245. On being a Living Tao - 活道 (Part 9)

The Way through Baguazhang - 八卦掌道

So what is Tai-chi as in Taiqiquan 太極拳? Well, if you are listening to this, then you would know. It is an internal system of martial art characterised by slow steady movements that most people who seek the internal path follow. And it is usually seen being done by old people in public parks as a way to keep their qi flowing smoothly around their body. If done with dedication, consistently and for long enough, it has the potential to dramatically improve one’s well being. However, and whatever you feel about this martial art, this martial art is not Baguazhang 八卦掌. And the goals and outcomes between the two styles are not one and the same. Tai-chi is grounded in the duality of yin 陰 and yang 陽. And how the interaction between the two allows for flow: Revolution leads to counter-revolution, which leads to revolution and in turn counter-revolution again. And on and on and on the wheel turns allowing (hopefully) for forward motion in life. Baguazhang on the other hand is based on the I-Ching 易經, the Classic Book of Changes, which in turn is based on the eight trigrams commonly known as bagua 八卦. These eight trigrams can be aligned in a line or row. Or around a circle or wheel type pattern. While the interplay between yin and yang can and often make the wheel roll forward, a true bagua master learns (to appreciate through walking the circle) that even though the wheel is turning, it may just be spinning on its axis and doing nothing much else. It is basically the old saying of that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The nature of being a “Living Tao” (活道) is to place oneself at the centre of the fengshui bagua wheel 風水八卦輪. And in a sense be the the axis itself. This is not about right or wrong, but about one’s frame of reference in a given situation. If yin and yang were two boxers beating each other up in a boxing ring, no matter which way the fight goes, the ring that binds them is the bagua. Understand this, and you start opening the gates to why a bagua master at a deeper level is by doing baguazhang also a fengshui master. That mirror in the centre of the the bagua mirror 八卦鏡 isn’t just there to ward off demons and negative shit. It is there as the second changing line above the sixth changing line of the first hexagram of the I-Ching: Arrogant dragon has regrets. Which is ‘Dragon meets their true self through self-realisation’. Between the two changing lines is the seventh changing line: Dragon lets go and walks their true path.