Is there any silat styles that focus more on internal power? Say for example like tai chi or similar? Sys.
The question is very obtuse as pretty much any style can have more or less so called "internal" components. I found the following stuff more on the "internal side" for Silat: Form: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW87o4gfmT4"]YouTube- Seni Silat Kesateria Al Haqq (Basic Seni -level 1)[/ame] Some nice explanations of various components from a seminar: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb_ZSFDI0yU"]YouTube- Seni Silat Kesateria Al Haqq - Wales Seminar Retreat[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5K__s4OBIE"]YouTube- Seni Silat Sendeng UK - Demo at retreat in wales for Charity[/ame] Quite a few more vids on their channel too.
Well if he is anything like his mate Nicholoas Blanchette then you probably wont be very welcome unless your a Muslim and then you can look forward to learning a very unique twist on where Silat comes from etc
Look for meriputi putih, it is a silat system that uses a lot of training for the internal aspects.. It is not a widely known system,but it is around..
Just to clarify,Simon Das who is demonstrating/teaching in the above clips does not have a "Muslims only" policy whatsoever.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kxpvZSZg1g"]Brazilian Jiu Jitsu vs Metal - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_L9q-d4XOI"]Brazilian Jiu Jitsu vs Pencak Silat - Big Match #4 - YouTube[/ame]
I have never been fond of those internal demonstrations, but it is not exclusive to Silat! Breaking is done in many martial arts. Hard brittle metal is a favourite i.e. bits of cast iron or metal files because they snap easily. Fire walking and also that lame trick when you hit the neck of a bottle and cause the bottom to blow out...none of this is internal! To say internal sounds like BS to a jujitsu practitioner is stupid though because jujitsu is from Japan originally and they also have the concept of and practice internal, Ki exercises so they would not think the consept was BS at all. Also its easy to search youtube and find someone who is crap at BJJ and say all BJJ looks like this also!
As someone who has left silat and now does BJJ, I can say from experience that there is no substiture for hard, physical training practised in a realistic and non-choreographed manner. I haven't forsaken my internal practices, but have put them into context and make them work for me in the right ways.
Anyone who would do these internal things, I would say be careful! The old masters said if you do not apply practice with knowledge you will never pass the gate of death. What they were talking about is those who engage in internal practices without a deep knowledge of what they are doing. There is a danger of speeding up internal time in the body, this translates as increased rate of cell division and the danger of cancer. Do some research, you would be shocked at the number of these internal practitioners who develop cancer.
Don't worry about the internal training in Silat. If you concentrate on your training wholistically and passionately, you'll get it. Seriously.
Jiddu Krishnamurti Romana Maharishi Vivekananda Ramakrishna Sri Aurobindo The mother (mirra Alfassa) Madam Blavatsky (author of the Secret doctrine and founder of the Theosophical society) Helen Roerich Nisargadatta Maharaj Vanga Osho (Bhagwan shree Rajneesh) Castaneda In Russia a study conducted showed that energetic healers (its very popular in Russia) who graduate from such training schools and practice energetic healing with regularity. Within 7-10 years of continuous practice 70% of them can be expected to get cancer. I was told in the past by a few internal teachers that incorrect practice could lead to such things but I always thought that they were just being secret with their techniques. Now I'm more inclined to agree which is why I say be careful.
Interesting! Most of the folk you mention are from Indian traditions (however a lot of them are old and lived in times when medicine and knowledge of carcinogens wad quite basic to non existent). I have heard before that their methods mostly incorporate the raising of energy, without coresponding lowering as in most Chinese systems. The rising is associated with Yang, expanding, growth, etc, hence cancer is not an unfeasable result. Also, I hear in the Indian traditions there is much more emphasis on results, no matter at what cost. Chinese methods on the other hand ephasise health and balance. Would I be right in assuming Silat methods are more akin to Indian ones? If you have a link to the Russian study, I would like to have a look (I'm a native Russian speaker). My search yielded no such results. Cheers!
I cant locate the report but it was carried out by specialists from Russia’s academy of national security. I think you will find there are high accounts among Chinese internal masters also so its not just Indian masters. In reality there is one source of this knowledge and one method although today it is degraded to the point that people talk about Indian siddhas method, the Chinese internal method, Kabalah etc. People argue about what is the better and who knew it first. If we go to the ancient text we are told where it came from. The Chinese talk about the “Shining ones”, the Indian Veda talks about the Aryans, In Tibet they talk about the naga kings. The first Pharaohs of Egypt were not native Egyptians and this is the origin of the Kabalah. The Chinese actually found the “Shining ones” or the remains of them anyway but don’t expect them to make any official announcements any time soon because it hasn’t turned out as they would have wanted. Unofficially we know there are several pyramids in china. The Chinese government refuse to acknowledge there existence because naturally the question would be who build them? Well it was the “shining ones” who built them but when they dug up the remains and found they were tall Caucasians with red hair and green/blue eyes they decided they were not going to announce it to the world. We would know nothing about this if it wasn’t for one archaeologist who smuggled the info out of china. In one occasion the government even paid a farmer to grow crops on top of the pyramid in an attempt to hide it from satellite lol [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCAyg3-R9Aw"]YouTube- Pyramids of China[/ame] The Pharaohs (the origin of this knowledge in Egypt) used the words Ka which means Yin and Ba which means yang when talking about these energys. You can understand the origins of the word Kabalah. These people were the architects of the ancient pyramids all over the world, and by the way people still don’t understand what a pyramid is. They think it’s a tome for a Pharaoh. Archaeologists have a hard time understanding how Egypt and Sumer suddenly appear from nowhere in a high state of civilization. This is because they don’t take into account the possibility of a polar shift. The origin is under the sea and one day it’s going to be discovered. This internal knowledge along with other sciences was originally the property of royalty and the average man or woman did not know about such things. Lets not forget the origins of Qi gong in China are the Yi jin jing and the Xi sui jing brought to china by Bodhidharma who was a prince born into a royal family. We could talk about the Buddha also. There is only one reality to this, one origin, one science, one truth etc After studying such things in some depth this is my conclusion anyway ;-)
Thanks for that Narrue. Some interesting stuff there. Will have to do some more research on this once I get back to my pc in a few weeks. Regarding origins, I deffinitelly agree that there is much simmilarity in methods from all over the world. Though in terms of Chinese methods, the Taoist stuff came from shamanic origins, via I-Ching and it's predecessor, to the Tao Teh Ching, various monsastic and hermatic practiced like Dao Yin and predecessor of Ba Gua Zhang. But yeah, the origins generally point North West to Siberia, so the idea of it coming from the group you mentioned is possible and I have come across some references like that in Taoist texts. The Shaolin type methods such as those you mentioned i.e. bone/marrow washing, muscle/tendon changing, are of Indian origin via the chap you mention i.e. Da Mo. I have come across methods in Chinese systems which were said to increase the progression of cancer if practiced with the condition. On the other hand, qigong is regularly prescribed along side other western and TCM methods in a large majority of Chinese hospitals, including for cancer treatments. As you said previously, one has to know what their doing. In general the methods openly taught to the public via qigong are either balanced (up/down) or only focus on the down flow which has a calming effect on the nervous, circulatory and respiratory systems. Also, the downward method is something that is emphasised to beginers in order to provide some grounding/insulation for the more stimulating and volatile upward flow. To my knowledge, the Indian methods generally only go upwards, stimulating various endocrine organs, increasing production of growth hormones and activity in the circulatory and nervious system, perhaps respiratory as well (the whole breathing method and coresponding postures are quite diffrent to me). I'll see if I can google that report again. Cheers!
When you talk about energy going up and down I assume you are talking about what the Chinese call the microcosmic orbit, energy up the back and down the front right? Now just to illustrate what I said about knowledge getting mixed up and confused, as a result people doing techniques incorrectly and causing damage to their body's lets consider the following. There is an ancient yoga in India called Kriya yoga in which on inhalation prana rises up the front through the arohan and on exhalation apana goes down the back through the awarohan. You will notice that the two contradict each other! Now only one can be correct, someone got it wrong. If you practice one method you are going with the natural flow and therefore enhancing health. If you practice the other you are mentally forcing the current to flow counter to what is natural and therefore causing harm. If you speak to a Chinese sifu he will say his system is the correct one, If you speak to an Indian guru he will say he is correct. The fact is though someone got it wrong!
To my knowledge the Chinese systems incorporate both the directions you describe, not usualy within the same system though, but sometimes. I don't really think it's a question of right or wrong direction, but more about balance. Not even necessarily one one up for every one down, I've even come across 1 up for every 6 down to enhance the calming/grounding effect. Anyway, not really what I think is too important. The main factor for me is for one to be able to gage the balance of their own state and work to resolve that. I don't think there is one exclusive prescrition or right way for everyone as everyones state is inherently diffrent and in constant flux, fuelled by circumstance, health, emotion, mind and a myriad of other factors. Of course a beginer has only so much awareness, so it's unlikely they could gage their state correctly, especially taking in to account the addictive nature of feelings of power, clarity etc, which usualy result from raising or stimulating the various body systems. Hence, for a beginer I would advocate and emphasise the downward, calming, centering methods, until awareness and undertanding of the processes are better understood.
I am aware that there are many techniques and one will say do this and the other will say do that. Even when they are saying things contradictory magically they can still be both correct? I think not. If you needed a blood transfusion, the doctor had the same attitude and connected the pump incorrectly to send the blood circulating around your body in reverse would it be ok? All these things do naturally take specific paths through your body and in specific directions as everything in your body is ordered. It was originally a science but today its ok, we are all masters and even if we say things contradictory it ok because we are masters and we cant be wrong. Lets all be happy knowing that we are all masters and we are all correct In the end of the day all roads lead to Rome, some are longer then others, some are not safe to travel. If you take some routes you might end up walking the last few miles to Rome wearing your underpants and without your wallet. There are many Sifu and Guru out there that I would call blaggers, those are the ones who will harm themselves and their students.
You know, I suspect there is no actual energy flows in the body as per Indian/Chinese etc methodologies/pathways, I think these are merely methods to train the mind to be aware of certain sections of the body and manipulate energy (wilfully move/pool/disperse). After all the energy is everywhere in the body, if it were not, that tissue would be dead. I think the trained energy pathways may be abandoned after they are ingrained, then after that the mind/intention/energy connection is free and moves at will. This stuff is mentioned in some Taoist texts on this topic and is usually referred to as the next stage, usually called "alchemy". Of course, one may still use the "training" pathways, much like one may go to a gym to do some exercises or work on basics, but I think these "training" pathways should not be something which is clung on to. Or perhaps they are general guidelines, anyway, I cant pretend to be an expert on this stuff, so take my words with a pinch of salt. I have not practised this stuff myself for a good 5 years, though I did spend 2 years doing it religiously (min 2 hours a day and up to 6 hours a day). My own experience has been mixed, with some very good results and some equally awful ones. Might get back to it one of these days though. Either way, awareness and balance are key IMO.
