The artist formerly known as...

[Grimlock]

Hey Michael,

Here's wishing you all the best. I hope you do decide to come back sometime and share with us what you have found on your journey.

[priya]

Enjoy!

Have a fine time Michael and enjoy yourself!

best wishes for your journey,

Priya

[Jonny Say]

Dear Michael,

I echo the other forum members setiments and wish you all the best. I really enjoyed you inputs to the forum, they were eloquently stated, contained much heart and were very informative.

All the best

[Michael Udel]

Wonderful Day!

Feeling especially wonderful this morning and wanted to share a lovely picture of a nearby place called Plum Blossom Creek. Enjoy!

Best wishes,
Michael

[LeeWeiJoo]

That's a lovely place to train chi kung

How have you been lately?

With Shaolin Salute,
Lee Wei Joo

[Michael Udel]

Mid-Autumn Festival Decorations

Doing great, enjoying the lovely weather this time of year in GZ. The Mid-autumn festival is approaching and the park where I took the picture has gorgeous decorations in many places. Lots of mooncakes for eating nowadays.

Michael

[joko]

Hi, Michael.

How are you? Still practicing PGSG?
When I come to a park in my town in the morning, there is always the gentleman practicing PGSG at his regular place in the park. After seeing each other in several occassions, we became friends.

Have you seen in Sifu's website the picture of yours while attending the Intensive Shaolin Kung Fu Course April 2005?

http://shaolin.org/video-clips-2/intensive-3/shaolin25.html

Joko

[Michael Udel]

More beautiul scenery in Guangzhou

Hey, Joko! Sure I still practice PGSG, sometimes very early in the morning or during the sunrise. I just never know when I'm going to wake up with the urge to practice qigong these days...

Very cool that you spotted a PGSG student, and since both SW and PGSG students are friendly folks, I'm not surprised you two hit it off. Very cool!

Thanks for the link to the main SW site. Can't get there without proxy software, which is not always working, but it seems I'm "famous", and was promoted to Sifu, hah-ha!

Below is a picture from the Guangzhou Orchid Garden taken on a day blessed by perfectly clear blue skies, a steady and refreshing breeze, and a noticeable lack of air pollution, which is quite rare here in South China's Pearl River Delta: one of the world's largest manufacturing centers. I made the most of it and saw a lot of cool sites around town. Enjoy!

Best wishes,
Michael

[Darryl]

it seems I'm "famous", and was promoted to Sifu

In this case, 'Sifu' is given as a respectful address to an Instructor of another Art. If you have chosen to respond with mockery or ridicule, that is your choice.

I'm surprised to see you here, Michael. You wrote some rude and insulting things on another discussion forum, then come back here as if nothing has happenned. If you have had a change of heart, then I would of expected an apology. If you have not, then I wonder why you have returned?

[Michael Udel]

Don't sweat it, Darryl, there was no mockery intended. Not by a long shot! If you don't appreciate the pictures, that's okay I thought some people would like the scenery, which is why I posted them.

Michael

[Darryl]

Which still doesn't answer my question

[Andrew]

There are others who decided to leave but still come back and post nice pictures. Sometimes, though, it doesn't stay at pictures.

Andrew

[Antonius]

Thank you for the pictures, Michael. They are lovely.

However, I'm with Darryl on this one. I'm confused. What are you doing here? A while ago, you left this forum by your own decision after making some strong statements about Shaolin Wahnam and Sifu Wong. Despite your exit, you've been lurking on this forum for a while, and now you seem to be posting again. All of this is fine, but I would have expected some sort of an explanation and/or apology. To refresh your memory, here are some of the things you wrote:

I went to a Shaolin Wahnam Kungfu Intensive Course (5 days of practice) one year ago in Malaysia. I was totally new to kungfu and the course and remote learning didn't work for me so I eventually found a local Taiji teacher here in Guangzhou, with whom I've been studying for about 8 months. Prior to that, I learned the Beijing Orthodox 24 Form Taijiquan from a teacher in Plano, TX (Dallas area) and practiced for six months before moving.

BaguaMonk: I think your comments about Wong Kiew-Kit are very accurate. He works very hard to make sure people perceive him the way you've described. His books and online stuff have all been polished to a lustery shine over many, many years to make him appear reasonable and knowledgeable in everything he says. NOT that he isn't necessarily, but his public persona is what brings in the customers, so he doesn't answer on his forum. He does this monthly Q & A on his web site where he demonstrates his wisdom. It's generally accurate, but quite simplistic and always suggests much more than he actually delivers or has experienced. Not exactly bait and switch, but just a very suggestive and creative marketing approach to kungfu sales.

He tells a lot of stories of second and third hand experiences of other people doing qingong (art of flying), people walking through walls, and fighting, but on these topics, especially fighting, he's never said he had any of his own experiences, except a general reference to having been in a few fights in his younger days. His students seem to follow his lead and obviously believe that if someone else, somewhere, somewhen has done something, it means they can do it, too. Kind of like saying, "If Michael Jordan can slam dunk after a running start from the foul line, then I can, too even though I've never trained for it or tried to do it"

Kaitain: I enjoyed reading your non-confrontational posts on the SW forum. Somehow you managed to keep something of an actual conversation going despite all the attempts at sidetracking you with various nonsense. As I mentioned above, most of the SW students think that since Wong Kiew-Kit has mentioned that someone else did something years ago, it means they can all do it today after a year or two of practicing completely unrelated skills. You kept asking them quite simply if they ever trained what they're claiming, and most evaded your questions. In recent memory, you had the most productive conversation on that forum for an outsider. The accusations of disrespect will just continue to grow and perhaps become even more creative than their current approach of taking a poll on your level of disrespectfulness. If you're really inquisitive, they'll put an insult under your user name. If you like testing your ability to neutralize conflict, there's possibly nowhere better to go than the SW forum with common sense questions.

Best wishes,
Michael

So why are you here, exactly? Do you expect to waltz back in here without an apology and be welcomed back with open arms? You openly insulted Shaolin Wahnam, and publicly refer to Sifu without a title. Obviously, you are not longer part of Shaolin Wahnam.

Not that you ever were. Rereading your post above, it is obvious that you never got it. Somehow, you managed to completely miss the core philosophy of Shaolin Wahnam. We don't take things on faith, Michael. We take things on direct experience. How you missed this fundamental lesson, I don't know.

We don't blindly follow what Sifu says. Time and again, then things that Sifu says turn out to be true. He said that Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung would cure my depression, and it did. He said that classical kung fu patterns can be used for fighting, and I can use them. He said that I would be able to break a bottom brick with internal force, and I did. He said that clouds could be dispersed with chi, and they can.

It amuses me that you talk about us as if we are naive, as if we are being fooled by Sifu Wong. Michael, I am an experienced martial artist (15 years) from a tough karate school in NYC. I've had my share of street fights, many of which I've described in detail on this forum. Many of my classmates have as much, or more, experience.

And then there's Kai. Before meeting Sifu Wong, I would have been happy to call someone like Kai my sifu. Kai is one of the best masters I've met, and I've met some of the best. And yet I call Kai my sihing, not sifu because he chooses to be a student under Sifu Wong.

Michael, do you really think that we're all just naive -- dozens of us with 5-30 years experience who searched the world for masters and chose Sifu? Or maybe...just maybe it's possible that you are the one who is missing something?

[Michael Udel]

Just came to post the pictures, guys, not looking for a debate about who cast the first stone.

Cheers,
Michael

[Antonius]

A debate about who cast the first stone? Are you serious?