Tiger Crane, Taiji, and the Spiritual Path: One Martial Artist's Journey

Sifu Shkar Sharif is a martial artist from London. He teaches Tiger Crane style Gong Fu and Shuang Yang Taiji at his full-time school in Islington. Born in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. Shkar Sharif came into the world during a time of turmoil and war. Both his parents were Peshmerga fighters and political dissidents, fighting against the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. From a young age, Shkar was drawn to the spiritual and the mystical and has trained in and explored several traditions that have helped him understand what the masters of old were alluding to in their lessons. These include Sufi mysticism, Vipassana and Dzogchen meditation and several Hermetic traditions. Shkar teaches and writes about the transformational aspect of these arts, and our discussion dives deep into his lived experiences on the martial and spiritual path. 0:00 Introduction 0:55 Light body skills 3:15 Unfailing Belief 3:54 Tiger Crane and Shuang Yang 5:39 Early Life 6:40 Beginning Martial Arts 7:50 Respecting Teachers 11:07 Self-Inquiry, Reflection, Integrity 15:29 Combining Hard and Soft 17:40 San Zhan 19:55 San Zhan as Nei Gong 24:55 Make the Art Your Own 27:11 Books 28:38 Body Methods 31:16 San Zhan Training Process 34:58 What Shkar Teaches 37:49 Sufism 43:36 Sufi and Dao Cosmology 46:57 Spirituality in Martial Arts 48:49 The Heart-Mind 50:41 Self-Improvement 53:30 Spiritual Bypassing 59:45 Nei Gong, Qi, Hermetics 1:02:03 Online Learning 1:08:21 Meditation and Free Will 1:14:20 Traditional Practices 1:17:36 Distraction and Dopamine #kungfulife #podcast #kungfutraining #spirituality #podcast