Publisher's Synopsis
In many old martial arts films you often see a master capable of extraordinary supernormal feats such as being able to move with the speed of wind, throw incredibly heavy objects, destroy them with a strike, stride over water, or even fly through the air. Are such things possible? The Chinese Taoists say "yes" if the master practiced special exercises to cultivate their inner energy, or yang chi (qi). These practices to cultivate inner power are called nei-gong, or the internal martial arts, and are related to the mastery of the kundalini energies cited in Indian yogic and Buddhist literature, which also explains the various superpowers that become possible with its cultivation.
Many people today want to be able to attain such supernormal skills, or they simply want to understand why and how these skills were cultivated so they might be duplicated as best possible. Some practitioners of Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing-Yi, Ba Gua Zhang, Five Animals, Aikido, Karate, Judo, Northern Shaolin, and other Kung Fu Wushu traditions have alternatively damaged their bodies from their practice, or have reached a training plateau, and want some sure methods to break their current limits and bring their martial arts skills to the next level.
This book explains the major practices on how to properly cultivate nei-gong safely to achieve all these objectives. The information provided, because of its advance nature, was usually considered the high "secrets" of martial arts lineages made available only to the top students who also practiced breathing methods and meditation. It explains how to cultivate the mythical martial arts through the initial practice of qi-gong, and then inner nei-gong exercises involving anapana, pranayama, one-pointed visualization, kasina meditations, and sexual cultivation. It provides training information applicable to Iron Palm, Iron Shirt or Dim Mak techniques, which though incredible in themselves still fall far short of the special supernormal achievements possible after a martial arts student successfully opens up their chakras and chi channels, in particular their sushumna central channel and the macrocosmic chi circulation within the body.
This is the only book in English offering detailed instructions on how to cultivate the Taoist concept of shen, which is the stage of awareness attained after cultivating your chi to a high level. For purposes of attaining inner gong-fu (kung fu), it also teaches how to cultivate the Six Yogas of Naropa and the Tibetan tantric mantras for opening up the body's central chi channel. In terms of specific long term nei-gong methods, it stresses visualization and anapana practices which are explained in conjunction with more advanced techniques for dissolving inner energy blockages.
Rather than just focusing on internal martial arts kung fu, the authors go even a step further also bring forth many rarely discussed modern training principles for peak athletic performance that can be applied to martial arts, and provide practical information on various vitamin-mineral supplements, detoxification routines, and bodywork therapies that can help heal martial arts injuries and lead to improved skills even if the nei-gong route of internal martial arts energies and gong-fu is not mastered.
This is a truly unique book, quite different than what's normally available for the martial arts tradition, because it provides full materials on topics raely covered elsewehre, and reveals not one, two or three but a plethora of inner training practices, even for qi-gong, along with what are normally considered their secret training details.
