Sifu Wong Kiew Kit's Home Page

Questions-Answers Series

September 2006 (Part 2)

SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Question 1

Answer

True peace comes from inside, from our heart. “Heart” here is not the organic heart; it is the spiritual heart. Different peoples may call it differently, such as soul, mind, spirit or consciousness.

Meditation is a common way to cultivate the heart. High level chi kung and great kungfu, like Shaolin and Taijiquan, are also excellent ways. In our school, cultivating the heart is an essential part of our training. Cultivating the heart needs to be learnt personally from a competent teacher, who himself has inner peace. You cannot learn this from a book, a video or a teacher who himself is stressful.

When your heart is peaceful you can live your daily life in peace despite its environment. This does not mean that you will never be angry, nervous or stressful at all. You may if your daily life is sometimes compromised, but you will be able to handle it competently and return to your norm, which is living your day to day life in peace.

You also need to have high moral values to be peaceful. Follow the moral code of your own religion or spiritual teaching. In Shaolin Wahnam we follow the Ten Shaolin Laws .

Question 2

Answer

There are many ways to react to situations like yours.

One way is to go out and fight them. If you are not confident of beating them alone, get a few friends to help you. Also get ready some weapons which can cause pain but not serious injury, such as some hard sticks. You have to invest some time and patience, and wait for them to appear. Then beat them out of their wit, but make sure you do not cause them serious injury, like not hitting them on their head. But this is not a good way to solve your problem. It may, or may not, cause other problems.

Another way is to tolerate them, and perhaps console yourself that God will punish them. This is also not a good way. It does not solve your problem, it merely prolongs it.

Another way is to spray some sticky material on your windows so that when the hooligans bang on your windows they will get their hands stuck. Then you can go out to tickle them and tease them. Or you may build some simple gadgets so that when they appear at your windows, you can pull a string and ditch water will drench them. Or you may keep a fierce dog so that when the hooligans appear, your dogs can scare them away by baring its teeth. But these are also not good ways.

The best way is the way of the scholar-warrior, where you overcome the problem using a win-win policy. When the hooligans appear, you walk out calmly to meet them. Tell them in a firm but kind manner that they may not be aware but their behavior is a disgrace to your (and their) country, i.e. Britain, which has throughout history been an inspiration to many people all over the world.

The British Empire was the greatest empire in the world where the sun never set. The English language is the world's top language in commerce, science and literature. The English gentleman (or lady) is traditionally well known for his (or her) courtesy and culture. But their conduct is throwing their own greatness to the dogs. Ask them to wake up. Ask them not to waste their time and damp their parents' hopes by behaving like hooligans. Ask them to make good use of the opportunities the country provides and make their country proud.

Tell them that although you are not native-British (or are you?), you are proud to live in Britain. Although you are poor, which you didn't choose to be, you are going to make effort to improve yourself (which you must do). Also tell them the greatness of your mother's native culture.

Have a friend to record all these in video. (A simple way is to use a mobile phone with a built-in video camera.) Tell them that you are going to send the video recordings to the police (which you must also do, with a copy to your Member of Parliament), and if they come again, they will be in trouble. This is the scholar's part.

Now the warrior's part. If the hooligans appear again, ask them if they would like to have a friendly fight with you. But if necessary, you may attack them first. Remember that a scholar-warrior does not fight to win, he fights to confirm victory. In other words, you are already sure of victory. Be compassionate in your fight. Demonstrate your combat superiority without any doubt but do not hurt them. A good way is to throw them onto the ground and place your two fingers just an inch away from their eyes. Win them as friends rather than beat them as enemies.

Of course you need to become a scholar-warrior first. This will take some time, and you must train with a good school. Meanwhile you may ask a senior classmate to help you, acting as the scholar-warrior. Preferably he should be native-British. A properly trained kungfu exponent (but not a kungfu dancer or a kungfu gymnast who uses kick-boxing) can easily throw an untrained person to the ground and place two fingers in front of his eyes.

Question 3

Answer

What you saw and felt was chi, or energy.

Actually everyone has the innate ability to perceive chi, but most poeple have lost it. For some reasons, this ability is still with you.

Question 4

Answer

It is wonderful you realize your mistakes. There is a Chinese saying that one who turns over a new leaf is worth more than his weight in gold.

Question 5

Answer

I don't know who He was, but I believe He must be a highly spiritual being who wished to help and bless you. Think of Him if you face difficulty, and He will be an inspiration to help you overcome your difficulty.

Question 6

Answer

Congratulations for ovecoming a so-called incurable disease. You are an inspiration to others, being a living example that so-called incurable diseases can be cured.

Question 7

Answer

These are wonderful chi kung exercises.

But what is more important is how you practice the exercises and the practical benefits you get, not the novelty your experience.

You have experienced some fantastic effects, but you still have your health problems. This shows that you may not have practiced correctly, though you may not have practiced wrongly. A good piece of advice is not to think of anything when you practice, not even your good effects, but just enjoy yourself.

I hope you can learn from me or one of our certified Shaolin Wahnam instructors in the near future. I shall be visiting USA in Novemebr this year. Please check my website at https://shaolin.org.

Question 8

Answer

Yes, yours is “Zi Fa Dong Gong” or Self Manifested Chi Movement.

Self-Manifested Chi Movement is a genre of chi kung exercises where practitioners move about as if involuntarily. The movements are involuntary because the practitioners do not move them on purpose, but they are voluntary because the practitioners can control the movements if they want and if they have the skills.

In your case, you did not think of doing Tai Chi Chuan or yoga movements, yet your movements resembled those of Tai Chi Chuan or yoga. But if you wish and if you have the skills, you could control the movements. You could, for example, slow down or quicken the movements or cause them to move differently. But as you are not trained to do so, it is best that you let your chi flow spontaneously on its own, unless if the movements become too vigorous in which case you just gently think of the movements slowing down.

Such self-manifested chi movements are the result of spontaneous chi flow. Chi flows in everyone of us irrespective of whether he practices chi kung. Most people are not aware of their chi flow just as they are not aware of their blood flow. Chi flow is a natural process, just as other physiological processes that are necessary for life, like your digestive juices digesting the food you have eaten, your worker-cells constantly repairing wears and tears inside your body, and your anit-bodies inhibiting or killing harmful viruses and bacteria that may otherwise cause you big problems.

Although these physiological processes are essential, we are generally not aware of their working. Chi flow is in fact the fundamental process. It ensures that the other processes are working properly. This is concisely summed up in traditional Chinese medical jargon as “when your chi is flowing harmoniously, you will be physically and mentally healthy.”

But for most people their chi flow is blocked in nurmerous places. The causes of the blockage are many and varied, such as mental stress, muscular tension, pathogenic attacks and physical injuries. These energy blockages disrupt harmonious chi flow, thus affecting their natural physiological and psychological processes, resulting in their having less vitality as they should. If the blockages become more pronounced, it results in pain and illness.

In your case, your meditation practice enables you to be relaxed. This enables your chi to flow better. As you are sufficiently relaxed physically and mentally, your chi flow moves your body. Should you tense your body or start to intellectualize, your chi flow would stop. Hence it is important to be relaxed and not to think of anything.

Self-Manifested Chi Movement is actually a very safe exercise (if it is performed correctly). But for various reasons it is not commonly taught. One reason is that not many chi kung teachers know this form of chi kung, as it was kept secretive in the past. Secondly it is not easy to teach Self-Manifested Chi Movement. The teacher should be trained to do so.

Congratulations. You have done well. Self-Manifested Chi Movement has developed in you spontaneously as a result of your dedicated, and correct, meditation practice. You have a treasure now. If you value health more than money, you actually have a treasure that is worth more than the magic touch of turning stones to gold. If you just practice daily your meditation leading to self-manifested chi movements, you will have good health, vitality and longevity.

Many people find it hard to believe that such a simple exercise can bring such wonderful benefits. For some odd reasons, they believe that for an art to be effective, its practice as well as philosophy need to be complicated. This is not so. If you take a minute to reflect, you will find that many great and beautiful things in life, as well as in arts and science, are simple — and profound, i.e. not complicated and not shallow. Clear your mind of all thoughts and listen to a raindrop, and you may hear the music of heaven. If you start to reason why the raindrop fall, the music will be lost. Or, for the less poetic, savour your food as you chew it, and you will find eating your daily meanls a pleasure. If you start thinking of how many calories you are taking in or what you have to tell your clients after lunch, you will find eating your meals a chore.

The philosophy of Self-Manifested Chi Flow, or of any chi kung exercise, is so simple and beautiful. When your chi flows harmoniously, it will enable all your cells, tissues, organs and systems to work naturally. When they work naturally — for example, when food gets into your stomach your digestive juices digest it, when wears and tears occur inside your body your regenerative system repair them, and when harmful viruses and bacteria get into your body your defence system clear them away — you remain healthy. When you chi flow becomes vigorous, you have vitality. When your cells, tissues, organs and systems are healthy they last a long time, giving you longevity.

LINKS

Selected Reading

• One-Second Throws and Big-Movement Releases
• The Previous Days are All Starting to Emerge into One — George
• Basic Techniques and Skills of Taijiquan Pushing Hands
• Chinese Names for Patterns of Plum Flower Single-Knife
• Traveling Dragon Crescent-Moon Spear

Courses and Classes

• Intensive Chi Kung Course
• Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course
• Intensive Taijiquan Course

• List of Certified Shaolin Wahnam Instructors

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