— s h u i   l o n g —
FIELD NOTES
Serguey's Shui Long History,
Astrakhan, Russia

When 27 years ago I met my teacher (or better to say an instructor) I was young and dreamed to learn some martial art skills and I was caught (like a fish) by him. It is always so. Later I myself caught my pupils in the same way. A person never knows what he'll learn. Then in my past the only things I needed were kicking and punching. Weak attempts of my teacher to explain me something else met a wall of misunderstanding. And how could I understand? In the time when communism and atheism were the only way of thinking, I had means of understanding the deeper implication of his teachings.

But I understood that Shui Long was his family style. It was brought to Russia by Buddhist pilgrims who traveled to China and Tibet. I'm sure my teacher was not an orthodox Buddhist (or may be he was???); different combinations of Buddhist and Taoist styles were not uncommon in China. In Siberia the style was modified through the influence of Siberian shamanism, so it is possible to affirm that Shui Long was purified and returned to its source—old shamanic cults that were the earliest form of Taoism.

I speak about the Siberian traditions within Shui Long because many modern Taoist scholars and teachers consider different visions during meditation or qi gong practice to be dangerous and forbid them. However, the main principle of Shui Long is to seek a Celestial Master who will become your teacher. Shui Long practitioners consider that a person can't be a teacher, but can be only a progenitor—a person who stands before you. Only a Celestial (heavenly) Master can be a teacher, they supercede the authority and experience of official teachers. So, when I use the term "Celestial Masters" I don't mean that Shui Long belongs to this branch of religious Taoism and its official history.  I only want to emphasize the possibility through this style to find a teacher among Immortals.

To tell the truth in my youth I didn't pay attention to my teacher's words concerning that possibility and he didn't try to explain it. He made some gentle hints, no more. Now I understand that this tactic was traditional for Shui Long instructors.

Later I lost contact with my teacher and regrettably stopped practicing the style. And in part for good reason: Karate-do and other styles of martial arts were prohibited in Russia, punishable by imprisonment. Only in the second part of  the '80s did I return to Shui Long practice, and parallel with my training I began to show some of the exercises to my students, because they wanted to know more about exotic styles.

Unexpectedly through my personal training and my students' experience I discovered the "back side" of Shui Long practice. It was not unique but a shared experience among the group.

While perfecting and mastering our skills we made some laboratory investigations of the influence of these techniques to the human body. With the help of medical apparati we studied heart and brain activity during Shui Long dynamic meditation. Several medical doctors conducted these investigations. They measured heart rates before and after dynamic meditation and were surprised to discover a slower heart rate after active movement.

For these past years I have worked with many people and can affirm that about 70-80 percent achieve an altered state of consciousness and enter another reality. More than half of them through regular training and mastering their experience in another reality can meet a Heavenly Master.  

So every person can began his personal tradition in martial art or healing skills that has no direct history. Some of my students, under their Teacher's guidance have begun their personal styles while simultaneously continuing in very ancient traditions; examples of this can be found on the "Diaries" page of this website.