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Interesting video <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Enjoy your practice mouse

Just a bit of fun. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Hi Tim, Welcome to Taobums. Sifu Adam and Sidu Andy (Melbourne) are also on this website. Mal and Stigwaerd on the forums are also from QLD. You have a great teacher to train under! Please send my kind regards to Sifu Nic and also Adam Dobson. I heard he has been recovering very quickly over the past year. mouse

mat black, No problem. Glad you enjoyed it. I find the Terevadan teachings resounding best with me as they do not require blind faith and can all be proven and found within the heart. Enjoy your practice. mouse

To be totally honest, I have no idea what the actual definition of Chi is... all I can experience is different energy/vibration from subtle to course in nature in which the very definition encompasses the whole myraid of experiences of what people deem Chi to be. Tension in the body is energy locking up. Diffusing it is just a process of active relaxation. Emotions ranging from happines, anger, jealousy etc, all are just vibration to me. It can be guided, released, stored, manifested etc. Even the floating of your body in the sea or the light from the sun is all energy. Gravitational forces of attracting and repelling. Magnetism, heat, cold. The more I train the less I understand what I think the actual meaning of chi actually is...maybe that is why my teacher doesn't even teach using the word chi. Just my humble opinions on this subject from my experiences. Enjoy your practice, mouse

Going deeper into the layers of reality, sound is just a vibration. It is the mind that attaches meaning to them. If someone says something of a course nature, by the time it hits the ear, the mind interprets it as abusive, the heart rouses in anger the vibration had already ceased to exist. Why then is the heart still clinging onto the memory of a sound and repeating it over and over again as if it exists? This understanding as shared by Ajahn Sumedho (a western student of Ajahn Chah) has been a great practice method for my own development. Thought I'd share it as it is relevant to the topic discussed. Enjoy your practice, mouse

Scotty, Thanks for speaking up. You're not the only one...

Spirit Ape, Again fighting is not relevant to the article presented. "Totally destroying" has a place in liberation though... and that is with regards to defilements in our minds. You are right about the push hands being playing movements. Those currently online are set push hand sets. Free push comes after learning set push. Same as from no stepping to stepping to old-man stepping. Bouncing the opponent in push hands happens when you issue and the opponent is uprooted. Is just a game to test your taiji. Think I've said enough on this as I've repeated a few points before. Enjoy your practice. mouse

Spirit Ape, How do you define winning? Regarding talking fighting, I think the only person talking about it from the beginning is you... The article clearly is about Taiji and Liberation and not fighting. mouse

Ape, Haven't got any videos of these encounters. We will post them up once we have some though. Push hands is just a training method. Without push hands, it is hard to train sensitivity, the yielding, neutralising skills as well as testing the quality of your taiji form. You can apply the techniques refined in push hands to combat situations, to trap the opponent's center etc. I'm always interested to see what other disciplines have to offer. Fujian White crane also follows some similar principles in Taiji such as 'sung' and 'yi'. Do you have any of your own clips demonstrating Hakka arts? Enjoy your practice, mouse

Spirit Ape, Perhaps you didn't read the portion about push hands training. Actually Sifu has had lots of experience with BBJ folks and has even taken opponents fighting on his knees...but no one has been able to take him to the ground yet. He is planning to do some videos of _____ vs Taiji to post up. If you would like to have a friendly go, I am sure he wouldn't mind filming it for youtube regardless of the result. Are you a hakka mantis practitioner? mouse

His opponents are all floppy... all over the place and over extended for every movement. Are there clips of better opponents? I've heard many good things about this teacher and he seems to have written quite a number of books from what I read on the forum. Would be interesting to watch if anyone has any clips to share. Bagua is an interesting internal martial art. Enjoy your practice, mouse

Final part of article. __________________________________________________________ I have read and heard about some famous teachers that state when issuing or practicing fa jing one needs to lose control momentarily, the body shakes almost like a spasm and you have to tap into some primitive mind state. What is your view on this? Yes, I know of the method which you speak of, it is not fitting to criticize other teachers or their methods. At some level they may be giving there students what they need and want and hopefully not bringing any damage to them internally or externally. However for those interested in the path of taiji training which is in harmony with the laws of reality I will give a few words on the subject. To fa jing simply means to issue energy or to issue force, so when a martial artist releases power through a strike he is in turn issuing force or fa jing. So to say that fa jing is a singular technique is not really correct. From the point of view of a genuine practitioner of taiji, issuing force must be done through relaxation, letting go and through the mind and energy bodies. One can issue energy in many ways from the gentle to the destructive. Such as firing the jing into an organ or into the spine of your opponent so as to kill them, naturally such actions bear only negative results in this present life and the next and are extremely unskillful. For this reason the best way to train in fa jing is to train in long energy, when I say long energy I am referring to the bouncing energy of taiji where your opponent is projected many meters away by the internal force. This is not to be confused with an external push or shove and anyone with some discernment will be able to see the difference. As I have mentioned the main energy that we train in taiji is awareness or listening energy, this awareness must be present throughout the issuing phase and it is actually this awareness that creates the issue rather that some storing up of power. It is this awareness which gives us our martial skills as well as our spiritual heritage, to lose awareness is in direct contrast to listening energy and therefore is the opposite of taiji. The idea of taping into some primitive or animal mind state could maybe work in a basic combat situation but is on the level of reverting to an animal awareness and the outcome of that awareness would be a disaster for ones spiritual growth. Who would you say has been the most influential for you development as a martial artist? Great kindness has been shown to me by a number of teachers, Roger Cotgreave and otheres openly shared with me the huang style forms and push hands sets. My biggest influence without any doubt has been sifu Mark Rasmus, he has been and continues to be a great friend and guide to me. Many martial artists talk about living the martial arts as a spiritual path but you almost never meet one who does it. Mark opened my mind to the true nature of internal power and taught me how to live as a martial meditator through example and teachings, he has put me on the right path and kept me on it, Marks kindness to me is something that I can never repay. More recently sifu Lau has guided me in refining my push hands skills, he is a very talented martial artist that I am grateful to train with. As you have now moved away from Australia and only return to run seminars, what are your plans for teaching in the future? I am now based in Thailand. My priority is teaching elite taiji and the cultivation of the mind. I am running in-depth private training in taiji form, push hands and martial applications. Coupled with meditation and chi gong training the focus is always on the development of true internal power. These personal training retreats are open to martial artists from all styles. We also offer instructor training for people of an appropriate skill level that wish to open a branch school for the Heaven Man Earth taiji international. -end Part 4- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mal, Feel free to post it on the article section. Hope it was of help to your practice. mouse

wudangquan, That is the king and queen building isn't it? There should be another one exactly like it just 200m next to it. Is a beautiful spot right up at the peak. Air is a little bit thinner and much cooler than in Chiang Mai and a whole lot less polluted than the city. I think it took me 2-3 hours of riding to get up to the peak when I was last there. A lot closer to Chiang Mai would be Doi Suthep which can be pretty remote if you stay off the tracks. There are quite a few waterfalls and hills you can wander about in if you are up for it. Enjoy your practice, mouse

wudangquan, Could you ask for me the following: How does internal alchemy, in transmuting Jing to Chi to Shen, help with liberation of the mind? What practices does he employ to uproot the defilements of the mind/heart? Cheers. Enjoy your practice. mouse

wudangquan, His calligraphy is decisive and spot on. It is said you can tell a lot about a person's character from his writing. I think it is true in some aspects. To all, My take on fees is that a master must eat as well and charging fair fees is no big deal for his/her time. Anyone charging high fees in the thousands are normally opportunists. Donations with no fixed limits are common too. No need to get dissapointed or shocked nor saddened. Is a good opportunity to examine the heart. No one is insisting you learn from them anyway. Enjoy your practice, mouse

Pranaman, I just heard a Dhamma talk a couple days back directly dealing with topic on fear. Many forest monks train their minds in the forest and often have tigers prowling around their spot with only an umbrella between themselves and the tiger. The thing about the kilesas is that they do not like to be looked at. So watch where the fear arises from in your mind (citta). More often or not you will realise that the fear arises from an attachment to your body which is a fear of death. Not sure if you do meditation but sitting in samadhi and entering jhana will give rise to sukkha which counters fear. It does provide the calm needed to examine the fear which is anata (not self). The story goes that there was a bikkhu who heard a tiger growl, feared for his life and then realised it was very unbecoming of a monk. So he sat there and examined his heart. In the end, he saw through the kilesas and even went searching for the tiger. For a layperson, with physical danger as in the case of the tiger you should probably avoid it. However, with fear arising from visions etc, it is said that they cannot harm you. They are only mental fabrications that are also subject to the cycle of birth and decay. Hence the most effective method of dealing with fear or any other emotion is to go to the source. It all stems from mind. Observe it, and see through its nature. Sights and sounds are just vibration. It is the mind that attaches meaning to it. Enjoy your practice, mouse

Lin, Looks great. Big open spaces once you fold up that table for training. I notice what looks like an ancestral tablet on the floor there. However, it isn't the custom to put it on the floor. Is it a local diety or the like? And who are the three people in the painting above it? Enjoy your practice, mouse

I have to agree that Taiji has been watered down to an extent where most people claiming to teach genuine Taiji are only peforming bad kung fu. Applications are forced into the Taiji shapes and done without an understanding of true yielding, neutralising and issuing. Wushu and Taiji are two different paths in terms of internal mechanics and structure. Yet many do not have the eye or discernment to differentiate the two. But as the teacher in the clip mentioned, he believes wushu supplements the external aspects of muscle conditioning, speed and hand-eye coordination which is not wrong. Personally, I find that Taiji when trained right is comprehensive in these aspects. Enjoy your practice, mouse

takeiteasydo, Phuket is a good spot as Sifu Adam is usually based there. Plenty of good spots to train. Good luck with your travels. Enjoy your practice. mouse

takeiteasydo, You may wish to look up Sifu Adam Mizner if you are in Thailand. If internal aspects are the focus of your training, he'll be able to lead you in the right direction. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DrnB5JSAro&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DrnB5JSAro&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DrnB5JSAro&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Chigung is also taught depending on what you are seeking, ie, rooting, sticking, triangulating energy, healing etc. How long and when will you be in Thailand for? mouse