The following is one of several articles that may be posted from time to time on this site.  For the purpose of keeping the copyrighted material for the school and it participants only parts of the full article will be posted. 

1. The Practice: this article is a written as a basic introduction to the potential student about the "Supreme Way" of Wu Chi Chuan, its attitudes and long term vision.  

2. The Inception: An article with the intent to explore some of the ideas that were responsible for the creation of this "system" and the meta-cultural reasons for its perpetuation.

The Practice

                                                                       by Dr. James B Astin

The Martial Arts have become very popular in the recent decades all over the world. There are many previously obscure secret arts like Tai Chi Chuan that were once taught only to family and a few select pupils but are now very popular and very public, with hundreds of thousands practicing the several different styles.  These Arts are taught and practiced in almost every major metropolitan city in the United States. Fueling this popularity is Hollywood and the many books and periodicals that publicize and aggrandize the Martial Arts, making them very familiar to the public.  The Japanese term for “China hand” or better known as “empty hand” is now a common word used by almost everyone old enough to speak.  This word is “Karate.”  Others are “Judo” and “Tai Chi;” even “Ju-jitsu” is becoming common. 

Despite all this publicity, there are still styles of Martial practice that maintain obscurity and do not attract many practitioners.  The one that I am most familiar with is the one that will be described in the following essay.  Although I have practiced many other forms of martial disciplines, it is unlikely that I will ever give up the practice of this one, no matter how unpopular or difficult.

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What is the Martial Art called Wu Chi Chuan? This is a question that often remains unsatisfactorily answered.  Certainly it is meant to elicit the most direct and explicit answer, but I am afraid that without years of familiarity with the Art, the name will remain just a phrase in Chinese. 

This phrase is itself the very answer to the original question.  Although, to say this, only brings the questioner, who may likely have no knowledge of any of the associated styles, back to the original question: What is “Wu Chi Chuan?”  This paper will describe and explain in relative detail all the general aspects of this form of Martial expression.  We will begin by elaborating upon the name.  Then by discussing its history, or lack there-of, we will explain the how’s and why’s of its existence, filled in here and there with details of some of its expressions.   Finally, we will discuss the primary reasons and motivation for the practice of this particular martial expression.

As this is a very elaborate and comprehensive system, bear in mind that all that is said here pertains to the whole, and does so even if it is difficult for the reader to relate it directly to the parts described.  For, although it is necessary for a body to have a head to function properly, it is not likely that by describing a foot and a head separately, one would immediately comprehend their relationship to each other without previously possessing total knowledge of the body.  In this essay, keep in mind that the parts are described in relation to the whole. 

The name “Wu Chi Chuan” is a phrase that has broad and deep significance that may best be explained by breaking it down into its constituent parts, analyzing them and then re-synthesizing them.  There are ideograms or Chinese characters that make up the phrase:  Wu Chi Chuan.  Each is significant in its own right.  “Wu” (woo) can be translated as “no” or “not” or as “no-thing”.  This term is a negation often indicating the lack of a particular or the absence of a universal.  “Chaun” (system) refers to a method or a manner of presentation. Tao is a Chinese expression for the Way of all things and the process by which these things change.  Tao is the unifying principle of the harmonious interplay among complimentary and polar opposites, which comprise all things and are expressed as all variations of order and chaos within the phenomenal realm of perception.  No thing is said to operate, to move or to be still without being an expression of the Tao.  “Chi” (jee) is frequently translated as “the ultimate” or “the final manifestation.” In another interpretation, it indicates the life principle itself.

When constructed as “Wu Chi Chuan”, we get a phrase that could be translated literally as “the limitless method”, “unmanifest potential”, “undifferentiated fist method”, “method of no-ultimate method.”  Of course, we find it necessary to translate the “Wu Chi” into a more idiomatic expression.  In Chinese, the phrase “Wu Chi” indicates the absolute, the source from which all things come and to which all things go, sometimes referred to as the “void”.  Wu Chi Chuan significantly denotes “a practice for perceiving and practicing the unlimited potential of the Principle of the Absolute.”  We as a group and as individuals have dedicated ourselves to exploring and actualizing the greatest of our potentials.  We seek to challenge any apparent limit to any aspect of ourselves, whether it be mental, emotional, physical, spiritual or otherwise.  This aspiration to explore our potentials and to discover from whence we came has been with us for thousands of years, if not more, and will likely continue to be a part us.

The Art is loosely organized and designed to assist anyone who wishes to explore their limits for themselves and, through persistent practice, expand their limits or even go beyond them, all the while not being dictated to or told what to think and do.  The individual is given guidelines that make efforts at self-exploration and self-expression more efficient.

While exploring our potentials, we seek to reduce wasted energy on internal and external conflict.  Establishing this internal and external harmony allows our energies to be utilized intentionally in any of our chosen aspirations.  The school does not assume knowledge as to the individual’s proximity to this state.  So like many schools, we follow a format designed to assist us in this endeavor.  We also do not assume knowledge of any one person’s specific needs; thus, it becomes essential that the format be adaptable to a person’s needs as they arise.  As a result, each individual receives the attention required.

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There are eight aspects to the practice, and all, challenge the individual to broader and deeper levels of awareness.  The first seven are Skills, Basic movements, Formal exercises, Self-defense, Primary movement, Techniques, Weapons, and Sparring.  The 8th aspect is an all-encompassing group of what is called the Teachings.  These are what support and bind the whole of the particulars into an understandable single expression.   The Teachings provide a context for comprehending the Art, rather than a philosophy or even an ideology.  This distinction is essential because everything learned through the Practice is realized by the student, as opposed to being a borrowed understanding from an instructor.  What an instructor knows or understands is only useful in that they are able to express it, actualize it, as an example from which the student can learn.

Each aspect of the Practice incorporates the Art in its entirety.  It is said that the Art form could be taught and expressed through only one technique, any one technique.  Instead of just that one essential expression, we have opted to utilize a great variety of possible expressions.  As a general rule, the school tends to be very non-exclusive.  However, not just anything can be thrown into the stew.  For example, if a head instructor of our school studies Ju-jitsu extensively and finds a great many applicable approaches to a variety of situations, and wishes to incorporate the techniques into the practice, then these techniques can not remain the same as practiced in Ju-jitsu.  Both the individual techniques and the rest of the Art must adapt in form in order to become mutually compatible.  The one must accommodate the other.  This is necessary, as an example, to demonstrate the growth of consciousness, and the maintenance of the integral wholeness of the Art.  This way, we maintain one coherent picture. For many generations, this has been a prevalent principle guiding instructors in the Art.

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Although some traditions of thought can be traced, our particular way of expression has no real direct traceable lineage.  Various other Martial Arts boast of 1000 years of tradition where there has been a single Grandmaster for each generation.  We do not have such a thing, and to my understanding this has been very intentional.  As compared to some other styles, we do not put such a great emphasis upon a “Teacher,” but instead stress the students responsibility to inquire, to be present and actively aware in the process in order to better facilitate their own learning.  The Sen’pai (Japanese for senior student) assists in this facilitation by sharing their own understanding of their own experiences as a student.  Furthermore, there is no single instructor/guide.  We are seeking to deepen and broaden our awareness to the extent that the world becomes our guide. 

Thus, our history rarely can be traced beyond the living individuals who are currently practicing.  The Art itself is more like a Universal Art form.  It seeks to exclude no-thing, but we can’t hope to create and memorize every possible technical expression or response to every possible situation. Therefore, it becomes necessary that we seek to discover the most adaptable form, which becomes a core of no-form.  As our history unfolds, it changes; what was no longer is, yet many things may remain useful as instructional tools.

Each instructor must teach according to their own understanding, even though it may be of the same material as the instructors before them.  The effort of teaching would be of little use without this understanding.  Without this perspective, the Art presented would not likely make any sense at all.  This Art is so entirely integrated that every single aspect is intrinsically related to every other aspect as well as the whole.  This is much like a jigsaw puzzle. 

The student to teacher relationship initially is that of two people putting the pieces of the puzzle together, one who has seen the whole picture and one who wishes to.  The senior student helps the junior student pick up the pieces, incorporate them into a picture and relate them to the other pieces.  In time, this will allow the students to see a picture for themselves.  Since it eventually becomes something readily comprehensible, the student is then able to work on the puzzle with less and less assistance. 

There are three stages to this relationship.  In the first stage, the instructor will describe the whole and point out where the pieces to the puzzle fit.  In the second stage, the process is begun again, only this time the instructor will assist only when needed and instructs primarily on how the student may discover and pick up the pieces of the puzzle for themselves.  In the third stage, the puzzle is destroyed and the process begun again, except that it has become evident that there is a puzzle for each of our perspectives and the one that was being used earlier for the student’s benefit actually belonged only to their instructor.

At this stage, the student no longer has a particular teacher and must stand alone, released to discover themselves for themselves.  They have come to learn to be in the moment with an empty mind, and to see in the moment as a part of the whole, and even as the whole itself.  Through self-discovery they become self-empowered and self-reliant.  So, if asked where this discipline or Art form comes from or where it originated historically, I could not answer directly or plainly, no one can.  On the other hand, I can say that my understanding of the teachings and how to implement them comes from my own perspective or rather from the heart of the individual practitioner.  It also can not be said who it was that originated it or who was the “founder.”  There are stories and legends, as well as “Famous” practitioners though.

It also cannot be said that the Art comes from this or that country or culture, but it can be said that “the Way has been and always will be and all have access.”  It could not be otherwise, regardless of what we think.  Even though the current cultural trend is to treat the idea of time as a reality existing in a chain-like linear sequence of changing events, similar to a number line with past times and future times, this Art form does not wish to perpetuate that mode of belief as an absolute, but rather only as an aspect or potential actuality of possibility.  This is our history.  Even though there are practitioners of this Art form around the globe, we remain small non-political entities devoted to our practice and the tradition of passing on the knowledge to the next generation.  When any of us meet, we know the other not by an affiliation to a traceable lineage, but rather by our understanding.

Each generation has those who take it upon themselves to seek out an understanding of the human condition and our relationship to the Universe.  Some have taught or shared with others the wisdom they have found.  Think of it like this: we are on a battlefield carrying a flag of peace, harmony, wisdom, compassion and understanding. As one flag bearer tires or simply transcends the need to be on the battlefield, another is prepared and steps forward to carry the flag.  The flag may even be left on the ground for a while, but as long as there is a need, there will be one or many to pick it up and carry on.  There is no real suffering for those who do this; having sought harmony within and without, the rules for existing – from their perspective – have changed.  The rules of man are almost inconsequential; it is the rules of nature that they abide by. 

Our practice prepares one to be a potential flag bearer.  The limits of our social and cultural heritage are broken down systematically while, at the same time, the individual’s perceptual realm is deepened and broadened immensely.  Natural laws are introduced, and ways of abiding by and utilizing them are practiced.  All this is accomplished by continually challenging the perspectives and the depth of self-knowledge of the practitioner. 

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As mentioned earlier, there are a total of eight aspects to this practice, but they are only the half of it.  Our practice may also be explained by the Chinese terms “Li” and “Shi.”  “Li” in esoteric Chinese philosophy denotes the concept of an underlying principle for manifest events; “Shi” denotes the idea of form or expression – the principle incarnate.  Like Yin and Yang, these two concepts are considered inseparable; they are completely mutually symbiotic.  Without Li, Shi does not exist and vice versa.  Wu Chi Chuan as it is practiced uses this idea as a guide.  From observing the forms we can discern the patterns.  The constancy of these patterns usually indicates a principle.  We practice imitating these patterns until we can express it though intention alone.  This is much like the process of learning to walk.  Once mastered, all we need to do is intend for the action to occur and it will. 

There is a saying we use to remember this process according to how we implement this in practice: Form precedes function, function predicates form, neither form nor function.  This reminds the school’s instructor that to teach principles, they must first give many examples of a principle as it is expressed.  After some time, the student will notice the patterns as well.  When this occurs, the teaching stratagem changes to focus on principles and the way to intentionally express them.  Eventually the student transcends both previous stages.

In one way, the process describes the whole of the Art.  Yet, we have many psycho-social cultural belief systems and environmentally-acquired habit patterns underlying our preconceived notions of how things should or shouldn’t be.  This acquired cluttered mental space drags us into distraction, preventing us from seeing things as they simply are.  We often casually and automatically change what we perceive, giving it a label, a name, a category, a positive or negative, likable or dislikable connotation, all according to our own expectations projected into our world experience from our memory of past similar events.  These are only a few examples illustrating our self-created complexity.

For the first few years of practice in this Art, this complexity is somewhat ignored (though not forgotten), unlike an Art form such as Tai Chi, in which the student starts developing their internal awareness from the beginning.  Although this is beautiful, it requires time and a person of a certain quality already inclined toward the kind of practice that works with the subtle from the outset.  Wu Chi Chuan itself follows the example of one of Nature’s wonders: the human foot!  Like the foot, we seek to achieve balance by beginning with the grosser elements and moving the awareness progressively toward the more subtle aspects.  The foot was chosen as our guide because of its wondrous natural ability to achieve balance as the foundation of our physical form.  Just as the principle and the expressions are inextricably linked, we know that the physical form is following a principle.  The area between the ball of the foot and 2^nd metatarsal bears most of the weight while the heel supports very little; the footpad absorbs the rest, with the big toe down to the smallest toe adjusting the weight distribution as needed. 

This is how we teach balance.  First, we must establish our awareness solidly in the grosser aspects, and then methodically and persistently we move the awareness into the more subtle aspects, continually making adjustments as needed.  Amazingly, if applied sincerely, this process will work out naturally of its own accord.  When expressing this principle via the Martial Arts, we begin by simply working on movement patterns.  The awareness is brought back to the physical form much the same as when we first began to walk.  In this way the attention is focused and learning begins. 

As time and effort is put forth, the awareness progresses until the student realizes that the greatest single thing that one can do to achieve harmony and balance is to stop adding to and or changing the initial perceptions.  The world is what it is and it remains in balance always.  It cannot be otherwise.  Yet, our attempts to “fix” or change the world are what throw us out of sync with the naturally balanced state of the entire Universal Totality.  Everything that we have ever needed has always been there; we are surrounded by a plethora of energy to be utilized to meet our fundamental needs.

A Wu Chi Chuan practitioner after perhaps a few years and a great deal of practice,  will dive right into the heart of human conflict; we call this training “sparring.”  It is – and yet it is not – the practice of fighting.  There are seven actual stages of training to our sparring.  It is at the third stage that we begin to focus on the source of our conflict: our own minds.  Once this is understood, the student will progress with a clear mind unobstructed and undistracted, allowing them to actually learn to respond according to the actual needs of the situation.  The more aware we are, the greater the range of perceived options to choose from.  Thus, a greater degree of actual freedom manifests itself. 

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The purpose of the practice is to make actual the ideals, of freedom, balanced living and being, to exist in total harmony with all things, realizing our fullest potential.  This philosophy is not to be grounded in the intellect alone; it is meant to be lived and expressed fearlessly, to be experienced to the fullest possible extent in our lives.  We are expressions of creative principles and it is our nature to also express ourselves creatively in conjunction with the very principles of our own manifestation.  Unfortunately, we have built up walls of self-imposed, self-created limitations that restrict and imprison our natural abilities to freely express our creative nature.

With this freedom comes power, but not something to be used against others in order to bend them to our own will.  Rather than enforcing our will upon others we want to be able to will ourselves, to be an intentionally conscious spontaneous choice maker.  This is the essence of Wu Chi Chuan, and this is kind of self-empowerment that creates a Powerful Loving Warrior that respects all life and every creatures inherent right to self-determination.

Although the teachings of this Art form are an essential aspect, they are not items of idolatry but rather tools, descriptions, a rough outline of a road map.  The nature of the practice is experience.  Understanding the Principles of manifestation through close observation of our experience, we come to realize that most of us have acquired a set of “karmic” habit patterns, ways in which we generally and repeatedly interact with the world.  Because of our limited awareness and lack of knowledge about how to change these patterns, we suffer needlessly, caught in a snare of our own design and manufacture.  Then, if challenged to be free of our predicament, we say that we are unable and that the snare prevents us from doing otherwise.  This is like saying, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up because I’ve fallen.”  This is a classic example of the victim mentality, and that is something we wish through our practice to alleviate from the mind of men!  One of the first steps, is to free ourselves, and for us to accomplish this task we must take sincere and complete responsibility for our selves.  Our minds becomes like a child given unto our care; we do not let our watchfulness wane lest the child wander into harms way returning to our old habits of giving up our power to choose and acting the victim of circumstance.

Another main focus of this Art form is to enhance the quality of our awareness of our selves and our relationship with our environment.  Like my instructor, I have chosen the Martial Arts to be the primary mode of expression, but in no way does this mean we are restricted to this mode only.  Living is expressing, being is expressing, non-being is expressing, absence of expression is expression; no-things are not expression.  When we say that “quality of expression” is our aspiration, we do not mean to add to the natural ways but rather to just blend fully with them.  We also seek to be aware of this and to accomplish our task consciously and, of course, intentionally.

Our practice is like walking through a beautiful forest, appreciating its natural expression wherever we are and finding our way as we walk.  Obstructions may occasionally be found in our path such as chasms, cliffs, fallen trees, even other creatures like us.  These need not hinder us or detain us from our progress, but instead enliven the scenery a bit for us.  We need not resist the natural order of occurrences nor reject their reality.  What is to be found is to be found.  Though one cannot quench one’s thirst with a mirage, it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t the experience of seeing the pool of water in the distance.  We find ourselves where we are and do only that which we are doing while enjoying the process of living.

One of the most motivating aspects of any practice is enjoyment.  None of us, especially the primary instructor, would have continuously practiced for as long as we have, had we not simply enjoyed what we did.  We are like Artists who practiced for the sake of practice.  We naturally improve and often aspire to do so, but mostly as a way to increase the quality of the Art’s aesthetic beauty, which seems to naturally enhance the degree of enjoyment that we experience while expressing ourselves through our Art.

The instructors of this Art are seeking to impart a beautiful and qualitative expression of an Art form.  From one generation to the next, it is not the techniques that are passed on but rather an instilled appreciation for beauty of form and quality of expression, the natural order of the Universe, and the presence of being in perfect-ness of all that is, as it is.  The techniques are a result of this, a set of tools that clear away the obstructions that prevent students from seeing this, from perceiving the absolute for themselves.  The level of proficiency to which we aspire is one that requires a great deal of inquiry, strength of character, endurance, and perseverance. 

This is the Warrior’s path to self-discovery and the Philosophers path to understanding.

THE INCEPTION

Dr. J. B.Astin

Jan 31, 2000

Over 10,000 years ago a cultural attitude of dominion immigrated southward into the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.  This area is commonly referred to historically as part of the Fertile Crescent.  Now we know it as the Middle East.  The attitude of dominion brought forth by this culture spread and infiltrated other cultures so thoroughly that for us today there is almost no space left on the globe that has not succumbed to its dominance.  Without delving into a great amount of detail what this cultural attitude did was bring a higher level of social complexity into the Humans life.  Divisions in castes and kinds of people occurred alongside the explosions in populations due to the development of agricultural industry and novel mass production practices.  As food production increased populations increased as populations increased they encroached upon the surrounding environment consuming the available resources to the point of exhaustion.  As this occurred a decision had to be made: 1. Let the environment limit their growth, meaning that the size of the population would be reduced and people would die.  2. Split and expand moving into areas that may already be occupied but contain unexploited resources.  We know from our current experience that the humans of that era chose to expand thus “invade” the territories of their neighbors.  War was the result of resisting the ebbs and flows of the natural world as they occurred. 

With this new attitude came many others similar in nature.  Instead of a group of various autonomous personalities co-mingling as a family group or clan we see an emergence of the military class.  A class of strong willed determined beings, servants to the will of the Mob.  They become figureheads “leaders” to rally behind.  They essentially become the authoritative figures, the choosers of right from wrongs.  They become the decision-makers for the group.  As the social entity became more complex it became dependent upon rudimentary governments.  Rules became standardized, further limits were being institutionalized, and the freedom of the individuals was being lost to the mind/will of the social entity.  Out of this first class or Caste a split in the social mind occurred.  Disagreements that arose in the directions that the group would go caused a class of creatures to emerge, “The Rebel”.  Both groups attempted to assert their wills over the group.  Each asserting that the other was evil.  A very long struggle ensued over the destiny of the human race.  Freedom became the central and primary issue.  Freedom they fought each other for but niether of which were cognizant of the source of their imprisonment and true enslavement “voluntary domestication”.  As a result conflict within the culture arose.  Whichever group happened to be the controlling group they were from their own perspective considered the righteous and good and whomever was outspoken and differently inclined were considered unrighteous and lawless.  These were the “Rebels”.  But of course it did not really matter which direction the group went as long as the self-righteous attitude of Dominion prevailed they would not see that the prison they fought to escape was of their own making.  Every so often in our history an individual would step aside, detach themselves and observe the activities and gyrations of their fellow beings.

Upon seeing the great confusion and the never ending conflict among everyone internally and externally they would set themselves the task of inquiring into the nature of their own and their fellows condition.  Questions like “Why is there conflict?”, “Why do we suffer?”, “What is the nature of existence?” and “What is the nature of my own being?”.  Questions like these drove a man like Sidhartha Gautama deep into himself and into the nature of all being.  He, we are told was a Warrior, a Noble prince, a leader of the Sakya Clan.  His search led to the institution of what is known as Buddhism.  Seeking what is now commonly called “liberation from Samsara (the state of suffering) or Enlightenment” is the motivation of practicing the Buddhist path of self-inquiry.  Sidhartha Gautama taught many ideas about the nature of our existent condition.  These various ideas were not even new or exclusive to Sidhartha Gautama, but as was emphasized though out his tenure as a teacher of the path and even on his death bed he reminded his followers that no matter how lofty the idea, no matter how subtle or esoteric, it is of no benefit without self-realization.  It is essential for all and all that undertake the path of self-inquiry that the individual realize (make real) the understanding of their own nature. 

After the death of the one called the Gautama Buddha a desire to perpetuate his “glory” and by doing so created through mutual efforts a religion around his story.  Again the attitude of Dominion made its way into claiming dominance over even the memory of one who had by all accounts managed to step outside of it, to discover their own way as an existent being.  Again standards and limits were created to encapsulate and regulate the flow of being.  “Sutra’s” were copied and memorized and recopied and commented on and intellectualizations of realizations were touted and more standards and rules were established.  Each generation passes, and the complexity of our situation engulfs us.  At some point during this history of cultural unfoldment a genesis of transcending the entombing habits of our cultural attitudes was found.  As always, as it was and as it will be the life the ever-flowing infinite, finds a way of bringing its darkness of ignorance into the light of understanding.  A new tradition begun, created by a man we know very little about except from written references and myth.  Pu Tai Ta Mo whom we call Da Mo commonly referred to as Bodhidharma brought to the Buddhists of China a series of exercises that became the art of Shaolin Chuan Fa.  He is also attributed with introducing an approach to self-realization that emphasizes meditation; we now know this as Zen.

Bodhidharma is attributed with saying:

“The unskilled and inexperienced Mind moves easily to extremes: speaking, doing, seeing, hearing, feeling and experiencing its senses; it mistakenly understands their functions as being its mind.  There is also movement, which is not such simple body movement, but, instead, of a kind which immediately fulfills the task of the mind itself.  This movement of the senses is viewed as a natural completion of the mind’s function.  This type of mind is outwardly oriented toward the world.  The Non-Mindedness of Total Clarity (Wu Hsin) is synonymous with Buddha Mind.  This Mind lies outside of all concepts of movement:                        

                                                Movement is not this Mind

                                                                Mind is not this movement

                                                Movement is the source of No-Mindedness

                                                                Mind is the source of Non-movement

                                                                Movement is not separated from Mind

                                                                Mind is not separated from movement.

Non-Mindedness can separate that which inclines to separate.  Non-Mindedness can move that which inclines to movement.  Correct functioning Mind uses its functions just as functions.  Correct movement Mind uses movement just as movement.  The Instantaneous Mind uses itself simply as a function.  As soon as it uses movement just as movement, there is no function and no movement.  Using the idea of separation is the source of emptiness.  Emptiness is the source of Non-movement. Movement and its usage together make up the mind, but Mind’s source is empty.”

With Zen or as it was termed in Sanskrit Dhyana Bodhidharma was apparently attempting to draw the minds of the Shaolin Monk’s minds or attention away from the mental exercise of memorizing and intellectualizing the Buddhist teachings and see directly for themselves without an authoritative intermediary manifest or even conceptualized.  To develop a total understanding or a complete realization of self it is important that no aspect of the self be left out.  All aspects of the Self are the manifestation of the Buddha nature or Self-Nature.  Thus any aspect, the mental, physical or emotional must be filled or rather flooded with Awareness (usually termed Mind).  Pontification rather than participation was downgraded to a pale reflection on cracked and dusty mirror in a poorly lit room in comparison with the exercising of ones innate capacities to understand by seeing directly for ones-self into ones own Nature.  The mental attribute is complex and subtle and slippery.  By exploring with this faculty alone one could simply and easily delude ones self by creating the illusion of understanding without ever having divested ones self of the imagined construct of a reality that one has never interacted with directly.  In a sense what would and often does happen is that practitioner exchanges one fantasy world for another.  By including the body in the quest for self-knowledge it is more difficult to be deceptive with one’s-"self".  For example while doing a simple kick if one is off balance the result is immediately noticeable.  By exercising ones faculties of inquiry on such a gross level it is easier to develop productive habits of self-honesty.  In sparring, after ones is relatively grounded in undistractedness (Wu Hsin) a test of clarity is undergone, and if for a moment the awareness is clouded over by a false perception, the obscuring of what is, as opposed to what is imagined to be, the practitioners partner/fellow student of the Supreme Way, will all to gladly expose the folly with a swift and decisive strike. 

The task of Self-Realization is a simple one, albeit for many of this time, an excruciatingly difficult one.  Having read the book Bodhisattva Warriors, it has become all to clear to me that again after Da Mo helped to establish the Shaolin Chuan Fa it has become overly complex and again unnecessarily complicated.  The principles are simple, perseverance is the most necessary tool, if practiced without attachments to achievements, results come very quickly.  Yet, with all the “things” that Shifu Nagaboshi Tomio illustrated as to the complexities of the practice it seems that the student would create a very thick veil obscuring their view into their own nature.  Non-Judgment includes suspending expectations as well.  If the students have a concept of what they are after, then the likely hood that they will walk past it, and not recognize it, would be considerably high.  This is the case, more so because we are unknowing and unpossesing to presume to know what we think we are going to get and the means by which we are going to get it.  The search becomes something that is after what it does not have by means of a way that takes you away from where you are.  The Practice of which I participate in is the antithesis of all that is outlined in Shifu Nagaboshi Tomio’s Book.  I myself have been entrapped by the Intellectual need for a historical, written, ordained, and “right” knowledge.  All that happened was that, I became very confused.  I now know, that I don’t know, and at least now by not knowing,

 I am not confused.  While wrestling with all of the information that I had gathered and placed between me, and my Self-experience, nothing other than a chasm was formed in my psyche.  First of all I assumed that there was something that others knew that I did not and that what I knew was not valid, unless of-course someone who “knew” validated it for me.  Existence is expression all of existence that transmits and receives expressions that we call perceptions.  They are what they are; but because of our long historical habit of assuming dominion we have established an insidious habit of changing what simply is, into something that it is not necessarily.  Moving with the flow of events is somehow foreign to our habit of being.  Once one sees their own Nature then there remains only the question what to do think or be?  In the Zen tradition the realized being; eats when hungry, sleeps when tired, drinks when thirsty, says “hello” when greeted, and is exactly what they are and does not pretend to be anything other than that.

Our quest is a self-motivated inquiry into just exactly what that is.  Who are we? 

The answers, if one were to call it that do not come from the written word or even the unspoken word.  This is one of the reasons that the Mind-to-Mind transmission is so important.  What ever the teacher says, points out or does is only meaningful to the student.  Because it is necessary that the understanding, that is generated within the mind of the perceiver; in this case, the student of The Way, be their own understanding, if is to have any impact on the unfoldment of Self-realization.  To become dependent on “outside” things are to be half missing making the quest for self, fruitless. 

Why?  Well, because the ovum alone is not sufficient to spark germination. Life is as it is and is so because all is as it is and can not be otherwise......

What this Article points out to the reader is that what we think things are, or should be like, is likely not what they actually are. It is important to understand that the A rt of WuChi Chuan-fa was created long ago, as an ongoing, generation to generation antidote for the confusions brought on by the developement of Civilization and the subsequent domestication of the human species.

Updated July 3rd  2007