SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
APRIL 2018 PART 1
Over-training has become an important issue in our school. Students must guard against over-training
Question 1
What is the difference between over-training and wrong training?
— Marc, Germany
Answer
This is an excellent question. Over-training has become an important issue in our school.
It is paradoxical. We have become so cost-effective that our students get more benefits than their body can bear. This is over-training.
Over-training is practicing correctly, but the benefits are more than what the body can bear. Over-training is different from incorrect training, or worse, wrong training.
We make a difference between incorrect training and wrong training. Incorrect training is not training correctly, like not in a chi kung state of mind. Incorrect training may not be harmful, but it does not bring chi kung benefits, like overcoming illness and attaining good health.
Wrong training is worse than incorrect training. It is training wrongly, like tensing ones muscles or intellectualizing unnecessarily. Not only it does not bring benefits, wrong training brings harm.
Question 2
What are the symptoms of over-training?
Answer
There are three obvious symptoms: tiredness, pain and discomfort.
Correct training makes practitioners energetic. But if they over-train and have more energy than their body can bear, they become tired. It is nature's way of telling them to rest.
Correct training clears pain and illness. But if they over-train, the clearing may become drastic and if their blockage is thick, pain results.
It is helpful to differentiate between good pain and bad pain. Correct training clears blockage, and good pain may result. Over-training generates too much energy which attempts to push through the blockage, resulting in bad pain. Bad pain is also the result of injury or illness.
One can tell good pain from bad pain by experience, just like he can tell from experience that the sour taste of an orange is good from a tasty orange or bad from a rotten orange.
Correct training brings comfort, but if the benefits are too intense for his body to bear, he may feel uncomfortable.
In our school, the spirit of the sword is the dragon
Question 3
What should we do when we over-train?
Answer
There are 5 things you can do if you have over-trained, or to prevent over-training.
- Cut down the time of training. If you train kungfu for 2 hours a session, now train for only an hour. Spend the other hour with your girlfriend, or with your parents.
- Cut down the intensity of training. An excellent way is not to enter too deeply into a heightened level of consciousness, called entering into a chi kung state of mind, entering Zen or entering Tao in our school.
- Stop training for a day or two. Spend the time rewardingly.
- Spend time and energy in vigorous activities, like set practice, combat application, hiking, picnics, shopping and other outdoor activities. Many students reported that they felt energized, not tired, after these activities.
- Take negative actions, like purposely tensing your muscles or purposely intellectualizing. These negative actions are not advisable, but they may help to overcome over-training. It is good to have a short, gentle chi flow after these negative actions to clear any harm caused.
Question 4
What do you think is the most beautiful benefit of Cosmic Shower?
— Gallana, Germany
Answer
The most beautiful benefit of Cosmis Shower, which many of us experienced just now, is spiritual purification. After a Cosmic Shower, we have purified our spirit. As a result, we find things, events and people more beautiful than before.
When you go home, you will find your boyfriend or partner more beautiful. You will find your job and other people more beautiful. They haven't changed, but you have as a result of practicing Cosmic Shower. You spirit is purified, and you find everything more beautiful.
The most beautiful benefit of Cosmic Shower is spiritual purification
Question 5
One quick question I would ask is about something you wrote in your Qi Gung book that struck me as very profound. You said that originally, people moved with Qi. It was a natural and spontaneous thing that was an extension of the flow of Qi. This struck me, from my own experiences with gorillas, as quite true. Now, though, at least in the West, that I have seen, people are very rigid about "learning exact techniques" and never deviating from them. Why do you think that is?
— Dr Dawn Prince-Hughes, USA
Dr Dawn Prince-Hughes is a primatologist, anthropologist, anthropologist and martial artist. She worked with gorillas for many years and wrote a national bestseller called "Songs of the Gorilla Nation". She has established Yuan Gong Instutute with the aim to increase knowledge for everyone. Please see https://www.yuangonginstitute.com/
Answer
Chi flow, or flow of energy, is natural in every person. Like blood flow, chi flow is so natural and spontaneous that many people may not be aware of it. Indeed, it is chi flow that gives a living being, including a person or a gorilla, life. If his chi flow is stopped, that being becomes dead. If his chi flow is harmonious, that being is healthy.
There are many reasons why many people become rigid about "learning exact techniques" and never deviating from them. One very important reason, which influences many aspects of our lives, is Westernization.
Of course, Westernization has brought us tremendous benefits, some of which we sometimes take for granted. Getting water from a tap, having air-conditioning or heating, and receiving information from the internet at the touch of a few buttons, are just everyday examples. No one can deny the tremendous benefits we get from Westernization.
On the other hand, we should not forget the wisdom we have derived from the past. One important point we in Shaolin Wahnam have wanted to convey to the public is that good health is natural. In other words, if chi, or energy, flows to every part of a person to enable him (or her) to function his every part the way it is meant to function, he will not be sick.
Traditional Chinese medicine has made invaluable use of this important fact. Hence, in traditional Chinese medicine, every illness can be overcome. The main principle is to restore harmonious chi flow. This can be achieved in numerous ways, like using chi kung therapy, acupuncture and herbal medicine.
These numerous ways can also be used in conventional Western medicine. Instead of using chi kung therapy, acupuncture and herbal medicine, Western doctors may use medical drugs or whatever means researchers may discover.
Another important point I wish to mention is that "learning exact techniques" may not be enough. The people must also have the necessary skills.
This point is noticeable in chi kung and kungfu, the two arts taught in our school, though people outside our school may not realize it. For some reasons, many people who practice chi kung and kungfu today have the "exact techniques", but they do not have the necessary skills to overcome illness or to maintain good health, have vitality and longevity in the case of chi kung, or they do not have the necessary skills to use their kungfu for combat and to develop internal force.
Question 6
What is the spirit of the sword?
— Caroline, Germany
Answer
There is a saying in kungfu that a sabre is like a tiger, a sword like a phoenix and a spear like a dragon. The spirit of a sword is a phoenix, and the spirit of a sabre and a spear respectively is a tiger and a dragon.
When you perform a sword, you should express its spirit. You are like a phoenix flying happily in the sky. When you perform a sabre and a spear, you are like a tiger or like a dragon.
However, in our school the spirit of the swrod is a dragon. When you perform the Traveling Dragon Swrod, you should be like a traveling dragon, and not a phoenix or a tiger. You should not be too soft or dancelike like a phoenix; you should be quite forceful like a dragon.
But you should not be forceful like a tiger. Be a tiger when you perform the Plum Flower Sabre, but when you perform the Traveling Dragon Swrod, you are forceful like a dragon. You should also be flowing and graceful. When you perform the Plum Flower Sabre you should be forceful and courageous, with your eyes blazing.
Question 7
My health improved. My mental focus was also increased.
— Jones, USA
Answer
The improvement of your health and increase of mental focus are sure indications that your practice is correct.
Iron Wire is internal force training, but it is easy to train it wrongly as isometric exercise
Question 8
I begin to feel bodily detached, spacious and very aware. I also sense as if I'm not alone. It can get so deep that I can barely finish the set sometimes. On a couple of occasions, my voice even changed. I get kind of scared when my energy shifts like this.
Answer
There are two main possibilities.
- You may have deviated although your initial practice was right.
- There may be a spirit affecting your practice.
Question 9
This also happens to me with deep meditation practice with various other experiences that differ a little. Please tell me what you think this is. I have been practicing the Iron Wire set almost literally everyday without a gap for the last 8 years and I honestly enjoy it.
Answer
The adverse effects from either wrong practice or from a spirit affecting you, will also occur when you do something similar to what you have described.
It is easy to practice Iron Wire wrongly. Many people, including some masters, practice it as isometric exercise instead of as internal force training.
However, if you enjoy practicing Iron Wire, and you have practiced for 8 years you should continue doing so. But you need to check whether your adverse effect is due to deviation or a spirit affecting you.
For checking deviated practice, ensure that you are training internal force and not isometric exercise. A good way to tell the difference is whether you have developed big muscles.
Isometric exercise develops big muscles which can give you much mechanical strength. But the muscles can also make you feel "locked up" and dull.
Internal force training does not build muscles, but it gives you good health, vitality and longevity. You will feel fresh and full of energy.
A good way to check if you are affected by a spirit is to examine your eyes. If you are affected by a spirit, your eyes become dull. Otherwise, especialy with internal force training, you eyes are shinning.
You can also ask the spirit to leave you. Thank the spirit but tell it that you wish to train on your own. Have a Cosmic Shower to cleanse yourself before training. Then chant some scriptures according to your own religion for protection. Ask God or your deity to protect you.
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
- Chi Flow and Cash Flow
- How to Overcome or Prevent Over-Training
- Introduction to Kungfu Weapons
- Felling Supremely Joyful, Wonderfully Happy, Incredible Peaceful and Filled with Love
- Colourful Sunset