"Chen"

As a high school student in the early 1970's, I had the rare opportunity of studying at the infamous Shaolin Temple in the high mountains of Northcentral China. I heard a voice, very far away in the distance, calling to me.......Gary......Gary.......Gary.....GARY.......no matter how I tried, I could not escape the voice........

Yep, my mom was very persistent when it was time for me to get up for school. And my recurring dream about living in the Shaolin Temple would have to wait until the next episode of the TV show "Kung Fu" starring David Carradine. Fast forward to 1999, a watershed year in my life. I had been pursuing my kung fu dream for many years, with varying degrees of success, until I met Mr. Chen. My kung fu dream was a difficult one to pursue in the 1980's and 1990's. Finding good teachers was not so easy and often the ones who were skilled were, well, basically jerks. In the kung fu movies the masters were so wise, compassionate, and enlightened. There superhuman powers were not obvious to the world because they were humble and at peace in their hearts and souls. There was never any doubt in my mind. I knew that I would be led to one (or more) of these masters, and my destiny would be fulfilled. I was persistent in my search, and checked out a lot of Chinese Martial Art teachers. Some I stayed with for years, and some were in my life for months, weeks, or days. More often than not, these teachers positioned themselves as "having it", and the students basically didn't have it. They distributed their knowledge in accordance with some very unclear criteria that seemed to have something to do with whether or not you could be useful to them. It wasn't just the money--they were looking for fame, status and social standing.

I trained pretty hard in those days, always wishing that the teacher would recognize me as "the one" who would receive some of the real secret training. I figured if I worked hard enough--lived, breathed and embodied the true spirit of the Shaolin Temple, my diligence would pay off. A good friend of mine often says: "The truth always reveals itself", and such was my experience with teacher after teacher. Eventually their true colors would come out, and that would be my time to move on. No point in going into their transgressions, weaknesses or unimpressive behaviors here--suffice to say that when the time came for me to move on, I moved on.

In 1999, I was teaching taijiquan and Chinese Martial Arts in my friend's massage school in Parsippany NJ. Like I said, I had paid my dues and was fairly competent at the material I had learned. Progressively, my choice in teachers had become more discriminating and I had something to teach in those days. One day, one of my students told me:
"There's a guy teaching kung fu at the Chinese school, I heard he was a coach in Beijing."
The following weekend, we went down to the Chinese school to observe the man teaching. First we watched him teaching traditional Shaolin kung fu to young Chinese children. Wearing the customary matching sportswear (white and blue) outfit of a wushu coach, the first thing I noticed about the man was the stern expression on his face as he watched the children go through their simple punches, kicks and line drills. He watched their every move with the eyes of a hawk. The expression on his face was impossible to describe in words--he watched intently yet his faced conveyed no emotion whatsoever. Little did I know at that moment that those same line drills would become my twice daily companions for the next five or six years of my life. And for the next three years, I would be the object of that scrutiny--that same stern look; the piercing eyes that observed every improperly executed step. That same face of a man who was to become my first real teacher, not just of taijiquan and kung fu. What Mr. Chen taught me most about was his passion for his art. I want to tell this story in upcoming blogs and hope some people will read about my time with Mr. Chen Jun Hao and what he gave me.