Dear family and friends,
Greetings from the island of Puerto Rico! It is with great pleasure that I announce the next Courses in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico Autumnal Equinox Festival 2018
No Two Door | The Ten Essentials in Wudang Kungfu Practice
September 21 - 27, 2018
San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Course will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico from September 21 to September 27, 2018. As discussed with the Fully Alive team of Sifu Tim Franklin and Sifu Barry Smale with direct overseeing and guidance by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit during and after UK Summer Camp 2017, this course marks an unprecedented coordinated effort to bring the teachings of Immortal Zhang San Feng to literally all quarters of the world with three different Courses; UK, Puerto Rico and Malaysia on the same year.
Also, I am extremely happy to welcome Sifu to my little island on such an auspicious time as the Autumnal Equinox that this year will happen on September 22 in this region, which is the day of the beginning of the Course proper and one year almost to the day, after Hurricane Maria passed thru Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017.
Full details and further relevant information such as venue, schedules, etc, will follow shortly as well a series of Questions and Answers that Sifu gracefully accepted to grant us with.
Following you will find the full transcription of the Ten Essential in Wudang Kungfu Practice and its interpretation by Sifu, from a classic by Immortal Zhang San Feng himself.
Looking forward to welcome you all in Puerto Rico!
Zhang San Feng gave ten essential points on the practice of Wudang Kungfu. Following these ten essentials is known literally as "No Two Door" which means the "Gate of No Other Way". Zhang San Feng emphasized that there were no other ways to practice Wudang Kungfu.
THE TEN ESSENTIALS IN WUDANG KUNGFU PRACTICE
It is worthy of note that the very first two essentials prescribed by Zhang San Feng are also the two most widely mentioned instructions in our school, namely don't think of anything, and don't tense any muscles. These two instructions touch on the very core of spiritual (or mind) and energy training.
As soon as a student thinks of anything, i.e. intellectualizes, he is out of a chi kung state of mind, which in modern Western term means a heightened state of consciousness. In classical terms, it was described as Entering Tao, Entering Zen, or Entering Silence.
Not tensing any muscles is the key to energy training. Once some muscles are tensed, energy flow is blocked. It is the energy flow that generates internal force. The greater the amount of energy, and the smoother the flow, the greater is the resultant internal force.
Those without any experience or knowledge of internal force would wonder how one can be powerful if he relaxes his muscles. In normal situation, it is muscular tension that gives rise to strength.
Actually the mode of operation is quite similar. When an external martial artist tenses his muscles, he fills his muscles with energy. When an internal martial artist relaxes his muscles and let energy flow through, he also fills his muscles with energy.
But the crucial difference is that the energy of the external martial artist is locked up in his muscles. After some time the locked energy becomes stale and looses its vibrancy, whereas the energy in the muscles of the internal martial artists is continuously flowing, continuously being recharged, thus increasing its vibrancy.
Moreover, flowing energy performs more efficiently than stagnant energy. If your arm muscles are tensed when you move your arm to deflect an opponent's attack, you are moving the muscles in your arm as individual stagnate units separated from the rest of your body, whereas if your whole arm is relaxed and energy is flowing through, your arm moves as one flowing unit energetically connected to your whole body.
Wudang Kungfu is well known for the small sized against bigger, stronger opponents. There are two reasons for this remarkable feat. One is internal force, and the other is Wudang Kungfu mechanics. Even if we leave out internal force, by using Wudang Kungfu mechanics alone, one can defeat a bigger, stronger opponent. The key to Wudang Kungfu mechanics is rotation of the waist. It is only when you loosen your waist, that you can rotate it. Loosening the waist also enables you to relax your whole body more readily.
If your movement is meant to really strike an opponent, it is described as "real". If you pretend to strike your opponent with your hand to distract his attention, and kick him below, you hand movement is described as "false", and your kick as "real". There are of course countless other ways to distract your opponent with a "false" movement and strike him with a "real" movement.
If your opponent fails to react correctly to your "false" movement, you change it to a "real" movement. For example, your original intention is to distract your opponent with your hand so that he may not be aware of your kick. But if he fails to respond correctly, you really strike him. On the other hand, your kick is meant to be a "real" movement, but if he responds to it correctly, you change it to a "false" movement. This principle of "false-real" is very useful in Wudang Kungfu, because unlike in external martial arts, it is difficult for opponents to tell which movements are "false" and which are "real".
"Sinking" refers to sinking your stance. "Pressing" refers to pressing into an opponent that he may not escape. These two tactics are emphasized because as Wudang Kungfu is well known for using minimum force against maximum strength, many people may have the wrong impression that a Wudang Kungfu exponent usually retreats and seldom presses forward. Indeed, many inexperienced Wudang Kungfu students do this when sparring with opponents of other martial arts. When their opponents move in to attack, they retreat. This is a big mistake. Eventually they would be pushed against a wall.
What would you do when a big, strong opponent pushes at you and you are not strong enough to push his arms away? An instinctive response is to move back, in which case he keeps pushing at you. The result is that either you fall over backward or there is no more space for you to tetreat.
A typical Wudang Kungfu response is to use the principle of sinking and pressing. Suppose your opponent is at the north and you are at the south in your right Bow-Arrow Stance, and his powerful push is coming straight on from north to south. Sink your stance, moving your body back without moving your feet. This will neutralize the full force of his push. Simultaneously use your right hand to guide the momentum of his push, moving your right hand from north-north-west a short distance towards your own direction, then divert his momentum in a smooth curve and press forward toward north-north-east, returning to your original right Bow-Arrow Stance. This is actually what we do in our basic Wudang Kungfu Pushing Hands.
You will find that you need only minimum force to divert his maximum strength. It is like driving a truck. You just turn the steering wheel. Here, the rotation of your waist, not the movement of your hand, is the steering wheel. This principle of sinking and pressing can be used against any form of powerful attack, regardless of whether it is a strike, a kick, a felling attack or a chin-na technique.
Using intention and not using strength is a fundamental principle in Wudang Kungfu. Although many people mention this principle, they do not really know what it means, much less how to apply it. One can operate this principle well only when he has the skills of energy flow, otherwise even when he operates it correctly he has no speed nor force, which are essential for effective combat.
This principle of using intention and not strength is instrumental in develop internal force in Wudang Kungfu practice. It is also the inspiration that gives rise to our "flow method" in internal force training. You use your mind to direct energy flow which moves your form the way you want according to your intention. You can be very powerful and fast, yet not tired nor panting for breath.
Failure to co-ordinate the top and the bottom may occur at different levels. At the basic level, if your top does not co-ordinate with your bottom, like if your body is not in alignment with your standing leg in the pattern "Golden Tortoise Exposes Back", for example, not only you have poor balance and hence your combat efficiency will be affected, but also you have to tense certain muscles to prevent yourself from falling over, hence creating energy blockage which may be detrimental to health.
At an intermediate level, failure to co-ordinate the top and the bottom may distract rather than focus your energy. For example, in our Bow-Arrow Stance, the two feet are in line and the toes of both feet are hooked inward. In this way the energy flow of both the top and the bottom part of the practitioner is focused at the dan tian, giving him both stability and agility.
However if his feet are slightly wide apart rather than in line, the toes of his front foot point forward, and the toes of his back foot point outward, the energy flow of the top and the bottom part of the practitioner will be diverted to two different directions, thus affecting both his stability and agility.
At a high level the co-ordination of the top and the bottom enables the practitioner to attain six harmonies, i.e. harmonies of spirit, energy, essence, feet, body and hands. In the pattern "Cosmos First Emerges", for example, he starts with his back leg, rotates his body, and completes at his hand, all in one smooth movement, enabling him to have presence of mind, channel his internal force from his dan tian to his hands, move elegantly, and have co-ordination of stance, body and technique.
However, if he fails to co-ordinate the top and the bottom, like completing the movement of his stance first, then moving his hands, thus have two separate movements instead of one smooth flow, even if his established form is perfect, there is a break in his momentum which will affect his spirit and energy.
There are different ways to differentiate between internal and external training, as well as to differentiate between an internal and an external martial art. A time-honored way is "nei lian jing shen qi, wei lian jin gu pi", which means "internal training involves essence, spirit and energy; external training involves muscles, bones and skin".
An internal art is one that focuses on internal training, and external art is one that focuses on external methods. Three-Circle Stance, meditation and Abdominal Breathing, for example, are internal methods. Weight training, striking poles and stretching exercise are external methods.
Although Wudang Kungfu is an internal martial art, the internal and external are integrated in its training. In other words, not only a Wudang Kungfu practitioner should not neglect its external aspects, they are essential parts of his internal training, meaning that without the external aspects there can be no internal training.
For example, when he uses the Three-Circle Stance to develop mental clarity and internal force, he needs the form of the stance to train. If his form is incorrect, not only he does not derive benefit from the training, he may have adverse effects. When he employs any Wudang Kungfu technique in combat, he must ensure that the movement and positioning of his feet, body and hands are perfect. If they are faulty, not only he would be unable to deploy his internal force efficiently, the technique itself may not be effective.
Wudang Kungfu techniques are performed in one gentle, graceful flow without any break in between. Once started, there is no beginning and no ending until the objective is accomplished. In performing the first sequence of Wudang Kungfu, for example, you do not pause after "Nebula Evolving Round", then start to perform "Cosmos First Emerges", pause again, then perform "Riding Horse Ask Way". You perform all these patterns smoothly without any break as if they are one long continuous pattern.
When you apply these patterns in combat, you also perform them smoothly as if they are just one continuous pattern. If an opponent attacks you with a thrust punch, for example, you may ward of the attack with "Nebula Evolving Round". You do not stop or even pause after this, but move continuously to "Cosmos First Emerges" to strike him or fell him onto the ground.
If he retreats, you move forward without any break in between to strike him or fell him with "Riding Horse Ask Way". If, instead of retreating, he deflects your "Cosmos First Emerges" and counter-strikes at you, you can also move continuously to "Riding Horse Ask Way" to deflect his attack, and without any break continue with whatever appropriate techniques until you accomplish the objective of defeating him.
"Movement in stillness, stillness in movement" is another one of Wudang Kungfu principles that is often quoted but little understood. It is actually quite simple. When you perform any Wudang Kungfu movements in solo practice or combat, your mind is still, meaning you are mentally relaxed and clear. When you keep still in meditation, stance training or in a poise pattern during combat, your mind and physical form are still, but your energy is flowing.
These "ten essentials" are ten gems given by Zhang San Feng to Wudang Kungfu practitioners to attain good health (including vitality and longevity), combat efficiency and spiritual fulfillment.
Wong Kiew Kit
30th August 2011
Tarragona, Spain
You can also find this article following this link.
Greetings from the island of Puerto Rico! It is with great pleasure that I announce the next Courses in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico Autumnal Equinox Festival 2018
No Two Door | The Ten Essentials in Wudang Kungfu Practice
September 21 - 27, 2018
San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Course will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico from September 21 to September 27, 2018. As discussed with the Fully Alive team of Sifu Tim Franklin and Sifu Barry Smale with direct overseeing and guidance by Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit during and after UK Summer Camp 2017, this course marks an unprecedented coordinated effort to bring the teachings of Immortal Zhang San Feng to literally all quarters of the world with three different Courses; UK, Puerto Rico and Malaysia on the same year.
Also, I am extremely happy to welcome Sifu to my little island on such an auspicious time as the Autumnal Equinox that this year will happen on September 22 in this region, which is the day of the beginning of the Course proper and one year almost to the day, after Hurricane Maria passed thru Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017.
Full details and further relevant information such as venue, schedules, etc, will follow shortly as well a series of Questions and Answers that Sifu gracefully accepted to grant us with.
Following you will find the full transcription of the Ten Essential in Wudang Kungfu Practice and its interpretation by Sifu, from a classic by Immortal Zhang San Feng himself.
Looking forward to welcome you all in Puerto Rico!
Zhang San Feng gave ten essential points on the practice of Wudang Kungfu. Following these ten essentials is known literally as "No Two Door" which means the "Gate of No Other Way". Zhang San Feng emphasized that there were no other ways to practice Wudang Kungfu.
THE TEN ESSENTIALS IN WUDANG KUNGFU PRACTICE
- Empty your mind of all thoughts
- Do not tense any muscles
- Loosen your waist
- Principle of false-real
- Principle of sinking and pressing
- Using intention and not using strength
- Co-ordination of top and bottom
- Integration of internal and external
- One gentle, graceful flow without any break
- Movement in stillness, stillness in movement
It is worthy of note that the very first two essentials prescribed by Zhang San Feng are also the two most widely mentioned instructions in our school, namely don't think of anything, and don't tense any muscles. These two instructions touch on the very core of spiritual (or mind) and energy training.
As soon as a student thinks of anything, i.e. intellectualizes, he is out of a chi kung state of mind, which in modern Western term means a heightened state of consciousness. In classical terms, it was described as Entering Tao, Entering Zen, or Entering Silence.
Not tensing any muscles is the key to energy training. Once some muscles are tensed, energy flow is blocked. It is the energy flow that generates internal force. The greater the amount of energy, and the smoother the flow, the greater is the resultant internal force.
Those without any experience or knowledge of internal force would wonder how one can be powerful if he relaxes his muscles. In normal situation, it is muscular tension that gives rise to strength.
Actually the mode of operation is quite similar. When an external martial artist tenses his muscles, he fills his muscles with energy. When an internal martial artist relaxes his muscles and let energy flow through, he also fills his muscles with energy.
But the crucial difference is that the energy of the external martial artist is locked up in his muscles. After some time the locked energy becomes stale and looses its vibrancy, whereas the energy in the muscles of the internal martial artists is continuously flowing, continuously being recharged, thus increasing its vibrancy.
Moreover, flowing energy performs more efficiently than stagnant energy. If your arm muscles are tensed when you move your arm to deflect an opponent's attack, you are moving the muscles in your arm as individual stagnate units separated from the rest of your body, whereas if your whole arm is relaxed and energy is flowing through, your arm moves as one flowing unit energetically connected to your whole body.
Wudang Kungfu is well known for the small sized against bigger, stronger opponents. There are two reasons for this remarkable feat. One is internal force, and the other is Wudang Kungfu mechanics. Even if we leave out internal force, by using Wudang Kungfu mechanics alone, one can defeat a bigger, stronger opponent. The key to Wudang Kungfu mechanics is rotation of the waist. It is only when you loosen your waist, that you can rotate it. Loosening the waist also enables you to relax your whole body more readily.
If your movement is meant to really strike an opponent, it is described as "real". If you pretend to strike your opponent with your hand to distract his attention, and kick him below, you hand movement is described as "false", and your kick as "real". There are of course countless other ways to distract your opponent with a "false" movement and strike him with a "real" movement.
If your opponent fails to react correctly to your "false" movement, you change it to a "real" movement. For example, your original intention is to distract your opponent with your hand so that he may not be aware of your kick. But if he fails to respond correctly, you really strike him. On the other hand, your kick is meant to be a "real" movement, but if he responds to it correctly, you change it to a "false" movement. This principle of "false-real" is very useful in Wudang Kungfu, because unlike in external martial arts, it is difficult for opponents to tell which movements are "false" and which are "real".
"Sinking" refers to sinking your stance. "Pressing" refers to pressing into an opponent that he may not escape. These two tactics are emphasized because as Wudang Kungfu is well known for using minimum force against maximum strength, many people may have the wrong impression that a Wudang Kungfu exponent usually retreats and seldom presses forward. Indeed, many inexperienced Wudang Kungfu students do this when sparring with opponents of other martial arts. When their opponents move in to attack, they retreat. This is a big mistake. Eventually they would be pushed against a wall.
What would you do when a big, strong opponent pushes at you and you are not strong enough to push his arms away? An instinctive response is to move back, in which case he keeps pushing at you. The result is that either you fall over backward or there is no more space for you to tetreat.
A typical Wudang Kungfu response is to use the principle of sinking and pressing. Suppose your opponent is at the north and you are at the south in your right Bow-Arrow Stance, and his powerful push is coming straight on from north to south. Sink your stance, moving your body back without moving your feet. This will neutralize the full force of his push. Simultaneously use your right hand to guide the momentum of his push, moving your right hand from north-north-west a short distance towards your own direction, then divert his momentum in a smooth curve and press forward toward north-north-east, returning to your original right Bow-Arrow Stance. This is actually what we do in our basic Wudang Kungfu Pushing Hands.
You will find that you need only minimum force to divert his maximum strength. It is like driving a truck. You just turn the steering wheel. Here, the rotation of your waist, not the movement of your hand, is the steering wheel. This principle of sinking and pressing can be used against any form of powerful attack, regardless of whether it is a strike, a kick, a felling attack or a chin-na technique.
Using intention and not using strength is a fundamental principle in Wudang Kungfu. Although many people mention this principle, they do not really know what it means, much less how to apply it. One can operate this principle well only when he has the skills of energy flow, otherwise even when he operates it correctly he has no speed nor force, which are essential for effective combat.
This principle of using intention and not strength is instrumental in develop internal force in Wudang Kungfu practice. It is also the inspiration that gives rise to our "flow method" in internal force training. You use your mind to direct energy flow which moves your form the way you want according to your intention. You can be very powerful and fast, yet not tired nor panting for breath.
Failure to co-ordinate the top and the bottom may occur at different levels. At the basic level, if your top does not co-ordinate with your bottom, like if your body is not in alignment with your standing leg in the pattern "Golden Tortoise Exposes Back", for example, not only you have poor balance and hence your combat efficiency will be affected, but also you have to tense certain muscles to prevent yourself from falling over, hence creating energy blockage which may be detrimental to health.
At an intermediate level, failure to co-ordinate the top and the bottom may distract rather than focus your energy. For example, in our Bow-Arrow Stance, the two feet are in line and the toes of both feet are hooked inward. In this way the energy flow of both the top and the bottom part of the practitioner is focused at the dan tian, giving him both stability and agility.
However if his feet are slightly wide apart rather than in line, the toes of his front foot point forward, and the toes of his back foot point outward, the energy flow of the top and the bottom part of the practitioner will be diverted to two different directions, thus affecting both his stability and agility.
At a high level the co-ordination of the top and the bottom enables the practitioner to attain six harmonies, i.e. harmonies of spirit, energy, essence, feet, body and hands. In the pattern "Cosmos First Emerges", for example, he starts with his back leg, rotates his body, and completes at his hand, all in one smooth movement, enabling him to have presence of mind, channel his internal force from his dan tian to his hands, move elegantly, and have co-ordination of stance, body and technique.
However, if he fails to co-ordinate the top and the bottom, like completing the movement of his stance first, then moving his hands, thus have two separate movements instead of one smooth flow, even if his established form is perfect, there is a break in his momentum which will affect his spirit and energy.
There are different ways to differentiate between internal and external training, as well as to differentiate between an internal and an external martial art. A time-honored way is "nei lian jing shen qi, wei lian jin gu pi", which means "internal training involves essence, spirit and energy; external training involves muscles, bones and skin".
An internal art is one that focuses on internal training, and external art is one that focuses on external methods. Three-Circle Stance, meditation and Abdominal Breathing, for example, are internal methods. Weight training, striking poles and stretching exercise are external methods.
Although Wudang Kungfu is an internal martial art, the internal and external are integrated in its training. In other words, not only a Wudang Kungfu practitioner should not neglect its external aspects, they are essential parts of his internal training, meaning that without the external aspects there can be no internal training.
For example, when he uses the Three-Circle Stance to develop mental clarity and internal force, he needs the form of the stance to train. If his form is incorrect, not only he does not derive benefit from the training, he may have adverse effects. When he employs any Wudang Kungfu technique in combat, he must ensure that the movement and positioning of his feet, body and hands are perfect. If they are faulty, not only he would be unable to deploy his internal force efficiently, the technique itself may not be effective.
Wudang Kungfu techniques are performed in one gentle, graceful flow without any break in between. Once started, there is no beginning and no ending until the objective is accomplished. In performing the first sequence of Wudang Kungfu, for example, you do not pause after "Nebula Evolving Round", then start to perform "Cosmos First Emerges", pause again, then perform "Riding Horse Ask Way". You perform all these patterns smoothly without any break as if they are one long continuous pattern.
When you apply these patterns in combat, you also perform them smoothly as if they are just one continuous pattern. If an opponent attacks you with a thrust punch, for example, you may ward of the attack with "Nebula Evolving Round". You do not stop or even pause after this, but move continuously to "Cosmos First Emerges" to strike him or fell him onto the ground.
If he retreats, you move forward without any break in between to strike him or fell him with "Riding Horse Ask Way". If, instead of retreating, he deflects your "Cosmos First Emerges" and counter-strikes at you, you can also move continuously to "Riding Horse Ask Way" to deflect his attack, and without any break continue with whatever appropriate techniques until you accomplish the objective of defeating him.
"Movement in stillness, stillness in movement" is another one of Wudang Kungfu principles that is often quoted but little understood. It is actually quite simple. When you perform any Wudang Kungfu movements in solo practice or combat, your mind is still, meaning you are mentally relaxed and clear. When you keep still in meditation, stance training or in a poise pattern during combat, your mind and physical form are still, but your energy is flowing.
These "ten essentials" are ten gems given by Zhang San Feng to Wudang Kungfu practitioners to attain good health (including vitality and longevity), combat efficiency and spiritual fulfillment.
Wong Kiew Kit
30th August 2011
Tarragona, Spain
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