Ishanga

This is True in most cases, not all though, like I said I did plenty of research on Chinese Martial Arts, and allot of others, I know for the most part who's who in Chinese Martial Arts, and Ralston's name never came up, but like I have been saying he does have skills for sure, if he trained allot and with the Masters he said he has then he has to have skills... and I agree that there are plenty of unknowns out there that are top level as well, when Bruce Lee was alive I bet there were a few unknowns at his level, but unknown and probably still today, my own 1st Sifu was an unknown, living in an isolated small town in Canada, but trained like a motherfucker and proved his skills a few times, but is basically unknown, he teaches and has schools but isn't high profile type person...

I'm telling You, I have history in this stuff, Chinese Martial Arts specifically, since the late 80's, researched a ton of it, specialized in Wing Chun, am telling You I've never heard of Ralston since I came to this forum, if he was so great I would have heard of him... No doubt he has skills, I've heard of his teachers and researched the styles he has learned, plenty of Americans went overseas to learn from these Masters, I just think he's a great promoter of himself in certain circles, not the main stream martial arts otherwise I would have heard of him before coming here...

You haven't researched enough, not going to tell You where to look or what the answer is, One has to find it for themselves for it too have value..

The Root of consciousness is Stillness and Silence, just like motion is routed in how Still you are, and Sound is rooted in Silence... Darkness is the root of Light, as there is more Darkness in the Universe than Light..

If Your trying to imply that we as a Human Race are not living up to our Potential I am with You all the way, I'm mostly talking about Potential, we can within Ourselves be very connected and One with most every living thing on the planet, at least for moments in time, if You want to live a regular life You cannot be in the experience and function, better to isolate in a cave and do it there, but You can be intouch with that sort of Experience and still function, and because of that your Behaviour and Outlook on Life is Transformed, You no longer use but give to all life as much as You can, Your naturally Blissful of Your own nature, no need to look for it outside Yourself, but you will probably still enjoy an Ice cream cone too, no problem with that..

What You guys are missing is the Experiential aspect of it. If I say You exist, then I say in my imagination but if I die then Your Dead, this is within MY EXPERIENCE only, it doesn't mean in objective Reality that You all are actually Dead , so the Experiential aspect is big time being overlooked here, if you add that one word in then it makes more sense, because all of our experience is only happening in one place, my experience only happens within ME, yours with YOU, if I die then in my Experience Your not longer here, when I am in deep sleep all the world disappears, but when I awake it reappears, all of this is in the context of Experience!

You might like to check this out, this Senior Couple have a Youtube page, they are Jamaican but they live in Hamilton which is just an hour south of Toronto, the Lady does cooking videos, but they do prank videos as well, this one is from a couple of years ago, super funny, the reactions are priceless...

The problem is I think, is that ppl are looking to Grand, the may have had Grand experiences via Sadhana practices or psychedelics and they cling to it, or something about it doesn't leave their immediate mind consciousness, like an obsession, so they neglect the little things that really make up life, the sun rising, the beauty of the trees and parks, the smile on someones face that is passing by you, this is all nothing compared to the "Grand" Experience.. Its funny, I read what these types say, then they start a thread about having social anxiety and/or addicted to a drug or situation, lol..This is for sure not a stable way to find Reality and Truth imo...

I think about this all the time lol. and I think I know why but I'll keep that too myself:)

Yes exactly the crazy that is right infront of ppl but they won't or can't see it because of belief blinding them, via experiential belief or otherwise, that I am the only one existing, but can help "others" when they realize the same thing, lol, its the exact same as crazy you see in hosptials! The arrogance around here is getting very apparent lately!!

No this is not what Seeking is about, Seeking is knowing "I do not Know", but our nature is too know, so You seek to Know. Yes everything that we "want" is already there waiting for Us to find it, but is it really in Your experience, if Your depressed all the time, where is this Bliss? You have to seek it, you have to find a way to experience it, that is partially why we have the ability to Experience it can guide us, intuition is a sort of Experience, use it wisely and you will find it what you want.. Yes Infinity has all the emotions and states included, what ppl around her forget is that we also have Free Will, or the Ability to Respond, and choose which emotion or state we want to be in, this is partially what it means to be Human, we are not like sail boats in the lake ruled by the wind and what direction it wants us to go, we can develop rudders to allow us to direct the boat where we want it too go, it is the same for our life direction and destiny, as Human Beings we should be 100% in control of this aspect of our Lives...

My post was concerning Human world, Human nature...In the Animal world there is lots of pain, not as much suffering, there is a difference for sure, pain is a necessity for all life, its like a guide or sorts, in the Animal world because of their natural nature which is limited they do what they have to do to survive, eat one another and such, for Humans it is different, we are not limited in our nature, there is not bottom or top line like in the animal world, we can live lke animals and/or below animal nature or way way above it, that is our choice, but very few are striving for this, most humans still live in animal sort of nature accumulating more everyday searching outside themselves for fulfilment, doesn't matter if your accumulating wood for the fire or another piece of jewellery its looking outside for fulfilment... One of the aspects of what it means to be Human is the we have choice given to us, choice to experience life within ourselves as we choose it to be, choose of how to live our outside lives as we choose it too be, choice is one of our capabilities, this is not available for most other life forms...we are the top of the heap in this way...

This is why it is so wrong to say that God or Reality/Existence/Absolute is Love, it is Possibility, that can Include Love and Hate and everything in between, when one goes to one side of it and says this is it, then it is as You all say around here Illusion and/or Imaginary. People will declare these things I think because it is lacking in their own life, what ppl want is what they are lacking, This is where Free Will comes into play, since we Humans are the only life forms on this planet and in the universe as far as we know, that has enough Intelligence, Awareness and Capability to be able to determine within themselves how intouch with Reality and Truth they want to be.. Those atrocities that happened in Nankin, they happened because those Humans were NOT intouch with Truth and Reality, if they were the whole war would not have happened, all suffering and atrocities happen because Humans are not intouch with Truth... Yes existence is all about the Spectrum of Possibilities, on that Spectrum is the Good and Bad, combined with that is our Free Will that we have to seek out via Awareness of what this Truth is all about, if you don't do this then the Atrocities will continue to happen as they are right this very day on this planet we call Home!

Ego, especially Huge Ones, luv to invent things that no one else will understand, they use to call it King of the Mountain, it was a game we used to play as Kids, as KIDS!!!

Well said, but with the word Illusion, like the word Maya is so often misunderstood, Maya means Illusion, but it doesn't mean that nothing exists, it means something exist but not as You think it is.. The present day challenge for most ppl is they mis identify with the Body and Mind, thinking/believing this is who they are, that the thoughts are them, this is Maya, the thoughts and body/mind are real, but You are not those things...You are Life itself, but embodied within a Body/Mind that has movement, actions and thoughts...these are tools we use, not what we are, while here in this Dual world dealing with it all, survival and ego structure and able to go beyond it to discover the Life we Are, that is why we are here...to explore possibility and potential, but that doesn't work well when You deny reality itself and think none of it exist in the first place, lol, this will lead one to insanity if they go this way...

They believe it because they think they know but they don't, its delusional in way, and it happens all the time in all sorts of areas of life, they want to believe it because it serves a purpose, more than likely an egoic purpose...

this is baloney lol... he would have done no such thing, trust me, if he could then he would have,,,Ron Van Clief a top level marital artist fought Royce Gracie at 47yrs old, got his ass wipped...just saying because ppl of age and status in martial arts where trying to represent and it failed, the gracies just had something unique that no one of that era could defend, now they can...

LOL, of course he is going to say he would win using it, lol, what else is a person like him going to say, he has a Huge Huge Ego, like many around here ..Looking at it objectively if he had learned the MMA methods, then for sure it would have made him more effective, but against who? If others are doing the same process as him, then it levels it all out, so it comes down to more personal attributes that are variables that know one can determine, it just comes out.. Ali was more than a graceful fighter than could slip punches and be fast as a heavyweight, he was tough as nails and had huge heart, he fought guys that hit like steam engines and still got up, had his jaw broken in 3rd round and went 15 rounds, so this is a variable for someone, it can't be taught, you either have it or don't...

Been involved with Martial Arts since late 80's, read all the magazines, seen so many videos on all sorts of styles/systems, participated in forums all over, never heard of Ralston until I came here, so what can I say lol... Even in Bruce Lees era, everyone always says he was the best, yes he was very very good and effective, but there were probably other guys at his level, maybe with different attributes and such, but I would say there were probably 10-20 other like him, different weight classes, and such, even my own 1st sifu was top level, trained like a bastard for years back in the 70's, so it not like today were everything is on the internet, there's greatness in all fields everywhere that are hidden, in Spirituality too!!!

No, the Gracies beat most everyone simply because their technique and strategy was unique (it wouldn't work today as well, as the fighters of today are ready for it) and because it is very hard to stop someone with grappling with You, if that is their intent, and most fighters of that day did not know about range control, perception ability, proper power and finese of movement, Bruce L really blew ppl away but his stuff was not main stream and it didn't sell because the main stream was making money and they stifled Bruce's stuff, he fought in street fights karate guys, kung fu guys, boxers and all sorts of fighters of all sizes and he blew them away quickly, he would enter in on them close range and blow them out as they didn't know what to do when he got that close to them...all the top level karate fighters (including Chuck Norris) came to him to learn...

High Levels of Consciousness have nothing really to do with Fighting, actually its a deterrent lol, Look at Bruce Lee, he had high level of "Understanding" of Consciousness, but he didn't achieve a high level within himself, but he could fight and react and learn like no one else, and he had a burning desire to prove it to all comers, its just his goal was not fighting in the ring, he knew it would give him brain damage (like Michael J White today, top level Martial Artist, could have competed but didn't want brain damage later on)... It looks like Ralston learned from high level teachers in China, I sort of recognize the teachers names, but all of these guys we relatively low level fighters compared to the Ali's, or MMA guys of today, they are pro's simply because they dedicate their lives to it, and they luv to fight, as Bruce L did...In my first organization that I was involved back in the 80's, they had a fighter that as well won the "World Title" in Kung fu, but its not really the World, its an association of sorts of different groups, there was no Money involved just status, then You have Frank Dux (the guy that inspired Blood Sport the Van Damme movie), he's a real guy and fighter/martial artist, he too says he fought in these underground Kumite tournaments, and they fought like 10-15 fights a day he says, I don't think that is possible, so its all Relative, yes Ralston has skills and for his day it may have been sort of high, but its not world class for sure...

When I saw the video of him challenging Sugar Ray and thinking arrogantly how he would do against him, I knew right then and there what sort of person he is and where he is on the path, not sure why ppl here give him creds really...

Isn't this an Oxymoron, if solipsism means only "I" exist, then what is there to do with this "most humans don't" stuff? Seem ridiculous to me, this whole adventure into solo existence seem narcissistic in a sense, just amplified egos on the rampage after too many trips to the moon...

Then the next 2 steps down would be to identify with being Human, then there will be no more problems with other Humans, you will know the difference btw Man and Woman, and what the roles are in play in whatever society/culture you live in, you play the game of Human Life, with no real attachments to outcomes (establish your Beingness first before any action in the world is taken, that means peace is my stable emotional base) as much as one that identifies too much with sex, race, religion, social status and wealth status, etc. A huge problem is ppl today have too many identities conflicting within, this causes huge problems and suffering within that person, they have no idea who or what they are on any significant level, so identify then with being Human, play the role You are in in a way that is fun like a game, I am a Man, I will play the Man role, caregiver, protector provider, can be very giving but strong minded and can love on a deep level, bla bla bla,.,

Who are You all Talking to if we are all imaginary, lol, this is the crazy that is present in the world, makes the world too chaotic, too much chaos leads to more suffering, and shit not working out, we need chaos to balance the stillness and silence, but this is out of control and even in place that is supposed to be Spiritual and Truth seeking lol... There is a You and I, no doubt, but we have individual inclusive experiences, all experience happens within us no where else, but others have this too, but we identify with our body or mind too much, it encapsulates us to believe that I am all that exists, when there is a full supporting system out there making our life possible as it is on this earth, which is only one possible realm of existence, we can experience life beyond this realm of existence, that is what it is, so life is many possibilities, not just Me and me creating imaginary dreamy ppl out there and discussing shit with lol, this is crazy beyond crazy...