I think the religious aspects of Gongfu are often overlooked! I remember very clearly being deeply absorbed in my kungfu practice for four months, which I rank among the greatest months of my life... The shcool I went to trained for 90 minutes in various forms, sets, defense applications and exercise drills. The last 30 minutes were spent meditating. I ghave explored meditation in greater depth since then (did some chi kung and zazen) and it seems to me, based on my limited experience, that there was something special about combining kung fu forms (I am thinking of the 18 Lohan Set), exercise and meditation which just made my chi grow incredibly powerful very very quickly. I began feeling transoformed. Gonfu is something spiritual. Its about defeating yourself and not others, which makes it - if taught correctly - superior to all the other martial arts Ive come across (not to say that I know them all and not necessarily in brute fighting!). I ionce asked my old Sifu why you dont see any kung fu masters compete in UFC, and he said because they have nothing to prove. This might sound rediculous or like a guru type cop out but from a Gongfu perspective it makes complete sense. Gongfu teaches you a form of interacting in the world (call it morality, common sense, whetever) that, I would guess, anyone who attains will say, this is it Ive found it, this is objective. Ive studied Kung fu at a total of 6 different schools on two continents and hardly any of them knew about the more psycholocal aspect of training described here. Further, all the zazen and chan buddhist temples Ive visitied to practice meditation with completely overlook any physical regiments designed to enhance meditation. all they do is meditate, which isnt as effective!
I wanted to know what some of the forum gurus on here make of my experience. Am I deluding myself? Is this something you can relate to? Anyone further ahead in this path than me?