Rocky Lionmouth

Could it be called a no-unthing?

I’d buy a Taoist Cannon rather.

Regarding the OP question: count me as one of those saying ”depends on the teacher and the student, both arts could take you to the stars or to the gutter depending on the first two factors.”

@windwalker this might sound like crazy talk but to me it looks contraddictory, i cant really tell though. Something is off in the connectors, either directions have been jumbled or a deception is used to make the meaning difficult to interpret for the uninitiated. Theres the obvious stuff such as pre and post heaven, their outer and inner placement, heaven and earth and all that. Cutting through it a little gives me the feeling that it looks like a charting of stratagems, i think there are maybe three overlapped famous symbolic devices forming a more detailed or unified illustration of a specific system or theory of steps, tactics and the heavenly principles on which they are based. That is of course a general speculation on my part, and anything i recognize here could be merely circumstantial and very wrong, utterly academical in any case.

Simple and to the point SB always cuts to the chase, i wish i could be a little more like you sometimes.

Still this stuff is highly powerful and clear, fleshing out Lius excellent commentaries and being relevant because seldom has this level of openness been available directly off the bloody interwebz. Its there, true and unadulterated, the method of living in reality to the fullness and it is basically spelled out exactly to the letter in a tremendous gesture of generosity. Deciblessings on I Ites, overstand and Igress to the Ital, Itinually. I can see how mr Ride feels it is humbug and blabla and his offer of generous instruction is not useless, but it is of formality and does not kill delusion nor foster an operators discipline to kill darlings or transcend insight to realization. Being not of neither true water or fire it runs the risk of turning your cauldron into a petri dish, thereby making it a side gate. If mr Ride were to understand and realize the secret of the flower, something Deci has described in exquisite detail how to do, his instruction would be of the Highest Virtue. There is hope yet, like they say, if you chance upon IT and put it to waste then you are a fool.

Would somebody reset the ”Days without John Chang threads” counter please?

Nice one! Glad you liked it. Yup, it’s pretty demanding at first, even just one minute can be really intense. Recommendations: make sure to be relaxed as much as possible and do not strain your breathing or tense your core. If your legs start to burn quickly and you still get training fatigue after a few months then you’re using far too much muscles in comparison to structure. Like i wrote, done correctly it should support itself and you’ll feel the difference. Heat is common in the beginning and it is definetly good for healing as it builds clarity and also gives a nice boost to the system. Many southern shaolin derivative styles have this form, especially if they have an 5 animal system, i think this form especially has deep roots. Hung Ga is the most famously recognizeable, but not the only. From whmuchat i’ve seen of Hung Kuen study of this their focus is very different from how i see it and teach it, if you look past the form itself and consider details and power for instance. Adding rings for weight or stuff like that is possible of course but i would not teach it that way. I consider the rings both a weapon and training tool and static weight ecercises with them dont really do much but build stiffness in themselves imo, but if you study a full ring form then doing the Golden Bridge with them will be a piece of cake. Rings are for studying power, acceleration, core structure, timing, economy of force and ”marrow massage” (they hurt pretty bad at first but your arms become VERY strong without loss of sensitivity or range of motion). Please be sure to follow my instructions regarding the angles and other details, keep the elbows bent always, feet parallell and back straight in that sung manner. Go slower than you feel is your max limit while developing the basics of this form as injury is easiest to get from overstraining or using too much power. Remember that my instructions here treat this form as a zan zhuang type of exercise.

Small addition: as many probably aready know the different hand postures that come from Pole Standing and San Ti & c:o are perfectly fine to use while sitting in meditation also. The Double Single Star Finger i describe above is very powerful ime as a chair-sitting posture also. Standing balances everything out more so it depends on what kind of effect you want. Sitting usually boosts me. If you guys feel that the wall of text above is a bit much i can transfer it to my PPF and just link it

I can recommend this posture, i really like what it does for aspects of all five phases. It takes a while getting used to it and develop it, it should however be a very efficient complement to the classic Santi. My tradition calls the form Golden Bridge iirc, the hand posture is called Single Star Finger Palm but its a classic form that exists in variations across many styles, most probably recognize it from Hung Ga based movie kung fu. Don’t scoff, this form is VERY good, the hand form alone is strong and easy to master and can be used for striking, pushing, stabbing, shoving, gripping, but do not try to condition this hand by striking, that is the wrong approach and will cause injury. Curse you thousandfold and lightning strike your head if you use it to harm the weak or innocent. (Seriously.) Apply basic Tai Chi/Sung common sense: Build up depth of stance over time and do not fall into sitting with your knees at 90 degrees, 89 is absolute maximum. I find that many also do this stance far too wide while going too deep, this can easily cause further blockage and even injury. Be wary and give yourself time to find your strong spots. Straightened small of back, slightly rounded out shoulders so that your scapulae separate, elbows down, fingers tight together (no space or stretching between index and middle finger in my lineage) and the thumb should be kept just far enough into the palm that you cant see it yourself. The thumb side of the edge should align more or less with the outer horizontal line of your shoulders and keep everything except your index finger below shoulder line. Hands should be as relaxed as possible. Some find this hand VERY hard to form without tensing up or aching after a short time. Build slowly and massage your hands to loosen up. Correct distance between hands (and angle of elbow) and chest is measured by being able to fit a fist horizontally between your ribs and the tip of your elbow on the upper arm side. For comparison with the picture i teach this posture so you can see a little bit more of the lower arm from the front and the hands would be positioned not over one two palms width more apart compared to the illustration. Enter this position slowly and do not tense or tighten anything you dont need to keep your form. Hands should not be used in the classic Hung Ga ”dynamic tension” exercise, this is not what you’re doing now, i personally dont recommend that exercise at all but i’m not Hung Ga so no disrespect intended. Stay relaxed and let structure give unmoving power forwards and outwards, no need to engage muscles to push. Stand for as long as you can without straining or forcing, take a short break and start over. It can take years to learn this form of standing exercise properly but it does wonders for qi, sung and structural power. I only understood a fraction of its potentials a few years back, it’s one of my faves now. Breathing should be relaxed and abdominal, either natural or reversed as you want. This exercise also gives great opportunity to practice 360 degree abdominal expansion, finnicky but a great exercise to avoid imbalances or blockage at the core. Eyes can be closed or open (choose which you want before each practice session and stick to that) but i prefer the latter. Smile and relax your vision and focus. If you feel heavy in your body you need to find the strength later and first of all correct your bu fa (footwork). Feet must be parallell and on one line, toes pointing ahead. Knees should never travel over the line that is between your left and right little toe. When done correctly this posture more or less supports itself. Thats a fairly detailed overview. Start out slowly and increase your sitting time slowly, keep your pace of increase slightly slower than you feel you can deal with: don’t waste energy but rather invest it cautiously. Entering the form: stand at attention with fists knuckle down outside of your hip bones, left foot moves out and plants on ground. While you transfer your bodyweight evenly across both feet arms start moving upwards in a circular motion. You describe two overlapping semicircles in front of you, underarms crossed and palms upward. As you go deeper and your hands start to come close to the height of where your collarbones meet near the conception channel you turn your palms out from facing you and move them to the illustrated position. Power is concentrated at your palms so called knife edge. Exiting the form: Double vertical backfists (similar to how some Wing Chun branches ”define the center”) while you first transfer body weight to your right side and then step back to attention. No falling into position or leaning out of it, carefully control your body weight and its direction always. PM any questions.

I’d say thats a hard understatement. Feng Shui is pretty deep, it has to do with aligning and finding the spots and areas that might be beneficial or troublesome for a given project such as building a home, farming etc. Feng and Shui are wind and water, the basic necessities for building any survival worthy anything. To harness wind and water you need mountains, temperature changes in cyclical patterns, certain types of soil and light etc. It has just as much to do with interior design and architechture as astronomy, astrology, metereology, geology, land surveying and project leading and organization as well as other things. I’d go so far as to say that it’s a way to aid in the cultuvation and preservation of ming and xing on a social and external level, aligning with the principles of tao as they appear in a given area. I’m no expert or even dabbler but i am close with a FS master and the stuff he keeps track of and calculates alone , without reference material or paper or pen, are immense. I think he works from the Flying Star School but knowing him he probably uses multiple systems depending on what needs doing... If i could get him to teach me for real, omg.

I’m pretty sure i hit most branches falling down the ugly tree but whatever malao. Tell you what i find interesting: that you choose smug and belittling to follow up ignorance and presumption. I guess you must have a lot of people lining up to be your significant other in your daily life, good for you. I wish you all the best and no friction or troubles in life.

Please. I’ve had plenty ”real” fights to last me a lifetime before i turned 15, i’ve not struck a single person in anger or fear since because i cannot for my life see why a fully avoidable solution needs to be escalated. I’ve been checked out by real, gun toting thigs and been left alone after an initial contact, we understood eachother well enough to leave dumb stuff be. I’ve had an experienced teacher of San Shou/MMA ”accidentally” punching my face hard because he got excited, wanted to test me. I give him nothing and his shame is complete. Same guy tries to demonstrate surprise knife attack in front of a group thinking i’m not paying attention and i react with my art and pull my finger jab a centimeter from his eye. It took him three full seconds to say ”very good reflexes man!”, tried to play it off like his attack was insincere but i saw the look he gave me. That man has serious inferiority complexes. Last time some wannabe streetfighter wanted a piece of me after being told repeatedly and calmly to just leave i stared him down, took two of his thigh-killers without flinching and asked him if his hearing was faulty or if he was just an idiot. I refuse to use any attacking skill on him because i cherish the privilege of studying my art and i can live without wasting effort on smacking sense into sensless ”fighters” and ending up in court over some bullshit. He backed off when he saw his provocation was refused. Speaking of real fighting is a dead giveaway to expose yourself as having fantasies of being a Warrior.

Beware the middle class approach, for they are victims of fetischization and seekers of buying of the Genuine True Exotic Other. Elite level combative full contact sports are great, but in their ranks they clunt countless followers and propagators of the myths of ”realistic fight training”, ”effective self defense” and Ultimate Killer Skillz learned from people who have learned from people who have learned from people who have won many matches. Its as destructive to the body, emotions and mind as it is a bunch of hyped up sports fads. If combat effectiveness is a goal that can be achieved studying any form of skill. Classic Martial Arts train a plethora of things aimed at strenghtening and stabilizing the individual in the grand total of their life. MMA trains you in getting pummeled by giants in speedos, getting injuries that will impair your later life if not end it prematurely and increasing loss of emotional control and compassionate awareness. CMA say: ”wanna learn how to use a hammer, screwdriver and all the too,s you need to build a house and live there?” MMA say: ”wanna learn how to be a hammer so all problems look like nails to you?”

Wrote before i had a chance to digest my thinking, edited out. Good you found that Vancouver family! Hard to say if anything is ever dead, academical people dont always get the answers they search for because they are academics. Sad but true

As per the title. Just needed to get that off my chest.

Yeah. Ok that we found eachother and whatnot and everything went off track in the thread but i still really do miss TM, those of you that relate i’m glad i wrote it and for me it’d be like Marbs not being here, its just not right somehow. I’m sad i didnt post this earlier, i was avoiding it.

Picture me saying something about being impervious the old abrasive-teen-ploy in a reilly guued Chief Insp. Cluseau impression.

@Seatle185 that bad huh? Well, i tried my best at least.

South idk but IT IS ON, double or nothing bruh! Omg shut up, that is off the hook sir, now i see what you did thurr, It works both woven and standalone unshook, pattern is firm Leave my stick alone or you will be blessed sticky Grease off elbows, get off holding my bellows You burn too hot, my cauldron golden yellow Around the clock, harass your immortal child with stressed tic-tock-ticky Re-up and reload, court reconvene and upping tensions i illustriously filibuster your turn with delivering my sentence: Your fa jin is naa-thing, golden bells ring Your subpar rhy-ming repelled and bouncing off My iron body while your breathwork isnt sounding soft disavowed your ”sharp” retort even breaking my fell skin.

@Limahong while i do appreciate alternating double couplet stanzas in text they mess up the flow and rythm a little. I love the subtext dick-joke but i’m a little surprised by the alpacas-carcass rhyme, were you hearing it in stiff upper brit delivery? I immagined it as more of a hip hop jazz edit of a limerick structure with a little of Paul Barman flavor of diction. Is this where this thread goes fully south with a keystyle raps battle and we both get banned for illustriously dropping clusters of darts upon heads that sleep on our awesomeness?

Uh, seems axes are searching for a grind or angry an laugh, i ax permission to remove Iself ere i get chopped inna half. Barf like a calf, spit like alpacas, my jing retention dont allow me extension to get angry or daft, nor start shit like a rakkas. Peace, 5000

I’m pretty sure enlightenment is very easy when you happen to it. Getting there is a fight towards more easy conditions but if anything is hard on the way it’s most likely our own resistance and the little traps and loops we revert to incessantly. Forcing, twisting, headbutting and all sorts of hardships are self inflicted and almost willfully so... maybe.

And here i thought Xing was ones nature whereas Ming was life itself, at least on a basic level.

How hard can it be to charge something? Well, there are certain materials with the right qualities that have been charged up by something, like sun and moon for instance, over long periods of time. Basically not hard at all, they’ve done all the work for you already. Now to find one you need to ponder what qualities those might be and what kind of materials that could be viable for talismans, that is something you find out or someone has to show you. Is it right for you if you find one? Would someone need it better? Why is that? Go find your local Fung Suy big shot and ask advice, collect anything he throws at you or scoffs at like it were dung, especially if it looks like old beaten handmedowns or like something that fell off the souvenir shop rejects cart. I’m dead serious. Very little of talismans is to be understood by reading, sorry mate.