I'm addicted to the martial arts. I've studied Southern Shaolin and Northern Shaolin and Wing Chun and Tai Chi and Pa Kua and...I can't stop. This is not bad, of course, for the health benefits and the clarity of mind are absolutely phenomenal. There is one problem, however, that I wish to address here, concerning the martial arts.
It can take several years to become expert in a system of Gung Fu. It can take more than a dozen years to master a system of Gung Fu. This is much, much too long.
My solution to this problem was to isolate the main concept--and motion--behind a system of kung fu, and concentrate upon just that concept. I didn't want to train by memorizing tricks, you see, I wanted to go for the gold. I wanted to find out what secret was behind any system I studied.
Every system I studied, however, was based on a different concept. Wing Chun slipped and angled , and the Mantis pulled with a hook. Pa kua made circles and deflected, and Tai Chi guided by absorbing.
None of the systems I was studying seemed related! But, I knew, fighting is, at the heart of it all, fighting! There had to be a simple and obvious concept that tied them all together.
There had to be some simple concept that was common to every system of Gung Fu, no matter how different the system seemed to be! There had to be an underlying principle or concept that I wasn't seeing. Eventually, I found the concept.
No matter what type of Kung Fu you are studying, the body is the common denominator. Kung fu, flower arranging, dance, taking a walk...they all need a body. And the body is constructed the same, for the most part, from person to person.
Thus, I dissected and analyzed all the arts, and found that there is a principle of body motion, relating to and coming from the body, that is the same for virtually all arts. And the arts I was studying suddenly made sense, and I could see the connections. I had found the source of it all!
Eventually, I formed my own system, and it is based on this common principle of body structure, and the only potentials of motion that a body is capable of. I call this system the Shaolin Butterfly, and the true glory of it is that is includes virtually all potentials of motion from all other systems of Kung Fu. Oh, and one other thing about this system that is great--it can be learned in a couple of months.