Teaching Notes

Occasionally I post my teaching notes. Students find them helpful, readers may find them provocative. Feel free to ask questions in the comments. This two day class, “Pure Animal” is designed around the idea that many of the things which restrain us, delude us, or limit our perception to see—are evolved human attributes of culture which can be transcended by reversing evolution a little bit. Each of these evolutionary exercises is either a game or a playful exploration. The end goal is to have a bunch of discrete kinesthetic experiences which can be integrated together to make a simple, potent, whole. Enjoy.

__Golden Elixir

__Conceptual

__Practice

__Single Cell —Breathing—Permeable Respiration (O2 in CO2 out)

__Sponging (multi-cell) Fluid in and around, Extra-Cellular breathing

__Pulsation—Organizing around the center (condense/expand)—Jelly Fish

__Radial—navel radiation —6 limbs —Sea Star

__Head to Tail__—-axial rolling?

__Mouthing —Sea Squirt (before birth) (Gut—Tube) —axial rolling?

__Worm

__Shrimp

__Axial—-Spinal—Notochord

__Fish/Dolphin —Axial rolling

__Homologous—Frog/bunny

__Homolateral—Salemander

__Contralateral—hand to mouth (Gut—Tube)

__ Scooting,

__Crawling

__++++

____________________________

Keep repeating__rolling sideways across the floor

__Circus Crunches

Salamander (for locomotion and opening the ribs)

Try circus crunches from the dog position—resistance inward, the head, biting (drag down)

Teach Rabbit (constant)

Teach Seahorse (constant)

Teach the cat
Open the Ribs—all muscles inwards

Teach the trade-off between rooting and whole body unity.

Whole body unity is the natural-animal state

Being connected is the natural-animal state

Center of Mass Waltzing

3 fingers push-hands (add pinky, thumb)(try it with 45 degrees)

Resolve/neutralize all incoming forces. Trust don’t feel, you are the master.

Horse Riding Power (mongolian wrestling) (monkey on a horse)

Do the alligator (West Africa)

Apply front/back connection in a form

Test front/back connections in animals and people-partners

All fours__invent center games…nudging while running

__all fours goating __ +1, 0, -1

__bringing down a beast with your jaw

Zero Root—Negative root

Counter Balance Games and theory and Testing

Matching— hips, shoulders, elbows, head, wrists, knees, etc…

Tipping the Styrofoam Castle

Rotating the Crumpled Paper

Blind-folded wrestling

Putting the other on your back (not front)

Being on yourself, being on the other.

Emptiness practices

Practice standing and connecting/resolving

Postures with integrity__testing

Software (short-time) vs. Hardware (longer-time)

Equalizing Games/ Tipping Lines

Opening and closing (animals animals animals)—breathing

Fur/Feathers

Snake vs Dragon (experience) (rotational clinch game)

Reverse the order of the curriculum to reteach everything from the end to the beginning, exercise by exercise.

Watershed Moments in Martial Arts History (3)

The previous post was about Japan and the USA coming together in a canonization ritual of cosmic unity. China on the other hand is in a battle against its own history. MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong has been challenging and beating famous kungfu masters over the last few years in an attempt to destroy “Fake Kungfu.” He insulted the snowflake Chen Tai Chi master Chen Xiaowang and now has to pay 400,000 yuan ($60k) and apologize on social media for seven days. He is also now a Thought-Criminal in the new Chinese social status score created by George Orwell.

I wonder what would happen if Chen Xiaowang learned about my book? Would I be banned from travel to China or worse? Whatever the consequences, I would grateful if one of my readers made the effort to pass it on to him or any of the Chen family disciples.

Tai Chi, Baguazhang and The Golden Elixir: Internal Martial Arts Before the Boxer Uprising

By Scott Park Phillips

As my book gains in popularity, we can use it as a measure of the Chinese Communist Party’s weakness. I feel a bit like the child pointing out the Emperor Has No Clothes.

Watershed Moments in Martial Arts History (2)

I had the honor of sharing the stage with Martin Meyer at the 5th International Martial Arts Studies Conference. He presented on “Kurobune and Kayfabe, Staging Japanese vs American wrestling bouts.” It was a history leading up the this watershed moment where the United States and Japan join forces, in this most sacred martial ritual. This is enormous in Japan. The symbolism is off the charts. I will update this post if I see a credible analysis (or if my readers send me one).

Watershed Moments in Martial Arts History (1)

I will update this post after I have had a chance to hear the interview. But judging by the comments, it is exactly what we would expect, with a million views after only 3 days. I have been writing about Ed Calderon for a few years now. I am so happy I got a chance to study with him in an intimate way before he became huge. Deep knowledge. This is a watershed moment.

Below are a couple of post about Ed, there are more but I have to do a deeper dive into my search history, I may not have used his name because of the sensitivity the subject matter. It’s even possible I never posted my writings about extraordinary boredom as an enlightenment marker…coming soon.

http://northstarmartialarts.com/blog1/2017/6/19/the-artifact-of-not-stepping

http://northstarmartialarts.com/blog1/2016/4/27/effortless-reality

Religious Culture and Violence in Traditional China

Religious Culture and Violence in Traditional China, is a new short book by Barend ter Haar. It shares about 3/4 of the bibliography with my new book: Tai Chi, Baguazhang and The Golden Elixir.

A pdf of Barend ter Haar’s book is free to download until May 27th, check it out!

Buy on Amazon

I have read much of his work, he writes highly academic stuff about Chinese religion and this book is no exception. It is a necessary update to much of his work because of the recent publications of Mark Meulenbeld’s Demonic Warfare (which I reviewed for the first issue of Martial Arts Studies Journal). I finished ter Haar’s book on the plane to the 5th International Martial Arts Studies Conference.
I am both delighted and disappointed. It is a great discussion, but I’m afraid that outside of religious studies, people will not be able to follow it. It requires specialized knowledge. That is great for me, because much of the material is covered in my book for the general reader. What disappoints me is that in the introduction he decides to dodge martial arts. This another example of the YMCA Consensus ruining everything. In the intro he even acknowledges the problem from the religious scholar point of view. He refers to the work of David Palmer and Vincent Goossaert who have pioneered explaining the imposition of the Christian Secular Normative Model on Chinese peoples ability to think about religion, and how that has affected scholarship in general. But the subject of this book is violence, so it is truly sad that he would dodge discussing martial arts. But again, that is a great reason for people to read my book.

Barend ter Haar does refer to Nezha’s role in Daoist martial rituals, which is exciting, but he calls him Third Prince Li, with no other reference. Which is a good example of why people may find his work difficult to follow. Anyway, it is a superb summary of way religion shapes conceptions of violence, and violence shapes conceptions of religion. It is probably the best reference available comparing Chinese use-of-force terminology. It also does a great job of summarizing conceptions of violence in the unseen world of ghosts and spirits. Check it out.

A Dark Interview

Ed’s Manifesto has a dark interview with a former Mexican cartel drug smuggler and kidnapper here. It is interesting for martial artists and for its politics. It is dark because unless we understand this type of problem we can not solve it. Most people avoid most dark things.

Book Talk in Portland

Here is the link for my Book Talk and Book Signing in Portland, the Workshop is in the same place.

Baguazhang's Lotus Body Origins

The video below is the first in a series I plan to make showing the 27 close links between Baguazhang, Kathak, Krishna, and Nezha. Here is an excerpt from my book:

In China, everyone knew the story of the Buddha walking through mud and lotus flowers blossoming in his footsteps. Nezha’s body was made of lotus flowers. The iconography of Baguazhang conveys the idea of walking through mud to produce an indestructible lotus body. Nezha, like the Buddha, is originally from India. In the Twentieth Century the culture-wide iconographic bond between history, literature, and theater was severed by the YMCA Consensus. This type of self-apparent knowledge became hidden…

…The basic lotus-hands pattern in Kathak is a key movement pattern used to develop spiraling power in Baguazhang. The spinning tea cups exercise is basic training for both Kathak and Baguazhang. When combined, lotus hands and tea cups integrate to become an advanced whole-body movement pattern that underlies all Baguazhang movement. This whole-body integration then becomes the basis for improvisation.

Improvisation is a big part of both Kathak and Baguazhang. Advanced fighters and dancers must be capable improvisors, but both arts are outliers in their respective cultures because of the emphasis they both put on improvisation. No other dance form in India emphasizes improvisation to the extent that Kathak does. Baguazhang is an improvisational martial art, rote forms were later additions. Again, Kathak is Krishna, Krishna is Nezha, Nezha is Bagua.

The Lotus Body connection between the Chinese Martial Arts of Baguazhang and the Classical Indian Dance of Kathak.

Feedback Coming

Graham over at Tai Chi Notebook wrote something funny by way of previews.

Edward Hines of I-Bagua wrote something funny with a little more sting.

If you read French, my first book gets credit for being the lone voice of sanity in the wilderness. This is from José Carmona, who has written the four best books on Chinese martial arts in French. It is the first article on this page. Here is a direct link to the pdf. And he is promising a part two. Thanks to Daniel Mroz for finding it!

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This is not direct feedback but high praise in the sense that someone is now working on explaining some of the finer points of the YMCA Consensus. Bill Hayton is working on a book titled The Invention of China. From Unheard: The Welsh Baptist Who Transformed China

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Okay, this podcast is really indirect. Because I argue for the moral foundations of history, and of knowing history, I am more closely aligned with fundamentalist Christians these days than I am with most of academia. I have known this for a while, but it is nice to hear it laid out so enthusiastically by Peter Boghoassian, one of the people who put together the Sokal 2 Academic Hoax. One thing most people don’t know is that they tried to hoax Martial Arts Studies and failed. Good news. You can dig around in their archives for fun. Here is the podcast link again. The interviewer, Peter Limberg, is interesting too, he did the Mimetic Tribes of Twitter project, (note, the spreadsheet is better is a more direct experience than the article, find yourself).

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Portland Workshop: Pure Animal

Please come to my workshop if you are anywhere near Portland Oregon, or if you know anyone near Portland Oregon. An alternative title floated for this workshop was “Scrambling Your Opponent’s Mind.”

I’m also doing a book talk and signing the Friday night before. (The school is going through some positive transitions at the moment, so they don’t have the talk listed yet, but I will have my books with me to sign so come on by.)

Pure Animal

from 65.00

Sat, Jun 1, 2019 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Sun, Jun 2, 2019 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

This workshop is not just about transcending the fear of death, but also about creating beauty along the way—which is the primary purpose of internal martial arts, should you accept the challenge.

In this workshop you will unpack the Total Dragon-Body Experience through games and other types of joyful intensity. By de-focusing your practice, you will improve the speed at which you learn.

Then, re-Focusing on basic movements, you will discover the source of Tiger-Pouncing spirit, power, and instinct.

This marriage of Dragon-body with Tiger-Pouncing is the root of internal martial arts.

But animal movement is not an end unto itself, it is a door way to spontaneity.

By first mobilizing the areas of your body which are too quiet, 

you will remove the obstacles to whole-body power, and reveal the pathways to maximum speed and efficiency

This work re-Enchants the martial arts through connecting you to its authentic origins. In this workshop, you will become pure animal.