SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
MAY 2022 PART 1
"Chi kung state of mind"
Question 1
How does Chi Kung practice promote health, vitality, longevity, peak performance and spiritual joy?
— Name and Country Withheld
Answer
Chi kung, practiced in our school, Shaolin Wahnam, promotes health, vitality, longevity, peak performance and spiritual joys irrespective of religion or the lack of it. This is because in Shaolin Wahnam:
- We differentiate between skills and techniques.
- We put these skills and techniques into practice within a few days.
- I transmit these skills and techniques into students.
As you have attended both the Intensive Chi Kung Course and the Intensive Taijiquan Course or the Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course, you know these factors very well. They are meant for students who have not attended any of the courses.
You also learn new things in your Intensive Chi Kung Course and the Intensive Taijiquan Course. This is because new students will focus on the techniques besides various important points I will comment during the course, whereas other students (and instructors) will focus on skills. It is practicing these skills that makes a master. But new students will learn these skills as well as the techniques and other important points important to them.
Most students in other schools will learn techniques, missing out important skills as well as other important points. They think, wrongly, that if they know the techniques, they can acquire the effects of chi kung. This is glaring not the case. That is why many students in other schools are still weak, and some are with so-called incurable diseases, though chi kung is meant to give them good health, vitality and longevity. Advanced chi kung will give them peak performance and spiritual joys.
It is important to mention that modern pharmaceutic companies and Western trained doctors should not give up Western medicine, which is very prevalent today. Pharmaceutic companies and Western trained doctors can use sugar-coated medical pills which people in generally like, instead of practicing genuine chi kung. They can have spiritual joys besides their physcial ones.
Practicing chi kung takes years, but my Intensive Chi Kung Course takes only a few days. Students in other schools do not know what they will learn next, but my Intensive Chi Kung Course is well structured, and teaching points are transmitted to students systemmatically. My Intensive Chi Kung Course concerns learning; they learn in a few days what is necessary for them to practice chi kung from a beginning level to a master's level.
One great advantage I have in chi kung is that I have hundreds of classes, whereas most masters have the same class that follows the masters every year. Therefore, I have a lot of opportunities to gain in my regional courses of a few hours to put into my intensive courses of a few days.
I transmit the skills from heart to heart. It is from the heart of the master to the heart of the students, and is found in my autobiography, "The Way of the Master". Thus our students can start straight-away, instead of waiting to develop the skills if they ever will.
In the Intensive Taijiquan Course, stance training is not performed in the Intensive Chi Kung Course, but the Intensive Chi Kung Course is triple-cultivation, that is cultivation of "jing", "qi" and "shen". In other words, by taking the Intensive Chi Kung Course as well as the Intensive Taijiquan Course and the Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course, participants enjoy triple-cultivation.
Question 2
Looking through the Shaolin Wahnam website I found this article which is very helpful: Opening the Heart and the Heart of Confidence.
— John, Ireland
Answer
Opening the Heart and the Heart of Confidence is indeed a very important link.
"Dancing Fairy", "Lifting the Sky" and "Separating Water" are effective ways to open the heart. "Separating Water" is very powerful; it should be performed with care.
If your heart is close, which means you are indifferent, depressed or sad, you should open it. "Dancing Fairy" and "Lifting the Sky" are very good exercises. I perform "Lifting the Sky" almost every day.
"Openning the Heart"
Question 3
I watched Sifu do the Flower Set just now. Even though I watched it a good few times over the years on the Shaolin Wahnam website and when I bought Sifu's biography, the Way of the Master, but I don't think I appreciated it. Of course, I thought it was great then and was interested in it as the root of Wing Choon but it didn't strike me like it has just now.
Answer
The "Flower Set" was Ng Mui's favorite, and Ng Mui was the Shaolin Eldest, which meant she was very good at kungfu. Ng Mui taught Yim Yim Choon who was the first patriarch of Wing Choon Kungfu, and many people thought of Wing Choon Kungfu as very effective for fighting.
Ng Mui was certainly a very good fighter. She fought single-handedly against palace guards against the Qing emperor, Yong Cheng, who himself was a very good fighter who wore a golden armour to protect himself. Yet she killed Yong Cheng to avenge the burning of the Shaolin monasteries. It was reputed that she was Lu Sai Leong before she became Ng Mui.
The beauty of the "Flower Set" can be manifested in its deception and speed. The link, Combat Sequences in the "Flower Set" for the Legacy of Ng Mui Course, shows two of combat sequences of the "Flower Set". They also represent the essence of what I learned from Sifu Choe Hoong Choy.
Question 4
I just loved preparing and learning the San Feng Set, two hours every evening on the patio under an oak tree surrounded by vineyards and olive trees. I realize now, being able to do the shouts and explode force loudly and vocally is very important.
Answer
Wudang Kungfu is wonderful. "San Feng Wudang Set" is a beautiful set. It is short and concise, and it includes "Garment Receives Flowing Breeze" or "Gentle Breeze through Sleeves", which sums up the beauty of the set and can be used for any attack.
It is a tribute to Zhang San Feng, who combined "jing", "qi" and "shen", or physical, emotional, mental and spiritual cultivation in Western terms into one unity. It is the essence of Shaolin Wahnam, i.e. triple-cultivation.
In other words, by just performing a kungfu set alone we can have triple-cultivation. Not many genuine masters can do that. This, of course, does not mean we can forget about other exercises. For example, by performing "One-Finger Shooting Zen" we can train flowing force and consolidated force, much better than many other force training exercises.
It is important to shout when performing "One-Finger Shooting Zen". If you do not want to disturb other people, you can open your mouth gently when breathing out.
So now we know the secret why you improved so rapidly and that you would become a great Shaolin master one day. Practicing the "San Feng Wudang Set" every evening for two hours was indeed very good.
A combat sequence for the legacy of Ng Mui
Question 5
However, if I just exhale air without shouting when doing Cotton Palm or OFSZ, it doesn't feel right. I want to ask Sifu if I should just do stance-training without OFSZ or exploding force in Cotton Palm i.e doing Cotton Palm silently. Sifu, is exploding force silently in OFSZ a way to reduce the risk of over-training?
Answer
You can do just stance training without OFSZ or "One-Finger Shooting Zen". Stance training is in fact one of the best exercises to develop internal force and mental clarity.
Cotton Palm training should not be done silently. You can open your mouth gently if you do not want to disturb your neighbours.
Performing "One-Finger Shooting Zen" silently is a bad way to reduce the risk of over-training. You should open your mouth gently when breathing out. Spending time to get a good girlfriend is a better way to prevent over-training.
Question 6
Thank you for continuing to release the Questions Answers series as they provide invaluable gems of wisdom for our modern age.
As I progress deeper into standing meditation, I've noticed that the quieter my mind is, the more I am aware of my self/awareness/consciousness.
— Stephen, USA
Answer
The Questions-Answers Series is very popular. It was first inspired by Sifu Lee Yin Erng of "New Martial Hero". The "New Martial Hero" is now not operational.
My early questions are more functional, and they concern the public. My later questions concern students and instructors of Shaolin Wahnam.
As we go deeper into standing meditation, we go deeper into self/awareness/consciousness. This is a development. Congratulations.
More than 80% of "chi kung" practitioners cannot relax or be focussed at the same time. Hence they do not get any chi kung benefits. Many of them are still weak and sickly. The great majority of less than 20% practice low level chi kung.
We are exceptional. We practice genuine, high level chi kung. Many other people not in our school will not like what I said, but it is the truth. Ten years ago I would not believe we could achieve this high level.
Chi comes from both ourselves as well as from a chi kung state of mind. Everything in the universe is made of chi, or energy. In the phenomenal realm we are differentiated into countless entities. For example, I have a computer in front of me, there are chairs and tables, and there are trees outside, and countless other things.
"Cosmic Breathing"
Question 7
Does chi ultimately come from our higher level of consciousness and not from the external Cosmos? Is that why entering into a chi kung state of mind is so critical?
Answer
"A chi kung state of mind" is a new term coined by the great chi kung master, Yan Xin, of China. In the past it was known as "entering Zen" or "entering Tao". In Western terms it is entering into a higher level of consciousness.
Different beings in the phenomenal realm will experience reality differently. Reality in the phenomenal realm will depend on how energy enters the sense organs, especially the eyes and the intellect. As humans have the same sense organs, we humans will experience the same reality. But a buffalo and a goose, or a nature spirit and a god, because of different sense organs, will experience reality differently.
In the transcendental realm, it is just energy or consciousness. It does not mean that in the phenomenal realm we humans imagine reality when it is not present. But when all sense organs are discarded, when all conditions are discarded, reality in the transcendental realm is just energy or consciousness. "Phenomenal" actually means "of appearances".
"Entering into a chi kung state of mind" is very critical. That is why most "chi kung" practitioners are so weak and sickly because they have not "entered into a chi kung state of mind", i.e. they do not relax and be focused at the same time. They can't run after a bus nor jump over a chair.
Question 8
Qigong exercises like Flicking Fingers, Cosmic Breathing and Zhan Zhuang don't require the active attention of absorbing chi from the air around us. However, these exercises do demand a very deep chi kung state of mind or consciousness to be effective.
Answer
Qigong is usually spelt as "chi kung" and is pronounced as /ch'i kung/. Chi kung exercises like "Flicking Fingers", "Cosmic Breathing" and "Zhan Zhuang" require both "entering into a chi kung state of mind" as well as absorbing energy or air around us. Indeed, as a general rule the more advanced an exercise is, the more its energy will be absorbed.
"Flicking Fingers", "Cosmic Breathing" and "Zhan Zhuang" are all advanced exercises. "Zhan Zhuang", or stance training, is an advanced exercise, as it develops internal force and mental clarity, though it is usually performed at the beginning of a practitioner's kungfu carrier.
Presuming all things are equal -- a presumption that is never true in real life -- I would place the three arts in this ascending order as they are practiced in Shaolin Wahnam: "Zhan Zhuang", "Comic Breathing" and "Flicking Fingers". It is incredible that by "Flicking Fingers" just 3 times we can develop so much internal force and mental clarity within 5 minutes.
Question 9
My current experience also suggests that just by entering into a deep chi kung state of mind, I seem to generate blissful energy.
Answer
It is just by entering into a "deep chi kung state of mind", you can generate so much blissful energy. "Entering into a chi kung state of mind" is a rare skill.
More than 80% of people who practice "chi kung" cannot do it; and less than 20% do not realize that they have occasionally "entered a chi kung state of mind". Hence they do not accumulate continuously good health, vitality and longevity although they may practice every day.
I did not know "entering into a chi kung state of mind" was a necessary condition during my student's days. I only knew about it later during my teaching.
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
- Entering into a Chi Kung State of Mind
- Generating an Energy Flow in Chi Kung
- Abridged San Feng Wudang Set
- Why was Ng Mui or Zhang San Feng Better than Masters even in their Specialized Arts?
- Like Magic Dreams