the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Today, Toronto weather permitting, I went to the park and took off my coat, there in jeans and a t-shirt, and practiced my qigong and forms for about an hour. Afterwords I put on my coat and sat down, on the bench, sipping my coffee and listening to music. I think I fell asleep for a moment, and I woke up at the end of a song. I was looking up at the trees and skyline and thinking, here I am, doing my stuff, all by myself. And I am alone here in Toronto. It's a difficult feeling to express, not a lonely feeling, reminiscent of a kensho I suppose.

It made me think again about my goals and what I want to achieve.

The park was empty. It's a big park. A few decades ago there would be fifty people doing tai chi in the park. Today I was the only one. The only one who remembers. Where did they go? Did everybody die? Maybe it's the weather.

human history is like natural wave, with tendency to forms ellipsoidal circles
look at fashion ...
during my over 50 years of practice, there was, at least- 3 peaks >waves of curiosity< in "eastern systems"...
But,
not to many is able to keep their Way straight, thru the waving ocean.

They were all wiped out by Internet challenges in the '90s.

there is another wave coming. human/ai/cyborg, human vs. ai, ai replacing human labor, human using ai assistants, etc., etc. is it really that different? maybe, maybe not.

the rules to be made after oscar pistorius are not yet known? not sure. https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... advantage/

bionic vision, bionic hearing? etc. is it "fair" if you can see better than me with my middle-aged reading-glasses-a-must organic vision? how about hearing?
https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical- ... c-ear.html

sorry, nothing to do with goals. ... maybe stay alive/well and find out what happens in this coming wave (thinking about wiesiek's reply)

everything wrote:there is another wave coming. human/ai/cyborg, human vs. ai, ai replacing human labor, human using ai assistants, etc., etc. is it really that different? maybe, maybe not.

The cyborgs are already here. But they can't fight yet.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... an-machine


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ovqznXZLs

The robots? They love to mix it up.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-army-robots


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOUD-k4tElY

Some amazing robots.

Cyborgs…Just need more time.

We are the cyborgs

Either I'll make money from teaching Nei Dan online or I'll try my chances in the army as an officer. The next half year is going to be very interesting.

In the park at midnight, there are many lights, but there are no people.

There is a chill in the air, but it is comforting.

I'm the only one there, all alone, and nobody cares.

Qǐ shì

To be happy
and do what i want
arriving to this, some desire must cease
the departure gates looming
this time is for peace

I believe strongly in goals... reasons... motivations for practice.

In occult practices there's a concept of "lust for result" that people like me try to avoid.

You put out a carefully framed intention and just release it. Practice just sort of refines it.

Same with the Taijiquan I think, like there is the health and self defense, and honestly that's enough. I get enough out of that to justify about half of the energy I put into my practice.

The other half is just taking the journey and seeing where it leads. Experiencing the mystery to comprehend the depths. Not getting intoxicated and lost in it and seeking confusion, but approaching precision and enlightenment.

I do the practice because the practice is good, and anything I get beyond basic health and self defense benefits are just gravy.

Been focused on “woo” as it’s easy to swing the pendulum to li etc and for health

However want to get back to “neijia” not just “neigong”.

We’ll see.

For that Toronto park, maybe Covid changed their routine?