SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS JULY 2017 PART 2 BY GRANDMASTER WONG KIEW KIT
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Category Archives: meditation
SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS JANUARY 2016 PART 3 BY GRANDMASTER WONG KIEW KIT
(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/ans16a/jan16-3.html)
Many stories described in “The Way of the Master” are incredible but true
Question 1
I have read your book. “The Art of Chi Kung”, over 3 times now, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I look forward to reading “The Way of the Master”.
— Qasim, UK
Answer
Thanks for your kind words for “The Art of Chi Kung”. Many people have kindly commented that it is the best chi kung book they have read. It gives a comprehensive, yet in-depth picture of what chi kung is, as well as what practitioners in the pasts attained in practicing chi kung. Hopefully this book may prevent chi kung from degenerating into mere external forms.
“The Way of the Master” is my autobiography, and has been kindly described by the editor as the real story of a small boy becoming a world legend. Interestingly, it is also the most entertaining book I like to read. Readers will not only have much reading pleasure, but also learn many useful lessons that can enrich their daily life.
Question 2
It a bit sad to see that some form of chi kung is lost, like your teacher Sifu Ho Fatt Nam could jump 10 feet from a standing position. I would love to practice that. Can you do that?
Answer
My sifu did not jump 10 feet from the ground, but his sifu, i.e. my sigung did. I cannot do that, though I have other benefits of the Art of Lightness which my sifu taught me, like running up four storeys fast and without panting, and am flexible and agile at an age most people would consider old, i.e. 70, but I still regard as young.
Although I can run up many storeys and long distances, I prefer to take an elevator or drive a car, or better still be driven by a careful driver. As I have often told my students, we should make use of modern facilities.
It is worthwhile to know that chi kung methods were invented not for fun, but to meet expedient needs. Kungfu masters needed to learn the Art of Lightness to jump high as they were often ambushed by many opponents, and this skill enabled them to escape.
I trained the Art of Lightness in my younger days. After many months of daily training I could jump up to about 5 feet. One morning I fell down and cut my thigh, which resulted in stopping my training.
I discontinued my training not because of the cut, as I learned years ago that greatness lies not in never falling but in rising after every fall. I realized it was not a wise use of time, because now we have elevators and cars. Later my wife commented independently that she would love to see the Art of Lightness. Had I known this earlier, I would have continued my training just to make her smile.
But this does not mean that my training was wasted. One I saved my niece, who was about five years old then, from possible serious injury. She was about to roll down a long flight of stairs. I rushed up to save her before she could roll two steps!
Dim mak is believed by many people to be an lost art, but we are proud that it is found in our school
Question 3
What is the best form of mediation for calming the mind and raising consciousness?
Answer
The best form of meditation for calming the mind and raising consciousness, or the best form of any art for any purpose depends on various factors, like the philosophy and methodology of the teachers as well as the developmental stage and needs of the students.
For you if you have an opportunity to learn in our school, the best form of meditation is entering into a chi kung state of mind, which we do every time we practice. You may find it hard to believe, and many people may be angry at the statement, but it is true that in just a few seconds you will have a calmer mind and a higher level of consciousness than many others who have spend an hour sitting in a lotus position.
Question 4
I am crying as I write this. I myself suffer from Lyme Disease. My dad cannot keep track of his pills. He could not find his way through an airport. He has Parkinsons and dementia. He puts food all over the floor and cannot figure out how to put on his seatbelt. My dad cannot live without my mom.
Mom is utterly exhausted as a caregiver. Her relationship with dad has degraded so badly, that she resists wanting to try to help him at all anymore. Mom has so many demands on her time in caregiving and running an entire household on her own
— Carole, France
Answer
You dad is in a really bad shape.
It is best that he goes to the Holistic Health Centre straightaway, without having to go for my regional course. It is ideal if you and your dad can have treatment at the Centre.
You should be healed in three months, or perhaps two. But your dad may need six months.
You can help him in the first month, but your help should be progressively less each day so that he could be on his own by the second month. This is definitely for his own good. He must learn how to be on his own, and he can do so everyday in one month.
To be well means, for example, he has to eat his own food, not have someone eat his food for him, and do his own toilet, not have someone do it for him. He has first learn how to live, and then how to wholesomely enjoy living his life, all in six months. He can’t have someone feed him and pamper him for life, even if he has money to employ someone to do so.
Your dad must give your mom a chance to live her life, but still loving to him and be his wife. It is very selfish of your dad to want your mom to be his slave, and it is also very bad for his own life.
Your dad, your mom and you can have all these wonderful things, which are actually normal things, if you all really want them and work for them, not merely hope that they will happen.
Chi flow can overcome any illness and gives practitioners good health, vitality and longevity
Question 5
As my training progresses, my third eye continues to pulsate but less painfully so. I believe the vigorous circulation from Dragon Strength is helping. Prior to Penang, my focus was on the Small Universe and Cosmic Breathing.
— Stephen, USA
Answer
Small Universe will enhance whatever you do, and Dragon Strength will make it more powerful. The way you learned Small Universe and Dragon Strength was also in the right order.
One would still have very good results if he learned Dragon Strength first, then Small Universe. But if he learned Small Universe first, then Dragon Strength, like what you did, the results will even be better.
Question 6
I’ve noticed that my general intuition as well as sensitivity to energy has grown exponentially over the years. For example, whenever I am visiting Buddhist or Hindu temples, I often now feel energy and force emanating from certain statues.
Are these abilities related to the third eye?
Answer
Your third eye is opening, or has opened. In practical terms it does not matter much whether you are at the opening stage or at the opened stage. Only those who intellectualize unnecessarily worry about such issues. As an analogy, it does not matter much whether your business if picking up or has picked out. What is important is that you are earning a lot of profit and your customers have gained a lot of benefit.
The exponential increase of your general intuition and of sensitivity to energy is one of the many benefits that your third eye is opening or has opened. It is very important that you use this and other benefits for good and never for evil.
We do good and avoid evil because we are righteousness. Even if one ignores righteousness and works only for self-interest disregarding the interest of other people, it is also for his own self-interest that he must do good. If he does evil, evilness will certainly return to him. The law of karma is certain.
Dragon Strength learnt at the Dragon Strength course will enhance any art you practice!
Question 7
Is there a hidden link between our Dan Tian and our third eye? The more focused my energy is at the Dan Tian, the more my third eye seems to pulsate.
Answer
Yes, there is a direct connection between the dan tian and the third eye, though I don’t know whether there is a direct link, like a meridian or some nerves in modern scientific terms, connecting them.
The more powerful the dan tian is, the more effectively the third eye will function. In other words, if there is a lot of chi at the dan tian, the third eye will open and the person will be able to perceive things across space and time that is not normally possible in ordinary persons.
On the other hand, if a person’s dan tian is weak, his third eye will be close. Not only he has no psychic abilities, his normal eyesight will also be poor.
Question 8
Finally, at what point will I know when my third eye is finally open and the pulsation stop?
Answer
As suggested earlier, in practical terms it does not matter whether your third eye is opening or has already open. But for your curiosity, when pulsation has stopped for some time, and you are used to perceiving across space and time, your third eye has opened.
But this is not absolute. Even when your third eye has open, pulsation may sometimes occurs, just as even when your business has established, it can still pick up.
The most important issue is that, irrespective of whether it is your business or your third eye, you must always use the benefit for good and never for eveil.
If you have any questions, please e-mail them to Grandmaster Wong via his Secretary at secretary@shaolin.org stating your name, country and e-mail address.
SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SEPTEMBER 2015 PART 2 BY GRANDMASTER WONG KIEW KIT
(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/ans15b/sep15-2.html)
When you practice genuine chi kung you can eat whatever food you like
Question 1
Is it necessary to abstain from any food when practicing chi kung?
— Jochen, Germany
Answer
No, it is not necessary. Whatever you had been eating or doing without any harm to yourself and others before you started practicing chi kung, like cake and sugar, coke and coffee, yoga and lifting weight, making love and party-going, you can carry on eating or doing them with better satisfaction and result after you have started practicing chi kung. This is only logical, as practicing chi kung enhances our daily life.
However, some “masters” advise otherwise. Actually we call them “masters” out of respect. Strictly speaking they are not even genuine chi kung practitioners, as they teach only gentle physical exercise though they use genuine chi kung forms. These “masters” advise their students not to take sugar, considering it as white poison, and not to have sex, even for those who have willing partners and find it pleasurable. And the irony is that with these unnecessary limitations, the students are not healthier or happier.
When I first taught in Spain, many students were shocked to see me adding two or three sachets of sugar to my coffee, and enjoying jarmon. They taught, wrongly of course, that chi kung masters should drink only pure water and eat vegetable.
In fact, when you practice genuine chi kung which increases your energy and life performance, whatever you have been doing without harm to yourself and others, you can continue enjoying these activities with more satisfaction and better bre
Question 2
Do we practice chi kung before or after gym work?
Answer
You can practice chi kung before or after gym work. If you practice it before, you add energy to your gym work. If you practice it after, you replenish your energy.
It is even better if you perform your chi kung during gym work. This does not mean that you do your chi kung exercise while performing your gym workout. It means that employ chi kung skills, like being relaxed and not tensing your muscles, during gym work.
Practicing chi kung alone is sufficient for your needs for good health, vitality and longevity. It is not necessary to supplement chi kung with vitamins and physical exercise. But if you enjoy eating vitamin and performing physical exercise, like working in a gym, you can do so with better result
Golden Bridge
Question 3
An interesting question arose this morning after training from a senior Kung Fu student. He asked when doing Golden Bridge for about 30 minutes, “should I simply count the breaths gently or should I just be aware of the breathing”. I answered “for myself I just stay at my dan tian and gently count”. I would love to hear what your advise is.
— Sifu Mark, Ireland
Answer
All the three methods are correct.
The main purpose is to keep the mind one pointed. Of course it is also very important to be relaxed.
There are many methods to keep the mind one-pointed. The three methods mentioned by you are excellent examples.
Another method, which is more advanced, is to keep the mind free from all thoughts.
There are many methods, but all the methods can be generalized into two categories, attaining a one-pointed mind, or attaining no-mind which is all mind. In mathematical terms, it is arriving at one or at zero.
Arriving at zero is the most advanced. It brings the practitioner beyond the phenomenal realm. Arriving at one is still in the phenomenal realm.
Question 4
I am used to practicing 1-4 hours a day of the qi gong I was taught locally by a Chinese master, and I am still not well.
— Elizabeth, USA
Answer
Honestly without meaning to be disrespectful to the master, you have been practicing gentle physical exercise using genuine qigong forms. Gentle physical exercise cannot overcome any illness regardless of how long you have been practicing it. It also does not have the other wonderful benefits of qigong, like vitality, longevity, mental freshness and spiritual joys.
How is it that you have been practicing gentle physical exercise when you have been performing genuine qigong forms? It is because you lack qigong skills. It is the skills and not the techniques that enable practitioners to get the benefits of the art they practice. You can learn piano techniques or even surgery techniques from some good books or videos, but you can’t play the piano or perform surgery if you lack the necessary skills.
Thousands of thousands of practitioners of martial arts today are doing precisely this. Thousands of Taijiquan practitioners are doing Taiji dance, and not genuine Taijiquan as an internal martial art that it really is. Thousands of other martial artists are performing genuine martial art techniques as gymnastics and hurting themselves in generous exchange of blows in sparring. They cannot defend themselves, which is the first purpose of practicing any martial art.
You are, of course, not alone. More than 80% of qigong practitioners all over the world today are practicing qigong techniques as gentle physical exercise, and usually they are unaware of it.
You will find out the glaring difference in the first 15 minutes when you attend my Intensive Chi Kung Course. It is not for no good reasons that I charge 1000 euros for three days (it will be 1200 euros next year) when many qigong teachers charge only 50 euros for a month.
Editorial Note: The question was asked in 2014 when the fee for an Intensive Chi Kung Course was 1000 euros.
In Shaolin Wahnam chi kung, you need to practice only about 15 minutes a session
Question 5
Can my father do this even if he cannot stand or walk well? If he did not somehow receive immediate benefits in the workshop in mobility, arm movement, etc, because of his concentration issues, I do not think he could even do the exercises in his imagination. In fact, as of now, I know he could not. I want to be clear on his level of impairment. Do people with sever things like Alzheimer’s need someone to help them even remember to do the exercises?
Answer
Your father or anybody can still perform the qigong exercise even if he cannot stand or walk well, but he has to make some effort. I want to be very clear on this point. The student himself (or herself) must make a lot of effort if he wants to benefit from qigong practice. I won’t, and I can’t, do the exercises for him. I can only teach him the way that has helped many people like him overcome his problems.
In the past people with special problems like your father attended a personalized course, where I only taught that student. The fee, of course, was more expensive. But now I do not offer personalized courses. If you come for the Intensive Chi Kung Course in Penang and ask the staff of the hotel you will be staying, they may tell you that an elderly gentleman over 70 came to my last personalized course in a wheelchair with his wife, and they took a taxi to town, without the wheelchair, for shopping the next day!
I just give an offer to help your father to recover. He has to make the choice to attend the course or not. I would also like to mention that the course won’t be easy for him if he has difficulty standing and walking. He won’t be pampered. In fact he may find me a slave-driver, asking him to do things he may not want to, like swinging his arms about and running round the hall without others’ help.
Incidentally the wife of the gentleman mentioned above suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease a few years earlier. She could not remember the exercise I just taught her. Obviously she recovered. She could remember her husband, and accompanied him back from town to the hotel after shopping, although it was, I believe, the first time they were in Penang.
For your father, it would be recommended that you attend the course with him together. Not only you will learn how to overcome your Lyme Disease which you have suffered from for about 30 years, you can also remind your father of the qigong techniques that he has to practice.
But remember it is not the techniques that will help you and your father to regain good health. It is qigong skills which I shall transmit to you and your father during the course.
Question 6
I am wondering, given the high cost of studying with you, if I do wish to continue my qigong studies, would I be able to pursue studying with them in addition to doing your 30 minutes of practice per day? And could I keep practicing the past chi kung that feels good to me?
Answer
You can continue to pursue chi kung with me or other certified instructors in our school. Of course you can also continue to practice the chi kung you learned elsewhere before.
You will find that you can raise your former chi kung by one or more levels. Honestly, I don’t mean to be presumptuous or arrogant, I just state the truth of what many students like you who learned other types of chi kung elsewhere, have reported to me.
Better still, if you are permitted to teach other types of chi kung you have learned elsewhere, if you find the chi kung skills learned from me are useful, you can incorporate these skills into the other types of chi kung, without having to mention that you have learned these skills from me. If you face any difficulty concerning our chi kung skills, you can write to me in private.
We are sincere in wanting other chi kung practitioners benefit from their practice. We do not mind if they do not credit the skills to us.
I would like to mention two important points. It is strictly for your and other people’s benefit.
If you incorporate our chi kung skills into the chi kung techniques of other schools you teach, please do so discretely. Make very certain that this would not offend the teachers and the seniors of these other schools.
Secondly, teach only simple and basic skills, like being relaxed, not thinking of irrelevant thoughts, and generating an energy flow. For the sake of your students, don’t teach advanced skills, like directing energy to various parts of the body, building internal force, and expanding beyond your physical body. These advanced skills are taught during the Intensive Chi Kung Course. But an instructor teaching these advanced skills need to be trainied and such training is not provided at the course.
If you teach these advanced skills without proper training on how to teach the skills, even though you may have these skills, you are likely to cause harm to your students. As an analogy, a patient may undergo surgery himself, but this does not qualify him to perform surgery on others.
Depending on one’s perspective, my course fee can be considered very expensive or very cheap. Many students have told me they would gladly pay ten times the fee to learn from me.
The three golden rules of chi kung practice are not to worry, not to intellectualize, and to enjoy the practice
Question 7
I find it difficult to follow the Three Golden Rules consistently. For example, during training I will stop intellectualising, but then a moment later I will begin again, or I will intellectualise about saying to myself the Third Golden Rule, “just enjoy”.
— Chris, Australia
Answer
Our Three Golden Rules of Practice are actually simple. They are as follows.
-
Don’t worry
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Don’t intellectualize
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Enjoy your practice
There are not like asking you to do press-up a hundred times or climb up a high coconut tree.
If you wish to have good results, you have to follow the three golden rules, just like if you wish to be safe on a road, you have to follow safety rules. If you choose not to follow the rules, you do so at your own peril.
Although the rules are simple, they may not be easy for you and many other people. This is because you have been conditioned to worrying and intellectualizing. If you suddenly stop worrying or intellectualizing, it can be difficult due to your bad habit.
But it can be done, and many people with the same problem have done so successfully. You overcome your problem progressively. Suppose you worry 50 times in 5 minutes. You don’t stop worrying totally the very first day you start your programme to overcome your problem. You worry less. Suppose you are able to cut down your worrying by 3 times, which means that in 5 minutes you worry 47 times.
You practice this programme everyday. Suppose the second day you can further cut down your worrying by 2 more times, which means you worry 45 times. The third day could be worse. Suppose you cut down your worrying by only 4 times in total, which means you worry 46 times. So there may be up and down on individual days, but on the whole there should be gradual progress. Eventually you will be able to cut down your worrying from 50 times in 5 minutes to just 2 or 3 times, which will be good result.
How long you take to achieve this result depends on various factors, and may range from a week to a year. But most people can attain the result in a hundred days.
There are two important requirements. You must persevere. You have to practice everyday. The second requirement is gradual progress. You cut down your worrying a few times each day. Eventually you hardly worry at all.
The same method is used to cut down intellectualizing.
Question 8
I have also searched your Q & A series using the term “intellectualize” and read through many of your wonderful answers, which have helped immensely.
But still I would like to humbly ask for your advice. If I find that I can’t apply the Three Golden Rules before or during my practice, should I simply stop and wait to train again at a later time if possible?
Answer
Stop worrying and stop intellectualizing. Enjoy your practice. Just do it.
If you can’t follow these three golden rules, stop your practice and train at a later time.
Don’t do something is certainly easier than doing something. Don’t worry is certainly easier than to worry. Don’t intellectualize is certainly easier than to intellectualize.
Suppose you want to cross a road but a car is coming fast. Just don’t cross the road. It is certainly easier than crossing the road and be hit by the car.
Or suppose you are at a beach watching people swimming, but you can’t swim. Don’t go into the water. It is certainly easier than going into the water and be drown.
If you have any questions, please e-mail them to Grandmaster Wong via his Secretary at secretary@shaolin.org stating your name, country and e-mail address.
IS QI REAL OR JUST AN ILLUSION?
(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/qigong-practice01.html)
For those who have experienced qi, like the students here in a regional qigong course in Austria, they know qi is real as surely as they know the nose on their face is real.
Question
I would like to practice qigong, but there is a question in my mind that has been preventing me from doing it so far. From my meditative practices in the past I know that the mind can create any illusion with ease and quickness, be it a change in emotions, a vision, strong sensations, etc.
— Tatnana, Russia
Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
You have become a victim of intellectualization. The reason which you think prevents you from practicing and benefiting from chi kung is not valid. It is self-made and self-limiting. Your first step is to clear away this mental blockage, not just for the sake of practicing chi kung but to free yourself from your self-made mental imprisonment.
Your meditation practice has resulted in a perverted view which you need to erase for your own benefit. It is true that the mind can create illusions, but this is harmful only if your mind is weak or if you are unethical. If your mind is week, you may mistake the illusions for reality.
In fact, many people are victims of this weakness, often without realizing it. If their children are late from school, for example, they may conjure illusions that some accidents might have happened to them. If their colleagues at work gather together, they may conjure illusions that their colleagues are talking bad about them behind their back.
On the other hand, if a meditator has a strong mind but lacks ethics, he many conjure illusions to confuse people. Politicians often do this. They conjure illusions that appear to benefit the public but actually benefit the politicians’ own interest.
Question
For the practice of qigong it is required to focus on learning to feel qi instead of just practicing external movements.
Answer
This is your mistaken conception, which is the result of your mistaken intellectualisation. In the practice of qigong, it is not necessary to focus on learning to feel qi. You should also not just practice external movements.
Then, what should you do? Very simple – just do it, i.e. practice qigong. How do you do so? Learn from a good teacher.
It will be easier for you to comprehend if we use an analogy. Suppose you want to swim or to play football. What should you do?
Very simple – just do it, i.e. go swimming or play football. How do you do so if you can’t swim or play football yet? Learn from a good swimming or football teacher. You don’t swim or play football by intellectualizing that you should be able to drink a lot of sea water or survive a few fractures before you can swim or play football.
Shaolin Wahnam Kuala Lumpur 