Chi Kung & Kung Fu

Yoga and Kung fu have grown from the same seed just in different locations.

Long ago a boy named gutama gave up his princely life and joined the sadhus living in the jungle. He sat under the bodhi tree and meditated and eventually achieved enlightenment and became known and revered as a teacher and a budda. His teachings spread across asia and eventually reached as far as china where in the 5th century a buddhist temple was set up on heshan mountain by Ba Tua.

The monks of this abbey meditated and practiced the way of the buddha and cultivated compassion and discernment and yet some of the yogic influence had been lost. In the 6th century a wandering yogi and buddhist known as bodhi dharma or da mo travelled across the mountains from southern india into china to visit the holy shaolin temple of heshan mountain. When he arrived he found the monks unable to achieve practice deep meditation due to their poor levels of health and fitness which caused them to fall asleep while meditating.

Da Mo taught them sets of exersices designed to enliven the monks and help them cultivate chi(energy). These practices make up the foundation of chi kung and kung fu and were the first systemized method of martial training in china. Many of the monks were retired warriors and often durring the waring times in china the rebels would seek refuge and sanctuary at the temples, these martial monks added to the storehouse of martial knowledge that shaolin had become.

These systems of martial training were expounded upon and cataloged. Many of the people practicing these arts were inspired by animals and created animal styles such as monkey, snake, crane or tiger. Soon the skills of Shaolin were taught all over China and various new schools formed up all holding to the essential and primary teaching disciplined action, hard work, KUNG FU.

Eventually many elaborate systems of kung fu and chi kung were developed and became the primary fighting and healing methods throughout china.

Just as many seeds can come from one tree yet each sapling grows differently based on its environment and experiences, yoga and kung fu share many similarities and their origins are linked to the same beginnings They share many common factors such as attention to breath, locks and energetic cultivation as well as a wide range of poses and practices designed to heal and enliven the physical form.