HOW TO GET BENEFITS FROM SINEW METAMORPHOSIS
Following the teacher's instructions is crucial in getting good results
Question 6
1. I have learned Sinew Metamorphosis before, but for whatever reason it 'did not work'. This is in contrast to other advanced practices I learned at the time such as Cosmic Breathing or Cosmic Shower, which had noticeable "Wow!" effects. What advice can you give to people for whom there is no noticeable effect when they first learn Sinew Metamorphosis?
2. After several years of regular training I tried once again Sinew Metamorphosis after a refresher from your books. It initiates a gentle chi flow, but again I seem to get different results from other students. Is this an intellectual blockage, a meridian blockage, or both?! As my regular training is very good and very beneficial, I don't hold on to this detail, but I thought I would raise the topic here as it is relevant.
3. Sinew Metamorphosis seems very esoteric to the uninitiated. If introducing the concept to the general public (non-student), what is a good and concise way of describing the practice and the effects?
Sifu Andy Cusick
If a student does not receive satisfactory result in the art he practices, the fault can be traced to three factors:
- The art itself.
- The teacher.
- The student.
If the art is not genuine, no matter how good the student and the teacher are, the student will not get satisfactory result. This is the situation of most kungfu and chi kung practiced today. Kungfu has been so ridiculously debased that students cannot use their kungfu for combat, and chi kung has been so ridiculously debased that students are still sick and weak after many years of training.
If the art is genuine but the teacher is incompetent, the student will also not receive the benefit practicing the art is meant to give. This was the case when kungfu and chi kung first spread from China. In China in the past, kungfu and chi kung were genuine. But the teachers who later taught these arts were incompetent, resulting that only the external forms of kungfu and chi kung were taught.
If the art is genuine and the teacher is competent but the student is unable or unwilling to learn, he will also not receive the benefits the art is meant to give. This is the case in our school, Shaolin Wahnam, where the art is genuine and the teachers competent. In regional courses, for example, when I asked students to raise their hands to show that they received the benefits the art was meant to give, more than 90% of the class did so, indicating that the art was genuine and the teacher competent.
Thus, those who did not receive the benefits had themselves to blame. Probably they were intellectualizing or did not follow my instructions when I transmitted the skills necessary to receive the benefits. On some occasions I investigated further and found that those who did not receive the benefits intellectualised when I transmitted the skills, and a few did not follow my instructions though they never meant to be disrespectful. For example, when I asked them to breath out and be relaxed, they were still flicking their fingers.
My advice to people in general for whom there is no noticeable effect when they first learn Sinew Metamorphosis is to attend my regional courses on Sinew Metamorphosis. This sounds arrogant to those not exposed to our teaching, and that is their business. I am not going to waste my time persuading them to attend my classes. After all, I offer them a golden opportunity to experience the wonderful benefits of Sinew Metamorphosis in just 4 hours — an opportunity they are unlikely to get anywhere else in the world. For those who heed my advice and attend my Sinew Metamorphosis classes, I shall do my best for them.
My advice to students who attend my Sinew Metamorphosis class is to just follow my instructions and they will get the best benefits. Indeed, this is the exact instruction I give in all my Sinew Metamorphosis classes, and in most other classes. “Just follow my instructions” means just follow my instructions. My instructions are always reasonable and can be performed by all students, like “opening your mouth gently”, “flick your fingers three times”, “breathe out gently”, “let go”.
When I ask the class to open their mouth gently, for example, and a student look at his feet to adjust them, he is not following my instructions. When I ask the class to flick their fingers three times, and a student continue flicking his fingers many times, he is also not following my instructions.
Students need not follow my instructions perfectly. If they can follow most of my instructions, and more importantly have a mind-set to just follow my instructions, in contrast to performing the exercise the way they think is best for them, they will receive my transmission and the wonderful benefits of Sinew Metamorphosis.
The above advice is given to people, including our students, in general. You may be an exception. For some odd reasons, Sinew Metamorphosis might not be suitable for you at the time you practiced it. It may or may not be in future.
Sinew Metamorphosis is a powerful art, and it takes at least many months, if a practitioner is lucky, to develop the necessary skills to derive its powerful benefits. It is ridiculous, in a good sense, that students in my Sinew Metamorphosis can gain these wonderful benefits in just a few hours. This is because of my heart-to-heart transmission.
When you learned Sinew Metamorphosis form my books, you learned the technique but missed the heart-to-heart transmission. With your experience and knowledge you can develop the necessary skills to have the benefits if you continue practicing daily for a few months, but not acquire those benefits in a few hours.
You may have developed more power than students in my Sinew Metamorphosis class, but you would not have an “wow” effect because your power has been developed gradually over the few months. This would be an intellectual blockage as you may be aware of its underlying philosophy, and not a meridian blockage as you would still obtain the benefits albeit gradually over a few months.
It is wise that you do not hold on to the details as you still obtain wonderful benefits from other exercises, but it is beneficial to know the underlying philosophy as it applies not only to Sinew Metamorphosis but also to other aspects in our daily life.
Indeed, this is one of the many benefits in reading these questions and answers. Not only we can be more efficient in our training in the respective arts, we can also enrich our daily lives with the understanding contained in the answers.
Not only is Sinew Metamorphosis but all our training is esoteric to the uninitiated. Even when other people are sympathetic and not hostile to us, they will find it hard to believe our claims even when we have abundant evidence, like most other practitioners are performing kungfu gymnastics and gentle physical exercise and not genuine kungfu and genuine chi kung, and that our typical student can attain in one month what a genuine master would take more than a year to attain.
It is our policy that what they believe and practice is their right and business, and we are not going to persuade them to learn from us. But if they do learn from us and abide by our rules, especially the Ten Shaolin Laws, we will be generous to share our knowledge, skills and benefits with them.
Not only we do not introduce Sinew Metamorphosis to the general public, we also not introduce Sinew Metamorphosis to our beginning students. When we introduce our arts to anybody, we give him the essence, not just the outward form. We want him to personally experience the benefits from his practice, not just orally tell him the benefits.
To experience the benefits of Sinew Metamorphosis, one must be ready. The general public and our beginning students are not ready. The general public, for example, do not even know how to enter into a chi kung state of mind. For our beginning students, even if we succeed in transmitting the benefits to them, the internal force generated from Sinew Metamorphosis may be too powerful for them and it may result in their over-training.
Nevertheless, if we want to introduce the concept of Sinew Metamorphosis to the general public, but not to teach them the art, a good and concise way of describing the practice and the effects is tell them that Sinew Metamorphosis practiced in our school is very simple — simpler than what most people imagine a powerful and advanced exercise to be — but the effects are tremendously beneficial. It produces tremendous mental clarity and internal force, enabling practitioners to have better result no matter what they do.
But students in most other schools perform only the outward form of Sinew Metamorphosis but do not obtain the desired result. Most people may not believe in what we say, though we are honest as well as courageous in saying this, and some may be angry. That is their business, not ours.
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on Sinew-Metamorphosis in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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