The Gratitude Thread

[Kevin_B]

One aspect of our arts that never ceases to amaze me is how they work so wonderfully well on the 'smaller picture' issues, as well as on the 'bigger picture' issues. By bigger picture I mean of course recovering from chronic illness and completely transforming one's
health and well being etc. By smaller picture I mean the everyday stuff - something for instance like what happened me last week...

I was very busy at work last week. So much going on in lots of different ways. On one of the evenings when I could clearly feel the tension and stress within, I came home from from work, went up to my bedroom, put my bag on the floor, opened the window, stood in the Wuji stance and simply Smiled from the Heart in a deep and meaningful way…


Instantly I felt this warm beautiful rush of chi gently travel up my Ren Meridian from my Dan Tian and totally fill me with a lovely peace and happiness. It was so gentle and so beautiful, and I instantly felt connected to all that is. But best of all, the stress and worry I was carrying with me was simply expunged from my being in an instant. Simply gorgeous.

How very lucky and blessed we are to have these arts - quite simply, they are fabulous!

All the best,

Kevin

[Matthew]

What joy these arts bring!

Every day I feel a deeper and deeper gratitude for the privilege of learning the authentic Shaolin arts of Qigong, Zen, Tajiquan and Kung Fu.

I am grateful for transforming my health to the best it has ever been - not only physically but emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
I am grateful for the shift in my awareness and perception from practicing these arts.
I am grateful for the innumerable applications of these arts to our daily lives, enhancing life not only for ourselves, but for others and the world.
I am grateful for the insight into who I am and why I am here.
I am grateful for the mental clarity and energy that is helping me become better at being myself, how I think, what I say and how I act.
I am grateful for the peace, harmony, laughter, joy and love that these arts liberate.
I am grateful to be freed from stuckness and to embrace the flow of life.
I am grateful to Sigung for accepting me as a student.
I am grateful to all masters, instructors, healers, classmates and students for sharing the journey with me.

Heart felt and sincere thanks and blessings to Sigung and the past masters.

With love to all. X

Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu.

[Nessa]

Gratitude

Dear Shaolin Wahnam family,

These past two weeks I have become increasingly grateful, once again, of our Shaolin arts.

Once school started, our neighbourhood has been going through a series of colds, stomach flus and fevers. Some so serious, that couple of our neighbours (our age, under 40) had to go to the hospital, unable to get out of bed.
We have been surrounded by this for these two weeks. And even though I got some mild symptoms of those colds, I have been able to work and do everything normally. It once again highlights the working of chikung and kungfu, and their healing powers.

I am so grateful to be able to practice these arts. It is truly a rare opportunity, and one to be daily thankful for.

Many people around us are victims to circumstances, relying on drugs for cure. While we have this amazing self-healing of our body and mind.
Luckily, the awareness of this is increasing.

Best wishes,

Nessa

[David Murphy]

Greatful

I am grateful for:

1. My faith - It kept me strong when my life turned upside down from injury

2. My family for keeping me strong throughout life, my Wife especially for being able to work and take care of me at my lowest when all was lost

a. Goes with family, my kids are a great source of joy

3. My training along with the above has helped keep my eyes on recovery

4. The people placed in my life at the right time.

a.Dr Frank Lu - who helped regain feeling from my nerve damaged leg where western medicine said thee would be little too no chance of help
b. Sifu Pavel Macek - who through a chance encounter on FB has helped guide me to getting my strength to grow again through small steps and childlike exercises
c. Sifu Eddie Lane - who has helped guide me internally building my chi back up and inspired me to return to drawing, an art I stepped away from many years ago when I lost my grandfather
d. Larry Tsui - A wonderful man in China who I've become friends with. He checks in on me and we talk about the art, life and kids.
e. Tan Soh Tin - Another man I met through FB that has taken an interest in my healing and has referred me to some sites on internal healing
f. David Langford - who led me to here where I hope to look more into the internal arts of healing. A joyful spirit that our journey into the art has similarities that are fun to converse about

5. The lines of the world that I have crossed without ever leaving my house. It shows that we are all connected. The outreach from these people all around the world strengthens my hope that I might one day be able to train once again in some fashion and then pass the 12 years of Hung Gar, Mantis, Siu Lum, and Tai Chi that I learned from Sifu Dale Carter.

6. Sifu Dale Carter - who picked me up when I was just moving through life. Who taught me the art and also brought me back to God ( amazing that he knows the Bible better than the art that he has trained in since he was 5). I found an inner strength though my training with him that helped me deal with so many of life's curve balls.

Thank you all.
Sincerely
David Murphy

[Guest]

I want to express my gratitude, for my Sifu, for my training.

I especially like to express my gratitude and highlight the effects of our training into daily life.

The mental clarity, the internal force, the energy that becomes alive during strong working days is simply put amazing.

There is no stress anymore. I'll even say more, the bigger the challenge, the harder the work, the more work, the greater I feel, and I enjoy it so much.

Who can say this? 80% of the working people I come across (and I'm being kind on this, it's actually more), complain, have something to say about this and that, for me I feel ALIVE using my energy!

I'm crawling out of a big hole, many challenges financially, but I overcome, and then some.
Never will I look back anymore, and I thank the cosmos for the challenges provided.

Today is a great day

[Matthew]

Sincere gratitude for these amazing arts - thank you Sigung and the past masters

I have been reviewing my year this week and came across an interesting entry in my daily journal which I would like to share with you all. It is a metaphor (in italics below) that came up for me from my unconscious mind (if I recall correctly) during or immediately after standing Zen in my Qigong practice one day, relating to the gifts of these Shaolin arts that Sigung has shared with us all.

It is as if I "woke up" one day out of a dream, or was it reality, or maybe both, and I was lost in a jungle surrounded by strange noises, an unknown environment and no idea where I was or how indeed I had got there in the first place. Sigung has not only given me a map of the territory and a compass, but also provided a survival guide, furnished me with tools such as a machete, rope, billy can, a cooking stove, brochures about places I could travel to, a training schedule to help me get there, a magical satellite phone to consult with experts outside the jungle, across the world and on other planes as to whether I am on the right path, linked me to other family members for help and assistance, provided initial rations and expertise to develop the necessary energy for survival and for thriving and stacks of warm encouragement and motivation for the journey. Thank you Sigung!

Thank you Sigung and the past masters for sharing these incredible arts.

I am only in the early stages of the journey and yet with every training session, every summer camp, every course, life just gets better and better, freer, more joyful, awesome, happy and meaningful. Life is unfolding in such a way that every progression, every breakthrough, every Aha! moment opens up more and more scope and possibility and depth in a wonderful feedback loop that enhances life where it is and provides continually enhanced perspectives about everything in and about life as we know it and as we come to know it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Love, respect and sincere thanks to Sigung and the past masters.
Thanks to Sifu Tim Franklin, Sifu Mark Appleford and Sifu Barry Smale in the UK.

Wishing Sigung and his family, and the whole Shaolin Wahnam family a very happy and healthy new year.

[Binia]

Good morning Cosmic Shower & Breathing - thank you to Sigung, Sifu and all course participants for the day ahead

[Emiko H]

Dear Family,

I have just read the October Q&A and would like to express my appreciation:

Question 1

Past masters took many years to attain energy flowing at the five levels, but we can attain this in just four hours! How is it possible?

— Lukas, Germany

Answer

This is ridiculous but true.

There are two main reasons.

Past masters did not differentiate between techniques and skills, whereas we do. They practiced any techniques they were taught when they were students. When conditions were ideal, they developed the necessary skills, often without their conscious knowing. These ideal conditions happened infrequently even when they practice every day. Over a long period, like after many years, they accumulated enough results, which happened haphazardly, to feel energy flowing at these five levels.

Let us take an analogy. In this course, many students come from other countries, like from England, Austria and Holland. If they do not have the right techniques, like a car or a train, and do not have the right skills, like traveling along the correct routes, but just travel haphazardly even they travel everyday they will take many years to arrive at Frankfurt if they ever do. But they took only a few hours to arrive because they have the right techniques and the right skills, i.e. they drove a car or took a train, and travelled along the right routes.

Secondly, instead of developing the necessary skills on their own, which would take at least few months, I transmitted the skills to them so that they could get the benefits immediately.

Thank you, Sifu, for your great generosity.

Humbly practising,

Shaolin salute - with gratitude, love and respect,

Emiko

[Joan]

With deepest Gratitude!

My Dear Family and Virtual Kwoon readers,

I simply wish to express my deepest gratitude to Sifu. I cannot even imagine my life without Sifu, the Shaolin Arts and our beautiful Shaolin Wahnam Family. I feel deeply blessed today and everyday.

My gratitude for the profound adventures this journey is bringing me on and the lessons along the way. For being able to live in the moment, enjoying the flow of life, no fears, just peace, contentment, joy and acceptance leading to an even more open heart, seeing the beauty in every little thing with childlike wonder and a wonderful sense of freedom.

To Sifu, Sigung Ho, Sigung Lai and all the past Masters Thank you and Mile Bhuiochas,

With love and respect,
Seasons Greetings,
Joan

[understanding]

In response to Sigung's New Year's greeting

Happy New Year to all Wahnam family! And guests too!

Thank you Sikuma for bringing this New Year's greeting to our attention. I'm quite sure I'd had missed it otherwise.

I wish to sincerely thank Sigung for continuing to teach publicly and share his insight for us for another year. May the fruits of your efforts bring prosperity and comfort for all who have the courage to seek refuge in your wise counsel and precious arts.

Thank you!!

I'll also use the opportunity to thank my Sifu Nessa for teaching me the first 8 Lohan Hands and how to genuinely relax through the Chi Kung state of mind. May you and Sipak Markus have another wonderful year together and continue to excel and grow in your arts.

Thank you so much!

It's an incredible chance to be able to continue my Chi Kung training so soon with the fabled 18 Lohan Arts. Helsinki is truly blessed to have two gifted senior disciples. For the year 2016 I've set a goal to learn the basics of either Shaolinquan or Taijiquan. Making a choice between two fine martial arts is difficult, but I've never been so happy making so hard decision.

Wishing you all gifts of mercy and wisdom,
Olli

[Dalta]

with thanks

Today I'm grateful for God always being by my side guiding me, my family and my shaolin Sifu Joan and Sigeung and for feeling that right now my journey will be on a good route

[understanding]

Per the request of my dear Sisook Charles! With great gratitude I have obliged his invitation to show gratefulness for gratitude.

Why is thankfulness and gratitude so valuable for spiritual development? If one possessively focuses on pleasure and engrossing/affective positive emotions, he experiences anguish when his mind wanders off the target and witnesses other mental landscapes. Consentration practice is a very demanding affair and many times ends up in a sense of struggle because of the need to generate and hold on to something particular, but thankfulness takes a different route: the way of Zen. On that path we are not concerned over either the outcome of our actions or fretting about our current welfare, but express our intimate satisfaction for whatever we may have. In its most profound level, being grateful is a most supreme way of being respectful of the Cosmos instead of putting the limited self and its wayward desires on the pedestal. Allow your life to become constant benediction: be thankful.

Thankfulness is the best antitode for worrying. If something disturbing arises, a gentle and sincere thanks giving is often a powerful remedy to let the stray thought or emotion go away with a sweet sense of goodbye. Gratefulness creates peace and easily lends to more dignified ways we can relate to other people because we appreciate them as they are without issuing needless judgement. This way gratitude also incorporates mercy.

Personally I believe that I have started to get at least three times more benefit from chi kung when I started to take gratitude and mercy as my moral beacons which I entertain habitually throughout the day. Thankfulness seems to work better for opening my heart than just smiling from the heart which I mostly reserve for chi kung. It is not infrequently that gratitude activates a gentle and subtle chi flow, though there has been one occasion when it actually created a large burst of internal force. The effects mostly concentrate around areas of painful tension that are prominiently in my chest, hands, and the head up of cheeks. In my head region, where most of the soothing currently takes place, the chi flow gently massages my eyes all around the sockets (oooh), rubs beneath the forehead (aaah), and the scalp feels invigorated with a sense as if someone is pulling my hair (oh yes!). All these make my nerves make feel fantastically relieved.

Is gratitude already an integral aspect of our training? Indirectly, yes:

5. Forbidden to be ungrateful and unscrupulous, ignoring the Laws of man and heaven.

If we look at the 10 Shaolin Laws, we can clearly see that there is nothing explicitly commanding you to be grateful, but all these different phrases give perspectives and a variety of chances to discover our spiritual maturity when we start applying them dutifully! Like 10,000 reflections of the moon in puddles, there is the real thing which can't be fully captivated by any list detailing its incomplete appearances. When we realize the actual moon or gratitude in question, then we understand the beauty of what we had been given by the means of a moral way and to what a magnificient treasure we had been led to! Glory to the Shaolin Arts and the past Masters! Thank you Sifu and Sigung!

With sincere gratitude,
Olli

[understanding]

Dear Family and guests,

My first week with Taijiquan has been very intense: I have felt like a prodigal son coming back home on many levels. The relief and closure are palpable like Sun rising at last after a feverish night. My guardians and benefactors both past and present deserve my deepest gratitude. Thank you everyone!

Yesterday I tried to cry out loud to the profound sadness and joy of life, but it turned out with just laughter welling up from my heart. Everything is so very beautiful. Life is so beatiful. You too, my dear audience, are even sweeter and more beautiful than you could ever imagine. But that is fine because we can realize and experience this beauty instead of just chasing the shadows of our wishful thinking.

I have recently come to recognize that my whole consciousness and all the conscious experiences are completely and utterly undeserved gifts. How wonderful it is to receive such articles without any strings attached? Where is suffering in that picture, or rather how could there be any? How could that be anything but unconditional love? Now it's starting to become difficult to discern whether practicing Chi Kung or expressing gratefulness brings better benefits. It's as if my spirit is constantly growing in volume and arrows of light shoot out of me when I thank, plead for mercy, or bless. Yet still, thanking for this newly found "giftedness" feels a very subtle and powerful blessing for which I am eternally grateful, as it has given me an even more solid reason and target to be grateful for.

Thank you everyone who has contributed to this special thread, reading it has been a true joy. Siguma Joan knows how to cultivate the best in us, so my cordial thanks to her for having the foresight to encourage us to appreciate the wonder of gratitude.

With sincere gratitude,
Olli

[understanding]

UK Summer Camp Harvest

Today I tried for the first time at home how the skill of Phenomenal Opening of the Heart works. What a great way to start a new week. Thank you Sigung!

With sincere gratitude,
Olli

[understanding]

Helsinki Chi Kung Courses were really excellent!

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family and visitors,

I'm glad that once again I'm really wanting to reply in my favorite thread!

Here's a diagram depicting my Shaolin Journey so far:
(Without Shaolin Wahnam Chi Kung) -> (Introduced to SWCK) -> (3 months of SWCK) -> (6 months of SWCK) -> (10 months of SWCK)

I'm yet to witness the full depth of the cleansing which the recent Helsinki courses have provided me with, but WOW how my sense of satisfaction and ability to enjoy scaled up in a single weekend! If this what we practice is not a blessed Art, then I've got no idea what is.

What an amazing and rewarding path to tread on. Thank you Sifu and Sigung for continuing to teach these magnificient arts!

Hopefully I can reply with another set of well justified smilies very soon.

With sincere gratitude,
Olli