Astral Monk

A timely thread. Im thinking about learning the style from our local IMA legend family the Liangs (Shouyu Liang's school). I seem to be drawn to IMA fusion styles. But...turning away from the OP request for translations, should we consider liuhebafa a unique form, a unique style of internal arts, or a blend of the three classic (taiji, bagua, xingyi)..? Does it build a unique form from traditional material, applying the principles in another format? Or is it a unique insight and form that while paralleling other IMA arises independent of them? Thoughts? 8)

OP, depends what you want. If youre looking for immortality, best leave all qigong aside and find a neidan teacher, some would say, as qigong only works with post-heaven energy--meaning it works with the matter that is 'before us' in the world, but not on the foundational structures or processes that shape that matter. Guess this is why qigong practice is like eating food--you gotta do it everyday, or multiple times a day. Chunyi is really on about his interpretation of the heart sutra these days, and thjs brings a whole new element (or rather, the five elements) into the practice. Chunyi is deceiving--because he comes off as average Joe and you think 'what does he know' then he pulls out some deep stuff and youre like 'damn he knows more than hes tellin'. Even though everyone says dont mix styles, I think SFQ can synergize with a lot of other practices. Maybe not the fancy qigongs, but anything that is traditional or common across all forms of gong. Besides, what are you worried about at the outset? If you havent realized your own emptyness how can you move forward in any appreciable way? SFQ is, for its part, focussed on going into the emptyness. So it cant hurt to travel that path a while. Take that road and see what your destiny reveals. Might lead you on to other things later. One thing I like about Chunyi is that he encourages ppl to take his teachings to the next level, if the can. Chunyi is like a car salesman who happens to be a Nascar driver, and says 'you can be too!' 8)

Absolutely impossible to 'prove' this in any way whatsoever. We cant know what went on 70 years ago let alone 70000 years. Let alone what may or may not existed before human language was invented, lol. So how do we treat this? Only as speculation. 8)

Probably yes with some of the modern white dudes MCOing out there..! Same guys commodified martial arts. 8)

I would start intensive practice of one-inch punch until I run out of air or break through. 8)

i approve of this thread. now for a dangerous challenge, try wiping yer ass with the other hand..!! a lot of conventions are right-centric. Trying to use both sides reveals this. I bet the ol' Bushmen were ambidextrous! later, write with both hands simultaneously in mirror image. 8)

The problem is further compounded by the fact that there is no way other than a leap of faith past epistemological skepticism and the reality that outside of pure Being we have no knowledge, only 'beliefs'. 8)

Truth is only one thing--Being, the Absolute. It is that which cannot be transcended or dissolved, the most final fundamental suchness. Everything else is 'truth'. All forms of perception of things are relative and polarizing. Statements are only 'true' relative to an assumed standard--a system of logic and a set of axioms. Change any of that and truth-value changes. 'Truth' is really just another human constructed value. Senantics and ethics are just applications of axiology. As such, the best rules for 'truth' are internal consistency and coherence. Many 'facts' can be both 'true' and 'false' simultaneously just as acts can be both 'good' and 'bad' simultaneously--depending on your frame of reference. This is the ultimate limitation of logic and the reason why language cannot lead to Truth, but only give us relative 'truths'. 8)

Also the second part of the style was an emphasis on Buddhist teachings; one could also train to become ordained as a monk. I read some thought this was a clever tax dodge or something, lol. I'm not sure how big it is part of the contemporary school. As for efficacy, they used to mention how the Japanese police trained in Shorinji Kempo. The techniques are compact and designed to help a person get away from danger, and to subdue without permanent harm, quite like Aikido. A modern style for the masses, there is no lineage type continuation, as far as I know, though the founder's daughter runs the 'organization' side of things, or did as of a few years ago. 8)

Difference between Shorinji Kempo and modern karate is that there is no such thing as tournament competition. All Shorinji instructors are volunteers and we all take a vow never to profit financially from practicing the art. The organization was originally build on redeveloping the character of the post-war Japanese and has not been caught up in the Americanisation of kenpo et al. As such it is not widely known in North America and its main base of influence is still in Japan. 8)

Sister Street Fighter is a great series. Plus I love the dojo scene in the first movie. Not much changed in Shorinji Kempo since the 70s...except the wording of the oath and creed and dropping of pressure point massage for lay ppl and no longer teaching meiuchi as a fingertip strike. Shorinji Kempo is more like Shaolin than anything with heavy emphasis on chinna moves as part of the soft regimen. Unlike Aikido theres plenty of offensive strikes, even though the basic philosophy is 'dont strike first'. 8)

mud stepping through the grocery store pushing those metal shopping carts. push needle to sea bottom to tie your shoe. those Shaolin guys seem pretty good at sweeping! 8)

Basic qigong practice flows from a standing position, connecting with the earth. We learn to find a deep root and soild structure. But many modern forms of travel are disconnected from the physical ground--planes, boats, spacecraft. Does anyone have experience or recommendations for qigong or tai chi type practices that are well suited or even designed for people floating above the earth? My initial thought on this was finding exercises that could offset the effects of lengthy travel--jet lage, sea sickness. For example, what might be a good exercise for travelling on boats? How might one find a root floating on the water? Chunyi Lin recommends his small universe (mco) meditation during air travel to offset jet lage, for instance. Any thoughts on this? If we are flying or floating do we need to connect to air or water elements? 8)

happy I saw this thread. I had come across Tina Zhang online before during some past researches, but as this thread brought to my attention the locale the stars aligned (or is it, heaven, earth, and humans aligned?). I had the pleasure of attending a class today. Unf no time for more But I was excited that we practiced bagua qigong using common 8 palms circle walking, millstone grinding, and other gentle qigong. If I lived nearby Id get into this school. Very similar to my practice with the Tristar school on the west coast. Wonderful to deepen and broaden my understanding through crosspollination of styles!! And I learned a thing or two, not the leastbeing the trigram associated with each standard bagua palm. Will come in useful in future practice. Might get a copy of that book too for reference material. Lol mymartial arts book shelf may soon become its own bookcase 8)

yes, he did invite the group to assist in working to counter the blockages that could lead to such outcomes. It became part of the intent behind our meditation at that time. The value might just be in making ppl aware that we can plug into the streaming universe at any moment to perceive these sorts of outcomes and connections. For healing this is tremendously useful and encouraging (the principle). But even so some situations cant be helped and can only exhaust themselves through their manifestation (the rock was heading for Buddha's foot for countless milennia). 8)

Great idea. I was thinking there ought to be a rec space in planes for that purpose. 8)

Naturally! I'm thinking for air travel deep breathing and focus on the central channel, perhaps virtually exteding it down to earth and up to space. Water travel might benefit from good ol horse stance to both find deep balance and promote fire energy to counter all that water. Maybe vehicle qigong is about becoming one with the flow of the vehicle body itself, to the extent that turbulence isnt felt as a shock to ones small separate body. 8)

Chunyi said he got the vision of more planes crashing during his nightly meditation at our Seattle seminar in February. His reaction was sadness but also a sense of thats how things go. For the rest of us, we just keep moving forward and try to elevate our spirits. 8)

Very interesting. Worth checking out, thnx for posting this! 8)

This trend of ppl deleting their posts is extremely annoying and aggravating. Nothing like opening a thread in a discussion forum to find a bunch of blank posts. This is akin to saying something to someone, then when they reply responding with 'no it wasnt me, I didnt say anything, you hearing things'. If youre that concerned about your content DONT post in the first place. We (some of us) are here to learn, and we can learn from mistakes as well as wins. RANT!!!! But plz, stop doing that ppl. kind regards, 8)

no such thing as 'bad' karma, so how can it be burnt off? Meanwhile it is said that reciting Amitabha dissolves huge swaths of karma. Guess its merit is quite high. 8)

this.

No condolences here, unless youve also lost your memory. We spend so much time making recordings of things we forget to experience them. Bravo for deleting your photos! In the news I saw some family pay ransom--a fxing ransom--to some thief to get some photo albums back of wedding and kids. I would have told the theif to go f themselves and no mistake. Pic are fun but not worth running into a burning building over. Make memories, not data.

There is another angle here, about 'delete culture', concerning personal responsibility. If someone writes something that pisses ppl off or whathaveyou, instead of revisiting the comment and dealing with it in a moving forward kind of manner, 'delete'--its like it didnt even happen! 'You cant say I said anything cause there no text to back it up.' I gain more from seeing a conversation where ppl have turned comments and disagreements around than by seeing a page of empty posts. No one learns anything from blank posts. All a person is doing is pretending they weren't part of a conversation in the first place. 'That wasnt me, I didnt say anything, just forget all about it.' Everyone makes dumb remarks sometimes, but if you think/write it, garuantee others think the same way. Always a possible learning moment--but only where there is content. Or you could get all Buddhist and just say, like the gods to Subhuti, 'you didn't write anything, we didn't read anything, this is true content.' ;p

A forum is not like a sand mandala. We have an expectation of finding something here. This isnt snapchat. If that is the new way of things I dont see the point of a forum at all. >shrugs< 8)