omnifinite

Our letters don't quite fit their sounds. If you could mix K and G into one letter it would probably be closer.

It looks like something's being unleashed to me. Can't put my finger on what.

I like building my own so I have my choice in everything (and don't get cheated out of a bunch of manuals and software) but it's more expensive. Dell has some awesome cases now though... their insides make a lot of sense.

I feel there's a difference between bearing the burden of pessimism/cynicism and deriving pleasure from it. But yeah, it's a scary world.

Uh oh.

You could just consider it all a 50% off sale . I guess things people need no matter what are good bets when things are going badly... food, power, that kind of thing.

If he won't learn the easy way he'll learn the hard way. He'd better hope he doesn't end up in a situation where he needs to defend himself.

I don't think more knowledge is ever a waste of time unless it's bad information.

I lived in Korea for a while and there were plenty of early-teen blackbelts there. I don't know if similar McDojofications are happening there, or if historically people needed to get good with arts early on because they'd soon be needing to use them in combat of some kind. *shrug* I don't know.

Argh! "Moot"! It's "moot"!

I think some people use it to focus. I think a lot of other people use it because they saw someone doing it who was focusing and they thought maybe it sounded cool and didn't really know why they were doing it. I catch my instructor doing it very slightly every once in a while. I think I'll ask him why he does it next time.

Weird, did you possibly damage the bone beforehand? Maybe you're not getting enough calcium? Hope it heals quickly either way.

Right under the ear in the groove I'd say.

I don't know if JKD uses Wing Chun techniques move for move, but you can find instructional online videos for both of them here (in the same video in fact): https://www.sifugrados.com/technique.shtml

I could be wrong, but from what I know Ba Gua is mainly Taoist in its view of the universe. I'm not sure about the others. I'm sure there's plenty of Zen to be found (though since we're talking Chinese I guess it would be Ch'an). Really, I don't think you'll get any closer to what you're looking for outside of one of the aforementioned arts. You'll just have to figure out which you prefer. After a lifetime of effort, what the real masters have discovered through them, I believe, is nothing less than a higher plateau of consciousness and another level of involvement with the reality around them. As for how many of us could reach that point, well, depends on the teacher and depends on how many decades we put into it.

Padded mats, those interlocking foam panels, grass, carpet, concrete in the future.

I believe Henry South is still around but I'll post the first part of his newsletter for him anyway... If you'd like to receive this letter yourself request it at henrysouth@hotmail.com Newsletter #1 -- 1/26/2003 Dear... everyone, you are the first people to recive my newsletter, this letter will follow my progress in the lead up and all the way though my training in the Ji Lin Province shaolin temple. first to tell you a bit about myself. im 18 and in my final year at henley college. deadlines comming up and my training is getting much harder. my first martial arts were started when i was about 10 i started shotokan karate and still practice it to this day. however i have also had a keen interest in chinese martial arts wing chun, kung fu, etc. recently i was offered a place as a deciple of the grandmaster Shi De Qian in china. as only 5 westerners have been offered positions i accepted not realising what i was in for. my training so far in the build up to going has been gruling to the point that i nearly didnt want to go. forced streching, holding stances and 4hours of kata practice whenever i can. i have recently recived my training schedule in the post. and it goes as follows: - Summer: 5:30 a.m. - All students wake up 5:45 a.m. - Running 6:00 a.m. - Qi gong training and review 7:30 a.m. - Breakfast 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. - Morning training 12:00 noon - Lunch 3:00 p.m. - Afternoon training 4:00 p.m. - Tai chi class 5:00 p.m. - Dinner 6:00 p.m. - Additional Training of your choice 9:00 p.m. - All students to go to bed Winter: 5:30 a.m. - All students wake up 5:45 a.m. - Running 6:00 a.m. - Qi gong training and review 7:30 a.m. - Breakfast 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. - Morning training 12:00 noon - Lunch 2:00 p.m. - Afternoon training 3:00 p.m. - Tai chi class 4:00 p.m. - Dinner 5:00 p.m. - Additional Training of your choice 8:00 p.m. - All students to go to bed i will be going for 18 months. looks like my jorney starts here. Regards Henry South p.s. to all my friends, even tho im not out just yet. i just want you to know that i love you and will miss you all more than you will know. p.p.s. send me gossip

I hope it's common . That's how my instructor is (not overweight, but machine gun yes). Hopefully I will be someday. I have to learn to think that fast .

Sneaky .

I think the true masters would feel that "proving" themselves to someone would be somewhat like stepping on an ant just to prove that they're better than the ant. What's the point. They don't care about the ant. They don't even notice the ant. They not only don't see it as a threat, but it isn't even a passing thought. They have better things to do. As hard as it is to imagine, other people have different priorities in life. If you guys want to see what a great master can do, go attack one in an alley. They don't need to go out of their way to show you something they're fully content with knowing themselves. (I think I hear the thread being locked already )

Some white people are good at something and some aren't. Some asian people are good at something and some aren't. There're no guidelines or rules or anything. It's all just individuals. However being a westerner you might not be used to some of the mindsets that would be ideal for advancement in the art. Culturally it probably wasn't something you were as immersed in. But since you're looking for that kind of art in the first place I'm sure you're already headed in that direction. I say go for it. Might want to make sure the teacher has a ton of experience though. If they've studied in China at some point that'd be a plus.

Thank you... I'll take a look. From what I can tell there are a few different systems (decided by some scholars somewhere) of putting Chinese into English letters... guess I used a different one . I've seen them spelled both ways.

Yes, I was agreeing .

I'd say my instructor but he's already in there . I'm not sure who else I'd choose. I haven't really gotten to know many prolific martial artists. I hear very good things about some of the instructors at an Aikido school in DC where my employer trains. Was this thread supposed to be about people we personally know or people more in the public eye?

Oh, you are looking for something like Tai Chi. My apologies, somehow I assumed you were looking for something more "sporty". I just looked through a great book the other day that I bought but haven't gotten very far into yet. It's called The Power of Internal Martial Arts by Bruce Kumar Frantzis. I think you should try to get your hands on it or something like it. After you read it I think you'll have a better idea of what those three main Chinese internal arts (Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Hsing-I) are about and how they differ. And I also think you'll be able to do a much better job of gauging an instructor's credibility after reading it. I hope to spend a lot of time with Ba Gua later in life. I have a feeling it's going to take a long time to find a truly good instructor anywhere near me and I'd like to be "settled down" first so I don't have to move away a few years after starting up. However if anyone can point me to a real Ba Gua master who somehow ended up setting root in the NoVA/DC area I'd be much obliged .