Ace

Yes it is a tall order

 

Most that can fight, do not have any depth in meditation/spirituality, and vice versa (despite what their marketting will tell you!!).

 

If you REALLY want this, be prepared to travel, period. Then find a teacher/lineage who is genuiinely respected by their peers. Not by noobs or wannabes, but by their peers. Caveat emptor, always.

 

Training in person for a martial art is kinda a prerequisite, I don't care how much info or video is available!

 

Bruce likes coming out with packages, but it is always fun meeting people who have been teaching themselves compared to actually learning it in person, HINT We easily fool ourselves, even when there is a teacher present . But some people like money and others like information so...

 

 

Best,

I appreciate the feedback, Snowmonki (and others as well). Do you have some examples of teachers/lineages "that are respected by their peers" that you'd be willing to share?

I'm also interested in the upcoming Tai Chi Mastery program, unfortunately I have not been able to identify anyone who has has an actual improvement in "practical skill" from the previous Bagua Mastery Program (lots of infomation in it though)

 

I would LOVE to hear from someone who was able to benefit from the Bagua Mastery Program

I echo these thoughts. I'd like to see if there's anyone that has actually developed anything from these Mastery programs (the Bagua, i suppose as the Tai Chi program is not out yet). I've gotten some mixed reviews on the value of Frantzis' material. My original thought was to train in Taijiqua/Bagauazhang or Xingyiquan locally and use one or more of these Mastery programs to deepen my practice, but I don't know how valid that idea might be.

From what I've seen, Ricahrd Clear seems to have some very good distance trainng material and I'm looking at that as well.

I have also run across Yuanming Zhang's system. Does anyone have some real expereince with any of the above? I think one of the things I'm looking fro is not only "proof" that the teacher or system has "the goods" but that they are able to trnsmit/teach "the goods" to the student.

Thanks for the link, MithShrike. I believe I've come across this school in my local searches, but I'll give it a deeper look. Thanks for replying.

Anyone else have suggestions/opinions?

Hello All,

My name is Marcus and I'm a newbie here. I'm hoping to get some feedback and advice here from people that may have walked the path longer than me. I've done some basic meditation and have dabbled in Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and a little bit of Baguazhang in the past, but at this point I'd like to stop dabbling and start seriously applying myself to internal practices. That being the case, I'm looking for a complete Internal Martial Arts system to delve into and commit to going as deep as I can with it.

I should probably define what I mean by "complete." For my purposes, "complete" means that the system will have a strong combat training component...will train me in chi cultivation for health and martial use...and also has a spiritual cultivation side to it.

This probably all sounds like a tall order..and it may very well be. Right now I have the opportunity to train with a Wu Taijiquan locally, but a frank conversation with the instructor tells me that the training will not go too far beyond just learning the long form.

My thought was that I could learn some basic Taiji, Bagua or Xingyi locally and then hopefully do some distance training with a teacher that could teach all of the elements I'm looking for along with periodic trips to that teacher.

One suggestion I've gotten is to delve into Bruce K Frantzis' Bagua Mastery Program, his Xingyi program or an upcoming Tai Chi Mastery program and overlay that material over what i can do here locally. I'd love to hear any comments on this from people who might be familair with that material. I do have BK Frantzis' Intenal martial Arts book from a few years ago and I found it helpful.

Other than that, I was advised to look at Richard Clear's Tai Chi material and possibly do the same with that option.

I'm open to any suggestions from the floor. And if anyone knows of any teacher/system in Texas, I'd love to check that out. I'm just a bit north of Dallas-Ft Worth. Thanks in advance for any help or constructive opinions.

Hello All,

My name is Marcus & I'm in the SouthWestern USA (Texas). I joined here because of my interest in all aspects of Taoist studies and I'm hoping I can get soem good feedback & lively conversations!