Astral Monk

The old palms are pretty basic, and different styles may use different changes to move between them. 64 sets are further extensions of these changes with more applications. But there should be some kinda root palms in there. Let us know what you discover! 8)

I think the 'old 8' palms are fairly universal. They are connected to the 8 trigrams. Earth double press down, heaven double press up, wind pressing forward and backward, thunder double press forward, fire piercing up-down, water piercing out pressing up (spear posture), mountain palms together upward press along the body, lake classic palm posture pressing out with other palm at the elbow. There are variations, of course. The squence above is heaven, earth, wind (right), thunder, fire(left), water (left), mountain, lake (left). 8)

Disconnect your breathing from your movements. Chunyi once recommended, if you could, to do one yin-yang rotation per hour. Thats really slow--! But it means breathing is deep even and natural, and no need to make it fixed to the up-down left-right. Chunyi says to use whole body energy breathing during this exercise. So basically, we establish our structure in post standing, then lightly focus on energy breathing, then allow the arms to drift in elipses. More important, I think, is to keep in mind that the right hand is yang-fire and the left is yin-water, and consider how those two have natural tendancied to rise and sink, and how that affects to cycle of the circle. 8)

Many people who speak/write about the art of Bagua Zhang and its principle exercise, circle walking, express how these practices are excellent for longevity. Walking the circle, it is often said, is all one needs to do for health and long life. However, where is the evidence for this? Certainly, bagua zhang practioners are quite supple and strong, and notably so even into old age. There is a lot to be said for the twisting and squeezing aspects of the art and the constant focus on circular patterns. It would make sense to see this connected to longevity. But, when we look at the history of bagua zhang masters, we don't see a lot of long-lived people. With very few exceptions, the great masters of bagua zhang consistently seem to live 50, 60, or 70 years. That is, not much more than the average population. Even Dong Hai Chuan, the modern founder of the art, only lived around 85 years. Any thoughts as to why this is the case? How about contemporary bagua zhang masters? Are they living to 100 or more? 8) Dong Hai Chuan

I know, but one gets that feeling from similar commentary out there in the wild, wild, web. Lets not forget who runs Hollywood afterall, lol. 8)

Asia is the motherland for asian culture and where BILLIONS OF ASIANS live. As if they dont have enough celluloidial representation. Why should all other cultures also portrary 'asian equality'? Again, flip it and tell me where are all the black film leads in Chinese cinema? Doesnt it sound ridiculous to suggest there SHOULD BE? Or wax on about how the Chinese film going public isnt interrsted in seeing that? Anyway, Iron Fist is a pass for me, lol. 8)

If you want 'yellow leads' theres an ABUNDANCE of Chinese cinema and tv series. America, as inheritors of European culture, is mostly 'white', so why do they need to cater to all ethnicities? Dammit, why arent there more Caucasian leads in Chinese tv dramas??? Mustbe racism. Its fine if arts want to refelct more diversity, but remember what national culture we are talking about. PPL make it sound as if having a 'white lead' in a post-european nation is morally offensive. It is ridiculous. Even worse is Iron Fist. And I love most Marvel stuff. But I couldnt finish the first episode bc it was crap from scritp to casting to everything. I wont be following up, but suppose will have to tolerate Fist if they make a Defenders series. 8)

OldAngel's comment on SFQ seems on point. Especially when you start to explore deeper into alchemy. You might begin to wonder what is going on in SFQ and whether there is a point moving 'further' with the system. Esp, I think, if you havent experienced anything profound yet. However, it remains simple and accessible for the western student, and I have no doubt that ppl are experiencing healing via this modality. In fact, whatever critique you want of SFQ qigong, you cant dismiss Chunyi's teaching package because he has packed in a lot of useful info And practice based on Chinese medicine and energy theory. SFQ's 'qi-ssage' is an excellent place to start connecting the energy dots. Even the finishing exercises of SFQ lvl 1 are great to practice daily. So, Chunyi adds value. I would recommend his 5 Element exercises. I feel as a package they are more focussed and united than previous sets, and they include all the SFQ-eness of the other forms. It reflects a genuine evolution of SFQ practice, imo. Just be wary about use of energy--pumping energy, raising energy up the body, etc. Particularly using reverse breathing and drawing energy up the body. And keep in mind that directing post-heaven energy might come at a cost, although SFQ seems to mitigate this to some extent via their philosophy of drawing energy from the universe with unconditional love. All in all, isnt there a point in any practice where one feels doubt and anxiety? I see SFQ as a tool rather than a system. But if you want to go further and see spirits etc, you can. Will it bring you into balance or out of balance? Chunyi meditates like 6 hrs a day and barely sleeps. 8)

Personally, imo the fascism thing is a red-herring. I mean look, its the reeeeeeeee of SJWs right beside 'natzee'. Sure there's something to be wary of, but its just another mode distracting us from what is really going on-- complete and utter destabilization of western culture, with the destabilization of America being the prime cherry. Theyve been trying for sometime to spark a race war, but the masses havent been biting. Now going forward? Who knows? If that doesnt work, the liberals against libertarians and freemen--corporate guns against citizen guns. Anybody see the movie version of 'V for Vendetta'? The vision they had there for America is the outcome they want--not a stronger, greater America, but a weaker, more divided, continually beseiged America. Thats why most of the predictions of the rise of antichrist figures have him coming out of Europe, not as the fascist leader of a strong independent republic of liberty. Basic American values are abhorrent to those trying to control humanity. The only benefit was that theyve been able to manipulate and use Americans to further their own ends with impunity. Fascism is more likely to rise in England or France. PC out of control. 8)

Wheres Karl? Ppl have been saying this for a while now. I myself was fearing it in the 90s. The Ominous Parallels 8)

This is what memes evolded from.

Kali!!!! Since there is no such thing as a soul mate, it def isnt that. Total completion is an effect of godess worship tho. Maybe look into that. Perhaps youre longing for devotional practice.

They will taste awesome doe! 8)

You dont know that. 8)

So what about the incongruity of greenhouses being used to increase lushness and yeilds vs they telling us evrything is stunted and struggling? Bc of greenhouse effect? Think these two things might not be related... Do we have a political disagreement here, a scientific one, blantant lies, or honest errors? If global warming is a scare tactic, what IS the agenda? What about solar warming? Changes in other planets? Certainly humans change and impact environments, no question. But we are not anywhere close to planet smashing. I saw some numbers relating to a carbon tax here in Canada. Namely, that given the estimated number of trees we currently have, our trees clean 11x the amount of carbon our society produces. So why are we taxing carbon?? Why not planting double or triple the trees? As we move away from fossil fuel use. ???

I think it will also help, if exploring a book or video, to choose a system you can follow up with in real life. Eg, if you look at Spring Forest, Chunyi is actively teaching in North America and occassionally beyond, and is actively producing more media, teleseminars, social media, etc; so there is opportunity to connect to the master and the community, even if only periodically. If you got material from a dead guy or someone who secluded from society, your chances of progress are going to be much, much worse. 8)

The other, lesser known toy line, 'Jewish Infantry Jonah', made a brief splash with focus groups in New York in 1979, but was later retooled for a broader audience.

Coo-coo ca-choo! 8)

We might also observe how 'guilt' and 'responsibility' are quite different, separate. Tho we say 'X is guilty!!' we usually mean they are responsible or the most evident localized perpetrator to fix blame on. Whereas 'guilt' is actually an internal emotional state one experiences, often related to some form of concealment, shame, regret. 8)

Lets not forget Tavistock! 8)

I think the difference is how time is viewed. But boy is THAT a whole nother complex discussion, lol. 8)

I think maybe a better way of stating my position is this--responsibility is merely a practical concept. In seeking blame or guilt we localise causes to some small set of individual acts then discard the rest. So the murderer is identified by the act of killing, but since that is our primary social concern, we willfully ignore the context that brought it about. So looking from that act forward we can say 'X is guilty of murder cause X did the killing'. Sometimes we cast a bigger net and round up more indirect offenders, but we still cut off the connection at some point. If we didnt cut off, then pretty soon the whole universe is implicated, which is no good for the courts. Morally we should recognize this and understand how nothing exists in a vacuum or arises without precedent, even while insisting on political enforcement of justice. Legal and moral 'guilt' here can mean 2 different things. 8)

I would say that cause is not merely 'external'; or, the difference between 'internal' and 'external' is meaningless ontologically. We ARE causes and effects, inside and out. The key is to see how none of these causes--whether coersed from outside or initiated from inside--are separate, original, spontaneous events, but that all are seamlessly connected and can be traced back through themselves until the whole universe is involved. Wave upon wave upon wave. The case would be different with true free will though. There would be breaks in the flow, interuptions in the wave, like a rock jutting out of the water, forcing a new wave pattern. And were we able to trace back the causes, we would come to a complete blank where the first cause jumps into existence and appears totally out of context to the rest of the flow of events. I dont think we can ever see such a cause. And we have a good seat too, being at the center of will and intention. But even things like scratching the nose dont appear out of nowhere, but are embedded in a complete fabric of events. Tug on one thread and the whole rug comes off the wall. 8)

There is no analog for 'cutting the bindings' in reality. Who could do such a thing? What would be the outcome? The collapse of all order and connection, utter irredeemable chaos? A book ripped to shred is no book at all. Even the sage who goes into the emptyness comes back into the flow of the story, and the book remains intact. 8)