Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted March 6, 2012 Hey, thanks for those responses, i am not generally a patient person, and i do forget the value of patience a lot of the time. I admit, i am more patient than i want to be and more than many people, but in teh same breath i am also the least patient person i know, i just learned how to hide it well, which, i guess, is patience at work    I'm impatient, in that i spent the first 16-18 years of my life playing videogames and sitting on the internet (emphasis on sitting) 18+ hours a day, and when it finally hit me how out of shape i was and how much i really and truly value the martial arts and the potential and amazing things i could have done if i had done proper training and whatnot, i am in a hurry to "catch up" to what i could have been... i guess...     Admittably, i want to be able to do backflips and fingerstands, and flip backwards into a finger stand and knock you out with my left testicle (as an exaggeration to enunciate my 'point' )... all sorts of things they showed in movies, like the matrix, 3 ninjas, rush hour (1, 2, or 3), jackie chan movies, jet li movies, etc. all the martial arts, no matter how real or fantasy... They inspire me to be better than i am, and that is an impatient task, because i will always be "me" and never good enough, which is why i put an effort into it, to be better...    But it is never enough, to catch a barrage of bullets and remain unscathed, to blend into my surroundings and become invisible right before your eyes, to run 60 miles per hour, to levitate, to do "footless" pushups (where i am doing a pushup without my toes touching the ground or anything), to expand my endurance indefinitely, to fire a Hadoken!, to beat the ghost of bruce lee in combat, to hold my breath for 60 minutes, to take 60 minutes in one in/&/exhale, to see spirits/ghosts, to project my own spirit and witness the astral realm(s), there is no satisfaction...  So i train, i try to learn everything i can, i try to make time to practice... But every step forward is followed by a step or more back. perhaps this inconsistent "leapfrog" approach has its benefits, but of them, i can only suggest it is patience, my eternal lesson. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sloppy Zhang Posted March 6, 2012 Hey, thanks for those responses, i am not generally a patient person, and i do forget the value of patience a lot of the time. I admit, i am more patient than i want to be and more than many people, but in teh same breath i am also the least patient person i know, i just learned how to hide it well, which, i guess, is patience at work    I'm impatient, in that i spent the first 16-18 years of my life playing videogames and sitting on the internet (emphasis on sitting) 18+ hours a day, and when it finally hit me how out of shape i was and how much i really and truly value the martial arts and the potential and amazing things i could have done if i had done proper training and whatnot, i am in a hurry to "catch up" to what i could have been... i guess...     Admittably, i want to be able to do backflips and fingerstands, and flip backwards into a finger stand and knock you out with my left testicle (as an exaggeration to enunciate my 'point' )... all sorts of things they showed in movies, like the matrix, 3 ninjas, rush hour (1, 2, or 3), jackie chan movies, jet li movies, etc. all the martial arts, no matter how real or fantasy... They inspire me to be better than i am, and that is an impatient task, because i will always be "me" and never good enough, which is why i put an effort into it, to be better...    But it is never enough, to catch a barrage of bullets and remain unscathed, to blend into my surroundings and become invisible right before your eyes, to run 60 miles per hour, to levitate, to do "footless" pushups (where i am doing a pushup without my toes touching the ground or anything), to expand my endurance indefinitely, to fire a Hadoken!, to beat the ghost of bruce lee in combat, to hold my breath for 60 minutes, to take 60 minutes in one in/&/exhale, to see spirits/ghosts, to project my own spirit and witness the astral realm(s), there is no satisfaction...  So i train, i try to learn everything i can, i try to make time to practice... But every step forward is followed by a step or more back. perhaps this inconsistent "leapfrog" approach has its benefits, but of them, i can only suggest it is patience, my eternal lesson.   First off, every system needs the basics. The basics you can find pretty much anywhere, for free or for very cheap. No point in spending $1000's of dollars to meet a teacher and have him say "yeah, you should work to a point where you can sit and follow the breath for an hour before you progress". You could have gotten that from a book!  Get to a point where there is no place for you to go BUT a teacher. Get to a place where you are asking the right questions. Get to a place where every option, every stone you turn over, reveals things you have already encountered. THEN you can start shaking things up.  So work on the public material first. There's a LOT of stuff out there. And every master will tell you that the secrets are in the basics. So realistically, all the info you need is already out there.  If you want to do physical feats, the info is out there. Look at body building, nutrition, body weight exercises, cardio, etc etc etc. Those footless pushups, for instance, require the development of a lot of muscles and different kinds of strength that just aren't trained outside of specific training regiments. Basically, you've pretty much got to train to do them specifically. And the information is pretty much for free on the internet! But you're still going to need to work up to a point where you can do a certain number of pushups, sit ups, leg lifts, etc etc on your own.   My point: you know where you want to end up, so work backwards, step by step, until you get to the point where you're at. The problem a lot of people face is they know where they want to go, but they don't know how to get there. Somewhere down the line there's a gap. Once you know how to get to where you want to get, all that's left to do is just to do it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mewtwo Posted March 6, 2012 (edited) Interesting, however body work really has to be transmitted directly in person unless one is really knowledgeable videos can do more harm than good to a beginner. Â Â Â Why how does having the teacher there in person differ than a dvd or such? Â Â I personaly see that as a form of control and not needed. Â I pay my kung fu teacher who does not believe in chi and such i pay him manly so he can make a living the "hard work" is all on me. There are no secrects only hard work everything you know is inside of you. Â Â I really should learn not to get into this talking stuff anymore lol. Edited March 6, 2012 by mewtwo Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mYTHmAKER Posted March 6, 2012 Why how does having the teacher there in person differ than a dvd or such?   I personaly see that as a form of control and not needed.  I pay my kung fu teacher who does not believe in chi and such i pay him manly so he can make a living the "hard work" is all on me. There are no secrects only hard work everything you know is inside of you.   I really should learn not to get into this talking stuff anymore lol. Especially when you don't know what you are talking about  Most people are not aware of whether or not one shoulder or hip is higher than the other, whether their torso is twisted to the left or right, whether they are extending their knees forward over the toes - which by the way can damage your knees. If for instance ones head is always turned to the right it will feel centered and so the individual is unaware and will not be able to make a correction. There are many more subtle things one has to deal with that only a live teacher can correct. After you have a good understanding of body mechanics you can learn from a DVD  And yes teacher or DVD you won't get anywhere without putting the time in. As you say everything is inside you, however, it needs to be released in the right way. The wrong kind of hard work will hurt you.  As to a teacher being a form of control that is your personal issue. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aaron Posted March 7, 2012 (edited) I used to live across the street from a Wah Lum Temple in Orlando, FL. The master there has six students that reside at the temple at no cost. These students teach the children that come to the temple and receive no money from this, which, considering the number of students that show up is probably a good amount of moolah. My point is that they have entered an agreement with the master and are satisfied with that agreement. Â If you want to learn something, look long enough and you'll find it. I may not care for religion, but energy practice is essential for anyone who endeavors to become more spiritual. If your only reason for learning these things is to attain more power, then you will certainly be willing to spend as much as you can to learn them, on the flip side if your only reason for learning is to deepen your spiritual (and martial) awareness, then more often than not, a master will present themselves to you. Â Aaron Edited March 7, 2012 by Twinner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vanir Thunder Dojo Tan Posted March 7, 2012 If your only reason for learning these things is to attain more power, then you will certainly be willing to spend as much as you can to learn them, on the flip side if your only reason for learning is to deepen your spiritual (and martial) awareness, then more often than not, a master will present themselves to you. Â Â I've always sought a balance between the two. on one hand, i tend to lean toward the 'power' aspects, but not solely because i want the power, not for the sake of the power, but for what i can do with it to improve my life and the lives of others. Â I dont know what a footless pushup can be useful for, but im sure that attaining the ability would lead to plenty of physical benefits that can be used in many other areas of life. Â Â Spiritually speaking, i dont know much about spiritual, even though i tend to swear by it. I believe deeply in a spiritual way of life, but have no real or genuine experience in spirituality outside a one time encounter when i was too little to understand it. or maybe little enough to still truly know it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
