by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology:
We are a collective of like-minded people. The Gung Fu (Martial Arts) that we advocate are strictly speaking, a set of approaches to fighting that strip away dogma and get right down to the bare bones of engaging with an enemy itself. Success can be established through observable results. It is also a requirement that these results are replicable by other people. The problem is that with any practice involving human individuals, there are variations and an individual’s personal system of beliefs or sense of ‘what is possible’ can affect the results. The successful Gung Fu man is one who can successfully see the world from within more than one belief system or paradigm. He is not stuck in a singular mode of thought. In fact, what is encouraged is thinking which is outside of mainstream Gung Fu practice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__r0gwxzeVE
Couldn’t be bothered with the gym today.
I’ve trained hard for years and its only over the last couple of months that I’ve begun to realize that forcing my workouts is detrimental to health as well as performance. Using my current mindset, my workout would have been mediocre at best, fostering an attitude which would reinforce mediocrity. It’s far better therefore to do strength training when I’m feeling fresh, fully recovered and enthused. My gains will be better and psychologically I will approach the workout with a greater degree of singular aggressive focus.
I tell myself that ‘Its okay to have off days’. I acknowledge my fatigue but do not empower it. Whether I workout out tomorrow, or sometime over the weekend I will ensure that my body is pushed hard.
On another note, I also acknowledge CTK’s earlier post on this blog which mentioned how lonely an activity it is to train. We individuals go into our respective gyms, garages or parks, plug in to our music and switch off the rest of the world. We are ascetics and our training is our moving meditation. We train hitting punch bags, pads, sprinting, lifting weights, jumping. The rewards are momentary bouts of feelings of strength and intermittent spells of good health, as well as the odd word of encouragement from other people. The price we pay however is significant; aches, pains and time sacrificed. Additionally, being a teacher of Martial Arts, whilst a colorful notion, lacks financial stability and finding good students is inconceivably difficult. Despite this I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ll continue walking this lonely path.
My mantra for today is;
“Punch a little harder, run a little faster, have a little fun, do a little work, bring a little joy…”
I have few extracurricular loves: kung-fu, skateboarding and street dance/breakdancing. Not saying I’m good at any of them, mind you. But there’s something about them all. Something ethereal. Artistic. Timeless…
Peace, CTK
Stay tuned to your favourite blog for a wonderful guest article on Tai Ji from Sam Masich:
Sam Masich is one of the most accomplished mid-generation practitioners of Chinese internal martial arts in the world today. Having trained and taught for a quarter century, Masich has studied with several of the great masters of his era from both North America and China including Liang Shouyu, Dr. Yang Jwing Ming, Jou Tsung Hwa, Yang Zhenduo and Chen Xiaowang. He has taught around the world and is the subject of two internationally airing documentaries. Sam has made some 20 films on Tai Chi and Neijia related subjects.
Peace, CTK
We prefer you carry your own insurance. You must agree to take full responsibility for yourself. If this resonates with you, great. You have chosen the best space to match your consciousness.
I. the undersigned, empower myself, and release the Jackson Wellsprings Health Research Institute and The Goddess Temple of Ashland, its owners, and its helpers by declaring and accepting the following tenets to be my truth.
“I am free to create my life and absolve all others from that responsibility.”
“I am solely responsible for every thought, word, and action I choose to take.”
“I trust and accept each moment I am creating will bring to me exactly what is needed for my growth, including intended and unintended consequences.”
“I affirm that any guidance and instruction I seek from another is only their truth. It is solely up to me to discern what is my truth and choose to act.”
“I release the past, present and future judgment that the guidance and instruction I seek conforms or is bound to any legal construct or thought form of the planet.”
“I affirm that the creation of empowerment is a sacred right and responsibility of each individual for themselves. I will allow all others to create their lives in their own way and divine right timing.”
By singing my name below, I affirm that I clearly have read, understood, and commit to the above statements. And so it is.
———-
Waiver at the front door of the Goddess Temple in Ashland, Oregon.
Peace, CTK
Robert Anton Wilson
I was supervising the student clinic again when it dawned on me how brainwashed we still are.
This student and I were discussing choices in acupoints when she said, “But I have to use this point if I use these other points.”
“Who told you that?” I asked.
“The other clinic supervisor. She said I had to use these all together.”
“That’s crap,” I responded. “Remember, it’s medicine, it’s adaptable and there are no hard-fast-rules. Go with what works and makes sense in the moment.”
It got me thinking. It’s not her fault. It’s also not the other clinic supervisor’s fault, because she had been taught that rote from someone else. And perhaps we could follow that chain of thought all the way up to some grand lineage of acupuncture and Chinese medicine practitioners.
And then I had one final thought. It IS all their fault. It’s everyone’s fault down the path of knowledge who didn’t question the method. Who did change the way of thinking. And who didn’t instruct free thinkers instead of mindless regurgitating drones.
Peace, CTK
“You have to punch. Very quick and very powerful.”
It’s the climb I enjoy so much. The struggle, sweat and pain. The time off and the rest creates the stage for what comes next.
———-
Over the years, in various martial art establishments, and like so many others, I was a victim of one-step and three-step sparring drills. You know the kind where we all stand static in a stance and our partner throws three techniques at us in a linear fashion while remaining still or while traveling three steps for every technique thrown.
Then when it came to the free movement around the room, the drill went to pot.
In the ring, I have been taught three step sparring – just the way it’s supposed to be. Gear on, gloves up and a give and take that mimics the fight in a safe context. I throw any three, anywhere with any kind of movements I want. And then it’s reciprocated. This goes on for many chimes of the bell – which exhausts and exhilarates me at the same time.
Maybe I should give one of those ol’ martial art schools a call?
Peace, CTK
The inner chamber of my ear rings. Empty cacophonous sound.
My mind creeps up from my foot, chattering along the way as it traces mutating muscular contours from thigh to hip. The sense of something dense becomes manifest as my mind rests against my hip joint, which feels disjointed.
There is pain here.
A clawing against my leg which echoes down sullied caverns when I rest, but scrapes against cartilage crunching bone when I walk, or dash. This injury is new. Perhaps a week old, but its incessant nagging has granted it presence from time immemorial.
My mind crawls up my hip, wrapping around abdomen, making its way to lower back. The tendril formed sensations rise up, shivering over spine, upto neck where my minds orchestra bellows, crashes and screams. The dull ache here has the permanence of withered forests, and of dusty books in labyrinthine libraries. The scent of dew, musk and old parchment. A deep tissue throbbing that cautions my body to turn my head slowly.
We pay dearly, in our attempts to appear fit and healthy. I am burdened for being a Gung Fu man. Do not let my strength and resolute determination to succeed at anything physical fool you. Inside I am a withered and frail soul.
But I am also a Master Magician, able to disguise my ailments and conjure an image of fire and brimstone using Dark Arts. In an instance of confrontation my pain is forgotten, my hip is repaired and my neck ache disappears.
Push me and I’ll push back.
Who overcomes by force,
hath overcome but half his foe.
John Milton
When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. That is fairly well understood, at least in the arts. Mark Twain’s experience comes to mind, in which, after he had mastered the analytic knowledge needed to pilot the Mississippi River, he discovered the river had lost its beauty. Something is always killed. But what is less noticed in the arts – something is always created too. And instead of just dwelling on what is killed it’s important also to see what’s created and to see the process, as a kind of death-birth continuity that is neither good nor bad, but just is.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (pg.83-84)
…maximum price:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/business/30shoe.html
I guess those (modern) Shaolin Monks might be on to something (cheaper and very close to barefoot):
I think shit is twisted.
My clients get the best of me – all day. My family gets the worst of me – end of the day.
Strangers get a perfect version of myself. Polite, courteous and happy.
At home, I lose my cool, make a mess and don’t smile much at all.
Shit’s gotta change.
Supporters of Dark Gung Fu are encouraged to watch these programmes…
This excellent six part series on philosophy is presented by popular British philosopher Alain de Botton, featuring six thinkers who have influenced history, and their ideas about the pursuit of the happy life.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/philosophy-guide-to-happiness/
