BaguaKicksAss

I have found much predjudism against white folks amongst the Asian commuities! Or against me at least. There are about 20 stores locally which sell various incense, candles, statues and other such supplies; 2 of them are really friendly towards me and my friends. One of the stores even takes me seriously and gives me advice. Some of them just glare at us when we walk in. Most of them just ignore us. I even remember being told while in one store by a random asian person that white people should not practice such things or use such items. If I had been thinking faster I would have told her that she was no longer allowed to wear blue jeans or eat at mcdonalds in this case. For the temples, I will only wander into the ones which allow tourists in to avoid the glares and dissaproving looks.

I have no idea what it is like in China.

I can only speak about martial arts here, but there are some things which some asian folks either are not allowed to share with a western person, or choose not to, depending.

Yeah things like hiking up mountains and running, nothing in comparison, heh. I've only been doing bagua a couple of years though, so my body is still being formed. Well that and my health sucked when I started (since birth actually), so still breaking it in so to speak.

Yes sitting and standing work as well; I have a teacher fortunately . I'm always amazed by the folks who can learn from books and vids. I did this once for a couple of months just to force myself to learn something a different way, and wow, it is difficult!

Yes, it's all a mind game, really...very simple but we make it all so complicated.

 

One things that concerns me about the vest is losing form...so I guess minimal increments in weight really. Probably 7.5kg is a bit too much to start with, so 4kg is a wiser load.

 

Has anyone here played with lower basin walking? This kind of practice is what has allowed me to really stretch the tendons of the lower legs, knees and open the kua. But it is damn hard work, initially then you get used to it and it is a lot more bearable. But I don't do it every day anymore, maybe every second day or so. Not aiming for an hour as I find it overkill, to my needs and ability.

My legs, ankles, achilles, et. al are crying daily! I'm only at middle.... and not for anywhere near an hour! That whole hour long circle walking thing, I could do it at upper basin lol.

Stuff like a weight vest (or kettlebells) I just stick with ta-jong palm and focus on sinking.

The cool thing about so much Taoism (and other spirituality) here in the West is that you can do a trial run right at home. I have traveled to a few third world countries to learn various spiritual (and magical in my case) practices. Each place was never what I imagined it to be. The peopl are far different than how we are used to, and the ethics of each country is different than what we take for granted. The whole being viewed in general as a walking wallet also tends to get old. The squat toilets weren't so bad fortunately. Very fortunately I set things up before I went each time, and I would say my trips would have been useless (aside from some nice sight seeing) if I had not made some contacts ahead of time. I haven't visited China yet thanks to some warnings from a friend who lived there for many years. He just laughed when I said I want to train martial arts there, and said I have better back home. Many many Asian folks are moving to the west for various reasons. Of course there is still some amazing old masters of various practices there, but difficult to find without prior legwork AND prior practice. It is so easy to fool someone new to something . However if you get in many years of good experience here while you travel back and forth, it is far far more likely someone serious would take you seriously.

I'd say if you wish to live the monastic life, start now and see how it works for you... aside from your requisite job hours to pay rent, sit quietly with no distractions and meditate, cultivate and so forth. That should be a good 6 hours per day at least. Also going to your local temple daily to at least medtate and see what they have to offer would give you a good head start on someone who never has. If you don't have any local Talist temples (hard to imagine for me), then move. If you are thinking of moving to China, then moving to another state in the meantime costs far far less and much easier.

Most of the universities teach mandarin, a 2 year course in that should help.

And of course go visit china, with the plan to return. Test run so to speak. Get a feel for the place. Hey you might luck out, but if you have a return ticket home you will be more choosy about your teacher/temple .

The whole amongst white clouds thing, I'd suggest practicing camping in the wilderness in a hut for a few months to see how that works out for you. For some it really does, for others, well... not so much.

Oh and of course the first step is to pray lots, for help to open up opportuntities. I have found that prayers don't go unanswered, however they don't always work out how we might think they will either...

Hey, BKA I was just nodding off then !

Welcome to The Tao Bums, or TTB's for short.

As a relative newcomer myself, I'm amazed at the variety of experiences & knowledge hereon.

 

It would be interesting to read about your journey into Magic, amongst other things.

 

Question: If, instead of just wandering around in circles, you circled yourself really, really quickly. do you think you'd ever get the chance to kick your own backside ? (LOL)

 

Basher

Nodding off reading my intro?

The amount of knowlege and experience (the former is useless without the latter) on here is amazing.

Well Bagua has kicked my ass many times, and still continues to do so!!!

Thanks for the welcome.

Hey . I practice Baguazhang (very new, just a couple years in).

Well I'm off to go wander around in circles...