244. On being a Living Tao - 活道 (Part 8)

So it’s a Sunday morning and I am staring out an open window. The leaves on the trees across the road are swaying gently, and I can’t see a single cloud in the sky from my limited viewpoint. I can hear some birds and the occasional train going past. And you’d be forgiven in thinking that I am spending lockdown in Sydney in some remote hideaway like a hermit. But I am not. I am at home in Meadowbank, Ryde crunching my weekly income and outgoing columns, and taking stock of my financial position of where I am and where I want to be in one week’s time. Now! I am aware that what I have just spoken about, seems to have no bearing on the nature of being a “Living Tao” (活道) but it is precisely when things stop making logical sense, that the Tao reveals itself: What we perceive as order from the human perception is in fact an illusion. There is no order and at the same time there is no chaos or disorder. Both extremes are illusions. The Way of Virtue or Harmony is the natural alignment of things so that things just flow effortlessly. So having said this, I am grateful for this enforced two week holiday granted to me by the New South Wales government. Okay, so it was a bit last minute and brought about by the delta strain of the Coronavirus. But still, I choose to see it as a welcome respite from city living and an opportunity to live a little differently from the usual hum-drum. Starting with doing more of my self-created Tai-chi form. I’d had enough of others insisting that I must also do Tai-chi alongside my baguazhang 八卦掌, when all I want to be is a baguazhang master 八卦掌師. Tao-chi just isn’t my thing. And so reading which way the wind is blowing like a good Tianqi master 天気大師, a couple of years ago I created my own Tai-chi Baguazhang form. And I called it (in Chinese) Tai Qi Zhang 泰極掌. The first character is the same Tai 泰 as in Thailand. With the second character I have kept the qi 極 character as is used in traditional Taiqiquan. The final character is the same Zhang 掌 as in baguazhang because as far as the movements are concerned I am still doing baguazhang. I am still walking the circle. And I am still doing my palm changes. Only this time much much slower with tai-chi-esque features incorporated into it. And now? Where am I now? Where I am now is that I no longer have a Tai-chi problem. I am what I am.