The following discussion is reproduced from the thread Intensive Taijiquan in Malaysia September 2008.started in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum on 14th September 2008
Sifu Naoko Yamada
Instructor, Shaolin Wahnam Japan
22nd September 2008
Dear Shaolin Family,
I was very excited to be in the Intensive Taijiquan course in Malaysia. The experiences there were wonderful and precious to me.
Thank you very much for planning and managing everything for us, so that I could learn deeply like this. I was so happy to learn with a lot of Seniors who were kind, gentle and powerful. They showed me how to become polite, pure, and spiritual as a disciple.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Sigung for generously teaching us wounderful skills, and to all of my Seniors for their patience. And it was such a pleasure to train with all of the family.
I was able to learn how to spar with small person to big person. I learnt how necessary it was to use good spacing, timing internal force and 6 harmonies.
This thread is very effective to depen our understanding of this course. Thank you Jeffrey Sipak and everyone.
Please forgive my English.
Now I am training stance in movement.
Sifu Jonathan Say
Instructor, Shaolin Wahnam Scotland
22nd September 2008
Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family
I was also blessed to attend this wonderful course.
I enjoyed every moment from start to finish. Having taken Kung Fu courses with Sigung it was really interesting to compare the way the Tai Chi Chuan intensive was taught compared to these, and with no surprise there were many similarities.
I hadn't taken a course with Sigung for a little while and I was utterly blown away by the power of training around him, so much so I was walking on air for the whole time! The content, style and method of his teaching has evolved once again and I thought this course was truly complete, literally everything you need to train for life in 5 days.
It was great to meet so many wonderful members of the Wahnam family, everyone was so relaxed and happy and this was a real joy to be around.
So thank you to everyone who made this course possible, to my fellow participants and to Sigung for his truly generous teaching - so many closed secrets I filled a notebook a night practically!
Love to all
PS. Great thread Uncle Jeff, and I will get involved in the discussion when my time frees up a bit!
Sifu Jonathan Say
Shaolin Wahnam Scotland
I would like to share with you a great cosmic truth. What you are and will be, is what you think. If one constantly thinks of himself as being sick and unhappy, he will be sick and unhappy. It is very important that you must always have noble thoughts — of yourself and of others. And especially when your mind has become powerful, you must always use it for good.
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit
Shaolin Wahnam Canada
23rd September 2008
Wahnam Taijiquan Intensive Course 2008
Greetings Wahnam Family,
May you be well and happy!
The 2008 Wahnam Intensive Taijiquan course has taken me to a new level in my practice and I am excited when training because it's also present in my Shaolin Kung Fu practice!
The basics that were conveyed during the course were simply amazing. The insight and new "discoveries" that I experienced during the course were quite profound and specifically this happened during the first 2 days. Namely the stances, footwork, differentiating Yin and Yang, but the greatest part of the course was Smiling from the Heart and entering Tao!
All this leads me to flow during the course in joy as it was also challenging at times. The greatest challenge was just letting go of old mental habits and preconceived thought processes, and I did it!
During day 3 of the morning session after the fantastic Lifting Water practice, I had experienced a moment of tremendous joy and it simply was for the entire Wahnam Family present. I also experienced an undescribtable deep connection with all human beings and life itself. I literally could feel the 6 Harmonies alive and breathing and growing like a fantastic big sphere from the Dan Tian pulsating and expanding throughout the Universe.
Afterwards I felt speechless, humbled, and so peaceful that not until now am I able to finally attempt to share this wonderful experience in words.
I am so grateful for Sifu's wonderful and profound teachings, thank you Sifu! As I could not have expected any more or less. The joy, clarity, calmness, and confidence that I am experiencing now is a state that is ever so present in my practice and spreading throughout my life.
It has been a great joy to have trained and spend good times with everyone at the course and I look forward to seeing you all again.
Many thanks to Sijie Wei Foong for her hard work, kindness, and generosity put forth as always.
It existed, like a mystery,
Born before Heaven and Earth,
Standing alone and unchanging ~
We call it the mother of the ten thousand things.
I don't know its name.
Let us call it, "DAO."
Great Master Lao Tse
"Siu Lam Yao Sum Faat - Shao Lin Originates From The Heart"
Shaolin Wahnam Institute Canada