Tseng, Ching-ying was the highest level Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor to immigrate from Taiwan to America in the 1980's. This is my story of meeting, being treated by, and studying with this amazing woman.
When I first met my teacher Tseng, Ching ying, she looked at me and said “You can not go to the mountain.” She continued, “You are of this world, you must serve humanity.” When she put my arm on a red pillow and lightly touched my wrist with her fingertips, I felt a subtle energy travel up my arm to yin tang, my third eye, and she said “I know you, I don’t need to take your pulse anymore.”
She agreed to give me acupuncture, but only when her husband was at home at night. Her husband, Bruce, was going to medical school at the time and would get home late in the evening. She would sing the pattern of treatment in Chinese before each treatment. The sound of her voice had a very special quality and even though I couldn’t understand the words the songs haunted my dreams for years. It seemed to trigger very old memories that I could not quite remember, I had dreams of being Chinese and heard the songs “fengchi, quchi, Zusanli”
Her two youngest children were born while they lived here in Richmond. After dinner the family would gather in a circle and put the toddler in the middle of the floor, “Kepeisa! ” baby show!” The toddler would be the center of attention and everyone would laugh and shower love on the little one while they played or performed. The warmth of the family, the gathering of everyone together at the end of the day, the one chi, was what was deemed important. We had enough good food for everyone, a warm place for the baby show, what else did you need? The stress of everyday life melted away.
One night when my teacher’s youngest child [at that time]David was about 6 months old he started crying and she passed him around the circle to each adult in turn. This was the early 80’s and I was “Mister-Mom” to my daughter Holly who was two when I began acupuncture treatment and then studied with the master. I had learned to send the chi to my hands from years of Pa Kua Chang practice. I found I could pacify my daughter when she was an infant by sending the chi to my hands and holding her. It worked every time so when they passed me the screaming baby I sent the chi to my hands and held him with my right hand on his lower back my left hand on his neck. He stopped crying immediately and opened his eyes a little wider than normal and gave me a “knowing look.”
Amy jumped up from her chair and exclaimed that the baby recognized me from a past life! That meant I was family, and not just gungfu family, I was made a part of the family! I had never been so honored, the warmth and healing energy of that family was a blessing. Many people felt healed after just coming over and sitting on the couch and speaking to the master. Her house had a very special vibe.
On several occasions she told me I was her brother from a past life and because of this connection she agreed to teach me. Her children still refer to me as “Uncle Wilson.” That is one of those times in life when you look back and recognize a fork in the road and you took one path and not another. I chose the this path because it had heart, you could feel it in her house, at dinner, in the treatment room, in the circle clapping, watching the baby show, this path, this Dao, had heart.
She picked the American name Amy Ballon and began to try to learn more English at this time. Amy told me to come to her house every day at 3 o’clock for acupuncture treatment. The first day I arrived a little after two to be sure I wasn’t late. I interrupted her meditation hour, something I never did again, but this time she led me in and then resumed her meditation. I joined her. it was wonderful, to this day there is nothing so special to me as the times I got to meditate with her. I still keep 2-3 in the afternoon for meditation when I am home. At 3 o’clock she opened her eyes and said in a low voice, “Who taught you to do the meditation?”
I told her I read a book about TM and taught myself when I was 13, and really found that it was what I had been doing ever since I was much younger and had no words for. Her eyes turned to slits and she shook her head, “So strange.” she said
Besides extensive acupuncture treatment she gave me lessons in Chinese language, culture, calligraphy, and cooking. After I had gone through the whole course of treatment she had me go back to my daily gungfu practice and she took my pulse after I did each form. She advised me in my internal practice and corrected my energy body in each form. She also demonstrated her gung fu on numerous occasions.
this episode was first published on twitter one sentence at a time!
To be continued
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