262. How does a Baguazhang Master pursue the Tao?
How does a baguazhang master pursue the Tao? That’s a very good question. And the answer is… A baguazhang master does not pursue the Tao. A baguazhang master walks the Tao. That is what walking the circle is all about. Like a road or pathway, the Tao is a thing and not a thing at the same time. And just like the bagua circle, it only exists when the practitioner walks the circle. But even without the circle, the Tao still exists. I do not know how many times, but because of daily life, I have forgotten this fact. And I do not know how many times I have had that same realisation reminding me of how profound and yet how simple the Tao is. To understand this, it requires no preaching and it requires no rituals. But they can help in giving meaning to our habits. For me, according to my wife, I do baguazhang as if it is a full-time job. I don’t see it that way. I don’t get paid to do baguazhang, nor do I get paid to run a podcast in the subject. I do baguazhang because it is in my nature to do so. What you hear and see from me is the real-deal. For the people who still require proof, it is for them to go out and find their own proof. For too long these people have sat on their arses rejecting everything as fake without ever once attempting to experience it for themselves. They join all the martial arts groups and then slowly start tearing it down in the so-called noble pursuit of finding the real amongst the fake. But the real does not come from rejection. The real comes from doing and in the process experiencing the Tao or path of whatever martial art you are doing. And it does take a lot of gongfu or hard work to get there. If you can come to some sort of personal understanding for yourself that when your life is shit, it is a sign that you are developing your own gongfu as in becoming a gongfu master, you will find your journey a smoother ride. And please try to stay focused on what you are doing and why you are doing it. If you call yourself a baguazhang master then you should be doing baguazhang in the baguazhang way and not something else. Stop messing around with the style! Do it like you mean it. And the Tao will become as clear as daylight to you as it is to me.