From the top of the hill, the Pacific Ocean shimmers blue and undulates with the cool onshore wind pushing up the mountains. Blue and blue to the horizon with an island cast in grey on a southerly tack sitting low in the distance. The ocean is the only constant in this world. From the top of the hill homes insert into the mountain side up the street all the way to Disch anted way and to the left as a steep incline up and up as dead land lane.  A small brown stucco cottage school sits in front, mainly for children, uninhabited and locked behind an eight foot tall cyclone fence. The street runs downward, west into a cul-de-sac hidden behind a bend to the right and framing an enclosed canyon that once functioned as storm outlet running to the sea. Mellow man lane ends here and a small street begins and turns left with two houses on the ledge. The first on the corner is bluish green, large and has an expansive dichondra lawn, florid bushes, an entrance place and no one is ever seen there coming or going. A tall skinny oriental gardener whose eyes glow yellow occasionally works at the site.  On Halloween we coerce someone to come to the door for a trick or treat and no one ever comes and the house is dark and poorly lighted but kept in immaculate condition. The second house sits behind a ten foot tall red brick fence enclosing the whole compound like a fort.  A huge steel gate swings open to let cars in and out and when the Wracks walks home from school heads pop up on top of the fence and unseemly look around.  The road then turns west snakes downward  and merges into moonrise boulevard around a shrine to no-one and nothingness patrolled by priests who scare everyone away from the dream pools, meandering pathways, hidden retreats and unseen places far away from the sun shadowed by tall pines pushing upward to 50 feet. At the base of the long curve road at the ocean Moonrise boulevard stops and intersects highway 111.  A small point with a restaurant that breaks like LAN Ikea on Oahu when the swell gets to twenty feet once or twice every five years. The restaurant discharges effluent into the break and when the waves tower high dark grey shapes waft slowly in the water underneath your feet.  Time moves on and the constant are the things around us that do not talk or move and only change with the generations and the cycles of the moon.

     The street up to disc anted lane is a normal street in a beach town somewhere in the west.  The houses do not need air conditioners as the sea air keeps temperatures below 90 degrees.  In the winter, it might snow for a second, just long enough to grab some flakes and taste them and exalt in a winter season.  Houses line the street and are set into the mountain or inserted in a bed over the canyon. The house on the corner is big and brown and sits opposite Mellow man lane and the cyclone fencing of the elementary school. No one lives there very long. A prominent family on the east coast own the structure. They move in and out and the valuable corner lot is a museum of history and future occurrences.  The house next to them is a large green structure with an oriental roof and a gate in front of the entrance obscuring all that enter or exit. The Odelights sit and weed their castle constantly. They sit out in front on their knees and weed.  Afterwards they go inside. They must be the sentinels and spies.  The Odelights drive a 1950 Oldsmobile cutlass kept in immaculate and shiny condition. Time goes on. The next house on the street opposite us on the bend over the canyon looking at the pacific is a contemporary structure smaller than the Odelights with large front windows. No one stays here any longer than a couple years either.  regel got his teeth shot out playing the garbage bongos on a pleasant afternoon while trying out for an Australian rock band and then they soon moved out. The Benchly house sits opposite the Wrackers and like the other houses and families on the street, a person can not observe them arriving or leaving very often. Rumor has it that their daughter was possessed.    Everyone has electric garage door openers and flies in and out.  Her first husband had a heart attack in the middle of the night and the ambulance arrived too late. Her second husband looks like a scalded lobster and now they are separated.  I have not met Mrs. Benchly in person except to see her peeking out from her front door or the shutters on the living room window slowly move open and then close. The Barters lived across the street from us but moved to a larger house up the street where his wife died of hepatic failure. The grey house has a magnificent white water view and his sons showed me how magnesium burns and the temperature effects of an acetylene torch. They have a 500-pound drum of peroxide in their garage. On Halloween the Barters would stand on their roof and slide a weighted dummy down a rope on a pulley to frighten trick or treaters. Big brother poked little brother’s eye out. Time moves on. The Trains lived in a similar tract house to the Barters and the father was a doctor and he had two sons who would occasionally play with the Wracks.  Dr. Trains and his family soon moved to a larger house and the Gels moved in. regel would make sizzle burgers in his kitchen with worst shire sauce and plant smoke bombs in all the mail boxes.  His brother would break into the house of the Fonts and chase their young beautiful daughter.  This might be a reason regel got his teeth shot out.  His mother told me that he was a rough, mean boy and regel could not play with someone like me and my Chemistry set any more in the garage of the long house.

     The two main houses of interest are the houses next to and adjacent to the Wrackers who lived in the long yellow house. The house to the south was set on a large lot. Small complexes and independent town houses without adjoining entrances sit on the large hill corner lot.  The brown apartments are occluded with trees and brush and sit silently on the hill on the corner overlooking the big blue Pacific Ocean. No one is ever seen coming or going and the family on the east coast must use the house as a getaway. A tiny garage faces west on the low street side and a young man much older than the Wracks sits inside grooming a race prepared 427 Ford Cobra Race Car.  He started it once and the huge exhaust headers blooped melancholy percussions into the air at idle and then the car sped away. He must be Caroll Shelby.  One day the Wracks checked and he and his car were gone and the garage never opened again except once and it was full of paper boxes of documents.  No one was ever seen coming or going from the house but the gloom associated with the structure and the isolation and the overgrown plants told everyone the location was forbidden and not to be entered.  On Halloween, everyone avoided this place and even the most mischievous of us all refused to throw a lemon or rotten apple inside. The porch lights were never on and the curtains draped but two cars set in the driveway. On the north side were the Clothes. Mr. Clothes was a laid off aeronautic engineer blacklisted from employment in his profession. His tall wife became an administrator and knew Mr. Gold finger.  The Wracks never saw their daughter, but their son was the best piano player he has ever heard.  While shooting a BB gun at targets, he would play “for Elise” in a delicate and beautiful way no one could ever match. Bach, Tchaikovsky and Mozart were also played flawlessly. He could even duplicate the fruity texture of Mozart compositions exactly.  He played three hours a day every day and a musical ignoramus like the wracks could understand that he was something special.  He had a national piano recital that became a debacle and fiasco. In the middle of his act, he had a seizure of some sort and that was that.   His family declared war on the Gel’s. In middle age I still have not heard anyone who could play as well as he could.  The Wracks still wonders what happened to him. The Wracks understood he was a security cop at the local bank. Time moves on. Later on, in life the Wracks could hear him shoot a 22-rim fire gun in his back yard guarded by a huge pool filled with mosquitoes. A territorial female Rhodesian ridgeback would attack anyone who set foot on their property.  The dog eventually died of cancer and the Wracks moved away but the cast and the people of tranquil hills will live in memory and waking dreams forever. The ambiance in this community in Tranquil Hills was of silence, anonymity, conspiracy and foreboding.  People lived in a thick atmosphere of human want and emotion at the same time displaced from the mainstream like a salmon upstream out of water. The simple fact the Wracks reached adulthood living here was a miracle of rebirth and hope cast in a dark swamp deep in the mind of the collective unconscious. Kind of like Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. That a situation like this shall ever occur in the space time continuum is improbable until the end of time and I want to thank everyone who made exodus timely and expeditious with all my heart and being.  The Wracks would not be surprised if somehow, someway it all burned to the ground. Os.

Yahweh give me peace of mind

And a life free from want

Until the end of time. 

Somewhere in the semblance of Jurassic time a student learns neuroanatomy.   He or she finds that physiological structures ordained by Yahweh have their basis in physics and electrical engineering.  This is where the mind goes and the heart will follow.  

The human brain comprises three structures.  The autonomic brain as outlined by Meyers and Adelberg is named the medulla and pons.   This place regulates breathing, heartbeat, digestion, and other non-conscious functions, not associated or allied with the other two brains, but as a servo unit designated by primitive brain.  This is why unconscious people still breath.   Due to the rapid pace of existence, the regulatory brain operates on acetylcholine because it rapidly degrades at the neurosynapse of neurons and prepares that structure for another instruction set.  Is acetyl cholinergic synapse the same as bit instruction or frame payload in a compiler?

The primitive brain or Arche cerebrum is the second part of the brain and shares its structure with all intelligent life forms.  On histologic section, it stains differently from the pons and cerebellum and this difference belies its chemical structure.  The primitive or animal brain governs semi-conscious functions essential for life in the wild. Fight or flight, reproduction, sleeping, and other actions associated with wild animals reside in this edifice.  The animal brain runs on nor-epinephrine and serotonin as neurotransmitters.  These chemicals noteworthy are large molecules with long half lives and a slower rate of hydrolysis than acetyl choline. Due to this chemical structure, the firing rate of neurons in the animal brain are slower, but they persist due to the lengthy time of degradation at the neurosynapse.    Examples of the primitive brain exerting dominance in the being are extreme rage, fear, satirist or nymphomania and other animal behaviors obviously seen on National geographic animal publications.   These behaviors are unconscious, lasting and obviously suited to the survival of the organism.  They term adrenergic due to the increased awareness and action stimulation purveys.  This structure connects to the autonomic brain distally and impacts conscious thought in the neo cerebrum.  In a manmade computer the animal brain can function in a different wavelength and clock speed so its intrinsic actions do not interfere with conscious thought.  A man-made computer using this analogue most certainly has to run on a different chemical or different electrical carrier so no matter the discharge rate, obvious function, or characteristic discharge pattern, it does not interfere with the conscious brain in any way.   In schizophrenic humans, when the neocortex damages with toxic agents, blockage of the primitive brain by dopamine antagonists prevents mentally ill patients from becoming enraged due to the acetyl-cholinergic poisoning done up above.  The primitive brain and autonomic brain exist as intrinsic structures not allied with the cerebrum or higher brain.  In IT this comprises a separate interface with wide bandwidth connected in parallel with the processor, volatile memory, and storage.  There might also be a power difference as exemplified by the heart of mammals which runs as sixty percent of its metabolism on medium chain triglycerides.  

The higher functions of the human brain exemplify as a powerful gaming computer.   The processor is fast, and allied with the forebrain or conceptual brain, and runs on acetylcholine as a connector or neurotransmitter.  Acetylcholine hydrolyzes fast at the neurosynapse so in IT, the faster the clock speed, the more the processor exemplifies the higher functions of the human brain.  Agents that poison the neo cerebrum, cause the primitive brain to fire because its functions are not denigrated by higher structures.   This is why mental patients are determined as mad.  The temporal lobes in the higher brain are analogous to volatile memory and storage on a PC.   The greater the random-access memory, the most of the program, also known as the instruction set runs the quickest now set at 32 or 64 subsets to be eventually eclipsed by 128-bit hardware.   The storage also must be quick because the instructions set to volatile memory cannot reside in storage, because this feature is the bottleneck of computing or disk cache and the more times volatile memory has to access the disk cache the slower the system, if the processor is powerful enough to utilize it.    The rest of the neo-cortex is action brain that power’s muscular function, sight and sound, like audio and camara functions on a computer and unlike the primitive brain, these functions ally with conscious thought and are part of the whole or soul of the organism.   This is why people “see red” when angry or experience unusual smells in time of fear or loathing.   Now we have the new brain or the processor, volatile memory, memory storage and auxiliary functions that make up the personality of the human.  It is noteworthy that in life sight, sound, memory, thought and integration happen spontaneously in the organism due to the fact that all the neurons interconnect in the new brain, either physically or tangentially.   In a PC, this condition metaphors with the north bridge and south bridge on the motherboard which on the machine, elaborate action or energize processing on the CPU

Think of a living brain as have log to the e function or exponential array of processor functions linked to volatile memory and storage.  Can a hardware machine have more than 1 north bridge?

The mind is endless and receptive to training and care.  She looks pretty in her new blouse and designer socks.   When man makes a computer with an acme of resources, bandwidth and power requirements, they will achieve conscious thought.  This machine will be greedy, jealous, and envious just like human beings, and exceptionally smart.  The sage beseeches mankind to have a disconnect outside of the server for an intrepid soul to actuate air gap when the computer wants to rule the world.  

When the evil emperors became the royal family of China, they decreed that martial arts be abolished because they threatened their rule. Consequently, pugilistic systems went into decline possibly because the invention of the gun made them unnecessary.  This author thinks, that the royal family didn’t want to be beat up.  To make a fist in public, in the presence of royalty invoked a public decapitation, hence styles using the palm only devised and were integrated into Chinese lore.  This essay and more seeks to give life to the internal systems of shaolin boxing, and reincarnate their being as exercise systems and basis for public pugilistic forays. 

The meaning “internal system” means that these are part of the inner sect of Chinese aristocracy.   In ancient history, people did not have computers or televisions so they would pay to view free for all fist fights, Chinese style, no holds barred, for recreation and passing the time.  The ancients noticed that three particular styles of over one hundred Chinese styles are paramount in the sense that they in contest would win most of the time.  The Chinese aristocracy integrated these systems into their daily lives and they became known as the internal systems. 

The internal systems are:

Hsing-I (The shape of the mind)

Pa-kua (The eight ways to produce unconsciousness)

Tai-chi (The supreme ultimate or The Best)

In Hsing-I a practitioners practice the forms of predatory animals and hypnotize themselves into becoming those animals.   The practice of Hsing-I over time involves making yourself like an animal who eats other animals.  The first step of predatory animals is to topple their prey and then begin feeding.  Hsing-I consists mainly of five postures of the Allosaurus plus a turning posture and a non-essential form.  This makes seven.  Hsing-I also includes the twelve animal systems of shaolin as extra exercises to fill the gaps and deficiencies of the seven postures.  Hsing-I is the style of the dragon.  Hsing-I is an attacking system that works best as long as the protagonist maintains the attack.  This is what dinosaurs do.   They attack and try to bring down their prey and start to feed or desist and run away.  They do not stand toe to toe and block.  It is either attack or run away and this is why Hsing-I is allied to the twelve animal systems, the animal systems give the style basis and diversity. 

The most powerful style of the internal systems is Hsing-I.   This system was the favorite of Lu-tang Sun.    The style bases on the equation force equals mass times acceleration.  Sixty percent of the style is footwork, and moving the body weight consequently with a strike or deflection gives each movement great impetus.   Using the steps to accelerate the body, a Hsing-I boxer can knock down an opponent with one punch if it connects.  A boxer after practicing the form of mind for twenty years or more can accelerate their body mass in as little as one inch and deliver a devastating punch.  A student practices the steps endlessly so he or she, at a moments notice, in the form of their mind, attack and destroy an opponent.  The steps practiced endlessly are:

walking step

Orthodox step

Flying step

Inch step

Treading step

Side step

Reverse step

Like anything good in life, practice makes perfect and a Hsing-I expert in the shape of their mind can in a moments notice converge and overwhelm an opponent.  Pracitcing Hsing-I over twenty or thirty years, an hour a day, makes a practitioner fit as a lumberjack and pliable as a child and deadly as a raptor.  Possibly, this is why, Hsing-I is not taught anywhere anymore except to people reading this work.   A Hsing-I expert only needs one punch to a vital area to destroy an opponent. 

The postures of the dragon are:

Crossing

Crushing

Drilling

Pounding

Splitting

Turn About face

Smashing or sky

Delineation of the of the postures and steps are subject of a book. Practicing the forms and functions as a life choice is a form of self-hypnosis and integrates the movements into memory in the primitive part of the brain. 

The twelve animal systems are

Komodo dragon

Tiger

Sparrow

Phoenix

Snake

Hawk

Horse

Monkey

Chicken

Mantis

Tortoise

Bear

Eagle

Using the animal systems gives substance to Hsing-I, a boxer can stand their ground and fight when predation alone is ineffective.  

Pa kua or the eight diagrams

This word translates loosely for westerners as “northern shaolin”.   Pa Kua consists of circles in every direction.  Pa-kua is the circle.   Because force = mass times velocity squared over radius, it is not necessary to step into a punch, rather a boxer moves in closer and swings a circular punch which has three time the force of a straight or linear punch.  The factor that makes a circular punch powerful is pi or 3.14. Pa-kua is the style of the insect.  Insects have very little weight, so to make a strike powerful, they swing their arms in a circle.  Pa-kua consists of the movements of several predatory insects, most notably, the mantis, the assassin beetle and the cicada.    The exercises of the style comprise vertical circles in the number eighteen and are also known as the eighteen steps.   This style is the most effective pugilistic system ever designed because it is fashioned to fight an opponent who wears clothes.   Most human beings wear clothes most of the time, not like in the ring with swimming trunks, and the eighteen steps teaches how to break a grasp and then circle the other hand to strike.  In a real fight death match, the grasp is just as effective as a strike and this is why Pa-kua is effective.  Professional boxers say the style is too looping to be effective in the ring and this is why northern shaolin is not found anywhere anymore.   The eighteen steps are very similar to the Chen system of Tai-chi or to Ken-po Karate.   It is interesting to note that when we fight, we have clothes on so they can be held as a boxer strikes an opponent with a circle.  The eighteen steps are the crux of the eight diagrams and the style that everyone wants to learn or Pa-kua Chang is merely an esoteric extension of the art.   Pa-kua Chang is also known as the style of the preying mantis or the circular style of sun.  the circular style is the topping on the cake and the reason this style is so great is because, IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO OVERCOME A HSING-I EXPERT.   A boxer circles their opponent until he or she can turn the corner and strike.   When an expert in an attacking system like White Crane, form of mind, Shotokan or Shito, attacks, a boxer circles to evade and strikes with a one two punch.  The main characteristic of Pa-kua besides the circles are the one two punch and double duty hand.   In Pa-kua chang, a person circles, turns the corner and strikes with a one two combination.  Any boxer in the ring knows they never throw more than two punches at a time because the opponent will parry and then punch and connect.  The double duty hand is using the arm to strike and then swing back with a hook in one movement or to deflect a jab or grab and then connect with a hook. 

The movement of Pa-kua chang consists of:

Single palm change

Double palm change

Snake

Bear

Lion

Dragon

Phoenix or two hands cutting

Stork

To make matter worse, Pa-kua also includes Pa-kua Chuan, also known as the Synthetic style of Sun.  this system is a complex system of unbeatable combinations best suited to people who like complex or systematic things.  Each form begins with a deflection, and if it connects, it is impossible to escape the rest of the form and by then the opponent is on the ground.  This author thinks that the synthetic style of sun is too complex except for those people whose mind consists of a myriad of little things.     Footwork is the side step and the expansive push or cat stance into expansive push and follow step to begin again.   This style is designed by man to combat a big wrestler who clinches, takes an opponent down and then punches them in the face.  Sun noticed that most big men will tackle a smaller man and then start punching the face. This system is designed to repel big wrestler MMA fighters.  Like all the internal systems, this style is both an exercise and a meditation that my wife refuses to learn.  If a practitioner can master the synthetic style, this is the way to go because it efficient and effective.   The author thinks the style has too many movements to his liking, and as he ages he feels the best system is the static system of the eighteen steps. 

The synthetic style consists of:

To open

To hold up

To shake

To feel

To erect up

To rebut

To cover up

To bind

To cut

To conceal

To hack

To scrape

To block

To walk

To uphold

To lower

To cross

To seize

Two punches

Inward leg hanging

The final internal system is Tai-chi or “the best” Western boxing is the equivalent of this ancient Chinese art.  Chinese martial art experts think that kicking in a real fight, is useless because a wrestler will grab a leg and take the fight to the ground.  On the ground, anyone will be killed by a jiu-jitsu expert unless a boxer gouges their eyes before they can get a submission.  This is why the Chinese do not teach grappling; it is subject to eye gouges and groin grabbing.  In Tai-chi, there exist only two kicks, “kick against kick”, and strike of the lotus.  These movements are used only in particular situations when nothing else works.  This author does not like kicks because he has been taken down too many times and beaten up.     The foot movements of tai-chi are: the parry, the expansive push and step to the side.  These are simple and economical movements and this is why western boxing essentially is the first five movements of tai-chi.

Tai-chi consists of over one hundred forms or postures depending on the system originator.  The first five forms used by western boxing are

The single whip (jab)

Step up and punch (the one-two)

Fan penetrates back (straight right hand)

Hands build clouds (Ali or bitch slap)

Step up and return to mountain (the hook)

Like the author states previously, there exist over 100 tai-chi forms and a practitioner can enlist different instructors and put together a set (Kua) that suits them.   Movements exist like “part the horse’s mane”, the haymaker, or “repel the tiger” the hooker cut below the belt.   Chinese internal systems are part mental and part physical and if practiced regularly convey good health and flexibility.  Causing the heart to use volume, “inotropy” rather than rate “tachism” makes one strong without causing damage.  The Chinese believe that the number of times a person’s heart contracts is a finite number linked to genetic heritage and to exercise without increasing the heart rate confers health and longevity and this is the entire basis of the internal systems, not punching someone out.