167. Genchitaofu Baguazhang's Bingfa - 艮氣道福八卦掌の兵法 (1/4)

☳ The Art of War. Military strategies. Or Bingfa 兵法 in Chinese, is a topic that will come up eventually in martial arts training. And for an internally focused martial artist, it is required study. Especially if your path, your Tao 道 is the Way of Martial Arts. ☵ I have been challenged by many practitioners that it is just all theory and not required to be a good fighter. ☶ But I always point out their habit of asking their Sifu or Sensei on elaboration or further detailed instruction as the same thing. The doubter just doesn't like reading and would prefer to have it transmuted from teacher to student. ☰ This self-imposed student limitation, is one of the many reasons why it takes years for a disciple to become a master, if they ever do. For many students wait year upon year to become a master, only to give up and quit before the appointed moment. ☷ Thankfully, I have come to understand through my Baguazhang of the Genchitaofu, that there is a third way. This path is the painful way but it leaves the Baguazhang practitioner experienced in the Art of War. ☱ What most internal martial artists don't realise is that the founders / creators of their internal martial art were fighters and soldiers first. These men and women were living the Way of the Sword long before they became martial artists. Martial arts was their way of passing on skills and staying prepared long after the last war had ended. For war and peace was a never ending cycle that came and went with the seasons. ☲ They understood that many students couldn't read or write. Nor were they always able to organise fights to test their skills. And many students were nothing more than thugs. While we dream of being the hero, the truth is that a lot of martial artists are using their skills in unsavoury ways. ☴ And then you have the yinyang situations where hero and villain are the same thing. The events cancel each other out and we are left with the average or what I call the Vanilla Life: A cup neither half full nor half empty. And always waiting for something real or eventful to happen. ☲ And nothing much ever happens in the Vanilla Life. ☱ So as a result, the martial artist turns inward upon themselves. We internalize the fights and battles. And the Universe sees this and sends us our demons to battle. Our real world problems get magnified or intensified until we deal with them like the martial artist we train to be. ☷ The thing is though, most of our real world problems look nothing like we wish them to be and those demons always attack the point where we are weakest. Points that usually have nothing seemingly martial arts about them. ☰ We are forced to turn our physical training into mental, emotional and spiritual training. ☶ And this is the secret or reason why so many of the martial art moves have nothing directly to do with kicking and punching. ☵ As hard as it may be to believe, some boxing matches are won on the strength of the doctor's ability to keep the boxer well enough to keep going in the ring, rather than on the fighting skills of the boxer. ☳ It is these "unseen" or "secret" martial art abilities that make it also internal. And it these topics that get discussed and taught using Art of War strategy books. The only difference between unseen and secret is that calling it a secret is a very good sales pitch to use. People love secrets. And spies will always have a job.