Ask yourself ....WHY?

[Alpha Dog]

I too would run from anyone who suggested his role as Shi Fu was to help me be a better person.

But I have never met anyone who made me such an offer so there you go.

[Merryprankster]

Alpha--

Glad to know I'm not the only crazy guy in MA

Off to boxing (western)....

Cheers!

[Alpha Dog]

if you ask the plumber to fix your sink and he makes a bee-line for your tv (that's television, not transvestite), don't you have a right to say, "Whoa, Nelly!!"?

I think so.

[cha kuen]

Why I'm empty.

When he made me stand in that stance...i shook like a seizure and emotion came over me.

I was looking in the mirror at myself , shaking, sweating like I was in a desert. I was thinking to myself, "I want the truth. I want to be good. I want to get on the right path. Everything I have learned before doesn't matter. I'm starting now, here, on the right road."

Later I touched hands with my sifu and he slapped me around like a dirty rag doll.

He said, " All your force comes from your upperbody. I don't care what you have learned before, if you shake that much in your stance, then you don't have a foundation. You cannot get power from the ground. When I hit you, it is not my arms hitting you, it's the power from my legs...from the ground. "

Cantonese " Lik - chong- day - hei"
translation " power-comes- ground-rise"

power comes from the ground.

Also when I met a chen teacher I asked to touch his hands. And he said, " Right when I touch your hands...all your tension goes straight to your shoulder. If you learn from me, I will teach you how to relax so that you have no tension."

THis is basically the same thing my sifu told me. WHen you're loose and relaxed, then your energy will go to the ground.

Heaven - Man - Earth.

check out www.sojournpast.com GOOD READING, good stuff.

Your center, gravity, physics.

Ever seen that Jet Li movie " tai chi master?"

How Jet Li gets insane and hits that toy with all the sand on the bottom?

THat is the same principle in kung fu. Except that sand bottom is your tan tien. All your energy SINKS and you are hard to be moved.

I only konw of this by theory and I cannot do it physically... YET.

I am on the right track. I see the truth.

[cha kuen]

About the personal development.

No one can teach you to develop as a person. He /she can only give you pointers.

Much like when mom says, " go to sleep early. Brush your teeth clean."

It's only when you go to the dentist and come back with 8 cavities, that you learn for yourself to brush your teeth clean.

When I talk about becoming a different person...its the long hours of work that you put in. It's the standing mediation that you do. It's your hose stance or wc stance that you hold.

It's the critical thinking that your teacher brings out of you.

You know I talked to someone today. He said, "If you learn here, you cannot learn MY wing chun or si gung's wing chun. I cannot learn YOUR wing chun or HIS wing chun. We all have our OWN wing chun."

[yenhoi]

I study fighting to fight.

I have a list of people I must visit when my skillz are ready.
Some will be visted sooner then others.



Quote:

You are calm. When you see a bunch of cars honking their horns at each other, you don't get mad you just think
"they have a lot to learn..."

I think: "there is a bunch of cars honking thier horns at each other."

[cha kuen]

Yenhoi,
"cars honking"
Cool. haha

You konw that banner at the top of this thing that says

"wu-tang, kungfumagazine.com,wudang mountain"

HAHA what a load of crap, this hiphop group, or used to be hiphop... and this kung fu thing.

BUT it's good for kung fu-helping it reach more people.

But Gene Ching loves wutang and thinks of it as good quality hiphop while I think that wutang has ran out of fuel and is simply rapping the same crap they have been rapping before with a different order of words.

[anerlich]

There is ample evidence amongst some senior martial artists, including WC practitioners, that long time study of a martial art does not necessarily develop emotional maturity, humility, or "develop character", or make one a "better human being".

[Merryprankster]

Hmmm funny, all this stuff about relaxing your shoulders, heck, relaxing everything, power comes from the ground, etc... sounds suspiciously like... what Dave, my boxing trainer says.

Except he says it more like "You're too tense! Relax or you'll punch yourself out."

"MOVE, don't stand there and stare at what you've done!"

"Pivot more on your cross!"

Sometimes, of course, he doesn't say anything. He just whacks me on the head with the focus mitt....

[anerlich]

Prankster, I agree. The mechanics may not be identical, but they are pretty similar on a number of levels.

One thing you miss out on in that environment is the associated aura of the Mystic East which enthralls some. And the feeling that what you do is somehow special and radically different to everyone else.

[Alpha Dog]

Palestinian author Edward Said wrote in his book Orientalism that the whole concept of the "mystic East" was a western, colonial invention -- by objectifying a region, making it beyond comprehension, it was easier for the people back home to accept the attrocities being committed overseas by the colonial Empire.

It was the only thing the guy ever said that had an ounce of credibility, proving that if you write enough, sooner or later you will say something quotable.

[lotus kick]

I learn kung fu because i want to learn kung fu. Everyhting else, is water under the bridge.

[Sabu]

'Cause people try to steal my elephant all the time. I must defend him....

[old jong]

Because I want to be able to defend myself against evil nurses when I'm in an old people home!...That's why!

[raving_limerick]

Originally posted by old jong
Because I want to be able to defend myself against evil nurses when I'm in an old people home!...That's why!

Old Jong-- You sound just like my dad, who's just started taking Tai Chi this year. Not that he couldn't tan my hide before, but I'm not going to be the one to try to shuttle him off to the home after he gets 20 more years of traing in.

Actually, if I was living in your fair country, I'd probably start learning kung fu to teach those annoying Leafs fans a lesson.