Question 11
Does Sigung have a particular memory of first experiencing a Zen awakening?
Andrew R
Answer
My first experience of a Zen awakening happened when I was a small boy in the late 1940s, even before I attended primary school. At that time I did not know it was a Zen awakening. In fact I was quite frightened by the experience.
My mother took me for a holiday in Kuala Lumpur. I was sitting in a village house looking at passers-by. I could not remember the exact situation or the reason, but for fun I wanted to put myself into another person to feel how he would feel.
I cannot remember what exactly I did. I believe I went into what we now call a chi kung state of mind, and placed myself in his position. All of a certain I found myself seeing the world from his eyes. I was shocked. The fright brought me back to my body.
I did not tell the experience to anybody. In fact I almost forgot about the incident until being reminded by answering this question.
The first Zen awakening I can remember more clearly was when I was teaching chi kung at the Moral Uplifting Society in Taiping in the early 1990s. One night I taught Abdominal Breathing in a Small Universe Course. I was standing on a platform in front of the class performing Abdominal Breathing with the students. I just pressed and released my abdomen about 10 times. I was deeply involved in a meditative state of mind. Then, all of a sudden I found myself nowhere and everywhere.
I did not know much about spiritual expansion at that time. I was quite scared, and quickly returned to my body. I also did not tell this extraordinary experience to anybody.
The above is reproduced from the thread Zen Intensive in Hawaii Q&A in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum
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