If you think you are smarter than the masters and develop your own fighting style which you believe is better than theirs, you are not just being conceited but silly. You are offered a treasure, but instead of accepting it and counting your blessings, you go into the streets hoping to find another treasure but hurting yourself in the process.

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Why would your palms be deformed and rough whereas those of a Cinnabar Palm master would be soft and smooth when you use the same methods? There are two reasons. One, you do not have the basics. Two, you only know the crude methods but do not know the finer points. In short you do not know the secrets. In Chinese terms, it is “chi kei phiew pat chi kei lui” (Cantonese pronunciation), which literally means “knowing the surface but not knowing the inside”, which is often the case when students try to be smarter than their teachers by “improving” their teachers' methods.

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Today a serious problem is emerging. Some world kmown Shaolin and Taijiquan masters even go to the extent of publicly saying that traditional kungfu forms cannot be used for fighting! What they use and teach for combat is Boxing, Kickboxing Karate, Taekwondo or freestyle fighting. You may find their views and pictures in their official websites. Traditional kungfu forms, they insist, are meant only for teaching certain combat principles or for strengthening the practitioners' legs.

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The Shaolin Kungfu I teach at Shaolin Wahnam is very different from the kungfu or wushu taught at the Shaolin Temple in Songshan in Henan in northern China today, but very similar to the traditional Shaolin Kungfu taught at the Shaolin Temple in Fujian in southern China in the past.

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From the Shaolin perspective, being pinned to the ground seldom or never happens in a real fight. This is not underrating the opponent; in fact it is the reverse. A basic combat principle in Shaolin Kungfu is that we always presume our opponent is wise and capable. While charging in for a takedown is typical in a Wrestling or Brazilian Jujitsu match where the charger is protected by safety rules, doing so in real fighting, from the Shaolin perspective, is extremely unwise as the charger exposes himself to fatal attacks.

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With this awesome ability, you have an awesome responsibility -- to yourself. As your thoughts may materialize, you must always think of good, noble thoughts. Think of how lucky you are, what good friends you have, and what a beautiful world we live in. Whenever you want to learn from any teachers, make sure your teachers and their teachings are noble and worthy. If you expose yourself to those who teach brutality and meanness, it may be easy for you to be tempted to abuse your ability for short-term wicked advantages.

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The way we train at Shaolin Wahnam is very different. We start our very first kungfu lesson with chi kung and meditation, then focus on force training. These three aspects, introduced right at the very beginning of our students' kungfu career, form the basics of our training.

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The real, temple where you will find God, the Buddha or any name one may use to call the Supreme Being according to his religion or culture, is found in your heart. The fulfillment of all religions is here.

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Don't worry about the negative things some of your friends say about pregnancy, even though they may mean well. They are mis-informed. Pregnancy and subsequent safe delivery of the baby are natural happenings. You can bet your last dollar on that. Pregnancy and safe delivery have happened since humans appeared on earth, and they will continue to happen for millennia. They have brought joy and life, and will continue to bring joy and life.

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There were many things the Buddha could not do. For example, the Buddha could not prevent critics ridiculing his teaching. He could not revive the dead, and He could not reverse karmic effects. If someone has done something bad, the Buddha could not make him have good result

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The reality of God is universal but the term "God" is not. What you and other English speaking people refer to as “God”, is referred to by the Spanish speaking as “Dios”, by the Arab speaking as “Allah”, by Hindus as “Brahman”, by Taoists as “the Great Void”, by Buddhists as “the Buddha”, by Zen cultivators as “the original face”, and without disrespect by chi kung practitioners as universal chi, and by scientists as the unified energy field. Unfortunately it is this failure to understand that different words can be used to refer to the same reality that often leads to clashes between peoples and nations.

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This story is a good illustration of heart to heart transmission, and my explanation here will be very useful to perceptive students, especially those in Shaolin Wahnam. Bodhidharma was an excellent teacher, and Hui Ke an excellent student. Bodhidharma, after having trained Hui Ke in the preliminaries, grasped just the right moment to ask Hui Ke bring out his mind. Had Hui Ke attempted to be intellectual, as many modern Western students do, and asked his teacher or himself such questions like “What is mind?” or “Why must I bring out my mind?”, he would have missed the golden opportunity. Instead, as an excellent student he was, he just did what his teacher said, and attained enlightenment.

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The great majority of wushu or kungfu practitioners today fall under the categories of Wushu Demonstrators and Kungfu Gymnasts, including Taiji Dancers. They constitute the transformation of kungfu (which is called “wushu” in Chinese) from a martial art to a dance. This transformation started with genuine kungfu becoming “flowery fists and embroidery kicks” for solo performance. Then came the Taiji dancers who practice external Taiji forms for recreation. The latest addition were modernized wushu practitioners for demonstration.

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All heart to heart transmissions operate at a heightened state of consciousness, also called meditative state of mind or chi kung state of mind, where there is no intellectualization or reasoning, but only being. Hence, masters ask their students to follow instructions without questions, because once they start to question, they would come out of this meditative state of mind into their ordinary, everyday reasoning mind. Those who think that following a master's instructions without questions is subservient or silly simply have inkling of what heart to heart transmission is.

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Genuine Shaolin Kungfu and Taijiquan emphasize internal force training and combat application. However, many Shaolin schools today employ external force training. Their exponents use typical Shaolin or Taijiquan forms in their sparring. If they use techniques from Karate, Taekwondo or Kickboxing, you can safely conclude that theirs is not genuine Shaolin Kungfu or Taijiquan, though they may perform genuine Shaolin or Taijiquan forms in solo practice.

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The Shaolin Kungfu taught in our school, Shaolin Wahnam, is very different from the martial art or wushu taught in the Shaolin Temple at Henan today. What we teach is traditional Southern Shaolin Kungfu. We emphasize force training and combat application, and we pay little importance on solo set practice. The modern Shaolin monks from Henan teach modernized wushu, though their forms are those of traditional Northern Shaolin Kungfu. They emphasize solo set practice, and pay little importance on force training and combat application. Hence, interestingly, we at Shaolin Wahnam and the modern Shaolin monks are doing quite opposite things.

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As the three famous kungfu sets of Wong Fei Hoong were “Taming the Tiger”, “Tiger-Craane” and “Iron-Wire”, many people thought these were the only orthodox Hoong Ka sets. This is not so. When I was learning kungfu from Uncle Righteousness in Penang (in Malaysia) in the 1950s, there was a famous Hoong Ka master named Ng Siew Hoong, who was respectfully known as Hoong Pak, or “Elderly Uncle Hoong”. His famous Hoong Ka sets were “Four Gates” and “Tiger Claws”. In the 1960s I heard of an old and much respected Hoong Ka master (whose name I cannot remember) in a remote part of Malaysia. His kungfu sets were “Fierce Tiger Descends Mountain”, “Night Tiger Emerges from Forest” and “Essence of Shaolin”.

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Many people are confused over philosophy, practice and benefits. As a result they become lost and waste a lot of time. Many people, for example, mistakenly measure their progress by the number of Tai Chi sets and techniques they know, without realizing that sets and techniques are means of practice to get practical benefits. Hence, they may know many sets and techniques, and have practiced for many years, yet they have little or no practical benefits for which Tai Chi Chuan is famous, like internal force, combat efficiency and spiritual joy.

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