Wen Hsiu Quan

As you already know- I train and practice on a regular basis- I meditate daily- And it does not cost me a cent! To be honest- I have never realised that people would actually be willing to pay to have someone teach them to meditate. Unlike martial arts that have layers upon layers of techniques meditation is something in which you can get far by sticking to what you have been taught at the beginning. Sure- I paid  money for the magazine from which I have learnt my first meditation exercises and also for the books, but after that practice was free of charge. Still- I see lots of people paying month after month for going to this or that class... And people tend to think I am crazy... Umm... well... I guess people can spend their money as they see fit, but it looks like many of these people believe that whatever benefits they seek from meditation can only be obtained by attending that particular class on a regular basis- for which they hav...

This post ties in with the one from last week in which I have discussed how the Law of Attraction, as taught by Rhonda Byrne in her well-known book, The Secret, works in martial arts. From what I have experienced in Nei Kung and Ninjutsu this is not a strange concept to the martial arts. I would be the first to advise against misplaced confidence and foolish optimism. If you think that this is what I am teaching you are misunderstanding the entire purpose of these two posts. Your current reality remains something with which you have to deal as long as it exists. The mindset with which you handle it, though, plays a huge part in what happens next. Rhonda Byrne explained how the Law of Attraction works in terms of emotional as well as material things that enter into our lives. After experimenting a bit I have found the following: Just as a victory instills a feeling of confidence and comfort in fighting, so a feeling of confidence and calmness before a fight can l...

Hi everyone, I don't know how many of you practice internal arts, so I don't know if anyone can relate when I say that I have been experiencing a real good internal balance lately with qi flowing strong and freely. I have found that my iron shirt skill is actually coming on nicely now and that I move a lot easier and faster nowadays. All in all- I am in a good mood. I realise with today's post that this blog is actually approaching the end of its lifespan. The topic on which I am writing actually belongs to a class of things that I reserve for advanced students, but I still think it is good to write this post as it is both true and useful. If you have seen the movie Kung Fu Dunk (starring Jay Chou who was also Kato in the most recent Green Hornet movie) you will remember that Shi Jie's first master tried to perform an esoteric type of Kung Fu called "Altering the Universe". In Ninjutsu the kuji-kiri hand form Zai is also said to mean "contro...

Since about the turn of the Millenium I have found that when people got introduced to me as Martial Artists it no longer meant that we had as much in common as before. Thing is- my life with martial arts has become much easier when I had learnt about mindlessness and mindfullness. If you asked me about it back in those days I would have said that it was a Zen concept that got applied in Japanese martial arts and that training without it would amount to making useless movements. In Japanese the state of mindlessness is known as mu-shin ("no mind"). In the beginning it was uncanny for me to understand, but I loved how it worked. Now I still get amazed at a new generation of martial arts students who don't know how not-thinking can help you in a fight at all... But yeah... I am old-school like that... Well- Maybe Okinawa had someone like Mr Miyagi from the Karate Kid movies to teach that with his Karate... Thing is, however, that Okinawan Karate is Te in its undilu...

Hello to everyone here for the first time in 2018. My annual break has been quite well and an exciting year is lying ahead. I actually chose to ignore my Fitbit tracker during the holidays and as punishment for that I have to train twice as hard this month to catch up. Still- it has been nice and restful. Well... I have not completely abandoned training during the holidays. As a lot of you would know- meditation is part of every training session for me. This is what today's post is about.  I realise that there are a lot of us who can happily get through the day without meditating. I was surprised to see however how much value MMA fighters place on it. Really- you think the traditional martial arts schools with their white gi's and bowing etc. are preserving the classical ways and then you wake up one day and find that many of the traditional schools do not even bother to teach meditation while the guys in the big bad MMA gyms incorporate Y...

I have just turned a year older this weekend. All in all- this has been a great weekend. The Springboks have beaten Samoa last night and I had a great time celebrating with my family. Even had a friend over. As you probably know by now- almost every day in my life starts with training. Saturday's training tops it all. One of the reasons why I enjoy weekend training sessions is the longer time I have to meditate. I am actually busy writing about this in my book at the moment. This Saturday I realised how funny it is that I have learnt to keep my mind in line with breath counting, and how breath following was attempted soon thereafter. That was about 21 years ago. Now- being "advanced" enough to let go these training tools I was happy to just let go and sit.  Yeah right... Without any of these techniques to preoccupy me I do manage to have my mind open, but when it is open thoughts come to occupy it yet again. I caught myself daydreaming in lot...

The Ten Commandments tell us that there is one day of the week to cease work and to dedicate to God. The Bible tells us in Genesis that even God rested on the 7th day. This wisdom is of much use to us today as it was in the days of Moses. Negative energy (here meaning stress, anger and bad feelings) gather as we work and interact with the world. One who does not take the time out to get rid of these will even find himself becoming physically ill. In martial arts training this is also true. I actually saw in an episode of Street Fighter- Assassin's Fist (Episode 3 on Youtube if you haven't seen the series yet) that Gotetsu told his students to "cleanse their spirit" with meditation after training. Beside physical exertion- your training will also put stress on your mind and anger and frustration can easily set in. This is harmful. Meditation serves to restore balance and to rid ourselves of the mental clutter from training. Shaolin students will further tell you t...

Meditation and mental training forms part of any good martial art's syllabus. With meditation also comes related exercises like Qigong. It is important to note that visualisation exercises and qigong are meant for the dojo alone and can be fatal to the practicioner if he takes this into the street. This is because the outside environment requires us to be aware thereof and pre-occupation with one's own internal workings is sure to leave you open to surprises. Awareness of self causes resistance within us and delays our responses. Only when awareness of self has been eliminated can the fighter truly utilise his training.