Request to Forum Administrators

[D_Glenn]

D, for many years I intentionally read nothing regarding TCIMA or MA, I merely trained what I was taught and wrote what I felt in my own journal, as a result, years later, the words I would hear in class were specific feelings I had documented in my journals the words I began to see in books were almost verbatum to passages in my journal. Your point on forget everything is well taken, I am just not sure you have given yourself that opportunity, I dont think you have taken a chance to allow action to explain the words to you. The art is the same it is the undrrstanding that is the evolution, in my journals, there are many redundancies, but when I look closer they are the same experiences written with greater understanding through further experience.

I kind of did the same thing - for the first 8 or so years I was adamant about not learning to speak or read Chinese. I was just practicing and listening to my teachers translated into English. But then my Grandteacher died unexpectedly in 2003. This was a huge loss and it really sunk in just how fragile life is and how vital the information that a lifetime of experience contains, as he died with a lot of knowledge and skills left un-done. I then started working on my YSB website to get the information I had out there to fellow practitioners, and I started learning Chinese. It's helped my practice a lot, as now I can kind of listen to what my teacher says in Chinese and then listen to it translated into English by his translator. Doing/ practicing it, feeling it done on me when my teacher shows applications, hearing the words spoken in Chinese and English, looking up the Chinese texts he references, learning them, understanding them, and then back to doing it and practicing. And now I don't have to take notes as I can just listen and feel what he's doing.

What I don't understand is how to use/ do 'Yi' to "send projections of Yi" over a distance to move or make people feel sick without touching them. My teachers don't teach that. The skills they do teach are more than enough for my plate and solely focused on hand-to-hand fighting.

I'm just going to stick to learning what my teacher does. He only speaks Chinese. So I'm learning it to have a better capacity to learn from him.

.

[D_Glenn]

a lot of what you present might not be accepted, and also would be considered high level as in this thread

The Five Shens http://rumsoakedfist.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21458

this is not high level? yet you present a point of view based on translations and your understanding,,,mine and others come from experience with people who can do what is translated.

My teacher said there are two paths or journeys you need to take, one is the fighting practice and the other is the philosophical. When he started studying with my Grandteacher he was taught the martial part, and then was also given Classic Chinese books to read, first were the books on Chinese Mythology which made it easier to understand the references to them when was reading the 'Internal Classics', etc. So from the age of 18 he started learning Baguazhang and also had to do homework and read and report on those books to my Grandteacher.

So that thread is purely representative of the philosophical side of my practice. You start on the martial arts at a basic level, but should keep your philosophical studies on stuff that is advanced so it stimulates your mind.

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[johnwang]

You start on the martial arts at a basic level, but should keep your philosophical studies on stuff that is advanced so it stimulates your mind.

I like the way that you have just stated. Even if I may keep saying that TCMA is just "head meets fist/ground", I still use philosophical words in my teaching such as

- You should give before you can take.
- Lead your opponent into the emptiness.
- You should always give your opponent 2 options, either resist against you, or yield into you.
- If your opponent wants to bend his arm, you should help him to bend more than he can handle.
- To prevent a problem from happening is better than to let the problem happen and then fix it afterward.
- ...

[suckinlhbf]

I'm just going to stick to learning what my teacher does. He only speaks Chinese. So I'm learning it to have a better capacity to learn from him.
You start on the martial arts at a basic level, but should keep your philosophical studies on stuff that is advanced so it stimulates your mind.

You are just wonderful, D_Glenn. Your teacher should be very proud to have you as his student.

[Wanderingdragon]

IMO, if nothing else it is clear to me we are easily on the same path.

[Doc Stier]

The only relevant martial arts knowledge and understanding that anyone will ever benefit from, imo, comes from the day to day experience of seriously practicing their preferred style and from attempting to progressively apply it with live opponents. It won't come from reading related classical or modern texts, either in their original language or in translations, and it won't come from watching anyone's YouTube videos or from intellectual discussion and debate with others at any level!

However, this experiential learning and knowing is an elusive entity which constantly changes, generally rendering much of one's previous understanding obsolete with the passage of time. Speaking solely for myself, my personal intellectual knowledge and conceptual understanding of the martial arts I practice has been significantly transformed during the past many decades, and the physical training has dramatically transformed my body in a similar fashion. I began studying in 1961, just before my 12th birthday, and never stopped practicing since then. Thus, I can see in retrospect that my mental understanding of core concepts and foundation principles, as well as my physical skills in expressing them, are all considerably different now than they were at every 10 year interval along the way. I guarantee that this will be true for anyone to trains consistently over most of their lifetime, just as it no doubt was for the great masters of the past in every authentic style.

That being said, the impassioned arguments and debates about style, technique or interpretation today will probably often seem embarrassingly irrelevant to you years from now. As such, I believe that every one of us would benefit the most by simply thinking less and practicing more!

[amor]

I disagree Docsteir. I think its important to have a varied and vast discussion, to leave no stone unturned. Then make up your mind later depending on whether you do or do not encounter it. It's like a revelation locked up in your subconscious lying dormant that awakens and suddenly you get it! Provided you put the work in off course. But I think we owe a debt of gratitude to people like D_Glenn and others for putting the ideas out there to mull over, don't you think?

[D_Glenn]

You are just wonderful, D_Glenn.

Uhhmm, thanks.

.

[shawnsegler]

[charles]

The only relevant martial arts knowledge and understanding that anyone will ever benefit from, imo, comes from the day to day experience of seriously practicing their preferred style and from attempting to progressively apply it with live opponents. It won't come from reading related classical or modern texts, either in their original language or in translations, and it won't come from watching anyone's YouTube videos or from intellectual discussion and debate with others at any level!

That being said, the impassioned arguments and debates about style, technique or interpretation today will probably often seem embarrassingly irrelevant to you years from now. As such, I believe that every one of us would benefit the most by simply thinking less and practicing more!

That has exactly been my experience. Most of my early discussion does seem embarrassingly irrelevant to anything "real".

From Taijiquan Foundations, Volume 1:
"Whether practicing for health or martial effectiveness, many students of Taijiquan get caught-up in one of two approaches that impede their progress in obtaining the necessary foundation. The first is to spend too much time intellectualizing an art in which understanding of the foundation is gained primarily through correct practice, not theoretical discussion... "

[MaartenSFS]

I agree with the Doc. I train seven days a week, four hours a day, currently. During my rest time (mostly), though, my teacher engages me in philosophical discussion to stimulate my mind and provides examples to train these concepts. Then I go back to my solo practise. Without the hard training, both with him and solo, there really is no point in it..

[gasmaster]

From what I'm reading, this has nothing to do with martial arts, and everything to do with the fact that this is a public forum, and everyone with an opinion can post within reason. That's not going to change.

[johnwang]

the impassioned arguments and debates about style, technique or interpretation today will probably often seem embarrassingly irrelevant to you years from now. As such, I believe that every one of us would benefit the most by simply thinking less and practicing more!

I agree that TCMA is for doing and not for talking. I also agree that what we might believe in something 20 years ago, we may not believe it today.

- 20 years ago, I believed in "short cut". This was what I would said back then, " I'm glad that I have found the "short cut" in CMA and ...".
- 10 years ago, I no longer believed in "short cut".
- Today, I strongly believe in "short cut". My "big fist" strategy can help those who doesn't want to spend any training time in the striking art.

Will I change my opinion 10 years from today? I can't say no but I don't believe I will.