UK Summer Camp 2017 - Community Thread

[James L]

Fooooooooood!!!

Hi Olli,
some of the places we visited over the past few Summer Camps are, 'Jamies', '5 Guys' & 'Bills'.
Kundu and I are hoping to get to 'Giraffe' this Summer Camp, sits at the top of the Hill of the High Street, we also go to 'Meet The Greek' for takeaway.

There's a few we haven't been to on the Trip Advisor link;

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g186390-Guildford_Surrey_England.html

If there's anything you fancy maybe we can look into it for this years SC.

Big Hug, Blessing
James

Dear everyone,

Guildford has some fine restaurants. I remember Positano being an excellent choice for Italian food. More recommendations anyone?

With sincere respect,
Olli

[Tim]

Early Bird Discount Ending 31.03.17

Dear fellow Wahnam Family and Visitors,

This is a reminder that the early bird discount for the summer camp 2017 ends 31st March. To qualify you need to pay £100 deposit per course. The discount is £50 off each course you take. There are also other discounts to take advantage of, to the tune of £850.

Here's the website as a reminder:

http://www.shaolin-training.com/courses/book-courses

[Tim]

Whilst this thread hasn't been that active I am sure the UK Summer Campers have been enjoying their practice and preparation.

We look forward to seeing you all at the Summer Camp for another run of special courses for beginners and advanced practitioners.

Yours kindly

[understanding]

Exciting Times Ahead

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

Anyone hanging around in the Guildford Holiday Inn lounge after the noon on Friday 2nd of June? I would love to meet familiar faces or new people.

With sincere respect,
Olli

[Mark A]

Fun

Hey Everyone,
I am sure you are all going to have a lot of fun at the Summer Camp this year . Enjoy

Peace

Mark

[James L]

Chi Kung Course One - 3rd June

Chi Kung Course One - 3rd June
Developing and deepening the fundamental skills of Chi Kung.
Passing on the essential energy skills necessary from beginner to Master.

This course gave a real good insight into the history and development of Chi Kung, we gained a great background knowledge and were taken through a journey step by step of 45 years of Chi Kung practice and development.

Not only were we given the tools and skills to practice the current day high level chi Kung but we were also guided to use the arts wisely as often in our school over training can become a common place due to the diligent practice of the students. We were then given the concepts, skill and understanding for training within our parameters and to look out for signs of the over training.

We were guided and given responsibility to practice at a level that suits our needs and not to gain excess benefits as this is in fact less beneficial to our practice and overall aims and purposes.

Thanks to Sigung for his teaching and approach and for giving us such a sound foundation for the Chi King Arts. It really is a subtle but fundamental skill to attain and is a good reminder that less is more.

James

[George]

Chi Kung Course Two - 4th June

For me this course was a great example of deepening skills. We used exercises that I know very well from many previous courses to to things that I already do in my practice and yet there was a lot of new discoveries to be made.

The course was about using our Chi Kung techniques and skills to achieve specific results. Sifu discussed these 3 concepts in some detail and in particular the differences between them and the fact that if any of them is missing then the practice is not correct.

The warning against over-training was once again given especially as our skills deepen.

The specific results were the gradual progression of needs: restoring and maintaining health, vitality, mental clarity and longevity. We used the following techniques and skills to focus on these:

Restoring health is achieved through clearing blockages. We used Carrying the Moon and Cosmic Shower to do this.

Health is maintained through the continuous and smooth flow of energy. Again we used Carrying the Moon and Cosmic Shower for this. Good example of the subtle difference that is not immediately obvious even to someone who knows the exercise and even has the Cosmic Shower skill.

Vitality is increased by building internal force (i.e. having more energy). We used Pushing Mountains for this.

Mental clarity is achieved by clearing the mind of unnecessary thoughts (using one thought in place of a hundred). We used Lifting the Sky for this. This was quite a profound experience for me. I found that after just about 5 minutes of practising in this manner I had more mental clarity than I often have after a 20 minute sitting meditation session which could come as a surprise to other practitioners as well. (Of course we are talking specifically about mental clarity alone and not any of the other wonderful benefits of these different forms of practice.)

Longevity is achieved when there is a surplus of energy "squirrelled away" to last a long time. We used an exercise called Dancing Fairy for this (and one I have not practised before) to open and store energy in the secondary side meridians.

Thank you Sifu as always for tirelessly working to share our wonderful Arts for our benefit and also to the Fully Alive team for helping to frame the course in a way that made it even easier to relate it to our daily needs.


Best wishes,

[George]

You have a choice

There was a particular gem of an idea that flashed a few times in various contexts as Sifu was passing to us the philosophy behind our practice. I want to bring it out, since it is something that has been a lot of help to me in my life and development for some time now.

You always have a choice - you can pick the positive, or the negative view - and the choice affects whether you will be happy or not, whether your will progress or not.

It is this choice that makes a difference, rather than the facts that are involved.

There is one article on Sifu's website that I read again and again and again. I invite you to read it too right now - it is a New Year's gift that keeps on giving:

http://shaolin.org/general/perception.html

Best wishes,

[Mark CH]

There was a particular gem of an idea that flashed a few times in various contexts as Sifu was passing to us the philosophy behind our practice. I want to bring it out, since it is something that has been a lot of help to me in my life and development for some time now.

You always have a choice - you can pick the positive, or the negative view - and the choice affects whether you will be happy or not, whether your will progress or not.

It is this choice that makes a difference, rather than the facts that are involved.

There is one article on Sifu's website that I read again and again and again. I invite you to read it too right now - it is a New Year's gift that keeps on giving:

http://shaolin.org/general/perception.html

Best wishes,

[JasD]

Course 3- Applying the fundamentals of Chi Kung, everywhere

I really like how Sifu and the fully alive crew tailored and explained in detail, how various exercises can be practiced to overcome common problem situations.

I have actually learnt all of them before in some manner. It just didn't really occur to me that I need to do some of these . Sifu is there to add 1+1 for me. Now it means more to me in my mind.

An example of how this had already had some positive effect in just one day was that: beforehand, the screaming of people/ barking dogs etc would sometimes pull my mind somehow. After spending some time doing the kidney practices there was hardly any disturbance to me.


Here is a brief summary of what I remember off the top of my head. Recorded to remember for practice. I made some errors so help please

1)problem-Despair, hopelessness
Organ/emotion related to- Heart/ lack of joy
Exercise-Dancing butterfly ,feel wonderful, open the heart

2)problem-Shame(I have no shame. So I forgot this one.help please)

3) problem-Lack willpower or lack determination.
Organ/emotion- liver/ willpower is from the positive side of anger,
Exercise- merry go round. Nourish liver feel a sense of determination

4) Problem- Lack a sense of purpose, afraid to have a purpose, to do with a lack of confidence
Organ/emotion- kidney/ fear
Exercise- nourish kidneys, bear walk


5)problem- Disturbed by activities or actions of others
Organ/emotion- kidney/fear
Exercise- pushing mountains, nourish the kidneys


Thank you Sifu, Fully Alive and course mates.

Jas

[James L]

Chi Kung Course Three - 5th June

Chi Kung Course Three - 5th June
Applying the fundamental skills of Chi Kung, everywhere…
The true test: Using Chi Kung skills in everything you do

Today was largely focused on the organs their background in Chinese medicine and any issues that are related to the 5 main organs of the Liver, Kidneys, Intestines, Lungs & Heart.

So how does this relate to 'using Chi Kung Skills in everything we do'?

We were given various emotional context and situations relating to each organ that ranged from Fear, Anger, Mental Fatigue, Anxiety, Despair, and spoke about various other debilitation issues such as Shame, Lacking Will Power and Loss of Direction (destiny). This was backed up with extended background philosophy that enhanced our teaching and understanding of the everyday issues of living on a daily basis.

We were then given direct techniques and skills to perform on each organ to help us focus on the outlined detrimental effect, thus teaching and enabling the students to clear the blockage more directly.

On all courses there are always opportunities to ask questions and Signug answers all of them comprehensively with deep knowledge along with his extensive experience.
As Sigung often points out, even some of the most simple yet profound instructions are not just words, they are living principles that when realised they become a very affluent force not just in our practice but are extended to enhance our everyday life.

'Relax, Don't Intellectualise and Enjoy your practice.'

'Practice Chi Kung as Chi Kung'

Thanks to the Fully Alive crew for bringing these brilliant Chi Kung courses together and thanks again to Sigung for teaching another wonderful and comprehensive Chi Kung course.
/O James

[James L]

Never seen this one before George, Nice one, thanks!
A 'choice' recommendation!

James /O

http://shaolin.org/general/perception.html

[Min Angel]

Chi kung course 3, many thanks

Thank you Sigung for your teachings yesterday. It was an excellent day and I am grateful and feel blessed to have had the opportunity to attend and to continue learning from you.

Thank you also to the Fully Alive team for developing such a fantastically helpful course. I have been practising since 2008 and it was and continues to be so valuable to extend my experience and knowledge of our practice and deepen my understandings of the fundamentals and how to apply them in everything. Everything ! Amazing !

Thank you also to George for posting Sigung's writings on Perception and for a great chat at lunch yesterday.

Thanks also to James and Jaz for your postings - good to review your notes alongside my own.

Have fun this week and looking forward to The Wonders of Cotton Palm this weekend.

Blessings to Sigung, our Past Masters and to our Shaolin Wahnam family.

Min
Smiling from the Heart

[Tim]

Don't Mess with The Grandmaster!

We are having a wonderful time developing our skills in spacing and timing. Sifu has time to go into great depth.

For fun, here is a clip of today's training. Angel added an extra pattern to this demonstration and Sifu replied .

Thank you Angel for joining in the fun and highlighting how we can all laugh and have fun with our Kung Fu.

[Davy]

Amazing! A true demonstration of timing/spacing and mastering of the art! Sigung is a living jade!

Definitely a true master makes difficult things look easy, but Sigung goes even further, making it look like if he were doing nothing at all!

Thanks for sharing!

Davy

We are having a wonderful time developing our skills in spacing and timing. Sifu has time to go into great depth.

For fun, here is a clip of today's training. Angel added an extra pattern to this demonstration and Sifu replied .

Thank you Angel for joining in the fun and highlighting how we can all laugh and have fun with our Kung Fu.