Shen’gong is the equivalent of once all famous Tenaga Dalam
in Malay Archipelago, but it is actually one of those folk practices mainly
brought to Hong Kong by Hakka (客家) people from mainland China. Perhaps
Kong Kong is still the main hub for Shen’gong practitioners though this art has
spread to Southeast Asia and other parts of the world amongst the Chinese generally
speaking.
According to my retired police friend, Paul who turned Shen’gong
master, the peak of Shen’gong influence was during the 50’s when almost
everyone would have a piece of Shen’gong within himself/herself. During that
time, HK economy started to take flight and rapid developments also meant that
underground businesses also flourished at the same time: prostitutions, drugs,
gambling and blackmailing. In short, Hong Kong was a place for ‘crouching tiger
and hidden dragon’ of that era. Hence many law enforcement personals would
learn one sort of Shen’gong or another mainly for additional protection. Of
course, this condition has changed nowadays.
Basically in the past, once people learnt Shen’gong; they
would keep this practice for life hence these Shen’gong old timers were able to
harness the power of Shen’gong fully for protection. Nowadays, most of Shen’gong
practitioners do not have good foundation and linkage to their spiritual
masters. So, instead of falling into real trance and protected by power of
gods; these new practitioners merely fall into their own subconscious mind. When
a person fell into his/her own autosuggestions; then his Shen’gong may or may
not work.
My pal told me many stories of old Shen’gong masters and
cautioned of the danger of simply displaying Shen’gong invulnerability for
entertainment purposes. Once Paul said a bread maker cum Shen’gong master liked
to display his invulnerability art while promoting his breads to kids. This
bread seller is an experience Shen’gong master and he would suddenly pull out
his long bread knife to slash his own tummy in front of prospective customers;
and 99% of the time he was unharmed. The only 1% of the time he failed
miserably for some reasons: during one occasion, he habitually pulled his long
knife and slashed towards his tummy; the protection failed. Almost immediately,
the master’s intestines came out from the cuts. Paul was happened to be patrolling
the area so he was able to tell this story as warning to others.
A few years ago, I went to Hong Kong to visit Paul. He
brought me to enjoy the all famous Hong Kong ‘dimsum’ (点心) in a
restaurant in Kowloon area. When we arrived at the restaurant, Master Wong was
already there with a few of his disciples. Paul introduced me to Master Wong
and as soon as we were seated, Master Wong asked one of his disciples to practically
‘eat the tea cup’ in front of me perhaps just to show off the power of his Shen’gong.
Without much hesitation, Master Wong’s disciple took up the
tea cup and started chewing it into pieces and swallowed into his stomach! Of
course, I couldn’t do the same but just to pour Master Wong a cup of tea as
sign of respect. Later, Paul told me that most of those Shen’gong masters like
to show off their powers blatantly in the public. Compared to the Hong Kong
masters, our Shen’gong masters in Malaysia prefer to stay in low profile as I
have not seen anyone ‘eating a tea cup’ impromptu without any preparations.
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