Martial Arts

A Spectrum of Martial Arts

There is a variety of martial arts from all over the world and they all serve to prepare the practitioner with fighting skills. Some are commonly known and easy to find, while others are rare and mysterious. The methods and patterns vary widely, but they tend  to organize into basic categories according what they train, how they train, and for what purpose.   

• Physical force (Krav Maga for combat, MMA for sport fighting)
• Spiritual power (Ueshiba's Aikido or Way of the Spiritual Fist) 
• External Training that focus on muscular and cardiovascular fitness and endurance for health and combat
• Internal Systems that focus on building awareness and sensitivity training in order to cultivate and master Qi  for health and combat

Chinese Martial Arts, while commonly believed to be the origin of martial arts, is a part of a larger collection of  styles from around the world.  While they all share many similarities in their approach to combat, how to express force, counter-force, blocks, strikes, techniques, skills, and secret strategies—Chinese Martial Arts are unique for many reasons.

The great value of Chinese Martial Arts is that training goes beyond exercise and physical force. It extends to include energy training. The same energy that practitioners of Chinese Medicine have worked with for 5000 years to heal and promote health. In a complete system, the training is a balance of medicine and martial arts. Yin and Yang.

The value of this is found in:

• the health that comes with abundant energy
• the ability to defend that health against harm
• the confidence that comes from repeatedly extending beyond your limits to higher levels
• and more

The Shen Shing School of Gong FU thought

In our Shen Shing lineage at Huo Shan Wuguan,  The Fire Mountain School of Resilient Stress Management and Chinese Martial Arts, we offer a complete system of Chinese Martial Arts:

• Wu Chan Taiji (Tai Chi) 
• Shen Shing Wu Chan Gong Fu (Kung Fu) 
• Shen Shing Wu Chan Ba Gua Chui
• Shen Shing Shi San Zhuong Qi Gong
• Shen Shing Men Ai Shen Gong Fa— 9 Animals Fascia Gong
• Classical Chinese Weapons—Guan Dao, Ba Xian Jian, Taiji Dao, Tiger Hook Swords, Nine Sectional Steel Whip, Twin Daggers, Pan Lung Jian, and more.
• Traditional Culture, Philosophy, and Poetry

“Chinese Martial Arts without culture is like a tree with no root.”
―Master Tian

From their observations of nature, the Chinese sages perceived the patterns of energy as it moved through nature. They saw how it was reflected in the human beings. They valued the energy so much that they organized their culture, philosophy, and martial arts around the patterns of energy. They saw life as a myriad of energy systems sharing energy with each other. The flow of energy was the strength of life, and stagnation was the weakening of life. If power and health were sought, then energy was the currency.

The purpose and method of training is to build energy. To do this we unify Shen (spirit) with Shing (movement) to develop Shen Fa. Shen Fa is a culmination of inspired movement patterns that centralizes and optimizes energy. It begins with unifying and coordinating the Yi, the body, the fascia, and the core to increase efficiency of energy and movement. As we master Shen Fa, we begin to perceive energy and how it moves. We train our forms to build power to defend ourselves and evolve into a higher state of energy functioning. Our sash ranks reflect our students' level of invested time and energy and their ability to use the energies we train (Yi, Qi, Jing, and Shen). 

Chinese Martial Arts are unique among martial arts because they use inspired movement to build energy and direct power. This is essential. 

What we call a master in our lineage is an energy activist. We study the laws of energy, power, and human nature so that we can intentionally extend beyond resistance to inspire change. We use our training to clarify our body, mind, and spirit to build and use energy efficiently. If we need something done, we send energy first (Yi) and then we move to create change and do work, while being aware of our energy. When done correctly, we accomplish the task with a surplus of energy. This is Fa. This is Power. With mastery, Gong Fu becomes Gong Fa.

NEXT GEN SELF DEFENSE 

Efficiently Protect Yourself and Defend your Energy from Harm

Self-defense training needs to go beyond training strikes and blocks. In order to break the cycle of harm, self defense needs to include:

• Awareness of the Right to Harm with Impunity—The origin of all the harm in the world.
• The ability to efficiently set and hold clear limits to the right to harm with impunity. This needs to be addressed within ourselves, our relationships, and socially in response to the hate and harm in the world.
• The ability to quickly and accurately assess who is safe and who is dangerous.
• Vigilance to observe when this changes.
• The ability to respectfully defend yourself and your energy against the proponents of the status quo, including yourself. 

In matters of self defense, it's best be to like a guardrail. Guardrails are not biased for or against any vehicle on the road. A guardrail's presence establishes a clear boundary. It chases no vehicle to exact revenge, to punish, or to teach.

Everything is fine unless you cross the line and then bang! you get bounced back to the safe zone. As drivers, we learn real fast to respect the limits and stay away from the guardrail. An effective guardrail has clear limits, warnings, immediate unconditional non-punishing consequences (dents), non-biased reactions that reflect only the energy that they are struck with.  They meet disrespect with unconditional respect. An investment of training and tempering is required for humans to build the energy integrity to meet harm in this manner. 

If we are to collectively and safely evolve beyond the revolving cycle of harm and grow beyond our current limits, we need a solution that is the complementary opposite of the problem. We cannot use the right to harm to harm the right to harm, we must powerfully counter with its opposite: clear limits with balanced responses. A worthy investment.  

We also need to know how to handle ourselves in real world self defense situations where there is actual harm and/or the threat to harm. 

Yang must balance Yin.