Salaams.Honestly,I thought this was going to be a lot easier! Fourty years of research and exploration and interested parties are as rare as tigers and lions in Canada.I guess that makes our small group a zoo,lol! Nevertheless,I will keep fine-tuning,explaining and advertising  the message until Allah shows me otherwise.So here’s the spiel…

1)Why ChiGong? In 1973, when I first visited China(as a Marxist!)there were many things that impressed me.I had one of my earlist ‘hals’ next to the Yellow River ,a supposed holy site of the Chinese.I saw that Marxism was a myth and most of the Chinese people didn’t really believe in it.And I saw the streets of Peking full of people doing a flowing form of exercise in the early morning.There were obvious octogenarians and possibly even older people who still looked like they were in good health and spirits and I was intrigued.

Later,I tried to do a course in Tai Chi but gave up because I found it stressful to try to relax while having to remember over one hundred positions.Then I ran into the book and tapes of Kenneth Cohen which repiqued my interest.

But perhaps the most convincing element was watching the unfolding practice of Sheikh Nuh an American Sufi living in Amman Jordan.This was no New-Age thrill-seeker.He is a very conservative Muslim practicing his religion and his meditation(dhikr) in a very disciplined and perseverant way.But he had a chronic respiratory problem for which he found no solution.One day picking up an old book a student had given him he tried out some Chigong exercises and began improving.By the time I arrived on the scene,he appeared to have the respiratory condition under control.He told us not to pay any attention to the belief systems attached to that practice ( very protective of his Islamic theology,no doubt) but admitted it had helped him significantly.

So,in looking for a form of exercise which was both practicable into later life,healthy and possibly healing I could find nothing more attractive than Qigong.Earlier in my exploration of other forms of physical exercise that had spiritual components to them ,I had practiced Korean Karate(Taekwondo),jujitsu,Aikido and various forms of Yoga.Although Yoga has become the most popular of all,it never felt right to me.There is an element of what I can only call”weirdness’ to it which I feel in a lot of the practices that come from the Indian subcontinent.Then my teacher Bawa Muhaiddeen a Sri Lankan Sufi warned us against it,saying he had seen many people in India and Sri Lanka injured through the practice of Yoga(overstretched ligaments,overburdened neck vertebrae,etc.).Imagine-the neck vertebrae are designed to carry the weight of the skull(?5 pounds) being used to carry the entire weight of the body.Never made sense to me.

So I decided to settle on Chigong and for the meantime specifically on the teachings of Roger Jahnke and Kenneth Cohen,two Westerners who seem to have mastered this Chinese art.

So far what I can say is that it is a wonderful way to start the day(like those Chinese octagenarians in Peking) and there is a subtle ,calming energy that can only be for the good,as far as I can see.

2) Why Loch Kelly?Loch Kelly is another matter.What attracted me most to his teaching is that he is putting words to and claiming to have a method to reach there-words that speak to my own deepest mystical experiences, which I cannot really talk about in this context.Suffice it to say that when he refers to Awake Awareness and Spacious Awareness and Open-hearted Awareness I know exactly what he is talking about.Although I understand what he is trying to do in spreading the message,I reject the tactic of secularizing mystical states.I prefer to call them by their real names-Divine Consciousness and Divine Compassion.To do that one needs to recognize the religious origin of these states,something that is no problem for me although it may well be for Loch’s audience.When I first experienced these states,I thought long and hard about what they could mean and I came to the hard and fast conclusion that this was Divine Presence,nothing less.Once you accept the religious paradigm there is no longer any problem there.

The other point of contention I have with Loch is his insistence that the small self doesn’t exist.This comes from the Buddhist model and flies in the face of everything that is obvious to us as individuals.Yes,we exist.Yes,we continue after death and even tbough The Absolute exists we continue to be and the relationship between us and Him is one of Adoration and Love.

I do believe that using the techniques of Loch can facilitate our arrival at the ultimate Sufi states of ‘fana’ and ‘baqa’ but this is an hypothesis for now.

Why the Dhikr of the Name and the Names:

This practice, which is the major part of our formula, is actually a combination of the simplest,most powerful,most direct forms of Dhikr(remembrance of God) that I have come across in my 40 years of Sufism.There are elements within from the Chisthi,Naqshbandi,Shadhili/Darqawi and Shadhili/Qassimi tariqats,each with its own particular flavour but all directed at the same goal-realizing union with the Absolute.So in the words of the great Sufi(not only a poet but a great mystic)Jellalludin Rumi”Come.come wherever you are……this is not a path of despair”No,it is a path of hope.But, as in everything else, all power is with our Lord and Allah determines the results not us.We must however do our due diligence.That is our obligation as humans.Ahlan wa Sahlan.  Ibrahim