rideforever

You have good eyes. Jan was privately trained in CXW's own house (he was a penniless student) in China over many years. Before he arrived at CXW he had won several dozen Taichi tournaments in Europe which he says were meaningless, the winners of those tournaments had empty forms and nobody noticed. But later he was inspired to go to China and began again from the beginning in the Chen village with CXW. I do have several silk reeling and form dvds of CXW which are available freely on youtube - not sure why but it's all there for free.

I am very inspired by the performance below (which I believe is the 56 Competition form) and interested to learn Chen TaiChi .... can anyone recommend any DVD series that is solid and includes the kind of basic and intermediary exercises and trainings that are done at the village ? And does anyone know how much it is to get trained in China at the village or elsewhere like on a 3 month retreat. Any info would be good thanks.

The forum moderates very strongly in relation to these issues. I am personally happy to talk about such things from a spiritual perspective ... but I also would not like to be involved in meaningless conflict or disharmony. The sun is shining.

Well if this guy is teaching, I'm game !

Primordial Chaos anyone ? You are right to be very wary and weary at what comes out of the media these days. And you would be even more right to start running in the opposite direction.

Actually Jan Silberstorff offers very clear understanding of the energetics involved in each movement, and the purpose and trajectory of practice, particularly emphasising mastering the energetics in Silk Reeling, through a carefully selected sequence of exercises designed to cultivate first the lateral circuits, then the front and back. Etc... He also describes all the available forms and their inner content. He's the first person I've ever heard who understands what he is doing, and I am following him. Simon Blow in the video above I happen to know a bit because he also teaches Dayan that I studied last year, however I ended up learning from a teacher who was Chinese and had dark hair rather than him who is Australian? and has grey hair.

Everything is transmission. If someone .... expresses something so that you feel it inside you - how does that work ? Rather than just words, when some people talk, you feel it inside you. Why ? How ? Because they transmit the "thing-in-itself" as they speak. If they speak of love ... they also transmit "love-in-itself". Others speak for hours and say nothing, you feel nothing, and it means nothing. With spirituality it is the same, but what is transmitted is spiritual states. All is transmission. Do the transmitters have to be alive ? No, not at all. If you pick up a photo of an ancient guru, or his writing, and if you are sensitive, and if you are willing ... you can receive the transmission. Otherwise you can read "normally" with dull senses and you feel nothing, but your head is full of more useless words. And so you receive a transmission, what next ? If you are in a crowd of happy people, and they transmit the feeling to you .... are you automatically happy ? No. You can refuse, you can accept, you can ignore. So if you want the transmission to do something to you, you must be willing, you must invite it, go into it, appreciate it, become it, and integrate it with what you already are. One day you will die and all the words will die too. The only thing that remains is how much "the-thing-in-itself" you have become.

Detailed technical answers to all my Chen questions are found in Jan Silberstorff's book "Chen".

Well .... what can you say. With the greatest post war disaster imminent with the major tremors awful news and fear and division everywhere to have this kind of amazing news is unbelievably good. Unbelievably good. Wow. We are very lucky. Plus can you believe the weather is actually quite nice. Lucky country, and if you are about to take a punch to the face, being in good shape is the best way to do it.

Yes it's Spring the beginning of the active year, rather than Winter the passive beginning ... weekly workout cycle begins. UK employment hits another record high https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47290331

Ah the famous Flowing Mouth, who thinks Buddhism Hinduism Taoism is all the same because it comes from Asian brown people? Maybe you should do some studying for a change instead of waving your hands about.

Well then you have chosen wisely, and he himself was like a sailmaker, a carpenter, and such small work with the hands leads to great knowledge and skill, and so you may contribute to life, and be appreciated by life for your efforts. Being of farming ancestry is of great benefit, because then ground is solid beneath your feet .... it is a rarer thing these days. I have found it difficult to comprehend life but in the end I choose to attempt to follow the way and be a worthy part of existence, as best as possible. And one day it will be over.

Then follow

Giu Fu Feng's 75 : Having little to live on, one knows better than to value life too much. My opinion of Trump is that if you remove his head he is sound from the neck down, in other words his animal is sound and it follows the natural way. For most politicians they are ego, and the entire structure does not correspond to reality. His wall idea is an expression of his understanding that society needs structure and protection, which is a correct idea. Also he appears to be somebody with great discipline. For instance after his brother died of alcoholism he vowed never to drink and he has kept that vow. Also he had several years of military academy. So, that is very good, and such hard work and discipline leads to inner truth .... but his outside and his head are ugly also true. He has proved himself capable of building and building big, and a family too. Who can say that ? These social ideas correspond to the laws of reality applied to human society. However each person has an individual relationship to God / Existence / Tao, and the ways of "men" are well known to God. So if you do your job correctly and follow the Way then what will not be given to you ? This life is short, at the end most are straw dogs. It would be better for them if life was simpler than they could express the simple creation of a farmer, but even that has been destroyed and now most life like hungry ghosts in degeneration. Certainly the dictator has not earnt any position. Cometh the hour cometh the man. To be or not to be. Life has given you time, and in the end what will you have made ? In this world of degeneration will you choose to understand and follow the true way so that your life at least corresponds to reality? Perhaps it was like this for all humans and always will be, a test.

If everyone on a ship knows their place, then the toilet cleaner cleans the toilet, the sailmaker makes the sails, and the captain drives the boat. Then everyone makes it. The captain can do all the other jobs on the ship, hence he is a captain. The toilet cleaner can don only one job. The sailmaker can do several jobs. There is a natural hierarchy based on everyone's actual capacity. But, there are some toilet cleaners who wish to not do their job, and they see that they can gain some level of power by spreading the idea that "nobody is better than you", and "why should anybody except you become captain". The toilet cleaners gain some sort of power in a parasitical manner they parasite the entire system. Then, everybody dies. This is why it is taught by the great teachers that strong action needs to be taken, because the rot starts to take hold it is difficult to clean out Now you live on a boat and it is too late. Nobody wishes to do their job, nobody even imagines anyone can be better then them. They all want a say, and then they want a group hug, then they all die on the boat.

The word is used differently by different people

Perhaps you do know. Don't rush. Do you meditate, do you sit with yourself, do you merge with yourself ? One has to bring oneself out into being, from potential to actual. This is done partly by sitting with oneself; and partly by meeting life's challenges by expressing oneself. So, one lives through the wish to become oneself, and more deliberately and consciously, not just drifting. All the images you had, put them aside. And deal with actuality, what am I like in action ? What do I do, and does it feel authentic ? Notice yourself. With people you might try pushing a little more, but growing has its own pace and season, but it won't happen by resisting it. Wishing to become what one is, rather than an image borrowed from others should make things easier. It is a joy to be what I am. It is good to do more physically, and emotionally, and with people, but deliberately ... set a programme of self exploration for oneself. It is good to be a crocodile; then be a mouse; then be an eagle; then be a donkey. Try, see what happens. Sing loudly in the shower and don't pretend that you don't piss in the shower like everyone else. Another thing is that existence can see you, always and everywhere, every thing you do. So you can speak to existence .... you cannot hide from it.

If you can get centered in it again, after it is a solid it is good to ground it downwards like the base of a mountain. To do this; on the exhale (normal breathing) rest downwards from the dantien, gently at first, until it sits down. Later you fall through lower, remembering always to not lose the dantien. This practice gives the dantien room and space, otherwise it can be a bit contracted in there.

Eagle River ???

Sounds like you are remembering your awakening from a previous lifetime, and that was probably an awakening caused by a tradition that uses energy work (like Kundalini yoga or Western Alchemy). Had the same thing myself when Bang .... suddenly massive energy rememberances visions and powers. Was half insane for two weeks, thought I was in real trouble and there were 2 people inside, but it settled down. Much later I understood what happened. Happens a lot, it seems to be how existence pushes you to remember yourself, sometimes forcefully, like running into a way and smacking your 3rd eye on the wall. You instinctively know what to do to work with energy. So that's all fine, congratulations this isn't your first life, you have already survived at least one death. What do do now ? Well ... nothing to do, it's all already inside you and you put it in, so don't worry, just let it unfold and try to become friends with what is inside you. The discomfort is probably the remembrances trying to find a way to emerge into this incarnation, and you seem to be unfolding them naturally, nothing to worry about. It might be nice to light some incense in the evening and sit with the remembrance of your soul and see what unfolds, no hurry just friendly. And if you need to be with a group, then look on Meetup and just go and share your experiences with any kind of friendly group near you, just for company really. You can also research any images you get like the Seed of Life, and perhaps you can be guided to rediscover the tradition you come from or something similar anyway. As for the pain, you didn't describe it exactly. You could try BK Frantzis Outer Dissolving, or you could try speaking to it (visualizing it), or just surrendering very deeply and letting go, letting things happen. The changes in your head and resulting vision are typical, and as energies change in the head it can indeed hurt, but be in trust. Best thing to do is to relax and trust, because it is all in motion now. Maybe print off a large and beautiful Seed of Life picture and stick it on the shrine, wave a dead chicken in the air, and sing Pink Floyd songs backwards hoping on one leg ... just have fun with it, in the end it's only life !!! Don't worry.

It's done with software these days, with only a little direction

Humans make up 1/ 10,000 of the Earth's biomass, or 0.0001% https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506 I am all for bunking off school occasionally, but it does not make one competent in daily life, being competent requires work.

Rotoscoping ! On being Electric.

The first Earth Summit, the venue, was Rio de Janeiro, which is just gorgeous, fantastic nightlife, beaches and hookers. Nice choice ! The ego-people of Earth are always declaring emergencies which they promise to fix, then they never happen. It's a good thing the Earth is so resilient with all the imagination going on. Existence has its own rules and ideas, and is not very interested in the dramas of a silly sub-group of the top-monkeys. I've lived under the threat of North Korea most my life, and seen how many meetings where the "world leaders" sit in expensive hotels in the Alps, with Champagne on tap, and then stand shoulder to shoulder to make a "joint declaration" about it. Then Donald Trump picks up the phone and organises a meeting and fixes the whole thing in a few weeks. A lot of human dramas are really stupid aren't they.