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Peas in a Pod

When you read about the history of the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project, one thing really stands out: how the big dogs of the High Command were able to believe that such a bomb was even possible. And back up the belief by putting hundreds of millions of dollars, their careers, their reputations on the line.

All for just an idea. Because at the time they kicked the Project into gear, that's all it was. There had never been a test or a working demonstration. There couldn't have been because the necessary fuel (plutonium and U235) ended up being created at the same time the bomb was being designed. All they had to go on initially were just incredibly crude, simple materials in warehouses and workshops and campus building labs - and all calculations done by sliderule. At the time the top honchos (Roosevelt, Vannevar Bush, Gen. Leslie Groves, Robert Oppenheimer, and a few others) fully and totally commited themselves, the whole nuclear project was just an idea supported by very small scale experiments and a very low grade radioactive pile that had gone critical for just a couple of hours at Fermi's squash court lab in the University of Chicago.

It seems like nothing at all now, so obvious, everything worked just ... fine.  In the end, it all came together ...  so perfectly. But see it from the view of those war planners at the time, it is beyond belief to me the vision they had (I am not addressing the morality of the actual use of the bombs in this post), the drive and pitbull doggedness based on just some atomic structure theory. The Manhattan Project was like a State within the State or a Nation within the Nation, encompassing Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos main lab, employing tens of thousands of people for years to create just a few kilograms of U235 and plutonium as the core of two distinct totally theoretical bomb designs, absolutely untested until the very end of the project (Trinity). All that kicked into being simply on the say-so of a dozen European academic ivory tower pencil-neck wimps, geeks, and girly men (Bohr, Fermi, Einstein, Szilard, etc.)

That's what I call vision and self-belief.

So nobody should be surprised that a small number of visionary people in our own government, some from the executive branch (White House), others from the Pentagon, CIA, and FBI, obviously conspired together, in total secrecy from the rest of the mil.gov complex (just like Manhattan Project) to plan, evidently over several years (about the same time the Manhattan Project ran) a very elaborate and "untested" plot to stage a fake terror attack on the Homeland (9-11). And despite the complexity, expense, and danger of this plan, despite the fact it could not be tested in advance - it worked. And just like the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs, which despite their extreme physical consequences were primarily intended as psychological weapons (shock and awe against the Japanese and Soviets), the physical consequences of 9-11 were merely props for the psychological goal of terrorizing, subduing, and harnessing up the domestic USA population for the current Imperial shitstorm.

The more you know about the Manhattan Project, the more struck you will be with the close parallels between these secretive groups of powerful, self-believing, visionary men.

Plankfight

I don't understand Tai Chi "push hands" tournaments and competitions. I do have experience with push hands itself, as a training modality. That is a totally separate issue. I am talking here about large-scale, formalized and organized Push Hands tournaments and competitions, such as are found to be a big huge hairy deal in Taiwan and other locales.

What's the point? Notice that asking what's the point is NOT the same thing as opposition. I don't oppose them, I don't really oppose anything. That would take actual effort and attention. Nope there's nothing whatsoever "wrong" with them. My question here is not the usual dumbass thing about how such competitions breed the use of strength, and reinforce ego, and all that crap. I'm not even going to talk about whether competition push hands (or any other kind) has any relevance to real world defensive training or not. That's just another stupid pointless red herring. A meaningless discussion (like every other discussion).

Nope. None of the above. My only question is: why push hands in particular? I mean why has push hands, this particular one single (or family of) peripheral drill(s) become the center of a big national or international fetish, as can be observed in Taiwan?

It is just one arbitrary balance and strength training drill among an infinite number of such. Any one of those thousand of other balance/strength drills could equally serve as the foundation for a big pseudo-athletic cult, same as PH. It all seems so arbitrary, just like everything else in human life, sports, football, whatever. I guess they are all just meaningless arbitrary choice points decorating the infinite space of pointless human physical actions that can be fetishized into organized sport activities, even become professions.

To be fair, in the case of organized push hands there is a formidable and respectable precedent in Japanese sumo, which is pretty much identical to sport push hands, except that most of the sumo guys would wipe out any Taichi PH person. It's been said many times many ways.

But sometimes I think we lose sight of the total arbitrariness of it all. Just like we look at our hands and we think 5 fingers is a preferable norm, forgetting that we have been conditioned since childhood to think and feel that. If we had 4 or 6 fingers we'd feel that same about that number of digits. It's all meaningless, arbitrary.

In Systema there are literally hundreds of balance and strength drills, some really wild and crazy. Any one of those could become the basis for a fervid national cult sport, just like PH in Taiwan. They are just classroom drills which is all PH is (whether moving or fixed comments apply about the same).

For example, in Systema there is a classroom drill whereby P1 and P2 assume the raised pushup position (plank). The game is for P1, using one arm (obviously) to try to knock out P2's support, and vice versa. Whichever P can bring the other one down to the mat (something other than hands and feet touching mat), while still keeping his own plank position, wins. This can be done with P1 and P2 aligned head to head, or side by side, or even moving. The takedowns are doing by collapsing the suport at a joint, hooking out a supporting limb or joint, by pulling or pushing, even head manipulation. No striking but that could obviously be added as desired. Push-Down competition!

Goofy drill, right? Yet fun. But my point here is, why couldn't amateur and pro Push-Down fights become just as much of a big deal stupid national fetish like tai chi push hands in Taiwan? It has exactly the same arbitrary, meaningless character.

There could be an organization for that, tournaments, levels of play, weight divisions, trophies, champion belts, anything you like.

Somebody's gotta do it

I hate quoting from Big Dog type of names like Gandhi, Lincoln, that kind of person. What a fricking bore. And yet, sometimes it just has to be done:

Why should one not be able to live contentedly as a member of the service personnel in the lunatic asylum? After all, one respects the lunatics as the people for whom the building in which one lives exists.

- Albert Einstein, comment on being a human

Speaking words of wisdom

I'm lazy today, plus I have to get ready to head out early tomorrow for another Taichi training thing my teacher is doing. So as a bonus here are Taichi training tips from my teacher (also found on my website).

Master Benjamín Lo Teachings

1. The Power of Zero

Ben told us, after demonstrating his usual total ease in moving, pushing, or throwing a much larger, stronger, and more physically more impressive opponent:

“Normally we think that if he has 100 pounds of force or power, I better have 150. But then if I get 150 pounds of force, he may have accumulated more himself. Or there’ll be somebody else with more. So next time it will be my 150 against his 200. Then I’ll need to go to 250… and still, there’s always going to be somebody with more than me. It's an arms race in that direction. So I need to reverse my approach. I need to take my own power down to 0. Then there’s no chasing or spiraling. Nothing can change. If he has 100, I have 0. If he has 150, I have 0. If he has 200, I still have 0, on and on, whatever he has, I’m always beneath it, it doesn’t change or affect me. I’m not chasing his attributes, or competing, or catching up, or exceeding him. That’s Taijiquan.”

I’m not saying this idea and practice is easy for ordinary students, like ourselves, to grasp. But it is food for thought from the master, who could always demonstrate it on anybody - no matter how large or how tough or how experienced a fighter.

2. Finding your own Beautiful Lady's Hand

This is the procedure Ben sometimes teaches to help us find 美人手 correct position:

Stand close to a wall. Place your entire forearm up against the wall, with your palm facing the wall, and your fingertips together, pointing upwards, and extended naturally along the wall's surface. Don't force your arm against the wall, but conform to the flatness of the wall in a relaxed way. The base of your palm is very lightly touching the wall surface. Let your forearm and straight hand and fingers align and rest naturally, let them be slightly heavy against the wall. This is approximately the shape and feeling of Beautiful Lady's Hand (mei ren shou in Mandarin).

3. Which Taiji form posture is best for holding (zhan zhuang) practice?

People sometimes ask Ben whether one or another of the 37 postures of the Cheng form is especially good for "holding" practice (keeping the same position for many minutes to check your form and relaxation).

When I asked him this, he said: "No posture is 'best', all are good. Same thing as going to a party, you can always find at least one friendly person to talk to, and you can eventually find a practice posture that suits you very well."

4. How can we practice Taiji in a very limited floor space?

Ben told us two main ways to handle a space-limited practice condition:

a. If you have room to stand up at all, you can probably stand in one of the Taiji form postures. This is actually one of the main practice methods taught by Ben for general usage, not only space-limited. It is called 'zhan zhuang' in Chinese (see Teaching #3), and it can be extremely arduous - particularly if you really try to maintain the full 5 Principles at each moment ... as time passes. Obviously this method is available to you wherever you have room to stand up.

b. But once when I pressed Ben with this question about doing the entire continuous form in a limited area, he surprisingly showed me that the entire Cheng Taiji set can be performed in just four square feet of space! I can't describe each adjustment here, but actually it was very intuitive, just stepping back or moving in place where you would have gone forward. You can maintain all the 5 Principles and complete the entire 37-posture sequence in just four square feet of space.

So, no excuses for non-practice!

5. What is the best way to work on basic fixed step push hands practice?

When I first started with Ben, students would work mostly on fixed-step, double-hands tui-shou. It got extremely vigorous and, frankly, competitive at times. After I'd been there a few years, Ben came up with a new emphasis. More and more he emphasized an alternative practice format for fixed-step push hands, whereby one person would be the designated pusher and the other the designated yielder. The yielder should not actively push, but simply try to neutralize the incoming force of the designated pusher. Every 15 minutes or so, we'd switch roles. I think he felt that people were better able to control their inherent ego and aggression under this more controlled format. I certainly learned a lot from working in this way.

6. Somebody asked Ben, Why don't you correct me in class? I feel neglected.

Ben said you should be glad when I don't correct you, it means others are worse than you and I need to spend the time with them. He also said that there's only so far corrections can go, depending on the student's level. For example, when a pot is on the stove in the correct place over the burner, then only time will do the job. There's no need to more the pot around on the burner much. Time and heat will do the rest of the job. But, if the pot is not on the burner, or on the stove at all, then of course it needs to be moved onto the burner, that is the function of corrections from a teacher. He also said that his ability to correct the student depends on the student's own progress in relaxation. To bend a bar in a desired shape, the bar must first be soft and pliable enough to work with.

7. Somebody asked Ben, How we can get to the point of using Taiji as a martial art:

Ben said that if you are working correctly, combative skill will evolve naturally. It's just like walking - if you set out in the correct direction, and keep walking, then no matter when, even if you didn't want to reach the destination that lies in that particular direction, you'll definitely get there no matter what. So don't worry about it, but keep trying to correct your practice.

8. Pearl Necklace teaching:

Ben said that the postures are like individual pearls on a pearl necklace. Each one is beautiful and valuable. But if any one pearl on a long necklace gets lost, dropped or broken, the necklace it self isn't much affected. That is analogous to having some small error or inability in a given posture. If however the string of the necklace is cut or broken, then the entire thing falls apart, the necklace is effectively gone or cannot be used for anything. The string is thus analogous to the 5 Principles.

9. Beginner's Mind:

Everybody knows about beginner's mind from Zen (Suzuki Roshi). But Ben has also said similar things about tai ji practice. He said that each time you do the form, you should be careful and attentive to keep the principles accurately in mind, cautious about making a mistake just like a beginner. Beware of the careless arrogant "expert" practice mind.

10. An example of the multiplicity of error:

Just as an example of the kinds of errors people fall into, Ben mentioned that in one principle (just a single example) "Body Upright", there are 10 major variations and only one is correct. You might lean forward, backward, to the left or right. You might lean on any of the intervening 4 diagonals. So far, 8 errors. Or, you might be upright - but with your body tense. Only the final variation - upright with relaxed body - is correct.

11. 1-Hand vs. 2-Hand Push Practice - Which is harder? :

Most students instinctively seem to believe that double handed push hands (tui shou) practice has just got to be more difficult and "more advanced". But Ben has got us to think more deeply about this with the following rhetorical question: If you went to a Chinese restaurant and they handed you a single chopstick to eat with... ? He said "Yes you could maybe poke a few things, but that's about it. Eating would be really tough." Amusing and true of push hands also - single is far more difficult and more "advanced" (until ultimately everything all merges into total understanding a la Professor Cheng.)

12. Twin Siblings:

Ben often distinguishes three common states: Tense, Relaxed, and Collapsed. Only Relaxed is useful in taiji practice, the others are extremes to be avoided. But Ben has said that the states of "relaxed" and "collapses" can easily be confused by an outside observer, as they tend to appear visually similar. They are, in Ben's words, "identical twins" in appearance. Thus they can only be distinguished by touch.

13. Distinguishing yin/yang changes in push hands (tui shou) practice:

Ben has used the following teaching scenario to students to focus on the necessary sensitivity to yin/yang energy and tension changes in a push hands partner: If I told you to go down a flight of 10 stairs in the dark, but I also told you that some steps in the staircase are missing, would you just rush and clunk your way mindlessly down? No you would go lightly and sensitively, like a cat. Because you would know that you need to continually distinguish empty from full. That's the mind you need to be good at push hands.

14. Soul on Ice?

Once a famous professor of dance and choreography visited Ben’s Tai-Chi seminar, in Europe. She had developed a perfect system for written choreographic notation that could capture all movements and even subtle nuances of any physical expressive dynamics of the human body. She brought several of her students along to the seminar, and this Professor and her group sat on the sidelines and transcribed the entire Cheng Tai Chi sequence as Ben and the students worked through it on the floor. Afterwards she explained her project to Ben, saying that any of her students, even those who had never learned Tai Chi, could now replicate any portion of the form with perfect precision, just from the notations they had written. Ben asked to see, and indeed, it was true! The students could just “read off” the correct body motions from the transcriptions and they performed the postures perfectly. Ben then called over a large hulking student and told him to stand solid. With a light touch Ben uprooted him and sent him flying across the training floor. Then Ben turned to the dance teacher and said “That is Tai Chi. Where in your notation is that written?” The teacher realized that this inner soul of the art was impossible to capture, freeze, or explain in any artificial, technical system.

15. Money Manager:

Ben said that the main difference between an advanced Tai Chi person and a lesser player is not the “amount” of power they have, but only that  it is used and deployed correctly or incorrectly. For example, say you want to buy a pair of sunglasses for $1.50, and you have four pockets in your jacket, with one dollar in each pocket. Each time you reach into a pocket, you find $1, but you put it back in the pocket, as $1 isn’t sufficient funds. Then imagine that after going through all your pockets in this way, you give up and conclude that you cannot afford the item. But then, somebody else comes along, who has $4 too - all in a single pocket. He buys the item easily and there’s an end to it. Most of us are like the four pocket would-be buyer.

16. Mirror Mirror:

Somebody asked Ben: Wouldn’t it be good to practice the (Cheng Man Ching 37-posture short) form symmetrically, so that we do it the ‘normal’ way, and then learn a mirror image version, with right and left reversed, for completeness or balance or something like that? Then, for example, there would be a version of Single Whip with the left hand hooked and the right hand striking forward, and so on. Ben said that first of all, the form in its current state, as created and taught by Professor Cheng, already has plentiful examples of symmetrical left/right balanced postures, including Brush Knee, Fair Lady Works Shuttle, Golden Cock on One Leg, Repulse Monkey, Cloud Hands,  and so on and on. So not much more of this is really needed. Additionally, a deeper point – many amazing “natural” things are NOT symmetrical or balanced in the way that superficial observers would expect or desire. For example, the human brain has left/right hemispheric specialization, it is not functionally symmetric. And there are plenty of other examples. The Founder of Tai Chi was brilliant enough to create this art, do you think he didn’t know about symmetry? If he was smart enough to create Tai Chi, it would be incredible if he missed this obvious point and now the truth is only realized when YOU come along and suggest it! The form exists in its current state for a reason. So let’s try to master the great art as we have it from the Founder.

17. Qi Gong

Somebody asked Ben, what is the difference between Tai Chi and Qi Gong? Should I study Qi Gong as a substitute or a supplement to Tai Chi? Ben said: “Tai Chi includes Qi Gong. But Qi Gong does not include Tai Chi.”

Simple yet profound. Think about it!

18. Virtual Teacher

Sometime when I'm practicing, I find it useful to imagine Ben is standing right next to me in "corrective" mode, as he has so many hundreds or even thousands of times. I inventory myself, what would he correct? First... he'd probably tell me to sit lower - front knee over toe! Then he usually check for body upright, perhaps I sometimes have a slight lean? Then ... relaxed? Abdomen, everywhere? Shoulders in a line (not one higher than the other? Waist facing square to a wall (or perfectly to a corner in the diagonal postures) ? Each of us has our own unique inventory of faults, but the corrections are all uniform, they derive entirely from the 5 Practice Principles. I do find this helpful to focus myself.

19. Taiji Humor (?)

Ben teaches us entirely in accordance with his 5 Practice Principles. But we exhibit all kinds of weird variations. Ben often laughs gently at the strange distortions we come up with. Ben sometimes says "I tell you wrist straight or waist straight or body upright, and you all bend yourselves this way or twist and wrench yourselves some other way ... I didn't tell you to do those things, why do you do them? Sometime I will tell you 'Make sure you bend your wrist like this' (makes a wild and weird shape), then you'll all suddenly do it perfectly straight!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seminar Posted

Notice for my planned July 12 Cheng Manch'ing style T'ai Chi seminar is now posted at Embrace The Moon workshops web page. Those interested, email me intent to attend, or any questions.

T'ai Chi as you have not experienced it before.

Tabbycat = Precog

In this post of May 13 2008  you read the following here at Tabby Gamespace blog:

"I will now risk my 24K Gold Tabbycat Precog Reputation (24KGTPR) by actually calling the outcome of this fight: The challenger Kobori will win. I will go further and say there's a 70% chance it will be a KO or TKO."

And now today May 19th you can read the following news hot from the boxing press:

TOKYO -- Japan's Yusuke Kobori picked himself off the canvas to stop champion Jose Alfaro of Nicaragua in the third round and win the WBA lightweight title on Monday.

Kobori [won] by technical knockout just over two minutes into round three of their scheduled 12-rounder in Tokyo.

So. There you have it once again folks, yet further confirmation that I am a true Precog, as good or better than any Phillip K. Dick character. But what does it profit me? However, it could have heavily profited you, as a TCG reader, had you simply the wits to have laid down some cash on my call. But no, I am doomed to be a Cassandra (the original, mythical proto-Precog and patron saint to all of us present day actual Precog's - all two of us!) - always right but never believed.

But how was I able to call it so accurately? Is it because I am such a seasoned and expert boxer and boxing analyst? Well, of course! How could it be otherwise? But seriously folks I will now do what no magician should ever do and reveal my method, just for this case.

I knew not directly but by indirect observation. Because I  train  at same Kado Ebi gym where Kobori trains and where all the pre-fight publicity events where held, including brief demo sparring sessions of both fighters. My trainer/coach guy happens to be Kobori's main trainer and coach also. And I was standing near my trainer as we all watched the first round of Alfaro's demo sparring session last week. And at the end of the first round, I looked over at my trainer, who had been a bit uncertain and nervous leading up to this demo event, and I caught the expression on his face. And, just for an instant, his face said silently but as clearly as if written on a billboard slung high over the Shibuya Hachiko intersection: We are so gonna totally totally own this guy. He knew.

And that simple facial interpretation, just a momentary flicker but sharp as a stab of neon in the night, told me all I needed to know,  more than any promotional fluff from either side could ever convey.

In poker terms, a tell.

Time after Time

Ben, in addition to working us to the bone, always offers some straightforward verbal teaching tidbits.

For example, today Ben was talking about the apparent disconnect between mind understanding vs. body understanding. He said "If somebody calls up long distance from New York asking for the secret of Taiji, I can tell him 'relax' and he'll hear me instantly and understand in his mind what I said. Even across 3000 miles. But once a student hears 'relax', his mind understands it but to communicate that to his body is really hard and can takes years. Even though there is no distance at all."

Another one, about using force: "If I told you to use more strength, then it might make sense if you told me you can't, because you might not be strong enough. Then you just couldn't use any more strength no matter what I tell you. But what's weird is I am telling you to use no strength yet you can't seem to manage it. That's strange. Imagine I demand a lot of money from you. Then you might say you can't pay any more, you just don't have the cash. But suppose I say don't give me any money! Is that really so hard?"

Maestro!

Now I am doing something I like a lot, taking taiji intensive seminar with my main teacher, Benjamin Lo. Though I have met lots of big-name, big dog masters of Taiji, none of them compare in skill and depth with Ben. He really got a big chunk of whatever Prof. Zheng was radiating.

In addition to all his other attributes, his bones are way harder and heavier than a normal person. I have noticed this with a few other long time internal boxing great master types. Over long time of ki refinement it happens.

Pursuing internal martial arts special powers is like working towards siddhis in Hindu yogic systems. Siddhis are special abilities like withstanding heat or cold or flying and what have you. Usually, in the yoga world, everybody sneers at pursuing "mere" siddhi special powers. Because you are supposed to keep your eyes on the higher prize of being totally enlightened or whatever. But now that the Neo-Advaitans have exposed the whole concept of enlightenment at being a total sham and scam, this kind of snobbery doesn't have a leg to stand on anymore.

Of course most people who claim siddhi's are in fact total fakes and indeed ought to be sneered at. Best example being the completely dumbass "yogic flying" schtick (butt hopping on a mattress) of TM.

However the idea of pursuing siddhi's, in principle, is rather cool to me. Not because they would be anything meaningful - I thought we already established a long time ago in this blog, nothing means anything whatsoever. So you can put that to rest. No, the pursuit of siddhi's is justified simply because it could be kind of fun and neat to have such powers. No biggie. Just something to pass the day.

It's not like there's anything all that much better worth bothering with on this planet.

What else is out there?

Two of a kind

Here in San Francisco it is hot. I would say it is global warming in action, blabitty blah blah, except that Tokyo has been exceptionally chilly all spring so far.

I once read a science fiction story in about 10 or so principal characters found themselves abducted on an alien spaceship. They had no direct contact with the actual aliens, since they were penned up together in a sanitized holding area as the spaceship whooshed out of the solar system at near the speed of light.

As the story unfolds, they talk to each other and it emerges that one was a slaughterhouse owner, one was a furrier, one was a taxidermist, one a hunter, another an experimental vivisectionist, ... I think you see where it's going. But one guy didn't quite seem to fit the group, he was just a regular guy, or even better than regular - not involved in any of those animal exploitation activities at all, employed in some harmless job. So if the aliens were targeting animal oppressors as the pattern seemed to indicate, then this guy kept thinking: why me?

By the end he realizes why him - he knew.

Before any jackbooted DHS thug stomps my face (as a suspected ALF or ELF) I will state here categorically that I am not a member of any activist movement whatsoever, and further I subscribe to the principle of ahimsa (which includes humans), as stated on my group AlasBabylon.

But I know.

Only they would know

When I have a free afternoon time slice, I train boxing at a gym near Otuska station, JR Yamanote line. And this week it has been a madhouse over there each afternoon, as they prepare for the WBA Lightweight championship fight, to be held May 19. The current champ is Nicaraguan Jose Alfaro. The Japanese challenger (Kobori) is based at my gym there, so they have been holding all the pre-fight press conferences and interview/pic opps there. Resulting in hordes of over 30 reporters and an unspeakable array of photophilia hardware. Both the challenger and the current champ each did three demo rounds with a local Japanese sparring partner.

I will now risk my 24K Gold Tabbycat Precog Reputation (24KGTPR) by actually calling the outcome of this fight: The challenger Kobori will win. I will go further and say there's a 70% chance it will be a KO or TKO. I don't say this due to any favor of my home gym guy or any other reason other than (a) pure Tabby precogism; and (b) technical fight skills analysis.

Don't worry you don't need to follow boxing to check on my call, just dip your toe back in this blog on/around May 19th and I'll honestly report the result. Mind you I am really sticking my neck out here, as Alfaro has a great record with something like 95% of his wins being KO's. I won't give my tech analysis why I am confident making this call, right now. For now call it pure pre-cogism. But if I am wrong  I know my precog rep will be dented. Egg will be smeared all over my beautiful striped feline face.

But I'll report back the result without fear or favor.

The local fighter, the challenger Kobori, is a very nice guy. And I met the champ and talked a bit to him and his entourage, in Spanish. Very nice guys. They seemed relieved to hear some Spanish from somebody other than their local interpreter here. Language is fun that way. Was a good oiling for my brain to call up the Spanish underneath all the C and J packed in there.

Why are humans so utterly hung up on single combat anyway (at least, when they can spare a moment from mass slaughtering one another)?  That's a real primeval thing, I could feel the mindless genetic vibe to the whole affair these past couple of days. That's why these events can still make money. Because we are such absolute brutes.