What is the Dao? Lightness Skill

[daoian]

Tao means path. A path is created when you take one step followed by another. If you continue, then others can follow your footsteps.

 

Tao is ANYTHING you do once followed by another step and You continue in the same direction. This is just one way lightness skill is learned.

 

When you are born, you move on your stomach like a snake. Then you realize that all you need are your hands and knees. So you use less of your body to move (this is the second step). Then you go one more step and only use your feet. This is the "Tao of Movement." You have made 3 steps in your path.

 

What's next?

 

Instead of ONLY using less of your body, now, you use less EARTH. Decrease yin (earth) AND joong (man) - the heaven (Yang) increases. How? put bricks all over your house. Only walk on the bricks. then make the bricks taller. Then stand them up on end and walk only on the bricks with your big toes ONLY. You do not use the balls of your feet.

 

What's the next step on your tao? Stack two bricks onto each other - the long way...

 

What's next? The path continues...

 

Where do you think it goes from here?

Edited August 18, 2008 by daoian

[Aetherous]

Three bricks?

[daoian]

Three bricks?

 

If you do 3 bricks, your movement is linear. 1...2... JUMP... make a quantum leap jump... using a brick is just an INCREMENTAL decrease in earth connection.

 

So what is a dimensional jump... not a linear increment?

[Desert Eagle]

first method

 

1- dig a hole in the ground about 1/1.5 meters in diameter and the depth reaches your waist level.

2- use ankle weights and jump from your ankles only. do that every day for 1-3 years, increase the depth f the hole gradually so that you reach the same ground level when jumping (but the depth increases). then you'll be able to jump 10 meters high (without the ankle weights of course).

 

second method:

 

1- use ankle weights and run a lot every day, and increase the ankle weights gradually. then add a heavy vest and increase its weight gradually.

 

that's it, loosely referenced from the shaolin secret 72 arts, another way involved walking on the edge of a large cistern which is full of water, and decreasing the water amount gradually (not sure about the water part)

 

Also, walking and balancing on rope is a training method (yes the same one you see in the circus). Chinese circus perfomers use exercises common with martial arts including balancing, flexibility, strength, and focus.

 

Joseph Pilates claimed that his system of exercises incorporate many systems including yoga and chinese circus exercises.

 

most of these are external methods which are arduous and take a long time. there are internal methods which are less arduous I think, I've seen demonstrators do breathing and qigong movements but I don't know what exactly. Da Mo was said to have floated on a river by just standing on a stick of reed. I read somewhere that it's called Hing Gong (in one of yang jwing-ming's books).

Edited August 18, 2008 by Desert Eagle

[Aetherous]

I think the first method would work pretty well for jumping high!

[daoian]

desert... yes this is certainly a powerful external technique. As far as my train of thought, i'm referring to TAO... tao stays on the same track and frequently introduces exponentially more difficult challenges along the way... all of this is internal. No muscular improvements needed... its all internal, neurological.

[Smile]

You fly

[daoian]

You fly

no yet... you're still using too much of your foot... you are too connected to the earth still...

[Spectrum]

Maintain the horizontal plane with a book on your head.

[mYTHmAKER]

Da Mo was said to have floated on a river by just standing on a stick of reed. I read somewhere that it's called Hing Gong (in one of yang jwing-ming's books).

 

It's called a raft

 

 

I want to b connected to the earth.

The more I am connected - relaxed - able to let go - who knows what will happen.

A bird dives into water by letting go and then it flies up as nature intended.

[Smile]

Running on water or trees?

[Spectrum]

bouyancy

[Taomeow]

Taoist nuns used to practice MA stepping only on porcelain cups...

[fizix]

Taoist nuns used to practice MA stepping only on porcelain cups...

 

*hopes people don't seriously screw up their joints/bones/muscles/everythingelseimportant by jumping with ankle weights on for three years*

[Martial Development]

British master of "lightness skill" on BBC News

[Smile]

Bowls of water

[daoian]

bowls of water, porcelain cups...YES YES...

 

BUT... the most effective next step jump is bamboo. You see any similarities between these three items? They are all hollow in the center.

 

Since you WERE walking on bricks... making them taller every time, meaning less and less planar space, then next quantum jump is simply to get rid of the center. So you walk on edges... ONLY

 

First you get rid of external space.. then you get rid of internal space. the Wudang Barrel Walking practice is like this... based on the same concept.

 

At this point... The next quantum leap jump is simply academic unless you actually practice walking on bamboo first.

 

But i will tell you a secret. A truck driver thought he could barely slide under a low bridge. He got caught half way along. He couldnt back up or go forward. Every movement he made, sparks came from between the truck roof and the bridge. The fire department tried everything including hosing off the truck to lubricate it. Nothing worked.

 

He was stuck. A child in the traffic, waiting to go to his favorite park said, Mom, "why don't they flatten the tires?"

[Gerard]

Bagua master He Jinghan training basic lightness skill:

 

[Desert Eagle]

desert... yes this is certainly a powerful external technique. As far as my train of thought, i'm referring to TAO... tao stays on the same track and frequently introduces exponentially more difficult challenges along the way... all of this is internal. No muscular improvements needed... its all internal, neurological.

 

sorry about this flurry of qing kung methods but the thread title and first post were ambiguous enough, there is another thread for what you're talking about:

 

http://www.thetaobums.com/Why-Taoism-is-different-t5927.html

 

It's called a raft

 

nope, it's a single stick of reed not a bundled group

 

*hopes people don't seriously screw up their joints/bones/muscles/everythingelseimportant by jumping with ankle weights on for three years*

 

yeah I think that book (72 arts) is either not complete or not meant to be trained without a master, or it could be that you should adhere to the four-steps arts in the beginning of the book in order to have some energy control needed to balance the external exercises. this is a quote from one of the comments of that last video (qing gong):

 

But if its practice only as a physical exercise I don't think you'll get anywhere. The energy and mind dimensions must be taught properly from a master.

 

Not only that, one also needs to practice leaping kung where a practitioner jumps up and down in a hole with weight (gradually increase) and practiced as a qigong exercise for at least a decade.

 

so I'm just posting this information to get some feed back. I tried the four-steps arts for some (relatively short) time, then I tried the Yin-fist rather seriously, but I could not continue them because it was affecting my health. when there is no background of energy conrol (i.e. qigong) most of these external exercises are useless and harmful in my experience. even the john ducane five animal frolics bear walking drew away energy from my kidneys and then they weren't working well ( i am that weak). that's why i am really liking this kunlun practice above all.

 

British master of "lightness skill" on BBC News

 

fail!

 

Bagua master He Jinghan training basic lightness skill:

 

 

thanks for that find Drukhrod! it's those qigong exercises at the beginning which elude me.

 

based on a hint from one of the comments, I searched and found this training document:

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?3gvsvxz3mz2

 

also I searched about this master and found some links:

 

a thread that has a link and commentary about his book from amazon.com

http://www.emptyflower.com/phpBB3/viewtopi...p?f=3&t=562

 

some information about him

http://www.baguaquan.co.uk/AboutBaguaQuan/...92/Default.aspx

 

western student page

http://www.guensystem.com/vertical_article1b.html

 

and his blog

http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/hejinghan-bagua/

Edited August 20, 2008 by Desert Eagle

[Gerard]

Thanks for the comment. I read that info about qingong kung fu in the past. He Jinghan is capable of very high leaps but he never shows you that stuff. I came across two of his photos doing that leap and posted over at Dragon's list forum which depicted him performing a leap of well above 2 m on the spot without running or the use of an external aid. Imagine what masters of old would have been capable of, lol! He told me this skill is almost lost, no one has the time and patience to train it in this busy world.

 

Imperial bagua masters all were qingong kf experts. That was when China was still an empire.

 

 

Namo Amitabha Buddha.

Edited August 25, 2008 by durkhrod chogori

[Gerard]

I forgot all about the Emptyflower forum. Doing a search I digged out this thread where He Jinghan addresses this issue:

 

http://www.emptyflower.net/forums/index.ph...p;hl=He+Jinghan

 

 

Cheers.

[Smile]

I think I should mention that all the lightness training mentioned above comes with special energy training that supports the skill development. Without it it's mostly useless.

[gendao]

Thanks for the comment. I read that info about qingong kung fu in the past. He Jinghan is capable of very high leaps but he never shows you that stuff. I came across two of his photos doing that leap and posted over at Dragon's list forum which depicted him performing a leap of well above 2 m on the spot without running or the use of an external aid. Imagine what masters of old would have been capable of, lol! He told me this skill is almost lost, no one has the time and patience to train it in this busy world.

I'd like to see those photos.

 

From what I've heard, you must break your energy to the Earth to do qing gong. But how exactly you do that - I'm not sure.

[Smile]

From what I've heard, you must break your energy to the Earth to do qing gong.

Hi David, it's not that one breaks the energy from Earth. It's establishing the connection to Heaven that makes it work.

[h.uriahr]

Very cool video.