A PATH OF PRACTICE, RESEARCH, AND PRESERVATION
Agniyana began with martial arts practice and grew into something much larger. I am Dustin Bunnell, a martial artist, teacher, author, and researcher with more than four decades of experience in traditional martial arts. My work brings together long-term practice with historical research, translation, publishing, and the preservation of martial arts material that might otherwise remain difficult to find or disappear entirely.
I have spent much of my life studying Kung Fu, Qigong, meditation, conditioning, and related Asian cultivation traditions. Over time, that experience also taught me the importance of questioning what we inherit. Martial arts contain remarkable knowledge, but they also contain folklore, exaggerated histories, unsupported lineages, misunderstood practices, and claims repeated for generations without examination.
That tension became central to Agniyana. I want to preserve these traditions without romanticizing them, study them without stripping away their culture, and practice them without pretending every old story must be historically true. Today, Agniyana exists at the intersection of practice and investigation: preserving rare sources, translating overlooked material, documenting martial traditions, testing claims against evidence, and keeping useful knowledge available for the people who come next.
Preserve the sources. Question the claims. Follow the evidence.
FOUR DECADES IN MARTIAL ARTS
I began martial arts training in 1984 and have spent more than four decades studying, practicing, teaching, and researching martial arts and related cultivation traditions. My training has crossed several systems, but the purpose was never to collect titles. Each art exposed me to different approaches to movement, fighting, conditioning, internal practice, and martial culture. That long experience now informs both my teaching and my research.
My formal training includes a 3rd Degree Black Belt in KI Fighting Concepts under the late Joseph Simonet, Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali under Paul Vunak, a 3rd Level Black Sash in Ip Man Wing Chun under Sam Chan, and instructor-level training in Pak Mei Kung Fu. I have also spent years studying other Chinese martial traditions, including Qigong, Taijiquan, internal training, conditioning methods, and traditional weapons.
My study has never been limited to fighting. I am certified in Therapeutic Qigong, Tai Chi 24-Form, and Tai Chi for Seniors through Dr. Aihan Kuhn, and I have studied Yin Yoga, meditation, breathwork, Chinese medical theory, and other traditional cultivation practices. These interests led me deeper into the historical and cultural questions surrounding martial arts and eventually into archival research, translation, preservation, and publishing.
TRAINING AND CERTIFICATIONS
Martial Arts
• Jeet Kune Do and Filipino Kali, Paul Vunak
• KI Fighting Concepts, 3rd Degree Black Belt, Joseph Simonet
• Wing Chun, 3rd Level Black Sash, Sam Chan
Internal and Cultivation Arts
• Therapeutic Qigong, Dr. Aihan Kuhn
• Tai Chi 24-Form and Tai Chi for Seniors, Dr. Aihan Kuhn
• Yin Yoga and Meditation, Jo Phee
Physical Training and Conditioning
• Kettlebells, steel mace, Indian clubs, calisthenics, mobility, traditional martial conditioning, and other physical culture methods
After more than forty years, I have become increasingly interested in the questions surrounding the arts themselves. Where did a system actually come from? What did earlier generations practice? What changed over time? Which stories can be documented? Which exist primarily as oral tradition? What knowledge is in danger of disappearing?
Those questions are why my work today extends beyond practice and teaching. I collect and preserve historical material, translate difficult-to-access sources, investigate martial arts history and lineage claims, and publish what I find. I still train. I still teach. But I also believe that preserving martial arts requires being willing to investigate them honestly.
What I Teach
My teaching reflects the same broad approach as my research. I study martial arts as fighting systems, methods of physical development, cultural traditions, and practices that have changed considerably as they passed between teachers, countries, and generations.
Rather than forcing everything into a single system, I teach different subjects for different purposes.
Martial Arts
My primary martial arts work includes Pak Mei Kung Fu, Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Filipino Kali, and methods drawn from my broader training. Instruction focuses on structure, movement, striking, sensitivity, partner training, forms, weapons, conditioning, and practical application.
Qigong and Internal Training
I teach Qigong, breath training, meditation, Neigong, and traditional internal practices as methods of cultivation and physical practice. I am interested in both their traditional theories and what can reasonably be understood through modern knowledge. Where traditional explanations and historical evidence differ, I try to make that distinction clear.
Traditional Conditioning and Physical Culture
Strength and conditioning have always been part of serious martial practice. My training includes calisthenics, kettlebells, steel mace, Indian clubs, mobility work, traditional body conditioning, Iron Palm methods, and other forms of martial physical culture. The goal is simple: build a body capable of performing the art.
Yoga, Meditation, and Cultivation
My broader practice also includes Yin Yoga, meditation, breathwork, and selected Buddhist, Daoist, and Indian cultivation traditions. I approach these practices as subjects worthy of both serious practice and serious study, without requiring students to accept every traditional explanation literally.
Historical Training Methods
I also preserve and study unusual training methods found in older martial arts manuals, instructional material, oral traditions, and historical sources. Some remain useful. Some need reinterpretation. Others are valuable primarily because they tell us how previous generations understood martial training. Preservation does not require pretending that every old method works exactly as advertised.
The common thread is practice. Learn what a method was intended to do. Understand where it came from when possible. Train it intelligently. Test what can be tested. Preserve what remains valuable.
Why I Teach Martial Arts Research and Training
I teach because martial arts have occupied most of my life, and I believe they remain worth preserving.
But preservation requires honesty.
After decades inside martial arts, I have seen extraordinary teachers, dedicated students, effective training methods, and traditions capable of changing people’s lives. I have also seen invented histories, exaggerated abilities, questionable health claims, manufactured titles, political feuds, and folklore presented as documented fact. Both realities belong to martial arts culture.
That experience changed the way I teach.
I do not believe respecting tradition requires accepting everything we inherit without question. A teacher can give us something valuable and still be wrong about its history. An old training method can deserve preservation without possessing supernatural powers. A form can contain important cultural and technical information without automatically producing fighting ability. Oral tradition can be worth recording without being confused with historical evidence.
My goal through Agniyana is therefore both preservation and education. I want students to experience traditional martial arts, Qigong, conditioning, meditation, weapons, and related practices while also learning how to think clearly about what they are practicing.
The same principle guides my books and research. Preserve the material. Document what people actually taught. Find the earliest sources available. Compare competing accounts. Correct mistakes when better evidence appears. And never make a tradition smaller simply because its legends turn out not to be literal history.
Traditional martial arts do not need invented histories, impossible powers, or manufactured authority to be worth practicing.
They need people willing to preserve them, practice them, and tell the truth about them.
WHERE AGNIYANA IS GOING
Agniyana is still growing. What began primarily as my martial arts practice has expanded into a long-term project involving training, research, publishing, translation, preservation, and public education.
The goal is to build a substantial resource for people interested in traditional martial arts and Asian cultivation practices. That includes structured training programs in Kung Fu, Qigong, weapons, conditioning, meditation, and related practices, alongside the historical research needed to understand where these traditions came from and how they changed.
Much of that work is already underway. I am building a growing archive of martial arts books, magazines, instructional material, photographs, videos, and historical documents. Thousands of these sources will eventually become translations, articles, books, encyclopedia entries, research projects, and educational videos.
Future Agniyana projects will include:
• Online courses and structured training programs.
• Martial arts, Qigong, conditioning, weapons, and internal training instruction.
• Translations of Chinese martial arts books, magazines, manuals, and historical documents.
• The Agniyana Chinese Martial Arts Encyclopedia.
• Books examining martial arts history, ethics, folklore, training, and culture.
• Investigations into disputed histories, teachers, lineages, methods, and claims.
• Preservation and documentation of rare martial arts material.
• Video demonstrations, historical commentary, interviews, and documentary projects.
• Eventually, expanded opportunities for in-person training, research, and cultural exchange.
Agniyana is a long-term project. I do not expect to finish it quickly. The archive alone represents years of work, and new material continues to surface. The purpose is to build something useful enough to outlast any single course, book, argument, teacher, or generation.
FOLLOW THE WORK
If traditional martial arts matter to you, whether you practice them, research them, teach them, collect their history, or simply want to understand them better, you are welcome to follow the work.
Agniyana documents both sides of the tradition: what deserves to be preserved and what deserves to be questioned.
Follow Agniyana for new research, translations, books, archival discoveries, training material, videos, and ongoing projects.
Preserve the sources. Question the claims. Follow the evidence.