Every once in a while you find a high impact book. Something that awakens something deep within and lasts forever. This is the one. It is a book that you can pick up time and time again and always gets something new out of it, or something deeper than you. Cheng Hsin is the best introduction for beginners to the internal practice of fighting. It is a seminal work that draws on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Aikido, and Pa Kua Chang and was written by the first Westerner ever to win the world championship in a full-contact martial arts tournament.
"The Principles of Effortless Power is one of the most profound books ever written about the martial arts. It has completely changed my thinking about my own art, Aikido. Every time I read the book, it opens up entirely new areas of inquiry, possibility, and realization." -John Stone, Aikido in America
"What Peter Ralston does remarkably well is to clarify what the classics have been trying to tell us, and to offer concrete direction on how to continue growing and become better in the internal arts. You can't fix Cheng Hsin on the wall with a pin, because, as you try, you realize that Cheng Hsin is the wall, and the pin, and the action, and the intent." -Frank LaManna, T'ai Chin Journal
Peter Ralston was raised in Asia and began studying martial arts at the age of nine. By the age of nineteen he was a black belt in Judo and Jujitsu (Nidan), black belt in Karate (Shodan), had been Sumo champion at his high school in Japan, Judo and fencing champion at the University of California at Berkeley, and had demonstrated proficiency in Kempo, Chuan Fa, and Northern Sil Lum Kung Fu. Later he studied Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing I Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, Aikido, Japanese and Chinese fencing, and western boxing.
Every once in a while you find a high impact book. Something that awakens something deep within and lasts forever. This is the one. It is a book that you can pick up time and time again and always gets something new out of it, or something deeper than you. Cheng Hsin is the best introduction for beginners to the internal practice of fighting. It is a seminal work that draws on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Aikido, and Pa Kua Chang and was written by the first Westerner ever to win the world championship in a full-contact martial arts tournament.
Praise
"The Principles of Effortless Power is one of the most profound books ever written about the martial arts. It has completely changed my thinking about my own art, Aikido. Every time I read the book, it opens up entirely new areas of inquiry, possibility, and realization." -John Stone, Aikido in America
"What Peter Ralston does remarkably well is to clarify what the classics have been trying to tell us, and to offer concrete direction on how to continue growing and become better in the internal arts. You can't fix Cheng Hsin on the wall with a pin, because, as you try, you realize that Cheng Hsin is the wall, and the pin, and the action, and the intent." -Frank LaManna, T'ai Chin Journal
Author
Peter Ralston was raised in Asia and began studying martial arts at the age of nine. By the age of nineteen he was a black belt in Judo and Jujitsu (Nidan), black belt in Karate (Shodan), had been Sumo champion at his high school in Japan, Judo and fencing champion at the University of California at Berkeley, and had demonstrated proficiency in Kempo, Chuan Fa, and Northern Sil Lum Kung Fu. Later he studied Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing I Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, Aikido, Japanese and Chinese fencing, and western boxing.
