SENSING QI INTERVIEW

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:56:20 +0100

WHAT IS THE SENSING QI DAY ON OCTOBER 1ST ALL ABOUT?
Qi is right at the heart of things for anyone doing a martial art or involved in traditional Chinese medicine. There are also a lot of people involved in various forms of energy work out there, like Reiki.
But despite being at the heart of these practices and receiving a lot of ‘airtime’, not everyone involved has spent much time consciously developing their awareness and ability to directly experience Qi, to feel it and then begin to move it. It’s strange. Even acupuncturists and long-term martial artists practicing ‘soft’ or ‘internal’ arts can often have a fairly vague direct experience of Qi. It’s as if people are playing music but only interested in hearing the bass notes. Entire dimensions of the musical experience above the bass are missing for them. But that might be where the melody is!
The frustrating thing is that once you learn to tune in to this level of experience many things become enlivened and clearer. The music becomes bigger, more beautiful, more meaningful, more powerful. So we want to give people a chance to extend the range available to them.

ONE SECRET & THREE RULES TO IMPROVE YOUR FORMS/KATA BY 10%

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:51:58 +0100

Here is one ‘secret’ and three simple (but not easy) rules to immediately improve the quality of your performance of forms/katas by some 10%!
There are three ‘bits’ of the form where students very typically display a major decline in their awareness, with major ongoing impact on the quality of their form and the return they get from practicing. They are the bits that somewhere the student has decided are not really the form. But the ‘secret’ is they are NOT ‘not the form’! Properly understood they are the fastest way into the heart of the form!
Simply put these three bits are:-
1) Before the form ‘begins’. Here is a useful rule:- the form begins BEFORE it actually begins. You cannot start the form when it ‘starts’, ie on the first move. You have got to prepare and gather the necessary focus before the first move: physically, mentally and energetically. If you only do this during the first move, you’ve missed the train to mastery! It’s going to go ahead without you! You will get through the form, no doubt. But the way we start has a huge amount to do with the quality of how we continue. If your mind is scattered as you enter the form, then yes the form will help re-center it. But the form will be doing the work here and not you! In compensation, the form will get payback by revealing less of its inner workings. If you make the form get you together, it will delay its riches. If however, you enter the form already gathered before the first move, it will begin to open up itself to you. You should treat a good form like a “powerful stranger”, with respect and great attention.
2) During transitions within the form, or “in between moves”. Here is a useful rule:- the bits in between the moves are the heart of the form. Sometimes we think of forms as a collection of moves. The bits in between the moves are simply the way we get to the next move.
Wrong! The way we shift from one move to the next, or one group of moves to the next, very often contains the heart of the practice. Sometimes we don’t realize this because these shifts are centered on what is going on beneath our shoulders, arms and hands. No matter how much we are told to sink our mind into the tantien, we still think that the punch, palm, block or strike is what it is all about. But a subtle shift of weight from one foot to the other, a turn, or step, well that’s just the path to the next destination, isn’t it?
Watch any grandmaster or gifted martial artist. The more gifted the more you notice the quality of movement. A tiny shift of the body, turn of the hips, brings them outside the strike or sword path, and inside their own striking range. So little a move, so huge an advantage!
Where can you learn to move like that? Well, the forms have it all…if you pay attention to what is hidden right below (literally) your nose. Start doing the form from the lower tantien or the bottom of your feet and bring powerful awareness to the transitions.
3) At the end of the form. Here is another useful rule:- when the form ’ends’ it hasn’t ended. We complete the last move, and (depending on temperament) mentally we move on, or very quickly begin to analyse all the strengths and weaknesses we have just displayed. But a good form does things:- it moves and contains energy. A good form both mobilizes, shifts and reorganizes a lot of energy, and does so within the ‘confines’ of a strong container. That container is important. It’s the containment of a piston that allows us to harness the power of steam. Without the metal walls of the piston the energy simply dissipates. Same with a good form. Its discipline creates the walls of containment. It builds our bodily and mental capacity to hold and manage increased power and energy. At the end of the form that energy is still running. Let your awareness collapse now, and whoosh…a great percentage of what you just built just got lost.
Take some time to let the form’s impact cycle through you. Give some time and awareness to letting the energy flow and settle. Tune into the sense of energy and pay attention to what it wants to do. Can you lead it gently to the lower tantien? Can you open up the legs, ankles and feet allowing the energy to find its earth? Let the breath find its way. Can you bring awareness to your mental state?
These three ‘bits’, beginning, transitions and endings, are where we loose mindfulness in our form. As is often the case it is “the bits in-between” that make a difference! They always remind me of the unknown retired warrior archetype living under a new identity in the middle of the village! Right beneath our nose is the skill and power. But these bits don’t advertise themselves. They are waiting for us to recognise and value them. Until then, they humbly, quietly watch us sweating through the form!

See below the last recorded example of Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong performing Sanchien in Fuchien, China. The recording does not fully capture the remarkable change in his demeanour before he ‘started’ the form.

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF FIVE ANCESTOR IN THE UK.

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 19:45:49 +0100

GO TO VIDEO
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR THE CHINESE PUBLICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL WUZU ORGANISATION, AND THEREFORE IS BRIEF. PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN MEMORIES OR QUESTIONS IF THIS HISTORY HAS TOUCHED YOU IN SOME WAY.
In 1976 one Friday evening Shigong Han gathered his eager students in a circle and began for the first time to teach them the foundation form of Wuzuquan:- Sanchien. It was a strange set of movements to those assembled, with stances they had never seen before and breathing that was peculiar and challenging. But for many, like myself, it was precisely what they had been waiting for. I had been seeking an authentic experience of Chinese martial arts and was warned that something interesting was about to happen in the training hall at the top of a British Telecoms centre. So I was there when it began, and remember clearly the excitement of the evening. Here at last was the real thing.
Sanchien has been taught, every week of every year, by Shigong Han ever since then. And, of course, so much more. Since then innumerable forms, weapons, qigong exercises, breathing routines, and techniques have been added to those first strange movements. The road has been tough and demanding. But the rewards have been great as well.
Early in the school’s history we were honoured with frequent visits from Grandmaster Chee Kim Thong. We learned with a great appetite, inspired both by Grandmaster Chee’s supreme skill as a martial artist and by his amazing abilities to heal others. I still remember him sitting calmly with crossed-legs, receiving the full-strength blow to the top of his head from a Taekwondo instructor, and then rising to check that his hand was not damaged. From all these experiences a greater and more rounded appreciation for the tradition we had joined was created. Grandmaster Chee continued to visit us throughout the rest of his life.The School has had many triumphs. In 1980 the UK School participated in the 4th South Eat Asia Sanshou Championship and won a gold medal in the middle-weight category. Two year later a silver medal was won in light heavyweight category at the 5th championships. Shigong Han has been the National Wushu Coach for Great Britain, and during this period the team consistently won medals at every European Wushu championship as well as further medals at the 3rd International Wushu championship in Hangzhou.
But perhaps its greatest triumph is its longevity. It was born amid the kung fu craze of the 1970’s along with many other schools. Few of them have survived. But the firm roots of Wuzuquan and the ever-deepening understanding of Shigong Han, together with hi generosity in teaching have ensured a continuous history for Chee Kim Thong’s heritage in Europe. The school has expanded. From the early home in London the school has expanded across European borders. In 1991 Ireland formally became part of the Wuzuquan School. Shigong Han’s students also teach in Norway. The School regularly takes trips to Wuzuquan’s homeland, participating keenly in the International gatherings in Fuchien, meeting other practitioners, contributing to the displays, and continuing the learning of its students.
Today the European school heads towards its 35th anniversary. For more than three decades Shigong Han has generously and tirelessly given of his time and understanding. The number of people whose lives have been touched by his teaching and this ancient art is impossible to say. Many will testify to its great impact on their lives, an impact that goes so much further than just being able to defend yourself.
The European school will continue to train, and continue deepening its understanding, as far as experience and the continuing advice of Shigong Han allow us to. We wish all our fellow Wuzuquan practitioners, wherever they are in the world, good health and training. We look forward to further chances to share and deepen our experience of the art with you.

MOMENTS OF HARMONY & PERFECTION

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 20:32:57 +0000

Here are a few video moments worth watching for their sense of harmony and perfection achieved through many years of practice. (Don’t forget, there are more videos of Five Ancestors on the FIVE ANCESTORS & WUJI page.)

The first one here is a compilation of wushu. I am not usually so keen on wushu, but I loved this.

Here is another compilation from a different tradition, embodied in the shape of the famous Grandmaster of Ninjutsu. A few moments here to make you smile?

And here is the glorious sumo, Chiynofuji, in 53 successive victories!

Lastly a change in form, to show that there are many embodied arts that years of practice can raise to a sublime level.

I am interested in your own suggestions. Post the hyperlinks below.

GATEWAY TO THE INNER WARRIOR

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 11:37:05 +0000

Inside every true martial art, and indeed every profound practice, is a gateway to a much greater world, the landscape of the wisdom traditions, and the path of the inner warrior.
Warriorship is an evocative term. Most people have a strong reaction towards it, either positively or negatively, partly because it is an archetypal term. In other words its meaning stretches roots deep into our psyche, and depending on our own relationship to these deep and energetic images, we will respond. Some will resonate powerfully with the term, and aspire to warriorship, others will reject it as a deeply suspect area of human life, responsible for violence and suffering.
But warriorship needs redefining. I have been disappointed and bored with the public face of martial arts for some time now. It is not that I want to exclude from warriorship or martial arts learning to fight. In fact, I remain committed to keeping this at the centre of any martial arts practice. It gives us a certain grounding in reality often missing from those who practice a form that is not challenged in this fundamental way. I have met too many yoga and ‘tai chi’ practitioners whose view of their own development is unassailable, precisely because they have ensured they are never in a position to be assailed!
But, having practiced the art for 35 years since I was 13, I believe we trivialise the vast riches available within martial arts if we don’t lose this frankly teenage exclusive focus on being tough, invulnerable and beating all opponents. More than that, when placed beside the huge and pressing demands of the next century, with the very survival of a civilised, humane global culture threatened, well… I feel we can offer more to the world than a good punch, kick and grab.
In fact, this deep pool of desire for invulnerability is mainly fed by the stream of fear. It is a fear of life, its knocks and pain, its tenderness and sudden savagery that often motivates the tough guy. One of the many paradoxes of the martial experience comes when the art itself brings us smack bang up against our own actual vulnerability. Early on this may simply be a realisation that all those ways to kill someone with the greatest of ease can also easily be used on yourself, and instead of feeling a powerful and invincible it dawns on you that like everyone else your life is available to the many accidents and intentions of fate. Later this vulnerability may be rediscovered in the sudden breaking open of the heart one can experience on the meditation cushion.
For the external warrior these concerns are not to be acknowledged. It’s not tough or cool. But for me a fundamental part of inner warriorship is to live bravely with this vulnerability, recognising that you will get hurt and eventually die, but nevertheless continuing to risk your whole self in the world.
A bigger vision of what it means to be a martial artist is to find and walk through the gateway to a way of living that is far greater than our present self. This is what we have to explore. This is the realm of the grown up martial artist.
One of the major lessons of my life I learnt in the training hall. My teacher, now Grandmaster Han Kim Sen, was very firm on this issue:- you are responsible for each other’s safety in training and sparring. Especially as you rose to seniority, you were expected to have the skill to measure your blows so no real harm should be done. But it didn’t end there. If you got hit, you were also responsible for getting hit, and could not off-load responsibility for your harm on to the other person. You were to blame if you hurt someone, you were also to blame if you got hurt! Everyway you looked the training returned the responsibility to you.
This was really a form of the more well-known question, the one we need to arrive at the gateway to wisdom. It is this:- who is the real opponent?
Practice mindfully for sometime and you arrive at a very different answer to the one you started a martial art with, because the grown up answer is always… the real opponent is within. The apparent opponent, the one who is out there in front of you, attempting to do some damage, is actually your momentary friend or teacher, revealing the edge you now need to grow along. This attitude, learnt in the sweat and heat of the training hall is one that easily transfers to the turbulence of the rest of our lives, to dealing with the incoming attacks and demands of work or relationships.
The inner warrior’s training has a different emphasis to the external warrior. It utilises the vast technologies of inner knowing that are embedded in the art. In particular, meditation, other awareness practices, and the raising and circulation of energy are central and will be explored here over the coming period.
So the task is to find within whatever practice we have the gateway, and then to walk through into a larger universe.