My insano story (Yan Ming and USAST)

[tetsumaru]

beware of the brainwashing that goes on at USAST. Not from Yan Ming but from all the wackos students who twist and re-interpret things that Yan Ming says. Like two dirty mirrors facing eachother (Yan Ming & his students) a never ending mis-representation of one another. Someone needs to break a mirror and you have the rock in your hand, Iron Cross. USAST has issues with their egos. The energy is undeniable but so are the mistreatment of his students. Even a mean teacher wouldnt do that to students he has compassion for. Yan ming himself is lost and therefore so are his students.

There are plenty of excellent teachers in NYC. However, they dont do fancy performances or have pretty orange robes and shave their heads. And certainly not goulin.

[Hippo Foo]

Same story recently when he required orange robes only to training in the advanced class.... if you dont have one have to buy one... I know a girl that straight up left just because she didn't have the money.... she is training where I started now... a total coinidence...

Whoa,

I'm really sorry to hear what happened to you Iron Cross. I know you told me the story but I didn't really understand how serious the situation was until it was laid more in detail in the forums.

I was just searching the shaolinwolf looking at old pictures of students when I stumbled upon this post topic last night (there is a post like this simliar on the shaolinwolf). When I found the same post on russbo with a small mention of myself, I figure I just say my word about the school. (thank god I'm waiting for a 3 hours video render at work)

One of the reasons why I did leave was because of the uniform. I don't think that wearing any specific color uniform will improve my kung fu. Sure I'll understand if I have to buy 1 uniform for general student uniformity, but I just didn't see how color really mattered in what classes you could attend. To me it was just another reason to give the temple more money. This is not the first time that there were rules set up to give the temple money. Once sifu made me pay 20 dollars because I didn't sign in before class. I spent days trying to figure out why sifu did this. Many of times I tried to use buddhist logic, but after much soul searching I realize it was done for materialistic reasons and not for my own well being. Yet I continued to ignore all of this signals. Only now that I have left the school have I come aware of what I believe are "brain-washing" like tactics that USAST uses on their students. What comes out is that nothing is ever the fault of anybody but your own. Words like "push yourself harder", "pain is life" so forth are good words of encouragement. But they also tactics in which you will never question what is done to you, only how you are never good enough. I also believe allowing anybody to be a disciples is just another way to gain loyalty. I remember always thinking to myself to become a disciple because I felt like I didn't belong. I thank all my buddhist friends for discouraging this.

As someone who has read a few buddhist scriptures and have befriended many buddhist friends, I would sincerely advise people to avoid chan buddhism completely at USAST. I can tell you this much, no buddhist monk should encourage drinking nor eating meat. I'm not saying it is bad do to this. I don't even care that sifu does this but he should not encourage it. By encouraging eating meat means encouraging killing which as a buddhist leader should not do. Those of you who are interested in buddhism, I would suggest reading the sutras and visiting temples such as the one in upstate NY.

All in all, you can avoid these sort of things at the USAST if you just stick with your training and avoid all other politics. I did this for about 3 years on and off during Summers away from college. All I cared about was the learning and training. When the learning disappeared from the sifu's lack of teaching (he never teaches advanced class, unless screaming at his students in frustration is considered teaching), I decided to leave. We go to a martial arts school to learn from the sifu. If you take away this, you do not have a martial arts school anymore.

This is just my experience at the school and my opinion. Everybody has different experiences and I'm sure there have been many good ones at the temple. I am not telling people they should leave or avoid the school, but there are certain things to be aware of.

21 more minutes to render finish. Yay.

[mortal]

I posted this on shaolinwolf thought it was pertinent here

Long before he got there.

I was level 2 from 2000-2001. He didn't teach one class.

The level 2 students learned it second hand from previous level 2's who quit shortly there after.

When you first start usually you are awestruck by Sifu. He has a very powerful charismatic personality. He really runs with it too. He doesn't try to convince anybody otherwise. He plays up the role. He also plays up complete devotion.

I think that is where the problem begins.

When you are a beginner you do not know what it takes to be good at kungfu. So he tells you that ALL you need to train is basics. At first since you don't know anything you go along with it. Then after you make level 2. You start to meet other kungfu peeps. You start to realize how much you need soemone to really coach every specific point, on a daily basis. Otherwise you really aren't getting better. You might have a great front slap kick at this point but that is not great kungfu. So once you know that he isn't teaching you conclude that he doesn't really care. So he expects total devotion from you but doesn't recipricate it.

A master and student must trust each other. How can you trust someone who sends you off to train basics by yourself for the rest of your life? After they ask total devotion. They should be devoted to teaching you. Meaning cleaning up your movements and personally showing you how to generate power from different postures. Demonstrating hard stuff personally.
When it becomes clear your teacher is not interested in that after 2 years it leaves you feeling bitter and frustrated. Justifiably so.

[Maestro]

so..wheres rich on this one lolo

[Iron Cross]

Ahhh the discipleship issue.... When i became a disciple is was for very deep reasons that I took very seriously.... I figured it held a great meaning and should be under taken with the utmost seriousness.... It took me days to write my letter to the man about becoming a disciple.....

Then 2 ceremonies later I see people that have been there for as little as 2 weeks becoming disciples.... This struck me as incredibly odd... I mean how sure could you really be after 2 weeks... Also anyone who wanted to become one was accepted no questions asked... This struck me as odd too.... Is there no other criteria for becoming one other than jsut wanting it.... Some folks ( no names) went on to mis represent damn enar everything.... After this it seemed like the vows I took and the devotion I showed were rather meaningless.... Discipleship was not based on any kind of udnerstanding of the philosophy, devotion to training, or other outstanding quality but whether or not you happened to be around in august or september... whenever the ceremony was.....

To make matters more interesting He started taking on disciples internationally that he met maybe once.... People who threw a seminar and could fly him out.... Mexico, chile...... The situation in mexico had some interesting consequences.... One guy basically used the name and connection to sell himself and his school....even deciding he should be allowed to take on his own disciples... The other guy was an awesome perosn with a good heart....it fell on him to run everything with the other guy left.... now there is a bit of tension between the 2....

Another good point was brought up... that with drinking and eating meat.... Many vegans and or vegitarians there feel uncomfortable because yan ming will endlessly try to push eating meat on them.... A buddy of mine mentioned recently it was becoming rahter annoying and uncomfortable because of this and was really starting to get to him..... I don't know why people jsut cant be cool and let them do what they will..

With drinking its something else... I never felt comfortable around that... I never drink so it was even worse... damn near everytime they drank they tried to offer me one and when I refused they would look at me strangely and say You need to start drinking.... IN a supposed buddhist temple I've seen people do drunk they began throwing up or acting a little shall we say more relaxed than normal.... being the only sober one gives me a great view point... Clear headed I look around thinking this is a buddhist temple??? strange it does not resemble any of the others I've visited.... is that good or bad???

I tried to raise that issue once a long time ago that the drinking was slightly out of hand ang taking away from the philosphy... but was ignored and scolded by some for even speaking out of term... I should jsut trust fully any decision made by the big mana nd not question it I was told.... First flag for me.... before that I was trying to help.... this during a time when the weekly class on buddhism was replaced with trips to the beach to swim and dirnk a few coronas.... Don't get me wrong the beach is nice... But if i wanna go to the beach I'll go to the beach... I'm there to learn some buddhist philosophy and kung fu though...

Ah wells... so much writing... I'll add more later maybe

[doc]

Yongxin is doing the same thing now. It's a way of spreading one's fame, and therefore, making money. It basically has taken the whole historical approach to what a "disciple" is, and threw it out the veritable window. If you search the forum, you'll see a recent thread I posted, in the Shaolin Politics section.

[Hippo Foo]

Yongxin is doing the same thing now. It's a way of spreading one's fame, and therefore, making money. It basically has taken the whole historical approach to what a "disciple" is, and threw it out the veritable window. If you search the forum, you'll see a recent thread I posted, in the Shaolin Politics section.

Just to add some tidbits of information. What i mentioned before about discipleship, I was talking more about the vows which students take to be disciples rather the disciples that take the vow. Well there isnt really any vows like those in Chan buddhist monasteries. There are many discples there who are very genuine in the vows they took in their letters they wrote. However, since there is no precepts put into place, like those found in other monastaries, I believe its hard to see who is really genuine or not. And I think this dismisses what the real purpose of the discipleship is. I think some people might have the wrong idea of what it is and may just do it because of the name. In monastaries, you can leave monkhood whenever you want, but you have to give up your monk status. But in at the USAST they allow to continue using it which confuses me a bit. Does the name really matter? There are many lay people in Buddhism who have done so much for the Buddhist community but do not have monk status.

I also like to just mention that Buddha had predicted the decline of Buddhism. To put it in short, he said that the decline of Buddhism will be caused by Buddhist themselves and not non-buddhist. Buddhist themselves can get corrupt and Buddha was aware of this. This is interesting in this situation. Buddha, was one smart cookie.

I took this from wikipedia because I don't have my sutras here at work.

"The Buddha himself predicted the decline of the Dharma in 500 years, and it was around 500 years after the passing away of the Buddha that, in India Buddhism started declining. It was during the Gupta age with the actual performance of the Ashwamedha yagna and a returning to ritualism that eventually signaled the end of Buddhism.With the Dharma itself in decline, Buddhists too were at fault. Buddhism became more and more elitist, the monasteries only allowed the 'best', with overly intellectual monks distancing themselves from the suffering of common people[citation needed]. The revolution started by the Buddha and his earlier disciples was not sustainable by the later Buddhists with their own eliticism increasing. "

Hope this is an interesting read.

[Iron Cross]

I'm not 100% on this but didn't Buddha also say to question things??

Thread over at shaolinwolf.com just got locked and my registration suspended for posting it.... I am noticing a pattern here....

Ah wells.... maybe it does no good to talk about this stuff..... Doc is right though.. the truth always comes out eventually....

[Hippo Foo]

I'm not 100% on this but didn't Buddha also say to question things??

Thread over at shaolinwolf.com just got locked and my registration suspended for posting it.... I am noticing a pattern here....

Ah wells.... maybe it does no good to talk about this stuff..... Doc is right though.. the truth always comes out eventually....

I'm sure Buddha did. But I'm definitely sure Lao Tzu did. =)

Yes the shaolinwolf site has gone completely out of hand. But its not a surprise that happened. It is like the only forum that is supported by people from USAST. I would consult a lawyer for advise as oppose to listening to them debate what is what. A lawyer will give you a much better analysis of the situation. Although, suing the temple might be somewhat difficult. But regardless information will get disbursed. Best not to fuel the fire. People will smell the smoke eventually. Cause its definitely hot there at the temple.

[Iron Cross]

Seems like the posting here and there was enough to ruffle a few feathers... Maybe I could consider that a slight success then... Though it was never my intention to try to piss anyone off and make the place out to be the gateway to hell... just to point out something horrible that had happened there.... maybe it would be enough to open a few eyes..... I know USAST folk often vist shaolinwolf....

Oh well.... I imagine now they will jsut say I am crazy and didn't "get it" thats fine too... whatever floats your boat... The funniest part I thought was when wolf said I was mad people wern't there to help me or something and I only wanted people to help my life out... Strangely It was me trying to help them out... even after the fact I went back to try to bring light to it so it wouldn't happen again...

sigh.... I used to think so highly of wolf too... he seems just as insane now

[Maestro]

you know id take a good mortal battle on here anyday then some more redundant yan ming bashing...but whatever

heres a quick little jab at some suckers

all those shaolin wolf peeps..for one, like this fool is trying to say, the site is out of control bla bla...that site has BEEN out of control, and the wolfs scary little ass bans me for cursing...well now im HAPPY that all this is going down on his site and this one...

and as for the shaolin wolfers themselves that read this shit right now, like IRON CROSS and HENG YI both you little shaolin monk nut huggers can eat shit for all i care about your bullshit.

to me if you werent smart enough to see some stupid shit like this comeing when you train somewhere .where the TEACHER never TEACHES, then your a lost cause and are probably just hypeing yourself like MORTAL does

what skills do u punks think u actually have anyway? some flashy front snap? and maybe a good jab? wow, you might as well be a half ass kickboxer in a fag robe


hmmm..i guess im getting a little to edgy for you guys? well i dont post often anymore so i must do this.

to me, that old saying about fool me once bla bla should have been resounding in your big dillusional heads the whole time you guys trained with these "MONKS"

and as for this iron cross whom i never really cared for at shaolin wolf anyway, dude you really need to stop crying about a lawyer, OH my poor robe was to hot

BITCH i trained in hong kong in 110 ****ing degree wether for 8 hours a day, quit bitching about not being able to know when to much is enough, no one else fainted did they?

so how bad could it really have been?? i dont think your wrong for your oppinion dont get me wrong id be on your side from what i HEAR but... ummm yea no one else got as hit as you

and yea i know i sound like a troll right now...max hardcore right...well its a half assesed attempt to get back at some shoalin wolfers...maybe goad mortals little fag teacher nut hugger ass to come talk so more smack and maybe get me and tet to drop him a visit if tet is still coming to see me

also, i really like venting on forums

lolo be easy

[Iron Cross]

Ohhhh your just so cute when you get angry... I love it..just wanna wrap you up in a blanket and take you home with me....

[zachsan]

Sometimes Vince makes me miss BL.

[Maestro]

blooming doesnt make sense when she rants, im atleast direct and have a point..i never understood any of her posts, or her emails or her pms...

and i have no idea what her obssesion was with acting like i was her friend after i cussed her out so many times...

yup

[Firbolg]

or her pms

dude, no man understands PMS.. best just to keep out of the way..