baiqi

We all kill (knowingly or unknowingly), we all die, we all belong to the earth. Yes, but you can choose to do as less harm as you can.

"We should not eat the meat in order to enjoy it, because it is delicious. We should not eat it because we want to enjoy the great flavor and savor what we are eating. Instead we should eat the meat only in order to keep ourselves alive." Very well put, and I'll just add that in our society we don't need it to survive anymore. Honestly people eat meat only for bad reasons; because they enjoy it, or because they believe that they need it. For the first ones: you can enjoy lots of other things, that are much less harmful. (Including food) For the second ones: you don't need it, just like you don't need to smoke. Stop for a while, see the difference after a few months. Check it out on the net or (better) with other vegetarians, you'll learn a little about nutrition, see people who are meatless and in good health.

I already gave this website... Do you guys ever read? I remember watching some of S.Augier's videos, but he removed them from his website. They must be somewhere on the net I guess... In one of them, he was freestyling baguazhang, in another one he was doing some xingyi bashi. If someone knows. I never met him anyway, but it looked very good. I met Hines, on the other hand, and he is a nice guy who teaches clearly, without esoterism (first words: "I am interested in Chinese esoterism, however, here, everything I teach has to be useful, and related to the body. So you won't hear words like "qi" or " hexagram" with me" ) If you cannot find Serge nor Edward, you also have the Chinese teacher Wong Tun Ken (just heard about...)

Edward Hines, a disciple of Luo de Xiu who is british, but lives in Paris. http://www.transformativemartialarts.com/

I think that it is what matters the most, don't you? Living life fully, healthy, happy, not necesseraly extremly old and crippled... Besides: Lü Zijian: 118 years old. Li Ziming: 91 years old Sha Guozheng: 88 years old And... Li Qingyun: 250 years old. Ok, one may debate about the last one. Many factors come into play when we talk about longevity. Eating, smoking (or not!), drinking, and heredity. I have no doubt that bagua zhang can be great for living older, but you have to be realistic. Some masters where fighters, and did die because of fighting. ( Cheng Tinghua, Ma Weiqi...) Some where very poor, and suffered from starvation during their youth ( Sun Lutang, Yin Fu).

Tanks, I am actually doing some san ti these days!

JustBHappy, thanks a lot! I'm waiting for the next diagrams, and I am sure they will be valuable for any baguazhang person. Although I never had big knee problems due to baguazhang, I am feeling sometimes that my left knee is somewhat "weaker" than the other one. Not really painful, but the feeling that it might be if I go on like this. This is true especially after mud-walking stepping (I also walk the circle with "natural" stepping). Your first diagram might actually be one of the components I was missing. Time will tell.

After the plants the canines... Are you going to do ALL OF THEM?

Oh, come on. Not that crappy argument again... - From the purely scientific point of view, plants don't have a nervous system, so they don't feel pain. - Let us admit that they do, but science cannot know for the moment. If you're an omnivore, you "kill" the animal and the plants that it ate. Not to mention all the trees that must have been cut down in order to grow soya or whatever in the Amazon forest. So if you are vegetarian you are hurting less, that is what matters. You cannot be perfect, but you can be better, that's all. Agree.

I was trained by one of his instructors, without having heard of him... From what I could feel from this instruction, he is the real deal.

Bagua is the yang side of the coin, Tai Chi being the yin I think theses refer to the martial arts of taiji quan and bagua zhang, not the cosmological notion. Generally speaking, baguazhang is more yang (fast, explosive, moving), while taiji quan is more yin (slow, more stable position, etc) However this is not always the case, some taiji styles (Chen for example) can have more yang.

I don't know about "superpowers", although if I had some I would use them. What I know for sure is that extra-sensorial perceptions do exist. Is that a superpower? I don't think so. I had a few strange experiences convincing me that this world is different from what we are taught.

It should not be a goal: it just happens. What is the point in seeing halos all the time? You mentioned that you were feeling relaxed when you were seeing them: what you ae really looking for is this state of relaxation. Halos are just a secondary thing.

Come on guys, are you really gonna fight for such a trivial matter? I agree with The Way and others: the Three pure Ones are different from the "three lucky stars". And if I'm wrong, I'll still won't call you names...

2. Wu style is good for fighting. 吴 or w武?

Santi is the basic foundation of Xingyi quan. It is great, but is different from "holding the ball" posture (that you see in Yiquan). It is very martially oriented, right from the start (whereas universal post can be used for meditation only). It is good to learn how to project energy for example. The weight distribution helps you to be powerful and balanced in the same time. However, I do not agree that it is an "on guard" position, although it looks like it. I used to believe this for a long time, but changed my mind thanks to sparring practice. There is actually no "on guard" in a self defence context. Even for sparring, this is not the best. I am particulary thinking about hook punches that you cannot easily counter if you are in santi. I believe an "open guard" is better (like the Yiquan positions, silat guard postures, or even boxing guard with open hands)

Haven't read yet. Seems interesting I'll have a look. Of course diet is important. However it does not replace qi gong nor meditation. It can make it easier or harder. I have met a few taoists practicing bigu. It is good, but only for some who already have good basics in alchemy/meditation. Besides, they would say it was not really for mediation itself, but rather to purify the body and make it stronger.

HE is right. You could also translate heaven and earth by "qian" 乾 and "kun"坤, which are the names of the trigrams related to heaven and earth. This is very common in litterature.

) Buddhism talks a lot about things happen at final stage , while Taoism talks a lot about things at initial stage. 2) Taoist way is more suitable for middle and old-aged guys, while Buddhist is more suitable for young people ,especial teenagers, in terms of getting real achievement. 3) While Buddhist way only targets at spiritual immortality, Taoist targets at both physical and spiritual immortality . 4) Taoist ways talk about method, fortune , companion and place(法,財,侣,地 ),Buddhist seldom mention them. 5)Taoist recognizes that female and male's way of cultivations are different due to their physiological differences, at least at initial stage ; In Buddhist cultivation, there are no attention to such differences. I disagree with some of these statements: 1) Taoism talks a lot about things at initial stage. You have lots of stories about sages having attained the tao in Zhuang Zi and Lao Zi (and others..) whereas they don't really tell you how to do. 2) Maybe...I don't really see why you believe this? 3) While Buddhist way only targets at spiritual immortality, Taoist targets at both physical and spiritual immortality . No. It's been a long time that no taoist (except very superstitious folk) believes in physical immortality. 4) That one is right. 5) That one seems right too, but I don't know about all buddhist schools.

or maybe the horse stance - taiji - bagua - training is enough If your goal is just energy work, I think this is good enough. You don't need- in my opinion- external martial arts. Even for self defence, internal martial arts can fit the bill...if the martial aspects are taught at all! However, do not neglect the physical side: running, stretching, even lifting some weights.

"Immortal", is, in the taoist context, a person who unifies him or her( women can do it too ) self with the Tao. The source was nothing. Quess what! We return to nothing. Too bad. From "emptiness" arises "something" again. This is in the DDJ.

Traditionnaly, the answer in China would be "ten years" before you could leave your teacher. In my experience, this is very hard, if not impossible given our modern day living standards. I was moving around the globe, making it hard to stay with one teacher all the time. However, there is one man who first introduced me to the taoist arts, and I consider him my "teacher for life". Although I am not studying physically with him anymore, I still would say he was my main influence. Not that he was better than other teachers I met after. It's just because we had a "special relationship" which is pretty hard to describe.

I am not sure, since I don't know you nor your practice. (You could describe it a bit, that might help) Generally speaking, I would say you need to balance your martial arts practice (I guess that's what you do?) or sport with something "cooler" like soft meditation qi gong. Also try to "let go" things more. How to do that? Well, when you wake up, you can say (mentally, or even aloud if no one's around) "Today, I will just allow things to be the way they are". This works like a mantra, a pattern that your mind will follow more and more over time. Don't forget to pay attention to your breathing,too. Hope that helps.

Very impressive, especially for someone this young. Besides, he seems to teach well, making the principles (correct angles, unbalance from the first touch etc) very clear.