In 1975, Peter Ralston founded Cheng Hsin, a dogma - free approach to using direct experience in body/mind training, and two years later opened The Cheng Hsin School of Internal Martial Arts and Center for Ontological Research in Oakland, California. The first non - Asian ever to win the World Championship full - contact martial arts tournament, Ralston is author of Zen Body - Being, Cheng Hsin: Principles of Effortless Power, and other books.