COTTON PALM SKILLS IN DAILY LIFE
Sifu Barry and Sifu Tim exhibits excellent health by practicing Cotton Palm
Question
I would like to know how do we benefit more from the Cotton Palm skills for our daily life routines to ourselves and others?
Paz
Answer
Firstly, we shall address the question as how Cotton Palm can benefit us. Then we shall address the question as how Cotton Palm can benefit us more than most other chi kung, kungfu or spiritual cultivation exercises.
The main beneifts of chi kung are good health, vitality and longevity. The main benefit of kungfu are combat efficiency and good health. The main benefits of spiritual cultivation are being peaceful and happy at the everyday level, and expanding into the Cosmos at the Cosmic level.
These are fundamental benefits. If a person practicing any one of these arts, does not derive these benefits, either his art is not genuine or he has not practiced correctly. It is indeed shocking that many chi kung practitioners are still weak and sickly, many kungfu practitioners cannot defend themselves and are unhealthy, and may spiritual cultivators are stressful, dull and depressed!
If a person practices chi kung, he should be healthy, have vitality and longevity. To be healthy, he has firstly overcome his illness. It is chi flow, or flowing energy, that gives him these benefits.
If a person practices kungfu, he should be able to use his kungfu techniques and skills to defend himself. He should also be healthy and fit due to his practice.
The basic requirement for any spiritual cultivation is to be relaxed. It is also the first benefit a practitioner will get. As he continues with his practice, he will attain mental clarity. At a high level, he may expand into the Cosmos, and realize from direct experience that his spirit is not necessarily confined to his body.
Cotton Palm practiced in our school is chi kung, kungfu and spiritual cultivation at the same time. Hence, by practicing Cotton Palm, practitioners will get all the benefits mentioned above.
But Cotton Palm is not just ordinary chi kung, kungfu and spiritual cultivation. It is most advanced of chi kung, kungfu and spiritual cultivation. This means that by practicing Cotton Palm, one not only gets all these benefits, but gets the benefits in a very short time and at a very high level.
Because Cotton Palm is of a very high level, one must guard against over-training. Practitioners may need a paradigm shift. In other schools, dedicated practitioners want to get the best from their training. We don’t do this in our school. We purposely practice below our potiential. It is almost a joke, and others not used to our efficiency may think we are exaggerating or lying.
Nevertheless, because the health benefits of Cotton Palm is very powerful, if a person is sick, it is better for him to perform less powerful exercises like Self-Manifested Chi Movement, Eighteen Therapeutic Exercises and Five-Animal Play to overcome his illness. Cotton Palm can be too powerful. A sick person practicing Cotton Palm is like lifting weights or running a marathon.
Cotton Palm is excellent for combat. In the Cotton Palm course at the UK Summer Camp 2017, we used just one pattern, “Wave Sleeves Light Breeze”, to counter any attack, be it a strike, a kick, a felling attack, or a chin-na technique! Of course, we can also use just one pattern to attack.
The combat application of Cotton Palm is sophisticated. Many martial artists may not know how the Cotton Palm techniques are used in combat. The techniques can be very fast and powerful, yet the practitioner is not tired nor out of breath.
Cotton Pam is excellent for spiritual cultivation. Indeed, Zhang San Feng, the first patriarch of internal arts, practiced Wudang Kungfu to attain the Tao, which in Western context means returning to God the Holy Spirit. Cotton Palm is the highest of Wudang Kungfu. It is also the climax of Shaolin kungfu development.
Course participants use just one pattern, "Wave Sleeves Light Breeze", from the Cotton Palm set to counter any attack!
This question and answer are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions Cotton Palm in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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