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FIRE PALM I have had the good fortune to share rare types of iron palm on a semi-regular basis since 1990 with my fellow Tae Kwon Do Times readers. By now, all of you know that authentic Five Elder oral tradition places the coconut hanging in a net break as the centerpiece skill referred to as the "hidden art of kung fu" or "the most lethal non-mechanical weapon ever devised." So what about all the 'other' types of iron palm? Where do they fit in? First off, all types of iron palm, like all types of breaking (even end supports and or spacers) deserve respect. It is the same in sparring. All types of sparring deserve respect. Armchair travelers are usually the biggest critics. Most all-Korean arts are Buddhist oriented, more so than say Taoist. For this reason, I thought I would share my most expensive and rarest iron palm type called the Fire Palm. The fire palm is a relic from the past. Martial monks from the Shil lum (Cantonese for Shaolin) Temple at Fukien (home place of the five elders - where all modern Shaolin traces to) purportedly learned this technique from the "gods." One of my goals for writing for my fellow Tae Kwon Do Times readers is to save the best of the iron palm types and herbal medicines that were once known by certain Korean masters of old. There is an old saying, that even courage must be tempered with reason. Make no mistake about the purpose of sharing this article. My sole purpose is to share legendary information. The fire palm warnings that I am about to explain are for real, according to oral tradition I was given and personal experience. My students have also given me feedback. One in particular, Lohon Tommy Turcotte is a licensed Chinese doctor, accupuncturist and Tui Na expert. Redwing and Poppyseed distributors carry his tape on tui na. He assisted me on the 7 tape Panther Production Dim Mak series. Lohon Earl Cranor is the other, along with Colorado State Representative Shi Hing Hal Reichardt. My former teacher said this technique would ignite paper or any material that would burn. He did not want me to show it to anyone because of fear that they would think I was the devil, and call me evil. He warned it would scare the daylights out of people. After about six months of doing these meditations, you will feel your hand heating up. In fact, the first time you try these, your hands will heat up. This is especially accentuated by using a few drops of the dit da jow formula I will include. It is a cheap formula you can make for about $10, plus the cost of a one gallon glass open mouth container and 1.75 liters of gin or vodka. This will net you a half-gallon of dit da jow after it has aged for at least 12 weeks in a dark space. Decant and fill a 16 oz. drip spout container. Label as external dit da jow for the hands. Only a quarter teaspoon should be used at the most, to rub into the hands before the meditations begin. After the meditations, wash your hands with cold water and soap. Dry with a special towel. Do not spill on the rug or clothes. Keep away from fire, heat, pets and children. Use with your doctor's permission and discontinue if a rash develops. With jow, less is more. I only use a few drops, but rub it into the hands vigorously. According to legend and thus according to following the instructions precisely; upon maturation of these meditations, at the will of the mind, you'll be able to ignite objects. These meditations according to legend took about 10 years to accomplish, enabling one to just cause a 'spark' or ignition itself. It really depends on the person. Remember, always consult your western and eastern doctors as well as your licensed Chinese herbalist. Because of the dangers, I want to share the following procedure for historical purposes only. Because of my experience in iron palm types, I would only do these meditations occasionally, and only for 10 minutes maximum each. I would document my experiences (mental, physical and spiritual) in a logbook It is my belief that doing these without sex, certain diet, certain time, amount of time and special jows to rub, will not cause harm if done on occasion, and for 5 to 10 minutes per meditation rather than an hour per meditation. As for disturbances, again, without being eccentric, by all means try to be in a disturbance free environment. With that mentioned, let me share the real-deal strict training procedure of the past that you probably would be best not to try. Remember that you cannot be hypnotized against your own will. Do not feel the need to compromise your religious beliefs. "I am that I am" is a form of religion in itself. Be aware of how you feel and discontinue if it becomes in anyway unpleasant. These meditations must be done precisely or you will blow up and get spontaneous combustion. Your body will burn up. You must do this right. You must be in a room by yourself with the door locked. It must be insect free. While in meditation, if an insect lands on you, it could poison your chi and cause a very irreversible damage to your body. This also includes animals or other people. Because these are Buddhist meditations, the legs are usually crossed. Taoist meditations have you seated normal or standing. I mention this because traditionally level 1 would be done in cross leg position. I had Lohon Cranor do level 1 seated in a chair because for some with health problems, cross leg is uncomfortable. Earl has perfect flexibility, this was done as an example of how to modify when necessary. There really is nothing new under the sun, but we must use creativity wisely and adjust to the ever-changing customs, mores and traditions that reflect the here and now times we live in. The truth is always living, it can never be corralled into inflexible crystallized dogma. This meditation would normally not be taught out. It was valued at $15,000,000 by my former teacher. This is an original relic from the Buddhist/Shil lum Temple at Fukien, and absorbed in to my 18 Daoist Palms' iron palm curriculum. During these meditations, you are not traditionally allowed to eat meat or have sex. The reason for this was the assumption that the body would be contaminated and the results of the meditation would become unable to obtain. On this note folks, I would like to interject a 'lighter side' of all this. Good sex improves your health and eating meat is not a "moral" issue in my opinion. Nevertheless, with that said, I believe something is better than nothing. You must come to your own conclusions. To be traditional, one would not only need 2 hours a day at the same time in a closed bug free room, but also, one would be required to have no sex and eat a very simpleton (dare I say boring diet.) If I sound a bit irreverent, mainly it is humor and not wanting to take myself so serious. First off, this technique will not break the coconut on a string in mid-air, lest we have delusions of grandeur as to its fighting application in comparison. Nevertheless this "inner thermal" type of iron palm will enhance other types and improve any laying on of hands used by healers. Back to diet; Rice and soy sauce is the diet during these meditations. Soup can be made with Chinese bean cake tofu cut up in cubes and boiled with seaweed into soup. Use the broth of this to pour over the rice to eat. Chinese/Korean Bak Choy or greens, stir fried in vegetable oil with soy sauce on top of it. Create a 'mixture' of Chinese/Korean vegetables to try. All can be used in soup or stir fried, with soy sauce added. This is a full diet for these meditations; no meat! Traditionally, one would make an internal drink of Radix Astragali Membranaceus. In English we refer to this ingredient as milk vetch root, astragalus. Korean herbalists use the name hwanggi. In my former teacher's Cantonese, he refers to it as bak kay. A photo of this ingredient will be shown in the article. I would soak an ounce of the herb in a quart of Korean wine for about 3 months. A small one oz. shot would be consumed during dinnertime and only once a week! New age 'purists' may wish to make a water based herbal infusion. If this were the case, I would look into powdering the herb and using the powder to make a strong cup of hot herbal infusion. I don't like to use the word "tea" here as technically this herb is not tea. Ask your herbalist for procedures that avoid alcohol. Actually, water base is probably superior when it comes to fire palm training. Alcohol increases thermal heat in the body. Even the "Golden Lotus" dit da jow included in this article can be prepared as a water base jow, providing your herbalist is willing to work with you on this. As for an herbal infusions (tea is a drug, not an herb), any natural type will do. Ginseng is great! Remember no meat and try and avoid cheese and milk products. The fire palm also traditionally used wild mountain yam, dioscorea. The formal Pharmaceutical name is Radix Dioscoreae Oppositae. Its literal English translation is "mountain herb." Koreans refer to it as sanyak. A photo of this ingredient will also be included. Vitamin C is one of the major known ingredients. Traditionally, an ounce or two would be allowed to age as an external liniment. Rice wine, sake or Korean wine will do for an aging medium. Mix two ounces of sanyak in a quart of alcohol. Let it set in a dark space for 3 months. Use this jow of one ingredient to rub almost all over the body. Do not forget to investigate ways to make the jow water based. As mentioned earlier, alcohol raises body heat and this is a meditation that can have bad effects if the body overheats; thus my recommendation to modify the time considerably. Some would argue this would make obtaining the fire palm's ability to ignite things, unobtainable. To that I say perhaps so. Nevertheless safety is #1. In a fight of one to four moves in a dark alley, you are not going to wow your assailant by having them watch you ignite a small piece of paper, nor are they likely to stop an attack to watch you materialize your chi like a vapor leaving your hands. Again, this is with all due respect to tradition, after all, as someone who was the first person in history to document the coconut on the string break professionally (Panther Productions tape #6). I can speak from experience that the fire palm if done with your western and eastern doctors' blessing and your licensed Chinese herbalist's advice, could enhance any iron palm or healers' ability to have others 'feel' their chi. Just remember to modify the training time for the meditations to 5 or 10 minutes maximum in modern times. At least you know the "strict" rules for the traditional approach and can guide any necessary adjustments with that in mind as a pre-caution. Soaking the following ingredients in gin for 3 months can make the 'golden lotus' series iron palm external liniment jow. Only use a few drops rubbed into the hands before each of the (2) sequential meditations for level 1 and the (1) meditation for level 2. The preliminary lotus (prayer hand) stationary seated meditation should be done first before doing levels 1 - 7. This article will show the preliminary meditation (prayer hand) and subsequent levels #1 and #2. Watermelon is listed in Bensky's Materia Medica as one great ingredient to help "cool" the body. Use it in season abundantly while doing these meditations. This would apply even if you were modifying the traditional training. Even doing this training traditionally, those with heart conditions could have problems. Wherever one's system is weakest, contraindications or side effects could pop up. Be on the lookout for restlessness, anxiety, palpitation, rash, boil, nose bleed and insomnia. Mental disturbance, snappy anger or magnified thirsts were some of the warning signs to taper off or discontinue these meditations. Lohon Turcotte has done these with good results, but wanted to share precautions. Lohon Turcotte has studied with Sher Lew, Chan Poi and Dan Pai. He was licensed as a Chinese Doctor and Accupunturist in China. In 1984 he was part of one of the first martial groups to go to China. Another person who studies our iron palm was with Tommy in China, but demonstrated Tae Kwon Do. His name is Master Mel Steiner, and is a 7th dan under Grandmaster Chuck Seriff. As for myself, I want to remind you that while labor is ennobling, drudgery is benumbing. Try these for 5 to 10 minutes each for starters. If a meditation is real lineage, as these are, you should feel some heat in the hands the first time. Much research gathered from The Urantia Book and Encyclopedia Britannica, I was not able to include in this article. I will share the essence of a question posed to The Urantia Book online help team. My question was about spontaneous combustion being performed by high priests as a means of exiting the body to leave or cause death at will. This would not be the fire palms' intent, but rather a so-called side effect. Nevertheless I wanted to quote in this article other spiritual possibilities concerning the technique of spontaneous combustion at Will. With permission to quote The Urantia Book, and a special thanks to Connie Green: P.1212: "When a human being has completed the circles of cosmic achievement, and further, when the final choosing of the mortal will permits the Adjuster to complete the association of human identity with the morontial soul during evolutionary and physical life, then do such consummated liasons of soul and Adjuster go on independently to the mansion worlds, and there is issued the mandate from Uversa which provides for the immediate fusion of the Adjuster and the morontial soul. This fusion during physical life instantly consumes the material body; the human being that might witness such a spectacle would only observe the translating mortal disappear "in chariots of fire." Folks, this later reference is quoted because it appears in the Bible in the story of Enoch and Elijah. Connie went on to state " In every other reference to fusion in the book, it tells us that this occurs on the mansion worlds or possibly after. Some book readers have claimed that this is the same as spontaneous combustion, but this is highly speculative, and science does not bear this out. Just because science has not proved something does not mean it does not exist necessarily. For instance spirit has substance, even though we cannot measure it at this time in our scientific evolution. I have sent a photo of my 12-year-old AAU National Tae Kwon Do Champion in Sparring, Kimberly Williams doing some of her breaks. She has her own Tae Kwon Do instructor, and merely studies iron palm, chi kung and herbs as a supplement to her dedicated Tae Kwon Do training. Her father is a 5th dan in Judo with O'Sensei Phil Porter and a Lohon of mine who happens to be Texas State Representative of 18 Daoist Palms.
To save space, I left captions out for my level # 2. After memorizing the breath control sequence for level #2, merely follow the photos in the simplest way from photo to photo in sequential order. Take three breaths to start. Take a breath and let 90% out. Take a full breath from that point and let it all out. Take a breath and let 50% out. Take a full breath from that point and let it all out. Breathe normal and go in to the hand postures. It should take at least 3 minutes to do the moves one time all the way through. Work up to five minutes. Remember that this is the watered down version I recommend!  Phone: (619) 766 - 9256 Mew Hing Productions 42499 Old Hwy. 80 P.O. Box 427 Jacumba, CA. 91934-0427 E-mail: MewHing@earthlink.net ShaBruCha Graphics  618-529-2856 sharoney2@yahoo.com |