Interaction

“The heart of a human being is no different from the soul of heaven and earth. In your practice always keep in your thoughts the interaction of heaven and earth, water and fire, yin and yang.”  Morihei Ueshiba

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KUMANO

This is a beautiful piece of film making by Mathieu Le Lay.  I recommend checking out his website http://www.mathieulelay.com/ and Facebook page.

“Kumano is a region in Japan where Shugendo, the Way of ascetic training and testing in holy mountains, has been practised for over a thousand years. This entire short film was shot there. It shows Yamabushi monk Kosho Tateishi, a Master and Teacher of Shugendo, during prayer rituals performed in the wild and at his temple. In his spiritual practices, Kosho is in visceral contact with the elements (earth, water, fire, wind) and in fusion with sacred Nature. The experience of Life through the physical senses awakes our consciousness and ultimately leads to enlightenment in this very body.”

Yin Yang Student

 

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Murky Water, Dusty Mirror

“Murky water is turbid; let it settle and it clears. A dusty mirror is dim; clean it and it is bright. What I realize as I observe this is the Tao of clarifying the mind and perceiving its essence. The reason why people’s minds are not clear and their natures are not stable is that […]

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Quality > Quantity

“When crossing hands with ordinary people you do not need to use too many techniques, broad knowledge of many techniques is not refinement; the changes within a body are simply infinite. When skilled people compete in martial skills it is similar to a general using his soldiers: having good soldiers without brave officers and you […]

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Lives of Chinese Martial Artists (4): Sun Lutang and the Invention of the “Traditional” Chinese Martial Arts (Part I).

Originally posted on Kung Fu Tea:
Self portrait of Sun Lutang, demonstrating Xingyi Quan for one of his five books. This is Part One of a three part biographical sketch of Sun Lutang.  Also see Part Two and Part Three. Introduction: Why Sun Lutang? One of the persistent problems that I see in amateur discussions…

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Stillness & Motion

“So it is said, for him who understands Heavenly joy, life is the working of Heaven; death is the transformation of things. In stillness, he and the yin share a single Virtue; in motion, he and the yang share a single flow.” ― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

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Influence

The 80’s and 90’s were probably the most pivotal time in my love for martial arts and it was due to movies.  When you’re a kid you don’t know that the fight scenes are all choreographed, and you don’t know that some of the actors don’t even know any real martial arts, but you don’t […]

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San Ti Shi

When asked how long her father, Sun Lu Tang, recommended his students practice standing in San Ti Shi everyday, Sun Jian Yun replied, “He recommended that they work their way up to one hour.  Beginning students would stand as long as they could on one leg, then change to the other leg and stand as […]

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1.21 gigawatts of Sun

During a recent road trip I listened a story on the NPR show “This American Life” called The Leap.  In it, producers Jonathan Goldstein and Sean Cole were fascinated by a recent Pew Research statistic stating that 9% of Americans want to travel through time. So they decided to hit the streets and ask people—is it […]

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