SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
SEPTEMBER 2020 PART 1
Guan Yin Bodh Satt, the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, picture taken from https://www.burmese-art.com/catalog/new-sitting-guan-yin-from-china-kwan-yin-2
Question 1
I hope life is treating you especially good this year.
As you know I ran into some very serious cleansing beginning in 2018. It seems I've realized that my heart was closed to love from myself and most others around me.
I've come to realize that I no longer enjoy or feel I am doing my best work as an acupuncturist. I feel called deeply to spread the Chi Kung you've taught me as I truly believe I can help more people this way.
The biggest need in my heart is for my family to be first in my life and my career to be second.
I've actually been shocked by this realization but also feel a spark of joy in my heart for the first time. I've finally seen the true joy loving connection can be and giving love to my family and myself.
I am currently considering a new innovation for me as a teacher. There is some significant precedent for teaching online meditation courses live these days. Many teachers with less skills than we have are teaching classes online and holding intensive retreats for a set period of time for rather large sums of money.
I know that I am worthy of a wonderful life and great joy.
— Name and Country Withheld
Answer
Life is treating me very well. It must be so as I practice Shaolin Kungfu. There is much truth, as I have discovered gradually, in the saying that "if one is accomplished in the genuine Shaolin arts, it is better than changing stones to gold by touch."
You are certainly "worthy of a wonderful life and great joy". I would have failed in my mission if you aren't.
Your serious cleansing beginning in 2018 is the result of your over-training. Our arts in Shaolin Wahnan are very, very powerful. It really needs much emphasis to impress upon our students that now in Shaolin Wahnam they achieve in one month what I achieved in one year, and I was a very good student in my student's days.
Now I only train at about 30% of my potential, yet it gives good health, vitality, longevity, peak performance and spiritual joys. I have more vitality now than people half my age, and I can complete with better results in three hours what other people would need five.
It is perfectly right to give priority to your husband and children than to your work in helping others in acupuncture and other daily tasks. Your husband and children come first.
You are doing well in your training, but you can still improve. First of all, you must learn to love yourself. If you feel that you have done something wrong, you have to forgive yourself. Really forgive. We live in the present and the future, and what you are doing now will contribute to the well-being of people around you and far from you, even though you may not realize their benefit. You must always think of how good you have been.
You are doing well as an acupuncturist. Think of the many people who have recovered from your work. You can spread the chi kung you have learnt from me to other people, but they must be deserving and you should charge a high fee for their benefit. But do so gradually. You must make sure that the income from chi kung is more than the income from acupuncture.
Personally I am not in favour of teaching meditation on line no matter how much the potential income can be. Meditation is actually very advanced; it is mind or soul training, training people to attain the highest spiritual achievement. If people have health problems, they can better overcome them with chi kung healing. I believe chi kung healing will be the medicine in future; there is no such a thing as an incurable disease in chi kung healing. As long as there is chi, there is life.
Question 2
I have a friend that has diabetes. Hers is the more serious one because she needs to get insulin and has to wear a gadget that shows her levels of sugar. She would die if she does not get her dose of insulin on time. She has put on a lot of weight. But she is brave and enjoys life and online skating a lot with her husband and friends.
She became diabetic all of a sudden a long time ago when she was happily married (she still is) and her daughter was 5 years old. The first diagnosis doctors made was it was an infection. She had to be taken to the hospital and she could not even walk by herself.
After reading your articles on this topic, I told her that according to traditional Chinese medicine, hers is just an energy blockage and maybe could be solved by practicing the type of Chikung you teach.
What would you recommend her to do?
— David, Spain
Answer
Diabetes can be overcome with traditional Chinese medicine, including chi kung therapy.
My first patient to overcome diabetes was five weeks. He was in Alicante in Spain. My latest student to overcome diabetes was just three days. He was in Penang in Malaysia undergoing my Intensive Chi Kung Course. But these were exceptional cases. Normally it will take a few months to overcome diabetes.
All these patients with diabetes were serious cases. They had to monitor their blood sugar by litmus paper or injection, and had to take medication every day. But once their blockage is cleared by chi flow, or energy flow, they would recover.
I suggest your friend carries on seeing her doctor and continues her medication. Meanwhile she takes my Intensive Chi Kung Course. She can check my website for available dates. When she has overcome her diabetes she does not have to take medication.
Meanwhile she can write to any of our certified Shaolin Wahnam instructors. We address our instructors as "Sifu", or chi kung masters.
"If one is accomplished in the genuine Shaolin arts, it is better than changing stones to gold by touch"
Question 3
Would Choe Family Wing Choon compliment Baguazhang Circle Walking and Mother Palms well?
— John, Ireland
Answer
The answer can be "yes" or "no".
Choe Family Wing Choon and Baguazhang use different principles. Choe Family Wing Choon emphasizes economy of movement and decisive strikes, whereas Baguazhang emphasizes agile footwork and body rotation. From this perspective, the answer is "no". Learning the two different arts with different principles would negate each art.
Instead of getting to the back of an opponent, a Wing Choon practitioner would strike the eyes, throat or groin of an opponent in the quickest manner. Instead of a decisive strike in a straight line, a Baguazhang practitioner would get to the back of the opponent or use body rotation to demonstrate his superior skills.
On the other hand, if we view martial arts as an expansion of techniques and skills, the answer is "yes". Wing Choon Kungfu and Baguazhang provide two different aspects in handling assailants. If we know that an opponent is far below our level we can use the Baguazhang principles of "playing with him". But if we want to defeat an opponent fast, we can use the Wing Choon principles of decisive strikes in the shortest time.
In our school, both Choe Family Wing Choon and Baguazhang are taught. It is because we are idealist. Learning different ways to handle combatants will enrich our knowledge and make us better persons. But this take more time.
Question 4
I can still remember how beautiful the world seemed after my first course with you, as I looked at the world with a more open heart. Most amazing though, is that so many years later the world continues to become more beautiful. But in different ways. Like loving my wife a little more deeply each day. I am very thankful to have been accepted as your student, and look forward to all the things I still have to learn.
— Ryan, USA
Answer
The world is indeed beautiful, though we never forget that many things are still ugly. Practicing our chi kung regularly is a sure way to make the world beautiful.
One of the best ways is to smile from the heart, as it opens the heart (and in Chinese the "heart" means the spirit) and makes the world beautiful. Practicing our chi kung also gives us good health, vitality and longevity.
It is important to love your wife a little more deeply each day. She gives the best part of her life for your well being.
Diabetes can be overcome by practicing genuine chi kung
Question 5
Regarding tensing your muscles, does it matter what muscles you tense? For example, if I were performing Lifting the Sky would tensing only my arms create a different outcome than tensing only my legs? Are there any muscles you should avoid tensing? And are there any timing factors; like is it ok to tense muscles in the middle of spontaneous chi flow to slow down the flow in case you accidentally generate too much chi?
Answer
Guarding against over-training is a very important issue in our school as our chi kung is not only genuine but of a very high level. The three golden rules, which I did not formulate when you first attended my Intensive Chi Kung Course, are (a) not to worry, (b) not to intellectualize, and (c) to enjoy our practice. These rules apply to us; they may not apply to other people.
Not tensing the muscles, which constitutes one of the two essential conditions for practicing chi kung, the other being to be gently focused, applies to muscles in general. It does not refer to any particular muscles.
When you perform "Lifting the Sky" or any chi kung exercise, you generally relax, i.e. you do not tense your arm, leg or any muscles. If you tense your leg muscles and not your hand muscles, you still tense your muscles. It will affect your performance of chi kung.
However, if you find that your chi flow is too powerful -- manifested outwardly as vigorous chi flow movements, or inwardly as forceful flow making you feel charged though you may not move much outwardly -- you can purposely tense your muscles to stop the powerful chi flow. This is done on purpose. You purposely tense your muscles, any muscles, to prevent over-training.
Question 6
I have been praying to Guan Yin and have very beautiful experiences. One of the times I felt her presence as an immense and brilliant consciousness. I felt inexplicable things and a lot of gratitude, so much that I cried with joy and inclined myself to make her reverence.
— Paz, Spain
Answer
Guan Yin Bodh Satt, or the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, is real. She often protects and guides us. There have been many occasions when a lot of people felt her presence.
Wing Choon Kungfu is known for economy of movement and decisive strikes
Question 7
When I recite sutras, sometimes my dog and my cat accompany me. Do you think they can go to Sukhavati one day? Or could they at least benefit from listening to the sutras?
Answer
I am not sure whether dogs and cats and other animals go to Sukhvati. By the way, the birds in Sukhvati were created by Amitaba Buddha. They were not naturally born there.
Certainly your dog and your cat will benefit very much by listening to your sutras. It has been our experience that dogs and cats and other animals come near us when we practice chi kung or kungfu.
Question 8
Do you think fairies are spiritually superior to humans? Can fairies reincarnate in another life as humans, and if this is possible, why would they do it?
Answer
Fairies are, I believe, at the same spiritual level as humans, but they are always happy. For some reasons, like when they want to thank humans or accompany humans, they may reincarnate as humans.
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
- Strength and Weakness of Wing Choon Kungfu
- Wise Ways to Deal with Betrayals
- Taijiquan Techniques against Knee Strikes
- Sparring and Kungfu Culture
- Onward to the Interior