SPIRITUAL CULTIVATION, FAMILY LIFE AND ENVIRONMENT
All our chi kung training will enrich family life
Question
When a person cultivates his/her spirit, does that have an effect on his/her family and environment, without them doing anything directly or even without knowing about it? Could he or she even change the nature that surrounds him/her (plants, stones and animals), like improve the feng shui of the places?
What would be the most priority and needed principles that the legacy of Zhang San Feng in the practice of Taijiquan that could contribute to the daily life of a student? How could different benefits vary in students who are in a beginner, medium or advanced level? What could be the main limitations for a student who doesn’t achieve good results in his/her practice?
Paz
Answer
When a person cultivates his (or her) spirit, it, i.e. the environment, as well as he (or she), due to his uplifted spirit as a result of correct cultivation, will have an effect on his family and environment, though science in its present stage of development has not explained the betterment. The family or people in the environment have not done anything special, or even know about the spiritual cultivation of the person.
I remember reading a classic that the filial piety of a son was so great that it moved heaven to do its work for the son. I also read in another chi kung classic that the good thoughts of a people could affect the environment.
We can verify this happening in our school. Although I haven’t performed a scientific research, I believe that most students in our school have a happy family and a happy environment. Whenever our students practice our art, they cultivate their spirit.
How does this occur? How does the spiritual cultivation of a person favorably affect himself and his environment?
When a person cultivates his spirit, he becomes peaceful and happy. His sense or feeling of peace and happiness spreads and influences other people. This is expressed in the English proverb that “Birds of the same feathers flock together”.
You can test out this experiment easily. Speak to someone peacefully and happily. You will have a favorable response. Now speak the same things to someone anrily or rudely. You can be sure that the response will be different.
I just had a real event yesterday. I took advantage of a few holidays to visit Sekinchan (a small town in Selangor, Malaysia) famous for rice growing and seafood. A car was parked blocking the entrance, and a stream of cars could not come out of their parking lot. No one dared to ask the driver of the blocking car, who was outside his car, to move the car away.
I approached the man and asked him to move his car away so as not to block the stream of cars moving out. He did, but he told me that he blocked the way so as to find out who spoiled his rice plants. He was the owner of a wide field of rice plants, and some people had maliciously stepped on them. I told him that it was wrong for people to spoil his rice plants, but it was also wrong for him to block the entrance. I also told him that if he could forgive these people, he would be richly rewarded, which was true in Cosmic dimension though it was not normally explained in our phenomenal realm.
I later told my wife and Wei Foong, who were with me in the trip, that I had kungfu and would be ready to use it if necessary. On hindsight, I realize it is because of my spiritual cultivation. Even if I did not know any kungfu, had I spoken to the man peacefully and happily, which are the fundamental benefits of spiritual cultivation, he would respond favorably.
How does spiritual cultivation affect the environment? The environment, in fact the whole universe, is undifferentiated energy, or consciousness, known as “spirit” in some culture. When we cultivate spiritually we improve the quality and quantity of this energy or spirit.
In our phenomenal realm, we differentiate this energy or spirit into myriad things. Hence, when a person cultivates his spirit, the improved energy or spirit has a favorable effect on his family and environment.
When a person practices spiritual cultivation he can change the nature that surrounds him. It is difficult to believe, but it was true that the famous chi kung master from China, Sifu Yan Xin, could change the molecular structure of liquids. His experiments were confirmed by world renowned scientists.
Many years ago before my travels overseas, in an experience a chi kung instructor from our school sucked chi from a luxuriant plant. After a few days the plant withered. Then he sent chi to it. After another few days the plant became luxuriant again.
If the weather permits, we practice chi kung, which includes spiritual cultivation, in the open. The chi we emit is bad, but it is good chi to other beings, like ants and plants.
“Feng shui” is about chi in places. When we practice spiritual cultivation we improve the chi, thus improving the “feng shui” of the places.
The most priority and needed principles that the Legacy of Zhang San Feng in the practice of Taijiquan will contribute to the daily life of students, depend on individuals. Most people cannot relax and empty their mind of all thoughts. If you are a martial artist and want to be successful in sparring, you must perform your movements in one flow without any break.
But I can say that all the principles in the Legacy of Zhang San Feng are important. The three courses we have this year -- in England, Puerto Rico and Malaysia -- are wonderful opportunities to highlight them and put them into our daily life.
Briefly, the principles of the Legacy of Zhang San Feng are as follows:
- Empty the mind of all thoughts
- Do not tense any muscles
- Loosen the waist
- Apply the principle of false-real
- Apply the principle of sinking and pressing
- Use intention, not strength
- Co-ordinate the top and bottom part of the body
- Integrate internal and external aspects of training
- Perform patterns continuously in one gentle, graceful flow without any break
- Movement in stillness and stillness in movement
Incidentally, emptying the mind of all thoughts is also the problem faced my most people. No matter what they do, whether walking down a street or eating their breakfast, myriad thoughts come to their head.
Some people, due to some odd reasons, confuse emptying the mind of all thoughts with the inability to think. When asked to empty their mind of all thoughts, they believe they may become morons. It is just the opposite. If we can empty our mind of all thoughts, we attain pristine mental clarity.
When we have mental clarity, we can perform anything better. The more mental clarity we have, the better we perform.
Three principles that I list as contributing to daily life are as follows:
- Apply the principle of false-real
- Integrate internal and external aspects of training
- Perform patterns continuously in one gentle, graceful flow without any break
I apply the principles of false-real in much of my sparring. I give a feint move to distract an opponent, then strike him will a real move. In daily life, distraction is very important. Many successful persons distract their opponents, then materialize their intention.
To classify kungfu into external and internal is for convenient. All martial arts are internal and external. A karateka needs to be calm when in combat. His calmness is internal. In the past, a ninja needed a lot of patience to wait for his opponent. His patience was internal.
Martial artists can beat their opponents because their movements are in one continuous flow. If their movements were staccato, they might not have won. Performing various movements in one flow is important in daily life. If a businessman is staccato, not only he would waste time, he might not be successful in his endeavor.
While these principles are important to all students irrespective of whether they are at a beginner, medium or advanced level, they are also progressive in importance. In other words, emptying the mind of all thoughts is relatively important for beginners, integrating internal and external aspects of training is relatively important for medium students, and performing patterns continuously in one gentle, graceful flow without any break is relatively important for advanced students.
If beginners do not empty their minds of all thoughts, which will result in mental clarity, they will be unable to practice their art or be successful in their daily life. Similarly, if medium students cannot integrate internal and external aspects of their training, or advanced students cannot perform their movements continuously in one flow, they may fail in their art or daily life.
For example, in their daily life if beginners do not have mental clarity, they will fail in whatever they do. If medium students do not have perseverance in whatever they do, i.e. do not integrate internal and external aspects of their training, they will not be successful. If advanced students do not perform their task continuously in one flow, they will waste a lot of time.
The Legacy of Zhang San Feng is not just to be successful in Wudang Kungfu or Taijiquan, but more significantly in our daily life.
All our kungfu training will enrich our environment
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread Questions to Grandmaster on Wudang Kungfu/Taijiquan & Zhang San Feng in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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