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Valentine's 2017 - Course Experiences

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  • #31
    Valentine's 2017 - Course Experiences - Part 12

    Sifu was very kind and commented on my posts. Sifu gave me permission to share it with you. I reproduce it below:

    Your posts on Pushing Hands in our Discussion Forum are very interesting. Not only they enrich one’s Taijiquan, but more significantly enrich one’s daily life.

    I particularly like your latest post, Post 30 at http://www.wongkiewkit.com/forum/sho...eriences/page3 , where you mentioned attack as well as defence from all sides, and Chun Yian’s advice on seeing the whole picture. When I teach Taijiquan Pushing Hands in particular, or kungfu in general, I shall mention this point, with credit to you.

    When a person applies for a job, for example, the usual approach is to reply to an advertisement. This is attacking from the front in Taijiquan Pushing Hands.

    There are other approaches. He may, for example, write to companies instead of waiting for their advertisement. Or, attacking from a side, he may find out the need of a particular company and mention to the managing director or general manager how he can solve the need. Or, attacking from the back, he may point out a serious weakness of a company, and how he could overcome the weakness. He can state his price for the job, instead of accepting what the company will pay him.
    Sifu's teachings were so effective that we had time left for training "Striking Hands". And I am glad that we did as we had a lot of fun and I learned much from it.

    There is one part that particularly struck me. We had to apply one sequence onto our opponent. After some time, I knew what my parter was going to do as we repeated the same sequence many times. So, there was no element of surprise. As I knew what my partner was going to do, I lost some of my awareness and focus.

    It is then that Sifu, in his always innovative teaching, provided us with great fun by making us modify continuously the prearranged sequence. Below, I include the variations I remember:

    1) Subtracting one pattern.
    2) Adding one pattern.
    3) Subtracting and adding one pattern.
    4) Subtracting and/or adding one pattern.
    5) Subtracting two patterns.
    6) Adding two patterns.

    As each training partner made different modifications I could not lose my focus because I didn't know what they were going to do.

    This trained a lot my mental clarity. I had to be really aware of what I and others were doing in order to follow Sifu's instructions and not mix up all these different variations.

    This practice allowed me to greatly deepen in the teaching of "Kung Fu is alive".

    When being the attacker, I had to continuously modify the prearranged sequence. That teaching provided me a lot of flow. Sometimes in life, I want to do things in a certain way. Usually, in the way that I am used to. So, if I cannot follow all the steps that I usually do I get stuck or get lost and loose my flow.

    Training in this way teaches me how to reach my goal even when some parts of my plan are missing. It teaches me how to keep my flow even when modifications are needed on my way to the goal.

    When being the defender, I knew that the attacker was going to apply a sequence on me but I did not know the exact order of the patterns that he was going to use. This really trained my awareness and focus and helped me to deal better with uncertainty.

    After this practice, free sparring seemed much easier. I was able to flow better and I was not getting stuck even if I could not fully apply my sequence.

    To be continued...

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    • #32
      Is there any secret news on what may be happening next year in Ireland?

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      • #33
        Valentine's 2017 - Course Experiences - Part 13

        "Every technique, no matter how complex or difficult it is, can be overcome".

        This was another illuminating aspect that I had the chance to deepen at the Pushing Hands course.

        This teaching goes in line with what Chun Yian Siheng taught us at the Chinese Chess course. It is then that I had my first Aha moment from this profound teaching and I remember it to be very special. It brought a lot of strength into my life.

        Many more Aha moments would come from this inspiring lesson at other Kung Fu courses with Sifu and the last one happened to be at the Pushing Hands course.

        Specially after the Intensive Zen Course, when I have Aha moments, they seem to be at a deeper level than before. Therefore, the effect shows to be much more profound when it happens.

        I think that I understand now what Sifu means when he says that our learning is "exponential". It became much more obvious after the Intensive Zen Course.

        This teaching is very dear to me and I shall explain why. Understanding and knowing that, no matter how impossible something seems to be, no matter how hard it may look, no matter how lost I might feel or how big my problem appears to be, there is absolutely always a way so solve it, to overcome it.

        This learning specially resonates and activates when I do Kung Fu Courses. It is still a mystery to me why that happens at Kung Fu courses and rarely at Chi Kung courses.

        Knowing that there is always a way, brings a lot of hope in my life because I know now that God always provides a solution for every problem that I might encounter. If I know how, there is always a way to succeed. That is a great wisdom that prevents me from falling in despair if circumstances become very challenging.

        This lesson is very simple, but it showed to be incredibly profound and application is not always easy. I consider it to be another treasured skill for life and, as every skill, I know that I can keep improving in its application.

        While Sifu was showing us all different ways to reach our opponent from all different sides, I understood that the wisdom Sifu provides me in order to find a solution for every problem that I encounter is one of the greatest gifts that I have received from him.

        To be continued...

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        • #34
          Valentine's 2017 - Course Experiences - Part 14

          Knowing how to look at a problem from different perspectives and also being able to assess if the solution I find is bad, average or good provides me with a great route map to success.

          It comes to my mind a great teaching from Sifu at the Intensive Zen Course:

          "Whether a possible solution to a problem is bad, average or good depends on the following criteria:

          Whether it is effective
          Whether it is beneficial
          Whether it is honorable
          Whether it involves much time
          Whether it involves much effort"

          If I look deeply, there has been a big shift in the way I look at problems since the Intensive Zen Course. Before, I used to consider problems just problems. Now I consider problems as "Opportunities for Improvement".

          Of course, I am not always capable of looking at them as "Opportunities for Improvement". Sometimes I get caught up on them and shift back to the "old way" of thinking that problems are something bad.

          I consider this teaching as another skill that I can keep improving at. Learning to deepen on this skill takes a lot of pressure from my life as I see less and less problems and more and more opportunities for improvement.

          As in every teaching coming from Sifu, one course seems to be a continuation from a previous course. They link one to another as a breadcrumb path that leads me to where I want to go.

          Many lessons received at the Intensive Zen Course activated and got expanded at the Pushing Hands Course. Learning to assess if a solution is bad, average or good is one of them.

          Understanding while in combat if my choices are bad, average or good gives me a great tool for success and I realized while writing these words that I have already been using this way of making decisions since the Intensive Zen Course.

          It is another invaluable skill to have as I have to make constant choices in my daily life and being able to measure them before I apply them saves me from a lot of trouble. Also, it makes me much more effective.

          I have also noticed that making choices in sparring greatly improves my speed of making choices in daily life. In sparring, I have to make choices really fast. Apart from making fast choices, my choices also have to be good. Otherwise I will expose myself or fail in successfully reaching my opponent.

          To be continued...

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