2026 The Great Pause
Our Mission
Shaolin Chan Foundation is a non profit 501c3 organization. Our goal is to promote and carry out the Chan (Zen) teachings and Chan way of living. This includes Chan philosophy, Chan meditation, Tai Gong for healing, Chan nutrition, fine arts, music, the appreciation.
We hold a number of events through the year, including: Chinese New Year festivities; World Tai Chi Day lectures, demonstrations and classes; Qi Retreats, which focus on Qi Gong and Nutrition; our Chan meditation series; and our World Kung Fu Championships series as well as conference and assistance to the needy in education and basic living in China and other parts of the world. We maintain relationships with a number of institutions in China and enjoy both student exchange Intern programs and visiting lecturers.
About Shifu Deru
Liu Xiangyang, who goes by his Shaolin disciple name DeRu, is a senior student of Shaolin Chan-Wu-Yi (Zen, martial arts and medicine) and a mentor to hundreds of thousands of Shaolin and Tai Chi students as well as natural health advocators. He is one of the two most well-known disciples of Su Xi, who was a great spiritual leader and 30th generation grand master, chief monk, and former deputy abbot monk of the famous Shaolin Temple.
He is one of the earliest Shaolin pioneers who entered the US, spreading the Chan, natural healing, Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi Kung Fu in the United States and around globe.
禪 Chan (Zen)
We have a little bit of a branding problem: sometimes we refer to it as Zen, sometimes Chan, and sometimes Chan (Zen). Here’s the deal. Zen and Chan are the same thing. The word Zen is an Americanized version of the Japanese word 禅, which itself is derived from the Chinese word 禪, which is pronounced “Chan.” In Pinyin (which is the official romanization system of Chinese) it’s “Chán.” Going all the way back to Sanskrit, the word originated as dhyāna or ध्यान. All these words translate literally into something like “meditative state,” which is appropriate because meditation is the central practice at the heart of Zen… I mean Chan… I mean Chan (Zen)… You get the point.
Zen may simply be interpreted as innermost consciousness, the way to reach infinite Wisdom, or the way to cultivate wisdom. It also includes the realm of infinite intelligence in the expanded high plainfield of consciousness that can only be reached after deep cultivation coupled with innate discovery. This wisdom is the ultimate consciousness of the universe. It is the wisdom of life, the life intelligence.