SECRETS IN CHI KUNG AND KUNGFU
Grandmaster Wong demonstrating a Shaolin pattern called "Golden Dragon Plays with Water" which hides a few secrets in the open. Do you know what these secrets are?
Question
Lastly, I am grateful to be able to learn from you in the last course. I think Shaolin Wahnam is a one-stop place for those who want to learn genuine Chi Kung and Kungfu. The secrets of training, and the correct path of training are made available to the public in a direct, reliable and easy-to-understand manner.
This, in my opinion, normally makes people forget about the fact that, great and genuine Chi Kung and Kungfu masters are hard to find, and those willing to teach are even harder to be found. Sifu, you are not only willing to teach, but very friendly and patient to teach. I also forgot such facts in the past.
I am grateful to be taught personally by Sifu. I think if a total beginner can be taught by a competent instructor, it is considered good. But if he can be taught personally by a grandmaster, he is very very lucky.
— Jason, Malaysia
Answer
Thank you for your kind words. It is much appreciated. I also appreciate that many of our Shaolin Wahnam members, especially instructors, have expressed similar kind thoughts to me.
I am very, very lucky to have inherited the marvelous Shaolin arts (and also Taijiquan). I do not want such marvelous arts to be lost. There was a real danger that they could be. When world known Shaolin "masters" declare that Shaolin techniques cannot be used for fighting, when world known Taijiquan "masters" do not believe in internal force, and when most chi kung "instructors" today have no experience of chi, you can have a good idea how real the danger is.
But now I am assured that our arts will not be lost. As far as I know, our school has the widest spread in all of kungfu and chi kung history. I do not know of any kungfu or chi kung school that spreads over the world as widely as we do.
More significantly, we have dedicated teachers and appreciative students. We have teachers who gave up their high-paying jobs to teach, earning fees that are not even a portion of their former salaries. We have students who wake up at five in the morning to train, not once a while but everyday.
If we sincerely want to preserve these marvelous arts, we just have to reveal some secrets. Actually many of these secrets, which bring important results, are not secrets in the traditional sense. They were teaching points any student practicing genuine chi kung or kungfu in the past would know.
For example, to be relaxed and focused, which is the most basic requirement in a chi kung state of mind, was what any student in the past would know and do when he practiced chi kung, otherwise he would not be practicing chi kung! But today chi kung has been so debased that most practitioners do not know this "secret".
This "secret" is found in most chi kung instructions, but most practitioners merely read this instruction to be relaxed and focused without putting it into practice. This is one great "secret" that we highlight in our teaching and which we also share with the public. If chi kung practitioners, even though they may not learn from us, appreciate this "secret" and put it into their practice without changing any other things, they will enhance their result by at least three times.
To ensure your own safety first is an essential point in any kungfu training. In the past, any kungfu student or student of any martial art, would know and practice this "secret". But today when martial arts are practiced as sports, many martial artists display a total disregard of their own safety when they move in to attack, and they are not even aware of it. If warriors were to fight the way modern martial artists do, they would be killed or maimed.
Equally shocking but more damaging is that many martial artists today do not seem to realize they are not only not getting the benefits for which they practice their arts, but they are actually becoming worse of than before they started their practice!
Many people practice a martial art because they want to be healthy and be able to defend themselves. But they actually become less healthy than before their martial art career. They also cannot defend themselves, though they may be good at hitting others.
In our school, we pay much attention to setting aims and objectives and assessing our practice to see how well we realize them. We share this "secret" openly with the public. If martial artists put this "secret" into their practice, they would reap more benefits.
The above is taken from Question 3 of August 2008 Part 1 of the Selection of Questions and Answers.
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