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Master John Lee
Choy Li Fut

Southern Praying Mantis

Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2005 9:32 AM
Subject: John's Tai Chi feeling

Hi Ric,
Just written a few sentences of the Chi effects that I felt in practising Tai Chi today.
Today I was working on "parting the wild horse's mane". I began feeling the chi moving my body to the right place, the circle steps landed in the right place and my body and arms "flow and sink" on their own. Also the figure eight chi flow is apparent in my body as I part the mane. Pretty "Wild" Stuff!

Cheers,
John

 

20-11-04

I met Ric Lum Sifu many years ago in one of Chin Woo's annual X'mas party and found him to be very interesting and a knowledgeable person. I've trained in Martial Arts since 1973 and also met many elite masters over the years; Ric Sifu was the only one that got my attention even though he did not perform a single form at the party. Around Sep, 2001 in Kensington, Sydney, I was teaching some classes in a Catholic school and during my lunch break, Ric started sharing some of his Tai Chi with my brother and me under a tall tree on a side walk. The experience of this gathering has changed my way of viewing Tai Chi Chuan forever.

Ric started to instruct us to relax and sit in a Tai Chi stance, then he told us to relax our shoulders and drop our arms forward; then in a couple of seconds later, our arms raised up on their own as they were carried upward by a pocket of air. My brother and I looked at each other and thought what the hell was going on??!! We could repeat this action for many reps, and the sensation was just wonderful. After the lesson, my brother told me he could see objects far away and with very clear vision. For myself I was pretty excited just to feel the Chi for the first time.

A few years later I decided to begin some lessons with Ric Sifu, mainly due to an accident that I had a few months ago, and I was looking for some form of recovery of my health. Anyway, after a week of learning Tai Chi from Ric Sifu, I could get the Chi flowing and lifting my arms again; in fact, one day my right arm lifted up over my head for almost 45 minutes without any effort on my part. “Pretty amazing stuff”, I told my brother and my martial art students during a practice session in Condell Park High School.

During a Gung Fu training session a month ago, I was teaching my students about some Mantis forms, and after the training session, I was playing with some moves in Ric's Tai Chi form. One of my students Godfrey came over to see what I was practising, and at that moment he could feel my chi transmitting to him. Godfrey told me he could feel the cool chi in his palms as I was doing the moves, It was pretty amazing!!! Another student Tyson also felt this cool chi in his palms as he was doing the Southern Mantis Sarm Bo Gin form; they both smiled and looked at me as if I was an amazing person!

After that session, I began to experiment in lifting my students’ arms using this cool chi, and to my surprise I was able to do it. It got better as I was practising more and more tai chi everyday, and now to a point that I could feel their arms in the actual lift!! The chi in my Tai Chi movements is now more and more connecting than ever; by that I mean I could feel different chi flowing in my movements and also discovering many of the hidden chi compartments within the form.

As for my Southern Mantis Tong Long and Choy Li Fut Gung Fu, well, I have to say that I have taken a giant leap forward, by that I mean my students could see that I have roundness and internal power even within my linear Mantis forms. As for Choy Li fut, well those low stances feel effortless to do now. This is one amazing journey of true Tai Chi, and I must thank Ric for sharing his knowledge with me and my brother Michael.

 

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