my Sifu is joining the Army!!!

[Scholar_Warrior]

Feck!!! I finally find the teacher of my dreams and a month later he decides to go fight for the feckin' gov't!!! I understand why he wants to do it, and what he expects to get out of it, but the feckin' gov't!!!

anyway, I am up for extra intense training for the next few months. I may not be here very often. he has offered to let me be there for as much of his training as I am willing/able to be. so I will be spending a lot of time with him for the next two months. it's a rare opportunity!

this man is the most skilled at martial art that I have met in over ten years of searching! he can throw around a man twice his size and weight like a rag doll! he can kill anyone with his bare hands!! I don't want to kill, or even harm anyone, but the paradox is that I want to know how to, so that I can avert other potentially necessary forms of self defense - such as fire arms.

please send your intent for my learning. I will be trying to assimilate a great deal in a short time.

peace love harmony

[HoneySuckleBlue]

http://www.reefnews.com/reefnews/photos/corals/sponges.jpg
Thinks porous thoughts...

What branch of the military is he going into?

[luvndrumn]

As Yoda said, "Do, or do not." Keep your center, thereby your focus, and practice, practice, practice. Then repeat. And remember that often the most important lessons are the ones we hurry past.

I am familiar with sensei and master. I've not heard the honorific Sifu. What discipline are you studying?

[Scholar_Warrior]

He is going into the Army, probably special ops. I'm thinkin' someone should warn the other guys that he's coming, cause anyone who gives him too much shiite, and challenges him, or accepts his challenge will suffer dearly. his skill is terrific and frightening - it's just amazing!

Sifu in Chinese means Teacher/Father (as it was explained to me). in the system that he is teaching me he is like a Father who gives me the life of this teaching. I am studying Baguazhang. aka Pa Kua, or Bagua. it is based on the I Ching; the Book of Changes.

[luvndrumn]

Then it is probably based in and around what the Japanese call ZEN, which is, to me, the most attractive and important aspect of the education. Sensei was deeply attuned to Zen; more so than a great number of his students. He once said the best move was to walk away. He was then, and is, in all likelihood, now, an amazing person. I have seen him defuse a situation loaded with an over-abundance of testosterone by simply walking into the middle of the two protagonists and staring at them (each one outweighed and outreached him two to one). Bad asses would cross the street rather than meet him, yet he is/was the gentlest, most humble man I have known. And the deadliest.


I wish your Sifu well and hope that he returns to us as he left us.

And I wish you success in your studies.

[Scholar_Warrior]

thank you luvn'!

actually, bagua is completely Taoist and has nothing to do with Zen, or anything Japanese.

Zen Buddhism is an offshoot of Chan Buddhism. Taoism is a much older tradition, tho' there has been some blending of the two in some divisions.

peace.