Some MA teachers only teach form without application?

[windwalker099]

All "secret" can be figured out. The question is how long will that take?

Not all "secrets" can necessarily be figured out—the real question is whether they can be uncovered within one’s lifetime.
Historical accounts describe knowledge being passed down only to select individuals or within specific groups, often restricting access to key teachings.

Within internal martial arts, there is a famous quote from Yang Chengfu: "If I don't tell you this, you will never learn it in your lifetime."

This reflects a traditional teaching approach that relied on hands-on instruction and oral transmission. Some essential concepts were never written down; instead, they were passed "from mouth to ear" and "from hand to hand."

If something is truly a secret, by definition, outsider wouldn't know it.

some things are "hidden in plain sight"

The stories of past masters may or may not be embellishments—depends on whether one has encountered current masters capable of demonstrating the same skills described in historical accounts. The skills commonly known, not commonly attained.

The phrase "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (臥虎藏龍, ) a Chinese idiom that means hidden talent and potential that is not immediately visible. It suggests that beneath an ordinary or calm surface, there are powerful or highly skilled individuals who remain unnoticed.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

"If I don't tell you this, you will never learn it in your lifetime."

It depends on whether you want to pass your knowledge to the next generation or not.

If you

- do, after you die, people will still remember you for your knowledge.
- don't, after you die, nobody will remember you.

Do you want to publish your research paper to proof that you are a qualified PhD, or do you want to hide your research paper and pretend you are nobody.

If you publish a Taiji book that only contain form without application, 1000 years from today, people will think that you are just a "Taiji for health" guy. You just miss your chance to prove that you do understand Taiji application. So, hold back information can only hurt your future reputation.

 

[Appledog]

Those who practice are as the hairs on the ox, those who succeed are as the horns.

This means that often times (most times) those who succeed were taught by teachers who didn't understand.

Question is, whether or not you want to become a kungfu master. A member of the jianghu underworld, terrible and free, treacherous as the sea

 

[windwalker099]

Do you want to publish your research paper to proof that you are a qualified PhD, or do you want to hide your research paper and pretend you are nobody.

With those I meet and those I know,
Skill is judged by those who understand it.

At first touch, true ability is revealed.
We are nobody until we meet others—through those encounters, we become somebody.

What we become depends on our skill.

If you publish a Taiji book that only contain form without application, 1000 years from today, people will think that you are just a "Taiji for health" guy. You just miss your chance to prove that you do understand Taiji application. So, hold back information can only hurt your future reputation.

Kind of a problem—those writing about what they cannot do, sharing with a public that does not know. "Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know"

Yet, words spread, the unskilled become authorities in the eyes of those who cannot tell the difference, through words
they or others write. such is the world, the named becomes the reality of the nameless

 

[windwalker099]

On form, the practice, what it's for.