BaguaKicksAss

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Salt baths, (then incense right after) while simple sounding, help 90% of the time I have found . Most entity problems seem to be (human) deads. Just putting it out there as someting folks can try a series of first if there are problems.

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Pretty neat idea, I would like one.

Thanks!

Golf ball? Yikes lol. Too hard, too ouchy heh. I don't get pain there from Bagua, just good ol leg muscle pain. I've also just lowered my training by a lot (for me), so legs are catching up. Now when I was running half marathons, I definitely ended up with some IT band pain. I think it is the same area. I just love these to get rid of it Though you have reminded me to do some of that fist pummeling of my legs stuff after practice each day!

I have found much predjudism against white folks amongst the Asian commuities! Or against me at least. There are about 20 stores locally which sell various incense, candles, statues and other such supplies; 2 of them are really friendly towards me and my friends. One of the stores even takes me seriously and gives me advice. Some of them just glare at us when we walk in. Most of them just ignore us. I even remember being told while in one store by a random asian person that white people should not practice such things or use such items. If I had been thinking faster I would have told her that she was no longer allowed to wear blue jeans or eat at mcdonalds in this case. For the temples, I will only wander into the ones which allow tourists in to avoid the glares and dissaproving looks. I have no idea what it is like in China. I can only speak about martial arts here, but there are some things which some asian folks either are not allowed to share with a western person, or choose not to, depending.

Yeah things like hiking up mountains and running, nothing in comparison, heh. I've only been doing bagua a couple of years though, so my body is still being formed. Well that and my health sucked when I started (since birth actually), so still breaking it in so to speak. Yes sitting and standing work as well; I have a teacher fortunately . I'm always amazed by the folks who can learn from books and vids. I did this once for a couple of months just to force myself to learn something a different way, and wow, it is difficult!

My legs, ankles, achilles, et. al are crying daily! I'm only at middle.... and not for anywhere near an hour! That whole hour long circle walking thing, I could do it at upper basin lol. Stuff like a weight vest (or kettlebells) I just stick with ta-jong palm and focus on sinking.

The cool thing about so much Taoism (and other spirituality) here in the West is that you can do a trial run right at home. I have traveled to a few third world countries to learn various spiritual (and magical in my case) practices. Each place was never what I imagined it to be. The peopl are far different than how we are used to, and the ethics of each country is different than what we take for granted. The whole being viewed in general as a walking wallet also tends to get old. The squat toilets weren't so bad fortunately. Very fortunately I set things up before I went each time, and I would say my trips would have been useless (aside from some nice sight seeing) if I had not made some contacts ahead of time. I haven't visited China yet thanks to some warnings from a friend who lived there for many years. He just laughed when I said I want to train martial arts there, and said I have better back home. Many many Asian folks are moving to the west for various reasons. Of course there is still some amazing old masters of various practices there, but difficult to find without prior legwork AND prior practice. It is so easy to fool someone new to something . However if you get in many years of good experience here while you travel back and forth, it is far far more likely someone serious would take you seriously. I'd say if you wish to live the monastic life, start now and see how it works for you... aside from your requisite job hours to pay rent, sit quietly with no distractions and meditate, cultivate and so forth. That should be a good 6 hours per day at least. Also going to your local temple daily to at least medtate and see what they have to offer would give you a good head start on someone who never has. If you don't have any local Talist temples (hard to imagine for me), then move. If you are thinking of moving to China, then moving to another state in the meantime costs far far less and much easier. Most of the universities teach mandarin, a 2 year course in that should help. And of course go visit china, with the plan to return. Test run so to speak. Get a feel for the place. Hey you might luck out, but if you have a return ticket home you will be more choosy about your teacher/temple . The whole amongst white clouds thing, I'd suggest practicing camping in the wilderness in a hut for a few months to see how that works out for you. For some it really does, for others, well... not so much. Oh and of course the first step is to pray lots, for help to open up opportuntities. I have found that prayers don't go unanswered, however they don't always work out how we might think they will either...

Hey . I practice Baguazhang (very new, just a couple years in). Well I'm off to go wander around in circles...

Nodding off reading my intro? The amount of knowlege and experience (the former is useless without the latter) on here is amazing. Well Bagua has kicked my ass many times, and still continues to do so!!! Thanks for the welcome.