SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
FEBRUARY 2016 PART 1
All illness is caused by energy blockage. When the blockage is cleared, good health will be restored. An excellent way to clear energy blockage is to practie genuine chi kung. This philosophy, which resulted from experience, may change the course of medicine in future.
Question 1
A few years ago, my father was in a car accident and due to the impact, some fragments of bone from his neck vertebrae fractured away from his spine and lodged in the muscles in his upper back and neck. He has a lot of neck and shoulder stiffness, plus chronic pain. Since surgery to remove the fragments is risky due to them being close to several nerves in the upper back and neck, he is currently using steroid injections and physical therapy to control the pain.
— Frederick, USA
Answer
Your question highlights a very important fact that I discovered. This fact, of course, was already present for millennia and was mentioned indirectly or arcanely by masters who might not want to explain it publicly. As far as I know, I am the one who is actively explaining and publicizing it, in the hope that when it is well known and understood, it can help countless people suffering from so-called incurable diseases can be healed. I believe that in future it may change the course of medicine.
I have used this fact to help many people overcome so-called incurable diseases, but it was only in the last few years that the fact has crystallized into a comprehensible concept. Those I have trained as chi kung healers have also used this fact and my method to help many people recover from so-called incurable diseases.
This fact in its simple and beautiful form is as follows. Life is a meaningful flow of energy. When the energy is blocked, it results in pain and illness. When the blockage is cleared, good health, which is natural, is restored.
It is pertinent to mention that this explanation or philosophy is the result of experience, and not the other way round. Before this fact has been crystallized into a comprehensible concept described above, I just taught chi kung the way it was described in chi kung classics. At that time I had no idea of illness being caused by energy blockage, and restoration of good health resulted when the blockage was cleared.
Initially I was surprised when many people suffering from so-called incurable diseases like rheumatism, arthritis, cardiovascular disorders, cancer, depression, structural deformatity and viral infection, recovered after practicing chi kung learned from me. Now, after more than 30 years of healing countless people suffering from so-called incurable diseases, the situation is reversed. I would be surprised if these people did not recover.
As I gained in experience in helping people recover from their pain and illness, I also gained in knowledge in chi kung and traditional Chinese medical philosophy. According to traditional Chinese medical philosophy, which has maintained the health and sanity of the largest population of the world for the longest period of history, there is only one illness, and it is called yin-yang disharmony and caused by energy blockage. Yin-yang disharmony is described in different terms according to its symptoms in conventional medicine.
In other words, conventional medicine may describe a disorder as auto-immune dysfunction, diabetes, cancer or clinical depression, or you may describe a disorder as pain from hard-tissue or pain from soft-tissue, but in chi kung and traditional Chinese medical philosophy, it is yin-yang disharmony, and it is caused by energy blockage. If your father succeeds in clearing the energy blockage, he will regain his natural good health, including being free from pain.
Is it correct to consider bone fragments lodged in muscles as energy blockage? Yes, it is correct. At the level of normal human sight, the bone fragments are solid. But at the sub-atomic level, these bone fragments are energy. This energy is blocked, resulting in pain. When the blocked energy is cleared, the pain will disappear.
You would be inspired to know that in my early years of chi kung teaching, a student's spine was doubly crocked. He was bent forward as well as sideways. Surgeons dared not operate on him for fear of damaging his nervous system. After about 10 months of chi kung practice, at a time when my chi kung teaching was of a much lower level than now, he was straight and upright!
I did not know how chi kung straightened his bone then, and neither he nor I bothered to find out. But now I know.
Let us take a bent bone. There is unnecessary and excessive energy (described as bone cells in conventional biology) blocked on the convex side, but insufficient energy on the concave side. Regular and diligent chi kung practice first loosens the blocked energy on the convex side, then clears the excessive energy, and simultaneously new energy forms into healthy bone cells on the concave side. Eventually the bone is straightened. By comparison, clearing away blocked energy, seen by naked eyes as bone fragments, is simpler than straightening a crooked bone.
Question 2
I hope that my father comes around to the idea of learning authentic qigong to help his recovery.
Answer
Whether your father or anybody learns authentic qigong to regain his health is his business, not mine. We in Shaolin Wahnam are very generous in sharing knowledge and wonderful benefits with deserving students, but we are certainly not going to waste time persuading skeptics to learn from us.
It is chi flow, not the chi kung exercise itself,
Question 3
I know that chi kung has helped me out with numerous "soft tissue" injuries (including a crushed meniscus and innumerable bumps and bruises), but I do not know much about how qigong can help a "hard tissue" injury such as a fractured bone, especially if fragments are still lodged in his muscle.
Answer
We have many case histories of helping people recover from injuries, regardless of whether they were from "hard tissue" or "soft tissue".
Question 4
Do you think it would be a good idea for him to practice, say, the form level of Lifting the Sky or Big Windmill until he can learn qigong from an authentic teacher?
Answer
Practicing Lifting the Sky, Big Windmill or any chi kung exercises as gentle physical exercise, which your father will probably do if he learns from other chi kung instructors outside our school, will not help him to clear his pain or overcome his illness. Gentle physical exercise is likely to aggravate your father's pain.
The above statement will appear boastful or arrogant to most other people, but I am sure you know I am stating the truth. Whether other people accept the statement as truth or as a boastful claim is their business.
Practicing any chi kung exercise as chi kung but at the form level is not powerful enough for your father's purpose. In theory, even low-level chi kung can clear energy blockage, but in real life the effect is too marginal. As your father doesn't seem to be interested in our chi kung, despite seeing remarkable results in you, he is unlikely to have the patience to succeed in low-level chi kung.
Sifu Leonard performing one of the 18 Jewels exercise, which are excellent for overcoming any illness!
Question 5
Would you happen to know of some cases in your own practice where people used qigong in helping them recover from such a "non-clean" fracture that resulted in bone fractures?
More generally, and this question is more for my personal curiosity, how should someone who has had a bone injury/fracture approach qigong in their therapy and recovery?
Answer
Yes, many people have used our chi kung to recover from such problems.
When bones are broken, they should first have the bones set by competent surgeons, then practice our chi kung to clear any fragments that may remain and cause pain.
If the bones are not broken, they should practice high-level chi kung from a competent teacher.
Question 6
I know that the essential requirement of getting benefit from qigong is to have qi flow. Are there certain exercises that are best for speeding along recovery from broken bones in various parts of the body?
Answer
It is a common mistake to think that one should employ powerful chi kung exercises for healing. It is like asking a sick person to run a marathon or to lift heavy weight.
Exercises from our 18 Jewels, which belong to the elementary level of our chi kung, are excellent for healing purposes. When the injury is obvious, like a sprained ankle or knee, choosing exercises related to these body parts, like Rocking Boat and Rotating Knees, may be helpful
You must also remember that healing needs time. Not only the broken bones need time to repair themselves, but also other glans and organs need time to make the necessary adjustment. Speeding up a recovery without understanding these details may aggravate the problem.
Nevertheless, it has been proven time and again that those who practiced our chi kung took only a third or half the time others took to recover. But our students did not practice any special exercises to speed up their recovery. Their rapid recover was spontaneous.
Genuine kungfu not only contributes to combat efficiency, good health, vitality and longevity but also leads to mind expansion and spiritual joys.
Question 7
I have noticed that my hair is thinner in the front and is definitely growing at only 2/3 the rate as the rest of the hair on my head. I can feel the sides and back of my scalp tingle during chi gung practice but the top and front feel absent, numb and desensitized. Sensation to touch isn't normal either. What can I do about this? I alternate between Lifting Sky, Carrying Moon and 3 Levels to Ground.
— Lee, USA
Answer
You don't have to do anything extra about this apart from what you have been doing. In Taoist philosophy this is known as "wu-wei", which is often translated as "don't do anything and everything willl be done for you". Although the meaning is correct, most people would not really understand what it means. They wonder how would everything be done for them if they do nothing?
The problem here is that Taoists give you only half the secret. The other half is "you-wei", which means "do something appropriate before not doing anything". That is what we always do in chi kung practice. First we perform the chi kung exercise. Then we don't do anything, like tensing our muscles, intellectualizing or stopping the chi flow movement, and just let our chi flow spontaneously. Everything will then be done for us by the chi flow.
It is likely that there is some blockage at the front and on top of your head. This interrupted your hair growth. You have performed appropriate chi kung exercise, that is the "you-wei" part. Now just enjoy your chi-flow, the "wu-wei". The chi flow will clear your blockage or do whatever task that is more urgent. Chi flow always works for your best interest.
What would happen if your hair growth problem is not due to a blockage at the front or top of your head, but due to other factors. Now this is the amazing part of chi kung. It is this amazing part that has enabled many people to overcome their so-called incurable diseases. It doesn't matter what or where the cause of your problem is, but the chi flow will eventually clear it and return you to good health, including normal hair growth. This is the wonder of "wu-wei" -- don't do anything and eveything will be done for you. But first you must do the "you-wei" part, i.e. practice chi kung daily.
Question 8
One night after watching a kung fu movie and having a glass of strong wine, I was surprised to notice that I could enter into a very strong chi flow very easily. It was nearly 2 hours after the wine with dinner and normally any alcohol effects are passed by then so I don't believe that it was just alcohol I was feeling.
I immediately and unintentionally went into a variety of kung fu forms that for the most part I have only seen and never done, let alone understood. I could even understand some of the applications! In some cases, difficult movements that I had been practicing for 6 months, I was suddenly able to do.
What happened? I have heard that alcohol can excite the chi, did this happen? Is it bad? I have noticed that it is very hard for me to loosen up and "let go". But that night I really had no trouble loosening up.
Answer
You experience was not uncommon amongst some of our students.
The kungfu movements were not due to the alcohol, but the alcohol helped you to loosen up and enjoy a vigorous chi flow that resulted in these kungfu movements.
There were a few possibilities why this happened. You were a kungfu master in a past life, and the chi flow rekindled your unconscious memory to enable you to perform these movements and knew their combat applications. Or you might have seen these movements before and they were stored in your memory, which was rekindled by your chi flow. Or your chi flow enhanced your physical abilities to enable you to perform kungfu movements that you aspired to before but could not perform. In the latter two cases your chi flow also enhanced your intellectual ability to enable you to understand the combat applications of these kongfu movements.
These possibilities may answer your curiosity. You don't need to know what the actual reason was, just like when you go to a automatic teller machine to get money, you don't need to know whether it was the manager himself, a supervisor or a clerk who put the money in the machine. What is important is that the experience gives you benefit. In the case of the machine, the benefit is getting the money you want. In the case of the kungfu movements, your benefit, amongst many other benefits, is to know that you are capable of doing things that you normally think you can't.
Question 9
I am reading through your book, 'The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu' again to try to set up my aims and objectives for chi gung and kung fu. Could you tell me if I am on track?
My aim is to have a healthy strong flexible body, be able to effectively defend myself, and have internal force. Later I wish to add on mind expansion and spiritual development as well.
A goal that I have set is to be able to do horse stance and bow stance for 5 minutes each by March. I intend to practice in small increments of time to avoid another knee injury. It is my understanding that the stances are fundamental in kung fu training and now for the first time in my 2.5 years of exposure to kung fu my knee is well enough to pursue this!
Answer
Yes, you are on a right track.
You are able to gain more benefits in a shorter time by following my following advice.
It is a good principle to be healthy first by practicing chi kung, then practice kungfu not just to be able to defend yourself but to gain many other wonderful benefits like excellent health, peak performance and spiritual cultivation irrespective of religion. This is what you are doing.
The big irony is that many martial artists are unhealthy and are unable to defend themselves despite spending many years training a martial art! Not only they injure themselves in free sparring and their injuries are routinely left unattended to, the way they train is usually detrimental to both their physical, emotional and spiritual health. Many people may be surprised at my statements that many martial artists today cannot defend themselves. If they can, they won't accept being hit and kicked for granted as part of their training.
Stance training is very important in kungfu training, though most people just pay lip service to this fact, and many do not practice stance training correctly. If stance training is done correctly everyday, practitioners can develop internal force in a year. They may also develop mental clarity.
Others may find us boastful but it is true that our students can develop internal force and mental clarity in one month if they practice everyday. There are a few good reasons for our remarkable cost-effectiveness, and these reasons have been explained in some detail in this question-answer series.
Many martial artists, including those involved in very brutal arts, talk about mind expansion and spiritual development, but not only they do have these benefits, they do not even know what they are saying. They say so because it is fashionable to do so.
Mind expansion and spiritual development are self-explanatory. Mind expansion means expanding the mind, and in Western culture the mind usually refers to the intellect, and sometimes to the consciousness, but in Eastern culture the mind can mean the spirit. An example of intellectual expansion is that previously you had difficulty understanding what you read, but after practicing our arts for some time, you can understand clearly, and sometimes even realize that the author himself did not know what he was writing. An example of spiritual development is that previously you you were sad and stressful, but now you are happy and peaceful.
You should attend my Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course. As this course provides all the necessary skills from a beginner's to a master's level, not only you can speed up your progress remarkably, you are also assure of their attainment, provided you spend time to diligently practice what you have learned at the course.
If you have any questions, please e-mail them to Grandmaster Wong via his Secretary at stating your name, country and e-mail address.
LINKS
Selected Reading
- Seeing the World as I Never Could Before
- History of Chi Flow in Shaolin Wahnam
- Kungfu Forms for Fighting?
- Dragon in Zen
- Legacy of Ho Fatt Nam