Shaolin-monkey.net

Kung Fu / Qi Gong

Fighting my way back home

Originally I have been on the search for Zen, so I went looking for an appropriate Kung Fu School.

You might ask; why didn’t you go to some Zendo or to a Zen Buddhist Temple?

I actually did some research on the subject and got onward to the origins of Ch’an at the Shaolin monastery.

All the Zen Shanghas I did find in Switzerland were Soto Zen communities, all the temples and monasteries I found were either Tibetan or Theravadian.

For some reason my intent was to find genuine Kung Fu and Ch'an, at best in one place. This seemed to be nearly impossible and still remains so.

What I found was a School who claimed to teach genuine Shaolin Kung Fu and Qi Gong. To make it short; I joined it. As there is a minimum of Zen and meditation knowledge obviously taught in this school, there is a big amount of such knowledge transported kind of automatically, as it is embedded in the Kung Fu and Qi Gong practice, which has come such a long way along with Zen, to become divided again, not only in our time.

Brief History.............Quite likely there must have been fighting arts in China before the legendary arrival of Boddidharma in Shaolin monastery, and the monks might have known them to defend their selves, but not as part of the holistic system that made Shaolin so legendary.

According to the legend, Boddidharma has brought not only a new way of Buddhist teaching to China, but a health system, consisting of the 18 Lohan Hands, .....Sinew metamorphosis exercises and the ....marrow cleansing exercises, to the Shaolin monks. These exercises were meant to give the monks the physical mental and spiritual constitution needed to sit in meditation for hours and to prepare them for further development. Still according to legend, the monks at Shaolin must have been in a desolate condition. That's exactly what these exercises can still do for us nowadays, they can enhance our health, absolutely necessary to sit in a Lotus position and meditate for a long time. You can not easily sit in meditation when you feel sick or have got a aching back or leg before sitting down.

To achieve something worthy in meditation, you have to have a mind as clear as possible or at least a good focus and again this is something that high level Qi Gong can give after the main health problems have been restored.

Qi Gong is even capable of letting you experience glimpses of what can be achieved through meditation practice. If you become a Qi Gong master, I believe it can be as powerful as meditation itself.

It might not have taken very long for them to realise that the principles of Qi Gong can be applied to let's call it Shaolin quan (fist). Now these Qi Gong principles within Shaolin quan can not be seen, they can be realised if you know what to look for, but if you don't, you will only see things that you might consider somewhat supernatural, if they are a very high level.

As high level Qi Gong has a very meditative character, it's exactly those Qi Gong aspects/skills within the Shaolin Quan that make it a so called internal martial art. It’s this Shaolin Quan that virtually every at least Asian martial art derives from.

On the other Hand it is clearly recognisable that Qi Gong and through it Shaolin Quan, by time, has been highly influenced by the ancient Chinese health system such as acupuncture and the meridian system. This developed such arts as the art of shooting energy, chin nga and the art of dotting energy points and this again together with the principles of Buddhism did let new healing systems evolve.

Bagua Quan and Taijiquan as traditionally Daoist arts are said to be derived from Shaolin Kung Fu. The legendary Zhang Sanfeng has apparently learned Shaolin Kung Fu and further developed it in to Taijiquan. As one derived from the other or at least got inspired by it, it’s clear that it would also fit in the corresponding spiritual system very well.

Taijiquan, nowadays is the art that is still recognised as somehow meditational, all though it is rarely taught as part of the whole “system”. On the other hand it is not widely recognised as a fighting art, which it of course is. A very effective one after all.

It is very likely that Kung Fu, Bagua Quan and Taijiquan have influenced each other over the centurys.

Wushu...............

As we see Martial arts embedded in a spiritual system have a long lasting history and just slipped being lost.

There are a lot of principles Zen has taken from Kung Fu, Kung Fu has taken from the Chinese Health system, Daoism has taken from Zen and Tai chi quan from Kung Fu and vice versus.

That's why for instance Bagua Quan could be practised together with Zen and Daoism with Kung Fu, in fact even Christianity or Islam could be practised beside the one or the other, because they do not provide specifically Zen or Daoist knowledge, but profound spiritual experiences which are completely irrespective of race culture and religion, as for example meditation is.

There are people who practise neither religion and still have deep spiritual experiences through practising high level Qi Gong. I must admit that without such experiences I would may be have never found out what Zen really has to offer.

The thing is that practising Kung Fu and/or Qi Gong within a spiritual system, with all the aspects of physical, mental and spiritual health that there are, you'll find out that it is not three systems that you practise, but three practices of one system.

One of my Sitaigungs (great Grandmaster) once said: “If you want to reach the depths of Kung Fu, you've got to practise Qi Gong. If you want to get to the depths of Qi Gong, meditate.”

So if we speak of the Shaolin Arts we mean the “system” as a whole, it also is referred to as the triple Shaolin Arts sometimes.

So it is obvious that there are many principles that both Zen and Kung Fu share, because of the long way through time they developed together.

There are the six Qi Gong/Kung Fu stretching exercises, called the Art of flexible legs, which would not obviously be considered beneficial to attain a good lotus seat, but they do very effectively.

For instance, neither Zen nor Shaolin Quan can be learned from books or video tapes, the skills have to be transmitted from “heart to heart”. As Boddidharma neglected the use of books to teach Zen it was because he was very clear about the fact that such things can not be written down in a way to suit everybody's needs, because due to personal history everybody's needs will differ, if not vastly, then at least slightly.

Then there is the fact that both Zen and Kung Fu must be learned systematically, otherwise you will loose yourself in the sea of ten thousand techniques.

This and the former fact make clear that these arts/techniques have to be learned under guidance of a master, because there are too many pitfalls, physical, mental and spiritual ones, that can bring serious harm if not recognised early enough.

Also in both Zen and Kung Fu it is emphasised that one progresses gradually. You have to take one rung of the ladder at a time, you can’t just jump across two or three steps, because you will be missing some essential experiences, needed for further development. This seems to be a fact that many people don’t seem to be aware of. Also it is important that you get into the depths of some main principles before you learn new techniques.

Now we take to help the picture of a plum. The plum has to be ripe to let go and fall, fall unto the ground or on the path of its destination, which can be that it is eaten by insects or a mammal or that it is picked up and distilled into plum wine. It's the same with our arts, one has to be ripe to experience the void or his own Buddha nature and one has to be ripe to experience how the lowering of his Dantian can make his stance more stable or how letting go can make you do things you never thought possible. You have to let go physically and mentally in Kung Fu and you have to let go mentally and spiritually in Zen, and it’s exactly that balance of physics, mentality and spirituality that makes the merging of these arts so worthwhile.

To let go you need to learn to relax and then to relax more and finally to relax completely. The three golden rules of Kung Fu and I reckon they can also be considered golden rules of Zen.

An other thing that is similar is that you do not train skills that at least are how I experienced it. You train certain techniques which let certain skills appear. It’s not as in other sports, where you run and run to develop the skill of running faster or longer. You might train a certain breathing technique and develop the skill to relax and let go.

The higher the Zen or even non religious spiritual level you attain lets you develop higher martial art or daily live skills, up to some that might be considered supernatural. The higher your Kung Fu level gets, the more Zen or spirituality you will experience, stated that you are ripe. This is how one affects or benefits the other. High level Shaolin Quan was exactly developed for that purpose.