Category Archives: Shaolin Wahnam

IS QI REAL OR JUST AN ILLUSION?

(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/sp-issues/qigong-practice01.html)

Qi is Real

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.

Qi is Real

When qi enables you to bounce happily up a mountain slope like these two “young men” – Sifu Rama and Grandmaster Wong, who are above 50 and 60 respectively – you just enjoy the benefit instead of worrying whether qi is real

Question

But how is it possible to know if what you focus on and feel is real qi and not another illusion?

Answer

In principle it is the same as saying how is it possible for you to know your nose on your face is real and not just an illusion.

Anyway I shall answer your question. It is possible to know that qi is real, or your nose is real, from direct experience. Of course, if you never had any direct experience of your nose, you would have difficulty telling the difference between reality and illusion.

In the same way, if you never had any experience of qi, you would have difficulty telling the difference too. Indeed, this is the case with many qigong practitioners today. Those who had no experience of qi, would not know whether qi was real or an illusion. They would still ask what qi is. Some may vehemently argue that qi is an illusion. But those who have experienced qi, knows that it is real, as surely as they know the nose on their face is real.

LINKS

Reproduced from Questions 1, 2 and 3 in Selection of Questions and Answers — May 2009 Part 3

THINKING NOTHING DOING NOTHING AND SMILING FROM THE HEART

(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/zen/zen10.html)

thinking nothing doing nothing

Sif Anthony Spinicchia — Thinking Nothin Doing Nothing

Question

What is the difference from a Zen perspective between “Thinking nothing and doing nothing”, and “Smiling from the heart”?

Sifu Adam Bailey

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

From the Zen perspective, which is another way of saying from the viewpoint of seeing and describing things simply, directly and effectively, “thinking nothing and doing nothing” is thinking nothing and doing nothing, and “Smiling from the heart” is smiling from the heart.

The difference is self-evident. It is like asking what the difference between a cat and a dog is. From the perspective of seeing and saying things simply, directly and effectively, a cat is a cat, and a dog is a dog. The different is self-evident. If you look at a cat, you know it is a cat, and is different from a dog.

From the intellectual perspective, which is another way of saying from the perspective of using words for academic pleasure, if not for confusion, we may logically argue that a cat is a dog, and we may also logically argue that a cat is different from a dog.

For example, we can argue that a cat has four legs and a tail. A dog also has four legs and a tail. Therefore, a cat is a dog.

On the other hand, your neighbour, John, has only two legs and does not have a tail (though he may have a tail-bone). So John is neither a cat nor a dog.

On the other hand, we may also argue that a cat meows and a dog barks. Meowing is different from barking. Therefore, a cat is not a dog. But John, if he wants to, can meow and bark. Therefore, he is a cat and he is also a dog.

Although the argument is logical, we can easily see the fallacy of the argument because we are familiar with cats and dogs. But many people may not understand why thinking nothing doing nothing and smiling from the heart is the same or different because they are not familiar with them. Yet, the principles are the same.

The logic involved is as follows:

If A is B,
and B is C,
therefore, A is C.

The logic is flawed. Many people suffer unnecessarily because of their flawed logic, and they do not realize it. Some common examples in daily life are as follows.

I practice chi kung. Chi kung does not cure my illness. Therefore chi kung does not cure illness.

Many people practice kungfu. When they fight, they use Kick-Boxing. Therefore, kungfu practitioners use Kick-Boxing for fighting.

A friend helps another in need. Mary does help me when I am in need. Therefore, Mary is not a friend.

The logic is flawed because in the examples above, A is not B, though A may have some features of B. And B is not C, though B may have some features of C. Therefore, A may or may not be C

In the case of cats and dogs, cats and dogs are sets, whereas having four legs and a tail is a sub-set. Different sets may have the same sub-sets, like cats and dogs having four legs and a tail, but they also have different sub-sets, like cats meowing and dogs barking, which make the sets different.

Practicing chi kung, practicing kungfu and having friends are sets. In each sets there are different sub-sets. In the set of people practicing chi kung, for example, there is a sub-set of practitioners not having their illness cured, and there is also a sub-set of practitioners who have their illness cured. Using a sub-set to represent a set is flawed.

When we practice Zen, we would not make this mistake. In the spirit of Zen, we would perceive those who practice chi kung but their illness is not cured as those who practice chi kung but their illness is not cured. We would not make a flawed conclusion that practicing chi kung does not cure illness. In other words, we call a spade a spade.

Hence, thinking nothing doing nothing is thinking nothing doing nothing. Smiling from the heart is smiling from the heart.

But these two skills can have similar benefits, besides having different benefits. In the same way, cats and dogs can have similar features, besides having different features.

In both thinking nothing doing nothing and smiling from the heart, you are relaxed, peaceful and happy, and are tuned into Cosmic Reality.

But their benefits can also be different, both in nature and in degree. For example, when thinking nothing doing nothing you are free from intellectualization and activities. In smiling from the heart, you may intellectualize if you want to though you normally don’t, and you are involved in some activity. These are differences in nature.

Although both thinking nothing doing nothing and smiling from the heart result in mental clarity and happiness, the degree of mental clarity and happiness is not the same. Usually thinking nothing doing nothing gives you more mental clarity, whereas smiling from the heart gives you more happiness. These are differences in degree.

Grandmaster Wong and Sifu Anthony Spinicchia — Smiling from the Heart

For information about the Zen course, please contact Sifu Roland Mastel

The above is reproduced from the thread 10 Questions to the Grandmaster about Zen in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum

SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS JUNE 2015 PART 1 BY GRANDMASTER WONG KIEW KIT

(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/answers/ans15a/jun15-1.html)

Hawaii

Dr Damian, Dr Roseline, Mrs Wong, Grandmaster Wong, Dr Hoo Kok Chong and Sifu Anthony Spinicchia at the Polynesian Cultural Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii

Question 1

Thank you for your generous teaching earlier this month in Hawaii. The wisdom you shared will benefit me a great deal. But your presence was the biggest gift, as you are a living embodiment of Zen. Observing your approach to life directly has allowed me to see and remove unnecessary layers from everything I do, taking me closer to Zen in all aspects of my life.

— Ryan, USA

Editorial Note: These questions were asked soon after the Hawaii courses in July 2014, but due to a long waiting list, they are only released now.

Answer

I am glad that you have benefited much from the courses in Hawaii.

As many students in our school have realized, all teaching in Shaolin Wahnam is a teaching of Zen. The hallmark of Zen is being simple, direct and effective.

At the mundane level, Zen training enables us to get the best result in whatever we do. At the supra-mundane level, Zen training leads us to the highest attainment any being can achieve.

Question 2

My mother was quite frustrated during the Intensive Chi Kung course. She was a bit overwhelmed by the pace of the exercises, and found it difficult to enter a chi kung state of mind with the sounds people were making during chi flow.

I told her that despite her frustration she was still receiving lots of useful skills, techniques, and philosophy. And that it would just be a matter of practicing these things when she got home in order to deepen her skills.

Answer

As I mentioned during the course, I thought your mother was your girlfriend! In fact I asked Anthony, “Whatâ€™s the name of Ryan’s girlfriend?”

Anthony answered in surprise, “That’s his mother, not his girlfriend!”

Chi kung practice will certainly keep your mother healthy and youthful.

The noise made by other course participants was a bonus, not a distraction. If your mother could enter into a chi kung state of mind and enjoy a chi flow, which she actually did, it would be easily for her to practice at home when conditions are more ideal.

Her frustration, therefore, was unnecessary. In fact she did very well at the course. What she needs to do is to continue her daily practice following the three golden rules of not worry, not intellectualizing, and enjoying her practice.

chi flow

Chi flow in our school can be an interesting, noisy affair

Question 3

During many of the practice sessions at the course, we did not do standing meditation at the end of chi flow for more than a few seconds. Do you still recommend performing standing meditation regularly after chi flow? If so, do you recommend an ideal length of time for the standing meditation portion?

Answer

We usually complete any chi kung exercise with standing meditation, even for a few seconds. This will allow our chi to settle down at its normal condition.

The time of standing meditation at the end of a chi kung exercise may range from a second to half an hour or more, depending on various factors, like our conditions and objectives. I

If you are short of time, you may stand upright at a meditative state of mind for a second. If you wish to build internal force, enhance mental clarity or expand into the Cosmos, you may stand for half an hour or more, in which case it becomes the main part of the exercise, though you may not initially intend it to be, and the chi kung part becomes preliminary.

Question 4

You have always taught us to think of the dan tian at the end of chi flow. If I spend a few minutes in standing meditation after chi flow, should I think of my dan tian again a second time before completing the practice session?

Answer

It is not necessary but it is useful.

If you spend a few minutes in standing meditation after chi flow, irrespective of whether you thought of your dan tian before standing meditation, you can complete your chi kung session without thinking of your dan tain again, or for the first time if you did not do so earlier.

In other words, you may think of your dan tian before proceding to standing meditation. Or you may just go straight to standing meditation without thinking of your dan tian. You can also complete your chi kung session form chi flow without going ino standing meditation.

All the three procedures above are correct, although the result, if all other things were equal, may be slightly different. Of these three procedures, the first is the best, the second is rhe next, and the third gives the least result. But a skilful practitioner using the third procedure will get better result than a less skilful practitioner using the first procedure.

Now, in another comparison not mentioned in the three procedures above, after your chi flow and standing meditation, if you gently think of your dan tian before completing your session, you will have better result than if you do not think of your dan tian, if all other things were equal.

The following philosophy will explain the difference of result. By gently thinking of your dan tian, you gather your chi at your dan tian. If you perform a few minutes of standing meditation without first thinking of your dan tian, you will also gather at your chi at your dan tian. Because chi will naturally and spontaneously gather there if you stand upright and be relaxed. However, if you think of the dan tian first, you have a head start.

As an analogy, in a race even if you do not get set but just stand leisurely, you can still run when the signal is sounded. But if you get set first, you will have a head start.

When you complete your chi flow without thinking of your dan tian, your chi will eventually settle down at your dan tian, though it will take a longer time. If you gently think of your dan tian before completing, you assure the gathering of chi at the dan tian.

As an analogy, after a race if you donâ€™t walk about to let your breathing returns to normal, you can still perform other activities. But if you walk about leisurely to let your breathing to return to normal, you can perform the same activities better.

focusing at dan tian

Focusing at dan tian is a good way to complete a meditation session

Question 5

I was very interested in your thoughts on advanced practitioners lowering their level of practice to avoid over training. Looking back on my practice over the years, I very regularly experienced intense cleansing symptoms that I think may have been in part from over training (even though I only practiced 10-15 minutes twice a day). Since returning from Hawaii, I have been experimenting with training only once a day for 10 minutes. Do you think it would be wise to increase this amount?

Answer

Whether you should increase the time of your training depends on whether you have reached your optimum training time, i.e. the time that gives the maximum benefit.

An optimum training time is a theoretical concept, and may vary from person to person, and from time to time for the same person. By theoretical concept is meant that we cannot be exact for its duration; we can only estimate it.

Nevertheless, there are some factors that help us to estimate wisely. If we feel fresh and energized, and derive a lot of benefits, we can conclude that we are before or at our optimum training time. If we feel tired and uncomfortable, and experience a lot of cleansing, we can conclude that we have exceed our optimum training period, and have over-trained.

From experience, we have found that our students get the best benefits by training for about 15 minutes. Students of most other schools may have to train for an hour or more. With further improvement of our teaching methodology, we can now shorten our optimum training time to 10 minutes.

It is worthwhile to remember that the purpose of training chi kung is to enrich our life. If we can get a lot of benefits in shorter time, it means we have more time to enjoy life wholesomely.

Question 6

When performing Cosmic Shower, should I open the Bai hui and visualize energy from heaven during or after performing the Carrying the Moon pattern? Can Cosmic Shower be performed without any chi kung pattern at all, if I initiate a gentle chi flow with my mind first?

Answer

In Cosmic Shower, opening the baihui and visualizing energy from heaven are performed after Carrying the Moon. You may also perform these two techniques during Carrying the Moon.

When you are skilful, you can initiate Cosmic Shower without performing Carrying the Moon or any chi kung pattern. You can initiate a gentle chi flow, then procedure to Cosmic Shower. You may even have a Cosmic Shower straight away without Carrying the Moon or any chi kung pattern. This is a useful skill if you want to be fresh and have no jet lag on a trans-continental flight.

self-defence

Self-defence is of utmost importance in any martial art, but it may be a big surprise to many people that many martial artists cannot defend themselves, otherwise they would not be randomly punched and kicked in free sparring

Question 7

Years ago, I attained a 2nd degree black belt in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu. It took for a good many years. Almost every class had sparring involved. I learned what it meant to face an aggressive opponent. I did get bruised ribs, broken fingers, things like that.

My teacher has since retired. I am currently practicing my forms and techniques. Without a sparring partner can I attain a level of where I can adequately defend myself?

— Andy, England

Answer

Yes, as you have good kungfu background, you can defend yourself by practicing on your own, provided of course what you practice is correct. Indeed, that was how past masters became very combat efficient. They normally trained combat on their own.

It may be a big surprise to many people that what many martial artists, including those at black belt levels, practice for self-defence may not be correct. If their practice is correct, they should be able to defend themselves. They should not sustain a lot of hits from their free sparring. In fact self-defence training today is so bad that that they take being hit for granted. It is ironical that they call their art an art of self-defence. Theirs is actually a free and generous exchange of punches and kicks!

The fact that you asked the question of whether you could defend yourself by training on your own clearly shows that you have not learned to defend yourself. In your sparring you punched and kicked your sparring partners, and be punched and kicked by them. If you could defend yourself, you would not have bruised ribs and broken fingers. You would have asked whether training on your own could improve your self-defence, which is different from asking whether you could defend yourself.

While we place much importance on self-defence, combat efficiency is not top on our priorities. We train Shaolin Kungfu because we want to have good health, vitality, longevity, mental freshness, spiritual joys irrespective of religion, and peak performance in both our work and play. We do not merely state these aims as theory. We walk our talk. We ensure we have these practical results.

For example, when our students spar, they never sustain injuries. This means they can defend themselves. They are not sick or in pain, and they enjoy their work and play, which shows they have good health, vitality and spiritual joys.

I would recommend that you attend my Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course in Malaysia. I offer such a course only about once or twice a year. Because of my tight schedule, there is no Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course this year. You should not miss the next one when it is offered. Please check my website for available dates..

Question 8

I would like to ask Sifu Wong if masturbation, premarital sex and having sex with prostitutes are considered a sin or wrong.

— Jussi, USA

Answer

It depends on various factors, like who asks the question, who answers it, and the situation involved.

If a lonely person asks a pimp this question, it is likely that the pimp will say it is not wrong, and encourages the lonely person to indulge himself.

If a religious person askes a priest, it is likely that the priest will say it is a cardinal sin, and asks the religious person to pray to God.

In this case, if you ask me, I have to consider your situation.

If, for example, you are happily married with a lovely wife, I would say, yes, it is a sin. Don’t be a fool. Spend your time with your wife, no matter how tempting masturbation, premarital sex and prostitutes may be.

If you are sexually hungry, but cannot find a willing partner or are not brave enough to find a prostitute, I would say masturbation is not a sin, and ask you to enjoy yourself, but do not do it too often and do not feel any guilt about it.

If you have a willing partner, who of course must be human and not underage, provided both of you are not puritan in your religious or social beliefs, I would say that premarital sex is not a sin, and advise you to add love to sex, and ensure that your partner enjoys herself.

If you prefer a prostitute to masturbation, provided you are not puritan in your religious and social beliefs, I would say having sex with a prostitute is not a sin, and strongly advise you to take precaution not to contact any disease and also be kind to the prostitute.

AN UNFORGETTABLE LESSON

(reproduced from http://shaolin.org/general-2/way-of-master/way02.html)

This is a little taste of what’s in store in Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit’s book, The Way of the Master

A public performance with Uncle Righteousness as the Lion Head and me as the Lion Tail in the 1960s

There was, however, one occasion in my long learning process that I deviated from my father’s advice. Our kungfu class was preparing for a charity performance at New World Amusement Park. My master himself would perform the lion head, and everyone had expected me to perform the tail. Performing the lion tail is an extremely demanding role, for the performer has to arch his back throughout the whole performance, which in those days might last longer than an hour, and to extend both his arms in a continuous wing-flapping movement to support the covering tail-cloth.

I tried to be smart. Just a few minutes before the training session began, I went out from the training hall, pretending to buy titbits for my seniors, a bluff that I could easily do because running errands was my common unofficial task. I knew my master couldn’t wait. If I could stay away for just a few minutes, I thought, some unlucky fellow would take over my job as the inevitable tail performer, even for that training session only. And true enough, when I returned after the lion dance practice had started – something that I could time easily as the loud accompanying lion dance music could be heard from far away – I found my master and my junior classmate, Ah Weng, doing the lion head and tail. “Kit Chye,” my classmates asked in bewilderment, “where on earth have you been? Uncle Righteousness was looking all over the world for you.” “What for?” I pretended to ask. “What for! To be the tail, of course.”

“Ha, ha!” I laughed inside myself. “Why pick on me all the time? Luckily I’m not stupid, and now I can have a break from this wearisome task. Now this poor Ah Weng can have a nice taste of back ache.”

But Ah Weng had the louder laugh. “Ha, ha!” He probably said to himself, “now at last I have a break into this lion dance role which I have been longing for, for so long.”

And he performed the tail so enthusiastically and so well that he was not only asked to continue in subsequent practices, but was ultimately chosen to partner my master in that charity performance, and later in other performances. Hence my monopoly as my master’s partner in lion dance was now broken – all because of my clever trick.

Ah Weng continued to learn and practise hard, and progressed tremendously, often at my expense for what my master might have taught me, he taught Ah Weng instead. Ah Weng also became one of my master’s favourite disciples, and was the one who had learned the most lion dance skills and techniques from my master. He later became a famous lion dance artist, bringing name and glory to our school. I am very proud of Ah Weng’s achievement. I also learned a very good lesson from that occasion when I tried to be too clever — a lesson that has greatly helped me in my later kungfu development. From then on, I always learn humbly and practise diligently, never be deterred by hardship or obstacles in the way.

During a charity performance in the 1960s, I went up a long pole to collect Sky Green

Please click here if you wish to order the book through Amazon or write a review.

Click here to read some of the stories.

You can read more stories at our Discussion Forum.

Please click here if you wish to order the special edition directly.

HOW CHI KUNG CAN OVERCOME CROHN’S DISEASE, OR ANY DISEASE!

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

Chi Flow

Students in a regional chi kung class in Ecuador enjoying a chi flow

There is only one illness and it is called yin-yang disharmony, although there may be countless symptoms.

— Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Question

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 1999 before the Chi Kung course in Malaysia with you. Crohn’s disease is an auto-immune disease which means that my body attacks my intestine. When I get an attack, ulceration and swelling occur internally and I have abdominal pain, spasms and diarrhoea. The doctors do not know where the disease comes from or what it is exactly and they say that there is no cure for it.

— Michael, UK

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

In chi kung we also do not know what cause Crohn’s disease, but the interesting thing is that we do not need to know. In chi kung philosophy, there is no such a thing as an incurable disease. Every disease can be cured, which unfortunately does not necessarily means every patient can be cured.

There is only one illness and it is called yin-yang disharmony, although there may be countless symptoms, and Crohn’s disease is the label conventional doctors give to a particular set of symptoms. What we need to do is to restore yin-yang harmony, and chi kung is an excellent way to do so. In western language, yin-yang harmony means your body is able to adjust to constantly changing environment.

It means that when virus and bacteria attack your body, it by nature will overcome the virus and bacteria. If there is a sore or ulcer in your stomach, your body by nature will be able to repair it. If your body bleeds unnecessarily, your body will stop it. If you need some fluid to clear away dead cells, like the germs which caused Crohn’s disease and which were killed by your body defence as the result of chi kung training, your body may bleed to clear away the dead cells. If your body needs new blood to replenish the lost blood, your body will produce it.

This may sound incredible to the uninitiated, but it has been like this for everyone since humans first appeared, and it is happening to everyone all the time, irrespective of whether he knows chi kung or not. Then, why do some people have illness? This is because their yin-yang harmony has been temporarily disrupted. There are countless intermediate factors that can cause this disruption. But in chi kung we do not worry about the intermediate factors: we go to the root cause, i.e. we restore yin-yang harmony.

How do we restore yin-yang harmony? By restoring harmonious energy flow, which is a very concise way to say restoring the natural functions of all your body systems, organs, glands, etc. The chief function of chi kung is to ensure harmonious energy flow. Once all your body systems, etc function normally, including your stomach being able to overcome harmful virus and bacteria, and to stop unnecessarily bleeding, you will be healthy as a matter of course.

This philosophy is actually very simple, but those used to a different philosophy may find it hard to make a philosophical shift. If you are used to a philosophy which dictates that you have to find out why your body attacks your intestine, or where bleeding occurs, and if you cannot find out the why and the where, you would have to say there is no cure for Crohn’s disease.

Now you are faced with a different philosophy which says that your body attacking your intestine and your unknown bleeding are just symptoms that your body is not functioning normally. Once you restore the normal functioning of your body, it will not attack your intestines and you will not bleed unnecessarily. According to this philosophy you need not know why or where your body did not function normally, as long as you are able to restore its natural functioning.

Intensive Chi Kung Course

A recent Intensive Chi Kung Course in Sabah, Malaysia

LINKS

Reproduced from Questions 8 in Selection of Questions and Answers — April 2001 Part 1

Click here for a list of Certified Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung Healers.

Holistic Health Cultivation Center

KUNGFU FORMS, KICK-BOXING AND CHI KUNG

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

Seven Stars

All kungfu forms, including those that seem flowery like the one above demonstrated by Grandmaster Wong, can be used in combat

Question

I am a member of a Shaolin kung fu association. In freestyle sparring we use general kick boxing techniques. So I find it difficult to learn the applications of my forms. How can I improve my knowledge of my forms and do I have to be an advanced student to learn chi kung?

— Gregory. UK

Answer by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Yours is a common example of most kungfu students today. You cannot spar using the forms you have learnt in solo practice simply because you have never been taught to do so. Why didn’t your instructors teach you how to use kungfu patterns to spar? Because they themselves did not know. Like you, their kungfu training consists mainly, or sololy, of performing forms.

If you want to know how to use your kungfu forms to spar, you have to learn from a master who teaches using kungfu forms to spar. Such masters are very rare nowadays. If you learn from someone who teaches only solo form performance, you will only know solo form performance.

Anyone suggesting to you that by learning the solo kungfu forms you can effectively spar, is like telling you that by going over the mechanics of driving in a stationary car you can effectively drive through a busy street.

When you attempt sparring you will fall back on kickboxing techniques, because these techniques are the most “natural” to someone not trainied in “artificial” sparring. Using kungfu forms to spar is “artificial”. For example, to someone not trained in any martial arts, when an assailent punches him, it would be “natural” for him to block as in boxing or kickboxing. It would be very “artificial” for him to lower into a False-Leg Stance and swerve his arm in an arc in a tiger-claw form. “Artificial” means “made by man”. All kungfu forms are man-made. But a kungfu practitioner practises and practises these man-made forms until they have become second-nature to him.

You can improve your knowledge of your forms or any aspects of kungfu by reading about them. But kungfu is not knowledge; it is a practical art. Here is where you and many other people, especially in the West, make the big mistake. You may be very knowledgeable in kungfu, and may also win trophies in demonstrative competitions, but if you have no practical experience in methodical sparriang, when you spar with Taekwondo or Karate brownbelts, you would become a sitting duck. This is the sad situation of more than 80 percent of people all over the world who think they learn kungfu, when actually what they have been learning is just some demonstrative forms.

If you learn real kungfu, you will practise chi kung right at the start. Chi kung is the art of managing energy. How can any martial art be effective if there is no provision for energy management? Here, of course, I am using the terms “kungfu” and “chi kung” as they were originally used in the past. Their modern sterotyped meanings have changed drastically. In the modern context, “kungfu” and “chi kung”, which are more of gymnastics and dance than martial arts and energy management, are usually taught separately. In such a situation, it does not matter when, or if ever, you learn chi kung.

Kungfu Sparring

If you wish to be able to use kungfu patterns to spar, you must learn from a teacher who himself has this ability and is willing to teach you

LINKS

Reproduced from Questions 1 in Selection of Questions and Answers — June 1999 Part 1