tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post1096804504916034..comments2015-05-10T21:44:19.370-07:00Comments on Nagual Time: Will the Real Taiji Players Please Stand?Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02917660766431587100noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post-2063318226333285312010-03-10T03:48:50.516-08:002010-03-10T03:48:50.516-08:00Wise words Benjamin.
Thank you.Wise words Benjamin.<br />Thank you.Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02917660766431587100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post-40730991603698982092010-03-09T17:12:51.233-08:002010-03-09T17:12:51.233-08:00Coming from someone who would mistake some of thes...Coming from someone who would mistake some of these form names for a good meal, I still enjoy these ongoing debates about purity of form. Take for example an erect spine for sitting meditation. If you meditate long enough, you realize this is what works best. Purity of form, regardless of the practice is found organically. There are many paths to the center. The center remains the center. People are so diverse. Why should they ever take more than they need from any art or practice?Benjavhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12943772386307697251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post-25382331735324518892010-03-08T15:42:14.483-08:002010-03-08T15:42:14.483-08:00I like that.
Spoken like a true 'Juanite'....I like that.<br />Spoken like a true 'Juanite'.Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02917660766431587100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post-22705137499680896412010-03-08T12:09:45.709-08:002010-03-08T12:09:45.709-08:00"What's the use of having beautifully pol..."What's the use of having beautifully polished crystals if you never find the spirit giver of power?" he said. "On the other hand, if you don't have the crystals but do find the spirit, you may put anything in his way to be touched. You could put your dicks in the way if you can't find anything else." --from Journey to Ixtlan (I figured: what a great quote for Nagual Time!)<br /><br />Admittedly, I seek a beautifully polished form. I suspect the <em>Real</em> really lurks in the spirit of it... and certainly there are many ways to attain the spirit of it. So I'm with you. You've got good points.<br /><br />I hope a well polished form becomes a beacon for spirit.S.Smith at RealTaijihttp://realtaiji.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post-62689111105215132442010-03-07T13:52:40.262-08:002010-03-07T13:52:40.262-08:00Steven, thanks so much for your comments. I hope ...Steven, thanks so much for your comments. I hope more people will chime in on this issue.<br /><br />First of all, I am grateful for what you and the WTBA, and Chen Style folks like Chen Bing and Stephen Berwick, et al. are doing for the art of Taiji. As a Taiji martial artist is is and has been frustrating to find that most of the Taiji players I have easy access to have either no knowledge of Taiji as martial art, or no desire for such knowledge--or even worse, think that their simple Yang forms and soft push hands constitutes combat ability.<br /><br />But while we will probably still disagree in the end, let me try to clarify my position. Yes, there are some poor systems, poor teachers, and poor practices. And while there is no objective standard, we do have established principles, VIA the classics and the teachings of the founders/leaders of the major schools. I am not making excuses for incompetence. I am drawing a distinction on goals.<br /><br />Your goal (or one of them)is to ramp things up, demand a higher standard. That should be everyone's goal, across the board. That applies to surfing and playing the trombone as much as it applies to Taiji. It applies to life.<br /><br />The goals I am talking about are ends. The practitioners who don't have martial competence, but perhaps a higher health standard, as their goal are approaching it in a different way, but may be just as competent in their approach. What one group lacks in breadth they often make up in depth.<br /><br />The nursing home folks who are following Dr. Yang's seven movement form that I noted are likely performing at their absolute highest given their limitations. That is who he designed the form for. I don't like it myself. I think it is boring. But I can do the Chen Pao Cui, which is much more exciting and gratifying for me. Yang's target group are typically past the age of being able to do a form that demanding. Yet, their own individual experience is likely just as satisfying and health-inducing as mine. Looking at it from that perspective it is only subjective.<br /><br />Nursing home Taiji and Martial Taiji are of course two different types of Taiji. But the level of difficulty for each group may be the same, based on their current abilities. At present I don't work with Seniors. But the only way I could say that my Taiji, or yours, or Chen Bing's is of any higher caliber is if someone were teaching young healthy martially-oriented people nursing home Taiji and calling it a complete martial art. I am sure that happens, but that goes back to competence more than goals.<br /><br />My point is not competence at all. It is that different people have different goals in Taiji. The world is full of people who practice Taiji in some park everyday and couldn't fight their way our of a wet paper bag. But they are still doing Taiji. And in many cases it is very good Taiji. Taiji is a fighting art, but is not ONLY a fighting art. Sure it was at one time, but that is not the case now. I think it is good to propagate martial Taiji. But I wouldn't say it is exclusively better or superior than other approaches any more than than the "Tai Chi for Arthritis" folks should say martial Taiji is inferior.<br /><br />I does bother me that when I tell people I practice Taiji, the only thing that comes to mind is all those old people in the park doing Ching Man Ching forms. I wish the world at large knew better. I am glad for people like you who are working to educate the world at large and who are offering people like me a much broader and comprehensive Taiji. But I'm also glad for those park people and their slow Yin forms, because I'm in it for more than combat. In fact I'm working hard to realize a world where violence is unnecessary and the only art we will ever need is a healing art.Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02917660766431587100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7001985126232299290.post-28290891496092150682010-03-07T08:49:13.417-08:002010-03-07T08:49:13.417-08:00Due respect back at you while I politely disagree....Due respect back at you while I politely disagree... and stand up for Real Taiji.<br /><br />Part of my approach is to push against the subjective matter and ask people to amp up this degraded art. For me, it's more fulfilling to seek a high objective standard than to settle for a subjective equation.<br /><br />Equating nursing home Taiji with Taiji that's martial is like comparing white belts in karate to black belts. Black belts are better at their art (though both are good people).<br /><br />Too often, Taiji practitioners attempt to be fair and kind by claiming simple forms of Taiji are as real as advanced systems. That's silly.<br /><br />While there is no <em>objective standard</em>... look close. Some Taiji systems suck and some practitioners practice poorly.<br /><br />One professor (and Master and Leader of a Taiji School) at a University I lived near talked extensively to me about how he used Yoga breathing methods to make Taiji better. Was that real? No. He lacked so much Taiji knowledge that he added other arts to make his Taiji work. (I could go on: he demonstrated much more incompetence.)<br /><br />Let me be clear: I think that beginner (and nursing home) Taiji is a good thing... it helps people. But it's not just-as-good-as more dedicate and thorough advanced systems.<br /><br />We're all equal as beings. Sure. <em>And</em> we're not all equal as doings. Some have more doing skills than others.<br /><br />That's my 6 cents (adjusted up for inflation, down for recession).S.Smith at RealTaijihttp://realtaiji.comnoreply@blogger.com