160. Genchitaofu Baguazhang's Wuxia - 艮氣道福八卦掌の武俠 (☴/☷)

You know... A funny thing about people that say martial arts is all bullshit, is that they are some of the biggest consumers of martial arts literature and artwork. After having been told countless times about all the fantasy stuff and how it's not real, it amazes me that afterward I still get asked if any of it is actually real? I usually answer that a lot of it is written by people who don't do or know any martial arts for people like themselves to enjoy. And I try to leave it at that. But then now you must be wondering: If I've left it at that, why do I write so many articles and have a podcast series? I do it because I enjoy sharing my experiences. And by sharing, I continue to grow as a martial artist, walking the path to wherever it leads me. A path both like Baguazhang 八卦掌 always circular and like the I-Ching 易經 always changing. It's never static. And as it evolves, I find in the method of podcasting a way to bring clarity to some of the confusing aspects surrounding the experience of living Baguazhang 八卦掌 every single day. Remarkably those daily experiences, which to me can be quite ordinary, I'm finding it easier and easier to discuss with others on the martial arts path versus those who are not, because non-martial artists can't relate to my world without using references from Wuxia 武俠. For me, like so many other western martial artists married into the Chinese community, the unwritten yardstick tends to be 金庸 Jin Yong's Wuxia 武俠 novels like Legend of the Condor Heroes 射鵰英雄傳. If it's not the Kungfu 功夫 then it's the Qigong 氣功. There's always something that makes one never being able to measure up. Until of course, somebody like me comes along and thinks: Okay. So his stories are what I'm being measured against. So let's read his stuff... Bullshit. Bullshit. Not real. These characters piss me off. What kind of story is this. You're kidding me, right? Hey, this stuff is pretty good. Lightness Kungfu, what's that? I wonder if any of it can be done in the real world? And then a magical thing happens. At least that's the way I want to portray it: That impossible yardstick disappears. It disappeared because the truth is that when we are living our martial art, we are literally writing our own Wuxia story albeit set in the here and now. Every training session, every fight, every direct or indirectly related experience is building the legend that is your story.  And something internal also happens. Maybe it's an internal martial arts thing, but by reading those novels we become a part of it and it becomes a part of us. The deeper allusions make sense to us in a way not understood by those who don't do martial arts. And we become the translator of the finer points. Those finer points, once deeply grasped accelerates our own chi cultivation in ways few of us can truly comprehend except place a milestone that reads "Been there, Done that".