Wednesday, January 23, 2013

What I would like to do here.

      This blog is going to be the home of articles and videos I have produced over the years on Ba Gua Zhang. I have been involved with martial arts for over 30 years, and I am beginning to realize that what I thought to be common sense about martial arts and Ba Gua Zhang specifically, is not. The more I share with so called traditionalist, the more I learn about peoples need to do it the way we have always done it with no thought as to how it works. What I really like are the Ba Gua traditionalist  who have obviously not taken any time to research any branch of Ba Gua other than their own because they have the pure true style. Well I hate to tell you there is no one pure true style. Dong Hai Chuan did not teach one way, he taught his students according to what they already knew. He did not accept students who had not already mastered another art. So every time I hear, That's not real Ba Gua because something else has been mixed in. I have to laugh, because if your definition of real Ba Gua is nothing has been mixed in, well then, Dong Hai Chuan didn't teach real Ba Gua by that definition.

       Ba Gua Zhang is an art of principles not techniques. If you understand the principles and apply them to your technique then you are doing Ba Gua Zhang. And if you are doing what you think is Ba Gua Zhang, but don't apply the principles, you are not doing Ba Gua Zhang.
       If you are more concerned with doing it the way master So and so did it then adhering to the principles you are not doing Ba Gua Zhang. Ba Gua Zhang was not meant to be stale or stagnant. It was meant to be alive and growing. Things that are alive, grow and change. Ba Gua is a system of principles so that it can grow and change and continue to be alive.
         My personal favorite saying that traditionalist will say is " Ba Gua Zhang is based on Change."
They then turn around and get all offended if you change something. These folks seem to think that their teacher's teacher was semi divine and that to change something tantamount to treason. Well he was not, he was just a man and it is possible that he made some mistakes, it is possible to improve on his understanding of the principles.
       Don't think I am saying we should toss out everything. What I am saying is that it is possible to improve on one man's perspective by looking at others and incorporating them in to what we do. This is what I do and this what I will be sharing here.  
 

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