<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Kuk Sool Won Eastbourne: History of Kuk Sool Won

history of kuk sool won:
1:3 The Three Kingdoms Period: 57 BCE - 668 CE

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1) Health A fundamental requirement of a Buddhist monk is to sit or kneel in meditation (usually on hard, wooden floors) for long periods of time. Inevitably, this would lead to health problems such as poor circulation, poor digestion and assimilation of food and muscular weakness. Therefore, over the centuries, the monks developed special techniques that would enable them to endure and recover from these gruelling meditative practices and to become stronger and healthier generally. Among these special techniques were WHAL BUB, or external healing techniques such as acupressure, acupuncture and bone setting (chiropractic/osteopathy), and HYUL BUB, or internal healing such as blood circulation stimulation techniques, deep abdominal KI (universal life-force) breathing techniques, herbal medicines and dietary considerations. As the monks developed and used these special techniques, they became increasingly stronger and were able to achieve harmony between NAE GONG (mental, or inner power technique) and WAE GONG (physical, or outer power technique).	Figure 10: Buddhist Meditation
2) Personal Safety Another characteristic of the Buddhist faith is begging for alms, which is often undertaken by novice monks. This entails travelling within the local community to call upon individual houses to pray for happiness and prosperity and in turn to receive a donation of food. Even this simple exercise could prove dangerous in those ancient times, as thieves and bandits did not always discriminate between people from the religious and secular world!
On other occasions, these men of peace would travel from one temple to another, often carrying valuable scriptures engraved on gold leaf. Again, they were very vulnerable to attack from opportunist thieves and bandits. Therefore, some form of self-defence was considered necessary to enable the monks to survive that relatively hostile world. However, although they did not want to be harmed personally, they also did not want to cause harm to anyone else - not even an attacker! Thus, they worked out a skilful and scientific system of self-defence. Not only did the system employ a minimum amount of force necessary to subdue an attacker, it also provided the monks with the required anatomical knowledge and skill to help them heal any injuries they necessarily or inadvertently caused the aggressor/s in the process of defending themselves. A humanitarian outlook such as this can surely only be found in the highest ideals of the human spirit.

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