Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Palm Lineage
GRANDMASTER CHEN QIMING was born in Guangzhou, China in 1945. In the 1950s, Grandmaster Chen trained in Hung Ga Kung Fu. Everytime they met, Grandmaster always insisted on Striking Three Stars (Banging Arms) to test Sifu Ripski’s skills.
Grandmaster’s family had been Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practioners for many generations. Likewise, he was a Doctor of TCM registered with the PRC Ministry of Health and a registered TCM Pharmacist in Guangdong, China. He had a long TCM career: (1) Professor of TCM at the Central China Technology Institute, (2) Vice-President of the Central Guangzhou Health Research Institute, (3) Board Member of the Chinese Medical Hall of Fame, (4) Board Member of the Hong Kong TCM Association, (5) Research Officer at the Department of Birth at the Science Institute of China, (6) Research Officer at the Technology & Human Resource Development Centre of China, and many others.
By the 1990s, Grandmaster was widely known in Guangzhou as a person who would give free medical care to all who needed it.
Bodhidharma Transmits Eighteen Lohan to Shaolin Temple
Rewinding to the very beginning, Ven. Bodhidharma (~6th-cenutry CE) is the South Indian or Person monk who initially transmitted Chan Buddhism to China.
His first biography was written by Daoxuan (~7th century). Ven. Bodhidharma visited Southern Shaolin Temple in the Sung Mountains. Further legends indicate that he taught three different exercises:
Eighteen Lohan Palm
Muscle-Tendon Changing
Bone-Marrow Washing
These were designed to aid Shaolin monks in their meditation practices. As time went on and political turmoil left the monks without centralized protection, Eighteen Lohan Plam became Eighteen Lohan Fist, which in turn gave birth to the vast diversity of Shaolin arts we see today.
Grandmaster Chen Meets a Tibetan Lama
Grandmaster Chen Qiming learned Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Palm in Guangzhou. The city of Guangzhou has many historic Buddhist temples. Grandmaster told us that, in the 1960s a Tibetan Lama visited Guangzhou to exchange knowledge with local Buddhists.
When Lama Tenzin became very ill, Grandmaster Chen was the one who treated him. After a few treatments, the Lama recovered and offered Grandmaster payment, which was quickly refused. As a Buddhist, Grandmaster did not want a one cent of the monk’s money.
IMAGE: Eighteen Lohan postures from Grandmaster Chen’s medicine shop. The caption at the bottom contains: “Master Chen learned this in the 1960s under a Tibetan Lama who was a Lineage-Holder.“
Nengren Temple in White Cloud Mountains
When Grandmaster Chen healed him for free, Lama Tenzin took this as an auspicious sign and decided to make his home at a temple in White Cloud Mountains near Guangzhou. (We suspect it was Nengren Temple.) Grandmaster was a student of Lama Tenzin for ~30 years until the Lama passed away.
Lama Tenzin taught that the Shaolin Eighteen Lohan palm came to Tibet when the Southern Shaolin Temple in Henan’s Sung Mountains was partially destroyed in 1700s. Some of its surviving masters made their way to Tibet seeking religious refuge.
One of the Tibetan monasteries passed down Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Palm as a part of their Buddhist training until Lama Tenzin brought it Guangzhou in the 1960s.
Dr. Jones, who specializes in Tibetan Buddhist practices, confirmed the meditative curriculum of Eighteen Lohan has features typical of Tibetan Buddhist Phowa practice.
Grandmaster Chen & Sifu Ripski Meet
Dr. Chen immigrated to Edmonton, Canada in 2002 as a consultant for the Chinese Medical Culture Exchange Association.
In Edmonton, he founded the Ming Town Chinese Herbal Pharmacy, Ming Town TCM Research Institute, and the Ming Town Refresh Health Centre. He became the Chief Editor for the Life Enhancement & Health Maintenance Section of the Canadian Chinese Times. He also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Edmonton Chinese Herbal Medicine Association.
Dr Chen met Sifu Neil Ripski in 2003, making him an Inner-Door Student for Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Palm almost immediately. Over ~20 years, Grandmaster transmitted the lineage to Sifu Ripski.
Trasmitting the Lineage
Grandmaster Chen was a great scholar of Ancient Chinese, an accomplished calligrapher, and a poet. In 2018, around the time Sifu Ripski completed his formal training in Eighteen Lohan, Grandmaster wrote out and explained this poem from Invocation of the Vajra Cutter Sutra (銷釋金剛經科儀) by Chan Master Zongjing (釋宗鏡, 1242 CE):
“The Buddha is at Sacred Mountain; do not seek Him far away.
The Sacred Mountain is right here inside your heart-mind.
Everyone possesses a Sacred Mountain pagoda.
It is best to practice cultivation beneath that very pagoda.”
Although informal training continued unil Grandmaster Chen’s passing in 2022, this was the end of Sifu Ripski’s formal transmission of the lineage.
Keeping the Lineage Alive
Before passing in 2022, Grandmaster Chen asked Sifu Ripski to document and carry on the Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Palm lineage. This lead to the writing The Book of Earth (2023), Sifu Ripski’s first book on Eighteen Lohan. Since the mid-2010s, Sifu Ripski has been transmitting the Eighteen Lohan lineage to students all over the world. This is now his main focus.
Further, Sifu Ripski has trained in numerous forms of gong fu, internal martial arts, and qigong: Yang Tai Chi, Chen Tai Chi, Bagua, Xingyi, Zuiquan, and many others. Sifu Ripski also knows (1) Muscle-Tendon Changing (yì jīn jīng, 易筋经), (2) Bone-Marrow Washing (xǐ suǐ jīng, 洗髓经), and (3) Shaolin Internal Power Method (shàolín nèijìn gōng, 少林內勁功), including Healing Qigong (fā qì, 發氣).
Sifu Ripski now transmits the principles, energies, benefits, and methods of all the arts he has learned through his Eighteen Lohan lineage, as one sythesized cultivation system for transforming the body, vital energy, and mind.
Meeting Dr. Jared Jones
In 2024, while training in Neidan practices with Ian Burgess and discussing ways to preseve the Eighteen Lohan lineage, Sifu Ripski and Dr. Jones met for the first time. After several discussions, they decided to launch the Eighteen Lohan Online Course as a way to preserve the entire system for future generations.
Sine 2009, Dr. Jones has been a practioner of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. His MA covered the cognitive science of meditation, and he specializes in Tibetan Buddhist meditation, philosophy, and practice. Sifu Ripski agreed that Dr. Jones’ meditation methods tailored to city-dwelling lay poeple could enhance the Lohan curriculum, and Dr. Jones felt his meditation stude would benefit from Eighteen Lohan.
Thus, Dr. Jones’ Five Foundations of Meditation Course, which he had been teaching since 2020, was added to ensure that future students would succeed when they reached Shen (Level 3) Lohan practices and beyond.