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Hi Max:
Im very familiar with alex and his father. On of my earliest teacher learned with his great grandfather. His father in Hawaii has some good tapes if you want to watch the family history and good stuff on his grandfather, Dong, Hing, doing a very powwerful fast form, lots of fa jin.
The fast form is close to slow form, if you learn it you will learn it fast.
The have their version of Yang style and their own version.
If you ever get a chance meet rene navarro, he is a wealth of info and has deep knowledge of escrima.
bagua
Hi Fajin,
No opinion from my side… Just a friendly greeting for someone who is also combining Zen and Taoism. To me it is not clear yet how they go together: at the moment they exist in separate ‘compartments’ of my life. They feel so very different.
I received the boddhisattva ordination in the Zen school founded by Taisen Deshimaru (student of Kodo Sawaki), called AZI (Association Zen Internationale), but I am not so shure anymore about what the boddhisattva ideal actually means.
On the other hand, the precepts have become more important to me. In Zen there is a distinct tendency to overlook them, saying that if you practice enough, the precepts will manifest themselves automatically. This may be true if you practice day and night, but then you do not have possibility to commit errors anyway… A-morality may be a good thing to practice during meditation (no judgments, no discursive thinking), but in the rest of your life this seems different.
gassho and kind regards,
Wandering Oak
Greetings Wanderingoak,
I just came here to check the board one last time because I am taking a LONG break from it. So I’ll just reply this one time then I’m a gonner, OK!
A Bodhisattva is a someone who helps sentient beings towards their enlightenment. But I don’t know what a Bodhisattva ordeal is. I never studied at a Japanese Zen school, I just read many texts on Japanese Zen and practice the methods, actually just shikantaza.
I’ve actually read Indian texts on samadhi and dhyana, and many Ch’an texts. The most profound and enlightening come from Zen master Ehei Dogen, as you know, founder of the Soto Zen school.
I practice his shikantaza method for atleast 4 hours a day, I’m very dedicated. I’ve read some of his shobogenzo, very enlightening peice. Every Buddhist school has a method of “just sitting”, just different names for it. Ch’an is silent illumination for example, and Dao is sitting in forgetfulness.
What I like about shikantaza that sets it apart from other school’s variations is that Dogen wrote so much about it because it is such a misunderstood practice by many and it is so well clarified by him.
To me, the connection between Zen and Daoism is that they both use yi. Alchemy is essentially using yi to do the alchemical transformations. Without the yi, it is not possible. With yi, everything is possible. Zen is a way of, as the Wudang Daoists (my lineage) say, chaining the heart monkey mind with the horse mind. Or stilling the xin simply.
When this happens, yi is clear, deep, and very strong. One cannot penetrate the most subtle aspect of reality with this unhindered yi. Zen helps us to develop this concentration, called joriki as you are probably well aware.
One takes this yi through any visualization/actualization, or any kind of energy manipulation and has very strong yi to do it now. And it is through the stilling of the mind, that alchemy occurs without any kind of energy manipulation. Jing to qi, qi to shen, and shen to wu.
Zen is just about the wu, and the other three get cultivated. Daoism is about jing, qi, and shen, and wu is the result. They are both one and the same for me.
Fajin
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