Midwest Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi

"Our life is a Zen koan that we must solve" Student asks the Master: "Please teach me Master!" Master: "How can you expect to see truth in your training if you ...are training with a lazy, conceited heart? This would only be training in vain!" As we know, we must empty our cup to have more room for new knowledge to enter. We all have the same desire to feel happy, feel love, to be whole and complete. We sometimes think, if we only had that big house or a million dollars, that great job or degree we want then we would be happy. The only way for us to be happy or complete is by putting our hearts at rest. Your saying right now, "How do we do that?" We do this by understanding the nature of our heart. The true nature of our heart is not something that is found outside of ourselves. We must stop looking outside our self to find happiness or answers. We must turn our focus inside onto our own mind to see its true nature. We must learn to do two things: 1. We must train our minds to be calm. 2. We must understand who we truly are! That's it! That's the end of the teaching! We train our minds in Zen or mindfulness within every thing we do on a daily basis, during all of our activities. We don't separate it like, John is going to meditate and be a Buddha for the next 20 minutes, then for the next 23 hours and 40 minutes he will just continue to be John. In our Zen or mindfulness training, we train to be a Buddha or awakened one 24 hours a day. Please don't be put off by the term Buddha or Buddhist, they are only labels. It just means awakened one. You can be an awakened Christian or whatever, it doesn't really matter. The historical Buddha "Siddhartha" awakened his own mind in to how the world truly is and how to have happiness by understanding its causes and effects. He was a human being just as we are. We can do the same thing as he did. We do this by not connecting to all of the chaos that surrounds us each day by us staying present within each and every moment. This will help to regulate us and harmonize our mind and body. Besides just sitting meditation, we can also use our Shaolin martial arts training as a form of meditation. This is great if we are tired coming home from work and hard for us to just sit and meditate. By using our forms, we can be mindful and aware of our movements and breathing. We must also not get annoyed or angry with ourselves. It's ok to not be prefect, but just keep slowly working at it. We must turn off our pride and egos which will only lead us to more chaos and mental turmoil. Play some music, light a candle or incense to help you be in a better mood for training. Basically use anything that will help you to just be "You!" As you continue to train this way, you will discover or become awakened to a letting go of all of your worries and concerns. You will be in a state of just being or flowing like water. Your mind will become more clear. Just like dirty water in a pond, once the dirt has settled and gone to the bottom of the pond, the water will become clear once again! Give it a try!!! Peace and blessings..

I would like to send out a big "THANK YOU" to everyone of the many people who sent me Birthday greetings! I feel so very thankful, fortunate and blessed by your... compassion. Thank you so much! I deeply pray that you and your families are continually blessed with health, happiness, peace and prosperity! Peace and blessings to all... Shifu Rui Heng Xi "Jerry Erickson" Midwest Shaolin, Hollister, Missouri

Engaging the Core To perform proper lower postures the core must be engaged to remain upright. A common issue that happens in the low postures like the drop sta...nce is when the body "collapses" forward. This can also be due to a flexibility issue in the hip flexor and lower back. The way to improve this, however, is with conditioning the core to remain engaged in squatted positions. If you get to a low squat and your core disengages, it will result in you leaning forward to compensate for the weakness. Of course while flexibility of the hip, leg, and ankle does influence this, we should spend a decent amount of time with the strength side of these postures as well. Maintain good posture at a higher elevation and slowly work down to a lower one. If you are dropping to the lowest possible position with bad posture, it will be much more difficult to improve and bad habits may take root. www.wudangwushu.com Youtube - Wudang Wushu Facebook - Wudang Daoist Traditional Kungfu Academy Training Martial Arts in Wudang, China Daoism, Wushu, TaiChi, Qigong, Meditation, Fasting Retreats, Music For questions, please contact us at [email protected] #WDTKA #wudangwushu #wudangshan #wudang #kungfu #wushu #wushuforlife #kungfuschool #trainmartialarts #taichi #taichichuan #sanfengpai #martialarts #motivation #fitness #inspiration #chineseculture #daoist #taoism #peaceful #meditation #wisdom #gongfu #wudangacademy #studykungfu #studykungfuinchina #chinesekungfu #laozi #masteryuan #kungfumaster

Great Tai Chi and Qigong class this morning! Always the best way to start the day by getting the body, mind and Spirit together!

Difficulties are waiting for us to conquer them. We may find pleasure in conquering difficulties.