Ramon25

I just dont understand dude I have read and reread your post and all I can come up with is just becuase it looks and acts like bagua doesnt mean its bagua because of some unknown reason that you havent clarified. If you want to know the style pick up a book. I laso have these books http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Pa-Kua-Chan-Vol/dp/0865681724/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290374315&sr=8-5 http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Pa-Kua-Chang-Shui-Tien/dp/0865681732/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290374315&sr=8-8 I cant really see much of a difference between the two. Not in priciples

I guess not, then nothing really does except for some Mystical mumbo jumbo. You dont even know what internal priciples the art teaches. yet you say SOME, as if you know. WhY? because you are already biased in this situation. Which is fine. My perception of what constitutes legitimate practices is very different is suppose. I like to use the lens of science and the a westen perspective to adapt eastern practices to my life. The traditional psuedo explanations are not very important to me.

if LOOKS like a duck, ACTS like a duck and QUACKS like a duck is what I said. Your reading and seeing what you want here sloppy

It walks in a circle, uses the same palm shapes and PRINCIPLES as traditional forms of bagua. I can assure you what I have learned WORKS in the REAL WORLD. If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like one, its probably a duck. The reason it may not have looked like "bagua" is because jiulong is a principal based art and techniques are simply applications of said priciples. So really it creates an infinite amount of applications, yet there are none really set in stone pursay. These books are some of the most detailed i have ever read for ANY martial art. He also explains the art itself though physics and physiology, very little "mystical" talk is used. As far as I am concerned, if people dont consider it bagua, they are stuck in the arachaic idea of tradition in place innovation. But to each his own. He even has knife and gun disarms, which again make a style that speaks to modern man. Oh also one of the reasons they probably didnt learn much is because the first 6-12 months at his gompa is spent on sitting and standing meditation and ONLY that. Then basic steeping and exploration of each palm shape is about another year before the real meat is added. Its not a mcdojo.

Lazy mans walk Combat situations are very unpredictable and sponateous, hence no set form,I dont have much expirience in formal training on the chinese arts but I have alot of expirence in COMBAT focused disciplines, excessive preset forms get in the way of being in a fight. and Also the traditional way of walking the circle from a BIOMECHANICAL perspective, you know SCIENCE, destroys your knees and puts pressure on the lower back aswell. not to mentions that walking that way in a combat situation is extremly stupid and undavisable. Plus its a REALLY detailed book. I agree though a teacher would be best. But its comes back to the Good, better, best hierchy. best would be a teacher, but the book is is good Sloppy, why do you say fishy?

No problem. Jiulong baguazhang is very interesting. It is very practical in comparisons to more traditional systems. Ironically there is no preset forms! You learn the principles, the palm changes and stepping. with time, one you you know the palms you link them sponaneaously in the moment to create ever chaning forms that are adaptable, you get in a FLOW pursay. True to the daoist philosophy. here is what it looks like

Taoism is the most refined and explored concept we have of what is now called SOMATIC Psycology. The mind and the body, or yin and yang. But taoism is somatic Psycology. FROM those PRACTICES came realizations. not the other way around.

So guys I have been doing outer/inner dissolving standing in regular wu ji posture. My question is can u inner dissolve in all zhang postures. Like, HOLDING THE TIGER, THE DRAGON, HOLDING TREE ECT..?

you know what we need? A Tao Te Ching for the western mind.

Massage and foam rolling. Get anatomy trains- the book and massage the fascia lines in the head and chest. Been there and this helps like nothing else. Oh also stretching my face jaw and neck helps. Do body work and take the mind out of it.

Hey just to verify guys, With the taoist breathing, do I use my lower back, sides, bell and upperback SIMULTANEOUSLY, pretty much all expanding and contracting at the same time or is there a sequence?

40 reviews and 5 stars- To me this has been the best http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0865682550/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=13DNQGHBSB4QQ3YCGNXW&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

Really good questions! I second the speculation of whether or not there are other methods based on the other elements and also the whole eclectic advice thing?

1. Does he personally use the I ching for divination and overall how does he feel about such a practice? 2. Will he ever create a Tai chi training program, like his bagua one? 3.How does he feel about diet and what does his look like?

Im always impressed with your attitude on issues santi always a balanced perspective.

http://www.fullkontact.com/ this guy is is chi gung master and strong as hell. The keu really is mixing flexability/mobility with weights.

"truth is usually ignored, so that all of someones intentions can be focused on argueing with lies" especially in chat rooms

UMMMM that is effectivley what I just said.... Man dude, GIH your a smart guy, there is no denying that. I say this to offer perpective not out of disrespect. You read way to much into things and not enough at the same time. You place to much "faith" in logic and yet not enough "logic" in faith even though you think you do. Why are you so sure that you are sure? I dont know man, there are times when you offer interesting perspective and others where you literally make an ass of your self because bro you are a know it all . I have been guilty of that before But dude you got to realize that. On the kundalini note What is the difference of whether it is symbolic or not? Maybe the sages of india ment it symobolically, maybe not, maybe they saw it as a symbol and yet belived it was literalbecause of that. Either way there is no substantial difference

So to be perfectly clear about my experience with kundalini. I dont think kundalini, needs to be awakened and yet i do at the same time. I have come to see kundalini as myself and myself as the universe, within those three different terms there are levels where each is separate and all is one. In their seperatness there is a feedback loop between them, making them one. Kundalini is the energy of life, so when it "wakes up" or We become "aware" of it, it intensifies. In that intensity, all the unconscious material we have goes through catharsis, the energy channels in the body suddenly intensify. It feels like an entity because it is us, at an unconscious level feeding information and our personal energetic signal into the universe, into the field. Then in turn the universe feeds info back at us, whatever we need to achieve what we desire or to become who we truly are. It is a process, a process of overload, blowing open our connection to the quantum field, enhancing our already present communication with. The unconscious is in contact with the field, it is in the field. So kundalini is all these things suddenly increasing in velocity and communication with the ego, the self. A marriage of the large with whole. The male with the female. It is in essence alchemy at its deepest level.

This logic is so backwards and circular that it luaghable. Now that doesnt mean that I am upposed to it The fact of the matter is that it is all word play in the end. Because you can say that the mold is always in the bread all it needs is to be woken up, same as any disease,it is there and just needs to be woken up. Or that kundalini is always there and maybe WE need to awaken to that fact. OR maybe it is always there and needs to wake up. Like the buddah being awake and not asleep. I do however agree, that thinking it needs to be AWAKE can be a blockage. In the end it doesnt matter. As its not what it is but how we relate to it.

I would reccomend. http://www.amazon.com/Laughter-Tears-Silence-Expressive-Meditations/dp/1577316835/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284426315&sr=8-2-spell Or http://www.osho.com/Main.cfm?Area=Meditation&Language=English

Let me clarify. NOT THAT BOOK. I dislike the boo aswell for most of the same reasons BUT a diet based on what paleolithic man ate is hands down the smartest diet. Avod dairy, grains, excessive carbs ect... More like here http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

The paleo diet, hands down, No other diet stands up to it. in terms of science

LMAO, I agree he would be like "u need all that to tell you what I understood by sitting at the park? That u dont understand anything?" haha oh well. Also hey Amit Goswami is pretty well known, he wrote one of the main text books on the mathematics of quantum mechanics used at the moment. Cool dude... I agree with you on many mdern physicist who have lost that side of them that can only revel in the mystery, validating it as an equal to logic, Sad... Oh this is an edit, I wanted to add, that you are correct in that turning such an idea into a theory with equations, that could fit together and work out elegently while accounting for the all the presumed laws of physics while uniting them would be trully difficult. But maybe we dont need that...

So basically the question here is there sometjing about zhang zuang which makes emotions harder to control? Whenever I do zhang zhuang for more that 5-10 min, the next day my temper is nuts, I feel anger so much more easily, to ythe point where I can control it. I do believe my posture is good so I dont know what to think....