SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
JUNE 2013 PART 3
A Bone Marrow Cleansing course at the UK Summer Camp
Question 1
Dear Sifu,
I wanted to share with you some powerful experiences I have been having ever since I learned Bone Marrow Cleansing from you. I've been experiencing past life memories/hallucinations for the past few days. Fortunately, with your teachings I was able to overcome this intense period.
I have memories of being a Japanese swordsman from some time in the past, not a very good one, though. I remember my father's sword, the color of the hilt and how much I cherished it. In my memories I remember being right handed, of sleeping with my sword next to me, and how unusual that is given that I am left handed in this life. I had a wife and son that I loved very, very much. I cannot remember their faces very clearly but I remember the feeling of pride and joy I had with them.
I remember I led a group of men to battle and we were slaughtered. Sifu, I realized that I had led my men to their deaths while I somehow survived. I remembered being an arrogant person, assuming I was better than others because of class and family.
I struggled for several days to cleanse the guilt, often crying and shaking during chi flow. Even just hearing a leaf blower would make me very anxious and unsettled during this period of cleansing.
In this memory, I remembered trying to take my own life afterwards by committing ritual suicide and emotionally feeling how I could never have the face to see my family again after my great failure. Then suddenly the desire to live overcame me and I could not go through with the action. Still I could feel this great pain locked inside me as this happened and how this was now being cleansed during chi flow.
During these past few days I experienced a sort of cultural shock as the cleansing continued, feeling like I was in someone else's body in the present. I tried undergoing some kind of fast and chanted mantras. There was intense attachment to my wife in the past. Finally, I was able to come to terms with her not being there, that she was gone from my life, and I could send energy from smiling from the heart to my men and my family in the past. This warmth transcended time and space and slowly, I could feel a golden peace emerge on both sides.
I realized that some people in my life were incarnations of people from that period of my past. I came to terms with how I was not responsible for their happiness, and that they are not entirely the same person as in my past life.
Thank you for being my Sifu, thank you for teaching me these Arts. Thank you for helping me honour and lay rest the memory of the past. I am humbled and blessed by their sacrifices and love. I still have much to learn, but I feel as I move forward I am realizing myself as a complete person.
— Name and Country Withheld
Answer
It is wonderful to read of your past life and the benefits you have gained from the courses you attended. More wonderful benefits will come.
It is also interesting that when I read your e-mail and before I came to the end of the e-mail to know who the sender was, I correctly guessed you as one of a few possible persons to have these past-life experiences.
Hence, your result is not unexpected, and it indicates that the courses are working well for you. Your chi flow has helped you to cleanse out bad karma, and you will emerge as a better and more loving person. These past-life experiences will now enable you to understand many of your behaviour that previously you found puzzling.
Although we do not meet very often, I am proud of you as my student. Whenever I saw you I had a feeling that you had a deep-rooted blockage that prevented you from wholesomely enjoying life as you should.
I did not tell you earlier because I did not want it to burden you as I knew that eventually you would overcome it. I am very glad that now you do. In a few months' time, you will find people around you telling you that you are a different person and wonder what you have done. You yourself will find daily life a joy.
You need not feel guilty about your past life. In fact you did the right thing in the culture you were born in.
You will be happy to know that you may meet your past wife in this present life, though you and she may not realize it at your meeting. You will be specially attracted to her, and she to you. Be kind and true to her.
Question 2
What is the relationship between practicing Bone Marrow Cleansing and Cosmic Shower?
— Kevin, Ireland
Answer
There are different high-level chi kung skills with different effects and benefits.
In Cosmic Shower we enjoy a shower of cosmic energy. In Bone Marrow Cleansing, we let energy flow in our bone marrow. But in our Bone Marrow Cleansing course we also let our energy flow at our skin, in our flesh, in our meridians and in our internal organs. These are the five levels of energy flow in our body -- the levels of the skin, flesh, meridians, organs and bone marrow.
As these are skills, we may use any techniques to operate these skills. As we aim at excellence, we choose the best techniques.
For Cosmic Shower, we usually use Carrying the Moon or Lifting the Sky. For energy flow at the skin level, we usually use Lifting the Sky; for the flesh level, Separating Water; for the meridians, Pushing Mountain; for internal organs, Carring the Moon; and for bone marrow, Turning Head. We may also use other techniques.
Please note that the techniques may be the same, but the skills may be different. For example, we can use Lifting the Sky and Carrying the Moon to work on Cosmic Shower or Bone Marrow Cleansing.
When we are skillful, we can also use Cosmic Shower to induce Bone Marrow Cleansing at various levels. For example, we may start with Cosmic Shower, then proceed to let chi flow at the skin level or the flesh level or at any level.
Reversely we may use Bone Marrow Cleansing to induce Cosmic Shower, though this approach may not be cost-effective. For example, we may start with chi flowing at the skin level or at any level, then proceed to Cosmic Shower.
Thematically, the benefits of Bone Marrow Cleansing and of Cosmic Shower are different, but holistically they are the same.
Holistically, both arts bring good health, vitality, longevity, mental clarity and spiritual joys. Thematically, Cosmic Shower purifies and strengthen in a downward manner, whereas Bone Marrow Cleansing purifies and strengthen at various layers.
Although both arts purifies and strengthen, the different nature of these two processes may result in different specific benefits. For example, Cosmic Shower purifies the spirit, enabling a practitioner to perceive everything more beautifully. Bone Marrow Cleansing at the organ level clears emotional blockage caused in past lives.
Participants at an Intensive Chi Kung Course in Sabah enjoying a Cosmic Shower
Question 3
What exercise should I choose to practice so that I do not make many mistakes?
— Rosetta, Germany
Answer
You can choose any exercise you have learnt from us, enjoy your practice and don't worry about making any mistakes.
Of course, this does not mean you have license to make mistakes. You follow the instructions as best as you comfortably can, but if you do make mistakes, don't worry about them.
If you made mistakes but do not realize it, there is no way for worry. If you made mistakes and realize it, just leave the mistakes behind and carry on.
The chi flow from your exercise will be more than adequate to clear away any adverse effects your mistakes may cause and still leave you a good bonus for health. But If you start worrying, you will not have any chi flow, and the adverse effects will remain in you.
Let us use an analogy. You are so lucky to be engaged in a high-level profession or business that brings you 100,000 euros a month if you perform your job perfectly. But you make mistakes here and there, so you don't get the potential income, you get only 10%, which is 10,000 euros a month.
10,000 euros is a big gap from 100,000 euros, but compared to what most people earn to maintain their economic life, which is about 2,000 euros, 10,000 euros is a lot of money. But if you worry instead of doing your job, you will not earn any euros.
It is the same in chi kung. You are so lucky to practice a high-level chi kung that brings you 100,000 units of energy flow a month if you practice perfectly. But you make mistakes here and there, and so you do not get the potential full energy flow, you get only 10%, which shows you are not even an average student.
But that is alright because you practice high-level chi kung. Even when you do not practice very well, you still have 10,000 units of energy flow, which is a lot when compared to 2,000 units of energy flow of most chi kung practitioners. But if you start to worry instead of carrying on with your practice, you will not get any energy flow.
Now, is it fair to say that if most other chi kung practitioners have 2,000 units of energy flow, we have 100,000 when practiced perfectly?
100,000 is 50 times 2,000. Let us take the most important factor in chi kung practice for comparison, i.e. generating an energy flow. We can generate an energy flow on the very first day of learning chi kung in a regional course. How many other chi kung practitioners can generate an energy flow after 50 days of practice? Not at all.
Thus, it is fair to estimate that if other chi kung practitioners earn 2,000 units of energy flow a month, our potential earning is 100,000 units if practiced perfectly. Even if you are far from perfect, and make a lot of mistakes earning only 10% of the potential, you still earn 10,000 units of energy. So, you need not worry about your mistakes if you carelessly make them.
Question 4
I hurt my knee trying to learn Horse stance 8 months ago and have been trying to fix it with physical therapy for the last 6 months (ice, rest, progressively rebuilding strength with bands, massaging, stretching, gentle high stances etc). I have not been healed and continue to face re-injury.
— Lee, USA
Answer
Knee injury can be healed quite easily with genuine chi kung. But genuine chi kung is rare nowadays. Today when people say that they practice chi kung, most of them actually practice gentle exercise, and they do not know this fact. The techniques are the same, but how they practice the techniques make the difference between gentle exercise and genuine chi kung.
An analogy can make this clearer. Tai Chi Chuan is actually an internal martial art. But today most people who practice Tai Chi Chuan do not practice it as an internal martial art, they practice it as some external dance. The techniques are the same. It is how they practice the techniques that make the difference between an external dance and an internal martial art.
The key difference between gentle exercise and chi kung is that the former works on the physical body whereas the later works on energy. A good indication of working on energy is to experience a chi flow. Most people who say they practice chi kung do not experience any chi flow.
Any exercise practiced as genuine chi kung can cure your knee injury, but exercises like "Rotating Knees" and "Three Levels to Ground" are excellent. Please note that the same exercise can be practiced as gentle exercise or as genuine chi kung.
I would recommend that you learn genuine chi kung from any of our certified Shaolin Wahnam instructors. Or you can learn from me when I teach some chi kung courses in the United States. Please see my website for details.
A kungfu master should be an example of radiant health
Question 5
Kung fu seemed a reachable dream. A friend of mine studied under a certain reputable Chinese kung fu teacher before he moved here. We have been working out for over a year together. He has shown me some basic stances and arm strike/blocks and encouraged me to advance slowly to avoid this very injury.
Answer
Please note that what I am going to say about kungfu does not refer to your friend.
Like chi kung, today kungfu has been so watered down that it is no longer kungfu. Kungfu is a fighting art. One who practices genuine kungfu must be able to use it for fighting. But today most kungfu practitioners cannot use their kungfu for fighting. If they fight, they use kick-boxing or some other martial arts.
Kungfu should make its practitioners healthy. But today many kungfu practitioners become more unhealthy the more they practice. Kungfu training should make its practitioners relaxed and confident, but many kungfu practitioners today are stressful and anxious.
Indeed, these negative effects apply not just to kungfu but to all martial arts today. Not too long ago, people had much respect for martial artists, who were combat efficient yet elegant and courteous. But today many people think of martial artists as rough and crude, and who boast of their injuries sustained in training! Something must have gone terribly wrong.
Question 6
We made a recent goal to go to a Shaolin temple to get formal training starting Jan 2013. So I am trying to at least learn all the basic ten stances so they will know I am a hard worker. I don't know yet if anyone there can help my knee problem.
Answer
Shaolin temples all over the world today do not teach traditional Shaolin Kungfu. They teach modern wushu. Wushu is a magnificent art, but it is different from traditional kungfu. The forms are the same, but wushu practitioners practice the forms as wushu and not as traditional Shaolin Kungfu.
The hallmarks of traditional Shaolin Kungfu are internal force, combat efficiency and spiritual cultivation. Wushu practitioners do not train internal force, do not use their forms for combat (many of them may use kick-boxing), and they regard their art as physical training rather than spiritual cultivation.
It is notorious, though not widely known in public, that many wushu practitioners suffer from knee injuries. They developed knee injuries from their deep stances, which in my opinion are good for demonstration but not good for health and combat. Due to their knee and other injuries, wushu competitors are seldom over 25 years of age. When they get older, they change from being competitors to being coaches.
Genuine kungfu is effective for fighting
Question 7
The pain is in the muscle on the outside/above the knee on the vastus lateralis not inside the knee joint itself. Fortunately. I am taking it really easy, or I would be in an arm chair all day.
Answer
From the perspective of genuine chi kung, your injury is not serious and can be overcome readily. It doesn't matter where the pain or injury is. Chi flow will take care of that. It is the natural characteristic of chi to flow to where the injury is.
You would be pleased to know, though you may find it hard to believe, that a few people who suffered from knee injuries were told by their doctors to have surgery, but they recovered completely after just a few sessions of chi kung learnt from us.
Question 8
I am reading your book "The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu". What should I do? I really want to learn kung fu too.
Answer
Many people have kindly commented that "The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu" is the best book they have read on the subject.
It is only logical that if you want to learn the type of Shaolin Kungfu described in my book, you should learn from me or one of my certified instructors. I would suggest you attend my Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course. Please see Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course for details, and my website for available dates.
But you need to have some prior kungfu or martial art experience to attend the course. I would suggest you first learn some kungfu from one of our certified Shaolin Wahnam instructors. If this is not feasible, you can learn kungfu or wushu forms from a local instructor, or you may learn from my book, then attend my Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course.
LINKS
Selected Reading
- Crucial Elements that Differentiate Kungfu from Other Martial Arts
- Choy-Li-Fatt and the 18 Lohan-Art
- How Chi Kung Can Overcome Crohn's Disease, or Any Disease?
- Is Shaolin Kungfu too Flowery for Combat?
- Shaolin Plum Flower Single Knife