Issue 6 - August 2005
- Editorial
- A few photos from the Summer Camp
- Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit answers questions from the forum
- Events and Dates for you diary
Editorial
Dear friends and students,
The UK Summer Camp 2005 in Canterbury was an outstanding success. So much better than I had anticipated. The volume of students wanting to take part was such that I had to get a larger venue at the last minute. In fact interest was so huge that even with a larger venue I still had to turn prospective students away.
One of my favourite memories is of seeing how many family groups were present on the Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung Courses. I cannot think of a better setting for a person's chi kung practice to flourish than in an environment where the whole family practices. Wonderful!
After the success of the 2005 Summer Camp Sifu Darryl Collett and myself have already started work on organising Summer Camp 2006, once details are available be certain to register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment!
As you read this I will be participating in the Special Combined course in Malaysia, you can be certain that I will share a few stories in next months Shaolin Wahnam Newsletter.
A few photos from the Summer Camp
 | Have a look at our summer camp page on the Shaolin Wahnam UK website |
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit answers questions from the forum
The questions were asked by members of the Shaolin Wahnam discussion forum
1) Do you think this (tightness at the belly) could be the sign of a deeper problem?
It could be, or it could not be, but it does not matter much either way. What is important is to relieve this tightness. It can be done by practicing genuine chi kung correctly and sufficiently.
2) How can I fight in stances if I am attacked on very uneven ground, on stairs for example? What modifications should I make?
You can fight in stances the same way as your fight on even or any ground, i.e. your stances must be both solid and agile. Normally you need not make any modifications. But should you need to make some, the modifications would depend on the particular situations in question. For example, if your opponent is fond of charging wildly, you should stand at the lower end of a sloping ground and tempt him to charge. As he charges at you, you could side step and push him down the slope.
3) What are the best ways to progress and keep ones qigong practice fresh if one is practicing the same exercises for years?
Enjoy your practice, don't intellectualize, and don't worry about benefits or mistakes.
4) I need instructions on how to practise running in a healthy way?
Run in a chi kung way, i.e. relaxed, focused, and in good breathing rhythm.
5) Should I leave out One Finger Zen until I apply for an Intensive Shaolin Kung Fu Course? Do you have any suggestions regarding the contents of my training sessions?
As you intend to attend my Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course, it is better to leave out One-Finger Shooting Zen now and learn it correctly from me later on. You will find there is a lot of difference. You are likely to say, "Wow, so much internal force", even the first time you do it at the course, as many course members have experienced it this way. If you learn it by yourself, you are likely to do it mechanically, and if you are conditioned to doing so, it may affect your "wow" result later on.
Your training programme is excellent. However, if you like you may add practicing the following kungfu sets:" Black Tiger Steals Heart", "Fierce Tiger Speeds Across Valley" and "Happy Bird Hops up Branch".
6) Could you share your favourite story that he (Sigung Ho Fatt Nam) may have told you and your classmates?
My favourite story was how the Venerable Jiang Nan escaped from the burning of the southern Shaolin Temple around 1850, and passed the Shaolin arts to Sigung Yang Fatt Khun and Sifu Ho Fatt Nam.
After searching 50 years for a successor, the Venerable Jiang Nan found Sigung Yang demonstrating kungfu at the Thai-Malaysian border. Although he was about 80 years old, the Venerable Jiang Nan played with the young kungfu master of around 30 of age like a child in subsequent sparring.
When Sigung Yang was about 70 and had retired from public teaching, Sifu Ho learnt from him. Sifu Ho was then about 30, and was already a formidable fighter, having learnt from six other masters and earning his living as a professional Muay Thai fighter.
Sifu Ho was helped by his senior classmate who opened the back door to let him slip in, prepared with traditional gifts for the master. He knelt before Sigung Yang, offering the gifts. Sigung Yang shook his head and sighed (as if an inevitable duty he would be glad to avoid was then trusted on him), and said, "This is heaven's destiny."
7) Can you please tell me which is the third eye, the acupuncture point between the eyebrows yintang or the spot above it tianmu? Is there a way to locate tianmu?
Yintang is the energy point, tianmu is the third eye. Tianmu in Chinese means "heaven eye". The spot where tianmu is located may be at yintang or it may be slightly above it.
Everyone has a yintang energy point, but not everyone has a third eye. If a person's yintang is "open", his yintang is also the third eye. If it is open a point above yintang, we can also say his yintang is a third eye too. Unlike in acupuncture, in kungfu nomenclature, terms and locations need not be rigidly exact. Although the centre of the third eye may be a point above yintang the area of the third eye covers the yintang energy point too.
8) Sifu, how have you prevented your Heart, all these years, from being harmed by the suffering of your patients and students? What keeps you on the path of healing?
By opening my Heart. Even when suffering of patients and students have hurt me, sometimes deeply, by opening my Heart and letting the energy therein flow, the hurtful feelings can be flushed out.
Two major things keep me on my path of healing (and teaching): the Ten Shaolin Laws, and the great Bodhisattva Guan Yin. Bodhisattva Guan Yin is my personal Bodhisattva who has been so very kind to me, my family and our school. The least I can do is to aspire to the virtue She is best known for, namely compassion.
9) Could you please share with us a time when you were afraid and then managed to overcome your fear?
The time I began to be afraid was about twenty years ago, and it carried on for about ten years. My greatest fear was that genuine traditional Shaolin arts (and in Shaolin Wahnam they include Wahnam Taijiquan) and their wonderful benefits would be lost to the world. This prompted me to set up Shaolin Wahnam, "Wahnam" being in honour of my two masters, Sifu Lai Chin Wah and Sifu Ho Fatt Nam.
I have been working very hard to preserve and spread the genuine traditional Shaolin arts. About ten years ago I managed to overcome my fear when I had a few dedicated disciples and I had written some books. Now, although the percentage of people exposed to the type of Shaolin arts we teach in Shaolin Wahnam is still very, very small, in terms of actual number we have many students and certified instructors, and we have spread to all six continents. I know that posterity will be able to practice and enjoy the wonderful benefits of the Shaolin arts.
10) Was there any particular event that prompted you to decide to try and spread genuine Shaolin arts further and wider, especially to Western students, than you had previously been doing with your traditional schools and teaching methods in Penang and Sungai Petani?
Yes, there were two particular events that prompted me to spread genuine Shaolin arts overseas. The first event was that kungfu and chi kung schools in Penang and Sungai Petani teamed up to ridicule me about ten years ago, when I mentioned that distant chi transmission was a reality. In a huge public gathering for this purpose, these kungfu and chi kung masters also said there was no connection between kungfu and chi kung, and that chi kung could not overcome diseases!
The second event was when some of my own students, including three of my four most senior students, two of whom I gave money to when they were in need, betrayed me. Betrayed by my own students whom I treated like my own children and whom I nurtured to succeed me, was the most hurting experience in my life. (These three were also the same students who did not turn up for class, where I taught them some of my best kungfu free, when an international football match was broadcasted on TV, but the class was not conducted in a university.)
The intriguing point is that until now I do not know why they betrayed me, but I am not interested to find out why. Instead our present Wahnam members should thank them. Without their betrayal, which I now consider a blessing in disguise, I might not have left Malaysia to teach overseas.
11) What are your thoughts about this (retirement from teaching) e.g. do you plan to stop travelling and only teach in Malaysia? How do you imagine Shaolin Wahnam will continue in the future?
Yes, I would like to spend more time with my family. As there is still much that I would like to pass on to my disciples, after retirement I may teach advanced courses in Malaysia for invited students only.
I believe Shaolin Wahnam will continue to spread and prosper. We now have a group of dedicated and competent instructors, some of whom are masters and grandmasters.
12) Did your training programme change quite a bit when you started training with Sigung Ho? I am curious to find out what you found challenging about transitioning to another Sifu?
Through your personal research and experiences, how do you think your method of teaching changed from your earlier days and how you teach now?
Uncle Righteousness' lineage is traced back to the Venerable Chee Seen. Sifu Ho's lineage is traced back to the Venerable Jiang Nan. I believe both the Venerable Chee Seen and the Venerable Jiang Nan were schoolmates at the southern Shaolin Temple at Quanzhou.
The Venerable Chee Seen was a revolutionary, whereas the Venerable Jiang Nan was a missionary. Hence, we at Shaolin Wahnam are very lucky to have inherited these two opposing yet complimentary aspects of the Shaolin arts, i.e. emphasis on combat from our Chee Seen lineage, and emphasis on spiritual cultivation from our Jiang Nan lineage.
My training programme changed dramatically when I learned from Sifu Ho. The methods I learned from Uncle Righteousness were relatively "hard", what we now endearingly call "water-buffalo methods". I also learned a lot of forms from Uncle Righteousness (directly or indirectly). The methods from Sifu Ho were relatively "soft". They were mainly training of energy and mind. I learned just a few forms.
Before I learned from Sifu Ho, I also learned Five-Ancestor Kungfu *Goh Chor Kungfu) from Sifu Chee Kim Thong, who was considered a national treasure of China. Sifu Chee's methods were very "soft", even "softer" than Sifu Ho's. Sifu Chee's specialty was internal force.
After Sifu Ho, I learned from Sifu Choe Hoong Choy, the Patriarch of Choe Family Wing Choon. The hallmark of Sifu Choe's kungfu was speed.
My teaching methods now are vastly different from those of my earlier days. Roughly speaking the teaching approach of my earlier days was "from form to energy to mind", whereas now it is "from mind to energy to form".
In my earlier days I taught my students a lot of kungfu forms. After a few years they progressed to developing internal force. At the advanced level they entered a Zen state of mind. Now my students enter Zen and develop internal force right at the beginning. They learn few kungfu forms.
In terms of combat efficiency and internal force, the two hallmarks of genuine Shaolin Kungfu, my students now can gain in a year what it would take my earlier students three or more years.
Events and Dates for you diary
| | Sifu Joan Browne will be organising another Shaolin Wahnam Picnic in London the details are: Time and Date: Saturday 13th August from 2pm-5.30pm This review is suitable for anybody who has taken a Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung course with Sifu or a Shaolin Wahnam instructor. Please email your interest as soon as possible to Sifu Joan Browne - wahnam@eircom.net It gives me great pleasure to announce that Shaolin Kung Fu classes will be starting in London. Instructor: Sifu Marcus Santer I would recommend you visit the UK Shaolin Wahnam website for further information on the course conten. If you have any further questions or wish to register please contact me (marcus.santer@shaolinwahnam.co.uk). |
Until next month I wish you success in your practice.
Kind regards
 | Marcus Santer Shaolin Wahnam Institute - UK Helping you to fulfill your physical and emotional potential |
The Shaolin Wahnam Institute