A source to the knowledge of traditional martial arts, ancient feng-shui, taiji and qigong health-preservation practices.
We often see on many TV shows of a martial artist uses solely his bare hand to cut through thick wooden boards, chop layers of concrete bricks and break coconuts in half almost effortlessly.
People would be really impressed from witnessing the demonstration and wonder how the master posse sses that kind of power. If you are a regular martial arts practitioner, you should immediately response ‘well, that’s years of consistent training‘.
But how soon we’d realize that, “wait a minute, I consistently chew my food everyday too, yet my teeth cannot even break the chicken bone that easy!”
The Way of Qi
Martial Arts looks as beautiful as the decorative branches and leaves, but if we do not have the strong understanding of where the roots are and how they draw the energy we will never get to have the fruits or the wisdom it holds, and sometimes maybe just fall into injury yourself.
You must see pass the result today to meet where the effort that was from yesterday.
Having a strong hand does not mean particularly the hand is strong. The trained hand only simulates the delivery of the force which has been internally built up, along with the techniques.
There are two type of Palm techniques, fall into two opposite categories of Qigong (pronounced chi-kun, Inner Energy exercise) : Soft and Hard.
The Hard Qigong forges the inner hand structure from daily practices on hard objects, and in the end result the palm delivers explosive force on whatever it tends to break.
The downside of Hard Qigong Palm Technique is the hands often become bigger, covered with bruises and layers of damaged skin as well as the force being generated is purely physical.
image credit : Youtube – Samurai Spirit
The Soft Palm Technique on other hand, delivers the same amount of energy but takes twice or more the amount of times of training. The hand of this style practitioner look soft, natural and nearly the same as before the training. However, it takes nearly four to five times as long to the Hard Style to master.
Nevertheless if one can calmly concentrate and lead the inner Qi from the Dantien and deliver this very power energy to the point of impact, the outcome is predictable. That it is deadly.
In many cases people usually want the instant result for it is not easy to wait for something patiently nowadays, therefore Hard Qigong Palm practice is usually preferred to Soft Qigong Palm Practice under many circumstances. (more…)
Every Tuesday and Thursday of this semester I would stay in my martial arts class after the last official session over for extra practice with my friends on katas and techniques. We enjoy going over and over different forms, as well as sparring during this hour. Once a friend and I did a long form continuously for a dozen times and we both got tired quickly, first because we have trained for almost 3 hours before that and second, we were trying so hard to completely imitate the movements of our Sensei.
We sat down on the floor. My friend were still examining his hands and making shapes from the kata. I, on the other side, was loosely moving my arms and body. Obviously, both of us were still going through the forms in our heads even though we were taking a rest. The friend suddenly said “Oh man I can’t get this right at all”. “Yeah, neither can I” , I quickly agreed with him. He continued “right! but you seem to pick everything up just fine” , I smiled and shook my head “Do you think you will ever do Seisan (name of the kata we were practicing) perfectly?”. My friend replied “If I practice hard enough and after more times I hope I will”, then he asked the same question in return, “How about you?”.
“No, I don’t really expect to ever do it perfectly,” . My friend looked surprised, but I continued with another question “How do you know when something is perfect?”. He thought for a moment then said “When all the movements we do in our kata are correct and the postures are right.” (more…)
Feng Shui, simply means Wind and Water. Together these two elements affect the life of every living thing in our world. If you are my friends in Karate Martial Arts class at MC, you probably should have a chance to gain some knowledge about Qi from Sensei Hardman (whom I’m greatly thankful for first introducing to me about Qi), and its practice called Qigong – the Internal Training.
If you are not, to define the the Qi (Vital Energy – chee) term may become a little difficult. It’s almost the same as the story of a blind man who surely said he knew about the elephant. He could touch the trunk, the legs, the tail, the ear of the elephant and believed that how the elephant looked like, but it is not the elephant. The same thing applies to Qi, it’s much bigger than the word itself. Every occasion one tries to understand Qi, it maybe different from time to time. Qi in our body is the energy that keeps us alive, to keep our heart beating, our brain functions, our mind conscious and our body moving. (more…)
What do you feel when you practise Qigong? There are so many answers. Sometimes you will feel warm, tingling feelings, sometimes you will feel emotional and maybe feel like crying. Sometimes you might even feel like laughing. Some people will say they feel peaceful, more aware of the Qi (read What is Qi and how to feel your own energy ball?) flowing inside the body, pulsing and some people will even see colours, pictures, people, scenery and even smell things.
There are so many different feelings. When you practise movement, we usually feel good, warm and the breathing is very deep. Sometimes though, you might feel stiff or ache. This is quite normal because when you move, you open your body up and allow the Qi to flow all around it and find any problems you might have. It is like water washing the dirt out of your clothes. Qi cleans up the internal organs and even your joints, muscles, skin and bones. Qigong is like giving your body a good service, the same you do with your car. If you always maintain your body and keep it in good condition how can you not be healthy? This is one area that Western medicine misses and is going in the wrong direction. (more…)
An old video. The applications of Xin Yi Ba and Xiao Hong Quan demonstrated by Shi DeJian. In martial arts we know that the strongest, most brutal force is deflected by the softest, formless block.
Dayan Qigong, was found in the year of 385, is one of the deepest and most profound internal meditative practices in the world.
Each step follows closely to the movement of the Wild Goose (Dayan) in the nature. Dayan Qigong smoothly opens the 108 acupuncture points, along with all channel and organs in the body.
It used to be a secret arts and was passed only within a family from generation to generation until the Grandmaster Yang Meijun began to teach it into public, at the age of 73, to preserve this very valuable skill. (more…)
