Oneironaut

How does the kunlun method approach fusion of the five elements (if at all)? I'm referring specifically to the part of condensing all the vital organs energies into the pearl of consciousness and then shooting it out through the thrusting channel. This can be practiced over and over to learn to become conscious during the state of death. If kunlun doesn't teach this can I take this element of the healing Tao system and apply it to kunlun? I ask because I'm trying to be safe and not mess myself up energetically. If I'm not mistaken the above is called creating the indestructible body of light. It's how you move consciousness outside the body. Does kunlun even make use of different colored pearls within its practices?

Coming from the guy with 4th grade grammar and even worse in the reading comprehension department. If I’m disabled and I can make a far more reasonable argument (and I have) then what does that make you? Really something for you to think about... That’s called censorship. Unfortunately it’s not equally applied. Can’t expect anything less from poor moderation.

You keep telling yourself that. Whatever you need to tell yourself that prevents you from staying up at night.

And I stand by it 100% though it’s obviously not everyone but it’s enough to be a cause for concern. Wrong! Its because of group think among people who prefer to believe in martial fairy tales and anyone challenging those dreams is made out to be a threat. Please clarify If that were the case I wouldn’t be criticizing certain “martial” arts. Thats called a McDojo. There’s nothing to comprehend on your end. It’s just you making a pointless argument over a basic TMA drill. A former TMA drill that WILL be adapted to suit a dynamic situation. You were supposed to be the “expert” at this but here I am explaining it to you. In fact I’ve already explained it to you ages ago and you’re still bitching. Maybe if you’d quit hitting the crack pipe things might be a little bit more understandable for you. You need to pay attention to your grammar. Did you pass the fourth grade? Heres what though... “Many martial artists realise that a formal practice will be adapted in a dynamic situation , but it seems you are not one of them .” Does that sound familiar to you? You project it onto others but fail to apply this to yourself There are many things you fail to see. Let’s start with the statement below: “Many martial artists realise that a formal practice will be adapted in a dynamic situation , but it seems you are not one of them .” Initially I said grabbing and pulling while blocking to off balance the attacker. You can set many things up here. If you have a free hand that isn’t blocking and can grab/pull the attacker towards you then you can apply tsuki if circumstances permit it. I remember saying that also. Remember: Many martial artists realise that a formal practice will be adapted in a dynamic situation , but it seems you are not one of them . Seems you failed to get this: Many martial artists realise that a formal practice will be adapted in a dynamic situation , but it seems you are not one of them . Wait! Are you saying that these karate guys should also drop kata? The same block/chamber, punch/chamber sequence is repeated throughout many kata. Okinawan style karate has them in kata and we practiced them in Taekwondo as well. Are you saying that maybe they need to reduce them or get rid of it altogether? Perhaps even “modernize” karate a little bit more? Just the ones engaged in the group think. Group think isn’t good for you and it shows. I think we established that multiple times unless you’re still hitting that crack pipe. Pay a little bit more attention. Your definition of “modern karate” is 50 to 100 years behind and traditional style karate is no longer (for the most part) applicable in today’s world. Karate (some styles) have evolved and hopefully it will continue to. Get with the program. I’m sure the moon could give less of a flying f***. Don’t try gas lighting and pinning this onto me. You’re the one here spreading misinformation. The ones who are more rational and realistic in approach can figure out their own solution. They don’t need anyone on the internet (especially YOU out of all people) to give them any kind of “help”. Anyone with some sense can see right through your garbage.

Yes! Most MMA guys have horribly sloppy boxing and Muay Thai but in all fairness they aren’t strikers. They’re grapplers that picked up some striking. Very unrefined and ugly striking but the grappling element adds a new dimension of things to really worry about. The ones who have a strong or primary striking background do have technique that’s beautiful to look at and is reminiscent of their art however being beautiful doesn’t always win fights.

That’s an unwarranted assumption on your behalf. I’m aware of weapons training being a form of martial art. No one ever said that it isn’t. I will say that learning fencing is very impractical in modern times. Not only that but you can’t master it all. You can’t decide to be a fencer today, a kick boxer tomorrow and then a wrestler by Monday. Thats trying to learn everything and in the end you will have learned nothing. Yes it is. It’s a large element that determines its overall effectiveness. The other part is effective technique which is typically forged under pressure testing conditions. How else will you know if something works? Read above. Fixed. This is generally true but it can’t be equally applied to everything. Some martial arts work. Others don’t. And don’t expect Wing Chun to go anywhere even under a competitive format. There’s a reason why Bruce Lee (who wasn’t even much of a competitor by the way) dropped the majority of what he learned in Wing Chun and took up boxing, savate and wrestling instead. The whole “it’s not the art but the fighter” thing has been beaten to death. No two arts are created equal. You need to realize the errors of your argument when you try to put all martial arts on equal footing. It’s far more complicated than what you’re making it out to be. There’s many different martial arts yet so few of them work under fight situations. I’ve already addressed that pages earlier. Some of them. Not all of them. I think I also pointed this out. I guess we can call weight lifting, body weight exercises and cardio training a martial art since being in more athletic condition does give one a significant advantage in a confrontation against untrained adversaries. How is it a straw man view when we can find mountains of evidence to back up what I’m saying? Saying that those weren’t legitimate masters is a no true Scotsman fallacy. Why hasn’t there been any “legitimate kung fu masters” that descended from some mountain and taught these MMA guys a lesson? Is their kung fu too deadly for the streets? In their defense however I have seen a few Sanda guys do okay in professional MMA so there could be some potential.

You mean the noisy element of your cognitive dissonance? Everything doesn’t always have to be reduced to cage fighting. For the past few decades it’s been a litmus test to weed out the garbage. Are you saying that MMA and boxing isn’t real violence? So you’re one of those guys. Your martial art is too dangerous for the cage or the ring and all that other weak stuff. I hope you realize that anything a trained cage fighter can do in a cage, under a specific ruleset, he will be able to do even better against multiple assailants in the streets. Their best bet would be to bring weapons. To a degree. Let’s not be dishonest by exaggerating these differences.

You can't classify it as a "martial" art if it's unproven to work. It may be an art but there isn't any thing particularly "martial" about it. I'm not the biggest proponent of cage fighting but in the earlier days we got a good idea of what works in a live combat scenario and what doesn't. This kalaripyattu stuff can be thrown in the same bin as the other "martial" arts that don't work. "It's not the style but the fighter" while true, cannot be liberally applied across all styles. If the "martial" art doesn't work then it doesn't work. Period. This is a clear admission of it's ineffectiveness in unarmed combat. Take it out with the fencers. How poetic. You hanging by your own rope of false wisdom and pseudo enlightenment. You won't be "hanging out" by yourself for too long. Ngali may be your ideal companion.

He has no argument. My "style" of argument is nothing fancy. Just be honest and straight forward. Say it like it is which is obviously very unpopular here.

I thought this was already answered ages ago. STOP! The world is a better place without any of your "explanations"

The answer to that is rather straight forward. It's because they're stupid hence their career choice. They don't ALL fall under this camp (there are exceptions) but so many do. Part of this could also be a result of CTE. Now combine that with a really bad ego and you have a recipe for disaster. It's about finding balance. You need a martial art that actually works in practice but also one that won't encourage you to destroy your mind, body and cultivate a cave man mentality. The martial arts world is very polarized. On one end you have those who promote arts that are really just that. ART. Nothing martial about them and they could only give one a false sense of confidence and possibly get one hurt. On the other end you have martial arts such as boxing that creates phenomenal fighters but this acquisition of martial ability comes at the expense of your health. There is no balance here. And that's the issue. YOU explaining things. For 50 years in the martial arts you're really bad at explanations. Anybody could go and make a video and extrapolate some sort of squatting posture as a horse stance. American football players get into a "horse stance". Wrestlers get into a "horse stance". Where is the martial practicality in using a static horse stance (the same horse stance used in martial arts drills) in a dynamic fight? Refrain from pointing to that ridiculous video. It hasn't and won't prove you correct on anything. You're speaking about beginners techniques and making all this mention about how it likely wouldn't work in real life scenarios (and I'm in agreement with you). Your 50 years of martial arts experience forgot to remind you that there are variations and more dynamic uses of these exact same drills and techniques. Do I have to remind you that you'll see this at higher levels? Unlike you I wasn't "assuming" that this is all there is to that drill when it comes to the chambered hand. Even if the most instinctive reaction for someone would be a punch under these circumstances are you trying to tell me that traditional martial artists are so stupid that they can't pick up on nuances, make even the slightest modifications to their guard, their footwork, their blocks, parries, angling, their body positioning so that they can hit and not be hit under similar or even varying attacks? I don't know what answers YOU are looking for (answers that you obviously don't have yourself) but for me hikite is very simple. Grab/pull for off balancing an adversary. In the beginning levels of taekwondo we practiced all these combat forms (YES! They use the word "combat") and all these different drills and repeated them until we were bored to tears. It was the high level instructors that brought these things to life including the drill that you've obviously figured out. While the karate/taekwondo ways of this specific drill may be effective at higher levels I think there are more immediate ways of achieving the same end goal of neutralizing that situation. For the reasons stated above. I never claimed nor believed at any point to have it "all figured out". That's your argument based on your crazy assumptions and false generations that others in here obviously share with you. There is no diversion. I gave you a clear and direct answer. You didn't like the answer and invented things about me diverting the topic. Please refer us back to where I said that the Americans did not invade Okinawa. You accuse others of paraphrasing, purposely misunderstanding or mis-wording you but it's obvious that you're just projecting your own faults onto others. I don't need to rip any pages out of your book. I'd rather just be straight forward and honest. Save it. I think I've had enough with your "explanations". It's not conducive to anything of value.

Chip on my shoulder? Yeah sure. It's become rather obvious that your newfound clarity is neither true nor reliable. I can ask you if you're trying to convince me, yourself (or others) but I'm not expecting an honest answer out of you. It's become obvious that it's something you have keep telling yourself so you can sleep better at night. As I said earlier. Take your best "fighters" from kalaripayattu and bring them into a kick boxing gym. See where that goes....

I want to explore this yoga nidra technology a bit further. I think the Tibetan form of this practice is called luminosity yoga but I can’t find any information on it. I’m mainly looking for a script that helps with insomnia and trains one to cultivate the mind awake/body asleep state. Does anyone practice yoga nidra? If so then what are your favorite scripts and what are your experiences with it?

I’m still trying to get a handle on this... Correct me if I’m wrong but it appears that Buddhism works more on the psychological level but Taoism seems to go past that and work with things on the energetic level. At least as a general rule with a few minor exceptions here and there. For example, the Tibetan dream yogas have a strong foundation on psychological work ranging from consistently conditioning the mind to see all of life as a dream, to setting mental intentions during specific times in a full wake cycle to remembering nightly dreams and setting up broken sleep rhythms to better the chances of becoming consciously aware in the dream state. The main induction technique is visualizing a lotus in the throat chakra (and some work with Lung/Prana). For me this is a very “fire” practice and it has a clear, structured, step by step framework on which one could work with. I’m finding it’s similar in yoga nidra where there’s a lot of passivity and “hand-holding” and you’re guided towards a mind-awake/body asleep state. I’ve been told that the training wheels come off once the person familiarizes themselves with their biology as they’re falling asleep. With Taoism on the other hand all the techniques for yogic sleep and conscious dreaming are purely based on energy work. If you have no energy sensitivity you can forget all about this. Another example is in Theravada Buddhism where anapanasati is more formulaic and logically laid out for you but in rinzai Zen I don’t think you’re expected to progress in any particular order in regards to the four tetrads. Zen as a whole is more of a method-less method when it comes to its teachings and doesn’t believe in having to explain things. For some odd reason this reminds me of classical music where one is expected to play everything perfectly off of sheet music whereas in jazz there’s more emphasis placed on ear training and improvisation. I’m sure there are many other examples but would I be correct in coming to this conclusion?

Pretty much what the person in the link below is stating. https://www.learnjikidenreiki.com/post/a-question-of-reiju-attunements You described me in a single sentence. I hear reiki teachers (from authentic lineages) say "you are the great bright light" or something along those lines. I guess this is what they're referring to. https://ihreiki.com/blog/the_great_bright_light/?v=7516fd43adaa What is your opinion on healing systems that cater to absolute beginners? The bolded parts in the quoted text below also makes me very interested in what might be possible later down the road if I decide to work with other systems. gestating the ‘Spiritual Embryo (ling-tai) of immortality, attaining the enlightened state of mind and achieving the body of pure light known as the ‘Rainbow Body,’ Source: https://ihreiki.com/blog/tribute_to_li_ying_my_taoist_teacher/?v=7516fd43adaa Good point. There are two systems that I'm very interested in (one is mentioned above) but I'm also hoping that they can be combined into one at a later more advanced stage in this journey. At least the reiki system I like is very light and "minimalistic". Since the reiki energy comes from the heavens and downward I guess it's a "water path" too even though it's more rooted in Japanese tantric Buddhism.. I'm not sure. I'll just start practicing again and see where this takes me.

I haven't stepped foot into a dojang in decades. Don't plan on it either. Haven't done boxing since COVID hit and I haven't done judo in several years and I miss it a ton. I want to go back into both but we'll see if this pandemic will finally start to die out a little bit.

It's not that it seems that way. It's that it IS that way. I'm just calling it what it is. You were the one making assumptions. You needed to be corrected and received a response. All heart and no skills will get you knocked out. Why waste a a natural fighter and confine him to something that doesn't work (kalaripayattu)? I have yet to see functional aikido. Some people mention "pre-war aikido" and how it was very effective but I have my doubts. The aikido I've seen is really flowery and something that goes in the useless "martial" arts bin. You need a more constructive way to deal with hallucinations. Poor thing... You were making references to knife attacks. I think goshin jutsu takes a very distant third place to having a fire arm. Not finding yourself under such circumstances takes first place. MMA techniques are being used. These guys probably never got into a static horse stance like traditional martial artists do. Could be possible that they were partly visualizing it. Why don't you make better use of your expertise and explain the purpose behind this technique? In taekwondo we did the exact same drill. The difference there was that we would turn the blocking arm clockwise wise with the attackers arm and use the chambered hand to punch. Even back then it made absolutely no sense to stand in front of an attacker with a raised arm and with the other hand retracted all the way back. DUDE, we weren't talking about boxing! I gave you a clear and direct response. You just didn't like it. That's YOUR business so keep your emotions in check. The only logical reason to chamber your hand during that specific drill is to simulate a grab (in the dojang the person doing the downward strike was simulating a knife attack) and from there we throw a punch. Thats at the green belt level if I remember correctly. The more advanced students had a variety of ways to respond smoothly and quickly to control the attacker through grappling, knee strikes and throws. Really cool stuff. The chambered hand needs to be doing something. Grabbing the attacker is the only logical conclusion as the person on the defensive end DOES NOT want to get clocked. Believe me, I know Check your wording. Or do you paraphrase yourself? Sounds about right. When you say "The system was taught by the destroyed and defeated Okinawans to the Americans that defeated them" it implies that the war was DIRECTLY between the US and Okinawa. This is poor grammar on your part. https://www.amazon.com/Astronaut-Relaxing-Beach-Framed-Poster/dp/B07C3CHBX5 I didn't make that up. These are claims being made on obscure martial arts forums. The same forums your favorite karate historian gets his sources from. Ask your karate historian to cite his sources. It's only a matter of time until his claims devolve into what I "made up" moments back. I don't have to make my argument look better. Your karate historians sources will do it for me.

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Pehlwani looks very interesting.

I studied taekwondo as a kid. One of my instructors was a competitor in taekwondo and was also a 3rd degree black belt in shotokan karate. I began boxing over a decade ago but I don't compete. I've also done judo in the past. Through judo I also had a decent amount of experience in Brazilian jujutsu. You could say my training in shotokan and Brazilian jujutsu were more "informal" but I did gain some knowledge and there's considerable overlap with the arts I was mainly practicing. I'm a student of the game. I will never call myself an expert, a master or claim to know it all. Sometimes things just need to be called out. What have you practiced other than stick tapping?

I already see some people attempting to conceal the Asian origins of the kicks in savate or certain people trying to say that karate is filipino or others saying that karate stole one of it's old stances from bare knuckle boxing. The internet is quite the never ending black hole.

They don't! But they also don't need "martial" arts that instills a false sense of confidence. Martial arts may not be for everyone but getting a little bit of exercise and having fun with some light, friendly sparring while not trying to hurt one another could be a way of helping people be healthy. Not that I know of. But in how many parts of the "civilized" world can one carry sharp objects or a firearm? Even in those places where you may be able to you can't always rely on having them. I don't encourage this kind of primitive, unintelligent behavior. Are you paraphrasing? Point out exactly when I said I "know" everything. My powerful memory and values disagree with you. "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." - Shunryu Suzuki You're making up non existent arguments, projecting things that have no basis in reality (hint: they only exist in your own head) and going off on these long winded "explanations" about.... nothing really. I never needed you explaining the difference between what truly makes a fighter and what doesn't. You don't have a monopoly in expertise on such a simple concept. This is very cliche and erroneous. Very dangerous thinking because all styles are NOT created equal. People who train in ineffective styles quickly get a reality check when revealed to martial arts that actually work. Wasn't it Bruce Lee who said that a person with 6 months of boxing and/or wrestling can defeat a martial artist with decades of experience? The same Bruce Lee who has abandoned most of Wing Chun but only kept a few key concepts that he could apply. If Wing Chun worked to create actual fighters he would of never had to look at boxing or wrestling. Bruce Lee himself wasn't exactly a fighter but he had a keen understanding of taking what is useful and discarding the rest. Kalaripayattu offers much less than Wing Chun to create fighters. I encourage you to walk into a good kick boxing gym and show Kalaripayattu to experienced fighters. When they tell you it's trash (and the honest ones will) tell these fighters exactly what you're telling me. Give them a lecture about how they don't understand fighting and that they think they know everything. How could they possibly talk down on something that they never trained in? If trying to put flowery "martial" arts on equal footing with martial arts that are truly effective in real time combat isn't trolling then I don't know what is. If you're THAT confident then back up your statements with something to support it. I already know you're not the type. You're just a miserable, formless entity floating in virtual space with a big mouth and a whole lot of useless, illogical things to say. Back to what I said earlier. Walk into a kick boxing gym and show them kalaripayattu. Better yet... bring in "fighters" of that art and politely ask them to spar. You'll get a first hand experience of my evidence. You mean the same facts encouraging taking what works and leaving out what's useless. There's no room for outdated methods that might have worked back in a time where people had a flat earth cosmology or a geocentric model of the universe. There's a reason why certain things generally fall out of favor. There's no room for learning complicated arts that take decades to learn and the techniques are ultimately useless. Also, the more complicated something is the more likely one is to make a mistake. I didn't create these generalizations. The same "martial arts" that you're such a proponent of created it. "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times" - Bruce Lee True refinement of skills leaves plenty of room for many things. You're trying so hard to fit me into your little box and it's not exactly a right fit. The horse stance is probably great for training strength and flexibility at best and just as an isometric training at worse. During certain situations it's just natural to get in it even without any training in karate. I see you're the one making faulty generalizations. You're visualizing it. Similar to how one visualizes an opponent in shadow boxing except you're simulating a grabbing motion. Many have also went to China in more recent times to bring back whatever few functional techniques they could find. It's the furthest thing from a monolithic style. There's so many different styles out there. Hundreds, possibly even thousands of them. That could be a good thing but it could also be a bad thing. It would be better to have fewer but highly functional and adaptable styles. I've been saying the same thing this entire time. I bet I can prove them wrong and out of existence. My position still holds true. The Americans were NOT directly at war with the Okinawans. The purpose of the invasion was to reach the Japanese mainland and the Okinawans were made afraid of the Americans by the Imperial Japanese military feeding them propaganda about how the Americans were going to torture them. The Okinawans were afraid and were used as cannon fodder by the imperial military. You worded things in a way that suggested it was a war between the US and Okinawa. We both know that isn't true. It's a rather bizarre and inaccurate claim to say that mawashi geri was "stolen" from the French. Care to point out your historical "coincidences" to see how it easily falls apart when its challenged? Mawashi Geri was imported from Japan back into Okinawa because it's so effective. I could be wrong on this part but what the Okinawans got from the Chinese appears to be a close quarter fighting style of karate with low kicks. After traveling to all these places (China, Korea, Thailand) where kicking is part of the martial cultures they coincidentally bring kicking back to France. The Savateurs are not giving any credit back to these other different places but for some reason no one is quick to point fingers and accuse them of plagiarizing techniques that don't belong to them. Better to look to pseudo historians on obscure forums and YouTube videos based on inaccurate information and invent things to spark controversy. This is called bad inferencing. The Japanese invaded korea and occupied it in the early 1900's. Don't you think they could've gained exposure to high kicking styles there? To my knowledge Kung Fu doesn't have round house kicks in their manuals either but they'll tell you they've always been kicking high. Go tell the shaolin kung fu guys they stole their round house kicks or other high kicks from savate. Yoshitaka Funakoshi (he's not even a Japanese) is the guy being accused of being so impressed by savate and a French influenced Japanese military that he "stole" the training methodology which included the kicks found in savate. So you could say the Okinawans stole from Savate and to be brutally honest this story is completely asinine. There were many Japanese karateka traveling to China to learn techniques between 1920 to around the time Funakoshi passed away so saying that Japanese karate got it's kicks from savate is as logical as being offered beach front property on the moon. I reject the claims because it belongs in the garbage. Isn't this a form of generalizing? Tadashi Nakamura and many other accomplished Japanese karate practitioners acknowledge the shaolin roots of karate. Many even buy into myths about Bodhidharma bringing in and teaching kung fu to the shaolin monks. I lost count of the number of Japanese karate sensei's who would tell you these stories. Mas Oyama was a Korean man and he believed in authentic Japanese Budo. Would he fall under your generalizations too? According to your sources the Japanese didn't understand the concept of sparring until the French arrived LOL. Only problem with this argument is that the Japanese sword fighting arts have been using wooden swords to spar with long before the French ever stepped foot in Japan. Shotokan is influenced from Japanese sword fighting arts. In Taekkyeon sparring has always existed and its far more likely that high kicks in karate partially came from there. There was/is no French influence in karate. Those kicks already existed in asia.

Once you clear these channels and allow the water to flow how much are you able to "control" these energies for healing or for achieving advanced meditative practices such as suspension of thought? Once you learn how to work with these energies are you "locked in" to a specific system or can you sort of reverse engineer how other systems move energy to achieve specific goals?

No, I don't do video editing or anything of that nature. You can learn a lot by watching. You can learn even more by doing. Why not do both? I consider myself open minded. If kalaripayattu is effective I'd be more than happy to learn. No. I've seen numerous videos showing just how ineffective it is. I have yet to see videos demonstrating it's effectiveness. I've asked many times and I have yet to receive any. Please spare me the "kalaripayattu is too dangerous for the cage and for the streets" argument. Or maybe it's such a secretive style that only a few can know it or truly become masters.

Unarmed fighting. Cage fighting or street fighting. For all that sword fighting stuff take it out with the fencers. I know unarmed fighting came from fencing but fencing is completely out of my realm.