FLOWERING HEART

International Holistic Spiritual Center

 

 

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FACILITATORS

 

Rev Suzanne Champlin

Spiritual Teacher & Counselor

Interfaith Minister

Divine Healer

Reiki Master

Artist

 

Rev Dr Michael Milner, PhD

Spiritual Teacher & Counselor

Awakened-Life Coach

Interfaith Minister

Taoist Priest

Abbot for the Seraphic Order

 


300 Feather Tree Drive
Clearwater, FL 33765

(727) 686-3912

(727) 458-3208

 

 

My Taoist Journey
& The History of
Flowering Heart Temple
1971-2023

 

 

By Venerable Reverend Michael Milner
Hé Tiān Dì Dàoshì (合天地 Union of Heaven & Earth 道士 Way Teacher)
Abbot, Huā Xīn Guǎn (花 心 觀 Flowering Heart Temple)


In 1971 at the age of 17, I had a profoundly life-changing experience. Time stopped. The past, the present and the future were perceived simultaneously; I dissolved in clear light and into oneness with everything and everyone. The entire event, which seemed to last for eons, occurred in a spit second, but, it left me forever changed and set the course for the rest of my life. The intensity of that experience passed, but its after-effects continued, including spontaneous excursions into Samadhi (dissolution in the void) and inexplicable threats to my life being made by absolute strangers while I was in higher states of consciousness. I needed a teacher, someone who could help me integrate and make sense of it all and stay alive in the aftermath. Thinking the answers I sought lay in the Buddhist tradition, I began to look for an awakened Zen master.

In 1972, after a fascinating encounter with Ven. Rev. Dr. Khigh Alx Dhiegh, who was rector of the Taoist Sanctuary of Los Angeles, my true Taoist (AKA Daoist) inclinations became clear. Right away, I began to study Tao Ahn Pai (Taoist  Elixir Style) meditation and Ch'i Kung and with Grandmaster Share K. Lew (Lew Kim Yuen) at the Taoist Sanctuary. Grandmaster Lew had emigrated from China in 1948 from Wong Lung Kwan Taoist Monastery (Yellow Dragon Temple), a place renowned for excellence in meditation, Ch'i Kung, kung fu and the healing arts. Initially, Share Lew taught in San Francisco with his uncle, the great Choy Li Fut grandmaster Lao Bun. They taught at his uncle’s association, the Hop Sing Tong and his school, Hung Sing. In 1970, Share Lew became one of the first to openly teach the secret Taoist internal arts to Westerners.

After several months of doing Ch'i Kung and meditation with Master Lew, I was aware of wonderful changes in my body. The qi was flowing; I had more flexibility than I had even as a young child and my meditation had clearly deepened. Nevertheless, I was frustrated and grew restless. Master Lew seemed to hold me at arm’s length, never looking at me or speaking to me directly. I longed for a teacher I could talk to, who would answer my questions and give me understanding, someone I could have an intimate master-disciple relationship with.

Finally, one night after our meditation class I decided that I needed to move on and that this would be my last visit to the Taoist Sanctuary. As I walked to my car in the dark, Master Lew stood before me, blocking my path and staring into my eyes. It made me quite nervous. He had never before looked at me directly. I saw visible light streaming out of his eyes into mine, and I heard his voice speaking to me inside my head, “Ok, boy. You want to learn? I’ll teach you. Come back and I’ll teach you.” His mouth never opened. His expression never changed. He was speaking to me inside my head, without making a sound. That night I became his student, and he continued to communicate with me like that throughout the years, although we spoke outwardly as well.

In the early 1970s, I was fortunate to be one of a small group of Grandmaster Lew’s senior students who learned the Five Dragons and other advanced Tao Ahn Pai Nui Gung exercises and meditations directly from him at the Taoist Sanctuary of Los Angeles. In addition, we studied Taoist philosophy, Tao Ahn Pai Kung Fu, Nui Gung Gee Liao (healing with internal power), Tui Na massage, healing with herbs, etc.

During this period I helped lead meditation classes at the Taoist Sanctuary, taught weekly Taoist meditation and Ch'i Kung classes at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA and moved briefly to Guadalajara, Mexico, to gather students and start a school. I was also ordained as a servant of the Taoist Sanctuary.

In the years that followed, I built upon the foundation laid in my life by Grandmaster Lew and the practice of Tao Ahn Pai with formal education, world travel, wild adventures and study with many masters, adepts, shamans and extraordinary spiritual teachers. I remained in close contact with Sifu Lew, meeting with him privately on a number of occasions, and with several of my temple brothers: Particularly my dear friend, the late Ven. Rev. John Davidson, who was our Sihing (Elder Brother) and the first to learn the 5 Dragons from Sifu, also my dear friend and mentor, the Ven. Rev. Carl Totton and Steve Grody. Steve was another advanced student of Sifu Lew with whom I have worked over the years to keep accurate details of the proper execution of the Tao Ahn Pai Ch'i Kung and Nui Gung exercises.

Flowering Heart Temple had its beginnings in 1980 in Clearwater, FL, with the founding of a non-denominational church where, during the 1980s, groups of 20-30 students met for Taoist meditation and Ch'i Kung classes with me and another student of Grandmaster Lew, Dr. Maru Ladron de Guevara, AP, DOM, and LMT. Maru continues to teach Ch'i Kung and practice oriental medicine at her clinic, Quantum Therapeutics, in Largo, FL. I have continued to offer classes through the church.

May 1, 1992, I was ordained as an Abbot (Venerable Reverend) by the Ven. Rev. Dr. Carl Allen Totton, lineage name, He Zhong Fu DaoShi, (Union of Inner Truths Way Teacher), Abbot and Rector of Zhong Fu Dao Kuan (Inner Truths Way Temple), Director of the Taoist Institute of Los Angeles and the senior surviving student of Grandmaster Lew.

I have taken the lineage name, Hé Tiān Dì (合天地 Union of Heaven & Earth).


In 1996, Sifu Lew gave me permission to use “Wong Lung Kwan” (Yellow Dragon Temple, the name of his monastery in China) as the name of our temple. I have a letter from him to this effect. However, after more reflection and out of respect for our mother temple in China, we decided to use another name, Flowering Heart Temple  (
Huā Xīn Guǎn 花 心 觀).

Over the years the church in Clearwater, FL evolved into a thriving interfaith community called “Flowering Heart” under the direction of me and my wife Rev. Suzanne E. Champlin. Flowering Heart Temple is a vital part of this community which is also home to The Seraphic Order of the Flowering Heart, an interfaith monastic order for which I serve as Abbot. At Flowering Heart I continue to teach the Taoist arts in public classes and to private students.


   

   

Grandmaster Share K. Lew

 

 

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For Information about Tao Ahn Pai (Taoist Elixir Style)

Ch'i Kung & Meditation Classes

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