Immersed 45yrs in the 3 great esoteric streams, Patrick presents an intelligent synthesis of Daoist/Buddhist, Gnostic/Sufi & Yogic internal-work.
Patrick has a world network of 100 instructors teaching thousands of students. He has authored 4 books on Taiji & meditation (in English, French, German, Italian, Chinese).
Patrick began his esoteric studies in 1971 (aged 21). He began Taiji in 1973 with a close student of Master Huang Xingxian, one of the most accomplished Taiji masters of recent times. In 1974 he began training with Gnostic (Naqshibandi Sufi) Sage Abdullah Dougan. In 1977 he studied full time in Master Huang's Kuala Lumpur school. Early in 1979 he travelled to india to study with the Raja Yogi Mouni Maharaj of Rajasthan. In late 1979 Master Huang accepted Patrick as his personal disciple – the only non-Chinese to ever enter Huang's inner-school. From that time Patrick travelled and taught beween Asia, Australasia and Europe while continuing to learn with Master Huang untill his death late 1992. Simultaneously Patrick worked closely both with Sage Abdullah Dougan for 14 years until Abdullah's death in 1987 and for 30 years with Mouni Maharaj, who died in 2007 at more than 105 years old.
At the express wish of his teachers, with the aim of making available the esoteric principles of internal development through the practice of Esoteric Taiji, psychological self-refinement and meditation, Patrick established a worldwide teaching network. This is a loose association of mature intelligent practitioners with no committees, no fees, no rules, no obligations, no organisation to join and none to leave – people simply practice what is taught with more or less energy and intelligence according to their choice. Within it 100 senior practitioners (20+ years) along with 150 close practitioners (10–20 years) teach some thousands of students through their fully independent schools.
Patrick's true contact, external and internal, with the 3 great esoteric streams – East-Asian, Middle-Eastern/European, Indian/Himalayan – supports this teaching, which aims to lead people deeply inside themselves towards the one formless Source which has no name. Patrick's experiences within these 3 streams enliven his teaching. This worldwideway might condense to a few words:
"Seek a broad balance of experience in life": harm no one, understand others – change yourself, stay positive in whatever life brings, respect those who give out the teaching, be grateful for the teaching, be humble in the face of the high forces behind the teaching.
"Deepen consciousness": use any helpful exercises or meditations, to build awareness and train intention on the 3 levels of human existence, etheric, astral & celestial (jing, qi & shen).
"Reach out for the Beyond": realise, as the Beyond grows within, that your outer human existence is next to nothing.
worldwideway
"The great purpose of Taiji is the great purpose of life itself – internal evolution. All are born to this but most quickly forget why they are here."
Once enmeshed in the physical world, life serves merely the body's survival. Society's physical and social edifices, intended as forms within which humanity may evolve, become prisons. Many dream of escape but few find the practical path to freedom. The purpose of birth and life is to create the possibility for the growth of individual consciousness. Conscious perfection exists in potential as a spark within every human being. There is a pressure from within and without to develop this possibility. The forces maintaining the universe are complex and the reasons for many things in life unclear. Why do some struggle to realise their inner potential while others dissipate it through a life of ignorance, weakness and neglect? For those who sadly allow this spark to fade there is little individual hope, though their life and death still contribute to the general evolution of humankind.
Most of observable outer life is just the outer process necessary to sustain the inner life. The inner process goes on unconsciously at a much deeper level than the ordinary mind can appreciate. Spirit expresses itself through energy, which on its lowest level is perceived as matter. Being evolves within this created system. There is general evolution of Being through all life forms below the level of man (minerals, plants and animals). There is individual evolution of Being for man and all levels above. Each life may spiral up, circle, or spiral down, run out of energy and fade away. For those who actively choose inner growth there appears the question of the 'Path' or 'Way'.
Trained from the age of 14 in Fujian White Crane (白鶴拳 Baihequan), 18 Buddha boxing (罗汉拳 Luohanquan) and Neigong (Daoist Internal Alchemy), under Old Master Pan YuBa (潘屿八) and later under his most famous disciple, Master XieZhongxian (謝宗祥大师 1852–1930).
Later he also trained under Master PanZhuangnian (潘桩年), who educated Huang in Chinese Medicine and the Literary Classics. Subsequently Huang opened a school in Shanghai where he trained together with his friends Chung Yu-Jen (Taiji), Chiang Hai-Ching (Xingyi) and Yang Chih-Ching (Bagua). He also studied Taiji with Wan Laisheng (万赖声), a China Martial Arts Champion 1938 famous for his Natural Boxing (自然门 Ziranmen).
白鶴拳 baihequan (CN)
In 1947, having moved to Taiwan, he began Taiji with Zheng Manqing – a direct disciple of Yang Cheng-Fu. Quickly Huang entered the inner-school and in later years came to be regarded as Zheng's most accomplished disciple.
From 1958 on Huang lived and taught in Singapore and Malaysia where he established 40 schools and taught 10,000 people. He attained permanent residence in New Zealand shortly before his death in Fouzhou, China, December 1992.
During the last 5 years of his life he gathered around him 40 active initiated members of his inner-school and to them attempted to pass his final teachings. In choosing these people, he said, he was mostly concerned with the sincerity of their inner motives. He explained that he wished no one person to make claims as his successor but that he hoped the combined knowledge of these 40 (of whom only a few continue to teach today) would contain the essence of his methods and these people would represent his teaching for the future.
Huang: "Though they practice my (outer) methods, not following my (inner) way they are not my students."
Questions and Answers with Master HuangXingxian
Are there different schools or sects of Taijii?
Taiji embodies a comprehensive set of knowledge, developed and handed down by our learned predecessors with mystifying principles and profound philosophical learnings. ... Our predecessors developed the art for improving human health, warding off sickness, slowing down the ageing process, achieving longevity and defending oneself... Once there is internal and external synchronisation, then the question of slow and fast in practice is unimportant. At this stage, one gets the feeling that the upper portion of the body is like the drifting of clouds and the lower portion is like the flowing of water...more
Q&A (CN)Q&A (EN)Q&A (FR)Q&A (IT)Q&A (DE)
Daoist Principles in Practice
Taiji is in practice what 'Dao de Jing' expresses in principle.
These principles remain universal throughout the known worlds, undiminished by their common reduction to intellectual ideas, emotional values, or religious rules, by the various races of the Earth.
The method for harmonising with these universal principles could be called the worldwideway.
There is only one true Taiji, one set of principles. Human deviation gave rise to family styles (Yang, Wu, Chen etc) which each has strengths and weaknesses. Their strengths are where they follow the principles and their weaknesses are where they deviate from the principles.
We emphasise the waist movement (twisting wave) of the Chen Style, the advancing power (issuing transverse wave) of the Yang Style, the borrowing of partners force (neutralising vertical pressure wave) of the Wu style. We follow my teachers advice: "Return to the original principles, from before the styles diverged."
Taiji Practice
This worldwideway is the internal path which steadily unfolds as we delve deeper into our own inner world. It is the path back to our essential being.
But beware, the inner world is deceptive, even dangerous, as the Mind perceives this world through its own self-created web of illusion – sometimes delusion. Without true directions and a guide, people will almost certainly go astray. For those who wish to retrace their steps that guidance is available without which, practically speaking, there is little chance of finding the way. Only a fool would feel capable of guiding others on this individual internal path. It is obligation to those beyond, not choice, which is behind what is offered here.
worldwideway
True Taiji trains intention, awareness & intelligence within the Deep Mind, while aspiring towards the Beyond.
The world is a series of inter-penetrating subtle energy realms. The only way to the Spiritual (the Beyond) is through the Deep Mental, the only way to the Deep Mental is through the Deep Emotional, the only way to the Deep Emotional is through the Deep Body level and the only way to the Deep Body level is through the body itself.
Aspiration towards the Beyond admits the 1st ray of Divine Light without which the ego will rise to subvert the results of training.
The Beyond (Dao)
Taiji Diagram Evolved
陰 yīn | 陽 yáng | 雍 yōng
receiving | responding | harmonising
道德經 - Dao De Jing:
"道生一 Dao gave rise to one
一生二 one produced two
二生三 two produced three
三生萬物 three produced myriad things.
萬物負陰而抱陽 the myriad things bear Yin, embrace Yang
沖氣以為和 harmonised by immaterial Qi
The further back in time we look the more obscure the history of Taiji becomes, yet from the study of this past, 2 things become clear.
1. The inner essence of Taiji flows down from genuine teachers to sincere pupils in unbroken chains.
2. Each teacher must devise their own training system to express and pass on this impersonal inner teaching.
The teaching must evolve outwardly or die inwardly. Yang Cheng-Fu developed the Yang Style Slow Form. Cheng Man-Ching created the Yang Short Form, and shifted the emphasis from fighting to internal harmonisation. Master Huang Xingxian created the Five Loosening Exercises, systematised 18 patterns of pushing-hands, and included the Sanfeng Quaiquan (Quick Fist) – a fighting fast form with ancient roots. While pupils under Master Huang's direction, we learnt and taught his system. Now, the training system we teach arises from our own individual understanding.
Taiji Transmission