221. Genchitaofu Baguazhang's Fu - 艮氣道福八卦掌の夫

My articles and podcasts on the 'gong' part of gongfu, have been to my readers and listeners both clarifying and disappointing in equal measure. For those seeking clarity, it had helped to give a distinct clear watermark on how to measure 'gong' as a definable outcome. And for the rest, it has been disappointing because now they know that there is no way to cheat the process. Either you are in it to win or you are not. Even qigong requires hard work and a long period of time to achieve mastery. I am highlighting this because recently my wife asked me to write an article on how qigong can help with wrist health. You'd think the topic would be easy for me, but it isn't. Firstly, the article is aimed at the elderly and people whose mobility requires assisted living. And secondly, true qigong requires persistent self-development over a long period of time, where results aren't as measurable as one would believe. Almost all of the so-called qigong available online to help improve a person's wrist health is actually acupressure techniques. Not qigong. Now these acupressure techniques do work and I strongly recommend them, along with finding ways to remove the things in one's life that are part of the reason for the pain. And as you are probably guessing, this leads to the other half of gongfu: The 'fu' part! The Chinese character is literally a pictograph of an honoured person with arms, wearing a hat. In the west, the best comparison is the captain of the ship. You know he's the captain because he wears the hat. So in some ways 'fu' is a mark of rank. But it also means that the mark is achieved by having mastered the skill through years of study and practice. But it comes with a catch: Even though you've received your rank, say a doctorate of medicine, you are required to practice what you've mastered in order to keep it. And as a martial artist, whatever your style, it is a lot harder to do than what you signed up for. To live the martial arts dream means to walk in your martial ancestor's shoes. And those are some very big shoes to fill. On top of that, you have to make sense of the past and make what was created in another time and in another place, work in your present reality. You know you are at this stage because you've stopped trying to glorify or glamourize the past. And are beginning to notice the shit bits of the story. Those bits, that once incorporated into our lives, just don't add up. And we are unable to tell others about it because they are still walking the dream as was sold to them. Those of you who have come to accept, over time, that it's part of the journey, where you live now and what you do now as an extension of your art is your modern interpretation of how your martial ancestor actually lived their lives without the bullshit. Your job now, is to take what you've experienced and add your chapter to the story. And help your martial art to be the real deal in the 21st Century.