190. 📕 (Chapter VII) Baguazhang art of war - The Mulan Paradox

Compared to humans, most animals live in the now. Even if their concerns are for the coming winter and being able to survive it, they still pretty much are mentally and emotionally in the here and now. Humans on the other hand are always thinking about a better tomorrow or fearing it, while spending most of their energy trying to get back to the past and living the way life used to be. So I am glad on a number of levels that when it comes to physics, time travel for the most part, is a mechanical impossibility. Because if it were possible, we humans would totally fuck things up. For most people can't even handle multiple opinions and need just one view, one vision, one reality. And it is in this mind-frame that the beauty of Qin Shi Huangdi 秦始皇帝, the first emperor of China shines through: All under heaven, one land, one country, one people, one everything! When we practice Baguazhang, the constant whirling and twirling around, trains the brain to stay alert from multiple angles while mentally stitching together a quilt that makes visual sense out of a patchwork of confusing signals. Done repeatedly over a long period of time, this ability to sow seemingly conflicting ideas and paths into one Wayland that can be understood, gets incorporated into other areas of our lives that might have nothing to do with martial arts. When this happens to a master of Baguazhang, a lot of what the master says, starts to sound like grey when the question was black or white. And that is just the start to the proverbial "There is no black or white" answer. To give an example: There are many versions of the Fa Mulan story. There is the Disney animated version which is different to the live action version. Both are different to the original Chinese poem. And none match the Wuxia versions floating around. To most people, only one of them is the right version with all others being wrong. There is only one Mulan in one universe. Case closed. However, to the Baguazhang master, all versions are correct and all versions get read or watched. Each Mulan exists in its own reality. And by doing them all, the brain compares notes on their similarities and differences (however tiny) so that when something in our own world is "off", we become highly sensitive to those changes before it becomes a major issue. Thereby allowing us time to quietly adjust without alerting others because a lot of the events that affect the world now are only the tangible proof manifestations of what's been going on for years under the cover. It is this Baguazhang ability that allows us to jump between different opposing realities like a game of draughts or checkers, without the weird multi-dimensional paradoxes that are so popular amongst sci-fi writers. Going back to the Fa Mulan example, what we are looking for is: If Mulan's world has these cultural and physical parameters governing it, the Mulan's life would most likely be like 'x'. And by extension, if I were living in 'y' country, doing roughly what I'm doing now, my life would only change by 'z' amount. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume, given that humans like a fair degree of certainty, my life wouldn't change that much. Unless an unforeseen factor is brought in to disrupt it like an act of God event. That whole last statement is both reassuring and disappointing at the same time, because more epic shit is on its way — each event being a step up from the next. May God have mercy on us all.