I now find myself regularly practicing and exploring Hsing-I as part of my advancement material. As a result I find myself contemplating the concept of intent; a particularly important concept because intent (I, pronounced ‘e’) is in the name of the system Hsing-I. The hope is to use the ‘I’ to strike or otherwise act before your conscious mind has formed the thought; this bypasses all of the slow confused conscious thought we usually have to go through while performing techniques. The obvious paradox: how am I going to not use my preconceptions to practice a series of preconceived movements? Seems silly. My solution: practice. They call it kung fu for a reason after all.

One day whilst helping out I was asked a “what if” question involving a hair grabbing chin-na. As in “what if I ended up facing the wrong direction?” I did what I always do when asked a question where I am not sure about the answer, I told the questioner to put me into said situation so we may observe my invariably spectacular response. Often my invariably spectacular responses vary from the spectacular and result in my face turning blue or something of the sort. However, this is not always the case and my body seemed to know what to do and have a response to this particular variation. While I have not necessarily been taught every variation on every imaginable hold, by learning many different chin-na and practicing them with different people I have gained a rudimentary understanding of the underlying principles. I had no conscious thought regarding the technique, I had not been taught the variation, and I was just as surprised as the recipient as to what occurred. Eventually it occurred to me that I already know how to act without conscious action and do so on a regular (if not predictable) basis.

Upon further reflection, and some time later, I realized that these sorts of things happen regularly when Shao-Lin are put into a position where they are forced to improvise. Given enough time, repetition, training, and pressure our bodies are forced to find a way to cope with surprises if we don’t stop them with erroneous thoughts. The erroneous thoughts part is the tricky bit; it takes time and relaxation to turn off the chattering monkey that tends to rattle around in our heads. Wait a minute, this sounds kind of like hou tien ch’i; maybe there is a reason meditation is taught along with Shao-Lin.

I used to be very proud of my ability to multitask. In college or work it often seems very useful to be able to get homework done during a boring lecture or to type out a report while eating lunch and listening to music. Our culture and technology tends to encourage having as much sound and flashy pictures and computer programs in front of us as possible at all times. At this point, I am very proud of myself on the rare occasion when I can do one thing at once. This is significantly more difficult, but I think having somewhere to be and something to focus on helps. To me, this is the best part about martial arts, it gives me a place to relax and focus on the task at hand; one punch, one kick at a time, no room in my head for taxes, traffic, or television. This is part of the reason we bow at the entrance to a Shao-Lin school, it’s a reminder to leave our mental baggage outside.

Maybe if I can relax and do one thing at once, I can get good at one thing at once. Maybe if I can do one thing at once, I can act correctly without having to think about it consciously. Maybe all those techniques and training methods amount to something if piled on top of each other for long enough. How does one cultivate ‘I’? Practice, focus, relax, and have fun. Best part is, even if all does not go according to plan, you’re still having fun at the end of the day.

See you in class
-J

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Shao-Lin Memory

By Mohamed Seyam

One of the most intriguing aspects of our art is the amount of material we have. This aspect was what really attracted me to the art when I stumbled upon the CSC-Boulder school. I knew I had to be a part of this system right from the beginning. But I had no idea at the time how much it was going to influence my life, especially my memory.

Having never taken martial arts before, I struggled with the material at the beginning. As I white belt, I had a hard time remembering Lohan #2, not to mention the Tai Chi 24 combined form. It took me about a month to get Lohan #2 as well as the rest of my white belt material memorized. After a little preparation, I felt ready to test to yellow belt. I told Jay (yes, CSC-SF’s own Jay), that I think I’ll be ready to test soon. He told me I should do both my yellow belt test and Tai Chi test at the same time. It took me by surprise. I didn’t know the Tai Chi form! But I went home that night and practiced the 24 combined form, and somehow I did know it. I didn’t know where it came from, but it was there!  And so I tested to yellow belt and did my Tai Chi test a couple of days later.

Then I started my yellow belt training. And I faced another challenge: Se Meng T’ao Lien. I was stuck again. But I was able to get it into memory a little faster this time around. Additionally, I decided to start going to festivals to see what they were like. I heard so much about them, but never went to one. My first festival was Fist of the Crazy Mad Drunk. It was so much fun! After that day, I was hooked. I decided at that moment that I was going to every festival that I can! “Who knows how long I’ll be in Boulder?” was what I thought. I had to take the opportunity to see as many forms as possible in case the time ever came for me to move away from a Shao-Lin center.

Fast forward to today. I’ve learned so much in our art, from animal styles to weapons and even internal forms that I never imagined existed. I had gotten to a point where I could have almost any form memorized by the end of the day. I didn’t think much about it, I just attributed my memory gain to just coming to class all the time. But it turns out it was a little more than that.

At the end of class one night, Elder Master Sharon was discussing forms. She mentioned the fact that we have so many forms in our art, and that it’s overwhelming trying to remember all of it. She said that there will be a point where we should memorize some forms to the point that we can do the form at anytime, even if we hadn’t practiced the form for months! Kinda like when you haven’t heard a song that you like for a long time, but you hear it playing and remember all the lyrics.

I thought a lot about what Master Sharon said that day. It made me realize why it was becoming easier for me to memorize forms. It all started when I first learned the Hua 9 Ring Broadsword form. Something about that form just connected with me. The heroic postures and the flow of the form felt right to me. Ever since that time, I felt like it was becoming easier to memorize forms. Rather than shoving the movements into my brain, I would feel the flow of every form, almost as if I found some sort of hidden pattern within the movements. The only problem was that my memory only worked short term. If I didn’t practice a form often enough after I learned it, I would forget it. So then how do you get to a point where you can memorize a form, not practice for a while, and then bust it out any time you want?

Well, I haven’t completely figured out the answer to that, but it’s something I’m working on! Especially now that I did move away from a Shao-Lin. I’ve been devising a method to try to keep forms in my memory longer. I’ve been to a couple of festivals since I moved, and it’s helped so far. I basically practice the form every day for a week. Then the next week I practice it every other day, and so on. I practice the form a little less often, so that I don’t have to practice it every day. I’m still working out the kinks, and I’ll let you know if it works out!

Now if that’s not enough, I’ve got one more little story. It’s one of the reasons I want to keep up my training, besides my love for the art and the people in it! It was the weirdest experience of my life!

Elder Master Sharon was teaching us He’ Hsiang Ku, the female drunken immortal. It was the last day of the form, and we were working on the second to last bit of the form. Master Sharon had let us practice that section a few times before she showed us the ending. I practiced it a couple of times and then stood around to let it sink into my mind. While I was doing that, Master Sharon had asked Sifu Pat, the Fort Collins instructor, to finish up the form in front of her while everyone else was still working on the previous section. I just stood there and watched as he did it a couple of times. And then it happened. Granted it was a relatively short section, but I had just memorized the rest of the form! It was like my brain just sent me the message “Download Complete.” I didn’t know what to do! I was debating whether I should tell someone or not! I ended up telling a couple of my fellow 1^st blacks, and hurriedly showed them the last section right before Master Sharon taught it to us. It was my first glimpse of photographic memory! Maybe one day I’ll be able to develop that ability!

Good luck with your training, and I hope to see you at a future festival!

Mo S.

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