Pathgate Journal

The Cultivation of Time Space & Intuition

- Enhancing situational awareness through the interaction of the four dimensions of time & space -

Jon Miller is at present the CEO of Time-Warner AOL in the USA. He became a student of Sifu Yeung in 1993 when he was the Managing Director of Nickelodeon International and CEO of Paramount Channel UK. He became an International Chinese Internal Arts Champion under the guidance of Sifu Yeung while he was a student of the Classical Qigong Study.

Qigong Study - What’s It About?

"My life’s objective is to assume overwhelming challenges and produce unsurpassed results. I have had a long involvement in Chinese martial arts training since 1979 after graduating from Harvard University. I have learned over twenty hand and weapon forms and reached a standard of Instructor level.

In due course I have developed a number of ‘overuse’ injuries to cartilage in my knees, hip and shoulder. I had also, for many years, weight-trained, road-raced, and played basketball. In western sports medicine, I had done too much too fast. I began to investigate various body-work theories and Qigong. My interest was strongly related to my concern for my injuries. I needed to learn how to preserve my body from the inside for the long haul. I had come to believe that correct body alignment and qi work was at the foundation of both preservation and advancement. It was against this background that I was fortunate to chance upon Sifu Yeung when I arrived in London in 1993.

Observing his teaching, it was clear to me that Sifu Yeung not only possesses an unusual degree of skill and understanding in both healing and martial arts, he also endeavours to help his students obtain real insight and ability. After three years of study with Sifu Yeung, the path ahead looks at once longer, deeper, more valuable, and more joyful than it ever has.

As I approach forty, I seek to balance the cornerstones of my life; family, work and personal development. I very much want to expose my young son to meaningful philosophies and ways of life. To do so, my own level of understanding and ability to demonstrate by example needs to be further developed. In my professional career, I look to progress in a way consistent with the above values and to conduct myself with a maturity that can, as I see it, only come from an overall level of collective growth that derives from a profound sense of interconnectedness with the world. I look upon the Classical Qigong Study Course as an opportunity to create a foundation for broad aspects of life. My interest and enthusiasm in martial arts has continued and broadened to become a search for a right way to live. To continue on this path, I look to move beyond the stage of a dedicated beginner to one that moves strongly towards real understanding and ability.

Reflection On The Course

In the Pathgate Classical Qigong Foundation Course, Sifu Yeung teaches, and indeed demonstrates, how perceptual enhancement can be made manifest. Certainly, ‘seeing’ someone’s intent before they move, and having the time and the space to react, has martial arts applications. But, as in all things based on profound principles of nature, the understanding and ability involved translates into many areas of life.

Before I commenced my study with Sifu Yeung, I had already practised martial arts for over fifteen years. In the past, I worked hard on practising a series of techniques and reflexes that, generally speaking, involved protecting (blocking) and striking. Improvement was determined by speed of reaction, appropriateness of technique, and strength of force. After a period of time, I was reasonably fast, and reasonably strong, and possessed knowledge of a good number of solid techniques.

All my previous training was shown to be elementary, at best, by Sifu Yeung. For example, Sifu has had a group of us stand in a circle around him and then to begin any attacking move at random. Sifu would point to the person about to move each time. Because we students had committed to the movement already, we would start to move even though we already had a finger pointed at us - a most disconcerting feeling. In so doing, Sifu’s movement was not hurried or in any way frantic; in fact, the pointing was uncannily calm and matter of fact, even though there may have been five or six people in the circle.

In other demonstrations, Sifu has had us launching attacks on him, we with eyes open, he with eyes closed. The results were always in his favour. In a variety of push hands situations, Sifu was able to move with us, remaining fully in contact and completely without variation in the ‘pressure’ of attachment. In other words, as I moved he moved, perfectly synchronised in time and in place so that there was no feeling of more or less contact at any one point or another - both circling in place or moving freely throughout a room. Again, there was no sense of effort or urgency in Sifu’s movement or demeanour.

Clearly, something more is going on here than just reflexive reactions to threatening stimuli. In fact, I have been overwhelmed at times by the feeling of ‘you can’t get there from here’. No amount of training such as I had previously done would yield the effortless ability demonstrated by Sifu. From where I was in training and understanding, I had to begin again based on what was, for me, a new set of principles. In this case, however, the principles involved have applications well beyond martial arts.

Sifu teaches and demonstrates that perception of situations goes well beyond ‘movement’, but involves the energy and intent of the participants in the situation. By perceiving the energy and intent involved, one can meld with, and redirect if desired, the energy put forth - for example in a push hands technique. ‘Melding with’ is very different mentally, emotionally, and ultimately spiritually from blocking and preparing for a subsequent strike. Doing so involves not only being able to perceive in a different way, to absorb energy, and also to be able to have the internal ability to move with and react in a wholly different manner. The latter ability is tied into the creation of both time and space necessary for such choices to present themselves.

Going further, if one thinks about perceiving, absorbing, and exchanging/returning another’s energy, is it really about the other person per se - as a martial arts orientation might encourage - or is it really about energy generally? If it is, as I have come to believe, about energy generally, then the principles are applicable to energy interactions of all kinds. As all things are energy interactions of one kind or another, one can intuitively realise that the ‘practice’, or path to perceptual enhancement and creating internal time and space, is indeed profound.

Meditation & Energy Awareness

Specific techniques are taught by Sifu Yeung. Amongst these, a number of standing meditation techniques are employed. In standing meditation, rooting involves connecting to the earth both physically and in terms of grounding one’s energy. The physical effects are many and certainly play a large role in being able to absorb an incoming or attacking force by directing it through the body into the ground. From there it can be redirected or returned as a counter force. My own practice in this regard has also led to some surprising developments.

On one particular occasion, I was practising standing meditation with an emphasis on rooting techniques. My intention was focused on sinking my energy into the earth. After some time, I felt a pleasant wave of relaxation and energy going downwards - which I had felt before - but this time it was accompanied by the feeling of my entire body being dropped down into the earth. Rather than ‘trying’ to rise up, the sense of being in the earth stabilised, and I began to feel rooted in a way I had never before experienced.

After a few more minutes of enjoying this sensation, I began to feel a change in the way I felt about my perception. My eyes were closed, yet it was as if I could feel energy about me move in patterns that were not quite clear to me, but were for the first time perceptible. Upon reflection, the feeling was of seeing the energy patterns but of the lens not quite being in focus.

I opened my eyes. I was outdoors, and it seemed the world around was moving in a kind of slow motion, and that many movements (birds, leaves rustling, etc.) were perceivable all at once, and all as if they were happening in slow motion. I could see, and to some degree almost feel, the energy shift in all these movements across a wide range of frontal and peripheral vision.

If one could maintain this perceptual enhancement, with its attendant time dilation, during the types of martial or other interactions talked about earlier, then one could clearly begin to perceive and meld with the energy around oneself. In this light, such melding can be seen not as an act of repelling or one originating from fear or anger, but rather an action of perceiving and embracing. The resultant mind-set is entirely different and, I would argue, life enhancing in a way that the other martial perspective is not.

I am working on maintaining my rooting and quietude outside of a meditative state so as to be able, at least in part, to use this orientation in both push hands situations and in aspects of daily life. The sense of looking at things, including during such events as business meetings, in terms of energy interactions is most illuminating.

Energy Management In Business

If one relaxes in a meeting and lets the energy states (frustration, anxiety, etc.) of others become apparent, one can begin to see how to direct the flow of the meeting. To do so, requires not being caught by what they are putting forth, but by being able to perceive, absorb, and ground their energy through you - just as in the push hands situation described earlier. Frequently in such situations, others try to provoke certain reactions. Seeing where they are headed, and creating the time and space to respond as desired, instead of as provoked, is of great benefit. Though valuable, this level of perception is once again shown by Sifu Yeung to be just a step along a path to greater insight.

Intuition & Energy Awareness

As demonstrated by Sifu Yeung, situational awareness can extend far beyond what is commonly understood to be the ‘immediate situation’. Two examples come to mind. In one, I had a particularly important and difficult business situation to resolve in continental Europe. In as much as it required a forced shift of personnel, the matter had only been discussed in strict confidence in New York. After a weekend class, as I was preparing to face this disconcerting task in the coming week, Sifu walked over and told me that what I was trying to do in regard to my European situation was indeed important, and that it had the possibility to go quite wrong. He proceeded to give specific advice on how I might go about what needed to be done. His comments were insightful and ultimately proved critical to a successful resolution. What is entirely remarkable, is that we had never discussed the (highly confidential) planned event, or the reasons for it.

On another occasion, Sifu spent a weekend with my family on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. A strong hurricane was coming up the coast, and all weather reports (which dominated the news) had the storm heading directly towards us. Needless to say, people in this area were evacuating fast for safer havens. Sifu, despite repeated weather reports of the unabated approach of the storm, reassured us: “Don’t worry, it will veer off”. For two days it continued heading straight at us. When asked, Sifu stuck by his statement. Finally, within less than two hours of making landfall at our town, it veered off out to sea. Not one weather report had anticipated this about turn.

What these experiences have led me to appreciate, is that the journey is both longer and more profound than I had ever imagined. Situational awareness can be seen to refer to understanding the interplay of all energies, from the great to the very small. Having an ability to perceive energy interactions in this manner alters our boundaries of time and space, and generates insight and intuition that must be considered miraculous.

Realising the immensity of the distance to be covered, in and of itself, changes one’s orientation. Luckily, each step along the way seems to impart immediate benefits that can be applied to both further development and training, as well as in daily life. Rather than being daunted by the road ahead, such practice, as taught by Sifu Yeung, inspires the journey and gives one the tools for a safe and productive passage."