Practice kung fu mindfully

This same advice is sometimes worded as: “Practice internal kung fu mindfully” or “Don’t practice kung fu, practice chi kung, and you will end up acquiring a superb kung fu”.
What does it mean to practice kung fu mindfully? Practising kung fu mindfully means that at every moment, during every move you are absolutely aware of what is happening inside and outside of you. The awareness needs to be of the whole body, because it is the whole body that is performing the movement. Sometimes the awareness focus needs to fallow a particular path within your body, in order to lead the chi and blood to a particular part of the body. But even then we need to continue being aware of the whole body. It is as if you are holding a big magnifying glass in front of a picture. The part behind the magnifying glass is amplified and can be seen in greater detail. But the rest of the picture did not disappear. It is still there and we can still see it, just a little less sharply.
What does it mean to practice chi kung instead of kung fu? Chi kung was once considered the highest form of martial arts. The main aim of chi kung is not to manipulate chi. It is to create conditions in which the chi can resume doing what it was meant to be doing, which is to balance the world. This means removing physical, psychological, emotional, karmic blockages, which prevent chi from the universe to flow in and out of our body, and which prevent chi within our body to flow freely and balance itself. In martial arts, chi manipulation is frequently used to concentrate chi in certain parts of our body. This is used to gain power, resistance to blows and so on. This practice is commonly known as iron shirt or iron palm or iron that or other, in short iron body. These practices are extremely dangerous if done incorrectly. The main mistake is misunderstanding of the sentence: “Mind leads, chi follows mind, blood follows chi”. The problem here is in the word “mind”, because it is not mind that leads. It is awareness that leads. If you want to direct your chi to a particular part of your body, you place the magnifying glass of your awareness over that part of your body. You don’t imagine that chi is moving to that part of your body, you don’t want to move chi to that part of your body, you don’t force your focus and your attention to that part of your body, and you don’t force or push chi to that part of your body. All of this will lead to fire chi burning its way to that part of your body, or even worse to your head. The more force you put into “pushing the chi” the more fire you generate. And fire burns and destroys. What you need to use is not your mind but your awareness, your internal feeling. This is often represented as your heart, in order to emphasise that it is not your mind. It is also sometimes described as putting your mind into your lower dantien and then looking at the world from there. But that is misleading. This awareness does not originate from the heart, or from dantien. It does not have a singular origin in the body. But it permeates the whole body. And can be extended outside of your body. It is definitely not controlled by the brain and the mind. But it can reach and control the brain and the mind. Even if done correctly, iron body practices can be extremely dangerous, if the body’s chi is not returned to a balanced state after the practice. The only way you can achieve this balance is through special chi balancing exercises. And they are effective only if your chi channels are open and clear. So what one needs to practice first are opening and closing chi kung exercises. Opening chi channels, removing chi blockages is inseparable from opening joints and stretching muscles and tendons and facia. Chi is electrical, plasma phenomenon. Electricity moves through most conductive materials. The most conductive materials in our bodies are facia, tendons and ligaments, otherwise known as connective tissue. Chi channels closely follow the internal topography of connective tissue, as it developed from the original embryonic cells. You can’t open your chi channels, unless your joints are opened and mobile, your connective tissue is smooth, stretched and elastic, your muscles are supple, stretched and strong. Then practice full body awareness, emptying of your mind, emotional and psychological cleansing. Then practice chi manipulation. Doing your kung fu practice as if you are practicing chi kung will heal and strengthen your body. It will give you ability to absorb, store, generate and transform energy, necessary for fighting. It will also enable you to be aware of your whole body and your surroundings, which in a fight situation is extremely important. Once you connect your hand with your opponent, you want to be able to still feel your feet, your other hand, as well as your opponent’s movements. Doing your kung fu practice as if you are practicing chi kung will also enable you to precisely control every part of your body, because you will be able to put your mind into every muscle and tendon and control each one of them separately. This will enable you to assemble and disassemble your body depending on the circumstances, so that you can avoid or absorb force, or issue it in any direction from any position.

Practice kung fu with an empty mind

Someone else told me that internal martial arts should be performed with an empty mind. Not with no mind, as that would mean unconsciousness. The empty mind is mind empty of thoughts and emotions. It is in a state of heightened alertness, it is not planning for the future and it is not analysing the past. It is focused on now. This allows you to be hundred percent in a present moment, ready for anything that comes your way. Practising in this way will develop maximum awareness, and responsiveness.