A GIFT OF CHI
Captain Emanuel Kissey
Master Mariner, Sabah, Malaysia
Sifu's visit to the Kissey's family house in March 2002. From left: Mrs Kissey Senior, Mr Kissey Senior, Sifu, Simu and Dr Roseline Kissey
“At this juncture of their life I cannot think of a greater gift for them than this.”
Captain Emanuel Kissey
Dear Sifu,
I felt compelled to write these out of gratitude.
I cannot say more as words elude my feelings.
Emanuel
Shaolin Wahnam Sabah
16th August 2004
A Gift of Chi
Our mother and father are kind, hardworking, persevering folks. They come from that part of Borneo now known as Sabah, which is a part of Malaysia. They were born before the 2nd World War and lived through it. As it were, they are not short on life's experiences, having known both war and peace.
They were blessed with eleven children and between them they raised all of us to be successful individuals of the 21st century. We grew up during the exciting years of the 50's through the 70's. Our father worked as a hospital assistant and our health benefited from his knowledge of good hygiene, adequate and suitable diet and medicine. Our mother ably managed domestic affairs and to my estimate was superlative.
We were also brought up to be God fearing people in the Roman Catholic way. This, perhaps more than anything else, stirred our nascent spiritual yearning and evolution. Now with all their children married, our parents have retired to their kampong (village) in rural Borneo, contented and apart for mild surprises now and then, expecting nothing exceptional or unusual.
Bidding farewell to Sifu after the June 2002 Intensive Chi Kung Course in Sabah. From left: Dr M Ganasan, Alice Kunjan, Johnson Tee, Captain Emanuel Kissey, Sifu, Dr Rosaline Kissey and Dr Damian Kissey
Yet in March of the year 2002 something remarkable and momentous happened for them. Sifu traveled to their home in heartland of Sabah, met with them, taught them “Lifting the Sky”, opened some points and initiated them to the wonderful art of chi kung. At this juncture of their life I cannot think of a greater gift for them than this.
Our mother and father are now 70 and 78 years old respectively. They have since attended Sifu's Intensive Chi Kung Course in Sabah. Both are exemplary practitioners. I do believe that they number amongst a few of Sifu's elder students. Afflictions that are normally attributable to age do not bother them.
They now lead a fuller and healthier life and spend some of their time jet-setting visiting their grand children all over Malaysia, Australia and Japan.
We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to Sifu for facilitating this gift of chi to our parents.
In an inspired moment the following is a poem dedicated to our parents and written by one of our siblings.
Now it is hard to imagine How you scream to disown Caned and bruise these children Grubby and guilty, wishing they disappear for good In your provoked duty If one child an unbearable troll Yours was multiplied eleven fold Now still harder to imagine To see you in your seventies Witness the several occasions Sadness crowding your eyes Veiled by late evening departure of these over mobile children Taller, broader, travel a world wider than your horizons How you wish they come home more often Though it is the all consuming call To self consolidate, taken to distant work and long separate The world whose doors you helped to open and pointed to lofty goals Hasten dearly would if we could attain the best What joy if unto this brief life Were all our noble dreams to crest Nevertheless your firm stand remembered Along with the imperfect, the odd candour With loyal belief your God favored But more than that your duty kept to children whose later turn to wait Upon every selfless parents wish to live and complete that transient state ... 1984
The Kisseys in Sungai Petani with Sifu's family and senior students. From left: Dr Damian Kissey, Simu, Sifu, Mogan, Chun Nga, Mr Kissey Senior, and Cheong posing outside a vegetarian restaurant