Category Archives: question-answer

RISKS OF SELF-LEARNING AND UNQUALIFIED TEACHING

(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/risks.html)

Many people wrongly and unknowingly think that chi kung is just gentle physical exercise

Question

I am a teacher at a senor citizens’ home. After reading your book, “The Art of Chi Kung”, I decided to try it myself. I tried both the Moon and one of the other momvements to induce chi. I found nothing happening. The only thing that happened was that I started to fall forward as if I was loosing my balance. After two or three times like this I finally started to sway. I am not sure if I consciously started to sway or it was from the movement.

— Larry, USA

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

It is difficult to tell from an e-mail description whether your reaction was due to induced chi flow, or due to your loss of balance, or due to your conscious attempt to sway. But even if your sway was due to chi flow, it did not necessarily mean you were practising chi kung. Chi kung is not merely swaying.

Question

I decided to try it in my class of 8. I had the class close their eyes and I said to them if they started to sway they were to go with it. (in accordance with the instructions in your book). Out of the 8 only one started to sway. Is this sway something that is consciously brought on, or is it just supposed to happen?
Answer

Yours is a typical example of how little knowledge and respect many Westerners have of chi kung. Many Westerners (and modern Easterners) think that they can just read from a book, try some exercises on their own, and then start teaching others. Especially if they are unemployed, they may continue teaching so-caled chi kung for a living, and after a few years they may call themselves, or others may call them, masters.

You have done yourself, your students and the art a great dis-service. You have not learnt or practised chi kung properly, yet you have started to teach others. This is unprofessional. You do not understand the effect chi flow has on your students, and despite my warning in my books that incorrect practice may lead to serious harmful effects, you have decided to try it on others. This is unehical.

The sway may or may not be brought on consciously. Whether it should or should not happen, depends on numerous factors. But swaying itself is not chi kung

Question

Also, I am very interested in your intensive courses on healing incurable diseases. However, financially it is impossible for me to travel to Malaysia. Are you planning by any chance to bring your classes to the United States, or can someone learn what you teach through a video? And do you have such videos available?
Answer

Merely being interested is far from sufficient. Before you think of becoming a healer or a teacher, be a student first. The large number of people, especially in the West, who imagine that they can become healers or masters, without having to make the minimum effort to learn and practise the art first, really amazes me.

I sometimes teach in the United States.

People may learn external forms from videos, but these are actually not what I teach in my chi kung or kungfu classes. What I actually teach in my chi kung classes are skills to manage energy, and in my kungfu classes skills for combat efficiency, internal force development and spiritual cultivation. Anyone who thinks that such skills can be learnt via videos do not know what chi kung or kungfu really is. Hence, I have not produced videos for the purpose of self-instructio

Question

I also had a lady whose heart started to beat fast after the exercises in your book. Does this have any significance, as she was starting to get a little nervous?
Answer

Luckily she did not collapse. Your unprofessional teaching could have killed her.

The heart starting to beat fast during a chi kung exercise may or may not be good. It depends on various factors. In my teachng, many students with serious heart problems had their heart beating very fast during their practice under my supervision. I had to be extremely careful, and observe them and their reactions closely.

On one occasion I was about to ask a student to slow down and stop when she exclaimed how wonderful she felt. She as well as the other students soon recovered from their illness. But a less experienced instructor might have killed them in similar situatons.

Teaching chi kung to those with heart problems must be done by a master. Even trained instructors may not be competent enough to handle students with serious heart problems. In such cases, it is best for the instructors not to teach these students.

To be a chi kung teacher calls for great responsibility

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The question and answer are reproduced from Questions 11 to 14 of the January 2000 Part 1 issue of the Question-Answer Series.

TO PROVE THAT QI IS REAL AND QIGONG NOT A FAKE HEALING ART

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(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/prove.html)

The Qigong Grandmaster, Dr Yan Xin of China

Question

Why will no masters come forward to conclusively prove once and for all that qi is real and that qi-gong is not a fake healing art. It seems to me a lot more Westerners would be willing to accept and try qi-gong if there was a demonstration, a scientifically designed study that conclusively demonstrated qi-gong’s effects.

— Paul, USA

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Numerous experiments were carried out under strict scientific conditions both inside China and outside which proved conclusively that qi is real, and that qigong, besides having other uses, is a genuine healing art.

For example, the Qing Hua University in Bejing, one of the most prestigious universities of China, conducted many experiments with the great qigong master, Yan Xin, which showed that qi is real and has measurable influences on matter. These scientific experiments were supervised by top Chinese scientists, including Professor Qian Xue Sen, the father of the Chinese rocket.

Numerous hospitals in China, particularly the People’s Hospital of Shanghai, conducted many scientific experiments which conclusively showed that practising qigong enables many patients to recover from their diseases.

Numerous scientific experiments were also conducted outside China. Dr Kenneth Sancier of the United States, whom I had the pleasure to meet at the Second World Qigong Congress in San Francisco in 1997, is a leader in this field, and he has tirelessly collected volumes of scientific reports on qigong, gallantly attempting to bring its wonderful benefits to the Western public.

At this Second World Qigong Congress, Professor Fang Li Da of China, a medical doctor trained at the world-famous Harvard School of Medicine, provided convincing evidence from her many years of research that practising qigong can overcome cancer. For her brilliant research, she was named “Qigong Research Scientist of the Year”.

There were many top scientists and qigong masters at this Second World Qigong Congress. A special committee edited the findings and reports of the Congress and submitted recommendations to relevant authorities at both the United States government and the United Nations Organization.

The question remains. Why is qigong not widely used to overcome diseases, especially so-called incurable diseases like cancer, cardio-vascular disorders, diabetes and asthma, against which qigong is said, in fact has been proven, to overcome?

There are many answers, and different people will give different answers according to their perspectives. To me, there are two important answers, the relevance of which may not be easily understood by the public. One, genuine qigong masters are basically qigong masters, not marketing experts. They do not have the means, or the interest, to let the world know of their abilities to cure illness. Two, marketing experts who are already enjoying handsome rewards for their effort, may not like qigong to disrupt the de facto situation.

At the International Congress for the Unity of Science held at Seoul in the year 2000 where Nobel Prize winners and top practitioners of their respective fields were invited, I was honoured to speak on qigong. Answering a request from the Congress committee on alternative medicine, I recommended a simple, direct yet scientific approach to test the effectiveness of qigong in overcoming so-called incurable diseases as follows.

Let a medical committee selects a group of patients with a so-called incurable disease. Also selects a control group. Let a genuine qigong master work with the group of patients for six months. Examine the health conditions of the patients at the start, the middle and the end of the six-month period using standard medical tests. Compare the results with the control group.

I knew my proposal was only an academic issue. As expected, no one has thought it worthwhile to implement the recommendation.

Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit at the International Conference on the Unity of Sciences, Seoul 2000

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Reproduced from Question 1 in the July 2001 Part 3 issue of the Question-Answer Series.

SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS MAY 2015 PART 2 – GRANDMASTER WONG KIEW KIT

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(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/ans15a/may15-2.html)

All answers by my Sifu, Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

The northern Shaolin Temple. Picture taken from http://english.eastday.com/e/voy1/u1a4043498.html

Question 1

I have read your book, “The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu”, numerous times, reading parts of it before attending a Shaolin wushu academy in China and rereading the whole book numerous times while I stayed there.

— Namir, USA

Answer

Many people have kindly commented that my book, “The Art of Shaolin Kung Ku”, greatly inspired them in their practice. The book will show you, amongst other benefits, the philosophy and purpose of practicing Shaolin Kungfu, but you need to learn from competent teachers the skills of applying the techniques mentioned in the book to get desirable results.

Question 2

I should have heeded your warning with more tenacity, that if a Shaolin master gets angry easily, he is not a true Shaolin master; and that if a Shaolin master is reluctant to teach genuine kung fu sparring and instructs to use gloves during sparring (we only sparred during Sanda class), and if he focuses only on performing forms instead of applying them, then he is not a true and genuine master.

Answer

Your observation is exact. The three suggestions I gave — namely, not getting angry easily, using kungfu techniques in sparring, applying forms and not just performing them — provide an excellent way to tell whether an instructor is teaching genuine Shaolin Kungfu.

The southern Shaolin Temple. Picture taken from http://www.chinauniquetour.com/arts.asp?id=1343

Question 3

My first thoughts were whether they were really Shaolin monks?

Answer

Honestly, I don’t like to state it publicly, but despite my dislike, when faced with a sincere seeker asking me for an answer, I choose to tell the truth. Many of the so-called Shaolin “monks” were accomplished wushu practitioners recruited by a clever German entrepreneur to act as Shaolin monks by shaving their hair and putting on a monk’s robe to tour the West to demonstrate wushu as Shaolin Kungfu. Many of these “monks” remained in the West to teach wushu as Shaolin Kungfu.

We must be fair to these “monks”. They never claimed to teach traditional Shaolin Kungfu, though some of them claimed to be successors to the Shaolin Temple, which I find misleading. They may, or may not, have learnt Zen or other Buddhist teachings from a genuine Shaolin monk (who probably did not practice traditional Shaolin Kungfu), but to imply that the wushu they teach is a succession of traditional Shaolin Kungfu in the past is grossly misleading.

Some Shaolin “monks” may not know the following historical facts. The Shaolin Temple in Henan, which these “monks” claimed lineage from, was not burnt by the Qing army. This northern Shaolin Temple remained throughout the Qing Dynasty, and was burnt only in 1928, i.e. 17 years after the Chinese Republic had overthrown the Qing Dynasty, by rival warlords using guns and cannons, with nothing to do with kungfu fighting. Before this burning, including during the later part of the Qing Dynasty for about a hundred years, the northern Shaolin Temple in Henan was deserted, with no kungfu or chi kung practiced there.

The burning of the Shaolin Temple, which is well known in kungfu circles, occurred in the southern Shaolin Temple. Not many people know that there were two southern Shaolin Temples, and both were burnt to the ground by the Qing army in the 1850s.

During the Ming Dynasty, which existed before the Qing Dynasty, an emperor built another Shaolin Temple in the south in the city of Quanzhou in Fujian Province, and moved the status of imperial temple from the northern to the southern Temple. When the Qing Dynasty replaced the Mong Dynasty, some Ming generals retreated to the southern Shaolin Temple at Quanzhou and plotted to overthrow the Qing.

The Qing emperor, Yong Cheng, who infiltrated into the Temple as a monk, ordered the burning of the Shaolin Temple at Quanzhou with the help of Lama experts from Tibet with their infamous flying guillotines.

The Venerable Chee Seen escaped to the Nine-Lotus Mountain, also in Fujian Province, and built a second southern Shaolin Temple. Unlike in the earlier Shaolin Temples, most of Chee Seen’s disciples were laypersons, like Hoong Hei Koon, Lok Ah Choy and Fong Sai Yoke. This southern Shaolin Temple on Nine-Lotus Mountain was also burnt to the ground by the Qing army, led by Pak Mei.

Question 4

Then I proceeded to learn fitness exercises and always asked when were we going to learn to use the moves we learned in forms?

Answer

Wushu practitioners pay much attention to fitness exercises similar to Western gymnastic exercises. This is quite different from traditional Shaolin training which pay attention to energy exercises based on chi or energy flow.

Unfortunately, these fitness exercises make practitioners fit, but may not be healthy. There is a saying amongst wushu practitioners that they have to win trophies before 20. After 20 they have endured so much injury that they have to become coaches.

A wushu demonstration taken from http://wushuadventures.com/want-to-train-wushu-in-hong-kong/

Question 5

Communication with my teacher there was next to impossible. With or without a translator, I could not discuss my training with him.

To tell you the truth, I feel very wronged that I spent a year in China and my teacher has probably never been taught how to kung fu spar himself, and therefore he could not teach me. I was naive and thought that if they are from the Shaolin Temple then they know Kung Fu comprehensively.

Answer

Lack of communication is actually a norm, even with genuine masters. Not only there is a language problem, they also believe in a doctrine of no questions. Students only practice what they are told to. We in Shaolin Wahnam is a rare exception.

You time in China is not wasted. You have learnt genuine Shaolin forms, but as wushu and not as traditional Shaolin Kungfu. The forms are similar. When you learn internal force and combat application from us in Shaolin Wahnam, you will be able to convert your wushu to traditional Shaolin Kungfu.

Question 6

While I was there, I made the most of it. Your book inspired me to train Ma Bu. When I arrived the students did three minutes of Ma Bu twice per week. I thought that was a joke. And you say in your book five minutes is the minimum. So drawing inspiration from your book when I did not get any from the teacher, I trained Ma Bu all year, and could hold it for 80 minutes at the end. I still train it

Answer

Mabu, or stance training, is the foundation of kungfu, expecially building internal force.

But it is not easy to practice stance training correctly. Many people practice it as an endurance exercise, which is a big mistake. Its secret, which I discovered after more than 30 years, is relaxation.

Remaining at a stance for 80 minutes, regardless of whether you have practiced it correctly or wrongly, is a remarkable achievement. Even if you had practiced wrongly, it is a testimony to your diligence and endurance. If you have practiced correctly, though not necessarily perfectly, you would have developed tremendous internal force.

Lifting the Sky

Question 7

You book discussed the spiritual aspects of Shaolin Kung Fu; I was very attracted to that, but after spending time amongst these supposedly temple-trained monks, I got less spiritual. I felt more dull training with gloves. The students at the school grow more and more troublesome, angry, and stupid instead of less as your book suggested proper training should do.

Answer

It is worthwhile to note that “spiritual” is not the same as “religious”. Shaolin Kungfu and any kungfu are spiritual, but not religious. Practitioners develop their spirit besides their physical body, i.e. they become peaceful, happy and mentally fresh besides being healthy and full of vitality. You are right: becoming troublesome, angry and dull are certainly becoming less spiritual.
Editorial Note: Namir’s other questions will be continued at May 2015 Part 3 issue of the Question-Answer Series.

Question 8

Recently I started practicing the pushing sky qigong exercise from your book and have gotten good results. Thank you very much for sharing these wonderful arts.

Although I practiced qigong for several years, the chi sensations were more localized in certain parts of my body. The pushing sky exercise produces soothing chi sensations that lasts throughout the day and is more spread out on the entire body.

I have applied for and will be attending your Intensive Chi Kung exercise in December to properly learn the skills.

Meanwhile, I do have a question and seek you advice:

Currently I am training for a fitness test, one of which requires me to run 2.4 km in a certain amount of time (13 minutes is the passing mark for my age group)

Although I had been able to pass the running test in past years, it had always been very straining. As i get older, it has become harder and always at the risk of injuries or becoming sick due to over-training.

I realize that this is not the way to train long-term, but am at a loss on how to approach it. When I try to run within comfortable limits, the timing is often not fast enough to pass the test. I wonder if you could advise on how to systematically train to run faster with endurance, without over-exerting myself?

— Gabriel, Singapore

Answer

Congratulations for having good results with “Lifting the Sky”. I am glad you will attend the Intensive Chi Kung Course in December. Many people are amazed at the wonderful results of the course though it is only for a few days.

Applying chi kung for running or any activity without panting for breath and without feeling tired will be one of these benefits. But meanwhile you can try the following exercise.

Performing “Lifting the Sky” about 20 to 30 times. Then stand upright and be relaxed. If the chi starts to flow, relax and enjoy the flow. If there is no chi flow, it does not matter. After a short period (about 3 to 5 minutes) of enjoying your chi flow or standing still, start running, first slowly then quite fast. Do not tense your muscles in you running, but let your chi flow, which may or may not manifested outwardly, do the running for you. You don’t have to know how your chi flow do the running, but just have a gentle thought that it does the running for you.

Do not worry about your breathing, just breathe normally. In case your breathing starts to become fast, breathe out gently and keep your breathing slow. In this way you will find that you can complete your fitness test quick easily.

THE TYPE OF STUDENTS GENUINE MASTERS WANT

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(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/students.html)

Kungfu masters teach kungfu, not enlightenment

Question

It has been a while since I have been in search of a teacher that I feel I would become a great student from. I have visited your website and I am very interested in learning from you. I am so determined that I am willing to travel to Malaysia. Basically I need a fresh start in life and I have come to the revelation that this in the only way I am to find the path of greatness that I have been longing for

— Konrad, USA

Editorial Note: The student also mentioned in later questions (not reproduced here) that he had no money and he was seeking for enlightenment.

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Many people have written to me with requests similar to yours. Basically they have the following points in common.

They are sincere in their requests.
They want to be enlightened.
They want to save the world, or at least teach others what they set out to learn.
They think they are the kind of students masters should accept, if not it would be to the masters’ great loss.
They want to be taught according to the ways they like.

The above is the perspective of many young people in the West aspiring to be masters one day. They would benefit much from knowing the typical perspective of Eastern masters whom they wish to learn from. The masters’ perspective is as follows.

Sincerity is a pre-requisite, but there are other required qualities like determination, perseverance, diligence and ready to make sacrifice. Most students say they have these qualities, and honestly think they have, but actually they don’t. Masters have many ways to test them.
Kungfu and chi kung masters do not claim to teach enlightenment. They will ask you to seek enlightenment somewhere else. Almost all these students have no idea of what enlightenment is. Thinking that they can be enlightened in a few months, or even in a few years, is one clear indication of their ignorance.
Telling a master that you want to teach others before you even have learnt what you intend to teach, is a clear indication that you are so ignorance about the art and its tradition, as well as so ignorant about the long and difficult task ahead just to become a good student. You also suggest that you are arrogant, for which the masters know you will not make a good student.But it is different if you mention that you know the way is long and difficult, but you are willing to work hard, and you hope that one day you may prove to be worthy of your master’s teaching, and with his blessings you may teach others.
It often amazes me why so many people, especially in the West, seem to think that just because they want to learn, a master must teach them. Most masters are not interested to teach. Some of them may not want others to know they are masters.To many genuine masters, becoming a master is a by-product! They have trained hard for many years, not because they aimed to become a master and then teach the world, but because they wanted to be healthy, full of vitality, live long lives, mentally fresh, and have spiritual joy. They are acknowledged as masters not because they teach others, but because they have mastered the methods leading to these benefits.
A master has spent many, many years mastering his art. He knows better than you what, how and when to teach. Therefore, you learn according to his terms, not according to yours.I have mentioned a few times that those who wish to learn Shaolin Kungfu or Taijiquan from me, the best course of action is, after being familiar with basic Shaolin or Taijiquan forms, to attend my intensive courses.
But some people told me, albeit politely, “No, the best for me is to study with you for a few years, during which time you provide me with food and lodging, and in return I work for you.”

In essence they were suggesting I was not sincere in my statement about the intensive courses, and that they know better than me how to teach them. They should therefore seek another master. Such students also imply, unreasonably and selfishly, that masters have nothing better to do, but to make them masters.

An Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course in Sabah

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The question and answer are reproduced from Question 9 of the May 2001 Part 1 issue of the Question-Answer Series.

HOW CHINESE MEDICAL PHILOSOPHY CAN ENHANCE WESTERN MEDICAL PRACTICE

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(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/chinese-medical-philosophy.html)

Harmonious energy flow results in yin-yang harmony which means good health and happiness in Western terms.

Question

Western medicine kills 250,000 people per year and is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Death caused by Western doctors has been called iatrogenocide. Ignoring this fact, many Chinese doctors want to integrate Western and Chinese medicine. Do you think that Chinese and Western medicine should be integrated or combined into a single system?

— Marcus, USA

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

I admire your brave and honest statement, made with sincerity and hope that something could be done to overcome a big problem facing modern societies regarding health and illness.

To me this situation is pathetic on two points. One, traditional Chinese medical philosophy and practice can be used to overcome this big problem of numerous so-called incurable, and sometimes fatal, diseases facing modern societies, but this is not being done due to ignorance, prejudice or vested interest.

Two, instead of introducing traditional Chinese medical philosophy and practice into modern societies to overcome this urgent problem, even those in a position to do so are turning to conventional Western medicine. In China, for example, there were hospitals where traditional Chinese medicine and conventional Western medicine were offered side by side on an equal footing, and patients could choose which medical system to use.

But the trend now is that traditional Chinese medicine is becoming a secondary system, with traditional Chinese physicians fearing that they would be phrased out eventually. Most decision makers in hospitals as well as in governmental health care bodies are trained in Western medicine. Against such a background, your question becomes the more important.

Many people, including most Western trained doctors and some mediocre traditional Chinese physicians, view health and medicine from only one perspective, and it is usually the Western medical perspective. In practical terms it means that if a Western doctor who is sympathetic to traditional Chinese medicine, could not overcome a particular disease, he may look for a traditional Chinese medical method, such as acupuncture or herbs, to treat the disease. To most people, this is only logical. This is because most people view health and medicine from only one perspective, the Western medical perspective.

On the other hand, when a Chinese physician treats his patient, he may take his patients’ temperature and blood pressure, and recommends Western medical drugs in his treatment. This is often regarded as an improvement, and the Chinese physicians is regarded as more advanced than his traditional counterparts who do not know how to use Western medical instruments.

Such enterprising Western doctors and Chinese physicians may be successful in individual cases, but for Western medicine as well as traditional Chinese medicine as a whole, it is not a good development. The reason is that Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine employ different paradigms and methods which are often incompatible. Hence, Chinese medicine and Western medicine should not be integrated or combined into a single system. This does not mean that they cannot work together. They can work together side by side, but they cannot work together as an integrated, single system.

Suppose you live on a river bank and you wish to travel to the river mouth. You can reach your destination by car or by boat, but you cannot use your car as a boat or your boat as a car. You may, if desirable, make part or parts of your journey by car, and part or parts of your journey by boat, consecutively or in any order, but you cannot drive your car on the river or sail your boat on the road.

This gives a rough idea of the incompatibility of integrating Chinese and Western medicine into a single system. In your effort to help a patient make the journey from illness to recovery, you may, if desirable, make part or parts of the journey using Chinese medicine, and part or parts of the journey using Western medicine, but not using Chinese and Western medicine as an integrated, single system. This can’t be done simply because Chinese medicine and Western medicine use totally different philosophies and approaches.

Take for example a patient suffering from an illness that Western medicine calls high blood pressure. Western doctors define the illness from its symptoms. Thus, to overcome the illness, doctors overcome the high blood pressure. This is normally done by taking drugs to dilate the blood vessels which will them reduce the pressure of blood flowing through them. Western doctors are satisfied with this treatment because from their perspective they have done their job, i.e. lowering the patient’s blood pressure. But for the development of medicine, this is unsatisfactory because the treatment only eliminates the symptoms but not the illness.

An enterprising Western doctor employing Chinese medicine as an integrated system, may incorporate Chinese therapeutic methods like herbs and acupuncture (if they are permitted by their medical authorities to do so). But this is also unsatisfactory because actually he is still using the Western system although he substitutes herbs or acupuncture for pharmaceutical drugs. Basically, his attempt is still eliminating symptoms, and not the illness itself, although the therapeutic agents he now uses are herbs and acupuncture.

Chinese medicine operates in a different paradigm. In Chinese medicine an illness is defined not by its symptoms, but by the patient’s reaction to disease causing agents. Often it may not be necessary to know what the disease causing agents are! This fact may appear ridiculous to those who only view illness from the Western medical perspective, but paradoxically it is one of the crucial differences between Chinese and Western medicine that will help Western medicine to overcome its present impasse.

In traditional Chinese medicine, a high blood pressure patient will not be described as suffering from high blood pressure! The description depends on his reaction against known or unknown disease causing agents, and in this case it is usually “rising yang energy from the liver”. In other words, a patient described by Western doctors as suffering from high blood pressure, is likely to be described by traditional Chinese physicians as suffering from “rising yang energy from the liver”. The crucial difference is that “high blood pressure” is a symptom, whereas “rising yang energy from the liver” is the cause of the illness.

When Western doctors succeed in eliminating “high blood pressure”, they eliminate the symptom, but the illness remains. When Chinese physicians succeed in eliminating “rising yang energy from the liver”, they eliminate the cause, and the illness disappears.

There are different ways to eliminate “high blood pressure” and “rising yang energy from the liver”. In their historical development, Western doctors have found pharmaceutical drugs useful for eliminating “high blood pressure”, whereas Chinese physicians have found herbs, acupuncture, massage, chi kung and other means useful for eliminating “rising yang energy from the liver”.

The use of pharmaceutical drugs, herbs, acupuncture, etc are means, whereas “eliminating high blood pressure” and “eliminating rising yang energy from the liver” are principles. People often identify a medical system by its means, and seldom by its principles.

In my opinion, while both are important, principles are more important than means. Principles come first, means follow. When we have decided on the principles, we find the means to realize the principles.

The impasse faced by Western medicine today, I believe, is that many of its therapeutic principles may not be valid. In the example of high blood pressure above, Western medicine mistakes the symptom for the disease. Thus, although the means are excellent, the disease still cannot be cured because the therapeutic principle is faulty.

Another example is the case of SARS. The principle underlying research today in finding a cure for SARS is that if doctors understand the SARS virus they can cure patients of SARS. In my opinion, this principle may not be valid. If out of 100 persons infected with the virus, 98 of them could overcome it, the problem lies not with the virus but with the 2 persons who succumb. The question then is not how the virus kills people, but why the 2 persons could not overcome the virus when the other 98 could. The onus of the research, therefore, should be on the patients, rather than on the virus.

Research scientists could ask “What went wrong in the natural working of the two persons who succumb to the virus?” In other words, the Chinese physician attempts to find out the patient’s conditions in relation to the disease causing agents. If, for example, the patient’s condition is “weakening of the lung system”, by strengthening the lung systems by appropriate therapeutic means the Chinese physician can help the patient recover.

As shown in the two examples above, due to the different philosophy between Chinese and Western medicine, these two systems cannot be integrated into a single system. The greatest contribution Chinese medicine can make towards Western medicine, I believe, is its philosophy.

According to traditional Chinese medical philosophy, a person becomes ill because one or more of his natural systems are not working properly. If we restore the natural working of these systems, the patient will recover as a matter of course. Therefore, the onus of medicine — in diagnosis, pathology, therapeutic, research, etc — should be on the patient, finding out what went wrong inside him due to the influence of outside factors, and not on the outside factors like cholesterol and virus that cause the changes inside him.

Doctors can apply Western medical practice to implement Chinese medical philosophy

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The question and answer are reproduced from Question 1 of the May 2003 Part 1 issue of the Question-Answer Series.

LOOKING AT DISEASES FROM THE CHINESE MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE

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(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/chinese-perspective.html)

It may sound ridiculous to many people but according to the chi kung perspective all diseases are caused by energy blockage. Hence, when the blockage is cleared the patient will regain health as a matter of course. High-level chi kung is excellent to generate chi flow to clear blockage.

Question

Further tests and detail examination have failed to identify a correctable cause for my patient’s illness. Sifu’s reply is indeed very much welcome and has restored our hope in helping him.

— Dr Lim, Malaysia

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

I have many successful cases of helping patients to recover from diseases where conventional medicine could not identify the cause or site. This in fact is common.

If the cause or site of a disease can be identified, and if a remedy is available, conventional medicine is usually more effective, or at least speedier. But when the cause or site is unknown, chi kung provides an excellent alternative.

You would probably have read my explanation on why chi kung can succeed in overcoming such diseases when conventional medicine may not. Nevertheless, I shall explain it again here.

From the Chinese medical perspective, there is only one disease, called yin-yang disharmony. There may be countless symptoms, and conventional medicine names the disease, or its many manifestations, according to its symptoms.

Chinese medicine also names the various manifestations of the one disease, but the names are given not according to its symptoms but to its cause according to Chinese medical philosophy. Hence, while conventional medicine calls such disease manifestations as high blood pressure and bronchitis, traditional Chinese medicine calls them as “rising yang energy from the liver” and “excessive heat in the lungs”.

This difference of perspective gives traditional Chinese medicine a big edge over conventional medicine. When the cause of a disorder cannot be determined, or when there is no known remedy as in the case of viral infections, conventional medicine is quite helpless. It is not a question of conventional medicine being less effective; it is a situation where conventional medicine becomes a victim of its philosophical limitation.

Basically the therapeutic principle in conventional medicine is to define the disorder according to its cause, then prescribe the appropriate remedy. Such a philosophy works well when the cause is known and where a remedy is available. But when the cause is unknown or where a remedy is unavailable, treatment becomes impossible according to this philosophy.

Such problems become irrelevant in traditional Chinese medical philosophy. This is because traditional Chinese medicine (1) defines a disorder by its cause, and (2) all causes are correctable as their reference points involve the known conditions of the patient’s body. The following example may make this philosophical discussion clearer.

Suppose a patient suffering from what in conventional medicine would be referred to as high blood pressure, consults a traditional Chinese physician. After a thorough diagnosis, the physician concludes that his patient suffers from “rising yang energy from the liver”.

Why does he call the disorder “rising yang energy from the liver”? The answer is straight-forward. He finds yang energy rising from his patient’s liver. Had his finding been different, say excessive dampness in his patient’s stomach or insufficient heat in his patient’s gall bladder, he would define the disorder as “excessive dampness in the stomach” or “insufficient heat in the gall bladder”.

Now, when a disorder is defined as high blood pressure, a conventional doctor only knows the symptoms of the disorder; he has no clue to what the cause is or what a possible remedy can be. Hence, he does his best according to his philosophy and training, which is to relieve the high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is actually not the disorder, it is only the symptom of the disorder. The patient therefore has to take medication for life.

When a disorder is defined as “rising yang energy from the liver”, or “excessive dampness in the stomach” or “insufficient heat in the gall bladder”, a traditional Chinese physician knows exactly what the cause of the disorder is and how to remedy it. If he can lower his patient’s rising yang energy at the liver, or reduce dampness at the patient’s stomach, or increase heat at the patient’s gall bladder”, his patient will recover. The physician can achieve these objectives with the use of herbs, acupuncture, massage, chi kung exercises or other means.

Hence there is no such a thing as an incurable disease in traditional Chinese medical philosophy. One major objective in my writing “The Complete Book of Chinese Medicine” is to convey this philosophy to conventional medical scientists, in the hope that it may help them to overcome their present philosophical limitation.

This point is not generally realized. Most conventional doctors today interested in traditional Chinese medicine, only seek to borrow suitable therapeutic techniques from traditional Chinese medicine, such as what herbs, acupuncture points or chi kung exercises may be useful to overcome what disorders. They do not usually appreciate that major break-throughs in conventional medicine can be made by overcoming their philosophical limitation in viewing disease.

There is, however, a big problem traditional Chinese physicians have to face, that is, their diagnosis must be accurate. If their diagnosis is incorrect, such as mistaking “excessive fire in the liver” to be “rising yang energy from the liver”, their treatment logically would be wrong.

Hence, I believe medicine is more of an art than a science. It is the skill of a doctor or therapist in making right judgment and winning the patient’s confidence that are often more crucial than the knowledge of anatomy and pathology he has.

Chi kung does not even have this one big problem. There is no need for diagnosis in chi kung! This is simply because chi kung works on the most fundamental level, the level of energy flow. Other medical or healing systems work on higher levels.

When we define a disorder as high blood pressure or “rising yang energy from the liver”, for example, we operate at the levels of organs or systems. From the chi kung perspective, whatever factors that cause high blood pressure or “rising yang energy from the liver” are intermediate factors. The ultimate factor or cause of disorder is disrupted energy flow.

In other words, to a conventional doctor or a Chinese physician, his patient may have taken too much alcohol or has been exposed to too much anger. Due to his excessive alcohol or anger, he has high blood pressure or “rising yang energy from the liver”.

To a chi kung master, the excessive alcohol or anger may (or may not) have caused the high blood pressure or “rising yang energy from the liver”. But as a result his energy flow is disrupted.

It actually does not matter if the cause of the patient’s disorder may not be alcohol or anger but something else. It is also not relevant, according to this chi kung perspective, whether the patient has high blood pressure, “rising yang energy from his liver”, “excessive dampness in his stomach”, viral attack in his spleen, certain chemicals lacking in his system, or other pathogenic factors. All these are intermediate causes. The crucial point is that one, some or all of these intermediate causes result in his energy flow being disrupted.

In other words, a chi kung master has only one consideration, that is, whether the energy flow in his patients or students is harmonious. Harmonious energy flow is a Chinese medical jargon. In simple language it means the energy that flows to all the cells, tissues, organs and systems is making all the cells, tissues, organs and systems working the way they are supposed to work.

This energy flow may be interrupted by intermediate factors like excessive alcohol, anger, virus, inadequate chemical supplies, etc and the disruption or blockage may occur at the liver, blood system, a minute cell deep inside the body, or anywhere else. But irrespective of the intermediate causes and sites, once the energy flow is restored to be harmonious, all the cells, tissues, organs and systems will work the way they are supposed to work, which means the person will regain his good health.

How does the energy flow know the blockage is at the liver and not at the stomach, or in one particular cell or not in another? It is a natural characteristic of energy flow, like water flow, to flow from high levels to low levels. Areas of energy blockage are areas of low or no energy levels. If one practices chi kung sufficiently and regularly, energy flow will clear all areas of blockage, starting with the most serious areas (lowest or no energy levels), then the next, and so on.

This takes time, and the energy flow generated must be adequate. This explains that chi kung is not suitable for acute illness, but excellent for chronic disorders where the cause or sites may not be known.

Practicing chi kung and kungfu generates a lot of chi flow. Hence chi kung and kungfu practitioners exemplify good health.

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The question and answer are reproduced from Question 1 of the January 2005 Part 2 issue of the Question-Answer Series.

FOUR VERSIONS OF SHAOLIN KUNGFU, OR ANY KUNGFU

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(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/versions.html)

The fundamental purpose of practicing Shaolin Kungfu is combat efficiency

Question

I really want to learn the beautiful art of Shaolin Kung Fu. Please, I ask help because I can’t give up my dream.

— Ernando, Brazil

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

It is a beautiful and beneficial dream to learn and practice Shaolin Kungfu. To make your dream worthwhile and fruitful, it is necessary to know the following two points, which are not often appreciated by many people, including those who have practiced Shaolin Kungfu for many years.

Due to its long history, there are many versions of Shaolin Kungfu today. These many versions may be generalized into the following four categories:

High level Shaolin Kungfu. This was the Shaolin Kungfu practiced by the top monks in the Shaolin Temple in China in the past. It is very combat effective, uses internal force, contributes to excellent health, and is a process of spiritual cultivation.
Middle level Shaolin Kungfu. It is combat effective and contributes to good health. There is emphasis in force training, but much of it is external, like hitting sandbags and striking wooden poles. Its foucs is on combat rather than spiritual cultivation. Its training contributes to good health, but if the force training is incorrect or excessive it becomes detrimental to health.
Low Level Shaolin Kungfu. Its practitioners practice genuine Shaolin kungfu forms but they do not know how to use Shaolin forms for combat, and has no spiritual cultivation. They borrow techniques of othe martial arts, like Karate and Kick-Boxing, for their force training and sparring. Their training may be detrimental to their health.
Flowery Fists and Embroidery Kicks. Its practitioners have beautiful Shaolin Kungfu forms but have no force and are ineffective in combat. Their practice contributes to good health.

The classification is for convenience and there is often overlapping. If we accept kungfu as a martial art, it is even debatable whether the third and the fourth categories can be called kungfu, although practitioners of the third category can fight but they use techniques of other martial arts for their fighting and not those of kungfu.

Most of the Shaolin Kungfu practiced today belong to the thrid and the fourth categories. Kungfu of the second category is uncommon, and that of the first is rare.

It is important to realize this first point, otherwise you may spend many years practicing Shaolin Kungfu, and may even attain a high level in it, yet derive little benefits from your practice. This is because you may attain a high level of a low level art, which is quite common among many kungfu practitioners today.

The second important point is to appreciate the difference between learning and practicing. Learning involves knowing more and more material, often in theory. Practicing involves going over and over again material that you know, usually in action.

Even if you have a rare chance to learn high level Shaolin Kungfu but if you do not practice it regularly and sufficiently, you many not have many benefits. You may know kungfu history and philosophy in theory, but you may not be able to defend yourself, have good health, vitality and longevity, and experience peace and spiritual joy.

The highest attainment of Shaolin Kungfu is spiritual fulfillment

LINKS

The question and answer are reproduced from Question 1 of the November 2006 Part 3 issue of the Question-Answer Series by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit.