Kung Fu Online , Mouth Boxing and Consumer Culture.....

[Fu-Pow]

Seems like this forum promotes too much talking about MA's and detracts from peoples training.

There is no "secret" to good Kung Fu.

I don't care how big your MA video collection is.

I don't care how many books by Yang Jwing Ming or Mantak Chia or the ilk sit on your shelf at home.

I don't care how many Jackie Chan movies you own.

I don't care if you've got every shiny weapon ever invented and every training implement Martial arts mart never dreamed of.

I don't care if you believe in "chi" or if you practice "external" or "internal arts."

I don't care how many trophies you've got or how many forms you know.

I don't care if you've memorized every acupuncture on the human body backwards and forwards. And can give an hour long lecture on jing, shen, chi, li, chow mein and egg foo yuck.

I don't care if your Chinese or White or Black or Green.

I don't care if you speak Mandarin or Cantonese or Candarin or Mantonese.

I don't care if you shave your head and wear a buddhist monks robe or wear a Turban and a pink and white polk-a-dot moo moo.

I don't care if your a Buddhist, a Christian, Muslim or Wiccan.

I really don't even care who your teacher is or how "pure" your lineage is. Because it doesn't tell me anything about you or how hard you worked.

The bottom line is can you apply your art. Do you put in hard work and effort everytime you train? Did you spend the long, dull tedious hours perfecting your art? Can you fight and win?

Everything else is superficial.

Ahhh....I feel much better now.

[Water Dragon]

Da.mn dude
Who $hit in you cornflakes this morning? :confused:

[joedoe]

Well, it is a forum - a place for discussion and exchange of ideas.

You can't be training every spare second of your life, you need to do other things. And training isn't always a physical thing :)

Besides, I am doing this at work while my software is running a test in the background :)

[qeySuS]

If your not interested in any of those things i donno how the hell you managed to do over 1000 posts on a msg board, that's a whole lot of talking for someone who doesnt care.

[Fish of Fury]

hey Fu-Pow

i hope you were in horse stance when you wrote that!

[joedoe]

For someone who doesn't care, you are pretty up to date with all the topics that are being discussed. Maybe you should have been training instead of lurking :D

[old jong]

Hey, it is good to let that frustration out from time to time! Very liberating and usefull to see the simple reality of things instead of complicating things and forgetting what is the goal of what we do!
Hey....I feel good myself now! ;)

[Ky-Fi]

Originally posted by Fu-Pow


The bottom line is can you apply your art. Do you put in hard work and effort everytime you train? Did you spend the long, dull tedious hours perfecting your art? Can you fight and win?

Everything else is superficial.



Well, by that definition Mike Tyson represents the pinnacle of martial arts. Personally, I'll add in some of the "superficial" stuff for myself.

[No_Know]

I Can. Thanks, to those books on my proverbial shelf. And those videos in my proverbial collection. And I don't need to believe in Chi for it to be real or work.

Nice that you feel better.

[Serpent]

That was quite possibly the most dumba$$ post I've ever seen on this board! From someone with so many posts to his name as well.

Fu-Pow, I hereby award you the highly coveted Hypocrite Dumba$$ Of The Board gold medal. Wear it with pride. I'm sure someone else will be entitled to it within a week! ;)

Fish Of Fury! Where you been man, I've missed your weird mind!

[Merryprankster]

Fu-

We all rant from time to time... no worries mate!

Now, GO TRAIN!!! :)

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

how come everyone is so defensive?

the post about bs'ing on here detracting from training was a little off key, but i thought the rest was amusing and fairly accurate.

[old jong]

This is how a bunch of Symptomatic paranoïdal schiso/maniaco/bipolar chiblastingjerks internet keyboard warriors react...Sometimes!...;)

[Qi dup]

Originally posted by Fu-Pow

I don't care if you've memorized every acupuncture on the human body backwards and forwards. And can give an hour long lecture on jing, shen, chi, li, chow mein and egg foo yuck.

I wish I knew every acupuncture point on the whole body. that could come in handy. I like to learn real things every now and then. It would be hard to draw a line between good 'martial art' and good 'martial knowledge.' But I see where you are coming from with some of those things.

I have Three of Dr. Yangs books:)

[Sharky]

I like fu pow.

[Paul]

whatever fattie.

[Serpent]

Originally posted by Sharky
I like fu pow.

Well, fu(king marry him then!

;)

[diego]

Fupow im feeling you on that, see the thing is, all these lil trinket's in our kuen's, is the culture but the problem is, none of us grew up in turn of the century chinese opera, dropped bombs in world war two, then started teaching, especially the internal stylist's, they pick it up in college, in high school maybe play some tennis, whereas the guys who made these arts, achieved more bodycontrol, from thier crazy gymnastic's, wich led to capable acts of harsh/compressed power, it's like you aint got enough calcium to have a bone to pick with me, to do your move's you ain't got the muscle's.
So don't hate the player hate the game
don't worry be happy
final cliche
fahgedaboutit"like mickey blueeye's"
express yourself
get your own **** and be a better man, stop biting off my zigga's
just do it

[rubthebuddha]

rubthefupow.

except the part about ripping on this forum. if you don't like it, why are you here?

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

sharky is correct.

[raving_limerick]

Fu Pow--

Like the rant, man. I haven't been around long enough to see all of that here on KFO, but I pretty much agree with what you're saying. Sometimes the politics and trolling get on my nerves too, but that happens everywhere. At least here, you can decide to ignore people and it actually works. :D

[wushu chik]

Fu Pow...sorry someone ****ed in your cornflakes this morning...but I have a few things to say....

#1...If you dislike this forum so much, then howcome you are still here, and seem to know SO MUCH about what has been going on in the last few weeks??

#2...There IS a "secret" to good Kung Fu, but if I told you, I would have to kill you. And we wouldn't want that, would we?

#3...I am D@MN proud of my MA video collection, and the amount of books that I have on my shelves at home....especially my Jackie Chan and Jet Li collections. It took me a while to acquire all of them, and you are just jealous of that fact, but YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY!

#4...Don't EVER harp on my mouth boxing skills...it's the ONLY thing I have to hold on to!!!

#5...I have quite the extensive collection of shiny weapons, and you are jealous of that as well.

#6...I have gotten MANY trophies thru the years, and I am VERY proud of that fact...so shut up.

#7...I am not Chinese, White, Black or Green...I am a mixture of a few, so your list doesn't count.

#8...I don't speak Mandarin or Cantonese or Candarin or Mantonese. In fact, the last two I have never heard of...are they some more dialects???

#9...I wear a school shirt, and Kung Fu pants...and I bet your school shirt isn't HALF as cool as ours! And, I work my ass off.

#10..I am EXTREMELY proud of being a Witch....and if nobody likes it...TOUGH!

#11..My lineage is as pure as a virgins sheets.

"The bottom line is can you apply your art. Do you put in hard work and effort everytime you train? Did you spend the long, dull tedious hours perfecting your art? Can you fight and win?

Everything else is superficial."

The answer to that last question:

F*CK YES I DO. I am still champoin of Mouth Boxing...totally undefeated in that realm, and all the other boxing, I can whoop ass in that too...

I feel much better myself now!!! :rolleyes: :o

[rubthebuddha]

she's champ at both, i have to say. and that trophy wall? she used left field at fenway park as a model.

[Daniel Madar]

I like fu pow too. Technically, like a few other people on this board, we are kung fu cousins.

I go to martial arts bulletin boards like this one to socialize with other martial artists, not have a deeply detailed conversation about jing or yi, though every now and then Ill through something out.

It is through boards like this that I have made good MA friends in many places and met more than a few. Some lived up to their online rep, some didnt. Some were cool, some I can live without. Some I am planning a specific trip to go see, i enjoy talking with them so much.

I understand what fu is saying though. you have to wade through a lot of **** to find the cool people.

I just dont take it too seriously.

Right now, I am trying to kill of the last 15 minutes of work before I head to a game center or something to try and make some local friends.

And Ive always preferred the expression "who put the crack in your cocoa puffs?"

[ewallace]

I don't care about what you don't care about :)

Really-dough, now that you got that out of your system, you need to release some of that "special jing" and you will feel much better. Some people have different ways of dealing with frustration. For example, GDA likes to beat up 'retards'. I like to make fun of economy cars with rediculous wings, mis-use of the color yellow and humongous fárt can exhaust tips.

I like communicating with, for the most part, pretty intelligent people. They are getting harder and harder to find.

[Ray Pina]

Two words: A- men!

[bamboo_ leaf]

“It is through boards like this that I have made good MA friends in many places and met more than a few.”


This is also my hope and so far most of the ones I have met have been pretty cool, but then they move to japan. :)


kfo a good place to hang out, when things are slow.
don't really think of learning things here more like sharing exprinces and developing a seanse of others practices to compare with ones own.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

maybe i missed something when i was off the boards for a while, but i didn't hear him say he hated this forum or that it was a complete waste of time.

what i heard was that he didn't like the fact that allot of people assosiate his list of things with solid martial ability. the mentality that if you can mouth box, buy a bunch of tapes, and win a couple trophies your a solid fighter. he didn't say you were dumb for owning a bunch of books or wearing your school shirt, just that you were dumb if you thought that it related to your ability as a fighter. cool weapons and a kick ass vid colection . ... being able to apply your art ... they are two seperate things.

[Justa Man]

aww maaan, and all this time i was thinking the set of emei piercers i weild and the never-seen-before-in-the-us jet li flick i own gave me real martial skill !

[JAZA]

good phrses for a song

[Fu-Pow]

Ok...let me put this perspective for everyone.

Have you ever seen the forest for the trees?

Have you ever suddenly seen the edges of the box that you live in?

Well, I did.

If you guys want to know what is destroying MA's look no further than consumer culture.

People think that they can buy ANYTHING.

You can buy a kung fu outfit, you can buy a Gi, you can hire a good teacher, you can buy books or videos about MA's, you can buy a computer and shoot your mouth off on kung fu online ...etc...etc...etc.........

But as far as MA's go .....you cannot buy understanding. You cannot buy ability. And you definitely can't buy hard work and effort. It all has to come from you. And once you put in the time and effort and once you gain understanding or ability..... no one can take it away from you.

Don't you guys realize how cool that is?

But you can't skip the important step called training. What separates us from our teachers is years and years of dedicated training.

There is a Zen saying

"Before enligtenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water."

Kung fu online is a valuable tool and I have met some really neat people but it can be destracting to what is most important.

Your training!!!!!

Thanks for both the serious and hilarious responses.

[bamboo_ leaf]

“But you can't skip the important step called training. What separates us from our teachers is years and years of dedicated training.”

I think this is wrong we are our own teachers, you get what put in. You are where your at in time according to what you put in and what your needs are.

This is an art, not every one will or want to reach the highest levels, but there will always be those who do.

Some will be known others may be the older person playing TC in the park that no one thinks much of. I think there are many guides all around us for those open and looking.

We tend to find and attract what we think and feel. The nature of this board is such that we can see this happen with some of the posting here. :)

[Fu-Pow]

I think this is wrong we are our own teachers

Ever heard of the expression "The blind leading the blind."

Of course, you've got to have a good teacher. They are your guide through the process. But how do you think they got to be good, sitting on their thumbs? The people that really shine in MA's are the one's who put in the time and effort and "mindfulness."

How much time did the people on this forum's teachers spend surfing forums. None, because the internet wasn't available. How much time did they spend watching television? Much less than now. How much time did they spend reading about other arts. Very little, because there was very little literature available at the time.

There were over all less distractions and therefore more time for training. It was just you, your teacher and his/her knowledge.

Every successive generation builds upon the achievement and skill of the other. Modifying, improving, honing. This is how culture works. Otherwise each generation would have to start from scratch.

But improvement takes time, if you're not dedicated to the art then the art stops with you. All that effort of previous generations is wasted.

I really can't see room to disagree with that.

[bamboo_ leaf]

Fu-Pow,

Can’t really agree, I think the inner teacher, guide what ever your want to call it helps to direct our lives and answers unspoken wants, needs.

Those really in touch with this tend to be more balanced and open. Those not might fit the blind leading the blind that you spoke of. I think one has to learn to trust this.

I do :)

Not every one wants what they need, not every one needs what they want.

I don’t know about building up, I view it more as an inner rediscovery of awareness along a certain path. What others do is no concern for me. What others have done is no concern only the way that my own training and awareness develops.

this meduim is a good way to meet and share with others like your self along the same path, but more taining less talking as you say can only be better. :)

[Fu-Pow]

Whoa Nelly!!!

I think we are on way too different wave lengths to conversate. :confused:

Except for the last part.



Good day.

[Stacey]

technique is really really important. I don't care what anyone else says, the more I know, the better I am I fighting.

I agree with the rest. You can't train all the time though. Computor time is when muscles recover. (Yes I know the computor eats away at your chi)