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Modern Tradition: Year of The Dragon

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:23:47 +0000

JKD practitioners, mixed martial artists and modern stylists who practice strictly for street and sport combat, may not appreciate the cultural and historical aspects of Chinese kung fu.

But for traditional Chinese martial artists, their kung fu extends beyond protecting the village from brigands and beating rival fighters in the next village, province or state. Their strength, agility, balance and athletic skills are demonstrated annually not during knock down dragged out tournaments but during the lunar New Year through the lion and dragon dance ceremony.

This shamanistic ritual is believed to be vital for the community by chasing away evil spirits, bad karma and purify the space to usher in peace and prosperity for the New Year. Something we all could us these days.

In the Big Apple this tradition continues as you can see in this video of an awesome lion and dragon performance by the Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar Institute.
And for those whose appreciation of martial arts is practical, check out these guys’ leg strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance concealed behind these thrilling – and dangerous – lion and dragon movements. Acquiring these physical attributes would enhance any modern martial artists fighting abilities.

By the way, in this video there is a shot of Hung Gar Master Wan Chi Ming. In 1984, he led ten martial art teachers – I had the honor to be one – to visit the Shaolin Temple. We were among the first foreign guests of the Chinese government to visit the Shaolin when it was still closed to the outside world.

It’s over 28 years since I was with him in the Shaolin courtyard. His New York Chinatown school has evolved: five pristine lion heads, a dragon, uniforms when once there were only two simple lion heads, no dragon and performers in blue jeans and street clothes. And the elaborate staging and precise coordination of the show elevated the simpler street performances to theater. That’s progress.

But now watching Master Wan’s students pounding the drums and performing the lion and dragon’s ritual movements as he once did a generation ago, I realized that no matter how much things change – or seem to progress – in the end, things are the same. That’s tradition.

Evolving Martial Artists bridge the old and the new to discover what’s true.

Lawrence Tan

This Year of the Dragon we are introducing TanDao Dragon Combat for the first time. It integrates “Little Dragon” Lee’s JKD and classical dragon kung fu for a modern tradition. Join us.

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Groundhog Day

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:08:37 +0000

In Act One of Shakespeare’s Richard III, the future king says “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York…” It is a statement of celebration, difficulty has turned a corner. Today, Feb 2nd, in Pennysylvania, the grand groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. The tradition tells us this means six more weeks of winter. This is the harshest season in the cycle. It may have a feeling of stagnation, coldness, isolation – with no imminent sign of spring.

Set in cold and snowy Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, we almost all know the film Groundhog Day has a hidden message. An egotistical weatherman trapped in time relives the same day for years until he is liberated by his own awareness. It is an endless winter, a time of seeing his shadow. This is an allegory of our spiritual journey.

We may see something of ourselves in the Groundhog Day protaganist Phil Connors. Inside of us are the moments of self loathing or self absorption. We are the grandiose, or the world weary. Both are painful. This is a time to take a good look — do you see your shadow? Where are you in your life? In your practice?

Our path is one of process, flow, progress. The story of the warrior always has at its core the apprentice finding his way along the road to mastery. It is learning from mistakes, preparation, practice, meditation, change, growth. For us at TanDao, the orientation is always the martial way, though the philosophy applies to anything you endeavor. It is the cycle of the Evolving Martial Artist: the warrior, the scholar and the monk. These three parts of the self are all moving, turning together, each with elements of the other changing us. We’ll slow it down to get a clear look at the stages of the evolution. In the first stage, there is youthful arrogance, egocentric attitudes, a stumbling, yet flexible growth. Second, a time for refinement and responsibility as focus shifts away from the self. Last, awareness beyond the self — compassion, as knowledge flows into serenity and wisdom. They are all moving into one another, flowing, changing. The final and total integration is the soul of the quiet master.

In change there is salvation. And redemption. If you are mired on your path, work to break the loop. Like Phil in Groundhog Day, learn to work, practice and play for the joy of work, practice and play. Take the journey, leave your ego in the dust. When you look, may you find no shadow there, as your long winter makes its way into the sun.

Toni Josephson

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Year of The Dragon

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:00:06 +0000

Happy New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choy! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy 70th Birthday Muhammad Ali

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:32:13 +0000

We want to send out birthday wishes to Muhammad Ali who is 70 today.
Muhammad Ali used the phrase “float like a butterfly sting like a bee” to describe his boxing style. Although not intended, this street poetry eloquently captures the Chinese philosophical notion of yin and yang, the balancing of opposing yet complementary forces. High level kung fu seeks the skillful merging of hardness and softness for superior power, mobility and stability for footwork and strength and flexibility for technical skills.

Anyway, not to get carried away, but we wanted to give a bow of recognition and respect to a great boxing warrior who had the courage to go the distance after seeming defeat to become three times heavyweight champion of the world. Yet even greater was his courage and integrity of his moral conviction. The old boxing master was a warrior monk indeed. Happy Birthday.

Lawrence Tan

Get ready for the TanDao Dragon….

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The Way

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:32:35 +0000

The feeling is strong, it overpowers my thoughts.
I am not aware of the reality that my blood knows only too well.
My mind is hostile for the wrong reason.
I am only son, and man,
And the need to be brother is tremendous.
~Kenny Rankin, Inside

This is the martial way, the human way…the WAY.

Listen to the incredible Kenny Rankin’s words and music Inside
Inside CD on itunes

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Take The Time

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:04:10 +0000

This year has been particularly challenging for our global village, everyone seems to have been impacted. But — it is time to take a break from it all…just for a bit. Make it happen. (LOL – we know our problems will still be there waiting for us). Keep the faith!

Toni and I wish you, your family and friends the best during this holiday season.
Special greetings to the troops!

Happy Holidays,
Lawrence Tan

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Abdominal Breathing: The Core of Internal Energy Arts

admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 13:59:40 +0000

Our guest blogger is our good friend, Bob Ellal. The unique circumstances that brought Bob to the art dramatically shows the health benefits of qi gong and martial arts for healing. His path and insightful words come from experience, research and years of practice. Be inspired.

You’re in a convenience store, examining a can of Spam in one of the aisles. Suddenly a hooded man bursts through the door, pulls out a .45, and waves it in the cashier’s face demanding the contents of the cash register. You begin breathing shallowly, from the chest, as fear for you own life pervades you. Thoughts pinball through your mind: Will he shoot the cashier—and then me? Am I to die in a convenience store of all places? Where are the police?

The cashier complies; the robber bolts through the door. Your breathing slows and deepens and the thoughts in your mind slow. You become calm.

This scenario illustrates the connection between breathing and the mind: Breathe shallowly and quickly, and your mind generates a frenzy of thoughts. Breathe deeply, from the abdomen, and the thoughts slow and become manageable.

What has happened when you perceived danger was your body reacted with the fight-or-flight response—it’s kicked in the sympathetic nervous system, one of the two components of the autonomic nervous system. Your body floods with adrenaline from your adrenal glands as you prepare to confront the threat to your life.

As the threat passes you breathe deeply and the parasympathetic nervous system becomes engaged: heart rate slows, blood pressure returns to normal, adrenal glands stop pumping adrenaline into your system. Normality—you are calm and your body can return to normal operations, such as digestion.

The fight-or-flight response is vital for short-term situations—such as when our distant ancestors confronted deadly threats from saber-tooth tigers and immense short-snout bears. But if you are confronting a serious disease or condition, such as cancer or PTSD, your fear will trigger this response continuously, flooding your body with adrenaline and other chemicals such as cortisol. The effect? Your body cannot heal properly, as these substances compromise the immune system.

The solution? Learn to breathe deeply, expanding your abdomen and filling the lungs from the bottom up. You not only kick in the parasympathic nervous system but also provide much more oxygen to the blood, helping your immune system to operate at a high level.

And there’s another tremendous benefit from abdominal breathing: The lymphatic system, which relies on respiration and muscular action to work (it has no pump, such as the heart pumping the blood), will work much more efficiently. The lymphatic system contains vital elements of the immune system, such as the bone marrow—the blood factory—and the thymus gland, which kicks out T-cells, the body’s natural killer cells which destroy cancer and other invaders.

The lymphatic system does many things, such as producing lymphocytes that fight disease and removing toxins from the cells. If you are fighting cancer or another serious condition or disease, abdominal breathing is a crucial element in helping you win your fight.

I learned deep, abdominal breathing as the first step in my practice of qigong (chee-gung, which means energy work—Chinese internal energy exercises). It is also a vital component in other meditative and energy arts such as yoga, tai chi chuan and transcendental meditation.

You can learn abdominal breathing by expanding your abdomen as you breathe, focusing on filling the lungs with air from the bottom up. A good way to test if you’re doing it correctly is to lie on the floor and place a box of Kleenex on your stomach. As you breathe, the box will rise and fall with the motion of your stomach.

If you are fighting cancer, as I have many times years ago, you may be too tired from chemotherapy and/or radiation to do standing or moving qigong, tai chi chuan or yoga. But you can always lie down and breathe deeply, and still stimulate your immune system. It worked for me: four bouts of bone cancer, two bone marrow transplants between 1991 and 1996—and I’ve been clear ever since. Fifteen years of good health. I can’t catch a cold.

Bob Ellal

A special shout out to Bob, Geoff and Dylan! Happy Holidays!!

Visit Bob’s site: http://www.bobellal.com

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Macho Art vs. Martial Art

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:48:07 +0000

Are you tough? Well here’s a tale of real tough:

In ancient China, Rambo Lee and Conan Chan were bitter enemies from rival warrior clans. One day while practicing his swordsmanship, Rambo saw an old monk about to be attacked by a wild tiger. He fearlessly intercepted the beast by shouting and waving his sword. The tiger fled.

The grateful old monk bowed to the warrior who saved him and said that he would grant Rambo a single wish – anything he desired. But he cautioned, think carefully, because what ever he asked for the monk would give his sworn adversary, Conan Chan, double. Rambo thought a moment, then said, “Take out one of my eyes.”

Now that’s macho!

This anecdote elevates martial machismo to the absurd. Machismo is a vital element of martial arts. Life or death. Victory or defeat. Kill or be killed. Virile characteristics such as strength, courage and aggression accompany the warrior’s ethos. However, exaggerated display of macho aggression that may lead to bullying born of uncontrolled testosterone drives, liquor manufactured courage and showing off at the expense of others due to ego insecurity must be tempered and transcended through experience and maturity.

TanDao teaches that the martial warrior’s bold actions should be tempered by the martial scholars insight and guided by the martial monk’s way of peace. In our TanDao Tiger Combat book, which teaches extremely vicious tiger claw techniques that are banned even from brutal MMA, there is TanDao saying: “The fiercest warrior has the gentlest heart”.

Evolving Martial Artists practice the martial arts – not the macho arts.

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Keep practicing,
Lawrence Tan

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Fight Posturing and Reality

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:39:43 +0000

Check out this funny video from Wong Fu Productions. It deals with kung fu movies, psychological and physical posturing, stereotypes and the distortions created by popular media images — in a humorous way. Watch it to the end.

From a martial arts perspective, this satire expresses a modern fighter’s skepticism on the practicality of stylized techniques. Despite the supremacy of flowery kung fu moves in chop socky films, the realism is not evident in MMA competitions, the testing ground from the popular sporting view of martial arts. Are flowery techniques found in kung fu, karate, tae kwon do bullshit?
Yes, if one is not initiated to the secrets of form. The traditional purist method that teaches the literal expression of stylized movements for street fighting without adapting them for modern application is outdated. Besides being inefficient, it’s dangerous.

At TanDao we are proponents of real fighting and we also preserve forms. A contradiction? To the initiated, forms are physical books of knowledge that imparts martial science. All real fighting strategies, tactics and biomechanical efficiency are encoded in the stylized movement. Evolving Martial Artists seek the hidden language behind stylized moves to enhance real fighting.

Props to our twitter buddy, Paul Ricketts, for showing us the video. You can follow Paul on twitter @sifu33 and, for more funny videos, visit Wong Fu Productions. Enjoy!

If you want to learn realistic Shaolin animal techniques for street defense, check out our Tandao Tiger Combat book and Tiger Claw DVD and video download.

Keep practicing and exploring,
Lawrence Tan

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Bodhidharma Returns Home

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:44:25 +0000

Who knew? TanDao has gone viral in India. Our video Bodhidharma and True Power, suddenly has jumped to over 1,000 hits a day for the past two weeks. We’ve received thanks from proud Tamilians from Southern India, who express appreciation for our video introducing this legend.

Who is Bodhidharma? Traditional practitioners of karate and kung fu know him as the legendary founder of Shaolin Kung fu. Buddhists know him as the first Zen patriarch. He is a powerful master of the body and the mind. But that’s about all martial artists know about this enigmatic monk.

Apparently he is relatively unknown in India, historically teeming with famous Hindu spiritual gurus, yoga and Indian martial art masters. Perhaps that’s why Tamilians from Bodhidharma’s kingdom – where he was born a prince before traveling to China — in Southern India are excited to rediscover their nearly forgotten hometown hero.

At TanDao we hope to reintroduce the deeper meaning of Bodhidharma’s spiritual teachings that is forgotten in today’s martial arts to complement Bruce Lee’s popular fighting interpretation of Shaolin.

As this serendipitous going viral video indicates – The Wheel has turned. Hello India – Tamil Nadu, we hear you!

More on Bodhidharma

Power and Peace,

Lawrence Tan

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