Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

Most religions and philosophies teach harmony -- or, at least they pretend to teach it.

Finding your "center" is an important part of the internal arts. Some of the finest masters of Tai Chi, Bagua, and Hsing-I such as Chen Fake, Sun Lu Tang, Liu Bin and others were known not only for their martial skill, but also for their fine character. It's a trait of people who reach the highest level of the internal arts.

When you look at the people around you day-to-day, you can see that most people desperately want it--need it--and try to find it--but life's challenges, along with the attitudes of other people get in the way. Instead of balancing you, the events and news during a day can unbalance you mentally.

Look at what's happening in Washington these days. There is a complete lack of cooperation and goodwill between the two parties as the American people, other nations, and the environment are facing the most major challenges in our lifetimes. It seems that our politicians, particularly...

When Chen Xiaowang was a young man, he had game. My favorite Taiji performance of all time was a demo he did in Texas in 1988 during his first visit to the U.S. This is a demo he did three years earlier, in 1985 with the sword form.

A new friend who bought a DVD over the weekend asked a very interesting question in an email.

Can you achieve enlightenment by practicing Hsing-I?

I love the question. On one hand, I believe that if you expect to achieve enlightenment by practicing any art, you're placing too high of an expectation on that art.

On the other hand, I believe enlightenment can come at any time -- usually not when you're looking for it.

I've achieve what I thought was enlightenment by doing chi kung, particularly standing stake or the little cycle breathing exercises, sitting in a chair. A couple of times, when I did standing stake outdoors, I started by working on my posture and then I put part of my mind on my dan t'ien, while another part focused on breathing. I imagined energy coming in with the breath and collecting in the dan t'ien. From there, I imagined the energy circulating through the body.

After several minutes of this, I let my mind go and I let the sounds of the wind and the birds su...

Bagua is a fascinating martial art -- circling and changing, taking control of your opponent's center and countering.

A common movement in Bagua is sometimes called "switching," and it is part of the movement "Green Dragon Stretches its Claws."

It's an excellent fighting application for the street or even for tournament sparring.

Here's how it works: in Photo 1, the opponent's punch is met with a deflecting arm. This is easily done if you connect with your opponent and anticipate his attack.

In Photo 2, you turn the arm with the waist and with whole-body movement, starting with the ground. As you do this, your opponent's arm is flung into emptiness and often, his back is now turned.

In Photo 3, you take advantage of his vulnerability and deliver counter strikes, in this case a palm strike to the head.

Like any art, learning to use Bagua for self-defense takes a very long time. You must start with the basics and lay a good foundation by working on circle-walking, the mother p...

In 1991, I entered the Toughman Contest when I was living in Sioux City. Back then, it was all boxing, and at age 38, I was nearing the end of eligibility, so it was now or never. I entered the contest.

I was matched up against a guy who was 15 years younger, 3 or 4 inches taller, and 35 pounds heavier. In the third round, he hit me on the side of the head just right. My brain began vibrating like a tuning fork and I was numb. I covered up with my gloves and he pummeled me for a few shots. I was thinking, "This is what it's like to get knocked out in the ring. Here it comes." The first photo at left shows the punch that rang my bell (my body is hidden by the corner post but his glove is colliding with the side of my head.

Suddenly, he got tired and backed away. My head cleared instantly. I uncovered, walked a few feet across the ring and snapped his head back with a punch (the photo below shows his head snapping back). I ended up winning by unanimous decision. Physically, I had n...

I went to practice with some students last night. My breathing has gotten worse, and after doing a few movements I had to stop and catch my breath. I began to get alarmed. I got home and coughed until 1 a.m. with a feeling that there was something in my lungs I couldn't get out.

Today I badgered the pulmonologist's office for results of the PET scan and the biopsy-type scrapings that he made during the scoping procedure when he said he found a very small bloody tumor.

This evening the doctor called and said the PET scan showed no evidence of a tumor or a malignancy, and the pathology report showed no evidence of either.

Something is causing bleeding in my left lung, and when he did the scope he thought it was a small tumor. He says he was mistaken.

Thank you sir, may I have another? Sheesh!!!

To try and stop the bleeding and begin healing, I was told to stop talking (I cough a lot more when I talk), rest my body for a week, and take robitussin with codeine to calm the lungs. I'll ...

News articles have been springing up about phantom vibrations that cell phone users feel. It seems that our brains are so accustomed to anticipating a vibrating cell phone when it's being worn on our belts or in our pockets, that even when the phone isn't there, we can suddenly feel it vibrate.

Our brains learn to anticipate the vibration, and something will trigger the impulses in the brain that make you feel as if your phone is vibrating even when it's back home on the table.

When I saw this story on NBC News this weekend, I saw a parallel to the sensations that so many people say is "proof" that chi is real. They'll do chi kung exercises and they'll swear that they feel tingling or heat or all types of sensations.

I've felt the sensations, too. In fact, there's one chi kung exercise I do and I can feel a ball of energy going from my dan t'ien through my right arm, jumping across from my right hand to my left hand, then coursing through my left arm and back to my dan t'ien.

Your ...

A story is told about Albert Einstein. He had just given a test to a class of seniors, and he was walking across campus, followed closely by an assistant.

"Dr. Einstein," the assistant said, "you just gave the same test to this year's class that you gave to last year's class."

"Ya, ya," Einstein replied. "It was the same test."

"But why would you give the same test two years in a row?"

Einstein said, "Because the answers have changed."

I had to laugh when I heard this story because it sums up how I feel about the internal arts. I suppose it should be true for anyone studying any art.

Studying tai chi, hsing-i and bagua is like trying to reach the bottom of a bottomless ocean. Just as you think you've made progress, you realize that the ocean just became deeper, and in reality, you've only just begun your journey.

If someone had asked me 10 years ago how to perform "Buddha's Warrior Attendant Pounds Mortar," the second movement of many Chen tai chi forms, I would have given an a...

I spent over two decades in the news business. I started on the high school paper and then worked on my college newspaper before going into broadcasting professionally for 22 years.

When I got into my first real news job, I realized quickly how little I was told in school about how it really was -- how to see national news stories and tie them into the local impact -- how to write in an interesting way to the audience -- how to select stories based on your audience and the most important thing of all -- what does it mean to your audience?

As a young reporter, radio and TV anchor, and producer, I was rarely given any advice or input from my supervisors. I had to learn everything the hard way, and it took years for me to develop into a decent TV journalist. Since I had no mentor, I studied the best people I could see. I listened to Walter Cronkite's delivery, I studied the production techniques of cutting-edge shows (at the time) like "48 Hours." And when I worked in local newsrooms th...

Don't tell the MMA guys this, or the guys who say what you study in martial arts classes don't prepare you for "real life" violence. We don't want to disappoint them.

One of my students is a police officer. I ran into him today and he was excited about his success using Pi Chuan -- one of the five fist postures of Hsing-I Chuan -- to capture a violent man recently. I'm not including all the names, locations and dates to protect identities.

According to the officer (my student), the suspect had his fists up, daring the officer and his partner to cross the room and get him. He was ready to fight. This wasn't the first time he had been in trouble with the law. The officer took out his taser. The man laughed and said, "Go ahead and use it."

The officer loaded his stance, then suddenly exploded forward, taking ground as we had practiced so often in class, and took the suspect down with splitting palm. He told me he kept his energy down and focused on taking his opponent's ground, explodi...