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.

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.

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.

Hi everybody. The nature of my request is to consult anyone who could help me understand the nature of my experiences and tell me how/where can I develop them/learn more. It will be a bit long but please be patient, it’s necessary. I got initially interested in Taoism when I was 12. I read a book from Alan Watts about Taoism, later I moved onto Lao Ze, Chuang Ze and Lieh Ze and it I immediately started to relate to it, and it just felt natural. Since then I researched many philosophies and occult schools, but Taoism kept being the closest to my core values. I’ve experienced several very significant experiences over years, and this far no one could tell me more about their nature. 1) I dreamt of future events. When they happened some 5 percent of the details were different (there were dogs instead of cats for example) but everything, including the locations that I never visited before were just as in my dreams. 2) I had a vision (meaning it felt physically real) that I was floating upwards through purple clouds and that I was going to die. I said to myself that I am not afraid because I lived according to my values, and then a voice told me: You’ve understood the lesson. Now return to the Earth and complete your mission. when I woke up my body was shivering and being full of electricity. I was lying in my bed but I felt I was in a vertical position. 3) After practicing Baguazhang, meditation and Taiji 6 hours per day for a period of one month, one day as I was walking down the street, I closed my eyes and I could “see” everything, as if I was feeling how cars and people were moving. It was like seeing blue shapes within a dark background. In the same period I went to play basketball once and my mind entered into some sort of trance. Although I was really skinny my strenght was almost super-human, ( I was pushing much heavier guys than me as if they were children)I was performing the most weird and acrobatic movements winning every game. I could score from the most difficult positions effortlessly. During the 3 hours I played I was in a state of bliss, and as I was playing my energy was increasing instead of me getting tired. I don’t know if that was Wu Wei but it felt similar. 4) I had a vision that I was an old Chinese man walking with my wife (also a Chinese lady) through a forest. We got to a point where there was an energy source on the ground and it told me to be the source of all my incarnations. If I listen to its advice, I was told that I can exit the circle or rebirth during this lifetime. 5) I saw a previous life of mine where I was a nobleman in medieval Italy. 6) I had a lucid dream or at least a very vivid one where I was a Taoist priest, flying through the sky and fighting demons who were after me. I hid on a ceiling of a building resembling a gothic catedral. They were right under me in a huge room (I was able to see through the floor somehow), and they gathered a pile of naked unconscious people, for sacrifice purposes. The demons said (speaking about me), “he’s becoming too powerful, we must stop him”. Their intention was to be able to “see” where I am by killing all those people. The sacrifice would allow them to do so. 7) During the same period of meditation and training I’ve mentioned I tried once to focus on everything within my visual field at once, without being focused on one thing. I was being present and alert, ai just felt as if by not focusing on one thing my energies aren’t tied to one goal/task but everything is equally important. Then I entered a state of mind where I could feel that every object around me was almost like physically connected to me, and I started to cry, because I felt an amazing amount of joy by being united with everything. I walked for a few hours around the town, with tears on my face, and then it just slowly went off. I am not interested in developing any powers, but only into reaching that state where I am simply what I am, in contact with my true essence and energies, beyond the limits of the rational mind. Any advice is highly appreciated. I would also like to study some forms of Neijia or Baguazhang, that could help me learn more about myself but I need a good instructor, even in China.

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.

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

Hey everyone. After reading my original post, do you think that what caused point 3) could have been some kind of spontaneous and temporary activation of the Microcosmic Orbit? I don’t know, but as I wrote earlier in that period I did a lot of Qigong and other training and I am almost certain I hadn’t had sex for at least a month.

I do not feel very comfortable with the “chosen one” label, plus I am not a big fan of labels or definitions, they aren’t too natural. It feels too much as a product of a dualistic perception, what’s “good” or “bad”. If there’s anything that deserves admiration it’s the nature itself, since it allows us to experience these phenomenons. I might have simply a more sensitive organism, so I would like to learn more about how it all works and how can I train it to obtain a deeper connection with nature/reality.

Now that you mentioned the head I definitely have some sensations in the center of the head, bit that might be just because you brought my attention to that area. However I still keep feeling something in the plexus area.

Hi Marblehead. Thanks, that would be really great. There’s a certain loneliness feeling that these experiences carry along with them and meeting people who know more and who had similar experiences would be significant for me.

I feel the voice somewhere around the solar plexus area.

Thank you very much Fa Xin

Hi rideforever. The Taiji I practiced was a modified Yang style called Ma Tsun Kuen, I found this school in Trieste, Italy. At that time I was practicing more Baguazhang, hours of circle walking, static Bagua Qigong, and moving the cups (sometimes filled with water) on my palms by rotating my spine. This exercise might have helped me enhance my perception. As I was making progress I was using lighter objects since it’s harder to feel them. During the final stage I was using an empty super-light plastic glass with a CD under it. I started to feel it more because even the slightest lack of feeling and coordination would make it fall slip my palm. When it comes to meditation I was just breathing and watching my thoughts come and go up to the point that there were almost no thoughts at all. Maybe it’s similar to some sort of Chan/Zen meditation, I don’t know.