Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Martial Arts and Daily Living in China


When choosing a master one need not be hasty. Observe people around yourself with patience and understanding, teach them of yourself and understand inner path you are taking. It later allows you to look at your master’s eyes with humility, understanding and acceptance. Great masters have been but a few and only history keeps their records, few alive ones keep battling about own theories and perspectives being more concerned about claiming others being wrong rather than proving self being right. Considering the fact that training in martial arts partly requires imagining opponent (with an aim of being ready once it really gets to that point) I assume verbal dispute is a modern way of contemporary practice..

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“You are the sixth generation of Bagua Zhuang Style,” Liu says proudly. I try to hide confusion of my mind going through a Bagua genealogy calculation:
“If he is proud for me being the sixth generation, it must be even more special to be the fifth one!” thoughts are racing each other while hoping he doesn’t misinterpret my disappointment: I came in one generation too late…
I am convinced that karma carries something within my matrix which has distinguished code for martial arts. I start practicing 3-4 hours daily. There is some force that I like and follow in this instance. Projected initially through the energy of money I keep questioning decision to invest in myself and pay double of the fee to somebody I hardly know. There is something in his eyes that I want to get: clarity, calmness and depth. He keeps convincing me that it is just the matter of time.
Gentle strokes and testing of the physical capabilities are nothing but the beginning of the vast exploration of Internal School of Martial Arts. Taichi, Xinyi and Bagua. He is proud of his own way, as all the other masters (Shifu) are. I have not met many but can distinguish pride from arrogance.

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