morning dew

Now that's more like it!

Interesting stuff. Do you have any Wu style videos you like?

Yeah, I also took this first bit as being metaphorical/symbolic. I wonder if Master Yierh was a Confucian? In any case, my take is that (Hsu Yu thinks) Master Yierh has been brainwashed/indoctrinated into a particular perspective that is universal and he's curious about what else might be out there. I'm guessing Hsu Yu's response is basically saying you can't really just dip a toe into it and that you have to make a discrete leap from a universal perspective to a situation-based one when it comes to behaviour and ethics. You can't sag halfway between the two: you are either working with universal principles or 'sniffing'/following your nose, taking each situation one at a time and as unique. eta: I guess, thinking a little bit more, this is a kind of logical system vs intuition approach to ethical behaviour.

I just shared this video to a friend and we were having a laugh about it. It got me curious, however, about any legitimate experiences people have had. I've experienced 'healing'/heat with hands (both receiving and giving), and I've experienced things such as 'lines' in my legs or even a kind of 'kundalini' experience when simply meditating on LDT. Has anyone ever directly experienced anything more 'physical'/objective, especially in line with some of the things supposedly going on in the video?

Yeah, it's a fascinating topic. There is some more stuff in this thread that is quite interesting (on the second page):

Hey, he's not a joke! He was a serious scientist. Just take a look at him busting Magnet Man.

Nice video. Joking aside, there are definitely times when I've felt someone staring at me from behind and I've turned round to catch them; there have also been times in the past when I've been staring at somebody intently or giving somebody a dirty look from behind, and they've felt it and turned round lol

What's the video? Any chance of a link for clueless noobs such as myself?

Haha! What is going on here? They are somehow meant to sense him and avoid the blow? How many goes are they allowed to have? One guy seemed to have had about five or six times and still got clapped for avoiding it.

Thanks I'm having a great time getting to know everybody and learning lots of new interesting things.

Thanks, this is very interesting and clear. I would say with my experience with the guy that flicked something at me with his hand that it only momentarily stunned me (probably because I wasn't expecting it). I didn't move very much (maybe a little flinch); I just ended up giving him a dirty look and he backed off a step or two. If I had been charging at him full pelt I doubt it would have done very much to me. As with more effective ways, I don't know much about combat sorcery and chi strikes, etc. I've only been in one physical fight since I left school and that was over 25 years ago, so it's not something I've really needed to look into that much. I have read in sorcery books about things like projecting symbols to people's third eyes to disorientate them, and I would imagine you could just do the reverse of (distance) healing to people, etc. Probably something I will look at later on if I ever go travelling and feel the need to protect myself.

How many repetition do you do of each movement? I started off with about three, but built up to about ten (over the years). Is this too much or too little? Can I get away with doing less? Also, now that I'm doing (Wu) Tai Chi in the mornings as well, I'm wondering if it's making eight pieces of brocade redundant (except as a brief warmup). I get the impression Tai Chi opens up the main channels anyway? Thoughts anyone?

Thanks again. It was very interesting. I watched it a couple of times and thought it was good (and professional). I've been trying the last couple of mornings just the beginning bits of the breathing up the legs into LDT and breathing out and down again before I start, and also this breathing for some of the moves. On the plus side, I find it quite powerful and a very good way to get right into my body and right into the moves. On the downside, it gives me a similar spacey/'loose' feeling that I used to get when I used to do qigong classes and would move energy around with my mind. I dropped Hua Gong from my morning routine for that reason. I do do things like LDT meditation with my palms in front of my LDT, and experience heat and energy moving around. I'm just an observer, however, and I don't actually move around the energy myself and it doesn't give me that spacey/'loose' feeling. It might just be the case that this kind of mind-directed energy work isn't right for me at the moment. I did find your initial suggestion quite good on its own: simply meditating on my breath before I start doing eight pieces. Even just doing this was helpful to get into my body and be more present for the practice. I shall have a bit more of a play with this, though, and see what happens over the next week or so.

Thanks, great stuff. Looks an interesting thread in general.

I'd be fascinated to read that. Do you have it in a personal practice thread or is it somewhere else?

Well, I think it would make an interesting discussion, but it's not a problem to leave it there.

Ah, I was actually going to ask you to expand on this, if you felt like it. I'm afraid I don't really know much about the theory of KJ or the people in my video and exactly what they were trying to do apart from using chi to stun people or knock them aside, etc. I just assumed they were trying to (or pretending to) shoot out chi (or psi balls, etc.) or 'electrifying' people. I'm not really sure beyond that.

Do you think Sid was strong enough to stop somebody charging at him? I was wondering what went wrong in the original video I posted for some of those 'teachers'. I assumed they were all just shysters, but perhaps the odd one just underestimated the extent of their abilities?

I like Gordon White; his interviews/podcasts are quite a laugh to listen to, IMO. I haven't heard the last one, though. It looks quite interesting. I shall have to add it to the list.

Yeah, I've had somebody do exactly the same thing to me as well, except maybe he was a little nearer (about a metre) and he had his palm facing towards me as he was going to hand me a card. He gave his hand a tiny flick towards me (probably about an inch as well) and a split second later I felt a full body impact; it stunned me for a second. This was many years ago in a Pagan/witchcraft/herbalist shop and I suspect he wanted me out of his shop because he was busy packing.

It also seems a little odd how Confucius is speaking. It's almost as if ZZ were speaking through him like a puppet. I didn't think Confucius was big into metaphysical speculation.

Okay, just going to post some initial thoughts: Yen Hui is saying to Confucius, "How comes this big phoney Mengsun is called the best mourner even though he doesn't appear to care at all about the dead?" Confucius says, "He is being true himself, while having to observe customary rituals (not sure why, given things like Section 6:6); He has no idea whether death leads to something better or worse, whether we are just dreaming this life and going to wake up to something better, etc, so he's keeping an open mind and has reached a compromise (in the disconnect between his emotions and outward behaviour)." -------- Again, I don't know much about Confucius, but this seems like a bit of criticism of him by ZZ. Maybe it's because I'm not big in to tradition, but the first thought I have is to still agree with Yen Hui. Why not just strum a lute and sing strange songs as in Section 6:6? Why bother following the correct Confucian behaviour if you don't really feel it? Perhaps, ZZ wants to illustrate the ambivalence or uncertainty about whether death is a good or bad thing, so he has Mengsun display both attitudes at once? I'm not sure.

Interesting. I was wondering how this was going to play out.

1. I still think DB has the best online discussion I've ever seen on (the) ZZ, and, I would imagine, it would rival (some) academic books as well – especially given the opportunity you have to actually ask people questions and given the presence of people who are decent translators. 2. It's been helpful for me to deepen my understanding of Wu Tai Chi, Internal Alchemy, retaining and various other things. 3. It's also been very helpful comparing notes with people about experiences and health. There's more, but I'll leave it there.