Notes on Practise — with Shkar Sharif

Why is it that martial arts training and spiritual practice so often lead into each other?On the surface, they seem completely opposed. One is physical, confrontational, rooted in pressure. The other is often associated with stillness, reflection, and inner work. But if you’ve spent any real time in either, you start to notice the same patterns emerging.In this episode, I explore the deeper connection between the two — not at the level of discipline or mindset, but at the level of perception, identity, and how we relate to reality itself.Martial arts training, when approached properly, exposes how you actually respond under pressure. It strips away the stories you tell about yourself and shows you what holds up when it matters. In a similar way, genuine spiritual practice works to remove distortion in how we perceive ourselves and the world.Over time, both paths begin to converge.We look at:why the body is not just expressing understanding, but is the understandinghow perception changes through trainingwhat happens to identity under pressurethe role of intent (Yi) and how it shapes the bodywhy control becomes a limitation, and responsiveness becomes the goalAt a certain point, martial arts stops being about fighting, and spiritual practice stops being about ideas. Both become ways of refining perception and removing illusion — until what remains can respond directly to reality.

In this episode of Notes on Practise, I explain how I teach Qigong and the internal arts, the influences that shaped my approach, and why I always bring the practice back to the body.I talk about the White Crane lineage methods I teach, including standing practice, moving work, body-opening exercises, purging methods, and stepping patterns. I also reflect on the different streams that have influenced my practice over the years.

In this episode of Notes on Practise, I explore the difference between what a teacher can guide and what must be discovered alone. Using the stages of Western alchemy — nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, and rubedo — we look at the process of psychological purification and preparation that many traditions describe as the outer work.Beyond this lies a deeper stage of cultivation often described as crossing the abyss, where external guidance gives way to direct experience. Western traditions speak of communion with the Holy Guardian Angel, while Daoist internal alchemy describes the emergence of the Ling Tai, the embryo of spirit.A teacher can guide the outer alchemy. The inner alchemy must ultimately unfold within the practitioner.

In this episode of Notes on Practise, I explore how traditional Kung Fu systems were actually taught — particularly in Southern China — and why training often begins with conditioning and forms rather than immediate fighting techniques.Historically, these arts were designed to develop a resilient body, structural power, and reliable skill over decades, not just short-term combat ability. Sparring and practical application were important, but they existed alongside body transformation, health cultivation, and long-term development.This episode looks at who these systems were originally for, why they evolved the way they did, and what that means for modern students trying to learn Kung Fu today.

In this episode of Notes on Practise, I reflect on walking without destination and what begins to change when attention is no longer shaped by efficiency.Drawing on decades of living in central London — and the stillness of the lockdowns — this is a meditation on drifting through a place, on memory layered into streets and buildings, and on the quiet reciprocity that can emerge when we slow down enough to listen.This isn’t a guide or a theory. It’s an invitation to move differently through the places you inhabit, and to notice what becomes available when a place is met without demand.

White Crane Kung Fu is often treated as a single, unified system. In practice, there are several distinct flavours, each emphasising different qualities — technical precision, softer internal work, or clearer links to earlier ancestor arts.In this episode, I look at White Crane as a final layer of refinement built on Taizuquan, and at San Zhan as the method that runs through both. The aim is not to define White Crane, but to clarify how its different expressions emerge from a shared foundation.These are reflections from my own training and lineage.

For the first episode, who better to sit down with than Kristina — the person who’s been in the middle of all of it with me.We talk about what it really takes to build a martial arts school. The version with empty rooms, long days, bad months, doubt, pressure, and the slow work of turning an idea into a place where people actually belong. We talk about:– how this all started– what nearly broke it– what kept it alive– the mistakes you only learn by making– why community matters more than imageIf you train, teach, build, or carry something you care about — this is for you.