Vuk

Hi. A decade and a half ago I first heard about “John Chang” aka The Magus of Java. I know that many people in the forum are aware of him, and since I recently got to Ubud, Bali, I am wondering if anyone knows of a local school similar to the one he had in Java, that involves Nei Gong or Tenaga Dalam. Also, does anyone have any recommendations for a respectable Manku/Balinese priest who’s willing to share knowledge about the Balinese esoteric tradition? I’m aware that there are many who offer to teach a kumbaya version of it to New Age tourists, I’m hoping to get a chance of meeting someone honest who knows theirs tradition. Thanks in advance for your time, Vuk

Hi, any updates on Tenaga Dalam practitioners in Indonesia? I’m curently in Bali (hopefully staying around for a long time) and would love to get in touch with someone with good reputation/not a New Agey tourist trap. Thanks

Thank you. I am on holidays now, I'll probably get in touch with him once I return home.

Undoubtedly helpful, as always Thank you again

I did, with pleasure. i also started to read the Bagua Daoyin book by He Jinghan and several interviews with him, and I like his honest, humble and experienced tone, something that most popular masters lack in their pubblications. I also enjoyed reading those scanned pages that you linked, especially the parts where Miroslav Bakos speaks about consciousness and about internal martial arts as a tool that prepare the practitioner to obtain results from Buddhist meditation ( as a path towards the expansion of awareness). I am really grateful for the kind of information you’ve sent me this far because it matches what I was looking for I sent a message and a friend request on FB to Miroslav a week ago but I still have no answer. I will practice Bagua basics from now on on a daily basis and a bit longer on the weekends, so I have a few more questions once you have a spare minute: -I realized the importance of unlocking the hip joints and the shoulder blades. Which are the best exercises to do so? -Since stretching is important to aid the circulation of Qi and Blood should I aim to become extremely flexible (like being able to do a split etc.)? It looked to me for a long time that this was more relevant for flashy external styles like shaolin acrobatics, but now I am not sure. -You’ve suggested previously that I should focus during the firs phase of my training (about ten years ) on circle walking and on the 8 mother palms. Are there any videos of He Jinghan where these are explained? -If on the average my training is 1:30h on workdays and at least 2h on weekends how should I structure its segments (like, 50% circle walking, 25% stretching, 25% one of the trigrams)? I am already being hard on myself by focusing a lot on mabu walking and stance. Is that ok? -If I decide to go to Taipei and train with master He (after a long time of working on the basics) how do I get in touch with him, what is the cost and does he even teach still? I couldn’t dig up any contact info online. Thank you very much for everything you’ve sent this far. Answer whenever you have time

Haha, ok, I will. By the way, could you tell me how can I avoid knee injuries caused by circle walking? I often hear about that.

That sounds interesting, I’ll check him online. thank you!

Hi Gerard, thank you for all this precious information! I am not into Baguazhang because of combat but above all because I have been in love with Taoism since I was in my teens, and I am really curious about Neijia, internal Alchemy and learning Taoist universal concepts through Baguazhang. I will dedinitely check the videos by He Jinghan as you suggested. I am on holidays but I will continue my training next week once I return home. Then I will certainly have more questions for you by the way, what do you think about the Baguazhang Mastery program by Bruce Frantzis? And what about the videos of Erle Montague and his son?

Thank you everybody! the more information I get the closer I get to finding the right school/master.

Thank you, that matches a lot some of my thoughts. I thought a lot about ‘being in the zone’ phenomenon and how it’s similar to altered states of mind described in many yogic traditions. It’s nice hearing someone has a similar opinion. An Italian friend of mine told me about a similar method of Chen Taiji that he studied for years. He’s also a PHD of Physics so I like very much the way he manages to merges those perspectives.

Hi. I practiced Baguazhang for a few years with a local instructor but I noticed after a while the guy had no knowledge of the inner aspect or even about the combat aplications. He was just introducing me to new forms, again and again, withoun any depth, so I decided to learn more from books. After a while I stopped because it was hard to make progress without a proper guide and I had just started to work after graduation. Now that my job is going well I plan to do the only logical thing which is to try to go once in a while to China, train there for a month or two, then train by myself in my country (which is Serbia by the way) during the rest of the year. If anyone could tell me where to find a decent school of Baguazhang I would really appreciate that.

Hey Limahong, Unfortunately I am not perfectly sure about what were you trying to say. If you don’t mind could you simplify it a bit? English isn’t my native language.

I hope I’ll figure out more about it during this lifetime.

Ok, I appreciate the explanation and the intention behind it.

Yes, it’s a stage of the internal alchemy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcosmic_orbit