Zen and Kung Fu's Ancestor Shows Us the Link Between Yoga and Qigong!
The mythic ancestor of Zen and Kung Fu was a Buddhist yogi!
At least, that's what the oral history teaches us. Bodhidharma was a Indian Buddhist pilgrim in the 5th century, and the story goes that he found himself at the Shao Lin (little forest) monastery where the monks' meditation practice was not progressing. He taught them what looks a lot like an early version of Tantric Inner Yoga through his Tendon/Marrow Neigong, and the rest is history!
The legend says that Bodhidharma went on his mission to spread the dharma and through a series of adventures, ended up at Shaolin to do a retreat. He is said to have spent 9 years sitting Zazen and after coming down from the cave he sees that the monks in attendance are in poor health and not making any progress in meditation. Having been trained in yogic sciences, he knows these two conditions are connected.
According to my teacher's tradition, Bodhidharma ("DaMo" in Chinese) proceeded to teach three different levels of exercises to remedy both the monks' health and stagnant meditation progress.
The first level, taught to everyone, are called 'Temple Exercises' and remain as part of our Kung Fu tradition. These calisthenic exercises stretch the whole body, work you cardio-vascularly, and stimulate various meridians and acupoints to increase the flow within.
The second level were taught only to disciples and were called the 'Tendon Changing Exercises'. Many different versions of these movements still exist today and include the famous 'Da Mo's Fist Set', a dynamic system of postures designed to strengthen the connective tissues and open up the "microcosmic orbit" of the subtle energy body.
The final level was taught only to higher level initiates and was called the 'Marrow Washing' training. In this training, students focus physically on strengthening the bones, which also relates metaphorically to the deepest levels of spiritual insight in the zen tradition. In these yogic systems of old, the physical and the spiritual are said to correspond and influence one another, so when you train one, you train both. This level also included advanced meditations aimed at empowering the force called 'Kundalini' in the Indian traditions - awakening a spiritual force that rises up the spine and transmutes the bodily energies.
These trainings were later enfolded into the tradition that became known as Shaolin Kung Fu, and in the middle of some of the fighting sets, you can see postures that look an awful lot like the yoga postures that come out of India. In many kung fu traditions, Temple Exercises are still performed as a warm-up, and the advanced trainings are often preserved in the Iron Shirt Qigong.
Our lineage's Iron Shirt Qigong, which came to my Sifu through master Xu Hongji, still contains the Muscle Tendon exercises in Bodhidharma's Fist Set. It preserves the Marrow Washing training through special bone-stimulating techniques and the spiritual energy meditations that go with them. This training is a powerful glimpse into traditional Qigong methods and, if the oral lineage is to be believed, ancient history as well!
This Qigong set is a link between Indian Yoga and Chinese Qigong! Bodhidharma's teachings became one of the foundations upon which Chinese Qigong systems have been based for the last millennium and a half! At the same time, Da Mo himself, who brought them East to China, was an Indian master of Buddhist inner yogas.. He taught just a few centuries after the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali were published, and a few centuries before Dzogchen masters like Padmasambhava come onto the scene in India, Nepal, and Tibet!
To make sure that these powerful methods remain available, I'll be teaching this rare and priceless Qigong set coming up just two Saturdays from now (minus the most secret part - sorry!), and I hope you can join us - online or in person in Grass Valley, CA!
