the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

Gonna haveta check this out.

Not a bad film.

I will mention, however, that it makes one major error in its presentation of Tibetan yogis.

The most famous practitioners in Tibet are not monastics. Yogis, in this context, normally refer to non-monastic practitioners.

From that perspective the Six Yogas of Naropa are not going anywhere. The monasteries associated with Tibetan Buddhism are probably screwed.

What I will add is that the fall of the monasteries has removed a tremendous amount of the bullshit traditionally associated with learning this kind of material. Never in the history of mankind has access to the technology involved been this easy to achieve.

As a practical matter, I've almost never met a monastic practitioner who had much in the way of ability. And of those I have, they were all playing the "I've got a secret game" from which you weren't going to get jack shit. In many ways, I suspect monastic life is a severe impediment to significant cultivation. Frankly, you are much more likely to encounter one of the enlightened in a martial arts school in my experience than at a temple.

It's a nice film that I enjoyed a lot until it got to the end and the stereotypically "I'm mad at my father's financial success in life" Western converts showed up.

Ian Baker's recent book Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices sheds a lot of well needed light onto how all of this works in effect.

The style of white crane I practiced was from Tibet.

The name "Tibetan White Crane" is associated with the lineage passed down from Wong Lam-Hoi through Ng Siu-Chung, whose training with Wong Lam-Hoi was later supplemented by training with Chu Chi-Yiu, another of Sing Lung's students. Nhg Siu-Chung sought to make the system more accessible to the general public.

https://martialarts.fandom.com/wiki/Tibetan_White_Crane

Back in the day 70s a Tibetan monk stopped by our gym I guess feeling there was a connection between his teachings and the style.
He asked Mike the teacher if he could set up his practice there...
Mike mentioned the monk said "I can teach you to leave your body" among other things.

Mike declined, the focus of the gym very different then the medative practice the monk offered.

They have some very interesting documented practices

In 1981, Harvard Medical School researcher Herbert Benson traveled to Tibet to meet with three Buddhist monks expertly trained in a form of yoga named g-tummo, a practice that is popularly associated with the ability to warm your body temperature through concentration. His academic interest in the practice lies in his research focus on “mind body medicine”, described in his official biography:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/harva ... eir-minds/

Fine overview, but I think I had some other kind of expectation. Thanks for posting, windwalker.