This website is dedicated to the Students of Seifu A.S. Umar Sharif, MA. It is also dedicated to the promotion and propagation of the Traditional Afro-Asian Martial and Healing Arts. Our goal is to inform, educate, inspire, encourage, and motivate others to improve their lives by applying The Wisdom of the Ancients.
As your teacher and host, Seifu Sharif [aka: Xia` Xue' Gong] [aka: Tobi Alakoso] is dedicated to helping each of you to remember and nurture the Spirit of Wu-Te and the powers dormant within you.
Chi [Qi]- is a Chinese term, literally, meaning air, breath, 'Life Force' or Vital Energy. Chi is matter in a quantum state, a basic component of all levels of the Cosmos, including the Life Force that circulates within the human body and all living things. The same is referred to in Japanese as KI and in Indian Sanskrit as Prana.
Kung [Gong]- is a Chinese term that implies a high level of attainment, discipline, or mastery. Kung Fu refers to someone who is adept or who has attained mastery in some art or discipline (cooking, martial arts, teaching, calligraphy, law, etc.). It literally implies time and effort.
Chi Kung is a comprehensive system of body movements and breathing exercises aimed at stimulating, potentiating, and manipulating the life force or vital energy. All qigong share three common characteristics. Or we might say that all body-mind energy manipulation are based upon three fundamental principles:
(1) Focusing the Mind
(2) Regulating the Breath
(3) Perfect Body Movement or Posture
The integration of these techniques or disciplines strengthens the immune system, tones the muscles, adds flexibility to the joints, repairs and revitalizes body tissue, increases energy and stamina, and produces a deep level of relaxation and calm. According to the Indian Yogic Tradition, the individual can not successful make the journey to spiritual enlightenment without first bringing the body-mind under discipline. The word yoga means 'to yoke'; in other words, to place restraints on the activities of the body-mind.
The legacy of body-mind energy manipulation has its roots in the shamanistic practices in Africa, and has left is visible marks in Ta-Merrian icons etched in stone and written on papyrus; on East Indian yoga, theatre, and dance; and on the practice of qigong by millions of people around the world.This life force energy has been referred to as Aunk, Nkra, Ntu, Ase and many other names on the African continent. It is called Prana or Cretna in India, Ki in Japan, Aloha in Hawaii, the Blank Rune among the Celts. It's there in every indigenous culture but there wisdom is not all equally accessible. The Chinese offer us a unique opportunity to embrace and begin to explore this legacy. What China offers the world today is one of the most comprehensive, documented,and accessible systems to begin our journey. While visiting China I was told on more than one occasion how important is was to the government and the people that Traditional Chinese Medicine (and that includes qigong) be one of their gifts to the world. So Kung Fu, Tai Chi Chuan, and Qigong are taking on a worldwide familiarity in publications, television programming and movie scripts that other traditions have not.
