Earl Grey

Haha, naaaaah I think the details in that story of paying people for two years (should have written "only" to be clear) and then afterwards going to her was more than enough, and the point was made--no need to beat a dead horse.

Except it already has been documented, but just not often available publicly or for free, let alone even in English. I do know English-speaking teachers who have done this, but you have already summarily dismissed them in multiple threads by reasoning out that you know from your DVD self-learning over their formal instruction, documented skills, and lineage.

It is good to diversify your practice, but even just doing one is enough. One hour of Monk Holding Peach is great, and doing all five meditations in Vol. 1 for 10-15 minutes each is also good, so long as you do it as Sifu Terry says. Order does not matter as has been repeated many times in this thread. The guidelines for timing are detailed in each package you receive with your DVD orders, referring to eating before and after the practice. If you're referring to doing the practice and jumping one form to the next, it has not been specified, but I personally jump right into the next meditation immediately consecutively after finishing the previous one. Follow the alignment Sifu Terry shows in the DVD as precisely as you can and don't overthink it. Please clarify bolded text. As has been shared before, this is purely a health and healing practice, whereas Bok Fu Pai is a martial practice. You don't need to know this, generally speaking. FP works uniquely and is not following TCM models of qi flow. If you do want to know, you'll find out in personal sessions with Sifu Terry, which are highly recommended, even just to perfect your forms that you learn on the DVDs. Sifu Terry will fill in for anything not clear here, and he will be checking this board shortly to answer wherever my short quick responses on his behalf are incomplete.

As I said already:

If I host it, I certainly don’t want someone who claims to have power and looks like this:

That is what I was referring to. My point was more towards how to control who gets in and out short of deleting unwanted posts.

I will think this through and then start something in my PPD. Starting with a discussion on what we want there and what we don’t want.

In all seriousness, someone should be able to host a thread. I would volunteer, but I am wondering if I can do something on an invitation basis, but everyone else has observer status and posts questions to a sibling thread or something like that to control quality. Not sure how to go about it though.

Nah, we will just have you do 100 knuckle push-ups. Then 200 double pump jump squats. And 300 ab crunches. Get to it! Or I’ll bring the flog!

Right, we should kick out the undisciplined people who didn’t follow the rules in the say something nice about someone thread!

Let me share a few things going back to what I learned in workshops to help negotiate conflict between kids and bullies, bonding with peers my age from my grade school years to college (even now!), a video game and old television show, a movie, and my recent conflict with Gendao before becoming buddies with him. When kids tease and make fun of each other, researchers and coaches who taught us said that getting a reaction from us encourages them as it rewards them and we gain nothing from getting mad. Giving no reaction or even having a retort in good humor (this is crucial) rather than malice will actually challenge them and even amuse them until they see it’s more beneficial to be friendly with you than it is to antagonize you. Let us cut to how this was hammered in first with a couple of video games. The first was The Secret of Monkey Island, the second was The Kingdom of Loathing. In the former, you battled pirates in a game of dueling wits: you crossed swords but tried to insult them or have a sharp (no pun intended) comeback to their insults, confusing them and making them unable to retort, and as a result, getting clumsy with their swords. As you fought more, you learned more insults and barely have to use your sword. The second game was inspired by this and made it insult beer pong, where you did roughly the same thing, but the more you got witty, the more the crowd of pirates became chummier with you, eventually rewarding you with drinks, friendship, and gear. Now, changing the channel, there was an old television show, In Living Color, which had some of the most legendary insults of the Yo’ Mama variety from the segment “Dirty Dozens”, and of course, the “Men On...” segment for innuendos. When I moved around a lot growing up, I had a pack of insults both from the games and from the tv show, which I employed often, being the new kid, the minority, the foreigner, and the fat kid, on top of my personality quirks. When people made fun of me, they would get a rise out of me, until I figured out a game. The first game was not fun: it was violent and involved me fighting back against bullies, but getting suspended because regardless of who started it, we all lose. The second game was insults, which made them laugh when I had a Yo’ Mama snapback whenever they’d say things like “my mom is a slut” or other things like “hey you little chinky f****t”. Some comebacks I made were really just a lot of the same material, but still elicited laughter: “My mom’s a slut? Well... Yo’ Mama’s so loose, she only wears panties to keep her ankles warm.” And as they get flabbergasted as their friends laugh, struggling to retort, I would be rapid fire: “Yo’ Mama’s so slutty, she’s like a television: EVERYONE turns her on! Yo’ Mama’s so slutty, her legs are like 7-11: open 24 hours a day!” And as the laughs came, the bullies got pissed, and had two choices: violence or lame insults that nobody laughed for, but laughed at them. I didn’t make friends with everyone, but I at least had a reputation for not being an easy target, especially because I accepted my idiosyncrasies that people tried to humiliate me for constantly—everything from bands I liked to my hair or having a funny last name. I mentioned in another thread The Matrix Reloaded, where the character Seraph does a character test on everyone by fighting them. It is true: in conflict, you will see a man’s true character (man not as in gender, but man as in our species, mankind, or a person for non-gendered pronouns). You see how he is in hardship or when he’s weak when fighting, or when he is in a position of power and advantage, with how much restraint or humility he shows. Look then at how Gendao and I don’t mind each other anymore. We had conflict, we got tired of it, buried the hatchet, and are buds now who do our own thing while disagreeing on a few things, but through that conflict, in the view of the public and retrospective analysis, learned from each other and ourselves. A LOT of insults before, but I went off script and lost my cool, then decided I got tired of it and tried a new script. If this still is hard to follow (it is), the takeaway here is that you learn a lot within conflict, but for some reason, so many people are averse to it because it takes them out of their comfort zones—pressure building up releases things like a volcanic catharsis, which, while it was an insult gendao used on me, it was actually correct because one of my teachers said pressure is what causes these things to come out and form new landmass among other things. Don’t be afraid of conflict, don’t get attached to it, don’t seek it, and don’t forget to learn from it is about the simplest I can say here.

It is not a discrepancy—while I don’t remember the exact details, what I do remember was that was a discussion point for deliberately obfuscating details as to what is exactly “insulting”. I made the same observation too and the person who told me that story smiled. PS:he didn’t pay her. He only paid for the two years before going to Athens, as per the story.

@silent thunder Your response about Earl the Pearl reminds me of an old story about a man who wished to be wise and seek the greater truth beyond what was known in Ancient Greece. I don't remember the details too well, but this is roughly how it went: The man was told by his teacher that in order to be wise, for two years, he had to pay anyone who insulted him, no matter who it was or how great or small it was. Because he was dedicated to this, he did so diligently for two years, then he was instructed to enter the gates of Athens and approach the deranged old woman who waited there cutting down everyone with her sharp tongue. As he approached the deranged old woman, as expected, she began to mock him about his hair, his face, his sandals--everything that could be gleaned. The man responded by bursting out in laughter. The deranged old woman looked at him scornfully and confused, then said, "Why are you laughing?!" The man responded, "For two years, I have been paying people to insult me. Now, you're doing it to me for free." The woman smiled, embraced him, and welcomed him both into Athens and then into the mystery school.

"Brilliance and splendors blind the eye Competition and the hunt for fulfillment madden the mind Grasping wealth leaves the hand useless for all else Louder, faster, brighter: these things drown the senses The tao is subtle, quiet, soft A thread easily lost in the tumult Therefore a wise leader feeds the belly and not the senses Brings the people back rather than driving them on" - Tao Te Ching/ Dao De Jing Translated by Ted Wrigley, Chapter 12

We gave it a try-- for the love of God, listen: Don't EVER eat Spam® !!!!

While Sifu Terry is making his announcements, I would like to take a moment to clarify and remind people that I am not an instructor of Flying Phoenix (yet), nor am I representing Sifu Terry. I was appointed with his approval to oversee this thread in light of many disruptions in the past that have ranged from trolls to disinformation and scams. A few people have misunderstood my role as overseer of the thread to be more than what I am actually assigned, and in no way am I authorized or qualified to teach or represent him or the systems he teaches. I only am able to relay information to him and get approval for whatever is appropriate to respond on his behalf in his absence due to his schedule. We are currently finishing up a draft FAQ for people so that the thread does not have the same questions repeated by people who have not gone through every page or used the search function. In the meanwhile, enjoy your practice!

Besides how Wim Hof takes absolute beginners with his method up mountains, you're still giving bad advice as someone with no proper practice and are not even a master. Ignore all misinformation from ReturnDragon/ChiDragon!

So speaks someone who has no idea what he’s talking about as usual...

Then again, Taoists have a virtue of humility and oftentimes take a vow of poverty--perhaps he is more advanced than us by going straight to the begging before having the knowledge behind the skill.

Psst! He is a freeloader! He already has unsubtly hinted that he isn't interested in paying, but rather getting people to give him free techniques without looking like he's begging (but he is)!

I learned it from several lineages, but primarily, from the lineage that is Xin Yi, a combination of Liuhebafa and Yi Quan. I've posted around the forum what has happened, from power to supernatural occurrences--but that is all I will say on that matter, short of any reciprocity.

How about sharing what you do too? For me it’s Zhan Zhuang, golden flower, and the long Gayatri mantra.

Gold from you, yet again, and hopefully more reasons to show why creating your own qigong like the OP wants to do is a bad idea, just like most self-initiates!

Hey let’s have this appropriate song: