doc benway

Judaism - The Five Books of Moses and the Talmud Hindu - Bhagavad Gita

It's wonderful to me how closely this ties in to what I consider to be the fundamental teaching of Daoism - Wu Wei. Let go of the "I" who is doing, becoming something, wanting, planning, and so forth. When that is gone, everything that happens is just the happening - Dao - unsullied by the illusion of a separate being.

You need as many practices as it takes to convince you that you already have everything you need, surrounding you right here and right now. It's not the practices that count but what you do between the practices... Enjoy!

Something that might be of value, if not, please ignore - The rest of your life doesn't exist - only now exists. Rather than worry about what you're going to do in the future, why not take a walk? Smell the smells, enjoy a sunset, drink a cup of tea - only really be there with whatever it is you are doing. If you are able to do that, a moment of mindfullness is every bit as meaningful as a lifetime of cultivation. The rest of it will work out the way it is supposed to. The universe will provide exactly what you need. Good luck

I think you'd like Tai Ji for a while but I wonder if you can put "you" aside for long enough to really dig deep enough. And to be honest, it's not for everyone but you certainly don't loose the emotional connection. One of the most difficult things for me about becoming a teacher was navigating the relationships with the other instructors and the students - you get very connected. Pushing hands and working the two person drills can really be awkward as well due to the emphasis on sensitivity when interacting with other people. I genuinely appreciate your vote of confidence in my teaching ability based on nothing but my words - if we get a chance to meet I hope my response to your punch doesn't disappoint!

Skeptical attitudes about Tai Ji Quan's martial potential and training methods are widespread for good reason. It looks like there's a lot of hocus pocus to the beginner and intermediate student. In addition, lot's of Tai Ji Quan programs and teachers don't understand the true martial methods and basically pull postures out of the form and apply them as one would with kung fu or any other martial art - that's not Tai Ji Quan. Your questions are worth answering for me because, as I said above, teaching is what helps me to understand at a deeper level. So, like it or not, here are some of my ideas: I won't show you how to apply TJQ to all of your movements. I'll teach you a set of exercises and a method of practicing them and the principles to be mindful of during your practice. If you are diligent, over a period of a few years you will gradually develop skill in utilizing the principles of Tai Ji in your Quan. A critical part of the method that is used in all schools of TJQ is form practice. The form is a key component to the training method. Practicing the form with careful attention to certain principles (found in the Tai Ji Classics of the various schools) is how you develop the integration of awareness, intention, and physical movement. The specific postures don't matter at all but the way one moves into and out of them as well as attention to details like balance, posture, muscle tension, yi, and so on... are critical. The reason the specific martial postures are used in the form is because those postures do become useful later, after the Tai Ji principles become firmly seated in your body. The form is also good for conditioning the body but that is not the primary purpose from a martial perspective. The form is not martially useful as a form. It is a brilliant method for developing a quality of movement and awareness in the practitioner. To master the martial movements, there are many other training techniques - solo drills, two person drills, strengthening exercises, flexibility exercises, neigong, meditation, and so on. The form, however, is the foundation. If the student has martial interest I will often do a little martial demonstration to show it's potential but I don't dwell on that in the beginning because it's more distracting than useful. There is no way to teach real Tai Ji using a short cut. It's a long path (side bar - Tai Ji Quan used to be called long boxing. Since it's a short range fighting method there are conflicting explanations for that name. I think it was called long boxing because it was such a slow training method but I could be totally wrong about that). Tai Ji Quan is more experienced and discovered by the student than taught by the teacher. As a teacher, I can teach the form, drills, principles, and so forth. The only way the student will ever learn "real" Tai Ji Quan is by diligently training using methods that don't appear on the surface to be effective in the beginning. I could tell you exactly how to do "real" Tai Ji Quan in about 10 minutes and that knowledge would be of no value - you'll never figure out how to make it work without putting in the "10 years of time, money, and suffering." If you do the drills and practice the form while mindful of proper principles, you will eventually discover the physical feeling and method of Tai Ji Quan movement. If you want a quick method of fighting, try Muay Thai, BJJ, or Krav Maga - all very effective and you can get pretty good pretty quickly. It's a lot different than sneezing or boxing but a little bit like sweeping the floors, in fact. Tai Ji Quan is a method of fighting that empasizes the use of sensitivity, awareness, sticking, yielding, neutralizing, and hitting with short force (fa jin). You attach to your opponent, stick to them, follow their movement, and capitalize on their mistakes from very close range. It utilizes a lot of joint locks, sweeps, take downs, and strikes using the skills of proper posture and timing. It's a bit like Aikido. If you separate from your opponent you have no choice but to use hits and kicks as in other martial arts but that's no longer the Tai Ji method. One of the martial principles of Tai Ji Quan is: Zhan, Nian, Lian, Sui, Bu Diu Ding which translates something like: Stick, Adhere, Link, Follow, Do Not Go Against Or Separate I hate to be the one to break this to you but it's also possible that they were celebrating...

An alternative perspective - Tai Ji may not be "about movement" (actually, I would say Tai Ji transcends movement) but Tai Ji Quan is all about movement. There is nothing to explain - there is movement (and, to be more clear, I'll add awareness). The beauty and unique character of Tai Ji Quan is the integration of mind of intent and awareness with movement. Nevertheless, the Quan is all about the movement. Tai Ji is the guiding principle of the Quan but you can't ignore the Quan. If you take movement out of Tai Ji Quan, you have intellectual investigation. This may be entertaining and even enlightening but it is not Tai Ji Quan. Meditation is very valuable in attaining a high level of skill in Tai Ji Quan and I'd even be comfortable saying that meditation is more important than movement in cultivation (by far) but meditation is not Tai Ji Quan. It is meditation. Similarly, Tai Ji Quan is not cultivation - it improves and benefits from cultivation but it's not that. My primary purpose for teaching is selfish. I want to be the best I can in Tai Ji Quan and teaching takes your level of understanding to a deeper level. I have a demanding full time job and Tai Ji Quan teaching is on the side but it's worth the effort. There are lots of others benefits for me to teaching (more personal time with my teacher and more advanced instruction, an opportunity to share my passion with others, the camaraderie of my fellow instructors, and so on) but for me, the most important thing is the effect it has on my own training and cultivation.

I don't think it's a vague question though there definitely is paradox involved. The way "I" see it, "I" is the sum total of the activity of the brain's thought processes. Beyond "I" is reality.

Great thread - I don't have time to write much right now but I just agreed to write a newsletter article about this very topic for our school. It'll be cool to see the response in this thread and I'll add a few ideas when I get some time.

Where are you located?

You are but a sliver of everything, the entire universe, God, whatever you want to call it all... What else could you possibly be?

Isn't that an L Ron Hubbard story?

A thread in the general forum made me post this - I like it a lot. Krishnamurti

The way I understand JK's message is a bit different. He does not ask you to accept any assertions. He asks you to inquire for yourself and that inquiry must be your own affair. You must find out if there is a thinker or observer for yourself, if you are interested in that. He can guide you a bit but you must do the work - not him, or anyone else. He tells you to look for and find yourself so that you come to know exactly what "I" is. When you find your own answers, they will be knowledge, not belief. One of his core messages is that there is no path to the truth - it is a personal investigation. The guru's role is very limited. He never really says that there is no I, rather he helps you see what it is. You must commit a great deal of energy to this. It takes time, patience, and perseverance. It's worth the effort, if that is what you choose to spend your time doing.

I like that very much.

Excellent choices. I've had very positive experience with ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). It's founded in Eastern philosophical principles and may be worth exploring. Good luck!

Nice post Trevcaru - I think you and I share some common influences. Welcome to the TaoBums!

I think Qi is a very misleading concept the way we use it. We tend to equate it with other things that we think we understand so that it makes sense to us. This is a trap. The mind cannot figure out qi. The mind cannot figure out much of anything beyond relating it to things it already "understands." I would suggest beginning to cultivate Qi then you can reach meaningful conclusions about what it is and isn't and whether it is of any value for you to work with. FWIW, my experience of Qi is more similar to Goldisheavy in terms of it being more of a relationship or a process that occurs between awareness and substance or awareness and being, rather than measurable stuff.

Interesting discussion about annihilation of the self. Of course to have a meaningful discussion of dissolution of the self, can we first define the self? Next, can we determine who or what it is that is doing the annihilating?

RAOTFLMAO! Brilliant post.

Darin, I admire your commitment and perseverence! Bravo!!

I love Nina Simone! I've got my boobies...

An impeccably concise summary of internal Chinese martial arts!