Professor Wang Tin Jun

profwangpagepicIn honour of Professor Wang Tin Jun my beloved teacher who died Dec 18th 2009.

“Simple grace. No blame. Here at the highest stage of development all ornament is discarded. Form no longer conceals content but brings out its value to the full. Perfect grace consists not in exterior ornamentation of substance, but in the simple fitness of its form.” I Ching, Hexagram 22 Pi, line 6

Professor Wang leaves an indelible gift of inspiration to students who had the unbelievable good fortune to have him as a guide and teacher. Western cultivators and practitioners studying with Professor Wang had an invaluable opportunity to experience for themselves, the example of a realised Taoist Adept and Qi Gong Master.

In the 9 years that I intensively studied the Xing Shen Zhuang Qi Gong Form and Method with him, I never once lost the feeling of great gratitude and privilege that constantly arose when in his company. Fruitful, rewarding times in practice, training, meditation and dinner.

“Prof Wang” as I called him, taught by example and only by example. Whether it was in the amazing soft power, strength and flexibility of his Qi Gong body, his still mind, his striking posture and rooted lightness walking down the street or his impeccable demeanour and etiquette, he embodied integrated practice in life.

His lively mind loved studying as much as teaching and he learned fluent Italian during his early times teaching in the West, initially in Italy. In the years I knew him he loved to speak and practice his English and I was often hard pushed to keep up with the translations he constantly requested. Once told he never forgot and kept practicing when instructing or in conversation. I remember thinking “this is efficient learning”.

I have never before come across a teacher who taught so much, in so many layers with so few words. Rigorous, disciplined and uncompromising in teaching us to develop our practice and turn to it always for answers, he illuminated a path for sincere students willing to meet his training standards. The density and depth of his practice left you the student joyfully uncovering the infinite hidden riches within.

His teachings were in the unspoken places of his transmissions, and if you did find a “practice nugget” in your own training he would always quietly recognize and affirm it in that minimal modest way of his. In training he had boundless interest in helping you, but he also left the student alone to develop a relationship with their practice and therefore with themselves. He was a brilliant, skilful teacher, unobtrusive, modest and uncompromising in the standard, rigour and discipline of practice.

If you loved practice he lit up. I remember him stopping one evening as we were walking back from dinner in Amsterdam and in the middle of a crowded pavement, spontaneously demonstrating a qigong form and it’s similarity in Kung Fu.

He died suddenly, unexpectedly, quickly and as quietly and modestly as he lived. “The master potter leaves no trace of himself”. Although I was profoundly fortunate to study with him, experience his wisdom mind, be the recipient of his teachings, the loss of this man, teacher and practitioner is immeasurable.

Xing Shen Zhuang as he taught it has over the years become the master key in my continuing practice. Prof Wang’s approach and principles bring a clear coalesced light and a root clarity to my complete cultivation from my own initial health practices to the Qi Gong, Nei Gong, Kung Fu and Meditation that I study and develop these days.

It was Professor Wang’s way of cultivation to bring content into sheer fitness of form, to embody your knowledge, to allow your spirit to make shape.

…and I continue to thank you Professor Wang from the bottom of my heart.

Nilima Raichoudhury
January 2010