reaching a higher level

[ShaolinDan]

Great. Very educational responses. I learned a lot from this post.
Thanks TGY and bawang for the poems...course I meant post them on my poems thread, but, thanks anyway.

I said I didn't care about responses because I didn't want to get in another pointless discussion. Sorry. I posted the original post because I feel like saying something like it on nearly every thread these days.

Seems like I was better off just letting y'all talk.
Reading comprehension is not so great maybe. I don't think I said most of the things I'm being told I said...(at least not with the connotations being attributed).

MMA is good. Kung fu is good. They both have their strengths/weaknesses. Neither one is useless. Developing our tools is what training is about...there's more than one way to do this. Why just do it one way, when you can do it in many ways?

[MightyB]

Sooo... if you want to cultivate chi - do standing postures and meditation.

if you want "street self defense" - work applications until you can pull them off in a live situation under stress.

If you want to look like Jet Li with a sword - work the most awesome sword form you have. Work on endurance and flexibility. Work on isolated movements until you achieve perfection.

If you want MMA - crosstrain BJJ with San Da or Thai. Don't pretend you have it in your style when you don't. Go somewhere to learn it, and, if your sifu's willing, by all means bring it back.

[David Jamieson]

just because they practice Eight Brocade and do a little sitting meditation, people like to talk about "cultivation" as if they are frickin' Boddidharma, without having even the SLIGHTEST notion of what it actually means...

lol, seriously, this made me laugh out loud.

Things are funny because they are true.

There are so many faux buddhists, yogis and flakes it is a long wade to the deep end.

In close proximity to my own home there are services offered, classes, shops, holistic medicine places, and all that stuff and I don't subscribe to any of it. there is nothing beyond the superficial in any of these offerings around me. Meanwhile, the real is available and it's a trip elsehwere to get to it

I think I can thank my father for that because when I was a kid he showed me what a friggin real difficult, tiresome, down-heartening, self abusing, hard path it is to actually pursue Kung Fu in your life in any effort.

Ultimately, in the long run, I think this has helped me to acquire my "eye".

The filter of knowing is powerful but only in context to the individual viewpoint.

[MightyB]

the problem arises because we want it ALL too soon and without the proper mindset on each step... and you have to accept the fact that you might not have enough time to reach all of your goals in every area - but you can significantly speed up the process through isolating each goal.

Don't mix forms perfection with street self defense. Master one thing first - then move on.

Let's say you know that you're not good at defending kicks... have everyone start kicking you with you only working defense. Have them kick you with every type of kick known to man. Work it like it's hot, eventually you'll get good defending kicks. Then move on to punches... etc.

[SPJ]

if you plant a tree or grow a cabbage in your garden

you know you have to water, use some fertilizer, pick out the weeds--

daily attention

yes to reach excellence or mastery, it takes time (kung and fu)

Kung fu is not magic but diligence daily, Kung fu is basic, basic and basic

just like a trea or a cabbage growing daily

--

I was shown many sword forms

I dewildered about what to do

my teacher said, you only have to practice some basic methods daily and learn how apply each method that is enough.

it is not about how many forms you remember, but about how well you learn and use each single sword method.

an axe down or pi jian only, if you learn well, you master it well, that is way better than many forms that you do not know how to use them well.

it is about quality and not quantities with low quality.

---

when do the trees grow higher or bigger?

in time,

to reach a high level takes time

takes kung and fu.

---

where is the magic?

daily diligence.

---

[wenshu]

@TGY
subtextual implication is a tautology. Just saying.

If rudimentary qi gong and zuo chan are not cultivation what is? Don't mean this antagonistically, I'm genuinely curious how you would define cultivation.

There is inherent conceit in the view that gong fu is not about fighting its about self-cultivation. It is really more of an excuse.

Its not the styles that are the problem, it's the practitioners.

To Himself
Giacomo Leopardi

Now will you rest forever,
My tired heart. Dead is the last deception,
That I thought eternal. Dead.
Well I feel
In us the sweet illusions,
Nothing but ash, desire burned out.
Rest forever.
You have Trembled enough.
Nothing is worth Thy beats,
nor does the earth deserve Thy sighs.
Bitter and dull Is life, there is nought else.
The world is clay.
Rest now. Despair For the last time.
To our kind, Fate Gives but death.
Now despise Yourself, nature, the sinister
Power that secretly commands our
common ruin,
And the infinite vanity of everything.

[Sardinkahnikov]

As the guy above said, daily diligence is the key, IMO. Stretching, crunches, squats, chin ups, push ups, etc - what you need to cultivate is the discipline to endure this routine in order to forge your body and your mental toughness. You have to get it on gradually tho, otherwise you'll end up getting injured and frustrated; DISCIPLINE is the hardest aspect of training, specially since modern life doesn't contribute much to it.