TECHNIQUES AND SKILLS OF COSMIC SHOWER
Carrying the Moon is a chi kung technique
Question
At St. Pete, you taught us how to use Lifting the Sky and Carrying the Moon from the 18 Lohan hands to generate a Cosmic Shower.
1. What are the benefits of having a Cosmic Shower vs. having a vigorous chi flow induced by Lifting the Sky and/or Carrying the Moon?
2. There are times when I become tired from traveling and working long hours. Can we generate a Cosmic Shower on the spot to energize ourselves without practicing Lifting the Sky or Carrying the Moon first? If so, how do we go about doing so?
Stephen
Answer
It is helpful to differentiate between techniques and skills. Not many people -- masters or students, in the past or at present -- realize the difference, and as a result they miss the wonderful benefits we get.
Techniques have form, whereas skills are formless, though one may also notice how skillful or otherwise practitioners perform certain techniques. Techniques refer to what movements you do to attain certain result. Skills refer to how well and what special abilities you possess in performing those movements.
The difference between techniques and skills is more readily make clear with some examples.
Lifting the Sky and Carrying the Moon are techniques. All the chi kung patterns in the Eighteen Lohan Hands, like Shooting Arrows, Plucking Stars and Separating Water, are techniques. All the chi kung patterns in the Eighteen-Lohan Art, like Worshipping Buddha, Reverse Hanging of Double Hooks and Swallow Flies through Clouds, are techniques.
When one practitioner performs Lifting the Sky shoddily and another practitioner performs Lifting the Sky elegantly, the difference is in skills. The technique is the same. Both practitioners use the same technique, which is Lifting the Sky. But their skills are different. The first performance is shoddy; the skill of the performer is poor. The second performance is elegant; the performer’s skill is good.
But what concern us here are not the skills of performing the form shoddily or elegantly. What concern us are chi kung skills, i.e. abilities to employ the technique to manage energy in certain ways, such as generating an energy flow and enjoying a cosmic shower. Other important chi kung skills are having self-manifested chi movements, building a ball of energy at the dan tian, clearing blockage, developing internal force, attaining mental clarity and expanding into the Cosmos.
Failure to realize the difference between techniques and skills results in three major setbacks for chi kung and kungfu practitioners.
The most serious setback is that the practitioners do not derive the benefits the art they practice is meant to give. Because they do not have the skill of generating energy flow, thousands of chi kung practitioners all over the world remain sick and weak despite practicing chi kung for many years. Their techniques are correct, but they fail to realize that they lack the skills to practice their techniques as chi kung. They practice them as gentle physical exercise.
Because they do not have the skills of using kungfu for combat, thousands of kungfu practitioners all over the world use kick-boxing for sparring and fighting. Their kungfu techniques are correct, but they lack the skills to use the techniques for combat.
Thousands of people think that they can learn chi kung or kungfu from books, videos or even from an e-mail. They fail to realize that even when they have learnt the techniques from books, videos or e-mails, if they do not have the skills which they have to learn form living competent teachers, they will not benefit from their practice.
It is also because of this failure to realize the difference between techniques and skills that many people wrongly think all teachers are the same. They fail to realize that different teachers can produce vastly different results even when the same art is taught. These people also wrongly think that if they know the techniques, they can start teaching other people.
The second setback is that those who succeed in getting the desired results even when they may not realize the difference between techniques and skills take a long time to do so. This applies to only a small percentage of practitioners.
Of the total number of people who practice chi kung in the world today, only about 20% can generate an energy flow on purpose, and therefore practice genuine chi knng with benefits of good health, vitality and longevity. The other 80% practice chi kung techniques as gentle physical exercise.
Of the total number of people who practice kungfu in the world, only about 10% are able to apply their kungfu techniques for combat, and therefore practice genuine kungfu as a martial art. The other 90% practice kungfu techniques for demonstration and use kick-boxing for combat.
Because we realize the difference between techniques and skills, and apply them in our training, we are able to obtain results in a relatively short time. It has become quite ridiculous but true that our students can generate an energy flow or apply kungfu techniques for combat in a matter of months when the 20% chi kung practitioners and 10% kungfu practitioners would take years.
The third setback for those who do not realize the difference between techniques and skills but still derive the benefits of their training is that they are limited in the relationship between techniques and results, whereas we are versatile.
For example, if they want to have a cosmic shower, they have to perform the technique with which they have trained to acquire cosmic shower. They would be unable to use another technique. For us, once we have the skill of cosmic shower, we can use any technique to enjoy it, though we may prefer some techniques over others due to their cost-effectiveness.
If they wish to have internal force at their arms, they have to use the technique with which they have trained to have internal force at their arms. They would be unable to use another technique. They would also be unable to channel their internal force to other parts of their body, like to their stomach to digest food. For us, once we have the skill of to develop internal force, and the skill to direct it to where we want, we can use any technique to do so.
The same technique can be used to operate different skills. For example, we can use Lifting the Sky to generate an energy flow, have a cosmic shower or develop internal force.
On the other hand, the same skill can be operated by different techniques. For example, if we want to generate an energy flow, we can use Carrying the Moon or Pushing Mountain besides Lifting the Sky.
In fact we can use any exercise to generate an energy flow. Generating an energy flow is a fundamental skill. This means that before we can operate any chi kung skills, like having a cosmic shower or developing internal force, we must first generate an energy flow.
Indeed, generating an energy flow is the essence of chi kung. If there is no energy flow, it is not chi kung. It is only some gentle physical exercise. In our school, energy flow is quite obvious. It may not be obvious in most other schools.
In theory we can also use any chi kung exercise to generate a cosmic shower. But in practice certain exercises are more cost-effective than others. Lifting the Sky and Carrying the Moon happen to be two of the most cost-effective. In other words, if all other things were equal, if one performs Lifting the Sky or Carrying the Moon, he will have a better and faster cosmic shower than another person performing other chi kung exercises like Shooting Arrows, Nourishing Kidneys and Big Boss Lifts Bronze Vessel.
Having a cosmic shower and having a vigorous chi flow are two different skills with different benefits. Both these skills are best operated using Lifting the Sky or Carrying the Moon. But the benefits are different.
The benefits of having a cosmic shower may be classified into three categories, namely cleansing, building and nourishing.
In cleansing, a cosmic shower clears away physical, emotional, mental and spiritual blockage. In building, a cosmic shower makes a practitioner stronger physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. In nourishing, a cosmic shower purifies a practitioner in all his physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspect.
After a cosmic shower, for example, a practitioner will be more emotionally stable, and he will find the world more beautiful.
The main function of a vigorous chi flow is to clear blockage, especially physical blockage. It is an excellent way to overcome pain and illness.
A main difference between a vigorous chi flow and a cosmic shower in clearing blockage is that although the former is vigorous it is more at the physical and surface level. A cosmic shower, though gentle, goes deeper, and operates at the emotional, mental and spiritual levels besides the physical.
If a person wishes to overcome diabetes or chronic pain, for example, having a vigorous chi flow is the best choice. If he wishes to clear some perverted views or attain mental clarity, a cosmic shower is a better choice.
When you have become skillful in operating a cosmic shower, you can generate one on the spot to energize yourself without practicing Lifting the Sky, Carrying the Moon or any other chi kung exercise! The procedure is as follows.
Adopt a suitable position, like sitting comfortably on a chair or standing upright and be relaxed. Enter into a chi kung state of mind. Gently visualize or have a gentle thought that cosmic energy showers from above down your head, shoulder, arms and legs into the ground. Let the cosmic shower cleanse, strengthen or nourish you.
This is a master’s skill, but all those who have attended a Cosmic Shower course can do it.
The description of the method is simple, but unless one has the skills, he will not be able to have a cosmic shower even when he follows the instructions faithfully – a fact that many people do not know or refuse to accept. It is like swimming or driving a car. Unless one already has the skills of swimming or driving, not only he will not be able to swim or drive a car by merely following the instructions of the techniques, it is also risky to do so.
Why are our students able to learn a master’s skill in a course of only one day? It is because the skill is transmitted to them. Once they have the skill, they need only practice a suitable technique to generate a cosmic shower.
Those who do not realize the difference between techniques and skills will have to practice a suitable technique for many years. A small percentage of these practitioners will eventually acquire the skill of generating a cosmic shower, often without their conscious knowing. By that time, these small percentage of dedicated practitioners would be acknowledged as masters by other practitioners.
Let us take an example of a hundred persons practicing Lifting the Sky. They practice the chi kung pattern not as chi kung but as gentle physical exercise. After a few years about twenty of them may have some gentle chi flow.
After a few more years, two or three of these twenty persons may experience a cosmic shower. As they do not have a sound understanding of chi kung philosophy, they may not know that the cosmic shower can cleanse, strengthen and nourish them in their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects. Hence, the benefits they get are incidentally, unlike us who work towards the benefits purposely, and in a much shorter time.
Students using the technique of Lifting the Sky to generate the skill of Cosmic Shower
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread 18 Lohan Hands: 10 Questions to Grandmaster Wong in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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