[rares]

Hi Max,

When I met David I was after 7 years of Yoga practices and vegetarian diet. I was at that time very sensitive and could extend my awareness (not at instant will unfortunately but usually as a result of fasting or Yoga flavoured meditations) beyond the social context. I’m telling this so that you can imagine my surprise during the first handshake with David to actually feel the blessings this stranger has gathered upon himself as I could actually feel that he was in touch with several alive traditions and it was like connecting an antenna to a tv so to speak.
In contrast with the new-age style, books-processed yoga practices and highly fantasized realms I was swimming back then this handshake was pretty ‘shaky’.

So with this feeble attempt to rollback time I would say “Yes, I would do it again in a heart bit”. I was already looking for an alternative, something more down to earth, a practice that would help me develop in this reality, in this body.

From what I have seen so far comparing traditions and their practices the elements of the methods are common since obviously we all have the same biology. If you walk the curve of learning the terminology in a new language and cultural frame you will see that the methods have the same elements. What differs substantially is the attitude, the context and the purpose of the practice.

I think David has shaped up during his teaching years a well defined context that he calls “foundation methods” and their purpose is to gradually get the practitioner acquainted with the body framework, to learn how to return the mind from “looking forward for this and that”, quiet the internal dialog and learn to distinguish the signals from the body which were otherwise obstructed. I personally have found him very competent in teaching this methods and explaining the elements to the westerner’ mind.

Either this phase is as you said “necessary” it is up to you to decide for yourself. What I liked about his context is that notion of ‘skill’ is highly regarded and that the achievements are turned into skills. Most of the other systems that one can access while living in the society seem to be loosing the notion of skill in some shady subjective “but” that always comes after the “yes I can”.

So the skill that comes after this phase is that your brain can distinguish the required signals from the body and that you are able to quiet your mind, relax and actually dive into the reality of your own body without letting the mind be hijacked by sensations that bring you outward or by nurturing a fantasy.
Pretty impressive skill if you ask me, good to have on itself just to live a normal healthy life but also quite crucial in the success of the optional methods that David is teaching: the first level in thunder path training.

To answer your last question, I am still mostly preparing myself for the thunder path training, but I am not part of any lineage. I am privileged to met through David a person that has achieved the basic skill in thunder path (YinYang Gong) but that doesn’t make me an [active part] of a lineage. I am hardly keeping a long distance friendship with David.
I also learn wu shu from a Chinese teacher that lives nearby.

Best regards,
Rares

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