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.

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!

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.