Seatle185

I think so. I do wonder if the teachers actually get enough one on one training with him since bruce seems to be so busy (and expensive i assume). I personally think the private lessons iv taken outside of regular class were invaluable and am lucky to have a more "low key" teacher who has the time to offer it. As for some more resources for wu style guys, if you havent already read it, this is one of the more comprehensive books iv read on the style. https://www.amazon.com/Wu-Style-Taijiquan-Peisheng-Wang/dp/9622380158 Wang Peisheng is well respected by the Wu community around here. Here also is a link showing his short form, which is pretty close to the way we do it too: https://youtu.be/EmqQ7y5Rqdk Robert tangora, who also is affiliated with energy arts and wu style has a book called "the internal structure of cloud hands". While his specefic version of cloud hands is a bit different than my teachers, i was still able to benefit from the material. i think he does a great job of explaining the importance of "when one part moves they all move" and provides some simple excercises to get more into the full body connection. He also gets into some more advanced mechanics that can carry over to every move in your form. Heres the link if your interested. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1583944486/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492470738&sr=8-1π=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=cloud+hands&dpPl=1&dpID=519nTVfdNcL&ref=plSrch

Thanks for your input, i havent ever tried dry brushing but its something i could probably benefit from. Do you use sesame oil before the shower?

The healthiest diet as others have said is composed mostly of vegetables. A daoist would tell you the best type of vegetables for your body are locally grown and in season. Growing them yourself if you have space and time is very rewarding. Eating the plants as close as possible to when they are still alive in the process of photosynthesis is the most beneficial in my experience. Hope it helps some.

Thats good, i feel the self massage in itself can be good for you. I agree soap isnt always needed. In the winter months i dont use it as much. But in the very hot and humid summers in south texas i usually come home drenched in sweat. I use a small amount of all natural soap in that case. It works! A shower is cleansing on so many levels for me too. The physical obviously but the energetic shift is powerful, even more so if you state your prayers or intentions that you want to cleanse of all the negativity you may have picked up at work or wherever! Its one of the quickest ways to balance me weather im overly energetic or lazy and unmotivated. Its fascinating.

Iv been taking cold showers for years, before i started i would always feel lazy and unmotivated for the duration of the day. I was so suprised how rejuvinating a cold shower can be, it increases circulation, motivation, and confidence for me. Some people who are into chinese medicine say a cold shower is the worst thing to take because the cold can penetrate stagnate but iv never had a problem, only benefits. Another thing i think is, it seems the more natual thing to do is bathe in cool water, it seems kind of rare to find a hot water source without electricity but i dont know. Yes i feel the shower is extremely beneficial. What you say about the echo really resonates with me. Another thing i was reading is that since a shower is like a mini waterfall it produces a lot of negative ions so that could also take part in the healing. Water by itself, even without soap is really cleansing and is beneficial to the skin i think. Cleanliness is next to godliness..

Ah yes thanks, that is where there is some confusion as there are two different wu's. We are derived from the jianquan branch of it. Not sure if its the same as bkf version? Iv noticed that some of the other taiji practitioners in the area will stress going the same speed through the whole form always, never deviating. But my teacher explained the art is like music sometimes the tempo speeds and is "forceful" sometimes it is quiet and gentle. It changes and is never dull and lifeless. I agree that training fast is a really important part to actually being able to integrate this into combat, as a beginner i can see why they want you to start slow, but eventually i think theyll touch more on speed hopefully. Hope it helps.

Well in our class we do sometimes go that fast, but id say most of the time we are at a much slower speed. Im not really sure if the reel was sped up, its possible. I thought the bkf version of wu was kind of choppy and off balance at first glance but i dont know. Yeah we focus alot on the diagnal leaning like, the way my teacher described it is the head is always aligned straight with the unweighted foot so the back and neck are still supposed to be straight but leaning. Hope this is kind of clear haha. I think all of the wu styles do this. From what i was told and have seen these guys were all pretty good at the martial uses of the forms.

I actually first heard about tiny houses years ago from a guy who used to built them in texas. "Texas tiny homes" what interested me is that his help was actually volunteer, they got paid in knowledge and experience because they learned how to build themeselves. He also used all scrap materials when he built so his material cost was nothing. Sounded pretty smart to me. Im a woodworker so iv thought about attempting just buy land and to build one,probobly slightly larger than the typical tiny homes iv seen, in line with feng shui but the harder part would be like you said, installing utilities out in the middle of nowhere. But i could see how it could be very fulfilling. If you have alot of books like im sure many here do maybe you could build a whole second tiny home for storage? haha.

Yes i beleive that the arts have suffered in china too for a long time unfortunately due to events you mentioned. And with the resurgance of taiji in china iv heard it does seem to be getting more superficial. More focused on the external movements without internal. But im not qualified to say as i havent been there, just going off what my teacher told me about whats happening in his hometown. So it is hard to know if your teacher is in line with the classics no matter where he is from. I think its good to get opinions from different teachers at first so you can better judge this. To morning dew, i know this video is really poor quality and old but this is my teacher's teacher doing the wu form that we practice. Let me know what you think. https://youtu.be/SPo1U_gmOWs

Yes iv found flying can be a shock to my system, security aside. In the morning your in a hot humid climate, hours later you step out into a cold dry climate with a different time zone, different allergens, wildlife plantlife. I enjoy the slow gradual change when driving. Plus you get to visit all the "hidden" places in between the destination you never knew about! Ah im already looking forward to using my vacation time this year. Does your work allow you substantial time to travel?

Thats great iv heard the energy arts teachers are good, havent had experience with them myself. My teacher is also focusing a little more on the health but i feel the martial applications part of it is extremely important for correcting small details in the form which leads to greater health benefits. When i was visitig different teachers before deciding i was dissapointed to find that not many of them taught the martial side unfortunately.

Hehehe.. yes i agree sometimes its a complete violation. Not to mention when you check your bags they go through the whole thing and doesnt matter if you folded your clothes perfect or had fragile items (like a yixing tea pot!) They can break it and arent held responsible. You give up your rights when you walk into a modern airport and expect at least 1-2 hours of security :/. The past times iv gone traveling i havent flown. I drove it haha 2 days of driving instead of 2 hours flying? Ill take it, the in between was always the funnest part of the journey for me anyways. The problem is theres no choice out over seas or for the other side of the country.

Yes i wonder why things are changed un necessarily at work too. Sometimes it is just well every other companies doing it so we are going to do it haha. Yes im afraid i would be leaning more towards the conspiracy side . I am that guy. I would feel a tiny bit violated, like how i feel when flying on airplanes now and they have full body "naked picture" scanners. I hate to fly now.. but oh well.

I dont indulge like i used to either. I have found an even better path. But i have reason to thank them because they showed me life is more than what it seems. They are seen as a way to expand your mind. Where im from we are taught that only the gross physical realm exist anything with "mystical" energetics or spirituality is scoffed at so for most of us this kind of thing opens the doors of perception even if just for a day. Its like your sense of self completely dissolves and you are just left with who am i? who do i want to be? And you just BE in the moment, without all societies acquired conditioning even if for a moment. At least thats what it was like for me, for others who were just trying to get fucked up, i imagine it could be different. But the point is you know there is something beyond and you start doing the work. The problem with it is most people who are getting into this stuff think the only way to cultivate is to keep doing them over and over. I think they work well to a certain point and then become harmful to cultivation. Yes i used to do some research on bluelight, shroomery is also a good forum for reasearch. Erowid.org has a huge amount of material for just about any natural or research chemical out there. You can read about the chemical structures, how exactly it is made, the effects on the mind or body, the research papers (if it has been tested at all) and personal experiences from people who ventured to try it. Best of luck be safe.

Glad to see your seeing benefits. Im not advanced but i do practice wu style. The teacher matters more than the style iv learned but generally it seemed like the wu teacher had a more balanced and traditional system then the yang teachers in my area so i went with him. I like how the style focuses on leaning, the top of the head lines up with the unweighted foot. My teacher has gone into detail with the martial side however i wouldnt feel confident enough to use it yet. As with alot of the popular styles i feel it has been watered down here in the west. I will say that iv been learning from someone who practices chen style and he seems to have alot more focus on the internal, and the martial side of things. But again that goes back to the teacher being more important than the style. Im sure there are plenty of teachers from each style that are well cultivated

Hi aeran, i can relate to your anger and agree with what you say, glad to see someone like that, as most people who are into the psychedellics dont educate themselves enough. Personally i researched for years before i even attempted to do the experience. I wanted to be sure everything was right and didnt want to take something with harmful consequences. Of course 10 years ago it was somewhat more of a rarity to come accross someone with L but when they had it it was it.. it wasnt a r.c. being falsely marketed as L. If they DID have an r.c. they would tell you straight up hey this is doc or 2ce or whatever man. Now fastforward to today and everyones doing r.c.s and some of the hard core trippers havent ever had real Ma or L. They think it is supposed to have bitter numbing taste haha. It is indeed sad as there are a few like myself who's only purpose to use it is for spiritual reasons and i just dont think it is on par with the classic ones that are derived from more natural sources. So it is like the spiritual aspect is stripped and your left with a chemical that constricts blood vessels or like you say causes cancer later. We arent sure. The natural plants work a certain way because their is natural synergy with all the elements that balance each other. Without this balance you are succeptable to addiction and/or confusion during and after the experience instead of the fresh clarity and new found sense of connectedness that you will observe with the classics. If you dont have legit testing materials i wouldnt recomend anything found these days, the family is still out here and their quality hasnt altered much but finding someone real is a dime a dozen. An even more well known example of the hazards of these analogues is the difference between cannibis and the legal high analogues they keep coming out with. Never tried it nor wanted to, but so many people especially the younger friends ALL had tried it or smoked it daily.. i heard it was extremely addictive, caused hallucinations. Severe confusiom, panic attacks, seizures, extreme personality changes, dissasociation and literally losing your mind after prolonged use. My ex girlfriend had 3 brothers who all did it. These days one of them is in jail for breaking and entering (something he would NEVER do) one of them is in a psych ward (started hearing voices talking to him all the time now) and the luckiest one of them is just severely depressed.. the more dangerous of these side effects just arent seen in such magnitude with the natural plant. Keeping drugs illegal and promoting propaganda about them is making way for a plethora of these legal highs that cause severe imbalance. And few are educated. I went to a drug awareness class years ago and after the first class the teacher said i should be the one teaching not him! Even people who teach this stuff as a career dont do research and they buy into the propoganda even more causing confusion. There are plenty of resources to learn from, i highly recomend experimenters do as much research as possible EVEN with the "safest" ones like the plants. But do be very cautious with the RCs please. Listen to what our ancestors said about these sacred plants. They are tools to be used for specefic purpose and only and certain times, never abusing them or exploiting them.

We dont have a finger scanner yet, but i can kind of see the benefits as in a few of the jobs iv worked there were people clocking in and out for people that werent actually there, robbing the owner. Can see how something like could be gotten away with at a huge company and i dont think they ever got caught while i was there. I do know what you mean on how some systems at work can be counter productive though, especially if working for a huge company and corporate is telling your branch to do something everyones doing without taking into account the needs of your specefic branch. Unfortunately my voice means little when trying to offer advice on things like that. But if you say most of your co workers dont like the idea i would think itd be a good idea to get together and have a talk with the manager and perhaps he will see it your way, maybe he just hasnt given much thought to it yet

Haha yeah its rare to see a show or movie these days where there isnt lustful sex, and money flaunting. And everyone is focusing less and less on real story, and more on flash, expensive costumes, CGI, explosions... haha they beleive the more money you throw at a production the better people will like it.. and most consumers eat it all up with satisfaction. But luckily there are some directors that still do completely dedicate themselves to their work, they just arent as well known.

This is one problem with the r.c.s too, most of the first generations were a little bit 'safer' like the d.o.c. they were at least tested more. But all of those were made illegal, now you have tons of new research chemicals being made and anyone who wants to ingest them is their test subject they really dont know haha.. iv seen people go to the hospital because they were having seizures from dosing their are plenty of horror stories from them. if you go to the doctor and he wants to treat you but he doesnt even know the name of the chemical you ingested it might be harder for him to know what to do. Some of these rcs like 25bnombe and 25c i think they are called, actually mess with your vessels in your brain and that is how they can cause severe damage if taking too much, how do you know is too much? Another thing is they definately mess with seratonin way more than even lsd.. i just dont think they are safe at all. I mean having a bad trip on a traditional psychedellic if unexperienced can be bad enough. But really i dont think theirs much we can do to stop it. They make drugs illegal so a chemist alters a few things and sells it then they make the new chemical illegal and he just alters it again and puts it out there.. haha Another thing is if you were really interested in making the traditional ayu tea there are sites that sell all the materials... haha iv never done it but have met dozens of people who actually make it (live near somewhat of a hippy haven haha) and they aquire the stuff online, and yes a while back i did actually see kits for it on amazon.. i really couldnt beleive it haha dmt is actually found in many plants in varying degrees if you were really motivated there are extraction instructions online. Again, never done them personally but iv seen them, anyways id say it might be a better choice than r.c.s

Having personally tried traditional ethneogens and a few analogues and research chemicals for spiritual growth i would have to say the traditional ways will always be the most profound as far as connecting to deeper parts of yourself you didnt know existed or deeper parts of another being.. sure the r.c.s had me hallucinating and feeling high but that was never really the point with me. They lacked a spiritual depth that i have experienced with say mushrooms. The spirit of the plant integrates with your own. There was never a spirit of a chemical made in a lab somewhere far away. But this was my experience, others might be alot different

Oh man i agree with you silent thunder about tom wu, in fact hundred eyes was the only reason i kept watching marco polo, sometimes id just skip until i saw scenes of him haha.. and i enjoyed his back story, was actually suprised the writer did well on that one.

Haha funny, i had just seen some of this and the story kind of pulled me in and got me excited about a good kung fu series maybe.. but every single time the iron fist fights or does his "forms" its insufferable to watch it really is.. the first fight with the security guards was hilarious, probobly worst choreographed fight iv ever seen, even worse than some of the movies with scenes making fun of kung fu. Every time he does his forms he has his ass sticking out as far as it will go.. i really didnt know what to make of it... but see i had high hopes because "daredevil" which is also a netflix + marvel series had amazing fight scenes with ninjas haha. I figured theyd at least be somewhat similar.. it seems like the writers didnt do their research on this one but i dont know... like i said the story at first seemed like it had good potential but after a while it just seemed like it was put together really sloppy... just my opinion

Mmmm goji berries would be good. If making it i like to add carrots, ginger, cinnamon sticks, or tumeric root. Its such a versatile meal!

I very much agree. Many of the vitamin rich foods we eat have so many different properties and many of them work in a powerful synergy that is hard to beat.. one thing i always try to do if im taking a supplement is also eat a food that is rich with the vitamin im trying to assimilate so it may help with digestion/assimilation. One thing i wonder is the energetic properties of extracts, would they have the same qi as a fresh fruit? Im not really sure. The absolute best way to eat a vegetable or fruit i think, is right off the tree, vine or from the ground. The plant itself is still in the process of photosynthesis creating energy, so i do notice it isnt comparable to a food that has been sitting on shelf for weeks getting old and starting to slowly break down. With the extracts we might not know how long they've been sitting on the shelf, but i would think a lot longer than fresh foods. Another thought is, in the store we can see,touch, smell a product and decide if it is good quality, we cant be 100 percent sure if the extracts were made of top quality.

I dont know where your buying now but personally i buy from purebulk.com they do have extracts, though not sure if they have the exact ones you want- didnt see blueberry at first glance :/ they have some others you might want though They are so much cheaper than bottles youd buy in the store its insane.. i used to buy l-theanine capsules at the store for anywhere from 30-60 dollars for around months supply and they were huge capsules. Well i got probobly a year + supply for that amount of money here and whts interesting is the standard dose wouldnt even fit in the smallest capsules iv seen - just showed me how much filler powder is put into most supposedly pure supplements Another thing i appreciate at the site is all of their batches are lab tested by a third party and you can request the info to ensure quality.