Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawn Liu.
Hi Shawn, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was a Zen and Kung Fu student as well as a disciple under the great Master SuXi, Chief Monk in charge of the Shaolin Temple operation and Zen consciousness spiritual exploration.
I was born as a counterrevolutionary kid; I was raised by my maternal grandparents as a baby and given away before my teenager years, lived with many families and friends met on the street like an orphan due to the political turmoil in China and because my father worked as assistant education commissioner for the government of the old Republic of China.
I started training in the art of Kungfu, Qi Gong energy healing and Zen meditation when I was a very young child and continued that journey until today.
I came to the US in the mid-1980s, graduated from University of Mobile (Mobile College then) with a BA in English and psychology and biology as minors. I got my MS degree in Exercise Physiology from University of South Alabama while teaching Kung Fu and Tai Chi as extracurricular.
I served as the US National Sanshou Fighting Coach from the 1990s to 2000s leading them to five world championships. The US team was one of the top teams in the world.
I founded Shaolin Institute, starting in Mobile and then expanding to Atlanta. I founded DeRu Media and Academy and the Shaolin Chan Foundation in GA.
I founded and hosted the Global Zen Consciousness Conference in 2018 in Atlanta, having invited scientists and spiritual teachers as well as CEOs from around the globe to the event as speakers to discuss the reality of life as is and the future of humanity and future sustainable business.
Here is the bio my students helped me to write:
DeRu Shi (德如师) (aka: Shawn Xiangyang Liu) is a Zen Conscious Traveler, mentor to hundreds of thousands of Shaolin, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi students. He advocates Zen Tai Gong for natural health and healing. Orphaned due to his family’s historical counterrevolutionary and landlord status, he was a kid of hundreds of families where he began to learn Kung Fu since childhood from different masters even though he never became anyone’s disciple until he met Great Master Shi SuXi who took him in as his disciple of the 31st generation of Shaolin Zen and Kungfu. SuXi was the chief monk in charge of the Shaolin Temple and a great spiritual leader and 30th generation great grand master.
It was SuXi who gave him the Shaolin Chan (Zen) name DeRu.
After he served two years as an intern physician in the Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) Practice of Tuina and Acupuncture, he went to Anhui Normal University and graduated with a degree in foreign languages and served as a translator at the Wuhu Textile Bureau before traveling to the United States, where he earned a BA in English from Mobile College and a MS in Exercise Physiology from the University of South Alabama.
DeRu is the founder of the Shaolin Institute, DeRu Media, the Shaolin Chan Foundation, Global Zen Consciousness, and Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Pan American Wushu-Kungfu Federation. He is also one of the Chinese Shaolin disciples to enter the US in the mid 1980’s, spreading Chan and Kung Fu in the United States.
He was named and recognized by martial arts magazines and other media in the US and China and martial artists worldwide as the “God Father of American Sanda” and is also known for having spread Chinese martial arts, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and self-healing for over 30 years, sharing and presenting the arts to an audience of over two million, including students of martial arts and health wellness worldwide, especially in the U.S.
For the last decade, from the 90s to the early 2000s, he served as the head coach of the U.S. national Sanshou team and as International Sanda Championship chief referee, participating in international martial arts competitions and World Wushu Championships.
He has been a teacher and coach in the U.S. and has trained more than a hundred ordinary students and disciples who have done the extraordinary and won international championships; among them five world Sanda champions were produced. He is one of the first Chinese Masters who have introduced Kungfu Sanda to the UFC, the most famous MMA professional fighting championship platform in the world. The most famous Asian fighting champion he trained is Cung Le (USA Sanda champion, world champion in MMA (Strike-force and one of the top fighters UFC). One of the other top fighters trained by DeRu, Patrick Barry, also joined UFC as one of the main event fighters. Barry’s fi·an·cée, Rose Namajunas trained by Barry and other instructors faced Strawweight champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk at UFC 217 at Madison Square Garden in New York on November 4, 2017 and defeated her opponent by knockout although she went into the cage as an underdog.
DeRu has not only explored martial arts but also has decades of study and research on health and natural self-healing, as well as wellness aspects of TCM and meditation; he has helped more than a dozen patients with advanced stage 4 cancer to recover their health. His research paper was reported and displayed at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in 1991.
For more than 40 years, he has been advocating daily Chan conscious meditative action to heighten and expand one’s consciousness. DeRu believes, “we humans are the projection of the conscious matrix of the cosmos.” With his academic background and practical experience in Western medicine, combining with Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga and Kung Fu, and Western sports physiology, Master DeRu created a unique meditation fitness system – Zen Tai Gong or “Tai Gong Chan” to help people regulate the function of the body and mind naturally and experience the “self-natured” ability that each individual possesses.
In addition, he has been studying, sharing and spreading Chinese Zen Meditation, quantum physics, quantum biology, and quantum consciousness teachings about life. He promotes an understanding of how these subjects are related to one another, especially the relationship between Zen consciousness, the quantum consciousness field, and holographic projection.
Over the years, DeRu has delivered thousands of speeches and presentations in the United States, China, and around globe to schools, police academies, Navy and Air Force Bases, as well as giving presentations, lectures, and speeches to medical and university groups such as Beijing University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, GW (the George Washington University), University of California, Berkeley campus, Harvard University, Louisiana Police Instructor Training Academies, PCOM (Philadelphia College of Orthopedics), Georgia campus and Tulane University and many more. In the last three decades, DeRu with his Shaolin Institute teams and SCF performance teams have led thousands of Chan arts and martial arts demonstrations, shows, retreats, camps, conferences, seminars, speeches, and lectures to over 2 million people across the globe.
Chinese CCTV networks have ten documentary series on his story and his work from 199-2008. He has appeared numerous times on local and international TV networks including networks in Mobile, New Orleans, Atlanta, Beijing, ZheJiang province and Henan province TV international network since the early 1990s. His publications and works were mentioned and presented in numerous publications, newspapers, and magazines worldwide.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are plenty of challenges and bumps in the road along the way, but they are trials and tribulations for me to break through so that I am what I am today. They made me resilient and steadfast.
I was born as an enemy of the country in China. I have almost died of diseases and accidents many times. I was treated as a criminal for a crime I never committed.
I quit schooling before the end of 4th grade. and I failed to join athletic teams and performance teams a number of times in China due to my family’s historical and political crimes in the new regime of China.
I lost a lot of money and not to make a balance in almost 12 international martial arts championships I hosted and founded.
I lost a lot of money during the worldwide pandemic, but I am surviving and stronger each time.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an ordinary person exploring and training in all kinds of martial arts including and especially Kung Fu and Zen (Chan) all my life. I devised the 999 Medibreath Cosmic Ecosystem, which is part of Zen Tai Gong–a collection of the cosmic consciousness movements of the body and mind. Zen Tai Gong has many features like yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and various mind-body practices of meditation, but it is uniquely created, experienced and experimented on from the perspective of my 50 years of research and studies.
I see the total connection of humanity and of the cosmos and discovered the cosmic intelligence of creativity and self-natured healing. It is all related to the cosmic matrix of consciousness and can be explained and experimented on through quantum science; much of the evidence has been given by quantum science research experiments, DNA transformation, mutation and epigenetic research.
I have developed a holistic system of Self-Healing, DeRu Nutrition, Qi Gong, Meditation, DeRu FengShui, DeRu Combat Wrestling and Grappling along with kickboxing and Sanshou…Most important of all is that I have a great opportunity that people from all over world have given me to share what I see and observe in myself and in humanity. Together we can explore not only the external visible world of reality but the inner world of infinite potentiality and the conscious matrix of the cosmos.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Everything happens through rough or seemingly painful challenges along the journey of life, which strengthened me and enabled me to go further with grit. When I have passion and fully dive in with my heart and mind without worrying about successes or failures, whatever I am in, I am and will be able to do what I need to do in this life in flow. That is why I always say: Just breathe, Do it.
Contact Info:
- Email: shiderushaolin@gmail.com
- Website: www.deruacademy.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shiderushaolininstitute
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn5hBdli-Hk7lcFOUVTWfpw
- Other: shaolin-world.net
Image Credits:
DeRu (Shawn Liu) with Fighting Warrior Disciples at the Shaolin Temple Gate DeRu and DeYang at the Shaolin Temple DeRu with Students in China DeRu with his Shifu at Shaolin Temple with Words Zen & Kungfu to the World behind him DeRu and DeYang with his Shifu at front gate of the temple along with fighting monks DeRu with his Students in Atlanta
