Quotes from Sifu (Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Many people have kindly told me that my advice on getting a good job or on starting a business is better than what they studied at a prestigious university like Harvard, or from their MBA program.

Many people grab the first job they can get. This does not usually bring good rewards, to himself or his boss. Others examine their qualifications and abilities, and get a job that qualifies these requirements. This is more reasonable, but it is not what I advice you to do.

By the fact that you are not only a Shaolin Wahnam student but an instructor, you are elite, and elite people do elite things, not common things like looking for a job or business limited by their qualifications.

It is legitimate to ask how could one do a job well if he is not qualified to do it. I never suggest that you don't qualify for a job. I say that you choose a job you like, and then qualify yourself to do the job well.

I had this concept long ago, at the time when I was running Shaolin Wahnam Association. I discussed a few proposals for the Association with the Chairman, who was (and still is) a very successful businessman and millionaire. The Chairman liked my proposals, but he pointed out a number of problems.

I told him that the question was whether the proposals were noble and rewarding, for the Association and other people, and if they were we would carry them out, irrespective of the problems, and overcome the problems as we come to them. The Chairman was very impressed with my concept, remarking that had I put it into business I would be very successful.

Here are some factors regarding your job that you should consider:

- Whether it is noble. One may earn a lot of money stealing trade secrets from other companies, but I don't consider the job noble.

- Whether it will bring you the type of income you want. It is noble working as a volunteer in a hospital, but it does not bring me the income I want.

- Whether you like the job. This is important. If you cannot do what you like, at least you must like what you do.

- Whether you still have free time to spend with your parents, friends or hobbies. There are other enjoyable and important things in life besides doing a job well.

- Whether it is necessary to invest a lot of time and money to learn the job. If you want to be a doctor, you need to spend many years studying in a university. To be a chi kung healer helping patients overcome so-called incurable diseases needs less time. When you are equally successful, you earn more money than a doctor and have more free time.

- Whether there is leverage in your job. As a doctor or healer, you treat one patient at a time. As a teacher, you can teach one hundred students at the same time.

- Whether you are limited by location and clients. If you are a car mechanic, your area of operation and potential clients are localized. If you are a computer consultant, your area of operation and potential clients are world-wide.

So, instead of looking for a particular job, you look for jobs that fulfill these considerations well. When you get the job you want, qualify yourself to do the job well. It is well known that many successful people do not do the job they prepared themselves for at university. They learned doing the job well while doing it.

For elite people in Shaolin Wahnam like you, it really does not matter what job you do, yet you can do it well. You can be very successful and enjoy your job, for example, as a pencil salesman or scientific report writer even when you know little about pencils and science!

But you have to do your job well and enjoy it. You must also ensure that the money that goes to your company or your boss as a result of doing your job is more than the money it or he pays you for doing it. This is our honour, and it also contributes to our job satisfaction." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Quote Source and Further Reading

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another beautiful and inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Only when kind deeds were performed without any thought of reward, could they be expressions of the Bodhisattva's spirit." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Quote Source and Further Reading

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Sleeping is the normal way of being charged with cosmic energy for most people. When people sleep, after a lot of tossing about and dreaming, much of which they could not remember, they remain perfectly still for about 15 minutes at dawn when the sun was about to rise. This was the time when cosmic energy is at its best. This is also the time when people are perfectly still in their sleep. So they are charged by cosmic energy, in the same way we charge our cellular phones. The amount of energy received by people in such charging will be enough for their daily use.

It is interesting that I also discovered independently that 15 minutes of daily chi kung practice would be sufficient for our students daily needs. It was because our students were in a chi kung state of mind, which was similar to people in their perfect sleep." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Quote Source and Further Reading

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"In traditional Chinese medical philosophy, a distinction is made between injury and illness. This distinction is useful because treating an injury as an illness may be detrimental. In an illness, the life-maintaining systems of a patient are not functioning normally due to interference from disease-causing agents. For example, an organ may function below normalcy due to an attack by a disease-causing agent, like bacterial attack. The therapeutic principle is to remove the disease-causing agent and increase the rate of functioning of the organ.

In an injury, the life-maintaining systems of a patient function normally but are temporarily impaired due to some damages from a destructive impact, like a physical strike. The therapeutic principle is to repair the damage and restore the normal functioning of the life-maintaining systems.

If a healer treats an injury as an illness, the therapeutic principle will not be correct. Suppose a patient was hit by a powerful strike to his chest, causing him energy blockage resulting in breathing difficulty and temporary malfunction of his lungs. If the healer prescribed antibiotics and stimulant to his lungs, it would make his condition worse. The antibiotics would kill his healthy cells and the stimulant makes his lungs work more than necessary despite the energy blockage that restricts the functioning of the lungs. What the healer should do is to repair the damage by clearing the energy blockage using an appropriate method like chi kung therapy, massage, acupuncture or herbs. When the damage is repaired, the lungs will regain their natural functions". - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

The Way of the Master (Page 263)

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[Damian Kissey]

Thanks much to Santi for continuosly sharing inspiring quotes from Sifu .

Here is another quote from our Sifu :

" As mentioned above, awakening of spiritual consciousness has an extensive range. You should set your aims and objectives according to the level you are currently at, and progress accordingly.

If you, like many people today, are stressful, you should first nurture you spirit so that you can be physically and mentally relaxed. If, for example, you are still not satisfied with your work or family life, you should first develop mental clarity and internal force to improve your work and family life.

If you plunge straight to the most advanced level and hope to be enlightened over a summer vacation in an exotic land, not only this is unreasonable and unrealistic, but also you may aggravate your personal, work or family problems instead of enriching your life and the life of other people as spiritual cultivation is meant to be."

---

The above extract is reproduced from "Your True Nature: Wisdom of Living Masters" by Natalie Deane and Damian Lafont.

[sancrica]

Dear Damian Siheng,

Thank you for your kind words. They are very much appreciated. :-)

Thanks also for sharing another beautiful and inspiring quote from Sifu.

For today, I would also like to share another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Another interesting case concerned a woman. She could not move her right shoulder and arm, and had them bandaged. She had paid quite a lot of money seeking various forms of treatment, both orthodox and alternative, but to no avail.

I removed the bandage and found the cause of her suffering immediately. Her energy flow at her shoulder was blocked. In principle, it was like dim-mark, an advanced kungfu art whereby a master could immobilise an opponent by dotting the opponent's energy point.

I opened the blocked energy points and reactivated her energy flow at her shoulder and arm. I moved her arm systematically, and then encouraged her to move it on her own. At first, she was hesitant, probably due to her disbelief that all the doctors and healers she had paid a lot of money to consult could not overcome her problem, I could overcome it in a few minutes, and for free as I did not charge her for the treatment.

But after plodding from me, she could raise her arm and moved it in circles. I told her she had regained the normal function of her shoulder and arm. She should throw away the bandage. But I could see her disbelief in her eyes, despite actually moving her right shoulder and arm on her own a few minutes ago. As she and her family members who came with her walked away in a distance, I could see her putting the bandage back to her shoulder.

I pitied her. She did not believe when I told her that her shoulder and arm were normal again. Once she put back the bandage and did not use her arm, the blockage would come back and she would not move her shoulder and arm again.

I learned a very important lesson. She did not value my treatment because it was free. Had she paid me 5000 euros, the fee I normally charge now for helping patients overcome so-called incurable diseases or seemingly hopeless disorders, she would have overcome her shoulder and arm problem." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

The Way of the Master (Page 268)

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"The Chairman of the Poon Yu Association Lion Dance Troupe had his eldest son enrolled in the Wing Choon class as well as the lion dance class of the association. As any father would, he wanted his son to get the best teaching in both classes. So, he specially asked me to take good care of his son's training. I did. Whenever I was at the Wing Choon and lion dance classes, without other people knowing, I paid special attention to his son.

One night, while he was performing Siu Lin Tou, the fundamental set of Wing Choon Kungfu, I found his elbow raised. This was a serious mistake, affecting both combat efficiency and internal force training. A kungfu saying, "cham chang lok pok", which means "drop elbows lower shoulders", highlights this important point.

I went over to him, pointed out his mistake and demonstrated how the technique should be performed. But instead of correcting his mistake, he told me, "I know that already."

Remembering his father's request, I gave him a second chance. I told him that what he did was incorrect, showed him the correct form and asked him to repeat after me. Again he said, "I know that already."

I just smiled and walked away.

I recalled that when I was learning from Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, sometimes my sifu taught me techniques that I already knew and could perform very well. But I learned them as if it were my first time learning them. Then I discovered it was not because my sifu had forgotten he had taught me those techniques before but because performing those techniques well was necessary for progressing to the next stage of development." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

The Way of the Master (Page 271)

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find another beautiful and inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Some teachers advise against providing negative demonstration. In other words, a teacher should not demonstrate what is wrong; he should only demonstrate what is right.

I have found from my own experience, as a student as well as a teacher, that this avoidance of negative demonstration is unwise. Not only demonstrating but actually asking students to experience mistakes commonly made by other people while emphasising to them these are mistakes, then correcting the mistakes and teaching the right movements with the students experiencing all these steps, improve learning efficiency tremendously." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

The Way of the Master (page 286)

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Skills need to be learnt from a competent teacher who is willing to teach you, not from a book or a video. For example, you don't learn how to drive or swim from books or videos but from living instructors. Even when you know the techniques of driving or swimming, unless you have the skills, you still cannot drive or swim." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Quote Source and Further Reading

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Later, I discontinued the practice of sitting meditation. This was because of an incredible experience in a bank.

I was in a queue waiting to cash a cheque for my school teacher's pay. The queue was long and it would be some time before my turn, so I decided to have some fun.

I saw a Malay gentleman sitting on a chair with his wife and two children. I used my mind to will him to stand up, turn to his left, walk three steps, pause for a short while then turn back and walk five steps past his family. He did exactly as I willed him to, looking a bit foolish. His family looked at him with some amazement but said nothing.

I instructed the Malay gentleman with my mind to walk briskly to the entrance of the bank, stand there and scratch his left ear with his left hand. He did, not knowing why he did so.

I told him to turn to his right and immediately walk ahead along the corridor. He did and was out of sight. I told him to walk back to the entrance of the bank, walk straight to his chair, sit down and fold his arm. Again, he did exactly as I told him. I thanked the Malay gentleman and blessed him and his family.

I was alarmed, deeply alarmed. I had developed my mind through daily meditation to an incredibly powerful level, far too powerful to be comfortable. I knew very well I would never abuse my mind power - that would be very silly of me - but still having such a powerful mind was a heavy burden, and I did not want to carry the burden. So I stopped practising sitting meditation, and discontinued teaching it." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

The Way of the Master (page 318)

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

"Correctness of form is very important in kungfu. If the form is not picture-perfect, it will miss many advantages.

A good procedure is routine-form-force-flow if we use the force method, or routine-form-flow-force if we use the flow method. The procedure can be used for any pattern, sequence or set.

Let us use the force method for the set, Lohan Asks the Way. First we learn the routine of the set. Then, pattern by pattern, we ensure that we have picture-perfect form. Next, we explode force when it is necessary, like when we punch out in "Black Tiger Steals Heart". Fourthly, we link the patterns smoothly into a sequence. Leaving out the greeting at the start and the end, we can have 4 sequences.

Let us now use the flow method for the set, Cloud Hands. First we learn the routine of the set. Then, pattern by pattern, we ensure we have picture-perfect form. Next, we perform the set smoothly in 4 sequences -- the first sequence is on the right from "Immortal Waves Sleeves" to "Single Whip", the second sequence is on the left from "Immortal Waves Sleeves" to "Single Whip", the third sequence is forward and backward from "White Crane Flaps Wings" to "Green Dragon Shoots Pearl", and the fourth sequence is forward from "Cross-Hand Thrust-Kick" to "Playing the Lute"." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Quote Source and Further Reading

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[Charles David]

Dear Santi Siheng,

As you know, due other commitments, I have been absent from the forum for some time. But on my return, I am very happy to see that you have been posting such wonderful inspiring quotes and stories from our dear Sifu. Of course, I always carry Sifu's teaching and words in my heart, but seeing them here, presented in another way, is very heartwarming.

[LeeWeiJoo]

Dear Santi Siheng,

I am one of the those that read your inspiring and beautiful quotes from Sifu everyday on this forum. Please know that they are much appreciated

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[sancrica]

Dear Santi Siheng,

As you know, due other commitments, I have been absent from the forum for some time. But on my return, I am very happy to see that you have been posting such wonderful inspiring quotes and stories from our dear Sifu. Of course, I always carry Sifu's teaching and words in my heart, but seeing them here, presented in another way, is very heartwarming.

Thank you very much for your kind words dear Sidai. They are greatly appreciated. It is heartwarming to read that you always carry Sifu's teachings in your heart. I use this opportunity for wishing you a wonderful day.

Dear Santi Siheng,

I am one of the those that read your inspiring and beautiful quotes from Sifu everyday on this forum. Please know that they are much appreciated

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

Thank you very much for your kind words dear Sidai. I am very happy to know that the inspiring and beautiful quotes from Sifu are bringing you many benefits. I use this opportunity for wishing you a wonderful day.

With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi

[sancrica]

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Please find below another inspiring quote from Sifu:

""If there is form, strike the form; if there is no form, chase the shadow" is a very effective tactic irrespective of at what level the opponent is.

"Form" here means any form, i.e. his movement of hands, legs and body, not just kungfu form. If there is form, strike the form. If an untrained opponent moves forward, strike his body with your "iron" arm. If a Karate opponent attacks you with a punch, move back to avoid his punch and simultaneously strike his arm. If a Taekwondo exponent kicks you, move back to avoid his kick and simultaneously strike his leg. Do not strike him just once but continuously.

"Chase the shadow" means that when an opponent withdraws his punch or kick and moves back, cover him adequately and strike his head or body with your "iron" arm. Do not strike him just once but continuously.

As in all tactics and techniques, you need to practice them. Once you know a selection of these tactics and techniques, use them effectively. If an opponent is untrained or of a lower level, it is easier to defeat him, like using round-house kicks. You may not have to use tactics.

But if the opponent is trained and of the same level or of a higher level, you may have to use tactics, such as "continuous attacks", "instance response", "sound east strike west" or "lead opponent to futility then respond with surprised attacks".

But ultimately it is skills that decide the winner. If your opponent is more skillful than you, even when you use good techniques and he doesn't know the tactics, he can defeat you. But if you use tactics, you can defeat him even when he is more skillful.

Today, many combatants do not even know techniques. They just exchange blows generously." - Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit

Quote Source and Further Reading

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With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santi