by Huai Hsiang Wang

Traditionally, people have understood kung fu as a system of combat concerned with victory and defeat. However, this understanding arises from the conditioned state of postnatal dualistic division, where human beings, constrained by mind and sensory perception, interpret reality from a subjective standpoint. When the originally undivided state of life becomes polarized and differentiated through the activation of the senses, human beings begin to split from wholeness, creating oppositions such as “self” and “other,” “strong” and “weak,” “victory” and “defeat.” It is within this dualistic division that the acquired mind gradually forms.

As a result, people begin identifying with the body, emotions, thoughts, and personality, perceiving the world through the limitations of the senses. Over time, kung fu becomes understood as a means of gaining advantage and overpowering opponents. But this is not the true essence of kung fu. For all notions of winning and losing are built upon dualistic opposition, and dualistic opposition itself is merely the consequence of postnatal differentiation.

True kung fu is not about defeating others, but about transcending the self that constantly stands in opposition to the world. Thus, the real issue kung fu addresses is not the problem of victory over an enemy, but how one awakens from dualistic opposition itself. The external opponent is merely a mirror reflecting one’s internal state. When a person is still driven by fear, control, and the desire to win, every contact becomes confrontation. But as the inner being gradually relaxes and returns to wholeness, contact becomes a field for verifying whether awareness is genuine. Therefore, the deeper meaning of “kung fu” is: A seeker of truth. It is not merely a technical skill, but a path of continual self-exploration through direct verification and lived experience. And the “truth” referred to here is not conceptual truth, but the original and natural state of being before it becomes distorted by mind, identity, and sensory conditioning.

Thus, true kung fu is not merely the training of strength, but a form of reverse self-engineering.“Reverse” does not mean rejecting the postnatal condition. Rather, after individuality has formed, one retraces the path through which the conditioned self was constructed and returns to the source. For the postnatal condition is not wrong. It is a necessary stage in the formation of individuality. One must first form a sense of “self” before ultimately transcending it. Therefore, returning to the primordial state does not mean regressing into unconscious primitiveness, but remaining free from bondage to personality even after individuality, social conditioning, and ego structure have developed. True return is not the loss of self, but restoring the self to its proper place as a tool. This is what Daoism refers to as: Transforming the postnatal and returning to the prenatal.

Thus, the process of reverse self-engineering is: Returning from opposition to awareness, from sensation to energy, from personality to source, from fragmentation to wholeness. In practice, the body becomes the laboratory through which one observes oneself. Through introspection, awareness, and direct practice, one gradually sees and releases conditioned habits, fears, attachments, and identity structures established by the acquired mind. And the body itself is not the true self.

The body is a vehicle through which consciousness manifests through the senses, and also the temporary expression of primordial energy within space and time. Yet precisely because the body is not an obstacle, true cultivation must be completed through the body. The senses are not wrong either. They are gateways through which life contacts the world, while the mind is simply a tool for processing experience. What truly creates obscuration is not the body, senses, or mind themselves, but mistaking these tools as the self. Once identification forms, the tools begin to dominate life, trapping human beings within the state of postnatal fragmentation.

The true function of kung fu is therefore to restore the body to its place as a vehicle, the senses to their place as instruments of perception, and the mind to its place as a tool, allowing consciousness to once again become the center of life. As one genuinely relaxes, the fragmented and compressed energies within gradually reintegrate. And this “relaxation” is not merely muscular looseness, but the release of the contracted state of body and mind. It signifies the weakening of the acquired mind’s domination over the body, allowing fragmented life to return toward unity.

Therefore, the true verification of kung fu is no longer the level of strength or technical skill. The true test is: Whether, amidst contact, pressure, and change, one can remain relaxed, integrated, open, and clear without falling back into fear, tension, and opposition. Thus, true kung fu is not force opposing force, but the movement from opposition into resonance. When one remains trapped in postnatal fragmentation, contact becomes collision. But when inner integration returns, contact ceases to be confrontation and instead becomes synchronization of energy, structure, and awareness.

Higher-level kung fu is not about suppressing another person, but perceiving wholeness through contact. The external expression of skill is merely the outward manifestation of one’s inner state. What is called “accumulating gong and virtue” is also not merely moral behavior, but the gradual integration of energy and consciousness. “Gong” is continuous practice and verification. “Virtue” is not a moral image, but the natural harmony and order that emerge when life becomes synchronized with the Dao.

The Dao is the fundamental order underlying all existence. Primordial energy is the movement and manifestation of the Dao. And consciousness is the witnessing presence behind it all. Energy flows, gathers, disperses, and transforms. Consciousness simply witnesses. It does not change with emotions, does not arise or perish with personality, and is not limited by the senses. The suffering created by the acquired mind comes from mistaking sensations and personality as the self.

Kung fu is therefore a path through which one gradually withdraws identification from sensory conditioning and returns to consciousness itself. Thus, the true destination of kung fu is not attaining higher skill, nor becoming stronger than others. What it ultimately releases is the self that is constantly trying to become something. When postnatal fragmentation ceases, one no longer lives as an isolated individual, but returns to the unified flow of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity as one integrated whole.

At that point: Movement no longer arises from opposition, power no longer arises from tension, and life no longer arises from fragmentation. Kung fu then becomes the embodied path of unity between Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. This is not merely conceptual understanding, but the return to an actual state of being. And that is the true essence toward which kung fu points.