The Pa Kua Mystery

Do enough Pa Kua Chang and something really weird happens. Pa Kua, as many people know, is that martial art where you walk in a circle endlessly.

Circles where you find loops within spirals within circles. To explain this really weird thing that happens in Pa Kua Chang, let me explain a couple of things first. Understand these things, and you will find that weird is normal in this universe, and normal is weird. Okey dokey?

The circle must consist of eight steps from beginning to end. This is about one good leg sweep, or six feet in diameter. And, of course, the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning, and so on.

Long time Pa Kua students claim that if you explore various positions of the palms as you walk the circle, that the positions stand for various phenomena. Fire palms, water palms, lightening palms, thunder palms, and so on.

By following this analogy they have created a separate and entire universe. While this universe can occupy a student for a lifetime, there hasn’t been a good explanation for what is happening, up till now.

When you create this Pa Kua universe, you should understand that the body is a machine. Just like alternating current, power goes down and up the legs. You should confirm it with a good dictionary, at this point, that power is energy, and energy is the capacity for work, and the capacity for work is how much weight you can lift.

Energy of the body is credited with being created by the tan tien. The tan tien is a point a couple of inches below the navel. The tan tien sends the energy down and up and the legs and back into the tan tien. What happens is that the body becomes a capacitor, a storage device, and the energy can be stored for later use. But also, and most interesting, is that after walking the circle sufficient with the idea I’ve detailed here, you will experience actual lightening going up and down your legs.

You will also, as you explore the potential of the palms in conjunction with the storing of the energy, experience a barber pole type energy swirl up and down your arms. Pa Kua is not mystical, it is common sense physics, but it does take a dedicated practitioner and a calm mind to experience what I have explained here.

For the body to start acting as a capacitor one must tell the body to do so enough times and with enough sincerity, and this while walking the circle enough times. If one learns to believe that this universe is not a trap, but a journey, what I have told you here is not only possible, but even easy.

Check out the Butterfly Pa Kua Chang at MonsterMartialArts.com

How to Create a Motor in the Martial Arts

Here an old post that deserves a new read…

One of the more profound mysteries in the martial arts is the concept of Chi. Chi is a mystical energy that pervades the universe in mysterious ways. And, chi is supposed to be a mystical energy that after a lifetime, you can use to do superhuman things. Unfortunately, proof seems to be sadly lacking for these claims concerning Chi. Maybe there are a few people who can do things, but most people can’t, and just a few exceptions here and there don’t prove the truth of certain theories concerning the subject of Chi. Fortunately, there is a theory that will result in Chi, that is not mystical, and that will work. A motor is two terminals which result in tension. Everything in the universe can be defined as a motor. Every tension in the universe is the result of a motor. An atom has a proton and electron interchanging to create energy. A cell has sodium and potassium interacting to create energy. Everywhere in the universe that you find two terminals opposing, you will find energy, and you will find a motor. And, when you take a martial arts stance with the human body, you have increased your weight, and this causes energy to move between the body and the planet. When you shift the weight from leg to leg, from stance to stance, the weight moves up and down the legs, and this excites the tan tien, a spot two inches below the navel which generates energy for the body. Thus, there is energy, and the body is a motor, and you can call this energy chi. Here’s the problem: everybody concentrates on making the body strong, and so creates only the low level chi required to operate the body. What people should be doing is focusing awareness on the procedure. If you build the awareness it takes to create the energy, you will build the energy that will result in the ‘superhuman’ potential that people look to Chi for. Thus, do your form, build awareness, and concentrate not on the violence of action, not on building the body, but on becoming aware of what you are doing. Feel the energy going down and up your legs, feel the energy building in the tan tien, and feel your connection with the planet. Do this and you will shortly become aware of energy building in your body in a surprising way. Energy that tingles a body part just by thinking of it, energy that warms the palms upon mere thought. Energy that can be channeled throughout your body and into the various body parts, and can even be felt outside your body. Once you have started building energy in this manner, then you can start searching for more spectacular ways to use it.

How to Create a Motor in the Martial Arts

One of the more profound mysteries in the martial arts is the concept of Chi. Chi is a mystical energy that pervades the universe in mysterious ways. And, chi is supposed to be a mystical energy that after a lifetime, you can use to do superhuman things. Unfortunately, proof seems to be sadly lacking for these claims concerning Chi. Maybe there are a few people who can do things, but most people can’t, and just a few exceptions here and there don’t prove the truth of certain theories concerning the subject of Chi. Fortunately, there is a theory that will result in Chi, that is not mystical, and that will work. A motor is two terminals which result in tension. Everything in the universe can be defined as a motor. Every tension in the universe is the result of a motor. An atom has a proton and electron interchanging to create energy. A cell has sodium and potassium interacting to create energy. Everywhere in the universe that you find two terminals opposing, you will find energy, and you will find a motor. And, when you take a martial arts stance with the human body, you have increased your weight, and this causes energy to move between the body and the planet. When you shift the weight from leg to leg, from stance to stance, the weight moves up and down the legs, and this excites the tan tien, a spot two inches below the navel which generates energy for the body. Thus, there is energy, and the body is a motor, and you can call this energy chi. Here’s the problem: everybody concentrates on making the body strong, and so creates only the low level chi required to operate the body. What people should be doing is focusing awareness on the procedure. If you build the awareness it takes to create the energy, you will build the energy that will result in the ‘superhuman’ potential that people look to Chi for. Thus, do your form, build awareness, and concentrate not on the violence of action, not on building the body, but on becoming aware of what you are doing. Feel the energy going down and up your legs, feel the energy building in the tan tien, and feel your connection with the planet. Do this and you will shortly become aware of energy building in your body in a surprising way. Energy that tingles a body part just by thinking of it, energy that warms the palms upon mere thought. Energy that can be channeled throughout your body and into the various body parts, and can even be felt outside your body. Once you have started building energy in this manner, then you can start searching for more spectacular ways to use it.

Combat Strategies in Shaolin Gung Fu!

Shaolin Gung Fu VERY Effective in Combat!

Here is the lie: Kung fu is a physical art based on mythology, and it has no modern combat applications. The point is that Kung Fu is based upon five animals, and that these animals do not relate to combat. This idea, that the animals don’t relate to combat, is, as we shall see, is so ridiculous it is…ridiculous!

The five kung fu animals In the Shaolin Butterfly are not the classical five animals. The butterfly, the crane, the monkey, the tiger, and the dragon are the five animals in this kung fu. The battle strategies of Shaolin are easily illuminated through a study of these five animals.

The first animal is the butterfly, and the stance utilized by this animal is the back stance. This stance is used because the butterfly must flit and flee to avoid damage, and the back stance is a step backward. Thus, the direction of the Butterfly is to the rear.

The Crane is the second animal, and the Crane utilizes a one legged stance. Standing on one leg and using kicks a student will achieve great balance. Thus, the crane goes in an upward direction.

The third animal is the monkey, and the stance used by this animal is the horse stance. This stance requires that a person drive their weight downward and hold their position. Thus, the direction of the horse is straight down.

The tiger is the fourth animal, and the tiger utilizes a forward stance. This stance is designed for charging, for attacking, and it is an aggressive stance. Thus, the tiger goes in a forward direction.

The dragon is the fifth animal, and the dragon utilizes a twisted stance, with the body turned over the feet. This stance is good for spinning to catch an opponent unawares, catching oneself in awkward positions, and so on. Thus, the dragon moves in a spin or a circle.

If you examine the points of a compass you will find the directions that the five animals take, and a strategy based upon handling all incoming potentials of attack. The Monkey goes down and the crane goes up, the tiger goes forward and the butterfly goes back, and the dragon circles, which illuminates a distinct possibility for lateral motion.

The directions of these five Shaolin Butterfly animals create a thorough and strong strategy with no weak points–just one of the secrets of the Shaolin Butterfly, which you can find at Monster Martial Arts.

Energy Beams in the Martial Arts

The ability to create beams of energy, though I have never seen nor heard of it discussed, is at the heart of the martial arts. I include pressor or tractor or any other type of beam in this discourse. A beam is a line of energy thrust outward from thebody of the martial artist, and this beam is usually constructed upon a line, though it need not be. It can be said that your martial art is not a true martial art unless it builds the ability to create a beam of energy at will. Most martial practices on planet earth are aimed towards building muscle, or the shabby excuse of energizing body parts. The purpose of this article is to awaken the reader to the potential of creating beams of energy. The first thing to be understood is that the body is nothing more than a machine. It is an organic machine constructed of meat and bone and various linking systems. Indeed, to the person unused to a body, it can resemble a Rubic’s cube, though, in fact, it is very simple to use. To use the body as a beam generator one must practice classical forms, and understand the value of classical stances. To practice the classical stances requires work, which work necessitates the creation of energy in the Tan Tien, which is the one point, which is nothing more than an energy generator on a body/machine level. This work should be augmented by breathing in accordance with the expansion or contraction of the body. To stance, to work, to breath, to concentrate awareness along the path of the arms, to imagine. It is imagination that sets us apart from the beasts, and it is imagination that is necessary to create the idea of a beam of energy coming out of the body. You must practice until the mind is calm and then it will be able to imagine. To test your ability to beam it is necessary to use a simple and often over looked gimmick. Set up a candle and face it, punch, and stop your fist an inch from the flame. Do not trick flick the flame by leaving the line of the beam, but focus, and keep the line of the beam as straight as possible. With success over time, stop your fist two inches from the flame, then further. increase distance until you can put out the flame from across the room. Eventually, with great patience and desire, you will be able to merely look at the flame and make it go out. There are those that laugh and such practices as detailed here are of little importance, and there are those who will not persist, but seek the instant gratification of simple fighting. Then there are those who will discover the depths of their being through this simple exercise. The difference between the two is faith, belief in yourself, and the desire to awaken your true abilities, and thus awaken yourself.

Light Body Kung Fu and Walking on Water

Light Body Kung Fu is Here!

Light Body Kung Fu, sometimes called Light Kung Fu, is one of those legends that has a lot of substantiation. There are directions in old texts concerning the method, and every once in a while you see something really astounding that makes people think that such things are possible. This article is going to be concerned with offering directions for achieving that high Kung Fu ability.

Light Body Kung Fu Requires Mind over Matter!

Basic instructions for achieving light kung fu, and being able to do martial arts tricks like jumping six feet straight up, are usually childish, or esoteric. The childish are usually something like, ‘dig a hole and jump out of it one thousand times. Take one cup of dirt out of the hole every day, and in ten years you will be able to leap out of a twelve foot hole.

Let’s see: one inch a day, 365 days a year, ten years, 3650 inches divided by twelve…guy should be able to  jump 304 feet straight up. Maybe it was an inch of dirt every week? But that would still be over 25 feet straight up.

The more esoteric instructions involve things like breath to the tan tien while you do the dragon flies posture. The third chakra must be engaged on year four, and the fifth chakra will sleep on year nine. Pray to Buddha constantly while you do this.

Now, the childish and the esoteric out of the way, additional confusion is often offered by scientists. I came across the following analysis of light kung fu on a martial arts forum. Gigong is just the ability of transition of body weight between the two feet in such a way that the body weight never gets the chance or time long enough to accumulate and rest its fullness on to any of the legs in any giving period of time…and the paragraph goes on to describe shortening the cycle of stepping.

This last description is most interesting, a grand effort, but there is always a problem when somebody tries to describe something that is beyond physics with…physics. What I mean by this is that physics describes the universe, it doesn’t really tell you what it is and how it works. I know scientists will argue with this, and try to inflict their reasoning on what I say, but science can’t define the supernatural, such as light kung fu, changing wine into water, or, say, walking on water.

I had a student who could walk on water. Actually, what he did was run across the corner of a swimming pool. He would get a running start, do a couple of things with his mind, and run over the surface of the water without sinking.

What we are interested in, of course, is what he was doing with his mind. Gravity can be measured, of course; it can be described by physics, but it is still a notion that you must believe in for it to work. We are raised up to make physics work (trained by schools based in scientific thought), but the secret of light kung fu is to untrain your mind, to overcome the notion of gravity, and that takes a lot of kung fu discipline.

The Secret Of Making Chi The Right Way

There is actually a good definition for Chi, one which explains away all the mysticism. The problem is that intrinsic energy has been a catch basket for anything and everything that people didn’t understand. The truth is that Chi responds very well to simple physics definitions.

When one considers internal energy they must understand that there are several layers of it. These layers actually exist in stages, and they follow certain rules. To understand this consider that water is first ice, then water, then steam.

On the first level Chi is solid, it is the material which makes up bodies. That chair you are sitting in, it is made of frozen chi. So is the refrigerator and the TV.

On the second level, the one most people are most familiar with, intrinsic energy is a liquid like type of energy. Root your stance, move your body in a way that promotes generation and circulation, and you can feel the chi moving through your body. Interestingly, this chi actually moves through the solidity of your body.

The body is solid, but there are degrees of solid. Consider the body a stove, and the arms pipes, and it is easy to follow, and even create, the rules of how to move Chi energy. The real trick, of course, lies with understanding the third level of internal energy.

The third level of chi is thought, and this is the stuff by which you move the energetical substance through your body. Thought is interesting stuff, because people believe it is sentences and words and such. Thought, however, is not words, it is the urge behind the words.

What grunt of thought causes motion? What momentary impulse is behind all the sentences that try to describe internal energy in a thousand ways? What notion moves us, from bug to nation?

To move chi through the body one must learn to consider the universe on progressively lighter levels. One must move the objects of reality with muscle at first, and then progress to less effort and more intention, and finally enrich perceptions to the point where one can actually perceive the grunt or whim that actuates all motion in this universe. In the end, it is the effortless non-energy of perception that enables us to comprehend and understand chi, and to move it by whim and notion, and this effortless, light method is the secret of Tai Chi Chuan.

Monster Newsletter #299–Under the Surface!

Good, good, good
morning!
A work out a day
keeps the insanity away.
And that’s the truth.
Thanks for being sane.

You know,
sanity is merely a halfway point.
The human race evolves in the following manner,
insanity,
sanity,
ability.

Insanity is the jungle like struggle for survival.
Dog eat dog,
Grrr!
We all go through it,
at some point.
And,
you either die,
hang yourself,
jump off a building,
or you go sane.

Sane,
getting along,
which,
unfortunately,
turns into the same old same old.
It’s true.

I mean,
after you go sane,
what do you do?
How do you get that extra ability?
Do you keep struggling?
But against what?
For what?

Interestingly,
people have been seeking their true abilities all along,
and,
interestingly,
the martial arts have provided
these extra abilities
that are our true nature,
our real birthright.

The problem has been
everybody has a different viewpoint.
Aikido says universal love,
Jujitsu says ground and pound,
Tai Chi says inner calmness,
and so on.

Of course,
I believe
why not have them all?
Why not have all the abilities of all the arts?
I mean,
with matrixing…
you can!

But,
interestingly enough,
I’m not going to push matrixing on you.
I’ve been doing that all along,
you know what’s going on,
so let me kick it into high gear,
break out of the same old same old,
and tell you something new.

Let me tell you something neutronic.

The way to achieve higher ability
in any and all arts
is to do all the arts.
But,
it’s not just doing them,
it’s how you do them.
To tell you how to do them,
let me point something out.

Google something.
Anything.
Doesn’t matter what
and you have just accessed the surface thoughts of humanity.
Physics,
literature,
the study of bugs,
you have just skimmed
the surface knowledge of mankind.
You have looked across the things of the universe,
you know about the measurements of the universe,
and the abstract thoughts concerning,
do you get it?
But you only know…about.
You don’t know.

to know,
as opposed to know about,
you have to actually do,
you have to make the knowledge your own,
by experiencing it.

This is like saying,
you have swum across the surface.
So how do you take a breath
and dive beneath the surface?

Interestingly,
diving beneath the surface
is something we  have been doing
through the martial arts
all along.
Through the martial arts
we have been measuring our souls
by the depth of our experience.
We have been delving into ourselves.
Finding ourselves,
the truth of ourselves,
and it starts with the form of you
and digs into the worth of you.

The problem has been
we fight each other
over whose experience best illustrates the depths.

Who’s art is best?

They are all the best,
because they do reflect
us.
Ourselves.
Our depths.
The real who of us.
The ‘I am.’
Who we are
and why we are.

Now,
matrixing
organizes the data,
and lays it out
so we can understand
exactly where we are
who we are
why we are.

But,
here is the point of it all
here is how you get those extra abilities
from each art
and every art,
here is the exact thing you must do
when you do the martial arts
if you are going to
dive beneath the surface
and find yourself.

Do your form without surface thought.
Do not have sentences occurring
while you are working out.
Do not have thoughts and considerations.
Do only what you are doing
and exclude all else.

When you get rid of the surface thoughts
when you crack through the shell of the surface thoughts
you will find great space.

What you perceive,
the universe,
it is all nothing more than
great space.
And there is where you are going to find your abilities.

Now,
something to understand.
People have been doing this forever,
but they do it apart,
separate,
and they don’t upload the data
for the whole race
except through arcane script.
Esoteric mumblings.
Secret scrolls
that get destroyed
by those who didn’t make it
and don’t want anybody
to make it.
Their credo is
‘No enlightenment for man!’
And it is a mean credo,
an enslaving credo,
and should be held up to light
so that it will stop being effective.

So,
with matrixing
you organize the data,
and you understand that anybody can do it
and everybody should do it
and that the extra abilities available to mankind
can be had.

You just have to work.
But now you know the direction
your work must take,
you know how simple it is,
and how difficult.

To put side the world
and be only you
you must have
purpose with no surface thought.

No you know why people meditate before class,
so they can dedicate themselves to
getting rid of surface thought.

Now you know why people meditate.

But,
the martial arts
as a discipline which actually handles
the force and flow of the universe
works so much better.

But you have to do more than google the surface thoughts.
You have do the art.
Not talk,
not surf the net,
but take an hour or two a day
and dedicate it to the martial arts,
to you,
to finding out who you are.

some people believe in prayer,
nothing wrong with that,
but,
as a martial artist,
your form is your prayer.
Not your reaction time,
because that is something you are trying to lose.
Not the ability to beat people up,
because you are trying to give that up.
But,
rather,
the belief in yourself,
that under the howdie do exterior
under the work a day world
and the clothes and the cars,
under the day to day
how are you doing communications
in which you pass by your fellow man,
there is a great space,
a you,
a depth of perception people have only dreamt of.

So do your forms,
dedicate yourself to not having thought,
but rather seeking a goal,
and achieving a goal
through the purity of the fist,
the kick,
the throw,
the now.

Okey doke,
This has been a set up,
I’m going to tell you the truth about reading minds
in issue 300.
Until then,
practice your forms…
do your moves,
hone your techniques,
and stop thinking.

Here’s a link

Monkeyland!

Just to let you know,
I let the Blinding Steel website go.
It will disappear in a few days,
so take your last look,
your last order.
And,
I will be changing Monkeyland
pretty quick.
Got to make some updates.
So take a last gander at that site,
time to upgrade

That all said,
next issue,
we read minds.
Talk to you then.

Al

:o)

Google this…
Three Reasons Tai Chi Works Better Than Any Other Martial Art
Leave a comment, it helps my statistics.

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.
Stephen Hawking

200 Years of Martial Arts!

Looking around the bar, I counted over 200 years of martial arts experience. Ten guys averaging 20 years apiece.
I had left the Kang Duk Won some years before, and i had just dropped by to say hi, and, somehow, we had ended up at a bar, sipping our brewskis and talking over battles long past.
“I saw your video,” Gil said. He owned a gas station, and I had known him for 25 years. He was speaking of one of the earliest videos I ever advertised in the magazines. The others gave their attention.
“What’d you think?” I asked.
“Interesting.” 200 years of martial arts experiences nodded their heads in agreement.
Hmm. Interesting. That curious word that people want to say when they don’t want to say anything. And that meant that my video was a flop.
That was 20 years ago, and I don’t make flops anymore. One bad review from the people who mattered made all the difference. That one flop, and the way I felt after it, skyrocketed the quality of the courses offered at Monster Martial Arts.

3 The Truth of Seeing Without Eyes in the Martial Arts

I spent two years in a McDojo. It’s probably cruel to call it that, back then martial arts instructors had actually studied for a number of years, and they were evaluated on competence. But, that said, I moved to the Kang Duk Won, and it was there that I discovered the True art.
The True Art is defined by how liquid the movements are.
Not how powerful, not by the degree of rigidity in the body…but by how relaxed and smooth and liquid the body is.
The Martial Arts aren’t like the sun, exploding in the sky, they are like a candle in a coal mine.
They are not the degree of flame you build, but how much space is around you.
Space can be perceived, but not with the eyes or other physical senses.
I am not teaching the blind…I trying to teach people who have senses to see without the senses.
That’s what I try to teach people with Monster Martial Arts.