The Way through Baguazhang - 八卦掌道

☳ Has this ever happened to you? (I am sure some of the highly stressed players out there can relate.) ☵ I wake up. The phone rings. I pick it up and answer. It turns out to be the credit card company (one of many such calls): Late. Overdue. Way overdue. Christmas without sales spells sleepless nights for business owners, bosses and executives. ☶ I have a chat with them about what's going to ha...

☳ How many have heard the saying, usually between a master and a disciple: In order for me (the master) to be able to fill your cup, you (the disciple) must first empty your cup. Or words to that effect? ☵ In the movies it is usually accompanied with the scene of the disciple holding his cup while the master keeps pouring and pouring until it overflows. The hot liquid scalds the disciple and sud...

☶ Recently I wrote a blog that was all about being mightily powerful around tea. ☵ The blog was meant for the people that love that sort of thing. However, it also had a negative side effect: Those same people that love that sort of stuff rarely buy and drink tea. ☳ They want the false reality of success without the pain. But the pain always comes. The tea gets brewed too bitter. And life becom...

☰ Tea Time equals Me Time. That we know. But what has the Japanese concept of wabisabi 侘寂 got to do with it? ☷ I love my business Teas.com.au and I love what I do in it. It is a great little livelihood that has a mission of spreading to ideas throughout the world. The first is: Tea Time equals Me time; And the second idea is: The loose leaf tea lifestyle. ☴ Both of these concepts makes sense...

☳ I seriously need a cup of tea 茶. Any type of tea 茶: Green tea 綠茶, black tea 紅茶, oolong 烏龍茶 or pu-erh 普洱茶. I think it is time for my own bit of Tea Time equals Me Time. ☵ I have just come back from yet another regular session of Baguazhang 八卦掌 and I discovered a note on my desk which basically reads that I have been living in a glass tower: A show-pony going nowhere. ☶ I have be...

☰ The start of the year gives us a chance to reflect upon the Tao 道. In particular our own path. ☳ There is only one ultimate Tao 道 but for many of us that realization is too far from our daily experiences. ☵ And for even more of us, the Tao does not equate well with the medium of our times. And that is money: Its pursuit, earning and holding of. Not too mention the ever present force to spen...

☷ Wei Xiao Huan 魏小歡 does Baguazhang 八卦掌 in the movie: All People Film 全民電影. She is an actress and this is a slapstick Hong Kong movie. You've gotta drink some tea 茶 to that! ☰ So as I am drinking tea 喝茶, I got to thinking: Since I am a boss and bosses do what bosses do, what would my life be like if I had an assistant that can do martial arts to fend the fort? ☶ What kind of a busi...

☴ Dear stressed executive, Suntzu 孫子 was a great sage 大智 who knew the Tao 道 and tried as best as he could to guide kings in their bloody warfaring. ☲ His book, The Art of War 孫子兵法 got around places. And for those too stressed to buy his book, perhaps you would consider his book printed on your favourite tea cup? ☱ The tea cup would say a lot about the determination of its wielder to ma...

☰ Suntzu 孫子 is the author of the Chinese military classic: The Art of War 孫子兵法. He has had a profound influence on military thought. And on anybody wishing to learn leadership ☳, strategy ☶ and tactics ☵. ☳ So the question to ask is: What does Suntzu have to do with tea 茶? Officially, nothing. Historically, nothing. Unless, say, you happened to be a highly stressed professional wishing...

☰ Somebody once asked me if there could be more to taking time out from work, family and other stuff to practice Tea Time equals Me Time? ☴ Sometimes I wish there could be more to it. But the truth is always simple. How much bling does a person need in their life to feel congruent? ☶ Strangely it is not about drinking tons and tons of tea. Nor is it about being a tea master: If you were to ask...

☳/☰ In the 2014 Chinese-Hong Kong movie The Crossing 太平轮, there is a scene in which a lady sits pondering over the Kung Fu Cha 功夫茶 table. In brief the movie is a war drama and disaster movie rolled into one. Directed by John Woo 吳宇森. ☵/☳ The movie is set in 1949, on the eve of the Communist victory in China. This marked a period of stagnation for tea culture in China as well as Kung F...

☰ Recently, while enjoying a bit of Me Time equals Tea Time with some of my Taiwanese friends, I was given a movie to watch called Lei Wulong Baguazhang 雷武龙八卦掌. ☵ Now I know what you are thinking: What's this? An obscure style I've never heard of before? His circle's getting a little irregular! Guys save him from his heresy! ☱ Settle down petals. It is not what it seems. After a big pot o...

☵ We seem to live in a world of the chronically stressed, get-there-itis and the sense of always being on the losing end of success. These are supposed to be the best of times, full of opportunities, and yet so many people are lost: Internally and well as externally. The Way 道 has become a messed up bowl of spaghetti. ☰ And so, highly stressed professionals come to me. While still dis-believing...

☴ Welcome to the recently held Sydney Japanese Matsuri Festival 祭り at Darling Harbour. A beautiful day of all things Japanese including cosplay コスプレ and tea 茶. ☲ My family and I got to try several grades of matcha 抹茶 at different stalls. And I have to say, that once a person goes ceremonial grade, it is very hard to drink the lower generic commercial grades on offer to the public. ☱ Mo...

☰/☳ Baguazhang 八卦掌 is a fighting system designed to take on multiple attackers while maintaining focus on the principle target. It does this by being circles within circles. ☷/☵ In the picture we have Yi Weiqi 弈圍棋 (not her real name) playing Go 碁. She sits pondering over the board as the stones of black and white are arranged in a roughly circular pattern. Off to one side there is a cup...

The conclusion to Master Dong's little adventure... Liked what you heard & want to connect with me? Join me at… linkedin.com/in/peterhainzl/

☰ Dong Hai Chuan 董海川 is the founder of modern Baguazhang 八卦掌. From him all forms of Baguazhang (recognised and unrecognised) stem from. And while only scant evidence remains of his life that can be documented, he was a lifelong tea 茶 drinker. ☷ This is most strikingly revealed through Baguazhang's teacup exercise. This exercise builds "fluidity in motion", while promoting "calmness within...

☰ Recently during a session of Tea Time equals Me Time, I was asked an interesting question: What is the business of Baguazhang 八卦掌? ☷ Now that threw me off. Baguazhang 八卦掌 is my business and so I should know the business of Baguazhang 八卦掌. And we are not talking about teaching it for money, nor being a professional fighter, nor a semi-pro prize-fighter. ☵ Jeremy Puffin (not his real n...

☳ Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 臥虎藏龍 is one of my favourite wuxia epics. The title is a martial arts term, that people know from the ancient Chinese poet Yu Xin (513–581), who wrote: 暗石疑藏虎, 盤根似臥龍. ☵ Which translates to: Behind the rock in the dark probably hides a tiger, and the coiling giant root resembles a crouching dragon. ☶ And refers to a belief among Chinese that most kung...

☴ Tea Time equals Me Time. I get this. I practice it. I promote it. It works for me and countless others as a way to give ourselves the space and time we need to be ourselves again. ☲ I typically write about Tea Time equals Me Time through the medium of martial arts. This is what I know and experience everyday. But is it only relevant to martial artists? ☱ The answer is no. Meditators, Yogis, w...

☵ Recently I got accused by a martial artist, whose name I won't mention, for being a sham. And that Tea Time equals Me Time is just hocus-pocus used to peddle my pseudo-martial arts. He also made it very clear that tea has no place in the fighting arts, whether it be to help people relax or improve their skills. ☳ I pondered on that and the next accusation that Tea Time equals Me Time is only g...

☴ Wushu 武術 champion and Taichi 太極拳 master Jet li 李连杰 drinks tea. So far this is the best image I could find of a man, I cinematically, greatly admire. It shows him in his prime, holding that calmly focused gaze that is admired by Chinese of their kung fu masters. ☲ As I drink my cup of tea, I salute him and some of his iconic movies. In particular these three: The One because he does Bag...

☰ Since I have started posting my experiences on Facebook again, I have been asked to share my thoughts on Tai Chi (Quan) 太極拳 because for some inexplicable reason I attract a lot of Tai Chi practitioners around me, even though my preferred style is Bagua Zhang 八卦掌. ☷ I know and realize that these two styles are brothers and sisters along the Tao of Martials Arts. The very act of doing thes...

☰ Nobody needs time. Nobody needs space. These things like our quest for things we desire: All just illusions. We do not even need Tea Time quals Me Time. And yet... I practice it everyday. ☳ Why? Why give ourselves timeout from our struggles when everything around us is constantly reminding us of the struggle: The struggle of our pasts, the struggle of our present, and the struggle of our futur...

☳ Somewhere at a certain level all tea tastes good when it is made well. When we find that place, it seems as if our whole life has suddenly been summed up for us in a single cup. ☵ Most of the time when we talk about Tea Time equals Me Time, we are referring to an informal practice involving tea to help us cope with the modern stresses and strains of life. And at other times it is steeped in hi...