Originally Posted by
taai gihk yahn
there are three reasons to keep secrets:
1) to hold secret some technology / methodology that, when engaged in a competitive activity w/another person, gives u an edge (war, sports, medicine, finance, tiddly-winks, etc.)
2) to preserve authenticity in terms of membership to a given group (mafia, kung-fu lineage, masons, Tony the Tiger's Secret Boys Club, masons)
3) stringing people along with promise of revealing secrets, whether or not they actualy exist;
of course, all 3 can get mixed and frequently do;
in TCMA, "secrets" be of several types:
1) where to hit someone; e.g. - vulnerable zones - and when the majority of the population didn't know squat about anatomy, this was valuable information; nowadays, anyone can do their homework and figure out where the body is more vulnerable;
2) how to hit someone - using certain types of "energy" to ostensibly to cause specific types of damage; again, this is probably more in function of the "where", that is, hitting a nerve cluster with a crane-beak versus the flat of the hand;
3) certain skill sets like hands-on sensitivity and efficiently issuing power - ok, fair enough, but this information is also acquired and used effectively across the board: GOOD wrestlers develop excellent "teng ging", GOOD boxers develop their own version of "fa jing", and GOOD European fencers develop excellent sticking / listening w/the sword; different path, same mountain-top...
4) internal practice: ok, so there is some funky stuff out there, some of which you might figure out on your own just by spending time sitting / standing quietly every day for an hour or so, but honestly, you could do just as well with an expert in pranayama and similar yogic disciplines to get the same sort of end results - Taoist internal stuff ain't all the different, there are certainly cultural mediated nuances, but that's about it; in this sub-set I would also include iron body, which is one thing that yoga doesn't cover, but I believe a lot of it isn't so much secrets as it is consistency and repetition...
5) medicine: can of worms, but contemporary medical knowledge vastly out does TCM in most areas; what it doesn't get, u can pretty much find in osteopathy (osteo manual pretty much blows away tuina), naturopathy, homeopathy and western herbology;
my point is this - if u go looking for secrets for their own sake (e.g. - I want to learn an esoteric tradition), u will find many people who have them; however, if u want results, then open ur eyes and take a look around at the world...