This article has a lot of things which sound fake. Here's one:
I was 6'2'', 168 lbs, 1% body fat
When I was climbing competitively, I once had my bodyfat measured (by DEXA) as just under 3%. For climbing, pretty much any weight (even most muscle) is just dead weight, so climbers are as skinny and lean as any athletes out there, and I only very rarely ran into people as lean as me.
I've known a lot of bodybuilders and wrestlers, and even there, it's rare to see people below 3%, and I've never heard of anyone who's tested below 2% bodyfat. 1%? I won't say that it's impossible, but to be alive and functioning at that level would require you to be a genetic freak on the same level as Lance Armstrong or Michael Phelps.
This was my main problem with the article. While it's well-written, it has many details that (on the face) seem way too contrived.
My friends even looked up to me, as they are monks who train Taoist Wudang Kung Fu in southwestern China. At one point I became a monk by my own right, and I was looked to for even spiritual advice.
So you're such a badass that monks that train others in Kung Fu looked up to you at 18 years old? They also made you a monk and decided you were enlightened enough to give spiritual advice, despite the fact that you have very obviously poor impulse control?
I tried being a drywaller, and a welder twice.
Why didn't you try doing what you spent all that time in southeast Asia learning, and start doing martial arts professionally? You could be a martial arts instructor, stunt man, or any other profession that hires badasses of this caliber.
Also, "being a welder" isn't something you just jump into without previous experience and/or equipment.
This whole thing feels made up for sympathy. Apologies if you're telling the entire truth, Tom.
>>My friends even looked up to me, as they are monks who train Taoist Wudang Kung Fu in southwestern China. At one point I became a monk by my own right, and I was looked to for even spiritual advice.
>So you're such a badass that monks that train others in Kung Fu looked up to you at 18 years old? They also made you a monk and decided you were enlightened enough to give spiritual advice, despite the fact that you have very obviously poor impulse control?
That is not as incredible as it seems. You can see his addictive and competitive personality in the martial arts training. I know people like that in the martial arts world.
Sometimes, in the East, you're promoted beyond your skill and competency in order to encourage you to grow into the role. If his teachers are genuine, they would have recognized his addictive personality to begin with. What's even funnier and sad is that, they would have accepted his shame in going a little crazy. It is surviving and healing from this that will allow him more empathy as his role as a monk in the future.
You're also making a very common mistake that seems to pop up in America, these strange notions about enlightenment and giving spiritual advice.
>Why didn't you try doing what you spent all that time in southeast Asia learning, and start doing martial arts professionally? You could be a martial arts instructor, stunt man, or any other profession that hires badasses of this caliber.
That's the same thing as jumping into the UFC. I feel the same way, and have avoided teaching, let alone doing stunts or getting paid to inflict violence and death. If he were as obsessed about Buddhism in his teenage years as he was to games and martial arts training (likely), then these professions would not have appealed to him.
Anyways, the post is to Gamers Online Anonymous. I'm glad there's such an organization out there. I doubt this guy wrote it gain sympathy from you specifically. Maybe the post is for sympathy, maybe it isn't. It doesn't matter, because the addiction is real.
I'm Chinese, I never heard of monks of Taoism. Those people believe in Taoism philosophy deeply, call themselves Dao Shi. And only some of Dao Shi train Taichi(a slow sport to help find inner peace), not "Wudang Kung Fu".
I'm just stating as far as I know. Maybe there're truly monks who practice "Wudang Kung Fu" and Taoism. But as far as I know, Taoism is about living peacefully and healthily and as long as possible, not about defeating your enemy.
I am Chinese (Tawainese if you want to get picky) and grew up in America. "Wudang Kung Fu" is a fairly popular moniker, even for those who know better. My Northern Shaolin teacher will sometimes work up a rant about it from time to time, but few people outside the martial arts circle really care about it. Many non-martial-artist native Chinese don't really know the specialized jargon and distinctions in the martial arts world.
The arts passed down from Wudangshan is not exclusive to Tai Chi. Tai Chi has origin myths relating to Wudangshan, but I doubt taijiquan was the only thing they practiced. Taijiquan itself cannot be characterized as "a slow sport to help find inner peace". Well, you can, but that is like saying "Wudang Kung Fu".
There are definitely "Taoist monks". They have their own temples and do their own things. They have similar beggar-monk tradition as Buddhist beggar-monk traditions. At several points, Taoist monks cultivated within the same spaces as Buddhist monks. This is not surprising given that all religious wisdom springs from the same source.
One aspect of Tao-"ism" is about living peacefully and healthily and as long as possible ... but that's not really it at all. That's the popular religion. As Joseph Campbell noted, the most popular religion in the world worships the idols of Longevity, Prosperity, and Posterity. Pop Taoism is no exception.
After you shed the outer layer of pop Taoism, at Taoism's core, it shares the same underlying understanding of reality as Buddhism, Shinto, and even the obscure parts of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Its moral expression is uniquely Chinese.
As for "not about defeating your enemy", this goes into something very interesting, the role of violence and spiritual growth. Sun Tzu's Art of War is very much Taoist-flavored. It might be kept at its arm's length, but its far more obscure inspiration, Master of Demon Valley (鬼谷子) is acclaimed as part of the Taoist tradition, despite being heavily encrypted teachings about the shadow side, governance, and right action.
You're right. I'm not really into Taoism, I heard the talking of "about living peacefully and healthily and as long as possible" from a friend, who has been to meditation leading by a famous Daoshi in my area, and also heard real Taoism monks don't practice martial arts at all except Taichi if you count it as a martial art or kungfu.
I've had close friends and family members battle addiction of several kinds. With that in mind, this post sounds very typical of many addicts (drug, games, etc.). Likely several parts are extensively embellished, perhaps outright false.
As others have stated, the issue here is not starcraft or gaming in general, it's addiction. If the core roots of that aren't addressed, he'll likely move from one addiction to another until he fully hits rock bottom and gets the professional help he needs.
I wouldn't doubt the OP exaggerated a lot of details. Logically there aren't that many steps between "training martial arts in Asia", "advanced martial artist", and "Buddhist Monk zen martial artist sensei <insert additional superlatives>". Though I would think that perhaps since the OP exaggerated his "good times", this would prove that he knows and recognizes them, and has something to look forward to, a light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.
That being said, it would also suggest he is a manic-depressive type. The highs are high, the lows are low. This is a very difficult condition to deal with.
At 1% you're literally on death's door. He's either exaggerating or just making this story up from whole cloth. My guess is it's one of those cases of "the older I get the better I was".
Agreed, 1% body fat is extremely dangerous and your body does not have enough fat for it to go about its normal processes. It is certainly not sustainable for any period of time. Professional bodybuilders have trouble getting down to ~3% body-fat for their competitions and they only have to hold that level for a day or 2.
I'm also a climber, I've been climbing about 20 hours a week lately, and using a cheap electric current device, I was getting measurements between 6% and 12%, and I have very lean muscle.
I have some friends who are physical trainers, and they were talking about low body fat once, saying it's very difficult to to get down to around 5% and lower than 4% is dangerous.
Right. I dont doubt that a reading may have shown 3%, but you simply cannot walk around with bodyfat that low. In competitions bodybuilders will get to sub 6% but they dont maintain that for more than a day or even just a few hours, because it isnt healthy, let alone try to do intense rock climbing. In short, people vastly underestimate their bodyfat percentages
Depending on who you ask and what numbers you believe, the essential bodyfat % for men is somewhere in the 4-5% range. Competitive bodybuilders may well dip below that, but only briefly. I really don't think any male human can walk around at 1% bodyfat on a continual basis, based on what I've been taught about health and nutrition over the years.
I was measured at <2% bodyfat when I wrestled in highschool. They forbid me from cutting weight because of it. At the same time I was a fully functioning, healthy individual. It DOES happen, though rarely.
edit: it was one of those cheap electrical measuring devices. It's very probable that the machine had a high margin of error.
It is possible his 1% body fat was an estimate or used a different technique to measure. I know nothing about it really, but it is possible he was more interested in training than finding a doctor to give him exact stats.
Saying "1% bodyfat" doesn't really mean much, because even the most accurate methods of measuring bodyfat have a not insignificant margin of error. And skin-fold calipers, the most common way (in my experience) of measuring bodyfat, definitely have a significant margin of error.
You might actually read 1% on the skinfold caliper, but that doesn't necessarily mean you literally have only 1% bodyfat.
I was 6'2'', 168 lbs, 1% body fat
When I was climbing competitively, I once had my bodyfat measured (by DEXA) as just under 3%. For climbing, pretty much any weight (even most muscle) is just dead weight, so climbers are as skinny and lean as any athletes out there, and I only very rarely ran into people as lean as me.
I've known a lot of bodybuilders and wrestlers, and even there, it's rare to see people below 3%, and I've never heard of anyone who's tested below 2% bodyfat. 1%? I won't say that it's impossible, but to be alive and functioning at that level would require you to be a genetic freak on the same level as Lance Armstrong or Michael Phelps.