Shi Yan Ming????

[Iron Cross]

Dont worry. In a few years you will probably be angry or at odds with him too. Either that or you'll quit long before that or get kicked out.

I guess you could say I am angry and at odds with Stalin for killing millions of his own people. The fact that I am angry at him doesnt make my criticism of him any less valid.

But thats Stalin. In terms of Yan Ming I dont really think of him anymore these days. Got more important things to think about like to wear boxers of briefs. I think the big problem the Yan Ming cult has is they assume the tone of any form of criticism what so ever is one of anger or resentment. In reality pretty much everything said in completely calm conversational tone. I and others have expressed our opinions on the issue and defended our points of view when questioned about them.

[doc]

What's of interest is not what is written about him.

What's of interest is that things continue to be written about him. Show me another individual of this supposed ilk that generates as much controversy...

And, the issue of cults is an interesting one. May I divert your attention to this: http://www.russbo.org/vb/showthread.php?t=2622 When dealing with martial artists groups, this is an important thing to understand. Sad, but true.

[Caijiao]

first of all i must say, i would wonder if i get kicked out where i am actually not in ;-)
but ok i tried to read now all these threads about this topic through and i think i can understand some critics, but i do not get the cult thing...
do you all beliebe his temple is a sort of sect?

[doc]

Do you believe that his school is a "temple"?

[Iron Cross]

I thought all buddhist temples had huge parties with DJ's and celebrities where the students would dry hump each other on the dance floor while others drank so much they puked and still others were smoking pot all in the company of minors. Are you telling me at other buddhist temples they dont openly eat meat, drink corona and play play station on a huge plasma tv?

[master-lu]

Hey in my budhist temple we openly eat meat drink corona beers and party down- i think most shaolin temples out there today do this, partying hard is the new shaolin buddhist way! If Iron Cross wants to sit at home be righteous and train hard, study old scriptures and be a complete bore with no chicks to bone- then thats his problem he can't be a shaolin disciple like us. And certainly not a monk! You have to understand- and you're welcome to quote me on this, Shaolin monk master lu says: "special water" is the one and only true way to enlightenment!!! Thou shall drinkith special water and thou shall endulge in sexual activity to strengthen your qi!
Amitoufu/
secret qi gong master of stocholm shaolin temple and former head coach of shaolin martial monks Shi Yan-LU

[Iron Cross]

I think the NY club scene could learn a thing or two from Yan Ming and Lu's version of buddhism

[jackwolf]

USAST

Dearest and Clearest Friends,

I have not posted here in a while but I am back at the USAST and this is why:

1. Shopping around for a Shifu like you would a Tennis instructor is not realistic. Whoever you start with you should stick with, this is the Gong Fu tradition. Shopping around for everything in life is an American tradition. Look at "Fearless" with Jet Li. even after years of absence and amidst a moral crisis, when Hua Yuanjia returns his students recognize him as Shifu immediately and follow him as before.
The bond between master and student is of upmost importance.

2. It doesn't matter how many forms you know or how hard you can kick someone else in the head, what matters is how you develop as a person and how well you do what you know. In Ancient China most fighters only learned and practiced one form their entire life. It is what they took out of it that mattered.

3. Shi Yan Ming's program is designed to foster the manifestation of Qi in the person and then train the mind and body to be flexible, strong and resilient, all necessary skills for success as a person and whatever you do for a living. I don't like to fight. I used to fight as a kid and even when I won there was never a good end result. I recently visited my acupuncturist of many years. She told me my Qi was flowing well and my Gong Fu practice was good for me even this fall has been stressful. I have had problems with my flow of Qi in the past.

4. According to another former Shaolin Monk (the one who married the American blonde woman and lived in Brooklyn) most fights of Gong Fu masters in the past probably lasted only a few seconds because of their lethal ability. If weapons were used the loser usually died. I'm not interested in such things.

5. So counting how many forms you know is useless, shopping for a Shifu is useless and fighting with fighting rather than without fighting is also useless. They are all regressive Western ways of doing things and not in the spirit of Shaolin.


Amitabha


JW

[Iron Cross]

Do whatever you want man its your life. waste it how you please. If you think you need a master to tell you how you should live your life then you should get your head checked out. If you want a master to learn martial arts from you didnt look very hard as there are about 500 in nyc more qualified than yan ming. I can tell you now you wont find any of the answers your looking for there. YOu know this too because you left before for that very reason. But like I said its your life. Enjoy.

[Hippo Foo]

Is it not possible to realize that a Chinese film is no different than an American film. They are "FICTION". It seems that almost everyone I talk to about Chinese culture seem to have gathered it all from watching some Chinese movie. GO TO CHINA! Learn to speak Chinese! Please do not watch some movie and then now be the expert of Chinese culture. These are FICTIONAL. They may be based on some actual events but that doesn't make them FACT. If in the movie Romeo Must Die, Jet Li does not get the girl at the end, does that mean Chinese men are not attractive and therefore should never get the girl? NO THIS IS FICTION and it is based on STEREOTYPES!

I dunno when I read this post I felt that you seemed very defensive about why you are training with Yan Ming. Yan Ming if you do not know, also left his master, when he defected from China. Why did he leave? Because China is not for him and he believed he could have a better life in America.

First of all, you talked about Yan Ming's program.. is that something YOU want to do? I don't believe that Shaolin is the only mind action exercise or qi building exercise. EVERYTHING can be mind-action exercise. Just because Shaolin has some tinge of Buddhism mean that it is mindful. It's all about how you look at it. To be honest, when I trained there, I didn't think at all because someone was always screaming at me to do something FASTER or HARDER. Having someone telling you what to do requires very very LITTLE thought......

Anyway, just do what makes you happy but I hope you are thinking about what makes you happy. Also there is many different forms created to teach you about how to move your body in different ways... it isn't necessarily always for show. If you never moved your body in different ways, how will you know how to move like that? It doesn't have miraculously or praying very hard to Buddha... it comes from experience.....

Dearest and Clearest Friends,

I have not posted here in a while but I am back at the USAST and this is why:

1. Shopping around for a Shifu like you would a Tennis instructor is not realistic. Whoever you start with you should stick with, this is the Gong Fu tradition. Shopping around for everything in life is an American tradition. Look at "Fearless" with Jet Li. even after years of absence and amidst a moral crisis, when Hua Yuanjia returns his students recognize him as Shifu immediately and follow him as before.
The bond between master and student is of upmost importance.

2. It doesn't matter how many forms you know or how hard you can kick someone else in the head, what matters is how you develop as a person and how well you do what you know. In Ancient China most fighters only learned and practiced one form their entire life. It is what they took out of it that mattered.

3. Shi Yan Ming's program is designed to foster the manifestation of Qi in the person and then train the mind and body to be flexible, strong and resilient, all necessary skills for success as a person and whatever you do for a living. I don't like to fight. I used to fight as a kid and even when I won there was never a good end result. I recently visited my acupuncturist of many years. She told me my Qi was flowing well and my Gong Fu practice was good for me even this fall has been stressful. I have had problems with my flow of Qi in the past.

4. According to another former Shaolin Monk (the one who married the American blonde woman and lived in Brooklyn) most fights of Gong Fu masters in the past probably lasted only a few seconds because of their lethal ability. If weapons were used the loser usually died. I'm not interested in such things.

5. So counting how many forms you know is useless, shopping for a Shifu is useless and fighting with fighting rather than without fighting is also useless. They are all regressive Western ways of doing things and not in the spirit of Shaolin.


Amitabha


JW

[doc]

If in the movie Romeo Must Die, Jet Li does not get the girl at the end, does that mean Chinese men are not attractive and therefore should never get the girl?

Uh, umm, well, let's just say doc always got the girl....
Not sure what those poor Chinese bastards got.

Oh, let's talk about more important things.

Yan Ming if you do not know, also left his master, when he defected from China. Why did he leave? Because China is not for him and he believed he could have a better life in America.

Obviously, the real story of Yan Ming's "departure" is not well known... Which, in a way, I find terribly impressive. Marketing, at its best. Someone needs to write a book about the great deception.

[onesp1ng]

who should that someone be?

[Iron Cross]

Geez I could probably write a book about all the stuff I've seen there. I was just talking to Hippo Foo about this topic after the last post. We were kind of theorizing that basically everything he claims is probably false. He was never saved by a wandering acupunturist, never trained at shaolin temple as a boy, was probably given away by his parents, his birthday isnt realy chinese new year during the year of the dragon and i thought he only probably started training later in life when martial arts were allowed again. But then we realzied it would be impossible to confirm anything about him or anyone else from there because the records are so bad or altered.

Hey doc if you can enlighten me further send me a message sometime it would be interesting to see just how full of shit he is and what a truly sad individual he is.

[jackwolf]

To Hippo Foo and Iron Cross..............

Thanks for the feedback guys. I especially appreciate Hippo Foo's remarks as they are more balanced. So to Hippo Foo I must respond by saying that yes I am a bit defensive in my posting last week not because of training at the USAST but because I changed my mind from my previous posting of last Spring. In the Western tradition especially philosophically it is expected that a change of mind or view regarding a subject or practice should be explained in a defensive tone as in the art of "apologetics" in philosophical discussion. Actually I think Shaolin Gong Fu is good for me right now and I enjoy it and feel good about it. I also practice sitting vipassana meditation which is more of an Indian Buddhist tradition. I would eventually like to study some form of Qi Gong soon and maybe some yoga again. And remember that thinking is as a process not always the best way to know something, direct apprehension is.
As for Iron Cross, you are too offensive in your remarks and it is not appreciated. If you do not know how to express a differing view without offending the person you differ from then maybe it is better to say nothing at all. What I actually found funny is that you advise me to avoid letting others tell me what to do in my life or how to live and then you attempt to do the very same thing a sentence later! See ya later I'm eatin a potato, after awhile crocdile and all that jazzy spazzy stuff.

[Iron Cross]

Man Im not telling you what to do. I dont care if you take up ballet break dancing. Or make up your own martial arts from scratch. I dont even care if you practice martial arts anymore period. You need to listen to yourself above all others FIRST and not the rambling of an insane chinese peasant that plays at being a monk.

For starters your interest in sitting meditation and yoga is contradictory to what yan ming teaches. if you ask him about sitting meditation he will tell you its a waste of time. Also, you keep talking about the western mindset and the western philosophical outlook on life and how its so not in tune with all this shaolin zen stuff. Well, hate to break it to you but THIS IS THE WEST. Your in NYC it doesnt get anymore western than that.

My telling you that you shouldnt train there is about as much me telling you what to do with your life as it is telling a crack head not to smoke crack. I'm not telling you what to do with your life I'm just telling you not to smoke crack. Big difference.

Im actually rather curious what changed between last spring and now. Did you break up with your girlfriend? lose your job? lose some friends? have money issues? lose someone close to you? were you depressed in someway?

I ask because i saw the exact same thing happen to someone i knew there before this. He quit over VERY good reasons. He learned that yan ming tried to sleep with a female student there so he became disillusioned. WEll, it turns out a few months later he was back there. His situation was a bit different though because he was a seriously troubled individual that seemed to be incapable of forming lasting relationships and that place was really all he had going for him in his life. I felt really bad for him and wanted to help him but there was nothing more I could do.

FInally, if you find some of what i say confrontational or offensive then I say grow up. Life is not Disney bullshit. get used to it.