MaartenSFS wrote:You can go back to believing in magic if you want to, but if you aren't willing to seek out a non-charlatan teacher and work hard, now may be a good time to reevaluate your life and pursue other hobbies because you will never get anywhere worth going with it...
lolol like you said fajin may not even be useful in sparring. the thing about it is - it doesn't matter, does it? adesanya and fedor don't need it, so why should we or anyone?
"magic" and "hugging qi" won't mean anything for MA, but qigong + ma combined into "internal MA" is more interesting imho, at least it should be on an "internal arts" forum. don't get me wrong, if we want to talk MMA, why don't we just do it? a few people here say the same stupid shit nonstop. we already get it. for "magic", if there is "special physics" and no such thing as "sink qi to dantian", then why don't we talk about that? it should be so easy, but nobody has ever been able to explain it. people explain the sambo casting punch or tyson's hook quite easily, but nobody hear can explain some common internal aspects. that's why everyone seems to just blather their own stupid arguments. here's sunlutang on internal power (I added bold):
The Elixir Book says: “The Way: from emptiness arises a single energy, then from the single energy is generated the passive and active aspects, the passive and active then combine to make the three substances, and then from the three substances are all things born and raised.” This is the idea. And so it is said that nothingness and oneness are the root of sky and ground, the ancestor of the passive and active, the progenitor of all things, the “golden elixir”. It is also the internal power within Xingyi Boxing.
Most people do not know what this internal power is and tend to look to the body’s shape or appearance to get some idea, or that it might be a case of an effort in the mind or a movement in the belly, and they go on like this in countless ways, but it is all just tossing out a brick in response to a call for a tile, confusing the false with what is true. Therefore one who practices the boxing is like a cow hair [very common] while one who has succeeded in the method is like a unicorn horn [extremely rare]. You must examine this deeply. Then when going through your practice, the myriad techniques all come out of the three-substance posture. This posture is the gateway to the method, the main tool in Xingyi Boxing.
It seems extraordinarily clear when he says
Most people do not know what this internal power is and tend to look to the body’s shape or appearance to get some idea, or that it might be a case of an effort in the mind or a movement in the belly, and they go on like this in countless ways, but it is all just tossing out a brick in response to a call for a tile, confusing the false with what is true.
it should be very, very obvious not to look at the body's shape or appearance or some kind of movement in the belly.
yet that is EXACTLY what people here repeatedly do. that is NOT a bad thing to do for any kind of "external" movement (which is a MUST) yet that is maybe why people go down this line of thought for "internal" as well. if we think Sun (and a bunch of these guys) are right, then we should know it's not some "movement in the belly", some "imagination", or some kind of "extra move". but OTOH, we could just say they are all wrong, or can anybody do it? (do we even know if they could do it?).
on the hobbies, when you get older, "fighting" isn't really that interesting. "self defense" is so much more broad, and I don't mean weapons. other hobbies are a lot more interesting. nobody here is going to get extremely far in the sense that we're not exactly going to go fight Adesanya. my talents are only average in all sports, so that only leaves recreational level to pursue. the most popular sports are more fun - not just according to me, but nearly by definition (hence they're more popular). for me, it's the same with IMA. I am indeed getting "nowhere" in it (about as far as I get with any other hobby) ---- that should neither bother anyone nor should it mean that you shouldn't read Sun's comments for yourself ---- don't take some random other internet dog's word for it. maybe i'm just spouting "magic" and nonsense. but you should try to read that and understand it. or not. I slightly feel sorry that people (especially those who say they like "internal") are not interested in "internal" and it's always sad to read the same b.s. on the main forum. but who cares? if it's interesting and useful, somebody somewhere will learn it. if Sun and a ton of those guys from that generation aren't clear enough, I have no idea what the problem is. Probably it really is too unbelievable, I'd guess. It does sound like some kind of bullshit and magic. Yet they say it again and again super clearly in a down to earth way. Or perhaps they really were no good at MA at all, or the xingyi fighters did well in those National tournaments because the external aspects are already so good (again, why would Fedor need internal power, deliberately? if you don't need it, you don't need it). OTOH if we think "whomever is best at fighting has the best advice" - it sounds good, but then every few years when that UFC champ is no longer champ, we should stop listening to him or her right? That obviously doesn't make sense, either. When a bunch of people good at it write the exact same advice, down, though, should we listen? Maybe. This is all BTDT.
