155. Genchitaofu Baguazhang's Chazen - 艮氣道福八卦掌の茶禪 (☲/☴)

""Empty your tea cup. Allow your life to be fill’d. Cha Zen: Stillness found."" When I created the Genchitaofu Baguazhang form I was aiming to achieve a number of goals through one system that was easy to do everyday and would by itself lead me up the mountain. Now, I had mentioned before that by becoming the mountain I would not need to go visit the mountain - something of which, a lot of neijia practitioners eventually find themselves doing. Nor in the realisation of doing it, the mountain would be coming to me, even though it is said in the Bible that faith can move mountains. The mountain is a stubborn element and I have stubbornness issues. And in that, I and the mountain see eye to eye and I have found inner peace on this matter. But that does not stop me from growing and climbing the metaphysical mountain that exists in all of our heads. Like the one that goes for a lot of budding martial artists: Which style is more effective in combat? Which style is the hardest? And who is number one? Well, you can’t get harder than the Gen 艮 element. It is so hard that it does not and cannot move. Hence its main promise is to help a person find stillness and ultimately true rest. In the beginning I did not focus on that. I chose Gen because it is linked to matter and for humans matter means tangible things like rocks and boulders: I wanted upon the earthly plane to have tangible results that I could prove to all the wankers and tossers around me I was living proof of what was possible. That was more than sixteen years ago. I was still in that mindset and in that world most martial artists find themselves in. And the tea 茶 and zen 禪 parts? The tea was a separate commercial enterprise in doing business like an entrepreneur. While Zen 禪 and Tao 道 and all that stuff, just wasn’t in the picture at all. In the beginning it was all go hard or go home stuff. So you can imagine my surprise one day, when through bizarre circumstances, I found the ground coming up towards me and my hardness got me bedridden for a month. Unable to move I had to confront who I truly was and let go of wanting to prove myself to people who were mostly imaginary, but had been kept around with me (in my head) as part of what happened when I migrated to New Zealand as a six year old child. The first few years of school in New Zealand are mostly memories of fighting all the time with Pakehas because I could only speak German and World War Two still loomed large. Or I was being whacked around the legs with a ruler or something in front of the class by the Pakeha teacher for whatever accusation was being thrown at me. In fact, for most of my schooling in New Zealand, fighting other boys either in school or after school was a far better option than the other side of being constantly teased or bullied. Which also did happen all the time. So there I was, lying in bed and desperately wanting to get up and do my Baguazhang while having to confront the fact that I survived and that I am still around, when from time to time I get the news that so and so has committed suicide. It pains me still to discover, that a lot of these boys (for back then Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland was a boys only school), were being bullied just as much or worse because when I saw them around, they were part of the cool kids. And I was just trying to survive. So when Kiwis ask me why I don’t want to return to New Zealand or cannot, there you have it. The place has filled me with a good dose of paranoia. At least here in Sydney, Australia when I look up at the sky I can see that it is blue and sunny and filled with the freedom that comes from wide open expanses. I no longer have to fight all the time. And when I look at people, there is peace and love. And the sense that my Baguazhang is for something greater - A kind of greatness that comes from the intangible. An intangibility that has been expressed many times through Mindfulness and Chazen 茶禪 or what I call Tea Time equals Me Ti