The History of the beginning…
This method is rooted in great antiquity, in those times when human life cost nothing. There was no time for sorting out relationship or for competitions. In a combat the one who had survived continued living. In those ancient times Vietnam waged constant wars with China and within Vietnam there were never ending internecine strives. It was impossible to survive being alone. That is why people lived there making big families or clans, therefore withstood continual dangers. There were certain methods of physical and psychological trainings within every family. Such a training of fighters began from the very early age. By the age of twenty a man became a perfect fighter possessing the secret technique of the Martial Arts. Those warriors alone could withstand lots of enemies. Where was the secret? In what way such warriors were trained? Vietnamese culture during many long centuries was influenced by two great civilizations – Chinese and Indian. The appearance and spreading of Chan Buddhism (Thien), the embodiment of assimilation of these two cultures, served its crucial role in the developing of Vietnamese ancient spiritual culture. Got such valuable heritage from two ancient spiritual cultures ancestors of Vietnamese were able to absorb all the best of the spiritual, medicinal and battle systems and to transform these systems constructively taking into account the national peculiar qualities of their region. Absolutely new methods were occurred as a result, methods of the developing of every aspect in human nature, starting with physiology, mentality, energy finishing by spiritual essence of the human. Tam Qui Khi-Kong is one of such methods.
Unfortunately, the name of the founder of the school was lost, the only thing remained is a legend: “Long long time ago there was a village. People in the village constantly worked to feed themselves. In those times customs were wild, there were lots of bandits who outrageously did violence to peaceful villagers. So, once some bandits came to a village. The chieftain of the gang made the villagers give him the whole harvest and the cattle. Villagers tried to stand the bandits, but the forces were unequal. The only people who survived in the whole village were an old man and a boy. The old man called up the boy and told him: “Far away in the jungles a deserted temple is. Go there, people say, this is a miraculous place, you may find the answer of how we should live now”. The boy roamed in the jungles for long while looking for the temple, used roots for food, slept on trees not to be caught by wild animals. And one day he saw that deserted temple twined around with lianas. Absolute desolation was everywhere inside the temple, it seemed that nobody had appeared here for a long time. He had to clean everything out, to rake away garbage and dust until he saw beautiful images of Arhats, majestic statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. He got carried away by the work so much that he lost count of time. Perhaps, he was dreaming but one day Arhats began to speak to him: “we know what’s happened with you. You have a kind heart, and we will help you. We’ll train you a wonderful technique of fight and teach you the method by which you will be able to touch your inner nature. This method is called Tam Qui (three jewels). Thanks to this method you’ll be able to defeat bandits and train people to protect themselves from enemies and evil spirits as well”. From that very moment every night the boy got the magical knowledge from Arhats and the whole following day carefully learnt everything by heart. After a few years he changed into a warrior with supernatural abilities. Then Arhats conveyed him the deepest essence of method: “there’s nothing much better to keep body and soul together for reaching longevity than discipline of the body. The secret of the curbing of the body is in the concentration of the energy inside Khi-hai, the place situated in the bottom of the stomach. When the vital energy condenses in this point, an elixir appears. This elixir makes the body appearance become solid and stronger and the spirit full and rich. If the spirit is full and rich the life will be long. It should be known that the elixir is placed nowhere but within your body. The most crucial thing is to make vital energy of the heart flow down into the lower part of the body in a way to fill the elixir in Khi-hai centre. Oh, Worthy Man, if you follow hard this teaching which we are giving you and never deviate from it, thus the teaching will let you keep the strength and health during all your life. And if you prove peculiar persistence you will be able to save and even increase your abilities that you have gained from us”. His strength was so great that only seeing him was enough and robbers always ran away. He lived a long life, only chosen ones he taught Tam Qui” That is the longstanding legend about the school.
The emblem of the school is a wheel with eight spokes that symbolizes eightfold path:
1. Correct understanding, views, estimation and opinions.
2. Correct aims, motives, plans, argumentation and decisions.
3. Correct using of speech.
4. Correct behavior, deeds and acts.
5. Correct attitude to the living; fulfillment of the well-defined role in life, which should be unselfish, sensitive and useful.
6. Correct efforts aimed at kind performances.
7. Correct intellectual activity: studying and teaching.
8. Correct contemplation following faithfully the fixation of the mind, the contemplation, which let intuition and insight become apparent.
In the middle of the wheel there is three unity symbolizing three treasures: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Such symbolism is typical in the whole Buddhism for every country and time. Besides, the image of this symbol can be met almost in every nation living on the Planet. Tam Qui method places high emphasis on a person invigoration as well as a battle aspect; this feature is typical for most of the Vietnamese systems. It is considered that first of all the perfect health is needed to become a magnificent warrior, and this idea is rather difficult to dispute. Strengthening of viscera, tendon-ligament apparatus and musculoskeletal system is of a great importance. The same significant importance has mental and ethical training of a student. Moral purity is the core of the successful development of a strong person.
