SeekingSilence

Years ago, I saw a praying mantis master in a BBC special do some kind of spirit healing for a back pain problem. I recently stumbled upon the video again: The healing bit starts at about the 4m10s mark. Is anyone familiar with this specific art? I don't recall seeing this elsewhere. Anyone had personal experience with this art and its lineage? Besides these masters, is this taught elsewhere in the world?

Fascinating, @Nintendao! While explained as a spirit in the video clip, the idea of 'vibratory information' was a new perspective of this phenomenon on me. Thanks for sharing the link and passage. Will definitely need to study this more in-depth to better understand.

Sorry. I'm a little late to the conversation. As you're in Taiwan, have you ever looked up the "Wu Tan" school? It was founded by Grandmaster Liu Yun Qiao, and I met some of the second generation baji practitioners in the United States. From what I heard from the practitioners, the school was founded in Taiwan shortly after the Revolution. Masters, who had fled China, banded together and taught their arts (taijiquan, bajiquan, baguazhang, etc.). Based on my faulty memory, the school is still operational in Taiwan, but I don't know much more than that.

K.Thana, Welcome to the Dao Bums. can you share with us about Thai herbalism or traditional Thai therapies? The country seem dotted with tourist trap massage parlours, but surely there are still masters, who use local herbs, massage techniques, etc., no? Many thanks! Seeking Silence

sshubh, if you find any teachers here in Asia, please do let us know!

For either the salt or salt-oil therapies, I wonder if an oil diffuser would prove to be helpful. Has anyone tried to do so?

Inspired by some old posts from SecretGrotto, I decided to start this thread about the Perfect Health Diet as espoused by Paul Jaminet and his wife. For those unfamiliar, Paul proposes that the perfect diet focuses on whole foods and a certain macronutrient ratio. Essentially, carbs (~150g) and proteins (75g) are kept relatively low, and fats make up the bulk of the daily calorie load (140-150g/day). For those who are more interested in the details, the Jaminets provide an outline of the diet on their website (here). Having given that brief introduction, has anyone tried the PHD or a similar diet? What have your experiences been? As well, what might a Taoist POV be on such a fat-heavy diet? And what would such a fat-dominant diet have on cultivation?

What, in particular, stands out as imperfect?

Is this group still meeting? If so, is it possible to find out more and to possibly join?

Hello again! It's been over four years since I last posted here, so I suppose it is about time to do so again. I have lurked on and off since my previous postings and have dabbled in various things but am wanting some advice on my next steps in cultivation. For a little bit of background, I (primarily) read up various Mantak Chia and Falun Dafa materials during high school and did some minimal practices (some basic Iron Shirt stuff and also the Falun Gong exercises). None of my practices over the years have ever gotten very serious for a number of reasons (lack of focus, time, interest, etc.), but I'd really like to start again and find something that I can stick with. In the last couple of months, I've done further reading on a number of arts (internal and external) and finally picked up a book about zhan zhuang (called The Way of Energy, which I presume some if not many of you are already familiar with) and have begun practicing that. I'm only up to about 10 minutes per day of the introductory stance, but I'm trying to keep things simple and easy so that I actually stick with this practice. Additionally, I've found the website for an instructor of Yiquan here in Chicago. He is the student of a Master Yao Chengguang (http://www.yiquannet.com/) in China. Is anyone familiar with this sifu? If anyone recalls my introductory post from several years back, my primary focus is on internal cultivation and health, but some lingering interest in martial applications still exist, so yiquan seems like a good fit from that POV. Any thoughts or advice? Thanks, Seeking Silence

Forgive me, ChiDragon. I had been under the impression that yiquan used some zhan zhuang stances as a portion of their training. I guess I had been misinformed. Thank you for the clarification!

Hello everyone, I just reintroduced myself last night and spent a couple of hours reading through just a small portion of the backlog that I've missed over the last four years. During that perusal of the boards, I found some mention of a distance learning program in Gao Baguazhang, and several members mentioned having taken up the practice through the Ze Zhong School (as seen here: http://www.gaobagua.net/lobby/). I sent several people (sean and Prince...) messages to ask about their experiences with this school but thought that it would be good to put a public thread too if there are other students of this school. As I mentioned in my intro. thread, I've done plenty of reading (and a tiny bit of practice) over the years, but most everything has been dabbling. I'd really like to settle down a bit and focus on one system if possible. My goals are to work primarily on the internal arts, healing, etc. Some martial applications would be a plus too. Originally, I asked about yiquan, but baguazhang wouldn't be a bad option either. So, does anyone else have any experience with this school? Finally, is anyone familiar with any similar distance programs with which they are familiar? I realise that it is probably difficult to learn any system well at a distance, but it seems like a slight upgrade to simply reading a book. Any suggestions or recommendations? I stumbled on an online silat program at some point, but my preference is for the Chinese arts if and when they are available. Thanks again! I look forward to learning more from everyone here. Seeking Silence

Rob, Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check out that forum. Seeking Silence.

Hey everyone, I found this site after doing a search for a Master Waysun Liao, and his name popped up in a thread. This seems like an interesting place, so I hope you all don't mind if I wander around here for a while. Thanks, SeekingSilence

Sounds a bit steep to me...

To give a bit more detail to you (since you are actually responding): I'm particularly interested in studying a martial art (preferably Chinese). Taiji, like many other "internal" or "soft" arts, does have its martial applications, and a friend said I should check it out. Finding an instructor even for the non-martial aspects of the art ought to have been easy, but then I got picky (and a bit of a purist), not wanting to get a teacher that A. didn't know what he was doing and/or B. had watered down the art. There's a retired Liuhe Bafa master around here that I've considered contacting, but I'm not sure yet about that option. Any thoughts on my rambling?

Well, originally, I had purchased The Complete Book of Tai Chi Chuan by Wong Kiew Kit and then began wandering around their forums over there. Although the book had a lot of excellent history and diagrams, I'm just not somebody who can learn such things from a book. It may be useful in the future for a reference text, but I can't learn the sequences upfront from the book. I found that there was somebody else based in my area also participating on the WKK forums (who also participates here from what I've seen: forestofsouls), so I asked if he knew of any decent taiji instructors around here. The response was Master Liao, so that's how I came upon this site. ^.^ Do you know anything about Master Liao? Alternatively, do you know of any other decent taiji instructors/masters in the Chicago area? Perhaps I should move some of these questions to another section of the forum...? Seeking Silence