I Liq Chuan

Introduction

I-Liq Chuani (literally translated as Mental-Physical Martial Art) is an art of cultivating consciousness based on Tai Chi and Chan (Zen) principles of non-assertion, non-resistance, harmony of yin and yang, oneness and the present moment. In the universe all things are created by conditions and function through the energy of yin and yang. The whole universe has yin and yang energy. When yin and yang energy is balanced, they are harmonized. Students are taught the art through philosophy and a series of exercises in order to learn to recognize and discipline the inner energy flow (Chi). Developing this art benefits the whole nervous and intrinsic systems and brings total control, harmony and awareness to the mind and body. By understanding the harmony (yin and yang) of the body, recognizing the limits of the structure, the movement in each of the three dimensional planes of cycles, the student transforms this internal energy into internal power, accumulating Chi which propels the appropriate natural body movements. I-Liq Chuan makes you aware of your strength, its limits, and the best use of your strength for self-defense.

As a system of Kung Fu, I-Liq Chuan emphasizes the development of internal power through mental attitude and awareness. The training develops stic king and merging abilities, circular spiral energy, Chin Na, F'a Jing, Chi Kungi, and most importantly, integration of the mind's complete awareness in the present moment –be it in daily life or any situation. The “inner feel” is cultivated first, and then the appropriate external movement is merely an expression of the developed “inner feel”. Practitioners of I-Liq Chuan integrate this art into their daily lives to maintain their awareness by not hurting themselves or others. The awareness developed reveals the nature of everything. Thus, the student understands cause and effect in life and has the ability to maintain the “right understanding” in all situations. Right mindfulness is the mental state of being neutral, formless, and in the present. It is a state (Wu Chi) of being emotionless and unattached to but being aware of the physical world.

History

Grandmaster

The history of I-Liq Chuan is cryptic. Chin Lik Keong is the Founder of the system. He studied martial arts from several masters including Sifu Lee Sum training Lee Style, Sifu Len training Phoenix Eye (the striking of meridian points), and his last Sifu was Lee Kam Chow training Feng Yang Lu Yi. Some people called it Lu Yie Pa Kua, Hsing-I Pa Kua or Liew Mun Pai (nomadic clan). It was a hidden martial art skill used by these nomads to protect themselves on the open roads and was not open to the public, and only passed down secretly. The higher levels of skill were kept for the family members only. Through his years of training he realized and dissolved all the arts of his former training to the basic movement according to the nature of the human structure.

Chin Lik Keong - Grandmaster

Grandmaster Chin continued his research and expanded on what he had learned. He came to the conclusion that it was an art of self-recognition and self-realization of both the mental (I) and the physical (Liq). Feeling uncomfortable with naming the art under any of the styles he named it I Liq Chuan. In 1976 Grandmaster Chin formed the I Liq Chuan Association in Malaysia. Grand Master Chin Lik Keong's eldest son, and co-founder - Chin Fan Siong (Sam Chin) inherited the family art from his father and enhanced the fundamental nature of I Liq Chuan.

In 1992, Master Sam Chin moved to the small town of Carmel New York (United States). He had the opportunity of daily exposure to the teachings of world renowned visiting monks which expanded his study of Buddhist (Zen) philosophies. This opportunity helped Master Sam Chin gain a deeper understanding of the concept of Awareness. He realized that Awareness was the heart of I Liq Chuan and this insight resulted in the tremendous improvement of I Liq Chuan as a complete martial art. In order to reach Western students and preserve the purity of the system, he created and implemented a complete educational structure which includes a teaching guide and grading system for students and instructors in order to promote and introduce I Liq Chuan to the world. After years of hard work, Master Sam Chin has successfully spread the art to many different countries, including United States, Russia, Australia, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine and England. Master Sam Chin has instructed countless students and promoted a select few to the level of elite instructor. Master Sam Chin's arduous undertaking has resulted in an increased interest in the I Liq Chuan martial art all across the globe.

The System

I-Liq Chuan is a style of Kung Fu based solely on physical sensitivity and sensorial mind awareness. It does not develop techniques for dealing with particular situations; which just create another habit. Through the learning process, (which is merely to recognize and realize, not to accumulate or imitate) the student begins to understand how "mental and physical" affect each other and starts to develop the skill to unify and coordinate them. The student needs to recognize the six physical points and three mental factors in the training system. You train through the process of understanding your muscular movement, body structure (skeletal, ligaments and tendons, incorporating chi (energy) and your mental process. Relaxation is an essential component of the art. Relaxation contains the process of looseness, softness, elasticity, and fa jing (issuing power). As soon as an I-Liq Chuan practitioner touches an opponent's hands or body, he can feel instantly where the opponent's weight and center of gravity is and what strike or technique the opponent is going to use. Ultimately, the I-Liq Chuan practitioner is able to sense the opponent's intention without contact, through awareness. He can redirect the force and use it against the opponent or incorporate the use of fa jing (energy release strikes) depending on the threat level.

It is the mind that leads and the body that follows. When you are trying to move your opponent, first lead his mind before you move his body. By trying to move your opponent with brute force alone his body feels heavy and you have to exert a lot of energy. The mind has neither weight nor volume. If the art of leading the mind is mastered, a woman or a child can easily defeat a large powerful man. By leading your opponent's mind, he leads his own body movement. He defeats himself.

Originally I-Liq Chuan had no training forms. At first the system only contained specialized sticky hands practice, its resulting sensitivities, and Chi Kung. The system has expanded and includes two training forms. Applications are still learned from the sticky hand practice; which is based on the "inner feel." The primary emphasis of I-Liq Chuan is awareness, which develops in time through diligent practice and the understanding of the I-Liq Chuan philosophy.
An I-Liq Chuan student is taught from form to become formless. There are no fixed moves. Every move is based on what the condition is and what move is appropriate for those conditions. You can only use your own energy appropriately and precisely when you are merging with an opponent's energy at every moment. The art is a tool to show you who you are and what the nature is. It is not for the purpose of building the art as a system.

I Liq Chuan in Combat

Spinning Hands
The art of I-Liq Chuan develops the ability of edirecting and off balancing. At the higher levels of training it also contains strikes to the meridian point. The system contains some closed - fist punches but primarily uses more open palms, ch'in na and grabs. Elbows, knees and shoulders are also used defensively, but most importantly controlling the opponent as soon as contact is made is always stressed.

Spinning Hands
By simply practicing the forms, you will not attain the high level of combative skill that an I-Liq Chuan practitioner can achieve. This level is attained through two - person practice. The core of the system is in its spinning/sticky hand drills. This exercise resembles Tai Chi push hands, but is somewhat different. Instead students train by spinning their hands and forearms around each other, while trying to focus their mind and senses, to feel their partner's energy and also be aware of their own body and its reactions. From there various combat applications are employed. One important prerequisite to learning and applying I-Liq Chuan properly and effectively, is keeping the body and mind relaxed and balanced. This is developed through the understanding of philosophy, concepts, principles, and training tools. By utilizing spinning force all the body movements become rounded and circular. Power is generated from the ground through the feet and legs, then transmitted through the waist and shoulders, into a unified body movement. Higher levels maintain unity, while splitting the direction of the force at any point of the body.

Philosophy

Mental - Physica Martial Art

I-Liq Chuan embodies its philosophy in application, and you use its philosophy throughout your life. The art is a "moving meditation". It is no different than I'm walking and you're walking, it is only the concept of mindfulness. While there is no outer difference between the two persons, there is an inner difference. One person may walk with his mind in another world, not even realizing he is walking. He may be thinking about other things in his life and thereby forgetting to be in the moment, while the other person may be totally in the moment. To see the true nature of things, we have to be in the present moment (process) that's with the right state of consciousness to flow with the process to observe and merge with the conditions.

In this art we learn to break away from the unconscious, we learn to activate the subconscious mind to be conscious at all times. If you can be conscious at all times, then you will not be attached and you will be able to recognize and breakaway from habits and emotions that effect you.

The philosophy underlying I-Liq Chuan involves the very simple concept of making an active choice to be fully aware of the present moment, by being aware of the sounds around you, your breathing, your visual perception, and the feel of the atmosphere on your skin. Observe how thoughts pop into the mind, but don't let them take your awareness away. By not arguing or mentally conversing with the thought, you will be free from its control. Then the thought will leave and you will continue being aware.

This art is the cultivation of the conscious mind:

(a) To unify the mental & physical

(b) To unify self (mental/physical) with opponent and environment

(c) To see and feel the conditions while staying both mentally and physically in the process of present, formless, and neutral

(d) To be free of control from emotions such as anger, greed, ego, hate etc.

Meditation

All emotions involve reasoning with intent, which is inherently flawed. Cultivation of the conscious mind we need to recognize how consciousness arise. It's of the six sense organ (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind) and six sense objects (form, sound, odor, taste, touch, idea or thought) coming into contact that causes consciousness. It's on the sense of contact point which we need to train and mindful whether the action of reaction over the point of contact is from the habitual reflex actions where ignorance arises, that is from our mental expressions which being accumulated from the past experiences or acting according to its present conditions as it is. In the conscious mind it is essential to recognize the distinction between concentration and awareness. Concentration involves limiting your focus to a single object. Awareness is reflection of the process and uses concentration to encompass all of your senses that is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the cause and awareness is the effect. It is like a chopper knife the sharp edge is awareness while the thick blunt back is concentration. The thick and heavy back gives force for the sharp edge to cut through to the true nature. Rather than reaching out to receive, open up you r senses and let the information come to you. Turn yourself into a receiver rather than making judgements from your past experience and knowledge; let nature speak for itself!

Being in the present involves no judgement. Judgement brings in previous experience and knowledge. This are is based on being in the present moment, if you make a judgement you are wrong because you are not sensing the present moment.

When you build up mindfulness you can sense everything that an opponent will do, by his energy, his words, or a movement of his hands, you can sense it. By applying and realizing this philosophy, more of life opens up to you because your ability of immediate perception has increased. What might seem like a sixth sense to others, is really just seeing things happening from their base of origin, you see the causes and effects that led up to the present moment. Through awareness: Students are not copying another person, they are learning to be themselves through self-realization.

Yin/Yang

Yin (negative) and Yang (positive) which fills up as a whole complement each other and is really a description of the cycles of nature. Yin and Yang are a pair of complementary forces that move continuously in this universe.

Yin represents negativeness, darkness, softness, gentleness, passiveness, the internal etc. Yang represents positiveness, brightness, firmness, activeness, aggressiveness, the external etc. A common mistake we make is identifying the Yin and yang as two separate forces, which move to their extremes you don't want to be either only yin or yang. But Yin and Yang are one inseparable force, which continuously evolve with and into each other. The balances of the complementary forces of Yin/Yang interact with each other to achieve harmony.

Health

Tai Chi for Health
Training the art not only benefits your health by preserving it and preventing of diseases, but actually is beneficial to patients with high blood pressure, stomach or intestinal illness, heart troubles, tuberculosis, and other ailments. In practicing the motion of the muscles and joints of expanding and contracting the breathing and movement of the diaphragm which exercise the internal organ. This will produce a unique sedative effect upon the central nervous systems, which in turn helps activate or improve the functions of other bodily systems; the practitioner is required to remain calm and mindful.

We know that the nervous system, especially the brain, governs and regulates all other systems and organs. Through the functioning of the nervous system, man adapts to his environment and transforms it at the same time; he readjusts the activities of all bodily systems and organs. Therefore, any physical exercise that improves the function of the central nervous system is beneficial for the whole body. Mood alone may effect the chemical content of the blood, and dynamic process of circulation of gaseous metabolism etc.

In practicing, one is required to be calm, mindful and able to be aware of any part of his body, which is in itself very good discipline for the mind.

The movement of the art exercises sinews, muscles and joints, producing rhythmic breathing involving the diaphragm. Therefore there is an increase of blood and lymph circulation, which reduces escape of blood into the tissues from ruptured blood vessels.

The regular contraction and expansion of all the skeletal muscles helps blood circulation in the veins and ensures the return of the veinous blood as well as the necessary vascular pressure in the right ventricle of the heart.

With the stomach and chest relaxed, movements are smooth and well adjusted to the natural breathing, giving full play to its total effect and further improving the blood and lymph circulation. Very often when an athlete's chest, shoulder and elbow muscles are strained under exertion breathing is apparently handicapped by a constrained chest, which results in the obstruction of blood circulation, flushed face, and bulging veins in the neck.

Tai Chi for Health
The rhythmic breathing of the exercise improves blood circulation and nourishment of the cardiac muscles. The diaphragmatic movements can also provide a constant massage for the liver, which is a good way to clear up the stagnant blood in the liver and improves the liver's function.

Training is also beneficial in preserving lung elasticity, flexibility of the chest cartilage, lung ventilation capacity and metabolic exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Constant training improves the power of the central nervous system and coordination among the organs, and increases the intensity of the vagus nerve, which steps up the supply of blood and oxygen and the process of metabolism.

Regular training also helps to maintain a good spinal column position and proper structure from typical deformity of the aged hunch back.

The improvement of the nervous system will better mobilize all other systems. The exercise will prevent and even cure illnesses of the digestive system, which arise from nervous functional disorders. In addition the respiratory movement can be a mechanistic stimulant to the gastro-intestinal tract, and quicken the blood circulation which improves digestion and prevents constipation both of which is essential to health aging.