Does Belief Matter in a Fight?

I usually say, no, belief doesn't matter.  Skill and fate are what matters.  But actually before the first punch is thrown belief can matter a lot.  Even after a few punches have been thrown, your opponent or attacker may believe something about you which gives you an advantage.  They may be carrying around a fantasy.

If a potencial attacker believes you are strong, they have an incentive to use a surprise attack.

While if a potencial attacker believes you are weak, they have an incentive to use intimidation.

I would much prefer to have a potential attacker try to use intimidation than to be attacked by surprise.  Someone who is trying to intimidate me may have second thoughts when they get up close enough to see my 1000 yard stare, or notice that my hands and feet are still moving as if caught in a gentle wind.

Just a thought.  How we look and act can affect what people believe about us.  Spending time preparing for a monster which may or may not be coming to get you someday is a rather poor way to live.  So I'm not recommending anyone give it much thought at all.  But it is a good retort to the big-muscles-good, small-muscles-bad body image mind game.

The Causes of Illness

There are three causes of illness:

1. Ancestors


2. Conduct


3. Environment

Obviously jing, our underlying essence which is self-reproducing, is the active ingredient in seman and eggs, creates scabs, and is more or less responsible for our over all constitution--comes to us through our ancestors.

Qi, on the other hand is largely the result of our personal conduct.  It is something we choose to cultivate or depleat as the case may be.

The environment is another layer of fateful interaction which tends to be a combination of jing and qi, but could also be thought of as shen.  Like external spirits, sometimes it overtakes us without warning.  But usually if you're paying attention, and you live in a house, you can see it coming.

Well, last Friday I had a purely conduct induced illness which as I write this is still lingering.  First, out of vanity, I got a short hair cut.  Second, I went to do some work on my partner's office and I stood outside fixing a sign in a cold wind without much more on my upper body than a t-shirt for almost 30 minutes.  Third, I went to the Asian International Film Festival to see a South Korean serial killer film called "Chaser," about a cop who becomes a pimp and then tries to catch a serial killer.  (I just looked around for some reviews to link to and didn't like any of them.  If you like horror, you'll love it.)  Forth, I drank sake in the theater.  Fifth, I stayed up way, way,  too late.

By Saturday afternoon I was down with a nasty wind invasion in my throat, and a strong sense of regret.  Two lines from the Daodejing going off like neon lights in my head:

Why are Daoist adepts not afflicted?

Because they are sick of affliction.

Chocolate (2008)

We were told that the new film Chocolate would be released in February, it never showed up.  It looks like San Francisco is now a second rate film release city.  I think it got a two day release in Cupertino.  Or perhaps it just went straight to DVD.

So anyway we rented it this weekend.  They stole my idea!  I said that great martial artists probably have a subtle form of Asperger's syndrome.  Well the guys in Thailand who made OngBak have made a Kung Fu movie about a girl with Asperger's syndrome who can kick, kick-it-i-kick some serious booty.  She starts out fighting all the guys at the ice factory, think ice claws, picks, and saws.  Then she takes out all the guys at the giant Bangkok butcher shop, think cleavers, hooks, bare chests.  And I think you get the idea.  There are some yakuza moments and even an Asperger's capoeirista (I think) in one scene.

My g-friend/0.5wife cried at one point, so I'm not giving this up as a date movie, but we both liked it and there are some truly great kung fu routines.

The name is autistic.  It has nothing to do with the film.  It should have been called "Fists of Asperger's," or "I Kick 'o yo' Asperger's."

George Xu Video's

Susan Matthews, one of George Xu's long time students who lives in Durango Colorado, has posted a lot of videos on Youtube.  Some of them are rather old, and I haven't had time to watch them all but it looks like there is some good stuff here.  Check it out.
The first minute of this one must be more than 15 years old, it brought me back to the way we used to practice in the early 1990's. Some of the newer ones show George's amazing internal power.

Uniform Density

George Xu gave me a great correction this weekend.

Level one:  The whole body should be experienced as having uniform density.

Level two:  The body and the surrounding environment should be experienced as having uniform density.

Of course this is training for what we often refer to as "mind," but in this context it is somewhat absurd to call it mind since it is equally an experience of "body."

I had already done this practice, I just hadn't tried to put it together with my fighting skills.  The basic invocation of the deity Ziwei used in Orthodox Daoist ritual and jindan (internal alchemy) includes the description, "His skin is onyx-black like the night sky."

More Rain, More Books, More Ideas

My computer has been having a crash fest lately and that's a good thing because it put my nose into some great books I'll be blogging about over the next month.

Class was canceled this morning.  We were caught in a down pour even though Yahoo Weather was predicting 1% chance of rain.  We finished standing and did push hands under the trees for a little bit anyway.

This weekend I saw George Xu, also in the rain, and he delivered a few printable topics.

The 5 Types of Training Predators Do:

1. Power stretch


2. Standing still with the mind outside the body


3. Slow movement


4. Fast movement


5. Shaking

Power stretch means stretching from the inside out.  Standing with the mind out side the body means the mind is on the prey and the surrounding environment.  Slow movement includes stalking, shrinking and expanding, six dimensions power, etc.... Fast movement must be unconscious of the physical body.  And shaking is used to insure that the prey can not fight back once it has been seized.

25 Years of the Blind Leading the Blind

I just taught a workshop at the Lighthouse Center for the Blind.  Here is their blog.  It was fun.  The workshop was a two hour introduction to push-hands (tuishou).  Most of the students really couldn't see me or each other.  The title of this post is what is written on the outside of the building.

Most of my teaching methods had to be modified a little in order to work for blind people, it was a fun challenge.  Because I was teaching in their space they knew where the walls were and that chairs were stacked against the walls, which we picked up at one point and used as props and they put away with out any bumping.  But they often didn't know how close or far away they were from each other and  I would have to say, "everyone put your right foot forward," instead of, "put opposite feet forward,"  because they didn't know what their partner was doing.

We did a lot of touching, feeling, and pushing.  As students go, they were fairly aggressive, which I appreciate.  They seemed to get a kick out of my demonstration of school yard fighting styles and the similarity to Taijiquan principles.  The most difficult thing was that I am totally addicted to reading students facial expressions, not to mention relying on student's to read my face for clues when I'm joking.  Blind people don't make a lot of facial expressions even when they are aggressively struggling at push hands like two elk competing for a mate.

The next time I teach at the Lighthouse (probably in April) it will be a class open to anyone.  So if you are one of my private students who complains that you always lose against me, well, here is your chance test your mad skills!