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Seattle Summer Seminar: 'Internal Impact' July 29/30

One more try, Never say die

About 2 months til my yearly event for 2023/Seattle. We have a nice tight group of pre-registrations, but some always drop out at the last minute, and I have a big enough space, so please dogpile on if you have even the slightest inclination to do so. 

I only do this at most once per year. And I never know which one of these will be the last, due to all the shitstorm that's always happening all around (e.g. socio-medical madness etc.) And I do know that there are 100's of great teachers out there with all kinds of amazing methods to offer you. So I realize it's hard to make this happen for all of us. And I am no great master or anything like the others available to you, I'm more just a reporter or author. And yet, I'm really really going to try to convey the one thing that I think I can offer: pure energy centricity rooted in martial arts tradition.

But wait - if it's really "pure energy centricity" then why bother with the added clause "rooted in martial arts tradition"? Why have any rider, after all there are supposed fantastic energy traditions that have nothing to do with martial arts at all, such as Ashtanga or Kundalini Yoga, or a billion variant forms of Qi Gong and Dao Yin meditation not to mention nei gong methods, etc. Hey tell me about it! I know something about all those, and more besides.

The simple reason I root all my teachings in the martial arts side of the house is just because I've found that the martial art tradition basics, when understood and practiced correctly, are the most direct and straightforward entry to the energy centric experience. Not that the martial arts traditions are baggage free, far from it. But everything else has (even more) cultural, spiritual, ritual, or even physical baggage such as distracting side goals and of course unwitting promotion of detrimental tension.It's just that simple. All I care about is the energy experience, and I make a bee line towards it with the best package of simple, hybrid, bite-sized martial arts-rooted protocols that I know. 

I do admit that these 'martial arts' traditions have their own irrelevant baggage to contend with. The main one is usually FFS (Fight Fantasy Syndrome). People have visions of themselves beating up a biker gang in a bar or back alley. I totally understand the allure of that! And some teachers craftily exploit that craving by representing basic, mechanical stand up grappling skills as being some kind of transcendent fight power. Word: those skills are not that. I do include push hands in the program, but not with the weasely implication (without ever saying it directly) that being ok at push hands and shoving your weight around makes you a steely-eyed dealer of death. That's ridiculous even in an unarmed, single combat context, but its really an evil deception when you consider today's street reality which consists of:

• multiple attackers for sure
• armed with edged, ballistics, or blunt trauma
• everybody's packing
• if you do knock somebody out, you're going to jail not him

Obviously there's a place for real self defense training, but it must BEGIN from the above 4 points, not mention them as fine print at the end of the lecture. So I don't do that. But there IS a place for push hands WITHIN the energy centric focus. It's not ballroom dancing, it has an energetic training function, which I don't think any teacher has ever brought out with sufficient clarity. Including me. But this event I will try to convey that more explicitly than ever before. 

Furthermore the energy training itself actually DOES have a "self defense" utility. But not what's usually claimed by teachers who swagger big on their push hands reputations. The real self defense utility of energy centricity was perfectly stated, never better, by Sun Lutang when he praised the highest internal attainment of the past greats:

I know of only four men who were able to attain the “absolute achievement” in these three boxing arts, In Xingyi Boxing, there was Li Nengran. In Bagua Boxing, there was Dong Haichuan. In Taiji Boxing, there was Yang Luchan and Wu Yuxiang. These four were all conscious of the unseen and unheard. Other teachers simply perceive with their eyes and ears, and when something unexpected suddenly happens to them, they can only rely on their vision and hearing. Masters at that level can evade all attacks no matter how fast, for their skills have indeed achieved a condition of emptiness, yet because they have not attained perfect emptiness, they are incapable of being aware without seeing or hearing.

Your extra-sensory sensitivity is what I call your 'Automaticity Quotient' (AQ). THAT (if anybody could ever reach it) actually would apply directly to the four conditions of real world self defense listed above.

Avoid - if not, then Evade, if not, then Escape.

That's the entire game. 

But even without making it that far, the training is just so super super interesting, feels incredibly good, and just transforms your world, no joke.

But I know it's hard for most of us, because (at least my version of) energy-centric, martial tradition-rooted does have a physical component. And it can feel fairly rigorous for a lot of people. Also the vocabulary I must use in describing the physical basis of the energy centric training protocols that I use does overlap with the same vocabulary used by regular teachers to described physical oriented methods and processes. I talk a lot of leg origin and rooting, use of waist and pelvis, wave actions, etc. etc. On the surface, it can sound like normal athletic advice that's common to plain old boxing, judo, and many other disciplines. Yet I'm talking about "something different".

The Tai Chi classics refer to something, let's say "it" (其) which "begins in the feet and legs, rises through your torso to your arms and fingers" as a kind of power process. Some commentators who haven't yet deeply experience the real, the awesome energetic process being described in that passage would like to reinterpret this as a kind of physical thing, some kind of linkage, entrainment or engagement of muscle, tendon and ligament motion, maybe throw in the word fascia for good measure, as maybe a better way to do your physical thing. Toss the guy or whatever. That's totally fine, but that's not at all what I teach. But I often end having to use the same vocabulary. So it's hard. 

And then there's the most basic problem, which is mostly psychological: that everybody is still way too tense, most especially in our upper bodies. That's because (and I hope I don't sound like some kind of Jim Jones here but it's just truth): we don't really believe there's any such thing as a "3rd way" an internal power that's related to mind and body both but isn't quite identical with either. Electricity is related to light switches, batteries and copper cables, but who would say that electricity IS a light switch, a battery or a copper cable?

Anyway I realize it's hard to appreciate. That's on me. I haven't really taught it as effectively as I should have. But I will try once again in late July!

One more try, never say die!

Oh and while I have you here: somebody wrote to ask me (courteously) about my background in one of the arts that I have on the event notice above: Yiquan. Here is my background and orientation on that:

I trained over two intensive periods totalling one summer in Beijing under Master Yao Chengguang. He is the son of Yao Zongxun, who was the main disciple of the Founder, Wang Xiangzhai. I trained at his tiny basement wuguan there 7 days/week, 12 hours/day (except Sunday half day) and learned the entire curriculum of over 100 YQ techniques/drills twice over (that's his method). The curriculum included push hands, sparring, heavy bag work and more. He invited me to become a disciple, but I had to decline as YQ isn't my main thing. Bottom line, I don't represent myself as an authorized or official teacher. Think of my stuff as "YQ-inspired" - cherry-picked items and adaptation.