Gerard

The Dao Bums
  • Content count

    4,686
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

Everything posted by Gerard

  1. Bagua book

    Hello, Thanks for your interest but I won't be writing a book about Ba Gua Zhang/Quan.
  2. Yes good stuff. The dragon itself being an action and power orientated 'animal' will bring this year significant changes which will culminate with the Fire Horse in 2026, for good or for the worse as this animal can either bring disaster or complete regeneration. Buckle up for sure.
  3. Heat during meditation

    OK you are quiet during the Wood hours. But also check your: 1. Diet 2. Other Lifestyle factors: how much you think during the day as this indicates level of Wood activity and excess Wood leads to excessive Fire (Liver Yang rising); stress levels, living at full throttle which also lead to excessive Fire. 3. Sexual activity
  4. Heat during meditation

    Liver Yang rising caused by Kidney Yin deficiency. I suggest you seeing a TCM practitioner with herbal qualifications in order to flush your system from excess heat. If you regularly stay up late this will exacerbate the problem, which itself was caused by lifestyle habits like study, work, computer use, partying, etc. during the late night, wee hours and right up to sunrise.
  5. Dao Bums (here i am)

    You know why, do you? https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-when-a-snake-sheds-its-skin-why-isnt-it-colourful-160997 The Wood type even more! Myself doing what my own nature loves best:
  6. I don't believe any of that especially coming from a major religion often associated with FUNDAMENTALISM which treats women like stray dogs. Sufi yes, they are a totally different bunch. Thumbs up! "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself." (Rumi) But Islam in general don't think much of them and in some instances they are murdered and imprisoned. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/how-many-sufis-in-world-i_b_902164
  7. the need to know

    You'll learn nothing useful from books as in gaining insight of what we really are, the subtle processes that take within all of us, and what is the real meaning of full realisation. Btw, the Vipassana teacher was only concerned about one single thing: How much are you thinking during your meditation practice? Twice a day for the entire 3-week retreat. He asked me nothing else. At the end of the retreat he said: you are only a baby meditator but you'll go far on this path. If took me roughly 10 to 14 years to find out what he said was 100% correct. I also knew the solely inner work path is not adequate for modern practitioners due to the sheer amount of blockages and state of imbalance we are all in when we first start this path. One must manipulate the body completely and bring the Yin & Yang to complete balance in order to fully understand and grasp the Mind.
  8. the need to know

    I don't teach but I could and HAVE WRITTEN ZERO BOOKS. I will never write one because good teachings are passed on orally and this this the way I have learnt. I have learnt Ba Gua from a teacher, a Water Ox, who hasn't written any books and I doubt he'll ever write any as he also learnt the master-apprentice style. He learnt Xingyi from his uncle (he hasn't written any books, Roy Jenzen from Perth) and Ba Gua from a Beijing-based teacher: Wang Tong. No books either. I also learnt from He Jinghan. All his FOUNDATION work videos available on YouTube are priceless. A big thank you from here. He has written one book but tbh I reckon he did it to pay the bills, for all the free vids he released online. Nothing in that book is different from all his audiovisual material. The teacher I was assigned to in the Vipassana retreat I attended in northern Thailand hasn't written any books and you'll never find any info about him online. He is a Dutch guy, a Fire Rooster, with a very deep insight. Won't say much here but he was spot-on with many things about this 'spiritual' business (full of inflated BS and excessive talk and written material ). More hardcore practice and less talk that's his belief. He actually wasn't impressed at all about the stuff I experienced on retreat: siddhi phenomena? He said nothing about it and wasn't slightly interested and impressed at all. Today this stuff doesn't impress me at all either. There are far more important things to care about. Hope this info helps.
  9. Is Buddhism a complete path?

    To answer the main question and from personal experience: 1. Imperfect 2. Incomplete You don't follow an individual but an entire refined and whole encompassing system. Taoism is probably the closest method. No Yin & Yang? Forget about it. Move on to something else. Btw, "He says that in all the monasteries he’s lived in—and they range from the Southern Highlands of NSW to a Chan monastery in Taiwan to a remote Theravada forest monastery in Sri Lanka—he has never encountered any monks who are free, liberated and enlightened." Quote from: In search of a wandering Buddhist monk
  10. Help on the spiritual path

    I said nothing about the Squat Monkey or any other squats. In fact, you should do them daily. The voodoo stuff is what you need to be very aware and careful with.
  11. Help on the spiritual path

    Wrong practice. More incorrect practices. It shows a general state of being very ungrounded. -Student -Work. Most likely intellectual/academic. This explains why you need a lot of grounding work. You aren't alone though. Spiritualism is rife with this kind of people who talk about nonsense rather than verifiable facts. Many end up "cuckoo" due to carrying on with wrong practices for far too long. MY ADVICE: 1. Read this information carefully: http://www.internalintent.com/ 2. Find a real life teacher, someone with a strong martial arts background. Chinese Kung Fu arts are very helpful. Ask for help here: https://rumsoakedfist.org/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=c463074708f393f03dedbebedba24829 Learn proper meditation from a real life teacher; eg. Buddhist Vipassana is very helpful. You can start here in the mean time: https://www.skillshare.com/en/blog/guide-to-vipassana-meditation/ Keep meditation easy and simple so no chakras, no dantiens, no astral projection gibberish and all that jazz. Learning to meditate correctly is a very slow and long learning process. Quietening the busy thinking mind (ego-mind) should be your main goal. Always finish and start seated meditation with a period of walking meditation with bare feet to ground yourself nicely. Good luck!
  12. Well technically the year of the Water Rabbit is still in place. The 10th of February is the start of the new Lunar year. I can see people are happy here to move on to the dragon asap. Indeed it has been a lethargic year, that's for sure but pure Yin is necessary. A girl holds dragon-shaped dough models created by a folk artist named Dong Xiupeng ahead of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon, on Jan. 28, 2024 in Qingdao, Shandong Province
  13. Looking for help

    An skilled herbalist with many years of experience will correct the problem. They are usually trained the traditional way: master to apprentice. Finding one is a daunting task. I do wish the OP the best here. He screwed up completely his energetic system by learning wrong practices from books.
  14. Looking for help

    Go seek TCM treatment to resolve all the stagnation you have. There are very effective HERBAL formulas available to clear damp-heat. Use only herbs not PILLS as they aren't effective. The TCM doctor will give you instructions about how to decoct the fresh herbs. DO NOT SELF-MEDICATE or you'll further aggravate the problem.
  15. 0

    Relax as much as you possibly can. I'm no Xingyi practitioner but my teacher is (Xingyi and Ba Gua). I learnt the latter from him. When I asked him about how he trained Santi Shi he said: I had to ride my bike for 90 min to get to the park facing the ocean in Perth, Australia to learn Xingyi with my uncle; I was tired and tense but the practice helped me relaxed a lot. At one point I was able to stand and have no feeling of the body at all, that's how much relaxation and practice facing the ocean helped me to progress.
  16. Hello, and where do I start?

    This is the only place I found online: http://www.istanbultaichi.com/index.php?l=en Sure you can try Facebook for more teachers and internal systems but I can't help you here since I'm not a member of that social network. Anyway, best of luck!
  17. Looking for Qigong for bone health

    Anything that is gentle really as bones are related to the Kidneys (Water in Wu Xing). Tai Chi Chuan is a good practice. For example: https://www.onlinetaichilessons.com/ This is a streaming program. Intro:
  18. Junior needs guidance

    Not a problem at all. More than happy to help.
  19. Final section released by the Mu Shin Martial Culture video series about Ba Gua Zhang: A Kung Fu Master's Tomb - The Legacy of Ba Gua Zhang The rest of rhe videos are the following: 1. Last Master of a Generation - Li Zi Ming ep. 1 2. The Prince & The Kung Fu Master 3. Last Master of a Generation - Li Zi Ming ep. 2 4. Last Master of a Generation - Li Zi Ming ep. 3 5. Last Master of a Generation - Li Zi Ming ep. 4 6. Ba Gua Zhang Weapons Enjoy!
  20. Junior needs guidance

    Opening and strengthening the Kua I'll finish here. I couldn't go down past 2021 on YT, so either HJH has removed all the old content which is very unfortunate or YT has in place limitations that won't allow to display older content. Hope this is all helpful to you junior student. Happy training!
  21. Junior needs guidance

    All I could find after some time skimming through all the video content: BACKGROUND Start by reviewing and practicing the following Shaolin Kung Fu stances: https://shaolinsticksandstones.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/the-five-basic-wushu-stances-in-no-particular-order/ ....................................................... He Jinghan's material: Kua stretch Loosening kua and crotch exercise in Ma Bu Kua and crotch opening exercise Tree squat (assisted) Ma Bu squat - squeeze shoulder blades together towards the spine, use crotch and kua force rather than knee force in order to go down Gong Bu stance Xie Bu stance Tree Pu Bu exercise (assisted) Pu Bu exercise Pu Bu-Gong Bu mixed drill (good for kua and entire opening of the hip joint) https://baguaquanlessons.com/2020/04/25/20200425-twist-the-body-and-keep-the-hands-on-it/ Several spine twisting videos https://baguaquanlessons.com/2011/05/09/walking-down-piercing-palm-下穿掌動式/ Similar exercise as spine twisting but incorporating Pu Bu (ADVANCED ONLY) Great exercise either to warm up or wind down Note: Go as low as you can taking into account to your own postural limitations and work gradually over time. Breaking bad posture takes time and the older one gets the harder it is. Don't force yourself into any of the linked exercises. Take it easy. Tedious repetitive work yields the desired results.
  22. Junior needs guidance

    Maddie & You Dare?! This reading will provide a good background info about what is really going on: https://www.mediafire.com/file/g5phfbrb8jz8979/Bagua%2C_life_and_the_mind.pdf/file It's all about the BODY-MIND connection; in order to fully grasp/understand the mind one must master the body first. The Yin & Yang and the 5E are the infinite and ever changing layer between the two. Body mastery = gongfu/daily hard work.
  23. Junior needs guidance

    I forgot: -Find a good real life teacher. https://rumsoakedfist.org/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=01928906b876eb79d501e7d6e0835248 -Supplement your practice with HJH's foundation work. When you become more advanced you'll understand his teachings better. Give me some time and I'll link some videos of him that will be easy for you to do and understand. You can start with the "tree squat" exercise I linked above. Do it every day, several times a day. It's all you ever need.
  24. Junior needs guidance

    Keep doing the body cultivation and watch and observe that sense of euphoria...and let them go. It's only one small aspect of the greater picture. The problem starts when people start clinging to them. You are smart about being only interested in the body cultivation. That's the spirit of a true warrior!