Copy Cat

 Shao likes to do 10 forms by himself for his practice, with me observing, and not so much correcting, but just counting down the forms. I guess I should just be happy enough with this. Maybe when we are the same size, which will be soon, he will be more interested in various sparring drills. Or maybe not. Maybe he doesn't like the sparring stuff because he is out of shape (but so am I) and perhaps it just has to do with fatigue. Anyway, whether it is practical to only do forms or not, a lot of people just do forms. So what's the big deal.  With Dai, it has been difficult teaching him. But recently he has taken to doing "copy cat" In other words, I was just doing basics or stretching and he came over and started copying me without me asking him too. Weird right? Well not weird but weird for me because getting him to practice has and still is like pulling teeth. But as long as he can do copy cat and talk and have conversation while we are practicing he is fine with it. Is his technique always correct? No. But maybe he has to go through this stage where he develops the basics better while talking, which will help improve his forms and sparring. His forms he already knows. I mean he knows a few I had taught him and abandoned etc. Maybe we should just start running through them more often. I could use the practice too. 

Sword of light

 Scene

Peter sees Ming performing Kung Fu in Chinatown. He goes over and talks to him. Gives him advice on fighting. 

Ming asks him how to pick up women. 

Peter tells him the 4 Chinese rules of women and then jokes that he’s just kidding it’s all bullshit. But he’ll try to set Ming Up 

Scene

Peter meets with Karma  at her office. He is a community member that took a job with China International Association, a new organization that has become important in Boston’s Chinatown community.  

Peter brings  Take out.

Conversation etc. Drugs her and  begins searching apartment for certain Documents to bring to Uncle Tso 

(documents are statistics to the then soon to be built Tianamen Tower. (now already under constrcution with Offices already complete. Ucle Tso has offices there. Tianamen Tower, in addition to housing and commercial space it will have a quantum Transporter that can have whole communities instantaneously travel from China to the U.S. and vice versa. The problem is it only works 95% of the time fully. The other 5% the people seem to be trapped in limbo but this is covered up and it is said that they just go to other transporters. However, copies of people can be recreated without full memory and this is enough to make people believe that  they are okay. This documents have not been released to the public and could be damning to the Tianamen Tower project, which will be built in Chinatown. Furthermore President Trump plans on using the tower with Beijing to cycle through residents that are not “working out.” I.e., many people will be sent to China from Boston. Trump plans on using these transporters to secure the borders by having only a small way into the country. Also plans on having towers in Major cities to ship undesirable parts of the population to other parts of the world. Plans to use certain groups to build towers and other construction in the first place through training educational boot camps. Shape up or ship out!)

 Karma realizes she is drugged and texts her niece “Red Flower” which is an emergency code. 2nd niece calls the police and also begins a process that they had agreed upon earlier. 2nd niece goes to one of the family associations and takes a red cloth from behind the altar (something which nobody usually touches, and goe sto deliver it . Police come. Peter evades them by using Kung Fu Mind Trick. Plants Oxy in the room and has the police believe that it belongs to Karma. They believe Karma has overdosed and they take her into custody and into a hospital. 

Scene 2: 

2nd niece takes the T out to Malden. She calls Karma’s phone and she hears the voice of a thick Boston Irish accent for answer. She thinks that this is suspicious and remembers old stories about police corruption and also Mystical Kung Fu powers that people from China International Association possesses. A man tries to abduct her but  Ming (Luke) steps in and helps  fights them off.  2nd niece dials a code throws her phone at one of them and runs, grabbing Ming to come with her.  

The phone creates a small explosion. Ming is surprised. 

Ming: Are you lost? Do you have your mom’s number? We should call the police.

2nd niece: No police. I have to find Mistress Rose

Ming: Mistress Rose?

2nd Niece: She is in Malden somewhere. He sleeps in a different house every night. (she pauses suddenly inexplicably trusting Ming even though she does not know her) I need to give him this. (she shows Ming the red flower.)

Ming recognizes the flower as something he had seen once as a boy. You use it to tie onto the horn of a lion head.  His uncle Joseph had showed him when he was  making lion heads and selling them. The business never took off.  

Ming: My aunts name is Rosemary

(Ming decides to take her home. )

Scene

Ming is having dinner with his Aunt and Uncle, Joseph and Rosemary and introduces 2nd niece and explains, showing them the red flower. Joseph becomes silent. Rosemary  begins praying on a rosary.

She finishes and lights incense before a Statue of Mary (our lady of Victory) holding a sword.

(Rosemary or Rose was once a warrior of the swords of light.)

Joseph: You have to do what is right, and find your destiny. I can’t stop you, but I can’t really help you either. We have taught you Kung Fu up to this point in life, just for health and self defense. Remember those slow movements with the sword Auntie Rosemary taught you?

Ming is very confused. 

Joseph: you never liked them much, but you remember yes?

Ming nodded:

Joseph: They will lead you to a higher level of Light. They are part of the form called the sword of light. The power has to come from within you. I have never learned it but to me the moves do nothing.  and usually only a woman can manifest these powers. Auntie Rose was able to do amazing things when she was younger. but she put the sword aside, believing it was God’s calling  for her to help the worked in other ways. 

Rose: I taught you all I know Ming. There’s no more I can teach you, if you have the power as your mother did, it will manifest itself. But I can give you the sword she practiced with. (Rose produces a wooden Tai Chi Sword. Ming takes it thinking his Aunt is crazy and what the hell is he going to do with this but he doesn’t want to be impolite) 

Rose: Carry it with you from now on. Now we must help this young girl 2nd niece, is that really what they named you girl? I am sure that the meaning of this is that Karma is in trouble. We must rescue her. 

(Rose looks at Joseph) Do you think you can call in a few favors.

Joseph: I’ll rustle up some volunteers

Back story (may or may not be known to viewer

( two rings. one light, one dark, yin and yang. But they sometimes switched and intertwined. If the one ring met the other and got to close they could be pulled in together, ending both people. Ming’s mother in a rage, had stabbed her lover, Ming’s father. While she held her hands to his would the ring slipped into his body. Ming’s mother felt lost without the power of the ring and ran off into the wilderness somewhere. Ming’s father hadn’t been seen either. He was not a practitioner of the swords of light  and nobody knows what effect the ring had on him. )

Scene

Han: Hey Uncle

Long nods:

Joseph: Are you young men busy?

Han: (shrugging) Sorry we could not see you more often in Church. But business is going well. 

Joseph: Whenever business fails who is the first person you call to have you bailed out.

Han: Actually I call a lot of other people first. 

Joseph: But you is the first to actually answer?

Long: (Punches Han) Uncle is a good man. And we are just gangsters selling drugs and robbing people. But we still owe him. He has always helped us out even though we have turned away from god and still tries to instill good morals in us. 

Han: Look, I know you’re my godfather and all… but seriously I’m helpless. Maybe you should try and help someone else. 

Joseph: This time I need you to help me.

Long: Why us?

(Joseph opens a bag.)

Joseph: Sometimes being a good Christian means you follow a higher law. 

Han and Long stare inside bag. and look at Uncle Joseph: Uncle Joseph what the-

Long silences Han with his hand over his mouth.  and waits to hear Joseph. 

Joseph: Jesus said, if you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. …. 

Scene

Han, Long, Rose, Joseph, Ming, and 2nd niece go to rescue Karma.

 and blow up the transporter being built at Tianamen Tower.

Rose encounters Peter. She recognizes his spirit. (maybe unknown to viewer he is Alicia’s lover Ming’s father with a changed appearance.) Peter shoots them both dead. 

Second niece hacks into system and plants several bombs. She is captured. 

The bombs cause some damage but not much. 

Han Long and Ming escape with Karma. 

Later Peter decides to let 2nd niece go against Uncle Tso’s wishes. 

Uncle Tso sends for him and tries to talk to him. Peter agrees with whatever he says but throws the phone down smashing it. He feels his side where he was stabbed and where the ring is and tries to cut it out. He successfully does so, the magic healing powers of the ring allowing him to do so without spilling blood. He puts the ring on his finger. 

Pirate Sword of the Eightfold path

 

1. Pirate sword Bokken and the Eightfold path

Pretty much everyone was exposed to this. My father had taught me sword with a Chinese Cutlass. Something more like a machete. And yes I did teach that to people. But most people who learned sword used the Japanese Katana or the wooden Boken to practice because that was what was around. The machete…. Well it started to be less used. First of all carrying around a machete says “killer” or “gangster.” But a wooden bokken is more artistic. Plus in L.A. some of the law enforcement even use the boken as a restraining tool and we even had a little crime watch group that did the same thing, like Jedi Knights! Lol.

In a way I created this form. The moves were simple. I would draw a picture of the wheel of the eightfold path, the same wheel used as a concept in our fist fighting. I drew it on the wall in chalk outside the building or a piece of paper taped or hung somewhere. I mean it doesn’t take an artist to draw a circle with 8 spokes and four lines going through it right? So the first thing you did was just make strokes following the path of the lines. I actually got the idea from watching a TV special about the Napoleonic wars and how the Brits had thrown out all their sword play in favor of this drill because their officers were cutting off their horses ears doing the old stuff and so they took a more scientific approach. I had done much the same thing, not because the old stuff didn’t work, but it was tiresome to teach to unmotivated people. But you draw a picture and had them to cuts outside and you didn’t even have to watch them. It was easy and they felt like it was better than the “fancy stuff.” You could say I didn’t even have to teach them, but next came the lectures. 

Obviously even though I might have started doing the drill at the same time as a newcomer, my Kung Fu background and everything I brought to the drill made my cuts different. Of course once people began to specialize at this, practicing for hours a day.. I also got feedback from them and began to learn too. 

But the thing about this drill, this sword that most applied to real life was not the cuts, but rather what happened spiritually. I brought all my Lion’s strength to each cut. It was a meditation that helped you “steal” enlightenment. It was quick and short. It was difficult to hold that enlightenment but you had it for the time of that stroke. So you understood what you were working toward with all the meditation stuff we did. 

Then, you could envision the wheel when you were out and about in life. And talking to someone, or a crowd or dealing with the situation, much the same way yoru lion could go and and attack people, you could imagine your enlightened self cutting through the eightfold path… stealing enlightenment… or at least the answer to the situation. In other words or little Jedi-like crime watch group encountered many situations where they used their spiritual bokken and cut through the situation. By being able to think clearly, they discussed many situations. A lot of these guys were businessman and said that they regularly used it at work in meetings, decision making and speeches.. Cutting through the crowd or whoever they were negotiating with. At this level they obviously surpassed me because they brought an experience of the corporate world to the drill that I simply did not have. But I listened as the students became my teachers. Eventually I had a being that I could send out in addition to my lion… and sometimes I even had an attack. 

I was able to use my father’s sword or perhaps the enlightened sword or even Guan Yin’s sword. When I say this, I mean a powerful sword that can cut through anything. It can cut through sickness and heal and bring someone back from the dead. It can kill someone too. Where was this sword? Basically any sword could be theis sword. Any stick. In fact, even holding my hands and imagining one in front of me. That could work too, though I will say not as well. What worked the best was the sword I practiced with every day because my spirit went into that sword and slowly it transformed… through a form of transubstantiation, and in the moment of attack it became a heavenly sword tied with all the heavenly mythical swords of the past, much like the body and blood of Christ was just wine and water but even more than that. 

In many situations I went through the motion of cutting and really visualized that eight fold path before me, the path to Buddhahood and in one strike I stole Buddhahood, a Pirate Buddha like my father, but at that moment I was tied to my father and my mother and in fact I believe that were it not for these moments in their future, beyond their time, they would not have been able to break through the spirit world to have me. I sensed it all was one. 

But I have healed people on their deathbed, in the hospital I breathed out making the cutting motion and sometimes even cried out. Nurses would com rushing in and suddenly the patient, a young girl, woke up from a coma. People say it is coincidence and then why don’t I do it every time? Well I don’t know how it works. But look at the powers I know that I have? How can I deny it? I just don’t talk about it that often. In any case that young girl later focused on healing arts and surpassed me. It was true I could not heal with the sword of life every time. But she became much more powerful and reliable than I, healing people with her hands and thoughts even at distances. 

Some people wondered if I didn’t give her this power.. Losing it all when I healed her. It makes a good story and explanation, but essentially it is a myth to explain science. A creation story to explain whe things are the way they are without proof. For proof, people always site the placebo effect. But let me ask you. What exactly is the placebo effect? Why doesn’t THAT work every single time? And if you heal something just with your mind… isn’t that even more incredible than my explanation, especially since our healer, who we nicknamed the little Lady and then the Lady Vivian of the Lake, because she liked to hangout and pray near water.

2. Celtic Cross Shilelagh 

The Celtic Cross Shilelagh was very simple. It was a concept form, much like that eight spokes bokken. Except that you faced different directions and switched to many different grips. But it wasn’t a set way to do it exactly. But you had to follow the pattern of the cross. That is to say, you went backward and forward and faced all four directions. Then you also went in a circle. But their were many ways to go in a circle. Clockwise and counter-clockwise. Facing in and out. Going backward and forward, sideways. Everyone took their own interpretations who learned it and they brought their martial arts to it and changed what they did based on what others were doing. Inside this concept there were also other concepts of how to perform. 

3.Father the Oar

I used this terminology from Christianity. The child that learned it, I called him Dai Si. He focused on slow methodical stepping much. Dai Si looked like a High priest even at the age of 5. I’m not sure if he could really fight like that. He was a serious child and did not get into many fights. Though I heard he had indeed dropped a bigger boy who attacked him, pulling out a nightstick he had concealed and whacking him in that methodical Samurai-like manner, with power and conviction but not crazed violence. Against a stronger opponent? I don’t know, he was just not the type and nobody wanted to mess with him, as he did not mess anyone else. 

4. Son and Snake the Gun

This boy I called Linghu Chung. He was fast and focused on technique instead of methodical power. He was a fighter and a scrapper but happy go lucky. He was in many fights and often got out of them through trickery and with his tongue as much as with technical fighting skill. In this one you combine the good with the tricky and evil. Well “evil” is an interesting concept, the idea is you use knowledge because the snake showed the way to the tree of knowledge to become like God. In the Christian story he is evil. But you don’t have to see it that way. Linghu Chung also learned the gun skills and took up hacking and programming as well. He is a little rascal. He made quite a bit of money too. He is good at heart though and I love him. 

There was also a skill of how to shoot that he taught. It wasn’t that he knew how to use all these guns but actually just one. A small 22. He said you didn’t have to learn much. Just go into the abandoned factories in the bad parts of Philly, in the abandoned houses.  You take an air gun and just practiced pointing and shooting so that you can shoot by instinct. Also, instead of just shooting the bullets, which may have your fingerprints on them or can lead to a certain gun… you cut the bullets. That way when they hit something, like a bone, the bullet will split into many parts, shattering the bone.. But more importantly destroying the bullet so that it isn’t traceable. He taught this on the street more than in the school, as MMA attracted a lot of law enforcement and frankly, teaching that type of street martial art was bad for business. But yes, it came from my knowledge which I gained from my father’s stories and dreams. But maybe those dreams came from elsewhere. I don’t know. 

 5. Holy Spirit

This was a girl. I just called her Rose and they may have even been her given name. I just believed it fit.  She eventually moved on from the shilelagh to using a Tai Chi sword of wood. She fought like she was possessed but with that calmness along with the crazed motions. By studying with the other grandchildren, she developed healing powers on her own. Of course I would check in on her and give her pointers, but honestly by age 9 she has surpassed me. At that point I had her heal Kidu if I was there. She was simply better than me, no doubt about it. She also fought. Not on the street, but she took up Muay Thai. She was not the best fighter and she would get hurt and I worried for her because she was a beautiful girl. She told me that I shouldn’t worry about her because I had so many grandchildren. She told me that when the time was right she would only have one child and then practice chi cultivation for the rest of her life. I was taken aback by this comment even after having a child like Shamhat. But I didn’t stand in her way. She did get hurt in the ring but she was able to heal herself, always within three days. She actually left us to travel the world. I see her in my dreams and I believe she is talking to me, if you believe that sort of thing. It would be nice if she Facebooked me or something but she doesn’t do that. She sends me strange things by mail. Ping On Fu talismans, jade necklaces, different things like that. She writes short Haiku like notes with these gifts and I know it is her even though she draws pictures instead of signing her name. She is strange but aren’t we all?

(These should be in poems!!!!) Outside the City--- culture to nature***

7. Dragon-Long

How does a Dragon fight? What is a Dragon anyway? A made up creature? Well I taught Long the dragon claws and a bunch of kicks in the air and on the ground. He actually became quite the MMA fighter. Although he practiced throwing the eye strikes all day in the ring of course he just threw punches. He was very popular with young people because he could do the high flying acrobatic kicks as well. But he was still grounded in Bak Mei like steps and dragon strikes.

Dragons, are snakes really. They are snakes that have adapted and can fly and take on all the royal attributes of different animals. Dragons can have horns or antlers. In Tibet they have elephant trunks. In Europe they have wings. Because they can adapt, they can survive. And they are also immortal. Long was very reptile like, good at business and stocks and the truth is when he became my student he was an old man. You may ask how he is then my student, as he seems to be doing so much better than I when it came to business and reptilian calculation. But we met in the other plane and he came in to ask me about dragon strikes and he practiced them. We didn’t need money anyway, but he supported the school both financially and also through connections. I have members of my school teaching at so many office buildings and businesses all over the world because of Long. Sometimes for free yes, but many more times paid. Even if it is only the teacher that gets paid and not me.. And a lot of times money does come back to me… it helps my position. It has enabled me to be a strong dragon crossing the river, traveling to oethr countries not just as a tourist but as a respected master teaching a lecture. Bu the secret is not so much in the art. It is the set up before hand, the relationships laid down. And a lot of that is from Long, and he opened a lot of doors to the 17 other disciples as well as their students and even the regular MMA or Kung Fu guy out of my school. 

8. Tiger

I put all the cats together. Lion Tiger Leopard. Mao was taught to a girl. She won a few fights but to be honest it simply did not interest her to fight for money. The money part was good. But it was lik eth fighting was too much work. She adapted her movements to a more Yoga like pace and made videos every day. She ended up making more money as a Youtube star than fighting. Besides all she had to do was hang around with Long at the fights. She had her fights so people knew she was the real deal. But in her classes it was all poses. People would ask her what it was for and she said, “Stretching” even if it was a strike or a throw. 

9. Fire Eagle- Ying

I put all the birds together as well from Crane to Eagle to Swallow. All into one style of fighting. Ying  was crazy. She fought but not for money. She ended up losing an eye in a street fight and replacing it with a glass one. She went into the world of finance and succeeded in ways outside te martial arts. She taught in her offices. She did not produce a large amount of fighters mainly because her students were rich. I mentioned this t her and she immediately took in a few kids from the streets, she scouted them and trained them and they succeeded. Feng was only 10 years younger than me. Kadija thought we were lovers and was extremely jealous. I will admit we did sleep together once or twice. But mostly our relationship was not romantic at all. She was a very hard woman and business like. Cold almost. 

 10. Elephant- Yi Jerng

This man was actually older than me. He learned the elephant form and well, he actually was not a fighter at all. But he did practice and he did get the techniques. He was not that inspiring of a man actually and I was really afraid that maybe I had picked the wrong person….but he ended up coaching some people that were already fighting and they found value in what he showed them.. Not so much because he could kick their ass, but more because being such a non-fighter, he still held them at bay. They were able to take the same techniques and win street fights. We had his corwd of students too. 

11.  Monkey- M Hong.

M Hong learned the money. She was pretty mad that she got money because most girls.. They don’t want to be called a monkey. But she got together a group of children and taught them. They made very good break dancing crew. Could she fight? She was fast and playful just like a monkey. And yes, she could grab the eyes and testicles quickly. But her real skills were at thievery. Like I said, I taught everyone and even after she burgled places I continued to teach her. I asked her to stop not so much because of morality, but I feared she would get caught. I think she still does steal. And she has trained students to do the same. But they do not steal from the poor and they give to charity. It was Phoenix that finally convinced M Hong to stop. She showed her how stupid it was to steal a little when you can make a lot legally. 

12. Horse-Mary

Mary was fast and flexible. She sometimes worried that her thighs were too thick and had troubles with body image. She had been a marathoner before she became on of my disciples. I told her to focus more on how practicing the art of running made her feel instead of how she looked.  He would hold stances for a long time as stretches and did a lot of kicks in addition to her running. By the time she came to us she was past her prime in terms of physical ability, but she really didn’t learn many techniques from us so much as philosophy and a sense of belonging. She had been down and out… in fact homeless when I first met her. With our help she had a place to stay and a base to organize a running group which also practiced kicks the kicking art. She organized a whole group of homeless people to do this running club and got the attention of the city. Soon she was back on her feet and had a job in government. She was one of the main reasons why our school started to be viewed in a more positive light, first by people outside of the Kung Fu community, and then once that happened, we were leaders. Even if people thought badly about us, they couldn’t really say anything bad about us. Anyone who did would simply lose new students. 

 13. Jelly Fish-Jen

Jen was not really into Kung Fu, and the powers of the jellyfish were more about identifying certain plants and .. well making drugs. I will admit it, we sold drugs for a while. It was in tea form and made from plants that were all legal. But when combined with certain music and sounds and hypnosis and bathing in water it made you high. But it wasn’t bad for you. Some people found it de-stressing. We got a lot of hippies in our group from this class. People would come in once a month just to get the treatment For self defense, people learned how to rub certain ointments (homemade) on their skin. Through diet, etc, they became immune, but others would feel and stinging and burning sensation when they touched them. This actually was quite effective for women who were defending themselves against a sexual assault. 

But the jellyfish was more than just this. The jellyfish is not attached to any land or place. It floats on its own and she does not bother and sting anyone who doesn’t touch it, and if you were to touch her on the head, she will not sting you. In other words, if you were to appeal to her intellectually to talk with her you will be fine. But if you wish to take by force the tentacles.. The jellyfish or the portuguese man of way, a close cousin, or the box jellyfish, can make you suffer. Jen was a very subconscious like person and I saw her in the river of time and the Cedar forest often. I believe she became superior to me in these arts of the mind. She would float in and out of the school. Her practice was a sort of floating dance, similar in concept to Tai Chi but very much different in how it looked. It looked kind of crazy and the goal was not so much fighting as getting into that trance like state. She made people uncomfortable. Or rather, she made the MMA type people uncomfortable. 

Jen also had a ground fighting style though. It was also strange because she lay on the floor, like a jellyfish on line. In many ways she looked dead and flopping around. She looked completely vulnerable… but again, getting close to her she could sting you with her legs and hands which moves seemingly slow… however with a sudden movement she would sting you. Nobody would want to gett down and grapple with her. Her legs hurt to touch so how do you pass her guard. She adapted or wrapped when you tried to just kick her. Now she couldn’t chase someone down like a predator. But she was a formidable fighter.

Jelly fish can also regenerate, and so the same limbs that could sting could also help heal. She knew how to massage life back into those that seemed injured or almost dead. 

 Octopus- Daisuke student of Jen

Daisuke had studied all sorts of jiu-jitsy before he came to us, both Brazilian and Japanese and was already an accomplished MMA fighter. He actually came into the school to challenge me, thinking I was one of these fakes that tricked people into believing in the Force or something. I distracted him with my lion and then quickly punched him in the solar plexus and then choked him out. He was strong, so it is true, had I just used my lion, he would have been able to fight through it. He would have felt drained of energy the next day, but in the meantime he would have beaten the crap out of me . I trained in grappling with him. The truth was, in straight grappling… he was just better than me. He could submit me easily time after time. But he knew, from that first fight that I could take him in a full out fight. He also realized my lion was real and if I used it in grappling… well I’m not saying I would win, but I would probably be able to get away and seriously twist or strain something of his by convulsing and biting like a wild animal with tremendous strength. I.e. in a life or death situation he would not want to grapple me. But in a sparring match, he dominated. E would explain this to students. In any case, he brought in a lot of students because he had had a name before he came to me, and he made quite a bit of money promoting MMA fights and scouting the young men and women at our school. 

14.  Fish- Yu

The fish techniques are ground techniques too. Yu, a skinny man, was able to swim across the ground and close the distance and wrap around you swallowing you hole. He was also a great swimmer. But there were striking tecniques too with the flicking of the hands. A palm strike that was like the tail flicking out that could knowkc someone out or at least distract them while Yu wrapped them up.  

15.  Sun

The Sun is bright and powerful. This Chi Gung is more about physical activity. It can be used in any sport. I had a bunch of students from this. I guess the closest one was Kidu. But it was more lecture style. You could argue it was nothing much to master as it was so common. A technique to zone out while you did whatever sport you did and simply help you burn brighter and stronger and hotter. Basically you meditated and got in the Zone. However, people noticed a huge differece between having learned about in on Youtube or in a book or lecture by Shamat or Kidu, versus meeting with me and working on it with me… as if I was able to pass on some light to them. I don’t understand it. Maybe it is placebo effect. MAybe it has to do with my lion spirit power.   

16. Moon

The moon reflects the light of the sun. But this isn’t how the moon was viewed to the uneducated man of the nature. The moon is light within darkness. Night is of course the earth turned away from the sun. But mythologically it represents much more. Sleep, darkness, another universe… because even though we now understand more about our universe, you still have to admit that how we dream may be more affected by that cave man’s brain than we would like to admit. 

The Moon shifts and changes shape. It can seduce and entrance. This is the power of Jedi mind tricks of a sort. But it was always women that mastered this. I guess the true master of this is Shamat. Did I teach her? I introduced the ideas to her and showed her some techniques that I really did not understand the meaning of. I talked to her about her mother and I… which you may think would have been awkward because it did involve sexual position. I just showed her the moves. And I guess she developed the rest on her own. I guess I cannot even really count this as one of my skills. I do not fully understand it. I only know what happened between me and Kadija and Kadija knew nothing of these arts. But this art came out and perhaps I put it into my old memories of conversations with my father… I don’t know. Time seems linear but again we know it is not. And even the cave man could perhaps view time as cyclical instead of linear. 

17. Poison Frog

We called this guy Hammo Gong and sometimes Ouyang Fung. You could say it was mean or at least politically incorrect. He had been in a car accident and his back was all hunched over. So he came to us for treatment. Through healing arts, exercises, chi, a group of us worked on him. And in the meantime I taught him frog Kung Fu. He still had slight atrophy for a long time, but now, after ten years of work he is almost standing up straight. In any case, he is as slouched as a lot of normal people. 

He also learned a lot of poison arts and for healing we took some drugs that Jen had mde and with her created some new ones. His daughter ended up studying chemistry and so really as a group they complete the whole Poison frog idea, not him by himself. 

18. Tree of Knowledge

This starts off as mainly the ability to recognize poisons and food in the plant kingdom. But later you develop the power to speak to plants and learn from them and even give them orders. You can call on them to bear fruit for you. One could say it is a gardener’s skill. But it is very powerful if you must hide out in the wilderness. In fact the disciples of this skill are the true warriors all over the world. And they are many. 

So I did go to school. I got my GED while taking care of Samhat and even took some programming courses and was able to get some Data entry jobs contractually at different companies. I always only could get the entry level job and I had to jump from job to job. In this time my mother passed away and we buried her in a Catholic cemetery outside of Philadelphia. I had actually never bothered buring my father’s ashes, so we buried them together. 

I continued with life, working and making okay money. 

But after a year or two of this. Kadija became dissatisfied again.

“Are you just going to jump from job to job like this your whole life? Is this how you see yourself, as some Computer nerd slouching over the screen for someone else to make money?”

I was really starting to become angry with her now. What did she want? Why wouldn’t she get off my back.

“I haven’t seen you practice your Lion Dancing for a long time now. Do you even remember how? Do you only just see yourself as a machine, like the machine you work on?  I have talked to your mother a great deal. I talked to her when she was alive and I talked to her now when I sleep. Do you? Do you even dream? She wants more for you than this. She and you father did not travel from the spirit world to this one so their son could click things on a computer. And Shamhat, she is supposed to be special too. But how will she be special with such a mediocre Father. You are not the man I fell in love with. That 15 year old boy who roared like a Lion was more of a man than what you are now. That 15 year old boy would be ashamed of you if he saw you. Are you still even in there? I don’t know how you do it, but you must recapture your lion essence.”

Well, I joined a local Kung Fu school that did Lion Dance. I did find some comfort in it, some place. I paid homage to their altar of Kwan Gung, sometimes called the God of war. Though he was really the God of Justice and Loyalty if anything. I played the drum. I did the lion head. People were surprised how alive I could make the lion head. Some of the young teenagers could do many tricks with the head, and since I looked to be not much older than they were, most people would expect that my lion dancing would be like theirs, with an emphasis on acrobatics. The old men and women were surprised to see that my lion dance was completely different and had a spiritual power to it. The teenagers flocked around me and wanted to learn from me, which made the Sifu somewhat jealous. 

He tried to get one of the larger men, a bit older than I was, to challenge me. I was not able to send my lion out to attack him. But my fist hit him in the solar plexus and he collapsed that way. After that I decided not to go there anymore and spent my time at home again with Shamhat. 

“What of it?” Kadija complained. Find another school. Or maybe you should go back to the source. You said you no longer can send your lion out. Well travel to China then! Do Lion dance there.” And from then on I did. In the summer time, I went with Shamhat and Kadija to Hong Kong. We stayed their the whole summer. Kadija taught English and I stayed with Shamhat at a Kung Fu school most of the day to do Lion Dance. It was fantastic and we had a lot of fun. Slowly, slowly I began to feel my lion again. My path back toward the Nian, or the Lion, for I was beginning to understand they were one and the same was opened up. 

In the Fall we came back and when Chinese New Year came around the local Kung Fu school sent some students to the Philadelphia house. They asked if I could come in and teach Lion Dance drumming for a bit and help out for Chinese New Year. I did. The Sifu had been jealous of me but realized that after all, I was not trying to steal his students or anything and there was no need to be like that. Also, he had lost some top students and the newer group was not as good, and he was not feeling as healthy as he once had. In other words, he needed help, and he was asking for me to do it for free. I obliged, as long as I could bring Samhat with me. She was two now. 

The Following Summer the family travelled to Malaysia and we did the same thing. Kadija taught English and Samhat and I did lion dance. This time I started to pick up some tricks of how to do things on the poles and I learned about the competition style lion dance. It was different, but I still had fun. 

Time past like this but Kadija began to get dissatisfied again. “This would all be fine if you were a normal person. But it honestly makes no sense for you to be learning Lion Dance from other people. You have been able to tap into something much greater for a long time now. None of these people know the Nian the way you do. Why are you avoiding it? Do you still think that your lion is the devil?”

“My lion and the Nian are not the same thing.”

“Aren’t they? I learned that there is One God. I’m not here to argue religion with  you. I am just saying perhaps they are aspects of the same being. Perhaps you cannot send you Lion out anymore because you deny the one you are afraid of. The Nian that was in your dreams as a child. You must confront him.”

“I don’t know how to do that.”

“Well learning dance moves from these people no matter where they are in the world will not help.”

“What the hell do you want!” I yelled at her now. 

“I don’t know! It’s not what I want. I am a teacher and that is fine for me. I have a daughter and I never thought I would. I thought I was too old. But i have her now. And that is a big deal for me. But for you, you cannot just go learn Lion Dance from Masters who are not even close to you every summer and help some local master during Chinese New Year. That is not enough. Is that your mission in life? Why don’t you do something bigger? Something more impactful! Instead of just running around in circles all over the world looking for something. Why don’t you plan out something greater!”

“Like what!”

“Baba.” said Shamhat now, “Mommy teaches. Why don’t you teach too.”

“I do teach.”

“But why don’t you have your own school. We can teach together. We can teach people the real lion dance. And Mommy can teach Math and Science and English.”

“What do you mean start a school?” I said dismissively at first. I held Shamhat and played blocks and painting and writing stories with her. 

“And” She said, “I can tell them stories. I can help teach too.”

This was hours later that she said this so I said, “Tell who stories? Teach who?”

“The students at the school.” Shamhat said

“Children?”

“There can be children and adults. It can be a true school. Like the Temples or the schools of olden times.”

“What do you know about olden times.” I laughed.

Shamhat looked at me. “I can bring them true civilization, and teach them not to fight each other. I can tell them stories and restore balance.” 

She kind of scared me then, my daughter. And I realized that she probably was special And perhaps this school idea was not to be laughed at. 

 

Book 4: A School

“You have to plan it out.” Kadija said. 

“I don’t know how to write a business plan.”

“What you want and how you plan to get it. That is a business plan. Then you bring it around to different people. You talk to people who can give you feedback, connections and money. So you have to start. What is your vision. What do you want.”

I wrote something out. It was based on things I saw in my neighborhood growing up and now, from conversations with Kadijah and my mother and Uncles and Kadija’s family. It was from what people on TV complained about what was wrong with the world. Because for me, I saw the world and it’s problems as poetic metaphor. Something to wonder at and at best to swim in and go with the current. I didn’t see it as something to be fixed. But this is what I thought Kadijah wanted me to do. 

School

Middle School- High school- Adult education

The school will bring groups together and allow for networking from student to people who have already joined the workforce. Kung Fu and Lion Dance will be a major part of the school day for children. The children in turn will teach adults Kung Fu and lion dance when they come in after work. The school will provide food and a place to sleep for families that may need this option and childcare so that working families have a safe place to keep their children. 

The school will develop the children’s bodies and minds. Not in a way that is a pipeline to prison, but in a way that will make them stronger and smarter every day. They will also learn to work together as a community to make the community stronger. 

They will work on some of the school type work problems on Khan Academy on the computer. At their own pace. And Middle School students will try and take their GED as quickly as possible. But that is not the only place they will learn math or English. They will be Blogging everyday, that is how they will work on their writing. They will run small business stands and that is how they will practice math skills and social interaction. They will work, not so much for discipline, but to get those skills and to show them that they are able to do it. They will learn programming and do some Data entry for companies who should donate money to the school. At the end, when they graduate, they will have the network available to get a job. And then they can help the younger students at the school. In terms of history, and literature. They will simply read these books in small groups with adults. In terms of tests they will simply take the AP tests that are already out there. No need to have more testing other than that. A test for a purpose, a skill for a purpose. They will learn music and instruments and they will perform them on the street, providing the community with music, and raising money for the school.

“Yeah well your going to need to work on that. You need to show what the problems are, how you are going to solve them and what you need to solve them.” Kadija said. 

So I wrote something else out. 

 

The Problems

1. Dangerous environment

2. Fractured Community and relationships

3. Distressed minds

4. Unhealthy Bodies

5. Lack of motivation

6. Lack of artistic output

7. Lack of Purpose

8. Lack of structure and support

9. Lack of Tools to make a living

10. Lack of Culture

How to Solve Them

A)Working on the Self

1. Group Meditation

2. Chi Gung and Yoga

3. Martial Arts and Self Defense

4. Gardening

5. Composting (Humanure Composting

6. Drumming

7. Music

8. Painting

9. Lion Dance Mask Making

10. Programming Classes

11. Reading, Writing, Math

12. Trades: Carpentry, Landscaping, Electrician

13. Engineering

14. Games- Chess, Go, Chinese Chess

15. Resume Building, College Placement

16. Social Media and Digital Story Telling

B)Working Together

1.Push hands

2. Two person fighting forms

3. Lion Dance Team. Practicing and Performing

4.Sports, teams, competition Dragon Boat

5. Dragon Dance- Practicing and Performing

6. Small Businesses- Lemonade Stands, Snow shoveling, Raking leaves, Paper routes. 

7. Organizing- Get out the vote, cleaning up parks, Events and festivals, 

C)Real World Applications

1. Networking

2. Resumes and hand ups

3. Starting real Businesses

4. Meeting or Organizations

5. Pushing for Change

6. Campaigning, Lobbying, Politics

What I need to Solve them

1. Endorsements

2. Money

3. Location

4. Equipment

5. Teachers

That was my outline. And then I filled it in the best I could. 

The Problems

1.Dangerous environment

Violence, Drugs, and STDS are not new to the inner city or the suburbs. Violence can be in the home, on the street, or at school. It can be gang related, it can be sexual assaults, it can simply be drug and alcohol related. The answer  is usually to “get the kids off the street.” However this answer assumes that the kids are the only ones committing or being victims of these crimes. And it also assumes that the street is an inherently dangerous place. Why is a neighborhood dangerous and another is not? Getting the kids off the street is one step. The next step is getting them back on the street to effect change. But we will come to that later

In addition to the danger of being a victim of violence, there is also the temptation to be sucked into something like drugs or joining some illegal activity. As a society we tend to focus on the kids on the street. However, drugs and illegal activity are also prevalent in Finance. Cocaine and Insider Training and White Collar Crime are also rampant. Though they are not punished as severely among that class. USually the response to this is blame and scapegoating. Whether you are blaming marginalized groups such as the poor, racial or ethnic groups,  or immigrants, or you are blaming powerful groups such as the police, politicians, or the rich. The tactic is the same. Blame and Scapegoating. Let us all agree first off that the environment is indeed dangerous or at least problematic.

In terms of Sex. Whatever the environment, some form of sexual violence, unhealthy sexual relationships, or simply spread of disease or emotional underdevelopment pervades our society regardless of race class and other labels that separate us. Again there is often scapegoating. Usually this is the blaming of religious groups, politicians, progressive groups, or even blaming sex itself. With Violence, Drugs and negative sexual activity (which somehow often gets lumped right in with healthy emotionally equal sexual activity as all of it being bad or taboo) What is left is a fractured community, fractured families, and a fractured society and nation. 

2.Fractured Community and relationships

You only have to turn on the news to see how fractured we are as a society. There is an us versus them mentality when it comes to policing and being policed, our education system, how we buy things, and how we label each other in terms of race, sexual orientation, gender, religion… and now generation, class, immigration status, type of work you do. Recently I have seen so much negative propaganda on my social media about “Millennials” or “Liberals” or “Conservatives” or “Gentrifiers” and then the code words for the age old labels have changed from the N word to Urban, or Inner City,  or even “Diverse.”

If we are so busy fighting each other how can we ever work together to get anything done? Perhaps to affect positive change and shape our environment to benefit ourselves and the environment itself. 

3.Distressed minds

Most of the “distress yourself” marketing tends to be geared toward the upper classes. Young white women in fancy Yoga pants who are taking time off from their day as CEO to  tap into some inner peace. I ask you this. If the upper class is stressed out, can you imagine the “kids on the street?”

Can you imagine the amount of stress in the ghetto? But even here there is blame and scapegoating. I do not know how many times I have heard wealthy doctors complain about the lower classes saying that they probably have it better because they do not have to worry about the same type of bills, because they are on welfare or what have you. I have not heard as much blame from the working poor going upwards. However I have heard plenty of blame from the politically active targeting the wealthy for the reason why the country is stressed. 

A lot of our veterans have PTSD. There manages to be blame here as well, usually political in nature and it goes both ways, at conservatives and at progressives or liberals. 

Let’s just agree that whatever the reason, a lot of people are stressed.

To destress, we often go on social media.

 

4.Unhealthy Bodies

There is countless literature about how we have an epidemic of obesity and other eating disorders. There is also an opioid crisis and countless other drugs on the street. It is said we are far two sedentary and spend too much time in front of screens. We eat unhealthy foods. We breathe unhealthy air often if we live in the inner city.  

5.Lack of motivation

Some people need to finish highschool or college or get a job. But lack of motivation is not only among “kids on the street.” Are their homeless people who get arrested for shoplifting who have a JD? Yes there are. Even people with a stable job have sometimes found a rut and they need some sort of change , outlet, or escape. Often times, this adrenaline rush they need may come in the form of drug abuse, gambling, seeking prostitution, having affairs, drinking, fighting, or blaming and scapegoating.. Especially on social media. Or they simply live their life in a bubble created by themselves feeling they have no affect on the world, working their 9-5 or other job until they die. They “let go.” They have a job, a career, a family, but they may very well be unhappy and unhealthy and do not see that they could affect even more change and by affecting that change, gain something for themselves in terms of health, happiness and peace of mind. 

Then there are people who are drug addicts or perhaps recovering drug addicts who simply do not want to do anything. They lack motivation to even get out of bed. They need something to do, something to occupy their mind that will simultaneously fill that void to replace the drugs, and also will improve their health and give them the energy and discipline to go and do other things. 

6. Lack of artistic output

When people have a lack of ways to express themselves and the strong emotions that they have, this can lead to all strong emotions turning into an aggressive anger. When you take away the other ways to express senses you will lead to consumption of drugs, food, shoes or any product to fill a void. You will release in sexual aggression or violent physical aggression or verbal aggression.

Or you will rant on social media and engage in cyber bullying or trolling. Of some kind. 

But with an art, that angry can be transferred into painting or poetry, a song, or a dance. 

7.Lack of Purpose

There are people with no direction in life, no job, no education, and they feel they cannot do anything. Then there are people who have some or all of these things but they feel like in spite of that, there is no purpose to what they do. Plenty of adults with a lot to offer in terms of writing skills, life experience, connections to the corporate or political world, are lonely and disconnected and just plod along in their depressing life. However, if they had a purpose or could see that they were effecting some change while at the same time learning an invigorating skill, they would not feel the same way about their job and their life. 

8.Lack of structure and support

By yourself, it is easy to give up. But if you are part of a group that is working towards these goals in a team, even if you are somewhere near the bottom of the pack, you will accomplish something. A school or team with people of all sorts of backgrounds and experiences and networking connections can help show you that, if this old person can do something you can do something. If this child can do something, than you can do something. By being a leader in some ways you will be able to  follow better. By learning to follow, you will be better at leading. 

But if you are left to make it on your own, some people will be able to pull through and succeed, but that is a rare few. With support and help, more people are likely to succeed. 

9.Lack of Tools to make a living

Many people are indeed motivated. If you are selling drugs on the street and doing deals and living a gang life, you need motivation to do this. However it would be better for you and the community if you had another means of succeeding. By starting some legal business, you can use your motivation to better the community and help those around you.

10. Lack of Culture

Many people feel lost because the closest thing they have to culture it what is fed to them. Billboards of Duncan Donuts and McDonalds. Commercials and music that was designed simply to get you to spend your money. However, simply saying, “you music is crap” is often a) false and b) counter productive. But by broadening the mind and looking at other cultures and creating your own, and comparing your stories to older ones, you find more of a connection with human art and human history. The inner city has created a lot of culture that was looked down on, and then reappropriated by the dominant culture. Without getting into blaming and scapegoating, we should agree that there is a thirst and hunger for culture among all classes. And that we can learn from each other instead of trying to replace the one or the other or discount the one or the other. 

How to Solve Them

A)Working on the Self

1. Group Meditation

Group meditation is a very simple thing. But that doesn’t mean it is easy. Everyone sits cross legged in the meditation position together, doing the same thing, on silence. It does not require bells and incense, though this can be a nice touch. This exercise calms the mind but you do it in a group. It can be extremely painful at first for people who are not used to keeping their back straight for so long. Doing this together on a daily basis can train you to focus and also will help your mental and physical health. Doing this in a group on a daily basis will ensure that you get it done. And talking with other people in the group about your experiences will also help you in your discipline. There are countless studies about how meditation is good for your health. What is great about meditation is that it can be secular. Religious people will often tie some form of religious belief to their exercise. Atheists will do the same exercise without any religious context. What is great about it is that the exercise can be performed by all members of the group. It does not exclude anyone. And it can benefit everyone. Most of the problems of the inner city or with society have to do with the mind. An exercise developed to heal and develop the mind is definitely a good start.

2. Chi Gung and Yoga

Light breathing and exercise (or intense depending on the individual) will develop the body and give you a physical outlet. It is non competitive so you don’t have to be the best in order to get something out of it. 

    3.Kung Fu, Martial Arts and Self Defense

Kung Fu is an excellent physical outlet for violence. Instead of the violence going out and destroying the community you are able to take control of it and ut it somewhere so that you can develop your body and focus your mind. Can you use it to defend yourself and therefore build self confidence? Sure. But the added physical daily practice is what trains you to be motivated, and keeps you away from other distractions like drugs. Wing Chun was a huge help in keeping Robert Downey Jr. of drugs to this day. And Kung Fu has a history of dealing with PTSD. Indeed many of the forms and styles were developed by monks, or rather violent warriors and bandits, seeking peace and trying to process their violent experiences through art, a Martial art. They then passed these forms down to the next generation of monks, who then taught monks and lay people and this is why Kung Fu has so many styles, systems and moving poetry that it has today. 

In addition to learning the basics, memorizing the forms can help test the mind to remember a sequence of movements and also develop tools for memorization like pneumonic devices. 

3. Gardening

People are eating junk and poison. We need to start eating our own food again and take power back and bring it to the people to connect them to the land… even if it is only poetic. After all they probably will be unable to fully support themselves, especially in the winter. That is not what this is about. If children grow their own vegetables they will eat their own vegetables and they will better understand where vegetables comes from. Also gardening is a wonderful activity where you can learn about science and also be out doors. 

4. Humanure Composting 

  We as a society are afraid of our own poop. We don’t see that we could use this poop to sutain ourselves by using it as fertilizer. Direct fertilization is illegal (and some say dangerous though I have heard they do this in Asia) but if you compost it down you can save water and also have free fertilizer for plants. It brings empowerment to the people to know that they do not have to buy junk and throw it away and eat junk and flush it away, but instead compost it and reuse it. 

5. Drumming

Drumming is both musical and physical. The drum was probably one of the first instruments beside the voice. Every culture can relate to it. In Kung Fu and Lion Dance, the drum is an essential part of the performance. It is also (along with the Gong and Cymbals) usually a position that is taken care of by people who are unable to do the Lion Head or the Kung Fu because of age, size, or physical ailment. However it is also a position of skill and importance. It is not equivalent to sitting on the sidelines. Because of this, unlike on a sports team, people of all generations can be part of a Lion Dance and Kung Fu team. You don’t even have to speak the same language. There is something extremely invigorating about playing and hearing the drum. 

6. Music

In addition to being an artistic outlet and a development of the soul music also helps with, and math along with Data is the most important human tool there is. 

      7. Painting and Calligraphy

All painting is an artistic outlet. Chinese ink painting with cheap brushes on any paper happens to not only be a very old art form, it is very cheap. Not only this but if you do Chinese Calligraphy as well, which calms and develops the mind, you can also be exposed to the Chinese written language. Or you can do the same with Japanese calligraphy as well.

8. Lion Dance Mask Making

Making your own lion dance mask to perform enables you to have a personal connection to the artwork that you will then use in a dance with martial art application and a history of folklore and mythology. Instead of throwing away junk mail and cardboard boxes you can at least turn it into art first. 

 

7. Programming Classes

Programming is the future. I am able to work at home and take care of my daughter. I never went to a four year college so I don’t have the problems of debt. Technically I should be a statistic of a teen who had children too young and therefore continued the cycle of poverty. But is that the case? No!. I make more than many college grads that I teach Kung Fu too. I’m not saying that nobody should go to college. I have taken online courses at my own pace and I plan to finish one day too. But in the mean time I am making money instead of losing money.

8. Reading, Writing, Math

You have to learn these to function in our society. And then we are tested over and over in it in diffrent ways. English is learning to read and write, but then so is Hostory and virtually every other subject kids are forced to learn. Why not just have it all as one. You teach children to read and then set them off reading information on their own, with some guidance. Then you have them write about it in a blog, instead of making them come up with 5-12 page essays. Articles that only scholars read… truly a thing of the past Blogs are the present and the future and they are the media of the people. Math is more important than all of that if a child plans to go down the scholarly path, which is a rare path with few on it and many of those few.. Poor, then they will become accustomed to such types of writing on their own. But if not… then why force them? There is more benefit to society to force these children to meditate or do Kung Fu. At least it is good for their health. Can the same be true regarding eyesight and posture when it comes to scholarly articles that only a handful of people will ever read and which are largely irrelevant? Then why force students to make articles like this… when they are perfectly capable of making media that could go viral and then become extremely relevant.

9. ***Trades: Carpentry, Landscaping, Electrician

10. Engineering

11. Games- Chess, Go, Chinese Chess

Games like chess enable you to test your skills against an opponent using tactics and memorized openings in a way that is a great supplement to the Martial Arts. children can challenge and beat adults if they are good enough and the loser runs no risk of getting a concussion. Plus 

12. Resume Building, College Placement

13. Social Media, Youtube,  and Digital Storytelling

There is a lot of content and stories to be told in the inner city and we know longer have to rely on others to tell them. Rap had it’s origins in this type of story telling where the residents told what they saw from their perspective. Nowadays there are so many more tools to do this. At the very least it is a good skill to have. At best, it may even be a way to generate income or get your message out. But all the computers and cameras may be too expensive. To have access to these tools to tell your story is very important. 

B)Working Together

1.Push hands

Push hands, is a type of sparring that can be very soft and flowing as well as more aggressive and competitive, depending on the goals of the participants. It requires no equipment or mats and has a long history and relationship with holistic health exercises as well as the martial arts. You will learn how to redirect an opponent's force and develop the mind and martial techniques in a way that isn’t knock down drag out fight. 

2. Forms

Performing complicated forms that you learn as an individual but perform in a group can be good for confidence building and group dynamics. 

 Two person fighting forms go a step further because you will have to perform with a partner, working together to put on a staged fight. This is different than actual fighting because you are working together to make the fight seem real but it is staged and you must rely on awareness of each other’s timing to get the performance done. Most people find these sequences fun and cool but they also take discipline and team work to achieve.

3. Lion and Dragon Dance Team. Practicing and Performing

Just t have a lion dance requires a whole team of people. Several people for the heads and tails to switch in and out as fatigue sets in, and the heads must move and work together, not in unison as step team or dog show but as wild animals in a pack. The art now is no longer about the individual but about the group. The drums and instruments have to follow the heads and again people have to switch in and out of these as fatigue sets in. When the whole performance is brought into a parade or door to door type festival, there are people to lead the lion heads and the team. A lot of communication, teamwork, art, skill, and endurance is needed to achieve this and it is extremely good training for life.  At the same time the whole art has a rich history of folklore, mythology, and moral codes that one can lean on as a pillar to make sense of life.

4.Sports, teams, competition, Dragon Boat

Many groups cite team sports and competition as a motivator. These activities can be part of the same school and the Lion Dance can either cheer these sports on, but also athletes can practice the Chi Gung, lion dance and Kung Fu to help their sports and the Lion Dance  and Kung Fu and Chi Gung practictioners that are not terribly good athletes can help out with the sports, helping the teams train and also helping to develop their physical athleticism where possible. 

5. Small Businesses- Lemonade Stands, Snow shoveling, Raking leaves, Paper routes. 

Small child like versions of these real world businesses can help to teach math, team work, writing, marketing and also inspire kids to work. 

6. Organizing- Get out the vote, cleaning up parks, Events and festivals, 

C)Real World Applications

1. Networking

2. Resumes and hand ups

3. Starting real Businesses

4. Meeting or Organizations

5. Pushing for Change

6. Campaigning, Lobbying, Politics

What I need to Solve them

1. Endorsements

I need people who will back me up and direct potential students and teachers to this program. 

2. Money

Overhead of a location costs money and teachers and other staff will need to be paid. There is also the equipment and art supplies. A lot of the stuff for Kung Fu and Lion dance can be made and locations could start out as being a Summer program at the park. But eventually, to get the full scope of what I want to do, a brick and mortar location of some sort will be ideal. Which requires money. 

3. Location

4. Equipment

5. Teachers

I wrote it out but I had no idea where I was going to go with it or who I was going to go to. Was it too complicated? 

At this time, while I was trying to figure all of this out I simultaneously tried to get a group of people together who would learn my style of Kung Fu, mainly my Lion Dance Yogic techniques. My Magic, as some would call it. Word got out on the street that I was doing this. Some of the other Kung Fu Masters I had “learned” from were not happy about this. They thought that all I knew about the arts was from them. They didn’t realize that I was already a master as a child, way before I had stepped into their doors, that my father had taught me the true arts, but I had lost them. I was hoping to regain my connection with my father and his ART by studying these other Kung Fu systems. This helped and so I did teach some of the things I picked up there. 

But they thought I was taking their art, their movements, their forms which honestly they did not even truly understand. The physical side yes, but the idea of sending out your spirit lion was so foreign to them that they thought I was making it up and starting a cult.

Most of the people who joined me… well they were all types. Many were criminals, some were bored housewives, some were just kids on the street. It was before long that I had put together a pretty solid group of people that were ready to die for me. I got 18 disciples together because my father had taught me 18 different Styles of movement, theories. Of course everyone learned them all but each disciple focused on his or her style for research. I was very democratic. I had no problem listening to what other people had to say. This street group, they were going to become my teachers when we actually got together and got a brick and mortar building. 

But the other masters, who I thought would help me, plotted against me. They plotted with the police. I think they believed they were doing the right thing. They thought I was starting a cult like the Tai Ping or Falun Gong or the Boxer Rebellion. They sent someone in, a mole and set me up. This kid had drugs on him and was giving me a ride and they arrested me too and put me in jail.

It was three years I spent in jail. I socialized and in my dreams I connected with my 18 disciples. I met them in my sleep and they continued to teach all over the country and even all over the world. And they taught me as well. I developed tremendous powers when it came to the spirit lion then because that was all I focused on. To work on anything else. Anything martial when others were watching, would be to attract bad attention. But the lion dance, ritualistic and crazy looking, shamanic and religious in nature…. I painted masks and danced with them. People just thought I was sort of crazy. But then they got into it too. They would ask me for masks, and then they started to look up to me as a spiritual leader.

One man did challenge me. 

He came at me saying he was tired of my crap. 

This is when I really unleashed my power. Not there. There I backed away from him which was a big no no in prison. But that night I went into his dreams and summoned my 18 disciples and the spirits of all their students. It was only with all their power that I could do this I think… but I killed him. I killed him in his sleep. I never admitted it. But after that nobody ever challenged me again. Nobody could prove that it had anything to do with me because I had backed down… and because I was not a troublemaker… it just didn’t make sense to go challenging me after that. 

Chasing the Dragon.

In prison, I got really into Shamanism. First of all, people thought that I was already. And this other guy that was into that and weird like me, happened to me my cell mate, and he would talk about being able to go under into a trance with drums. For me, it was a way to get high without breaking the rules of the prison. And it was also an escape. After a while I was able to go into my trance without the aid of the drums. In fact I did it everynight in my sleep. I saw the Dragon or dragons. It wasn’t my father, not usually. Sometimes yes, but usually the Dragon was like an elemental force. A storm. The rain. Time. And I rode it. I rode it around into the past and the future and I recruited 18 disciples. 

And this was strange… but as I recruited them I also knew they would betray me. Well not betray me exactly, but they would turn on me, and I knew that. They would do it, thinking that it was for my own good. In any case, I reached out to them recruiting them in their subconscious mind, summoning them and bringing forth their power, teaching them. And they saw me and knew I was their leader. I was their dragon head. And they swore allegiance to me. 

Shamat

Kadija thought it best if we simply separate. Her reasoning was sound. It was to protect Shamat. It seemed lik ethere were people after me and she thought it best if Shamat could just be away from all that. 

Shamat was 18 years old by the time she reached out to me. She had started a company online. Something to do with social media. She was into all sorts of things and very successful. Most of this was her extraordinary mind. Some of it was also that she was extraordinarily beautiful. Even outside of her company, she made millions from her Youtube account, just talking. She reached out to me to interview me for her Youtube Channel. She had others with her. Bearded men that looked wild to me and too old for her. I didn’t like it, but what could I say? I had not even been around for the past few years. 

The video of us meeting went viral and I instantly became famous. The attitude of the Kung Fu Masters and the police had changed on me over time when they realized I had never been a threat to society. After all other things had come up of more importance. Terrorist threats and opioid addiction.  I argued in one of my videos that my school, had it been in place could have prevented (maybe not) acts like this. Because my goal was to take people who were falling through the cracks and give them something to do. Although many people in politics and law enforcement did not believe in my magical abilities… they now saw that belief in these abilities and practicing these physical exercises that in a way got people high, could be an antidote to drug abuse. 

Shamhat signed a few checks and smiled at the right male politicians and sat down and talked with the female politicians and suddenly I was an insider in the power structure. I still wanted to start my school. Kadija had started seeing another man. I did not blame her. We were still friends. I was in my thirties now. To think that I had had Shamhat when I was her age. It made me frightened. But then I thought that she had some much money and knew what she was doing that even if she got pregnant , it would not be the end of the world. 

She told me not to worry about her, that she instead would help me start my school. She had money, and a company and the school would just be some sort of offshoot of that.She had offices everywhere, where did I want to start my school? I decided I was in Philadelphia already and I would start it there.

We found one a run down area of Philadelphia. The truth was my school was not completely invented. It would be a lot like Sam Sing Academy. Except not that religion. Not any religion really. It would be the Religion of Fairy tales where you knew it was made up and that was Okay. Aslan and Totoro and anything else kids wanted to add to it. We would do lion dance, but it wouldn’t have to be a lion. Whatever creature people wanted to make. Whatever dance they wanted to do. We would use what I knew as some sort of base of course. But after they understood the basics of that, there could be options to move beyond that.

Shamhat I had to accept he fact that Shamhat was a woman now. It was hard to have conversations with her about this and she laughed me off saying my Catholic thinking was too much. She told ME about what she had already done.. Which was everything with several men. That her mother did not know this. I was Shocked. I told her about diseases and that protection was still.. That there was still a chance she could catch something. She laughed and said that indeed she would stop now for a while. 

I was suspicious of how she said this and asked her. It was the way she smiled. It did not seem like she was taking new vows to now be a virgin. 

“Baba I am pregnant and I will think only of the baby now.”

I was even more shocked. My little girl Pregnant! Though she was 18 now… or was she even? Who was the father? 

“He is a Football player in the NFL. He is famous.” she laughed

I was angry.

“Baba it was my choice. I wanted a baby. You are too close minded. Listen to me and you will achieve your dreams.”

“My dreams? What about your dreams? How are you going to take care of your company and you child as well?”

“I will take some maternity leave.” she said matter of factly.

“And After that?” I asked

“Baba I’m telling you because you will take care of my child. You will be able to do it and run this school of yours, I know it. It will be your school so you cane make the rules.”

I was stunned. She did not ask me. She told me. But whosoever has the money shall have the power. Daughter or no, Shamhat was in charge.

“Does the father know?” I asked

“He will know in time. I don’t want him raising my child. I want you to do it. You did well by me, and even when we had to leave that was for my benefit too. I know you are a good father. You are the best father. Even Mommy never said anything against you. But it was society dragging on you that forced you to give me up even when you loved me. I am giving you a second chance. You can take care of my child now.”

Most people will think that Shamhat was irresponsible but she was right in every way. So I was in my thirties but preparing to be a grandfather.

Sword beneath a stone. (Moving the stone with the Enkidu)

I was checking out the renovations one night and Shamhat came by with her boyfriend. The football player. She had told him she was pregnant. She did not want to get married but he still wanted to be involved. We were awkward with each other. But eventually I came to like him, because Shamhat had chosen him and he seemed to respect her. He was half Korean and half African American. A very strong man, and in addition to sports he was also into martial arts, especially meditation and Chi Gung. In fact I suppose that was how they had met. Shamhat had gone to many Chi Gung seminars and all that, doing research, testing what I had taught her and picking up new things. She called him Kidu.It was not his real name. I am not a sports fan but occasionally people would recognize him in public or think they did. And the name they said, the name he signed, it was not Kidu. So I guess that was Shamhat’s name for him. And her name only. But it became what I called him too.  

They were doing renovations at the spot we had picked to be our school Shamhat’s school really but I would be teaching. I guess you could say it was my school but it was a gift from Shamhat to her useless father. The back alley almost looked like some sort of third world country and there was this huge stone of a pillar. Shamhat made as if to move it. 

“The Baby!” Said Kidu. And I liked that he cared even though Shamhat was not marrying him. It may seem strange to the more normal family. But Shamhat was smart and knew that she had to protect her wealth. She also made it clear that, she did what she wanted. She was not beholden to him. She was not HIS woman. She was her own woman, or she would say she belonged to the lion, to the guardian of the forest, or rather he belonged to her and she belonged to the Goddess. She was more in touch with the story telling and the dreaming and shamanic visions than I ever was. I was tempted to try and test my lion right there, to move the stone by myself with my power. It may sound strange.. But I had stopped practicing, I had become depressed and I was not even sure if I could send the lion out to do anything, to move a pebble, or affect a living thing to collapse, let alone move such a large stone. 

Shamhat saw what I was about to do and shook her head. After all, that was a secret, that ability, and if it failed… how embarrassing! For her I guess. Since I knew my abilities and their limits, I would not be embarrassed. Kidu went to move the stone.

It was heavy. Even as a superman, it looked impossible and a ridiculous thing to do. But the gat was blocked by it and we couldn’t lock up. Not that there was anything to steal at the site yet. However, you don’t want people going in there and shooting up or something or who knows. 

“You both can do it. Together you can do it.”

Kidu and I, we put our back to the wall and I was thinking, “This is ridiculous.” it would be more believable that I could move it magically with the Lion than with my strength, and it was ridiculous to think Kidu could do it either. No human could move this stone. 

It felt like a mountain. 

But as we pushed together and had a little faith and believed that we could move it, because Shamhat believed we could, suddenly momentum somehow built and the mountain moved… just a little. The whole heavy stone shifted and suddenly for the short amount of space that it did move, it moved easily until it stopped again. Kidu was impressed and laughed. 

“I was just trying but when I put my foot on that thing I didn't really think it would move.”

Shamhat laughed too. “Baba you should bury a sword here.”

“What for.”

“For my child to move the stone out of the way when she is old enough, then she will be worthy of it. “

“How do you know it is a girl?” Kidu said.

“Actually I don’t.” 

I thought about this. Later on we found that Shamhat’s daughter was actually to be a son. And I thought more about that sword. I had my grandfather’s Hunting Knife. It was in a leather sheath with a pciture of the great Stag on it. Tied to the sheath was a cord with kotted decorations and a stone depicting a dragon. My mother liked to call it the Pendragon knife, because it had the Chinese dragon and the western stag. 

 Perhaps I would put it into some sort of special box and bury it somewhere, like Shamhat had said and put a stone over it so that when the time came, it would be like a test, to get the knife and that way the knife would have magical power. Not because the metal itself, but because by attributing legend and power to it, by the time my grandson was able to move the stone… it would have cultivated legendary status and therefore attain magical powers. 

We had stone lions made to put in front. Shamhat really had too much money to spend. I didn’t put it under the lion, rather there was a small stone where I buried the knife under. It was not really the strength to move the stone was it? It was just that magical idea. That sword and the stone. In our case it was a small brick that was sealed that would have to be pried open in the future. On that brick I had the celtic cross put on it in brass. It looked fancy and special, and the knife was my grandfather’s on my mother’s side. Grace had taught me the rapier drills and a little hunting knife was not exactly a sword… but it was really the idea. 

Curriculum of the Kung Fu School

Soon my school was open. And the truth was most of the kids just wrestled each other on mats like wild lion cubs do, playfully but not seriously hurting each other. We went for runs and did physical activity. It was cheap to join and I let everyone in. It was a social hangout. But soon I began to pick and choose from among the people that came.. People to learn my Kung Fu. Some of the old students returned to me. Some had even opened schools of their own. I taught each student differently, which was confusing and people complained of this. They said I needed to have a set curriculum for everyone.

The reason was, I had  had 18 disciples, but there were a lot of people using my name to teach, because I had gained some notoriety for those incidents with the police, so that even though I had been unpopular with police at the time, my name somehow carried magic power to people. They wanted to make sure that if they learned from school that it wasn't a charlatan passing it off as my art. I couldn’t get around the idea that anyone would even want to use my name. Why not just use their own? What difference did it make? 

After all everyone was just playing around at the school mostly. BUt I put together a list and started talking more about my Kung Fu and the different styles I taught and what their origins were. I said it was just stories, not the truth, because… well I knew that it sounded crazy that my parents were pirates that came here from the spirit world, so I said it should be thought of metaphorically. Or that I learned it all in childhood so I really didn’t understand how I learned it exactly and maybe it was just in dreams. And yes of course I blended it with other types of Kung Fu I had absorbed from the neighborhood. And that really it was a spirit dance, more than a fighting art, but that you could use it to fight too if you needed. 

I had some challengers.

I wondered how would they be able to judge a winner? By a dance contest? I would laugh. But then another side of me… the Nian, and it was that Nian that I feared in my dreams would sometimes show himself. It would maul the challenger and they would drop down unconscious. It was dangerous. Afterward, when they awakened I would say that I declined their challenge. This happened many times.  

My name spread, but I would always deny my power. Why? Because it sounded crazy, plus if they really did know I could do this… then  maybe they could pin something on me. 

After a while I got some students who could just fight for me. Sometimes they lost. I would tell the challenger to stay and teach then. They would soon see how good we were and that our abilities exceeded his or hers even though they had won the challenge. In time, they also spread word that we were a special type of school and our loss ended up gaining us even more students. 

The Wheel Of Buddhism and the 18 disciples

Now we move on to my 18 disciples. They came back to me after all that time and developed these. So this was carried on not by my grandchildren I guess. But all of my grandchildren were exposed to these students as well and these disciples helped me raise the grandchildren. They all slept at the school when they were in Philly, but many of them travelled elsewhere and set up schools. They would take in my grandchildren and also other students at that school. This is really how we grew so quickly in numbers. We became a network for those who wanted to travel, especially the young. But at the same time, we couldn’t be considered a gang, because we had so many police and always tried to resolve conflicts in the home and never tried to break families apart. Some crazy families tried to accuse of this, but in the end they usually saw that we were doing good in the community and helping their family too. 

For this 18 ideas or concepts of my martial art I always either had one person or a group of people specialize at it so that they could not only teach new people but teach the other students. This way they could gain insight into secrets I didn’t have to me to discover. In other words, a lot of students became better than me at certain aspects of the art. But isn’t that normal if they focus on that? At the same time a lot of the new students had the ability to be generally well rounded because they had so many specialists to work with. And remember, most students, they just do it and then eventually quit or move on with their lives or even if they stay at the school for 10-20 years they might only be doing Kung Fu once or twice a week. They become efficient.. But masters? No. But that’s okay right? Being a Master is not for everyone. 

I would start the students out how my father taught me, with the wheel of Buddhism. Basically everyone sort of followed me and some did it their own way. I just made sure everyone kept their guard up and they would spar each other with gloves and these circular punches. The same circular motoin could also put someone into a headlock or could be a shoot to bring someone to the ground. So we did boxing wrestling, ground and pound. The neighborhood kids liked it. 

Some people started asking about Jiu Jitsu and UFC and MMA. I didn’t know about these things. But he hired some teachers to do this… and actually, even though money was not an issue… well let’s put it this way, how many out of work Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black belts are out there? How many have kids and childcare problems? Let’s just say a lot. I bartered with them. Their kids became part of the program for free. I showed them respect, and later I hired them because I do not want to watch the place all the time. My punching drills became just one spoke that involved tournaments and MMA fights. Easy for me. I was the grandmaster in the back and making money and two words from me would be considered moments of gold. But teaching? I only had to do a little as I liked it. It was great. 

A lot of people started talking about Samurai and bringing in Katanas and tat stuff. I knew that tha Japanese pirates used these swords too. It was really simple how I taught this sword… or any sword… but the Boken (the wooden Katana or Japanese sword) was revered by these children, from movies. Either Star Wars, Inuyasha, or Seven Samurai, or any new anime. 

But to teach it actually so easy. Same thing I drew the wheel of Buddhism with 8 spokes everywhere. They had to practice cutting along each angle and then thrusting through. Just in the air. That’s it. Then with other sticks (rougher ones from landscaping or garbage) out in the alley I hung up stuff to hit. A lot of it was small stuff for kids. The adults had tired and larger pieces of wood that could hurt you on the back swing if you were not alert.

Then for sparring? Pool noodles, duct taped newspaper, and regular sticks. (The bokens were kept for the ritual practice. Some people used sharp Katanas or even rapiers that were antiques or just replicas.  But for safety tey could only use these when the school was not crowded. The school filled with all sorts of weapons, decorative and real… and I just went with what came to us. Soon we had all types. Fighters, mystics, thieves, cops, drug dealers, doctors… and believe it or not, some of the worst people were not who you would expect. I gave everyone a chance. 

Soon in addition to martial arts we had music classes and all kinds of chess from Weichi and Go to shogi, international style and xiang qi. We had all types of champions too. Fighters and chess players and even a few bands that came through our doors. Some murderers and thieves that went away to jail too. But I didn’t turn my back on anyone. I visited those students in jail, and encouraged them to teach while in prison, even if it was just meditation. The Corrections officers demanded that I teach them classes for free too… and I did. It is funny how when I did not worry about money, because Shamhat had so much, that money actually came quite easily anyway. 

All this from some basic strikes and then absorbing whatever arts came my way.

Most students did not get a chance to move beyond this initial stage. Even the wheel, that concept, I considered to be sacred. But I shared it with everyone. We also painted the faces of lions (the lion from my dream but some children painted their favorite characters or even scenery. I didn’t care. I wasn’t picky. And I would use the boxes to do lion dance. We bought some “real” equipment too, just to have a lion dance team and bring in some income performing for the restaurants and schools in the area. Since we had so many students of different types… I made it a requirement to learn this skill and we brought in quite a bit of income this way. 

We always had people to perform Kung Fu too… but it wasn’t really my Kung Fu. I mean they learned the basic wheel concept, and then I had everyone make up their own form with stick and sword and then get creative. Part of arts and crafts was also making fancy looking weapons out of cardboard… and one guy had a set up in his yard to make real weapons out of metal. So we did field trips and he got some business selling his weapons to my students… but he made quite a few for the school to keep for free. I honestly often just set some kids up to learn cool stuff they saw online. They would come to me for pointers and sometimes I could help them, but many times I could not. In fact I ended up learning from what they were working on, which they learned from watching Youtube or the movies! But this open environment bred many great artists and performers all working on their own acts. If they brought in money this way, I let them stay there for free. Some kids even slept there. So I had a strong base. And I encouraged people to do other things if I thought they were hanging around the school too much. I even sponsored them to travel, to go to Brazil or Japan fro Martial Arts, or to China or Thailand or even to go to Europe for college degrees. Basically everything I did came back to me with good fortune though. It was Karma. I didn’t steal. Instead I gave away and the money always came back. But it came a point where my Kung Fu which I held sacred, was not getting passed on. It wasn’t even really being taught. I expressed this and my grandson, Shamhat’s son, he was only 2 years old, said he would learn it all. He was as smart as Shamhat. And Shamhat was already pregnant with another child. I don’t think the new baby was Kidu’s. And he could not hold it against her. They still saw each other. She did what she wanted, and made herself available to who she wanted and the children went to me for raising, which by now I was quite good at. That was Karama too. I did not get the chance to fully be there the whole time fro Shamhat. It wasn’t that I made it up to her. She made it up to me by giving me grandchildren to raise. She was like a Goddess of mercy and fertility. 

I realized then that for the school I didn’t have to worry about my art not getting passed down. I would simply pass it on to my grandchildren. Shamhat kept having so many that I was able to get them to specialize on certain things. I began to recognize my grandchildren, not by their given names, but by what I had taught them. They in turn would perform all the time and teach other students as they saw fit. Yes I am describing what happened not seeing time linearly, but ebbing and flowing as it really exists even if that is not how we experience it day to day. But being sort of out of touch with reality due to how my life was lived, I actually experienced it more in this ebb and flow fashion. Now some of my grandchildren were not exactly blood. Shamhat was with so many men of all types. Some rich and some really poor and some of them had children of their own in addition to the children they had with Shamhat. Sometimes the man would end up at my school for a while. In fact Kidu came by all the time and we often treated him for injuries or just maintenance. He was a football player after all. We had herbalists, massage therapists as well as acupuncturists. Though I told him tat I had no power over quality control and that for something serious, to ask for me. I used my lion to heal him, because he was Shamhat’s first and he was her Favorite. Besides him I only healed blood. Of course I did teach others some of my healing arts and let them do whatever. But in any case here was the curriculum in terms of the Kung Fu I had developed which I truly considered my own, from my parents. 

I was making money teaching or I should say running the school. A lot of the martial arts at my school was not really mine at all. I showed some forms and some punches and then later other people taught, I was more of a manager, a servant, instead of an artist and creator. But I still wanted to pass down my Kung Fu and my Arts that I created. I would create in my dreams, traveling into space and pass the river of time riding a Nian, a good Nian, and avoiding the evil Nian to the Cedar Forest. It is so strange, but I would teach these people and later they would show up to my school in real life… and we would recognize each other! They would teach, yes, but really our art was passed to each other mostly in another plane. The regular students at the school were confused by this. These strange people coming in and teaching? I would just explain it as lectures and seminars, that I was very open. After all, most of my martial arts in the school was not from me anyway. Overall, this openness was good for business.