TESTS AND DIFFICULTIES GRANDMASTER UNDERWENT IN HIS SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Practicing the Horse-Riding Stance is a good way to test the strength of one's spirit
Question 4
May you kindly share with us some of the tests and difficulties that you have had in your own path towards Spiritual Cultivation and how where you able to detect and overcome them?
Santiago
Answer
I understood what spiritual cultivation meant after I had started answering questions form the public, probably in the 1990s. Before that I vaguely confused spiritual cultivation with moral education or with religious knowledge.
In other words, I thought, wrongly, that a person was spiritually cultivated if he had high moral values, or if he was knowledgeable in religious matters. Later when I realized what spiritual cultivation was, I discovered that while this was often true, it might not necessarily be so.
In other words, while a spiritually cultivated person often has high moral values, or often knows much about religious matter, it could also happen that a spiritually cultivated person may have low moral values and knows little about religion.
The three terms are straight-forward, though they may cause confusion sometimes. Spiritual cultivation is cultivating the spirit, irrespective of whether the cultivator has high or low morals, is knowledgeable or ignorant in religion. Moral education is being educated in morals, irrespective of whether the person is spiritually cultivated or uncultivated, knowledgeable or ignorant in religion. Religious knowledge is knowing about religion, irrespective of whether he is spiritually cultivated or uncultivated, have high or low morals.
A black magician, for example, is highly cultivated in spirit, but he has low morals and may or may not be knowledgeable in religion. A moralist is highly educated in morals but he may not believe in the spirit or in religion. A priest is knowledgeable in his religion but he may be timid which means he is not spiritually cultivated, and he is usually compassionate which means he has high morals.
Even when I had a clear understanding of what spiritual cultivation was only in my 50s, my spiritual cultivation started early. As a child I was not afraid of ghosts, which meant my spirit was strong.
When I first learned Shaolin Kungfu form Uncle Righteousness, my siheng, Iron Arm Chiew Shi Khern, taught me the Horse-Riding Stance and asked me to remain at the stance. Then he walked away, probably forgotten that I was at my stance. Stance training was painful, but I endured. After about 10 minutes my siheng came back and saw me still at the stance.
“Oh, you’re still at your stance. Very good. Now stand up.”
My legs were so stiff that I could not stand up. I just slumped onto the floor.
My father’s earlier advice that I must respect my master and seniors, and do what they asked me to do, certainly contributed to my spiritual cultivation. Respecting the master and seniors, and having perseverance in practicing their teaching was moral education, but strengthening the spirit so as not to give up despite difficulty was spiritual cultivation.
This was one of my earliest tests in my path towards spiritual cultivation, and I am glad I did well.
Another early lesson and test on spiritual cultivation was in scouting. Scout Law number 8 is to smile at all times even under difficulties.
I was on an endurance hike with my school-day best friend, Soon Hoe Choon. We walked along a railway track from Nibong Tebal to Bagan Serai, two small towns in Peninsula Malaysia, mistakenly thinking that was the shortest distance, not knowing that a trunk road, which was certainly more comfortable for waking, was running parallel nearby.
I was very tired, despite my kungfu training, and each time I stopped to rest, a huge swamp of mosquitoes would gather around us for supper. Despite the difficulties I kept up a cheerful spirit.
The first time I had an experience of my spirit going out of my physical body was before I even started my primary (or elementary) schooling. I was holidaying in Kuala Lumpur and was sitting in a wooden house in Loke Yew Village right in the middle of the city itself. A cake seller was passing bye and I could hear him calling out his ware.
I had an interesting thought of putting myself in another persons’s body. I can’t remember now why I had that funny thought, and on hindsight it was incredible for a small boy of five or six to think this way. I believe my knowledge and skills must be due to my spiritual cultivation in past lives.
Suddenly, without warning, I found myself out of my physical body. I knew nothing about spirit and body or anything about spiritual cultivation then, at least not in this life. I was afraid. And as suddenly my spirit was pulled back into my physical body.
Another time I had an experience of my spirit outside my physical body was many years later. I read about developing night vision whereby a practitioner could see clearly even in dim light from a kungfu classic, and decided to try it. Dark in the night alone, I lighted a joss-stick and placed it in a jar in front of the God of the Earth in my house. I sat in a semi-lotus position a few feet away half closed my eyes and looked at the joss-stick in the dim light. After a few breadths where I was gently aware of my breathing, I found myself out of my physical body.
Again I was frightened, as I had no prior knowledge about the spirit. I was just practicing night vision. The fright instantly brought my spirit back into my physical body.
A severe test and difficulties I faced in my path towards spiritual cultivation occurred when a chi kung master and some of my own students whom I had nurtured to be masters themselves betrayed me. It was deeply hurting and painful. I remember asking myself many times, especially during long drives alone from Sungai Petani to Taiping to teach chi kung, what wrong had I done that I deserved such betrayals. I also asked Guan Yin Bodh Satt for guidance as well as to give me an answer.
I received a clear answer. I had done no wrong. I lived an exemplary life, guided by the Ten Shaolin laws. I was sincere in teaching the Shaolin arts, in nourishing students and helping others. I concluded that the test and the difficulties were a necessary developmental stage in the making of a true master.
This and later betrayals were invaluable lessons for me in my spiritual cultivation. It made me strong. Hence, in the recent betrayal concerning unproven sexual abuse allegedly committed by an instructor who had resigned, I considered it a blessing that those who lacked wisdom and compassion left our school.
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread 10 Questions on the Essence of Spiritual Cultivation in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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