Bearded Dragon

The freedom comes when you see the consequences for what they are. Then you're free to not do something or to do something and take the consequences. Do/not do, consequence/no consequence : Doesn't matter if you see.

I don't expect you to feel much after a year. Maybe 5. Just keep training.

Haha give it up. It's like driving a car. You don't think about it but awareness helps otherwise you're dead. The function of the body and brain seems to be more subconscious when you choose to let go of the thinking mind. I see no benefit worrying about the subconscious mind. The thinking mind exists as a tool. A very valid tool, but one that needs to be put in its place merely by watching it. It tends to get a bit self conscious and settles down after that. It's not separate from you but left unattended creates separation. So you could say that you're the one watching the thinking mind. But the thinking mind is still a part of you.

Whether something comes from the heart area or not the point is that if you focus on the heart area you're focusing on a thing and awareness is not a thing. It's not a thing. It's not no-thing. It's not in between. What is it?

I don't care for the politics. I only know from what I see. One of my friends was an instructor in William Cheung's lineage and looking back he considers what he did to be complete garbage. Each to their own though. I've met people from that lineage that are OK and could handle themselves against most people. The techniques I refer to in jkd is the matter of too much crosstraining. More like dabbling in muay thai, wing chun, bjj, etc. There really isn't anything other than having freedom of movement to accelerate your body mass into people. Scratching the surface is not going to cut it in that regard. If people learn internal force generation and apply it in muay thai, bjj, etc then that would be fine. I have not heard of such a jkd school, probably because Bruce Lee didn't have 'it' when he decided to stop learning wing chun.

Not quite. Turning the light around isn't about inward energy. There is no direction as such. There is no dualistic concept of inner and outer. You just maintain the awareness going about normal life. It doesn't have to be awareness of what's inside.

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.

When the "Don't give up" thought arises you know you still have work to do. It's a signpost of a buildup of tension. If you were doing the same thing without mental tension I doubt the thought would arise.

I used to read a lot of books. Trying to understand, finding good practices. It took quite a few years to have faith in just being. It's not an easy thing to accept that there is nothing to do. If you're aware of it and want to change then it will fall away in time so don't worry.

I kind of feel like that. It's like you're just waiting for things to come to you rather that reaching out for them. The effort required to reach out for things, whether it's visually looking out or whatever, is quite taxing. So the absorption is just conserving the energy that you would otherwise have spent needlessly acting.

It's a rule of society that what I paid for that exists in my house belongs to me. It's not universal truth. Immortality has nothing to do with ownership. You don't own anything nor do you not own anything. Ownership is just part of the game.

How could you be a skeptic? You let go of stuff, you relax as a result, then your body is free to work properly. It's simple. Try to clench your fist for a day and see how good you feel. I understand skepticism of the mystical stuff but that's not traditionally what meditation is about so it's not worth thinking about. The breath stuff is good to settle your mind and it helps with concentration. Initially. Then you can try and work that state into everyday life. Without that integration you're wasting your time rocking back and forth. I think that this is a good starting point.

I feel like if I can get my energy to my fists it doesn't really hurt. The left one does usually hurt but that one I can't get as much of a flow. There's so much precision in it to get it happening properly.

I know people who are christians and very high level at internal kung fu. They just dont talk about anything mystical because it really isnt anyway.

Not killer instinct. Unwavering focus and intent. The word Katsujinken comes to mind. The life saving fist. I have tried to learn a certain punch that drops people like a sack of potatoes and locks down all their muscles in a fit of pain, but it doesn't aim to damage anything. It's more like a taser than a hammer. If you're throwing a hammer you kinda have to turn the intent down. With the other techniques you can turn it up to quite a frightening level, to the point where they probably want to leave you alone anyway.

Dualism is the bane of true freedom. So much of that going on here. Should do this, shouldn't do that. How can one be free?

You can just maintain awareness. It won't take long to realize whether you have the energy to maintain it. This backward approach makes more sense because you actually understand what you're doing and why.

Some good points. Real spiritual training isn't spiritual. All we can do is let go of stuff such that we can eventually see ourselves reflected in a still mind. It's really quite ordinary.

OK. Lines 3 and 4 are a bit deeper. The first 2 lines describe suchness and receptively going along with circumstances. The last 2 explain what is actually going on. Going by the primordial state 5 element theory explained in Chang PoTang's Understanding Reality (trans. Thomas Cleary) wood is defined as essence and water as real knowledge. It states that essence produces real knowledge. "The ox crosses the wooden bridge" The wooden bridge is the mind that dwells in essence. The Unborn Buddha mind once it has seen itself. The ox is a happening that is entering and exiting the Buddha mind. This line is a marker for the stage of enlightenment or illumination. "The bridge is flowing, the water is still" This is the limit of my understanding. One can only presume that it's talking about the water (real knowledge) being immediate and hence having never moved, plus the wood (essence) being the only thing that has ever moved. The reason that I cannot say is that I have not seen essence. I can dwell in the buddha mind but that's about it in terms of experiential wisdom. Overall it kind of shows a progression. In the most basic sense you can deal with line 1 and receptiveness of an open mind. Line 2 you can add to the method and introduce suchness and going along with circumstances. Between line 2 and 3 it's "Refine the self and await the time". Riding the suchness is refining the self and walking along is awaiting the time. Line 3 you come across sudden illumination and discover the wooden bridge which is essence. Line 4 describes what is presumably pretty obvious after the fact. It's a wonderful 4 lines.

No. Profound teachings are not about all aspects. There is a certain thing these people try to get across. To bring it to the domain of bodywork is missing the point entirely. Having said that I really like working with the body and I have nothing bad to say about the benefit of the content in that regard. It's just that this poem is not about that. To not mention the crux of it is a shame. That is all. I will write a bit more later since I was asked to.

That's beautiful You're way off the mark on the description though. It's nothing to do with the body. Let's just take the first two lines which explain non-action within action. "The empty hand grasps the hoe handle" The empty hand is the state of unborn mind. The Buddha mind. Whatever you want to call it. The hoe handle is anything that exists within creation. The empty hand allows seeing potential and the grasping is matching potential. "Walking along, I ride the ox" This is stealing potential or more simply just going along. You aren't really doing anything. You're just letting things run their course while going along for the ride. These two lines alone are the essence of years of practice.

Don't try and feel chi flowing through the meridians. I somehow fluked that one time but it has never happened again in that manner. Go for more general feelings that are brought upon by the most simple thought constructs. After about 4 years I can fill up my arms pretty well. It's like a expansive feeling with a bit of a buzz. Very little happens in the arms though. This is why it's important to have a teacher. Stuff like relaxing the hips to have more chi flow into your arms is not obvious. The reason I mention the arms is because it's easiest to feel there.

A little something I wrote at the airport last week. Why seek advanced training if there are still ordinary things that still bother you that you can refine without doing anything special? ..... I used to think about the idea of traveling to China to search for some kind of spiritual training. The idea that I would somehow magically level up. Now that I'm almost en route it's proving to be the right decision but for a different reason. It became clear a while ago that it was nothing about the destination but rather the process of throwing myself into an unknown situation whereby refinement of worrying, control, and the usual comfort zone could be acted upon. The situation is the melting pot for further refinement of the self. There is no need to seek anything other than what is already being presented.

Don't know what that is. I've got another week in guangzhou and I've already done pretty much everything other than buy a good map of Western China. Would be good to find something good to keep me busy.

Not sure how to embed a gif on my phone. See attached.