The Way through Baguazhang - 八卦掌道

Yes. It is true. Through Baguazhang 八卦掌 journeying along the Taoist path, I am what I am: A real kungfu master and people like to call me Shifu 師傅 as a mark of respect. But… while it is a great honour, it comes with its own challenges like NOT abandoning this life for one of seclusion in the mountains like a lot of Taoists 道者. Or whether or not to continue podcasting, especially in light of the changes just around the corner regarding it. Anyways, there will always be Baguazhang 八卦掌 practice ❤️

On the one hand this episode could be another one about Mopai. But in the end I went back to what is really important: Baguazhang. It starts off with that age old question of how a person can measure qi? And the it goes somewhere else. Hey! It’s a Saturday and the garden path leads to where it wants to go. So sit back and relax into it. Enjoy ☺️

Let’s get real: Are the 72 levels of Mopai achievable? And how do you you know you have achieved any one of those levels? 🧐 Hmmmm….. ☶

Now this is an important question: Is Mopai a martial art? It reads like one in the book. And it is the source of much of the “qualified” criticism about it. Of which… I answer the question. The problem most people have and don’t want to admit is that they are seeking something that blinds them to the obvious. Something which all the internal martial arts (including Baguazhang) struggle with. ☵

Recently I read the book ‘The Magus of Java’ by author Kosta Danaos. It is a book about Mopai and its then grandmaster John Chang a.k.a John Baharudin a.k.a. Dynamo Jack from Ring of Fire fame. In part 1, I give a basic description of the difference between Baguazhang and Mopai in how qi is cultivated. ☳

While in Hong Kong I wanted to do a bit of exploring and eventually I got myself, sort of, lost. Well, not really in the larger scheme of things… but it made for an interesting day out and in the end I managed to score myself a nice new black jade pendant to assist me with my Qi 氣 cultivation while doing Baguazhang 八卦掌.

So why black jade?

Black jade behaves energetically like a spiritual well. It draws a deposit from all the hard work put into one’s self cultivation through the internal martial arts i.e. neigong 內功, ready to be drawn upon when needed as an extra source of inner vitality.

Hello from Hong Kong 香港.

In this episode I am recording from my wife’s home town and the birth place of Bruce Lee 李小龍.

It’s been an interesting experience thus far doing Baguazhang 八卦掌 and focusing on cultivating my Yin 陰修.

I know that most Taoist cultivation practices focus on Yang 陽. But that is for people who’s qi 氣 lacks inner strength.

But Baguazhang as an internal martial art is

👉 1) naturally yin focused, and

👉 2) people who do martial arts are already usually full of Yang.

Anyway this is a light episode talking about this and that while I am here. So enjoy 😉

PS. If you want to see my pictures of the PakTai temple (Xuanwu Shangdi temple) I visited in Wan Chai 灣仔北帝廟, link up with me on Instagram 📸 👉 baguazhang_ 👈🙂

So recently I started my own personal journey of translating the Tao Te Ching 道德經 as part of my own Taoist experience because 1) I wanted to, and 2) because I have noticed discrepancies between what the typical English version says and what the Chinese version says. And it can get frustrating. But do not worry, I won’t be publishing it. But what would like to share in the text is this…

While we have essentially two branches of Taoism to choose from:

👉 道家 Taojia (Tao Philosophy) ☳

👉 道教 Taojiao (Tao Religion) ☶

Neither of these two are mentioned in the Tao Te Ching. The term used in the book is Taoji:

👉 道紀 Taoji (Tao Discipline, practice) ☵

And the term used for a Taoist is Tao-Er.

👉 道者 Taoist, Tao person or Tao expert.

Taoji is about practicing it as part of your ordinary everyday life. In the here and now with our lives in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Good and not so good. Okay, maybe your situation is worse but you know what I mean.

Ok… So in this episode titled: How not to do Baguazhang 如何不做八卦掌, I’m letting you know about Neidan Master Damo Mitchell’s audio by the same name. Listen to it. It’s in-depth and worth its weight in gold. It’s about an hour long but if you try to rush it and skip sections, you will miss a great deal of important stuff that will either boost your practice or stop incorrect practices that are holding you back. And before you ask, this is not a team-up with Mitchell.

Question: What is it like to be a baguazhang Taoist?

The answer to that question on the daily life of being a Taoist 道者 or a Baguazhang master 八卦掌大師 is… (drum roll, please) is this: You’re a fucking weirdo. Most people have no idea what you are. Or why you would bother chasing a goal that leads to nowhere. Maybe in Asia somewhere, with its exotic locations, people and spices, it would all make sense. But in the Western world. Not so much.

In this podcast I talk about how in daily life nothing much changes. I’m not sure who this podcast is for, but as they say in this city… It is what it is.