Hi everyone,

While i can still remember them, here are some of master Qian´s thoughts. First 'master' to Qian's understanding merely means teacher in English. So he says master.
Anyway, first he thinks that a majority of what is practiced as martial arts fails to convey the health aspects of true martial arts. Although some arts are excellent at fighting and hurting people, the practioners of those arts will live very short lives because they are not nurturing and cultivating their health and improving their bodies. This is mainly due to the reason they do not understand yin-yang in their martials arts or movements.

Another important comment he made was that the first reason to practice martial arts isto cultivate the mind if the mind is calm, then the body will be upright and healthy. if the mind is calm and the body healthy, then you will be happy. if you have food to eat, work, friends, family and a place to live then you are doing great. no need for anything else, as in bigger house, ipods (he actually did not mention ipods), making tons of money, etc.

So the first thing he does when looking at other martial arts is it grounded in the principles of yin-yang and nuturing the health of the body, and promoting peace of mind. Then he looks at the teacher to see if the teacher is manifesting these concepts in his-her body: posture is upright, but not with the chest stuck out , and back straight, hips relaxed, standing naturally, moving naturally without any stiffness.

So the hardest thing we have found, how to be relaxed but not limpid, natural and use energy for movement insteado f muscle power. he really showed us on our own bodies how if we understoond natural alignment, and being relaxed, our energy will come up and we will be very stable and easy to handle martial skills without even thinking. The basic method was to come over to us and push us over using just his pinky or have another student use their pinky. The he would adjust our posture, point out places where we are stiff and then he would pound on the body, and we would just stand there in our posture without falling over or losing our balance. Very cool.

Qian Shifu said that many people understand this stuff in their minds but not their bodies.

Also, just to share a little bit, in the morning we would spend at 20 minutes walking dragon hangs it arms, and it was very meditative. i found myself very focused and calm. By the second week, i was able to maintain a focused mind and concentrate only the training and not have other thoughts enter my head. Very cool!

Text: Bob Lau