wu life 222

WU LIFE 222


BAGUA CIRCLE WALKING

Yuan Shifu approached me last week and gave me the blessing to begin my Bagua training. Bagua Zhang, or 8 Trigram Palm, is an internal kung fu system based on the Taoist I Ching. the most recognizable characteristic of this form would have to be the circle walking, and that is all that i've been doing now for the last five days.

the circle walking is deceivingly difficult. first, the stance must be low and the posture must be full and erect. the head has to remain level, and the steps need to be long and smooth.. and of course, amongst all of this, one has to remain soft and relaxed. it is as if the body is a paint brush with the spine as the handle and the tail bone as the brush.. one has to draw a smooth circle without blotches or bleeds. walking in this manor for three hours a day brings me to a trance like meditative state,.. i feel like i'm in my own little solar system orbiting around and around. it is a beautiful thing.

in addition to the walking, yuan shifu has also challenged me with 8 standing postures specifically tailored for this system. the different postures help to develop all of the joints,.. ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, spine, and neck. between the standing and the walking, my body aches in ways that i never knew were possible. when i stand, my feet feel as if i'm standing on hot coals and my hands feel as if the tendons are going to rip out like an overstressed rubber band. when walking, my ankles, knees, and hips feel as if they are being wrenched from the sockets with each circular step i take. i have always enjoyed facing the demands of a new challenge, but i feel that mastering bagua will be of tremendous benefit for me. it is a beautiful thing.


I'M SO CHINESE

it is hard to believe that it has been one full year since i came here last summer. though the time has really flown by, i can certainly feel the difference within my character. i am so chinese now. i am obnoxiously loud, i cough and spit, i pick my nose, i burp at the dinner table, and i'm growing cheaper and cheaper each day.. even small talk conversations and street vendor haggles sound like i'm 'breaking dishes'. ahhh, chinese..

all joking aside, probably the most significant change would be in my work ethic.. and i notice it more and more with every new foreigner that comes and trains with us. i can't believe the gall some of these people have.. they only come for less than a month, and expect to learn, and 'master', a thousand and one different things. beyond that, they expect full and complete attention from yuan shifu knowing good and well that he has other students (whom also have the same attitudes) to teach as well. what really gets me is that these people actually go out of their way to disturb shifu just to learn a new movement when they haven't even gotten their last movements down to a satisfactory level. to top it off, it is so funny to see grown people actually throw tantrums when they don't get enough attention. i've seen countless new students come and go with this 'resort vacation' approach to training, and it really gets under my skin at times.. i don't know how shifu deals with it.

on the other hand though, i can sort of understand their position. most of these people probably saved up all their money for a long time to make this trip possible; and beyond that, they are probably leaving behind many responsibilities as well, so it is understandable that they would want to get their money's worth. i guess it's just a cultural thing.. but still, i don't know how shifu deals with it. in all, i just use this opportunity to look in and see which of those annoying characteristics i harbor myself - every relationship is a mirror.


THE HIGHEST PATH OF THE TAO

i overheard yuan shifu talking to some newspaper reporters the other day.. what i heard was very startling..

''there are two paths in life.. the normal path, and the unknown. everyone leads the normal path,.. they work, eat, sleep, and play. they have relationships, they have families, and they eventually die. some are good, some are bad.. some succeed, and others fail.. this is the normal path. the unknown path is very different. in many respects it is still very much the same, people still need to eat, sleep, and work, but their perspective is very different. those that follow the unknown path follow a life of passion, they follow the tao. both paths are difficult, but to follow the tao is to follow nature.. this is the path of the immortals..'

''he did not come to learn kung fu, he has come to learn the tao. he has obviously chosen the path of the unknown. very few people chose this path, and even fewer succeed. i have had many students, but never one like this. i named him Zi Rong. this name has many meanings, but the primary meaning is 'capacity.' this student is special, he follows the highest path of the tao, and he has the capacity for success..'

hearing my master talk about me in this light nearly made me cry. the reporters came from a neighboring city to do a special report on me. apparently i have grown quite famous in the area.. you know.. the tall guy with the big beard that speaks chinese.. oh yeah, that's da wei. well.. the column should be available in print by the end of this month.. i'll try and get it translated so you guys can get the full scoop.


ALOHA

that's all for this week folks. i trust all is well for everyone back home. for those of you that are able, please send your support to Master Feng in Oakland at the Taoist Center (www.thetaoistcenter.com). Feng Shifu will be having neck surgery soon and i'm sure they would appreciate the well wishes.

till next week, be tall. oh, i just uploaded some new videos on youtube as well.. please enjoy those when you get a chance too.. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=chinagiant


-wei zi rong

wu life 221

WU LIFE 221


ANIMAL PLANET

it is getting pretty hot here now.. especially in the evenings. to cope with the heat, i sleep in nothing but a neon green sarong that my buddy sam got me from bali,.. i keep all the windows open, and i have a fan blasting on me all night. the bad part, is that i'm getting eaten alive by all the crazy insects here. so, the other day i went to get a mosquito net.. at first, a shop keep wanted 120 kuai.. not bad, i'd say that's around 20$ US.. but i knew he was overcharging. so, being the young haggle master that i am, i talked him down to 60 kuai,.. that's half off!.. party.

this net is pretty dope.. it's sort of like a tent that props up on top of the bed. the coolest thing is that it is bright pink with a white ruffled trim. i love it. i get laughed at for having such a girlie net, but i care more about application than appearance. anyway, crawling inside this thing is so fun.. it's like going into my own little playhouse.. i'm such a kid. the best part is waking up in the morning and seeing all the hungry insects plastered to the net staring at my tasty body, it's like watching animal planet - there are some pretty scary ones too. no more dave wei buffet for them. it's nice to be safe from the bugs.


I GOT THE HOOK UP

i just started teaching the local tailor how to speak english. she already has a pretty good foundation, but she just needs more vocabulary and such to help her with her business. she's really sweet, it's fun to watch her struggle with new words while her husband sits back and laughs at her. the best part is that i got the ultra hook up on custom clothes now. i'm getting taoist robes and cool kung fu gear for the price of the fabric only.. all the labor is free now. so, if any of you would like to have something made i can probably extend my connect to my wu-life family. simply tell me what you want, pick a fabric, and send your measurements.. and presto.. you'll be styling.


DRIVING IN CHINA

the other day a rich friend from beijing came to visit and she wanted to take shifu and i to dinner.. the coolest part was that she let me drive her SUV to the restaurant,.. well.. i thought it was cool until we actually got out on the road. i don't know why i thought it was a good idea. the streets of china have absolutely no order at all - it was like a video game! i swear the street lines and signs are only purely ornamental, they serve no purpose what so ever. people are driving in and out of opposite flows of traffic, making left turns from right lanes, pulling into intersections with oncoming traffic.. it's mayhem.. and those are just the other cars.. not to mention the scooters, bikes, pedestrians, vendors, animals, and miscellaneous potholes and street debris. wow. the drive was only five minutes, but i swear i had ten new gray hairs from it. needless to say i refused to drive back. i don't know how people drive here.. and talk on the phone too! it's crazy.


LEARNING HOW TO STAND

i took the time to eavesdrop on a lesson shifu was giving to some new qigong students and i got an amazing earful. allow me to paraphrase.

''the most important thing for a person to learn through internal martial arts is how to feel their body. to understand your body is to understand yourself. this understanding takes time and must be learned step by step. the first step is learning proper posture, then learning proper coordination, and finally learning how to feel energy and save it. these are the three basic principles for internal kung fu. for now, we will focus on posture..

''standing is the most important exercise for a beginner. the first thing to be aware of while standing is the hips. the hips are the foundation of the spine, so it is very important to hold the hips correctly. this is done by keeping the legs open at shoulder width with the feet parallel and the knees slightly bent; in this position, the hips should naturally fall in proper alignment. the next thing to be aware of is the spine. normally the spine is curved, but while in standing meditation, the spine must be straight and the lower back should be full and strong. when this posture is maintained, the shoulders and neck can naturally relax and energy can flow freely throughout the body. another thing to be aware of is the chest. many people stick their chests out, this is a bad habit. the chest should be soft and relaxed so that the breath can sink deep into the dan tien. finally, a person must be completely relaxed, body and mind.. this is how to stand"


ALOHA

well family, that's all for this week. be sure to pick up the july/august edition of kung fu magazine to see my first article ever published. there wont be any more for the next four months, but from there out they should be fairly regular. i'm a writer! :)

till next week,

-wei zi rong

wu life 220

WU LIFE 220


I'M IN A KUNG FU SCHOOL

as odd as it may seem.. i still get startling realizations every so often,.. realizations that i am living in wudang, china, and attending a traditional taoist kung fu academy. i suppose it hits me even harder now that we are all settled into our new school. i am living a dream.

training has really intensified here since the spring season. i still keep up with my morning yoga routines, my five animal qigong, and my wen wu basics, along with the tai chi and tai yi forms both left and right side. but now, in addition to all that, i am doing at least 300 kicks a day and heavy rounds of hard qigong (the bamboo and bean bag beat downs). not to mention a little standing meditation and some seated eight silk brocade action too. ahhh, kung fu.

probably the coolest thing now is that shifu has begun to teach a basics class for the foreign students. before, everyone just kind of did their own thing.. this worked best because so many people come and go and everyone has different goals,.. but i suppose now that we are in a new school, shifu wants to have a little more structure. any how, these sessions are amazing. shifu really takes the time to explain the fine points of practice and gives a lot of details that are otherwise left out. the best part is that i get to see him correct everyone's mistakes (including mine),.. this is good for additional insight into the movements and it gives me an idea of common mistakes - very good for when i eventually decide to teach.


GETTING IT TOGETHER

speaking of teaching.. i'm setting up a curriculum for a few workshops when i get back to civilization. i plan to share an extensive set of basic and intermediate exercises along with the wudang five animal qigong. last fall i ran a three day program in san louis obispo with my friend jerry and it worked really well.. so this year i'd like to do it again. aside from a workshop in SLO, there are already plans to have a program in montana, hawaii, santa rosa, and possibly even los angeles. looks like i'll be busy this fall.

i'm currently taking time to put together a full work book that outlines all the exercises along with an instructional DVD to compliment the text. if any of you are interested in having a workshop set up in your area, or would like to attend one that has already been organized, drop a line.

MY MASTER IS AMAZING


yuan xiu gang is not human. he has mastered a variety of skills, but probably the two most impressive (to me at least) would be the 'tai yi qigong' and another skill called 'tong zi gong'.

just one of these sets alone is amazing, but to have both is truly remarkable. attached is a link to a you tube video of the tai yi qigong set, but sadly, there is no footage of the tong zi gong available - it's just too amazing (tee hee). anyway.. by combining these two sets together, yuan shifu has attained a very high level of internal control and he demonstrated this one afternoon in class by literally moving his internal organs! i know it sounds strange, but he can move all of his five primary organs.. heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and liver. it's crazy.. he would simply torque his trunk in some odd way and then ask one of us to hit him in an area where the organ 'should' be. i tell you, the sensation of hitting an empty space is indescribable. beyond that, he can also move his rib cage in weird ways and he can practically dislocate bones from the sockets to contort his body in ways that are beyond belief. yuan xiu gang is not human. he's some sort of half fish, half feline, half tree, half thunder - nature just got ridiculous one day and made this morph of a being named yuan shifu. truly amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRxBQkNd7o


ALOHA

well, that's all for this week. kicking it with sam last week in shanghai was a blast, but now i'm back to business here in wudang. i'm currently right in the middle of a fruit fast for the new moon and i'm really starting to feel the groove.

thank you all for the tremendous support, especially my extended family over in oakland at the taoist center. oh, and i also have to thank mom for sending me some new shoes - i'm just too big for china, nothing here fits me.

i'll be back again next week to share more wu life.. until then, be tall.

-wei zi rong

wu life 219

WU LIFE 219


SHANGHAI SHENANIGANS

shanghai was good fun. sam and his lady, joy, were excellent hosts. they were generous enough to provide an entire guest apartment for brother reece and i to rest at. the other nice thing was that each morning we were able to make use of sam's rooftop terrace to train and do qigong. sam's place was the perfect getaway from the mayhem that is shanghai.

when we weren't all nestled in the crib, we ventured out to a bunch of the local eateries and even a couple late night speak easies. we probably visited punjabi palace the most - home of the most amazing indian food to ever grace my palette. we also had a bunch of pizza and sandwiches too.. since we can't get them in wudang. but, considering our budget.. we got most of our food from the street noodle lady and the bun family on the corner. yummy. as for the late nights.. sam took us to one 'booty shake' club called windows.. which was very amusing if anything - seeing all the chinese people groove to super-crass, top 40 hip hop. then, on another night, sam took us to a reggae spot.. now that was something spectacular, it was like we weren't even in china anymore. the music, the vibe, the crowd.. it was like we were back in berkeley. really nice. but aside from those two nights out.. we spent most of our time in like good little boys. ;)

while in shanghai, sam and i also got to reflect on some new realizations. sam shared some of his new, surgically-precise mantis movements, along with some empowering possibilities that await on the island of bali. in exchange.. i shared the seated eight silk brocade exercise and a new calibration system based on the work of dr. david hawkings.. the same work that was presented to me recently by brother derek on his last visit to wudang. they say.. iron shapes iron.. diamonds cut diamonds.. this is always the case when i reason with sam.


BACK TO WUDANG

on my last day in shanghai, christine took me to a nice tea house / bookstore. there really wasn't much for me to read there, except for some old school shel silverstein classics.. where the sidewalk ends, and a light in the attic. i really dig those. after that.. it was off to curry house for a last meal before embarking on another epic train ride.

this train ride was much nicer than the previous one. the train was actually clean this time, and no where near as crowded. to make it even better, we made it back to wudang four hours faster than it took us to get to shanghai.. such a blessing. riding the trains suck.


DECOMPRESSION

once back in wudang, i could immediately feel a physical release. it was as if a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders.. something about the city just makes me cringe. my body gets stiff, and everything tenses up. maybe its all the pollution.. all the tall buildings.. all the people.. all the attitudes.. all the hustle and bustle.. whatever it is, i can literally feel a physical response. i don't know how people live there. different strokes i guess... i'll be sure to fruit fast this weekend to help flush my gut of all the crud and stuff that's built up.

it's so nice to be back in the village. now it's time for practice.

thank you all for the wonderful support and well wishes. i'm officially halfway through this round in china.. and now with summer just around the corner, it's time for some serious training.

till next week.

ALOHA

wu life 218

WU LIFE 218


I LIVE IN A SPACE OF ABUNDANCE


ahhhh, the love. why is the world so good to me? one moment i'm broke and stuck in wudang, and the next moment i'm eating indian food in shanghai.

it seemed impossible,.. all the trains were sold out, and all the plane prices were tripled for the may day holiday here. i was bummed. we had been planning this trip to shanghai for months now, and it all fell apart in a matter of moments the weekend before we were supposed to go. but then, suddenly the world conformed magically to make this trip happen. two train tickets opened up last minute, funds finally came in from an article i wrote months ago, and friends and family dropped a bunch of extra funds to help as well. the world is really on my side.

with just one short evening to get ready, brother reece and i pulled everything together last minute. from there, we scrambled to get on the 25 hour train ride to babylon. the ride itself was almost unbearable. one entire day and night spent on this moving metal stink tank filled with staring and gawking chinese people.. what fun.


I DON'T KNOW HOW PEOPLE LIVE HERE

as soon as we got off the train it was mayhem. we had no idea where we were, and taxis refused pick us up. luckily, i had several phone numbers for support, and in the end, it was my friend christine that gave us directions on how to get around through the metro system. the metro, however, was even crazier! getting tickets was the worst, it was nightmare to navigate through the orderless slurry of chinese people rushing and yelling about.. thank goodness i know kung fu.. i simply opened up my stance and bulldozed through the crowd.. all the time aware of people trying to cut in the ticket 'line' or pick my pockets. it took a couple hours, but reece and i finally made it through the jungle where we met up with christine and went on to sam's house. whooooo.


I'M SO COUNTRY

wow.. i've become such a granola, bumpkin, mountain man, hippie. walking through the city in my t-shirt, ten year old sweat pants, and busted shoes really put it in perspective for me. my beard is all massive..my hair is all big.. even my social mannerisms are out of whack. it's like a whole new type of culture shock. i don't know how people live here.

one afternoon we took a walk through the richest part of shanghai, the jing 'bling' an district. every store was some brand name, ultra trendy retail shop.. all the restaurants were high scale.. and all the people were in their 'court clothes' (a term i use for 'best clothes in the closet'). beyond that, the streets were flooded with lao wai! is this even china?!?!? i spent all my time that afternoon in mouth gaping awe, simply shocked at the state of the world. i never missed wudang so much.


STILL TRAINING

yes.. it's certainly nice to get a good break from the mountain, but the practice has been well embedded into my routine. reece and i still get up each morning to stretch and do hard qigong, i love it. this afternoon, we are even supposed to get together to work on some special material for some articles i had in mind.. roof top kung fu, seven star mantis applications, two man timing drills, folded wing falcon forms, black lotus principles.. good stuff. i love kung fu.


LIMITED COMMUNICATION

being in shanghai all week, i missed a week of wu life.. but now i'm back in wudang, so i will send this one now and get the other one up on schedule. thank you all for the love and support.