Regarding Shaolin Animal Spirits

[understanding]

This may hardly have any practical signifigance for my training at the time being, but it's time to have my doubts cleared. I discovered something peculiar about a month ago. Whenever I visualize even faintly any of the five Shaolin animals I experience very specific chi flows.

Crane: hands and feet
Tiger: lungs
Leopard: diaphragm
Snake: all over my skin
Dragon: spine and back of the head

Is this regular? I am seeking experiences of both who have and who have not practiced the Shaolin Five-Animal Set. Can you replicate the chi flows by just thinking any Shaolin animal?

With sincere respect,
Olli

[Leo Shaolin]

Dear Olli,

While your chi flow experience is interesting, the meaning of the 5 Shaolin animals is not that we visualize them or even become one of them (what you have not mentioned of course).

Although we call them animal spirits, the 5 Shaolin Animals simply represent special characteristics of our performance of and training in martial arts, especially Southern Shaolin Kung Fu.

The dragon trains and manifests mind power and presence of mind.
The snake trains and manifests energy flow and fluent movement.
The tiger trains and manifests internal force, ferocity and courage.
The leopard trains and manifests fast movement and action.
The crane trains and manifests elegance in movement and action.

The concept of the 5 elemental processes is similar. It’s not that financial growth is made of wood, but it figuratively represents qualities of the process that is named after wood.

Also the expressions Yin and Yang are interchangeable, as they only symbolize two opposing things. But, to avoid confusion, some characteristics have been standardized for convenience. Everyone associates that Yang is active and Yin is quiescent.

So the animals could also be called:
Tiger … Truck
Leopard … Ferrari
Crane … Rolls Royce
Dragon … Tesla Motors
Snake … Ducati
(I’m generally not a big car enthusiast, so please excuse if my choices were not the best.)

The Shaolin monks titled these characteristics they found in their practice after some animals that are a living example of those characteristics. The tiger could as well be a lion. The leopard could also be an ostrich or even better a cheetah (that were both probably not known in ancient China).

What I want to say with these examples is that we don’t actually try to become or think of a tiger, but that we train and apply internal force. We don’t become a dragon, but we train with a focused mind.

I understand that is tempting to visualize a ferocious tiger, but I won’t try to replicate your experience, as I was not instructed to do so by Sifu and train my internal force instead.

Best wishes,

Leo

[understanding]

Thank you for your thoughtful response Leo Sisook!

The concept of the 5 elemental processes is similar. It’s not that financial growth is made of wood, but it figuratively represents qualities of the process that is named after wood.

So the animals could also be called:
Tiger … Truck
Leopard … Ferrari
Crane … Rolls Royce
Dragon … Tesla Motors
Snake … Ducati
(I’m generally not a big car enthusiast, so please excuse if my choices were not the best.)

Five-Cars Kungfu in Austria!

What I want to say with these examples is that we don’t actually try to become or think of a tiger, but that we train and apply internal force. We don’t become a dragon, but we train with a focused mind.

I understand that is tempting to visualize a ferocious tiger, but I won’t try to replicate your experience, as I was not instructed to do so by Sifu and train my internal force instead.

Now I especially regret that I used word "training" in my initial post. It might give a completely wrong impression on a genuine art as you so patiently explained, and I wasn't careful enough to make the difference.

Sigung has written plenty of times why clear mind without thoughts and visualizations is essential for all Shaolin Arts, especially Kungfu. Visualizations feature only rarely.

I am aware of the dangers of chasing chi phenomena, but it bears to emphasize that this experience certainly represents no genuine or beneficial cultivation, be it Chi Kung, Kungfu, or spirituality. I wish I had been more clearer on that before. Please excuse my lack of tact.

The whole visualization thing was just a wandering mind stumbling into something unexpected and got a bit too curious to just let it be unanswered. It might turn out to be indicative of something useful, or not. However, as such it represents no attainment or means of attainment, so I think it's better to just leave it be for now.

With sincere respect,
Olli