A source to the knowledge of traditional martial arts, ancient feng-shui, taiji and qigong health-preservation practices.
Many years ago a family lived in a part of Beijing, China. The family consisted of a little 13 year old girl, her parents and her seventy year old grandfather, Yang Tak Shan.
They all relied on the money her father made pulling a rickshaw. Life was very simple, but they were all happy.
One day Yang Tak Shan took his grand daughter Yang Meijun to While Flower Temple. When they were inside he set up some joss sticks and told her to kneel and pray to Kuan Yin (Quan Âm), the female Buddha.
Then he said to her: “You are the twenty seventh inheritor of the Kunlun Dayan Qigong system”.
He took out eight copper wild geese from his bag. Each one was performing a vivid movement: flying up, drinking water, scratching its leg, sleeping, etc.
He showed these to his young grand daughter and told her to follow the movements of the wild geese when she learned Qigong. (more…)
In martial arts we know that having a strong and grounded stance is extremely vital during a fight, especially in combat against a grappler; Jiujitsu, Judo, Aikido styles for example.
Losing balance in a serious life-threatening situation also means you have likely decided the outcome of the confrontation.
There are many different ways to improve the coordination of the body in order to control the falling, but physical training that does not teach the student to draw the natural Qi energy from the earth will not help him much against a powerful push. (more…)
The one inch punch is a martial art technique, was once performed by Bruce Lee at Long Beach in the year 1964 and gained Lee fame. We are not Lee and we may not have that Hulk’s power to actually do it in any way. However, it is not difficult to execute the technique if you learn the basic elements of how it works. I feel quite guilty to walk you through such unethical trick, but a technique is still a technique and if it looks good in both form and movements, why shouldn’t we take a look at it?
One time I hung out with my friends and we quickly heated up our conversation about all the martial arts movies we watched a few days ago.
One friend said he enjoyed the Wing Chun style and he bet it can defend against any kinds of attack. I bet he had that from Yip Man movie.
Another friend said his Muay Thai knee strike could break any bones (probably Ongbak or Chocolate, etc..) and my oldest friend think Karate could knock someone out cold before they could even begin a move !
Then, they started to talk about the disadvantages and advantages techniques of every system, even traditional styles. Believe me, the debate took hours.
In the end, we could not agree to any particular styles that should be the best. Wow, a big waste of time for such predictable outcome!
Verbal argument settled down little to nothing to feed their curiosity, they began to test various techniques physically. Likewise, that did not come to a conclusion, either.
I myself as a martial artist, would also wonder what style could the best of them all. Such as the root and unique system that dominates all other martial arts.
However, my question no longer needs answer until it came a story by Sifu Darryl Moy that I had a chance to read recently. It began like this..
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“Some people can bend spoons using their mind but this is not the aim of Qigong.”
Someone asked me what is the higher level of Qigong…is it when a person can fly, heal thousands of people or use the mind to bend metal? I said that high level Qigong is not any of these things. It is to be healthy and live longer. There are some people who, after practising Qigong for a while are able to heal people and see things with their Sky Eye that other people can not see. There are also people who are able to bend spoons using their mind but this is not the aim of practising Qigong. The aim is to be healthy and when you are healthy, of course, you can live longer. (more…)
Unbalanced emotion is the biggest cause of blockages in the body. Chinese Medicine tells us that overexcitement and excessive causes damge to the heart energy.
Anger and anxiety damages the liver energy. Fears damage the kidneys. Sadness and depression damage the lung energy. Too much thinking and mental work damages the stomach and pancreas.
When a person gets angry, for example, the automatic chemical activities of the body cause energy to collect in the liver. If this energy is not removed from the live, a blockage gradually forms and our liver becomes sick. (more…)
