Here's another article from an old master, talking about how you should train:
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=591
I found this article on Eric Ling's wonderful blog.
He doesn't sound hopeful about the martial arts, but he does talk about how the form is a receptacle for the art, not the art itself. If you want to understand the art, you have to:
Deconstruct the form, examine and practice each movement, both by itself and in combination with other movements.
Change the movement, combine upper body with different footwork.
Explore how the movement works against an opponent in different situations.
That is Kung Fu.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Kunlun...Pai?
by Jonty
Eric Ling (http://eric88ling.wordpress.com/) has just posted about one of the Kunlun VCD's that we are researching. He has classified it as "Kunlunpai," rather than "Kunlunquan."
For those of you just tuning in, one of the goals of this blog is to research a group of martial arts named after the Kunlun mountians. I learned a system called "Kunlun Mountain Fist," that shares several forms with a set of VCD's (available from Plum Publications here.) In the VCD's, Master Huang names the system Kunlun Quan (Fist), but that doesn't mean much, since "Fist" can just refer to a system, rather than the name of this particular system.
Eric Ling, who has a wonderful blog mostly on Fukien White Crane and Hakka styles, labels one of the VCD's, the "Bandit" Fist, as Kunlunpai. He has also claimed he has several old manuscripts about these styles. Very exciting.
Eric Ling (http://eric88ling.wordpress.com/) has just posted about one of the Kunlun VCD's that we are researching. He has classified it as "Kunlunpai," rather than "Kunlunquan."
For those of you just tuning in, one of the goals of this blog is to research a group of martial arts named after the Kunlun mountians. I learned a system called "Kunlun Mountain Fist," that shares several forms with a set of VCD's (available from Plum Publications here.) In the VCD's, Master Huang names the system Kunlun Quan (Fist), but that doesn't mean much, since "Fist" can just refer to a system, rather than the name of this particular system.
Eric Ling, who has a wonderful blog mostly on Fukien White Crane and Hakka styles, labels one of the VCD's, the "Bandit" Fist, as Kunlunpai. He has also claimed he has several old manuscripts about these styles. Very exciting.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Its Important to Enjoy Your Martial Arts Practice...
by Steven
...and this man obviously does. He is Guru Bang Husin, the Pewaris (grandmaster) of Pencak Silat Golok Seliwa Betawi. A rare, traditional style from the area of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on the island of Java. I hope people are trying to save what men like this have to teach...
...and this man obviously does. He is Guru Bang Husin, the Pewaris (grandmaster) of Pencak Silat Golok Seliwa Betawi. A rare, traditional style from the area of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on the island of Java. I hope people are trying to save what men like this have to teach...
Friday, December 18, 2009
Real Training in the Chinese Arts
By Jonty
I just ran across an interview of Yang Fukui, a member of the Yang family who is known for his fighting prowess in full-contact competitions. I was immediately gratified to read that his training didn't consist of long forms, but rather of the individual movements in different combinations. This supports my arguments that modern Chinese arts are too focused on memorizing the forms and often fail to escape them. Here's a quotation (He's talking about Yang Banhou and Yang Jianhou, second-generation masters):
"First of all, they devoted most of their practice to gongfu and martial arts, not to health or “spiritual development,” although these two latter aspects certainly underlied their practice. Their emphasis was different. For example, they never practiced more than a two or three form or movements in sequence, in order to develop fighting skill and gongfu, and they never linked more than five forms together. There were no such things as the 24 or 85 or 108 form Taijiquan."
The entire article can be read here.
I just ran across an interview of Yang Fukui, a member of the Yang family who is known for his fighting prowess in full-contact competitions. I was immediately gratified to read that his training didn't consist of long forms, but rather of the individual movements in different combinations. This supports my arguments that modern Chinese arts are too focused on memorizing the forms and often fail to escape them. Here's a quotation (He's talking about Yang Banhou and Yang Jianhou, second-generation masters):
"First of all, they devoted most of their practice to gongfu and martial arts, not to health or “spiritual development,” although these two latter aspects certainly underlied their practice. Their emphasis was different. For example, they never practiced more than a two or three form or movements in sequence, in order to develop fighting skill and gongfu, and they never linked more than five forms together. There were no such things as the 24 or 85 or 108 form Taijiquan."
The entire article can be read here.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Working the Other Side of the Coin...
By Steven
The other side of the coin in the warrior arts, from martial pursuits, is to practice healing arts. I'm going to be working on this a lot more in days to come.
I'm doing a lot of Qigong these days. More than I have in years. And it is good.
I am starting to work on learning some acupressure/energywork and reflexology. My wife has a hypothyroid condition, and suffers from a lot of pain in her right ankle (from when it fractured in three places some years ago), and in her right hip (courtesy of a mild-to-moderate hit-and-run incident many years ago). She's also been having a problem with sensations of extreme heat in her feet for a couple or three years. Painfully hot. At the same time, other sensations in the soles of her feet have felt muted.
I've been compiling information from books we own (that have mostly been gathering dust) and decided to try out some of their suggestions. So...
I worked on the acupressure points Kidney 3 and Spleen 5, and did some reflexology work on her feet. I concentrated, based on what I knew about her conditions and the feedback she was giving me, on the areas of her feet that represent her thyroid, hips, and sciatic nerve. We also discovered that she was reacting to the areas for the solar plexus and eyes, so I added those to the list. Lastly, I worked on her Lung 1 acupressure points, since I've been experiencing benefit from that for myself. It seemed prudent, at that point, to say 'enough' for today.
We evaluated the results:
The other side of the coin in the warrior arts, from martial pursuits, is to practice healing arts. I'm going to be working on this a lot more in days to come.
I'm doing a lot of Qigong these days. More than I have in years. And it is good.
I am starting to work on learning some acupressure/energywork and reflexology. My wife has a hypothyroid condition, and suffers from a lot of pain in her right ankle (from when it fractured in three places some years ago), and in her right hip (courtesy of a mild-to-moderate hit-and-run incident many years ago). She's also been having a problem with sensations of extreme heat in her feet for a couple or three years. Painfully hot. At the same time, other sensations in the soles of her feet have felt muted.
I've been compiling information from books we own (that have mostly been gathering dust) and decided to try out some of their suggestions. So...
I worked on the acupressure points Kidney 3 and Spleen 5, and did some reflexology work on her feet. I concentrated, based on what I knew about her conditions and the feedback she was giving me, on the areas of her feet that represent her thyroid, hips, and sciatic nerve. We also discovered that she was reacting to the areas for the solar plexus and eyes, so I added those to the list. Lastly, I worked on her Lung 1 acupressure points, since I've been experiencing benefit from that for myself. It seemed prudent, at that point, to say 'enough' for today.
We evaluated the results:
- Her ankle went from a 6.5-7.0 (on the pain scale, and she is pretty fair in her use of it) and it went to a 3.5-4.0.
- Her hip/back went from negligible at rest/9.0 while standing for extended periods to essentially pain free, at least for the moment.
- The heat issue with her feet, which I had not set out to address went from hot to cool, and the sensations feel less muted/more normal. This was an inadvertant and unexpected benefit.
- She feels more alert, and relaxed. Anxiety levels, which have been a problem, are decreased.
- She's had a twitch in her left eyelid for a couple of months. It has stopped, at least for the moment.
- The work with Lung 1 caused her shoulders to drop and made breathing easier and more relaxed.
I fully expect for these issues to require frequent follow-up, but am excited to see how things progress with time. I noticed, while doing the reflexology, that the areas being worked often gave a crackling sensation under my hands and fingers...like the shrinkwrap-sort of material they put around cigarette packs. Eventually that feeling would abate, and I'd move on to another spot.
I'm going to try and keep a record of what I (and we) are doing. I think we'll be better able to track what works, and what doesn't. We have a lot more health issues and changes we are going to be addressing over the next year. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
FOLLOW-UP: At 4 to 5 hours past the event, hip and back pain when standing for a prolonged period rates a 5.5-6.0, which is still an improvement over what it was before. I'm hoping that with frequent repeats, the chronic pain will improve on a more permanent basis.
18 December: My wife's right foot and ankle are routinely swollen, and full ROM has been missing in ankle, foot and toes since the fractures "healed". Upon arising this morning (and waking up...lol), my wife noted that there was little, if any, swelling in her ankle/foot, and she had much increased ROM. This is really exciting, and gives me hope that with a steady Tx plan using these methods, and a few others, we may be able to relieve many of her symptoms without having to resort to surgery, which was what we've feared for some time. She is not pain-free, but it has not been as bad as before, so far. The only real side effect we're seeing is that the soles of her feet are a bit tender from my working on them, but it isn't too bad.
PLEASE NOTE: I am not advocating that you, the reader, follow any of the treatments/modalities I am recording. These are not 'recommendations', but 'observations'. Any form of medical treatment should be done under the supervision of trained professionals. Your potentially poor and/or harmful choices are your own, as are mine...Sunday, December 13, 2009
Stonehenge and Silat...
By Steven
I watched a fascinating show on the History Channel yesterday. MysteryQuest covered recent investigations into the possible acoustic properties of Stonehenge. A careful examination of the stones revealed that they are curved on one side, suggesting that they had an auditory function. Experiments performed by the team both at Stonehenge, and at a replica in Maryhill, Washington, revealed that percussive sound, such as drumming, if done at the correct rate, would be echoed and amplified by the stones of the site. These sounds fell in the range for Alpha waves, one of the two types of waves conducive to the production of altered states of consciousness in humans.
Further testing in a clinical environment showed that human brains would actually synchronize with the sounds produced at the site. They began to respond almost immediately. Studies of people listening to techno music at raves have demonstrated that ravers heartbeats synchronize with the beat of the music. I think that there is a correlation in some of the newer music used amongst Evangelical Christians. I've noticed there is a certain repetitive rhythm to quite a few of the songs, usually in guitar playing. It seems similar to that used in shamanic drumming, though I'm no expert. My wife once accompanied her sister's family to such a concert, and she felt herself getting “spacey”. When she realized this, the effect abated, just as it did for the investigators on the show, at one point.
Cultures around the world work to produce altered states of consciousness in the course of religious worship and esoteric practices. It would seem that this was the case at Stonehenge. Many cultures use psychoactive herbs and fungi in their rites. There is evidence that both marijuana and henbane were growing in Great Britain during the period Stonehenge was in use. Both would intensify and aid achievement of altered states. Another tool available to these ancient people was light. Additional experimentation during the show found that the sounds produced, bouncing off the stones, could affect the flicker of open flames, causing a rather strobe-like effect. We know that strobe lights can initiate seizures in epileptics, so it is appears obvious that this would have been another amplifier for altered states, especially for those closest to the center of the circle.
The show made me think about the way Silat is often practiced in Indonesia. To the accompaniment of a gamelan orchestra. Gamelan has a great deal of percussive rhythm, and it tends to be fast and rather repetitive. Again, this is similar to shamanic drumming. Its not uncommon for it to be practiced at night, by firelight (traditionally). Traditional Indonesian culture, and Silat, are known for initiating trance states, animal and spirit possession in individuals. There is even a practice (classed as a form of ilmu), in some systems, in which one attempts to contact and be influenced (kaeunteupan) or possessed (sambatan, or “ridden”, to borrow a Vodun term) by one's Silat ancestors. Jurus(short forms) practice can be thought of as talari karuhan, a “rope” or connection to the style's ancestors. A side note to this idea...that specific postures could create a link to previous practitioners, is extremely interesting in light of research done by the late Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute. She did considerable research into glossolalia, possession and trance states, and found that the use of certain postures (found in ancient paintings and sculptures) tended to produce specific types of visual and auditory phenomena in people who are in an altered state of consciousness (she also found the link to certain specific rates of drumming aiding in the achievement of these states). I don't think she did research into martial stances of South Asia, or into the the religious poses, dance postures and mudras of the region. Most of her work concentrated on Neolithic and Native American material, I believe. I suspect that some of the postures found in Silat could (and do) produce certain results, if done in an altered state. And I suspect that traditional, old school Silat training is designed to do just that. The belief is that kaeunteupan and sambatan enhance and accelerate one's learning, and goodness knows they didn't have a decade or two to produce quality warriors. I'd like to see some study of this in the future, before all the traditional styles are gone, stamped out by conservative Islam or absorbed into modern sport Olah Raga and the push for Olympic gold.
I also suspect that we are seeing just one aspect of an ancient technology, predating that of the modern world. After all, we have only been agrarian and “civilized” for a few thousand years. We were hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years, and its a well-documented fact that such cultures require only about 20+/- hours of work per week from its members. In his novel Tropic of Night, Michael Gruber questioned what they did with all that spare time, and suggested that they developed a sophisticated technology involving the use of herbs, phytochemicals and altered states. It makes a certain amount of sense to me, and its something worthy of greater study.
For anyone interested in more information about the research on Stonehenge and sound, here are some links...
http://soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/
http://aphroditeastrology.com/2009/12/stonehenge-spiritual-transcendence-tool.html
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/mysteryquest-(stonehenge)/71/HISTP/Thursday_December_3_2009/116367/
http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=211077
http://mysticbeats.com/Home.php
I watched a fascinating show on the History Channel yesterday. MysteryQuest covered recent investigations into the possible acoustic properties of Stonehenge. A careful examination of the stones revealed that they are curved on one side, suggesting that they had an auditory function. Experiments performed by the team both at Stonehenge, and at a replica in Maryhill, Washington, revealed that percussive sound, such as drumming, if done at the correct rate, would be echoed and amplified by the stones of the site. These sounds fell in the range for Alpha waves, one of the two types of waves conducive to the production of altered states of consciousness in humans.Further testing in a clinical environment showed that human brains would actually synchronize with the sounds produced at the site. They began to respond almost immediately. Studies of people listening to techno music at raves have demonstrated that ravers heartbeats synchronize with the beat of the music. I think that there is a correlation in some of the newer music used amongst Evangelical Christians. I've noticed there is a certain repetitive rhythm to quite a few of the songs, usually in guitar playing. It seems similar to that used in shamanic drumming, though I'm no expert. My wife once accompanied her sister's family to such a concert, and she felt herself getting “spacey”. When she realized this, the effect abated, just as it did for the investigators on the show, at one point.
Cultures around the world work to produce altered states of consciousness in the course of religious worship and esoteric practices. It would seem that this was the case at Stonehenge. Many cultures use psychoactive herbs and fungi in their rites. There is evidence that both marijuana and henbane were growing in Great Britain during the period Stonehenge was in use. Both would intensify and aid achievement of altered states. Another tool available to these ancient people was light. Additional experimentation during the show found that the sounds produced, bouncing off the stones, could affect the flicker of open flames, causing a rather strobe-like effect. We know that strobe lights can initiate seizures in epileptics, so it is appears obvious that this would have been another amplifier for altered states, especially for those closest to the center of the circle.
The show made me think about the way Silat is often practiced in Indonesia. To the accompaniment of a gamelan orchestra. Gamelan has a great deal of percussive rhythm, and it tends to be fast and rather repetitive. Again, this is similar to shamanic drumming. Its not uncommon for it to be practiced at night, by firelight (traditionally). Traditional Indonesian culture, and Silat, are known for initiating trance states, animal and spirit possession in individuals. There is even a practice (classed as a form of ilmu), in some systems, in which one attempts to contact and be influenced (kaeunteupan) or possessed (sambatan, or “ridden”, to borrow a Vodun term) by one's Silat ancestors. Jurus(short forms) practice can be thought of as talari karuhan, a “rope” or connection to the style's ancestors. A side note to this idea...that specific postures could create a link to previous practitioners, is extremely interesting in light of research done by the late Felicitas Goodman and the Cuyamungue Institute. She did considerable research into glossolalia, possession and trance states, and found that the use of certain postures (found in ancient paintings and sculptures) tended to produce specific types of visual and auditory phenomena in people who are in an altered state of consciousness (she also found the link to certain specific rates of drumming aiding in the achievement of these states). I don't think she did research into martial stances of South Asia, or into the the religious poses, dance postures and mudras of the region. Most of her work concentrated on Neolithic and Native American material, I believe. I suspect that some of the postures found in Silat could (and do) produce certain results, if done in an altered state. And I suspect that traditional, old school Silat training is designed to do just that. The belief is that kaeunteupan and sambatan enhance and accelerate one's learning, and goodness knows they didn't have a decade or two to produce quality warriors. I'd like to see some study of this in the future, before all the traditional styles are gone, stamped out by conservative Islam or absorbed into modern sport Olah Raga and the push for Olympic gold.I also suspect that we are seeing just one aspect of an ancient technology, predating that of the modern world. After all, we have only been agrarian and “civilized” for a few thousand years. We were hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years, and its a well-documented fact that such cultures require only about 20+/- hours of work per week from its members. In his novel Tropic of Night, Michael Gruber questioned what they did with all that spare time, and suggested that they developed a sophisticated technology involving the use of herbs, phytochemicals and altered states. It makes a certain amount of sense to me, and its something worthy of greater study.
For anyone interested in more information about the research on Stonehenge and sound, here are some links...
http://soundsofstonehenge.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/
http://aphroditeastrology.com/2009/12/stonehenge-spiritual-transcendence-tool.html
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/mysteryquest-(stonehenge)/71/HISTP/Thursday_December_3_2009/116367/
http://2012forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=211077
http://mysticbeats.com/Home.php
Indo-Malay Snakes and Their Names...
By Steven
About three years back, I came across a book at the library entitled Venomous and Poisonous Animals and Noxious Plants of the Pacific Region, edited by Hugh L. Keegan and W.V. MacFarlane (MacMillan & Co, NY 1963). Always interested in things like this, I checked it out. I was surprised to find that it gave local names to a number of the venomous snakes in the Indo-Malay area. While these don't have much to do with Silat, these are names that are largely unavailable in the common Indonesian and Malayan dictionaries, so I copied them down. I just came across the paper, which was dying, and decided to make the information available here. So, without further ado:
About three years back, I came across a book at the library entitled Venomous and Poisonous Animals and Noxious Plants of the Pacific Region, edited by Hugh L. Keegan and W.V. MacFarlane (MacMillan & Co, NY 1963). Always interested in things like this, I checked it out. I was surprised to find that it gave local names to a number of the venomous snakes in the Indo-Malay area. While these don't have much to do with Silat, these are names that are largely unavailable in the common Indonesian and Malayan dictionaries, so I copied them down. I just came across the paper, which was dying, and decided to make the information available here. So, without further ado:
Common cobra: ular sendok (Indonesia); ular tedong sendak (Malay); ular bedul (Malay); ular biludah (Padang Highlands, Sumatra); oraj sendok (Sundanese); hantipeh pura (Dayak).
King cobra: ular anang (Java).
Yellow-headed krait: ular tanjon api (Sumatra).
Banded krait: oraj welang (Sundanese); ular welang (Malay); ular katam tabu (Malay); ngu sam liem (Thai).
Malayan krait: oraj weling (Sundanese); ular weling (Malay).
Malayan pit viper: ular biludak (Java); ular tanah (West Java); ular gebuk (West Java); ular bandotan bedor (Central Java); ular bedudak (West Java); ular lemah (West Java); ular kapac daun (Malay).
Sumatran pit viper: ular bisa (Sumatra).
Wagler's pit viper: ular puckuk (Sumatra); ular bakaw (Malay).
Common long-glanded snake: ular cabe (Java); ular kapala dua (Sumatra); ular cabeh (Malay).
Red-bellied long-glanded snake: oraj cabeh (Java); ular cabeh (Malay); ular sina matahari (Malay); ular tedong matahari (Singapore); kendawang (Dayak).
Friday, December 11, 2009
Silat in America: Where are the Pure Styles?
By Mas Jonty
Interest in Pencak Silat is growing furiously here in the U.S.A. Almost weekly, new teachers are popping out of the woodwork. However, there is a puzzling question:
Where are all the pure styles? It seems that almost every teacher of Indonesian martial arts in the U.S. is teaching their own personal "Kuntao" blend of different styles. You won't find a pure Cikalong teacher, or a straight Cimande teacher. Even the supposedly pure styles being taught over here seem to be modern Dutch/Indo blends. What gives?
Before we try and answer that question, I'd like to note that I think this is can be a blessing and a curse: As far as I'm concerned, Willem DeThouars can make up his own styles all he wants, but on the other hand I have seen some truly inferior arts in this category.
So I have a few possible answers to our question:
There are a lot of "multi-yellow-belt" teachers out there, and Silat is an open field for people to pass themselves off as masters.
Traditionally you would perhaps have to learn several different styles to round out your fighting skills. This fits with my understanding of the older arts. If you read the Chinese and Japanese classics, the old masters used to learn several styles on their road to mastery. Large, all-in-one styles are more of a modern invention.
Please "write in" and discuss. I'd love to hear your ideas.
Interest in Pencak Silat is growing furiously here in the U.S.A. Almost weekly, new teachers are popping out of the woodwork. However, there is a puzzling question:
Where are all the pure styles? It seems that almost every teacher of Indonesian martial arts in the U.S. is teaching their own personal "Kuntao" blend of different styles. You won't find a pure Cikalong teacher, or a straight Cimande teacher. Even the supposedly pure styles being taught over here seem to be modern Dutch/Indo blends. What gives?
Before we try and answer that question, I'd like to note that I think this is can be a blessing and a curse: As far as I'm concerned, Willem DeThouars can make up his own styles all he wants, but on the other hand I have seen some truly inferior arts in this category.
So I have a few possible answers to our question:
1) People are making up their own arts because they never finished studying any one art.
There are a lot of "multi-yellow-belt" teachers out there, and Silat is an open field for people to pass themselves off as masters.
2) Traditional Silat styles are small, modular systems that each focus on a narrow set of skills.
Traditionally you would perhaps have to learn several different styles to round out your fighting skills. This fits with my understanding of the older arts. If you read the Chinese and Japanese classics, the old masters used to learn several styles on their road to mastery. Large, all-in-one styles are more of a modern invention.
3) We have modern, left-brained methods of organizing and teaching our arts that require different approaches to styles.
Please "write in" and discuss. I'd love to hear your ideas.
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