Formless Tao

In my opinion time is an illusion. Time is used as a tool which enables people to check point A to point B. When you keep checking the time it always seems to go so slowly. When you dont check the time it seems to go so quickly. Live in the present moment, the now... Any constructive thoughts on the above?

After watching John Chang on YouTube recently and then reading the Magus Of Java I decided to do some research about him and send sms to my Chinese Indonesian wife's family in Indo to see if they had heard of him. I received 2 replys that said they have never heard of him But I did not give up, I sent the YouTube video to one of my wife's uncle's who watched da video and sent me an sms back saying he knows John Chang but he is known by another name. Chinese Indonesians have their Indo names but also go by their Chinese names when with other Chinese. The uncle advised me that John Chang had been to his place on a number of occasions to work on my wife's Grandfather, (Kungkung) and da uncle I was in touch with. It turns out that my wife is related to John Chang by marriage and John Chang's niece staying with me in Melbourne last year and will be coming again to visit at the end of this year. I was married in Indo, lived and worked their for more than a year and I can speak Indo. As I visit Indonesia once a year and have stayed in John Chang's city on numerous occasions staying with the uncle, my next visit I will set up a consultation with the man known to the west as The Magus Of Java ; Dynamo Jack ; John Chang... BTW my mother is a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor and I have been studying Philosophy for the last 13 years. My favourite though is Taoism.

Believe what you will. Nobody is trying to change your mind, just state a fact. He is not hard to find like I said, but train with is out of the question. If what I have said does not interest you then disregard it like you never read it. In fact I'm more than happy for the moderator to delete this topic and delete my account. I haven't been on TDB as I have found my true Guru. I hope you all also find yours. I learnt alot from TDB and met some great people. TDB has served its purpose for me and now I disregard it. Peace Yogi

If we look back into history we notice that every world superpower has eventually fallen one way or the other. If history is anything to go by that means that the USA will eventually and inevitably fall as the world superpower, be it militarily, economically or socially. Decadence, greed and lawlessness are big factors in the decline of a nation/civilization. It is well known that Viet Cong General Vo Nguyen Giap successfully used Sun Tzu's ideas and tactics to defeat the French and then USA. Have the US not learned the lesson after reading the 'Art of War' not to fight too many battles over long periods of time as it weakens the economy because of the great expenses and weakens the morale. I believe we are starting to see the decline of the USA, with Sept 11, then GFC, more recently accusations from Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and now Edward Snowden. What goes up, must come down? One mans' enemy, is another mans' hero, One mans' hero is another mans' enemy, I believe turning to 'The Tao' can change things for the better, to PEACE! Any constructive thoughts on the above?

Hilary Clinton & Jeb Bush for president of the USA? I smell more wars on the horizon...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2899423/Are-electric-shocks-key-curing-paralysis-Groundbreaking-experiment-allows-man-knee-toes-time.html I have a funng feeling the doctors here watched the Ring of Fire. When watching the above like on the news the patient was able to move his toe after shock stimulation. Sound familiar? Plus the room where the patient was in had red lights/lasers/sensors all around him. And guess what they called it? The Ring of Fire... Are these Western Doctors finally opening up to Easten Chi practices by trying to replicate them in the hospital....? I only hope so Peace FT

http://apricotforesthospital.com/ uote name="Yasjua" post="593311" timestamp="1416542799"]While I was living in Portland (Oregon) and looking into attending Chinese medicine school I discovered the National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM), founded(?) by Heiner Fruehauf, a major proponent of CCM (Classical Chinese Medicine). Heiner and others at the University purport to be expounding authentic pre-Mao-Ze-Dongian Chinese medicine. Ironically, the emphatically stated differences Heiner can't help but fart into every sentence he utters, between TCM and CCM, turned me off from attending the University. I'm still curious though, as I might reconsider going to graduate school later in life - - - are the differences between TCM and CCM education in the USA significant? Any graduates or masters here to attest to the contrast? It's funny, because although I despise fundamentalism in every possible way, Heiner's words have stuck with me and kind of convinced me that TCM is a watered down allopathic counterfeit of authentic Chinese medicine. Hi Yasjua. Yes TCM is different to CCM. The person on this forum who can answer your question is Grady. We have discussed the subject previously together. Grady is a disciple of Jiang Feng. Please see some more information on their website above FT

Yasjua I can help you with advice. I had an inguinal hernia in 2005. Left and right sides of my stomach split from bad lifting due to being tired during night shift work while at Uni and also being weak from sex before work. Only the left side of my stomach came out. Surgery was completed with a long cut down my lower stomach/pubic area and it was fixed with mesh. Note that they will shave your pubic hair Touch wood I have had no issues since and the steel mesh is stronger than just sowing the stomach together, but be careful lifting heavy or akward objects for life after the operation. My suggestion is to have the operation as it hurts the nerves in that area and down the legs if you leave it. I couldn't walk for 2 weeks after the operation as I was in pain. But you get over it There are always possible complications to surgery but mine went well and my body did not reject the steel mesh. Also no long term side effects as all the doctors are doing are joining two parts of the stomach together with mesh. Good luck as it takes alot of courage to get operated down in that area but its definitely worth it from my experience. Peace FT

Yeah CT Indonesia majority Islamic, East Timor majority Catholic and as you say strong ancestoral and shamanistic roots

I agree with you CT for Cambodia, but Indonesia and East Timor this does not ring true, regarding Karma...

BKA, I believe you hit the nail on the head with your last point above. I can relate to what you are saying. Generally speaking I have found people In third world countries to be happier than in first world countries as well. I have lived and/or done some kind of work with locals in Indonesia, East Timor and Cambodia to experience this. The reason for this in my opinion is because they have less than us. In the first world countries again generally speaking, the more we have the more we want. Peace FT

Hi thelearner. I believe your question could be written like this; How does one measure success in life? For me personally I measure success in terms of happiness, love, peace and being comfortable. Peace FT

Haha, BD, I was merely stating a fact regarding the politics in both schools that I have witnessed while training in both How do you know Bruce didn't have 'Internal force generation' when he stopped training Wing Chun? What do you think the 'One inch punch' is then? I agree with you that scratching the surface/dabbling in many martial arts will not make a person as complete a fighter as a person that masters only one. But on the other side of the coin a person that can master more than one martial art will in my opinion be a more complete fighter than a person who only masters one... I see where your train of thought is coming from but you only need to look at Georges St Pierre in UFC or Bruce himself to see the benefits of mastering more than one martial art as apposed to learning Wing Chun alone

BD, I agree with you partially. JKD, MMA is great for the ring or real life street situations and yes force generation is important mixed with other key attributes. You stated that 'the JKD man couldnt use his fancy technique'. Thats funny because JKD does not have fancy techniques, as Bruce was totally against anything that didn't work. I also studied at William Cheungs Wing Chun in Melbourne who was a student of Yip Man and who also sparred and trained with Bruce in Hong Kong. I have seen both sides of the coin and honestly, there is too much politics between the Wing Chun and JKD schools. FT quote name="Bearded Dragon" post="588482" timestamp="1414379278"]I think jkd is good if you can actually generate a force. It seems like some people just keep learning more techniques to counter the fact that their force generation is poor. This just comes from the "jack of all trades, master of none" thing. Example: Someone came to our wing chun school with over 20 years jkd experience and they couldn't even use their fancy techniques cos they just kept bouncing off. Imo the mix stuff is only good for the ring or until you get really good at wing chun. To put it simply, if your internal force generation is good then you just punch someone and they drop. They can't stop it and they can't stand after taking it.

For me Bruce all the way. Tony Jaa to me is the closest I have seen to Bruce but IMO still not on the same level. Iko Uwais movies are good. Check out his first Indonesian movie 'Merantau'. The Raid and Rain II are also good. In terms of an amazing 'realistic' fight scene I cant go past Bruces' 'The Way of the Dragon' with Chuck Norris...

I forgot to mention out of all the martial arts I have studied and I have studied many, JKD to me is the most realistic, efficient and effective martial art to use in a street fight. Also check out Israeli Krav Maga which has many similarities to JKD

Hi UA, I have had the same feeling also. I have studied JKD and still practice parts of it on and off over the last 14 years. The philosophy of Bruce is something that I try and put into practice everyday of my life... Hi CT, There are many different Jun Fan JKD/JKD systems out there. I studied JKD under a Shifu in Melbourne, who learnt JKD from Paul Vunak in the states under the PFS JKD umbrella, who learnt from Dan Inosanto, who learnt directly from Bruce. This JKD I was taught is what Bruce was up to before he passed away. So, it has many martial arts combined into it. To name a few in the four fighting ranges are; Trapping range: Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Kali/Escrima, Punching Range: Western Boxing, Karate, Fencing, Kicking range: Savate, Tae Kwon Do, Grappling range: Judo and Brazilian Gracie Jiu Jitsu and others.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/george-w-bush-jeb-wants-be-president-n216791 Another Bush to run for President?.... I see war, war and more war on the horizon

V T D T I totally agree with you up to your second last line... You mean to say Non Sequitur, I disagree this thread has not become 'Non Sequitur.' http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(logic) Also, I preferred 'Eventual' over 'Inevitable' as it sounds better in the sentence iMO and 'Eventual' also means it is going to happen just like 'Inevitable' does... Peace FT

KJTR, Did you read post 28? If you didn't I'll paste part of it below for you... "If and/or when I have an update about meeting JC, I MAY post something on TTB but that wont be for quite some time..."

In the last couple of months we've had members, BlueBird, BlueFire and now BluePhoenix133 all posting on MP related topics... Coincidence or not...? Next we'll have BlueBottle Miles Per Gallon I think I smell something...

Hi Grady, Good to hear from you again. I just sent you a PM. Regards, FT

The idea of me thinking about this topic is not original. In my opinion a truly new original idea these days is very rare as I believe that most ideas that we think of today have been thought of in the past by someone else. These ideas must have an original source... For example: The chi/fire/electricity throwing characters from Mortal Kombat, Raiden, Sub Zero, Scorpion etc or Goku from Dragonball Z or Pyro I think his name was from X-Men... The idea of a chi/fire/electricity throwing individual in my opinion cant just be made up. There must be some truth behind the original idea. It must come from an original source. Any constuctive thoughts on the above....?

If Meghan teaches Yoga which I havent checked, I would say what a great way to market yourself and your services...teaching Yoga. No pants Yoga at that

I must say Meghan is very talented. I would highly recommend nude or near nude Yoga with your soulmate, partner, wife or husband etc and see how long you both can actually do Yoga for.... Great for foreplay, Enjoy...