Northern Shaolin Kung Fu

An Amazing Achievement of Human Race

Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is a remarkable achievement of the human race.

Almost all modern martial arts trace their ancient origins to the Shaolin Temple. If they do not claim direct lineage they cite Shaolin Temple Kung Fu as a pivotal influence.

Shaolin Temple and Northern Shaolin Kung Fu

The Shaolin Temple was responsible for a deep integration of martial, medical, and spiritual knowledge within a unique aesthetic design. This marked a distinct evolution from the previous more technically oriented martial skills employed by warriors in the past. This art has profound cultural and historic value within the Chinese peoples.

While Shaolin Kung Fu has become a generic term or category heading referring to a variety of martial arts styles that originated at the temple or were fundamentally influenced by the temple. The art defined as Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is in fact a distinct style that was created 800 years ago as a brilliant synthesis of five earlier arts and methods practiced at the temple. The Northern Shaolin style then become a standard curriculum and represented a pure expression of the Temples martial, spiritual, and aesthetic values.

Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Is Not a Sport

In terms of the martial values the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu style is designed to defend you from deadly attacks by multiple opponents. Therefore, Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is the opposite of a martial sport. In martial sports the goal is to score points and win competitions. In martial arts you are fighting for your life against skillful opponents. Martial arts focus on techniques to defend against lethal attacks and against armed opponents. Although some of the punches and kicks can be used in sparring many of the techniques in the core forms are either too powerful or too lethal for sparring.

Northern Shaolin Legs

The Northern Style of Shaolin Kung Fu emphasizes leg skills. Leg skills includes deep stances, fast moving steps, leg locks, leaps, tumbling, and many types of kicks. Northern Chinese geography features wide open plains and vast steppes. Rivers are fewer than in the south. People walk or ride horses. Thus it is natural for them to develop strong legs and long steps. Because the terrain is open it is often easy to move around and they don’t need to worry about falling off a rice patty path or out of a small boat. If it is possible to be mobile, a mobile strategy will overcome a static strategy. Therefore, Northern Shaolin boxers move around and respond to an opponents attack by stepping to an advantageous position. In Northern Shaolin Kung Fu forms almost every technique starts by stepping into a new stance. Frequently these steps are long, low, and quick. When not stepping you may be leaping. On rugged terrain or terrain littered with dead horses and fallen enemies the ability to leap quickly may save your life. In modern life the ability to leap may save you from being hit by a car or truck. Tumbling may prevent you from injury if you fall off a bicycle or motorcycle. This high level of mobility and the ability to use high, medium, and very low stances and stepping to many different angles and directions makes it difficult for opponents unfamiliar with these tactics to injure the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu practitioner.

The Spiritual Aspect of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu

The spiritual values of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu are deep. The Shaolin Temple is the birthplace of Chan Buddhism known in the west by its Japanese name; Zen. Zen teaches you to quiet the mind and achieve direct insight into the nature of reality and the mind. Zen or Chan can be cultivated in many types of activities including art, sitting, chanting or in Kung Fu practice. Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is a great medium for practicing meditation because the forms require total concentration to perform correctly. When the mind becomes highly focused the normal internal discourse of thoughts slows and quiets. With practice you will enter a deep state of awareness of yourself and connection to your surroundings as your mind focuses and calms down. It is one thing to calm your mind while sitting quietly. It is quite another to calm your mind while jumping and leaping about swinging a heavy spear or training with an armed partner. Or to calm your mind when you are tired and sore but still active. This makes your mind stronger and braver as well as calmer and more focused.

Courage is a desirable trait in spiritual disciplines and martial arts is an excellent way to develop courage. Courage is important because it takes courage to make good choices in difficult situations. If you are courageous and show no fear, even if you are afraid, a potential attacker will often hesitate, or back down. Thus a fight in which at least one person would have been injured can be avoided. Courage combined with compassion allows us to make good choices in our lives.

Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and Chinese Medicine

The very movements of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu are also designed in harmony with Chinese medicine and Indian Yoga. Tamo the founder of the Shaolin Kung Fu tradition began as a warrior prince in India who then mastered Buddhism and moved to China to spread the teachings and insight of Buddha. Tamo certainly knew Indian Yoga methods and created new methods suited to the monks at the Shaolin temple. These were then combined with the martial arts they already knew to create something new. Thus the origin of the postures is connected to yoga. Yoga is used in to prepare people for meditation. In particular, the poses are designed to open the energy pathways of the body and force the blood and energy into the psychic centers of the body to awaken the psychic powers. Northern Shaolin still has recognizable connections to yoga, especially, in the form of the Bow stance which is very close to the warrior pose in yoga. The Bow stance is one of the main stances and is combined with many different arm positions and movements. When you practice Northern Shaolin your vigorous movement through the poses certainly pumps the blood and energy thru these pathways.

Body Transformation From Northern Shaolin Kung Fu

In Chinese Medicine, the vital energy of the body is called Qi and the Qi flows throughout the body via the meridians or channels. The meridians are like rivers and streams. The deep stretching and open poses of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu help to open, clear and cleanse these energy pathways. When practicing you often feel both very energized, much calmer and more relaxed. Even if you do not practice meditation or believe in it you will definitely feel mentally focused and refreshed. Clearer thinking and more balanced emotions are a definite undeniable benefit. Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is also a structured system of movement that improves your posture, balance and coordination. Good posture help prevents many health problems with the spine and joints. When you master Northern Shaolin you will become so well balanced and graceful that you will almost never loose your balance or bump into things. In addition, you will age gracefully and retain an active healthy life until extreme old age. If you have a good teacher, and pay attention, the movements will not injure your joints, but also actually help to heal and rehabilitate them so you recover from injuries.

Sublime Beauty of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu

The aesthetics of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu are unique and well developed. Northern Shaolin practice revolves around the practice of forms. Forms are sequences of movements that contain stances, steps, leaps, kicks and all manner of hand movements. Forms are a way to practice with actually hurting another person and serve to develop the athletic ability of the practitioner. They also have a meditative or mental benefit as described above. Northern Shaolin forms are beautiful to watch and feel good to practice. There is a rhythm and structure to them that is balanced and coherent. Patterns emerge and then are combined and then broken until the idea of patterns disappears but yet remains. Their choreography is like a symphony of movement. The movements flow from high to low and then back to high; sometimes fast; sometimes slower. Thru all the changes common elements recombine in different ways. Animal forms and energies emerge and contribute their unique feelings. Northern Shaolin is complex and subtle art that retains a pure essence of structured movement and posture. A skillful practitioner exudes a calm flowing poise coupled with a vigorous spirit that is punctuated by explosive displays of power and athleticism.