Things change, and we move on

Life has got in the way of blogging lately, as it’s wont to do! I think this is a moment of big shifts – things from now on are not going to be the way they have for the last year  or so. Here’s a quick roundup:

• Events, lectures, meetings and wotnot have prevented me from meeting Master Zhou for the last three weeks. It’s a big pity, but unavoidable. On the other hand, I’ve been practicing his form on my own, and it’s taking root – I think, and at last! I’m looking forward to class next week…
• I’ve been attending the qigong classes  at the Nam Wah Association regularly, and feeling more and more benefits every time. My posture is noticeably improving (to me, at any rate).
• Big changes with my Saturday night bagua: we are now moving into a purely revision mode. I’ve already mentioned that I’m re-doing the sword form for revision. The empty palm class is now stopping new work, though. Any class will naturally suffer attrition, and there are very few of us left from the group that started together in August last year. Some have joined from other classes, and that’s kept our numbers up. However, a few are coming less and less regularly, and with me due to leave next year, I think Madam Ge has decided that the class numbers have dropped below critical mass. So, we’re moving to a revision program until February, by which time a class that started after us will have caught up to where we’ve reached, and the two groups can merge and move on together. I, of course, won’t be here then.
• I may not do much more even of the revision schedule, though. I’ve just noticed that the Korean Zen school down at Lavender, which I’ve visited a few times, will be running a new course on Zen Meditation (link to PDF file) from early January. These don’t happen all that often; I’ve wanted to take part before, but always decided to stick with the bagua classes instead. I’d like to take this one though – I don’t know when I’ll get another chance!
• My Drunken Broadsword teacher is still not well, so classes haven’t resumed. I’ve never been very good at this, and i suspect that once he’s better I would be starting from scratch again. I think that I may not start again – at least until after I get back from Beijing next year… Partly it’s that I have so much to do in preparation and partly…
• … I’m getting more and more keen on a certain lady, and weekends are pretty much the only time we get to meet…

So, much is about to change. Where it goes from here, I’ll have to wait and see…

Belts, forms, longevity

It’s been an incredibly busy week, but I’ve taken a day’s leave today, sleeping most of the afternoon. Yay!

I went again to the qigong classes at Lorong 7 on Monday and Thursday, and am getting more and more into it – things are coming back to me, in terms of moving my qi around, and working with the body’s energy. Still a long way to go, of course. The stake-standing element of the practice is really beneficial – I’ve had a couple of moments where I’ve made a change to the way I’m standing, and felt an immediate improvement. I think a few very bad habits have developed over the last few years; as I’ve mentioned before, during my MBA, I fell and badly hurt my foot and Achilles Tendon, and by way of compensating for the weakness there, I got into some bad positioning. It’s going to take quite a while to clear these habits, which is why going back to the basics in this qigong course is a good move, I think.

Since I had the day off, I also had a morning lesson with Pern Yiau, instructor at the Nam Wah Pai Association. We started to review my taiji-24 form. This is a modified version of the usual Yang-24 set, and was developed by Wu Tu Nan and Sim Pooh Ho during the latter’s training. It breaks down each move into smaller components, with the intention of highlighting the learner’s awareness and understanding of body alignment and energy movement. Pern Yiau showed me how, in each move that we looked at, the exact positioning would be important during application. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot – it makes such a difference to finally have an English-speaking teacher who really understands the principles and applications Here’s an example:

I took the opportunity to ask Pern Yiau about something I’ve been curious about ever since I first encountered Nam Wah Pai in 2003. This is about Grandmaster Sim Pooh Ho who is apparently the holder of “Gold Belt 10th Dan”. I’d never heard of a Gold Belt, so – as a sceptic – this had always been ringing an alarm bell in the back of my mind, as there are so many frauds in the martial arts field. I was curious – who had awarded this gold belt? Apparently it was an honorary award presented by combined martial arts bodies of Singapore, in recognition of his skills. Actually, as I write this, I just checked their web site, and the explanation is there, but I’d missed it before:

In 1986, the Singapore Karate Federation, Judo Federation, Malay Silat Federation, Indian Martial Arts Federation and Tae Kwon Do Federation jointly awarded the Gold Belt 10th Dan to Grandmaster Sim Pooh Ho, for his mastery and contributions to the world of Martial Arts.

In that same year, the President of Singapore, the late Mr Wee Kim Wee, awarded Grandmaster Sim the Public Service Medal PBM (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat), for his contributions to Martial Arts in Singapore.

So there we are, now I know! He didn’t award it to himself

Somewhere in the conversation, the topic of longevity came up, and it reminded me of something else I’ve been meaning to blog for some time (totally unrelated to Nam Wah Pai).

Back in July I mentioned that a classmate from Madam Ge’s bagua class, and a friend of his, had been discussing martial arts with Master Zhou. They reported back to me that, according to Master Zhou, bagua practitioners tended not to live as long as taiji and xingyi people. Some weeks ago, I happened to ask him about this, via another of his pupils who was translating, and he said no, he’d said the exact opposite – that, all things being equal, bagua people tend to live longer than the others. I don’t remember the explanation he gave, but I wanted to note that what I’d been told, and reported before, was not correct…

Taijigong class tonight

I headed out to practice as usual last night: some stake standing, CMC-37 performed as slowly as I could, and finally circle-walking, as slowly as I could. I’ve mentioned a few times lately – and been told straight out by Master Zhou – that I have to work on my fundamentals.

So, that’s what I’m going to do.

Tonight I’m heading over to Nam Wah Pai on Geylang Lorong 7, where a new 10-week Taiji Qigong course is beginning. I see that it’s from 7-9, so it’s not following the same pattern as at Lorong 29, which I described a couple of months ago.

When I took the course before at Lorong 29, it was great for all the basics: sinking the weight, detailed inner body awareness, small Heaven meridian, etc. At that time, I didn’t really know much about the theory of it all, I just knew that it got results and worked. After that course, my dantian felt really charged up, like a cricket ball in my abdomen, and the ‘vibration’ exercises tangibly massaged the internal organs. I had really strong awareness of the inside of my body – bones, organs, etc – and could ‘feel’ them by directing my awareness to them. This is what really gave me the breakthrough when I subsequently studied Vipassana meditation, I think.

Of course, during the two years of my MBA, I didn’t practice enough, and eventually lost it all. I do have notes, but I want to got through it again in a structured way, with an instructor to answer my questions… and this time, I have a much better idea of what I need to be doing. I have really high hopes that this will give both my taiji and bagua a big boost…

Taiji Basic Health Set (Yang Shen Gong, )
Duration: 10 weeks

* Qigong including building energy in Meridien Lines, Acupoints, Internal Organs especially Kidney, Strengthening of Joints, and Releasing Tensions.

First week back; a target to meet

I’ve been out to practice twice this week, mostly focusing on the taijiquan.

On Wednesday evening, I tried to get through ten repetitions of the CMC-37 form, but only managed six. For the first time ever, someone I know from work walked past while I was practicing, and I stopped to talk for a while.

Later, I was approached by someone I think is a construction worker from the nearby building site, where they’re putting up a number of apartment blocks. He was Chinese, and I found his Manadarin difficult to follow (as in, even more difficult than I usually do!) but I think he was saying that he’d seen me practicing, he had hurt his neck, and could I help him with it? Wow. Of course, I had to apologize and tell him I wasn’t able to. Mark Salzman writes about something similar in Iron and Silk: the assumption that someone with skill in martial arts will also understand healing. One day perhaps, but not yet – I have a long way to go before I get there!

Even going through the CMC form six times was beneficial; I found myself making a lot of adjustments to posture and movement, and learned quite a bit from it.

Afterwards, I met up with Carlos, the English Wing Chun student I met back in April; we’ve been meaning to catch up for ages, but never got round to it. He’s got an interesting story – but you can blog about it yourself, Carlos! We went to the 24-hour coffee shop next to the Kong Chow Hui Goon Cantonese clan house, and had a good talk about life, work, and martial arts. He was surprised that I’m not exactly thin – hey, I’ve mentioned it often enough! But sorry, if anyone else out there was imagining your humble correspondent as tall, handsome, athletic, and with an ideal BMI…. nope. Short, fat, ugly, and not really worried about it. Carlos would add “being Welsh” to my list of crimes: guilty as charged, and unrepentant. Hehehe. Still, I really ought to lose a bit of weight, so I’ll make another of my famous public goal announcements: I’ll lose 8kg by February. I did OK last time, I should be able to do this as well.

Last night I resumed classes with Master Zhou. We went on to a new move, and lots of applications. He demonstrated the set we’re working on, but with the addition of a sword; very cool. He’s just got back from China himself, after attending his mother-in-law’s funeral. We talked a bit about China; as you all know, I’m a fan of Beijing, and he’s from Shanghai. I think he may have studied in Beijing: he agrees that people there are more open and less money-grasping than in Shanghai, but he despairs of the food in the north!

Nam Wah Pai have a new qigong course coming up soon, and Carlos and I are thinking of attending. I’ve done this course before, but back then I had absolutely no clue about qigong, or its relationship to IMA, and I’d like to go over the material again now that I’m a bit more expreienced, particularly as it’ll give me the chance to ask questions in English. Carlos mentioned during our conversation that, from reading my blog, I seem to jump around a lot in my studies, and that’s fair comment. As I mentioned before, I’m looking for the right fit for my build, my temperament, character – and language ability. I’m perfectly willing to accept that it could take ten years or more to really master a style; that being the case, it’s worth the investment of a year or two to find the right one. As I told Carlos, I want to study both taiijquan and baguazhang – each of them speaks to me in a different way, and I find that they reinforce each other. A lot of people here in Singapore are have been dismissive of NWP when it’s come up in discussion, but the martial arts scene is just as bitchy as any other, and at the end of the day I’m going with what works for me. With bagua, I’m still learning and researching. So anyway, Sim Pern Yiau of Nam Wah Pai will be giving a talk at the Central Library Library at Orchard on Sunday; I’ll probably be there if anyone else wants to turn up and say hi.

Awareness: benefits and dangers

About a fortnight ago, I popped into the Awareness Place bookshop down in the Bras Basah complex, and found a copy of The Discourse Summaries. I’ve been wanting a copy of this for some time, so I bought it, and have been gradually working my way through it since. It was buying this book that kind of woke me up again out of the slump I’ve been in for the last month or so.

The book is a transcript of the recorded talks played every night of the 10-day Vipassana meditation retreats organised by S. N. Goenka‘s Vipassana Research Institute. As I read it, I’m transported back to the Dhamma Hall in Thailand, where I’ve attended two retreats (so far), and I remember the benefits I experienced – of which, more below.

As I say, I’ve been fortunate enough to attend two of these retreats, and they truly have been life-changing. On the second, I was struggling with a badly hurt foot and ankle, which were a big distraction. The first was a tremendously powerful experience.

I went on that first course after I’d been in Singapore for a year, in the gap between the end of my contract and the start of my MBA. Following the course, I was heading off to China for the first time, to study Mandarin for a few months.

During that year, I’d been studying taiji gong with Nam Wah Pai, at Lorong 29 in Geylang. I’d completed the basic qigong set, followed by the 24-move basic taijiquan sequence. I’d begun the Xuan Xuan broadsword set – but it started three months before I was due to leave Singapore, and normally took six months to complete. So, I decided to accelerate my learning.

Now, so background is needed here. A lesson at Nam Wah Pai is three hours long: the first and third are spent studying whichever form your class is working on; the middle hour is spent with the entire school going through qigong exercises. In my personal experience, I found those exercises to be extremely effective and powerful – not immediately, but with practice. The qi awareness is then applied during the work on the forms. As a student, you attend class two nights a week, and learn the taijigong under the supervision of an instructor. You’re also welcome to attend the school on other evenings; in which case you practise solo, but can work with one of the instructors in the middle hour, while their class are doing the qigong.

So, with the broadsword form, to get it finished before I left Singapore, I started attending class four nights a week, for about two months, with some individual tuition sessions on weekends. I got to the point where I could do most of the form without needing to think about it, and instead was able to focus my attention on the flow of qi around my body.

In the last couple of weeks, strange things started happening. While I was going through the form, I started to get flashbacks, reliving memories of stressful experiences. It was very weird, a little disturbing, but I was focused on other things, and only mentioned it in passing to the instructor who was giving me private tuition.

In the end, it worked out very well for me: I discovered that the attention on the qi flow was very similar to the attention to physical sensations that is the focus of the vipassana technique. So, very shortly after I’d been getting these flashbacks in taiji class, I got the same thing on a much bigger scale on about the sixth day of the meditation retreat. By that time, though, I’d been trained, and prepared, and knew what to do and how to deal with it. In the theory of vipassana, this indicates that deeply-rooted karmic seeds, stored within the body and exerting a constant emotional influence, are being released and losing their power. It’s this that – in my limited understanding – helps vipassana practitioners to clear away their bad karma and avoid rebirth. When I was talking to a Buddhist nun in Bangkok earlier this year after studying vipassana with her, she mentioned that this was one of her goals.

So, buying that little book has been just the boost I needed. It’s reminded me that qigong works and is very powerful. It’s reminded me that vipassana works, and is very powerful. It’s also emphasised the need to have the right teacher. If I’d been working on those qigong techniques with no teacher, or with a teacher who didn’t understand the effects they could have, it could have been dangerous for me, I think. I’m very lucky that this all took place just as I was about to go on the retreat. It’s also why I either need to really boost my Mandarin, or find an English-speaking teacher, so that these issues can be discussed clearly.

Sorry, another rambling post, but there you are, it’s just a blog…

Added a bit later:

Let me just be clear, that Nam Wah Pai’s qigong techniques are powerful and effective, and that’s why they take their learners through a stuctured course under supervision. I deviated from that path, so the fact that I got these experiences unexpectedly shouldn’t reflect on them at all. I would confidently go back to them, and in fact hope to do so again (though this time to the school in Lorong 7; I know the instructors there better).

A demonstration by Nam Wah Pai

Free Taijigong Class and Talk
WU TU NAN TAIJIGONG FOR HEALTH featured in Mind Your Body 16 May

Date: 14 July (Saturday)
Time: 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Venue: 6C Geylang Lorong 7 (near kallang MRT)

Conducted in English and Chinese

Come early for Free Parking

Wear comfortable light clothing. Shoes not required.

Bring family and friends along! Come and find out for yourself why we are more effective from other Qi Gong and Taiji out there!

Do let us know if you are coming!

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Our new class is starting on 18 July (Wed) and 20 July (Fri), 7pm to 9pm at the same venue.

If you miss the free talk and class, just pop in to join our classes, and if you like it at the end of the day, sign up on the spot!
Sim Pern Yiau
Wu Tu Nan Taijigong
(World Nam Wah Taiji Gong Association)
6C Geylang Lor 7 Singapore 388790
www.WuTuNanTaijiGong.com

The more I practise…

… the worse I seem to get. I’m talking about the baguazhang here. I would hope that it’s a case of rising standards and expectations; that would be the most gratifying explanation. Against that, I can’t deny that Madam Ge is correcting me more and more often in class, and I wonder whether I’m getting sloppy. Most of it is always down to the same root: bad posture. I often just don’t notice that I’m slouching forward, or to one side. Deeply rooted bad habits… After class last night, I was saying to ‘D’ – the other British student of Madam Ge, who’s much more experienced in martial arts than I am! – that this comes and goes; my posture was very bad when I came to Singapore, improved a lot when I was with Nam Wah Pai, then deteriorated again once I stopped practising qigong regularly. There’s an obvious conclusion to be drawn: start the qigong again. I’m trying to do this; ‘D’ recommends horse stance, so I’ll try to do my zhanzhuang in that position.

Last night’s class was also memorable for being filmed. I’m not entirely clear on the details but, as I understand it, some film company in Beijing is doing a retrospective on Wulin Zhi. As a part of this, they’re tracking down all of the stars, and finding out what they’re doing these days. They wanted Madam Ge to go back to Beijing to be interviewed but, as this wasn’t convenient, she’s recording her interview here, along with pieces on some of her students, and showing a class under way. This will all be sent back to the film company for editing. I got interviewed as a part of all this; I wasn’t expecting it and had to come up with a spur-of-the-moment critique of, and response to, the film. It wasn’t too bad all things considered, but I’ll probably still end up looking stupid in front of 1.3 billion people if it gets aired…

Since I mention Nam Wah Pai, I had lunch the other day with Pern Yiau of World Nam Wah Pai. We met at Annalakshmi, the vegetarian Indian restaurant on Amoy Street. We had a really interesting and wide-ranging chat, covering NWP, Wu Tu Nan, qi, the martial arts in China… a lot! Pern Yiau’s a nice, softly-spoken guy; he’s got a background in the arts and theatre scene in Singapore (including The Necessary Stage, who I encountered over the weekend!) and we had a good chat about that, the nature of the acting experience, and the role of the arts in Singapore. In the end, we were talking for about three hours, and were the last to leave the restaurant! I hope we’ll be able to meet up again soon.

A taijigong demonstration

As I mentioned I might in a previous post, on Saturday afternoon I popped over to Geylang Lorong 7 to check out the World Nam Wah Pai demonstration. I was held up, so only arrived halfway through.

There were quite a few familiar faces amongst the instructors from my time with NWP in 2003. I caught the demonstration of taiji sword, of the taijiquan 24-move set, and various qigong techniques. There was also a demo of breaking poles against an instructor’s body, to illustrate the resilience gained from qigong practice.

The demo was also ‘interactive’, in that the audience were asked to try out a few qigong exercises. I found this interesting, because I could feel my qi moving quite strongly. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been pretty slack about keeping up my qigong exercise, although I do try every now and again. I didn’t expect to get such a strong response to trying out these moves. Just goes to show that the body remembers… and that qigong works I’ve mentioned before that my health improved a lot when I was practising NWP’s qigong regularly. I really should start again.

Compared to the demonstration at Sim Poh Huat’s NWP school that I went to back in July, the audience seemed a bit younger. The presentation was bilingual, but English dominated a bit, as opposed to the school at Lorong 29, which is definitely more Chinese.

I’m glad I went; it was nice to chat to Desmond, and to meet Pern Yiau in person. Connie, who gave me my lessons during my MBA, is also part of this school, but I think she was out of Singapore.

Fresh demonstrations by World Nam Wah Pai Taijigong Assn.

Saw this in today’s Straits Times, so I thought I’d list it for reference. I may try to go along to one of these demos, out of interest.

What Better New Year Wish than a Healthy Body-Mind?

Wu Tu Nan Taiji Health System
New classes starting January
Traditional Content, Systematic Teaching

o Clearing Channels
o Energizing Organs
o Enlivening Cells
o Focusing Mind and Body
o Expanding the Body-Mind Potential

Our late Grandmaster Wu Tu Nan from Beijing, had multiple organs disease at a young age. He practiced Taijigong daily and passed away without illness at age 105. He passed the art to Our Founder and Current Grandmaster Sim Pooh Ho (Gold Belt 10 Dan). Our instructors are the only ones approved and graded by Grandmaster Sim Pooh Ho to teach the direct lineage of Wu Tu Nan Taijigong in Singapore.

Do join us for participation demos at:

Date: 6 Jan 2007 (Saturday)
Time: 2:30pm-4:30pm
Venue: World Nam Wah Pai Taijigong Association, 6C (4th Floor), Geylang Lorong 7

Date: 7 Jan 2007 (Sunday)
Time: 2:30pm – 4:30pm
Venue: Lam Ann Association, 30 Mohammed Sultan Road (off River Valley Road, near UE Square)

Admission is free. In Chinese and English.

Enquiries:
Jane 9791 8821
Desmond 9632 9254
Pern Yiau 9338 4830

WORLD NAM WAH PAI TAIJI GONG ASSOCIATION
6-C Geylang Lor 7 (4th Floor)
taijigong@gmail.com
www.namwahtaijigong.com

A new name for Nam Wah Pai

As I mentioned previously, it seems that there’s been a split between the Sim brothers at Nam Wah Pai. As I understand it, one outcome is that my old teacher, Sim Poh Huat, is no longer able to use the name of his brother’s teacher, Wu Tu Nan, or to promote his school as coming from that lineage.

It seems he is now using his own name, which I hadn’t seen given quite so much prominence before. There was a new advert in last Thursday’s Straits Times that was notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was in the main News section; my recollection was that it was usually in the Home section (but I may be wrong about that). Secondly, the school has a new name. I’ll quote the full advert for reference.

WORLD NAM WAH PAI
SIM POH HUAT QIGONG ASSOCIATION

Singapore 1st

Grand Master Sim Poh Huat, holder of the highest level in Qigong, locally and overseas as well as a world reknowned demonstrated [sic] of the prowess of using inner strength to flung [sic] off an opponent without physical contact.

• Does a diabetic patient need long-term medication?
• Is it true that there is no cure for liver hardening?
• Are you worried about getting cancer?
• Is dialysis the only treatment for kidney failure?
• Are you concerned about having hypertension?
• Addresses all vital organ problem [sic].

Grand Master Sin Poh Huat explains how the five elements develop eight of the twelve acupressure points to nurture your inner strength and enjoy a healthy life.

For those that are weak, you are welcome to listen to a talk rediscover your health.

Practice sessions: Mon-Sat, 7pm-10pm.

No. 9, Lorong 29 Geylang #05-01

HP: 9857 4553

Website: www.namwahpai.com

The split has led to promotion: he didn’t used to have the title Grand Master.

From personal experience, I know that my health got a lot better when I was attending classes in Lorong 29. However, I’ve never seen him demonstrate “flinging off an opponent without physical contact”. Nor have I seen proof that qigong can cure kidney failure or any of the other medical conditions mentioned – although, a number of school members are willing to attest to this having happened to them. At the end of the day, I still felt enough benefit that I intend to go back in the future, when time and finances allow, so what more can I say?