SELECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
AUGUST 2011 PART 1

Flowing Breeze Swaying Willows

Chi kung students of Shaolin Wahnam Ecuador enjoying "Flowing Breeze Swaying Willows"

Question 1

Previously when I came out of my Horse-Rriding Stance, that would be the end of the session.. Now after I have finished my Horse-Rriding Stance I do self manifested chi movement as described in your book, "Complete Book of Shaolin",

— Dan, USA

Answer

This is a big kungfu secret. I believe we in Shaolin Wahnam are the first to share this big secret publicly.

In the past, masters shared this secret privately only with a few top students, after the students had proven themselves worthy after many, many years. Over time, this secret was virtually lost. Today, not many people know of this secret. Even those masters who practice this and derive a lot of benefit, i.e. enjoying a chi flow after stance training and developing internal force, might not know of it as a secret They do so as part of their training routine.

This secret is called "yew foong pai lau" (Cantonese pronunciation), which means "flowing breeze swaying willows". If you practice "flowing breeze swaying willows" for a short while after your stance training, you will get more than three times the benefit?

For example, suppose you practice stance training for 15 minutes, and you obtain 50 units of benefit. If you add another 5 minutes of "flowing breeze swaying willows", you will obtain more than 150 units of benefits.

And if you have some adverse effects due to wrong training, "flowing breeze and swaying willows" will clear away the adverse effects.

Question 2

At first I found that I just swayed a little from my knees, but now I find that I am moving quite a lot. I'm not sure if this is a sign that I am generating more internal force. But it does feel a lot better and I feel so relaxed sometimes.

Answer

Yes, it is a sign of generating more internal force.

In my kungfu classes the chi flow after stance training or any other kungfu training can be very vigorous. Students may jump and roll on the ground. Some may sing or yell. This is catharsis, or emotional cleansing. It is also erasing bad karma from past lives.

Some people may think that we are talking non-sense. Erasing bad karma from past lives? Or even more mundane matter like emotional cleansing? These people would say that kungfu is only physical, and has nothing to do with superstition.

This is not superstition. In fact it is very scientific. And great kungfu is more than physical; it is also spiritual.

I use the terms "physical" and "spiritual" here in its Eastern context. In Chinese, it is "shen" and "xin". Literally, :shen" means "body", and "xin" means "heart". (Please note that "shen" pronounced in another tone, but written different in Chinese, can also mean "spirit".)

In Western context, :"shen" or "body" refers to the physical. "Xin" or "heart" is not the organ heart; it refers to the emotional, mental and spiritual.

Let me give an example of how vigorous chi flow can cleanse negative emotions and erase bad karma. Someone often suffers from stomach pains, and is afraid of ordinary knives. Thorough medical examinations show that there is nothing wrong with his stomach, and he knows very well that he needs not be afraid of knives.

But in a past life he was killed by a knife driven into his stomach. The experience was so traumatic that it left a strong impression in his soul, or consciousness. In chi kung terms, he has a spiritual blockage. Vigorous chi flow can clear the spiritual blockage. In Western terms, it clears his negative emotions and imprints in his consciousness. In some literature, it is described as erasing bad karma.

Your feeling better and relaxed is also an example of spiritual cleansing.

Nevertheless, as you practice on your own, you should keep your chi flow gentle. Vigorous chi flow should be learnt from a competent teacher, and performed with his guidance.

Horse-riding Stance

Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit demonstrating the Horse-Riding Stance at an Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course in Sabah

Question 3

My Horse-Rriding Stance has also increase to 5 minutes but it is extremely hard. I am not sure if I am too high or not. My thighs are not parallel with the ground but they are not that faroff and I find that at this height it is much more comfortable on my knees.

Answer

There are many pictures on my website showing how the Horse-Riding Stance should be practiced.

Some practitioners aim to have their thighs parallel to the ground. Their horse-stance is box-shaped. We discourage this, as it locks energy at the thighs and knees.

Our horse-stance is pyramid-shaped, with the thighs gently sloping. This enables chi to flow to the feet and root the practitioners to the ground, as well as enables chi to be gathered at the dan tian to develop internal force.

Question 4

I know this may sound like a silly question but are there any simple ways that I can test whether or not iIam developing internal force on my own.

Answer

It is not a silly question. In fact it is wise of you to ask. Thousands of students have wasted a lot of time because they never ask such questions. They never ask, for example, whether they are getting the benefits their art is supposed to give them.

You are asking this very important question in different words and with direct reference to internal force. Stance training is supposed to develop internal force, and you are asking how you can know you are getting this benefit.

A good way to find out is to list some of the things internal force would enable a practitioner to do well, and then check yourself against this list.

Here are some examples of a practitioner with internal force. The more internal force he has, the better he will be at these items.

  1. He is healthy,
  2. He has vitality.
  3. He is powerful, yet peaceful and relaxed.
  4. His face is radiant.
  5. His voice is full.
  6. He has sparkling eyes.

Take each item and compare yourself before you started stance training and now. Are you healthier now than before? Do you have more vitality now than before?

You may have a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 as the lowest and 10 the highest in your achievement. Suppose you give yourself 4 for health before your started stance training, and now you give yourself 6. So, you can conclude you have gained some internal force which enables you to move from 4 to 6 for health.

Evidence of Internal Force

For the initiated, evidence of internal force is clearly manifested in Sifu Piti, Sifu Riccardo, Sifu Rama, Andreas and Sifu Antonio in the photograph shown above

Question 5

I read an article that has bothered me so much about an inconclusive scientific finding that talks about certain physical traits such as the ratios between index fingers and middle fingers in gay man and straight man. Even though it is inconclusive, I happen to have the ratio that many gay man have. So now even this scientific study makes me so anxious.

— Tom, Holland

Answer

As you know that the finding was inconclusive, you should not be bothered with it.

Having similar ratio between index fingers and middle fingers as may gay men have does not indicate you are gay too. The similar ration may apply to other gropus of people, like artists or scholars.

Some research workers are notorious for selective evidence. They select evidence that suits their intention, and discard evidence that doesn't.

But suppose it were true that gay men had a specific ration between index and middle fingers, and you happened to have this ratio. Even with this presumption it does not show that you are gay. A person is gay when he willingly engages in gay activities and enjoys it. He does not become gay by thinking whether he is gay or normal, irrespective of his finger ration.

But such thinking is very harmful to him, and to you. It results in your identiy problem. You have this problem because you did not have the mental clarity to see the reality, resulting in you forming a wrong perception. The reality is that you are normal, but you wrongly percieved yourself as having the possibility of being homosexual, or at best bisexual.

Now I have helped you to see clearly. You should now throw away your perverted perception, and overcome your identity problem.


Editorial Note : Tom's other questions can be found in the July 2011 Part 3 issue.

Question 6

I don't have anything against gay couples. I have met people of the same sex that seem to have loving relationships. I don't feel at all comfortable with it for myself, not because of a moral issue, but I don't want to feel an erotic passion for someone of the same sex. Yet I fear that I might be born with some of this potential, and I'm repressing it and this is not good.

Answer

Yours are very healthy normal attitudes which show you are not gay. But you persuaded yourself to perceive that you might be gay. Perception is often more important than reality.

I have personally seen many situations which were not serious at all but wrongly perceived by the persons involved to be so serious that they became matter of life and death to these people.

I have helped them to see reality and overcome their wrong perception. There were also experiments where sick persons were injected with just plain water but told to be the right medicine for their sickness. Because of positive perception the patients eventually got well.

Biological factors in being male or female

Biological factors determine whether one is male or female, but cultural factors may have great inflence in his or her feeling and behaviour

Question 7

I currently don't have a girlfriend, but in the past when I had one I enjoyed it and didn’t think much of this issue because I guess my mind was busy with her.

But I want to solve this issue, so that I’m stronger for a true loving relationship, I don’t want to be escaping from fears but clear them away, enjoy the peace within of understanding myself better.

Answer

Get a good girlfriend. The motive is not to use her to overcome your identity problem. Be kind and loving to her as a good boyfriend would. This is cultivating goodness. Goodness will always bring goodness. This will surely help you to overcome your identity problem, though it was the motive of having a girlfriend.

Question 8

I believe I like women more. I dream and fantasize with them, but since I don't experience with men, I sometimes fear what whether I am missing part of discovering who I am. My confusion has come to a point that I don't know now any more when a gay guy comes near if I am somewhat attracted to him.

Answer

Dreaming and fantasizing with women is a good healthy sign for young men like you. Go ahead and enjoy yourself wholesomely. Don't just fantasize but make it happen. Always be kind and loving to the women you have a good time with.

Fearing you may be missing something that is harmful is not only unnecessary but downight stupid. It is like saying you are now healthy but fear you may be missing the experience of being seriously sick, or you are now living comfortably in a civilized society but fear you may be missing the suffering of living in a famine-striken and war-torn country.

Don't be stupid. Don't indugle yourself in harmful thoughts and perverted views. Just throw these wrong perceptions away. If any of these wrong perceptions ever creep back just throw them away again without question and without fuss. Wake up and be grateful that you are blessed with so many good things.

You don't have to imagine a gay man coming near you, just as you don't have to imagine yourself to be seriously sick or in a famine-striken, war-torn country.

But what should you do if a gay man comes to you, which may actually happens. Very simple. Treat him with dignity as you would treat another human being, certainly not with trepedition or suspicion. Suppose he came very close to you or suggested gay activities with you. What should you do. Again, very simple. Just tell him politely that you are not his type. Gay people are actually very nice people. They won't harrass you. They would continue talking with you as normal friends, or leave you to look for willing partners.

Question 9

I have a little bit of fear that your views might be against homosexuality. I have met healthy and good people for whom being gay is just another feature of their personality and they are fine human beings. Their moral standards and other virtues are like anybody else. So many great authors and artists have been homosexual as well, so I don't feel comfortable saying its a bad thing to be gay. I don’t want it for myself, but I'm not sure if one chooses it, or as modern science is saying, we are born with our sexuality.

Answer

I am not against homosexuals though I disapprove of homosexuality. As mentioned above, I believe homosexuals are generally very nice people.

My opinion is that homosexuality is culturally and not biologically caused. A person is born male or female according to his or her sexual organs and other biological factors that cause him or her to think, feel and act as a man or woman. If a man thinks, feels and acts like a woman, it is due to cultural influences.

However after a private discussion where a Shaolin Wahnam instructor told me cases of persons whose cultural environments were so against homosecuality yet they remained homosexuals, I have become more flexible in my views, and I am prepared to accept biological factors as the cause of some homosexuals. For example, a person may be born with a male body, but his biological factors produce so much female hormones that even without cultural influences he feels more comfortable to be a woman.

The heartening part is that regardless of whether a person's homosexuality was culturally or biologically caused, he can overcome it by practicing high-level chi kung. From the chi kung paradigm, homosexuality like any other disorder is a case of yin-yang disharmony, and is caused by energy blockage.

In the case of biologically caused homosexuality where persons in male bodies produce too much female homones that they behave as women, the blockage is physical. When the blockage is cleared by vigorous chi flow, their maile bodies will produce the right amounts and types of homones resulting in them behaving as men.

In the case of culturally caused homosexuality where cultural factors that happened in their earlier years or even in their past lives cause men to behave like women, the blockage is emotional, mental or spiritual (i.e. in their consciousness). When vigorous chi flow has cleared the blockage, they will behave like men.

In your case, you are not even a homosexual. You only think you have a possibility to be one. The cause of your problem was mental. You were too confused to see reality, and you formed a wrong perception of your own sexuality. You do not even need high-level chi kung to clear your blockage. Once you have mental clarity to see your mistaken perception, as I have shown you in this e-mail, you will overcome your problem. But if you practice high-level chi kung, your success is even more assured. If you want to learn from us, please see our List of Certified Instructors or my website announceing my Intensive Chi Kung Course.

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