A question for a real master ... please

[Bak Mei]

Too embarssed to ask my teacher:

When I go out to a rave, and get on a crowded dance floor, I give myself over to the music and practice, inside, without making it obvious to the others.

I flow with the music and the poeple around me. I never cross leggs with them, everything is in sink. With time I noticed how everything falls into place if I go with it. I also learned how I could get inside the poeple's rythm around me and throw them off (this was only used when some big sturoid guy gets mad and bumps me on purpose because he's standing around trying to pick up chicks and I'm dancing).

I've been doing this for years now, started with the Grateful Dead. But now it has become a part of my life, just being in the flow of things. Sometimes I am out of it, sometimes I realize that, take a breadth, and not think about it.

Sometimes I hear answers to questions inside -- from poeple or things outside.

Do any of you experince this? I made the mistake of talking baout it once, and I was thought to be mad. I know I am not. I sense things.

[David Jamieson]

I am certainly not a master, but I'll tell you what.

water takes the path of least resistance and in doing so engulfs the world.

also, just because you can't find the right words for describing a feeling doesn't mean the feeling isn't there.

everyone is different but we are all the same.

it's yer buddha nature coming to the forefront as you release your rigid control of yourself and let yourself be yourself.

peace

[Fu-Pow]

To me, an ex-raver, raves seem kind of antithetical to the kung fu lifestyle.

If you are seeking inner stillness...... is a place with lots of people, music, drugs and color lights the place to find it?

Probably not.

Raves are can be fun, but they are only that. I remember going to a rave with glow sticks. I took some Ginseng and did some Choy Lay Fut. It looked really cool.

I'm not sure if you do "E" or other drugs, but my recommendation is to stay off of them. Furthermore, you don't want to practice kung fu while on drugs or intoxicated. In the long run, it will only hurt your kung fu.

Peace and keep on dancin'.

[Wongsifu]

hey man .... thats cool stuff.
I'll tell you something ok, music especially rock most of all of them has great power in it , the reason is that on a higher level of consciousness energy creates everything that we see down here , this energy is also translated into a frequency or wavelength . This wavelength can also be produced through a sound, the reason that rock is so powerful is because the sounds of the electric guitar that resonate are akin to the source of energy that creates us. They arent creating vibrations that come from the guitar but they are very powerful ones nonetheles because of their natural resonance... If you just go to a concert close your eyes and feel the music you stop hearing it with your ears and the vibes of energy are translated by your body and it will take you inside just like meditation.
The reason that most people who are metal heads et al... are ****ed up is because they dont practise meditation and or kung fu, so they cant control this excessive power and it overwhelms them. If you look at a metal heads aura when he headbangs you will see this excessive energy trying to get out of the crown and he is whacking his head around trying to force it out.
This is all cool but the problem is a lot of metal is very negative and if you arent pure again it can overwhelm you and **** oyu up.


Anyhow when you listen to this music and you feel it you are in tune with the vibes , just like if you were a radio and you are tuned into kiss fm or virgin radio. you are in tune with the rocker frequency or raver frequency.

so you are one with everyone else who is with that freq as well ,(on a side note people who have been hearing rock for years are so in touch with it they know another rocker or raver just by looking at them and often they know whats in each others heads)
Anyhow since when you are on the dancefloor you are in synch with everything around you you flow with it , which means oyu can change it. ..... Its just like tai ji you flow with the flow so anyone who isnt in the flow or gets knocked away. esp these roid freaks who you can disrupt them because they arent flowing.



Lastly dude about hearing or speaking to people or things inside, its a great thing to be able to do but its a whole different subject.
no your not mad and sod it if ppl think that. its just a higher state of consciousness, the more in touch you are with what created us and the world, the more you understand us and the world.

take care

[Qi dup]

Sorry Bak Mei, but we don't have rave's up here in the mountains. Were all just a bunch of slck jawed yokels.

But I think I understand what your saying, actually I'm interested in it. It sounds really cool. and yeah, it makes sence to me. you just get into a flow with the beat and it's like you can sense what a person's next move will be? or something like that, I'm bad at saying what i'm thinking when I'm typing. I'd kinda like to learn how to dance in a club/rave enviroment, an tips? like ways I can use my gongfu to dance? I train in longfist. I live about an hour from Denver, I bet there's some rave's down there. Well I say stick with it man, and I really think it's cool how you treat ralek and everybody else and I hope you can meet up with him some day. peace

[Qi dup]

Wow Wongsifu, what you just said was perfect. I've always wondered about music and how it affects your body. In a lot of meditation, you say a few things like OM and such. As I understand the reason for this is because the sound travels through your body and help the qi flow. I've noticed when I play my guitar and sing especial some songs, I can kind of zone out and feel lots of energy in my body, even more than when I do a lot of qigong. That really makes sence what you said about metalheads and concerts. I used to go to concerts all the time and even before I knew of qi, I still always felt these crazy things and a sort of bond with the people in the mosh pit. I bet it's the same at a rave too. good post man, that really made sense to me!

[Daredevil]

Fu-pow, you said that the raving lifestyle is anti-thetical to the kung fu one, but I can't wholly agree. Yes, superficially I concur ; the frequent drug use, concept of noise and chaos and typical shallowness of some personalities really does point in that direction. As does the general difficulty in maintaining both lifestyles at the same time. That's not all that is to it, though. I've always felt that the music, the dancers and the connection in that is almost mystical and very much like a form of meditation. Before I was into kung fu, I used to frequent a lot of raves. That strange thing, something like what Bak Mei was describing, was what kept me coming back. That was without any drugs involved. Now, I still sometimes go out of habit and to see old friends.

While they are very different things, the two "scenes", I definately think they're also similar at heart. One could say everything is similar at heart, but at least the road to that sameness is very strongly present in both, even though often missed entirely by folks in either group.

That said, I must add though, that at least for me, meditation is a much more potent tool for exploring that side of things and would suggest it over a "raving" approach at internal growth. Much more focused on "the thing itself", than some extraneous stuff.

Just a few thoughts.

[vingtsunstudent]

sounds like you have all scoffed down to many eeeeez to me.
vts

[Guandi]

>If you are seeking inner stillness...... is a place with lots of >people, music, drugs and color lights the place to find it?

>Probably not.

It depens totally on you. As you said "inner stillness". This can be achieved independently from outer stillness -- it has nothing to do with each other.

Guandi

There's more to life than stillness.

Were stillness the ultimate goal of humanity, that could be easily accomplished by killing oneself and thus reaching a perfect state of stillness.


A rave isn't the only place where one can get a good clean high from living.

In fact, we are all capable of getting maximal happiness out of every waking moment. Sometimes we as humans forget how satisfying it is to be able to breathe air.

Your lives are very colorful. Revel in its beauty!

[Bak Mei]

Thank youi for allm of your input. I don't do E ... anymore -- actually only done it twice when younger, early 20's. I'm 27 now.

I wouldn't consider myself a drug user or abuser. I never drink, not even a sip on New Years, do not smoke cigarettes, and drink coffee only on Sat. nights when I'm up working on my manuscript till 5:00 a.m. or so.

When I do go to a rave I will take alittle of the "holy Herb" as Bob Markley said. I'm 27, experimenting with some writing, and will dis-continue its use when I'm finished with my manuscript in a year. I do think though, that it has helped with certain aspects of my gung fu and life, for I don;t know if I would have realised certain things without it. Maybe. Who knows? Can't say, I am who I am and I have learned what I have learned.

I think we are all in agreement about getting in the flow with people. What about the getting, I don't like to say messages, let's say, reading, as they say, THE WRITING ON THE WALL. Getting guidence through things in this existence, people saying little things that relate to you, even though not directed to you, thinking of someone and then they call, turning on the radio and the song just happnes to answer what you were pondering. Sounds "wierd", but I don't think its coincidence.

Also, I don;t think doing anything that comes natural is unethical, if its done with good intentions, and without any desire to harm another or oneself.
Dancing, late nights, nothing wrong with that occassionally. I'm too busy training and writing to make it any sort of routine, but once every few months I'll hit a place in the city for after hours. Great music!

Anyway, thank you all. And best of luck in all your pursuits.

Peace

[shaolinboxer]

The beauty of rhythm is it sets the mind free.

We've probably been at some of the same parties.

[Bak Mei]

Jonathan Peters at the Sound Factory ...

[shaolinboxer]

SF is about a 3 blocks from my apartment, but I no longer go to clubs (making exceptions one or twice a year if I am comped and the act is worth hearing).

The last Sound Factory party I went to was the JV party at the Roseland. Goddarn, that was a while ago....

Last time I went out...Richie Hawtin at Centro Fly.

[Fu-Pow]

It depens totally on you. As you said "inner stillness". This can be achieved independently from outer stillness -- it has nothing to do with each other.

What I mean by inner stillness is the quieting of the mind. Quieting that "little voice inside your head." You need to be in a quiet and relaxed atmosphere to do it. If you are a master of meditation perhaps you could quiet your mind at a rave???? It would definitely be a good test.

Anyways, what most people experience at a rave is sensory overload. This will also shift your consciousness but not in the same way as meditation. Not in a focused way.

I'm not condemning raves here at all. I am however condemning the use of drugs and raves as form of "meditation." Raves are definitely all about dancing and fun.

Peace