BENEFITS IN KUNGFU PRACTICE AND IN DAILY LIFE
Attending the course will enhance our kungfu performance
Question
Could you please elaborate how participants in the 72 Shaolin Arts course will benefit from practicing these arts in their kungfu practice as well as in their daily life?
Sifu Nessa Kahila, Finland
Answer
The three of the 72 Shaolin Arts I shall teach in Helsinki from 3rd to 5th August 2016 are
- Marvelous Fist
- Golden Bell
- Art of 1000 Steps
These three arts are not only advanced, but are seldom taught to students. It is indeed a rare opportunity to have a chance to learn them.
A master with Marvelous Fist can injure an opponent 108 steps away without physical contact! Marvelous Fist is one of the three ultimates in kungfu, the other two being One-Finger Zen and Strike-Across-Space Palm.
It is not an aim of the 72 Shaolin Arts Course to achieve this ability of the Marvelous Fist. But it is an aim of the course to learn the skills and techniques of the Marvelous Fist.
Course participants who have these skills and techniques, even if they may not have Marvelous Fist, will be very powerful with their punches. They may not be able to hurt an opponent 108 steps away, but if they strike an opponent with a punch, even with physical contact, it can cause serious damage. The punch is the most frequently used attack technique in kungfu.
The internal force developed from training the Marvelous Fist can be used not only for any other attack, it can also be used for any defence. Hence, it has tremendous value in kungfu training.
Internal force is not just for combat. It is more important in enriching our daily life, though many kungfu practitioners, including masters, may not realize this important fact.
The three categories of benefits of internal force are to maintain life, to enhance life, and to produce better result no matter what we do. This means that firstly if you have more internal force now than before, you will live life longer. Secondly, your life performance will be better than before. For example, in an epidemic most other people will be sick, but you won’t. It is because of your internal force that overcomes possible disease causing agents.
The third category of benefits is fantastic. Just imagine that after learning the skills and techniques of Marvelous Fist, no matter what you do, you will do better! If you read a book, you will understand and enjoy more. If you perform any physical activity, you will have better result in less time. It is all because of your internal force.
With Golden Bell, you can take punches and kicks, and at advanced level, weapon attack without sustaining injury. This will certainly improve your free sparring. You won’t be worried that you will be hit, which is a main reason hampering many kungfu practitioners to perform their best in combat.
This does not mean you will neglect your defence. You still apply your defence techniques accordingly, but in case they fail and you are hit, the attack will not cause you much damage. You can then move in to strike your opponent while he is focusing on attacking you. In fact, in my younger days, I sometimes used this strategy, especially when I knew opponents’ attacks were not damaging.
When you have Golden Bell, you are able to attack without sustaining injury because you are being protected by a layer of flowing energy. Besides protecting you, this flowing energy also increases your internal force and performs other benefits.
The three categories of benefits of internal force are explained above. Golden Bell training adds to the internal force developed at the 72 Shaolin Arts course.
An obvious benefit of Golden Bell in daily life is confidence – not just confidence that you will not be harmed when being hit, but confidence in whatever you do. Confidence is important in leading to success in whatever you do.
With the Art of 1000 Steps, a practitioner can run for a long distance without feeling tired and without panting for breath. Hence, practitioners who are trained in such skills and techniques, have good control of breathing and have good stamina which are useful for any kungfu performance.
Moreover, training the Art of 1000 Steps will improve their agility and flexibility, not just physically but also mentally. Any improvement in agility and flexibility will enhance kungfu performance.
More significantly, improvement in agility and flexibility, as well as improvement in breath control and stamina are not just for kungfu, but for daily life. No matter what we do in our daily life, better agility, flexibility, breath control and stamina will enable us to have better results.
The 72 Shaolin Arts course in Helsinki from 3rd to 5th August 2016 not only enhance our kungfu performance but also our daily life. Not only these arts are advanced, they are also not easily available anywhere else.
The benefits of the course will enhance our daily life
This question and answer are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on the 72 Shaolin Arts in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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