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.
Namaste’ Students and Fellow Martial Arts Enthusiasts!
As we said in our last Post, ‘Longevity Way is practiced primarily for the wellness benefits. The movements are long, smooth, evenly paced, and coordinated with your rhythmic breathing.’ And there is more! The Longevity Way helps you to develop balance, timing, coordination, and body, mind, spirit integration, all of which are important and necessary qualities to have in a combat situation. We don’t think of the two ‘ways’ as separate and independent of each other. In fact, the Longevity Way is the necessary first step to be effective in learning and developing the Wu-Kung Way.
Continuing with The Treatise of Master Chang San-Feng on Yang Style Tai Chi, referred to as T’ai Chi Classics I, ca. 1200 C.E. (TCCI)
TCCI.2 states:
The internal energy should be extended, vibrated like the beat of a drum. The spirit should be condensed in toward the center of the body.
Tai Chi Chu’an is a form of Qigong, a slow, intricate, and methodical form, but Qigong nonetheless. Therefore, the concept of Qi is a central concept in the practice of both the Longevity Way and Wu-Kung Way. Longevity Way should begin with the not so simple Practice of Standing. While standing in Wu Chi or Universal stance, your body will begin to communicate to you the strengths and weaknesses of your posture and structure. Indicators like discomfort, shaking, pain, and fatigue during a 10-20 minute period of standing practice is an indication of weaknesses that you need to correct. Most of the time the necessary correction will be something simple, minor, but important.
Standing practice also helps you to experience the internal energy moving through your body, and to begin taking conscious control of its movement. It will also help you to develop and experience an energetic connection with the earth, adding both grace and power to your movements. The Tai Chi Classics are written in somewhat esoteric language that requires reflection and leaves room for interpretation and discovery.
Remember, TCCI.1 states:
Once you begin to move, the entire body must be light and limber. Each part of your body should be connected to every other part.
This clearly describes the body as being in a relaxed and integrated state. It is in this state of relaxed and fluid structure that the internal energy can be extended and vibrated, or pulsed, like the beat of a drum as stated in TCCI.2. The energy of the earth, your own internal energy, and the force of your mind, combines to express themselves in two ways, Longevity Way or Wu-Kung Way. Your spirit (Shen), your Ase Ami, (energy signature) must be harnessed at your psycho-emotional core, unable to be reached or touched by anything outside of yourself, or that arises in the moment. Longevity Way softens the resulting dynamic energy spiraling it through the body repeatedly throughout the Form. We’re speaking primarily about Yang Style Tai Chi Forms.
The energetic flow of the Longevity Way is best described here in TCCI.3 which states:
When performing T’ai Chi, it should be perfect; allow no defect. The form should be smooth with no unevenness, and continuous, allowing no interruption.
All Qigong has three important elements. These are focus the mind, regulate your breathing, and execute perfect posture and body movement. As I stated earlier, Tai Chi is a form of Qigong, In order to achieve the expression of the form as described in TCCI.3 you must practice your Tai Chi as a form of Qigong, integrating mind, body, and breath. TCCI.3 also speaks to an important difference between Longevity Way and Wu-Kung Way. We’ll talk more about this difference when we go deeper into a comparison.
To be continued:
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It is not simply practice that makes perfect. It is perfect practice and consistent practice that makes perfect.
