The Kung Fu Way

By Scott Ripke

When people ask me what I teach in my school I tell them the styles; Long Fist, Praying Mantis, TaiChi. More importantly, I teach using Six Harmonies principles and methods. Paul Eng, one of my first teachers, has poetry related to this on the back cover of one of his books. It is reprinted here as an example of one way this idea has been transmitted from generation to generation.

Heaven has three things of importance;

Sun, Moon, Stars.

Earth has three things of importance;

Fire, Water, Wind.

Man has three things of importance;

Energy, Chi, Spirit.

Through out history, no true martial artist has missed these three steps:

To train energy until it melts into chi;

To train chi until it melts into spirit.

This is the Kung-Fu way.

The purpose of Six Harmonies is to establish the conditions needed for conscious movement. In order to understand what those conditions are we need to understand what is required to function harmoniously.

There are physical (external) and energetic (internal) aspects. The three internal aspects of the Six Harmonies are: Essences or Jing, refers to the ‘energy’ we given at birth, Air/Breath or Chi, refers to our birth energy that we have cultivated through intention and Spirit or Shen, is Chi that is refined or streamlined towards a specific point. This can mean to generate a great deal of force for an important task that can be physical nature or it can be directed towards a higher spiritual awakening.

These internal aspects are directly related to the physical body. The body is the vehicle by which these energies are cultivated. These subtle and dynamic forces assist in the health and transformation of the physical body. There are various methods used to explain the working dynamics between the physical and internal relationship. When explaining the three external portions of the six harmonies it is important to make a distinct connection to the three internal.

The three external aspects of Six Harmonies are: Hands or ‘Shou’, the first physical appendages that we use to make sense of our environment. What we grasp with the hands are things we want to understand, the same way a young child constantly grabs at any available object. For this reason the hands are related to the essences. Eyes or ‘Yan’, constitute the conceptual vision of the environment we inhabit. We touch something and we develop a picture of it. We become attracted to the things we touch. This attraction leads our awareness towards the substance of our experience. To transform essences into chi one needs a clear conceptual understanding before an intention can be established. The eyes lead to the intention of ones’ desire.

That intention leads the chi. Therefore the eyes and the chi are connected. Body ot ‘Shen’‘, is the last because once the hands and eyes become active the body will follow. In this way the spirit and the body are together. The idea of Six Harmonies is a tool for how we approach our daily affairs. It can be used by anyone with a little guidance from a competent practitioner.