The Shaolin Praying Mantis

[Luo Lang]

Thanks for sharing,
I shall have a closer look on it!

[Chiahua]

I'm very interested in learning about this internal force training method! Hoong Ka is famous for the Iron Wire Set, Wing Chun for Siu Lim Tao, and our school is lucky to have One Finger Shooting Zen---yet reading about Praying Mantis, there does not seem to be a core force training set mentioned anywhere!

[Luo Lang]

I'm very interested in learning about this internal force training method

As I mentioned, the force training is part of or the compete 18 Lohanarts, an ancient Set of exercises, which is quite different than 18 Lohanhands.

It's gonna be very interessing for sure!

[drunken boxer]

Dear Roland Siheng,

I am glued to this thread and am wondering if there is an approximate plan for when the course might take place? Ah, I'm sure it will be revealed in good time, I'm just impatient given the subject!

On the different styles, which will be taught at the course? Will it be just one style, or aspects of all, will it be Northern Praying Mantis taught rather than Chow Gar Southern Praying Mantis, and if so would it be a particular Northern division like Seven Star?

Thanks,
Paul

[Luo Lang]

I am glued to this thread and am wondering if there is an approximate plan for when the course might take place? Ah, I'm sure it will be revealed in good time, I'm just impatient given the subject!

Hello Paul,
I am not 100% sure when the courses in Switzerland will be thought next year. As you know Sifu is quite busy and Andrew Siheng, Switzerland's chief instructor is working hard on fixing suitable dates to invite Sifu.

What I can say is that so far almost all courses here took part around the end of August, but as said, nothing is fixed yet.

For sure I will let you know as fast as possible.

On the different styles, which will be taught at the course?

I am pretty sure that Sifu will focus on Shaolin Praying Mantis. Now you may guess if it's more Northern or Southern

[Luo Lang]

Hello all,
After all it may be interesting to share what you know about Praying Mantis.

As many of you may have some experience and knowledge, it would be great to share this here!

Thanks in advance,

Roland

[DiogoLuxembourg]

Thanks

thanks for the answer and sorry for taking so much time to respond :-)

I didn't know shaolin wahnam was trying to revive all shaolin styles, sounds amazing and I'm very happy to hear that. It looks like one day there is going to be a new shaolin temple :-) Shaolin Wahnam Temple

[Luo Lang]

I didn't know shaolin wahnam was trying to revive all shaolin styles, sounds amazing and I'm very happy to hear that. It looks like one day there is going to be a new shaolin temple :-) Shaolin Wahnam Temple

Hello,
I don't know if the aim is to revive all styles. I think it's just a developement. The Shaolin temple was well known for its systematic training methology. All in all all styles were compete by themeselves, which means there was (and in Wahnam still is) the aim of having a sound knowledge about history and philosophie of a style, the form training, the force training, the systematic use of application.

Following this tradition it's a noble intention to restore some Genuine styles, even when it's maybe not a Southern One, of which our lineage is coming from.

Sifu was actually not known to be a Tai Chi Chuan Master, he was well known for his retribution as a Master, respectively as Grandmaster of Shaolin Kung Fu and Shaolin Chi Kung.

Due to his immense knowledge and experience with the Shaolinarts, he understands Tai Chi Chuan much more profound than many Tai Chi Chuan Masters. This is of course a result of his dedicated training in the Arts for many many years. And due to this knowledge and experience he could, can also understand the essence when reading old classics.

In my very humble experience with the Arts I was watching many videos Masters performing the Praying Mantis. Again not to be direspectful I hardly could see much essence. For example The PM is well known for Small people to fight against Big Ones. This is how the style developed, a small monk named Wang Lang found a Way to fight against his Big classmates using Lohan Kung Fu. When I see now most of the time, that muscular brutes dominate the appereance then I get curious.

PM is also well know for its Internal force training. Actually it's the very essence of this style. Nowadays I see mostly mechanical strengh within most of the practitioners. Another paradox!

Then I also observed that many practitioners of this style still have to use other fighting systems to make the style complete. This was again making me very curious, because Wang Lang already did all the job for us:
He chose the best techniques out of 16-18 different styles (depends on the sources you look at) and involved it.

All in all I felt that this style has as all Genuine Shaolin styles everything to offer: good health, Internal force, mental clarity and spiritiual development.

So I asked Sifu (maybe I was not the first One who asked Sifu, but I am sure there were others as well) wheater he knows this style and wheater he knows a Set:

He responded: ohh yes there is of course a Praying Mantis style within Shaolin. Abnd yes I know the Shaolin Praying Mantis Set, which is most probably very close the Way Wang Lang trained it. We all know that after Wang Lang, there was some development, but the essence is within our family, in Sifu's mind

That's how I came to ask wheater he would like to teach it. He agreed, with the aim of course to help to restore the Glory of Shaolin-PM

[Joel]

Hello,

This is a clip from the BBC3 series 'Mind Body & Kick-ass Moves with a short feature on aspects of Chow Gar Praying Mantis Kung Fu, might be of interest to anyone who hasn't seen it already.

(Starts about 1min 25sec into the clip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB7OUvkbnNw

Best wishes

Joel

[AlexBaranosky]

Thanks Joel that was great!

They actually showed the grandmaster summoning a spirit to heal the man, and then sending the spirit home. Great stuff. Such things are so easily dismissed in our culture but clearly the man felt better immediately.

[Luo Lang]

Thank you Joel also from me: it's indeed very interesting!

I am very happy that this style also emphasises on chi, mind and spiritualcultivation

[Luo Lang]

Some patience before it gets really interessting

Hello all,
Just wanted to tell you all, that I am currently working out some interessting things about Praying Mantis!

So if you have any more relevant material, videos, pics to share I would highly appreciate it!

What I can say is that it's gonna be very very interessting! We would start to load up some relevant material here to discuss. So we may have a greater insight into this so nice style. The aim is to get all basic knowledge to know, about stances, poise patters, advantages and so on.

The most important thing though when it comes to discussionsabout other Masters, that we may all keep our respect towards them. We may agree and disagree with some things but always as respectfull as possible. We do not wish to make other Masters feeling sad and angry at us! Kepp that in mind please. Thanks!

Please have some patience, I am working on it, ass soon I am ready I will post it here!

Warmest regards,

Roland.

[Chiahua]

I was just reading the Metta thread, particularly Sihing's remarks about the Monkey Spirit:

The Monkey mind or spirit though is different. One need to be very very focussed and one pointed minded at the very same time relaxed to get this special state of mind indeed.
Then often the restlesness heart of a Monkey is very noble and can be very useful! The heart of determination: It's a very deep determination to reach aims and objectives. One of the the Greatest heart determination examples is the Great Sage equal to Heaven.

Is there a "spirit of the mantis"? What might its characteristics be like?
I remember reading a passage in Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind about the zazen of the frog. The frog sits in meditation, and acutely aware when a fly comes within range—then it springs into action quite fast.
Mantis' seem to me to be a bit similar. They can remain relatively still, but when they strike it is precise and decisive.
Here's a youtube mini documentary on actual mantis':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hGuallLPcM

[Luo Lang]

Dera Chiahua,
I haven't thought of the Praying Mantis Spitit so far and I wonder if it's accurate to imply it.

From my own experience training some patterns though it may manifest some characteristics of yes I was curious to feel it as well, the Dragon! But this may be some experience within my own development.

Especially when applying the Index Finger to focus on Dotting a Vital point the mind state of Dragon occurs quite obviously.

regards

[Kingmonkey]

Hello Chiahua, Hello Sifu

I may not be competent at all to contribute in this discussion, but when I read your recent posts, it just popped up my mind.

I recently had this experience with different animal spirits during Chi flow and there were also some seconds of a "Mantis feeling". Now what I have felt within these seconds may not be the real thing and it's hard to describe anyway, but I'll try to share it. May be it can be of use.

What I felt was a kind of hardness (not in the external sense) or severity, there was a very clear, one pointed mind and thorougoingness, it felt somehow inexorable. I thought this spirit would just await a good chance and then run down everything, to put it in a more pictorial way.

That's what I still can recal, and I would again like to make clear that this was just my experience, and that may or may not have anything to do with the real Mantis Spirit.

Pat