SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
SEPTEMBER 2013 PART 3
"Be healthy first, then think of combat" is an important tenet in kungfu training, but unfortunately today many martial artists become more unhealthy the more they train!
Question 1
I found your web site and I want to try chi kung! I'm not sure where to start since everything I have found is out of the country. I live in California.
Chi Kung is my last hope for healing. I have been a martial art practitioner for over 10 years and started trying new styles and hurt myself. Doctors have not been able to help me not even pain medicine has helped.
I hope that somehow maybe someone might be able to point me in the right direction, even just a website or recommend a teacher. I am desperate and any advice would be very helpful.
— Evelyn, USA
Answer
It is fortunate that you have discovered your harmful training just in time. It is unthinkable but true that many martial artists continue to train diligently even when their training has brought them a lot of harm and hardly any benefits!
Why does anyone practice any martial art?
There are two reasons -- to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones, and to be healthy.
Despite training diligently for many years they cannot defend themselves, and they become more unhealthy the more they train! And they do not even realize it.
Many people may be surprised at my statement that many martial artists cannot defend themselves. This is a fact. They may be good at punching and kicking people, including their students and their classmates, but they cannot defend themselves, otherwise they would not be routinely hurt in free sparring.
Indeed some martial art instructors go to the extent of telling their students that if they cannot stand some punches and kicks, how could they practice a martial art. This is non-sense. A main reason anyone practices a martial art is not to be punched or kicked at all, not even once. It is foolish to submit yourself to be routinely punched and kicked to train an art when you hardly use it for real fighting in our modern law abiding societies.
It is notorious that many martial artists today are constantly stressful and in pain, though many members of the public many not know this fact. The ignorant public think that martial artists are healthy. Martial artists would be healthy in the past, otherwise they could not be combat efficient. But not today. How could they be healthy when they routinely sustain injuries that are left unattended? Many martial artists today would be more healthy had they not trained their martial arts! Something is serious wrong in our martial art training today.
Conventional Western medicine would not be able to help you relieve your pain and injuries because your pain and injuries are caused by energy blockage, and energy blockage is not in the conceptual framework of conventional Western medicine at the present stage of its development.
You have come to the right place. We have helped many martial artists, including masters and international champions, overcome their pain and injuries. Please see our List of Chi Kung Healer and List of Certified Instructors for help. You may not find a healer or instructor in the town you live, but I would strongly recommend you to travel to one for help. Your health, daily performance and potential life-span are at stake.
Indeed, I see your case as a blessing in disguise. You will not only overcome your pain and injuries, but get benefits that you may not even have dreamt possible when you learn from one of our healers or instructors.
Question 2
I would like to start my email with a big thank you for your valuable heart to heart teachings, guidance and inspiration. I attended three of your seminars: in Dublin 2007, and Italy 2007 and 2008. I learned from you the following courses: Generating Chi Flow, Massaging Internal Organs, Sinew Metamorphosis, Cosmic Breathing and Cosmic Shower.
I have been practicing these Chi Kung skills ever since, twice a day, The results I have experienced were very beneficial to me: increased energy and vitality, increased mental strength and awareness, agility, and a better overall state of being.
— Yaron, USA
Answer
Congratulations for your wonderful benefits.
Chi kung is both an ancient art and modern science. It is very scientific -- if you perform action A you will have result B. Action A is practicing high-level chi kung correctly and consistently. Result B is enjoying wonderful benefits.
Participants in a Baguazhang course in our school using Baguazhang for combat. But today most kungfu practitioners do not know how to apply the kungfu they learn for combat!
Question 3
During the last two weeks I have been experiencing something different. My body feels very light and so does my head. I smile much more than I used to and people are smiling back at me. In addition, I find myself many times during the day going into spontaneous chi flow in which my whole body moves gently.
I would like to ask you what is the meaning and significance of this phenomena, how should I relate to it, and how should I continue with my chi kung exercises?
Answer
All these show that you have been practicing well and are getting very good results. The lightness in your head indicates you have attained mental freshness and clarity. You smile often because your heart has been opened. As a result you will find life more beautiful.
You have become very skillful. Hence you can go into a gentle chi flow even without performing any particular chi kung patterns. This is actually a master's skill. It is incredible that many of our students have this skill.
When this happens, you can choose to go into a chi flow if you want to. But if you don't want to, like when this happens in public, you can choose to sway gently, keep fairly still or to gently stop it. It is your choice.
It is like when you are walking down a street. What should you do. You can choose to carry on walking, walk more slowly, walk faster, change into a run or to stop. It is your choice.
You have done very well. Carry on your daily practice.
Question 4
There are no words that can describe my gratitude for you. You set an example for me as to how should a member of humankind behave and conduct himself.
Answer
Thank you for your compliments.
A teacher should be an example of the art he teaches. The better a teacher is, the more exemplary he manifests the benefits of his art.
This is only logical. But chi kung and kungfu have been degraded to such a ridiculous extent that many chi kung and kungfu teachers not only do not manifest the benefits of the arts are supposed to give, but even manifest the reverse results.
Chi kung is to make its practitioners healthy, yet many chi kung teachers are routinely sick. Kungfu is a martial art, yet many kungfu teachers do not know how to defend themselves! And to add salt to injury, many members of the public consider them experts.
A teacher is an example of the benefits of the art he teaches. Sifu Andrea and Sifu Anthony here are examples of good health and happiness.
Question 5
I recently took a chi kung course with a teacher who learned from Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit. After the first class I became very anxious.
— Li, UK
Answer
I am not sure whether you learned from a certified Shaolin Wahnam instructor or from someone who took a course from me and then taught on his own.
Our chi kung looks simple, and is actually simple, but it needs much skills to teach it properly. Many people fail to realize this point. In fact, the more simple an exercise, the more difficult it is to impart the skills needed to perform the exercise correctly.
For example, if there are ten movements in an exercise, and a student performs one movement wrongly, he is only 10% wrong, and the other correct movements can compensate for this one wrong movement.
But if there is only one movement in the exercise, and a student performs this one movement wrongly, he is 100% wrong.
Despite our telling students not to teach our chi kung to others unless they have been trained to do so, some people still do it. They may have good intentions, but they fail to realize that may cause harm to other people unknowingly.
You can see our List of Certified Instructors at here.
Question 6
I suffer from anxiety/panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder so I thought it was just my anxiety acting up after the first class but it continued to get worse by the end of 6 classes and it is still very bad.
Answer
Chi kung is excellent for overcoming anxiety and panic disorders. But you must practice genuine high-level chi kung correctly. There are three points to be noted -- genuine, high-level and correctly.
More than 80% of chi kung practitioners, including some masters, actually practice gentle physical exercise but they mistake it as chi kung. The outward forms are the same; the main difference is chi flow. Gentle physical exercise does not generate chi flow, but chi kung does.
Although low-level chi kung still generates chi flow, it may not be powerful enough to overcome anxiety and panic disorders or any illness. Low-level chi kung may contribute to good health, vitality and longevity, but its effects are minimal and can be off-set by other factors in daily living. The main difference between low-level chi kung and high-level chi kung is that the former takes a long time to have a little result, whereas the latter takes a short time to have a lot of results.
High-level chi kung must be practiced correctly. If it is practiced wrongly, it can bring powerful harmful side-effects. It is therefore necessary to practice high-level chi kung from a competent teacher.
Unlike medication, chi kung does not bring any harmful side-effects
Question 7
My anxiety seemed to be under control before starting the classes. It's been a month since the course ended and I stopped doing qigong twice a day because my anxiety/panic and obsessive compulsive disorders are the worst they have ever been.
Answer
Sometimes even when you practice high-level chi kung correctly, the symptoms of your illness may get worse! This is due to drastic cleansing, and is known in chi kung terms as "chi entering oven", which means the chi flow generated by your practice has entered the depth of your illness to flush out the root cause.
This can be uncomfortable, and we generally advice the student to slow down his practice so that the cleansing can be more gradual. He will take a longer time to recover but it is more pleasant.
But if you practice wrongly, like worrying or intellectualizing during your practice, you can also cause adverse effects. Follow the three golden rules of practice, namely don't worry, don't intellectualize, and enjoy the practice. Please note that these three golden rules apply only to those who learn from our certified instructors. The rules do not apply to other practitioners.
Question 8
Does chi kung have negative side effects? Would chi kung cause these types of symptoms? I learned Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung.
Answer
No, Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung or any chi kung practiced correctly does not have any negative side effects.
This is a very comforting fact. No matter what illness a person may suffer from, practicing genuine chi kung correctly cannot make his illness worse. At its worst it may not help him recover from his illness, but it will not make him worse. Even if he does not recover, his quality of life will be better than had he not practiced chi kung.
It is unlike medicine or surgery. Even when the medicine or surgery is correct, sometimes the patient may become worse due to acquiring another more serious illness.
Of course, the student must practice correctly. If he practices wrongly, the more powerful the chi kung is, the more potent are the negative side-effects. It is therefore very important to learn high-level chi kung personally from a competent teacher.
LINKS
Selected Reading
- Beyond Words, Thoughts and Intellect
- Shaolin Kungfu Training Programme
- Why should I Cast Pearls before Swines?
- Our Home in Sabah
- Using Kungfu in Free Sparring is Certainly Possible