RobB

The forum: rumsoakedfist.org - has a 'Find a Teacher' section. There are a lot of people there with serious experience in internal martial arts of various flavours. Why not ask and see if someone can recommend a teacher in your area? Good luck in your search. Cheers Rob

ukemi = breakfalls Cheers Rob

Hi All, IIRC Bruce has said about D&T that you can do it badly and still start to get some benefits. Well, obviously he didn't say that but I do recall him talking about not letting 'the perfect be the enemy of the good' at a D&T beginners weekend that I attended in the UK. The neigong do require a lot of strict physical alignments and work in the inital stages that - to my beginners understanding - D&T does not. Yes - the choreography is complex - particularly if you're not very co-ordinated to begin with. However the impression I got was that, (again) in the intial stages, D&T is perhaps more about 'making shapes' and tracking channel paths etc rather than doing internal things which make external shapes happen. Perhaps that is what is meant by 'easy'. Cheers Rob

Hi Songs, Always interested to hear what Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov has to say. Cheers Rob

Sounds like a useful practice. If we all did it we could drop the food production requirement by what, 15% :-) When exactly does the fast run from? Midnight on Tuesday until Midday on Wednesday? cheers Rob

Hej Chris, Do you teach classes in Sweden? I get over to Ystad from time to time. Cheers Rob

Yes, yes, yes all that is fine. But I believe that we may be missing the obvious here: vis. Q: What is the purpose of life? A: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. I think that covers it. Cheers Rob

I've not read any of the material that's available - just had the snippets via daily e-mail. Which books would you guys recommend as a good introduction? Cheers Rob

Hi Ed, No, I've never met Alex - a huge missed opportunity as he was living near Cambridge for a while. cheers Rob

I have his sayings from www.proseveta.com delivered to my e-mail everyday. Always food for thought. I first cam across his name via the writings of Alex Kozma. Cheers Rob

I spent 18 months with the TTCS a while back. My advice would be avoid, avoid, avoid. If there is absolutely no-one else in your area then you'd be better off spending your time practicing some of the material available on TTB than going to their classes. Seriously. Cheers Rob

Hi Ryan, That's the stuff! many thanks. I'll get these on order (I've found a couple of online places in the UK that look OK). Cheers Rob

I'm there with the OP actually. I've done some googling around the subject but it's still hard to know where to start. If I wanted to buy 2 or 3 varieties to try to start to get a feel for the energetic qualities of teas which would those be and why? Cheers Rob

From Gerard O'Neill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O'Neill) - via Robert Anton Wilson in my case: "Is the surface of a planet really the right place for an expanding technological civilization?" RAW suggested that as soon as you ask the question the answer is obvious. It's not a bad thing. Cheers Rob

Hi All, A colleague of mine has been diagnosed with glandular fever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectious_mononucleosis). Can anyone share any insight on this situation and remedies from an energetic POV? She is quite a driven individual and has been overworking for some time. I suspect that this might have contributed to her situation. TIA Cheers Rob

Hi Drew, Thanks for the input. The garlic thing would be *way* too left-field for this individual :-) but I'll keep it in mind! Cheers Rob

I don't know, I can't do it At the moment, for me, it's about following the breath further - using it as a tool to bring more awareness to the pelvic region. Cheers Rob

Hi, Sorry for the delay - away on holiday. I'm afraid you're going to be a bit disappointed by my replies anyway - it's all plain vanilla stuff that you'll find all over the place around here :-) - Belly breathing esp inc awareness of breath in the pelvic floor area I've done various different types of diaphragmatic breathing - expanding the belly and lower ribs etc to facilitiate breathing and keeping the upper chest relatively still. New to me, although probably not to anyone who knows what they are talking about, is the idea of extending that expansion down into the pelvic region. Down, down, deeper and down (as Status Quo would have said) - spinal suspension Crown up : Tail bone down : spine elongated and slightly stretched inbetween the two. From my background it's pure BKF via my Tai Chi teacher. - feeling my weight supported by the earth as I walk. Shaking my weight down. I can't remember when I first came across this. Years ago. But this is one of the things that KAP is doing so well for me - integrating a whole bunch of things I've come across into a coherent practice. For me, right now, it's about connecting with an Earth feeling as I move around during the day. Feeling supported and in my place. Nothing specifically energetic in a meridian/energy flow sense. The shaking is working for me in the sense of releasing tension as well as feeling the bounce and recoil of my movements against the ground thus increasing my awareness of my relationship to it as a supporting body. Cheers Rob

Hi All, I'm mid-KAP1 and the things I'm trying to bring to my day-to-day at the moment are: - Belly breathing esp inc awareness of breath in the pelvic floor area - spinal suspension - feeling my weight supported by the earth as I walk. Shaking my weight down. I've done few other bits and pieces before. Some of the things we've done so far in KAP have just emphasised the things I should have been doing from BKFs nei gong. 'Making your warrior walk your everyday walk' is the thing I think - great thread idea! Cheers Rob

+1

Dear Santi & Susan, I'm glad your visit to the UK went well. I'd be interested to read any comments about the seminar in general. I'd have liked to make it myself but not possible this time. I did try and 'tune in' on Saturday night (I have no idea how to do that) and seemed to get a lot of tingling around my crown point, a sense of light in the forehead and a strong, strong straightening stretch in my neck/cervical spine. I don't know if it was you guys or not. It was good though and outside of the usual parameters of my normal breathing practice Cheers Rob

I've already written on here about my take on BFD - you can search if you wish. Cheers Rob

Hi, I practice standing and dissolving as per BKF. I felt similarly in that most of the duration of my standing sessions would be taken up with areas around the head and shoulder girdle and less time would be left for the pelvis, legs and feet. I asked my teacher about this and he told me not to worry about it - that my attention would naturally be drawn to the areas where work needed to be done at that time. This has proved to be the case (even with my patchy practice schedule). Now there are sessions where I seem to skim over the upper body and end up spending much more time on the pelvis and legs. I've aslo started to notice that dissolving areas around the head, neck and shoulders can cause openings/relaxations on the same side of the body but lower down, in the kua and legs. Cheers Rob

Hi, I've read somewhere that, in these cases, it is fine to charge for your time (however, you choose to value it) - charging for the healing/instruction etc is a different matter. Cheers Rob

Try flipping the situation in your head. Be grateful - this situation means that you will have no qualms about leaving - setting up on your own. Following your path. Imagine what a nightmare it would be to have a home where you loved to be and people were always pleased to see you and you all revelled in each others company. You would have no incentive to go a-wandering at all! Always harder to get out of a warm bed! One way to look at it. Cheers Rob