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Essence of the Past Masters

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  • Essence of the Past Masters

    Dear Shaolin Family,

    At the end of my practice I give thanks to my Sifu, Sigung and all the Past Masters. Sending sincere and genuine offerings of thanks to Sifu and Sigung is easy: it just flows from me like a river.

    I struggle somewhat when it comes to offering thanks to all the Past Masters. I send out sincere offerings of thanks but it feels as if I am thanking a chair on which no one is sitting. The essence of the Past Masters is like a void to me.

    I have a small measure of success with thanking Sigung’s Sifus (Sitaigung Ho, Sitaigung Lai, Sitaigung Chee and Sitaigung Choe) as I have some sense of who these people were through the many wonderful stories which Sigung has related to us and through the small number of photographs of them that are freely available. But all the masters further up the lineage, right up to Bodhidharma, feel like characters from a fiction novel. The Shaolin Temple could be from Middle Earth!

    I am very aware of our school’s lineage and know its history well. On an intellectual level I’m quite the scholar. But in the Chi Kung state of mind, after a marvellous training session, when offering thanks to the Past Masters, it feels like the thoughts I am sending out are going nowhere.

    This issue has not in anyway affected my training or acted as a constraint to the many benefits I have received since I started practicing these arts everyday. But, looking ahead, as I take my practice to a deeper level, I have a sense that paying respect to the Past Masters and developing an awareness of their essence within myself is important. It is something I would very much like to address (while not worrying about it of course!).

    This issue came to mind a few months back and I parked it. This week however, the week in which I have started practicing taiqiquan combat sequences for the first time (I started Level 3 last weekend), it has resurfaced and so I find myself here talking about it.

    I would very much welcome any comments or advice on the matter. I would also very much welcome any stories people might like to share on their own experiences of connection with the Past Masters.

    Best wishes,

    Kevin

  • #2
    Dear Kevin Sihing

    when offering thanks to the Past Masters, it feels like the thoughts I am sending out are going nowhere.
    My short answer is: "Don't worry, don't intellectualize, enjoy your practice."

    The longer one, ... in my experience, whether you feel something or not, does not change anything, the universe will take care of the delivery .
    Giving/offering also means letting go. And in English the expression of "giving thanks" quite beautifully reminds us of this. Just be sincere and do as best as you can . The same btw is true for prayers and blessings.

    As for the stories, I am sure there are many. And maybe others will share some. For me, one I will not forget was, when I started teaching Tai Chi Chuan. I have the habit of greeting/thanking past and present Masters, as well as Buddhas and Bodhisattva's and some heavenly beings, at the beginning and at the end of my practice.

    When I started my first Tai Chi Chuan class, I was not very confident about my teaching skills, as I had never before taught something involving physical movements. Yet as Sigung and Sifu had asked me to teach, I had announced a class and was standing in front of my first eight students. I can't remember when, but suddenly during this first class I felt a very strong presence of a large group of Past Masters. I can't exactly explain what happened then, but they guided me through the first class. Even things I hadn't understood before suddenly became crystal clear and I knew exactly how to teach them. This continued in the second and third class. It was an amazing experience and I felt it was a tremendous blessing and gift. Understandably to those who haven't experienced anything similar this might sound like a story right out of a fantasy book. Well it was not. There are other stories, but for me I think this one has been one of the most impressive ones, as to me it confirmed that when practicing or teaching our arts we are not alone, but part of a long lineage of practitioners and Masters. Offering thanks after my training is for me one way to acknowledge this reality.

    Andrea
    Last edited by Andrea; 3 June 2011, 08:45 AM.
    Enjoy some Wahnam Tai Chi Chuan & Qi Gong!

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    • #3
      Dear Kevin,

      when giving your thanks and blessings to Sifu - you automatically do it to the past masters of our school, since they are all integrated. Without no-one of them, incl. our Sifu, this school would not exist.

      No need to worry - to my opinion.

      All the best - and good practice,
      confermezza
      ... alles, alles, alles ist doch auf Liebe aufgebaut ..." (Ellen Auerbach, 1997)

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      • #4
        Hello Kevin,

        Whenever I practice giving thanks, I (almost unconsciously) sometimes imagine dozens of Masters practicing the very same set exercise that I'm doing (for instance, One Finger Shooting Zen) day after day, like they were refining and polishing a diamond until it becomes very shiny. Then I may think of this gem entering a river flowing harmoniously and travelling through space and time, being polished by another Master and so on until it reaches the exact place and time where I'm at the moment.

        I think of this diamond as both the arts and as the very essence of the all the generosity and hard work of all the Past Masters who made it possible for me to learn this day. Of course, this makes me smile and feel very grateful for having a chance to learn these arts

        If you like the short answer, I subscribe my Sihings: don't worry, don't intelectualize and enjoy

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        • #5
          Hi Kevin,

          Like so many other things, I think gratitude is a skill. If you keep at your gratitude to Past Masters with sincere effort, that gratitude will deepen over time, and it will become (and feel) more and more real.

          I wasn't going to address your intellectual side, but I can't resist

          The essence of Past Masters is everywhere in your training if you look a little harder! It might help to think through a few reasons why you might be grateful to the Past Masters outside of a practice session. Since you practice Tai chi chuan, I'll give a couple of examples that come immediately to mind for me.

          - When I think of how the venerable Zhang San Feng developed all of Tai chi chuan from Cloud Hands, I'm left in awe. Then when I practice Cloud Hands, I can better appreciate its profundity. And when I really enjoy my Cloud Hands, I have Zhang San Feng to thank for creating such a wonderful, beneficial exercise!

          - When I think of how Invincible Yang defeated all challengers with Grasping Sparrow's Tail, I gain a greater appreciation for the depth of combat application it contains, even though I myself have only a shallow understanding. And when I develop tremendous internal force practicing Grasping Sparrow's Tail, I am grateful to Invincible Yang and the other past Tai chi chuan masters for developing such a fantastic pattern!
          Chris Didyk
          Shaolin Wahnam USA


          Thank You.

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          • #6
            Dear Friends,

            Thank you all for your wonderful replies which have left me with much food for thought.

            Originally posted by Andrea View Post
            My short answer is: "Don't worry, don't intellectualize, enjoy your practice."
            Thank you Andrea Sifu. You are of course absolutely right. I never cease to be amazed at the depth of the fundamental instructions in our school and how on rehearing them again and again, I learn more and more from them.

            I spent a good bit of time this week redefining my aims and objectives in both my training and in my life. Paying respect to the Past Masters came up, as it has done before, but rather than trying to almost force the issue by intellectualising about it, I’ll let go of it and let it happen naturally in its own time.

            Originally posted by Andrea View Post
            whether you feel something or not, does not change anything, the universe will take care of the delivery
            Thank you again! Deep wisdom and reassuring words.

            Originally posted by Andrea View Post
            I have the habit of greeting/thanking past and present Masters, as well as Buddhas and Bodhisattva's and some heavenly beings, at the beginning and at the end of my practice.
            I must admit I have never offered thanks at the start of a training session. I will copy this very good habit of your if you don’t mind!

            Originally posted by Andrea View Post
            I can't remember when, but suddenly during this first class I felt a very strong presence of a large group of Past Masters. I can't exactly explain what happened then, but they guided me through the first class. Even things I hadn't understood before suddenly became crystal clear and I knew exactly how to teach them.
            A beautiful and inspiring story. Thank you for sharing.

            Originally posted by confermezza View Post
            when giving your thanks and blessings to Sifu - you automatically do it to the past masters of our school, since they are all integrated. Without no-one of them, incl. our Sifu, this school would not exist.
            I had never though of it like this before Sidai/Simui Confermezza. It’s a beautiful way to think of it. Thank you!

            Originally posted by mping View Post
            Whenever I practice giving thanks, I (almost unconsciously) sometimes imagine dozens of Masters practicing the very same set exercise that I'm doing (for instance, One Finger Shooting Zen) day after day, like they were refining and polishing a diamond until it becomes very shiny. Then I may think of this gem entering a river flowing harmoniously and travelling through space and time, being polished by another Master and so on until it reaches the exact place and time where I'm at the moment.

            I think of this diamond as both the arts and as the very essence of the all the generosity and hard work of all the Past Masters who made it possible for me to learn this day. Of course, this makes me smile and feel very grateful for having a chance to learn these arts
            Thank you for sharing your thoughts Sidai Miguel. Very lovely to read.

            Originally posted by Grimlock View Post
            It might help to think through a few reasons why you might be grateful to the Past Masters outside of a practice session.


            Thank you Sidai Chris for this very good suggestion. I am eternally grateful to all the past masters for many reasons, but mainly for one: for preserving, teaching and polishing Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung so that it is alive today and exists as an internal art for promoting health and curing so-called incurable illness. Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung released me from the dark prison that was severe tinnitus and I have an ENORMOUS debt of gratitude to the Past Masters for this. I have of course a much larger debt to my Sifu and Sigung and I have expressed this to them both. I would like to feel that in some small way my offerings of thanks to the Past Masters are being heard and that my blessing to them are in someway being received.

            I am very much enjoying my Taijiquan these days but to be honest, whatever I achieve through Taijiquan in the journey ahead will always be a distant second to what the Eighteen Lohan Hands and the Twelve Hands of Sinew Metamorphosis have given me over the past two years.

            The advice offered has been excellent, thank you all for contributing.

            Best wishes,

            Kevin

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Kevin_B View Post
              Thank you all for your wonderful replies which have left me with much food for thought.
              Yes, thank you everyone who contributing to this thread. I have taken some new insights from your words.

              I often think about the diligence in practice of the many past masters. It's a beautiful thought, that past Masters gave such a gift to future generations.

              Thank you, Sifu. Thank you all past Masters.

              With respect,

              Zach
              .

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              • #8
                Beautiful

                Originally posted by mping View Post
                Whenever I practice giving thanks, I (almost unconsciously) sometimes imagine dozens of Masters practicing the very same set exercise that I'm doing (for instance, One Finger Shooting Zen) day after day, like they were refining and polishing a diamond until it becomes very shiny. Then I may think of this gem entering a river flowing harmoniously and travelling through space and time, being polished by another Master and so on until it reaches the exact place and time where I'm at the moment.
                Beautiful description, my brother. Much appreciated. It is remarkable and blessed to receive these diamonds. And Beautiful to be allowed to do our share of the polishing now, day by day...

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                • #9
                  Dear Family,

                  This is taken from Sigung's February 2007 (part 3) Q&A. It is deeply inspiring.

                  Question:
                  Although our Sigungs and other past Masters are no longer here, do they still watch over us? How can we become more receptive to their guidance? (— Dr Damian, Malaysia)
                  Answer:
                  Although our past masters, including my sifus, are no longer here physically, they are still with us — in our hearts, in our gratitude, in their teachings and in the Cosmos. Yes, they still watch over us, figuratively as well as realistically.

                  Figuratively they watch over us in our practice as well as daily activities. We remind ourselves of their greatness and generosity, and of their ideals which shape and influence the way we live our lives to be meaningful and rewarding. We remind ourselves that we are inheritors of a priceless legacy to which they made great contributions, and from which we benefit tremendously.

                  If I am to use just one term to describe their teachings, it is “clear-consciousness” from Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, and “righteousness” from Sifu Lai Chin Wah. The teachings of all the other past masters can be summed up in our Ten Shaolin Laws.

                  Realistically, many of us have received teachings in non-physical ways from your sigungs (or sitaigungs). On a few occasions my sifu, Sifu Lai Chin Wah, visited me in dreams to teach me what he did not teach me when he was here on earth.

                  During a recess in the UK Summer Camp of 2006, Darryl asked me to check his Monkey Set, which was a specialty of my sifu, Sifu Ho Fatt Nam. After showing him some fine points I left him to practice on his own. Darryl had some unsolved problems. In a moment of inspiration, he asked his Sigung Ho Fatt Nam for help, and the answers were flashed to him instantly.
                  Thank you Sigung.

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                  • #10
                    Thank you for sharing this Sihing,

                    It is great to know that, when we practice, we have our Sifu, Sigung and the Great Masters of the past guiding us on to greater heights.



                    Peter.
                    Peter Clayton
                    Shaolin Wahnam Ireland
                    "Though one man may conquer in battle a thousand men a thousand times over, it is he who conquers himself that is the greatest of conquerors". - Dhammapada.

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