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.
A Brief History of the Fire
Flower System of Qigong
Throughout the history of Afro-Asiatic cultures, including ancient Nile River Valley Civilization, Egypt [Ta Merria], Babylonia, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Japan, a strong linkage has existed between religious practices, fighting arts and warfare, hunting, and the healing arts.
Around the 6th Century AD, a Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma (Ta Mo/Da Mo), traveled by boat from Madras (India) to Nanking (China) in stages, teaching Buddhism as he traveled. From Nanking, he traveled through China, eventually reaching the Shaolin Temples in the Songshan Mountains of Central China, where he established the Dhyana (Ch'an [in China] or Zen [in Japan]) school of Buddhism. The Shaolin Temple at Songshan was built in 495 AD in the order of Emperor (Hsiao-Wen) for an Indian monk known as Batuo, or Fo Tuo as he is called in Chinese. Note: Fo Tuo's statute is often seen in Chinese Buddhist monasteries. He is a huge-bellied, jolly monk, beaming joy at the world.
The Dhyana School of Buddhism focused on a Static Meditation discipline and according to the history/legend, Bodhidharma meditated for nine (9) years facing a cave wall before introducing the system to the Shaolin monks. When Ta Mo (Bodhidharma) arrived at Shaolin and introduced the Dhyana School of Meditation, he became concerned for the stamina of the Shaolin monks. Their WuShu (Kung Fu) training, long periods of meditation and prayer, and fasting were very taxing. So, Ta Mo taught them special Pranayamas (breathing techniques and disciplines) that are thought to have diffused into all of the modern martial arts, all of which incorporate some type of breathing discipline.
Ta Mo also taught Wu-Te or the notion of Martial Virtue or Martial Discipline, i.e., "Martial Arts are intended to promote spiritual development, not fighting". These meditation, breathing and fighting disciplines continued to develop and spread throughout India, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia for over a thousand years.
In the late 1950's, an internationally recognized master of Shaolin Kung Fu WuShu migrated to the U.S.A., and settled in New York City. His name is Grandmaster
Alan Lee. Alakoso Sharif had the great good fortune to be one of Grandmaster Alan Lee's students (1960's to early 1970's). After studying Shaolin Kung Fu (WuShu) and the Eight Silk Weaving Exercises, Alakoso Sharif began teaching and further developed the discipline of breathing founding the Fire Flower System of Chi Kung in 1975. The System has continued to evolve and refine itself for over three decades.
The Dhyana School of Buddhism focused on a Static Meditation discipline and according to the history/legend, Bodhidharma meditated for nine (9) years facing a cave wall before introducing the system to the Shaolin monks. When Ta Mo (Bodhidharma) arrived at Shaolin and introduced the Dhyana School of Meditation, he became concerned for the stamina of the Shaolin monks. Their WuShu (Kung Fu) training, long periods of meditation and prayer, and fasting were very taxing. So, Ta Mo taught them special Pranayamas (breathing techniques and disciplines) that are thought to have diffused into all of the modern martial arts, all of which incorporate some type of breathing discipline.