Introduction To I Liq Chuan, The Martial Art of Awareness by Master Sam FS Chin

Master Sam FS Chin, worldwide chief instructor and lineage holder of the art, gives a brief introduction to some of the basic concepts like Zen mindfulness and Tai Chi principles, which form the underpinnings of the systems training methodology.
 
 
I’m Sam F. S. Chin of the first generation of I Liq Chuan. This is my family Art. My father is Chin Lik Keong. He’s from Malaysia. So this Art here, I’ve been learning from very young when I was fourteen years old, so, by the time I was twenty years old, we fought some tournaments in Malaysia. When I was thirty eight years old I moved to the United States.
 
The system of I Liq Chuan is built of three parts. The first part is of philosophy, concepts & principles. The second part is of unifying yourself. And the third part is unifying with your opponent. This whole set of systems is built up with the full set of the curriculum as done in the United States when I was in Chuang Yen Monastery in Kent, New York. Under my ten years working around the temple meeting the monks, – all different monks, that I was able to understand stand how the mind works with the body. I came to realize the bigger picture of the mind. That is, the awareness. So my system is very in depth with Zen philosophy’s & Tai Chi concepts. 
 
So, in philosophy we have six physical points, three mental factors, one feel. In six physical points we talk about how to recognize our physical body, recognizing first its relaxation. Second is center of gravity force. Third is alignment. Fourth is center of mass. Fifth is the force field of defense and offense. And the sixth is the spinning force of coordination. Now with this, we have three mental factors. The mental  factors are that we must be in the present, formless… and neutral. With this physical and mental that unify that we need to attain the feel of suchness. The feel of suchness. That means the feel as it is. That is about the Zen concepts and also the Tai Chi, – the way that it is. So in frankly speaking, with Zen concept & Tai Chi, there is nothing much to learn because it’s the way and, it’s just like this. So our training process, it is important to recognize the way how to train. So our training process is only to recognize and to realize, and not to imitate or accumulate. Now, because if you accumulate or imitate, it’s just built on other habits or  builds up all the ego that is the past, from accumulations. That is not about Zen or Tai Chi. About Zen & Tai Chi is about the moment, the process, of how you penetrate to the situation at that moment itself. So recognizing the actions and reactions, the cause and effect. – How it evolved. So it’s about the process. So in other words you can say that it is being able to change with the change.
 
So, in order to do that you see, the first thing we want to recognize is how to maintain the consciousness that you can flow & be able to recognize the moment. So it comes down to how to be mindful or aware. So this (these) are the tools, the tools that you need to look into things. So with these tools, so, we look into our body, our feeling, our mind and, the Nature. So this is the four things that we study. So we say that you must know where to study in order to win the war. So that means that if you have a sword you must know where to fight in order to win the war. Alright now. Looking into the body is about looking into our structure, our muscle, our tendons, and ligaments & then out to the skin. So structure is about the posture, the strength, that holds the body. So when this evolves into the skin it turns… the sensitivity’s pop. So in other words we say that we’ve learned the four elements, that is, the earth, water, fire and air. We 
need to recognize the inter relationship of this. And then, we need to learn the feeling. Now, the feeling, first of all we have only three kinds of feelings. You like, you don’t like, you don’t know! So recognizing this feeling then you only can go above these three feelings that (then) to recognize the feeling as such. So I say that we need the right state of mind to look into things. Right. Then, then the next part is understanding the mind. The… how the mind, the thought that, that pop up, what kind of thought is that? Alright. And also (to) understand the condition that is now. So we say that understanding the body is thru understanding the breathing. The breathing is the condition of the body. The feeling is the condition of the mind. So, so, from here we look into this kind of process of recognizing how things relate and how things effect each other. So from understanding this philosophy and concepts we have the unifying part. The unifying part we have the fifteen basic exercises. Fifteen basic exercises each exercise will teach you a feel, a feel of each exercise, that will create a… I won’t say creation, it will give you a feel that builds up a block. A block that (is) understanding the mechanisms of the body, the limits of the body. And then fifteen basics exercises, from recognizing the fifteen basic exercises we continue to do the Form. We have the Twenty One Form and Butterfly Form. The Twenty One Form is a continuation move of the balance of the body. The balance of Yin & Yang with three dimensions. Alright, and next we do the Butterfly Form so that we could be able to release power, alright? How to generate power. Then with that, then, the next step is unifying with the partner. Unifying partner, the very important things that we do – the spinning hands. we call the spinning hands that we go around, revolving around with a partner that I will show later how we spin. We have eight spins. Spinning hands is to recognize how to align the force to the point of contact. And (being) able to recognize the changing point of contact, alright. And then the next one is the sticky hands. Sticky hands we divide it into upper hand and lower hands. But sticky hands is to recognize how to control on point of contact and neutralizing on point of contact that you could off balance opponent, or attack opponent, or Chin Na as you wish. Or, you could kick or strike you see? Alright, & then, so, so from learning this we evolve another training with the Chin Na, so the Chin Na is (taught) to help to enhance on our sticky hands, or enhance in our sparring. So the last process is about the Sanda, about how to spar, how to recognize to use the exercise(s) for, for free sparring.
 
So thru our utmost of everything here practically is to recognize yourself. Is to use, how to use yourself. And an important part is that the system itself is not to build up the system, it’s a system that builds up who you are and recognizing the mental and physical, and be a better person. Thank you!