Archive for August 2007
Student needs Clothes Dryer
Posted on Monday, August 27, 2007 at 6:00 AM by Sifu Smith
One of the students is moving into their new apartment this month and needs an inexpensive new/used clothes dryer. They are in Raleigh, but would be willing to travel in area to pick it up. Please use any of the contact forms to email or call if you know of one available.
Thank you!!!
Posted in Students
Tai Chi - Kung Fu School Evolving
Posted on Monday, August 20, 2007 at 4:55 AM by Sifu Smith
Let me take a moment to thank all the students. You as a whole have
shown me how big a good family can be. Our kwoon (school) has evolved
and by the end of 2008 will more than double in space. It wasn't my
intention to have a larger school, but I realized on Sunday as went to
the school and did a 'mind-walk' that larger isn't just about space. As
all of our students know, we are a family school. I teach as close to
the way as I was taught as I can, beyond the technique of kungfu.
We have no contracts, and no uniforms. We come together to train and gain. It was in my mind in the beginning that if there were just enough students to pay the rent that would be fine, and after a while, we were there. We have no memberships drives, booths at a martial art expo, soliciting and signing on every interested face. We normally spend time getting to know someone prior to them entering the school. We don't even have a sign anywhere in the building. Potential new students have come and then left, saying that they couldn't find us. I believed it was the Tao's way of saying it wasn't time to find us yet. We have also had potential new students come by, who initially couldn't find us, but kept searching, looked for the fengshui signs (paqua's and windchimes) and have been with us for years now. Obviously it was their time to find us. Not a very profitable way to run a kung fu - tai chi school.
The family has grown from the initial 5 students to a larger group, yet the students are close and support one another. We come together after practices to cook and eat at the school. Most will take turns bringing food and drink. We cook rice, vegetables, make our special hot-lemon-pepper sauce (Thank you again Sifu Chin), and relax in community of one another.
We will be adding a large open classroom in the next couple of months that is the size of our entire school now. This will give us even more time to practice as a group, and to add more options for us in the future. We have also been discussing with several students about a Wednesday evening (perhaps Monday too) classes. There seems to be interest there, and the more I hear from you the better.
As a school we will let a few more students in that are looking for our tai chi and kung fu and can abide by our 3 primary guidelines, 1 - Come to practice and gain 2 - Help others gain by practice and creating a good atomsphere to practice 3 - Leave guilt at the door, it creates tension and gets in the way.
Posted in Raleigh
Solid Fa Jing Practices On A Humid Morning
Posted on Monday, August 20, 2007 at 4:29 AM by Sifu Smith
It is shortly after 4 am and I just finished up 45 minutes of
silk-reeling and fa-jing practice. Quick weather notice for central NC,
the heat and humidity were high well before sunrise. As I practiced this
morning I had thoughts of saturday mornings at the park in Fayetteville.
Practices that would have you sweating hard in the first 15 minutes.
Chris, myself, and several others would come out to sweat and gain. This
past saturdays practice was much that way. We were a few shy of regular
group, yet there were still 16 students out practicing, and we were
paused by several to answer questions about what we were doing. It seems
that our presence (though it has only been 5 years), is being associated
with the park.
There has also been an interesting development in several students that I have noticed in the past months. Without any coaching, several students that 3 months ago would have shied from entertaining questions, or perhaps have been bothered by people walking by, and hear the kids ask, "mom, is that statue, is she real?" Now they appear to be confident and comfortable in themselves, their practice, and less affected by the uncertainity of others. A wonderful stage.
As I took a break this morning, the sweat going, the legs frying a little, I thought about the fun in my youth, and the wonderful young people who are out practicing at the park at this stage of life.
Edited on: Monday, August 20, 2007 5:10 AMWhere Does The Kung Fu Go?
Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2007 at 7:00 AM by Sifu Smith
Many good students work diligently each day, making progress in their respective styles and their personal understanding. Then we evaluate with a reaction skill, tuishou exercise, or other exercise and the kung fu disappears. Does it mean that the student doesn't really understand, has failed in some way? First, there is only two things that qualifies as 'failure' and that is to give up, or to allow ego to lie to oneself.
Normally students in the first years or so, particularly those who come from previous training, with an emphasis on form, have a difficult time learning that there form is like a paper cup. It may hold a little water for a while, but don't get it close to a fire. So when it gets tested, it crumbles. Master Chin once posed the question after we went to our first martial art expo together;
"where does all the kung fu go? All these styles, and when they get into little contest, they all look like kickboxers. You can't tell a green belt from a brown belt. There is no advanced movement."
Over the years we have seen this repeated time and time again. How do we get through that? It seems that it almost requires a 12 Step Program. Admission and awareness being number one on the list. Once a student has fallen in to the trap of form on form to 'understand' or to be 'advanced'. It is difficult for them to realize that there is no secret movement, it is all man-made. The real kungfu is invisible, what is happening in your heart and mind at the moment of test is key.
In an interview, Great Master Wang Xiang Zhai was asked about the difference in the inner-school styles, paqua, hsing-i, and taichi. Master Zhai had a thorough response, including "People often say that ‘Xingyi’, ‘Taiji’, ‘Bagua’ and ‘Tongbei’ are internal styles, I do not know how the names of internal and external came about, so I cannot comment on that." Then later in the response, he states "It has nothing to do with one technique overcoming another technique as the modern people claim. If one first sees with the eyes, then thinks of it again in the mind, and then launches the counter-attack towards the enemy, it is very seldom that one will have success."
There is only one place that you can begin to not only appreciate, but lay the seeds to understanding and that is in your posting (zham zhuang). For health benefit, one can simply stand and let nature circulate and cultivate/exchange chi. Yet for one to gain thorough understanding and cultivate deeply, there are many sets of exercises, training, and investigations that must occur while posting. These must be carried over into the practice and the testing.
It is not like there are many hats to wear in order to be successful. There is only one hat to wear, find the truth and the expression in yourself with your posting. Everything else is used to bring that out during movement. Not complex, but very challenging.
Edited on: Thursday, August 16, 2007 9:45 AMPosted in Kung Fu
Swimmer Uses Meditation to Raise Temperature Prior to Icy Swim
Posted on Wednesday, August 01, 2007 at 10:30 AM by Sifu Smith
Larry Pugh is a record breaking swimmer. His physical feats are
well-established and remarkable. In a recent article the reporter said
that Mr. Pugh would raise his body temperature and other metabolic
systems up very high prior to getting in the water.
"Before he dives in, he spends around 15 minutes using mind power alone to superheat his body. His pulse rate shoots up from 70 to 160 a minute and his temperature rises from 37C to 38.4, causing him to sweat profusely. All of this without moving a muscle - and something which would take an ordinary person around 30 minutes of hard exercise to achieve."
Mr. Pugh's particular feat wasn't just the ability to get in and swim in the icy water, but was the length of time he spent in the icy water to complete his goal.
The Buddhist monks have training that includes raising the body temperature to high marks, and part or their test is dry out these ice-cold, thick soaking wet blankets that draped on them during a cold Tibetan night, while they sit in meditation. They sit until they have dried the blanket, and don't get sick (cold, flu, etc). This particular type of meditation is called Tummo, and is particularly powerful, and can be somewhat dangerous, if practiced without someone teaching details.
Read the Full Story on Mr. Pugh's Swim
Posted in Meditation, Stories