Saskatoon Nine Dragon Baguazhang
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Albert Community Centre
610 Clarence Ave S.
Saskatoon, SK
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A Dust Covered Mirror
By John P. Painter (Copyright IAM Co 2005)
How can we expect to act without hesitation, following an opponent's movement, guiding them along circuits of neutralization if our mind is filled with doubts, fear and crammed with hundreds of memorized techniques?
I am often amazed at the laundry list of styles and tactics that some of the students who come to Jiulong attempt to impress me with. Telling me that they have a black belt in Aikido, Judo, Karate, Shaolin and on and on. They forever make comparisons that this action in Baguazhang is like such and such a move in Aikido or Jujitsu. It is truly a sign of our culture that if one is good 100 must be better. Over the years I have come to believe that exactly the opposite is true.
I see this as what the old masters referred to as “monkey mind” an inability to focus on any one thing for long. Today this monkey mind is rampant in our society, what with instant this and that, 5 second sound bites to tell a whole story on the news; we have become a nation of short attention span (martial master wannabes).
There was a student of mine who wished to train Jiulong Baguazhang, he was already or at least he claimed to be a holder of numerous ranks and black belts in other styles with many alleged full contact fights under his belt. When one attempted to talk to him he could barely let one thought register before he changed the subject by asking a question on something completely irrelevant to the conversations. This would happen time and time again. When you attempted to teach him a principle he would start telling you how this principle was just like a move in such and such a martial art. When you asked him to train the principle and later demonstrate it as a Baguazhang expression he would launch into some hybrid move from Xingyiquan or Karate with a hint of Bagua flavor.
Truly this student was not only possessed of Money Mind but he as Lao Zi said was carrying too much “unnecessary baggage”. When we would play Bagua push-hands the Jiulong version called Two Dragons at Play he would constantly switch in and out of other styles attempting to “get a point in” missing the entire focus of the game. Each time he would shift into some other method he would be thrown five to ten feet away by even some of our youngest intermediate students. With this he would still not get it and become frustrated and amazed thinking that all he needed to do was catch the student in an unguarded moment and throw a new hybrid tactic. His strategy never worked and he never saw his fault which was simply that his cup was too full.
Then he took a trip to China and came back with hours of video tapes of Bagua teachers circling with hundreds of numerous forms. He told me how he had every video on Bagua he could get and how these new tapes acquired in Beijing were going to be very valuable to him. I asked him to watch them what any of these had to do with learning Li family Jiulong Baguazhang and why he felt he had to go outside the family art to learn the family method. He said that all Bagua was pretty much the same and these tapes could help him understand that. So I encouraged him to study them learn their methods and return to me in a year to play Two Dragons at Play with me. He did and again and again he was thrown out of the circle as easily as one would manipulate a paper mannequin. I explained to him that is not how many things you know it is how well you know a few things that makes you skilled in an art. I told him that he could not follow my moves because all the things he knew were like particles of dust settling on the mirror of his mind. His mirror was so dust covered that he could not see his own reflection, let alone mine, when we played. It was not about techniques, it was about clearing the mind to move with and absorb the actions of others, guiding them, leading them in their natural paths of neutralization this is the essence of the Daoist principles and the essence of Jiulong Baguazhang. This essence is first discovered by working on the self not martial tactics. It is discovered in Jingzuo /quiet sitting.
The states one strives to achieve in Li family Daoist boxing methods are:
Wangji-ziji:Â To forget or overcome the sense of self
This refers to getting the ego out of the way and to do things without thought of reward. This stage is sought in quiet sitting often know as Jingzuo a form of Chan or Zen type meditation.
Ziran - natural, free from affectation
This refers to refined actions that are done because they are necessary and not because they look or feel a certain way. It takes quite some time to achieve this in just one method and more than a lifetime in three.
Wuwei: Â Letting things take a natural course without pre-planning /spontaneous action.
This is pretty self explanatory. It seems easy like a child naturally catching a ball or raising a hand to swat a fly but to achieve true Wuwei the first two stages must be achieved. Those with monkey mind will never touch this level.
As we move from Jingzuo / Quiet Sitting to standing practice we encounter new challenges. It is not about form as much as it is about the intention / Yi. The power of Zhandouli Zhan Zhuang (combat effective post training) is like the kernel of the wheat the wheat germ. It is here that we first truly begin to understand the roots of Yi energy.
What I am saying is that if you do the forms alone and they are not pantomimes of combat and receptacles of principle directed by mind intent (YI) your forms can never help you attain unrestricted martial skill they are just empty moves with no internal energy.
As time progresses we come to understand the underlying principles of the moves we are practicing. At this point we will come closer to comprehending the idea of Ziran (self so-ness) natural action. Becoming Ziran Zhandouli (naturally combat effective) is the goal of true martial Jiulong Baguazhang training.
Through the phases of Zhan Zhuang training we have developed the concepts of Sung (letting go of unnatural tension), rooting, and created an integration of Jin (body/mind power) and the principle of Beng Jin (rebounding energy). These concepts we have then taken into our forms practice and eventually transcended ever the forms into Ziran Baguazhang (Natural Harmonious Boxing).
Although each action in Baguazhang has what appears to be a specific form and posture Mr. Li was quick to point out that these were merely guides. In real combat one does not have time to use exact form or to consciously evaluate the technique or elemental energy coming at you. This is where your hard training and a mind that is relaxed comes in. This is where you become natural in action, (Ziran) or (Wuwei) without thoughts.
Of course none of this will work if the mirror is covered with dust!