It shows how effortless and natural movements could easily deflect and control stronger force. It also carries a subliminal message of how tremendous the Qi energy could possibly be.

In short, physical size does not matter.

Rooting Technique : The art of non-contention

Director: Jwing-Ming Dr. Yang Starring: Jwing-Ming Dr. Yang, senior students

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“Wing Chun” – a documentary sponsored by Shui On Land. The film shows how we can use Wing Chun and its philosophy to improve our daily life, as well as investigating its claims to be scientifically based.

Made in Hong Kong, China and Macau by an international production team, the documentary was directed by Seamus Walsh and produced by Bill Yip.

The film’s narrator is Vincent Lo Hong Sui, Chairman of Shui On Land, who shares his story of how Wing Chun has informed both his business and personal life, helping him to become one of Hong Kong’s most successful businessmen.

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image credit : kungfufever

For Qigong, the only force you need to consider is the weight of the body itself. Therefore a Qigong stance has to transmit the weight of the body down into the ground.

However, for Martial Arts and Kung Fu the stance means to transmit force from the ground, through the body, into the opponent.

Therefore, there are several mistakes we often make during the training.

The first lesson of Taiji and all Martial Arts

The first mistake is not to line up the joints correctly. This is most often seen in the knees when in a squatting position. If everything is lined up, then the legs are capable of taking a lot of weight.

If you have seen a suspension bridge, such as the “Golden Gate” in San Francisco, then you have seen how a lot of weight can be supported simply by a strong cable and two supporting towers.

All the weight of the bridge is translated into tension in the cable. However if the supporting towers were not aligned correctly the bridge would not be able to support its own weight.

The muscles along the top of the leg, such as the quadriceps, are like the cable, and the bones in our lower leg are like the supporting towers. Misalignment here will damage the joints in our legs, and in the case of martial arts, prevent the strength from our legs from being transmitted upwards.

The second mistake is to lock the joints in the legs and support your weight on them. For example if you want to perform a low stance, it is tempting to lock your hip joint, and sit on top of it.

This takes the load off the muscles and puts it on the ligaments of the joint, eventually damaging the joint. Instead, you should gradually develop the strength of the muscles so that they are strong enough to support you in low positions.

image credit : livestrong

In order to increase the flexibility of the hip, however, you can break this rule a little.

The third mistake is to use too much tension in your back or stomach muscles to keep your stance stable. This usually happens when there is a mistake in the lower body, and the upper body has to be tense in order to compensate.

The fourth mistake is more related to martial arts, and is to use muscles that directly oppose the direction that the force is being expressed.

For example, pushing someone with your arms uses the triceps under your arm.

image credit : desire2learn

However it is common for people who weight train to develop the biceps. The biceps oppose the triceps and will prevent you from delivering your punch.

Using the triceps only, and other related muscles under your arm is a common theme in martial arts, and is known as “Zhou di li”, or “Strength that comes from under the elbow”.

It is difficult to achieve, since when we think we are going to get hit, we automatically tense our biceps in order to cover our face.

Relaxed means that the joints are bending the way that they are supposed to bend, and that the load on the body is taken by the appropriate muscles. Initially, these muscles will be uncomfortable, but with time they will develop strength, and will feel relaxed even under load.

The body will feel loose, and Qi will be able to flow freely. Most importantly, the strength will continue to develop by itself. Check out the link below for end of result of a excellent Taiji stance.

Rooting Technique : The Art of Non-contention

by Daniel Poon

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Liao Ning Province
image credit : china.org.cn

One day something unusual happened and a lot of people gathered together in the village square. It seemed that there was something special going on. Many of the people who had gathered in the square were very ill and sick, but they seemed to be very happy.

All the people were talking and they could be heard saying, “It is amazing” and “I feel better”. Some said with wonder and happiness, “All the pain is gone!”.

At the center of the crowd were two men who were dressed in old fashioned clothes that looked like Taoist uniforms and they each wore a hat that had on it the Yin and Yang symbol.

The men’s eyes showed very strong spirit, they had dark tanned faces as if they were always out in the sun and they appeared to be around forty to fifty years old.

Sick people were brought before the men who looked at them, then after awhile would put their hands around them.Soon the person began to feel better. Afterwards they were so happy they bowed to the men and said thank you for healing them again and again.

The two men were actually the seventeenth generation inheritors of the Dragon Gate sect of Taoism. They had come to the village to heal people and everyone they treated had amazing results. Some had suffered with their illness for many years with no relief, only to be healed by these Taoist monks.

Soon, the whole village knew about the Taoist monks. Everybody talked about them and how amazing their skill was. It seemed the Taoists knew not only healing skills, but they also knew the past and future and had knowledge of many supernatural things.

The most curious of all the people were the children of the village. They could talk of nothing else.

There was one little boy named, Wang Li Ping (June-1949. wikipedia) who was as curious as the others, but his family were highly educated and believed in Western science.

His father was an engineer who everyday dealt with a lot of scientific knowledge.

His six brothers and sisters had only ever heard about Western science and old Chinese customs were not practiced in his home. His family believed that there was nothing more advanced than the Western knowledge. Yet how, Wang Li Ping wondered, could these Taoists heal people without giving them any medicine?

Dragon Gate sect of Taoism Temple

Wang Li Ping knew that a lot of his classmates had gone to see the Taoist monks the day before. They had come back saying it must be magic.

He wanted to go and see for himself but he was afraid that his father would not be happy about this. However, at the end of their school lessons, some of his classmates decided to see the Taoist monks.

They asked Wang Li Ping if he was interested and of course he was.

He remembered that when he was five years old there was a fire at home and he had burnt the left side of his head. It did not cause serious injury,but since then his left eye muscles had become weaker and from time to time he felt pain there. His parents had taken him to many hospitals but they never had any really good results.

Wang Li Ping therefore decided to go with his classmates and see the Taoists. Full of curiosity, just like in a new game, the children stood and watched the monks do some strange movements on the sick people who after awhile felt better.

Wang Li Ping found it very interesting.

He had never seen anything like this before so he got closer to get a better look.

The monks saw the little boy and suddenly stopped what they were doing and looked at each other. It seemed as if they were talking to each other without saying a word.

It was very quiet when suddenly the Taoist monks smiled, then laughed and said,“We found it! We found it!”.

They knelt beside Wang Li Ping and held him tightly in their arms, like one would when finding something very valuable that had been lost for a long time. Some people thought that they must be relatives or that they knew each other in some other way. However, Wang Li Ping had never seen the monks before.

Still the monks seemed very happy to see Wang Li Ping.

Wang was now a little scared, he no idea what was going on. Everyone was staring at him and the monks were still holding him tightly. He said, “Can you let me go. I need to go home.”

They answered, “We will go with you because you will be our student and will study our skill.”

Wang Li Ping did not understand what they meant. However,he was beginning to feel more relaxed as it seemed the monks would not harm him.

The Taoists then said to the crowd of villagers, “Today we will not treat people but must leave it for another day. We have something to do.”

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear

Afterward, Wang Li Ping felt that he needed to bring the Taoist monks back home to see his parents.The two monks followed him home to see his parents and explain what had taken place.

Wang Li Ping’s parents were very surprised to see the Taoists at their home. The Taoists introduced themselves as ‘Ying Ling Zi’ and ‘Song Ling Zi’ from the Dragon Gate Sect of the Complete Reality School of Taoism.

They told them how they had come to the village looking for the person who would inherit their system. They had both seen a child’s face in a dream and this child would be the 18th generation inheritor of their Dragon Gate System.

The dream had also told them in which area the child would be. So they had come to the village to look for him and at the same time they could heal the sick people of the village. After a couple of days in the village they had found the child they had seen in their dream; it was Wang Li Ping.

Now they were here to ask his parents if Wang Li Ping could study with them.

Of course, at first Wang Li Ping’s parents refused. They wanted their child to grow up normally, to have a good education, get a good job and have a good future.

The Taoists said the left side of Wang Li Ping’s head and his left eye had been injured and that they should be ableto cure this. This would be good for him and he did not have to give up his schooling.

The monks insisted on helping Wang Li Ping and eventually his parents agreed, so long as it did not effect his school studies. They thought it might be good for him to learn some exercises for his health.

From that time, Wang Li Ping continued with his school education and followed the monks to learn Taoism. After one month his old injury had healed and his head and eye felt normal.

Whilst studying the Dragon Gate System, he found it covered many different skills, meditation, moving Qigong, healing techniques, diagnosis of illness, herbs, martial arts, I-Ching, Feng Shui and palm and face reading. Some skills were very unusual and used sounds to heal. The monks even gave him a Taoist name, ‘Live Forever’.

One day, after studying, the weather was very bad and it was raining very hard. Wang Li Ping’s teacher, Yin Ling Zi, said,“Li Ping, I can stop the rain.”

Wang Li Ping looked at his teacher and did not know what to say. Common sense told him it was impossible, but he knew his teacher had some amazing skills.

With that, his teacher went outside into the rain and looked round as if surveying the situation. Then, holding two fingers together on one hand and holding onto his wrist with the other,he said something and pointed at the sky.

After awhile the rain seemed to get weaker and then finally stopped. Wang Li Ping was very surprised and this made him study harder and listen to everything his teachers said.

He thought they must almost be immortal.

The more he studied the more he learnt about the Dragon Gate System. The system had a very long history, dating back to the Han Dynasty, more than one thousand years ago.

There is a saying that says “All kinds of Qigong come from Taoism”.

In the Han Dynasty there lived a man named ‘Zhong Li Han’, because it was the Han Dynasty people also called him, ‘Han Zhong Li’. He was also a Taoist and his Taoist name was ‘Positive Yang Taoist’.

He created Taoist Immortal Skill and he passed it onto another Taoist called ‘Pure Yang Taoist’ who was also called ‘Lu Dong Bin’.

There are eight very famous immortals in China. Everybody knows of them. There are two of them and they are very popular in China, even children know about them. They created, Golden Dan Big Method and also the Three Immortal Gong. These were passed to Wong Zhong Yang who created another system called the, ‘All True System’. He passed his skill onto his student, Qiu Chu Ji, also named, Spring True Man. Qiu studied very hard and then developed all these skills to form the Dragon Gate System. This was then passed down from generation to generation.

Qiu Chu Ji was a very famous and popular Taoist in the Yuan Dynasty, when Genghis Khan conquered the Song Dynasty. Genghis Khan invited Qiu to see him, and even wrote a letter saying how much he respected his Taoist skill.You can still see this letter in Lama Temple in Beijing.

Zhong Li Han

You can also see statues of Zhong Li Han and Lu Dong Bin in the White Cloud Taoist Temple in Beijing, where people go to pay their respects and worship. The Taoist Dragon Gate System has one skill called ‘Spiritual Treasure Intelligence Internal Training Method’.

Its principle is, save your life first and second live long. It develops healing skill. It makes you healthy and live long, like an immortal. The method concentrates more on meditation and to open up the hidden part of the brain. It develops the human potential that we do not usually use, our sixth sense and intuition.

Qiu Chu Ji

The Dragon Gate System also has Three Gong and Nine Methods.

The Three Gong (Gong means work or exercise) are: Meditation Gong, Balancing Gong and Sleeping Gong.

The Nine methods are the Intelligence Method, Illness Diagnosis Method, Healing Method, Spiritual Method, Holding Heat Method, Holding Life and Death Method, Immortal Method, Cutting Spirit Method and the Image Method.

All these Gong and Methods require a lot of Qi to be developed. Then you can open the hidden parts of your brain and use more of your human potential. When training you even have to bring your body close to death to let the best parts survive, then your potential can be opened.

5 Important Yin Organs and Their Functions in Chinese Medicine

It also relates to nature, particularly to heaven and earth as these give us life and Qi. This follows the Taoist saying,“Heaven and man become one”. This means man must relate to nature, to heaven and earth.

Lu Dong Bin

All these skills are based on Taoist principles like yin and yang, the Five Elements and the Bagua. Thus Wang Li Ping started his hard journey of Taoism like the ancient people,to find out the key to nature, to heaven and earth.

Wang Li Ping spent ten years studying Daoism and Qigong. It was a very difficult thing even for an adult and especially for a child.

People used to say “training as a Buddhist monk is suffering!”, however,the training to become a Daoist monk is very bitter as well. You can say that nowadays people will not do it. Also they do not have the opportunity to study with someone who has this traditional skill.

Wang Li Ping was only twelve years old when he was accepted as the eighteenth generation heir by his teachers. From that day he was treated differently, more seriously and more directly.

His teachers wanted him to reach a good level in their Daoist skill and wished that the quality of their skill was passed down correctly.

The first step was meditation to train the heart.

Children are a little wild, they do not easily listen or calm down. So his teacher wanted him to meditate for four hours! How can a child meditate for four hours? It is very difficult, even for someone who has practiced meditation for a very long time.

However, Wang Li Ping had to take it and overcome it. This was a test to see if he could inherit the skill.

They watched as they saw Wang Li Ping’s heart change as he became calmer and more settled. You have to train the heart to calm down,then you can follow the traditional way and reach a good level of skill.

If you fail at training your heart, future teaching is useless, you will only waste the teacher’s time.

Wang’s teachers put him in a very dark room which was about ten meters square, with no light at all. First he had to sit in a half lotus position and then go on to a full lotus position.

The lotus position is a cross legged sitting position for meditation. A half lotus position you sit with one leg on the other,which leg on top depends on which is more comfortable for you.

In a full lotus you have both legs crossing over with both feet on your thighs. When you use this sitting position you can sit and meditate for along time,if you can stand it.

When you sit like this your legs will go numb and at first it can be quite painful. A lot of people find it very hard and too uncomfortable. But the more you do the easier it becomes until you can do the full lotus quite easily.

In the beginning, Wang Li Ping found it very hard, even the half lotus. At first he thought it would not be too difficult because he was young and children’s bodies are usually more supple.

So doing the half lotus or full lotus was not difficult at all, the hard part was sitting still for four hours.

The majority of children can sit for awhile, but sitting for ten or even fifteen minutes is hard for them and so they will find some excuse to stop. If you let them do this how can you pass your skill on to them?

Chinese say, “The bitter goes and the sweet comes”.

Of course as Wang Li Ping was only twelve he could not stand it. From time to time his teachers had to check on him because they knew if he could not stand it he would move his legs.

They knew how he felt as they had been in the same situation many years ago. So his teachers used a rope to tie his legs and arms so that he could not move out of position. Thus they made him stay still and train his heart.

Surprisingly, after two months he grew quite used to it and although it was painful in the beginning, it became easier and easier. Finally he did not feel any discomfort at all, it felt quite normal.

Wang Li Ping knew that the training was good for him and he found that after meditation he had more energy, felt more awake, calmer and healthier. He felt as if his whole body had changed.

When Wang Li Ping’s teachers saw he could handle the full lotus sitting position comfortably, they started him on the next stage.

This was sleeping meditation.

They put him in a box which was just big enough for him to lie down in. He could not sit and he could not turn over. There were no holes for the air to come in, so he had to survive on the Qi he had developed over the past two months.

When they saw he could do this they put him in a big pot of water!

The pot was just big enough for him to sit in, and his teachers even locked him inside so he could not get out. In the pot there was no air and not light. He had to learn how to survive and his body started to change so that he could survive in those circumstances.

However, Wang Li Ping seemed to learn this very well and over came all these difficult circumstances. His body changed and he became healthier and healthier.

After six hard months of this training Wang Li Ping’ s teachers dug a hole and buried him in it. Then they “You have to train the heart, then you can reach a good level of skill.” Of course his teachers were around to help.

What a poor boy! But for everything he did he received the benefits and he developed an amazing body which could survive many things. He could survive when there was no air, no light and any weather, cold or hot.

With the third stage he started to learn how to survive with no food.

Without food most people will die, however, when you practice Qigong you learn to survive with the air. Even without any food your body will adjust to create its own Qi.This ability is usually hidden and comes from your parents when you are born.

Fasting is a method in which you learn how to survive without food and live with natural air, which is Qi.

During practice you gather Qi from the air and do not need food to give you energy. But people are used to relying on food to live and the whole body becomes very weak when they go without it. We do not realize how powerful our bodies are, and that we can survive many days without food.

When you stop eating, all the sick,weak cells will die and only the good ones survive. These cells actually become stronger than before.

It is like a big company. If it is not making money the boss has to get rid of some of the staff. Of course he usually gets rid of the lazy ones and keeps on those who work hard and are more talented.

Nature is like this. The good and strong survive while the weak and vulnerable will go. This is why the human race has survived for so many generations.

Wang Li Ping learnt how to survive without food for three days, five days,ten days, fifteen days,twenty days up to twenty-eight days. This was also very hard for him and so he had to practise more to balance his internal body.

Then his internal body became stronger and stronger as his Qi became stronger and his mind became very powerful.

History of Grandmaster Yang Meijun and Dayan Wild Goose Qigong

Qi Magazin vol. 40 and 41 (Aprl 1999)
Republished with permission of Master Micheal Tse

By (author) Wang li ping

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7M839P739KQZ

Tong Zi Liao

It belongs to the Gall Bladder Channel and is also sometimes known by another name, Tai Yang.

This point can help headaches and help clear pressure from the head. Some Asian people massage this point to help car or sea sickness. Others will even rub medicated oil into this area, especially for headaches.

In martial arts, when someone hits this point, it can knock them down.

Dai Mei means Belt Channel and is a very important point at the lower part of the body.

It is located in a straight line down from the end of the eleventh rib and is horizontally level with the navel. This point can help stomachache, blood circulation,  tension  and  women’s menstrual pains.

Huan Tiao means Circular Jump. This means when you press hard on these points,your whole body will jump.

Huan Tiao belongs to the Gall Bladder Channel and is good for arthritis, numbness in the legs, backache.

It is particularly good for the lower part of the body.

Ming Men means the Gate of Life and is a very important point for our life. It is related to the Du Channel and is located at the lower back, directly opposite the Dantien.

It is good for the kidneys and energy and backache.

Update on 5/12/2012

The Yintang point is located on the forehead and is a very important point.

It is also called the Sky-eye and the Upper Dantien. In our bodies we have three Dantiens. The Lower Dantien, which is connected to the Qihai point, and the Middle Dantien which is connected to the Shanzhong point.

The Yintang point is connected to the Upper Dantien and does not belong to any of the acupuncture channels. It is an extraordinary point which is related the brain and thinking.

When we practice Qigong we never concentrate on this point as it is too sensitive. If you concentrate and bring the Qi to this point, you can easily feel pressure because the Qi stays there. It will take the Qi a long time to sink.

If this point is opened, however, then you may be able to see the color of Qi and people’s channels and internal organs. This is a level many Qigong practitioners want to reach.

When we practice Qigong, though we never think about the Sky-eye to try and open it. Instead, we stimulate it with the movements.

“Hegu” means connected valleys. When you open your hand, the acupuncture point is located between the thumb and the index finger.

So it is look likes a valley, connected by the two fingers. The Hegu point belongs to the Large Intestine Channel which is also related to the Lung Channel.

If you have a problem with these organs, you can rub the Hegu points to make you feel better. These points are also good for toothache, sore throats, headaches, a blocked nose, stomach-ache and high blood pressure.

“Laogong“ means “Laboured Palace”. It is located in the middle of the palm. When you close your fingers, the point where the tip of the middle finger touches the palm is the Laogong point.

The Laogong point is used a lot for Qi transmission as this point is the strongest for emitting Qi. This is because it is on the Pericardium channel, which is related to the heart and protects it.

The Laogong point is good for maintaining heat, especially in winter. When it is cold you can close your hands to keep your body warm. You feel much warmer because you are closing the Laogong point.

The Laogong point is also good for calming the mind, relieving nausea and clearing bad smells in the mouth.

“Shenshu” means “Kidney Shu”. “Shu” means that Qi goes to that particular area more strongly. The Shenshu point is on the Urinary Bladder Channel.

The Urinary Bladder is related to the Kidneys. When this point is stimulated, it is good for kidney problems, low energy, tiredness, stress, backache, women’s menstrual problems as well as sounds and pains in the ear.

“Quepen“(also known as Supraclavicular Fossa) means “Broken Plate”.

It is located in the deep area behind the collar bone. When you touch this point you can feel the pulse. The Quepen point is related to the Stomach Channel and is good for breathing problems and coughing.

In Qigong practice, we close the five fingers to stimulate the Quepen Point.

“Yingxiang” means “Welcome the Fragrance”.

These points are located on either side of the nose.

They are used for smelling. They are used in treatment of blocked sinuses, loss of smell and an itchy and swollen face.

When you practise, after meditation you rub, or wash, your face with your hands, starting from the sides of the nose, with the index fingers touching the Yingxiang points.

(to be updated)

We cannot treat our teacher as one who is there to service us.

We are not customers but students and we have to consider how much he has given us by teaching us skill that it has taken him many years of study to learn

When I first began studying Qigong, I had little concept of what it meant to study with a traditional Chinese teacher.

I thought that I knew all about respect.

However, it was the Western concept that I knew, not Chinese. I soon realised that I knew nothing about the respect that one pays to a teacher. I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit it now, but I even questioned my teacher about one of his rules on the very first night of meeting him.

Knowing what I know now, I was lucky that he did not stop me from coming to any future classes.

For those having been brought up in the west, we often have the idea that we go to a class and pay a fee for a service rendered.

It is actually much more complex than this and with a good teacher you become part of a family of people who are interested in learning the same thing.

Over the months and finally years, I found that the persons with whom I have studied have indeed become my family. Our hearts are the same. We all respect our teacher as a father and he in turn looks at us as his children.

This is not something new in China but dates back over hundreds of generations when a martial art or other skills were kept in one’s family. I observe new people coming to class and see how much they enjoy not only learning traditional Chinese skill but also the atmosphere of the people in the class.

I also see how people in the classes change as their knowledge of the skill progresses. I do not only mean physical changes but changes in their nature.

They become calmer, more grounded. It is rare that a “bad” student will stay. It is like anything, like will follow like.

Those who do not stay find that their heart does not quite fit and so they leave to find another teacher or class to suit their ways.

I have realized that the study of any traditional Chinese skill does not only consist of learning the art itself but of morality and principle.

I have learned this through listening to lectures at my teacher’s seminars, listening to him talk amongst his students at a meal and also by watching my fellow students and how they behave.

In the west, we often approach a martial arts or Qigong class with the attitude that we are there to learn a series of movements and nothing more. It is much more than this, however.

We cannot treat our teacher as one who is there to service us. We are not customers but students and we have to consider how much he has given us by teaching us skill that it has taken him many years of study to learn.

Our teacher is not there to sell his skill. We should pay for our lessons out of respect.

Traditionally, a student would give their teacher Lai See,a red envelope containing money.

I he teacher never had to ask for this. It was given because this was what was right and proper.

I recently met with a Chinese master who had been invited to the West for a seminar.

This master was offered only half of the seminar proceedings and had to pay all of his own expenses besides. I find that the organizers are not truly interested in helping to promote good skill but rather business people wanting to make money from someone else’s reputation.

This is happening more and more.

One only has to look at the Internet to see Chinese masters being promoted all around the world. Of course not everyone means to does not just mean calling your teacher “Sifu”.

It means treating your teacher like a father and listening to what he says, doing what he says, even if you feel he may be being too strict or tough with you. A part of respect is loyalty and this should be through both bitter times and sweet.

This can be especially hard for westerners to accept as we often have too much pride. We have been nurtured to think that we are all individuals and special in our own right.

We do not easily accept criticism and often our instinct upon receiving some is to fight back and defend ourselves.

Sometimes the reaction can be even more severe with the person cutting the relationship completely. We have not been raised with the concept of yin and yang and that of  balance and so we often approach things with the attitude of things being totally black and white, right or wrong.

Life is rarely like this and is more often grey, somewhere in between. The Chinese have a wonderful concept of letting another person have enough space to recover themselves, more conurn mis known as saving face.

The night I questioned my teacher, he was rightly quite angry with me but instead of telling me to leave, he explained the situation and allowed me face. He never said to me how foolish I was by questioning him although certainly in looking back, I was just that.

Sometimes we think that we are the one who is helping our teacher by coming to class and paying our fees. For instance, if we did not pay our teacher, then he would not have work so we are helping him by coming to class. Who is helping whom, though? We come to a teacher’s class like an unfilled cup and leave overflowing. As we practise Qigong we find our illnesses going away.

Can we really put a price on our health?

I recently watched an American program in which the foreman of a closed American automotive factory traveled to Japan to entice a car company thereto reopen the factory in his town.

This auto factory was this town’s major source of employment and when it closed, most of the people there became unemployed. The Japanese company agreed to reopen the factory and in the beginning the workers were grateful, even if their salaries had been reduced and they were working longer hours.

Soon, however, they became discontented and did not like to do the things they were told to do in order to improve efficiency. They wanted things back they way they were before the Japanese took over.

I saw how pride blinded these people and how quickly their gratitude died. The Chinese have a saying, “From sleeping on the street, I let you sleep on my floor. Now you ask for a blanket.” Many students feel they are
doing their teacher a favor, however, really it is the other way around.

Good skill comes from a good teacher and a good teacher does not just know good skill. He also knows about sacrifice, duty and morality.

If a person’s heart is not good then their skill will be limited. Having a good heart means the mind is balanced and that this person can look at things clearly.

This person could also be said to have learned the arts of Martial Arts.

by Tse Sin Kei

“Qi is like a dam, it is holding back the cancer cells from growing”

“You have only two months to live,” the doctor told the patient who had been diagnosed with cancer.

That is a very scary conversation. Who can be calm enough to accept it.

Cancer is a very serious illness and considered an incurable disease.

In Western medicine, cancer patients will have chemotherapy and radio therapy, even operations to get rid of the cancer.

They believe that by using strong chemicals, drugs or operations, that the cancer cells can be either killed or cut out. However, no one can guarantee that the cancer cells will not grow again somewhere else.

Lately, I have been treating many cancer patients, most all of whom who have already had chemotherapy treatment or operations or both. So after the Qigong treatment, when I have finished working on the acupuncture points and channels and ransmitting Qi, they find they all look good and feel better.

However, if the patient is still having chemo-therapy or taking other medicines, then the body uses the energy from the treatment and the Qi gathered from their own Qigong practice to try and cleanse the body of toxins (including the medicine) and negative energy. So when I next see the patient they often look tired and are weak again.

Therefore I always prefer that they either stop or complete the Western treatment before I treat them.

Otherwise it wastes the energy. Also, from my experience, many people who have chemotherapy or operations, will have problems again later in a few years time, and this time it will be even more serious.

However, I see that Qigong can help. It is used widely as a treatment for cancer in China, helping the patient fight the problem by building up more Qi through the exercise and relaxation.

When you practice Qigong, your body becomes stronger. Actually our bodies are not that weak and doing Qigong brings up the Qi so that you can stand the cancer growing.

Firstly, however, as your Qi becomes stronger, the cancer cells will stop growing. This means that you will not be tired and weak.

More practice can improve the blood circulation and make the internal organs strong. Even the problem areas will be stronger. If your body has very fresh blood then it maintains the good condition of other areas in the body.

In addition, the spirit will be strong so that the body can easily fight the cancer. The problem area will begin to heal and hard lumps will become softer and eventually disappear as the cells become normal again. But during Qigong treatment and practice, the patient must have enough patience to continue their practice every day, even if on some days they feel weak or depressed. On these days they can do less but must not miss the practice completely.

The Qi from practice is like a dam, it is holding back the cancer cells from growing. It is also fighting to overcome them as well. Your body is relying on the Qi rather than strong medicine or operations.

This is quite the opposite of Western medicine which relies on these conventional therapies. However, these same drugs or operations can damage healthy parts of the body as well. They can also make the patient weaker and weaker until eventually they cannot survive. The cancer grows too fast for the body to fight.

In my experience, however, positive results can be had through the practise of Qigong if the patient is diligent in their practice and does not give up but keeps fighting.

by Michael Tse

“A lot of people only consider how big the inside of their houses are and miss- what-is-outside in the surrounding environment..”

The entrance of the house is very important and in fact the quality of the entrance is equal to how good the house is. When looking for a house, we usually would like to have enough space at the front.

Sometimes you can see big houses that have a fountain in front and have enough space for cars to come in and drive round in a circular way. Sometimes these houses have a mountain behind.

These houses are usually good as they have enough space to let the energy come in. Things do not feel tight.

Unfortunately, many houses have that problems. These problems arise because no one has considered the entrance, only the inside.

You find many houses that open directly onto the street. When you step out the door you step straight onto the street, this is more like a shop. In this kind of house, the people will feel very tight, and in terms of finances, they will have no money left, no matter how hard they work.

So it is very important to have enough space for the entrance of your house. Another bad situation can arise when suddenly you have road works directly in front of your house. Even if your house has enough space in front, this will not be good for your health.

However, this situation you cannot really avoid. You can only wait for them to finish.

There might be a corner of another building pointing at your entrance and this also is not good. It will affect your health and you may even be prone to having accidents.

I once came across a family who lived in a very nice detached house. The husband had just had a promotion at work. His children were growing up and he had more money to spend so they decided to look for another house.

Eventually they found a house which was much bigger than the one they were living in. The ground floor belonged to other people, and their part covered the 1st and 2nd floors, and so they would have enough space for the children. After they had made the final decision to buy, they asked a friend about Feng Shui as they did not know anything about it. I had already checked their friend’s office, so he told them to contact me.

When I saw their new house I said, “Although this flat is very big, your entrance is not at the front of the building, it is at the back. To get in you need to come to the back of the house. This means you will not take the best energy; you will only get the second energy, which might be negative energy.”

He was afraid when I told him this.

What could he do, he had already bought the flat. I suggested that he break down some of the wall and so make the back entrance bigger. Then it would look like there were two entrances to the building, one at the front and one at the back.

Unfortunately, he could not do this as it would effect the structure of the building. Afterwards, he lost his position at work and his son had an accident. In some situations we really cannot do that much, and it may that the best solution is to move to another place.

image credit : fengshui4u

However, there are sometimes things that one can do to improve the Feng Shui.

If you find your entrance is facing a corner, a flyover or facing other houses (i.e. your door faces another door), then you should put outside your door, a pair of stone lions or dogs-facing outwards.

If you cannot do that, then you can put some thing in your windows, like a plant which is high enough to block the view, or a windmill which moves and circulates the energy, even a mirror that faces out will help.

You need something to fight against the negative energy so that you do not take all of it.

Whenever you buy a house, check the entrance and make sure it has a good position and view as it will effect your future.

For example, a big tree sits directly to the front door of the house will interrupt the flow of positive energy coming to the house.

It will make people in the house prone to stomach sickness (big tree breaks the balance by consuming Earth energy, which is nourishing the Spleen and Tummy energy). Earth is also the center of life. When this energy is weakened people in the house tend not to bond very well to each other and they will break apart and move somewhere, mostly due to conflicts not natural reasons.

On the other hand, a little pond or water fountain in the front of the house is very good. The circulation of fresh and clean water brings wealth to the family and everyone’s career. But be sure not to place it directly to the front door.

image credit : blogspot

Feng Shui Guard Dogs

I’m sure you usually see these items in the front of a Chinese restaurent. I guess they know what they are doing to make business better and less problems.

Chinese Porcelain Foo Dogs - Blue and White (Kitchen) New: $219.00 In Stock

Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelain Foo Dogs (Kitchen) New: $179.00 In Stock

Temple Lions Foo Dogs Asian Art Chinese Feng Shui Statue () New: $10.95 In Stock

Chinese Feng Shui Temple Lions Fu Dogs () New: $9.65 In Stock

Chinese Guardian Lions (Foo Dogs) Bronze Finish Bookends () New: $17.16 In Stock Used: $26.36 In Stock

Water Fountains

You just need one or two of these. Avoid over using them to create a balance of good Qi.

Laguna Complete Water Feature Kit, Water Ripple (Misc.) New: $169.29 In Stock

24" Rock Waterfall Garden Fountain w/ LED Lights: Perfect Garden Water Feature, Patio Fountain, Outdoor Fountain. Features Elegant Waterfall Flow () New: $239.00 In Stock

Cascadia Falls Corner Fountain with LED Lights (Kitchen) New: $199.42 In Stock

Duo Terracotta Cascading Solar Fountain (Kitchen) New: $134.95 In Stock

Bamboo Accents Rocking On Bamboo Arms Spout and Pump Fountain Kit () New: $52.99 In Stock

Small Good Energy Plants

Bamboo is the symbol of luck in Feng Shui view because it grows slowly and ever green. They are also very easy to take care of.

9GreenBox - Hawaiian Umbrella Schefflera Tree w/ Hand Paint Ceramic Pot Pebble houseplant () New: $14.99 In Stock

9GreenBox - Live 3 Style Lucky Bamboo Arrange w/ Bone White Hand Paint Ceramic Pot () New: $6.99 In Stock

9GreenBox - 5 Money Tree Plants Braided Into 1 Tree - Pachira with 4" Black Ceramic Pot () New: $12.25 In Stock

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by Michael Tse

The Vietnam Wingchun branch was taught under Grandmaster Yuen Chai Wan, also known as Te Cong, one of the very first students of Fok Bo Chuen.

Fok Bo Chuen and Leung Jan both learned Wing Chun from Wong Wah Bo. When Leung Jan took sheltered in Foshan, he began teaching WingChun to Chan Wah Shun who later one became first master of Yip Man before his passing.

Meanwhile, Yuen Chai Wan traveled South to Vietnam to spread the sophisticated arts, and that was how the lineage in the video below was started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kuKZwlWX-Y

As Yuen Chai Wan was also a true disciple of Shaolin Temple, he successfully integrated the Five Animals Form into this Wing Chun system (video below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMNbBVEhQI4

The Five Forms are known to be passed down from the 18 Lohan Palms Technique taught by Bodhidharma (527 CE).

The Vietnam Wingchun Branch also has the advanced 108 Movements Drill demonstrated in the video clip above that includes 6 kick forms and 8 knee techniques.

Now note that The Guangdong Wingchun branch has 160 movements with five different kicks and one knee technique. The Yip Man lineage has 116 movements (originally 140 but Yip Man consolidated the forms and removed what was not necessary or too deadly). Even though Yip Man’s 116 wooden dummy form is the most taught in the world, it had lost some of the most hidden techniques as they were not passed down to the next generation.

Consequently, these elements have made the Vietnam Wingchun fairly different to other branches that are more popular nowadays. Either way, the WingChun System has a very beautiful and solid history of its own.

Master Yip Ching of Hong Kong Wing Chun system

By (author) Wayne Belonoha

The Wing Chun Compendium, Volume One (Hardcover) New: $25.29 In Stock Used: $23.28 In Stock

By (author) Wayne Belonoha

The Wing Chun Compendium, Volume Two (Hardcover) New: $18.00 In Stock Used: $15.30 In Stock

I wish I could tell of secret skills but I can’t.

It is also not to say that there are no advanced techniques in Taiji Chen, there most certainly are and they are very effective, but I still say that they are largely irrelevant.

Very few people persevere long enough to learn intermediate skills let alone advanced ones. There is no point teaching an advanced skill until the basic skills have been mastered.

Learning Taiji is like climbing a ladder.

Some people may be able to take two steps at a time or even jump from the ground to the third or fourth step, but very few people could jump straight to the top of the ladder.

If they could they would not need the ladder anyway. The most important things that you need to know about Chen Taiji will almost always have been taught to you on your first ever lesson.

In fact it seems to take most people several years to take on board what they should have learned in their first lesson.

Finding The Best Martial Arts Style In The World

The first thing that you do in the first lesson or any subsequent lesson is a series of warm up exercises.

The first warm up exercise is a twisting movement. You stand upright with the legs slightly bent and twist the spine. This movement is one of the foundations of the entire Chen system.

It forms the basis of the spiraling energy that finds full expression in the forms. The spiral enables you to evade attacks. It allows you to apply your body weight to an attack without committing it.

To my knowledge the spiral is unique to Chen. It is what gives Chen its distinct character. The more you understand the spiral and how to apply it, the more you will appreciate the clarity of principle in Chen.

Chen as a system is so well constructed that it is frightening to think of the level of genius necessary to have conceived and refined it. It is easy to understand why many people have sought to ascribe semi-divine origins to taiji.

Following the warm up are five horse stance exercises.

These are the most basic level of the internal training of Chen Taiji.

For the first couple of years these horse stance exercises should be amongst the most important things in your daily practice. Although the forms will gradually help you to develop your leg strength, it is the horse stance training that will do most to develop the legs and improve your form.

You should expect it to take several years of daily practice to become comfortable in horse stance. Without this fundamental work your form will look poor, your stances will be weak and ineffectual and you will never be physically able to make an advanced technique work no matter how many times you are shown.

The importance of diligent practice can never be emphasized enough.

This is one of the reasons that I say that advanced techniques are largely irrelevant.

If you have not put in the work to develop a firm foundation, then no technique will be of much use to you. However, if your foundation is good, then you should be able to make even the most basic of techniques work for you.

Strong legs and the spiraling energy are just two of the foundations that you will have been shown how to develop in your first lesson.

The third and final thing that I shall mention is perhaps the most important. When you start the form you will be told to do two things – “bend your knees and relax“.

Learning to relax in the form is arguably the most important lesson to be learnt.

It is certainly the most persistent problem that almost everyone seems to have.

Tense, stiff movements are among the commonest faults with forms. Tense, stiff movements make a form look ugly. Yet they seem to be integral to the way most arts are taught outside of China, which is a shame because they are also potentially very damaging to your health.

Tension is also one of the most common faults in pushing hands. Tension creates blockages in practitioners’ movements as they struggle for dominance. It is often more useful to lose at push hands so that you can learn which postures place you in a position of weakness and danger.

Once you have eradicated these postures you will find that you will not have to struggle so much and that when people use force against you, it just creates difficulties for themselves.

The first lesson of Chen Taiji will give the seeds of the entire system.

Whether you learn the lesson or not is up to you, but you cannot advance far unless you do.

by Glen Gossling

Believe it or not, there are people who practise Qigong and Taiji for many years, but still they are not healthy.

There are on the other hand those who practise everyday and are very healthy, even though they do not practise for hours and hours. How can this be?

Qigong is a powerful thing. Many times I have seen people rid themselves of serious health problems. Some of them have even been told by their doctor that there is nothing more to be done and they should ‘learn to live with it‘.

On being told this, some people accept the situation as hopeless, whereas others refuse to give up and find a way.

When they start Qigong, they are often quite skeptical, but feeling they have nothing to lose, they give it a go.

Over the weeks, they continue to practise, and as they keep coming to class, you get to know them a little more, and occasionally stop for a little chat. Eventually you forget they were really ill or in severe discomfort until they say how much better they feel. Then you notice how happy they are.

Perhaps their fight is not over, but now they can see things are not hopeless and that there is a way for them to recover. You can imagine how they feel. Cases like this always amaze me.

On the other hand, there are people who say “I wasn’t feeling very well, so I didn’t practise.” I am sure many of you will see the irony in this. Do you think the same people say, ‘Oh I was too ill to take my medicine ?’

Joking aside, you can understand why people feel like this. Usually they are quite new to Qigong.

To them Qigong is something they are learning, and it is hard.

Learning new movements is hard and perfecting already learnt ones is even harder.

When they go to class they look around at all those senior students who seem to go through countless exercises effortlessly, whereas they sweat and struggle. Comparing their own movements, they feel everything is wrong, and perhaps it is better not to practise when it is wrong in case you do more harm than good.

If you do feel like this, then the first thing you need to do is relax, and do not worry so much. If you are studying with a good teacher then he or she will not let you practise so incorrectly that it is going to hurt you.

If there is any risk then the teacher will tell you and keep a careful eye on you. That is why you go to them.

Secondly, when you are feeling weak, you don’t have to go through an entire form.

It is not the case of if you do not take all the pills in the bottle, then you will not get better. The main purpose of Qigong is to open your meridians and acupuncture points and allow the Qi to flow cleanly.

You do not have to go through an entire exercise to do this.

It is true that different movements stimulate you body in different ways, and that these different types of movement will help you to develop further. But when you are so weak that you cannot face doing any exercise, you should not think of developing yourself to the highest level, you should think of making yourself better.

As you learn different movements, you will notice how they make you feel. Everyone has their favourite movement. Usually it is a movement that makes you feel good. If it makes you feel good, then it is doing you good.

Then you will notice moving in one way makes your back feel better, or moving another way makes your chest feel clearer and so on.

So now when you are ill, you can just do certain movements that make you feel better or help the part which hurts. In fact, you do not even have to do movements you were taught, as long as you relax and move in a similar way you will feel better.

You may even just have to jump up and down and wave your arms around. What you are now doing is moving in a more spontaneous manner (there is actually a type of Qigong exercise which is wholly based on being spontaneous). You are now actually using what you have learned, and while it may not cure you instantly, it will help you recover more quickly.

All you need to do is move, and do not think about the hours you have to spend going over your exercises. Of course, you can practise to develop yourself, but first think about being healthy, because without this first step you will not get very far.

by Darryl Moy

It happened during the Qing Dynasty when the newly established Government took fear from the high standing status of the Shaolin Temple, they executed a war against the monks and destroyed everything that was…

As the Shaolin Temple is imagined through many Kungfu movie, most likely in the knowledge of a typical moviegoer it is the Shaolin Temple located on Five Peaks Mountain, Songshan, Henan Province.

Nevertheless, did you know that during the Yuan Dynasty the abbot of this Shaolin Temple, Fo Yu, also built five other Shaolin Temples in five different provinces : He Lin, Lou Yang, Xi An, Tai Yuan and Ji Xian.

Not long after his works were done, he was given permission to build more and he was said to have built more than ten temples. Unfortunately, to this day, none of them has been found or the trace of evidence to their existence has been buried in the mountains. All. Except the one in Fo Jian Quan Zhou, that was built around 874-879 BC.

Historic records reveals certain incidents happened to this Shaolin Temple multiple times.

First it was gutted by fire twice, fortunately during the late Ming Dynasty in approx ~ 1435, it was repaired and enlarged. Since that period, the Temple developed very quickly.

When the Ming Dynasty came to its end and the Qing took over, Shaolin Temple gave shelter to of the many people across the country, who wanted to escape the society system that they had to live in.

Because of how Shaolin Temple’s teaching, it earned trust and faith from the suffering people at that time. Thus the aforementioned Abbot, Zhi Shan (or or Gee Sin) had a strong status in society and he knew many important people. The abbot also had very high level martial arts skills and knew many different styles.

This Southern Shaolin Temple became the place where many martial arts gathered to protest or fought against the Qing Gov’t as they took an oath of “Rebel against Qing and reinstate Ming”. As people believed on Shaolin Temple could help them to defend against the new Gov’t, thus it led to the apocalypse of the Southern Shaolin Temple itself.

Ma Hing Er, one of the monks within the Temple betrayed them to the Qing military.

When the swords were drawn, a large and well armed army was sent to attack the temple at midnight. Ma Hing Er set fire to the temple, creating the chaos battle internally and externally.

Eventually, unable to defend and protect what meant most to them, all the monks began to fall one after another. However, Five monks who were very highly skilled in Martial Arts were able to escape.

They knew they were the only hope for the life of Shaolin’s teaching and wisdom, therefore they had to take the choice to leave the fight. These five Elders were Mew Hing, Ng Mui, Bak Mei, Fung Doe Duk and the Abbot, Zhi Shan.

The ancestors of Southern Shaolin Temple were the true legends as they maintained the most respectable martial arts and wisdom for us, the descendants who still fight the same fight to protect what are good of life.

Mew Hing taught the arts of 18 Lohan Palms System.
Bak Mei, also known in the U.S as Pai Mei, continued to teach the powerful arts of Shaolin Fists

Fung Doe Duk settled in Mountain Daoist Temple where he gained a wealth of knowledge about ancient internal arts and self-preservation (Qigong). He created the powerful internal system of kungfu called White Tiger.

As for grandmaster Ng Mui, she took shelted in Foushan mountain near a small village. The moment she witnessed a fight between a white crane and a snake, it became the birth of the new Softened White Crane martial arts.

Ng Mui taught this arts to a young girl in the village, who was in trouble with a group of gang. She learned  very quickly and Ng Mui decided to give permission to the young girl to name the martial arts after her, Yip Wing Chun.

According to history, before Southern Shaolin Temple was attacked, Abbot Zhi Shan created Eight Treasures Fist by taking three treasures from heaven, The Sun, the Moon and the Stars, and three treasures from man, Jing, Qi and Shen to combined them with self-defense and Hard Qigong.

This martial arts is strong, pure power and deadly.

However, with his wisdom of internal arts, Zhi Shan separated the techniques into both Yin and Yang training. At the beginning, Eight Treasures Fist was developed in South Shaolin and it was not permitted to teach to anyone else outside the Yong Chun Room ( The Yong Chun Room was a special Hall where high level monks used to train their skills )

I do not know how this arts was introduced to my old master and how he learned it, but it was not taught to the public until many years later when Hu Hui Gan (who studied from Abbot Zhi Shan) traveled west into the country side to Fo Jian Xi Chan Temple and started to teach Eight Treasures Fist to the public.

Now you have gained another history knowledge of one of the very legendary martial arts that is left by the Ancestors of Shaolin. I do not write the method of training this Hard Qigong here due to several reasons, first and most importantly is because you may damage your Qi. You could find the instruction elsewhere but again, it’s not safe to practice unless you have a trustworthy teacher to study with!

Paul Luong