Expiration Date

Thursday night was my first night back at temple after almost 3 weeks. And I'm still recovering. I am sore all over and it leads me to wonder why my muscles have lost their chi so quickly. Is there an expiration date in all of us? Is there a number of days we have to use our muscles and train or we start losing the flexibility and strength? Is there a time limit or can we prolong it by adding quarters cross training? What about stamina? To keep the chi up throughout basics is a must. But what goes first? Stamina? Flexibility? Strength? Maybe I'm just getting old, and my body is no longer able to keep up its stamina and strength without constant training.

I am thinking of this only because I foresee a future where I am working on TV/Film sets or the stage all the time and all over the world and have much less time to come train at temple. It's very hard to train while working 12 hour days being emotionally available. It's a different kind of training. More like chi kung. Energy based. An internal style.

Well, it sounds like I need to stop whining and writing and actually get my sorry sore butt to temple. How else am I going to get that CHI back?!!

Action Meditation

At dinner after the class tonight, we talked about how people train differently to achieve the state of meditation... Actually, EZ and Jaka talked mostly and the rest of us listened.

EZ mentioned that he trained Karate for quite a while. His training was tied to Zen Buddhism similar to our training with Chan Buddhism. The ideas are the same - to achieve the state of meditation through actions or movements. But the expressions are different. While our training encourages us to express ourselves, his past training discouraged individualism. Movements were done uniformly and quietly.

Jaka pointed out that it might be Japanese influence rather than Zen as he is very familiar with Zen Buddhism which also has its own kind of action meditation - seated meditation where people actively sit, while being aware and in control of their bodies.

Regardless of the type of training we choose, the point is to be present, mindful and aware of our actions, bodies and the surroundings.

In the Buddhism class last weekend, somebody said that Chan is everything. Everything you do can be a meditation. It's kind of difficult to be in the moment and enjoy it at all time.

I guess this is why I need and enjoy training. It forces me to be present for at least two hours a day.

Ma-boo

Last night in L2 Mo, Sucheela, Fu and I finished xiao hong quan! Excitement! Celebration! Now we have 2 1/2 weeks to try and clean it up for testing; sort of frightening, but definitely better than finishing it up the Friday before. Time to pound pound pound away at it.

Not minimizing the awesomeness of finishing my first L2 form, but in so doing, it brought to light how bad my mabu has gotten. (The end stance of the form is a mabu.) Now I'm the first to admit that my mabu has never been super low or very flexible; and it is not exactly my favorite move so I don't go out of my way to give it extra work. But I hadn't realized the extent of the damage. The thing is, I'm building up a lot of strength in L2, but that means the muscles around my hips are reducing my flexibility. And while I have been working on stretching my hips, (which has worked wonders for the recurring hip pain, incidentally!) I guess I'm not getting at the right muscles, because I have felt my mabu getting higher and higher. There aren't a lot of mabus in L2. You get gongbus by the truckload. Fair amount of pubus, but not a lot of ye olde horse stance.

Seeing it in the mirror last night, for the first time in awhile, I was appalled. It looked even more grotesquely off because with my unfortunate long legs everything is exaggerated. (Also, it didn't help that at this point I was next to Han who can hit the floor in mabu without breaking a sweat.) So the sum of it is, the stance needs work. Lots of it. Time to overcome my hatred of mabu and focus on ways to get lower and open my hips more. I'm going to do it untill I love it. Untill when Sifu calls out mabu, I smile instead of inwardly groan. Until when I go "Huoy!" (hui, hoy, huay, how, hue, hu-ee?) at the end of xiao hong quan, it's my celebratory shout for how good my mabu has gotten.

This and That on a Tuesday Night

Tonight was my first L1 class in a over a week, and my first L1 night class in two weeks. It's not that I'm feeling too proud for L1, just a combination of engagements (and well, ok, laziness) kept me away this week. And you have to have SOME time off... Yeah, my protesting is really just a sign of guilt...

Anyway, it was really nice to come back and be in a big old class of 31 and work on polishing some basics for testing. Boy do they need it; there were definitely some places I felt myself being sloppy. What really threw me off, though, were my forms. What with teaching and learning xiao hong quan and worrying about L2 basics, there is definitely less polish on my L1 forms. I know that Sifu is going to call me on erluquan for testing, and I haven't done it all the way through more than once in the last month. My balance off in places, missing little details; I am starting to get nervous. I might even be more worried about erluquan this time around that in October! I keep going into a L2 basic, gongbu shuangtuizhang housaotui gongbu lianzhang, after the sweep. BAD! I need to get refocused, and quick.

Even so, it was a good reminder that I have to be responsible for my own training. I have to make sure that I work on those things that need it, even if it means taking time outside of class. Naturally the more you learn, the less time you can devote in class to each individual thing. So, instead of attempting headflips before class, I am going to start making sure my forms are on point. I would hate for Sifu to ask for my certificates back! :P

Noise Level

Sifu always tells us to express ourselves when training. Some people do it more audibly that others, but we all definitely have times when our grunts and pants manifest into something a little louder and more distinct of not totally intelligible. I started training in total silence, but as I've opened up more, and especially since Level 2, I've really come to appreciate the extra chi from combining an explosive noise with an explosive move, and have come to notice everyone else's unique noises. This said, I try to reign it in a little, and so have been looking forward to learning the end of xiaohongquan in Level 2 and my first "official" noises.

(Ok, that's not true, there are noises in luohan duanda which I learned in Austria, but I'm still too wimpy to do that one in class.....)

The last few L2 classes I've felt I finally found the chi for xiaohongquan, that is to say, that I've been able to alternate the times I did it slowly, trying to master the details, with doing it faster and explosive. Today, cruising on the 15 hours of sleep carrying over from Sunday, I was really pumped through the whole class, and when Hwalan told us to come over to work on xiaohongquan I was ready to make some noise. The thing was, we didn't learn the noises. We learned the movements, but Hwalan didn't mention the "mmmm -YI!" that goes with them. I figured it was probably more important to learn the move properly than get distracted by making noises. Or maybe you just don't get "taught them" per se. Turns out, after class, she told Mo she just forgot to get to that part, (clearly I'm focused on the less important though more overt parts of the form); still, it means I can go ahead and make the noises without feeling surreptitious about it. :P so everyone get ready.....

mmmmmmmmm - YI!

"metaphorical title here"

Yesterday while In line I noticed one of the turtles working hard to hauuuuuuuuul himself out of the water onto the sun rock. He was moving sloooowly, (he is a turtle after all) and was about to make it when I guess his legs got too tired and he fell back into the water. I really wanted him to go back and try again and make it so I could have a metaphor-tastic post about success after failure and training harder and all that. But he (or is it she? Mo?) decided the rock wasn't worth it and spent the rest of class swimming around with his buddies. So no symbolic inspiration from the turtle today. Or maybe it's not-so-subtly symbolic of my need for a metaphor in order to post.

I guess I wanted something to be representative of what a great class we had last night. After a period of pain/struggling/lost xuanzis, I really felt good and had a lot of fun. Han was teaching and set the tone by starting us off with forward rolls instead of caijiaos. The rest of class was all mixed around with different combos (one a xuanzi into zuopan into kip up) that really shook off any lingering brooding. My legs felt light again, my kicks not only didn't hurt but felt stronger than they have in ages, and even doing the dreaded mopan saotui didn't kill my spirit. At the end of class Han blazed us through some more xiaohongquan which helped me realize we are a lot closer to the end than I thought. All in all, it was a very affirming bit of training; if only the turtle could have co-operated then I could have had a nicely packaged metaphor to boot. But I guess one can't have everything.... :D

Shaolin Soccer?

This video is courtesy of John Sid. Check out the mad skillz!

Kung Fu Dork Profile #8

Name: Jason
Temple Name: Shi Heng Zhan
Occupation: Martial arts instructor and College Student
Borough: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (but I live everywhere)
Chinese Sign: Fire Hare

When was the last time you trained? March 3, 2008 at the 11 o'clock class

How is your commute to the temple? My commute is about 2 1/2 hours by airplane, plus the trip from whatever place I'm staying to the Temple

How did you learn about the temple? I actually began my study of Shaolin Chan Quan as a result of seeing a video of Shifu on TV. I was so inspired to become a master like the man in the orange robe that I saw on TV that I started my first martial arts class the very next morning. It wasn't until 2006 that I had the opportunity to train within the Temple walls. However, the Temple is everywhere. For this reason, the Temple has always been with me.

When did you start training? May 1995 (outside of the Temple); May 2006 (at the Temple)

What is your favorite basic move? My first instinct is to say 掄臂踩腳 (Lúnbì Căijiăo), however, thinking about it, I really do believe that every basic move is spurred on by what I believe to be the most important aspect of training... 走 (zǒu). Without "GO!", life would be motionless. It is Shifu's call of "走!" that tells the student so many things, without really knowing it. It is this command that lets you know that you have to move. Even training alone, you have to tell yourself to go and to make the first step. I love 掄臂踩腳 because of the soft and hard of the movement. It encapsulates the explosive ideal of life and it is all motivated by "走!"

What injuries have you had from training? Just feeling the effects of good training (soreness).

What's the most important lesson you learn from training? Amituofo. Everything that the word Amituofo means and represents is the most important lesson from the Temple. To quote an interview that Shifu took part in a few years ago "Amituofo means 'Buddha Bless you' and 'so good to see you!' You say Amituofo means 'continue' 'keep doing' and if you see somebody do, you know, that’s bad, you say Amituofo means 'please stop.' And if you see somebody helps others, you say Amituofo, means "Ah wow, you are living Buddha...'" Even that simple definition says everything that the Temple is. Life isn't about judging and finding fault in everyone else, but to help them and grow with them. Think about what Amituofo means to you and that is what the Temple has taught me. Life is beautiful, everyday is Christmas, More Chi!...everything. Amituofo.

Soup or no soup? Plain beef please. The last time I was at the Temple, I had the soup for the first time. Fantastic.
Shower or no shower? I shower when I get back to the place I'm staying.
Gatorade or water? Hot tea. I've found its a great way to warm up the inside (along with some no action meditation) before I warm up the outside.
How many uniforms? So many.... 2 blue cotton, 2 NTNL, 1 orange cotton (for private training only), 2 Shaolin vests, 1 NTNL black (custom), 2 Zhong Gua (He Shang suit from China), 1 Hai Qing (He Shang butterfly-sleeve gown), 1 Changshan (He Shang regular-sleeve gown), 1 Jia Sha (He Shang outer vestment), 1 silk Wushu suit, 1 Wushu warm-up suit, and countless uniforms from the other martial arts schools I taught and studied at.
Straddle or wall stretch? I prefer working partner splits. One student lying on their back and two others stretching their legs in different directions (one into the floor and the other to the nose).

南无 本事 釋迦牟尼佛 (nánmó běnshì shìjiāmóunífó)

Amituofo! Amituofo! Amituofo!

Muscle Mechanics

I didn't post the last few times I trained because I was in a lot of pain (thank you, head-flip), and I didn't want to spend a lot of blogspace complaining about my feeble climbing up stairs. However, today I was feeling almost normal again and except for going into mabu during zuopan, (something I've never done before, yikes!) I didn't struggle too much with any moves.

What it did get me to thinking about was the subtleties of move mechanics. Firstly, the thing that hurt from the headflip was not my head or neck but my legs. (Ok and eventually my shoulders.... :P) I found it curious that headflips would result in persistent, unbearable soreness in my outer quads. Heng Mo says she got the same pain when she started kip ups, and has concluded it is a result of using the strength your thighs to pull you up out of the headflip/kip up when you don't get enough push from your arms. Whether or not we ought to be experiencing this pain at all (I'm thinking the mechanics require more from my arms than I currently and exerting) is still under debate...

What also struck me was that, with this "injury," I found many moves challenging that I would not have suspected I needed my quads for so much. I knew zuopans and gongbus were going to be killer, but so were cetituis and strangely, gouquan. I have been musing on how quickly our bodies get accustomed to a move to where we don't even recognize all the muscles we are engaging. In gouquan I focus on my hip and never think about the fact that my quads are also working for me. It's good to be reminded that you need muscles for each move beyond what is obvious. And just maybe, sometimes, we are using the wrong ones without knowing it.. :) Either way, I can't wait until they all are working together 100% so that I can land the headflip again.

Stage Combat

As some of you know, I am an actor. Most of us have had physical movement training of some kind so we can be more aware of our bodies while in front of the camera or on stage. Yesterday, while in acting class, something particularly interesting happened. I was doing a scene with a fellow actor in which we were in a argument. Nothing was rehearsed so neither of us knew if the fight would get physical. He is about 6'2" and probably 170 lbs., so in terms of size of weight, he was much bigger than I am. Towards the end of the scene on the first take, the actor lunged at me and put a bear hug around me. Instinctively, I immediately went into a 弓步 (Gōngbù) and did a 推掌 (Tūizhăng). And he was pushed backwards, powerless, like a rag doll. A look of shock spread across his face. He wasn't expecting me to be able to push him off so easily. He tried again and ended up with a similar result. I didn't realize what I had done until the teacher mentioned after our scene that my Shaolin training is really paying off. She saw that I had complete balance and control of the situation because, physically, I was immovable. That physicality completely described the relationship between the characters beyond what mere words can be said. It was utterly instinctual. She loved it. The class loved it. I loved it.

It's not very often that we get to use what we practice at the Shaolin Temple. It's not 1200 A.D. where there are still warring tribes and we must fight to defend ourselves every day. These days, the guy/girl with the bigger gun usually wins the fight. It was really nice to know, that other than being a pretty art form, the training is based on real applicable uses. For me, oh lucky me! I get to use it on stage or in front of the camera every day!