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I went to a seminar by Song Park this past weekend. He had some interesting information and concepts.
Park is setting up a new means by which people can progress through the ranks of his system. In most schools, at level 1 (i.e. white belt), everybody learns the same things, then they move on to level 2 (i.e. yellow belt), where they all learn the same things again, and so on up through the ranks.
What Park is talking about setting up is more like a college curriculum -- you have certain "core materials" (the equivalent of English Comp, etc), and after you've met those, you can decide which other "courses" you want to take (what you want to "major" in). One person might decide to take A, B, and C early one, whereas another person might decide they want to start with X, Y, and Z, and leave A/B/C for later, if they ever even take them at all.
From what I understand, this is similar to how the old monastery-based training was set up. All initiates were expected to learn certain things, and after that, they would go and petition one of the senior monks to teach them a certain specialty. Unfortunately, we're no longer in a monastery-based system, nor in any other sort of system where it can be assumed that each of the 'senior monks' is even in the same region. The system sounds good in theory, but I've got some serious reservations about how it will work out in practice.
Okay, it gets pretty technical from here, so feel free to skip it.
One thing that I'm definitely going to have to test is his assertion of which elements are affiliated with which stances. Three of the five (Fire, Earth, and Wood) matched up with what I've learned under Dillman, but the other two (Water and Metal) are reversed from what Dillman teaches.
With Dillman, a Cat stance is affiliated with the element Metal, and a Crossover (or Twist) stance is affiliated with the element Water. I don't recall and reasons being given for these affiliations, just "this is what they are." I've used them and tested them, and they've held up to scrutiny -- I've used Cat stances to enhance techniques to Metal meridians/points, and Crossover/Twist stances to enhance techniques to Water meridians/points.
Still, I'll have to admit that Park's explanations of why he considers the affiliations of those stances to be reversed makes sense.
He points out that one of the characteristics of water is that it always seeks the lowest point. He had us get into a Cat stance, and energy was clearly "downward," which would be appropriate for Water energy.
His interpretation of Metal was that it was binding/constricting/limiting/defining, as in the metal supports of a structure, or chains/bands/cuffs/etc to restrain someone/something. In that light, I would have to agree that a Crossover/Twist stance does fit that description, although the energetics of it were less clear.
It will be interesting to see if the energetics of these stances bears up to testing (or maybe that should be, "stands up"?) as well as the ones Dillman gives.
Park is setting up a new means by which people can progress through the ranks of his system. In most schools, at level 1 (i.e. white belt), everybody learns the same things, then they move on to level 2 (i.e. yellow belt), where they all learn the same things again, and so on up through the ranks.
What Park is talking about setting up is more like a college curriculum -- you have certain "core materials" (the equivalent of English Comp, etc), and after you've met those, you can decide which other "courses" you want to take (what you want to "major" in). One person might decide to take A, B, and C early one, whereas another person might decide they want to start with X, Y, and Z, and leave A/B/C for later, if they ever even take them at all.
From what I understand, this is similar to how the old monastery-based training was set up. All initiates were expected to learn certain things, and after that, they would go and petition one of the senior monks to teach them a certain specialty. Unfortunately, we're no longer in a monastery-based system, nor in any other sort of system where it can be assumed that each of the 'senior monks' is even in the same region. The system sounds good in theory, but I've got some serious reservations about how it will work out in practice.
Okay, it gets pretty technical from here, so feel free to skip it.
One thing that I'm definitely going to have to test is his assertion of which elements are affiliated with which stances. Three of the five (Fire, Earth, and Wood) matched up with what I've learned under Dillman, but the other two (Water and Metal) are reversed from what Dillman teaches.
With Dillman, a Cat stance is affiliated with the element Metal, and a Crossover (or Twist) stance is affiliated with the element Water. I don't recall and reasons being given for these affiliations, just "this is what they are." I've used them and tested them, and they've held up to scrutiny -- I've used Cat stances to enhance techniques to Metal meridians/points, and Crossover/Twist stances to enhance techniques to Water meridians/points.
Still, I'll have to admit that Park's explanations of why he considers the affiliations of those stances to be reversed makes sense.
He points out that one of the characteristics of water is that it always seeks the lowest point. He had us get into a Cat stance, and energy was clearly "downward," which would be appropriate for Water energy.
His interpretation of Metal was that it was binding/constricting/limiting/defining, as in the metal supports of a structure, or chains/bands/cuffs/etc to restrain someone/something. In that light, I would have to agree that a Crossover/Twist stance does fit that description, although the energetics of it were less clear.
It will be interesting to see if the energetics of these stances bears up to testing (or maybe that should be, "stands up"?) as well as the ones Dillman gives.
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