CMA - the Fountain of Youth?

[Hungfist]

Is CMA a fountain of youth? I believe the answer to this is a qualified yes. I know some Grand Masters that are advanced in years, chronologically, but not mentally or physically. Possibly the spiritual and physical stimulation of MA's prevent 'old age' from taking over.

Could it be breathing? Does it cleanse the mind as well as the body? Is anyone familiar with "Buddhist breathing" and "Daoist Breathing"?

Buddhist breathing is expanding the Tan Tien when inhaling. Good for health Chi.

Daoist breathing is expanding the Tan Tien when exhaling. Good for fighting Chi.

Does proper breathing and exercise combined with diet contribute to long life? It certainly couldnt hurt.

Could Qi Gong be the answer? Breathing exercises together with spiritual energy that develops life energy which unites the body, mind and spirit.

Any Comments?

[Eric Ling]

Pssssss...........Carlsberg.

The nectar of life. Consume enough, you'll think you're immortal!

That or you'll be too drunk to know the difference. ;D ;D ;D

[Wanderer]

Personally;

It is both mental and physical fitness.

When you turn 30, your body starts to age or to slow down. By practicing forms, your body is tuned to move to its full extent. These would slow the progression of arthritis in all joints.

When your turn 40, your memory starts to slow as well. By relearning or reciting, or rememorizing forms in 48 up to 108 moves, it helps to improve your memory.

I may say this. Because I am 43 now.

I still may recite Tai Ji Quan Jing by Wang Zhong Yuet.

I still remember 76 moves in Chen Tai Ji Lao Jia Yi Lu.

Of course, I am not as good as when I was in my 20's in the 1980's.

[Eric Ling]

Wanderer said:

Personally;

It is both mental and physical fitness.

When you turn 30, your body starts to age or to slow down. By practicing forms, your body is tuned to move to its full extent. These would slow the progression of arthritis in all joints.

When your turn 40, your memory starts to slow as well. By relearning or reciting, or rememorizing forms in 48 up to 108 moves, it helps to improve your memory.

I may say this. Because I am 43 now.

I still may recite Tai Ji Quan Jing by Wang Zhong Yuet.

I still remember 78 moves in Chen Tai Ji Lao Jia Yi Lu.

Of course, I am not as good as when I was in my 20's in the 1980's.

lalalalala I'll always be 25 lalalalala ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[WuWei]

Legend has it that many sages have searched for the elusive elixir of life/fountain of youth.

"Youth" is a relative thing. Turtles may live to be 150, but redwoods can reach a milennium.

I am convinced that youth in the human is largely a state of mind. I have met people aged 41 or 42 who are convinced they may only have 10 years left; conversely, I have known many 80 year olds who appear to look only 45 or 50 [Taiji practitioners and no].

It is also evident that our DNA is programmed to atrophy and eventually self-destruct.

That being said, there are a number of factors such as health, diet, environment, ect. Breathing is very, very important.

CMA and its permutations, with proper instruction, serve to facilitate this body/mind maximum state, but ultimately, it is up to us and our ability to choose.

As a side-note, it is interesting to consider the number of East Indian breathing exercises in light of the Tamo stories. Any comments?

[Eric Ling]

WuWei said:

Legend has it that many sages have searched for the elusive elixir of life/fountain of youth.

And one of these legends said that the Japanese are descendents of a Chinese mission team sent by the then Emperor (can’t remember which one) to search for this elixir.

Having failed in their mission, they were scared of returning to China to face almost certain death (by execution). So they stayed in the place known as Japan today.

Some Japanese friends told me they have a different legend about being “descendents” of China.

According to them, the Emperor (they can’t tell me which one either) wanted to produce a “perfect” race. So he ordered his sub-ordinate to select the top (??) 150 males and 150 females from throughout the country to be shipped off to a remote island to start this race.

This island is Japan and the “perfect” race is Japanese.

But off course when we tell each other these “legends”, we are loaded to the eyeballs with Carlsberg.hahahahaha.
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[essence]

Good day everybody.

A perspective that I picked up somewhere and I believe this to be very true.

Ever since anyone could remember, man has being trying to attain immortality. With time, different philosophies developed in order with different paths towards immortality, in China, mainly Buddhism and Taoism.

The Taoist priests in their search for immortality tried to refine this into the form of a pill which can be consumed to attain long life, even immortality, called a Dan (elixirs). Many herbs were used in numerous concoctions to find this elusive Dan.

Eventually, the Taoists discovered this Dan can not be developed by external means. This Dan is already located within the human body and it is plentiful. The only thing needed was to cultivate it. The location for this huge amount of Dan was the Dan Tien (literally translated Elixir Field).

The methods they developed to cultivate this Field of Elixirs became known as the internal arts.

Thus, I do believe that practicing CMA can give you a healthier life, not immortality, but I believe that it will give you strength when you are old. My Sifu, who has had the opportunity to have Dim Sum with the late GM Ip Shui, said that in while he was in his eighties, he could move faster than him or his friend if the situation warranted it. GM Ip's forearms also felt like, in the words of my Sifu, that there was a cannonball of muscle inside it. Very amazing stuff.

Another belief I have, you are only as old as you feel.

Warmest regards,
Tze Hou

[Eric Ling]

Hi folks,


I was actually going to stay out of this discussion but looks like topic is getting juicy, so here goes:-

1. As a kid doing Kung Fu, I was told by the older folks that abstinence from sex is one of the pre-requisite to attain good “gung li” and longevity. Implanted in forms and breathing drills are techniques to curb your libido. If this skill is taken to high level, you lose interest in sex altogether. Since most early kung fu originated in temples, both Buddhist and Daoist, abstinence from sex is a sought after way of life anyway; these kung fu are extremely successful in achieving this end. Comments?

2. If you stick to a strict vegetarian diet, you’ll live longer comparatively. In fact, I was talking to a lady the other day in my shop, who is a very staunch “Mi Le Fo’ follower. And she told me this is a requirement in their sect – absolutely no meat. Accordingly to her, when they cremate life-long vegetarians, they find pearls in the ashes. This is, purportedly, evidence that the person has reached some kind of a “holy” status. I read about the pearls but the holy status thingy; I am not too sure.

Since I am not a practitioner of either of the above , I am curious; any of you folks believe in these?

[essence]

Good day Eric.

Regarding the sexual appetite, I have heard of a different story. Nothing to account for the Buddhist side of the martial arts, but something to do with the Taoist one.

It is said, that man's desires are hard to control, lust, being one of the stronger desires. To overcome this, the Taoist have developed breathing exercises which help to overcome this desire by inducing an internal orgasm. As you have said, the secretion of sperm is considered a waste of vital energy, in fact, they are called Jin Chong, or worms of essence, coupled with saliva, they are the 2 most precious things a body produces. Thus, in order to reduce wastage, but knowing human's lust is a formidable opponent, they created a way of enjoying the orgasm without having to waste the sperm. Comments?

With regards to the pearls, my grandma always tells me that only Buddhist monks leave pearls behind when they are cremated due to their abstinence from worldly desires and helping the world. I am not sure about the theory of being a vegetarian all your life to leave pearls behind, because my grandma told me that Thai monks will eat meat because when they beg for alms and are given meat, they view it as being given by Buddha and so, are cleared to eat it, and they too will leave pearls in their ashes.

On another point though, I think being a vegetarian might give you better roughage from the fibre, and probably a healtheir life from less fats, but sad to say, I hate to eat vegetables (call them rabbit food), and I am a die hard meat eater. Another thing which has been told to me, if you are a pure vegetarian, you will be weaker than a meat eater, not sure where this theory is from, but from my grandma's lips again, so I hold this dearly.

Warmest regards,
Tze Hou

[CStephens]

. . . I would talk about sex and meat at the same time, but then I'd say you will have to pry my meat from my warm, unconscious hand, and I'd be misunderstood . . . let's leave it at that . . . ;D

[Hungfist]

essence said:

On another point though, I think being a vegetarian might give you better roughage from the fibre, and probably a healtheir life from less fats, but sad to say, I hate to eat vegetables (call them rabbit food), and I am a die hard meat eater. Another thing which has been told to me, if you are a pure vegetarian, you will be weaker than a meat eater, not sure where this theory is from, but from my grandma's lips again, so I hold this dearly.

Warmest regards,
Tze Hou

I love vegetables, but I dont think that I could ever just eat veggies - I believe the theory that vegetarians are weaker is because of protein.

If humans arent supposed to eat some meat, why do we have canine teeth?

[Suhana LIM]

[quote author=Eric Ling

2. If you stick to a strict vegetarian diet, you’ll live longer comparatively. In fact, I was talking to a lady the other day in my shop, who is a very staunch “Mi Le Fo’ follower. And she told me this is a requirement in their sect – absolutely no meat. Accordingly to her, when they cremate life-long vegetarians, they find pearls in the ashes. This is, purportedly, evidence that the person has reached some kind of a “holy” status. I read about the pearls but the holy status thingy; I am not too sure.

[/quote]

Eric ni hao
The so called "pearl" in the ashes of cremated Buddhist nun, you can see in one of old temple in Fujian. It's not actually white and shinny like pearl, but more off white color with diameter around 3 cm.
Cheers.

[Suhana LIM]

Da jia ni men hao

Regarding the "secret" of immortality, the Taoist is the most diligent in finding the answer.

wulin.proboards31.com/index.cgi?board=chit&action=display&thread=1098700845

Pardon me, a bit lazy to re type, the above are "the secret " of immortality from Taoist point of view.

Cheers.