'Special Intensive Course - Experiences'

[Jamie Robson]

Dear All

It is now one week since the Special Intensive Course. I think all participants will agree that it was a very important time for us, and different from the previous Intensive Course.

The last course exposed me to the wealth of treasure contained within the Shaolin Arts. It broadened my horizons, and many other factors became equally important as combat efficiency. Personal Development and Spiritual Cultivation now stood next to Mastery of Combat Application as long term aims.

The recent course gave me an incredible insight into the material we already knew. Sigung demonstrated variations and subtleties of patterns and movements. He showed what incredible things were possible using what material we knew so far. He simply showed how to sharpen the tools we already have rather than gather new ones. However, whenever Sigung did give us completely new material, it seemed to fall into place effortlessly. He would discuss similarities between new patterns and previously taught ones. The learning of brand new material was a very natural process.

This opened up my mind to personalising my own practice. It gave insight into where I needed to focus and what areas I enjoyed. It motivated me to assess my practice and create a more systematic routine. The course also confirmed for me, that skill was much more important than technique. Without sufficient skill, no technique can be executed to it’s full potential. It also highlighted the true importance of form. Correct form is not for the benefits of appearance but combat application. If I use Single Tiger Emerges From Cave as a poise but my hand form is an open palm, the essence is lost. The Tiger Claw hand form has a particular chi flow, mind state and effect on my opponent/partner. That is why form needs to be correct. The Bow Arrow stance is not designed to please spectators. If the form is correct, your groin is guarded, your stance ‘screwed’ into the ground, your aware of your dantian and the chi flows in a beneficial direction.

I will add more experiences from the course soon.

Sigung, thank you very much for sharing these incredible treasures with us. I am eternally grateful.

[Markus Kahila]

Hello, brothers and sisters.


Thank you for starting this thread, Jamie. This was - again - truly an incredible course, and I'm personally anxious to hear more about different thoughts and experiences of all involved. Here I'd like to share some specific experiences from the course that were highlights for me (warning: a very long post ahead ):


On the first day, I realized how much I tried to "be at my best" to get the best benefits from the course, that it ended up making me tense and anxious. So following the principles of Shaolin chi kung, I just let go and decided that first and foremost I want to enjoy being at the course and the privilege of learning from Sifu. As a result the next day of the course - and each day succeeding - was fun, relaxing, and most importantly, exceedingly rewarding.


We all had the great privilege of learning the Ho Family Flowing Water Staff Set, along with the underlying principles and application. I myself had never before handled a staff, and (because of time restraints) I hadn't had the time to familiarize myself with the set, so I was very surprised to find out how natural it felt for me. Learning the movements in the set was like coming home, it was as if I had just practiced it yesterday! I was even more surprised when as a closure for set practice Sifu told us to go to chi flow while still holding the staff. Spontaneously my chi flow directed me into kungfu movements using the staff that followed one another in a continuous flow. While the spontaneous patterns felt correct and natural, they were also completely effortless. Handling the staff felt like I was handling a toothpick! Alongside with the Dragon form, the Ho Family Staff set is now my absolute favourite.


I think for everyone that participated, the methodology and uses of set practice was taken to a whole new level. As Jamie mentioned, one of the greatest strenghts of the course was deepening the skills we already knew. Concerning set practice and combat sequences, there's now a vast selection of approaches we can take; starting from training form and regulating breathing to training the essence, energy, mind and spirit. Concerning combat sequences the greatest lesson for me was when Sifu instructed us to "keep in the sequence" while sparring with a partner. Soon I found how my haphazard kicks and punches began evolving into continuous techniques with a purpose, and as a result gained a small glimpse of insight of how the sparring of past masters must have been like.


Just like in the November 2004 Intensive course, the greatest rewards for me came at the end of the course. On the last day, alongside reviewing what we had learned Sifu focused into force and mind training. We had a very relaxed and deep session of stance training, that ended in chi flow and meditation. During meditation, I felt my mind gently expanding to touch the walls and corners of the hall in which we were practicing. I was very aware of the physical dimensions of the room, but also of my own body of energy at the same time. Just like in the November course, I felt very close to touching the cosmos (I cannot explain it better), but was taken aback when realizing - in a very specific and clear manner - all the things in the phenomenal world I was clinging on to that prevent me from becoming one with the cosmos. Sifu gently told us to focus our minds to our dan tian, and I came back energized, relaxed, peaceful and very grateful for the experience I'd had.


For some reason, it is not uncommon for me to go through kungfu movements during chi flows. Sometimes, when practicing at home, I've spontaneously done force training, gone through different kungfu animal patterns I'm not familiar with and even spoken in strange languages during chi flow. Before I didn't pay much attention to it, but on the last day of the course I went into an uncommonly vigorous chi flow during which I performed a large array kungfu techniques unknown to me, all spontaneously. I even executed some techniques, such as fast and continuous rolls on the ground, which I never would be able to perform normally. During the flow I felt the presence of powers or beings that were unknown to me, and infinitely more powerful than myself. So in the end of the long flow I prostrated and thanked the beings present, the past masters, Boddhisatvas and Amitabha Buddha for this wonderful lesson.
Fortunately for me my chi flow was videotaped, so following Sifu's encouragement I'm going to study it and compose combat sequences from it to the best of my ability, even making a set out of it if I'm able.


After less than two weeks from the Special Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course, it has totally caught me by surprise just how much I progressed in the short time of one week's intensive course. During the course Sifu laid strong emphasis on the essence of our chosen sets - mine was Dragon Form - and now I find everything in my daily practice has changed towards a softer, rounder, more circular - and essentially - more powerful approach - as is fitting for a dragon . The profundity of the change is truly amazing, and personally I cannot find better explanation for it than direct heart-to-heart transmission from Master to student.



During my time with Sifu Wong, I've always been extremely grateful for being able to learn directly from a great Master of a genuine, high-level art, but during this course it truly dawned to me just how beneficial learning directly from a great Master can really be.
A Master is someone who not only makes it easy for you understand, but also makes it possible for you to expand both mentally and spiritually. Such a teaching comes often through a simple word, gesture or encouragement, executed at just the right time and in the right way for the student to reap the benefits. During the course I experienced this many times, for example when Sifu pushed me towards understanding the essence of the Dragon. Then and there I understood immediately what Sifu was teaching me and made great progress, not because of my own ability, but because of Sifu's great ability as a teacher.
It is also perfectly normal for a Master understands you completely from a slightest hint. More often than not, a Master will answer even before you have formulated the question yourself. During many of the discussions at the course I was often waiting for the right time to ask a question, or formulating a question in my mind, but found out that Sifu was answering my question before I had actually spoken it out loud.
Needless to say, it is a sign of a great Master to be able to make complex and often bewildering concepts not only simple and easy to comprehend, but also useful and extremely effective in practice. I think Sifu has achieved even more than this by enabling us to implement kungfu, chi kung and zen principles very efficently also in our everyday life. This is something that makes me very grateful for each day of practice.



Wow, that really was a long post! However, there are still much, much more memories and experiences from that time I now treasure in my heart, such as the friendship and support of my Shaolin brothers (and sister), the tireless efforts of Wei Foong to make us feel at home, and above all, the generosity and care we recieved from Sifu that enabled us to transcend our limitations.

So a big Thank You to everyone involved! Can't wait to meet you all soon!!

[Tim]

It is without question that there was much to be learnt from this course. By the end of day one we seemed to have covered the entire previous intensive course and more. It is amazing what can be taught within eight hours. Sincere thanks to Sifu and all those involved in bringing Shaolin Kung Fu alive again.

Despite all the wonderful techniques and skills we learnt one aspect of our training still stood out to be the most important, which sadly is often the most neglected part of students training. Stances. Without stance training we do not have solid stances. Without our stances we cannot use force (force here meaning internal strength, skill and timing, not effort) to its full effect. Even if we have developed excellent skill and wonderful form they are next to useless if we don't have our stances.

It is only when Sifu demonstrated the effectiveness of our stances that I once again was reminded of the true importance of this essential part of our training. I am sure we are very fortunate that this aspect of our training has not been lost or replaced.

So it is back to the drawing board for me to work on my stances and develop some more internal force, that way my tigers will become tigers and the rest of my animals will be happy!

Best wishes to you all.

[Jonny Say]

Trully Wonderful Course

I would firstly like to echo my Shaolin brothers in saying thank you to everyone who made this such a special course, especially to Sigung.

As Tim Sisook mentioned we covered a huge amount of material and depth in a very short time (no suprises there for anyone who has attended an intensive course!).

A trully wonderful aspect for me was the day we covered our specialised sets. I had chosen Dragon form and was already in complete awe of the set, but within minutes Sigung was demonstrating subtleties in form, movement, essence and application which I would never have dreamed off.

I was getting first hand experience of how the skills of a Master create so many short cuts in our learning, and together with the generous transmittion give us opportunities for growth in all areas of our training. I was recieving little adjustments which were changing my experiences, understanding and (without wanting to sound over the top) my whole being or essence.

The course forged a deeper level of what I aim for from the art, and further deepend my skills to apply to my personal training.

I was once again amazed at how generous Sigung was in his teaching and more aware of how much is given on the deeper levels of Shaolin Kung Fu, so once again my heartfelt gratitude for such a trully wonderful course.

I had so many great times with my Kung Fu brothers and sister so thank you to all.

Good luck to everyone with their continued practice after the course.

[Simon]

echo

Many, many thanks to Sifu and everyone involved in the course. I think it is only now that I'm home that I lot of what we learnt has started to sink in. As I mentioned in the 'bon voyage' thread, although we learnt many new techniques, it is my understanding of the essense and spirit of Shaolin that has grown the most.

So much depth in the simplest of actions.

Thanks again,

Simon

[cnholmes]

Here's some favourite memories

Chris's demonstration of the Monkey Set, with everyone laughing at his antics... then backing off nervously when he got too close.

The chi flow almost lifting me off the ground when I did my Dragon And Tiger set.

Seeing a swirling plume of black energy rising from Josh's hand.

Sigungs eyes blazing when he showed us the spirit of the tiger. The look alone would have knocked you flat.

The deep, timeless peace in the cave temple at Perak.

Learning breakfalls - on concrete Ha Ha

My hand vibrating in the tiger claw motion of One Finger Shooting Zen (update for those I chatted to about it - my left hand vibrates too now )

Lots of lovely foo-ood!

Clashing with zbee (Tim) during sparring (think of banging your shin as hard as you can on a brick wall). BUT - the chi flow cured it suddenly with a THUD! my leg kicking out spontaneously behind me.

And of course the many wonderful lessons deepening my understanding - I don't think I've ever used the phrase "Ah - Right! now I get it" so much in my life.

Thank You Sigung for your wisdom, humour and keen amending eye. Thank you for letting me come on this course.

And thank you to all my fellow students for the laughs, good training and shared experiences.

Best Regards,
Chris.

[Nicky]

Hello all I just got home from the trip a couple of days ago and it hasn't really sunk in yet. So until I have had time to absorb the course a bit in my practise, here are some photos from the trip.........

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=9xq4wlx.tbaw99d&Uy=ummvtn&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=181039601403_26683116833

Also, one thing that I am really pleased about happened immediately after the course, whilst we were staying on Langkawi. Ever since I can remember I have been afraid of heights, and particularly in travelling on cable cars (all that swinging around over straight drops ). Then Ronnie and I took the cable car trip on Langkawi. It was terrifying all the way up and then I made myself cross the suspension bridge at the top, during which I had a chi flow clearing through me and releasing something out of my throat/mouth. On the way back down I was no longer afraid of the height or the cable car swinging. This all took a matter of minutes to clear something that has troubled me a whole lifetime!

When the course has sunk in I'll add more.

Meanwhile, regards to all my brothers on the course and many thanks to Sifu.

Nicky

[Mark Blohm]

Dear Family,

I've been looking at some of the videos from the Special Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course on Sifu's website. I've enjoyed everything so far, but I think there might be a problem with some of the recent recordings in parts 10 and 11.

part 10: http://shaolin.org/video-clips/sequence/overview.html

part 11: http://shaolin.org/video-clips/sparring/overview.html

I think the sparring is excellent and a great inspiration, but I think that the videos are playing at a faster speed than they were recorded. This might be an error with my computer or maybe the movements are actually that fast.

Here's an example:

http://shaolin.org/video-clips/sparring/free-sparring06.html

Is anybody else having this problem?

Mark

[Antonius]

Yeah, something's wrong there. Dunno if it's the camera, or the compression software, or what. But no, the movements are not that fast.

Unless Sifu is teaching secrets I don't know.

[Mark Blohm]

I think it would be a good idea to change that. It might give the wrong impression to newcomers that we're trying to hide something.


Mark

[Josh]

Warm greetings to all my Wahnam brothers and sisters, forum guests, and, of course, to Sifu.

I realize this thread is long past, but since this is my first post on the forum, I thought I'd share some positive thoughts here before getting involved in any of the more contentious topics. Of course this is a topic on which I could ramble on and on for a long time (and do whenever I get the chance), so I'll try to be concise. So, what for me were the highlights of this course?


A fine group of kungfu practitioners

It was wonderful to see so many warm and wonderful people from my first course again; I truly feel like you're my family and I miss you all! And to all of you who (or whom, if you're a grammarian) I just met this time: it was a pleasure to meet you all. My love, respect and thanks to all who took part in this course. I look forward to my next chance to practice with any and all of you.


Learning from Sifu

As anyone who's learned directly from Sifu knows, it's always an amazing experience! Sifu not only has outstanding kungfu skills, but his ability to pass on those skills leaves me in awe. Sifu has the uncanny ability to know just where we're at in our training and just how far he can push us...which for me is usually well past what I thought I was capable of! As a teacher myself (and not a bad one at that), I hope to someday be that skilled and insightful. I love getting "hands-on" corrections from Sifu, and during this course I received plenty! From basic stances and force training to the day he set us loose to spar with the staff (I don't know how many times that day I heard Sifu coming up saying "Not like that! Like this!"). And especially the day we worked on our specialized sets. Before the course I practiced the 5 Animals set as best I could from the on-line video clips and Sifu's "The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu", and I was happy with what I'd accomplished on my own. Then Sifu started correcting me . Sometimes it was just the subtleties of a technique and sometimes the technique as I had learned it was a simplified version, like with "Hungry Tiger Catches Goat". Not only did the technique contain more and trickier movements than I had practiced, but Sifu spent some time correcting my form...pulling my arms, twisting my hands, pushing my body, readjusting my hands and then readjusting my body. Just wonderful. Thank you again, Sifu, for all your attention.


Confirmation of Sifu's teaching method

My first course with Sifu and my introduction to Shaolin Wahnam was the November 2004 Intensive in Malaysia. After that I returned to cold and lonely Minnesota where I had no one with whom to practice my new skill set and techniques. So I did as Sifu instructed and practice my force training, my sets and practiced the combat sequences with my imaginary partner (who I'm aftraid wasn't that good!). As the date for the Special Intensive course drew near, I found myself getting a bit anxious knowing that most of the others attending had regular instructors and practice partners. I was prepared to play catch-up. During the course, to my surprise and delight, despite nearly a year of no sparring what-so-ever, I found my sparring had improved drastically, and that it was much easier and even more enjoyable than during my fist course. So if there's anyone considering taking a course with Sifu, but is concerned that they don't have a practice partner, I say don't worry....go for it!! You'll be amazed at what you can achieve.


Powerful Cleansing

During this course I had my first experience with difficult cleansing (both emotional and physical). During my first course with Sifu, the lower back pain and tightness that had plagued me for years was nearly eliminated in that one week. After a month or so of continued practice it was gone all together. I thought it was gone for good. However, during this last course I was shocked when it came back on the first day of the course and my stances went from decent (not great) to short and tight! I realize that problems may come back (or even worsen) when qi starts working on the root of the problem, but it was still a bit frustrating as I felt extremely lucky to be invited to this course and I wanted to live up to Sifu's expectations. Ah well, such is life. On the very last day of the course, although it wasn't gone altogether, the tightness was not too bad, however at the end of the day my knees were a little sore. I didn't think much of it until the next day when I awoke and could barely stand. I inherited my mom's bad knees and made them worse by running when I was younger, but they've never hurt that bad! And the next day was even worse. I had to use my arms to push myself up from sitting and I was hobbling about like a decrepit old man! I was a little worried that I'd done something to hurt myself, but I figured I'd been training under Sifu's supervision, so it must be more cleansing. Over the next few days I only practiced a little qigong and qi-flow (I couldn't do stances at all) and it gradually subsided. My suspicions of it being cleansing were confirmed after I returned home. Several times I had similar pain in my knees (although nowhere near as severe), and it was always after my best, most relaxed stance practice. Several times I'd finish golden bridge and my knees would be fine, and then during qi-flow I'd feel the qi moving slowly down my legs and when it would hit my knees then the pain would start. I can only assume my knees are healthier and stronger than ever now.


Increase in Skill

After the course Nicky, Johnny, Ronny and I went to Langkawi for a week of practicing and relaxing. (It was wonderful to spend some time with you guys! My best to each of you!) After that, Ronny and I spent a week in Georgetown practicing, shopping, eating and practicing some more. One day during our morning practice session, I was just settling in to do my 90 breaths of golden bridge (which for me was quite an accomplishment, given that a year before I could barely do 20) when it started to rain. After 30 breaths it was raining quite hard, so I decided to wrap up the stance training, enjoy a brief qi-flow and standing meditation, and go dry off. Walking back to the hotel I realized I was more refreshed and energized after just 30 breaths of golden bridge than I was after doing the 75 I was practicing before the course! Once again, Sifu raised my level of practice from what it was to a new height I couldn't have anticipated. It's truly amazing what a week with Sifu can do!

Failure and Recovery

I wasn't sure if I'd share this here, as I'm rather embarrassed by part of this story, but I guess there's no sense pretending like I'm perfect. During our last week in Georgetown Ronny and I spent a lot of our practice focusing on combat sequences 9-20. It was a really beneficial week for me (thank you again Ronny!) and toward the end of it we were practicing those sequences pretty hard and fast and having a great time of it. Well, one day I punched Ronny right in the chest. (Sorry, again, Ronny.) Now, I know that mistakes happen and I also realize we were really pushing ourselves, but I still feel I should have avoided it. We were at the end of sequence 19 and as I did the false leg hand sweet and black tiger, Ronny didn't retreat as fast as I was expecting and I was too focused on the form and flow and power (safety first, Josh, safety first!) and just as my fist was about to strike his chest I realized, "Geez, that's a really powerful punch!" So, that's my shameful failure. On the plus side, much to my surprise, I did manage not to hurt Ronny, and I credit this to the skills that Sifu has passed to us. My fist was too close to him when I realized it to stop it from hitting him completely, but what I did do was slow it somewhat and in that split second I had I changed my intent from inflicting damage to healing. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but I took a crushing powerful blow and changed it to what you might call a "benevolent" strike. Later when we were talking about it, Ronnie said he felt warmth diffusing into his chest from the fist. So, my hope is that any damage done by the physical strike was counteracted by a good infusion of qi. (Ronny, I hope there was no problem later...you were a joy to spend time with, and a joy to practice with...I hope we'll have another chance soon!)

Well, there, I managed to keep this "brief". It's just hard not to go on about this sort of experience.

Right now I've got a few free hours, so it's off to the park for practice. Perhaps if there's time this evening I'll write a few words on some of the recent threads that have caught my eye (and raised my hackles).

My best to all,
Josh

[Molly]

"Contentious"?! Oops, I seem to remember usurping that word from you awhile ago when you were still writing this last post . Sorry, it's just such a good word there grammarian! Anyway, welcome to the forum, it's nice to finally have you here with us you lazy bum ! Molly