Many paths to the TAO 

Much of Bruce's life has been about understanding the relationship between health and sickness.

Energy Practices Saved Bruce's Life

At age 24 Bruce got hepatitis while traveling in India. Suddenly his training in tai chi (taiji) and chi gung (qigong/ki gung) became really important, and ultimately saved his life.

Training as a Chi Gung Tui Na Doctor

The training Bruce received for healing others was often as strange and as unpredictable as his training in martial arts and meditation.

As he got better in a particular form or technique, he would be introduced to a teacher who would help him further his progress. In some cases, the teachers would mysteriously show up without explanation or suddenly become unavailable.

The Mysterious Stranger

The first time Bruce was in Tokyo an old man appeared while he was practicing tai chi (taiji). When they started sparring it was obvious that he was a high-level master.

However, he made it clear that he also wanted to teach Bruce some chi gung healing work. Bruce would discover his method was to hit him, then work on him to relieve the pain. Then Bruce would hit him in the same place and try to use the same techniques to heal him.

After many hours, he would simply disappear only to turn up again just as mysteriously. Bruce never knew the man's name. He never knew when he was going to show up. He did find out that learning healing methods of chi gung tui na were as interesting as martial arts.

Ten years later, when Bruce was living in Taiwan, he was told that the man had been sent with specific instructions to begin teaching Bruce chi gung tui na.

Working in Chinese Hospitals

By then Bruce had become an accomplished chi gung doctor who had worked on thousands of patients in a Chinese hospital with problems ranging from broken bones to nerve and organ damage. Years later he worked with cancer patients.

Healing His Spine with Chi

When Bruce was 32 years old he had an automobile accident, which resulted in massive injury to his spine. Two vertebrae were cracked and many others had hairline fractures. Instead of having his spine fused, he healed himself using chi gung (qigong/ki gung), tai chi (taiji) and Taoist meditation techniques.

Many times he wondered whether or not he'd be able to do martial arts--or even walk--again.

Fortunately he was able to go back to the sport and became even faster and stronger than before, as can be seen in the martial arts sequences of the Taoist Energy Arts video, most of which was shot five to seven years after the car accident. Watch other martial arts clips.

Master Liu's Prophetic Dream

In 1982 Bruce was given a letter of introduction to his most eminent teacher, the Taoist Lineage Master, Liu Hung Chieh.

After he accepted Bruce as his student, he told Bruce that the only reason he had done so was that he had a prophetic dream about teaching a Westerner Taoist practices. He rarely had prophetic dreams, but the few that he had proved to be true.

Master Liu was the most powerful of Bruce's teachers, despite others of greater size and weight. This fact is hard to believe since Master Liu weighed less than 110 pounds and was in his eighties.

Chi Determines Health

Like Wang Shu Jin, Master Liu said that having chi was more important than size, age or strength.

Master Liu completed Bruce's training in the martial and healing methods of ba gua (pa kua) tai chi (taiji), chi gung therapy and tui na. Bruce learned from Master Liu the Taoist energy work that he hadn't yet learned including specific techniques that would heal his back. He not only completed Bruce's training in the Water method of Taoist meditation, but passed down his lineage to Bruce--a lineage directly linked to that of Lao Tse, author of the Tao Te Ching.

Bruce's experiences made him passionate about teaching tai chi (taiji), chi gung (qigong/ki gung) and other Taoist energy practices with the hope of sharing these ancient healing practices to help people improve their health and well-being.

More stories about Bruce's life are told in Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body, The Power of Internal Martial Arts, Relaxing into Your Being, The Great Stillness and The Chi Revolution. 

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