CANNOT BE GRASPED OR LET GO OF

Dharmaless root?  Dharma harm?  Or what, whatnot.  More challenging non-thoughts from [the link in the previous post].  See page 188 which I found pretty much at random (or not).

 

THE BOLDNESS OF EXISTING

“All of you, if you are brave, come out from the womb and roar like a lion!”

http://books.google.com/books?id=qWrYGZG2yd4C&dq=zen’s+chinese+heritage&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=aSdvS7jFMoPUsQOsqbSyDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=ancestors&f=false

 

YOU NEVER KNOW…

You never know when trouble will start.  Well actually, sometimes you can see (or sense) it coming.  Sometimes it’s a bolt out of the blue.

Martial Arts is no panacea for dangerous situations.  I’m sure we’ve all heard or know about anecdotal evidence to this effect.  I have a relative who had taken Taekwando lessons and besides was a big, strong and reasonably young man when a patron at the restaurant got aggressive over a dispute about the bill.  My relative was the restaurant employee who tried to subdue the customer and, who ended up getting hurt (fortunately not badly). 

It’s a familiar story.  People get mad; stuff happens; people get hurt.  Basically, violence sucks.

Alert, Aware, Able, and not to proud to run Away… one needs to be decisive when the A–holes of the world go off like nasty little alarm clocks.

Even the joy of song may backfire at times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html?em

 

Gravity is the source of lightness…..

Another good one: http://cookdingskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/02/dao-de-jing-32-shapes.html

I’m trying to keep in mind that learning taiji is a strange process.  Strange to me; not strange to taiji.  But “strange” is a synonym for “new”.  And without newness, we begin to grow old………..

The Way is shaped by use

Do not hold fast

Let sensation flow

Strange mystery!  But not so strange, if it didn’t resonate somehow, who would bother?

Nature says only a few words.  But if we need more than a few, we can try to hear them.  I may have to leave myself behind if I want to go somewhere new.  But who is going, who is staying?  http://www.chinapage.com/gnl.html

 

SHEDDING MIND

“Relax completely”

May mean giving up more than

We may wish to give.

 

STICKING IT TO THE OTHER GUY

Huh!  I once did a short series of posts about stick fighting, something I have a certain interest in even though minimal experience (if any).  I recall that I included a linked article about the traditional Irish skull-basher that doubles as a trusty walking-stick for everyday life.  Here’s a clip of some chaps training with same:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REvuqH8cRJc&feature=player_embedded#

I’m not nuts about the background music.  I usually watch martial clips with the sound off anyway.  (A lot of the good ones they’re speaking Chinese which I don’t ken; and even if English, I don’t expect to get any useful verbal info out of a brief, free video clip…)

I found this clip at a martial website:

http://silat-escrima.blogspot.com/2010/02/mateo-academy.html

 

WUJI TO TAIJI TRANSITION

I thought as long as I was offering physical descriptions of taiji form work I’d better include the 2 basic states of taijiquan.  Then of course you should get back to wuji in the end.  I’m still working on that part (and all the rest).

 

FIRST MOVEMENT

Some taiji form work starts with feet already well separated, it seems.  But my introduction to taiji was that you begin with feet together ”standing stake” Wu Ji and at the right juncture, you step your left foot leftward.  Some forms seem to immediately drop into a horse stance at that point  (whether 50/50 weight or not?) but the way I do it now is opposite to that; merely relaxing the legs (actually they’re already relaxed).

So: first physical movement is the step left.  For lots of us anyhow.  Have you ever watched yourself do this in a mirror?  Probably.  I have, and here’s what I see: my head moves several inches leftward, with no need to violate taiji principles.  Of course, the whole body (save the right foot) is shifted leftward.  But the head shift is interesting in a martial context.  In a fight, my head is a primary target for my attacker.

I’ve always been a bit bemused by those form “application” notes which begin “If the opponent tries to punch me in the chest…”.  I mean, who punches the chest?  Of course, an internal-force hand strike to the chest could be very bad news indeed.  But how many people have internal force?  Protect the face, I’m sure we can all agree that’s a fundamental rule.  But of course there are plenty of weak spots for most of us.

What else about first movement?  Feet were side by side (more or less); now a decent gap has been opened up.  In the stance I’ve trained, my feet lie pretty much directly below where my hands would hang.  But what I really see is that I am now bigger, more spread out, than I was in Wu Ji.  Even less dense, in a sense.  You might either say “So what?” or “Of course”.  But it’s a fact.  And the base is broader, more physically stable; and the center of gravity has been lowered, albeit slightly.  All these changes are in relation to the previous posture of straight-and-narrow.

 

SOFTLY WADING IN

In the Yang 85 first Peng, we perform ward-off to left and right, initiating a classic sequence of rearranging an attacker’s energy and force.  A layman’s conception of warding off a blow would probably employ one or both arms while standing flat-footed; or perhaps even backing off a bit.  In the Yang 85 we ward off, while taking two steps forward.  This is so taiji that it is simply mind-blowing, and I certainly haven’t done it justice with this dull, terse description.

 

“…exhibited that spring-like, ‘uncompressible’ quality…”

Over at Masters of the IMA blog I clicked on the “Yang Style Taiji” category and found a couple of very interesting articles:

http://wulinmingshi.wordpress.com/category/yang-style-taiji/