Go Deeper | An Interview with Qi Gong Master Peter Caughey about the Qi Gong Teacher Training.
Peter Caughey is a renowned Qi Gong Master, Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and founder of the Forest Rock Qigong School. With over 30 years of experience, Peter is the last remaining teacher of the Zan Zyu Dou Taai Gik Kyun Monastery School from Southern China, ensuring the authenticity and effectiveness of his teachings.
Q. What Does it Mean to Be a Leader in Qi Gong?
Pete: The teacher training allows you to experience what it’s like to lead, or to be a teacher.
How you pass on information, how you inspire others, and how you help people grow are all parts of becoming a teacher.
And we’re using Qi Gong as a vehicle to learn these skills — how to interact with people, be authentic, and bring out your own personality. Every teacher is different and everybody teaches differently.
Pete: You’re also learning about yourself. You’re teaching yourself at the same time. It’s a valuable way to develop different aspects of your character, and to kickstart personal growth.
You get to play! You get to put yourself out in the world and see what it’s like to develop your teaching style and your personality. You also learn how to pass information to somebody else. You learn how to talk to people, and to negotiate ideas and concepts effectively.
Q. What Does Being a Teacher Mean to You?
Pete: It’s an opportunity. An opportunity to stand up in front of people and pass on the valuable information about what I’ve experienced in my own life.
And it comes from my own experiences. I’ve failed, I’ve crashed, and I’ve done things that have hurt me. It’s nice to be able to teach people not to do that, and to give them guidance on how they can have great experiences in life and achieve personal growth.
Pete: I think it could be beneficial to other people — helping them in their own lives, giving them a different experience and helping them see the world and themselves in a different way.
Teaching also helps you understand yourself more because when you’re doing it, you get to hear yourself, and you get to see how you’re showing up.
You have to stay in a place of authenticity. You can’t show up and try to impress people with how good you are or prove that you’re a good person. It’s about showing up and saying, “Hey, this is who I am, and I have some information I’d love to share with you.”
Pete: I think having that purity of intention is important, and this is what the Qi Gong teacher training tries to provide: an opportunity to learn how to do that.
It’s a very cool thing!
