Starjumper

Some people think that if you want to become an effective martial artist quickly, tai chi and other internal arts are not for you, and if you want to learn to use tai chi as a martial arts, you'd best be prepared to devote a lot of time and focus to them. I also used to think this way, but I discovered I was wrong. I discovered this in my kung fu class, a kung fu based on tai chi, wing chun, etc, the internal martial arts. It turns out that if you just focus on the applications and forget all the forms and push hands then a good student can quickly learn some really effective stuff. Of course learning the forms does help, as does push hands, if you want to go far, but just knowing some methods can be absolutely effective. To illustrate this I'll share a story that Dave Harris told me while I was in class: A young feller was brought to class by his mom, who really wanted him to learn self defense. The kid wasn't so interested and really wanted to learn piano instead, so he dropped out after two months. My teacher referred to him as Little Sissy Boy. Well this guy was working at a fast food burger place one evening and this big African American came to the window and demanded a free burger. The kid said he couldn't do that so the black guy said he was going to return at closing time. So at closing time there were 5 - Five - (5) big black bruisers waiting for him when he came out of work and they attacked him. The result of this was that four of them went down and didn't get up for awhile, and three of them had to go to the hospital. The big tough attackers told the police that little sissy boy had attacked them, but there had been a couple of police sitting in an unmarked car there and they saw the whole thing. Dave said that Little Sissy Boy had learned well and he just accidentally did everything right. There are other reasons that traditional tai chi normally takes years to get to the defense part, if ever, and most students aren't ever going to get a chance to see the level of sophistication that Dave was teaching us.

I did once. Some guy in Vilcabamba stole my lap top computer so I chased him down and sent him to the hospital. It was at night, and someone left the front door open at the B&B where I was staying. Some young man snuck in and took my computer while I was sleeping, but I heard him, so got up and chased him. He had a bit of a head start so it took me, a 64 year old man running barefoot, four blocks to catch up to the young punk with running shoes on. Actually he was a pretty strong fellow in good condition. We were running on kind of rough, hard and rocky dirt roads so I ended up losing most of the skin on my toes, and the next day my feet felt pretty beat up. I thank my ability to run so fast, after never jogging or practicing sprinting, to my chi kung training. Normally I think of tai chi methods as ways to intercept an attack and end it in one second, but in this case I attacked him, so it was more like me just beating the hell out of him, but I did use methods which I had learned, and probably some from previous lives, because that was the only real fight I've been in. I might write more details about that later, but first I want to share a story of how tai chi was used in a fight, by a kung fu brother of sorts, when he was attacked. Next post.

It seems to me that since isolation is rather imperfect in most places, and the majority of people are not wearing their masks correctly (at least in Ecuador, and I assume in many other places), that this thing will just keep going around and around till it gets everyone. There are stories that people who have been cured still test positive and can get sick again.

@ReturnDragon You didn't answer the question I posted for you. Then I'll give you my answer, which you may think is hilarious.

If you are perfectly good, why do you need a guide to good. Guides are for those who don't know how. But ... Chuang Tzu says that "the perfect man is of pure spirit, neither death nor life concern him, nor is he interested in what is good and bad." If the sage transcends good and bad how can he be good?

No, he didn't lie. I think that picture is cool because of the way it shows energetic connection to the ground, which is how I sometimes envision energetic connection to ground in chi kung, or, better said, real nei kung, by someone with power.

What a dolt, prancing around like a horse with an overblown ego. That must be to telegraph your intentions to observant people, something you're good at anyway. A core of stupidity. How ridiculous can you get?

Come to Ecuador some day and we can share some of the nastier techniques, including power methods.

... and this is my chi kung teacher while doing spiritual chi kung

OK, this is Black Dragon, when dealing with Turd Eye, click picture to enlarge:

Something like twenty people have tried to explain that to you for maybe two years now. Even if I felt up to the task, I wouldn't be able to get er done, and I don't feel like spending an ounce of energy on it. Try a little self honesty, looking in the mirror, putting yourself in other's places. Ya, tit for tat, why do you think everyone is so insulting to you guys?

Sorry, it's a system of real nei kung which contains thousands of techniques, it requires a very good observer, in person, to notice some of those techniques, it is impossible to describe such things in words. At best it would require a lot of words, and more words count less. It would take a hundred big books, at least. Some of the methods are secret and unknown to chi kung experts, and the tradition is that the sage teaches without speaking, for very good reasons. Try to guess some of the reasons. Here is one description of my methods, but it is quite incomplete. Just ignore the fakes doing magic tricks, real nei kung masters don't do public displays. But hey, you're in luck, there are some videos of some of the beginning levels that you can watch in order to see for yourself. There is even one of a very powerful Taoist wizard doing a higher level. It was requested of me to add spoken instructions, so I did, against my better judgement. I might remove the instructions any second, so hurry. Here are the videos:

I guess he's just a little asshole who likes to stir up trouble. There's usually a WIMP shit storm here once a year anyway. What the Taoist said, pinpointed it for me. What the WIMPs say is actually a big insult to all practitioners who know what they are doing.

What Western Mo Pai guys say

I don't know about Hatha yoga, but chi kung is not so much for preparing the body to be able to sit for a long time, although that can be a side effect of being in better overall condition. The moving exercises are an addendum to meditation, they work to make your meditation more highly energized and therefore more effective. The moving exercises should get your energy buzzing well, at which point the meditations, of which there are many, which are also energy work, will yield faster results. The sitting meditation should therefore be done after the standing, moving exercises. I suggest ignoring Return Dragon, he is clueless about the breathing. Some chi kung uses some breathing, some types of chi kung don't, and yet they still generate a lot of energy. Some breathing methods, which are actually a lot more than just breathing, which are secret, do add quite a lot to energy cultivation. the kind of breathing tat Return Dragon is talking about does nothing much for energy cultivation