Allow me to briefly present to you my physical, inner and spiritual journey,
which gradually took me, over the years, from East to West, from Japan to India,
to the very source of my various practices and teachings.
Karate (1985 - 1990)
It all begins in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Aged six or seven, I did a Judo session, which I didn't like at all.
A few years later, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel San appeared on the screens.
This first Karate Kid ignites my heart and soul.
During my five years in high school, I resolutely practiced Yoseikan style Karate.
However, although only a few months before the black belt exam, when the Yoseikan headquarters in Japan
made the decision to truncate the traditional sequences in order to devote more class time to combat,
I did not hesitate not long to put an end to Karate Do.
At the foot of Mount Wudang, China
(November 2013)
Kung Fu (2007 - 2022)
After a break of around twenty years, I moved to the Middle Kingdom, stumbling upon a
Saolin Kung Fu school, a flamboyant and spectacular style practiced, according to tradition,
for nearly 1500 years by the legendary orange-tunic Buddhist monk-fighters. A genuine dream come true! Three seminars led by monks from the famous temple who came expressly to Quebec City, at the invitation of the school, constitute highlights of the six years spent within this school. The curriculum also included many elements and forms of the Mizong Luohan style
(or My Jhong Law Horn), 'The Lost Fist of Buddha'.
In 2013, upon obtaining my black belt and turning 40, I decided to give myself a gift and take on
a challenge by enrolling in a school in China, strengthening there full time, daily and for a month , my knowledge and skills in Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Wudang style Qi Gong.
Back home, pumped up, and as a black belt requirement, I began teaching Kung Fu from time
to time, until I became fully in charge of beginners classes.
I then dedicate myself entirely and exclusively to the Mizong Luohan style.
My instructor at Wudang, Liu Wen
(November 25, 2013)
Qigong (2012 - 2022)
On December 1, 2012, Sifu Stéphane Lévesque, my instructor-Sifu in Kung Fu Mizong Luohan,
chose me to pass on his rich knowledge in Qi Gong.
Like Karate, Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Yoga, there are several styles of Qi Gong. Those emanating from
Grand Master Johnny Kwong Ming Lee, also the Sifu of Sifu in Mizong Luohan, prove particularly powerful, both in therapeutic and martial applications as in awareness of the nature of primordial energy ( Qi ).
This daily practice of Qi Gong constitutes my first real contacts with the Qi which inhabits us,
this energy which travels, supports and floods the entire Universe.
After discussing this 'experience' of transmitting this age-old knowledge, with the agreement of
Grand Master Lee, Sifu Stéphane started offering the teaching of these Qi Gong to the public.
As for Kung Fu, after a few years, I also took charge of Qi Gong classes dedicated to beginners.
Grand Master Johnny Kwong Ming Lee
Sifu Stéphane Lévesque Myself
(Dallas, February 19, 2016)
Tai Chi (2018 - 2020)
Navigating between Qi Gong and Kung Fu, the third point of what I describe as the 'Holy Trinity' of Chinese martial arts, this discipline allowed me to develop new skills and solidify my knowledge and my feelings
by approaching them from different and innovative angles.. And 'luck' smiles on me as the instructor,
the gentle quiet force that is Billy M'Boutchou [ billymb.com ], reports to Master Yuan Xiu Gang,
the Taoist priest-monk director and founder of the same school, at the feet of the Wudang Mountains, where I discovered this style and learned a complete form, in 2013, during my one-month stay on Chinese soil.
Yoga (2021 - …)
In 2019, I flew off for a second exploration of the Indian subcontinent, this time targeting the southern tip.
In Pondicherry, I entered a bookstore almost next to Sri Aurobindo's ashram and came across the work
Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition . I had absolutely no idea that I was not only going
to meet the author Marshall 'Satchidananda' Govindan two and a half years later, in his ashram in Quebec ,
but that he would be introducing me to Kriya Yoga! It is also through this book that I learned more about
this Babaji from Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi and that I got to know the Siddhas,
these great yogic and tantric sages.
I took part in the Initiation 1 weekend in September 2021, then Initiation 2 in May 2022, to finish with the
10 days of Initiation 3 in July 2023, ensuring that I fully integrate the practices and teachings between each initiation. Then I jumped at the opportunity to follow the all too rare intensive training of Kriya Hatha Yoga Instructors in August 2023.
Finally, my dream of celebrating my 50th birthday during a pilgrimage in Himalayan India, in Badrinath,
near the etheric ashram of Babaji, comes to fruition in September 2023. The day before my birthday,
after having gathered in the small cave where the great Rishi Vyasa dictated to the elephant-headed god Ganesha the epic of the Mahābhārata , of which a few chapters constitute the Bhagavad Gita , the Hindu 'bible',
I received the spiritual name 'Deva'.
During Babaji's 3rd Initiation to Kriya Yoga
Ashram of St-Étienne-de-Bolton
(July 3, 2023)