Martial Development

Old Masters of Classic Kungfu Cinema

The old master role is a staple of the kungfu movie genre. This wise sensei or sifu embodies the qualities of wisdom, experience and restraint, tempering the young hero’s reckless energy and guiding them in their fight against injustice.

Some of the actors portraying old-school masters were trained only in movie-fu—the art of looking good on camera—but others were accomplished martial artists and opera performers in their own right. Those in the latter category executed difficult fight choreography with speed and grace; like fine wines, they grow more impressive with age.

Three Ways to Measure Your Personal Development

The correct practice of martial arts develops physical health, emotional maturity and intellectual acuity. In this sense, it is one of the world’s oldest personal development disciplines.

Whether you enjoy martial arts, or any other activity for personal growth, you need to measure your results at regular intervals; otherwise, as time passes, you are likely to drift away from your original goals. As Taijiquan master Wang Zongyue allegedly wrote, “If you are off by just one inch at the start, you will deviate by one thousand miles in the end.”

But how can you accurately gauge your progress in a complex and personal pursuit?

Students: Burn The Ships, Not Your Martial Arts Contracts

A contractual relationship with your martial arts school could end miserably; former classmates and I know this from experience. Despite this experience, I believe that the potential benefits of a contract to the student outweigh the risks.

Before I explain the benefit, let me tell you the tale of an Aikido dojo gone sour.

Should You Sign a Karate Contract?

So you visited the local Karate dojo. You enjoyed the free introductory class, and you’re ready to enroll. One minor detail stands between you and black belt prowess: The Contract.

World Tai Chi Day Events in Seattle

The annual celebration of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day will be held this Saturday, April 28, 2007. Many Seattle-area groups will meet for practice at this auspicious time, weather permitting.

Can Qigong Soothe These Savage Beasts?

When alleged masters of kiai-jutsu and no-touch throws use their own students for demonstrations, skeptics cry foul. If such incredible skills truly exist, the skeptics contend, they should enable the master to stop a skilled and determined attacker whom he has never met; otherwise, it’s obviously just bullshido.

K-1 Fighter Bob “The Beast” Sapp

These skeptics are serving up a false dilemma, lightly seasoned with argumentum ad baculum. Under their revised laws of physics, the forces of this universe are neatly split into two categories: those which can floor Bob Sapp, and those which simply do not exist. Fortunately, there is a middle ground where useful and interesting experiments can be performed.

Lightworking Lessons From the Hubble Telescope

In the ancient spiritual text Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna defined two paths to the highest realization of human potential. For those inclined towards introspection and contemplation, Krishna recommended the path of transcendent wisdom, or Jnana Yoga. For more active and extroverted people, he suggested the path of selfless service, or Karma Yoga.

Blogger Steve Pavlina discussed these paths in his recent article Are You a Lightworker or a Darkworker? After insisting that mastery requires a polarizing commitment to one path—and one alone—Steve denigrated the path of self-knowledge:

If you polarize as a lightworker, you are dedicating your life to serving the greater good. If you polarize as a darkworker, you are dedicating your life to serving yourself. To use a Star Wars analogy, it is similar to deciding whether or not to become a Jedi or a Sith.

For a darkworker the level of unconditional love is directed inwardly as love of self. It’s like a highly concentrated form of arrogance. It may not be expressed outwardly in the form of a smug attitude, but inwardly the person comes to embrace the idea that s/he is the most important person on earth and should act accordingly. Honoring this perspective can actually lead to a state of peace that is virtually the opposite of humility.

While some might label the darkworker path as evil path, I dislike using words like good or evil to describe these paths. They’re really two different sides of the same coin.

Are the paths of lightworking and darkworking truly exclusive? To understand the flaw in this theory, let’s examine a tool that is literally dedicated to gathering cosmic light: the Hubble Space Telescope.

Wuji Zhuang: The Self-Knowledge Stance

Wuji zhuang is the weakest stance in Chinese martial arts. Standing straight and still with their arms down at their sides, the practitioner of the wuji stance is in no position to deliver an attack, or to defend against one. They are sitting ducks, utterly unable to resist force from any of the four directions. So why is wuji zhuang so esteemed among high hands, and considered an important part of training in taijiquan, yiquan, and other arts?

The practice of wuji zhuang, or standing meditation, releases the hidden power of self-knowledge.

Do You Have Black Belt Envy?

Let me tell you a dirty little secret about black belts. They have no particular meaning at all.

The Legend of Bagua Chang

Separating martial fact from fiction is a perilous task. If you are too credulous, you may be tricked into joining a fraudulent kung fu cult. On the other hand, if you are too skeptical, you will cut yourself off from real high-level skills. “Common sense” is an unreliable guide, because it is grounded in your own limited experience, and odds are you’ve never met a legitimate master.

For this and other reasons, I do not use my website to mock other martial arts and artists. Sometimes, though, I hear a story so fantastical that I just cannot resist the urge to share it.