HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF
SHAOLIN COSMOS PALM
Shaolin Cosmos Palm
There is an interesting story of how I learned Cosmos Palm from my sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam. I practiced Iron Palm from a book, "Rapidly Attain Iron Palm in Hundred Days". Although I had practiced for about two years, I could not break even a cement brick.
Looking back with hindsight, I believe I had the force but not the brick-breaking technique, for my wife, who was then my girlfriend, often complained that my hands, in fact my whole body, were burning hot, which I believed were due to energy generated from my training. It was much later that I could differentiate between skills and techniques.
When I was learning from my sifu, my seniors were practicing Iron Palm. I asked them whether I could try. They used three striking methods, while I practiced with five on my own. I was intelligent enough to use their three methods, which were chopping, slapping and stamping, without hitting the iron-filing bag with the back of their palms and their fingers. I later learned from my sifu that using the back of the palms and the fingers would damage the nerves in them.
From the corner of my eyes I saw my sifu approaching. I thought I would receive a scolding as I did not ask permission from my sifu. But my sifu smiled and nodded his head, indicating I was practicing correctly. Then he asked me to show him my hands.
"You have a lady's hands," he said. "Don't practice Iron Palm."
For a moment I thought I missed the chance to train a secret art. Iron Palm is considered a secret art, but now we call it "buffalo's training".
"I shall teach you Cosmos Palm," my sifu continued. My heart opened. Cosmos Palm is many times better than Iron Palm. Iron Palm is buffalo's training; Cosmos Palm is a scholar-warrior's art.
My sifu pulled me aside and asked me to show him Pushing Mountain, which I did very well. "Practice it every day," he said. Then he walked away.
I practiced Pushing Mountain every day, or every night. After a few months, my sifu asked me to show him Pushing Mountain. "Now I'll teach you another important step." Then he taught me Forceful Big Windmill.
Pushing Mountain generates energy flow. Forceful Big Windmill consolidates it. My sifu did not mention these terms of "flowing energy" and "consoidating energy". I disvovered them later in my teaching.
Cosmos Palm is so called because it derives its energy from the Cosmos. Once I asked my sifu the name of our chi kung. "It's called Cosmos Chi Kung," he said. "Why is it called Cosmos Chi Kung?" I asked. "Because we take chi from the Cosmos," he explained. I later discovered that Cosmos Chi Kung is a very old form of chi kung.
I am glad that I taught a special Cosmos Palm course in New Hampshire, USA on 27th and 28th October 2016. I specially composed a set for the course, which includes the training methods as well as simple-looking but profound combat application.
To test their training, some students were successful in breaking the bottom of two bricks, and breaking a sugarcane without breaking the eggs that supported the eggs. It showed that in combat they could seriously damage opponents without leaving any external marks. More significantly, Cosmos Palm contributes to their health, vitality, longevity, peak performance and spiritual joys.
A symptom of Cosmos Palm is that the palms of a Cosmos Palm master are soft and gentle, but red in colour, and are very powerful. Cosmos Palm is also called Red Sand Palm or Cinnabar Palm. At an advanced level, it can damage an opponent from a distance, in the art called Strike Across Space, which is one of the three ultimate arts in kungfu, the other two being One-Finger Zen and Marvelous Fist.
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
20th January 2017
LINKS
Cosmos Palm Set in Pictures
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