Kung-Fu for Beginners
How I started (and succeeded in) practicing without any background
Two months ago I was looking for spiritual practices, that will make my spirit and body stronger. After taking yoga classes and starting to work on my spiritual development through meditation, I was reminded of Eastern wisdom and practices more and more. Despite the fact, there are also North (Vikings) traditions, Maya (South American) traditions and Indian (American) traditions, I was always more interested in Asia. While thinking about the ways to develop both body and soul, the Asian art of fight came to my mind and it took me only a second to choose the very bases of all Asian fighting arts — Kung-Fu.
Everything Begins in China
Despite the fact I always liked Korea or Japan more, I have to face the fact, that all the great things come from one of the most ancient cultures in the world — Chinese…
Kung-Fu was never an art of war. It is rather an art of self-protection and has numerous sub-traditions included. For example, I practice Tai Chi kung-fu, which combines work with energy, but is more focused on the fight and self-protection. Some may prefer qigong kung-fu, which is devoted to health, treatment and balance and is more about work with energy.
These directions are different, but all of them teach the most important: unity with the energy of Earth (that’s why in Kung-Fu you are always sitting law on the ground), work with the air and energy of life (this is why you are spinning hands in rounds) and work with the fire (inner desires, burning in you, that is why you need to meditate and clear your thoughts before the practice). Founded to protect, Kung-Fu promotes basic values of human existence about life in peace with nature, non-killing (teach and not kill) and eternal calmness of the mind.
Dao of Body and Soul
All the teachings of kung-fu make you “treat” your destiny and improve both mentally and physically…
Dao is a way. To be more exact, a way of curing. So following your Dao, you make your body and soul cure from the dangerous and harmful effects of the surrounding world. While you found Dao (and making good kung-fu practices is impossible without it) it starts sending you signs for improvement. Moreover, the practices themselves are built on the strong philosophy of Daoism, which is needed to be learned if you want to learn kung-fu.
Being pretty complex, kung-fu may become accessible for anyone who wants to develop body and soul. However, you need to be ready to use a special Chinese sword, always feel the tension in your legs from sitting low to the ground during the practice, look for balance and energy and use a special Chinese stick — bo for making energy concentrated over you.
Kung-fu teaches us, that if we work with our own and surrounding energy in the right way, we never need to attach strongly, we just need to find energy dots on the body of the person and attack them quickly, so the person will not expect it. Moreover, kung-fu with the concentration of qi (life energy) allows even small girls to attack tall man since qi may be united with the surrounding qi, which is flying around your body and all mass of the opponent will be used against himself.
Light Hands and Strong Thoughts
Kung-fu is all about the balance and fight of the thought rather than the fight of the body…
If you ever watched movies about kung-fu, you must have seen for sure, how people there are always serious and quick, never making hard attacks. This is a typical philosophy for kung-fu, that teaches us to attach quickly and never hard. Since our goal is to make an opponent tired and then use his own mind and mass of the body against him.
Being quick and light, making a lot of moves is possible only if your body is fully relaxed and your thoughts are strong at the same time. You should never think of the leg while attacking it, rather than thinking of the place where your leg may arrive. And in case your mind will be in a mess, a light and accurate “kung-fu wind dance” will turn into chaos.
Kung-fu is an art. Not war. It has never been an art of killing, like shooting. It has never been teaching to fight against people and bring harm, rather it was teaching to protect your needs and energy, fighting only with balanced thoughts and a clear heart.
