PGSG Workshop in Gainesville January 2015 with Master Ou
What an amazing experience it was to attend Master Ou’s classes in Gainesville, Florida. It was great to get reacquainted with friends again and enjoy an exceptional weekend with them. A special thanks goes out to the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture which hosted the event and provided such a wonderful space for all of us to enjoy the lectures. Also John Paul Gallagher did an incredible job of helping to organize the event, shuttle people around and provide food for our meals. He also came up with many innovative course structures and concepts to make the event incredibly valuable and interesting. Winnie Tsang also did an amazing job of preparing and helping Master Ou cook dinner for many of the participants. As well, Vincent Chu did a great job of translating and teaching the powerful Pangu Tai Chi and Anisha Desai taught the wonderfully soothing Pangu Yoga.
Master Ou (right) teaching, Vincent (left) translating
During the event, Master Ou taught a few free introductory lectures, the moving form, non-moving form, advanced condensed form, intuition development and the healing skills course. The energy was very strong during these courses and it was an honor to retake them from Master Ou. No matter how many times I retake a course I find that I learn something new and the learning occurs at the depth of the heart and soul. In fact it doesn’t matter what Master Ou is teaching, if you are ready for it and receptive to the energy you will grow as a result of attending his courses no matter how many times you have taken them before. That being said the thing that made this event special was the advanced lectures that Master Ou taught on the last day. The audience for these special lectures was comprised mainly of Pangu Shengong instructors that had travelled to Gainesville specifically for this event. The Path of Life, Advanced Topics, and Instructor Training Course lectures went very deep and were extremely informative. While Master Ou discussed many high level concepts the one that stuck out was the key to maintaining optimal health and happiness. Essentially, the better the quality of our hearts and souls the better our health will be naturally.
Master Ou sang for the audience his new song entitled “Cultivating the Heart”. This song is very profound and it asks a series of questions designed to cultivate our hearts and souls and to determine if we are behaving optimally in a given situation. Paul Fraser and Olivia Ou were able to provide an English translation of this song which deepened everyone’s experience of hearing Master Ou sing it. My experience of listening to this song is that it indeed works on the heart at a very deep level. I am very grateful that Master Ou is continually coming up with new methods to teach us how to further develop our kindness.
Each evening Master Ou invited many of his students over to the house he was staying at to sample his delicious cooking. His food always makes everyone happy and there was a very festive atmosphere to these get-togethers. Master Ou asked a few of his students to sing or recite some of his songs and poems. He also taught the group how to recite the famous poem “A Poem for My Friend Wanglun” by Li Bai. Despite just learning this poem for the first time the group did a great job reciting it along with Master Ou.
I was sad to see the event end but I was also excited about the new wisdom Master Ou had shared with us during his lectures. I always leave these events feeling deepen by the energy and transformed. I am very grateful to Master Ou for his profound teachings.