Cheng Hsin Founder - Peter Ralston
“True innovators are, by definition, ahead of their time. Therefore, they remain largely unrecognized, except by a few. How many of us wished we had met Bruce Lee, sat in a session with Carl Jung, or walked around Walden Park with Henry David Thoreau? Too late for that, but not too late to take notice of Peter Ralston. A superlative martial artist and caring teacher, his insights speak to us all.”
Dan Milman, author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior
The word master has become a cliche of the martial arts, so how should we define mastery? In his mid-teens, Peter Ralston set out on a quest for mastery, or as he might have described it at the time, to be the best fighter in the world.
Peter had grown up in Asia and started training in martial arts at nine. Returning to the USA as a teenager he became obsessed with practicing judo. With class time too short, Peter began to experiment with visualisation training outside of class. Early efforts were unsuccessful until he realised that, to be useful, his imagination had to be the same as his body’s actual movements and effects. He had to perform as poorly in his head as he did on the mat! Visualising more accurately began to pay off, first with breakthroughs in specific techniques, and then for judo as a whole. Peter got judo. He had an experience of what judo is, that it is supposed to be easy. Peter immediately began to excel, making the progress that would usually take 5 yeas in 15 months. He had powerful proof of the value of working with his mind.
Peter went on to study pretty much any martial art available to him, Japanese, Chinese or Western, excelling at them with similar speed. He was particularly influenced by the fluidity of Jing Mo Grandmaster Wong Jia Mun. Studying with Wong, Peter began to consider the possibilities of relaxed power. He began to experiment with radically relaxing his body. In a school full of Chinese Northern kung fu students, with their graceful and flamfoyant movements, the lone American throwing himself around like a jellyfish was bound to be a source of amusement, especially as results were not impressive in the beginning. But over the months sporadic successes began to build on one another until Peter identified the requirements for successful striking and throwing while remaining completely relaxed. He had discovered the foundations of effortless power.
At around the same time Peter was introduced to Zen contemplation. Within his first few months of contemplation work Peter had a powerful breakthrough into the nature of reality, an enlightenment experience. This led to more leaps in his martial ability. Peter now focussed himself more intensely on using contemplation to uncover the nature of reality, with martial arts becoming a format in which to test his breakthroughs in consciousness.
Peter spent his early 20s engaged in intense study, training physically for upwards of eight hours a day as well as contemplating deeply. He also tested himself by playing with other fighters, although his partners might not have always perceived such encounters as play. Peter was always keen to seek out good teachers but it became increasingly clear to him that no-one was approaching martial arts in the way in which he was interested.
Although relatively secluded due the intensity of his training, Peter began to attract students. In teaching others, he found that the breakthroughs that made him skilful were difficult to communicate to people who had not shared his experience. More than teaching people, he had to facilitate their own experiential breakthroughs. The teaching of Cheng Hsin was born. However, it was a very unconventional approach to teaching martial arts, and many people found it difficult to commit themselves as it did not fit their preconceptions about fighting.
To prove its efficacy, and to complete his career as a competitive fighter, Peter entered and won, the World Full-contact Tournament held in the Republic of China in 1978. During five days of fighting, he easily beat all of his opponents without anyone being able to land a solid blow on him.
With a banner saying world champion over the front door, the Cheng Hsin School of Internal Martial Arts and Center for Ontological Research flourished in Oakland, California for over 20 years, during which time Peter became known further abroad for his best-selling books, especially The Principles of Effortless Power which has been described as “one of the most profound books ever written about the martial arts.”
Today Peter has a retreat centre in Texas and teaches workshops all over the world, including New Zealand. With over 40 years of teaching experience, Peter is a highly trained and insightful facilitator who is genuinely eager for students to learn what he has to share and works hard to help them in their own journey towards Mastery.
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