SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
FEBRUARY 2020 PART 2
Pushing Mountain
Question 1
I have just finished building up to 300 Pushing Mountains! I cannot believe how amazing and fun it is to practice the Cosmos Palm art. I am forever grateful for your generosity.
The more I practice the more sensitive I become to other people's emotions and blockages. I am starting to see more and more how this art is extremely useful for healing.
— Miguel, Holland
Answer
Pushing Mountain is a wonderful art. Besides contributing to flowing force in Cosmos Palm and for health, vitality and longevity, it can also enhance ones sensitivity and healing.
The Chi Kung Healing Course is wonderful. (Miguel attended the Chi Kung Healing Course conducted in June 2019.) I believe that Chi Kung Healing will be very important in future. According to chi kung philosophy, there is no such a thing as an incurable disease!
There are 3 levels of chi kung practice, which are as follows:
- For health, vitality and longevity.
- For internal force and mental clarity, which contribute to peak performance.
- For spiritual cultivation. At the lowest level, it is for being happy and peaceful. At the highest level, it is for expanding into the Cosmos, called variously as returning to God the Holly Spirit, Buddhahood and attaining the Void.
Question 2
My second question is in Sitaigung's school, he told you to practice One Finger Shooting Zen everyday. Did you also practice it everyday when you were learning and practicing Cosmos Palm from Sitaigung? Did you also practice it everyday when you learned other arts?
Answer
In Sitaigung's school. everyone from beginners to advanced practitioners had to perform One-Finger Shooting Zen. We usually performed it at the start of our lessons.
When I practiced Cosmos Palm, I also practiced One-Finger Shooting Zen everyday. When I learned other arts, I practiced One-Finger Shooting Zen everyday too.
One-finger Shooting Zen
Question 3
Although I know that less is often more, it is not always the case even when performing exercises at the mind level.
— Douglas, Spain
Answer
"Less is often more" is usually the case in our school, Shaolin Wahnam. It is because we operate at the mind level whereas most other chi kung and kungfu practitioners operate at the form level, and this operating at the form level concerns only less than 20% of chi kung practitioners, and 10% of kungfu practitioners.
Obviously, this will make many people angry, but it is the truth. More than 80% of chi kung practitioners today only perform chi kung forms, not genuine chi kung. Energy flow, or chi flow, is the essence of chi kung. More than 90% of kungfu practitioners all over the world practice only kungfu forms, not genuine kungfu which is mainly for combat. If kungfu practitioners engage in combat, they use Kickboxing, Karate or Taekwondo techniques, not the kungfu techniques they have earnestly practice.
We practice chi kung and kungfu as triple cultivation, which is the cultivation of form, energy and mind. If we compare only the mind level, for example, presuming all other things were equal our typical Shaolin Wahnam students operate at level 5 of form, level 5 of energy and level 5 of mind, whereas most other students operate at level 8 of form, level 0 of energy and level 0 of mind. We measure the levels of form, energy and mind from 1 to 10, 1 being the least and 10 being the most.
Other students operate at level 8 of form because performing chi kung or kungfu form is the only thing they focus on. They operate at level 0 of energy and of mind because they cannot generate an energy flow, and they cannot use kungfu techniques for combat.
The above examples are only estimates, but they give a clear picture of what actually happen. Any appropriate numbers for the examples can be used.
Energy and mind are much more important than form. Roughly, the attainment of form constitutes only 10%, energy 30% and mind 60% of the chi kung or kungfu exercises. Hence, although our typical Shaolin Wahnam students get a lower attainment of form, they get more benefit from their chi kung or kungfu practice.
This also explains why as a student advances in his practice, he performs a Sinew Metamorphosis exercise for 12 repetitions when he is at a beginners' stage, 6 repetitions when he is at an intermediate stage, and 3 repetitions at an advanced stage. Performing more repetitions tend to focus on form, especially at a beginners' stage; performing less repetitions focuses on energy and mind.
This is also the reason why we must guard against over-training. We should practice an exercise to get the best benefit according to our estimate, and not to get the most benefit according to our level. To get the best benefit, and not to get the most benefit, is usually below our potential.
Performing at our potential means performing at 100%. Please note that a person's 100% differs from another person's 100%. A beginner's 100% may be 20% of a master. Because of our high-level skills, I suggest that we perform at about 30% of our potential. If 30% is still too high, we lower it further.
For our typical Shaolin Wahnam students, performing at 30% enables them to get a lot of benefits when compared to other students. This is because typical Shaolin Wahnam students perform their chi kung or kungfu as triple cultivation, whereas other students only perform at the form level. Many other chi kung students are still weak and sickly, and most other kungfu students cannot use their kungfu techniques for combat.
Secondly it is important for our students to know that their 30% now is different from their 30% a year later. This is because of the improvement of their skills. The skills of performing "Lifting the Sky" now -- at all the form, energy and mind levels -- is very different from the skills a year later.
Question 4
Two examples that come to mind are the Small Universe and Golden Bridge. If I understood your teaching correctly, more is better for both of those exercises even though we are operating at the mind level. That was the reason for my doubt.
Answer
In Small Universe and Golden Bridge, when performing at the mind level, more is better than less if you are not over-trained. If you are over-trained, performing less is a good way to prevent further over-training.
In fact, you should not be performing Small Universe or Golden Bridge; you should be performing exercises with a lot of movements, like Eighteen Jewels, Five-Animal Play, combat application and set practice. You can also rest for a few days for your over-training to get back to normal.
Golden Bridge
Question 5
Over the years you have stopped teaching visualization (mind level) for many exercises. I don't recall you ever teach at a mind level for Sinew Metamorphosis. Are there visualizations or other mind level techniques for the Sinew Metamorphosis exercises?
Answer
I have stopped teaching visualisation, which focuses on the mind level, for many exercises because visualisation, if done correctly, is very powerful. But I still use visualisation for such exercises like Bone Marrow Cleansing and Cosmic Shower.
There is no direct visualisation for Sinew Metamorphosis, but you must be in a chi kung state of mind. In other words, you are at a mind level even when you don't visualise. That is the reason why Sinew Metamorphosis exercises are very, very powerful.
Question 6
I am enjoying the super concentrated kungfu curriculum you were kind enough to teach me.
Answer
When you perform the combat application exercises which I taught you in Sungai Petani, you need to visualise to help you to attain picture-perfect form. When you have attained picture-perfect form, you still need to visualise to know what attack your opponent uses.
Later when your form is picture-perfect and you know what attack your opponent uses, you can focus on flow. Later you can operate at the speed of thought.
You can also use your combat sequences to initiate an attack. You may, or may not, use a feint move, but you must cover your opponent adequately to ensure "safety first".
Visualizing an opponent in a felling technique
Question 7
Sifu, I am rereading "The Complete Book of Zen" these days. It is a book I love very much.
— John, Ireland
Answer
The "Complete of Zen" is a book full of wisdom. I sincerely believe that it was written by the Great Bodhisattva, Guan Yin Bodh Satt, as I believe the wisdom in it is beyond my capability. I often prayed to Guan Yin Bodh Satt when I wrote the book. I pray to her everyday. It was the book I brought along in my trans-continental flights.
Question 8
I watched a video of Sifu performing "Flowing Water, Floating Clouds". The exposition of flowing force was absolutely magnificent and the patterns were beautiful to watch.
Answer
"Flowing Water Floating Clouds" is a wonderful set using flowing force. More significantly, practicing it gives us good health, vitality and longevity. It enhances our peak performance and spiritual joys.
It is an inspiration from Chen Style Taijiquan, and the name of the set indicates what the movement should be -- flowing and floating like water and clouds -- which marks the depth of not only Taijiquan but any style of kungfu.
Question 9
On page 15 of the book, Sifu quotes from "Golden Flower Doctrinal Instructions of Saint Lu."
It reminded me of driving with Sifu in Korea where for some glimpses the whole countryside seemed fused with a golden light-force. Can I humbly ask Sifu whether it is the same as Golden Flower mentioned in "The Secret of the Golden Flower; a Chinese Book of Life", which is the only "Golden Flower" I can find online?
Answer
"Saint" is better read as "Immortal". I used the term "Saint" because it was close to the Chinese sound meaning immortals. Lu Dong Bin was not only a great Taoist saint or immortal good at scholarship, he was also good at martial arts, especially the Chinese sword.
The golden light-force was similar to the "Golden Flower" mentioned in the book. I think that book is an English translation of the Chinese book I have. It is a shower of golden light from above. It gave me the inspiration for our course, Cosmic Shower.
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
- Shaolin Eighteen Lohan Hands
- Zen, Buddhism and Spiritual Cultivation
- Skills Transmitted by Grandmaster Ho Fatt Nam for Combat and Daily Life
- Understanding Why Tai Chi Comes from Wuji
- Arches in the Snow