Master Logray

Not guesswork, but belief. Belief doesn't need evidence.

It is what he likes. He likes orange and you recommend an apple. Knowledge in internal martial arts, Neidan, meditation, philosophy, Yijing and Chinese medicine are helpful and useful but not necessary in the many Zheng Yi magical practices.

It is a lot of workload. So who is being punished, Bob or the poor mod?

The idea on how to be a good ruler is sprinkled everywhere. Perhaps Chapter 57 and 65 could be examples.

I also think no politics in this site is a reasonable approach. The only problem is the DDJ and Yellow Emperor teachings are directly concerning governance or politics; or using politics as metaphor.

Yes, all Chi Kung in movements need a "coach" in modern term, always available, always correcting the mistakes, always supporting. This is less of a teacher/student type of classroom learning, but more like coaching in sports. Knowing something is not much useful. Ability to always do it correctly is essential. See teacher annually is alright for pure sitting meditation that tends towards observer/emptiness type. It was quite usual in the old days. But the students must have a certain standard themselves.

Then he is not a good teacher. Even though a person can have very high attainment on different fields, he may not able to teach well as teaching is another set of skill. Great master doesn't mean great teacher.

The concept of Karma has a major appeal. It is a remedial and fair justice system, especially when it is linked to reincarnation. Otherwise this concept would have been buried under numerous obscure teachings. But most of the eastern cultures that put Karma on their lips, do not really believe in it. What everyone sees everyday is that this system don't work. Bad are not punished and good are not rewarded. And severity of the action is not proportional. Long ago a Taoist master had written, Master Qiu and some others had saved tens of thousands of lives from Mongols, but there was no promotion to become an immortal due to these acts. If a person kills 10 millions persons, what can the heaven or the hell do? has him killed in 20 millions reincarnations? So I doubt this concept.

I think we need to look at the severity. These guys could be bad but how bad could they be, comparing with their "peers"? American slavery was bad, but how bad? These few guys? Put these in perspective with other atrocities, then these are pale by comparison. Genghis massacred 67 millions Chinese (then Sung Empire), most of these were done in the most brutal and barbaric manner. The Sung Empire had 93 million people. In early Mongol dynasty in China, only 8.8 millions left, attrition of 91%. Everyone was slave in those days. They were treated worse than livestock, let say livestock might have names, the survivors were only allowed a birth date name and things like first night of wedding the bride was to be presented to the Mongols. Si Chuan Province where a lot of Taoist Masters appear, only had 3-5% of the population left. This was not only in China, Persia also lost 90% of the population and many other cities with their people were totally destroyed, Samarkan, Baghdad.... Another example would be Cambodia, in terms of percentage.

He was bad because they customarily massacred the whole cities. Ruthless warlords were normally not so ruthless.

TaiChi teachers may not be cultivators. One of my teacher was quite fat. Being fat doesn't affect their knowledge and skill in using the force, but on endurance and having other health problems. While every kid can outrun them, their power has little usage. There was a survey on lifespan of more famous Taichi teachers. They don't live that long. But it is hard to say, because last 200 years China had been in deep turmoil. XingYi masters seem slightly better. Then you would look younger than your peers. Recently I learn of a new term, Obesity Paradox. It means slight underweight would do immense benefits to avoid many current days sicknesses. But when this kind of person is seriously ill, they have a slimmer chance than overweight people. So the ability to put on weight in a short time is useful.

Many nations are new ones. So it is quite a philosophical question whether new nations should be responsible for Karma of their previous location or to all wider states that ruled it. e.g. Croatia, should it be responsible for slavery in Yugoslavia, Ottoman, Hungary and Roman Empire? Should current day Japan and Germany be responsible for genocides when almost every living Japanese and Germans are born after 1945? If a new nation and a new human is bound by something that happens before the birth, so what is free will stands here? People and nation are born with so much burdens, guilt, hostility.... They are not free from the start, not to mention free will.

Finding an acceptable teacher is difficult, for in and out of China, from old days to now. Yet there is a simple way to see part of the teacher's level i.e. by external appearance. It is not unlikely audition for a model, we look at their body shape, face, voice and details. For philosophical Taoist, they can be any shape. But cultivating Taoist, especially Neidan type, the body matters, because the system claims to be creating immortals. So if a teacher cannot demonstrate any successful result on his own body, we have to wonder he got the real stuff or not, or his own teacher did not how to impart knowledge, or commonly, he is better in talking than doing. In the case such a teacher keeps on increasing weight to obesity level, we must be cautious. After all Taoists are known to be thin and agile, while Buddhists are known to be fat. There is however a catch. If the teacher only starts at mid-age or even older, his body shape and general condition could be difficult to reverse. When a teacher started off at younger ages as some of them being discussed are, they become rather fat, clumsy or even frail over the years. Then something is not right.

Stretching won't help Jing directly, but indirectly it creates overall well-beings that is beneficial to Jing, Chi, Shen. Jing is more from conservation.

One is lying down Kung Fu. Another is Cultivation by Sleep.

In the old days, no one talk about knee much. Nowadays all teachers and video say knee caution measures. My teacher says in China they employ ex-Olympics athletes to teach Taichi. They are extremely flexible and go very low in the stances. It actually is very bad for health, though deliver a very good impression. While old style martial master or "health" teachers never go that low.

Indeed, almost everything is in medium speed. For the Square/Step by step Taichi, the overall speed could be very long, the movements conducted are not too slow, the extra timing are the many "stops" in between that one feels and observes if the movement is correctly done. Fast speed is seldomly used. Students would have been progressed to Push Hands or the more realistic mock attacks which are generally not slow.

Wu Style is like this, look like a form of break dance, stopping on every position, adjust your posture/CG, (or wait for the teacher to adjust student by student which takes forever), only then can proceed to the following position/movement. A normal 108 moves style would take 40 minutes or longer for 119 styles. The advantages are many, it is easy to spot the error and correct them. The student learns the intricacies of inner movements, position of tendons and bones; and really goes into the "inner arts" or Chi or Neigong. Each of the stopping position can be a stance. Such training method cannot be "moving meditation". Yang Style is smooth and non-stopping so cannot achieve the above without a lot of ancillary exercises. Students are full of incorrect positions and understandings but these can be hide out in the faster non-stop movements. Yet Yang Style is great in appearance, can merge with dance and great for physical performances. When you do Yang Style, it is freedom and invigorating yet peaceful and calming, going into the flow easily. while Wu Style is more of a torture in comparison. In the old days the real Taichi masters and students would not have these distinctions, as they went through all steps in the system for a life span. In the current time, when a normal student is doing part of a big system, the difference is pronounced.