A BRIEF HISTORY OF KUNG FU YOGA

Yoga has captured the attention of the West as the latest fashion. Celebrities such as Sting, Woody Harrelson and the Grateful Dead have made it part of their practice. Even Madonna attitributes her latest incarnation (albeit sacrilegiously) to yoga. And just as the aerobics craze found new life by fusing with martial arts and jazz dance, martial arts have also begun making some similar trendy fusions to yoga. Not only are many martial artists practising Yoga as cross training, new hybrids are being born out of the imaginations of both savvy salespeople and sloppy translators. Taoist Yoga, even Shaolin Yoga, have begun to emerge as the new thing on the health scene and in the martial circles.

But what is Yoga exactly and how does it relate to martial arts? Most Westerners only think of Yoga as extreme contortionist-like stretching. In truth, it is a much more profound discipline than most of those fad followers believe. Yoga is a time- honoured method of self-realisation than may even be the very root of martial arts.

The word 'Yoga' comes from the same root as the word 'yoke' and it is documented as early as 2000 BCE. What most people envision to be Yoga, those contortionist postures, is really only one small aspect of a much larger field of practises. Those postures are called 'Asana' which translates as 'seat'. According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the fundamental text of Yoga by the 'father' of Yoga, Asana is the third 'limb' of an eightfold path known as 'Ashtanga'. The other seven limbs are Yama (observance of morals), Niyama (self-restraint), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (sense inhibition), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (ecstasy). Beyond this, there are many other forms of Yoga, such as Karma Yoga, which is sort of like a discipline devoted to doing good deeds. Essentially, Yoga embodies a wide variety of disciplines that are vehicles for spiritual transformation. Generalizing Yoga to Asana alone is just as shallow as generalizing all martial arts to breaking boards alone. However this generalization persists in the West for the same reason breaking boards persists- it is a spectacular media image of these ancient arts.

This misconception muddles the creation myths of our own beloved martial arts. According to popular legend, Bodhidharma brought the direct lineage of Buddhism to China from India in 526 BCE. He arrived at Shaolin Temple in Henan, and founded Shaolin Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism (known as Chan in Chinese). This is the most common creation myth in martial arts, since Shaolin Kung Fu is also the root of many Japanese and Korean styles. Only three forms comprised Bodhidharma's Shaolin Kung Fu: muscle tendon change (Yijinging), bone marrow washing (Xisuijing) and the 18 Arhats palm (Luohanshibazhang). Only the third form was martial; the first two were Qigong forms. Since Bodhidharma was Indian, many sources postulate that he based his Shaolin Kung Fu upon Yoga. The postures of Yoga Asana do bear a striking resemblance to postures of Qigong, so much so, that one cannot help but wonder. Was there a connection between Yoga and Kung Fu?

The answer is very confusing. As previously mentioned, Yoga Asana, is only one aspect of Yoga. Many martial scholars make the common mistake of inferring Bodhidharma's teachings were based on Yoga because Yoga Asana resembles Qigong. This is a little misleading. Some Yoga scholars do not believe than many Asana (at least those postures that resemble Qigong) were even around at the time of Bodhidharma. The only Asana that can be confirmed archeologically is padmasana, or 'seated lotus' position. This pose is fundamental in many meditation practices. I   Indeed, Bodhidharma was most famous for his practice of sitting meditation. According to legend he sat mediating on a rock for nine years. Sitting meditation is the cornerstone of his innovation of Buddhism, Zen. In fact, he invented Shaolin Kung Fu because he felt that the monks of Shaolin who were too weak to endure the hardships of prolonged meditation. So if lotus was the only asana of Bodidharma's time and if he did incorporate it into his new Kung Fu practice, it might be said that Shaolin Kung Fu was based on Yoga Asana. This is still based on a lot of assumptions, but at least the terminology is more accurate.

A more intriguing theory is that Bodhidharma based Shaolin Kung Fu Pranayama. Pranayama is the fourth limb of Patanjali's Astrana Yoga. Like Qigong, Pranayama refers to the exercises that cultivate the life force that resides in the breath. This concept alienates most Western post-Descartean thinkers; our worldview separates mind and body. A life force that resides in the breath has no place here. Breath is body and life force is mind. The idea of something that is both upsets our dominant paradigm. However, the ancient Greeks had shared this breath life-force philosophy of the Indians and the Chinese. They called it Pneuma. This is the same root word from where we get 'pneumonia'. Language fossils of this idea are more evident from the Latin root word 'spirare'. This is where we get the words 'spirit' and 'respiration'. The link between breath and life force is clearly seen in words like 'inspiration', 'expiration,' and 'aspiration'. More subtle examples exists in terms like' conspiracy', which can be interpreted as both 'to breathe together' as well as 'to share the same spirit.' By embracing these ancient philosophies, mind and body can be reunited and Qi (or Prana or Pneuma) becomes more comprehensible.

Ironically, some translators have choosen to call Qigong 'Taoist Yoga'. English has its limitations. We have no words for Qigong or Yoga in English. The advantage of English is that we can just adopt these words from their original language. While 'Taoist Yoga' might appeal to some new age marketers, it is kind of like calling instant ramen noodles – 'Buddhist spaghetti'. It is confusing enough without scrambling terms.

Qigong in China predates Bohidharma by several centuries. Even if he added Yoga Pranayama to his two forms of Qigong, the results are undistinguishable. While Bohidharma's Qigong methods are elegant, Qigong has long standing precedents that surpass his contributions. So if neither the physical poses of Asana, nor the breath control method of Pranayama which contribute to the movements of Bodhidharma's Qigong, can we still say that Kung Fu find its roots in Yoga?

The answer lies in the seventh limb of Patanjali's eightfold path- Dhyana (meditation). Both of the terms Zen (short for Zenna) and Chan (short for Channa) were phonetic translations of the Dhyana. This was the soul of Bodhidharma's contributions. He infused mediation into martial practice. Common sense, backed with archaeological evidence, clearly show that martial practices existed in China previous to Bohidharma.  So why is Bohidharma even credited as the founder of Kung Fu? It was his introduction of meditation to martial arts that revealed the heart of Yoga spiritual transformation.

Bohidharma elevated martial skills into a vehicle for spiritual transformation. He put the 'art' into martial arts. On this level, martial arts became just as B.K.S. Iyengar says, 'It is like Yoga'. Before Bohidharma, martial arts were just a means of self-defence. Today, in his wake, it can become a method of self-realization.

Today, it is easy to loose sight of the spiritual, especially in the martial arts. Each day brings another deluge of information overload, stressing our attention to its breaking point, and jamming our ability to focus on the clear pursuit of the way. We get defensive. We forget Bodidharma's teachings. Right now, many new practitioners completely disregard any notion of spirituality.

Eager to ride the coattails of the latest fashion trends, Kung Fu and Yoga have become strange bedfellows in today's health clubs. It is a strange twist, perhaps another repercussion of our mind-body worldview, which has placed these two venerated vehicles for spiritual transformation in our gymnasiums of physical transformation. From out of China's Wushu Guan and India's Yoga Ashrams and into our American strip malls, Kung Fu and Yoga have come along way. Gone are the shimmering silks and diaphanous cottons of the masters of old. Now it's all spandex and logos. No more burning incense to honour our ancestors Bohidharma and Patanjali. In fact, a few health club practitioners even know who these seminal figures are.  Instead it is the latest exercise machines and boom boxes.

The health clubs tend to greatly simplify the disciplines to give them the wildest appeal. Yoga is often reduced to the Asana alone just as martial arts are often reduced to only aerobic kicking and punching. The deeper meanings beneath the underlying      philosophies are usually lost. While many of today's instructors struggle to maintain an air of tradition in their health club classrooms, the main marketing motivation for many of those clubs is the vain pursuit of a tighter butt. While this might be a supplementary bonus, imagine Bodhidharma's reaction.

This is most evident in cross training. Yoga is said to compliment martial arts and vice versa. In actuality, both Yoga and martial arts are complete systems. Study either one thoroughly and there is no need of anything else.

The concept of complimentary training implies that there is a deficit. But after a thousands of years of research and development, neither Yoga nor Kung Fu has any gaps to be filled. Both disciplines offer a fulfilling lifetime quest; all that need be done is that you pursue it for a lifetime. It is only our MTV- driven attention span that makes us move to the next thing before truly engaging the previous one.

There have been some hybrids of Kung Fu and Yoga like 'Shaolin Yoga' designed to catch our attention with the promise of filling the two 'needs' at once. For the most part, these mongrel schools are really marketing ploys, not actual innovation. Both Kung Fu and Yoga are challenging enough on their own. There is no need to compound the issue. As a matter of fact, there is already an Eastern fusion of Yoga to martial arts that completely omits Bodhidharma. The modern Indian mater Chanreshekhar Bhatt  is an exponent of a hybrid of martial arts and Yoga known as Vajramukti. He has had enough of a following to publish books, but you would have to go all the way to Bombay to train with him.

Despite these criticisms, this new popularity actually reflects positively upon both disciplines, because now they are available to a greater population. While health clubs are far from ideal settings to study either Kung Fu or Yoga, they are better than not studying at all. And many of those new converts may eventually seek to fill the spiritual vacuum by pursuing the arts on a deeper level. The next generation of traditional practitioners may claim the health clubs their first stepping stone. We must all begin somewhere. When the fads die down, a fraction of those followers will undoubtedly remain to join our martial community more seriously.

Growth, expansion, empowerment- we are all seeking some sort of transformation. Whether it is the elusive feeling of security of crime ridden streets, or the shedding of a few unwanted pounds, or even the pursuit of spiritual ecstasy, we are all on our own personal quest. We choose the ancient paths as a means of transportation to these transformations. And yet, these ancient paths are modern incarnations that must grapple with modern misperceptions.

Martial arts are built on the insecurity and paranoia of violence. We can easily slide into a combat mode; after all, it is hard to be spiritual when someone is kicking you in the head. But that spiritual aspect remains for those who wish to pursue it. Yoga is unencumbered with the burden of violence, so its means of spiritual transformation are more readily apparent. While it suffers from modern misperceptions too, they are not as pronounced as ours are. Almost 15 centuries ago, Yoga offered the martial arts to self-realization. The door is still open, but leave your boom box behind.