Da Mo (Buddha) Chi Gung Style Surfing the Yangtze River Over a Thousand Years Ago

Aloha Tribe,

In 520 AD, a surfer appeared. The person was Da Mo, also known as Buddha. One day he was at the Yangtze River and he had to cross it. He borrowed a reed from an older woman, stepped on the reed with both feet, and floated into the river. Then, he called forth the wind, which blew him across.

That is a common story and the subject of numerous paintings in China.

Da Mo taught a special type of Chi Gung (Qigong), of which one branch of it was Duckweed Drifting On Water, a form of Light Body Chi Gung or Kung Fu.

There are not too many more details than this, yet, if one were to contemplate the style, some elements of the story and some of the ways to achieve them are indeed possible. Naturally, personally, I believe the whole story.

First, the Yangtze River sometimes grows huge colonies of a plant called Duck Weed. This is a sort of small leaved plant that covers the surface of the water. There are also, by the way, huge groves of Moso  Bamboo along the Yangtze River.

Now then, Da Mo was described as borrowing a reed. Well, bamboo could be thought of as a reed, in fact, there even is a species of bamboo called Reed Bamboo (Oclandra Stridula). Da Mo was said to have taught Duckweed Drifting. This is the art I've been sharing a bit of lately. It involves ways to make the body sensitive enough to move lightly and gracefully. This is done through sequential exercises, beginning with strengthening the legs and hips through walking hills with a heavily  weighted sack on your back and is followed with the various exercises I talked about before, leading up to Soft  Rope Walking, which involves walking on a slack tight rope. Now then, I've also talked lately about Chinese Single Bamboo Pole Drifting where you learn to stand on a single bamboo pole and paddle or push yourself across water using a second smaller bamboo pole.

It is possible, for someone skilled in the art of Light Body Kung Fu to learn to move more lightly as they gain mastery of their art. As such, one could, with huge amounts of practice,  learn to ride a smaller and smaller Bamboo Drifting pole just as lumberjacks learn to roll smaller logs (where they begin with a 12 foot long, 15 inch diameter log, then move to a 14 inch, then a 13 inch, a 12 inch, and finally an 11 inch log). The point is, as you get more skilled, you can learn to ride smaller logs, or, in this case, smaller bamboo poles.

On top of this, add some Duckweed into the river and you could ride on an even smaller pole since the Duckweed would  had bouyancy to the pole.

So, about the wind, it is a Chi Gung method that is know by some masters. Basically, it involves a form of Nei  Gung or mental Chi Gung ability, where you focus your energy using your mind.  In a case like this, you need to have mastered both projecting and absorbing chi. More so, you need to do this with extreme focus. By focusing on absorbing chi from a distance, into the palm of your hand, lets say your left hand, you can create a sort of void around you that needs to be filled with yang energy, thus, wind comes. This wind will flow toward your palm, and, can be directed out of your other palm in the opposite direction.  Sure, this sounds seemingly impossible, yet, someone like the Buddha could clearly do this.

The key to it is to absorb chi into your palm from a large geographical area. This involves also the ability to spiral chi or energy. This same method of calling the wind, by the way, can also call waves for surfing.

Using these methods, it is possible that someone, truly gifted in these kinds of arts could, in theory, ride on a rather smallish reed of some sort and be blown across a river by the wind.

Frustratingly,  Western Science tends to see things differently, and the arts and sciences of the East are only just barely beginning to be explored. The future is truly thrilling, for along with such knowledge comes whole new ways of looking at surfing, in other words, truly innovative techniques await our discovery.

The cool part of this story is that, at the very least, it provides a fun and interesting way to imagine how such an event could happen.

So, given all of this, it truly inspires me to continue my explorations into the Light Body Kung Fu style of  Duckweed Drifting On Water as well as Chinese Single Bamboo Pole Drifting.

This weekend, possibly today even, I'll bring my moso bamboo pole to the river to see how it floats and holds my weight. I only have to apply the coconut oil to finish the waterproofing stage, then it will be ready. I just took the excess mud and ash off  once the pole dries in the sun, then I'll apply the coconut oil. If I make it to the river today, while there,  I'll keep my eyes out for a lumberjack type log for practicing log rolling on as well. Surfing the river sounds truly fun, and, wildly Watergirl.

Bodaciously Stoked,

Lily of the Valley