Lift Hands Volume 17 March 2021 - The Multi Award Winning Martial Arts Magazine

volume 17

March 2021

The Tai Chi Renegade Project

20 Questions With Alan Ludmer

Wudang Hand Weapons: The Axe

Taiji, Xingyi & Bagua Extrapolations From Chen Pan-Ling’s Combined 99 Posture Taijiquan

Walking The Mystic Path With Practical Feet: Bagua Zhang and the Lessons of Nature Editor Nasser Butt

British Martial Arts Awards Magazine Of The Year 2019

perception realization activation action

Lift Hands

The Internal Arts Magazine Volume 17 March 2021

Editor

Nasser Butt

L’orso Solitario

Published by L’orso Solitario Books, Leicester, United Kingdom Lift Hands The Internal Arts Magazine Volume 17 March 2021 Editor Nasser Butt Copyright © by Nasser Butt, 2021 & Fa-jing Ch’uan Internal Chinese Boxing Schools Nasser Butt asserts the moral right to be identified as the editor & owner of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the editor.

Waiver of Liability: The publisher assumes no liability for the use or misuse of information contained within this book. By purchasing or electronically downloading this publication, the reader hereby, waives any and all claims he or she may have now or in the future against Nasser Butt and Fa-Jing Ch’uan Internal Chinese Boxing Schools or its affiliates.

The points of view represented here are solely those of the authors’ concerned. You do not have to subscribe to them if you do not wish. Nor is their inclusion here necessarily an endorsement by Fa-jing Ch’uan Internal Chinese Boxing School or its affiliates.

Cover Photo (main): Portrait of Dong Hai-Chuan Cover Design © Nasser Butt, 2021 Back Design: Copyright © Nasser Butt 2020; Photography: Marios Eleftheriou

lift hands

March 2021

5

contents

Editor’s Note

Page 10

The House of Mouse The Art of Amy Faulkner

Page 12

Walking The Mystic Path With Practical Feet Bagua Zhang and the Lessons of Nature Dr. Gregory T. Lawton

Page 14

The Tai Chi Renegade Project Colin Power

Page 36

Yang Cheng-fu Form — The Martial View Peter Jones

Page 39

The Axe: The Wudang Hand Weapons Part 5 Nasser Butt

Page 43

Taiji, Xingyi & Bagua Extrapolations From Chen Pan-Ling’s Combined 99 Posture Taijiquan Mark Small Page 52 20 Questions with Alan Ludmer

Page 58

Simply A Teacher Dr Gregory T. Lawton

Page 66

SARS-COV-2 and “Bun-Bu Ryo Do” (The Way of Literary and Military Arts) Katherine Loukopoulos

Page 68

50 Year Old White Belt With 40 Year Experience Gavin Richardson

Page 75

Darkness, Mother, Warrior, Way Ramakrishna

Page 80

Baguazhang: The Art of Dong The Fugitive Nasser Butt

Page 81

Peasant Talk

Page 98

Useful Contacts

Page 102

The Art of Louiseneige Be

Page 103

6

English Edition Link Italian Edition Link

9

T

ees

available now £14.99 Each + P&P

Sales Enquiries (for colour/ style/size availability): move2survive@gmail.com Enter code LH17 in subject heading to claim 33% off your first order!

Please Note: Colour of print & text may vary depending upon the colour of the t-shirt chosen.

8

9

W

elcome to Volume 17 of Lift Hands Magazine!

Who would’ve thought that after an entire year most of the world would still be in a lockdown due to the Covid pandemic!

Nasser Butt

As ever, each passing week and month of lockdown has meant that more and more people have had their livelihoods affected by the inability to work, and sadly, many martial arts clubs and associated businesses have been hard hit to say the least. However, we soldier on, after all isn’t this what we train for — to be able to deal with adversity?

editor’s Note

Well, we are well into the new year already and with the vaccination program being rolled out, are hoping that some normality will return soon.

This first issue of 2021 has been a challenging one to put together. Many of our regular contributors have been feeling jaded and fatigued due to the challenges represented by the past year, but having said that, nonetheless, they have produced the goods for another fantastic issue, and I want to thank each and every one of them for their time and effort.

We have now introduced Baguazhang into the magazine alongside the articles on Taijiquan, and slowly but surely we will continue to add more from the family of the neijia.

One of the great achievements of Lift Hands Magazine has been to bring together the many strands of Yang Shao-hou’s lineage in particular and this issue is no different — I would like to welcome Mark Small to our family of contributors. Mark has a stellar pedigree and we hope that his experience and knowledge will grace our pages on a regular basis.

Further, our readership continues to climb and we currently stand at 21K and counting across the continents.

So, once again a huge thank you to everyone who has made this possible and I have no doubt that we will continue to rise to ever greater heights.

Last, but by no means least — a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Lift Hands appeal to keep the magazine’s availability free online! It is humbling to see the level of support the magazine receives each year from you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This coming month is also Autism Awareness Month — April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. Please, please, please help to increase understanding and acceptance of people with autism.

Support programmes within your community with kindness to help create a society where each and every person can reach their full potential without prejudice or discrimination.

Stay safe and look out for each other — especially the vulnerable within our communities.

See you in June.

10

105 Countries 21K Readers Albania Algeria Argentina Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cote D’lvoire Croatia

Cuba Cyprus Czechia Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt Estonia Fiji Finland France French Guyana Gambia Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Hungary Iceland India Indonesia

Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lithuania Macedonia Madagascar Malaysia Malta Mauritania Mexico Moldova

11

Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russian Federation Saudi Arabia Serbia Slovakia

South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine UAE United Kingdom USA Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Zimbabwe

The Axe

12

‘Dragon Holds A Pearl’

Introduction “To conquer yourself you must be powerful of mind and body.”

Lao Tzu

O

f the three generally accepted Chinese martial arts defined as “internal”, Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua Zhang, and Hsing Yi Chuan, Bagua Zhang is my personal favorite and of these three “treasures”, I believe that Bagua is the most beautiful in form and movement. My intention in this article is to, I hope, bring a different perspective to training in the internal arts, and specifically Bagua. I do not claim that my approach is original or unique, but the experiences that I have had during my training sessions are uniquely mine and I am honored by the opportunity to share my story with you.

I have long taken both a natural and holistic approach to the martial arts, while at the same time focusing my teaching and training on practical combat applications. I realize that when I use a description like, “practical combat applications”, that these words have different meanings for different individuals. What I mean by practical combat applications is the use of the most destructive chin na techniques, and/or weapons, to maim or kill an attacker intent on doing the same to you. I make no apology for this and I suggest that if the reader wants or needs further clarification regarding my instruction on this topic that they refer to my series of three articles published in past Lift Hands magazine issues on the Medical Implications of Tai Chi Chuan and Blunt Force Trauma.

I do not see any conflict between the catastrophic violence required for the realistic application of a martial art and the study of Daoist or Buddhist philosophy and religion. In over six decades of martial arts training and 50 years of teaching both the martial arts and the healing arts I have shared stories regarding the fictional history of Bagua Zhang and its origin mythology while holding true to my belief that to be effective a martial art must be applied with cruel brutality and catastrophic violence. The best martial art teachers and fighters that I have known understood, accepted, and acted upon this reality. As Erle Montaigue wrote: "If you try to use techniques, then you are being human, and humans cannot fight. Techniques are human things, dogs do not have techniques, a shark does not have technique, an eagle does not have technique, only humans have technique and so we are beaten when we have technique. Animals just be. They are just doing what they have been told to do, we, do what we think we should do, we try to use techniques and then we lose the ability to adjust our body to what is happening to it. If we are attacked to the face, we immediately try to cover up using our hands. A dog does not have hands and so it bites our nose. We should make our hands be like the dog's mouth, they should bite the attacker's nose off, but we cover up, we do not wish to fight, we are not animals. When we become like an animal, we do what has to be done and don't even think about it after. Things happen too fast for technique… When we use technique, the foot does this, the hand does this, the legs do that and the body never really moves as a whole. When a dog is attacked by another dog, it does not use its paw to block the oncoming attack, but rather moves its body, not to get away from the attack but to get into a better position to attack the neck! It causes the attack to tell it what to do. If we are continually thinking of doing techniques, then we are only using portions of our body and not the whole body as an animal does.”1

Erle demonstrating a rear-neck break whilst exposing the vagal triangle for delivering the coup de grâce with the pisiform bone at ST9.

Image copyright © Nasser Butt

15

Circle walking with an 8-foot wax-wood staff.

Wax wood is17 highly prized because when used with Fa Jing the staff shakes and vibrates.

Many people practice martial arts, especially the Chinese internal martial arts like Bagua, for their health promoting and meditative qualities, others for their intrinsic beauty, and still others for culture and participation in the Bagua and/or martial arts community. These are valid and beneficial reasons to practice the various elements of martial arts like Bagua whether eight step circle walking, the eight mother palms, old eight palms, swimming body palm, martial or healing chi kung, Dao Yin, or meditation and breathing practices. Practicing Bagua for the purpose of mind, body, and spirit balance and wellbeing is perfectly acceptable if these practices are not confused with effective and realistic combat training and fighting.

I have recognized and identified seven general levels of training that describe the main reasons why individuals chose to train in Bagua, some people only participate in one level and others engage in several levels at once or they sequentially evolve through the levels, usually in no particular order. These seven levels of training include: 1. Health promotion and physical exercise — through the practice of all aspects and training methods of Bagua Zhang including weapons training.

2. Meditation and breathing practices — involving seated meditation, sacred circle walking, chi kung, and dao yin combined with various breathing practices.

3. Ritualized sparring and sport fighting — this involves fighting in either a ritualized pattern of movement or with a set of rules that prohibit certain destructive techniques and strikes to vulnerable parts of the body.

4. Cultural continuation — the expression of and the continuation of cultural practices.

5. Community participation — the building and maintenance of a sense of community and the fellowship, friendships, encouragement, and support that community can provide.

6. Lethal Self-defense — the preemptive reality-based practice or execution of chin na techniques designed to maim or kill.

7. Transcendental experience — seeking and obtaining altered consciousness through “extreme” training methods involving pain or physical deprivation, training in hot or cold environments, through fasting, and/or meditation practices combined with sensory deprivation.

Regarding Bagua’s meditation and transcendental benefits Wang Shujin's provided this guidance: "The definitions above are just rough explanations of a much larger picture. As for the details, it depends upon the learner himself to study, question, consider, analyze, and practice in order to find deeper meaning. The eight forms should also be examined and practiced individually. In conclusion, the more diligently you study the greater your return. Bagua Zhang forms imitate the nature of heaven and earth. Follow the principles of yin-yang and harmonize with the seasons, and you will benefit humanity by developing a more universal view of life. Embracing the yin-yang fish and treading the bagua diagram you will walk the circle as though striding through the cosmos."2 My friend Erle Montaigue once described my approach to training in the internal martial arts as “natural” and I assumed from this comment that he was referring to my practice of training outdoors and in nature. Later I realized that his remark meant more than that. Prior to his comment I had not considered that my approach to training and my philosophy was “natural” and in many ways represented a Daoist approach. I am not a Daoist, but as a Baha’i I have been a student of world religions since the early 1960s and in 1965 at the age of seventeen I wrote an essay on Zen Buddhism. Until Erle put a name to my training practices, I just had not realized how Daoist philosophy and Buddhist religion had come to gradually permeate not only the philosophical and spiritual aspects of my training but my focus on seeking awareness and growth within the natural world.

Although, a relatively young martial art and thought by some to have originated in the early 19th century, the history of Bagua Zhang is obscured by fictitious accounts and claims. Much of Bagua is likely derived from other forms of martial art that pre-date it. At least one lineage of Bagua was disseminated by Dong Haichuan who is thought to have been born around 1813 and known to have died 1882. Bagua has an origin mythology associated with Daoism, Daoist tenets, Daoist scriptural texts, and Daoist symbolism. The degree and extent of Bagua’s association with Daoist cosmology and mythology is both repudiated and challenged by some contemporary Bagua teachers although many of them use snippets of Daoist philosophy and symbolism in their commercial exploitation of Bagua.

17

Ba Gua student Abass Ali practicing Ba Gua long staff with circle walking. Ali is turning into a coiling posture combined with a forward whipping action of the long staff.

17

The time that Bagua was being developed by its earliest acknowledged disseminators and promoters was a dangerous time. The years prior to its development were dangerous as well and people needed to learn martial arts and weapons training. Almost every family had at least one or more family members who were trained in the martial arts. Bodyguards proficient in the martial arts and traditional weapons like the sword and spear were in demand and they could derive a good living from their trade.

This was true of Dong Haichuan and many other early Bagua practitioners. These circumstances were drastically changed by the advent of the gun and improvements made in firearm technology. This fact was dramatically demonstrated during the Boxer rebellion when martial artists, believing that they were bullet proof, were cut down by gunfire.

Daoism or the "Dao" ("the Way"), is the ancient Chinese name for the ordering principle that is responsible for cosmic harmony. The Dao is both the creator of and discovered in the world of nature, and it is thought that the Dao can be encountered directly by a person through mystical experience. The Dao “itself” is unknowable. This is a belief that, is or was shared, by many ancient cultures in humanities earliest manifestations of spiritual belief.

Personally, I am not of a mind to over emphasize or exaggerate the role of Daoism or Buddhism in the early development of Bagua Zhang, nor do I find it necessary to challenge Daoism’s contributions in the formation of Bagua forms, methods, techniques, styles, or basic principles. Frankly, I do not care about the motivations of Bagua’s disseminator, Dong Haichuan, and early Bagua teachers. What I do care about is how my personal understanding of the Dao or “the Way”, and my perception of its association with Bagua, has affected my growth and skills in the martial arts and my recognition and realization of universal spiritual truths through direct experience in nature. It is well known that Daoist monks used circle walking as form of meditation and that this practice was applied to Bagua by Daoist martial artists as a way of enhancing their marital arts training.

Dong Haichuan a early disseminator of Bagua Zhang was noted as stating: "Training martial arts ceaselessly is inferior to walking the circle. In Ba Gua Zhang the circle walk practice is the font of all training. Ba Gua Zhang instructors instruct their students to walk the circle with the spirit, Qi, intent, and power concentrated on a single goal. This is similar to the Daoist method whereby one clears the mind with a single thought. Although Ba Gua Zhang's circle walk practice trains footwork to be used in fighting, it also shares the Daoist's goals of creating stillness in motion and developing the body internally.”3 If you are just walking in circles, practicing palms and flowing from one Bagua posture to another and you are stuck in a spiral of physical practice, then you have missed the true purpose of Bagua. Your body is a horse upon which your soul rides during your lifetime, a time when your purpose should be to acquire virtues and knowledge of the arts and sciences.

“Mount the steed of change but let the reins hang free. Ride the energy; it knows the path of lightning.”4 Two Methods of Learning There are some things that you may learn in life and through training which while having deep meaning to you, are not appropriate to share with others mainly because they will not understand or accept the truth that you have perceived. There are other truths that you learn that should be shared like a precious gift. It is important for a teacher to know the difference between these two kinds of knowledge, that which may not be shared and that which should be shared.

Learning or acquiring knowledge may be organized into two main categories. The first and most common method of learning is by attending schools and receiving instruction from qualified teachers and this kind of learning also includes knowledge gained from mentors and in an apprenticeship. This is a path to learning that everyone is familiar with but there is another path to knowledge and that path may be described, as the Daoist’s believed, as the path of the mystic.

“My first Bagua began without a teacher or a school. It began in the forest where I stood listening to the trees. To the wind in the rustling leaves I asked, what is this? The whispered answer, Learning, it is called learning.”5

19

I prefer to name and describe postures based upon the physical forces employed in the movement and that accurately express the selfdefense purpose of the posture.

I find that labelling postures based on physical motions such as momentum, leverage, twisting, rotating, dropping, or swinging is easier for students to learn than names like Flower Hides Under Leaf, Hold the Moon in Your Breast, or Green Dragon Turns its Body. I encourage students to visualize their intent and the application of the postures while they are walking the c i rc l e a n d t o p r a c t i c e techniques with a partner.

Inset: Here we see a demonstration of Hold the Moon in Your Breast with momentum, leverage, and twisting.

20

The second, and less common path to knowledge, is the way of meditation and communion with one’s soul. This method employs spiritual principles and practices and the vehicle of meditation which connects the mind with the spirit. In this form of meditation high art, music, literature, and poetry are created. In this state of consciousness complex problems in science and mathematics are solved and new inventions are discovered. Any problem or sincere search for knowledge can be held up to the mirror of the soul and answers will be provided and problems will be solved. This process is also the gate to insight into the martial arts.

“It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. In that state of mind you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers: the light breaks forth and the reality is revealed. The spirit of man is itself informed and strengthened during meditation; through it affairs of which man knew nothing are unfolded before his view. Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries. In that state man abstracts himself: in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects; in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves. This faculty brings forth from the invisible plane the sciences and arts. Through the meditative faculty inventions are made possible, colossal undertakings are carried out; through it governments can run smoothly. You cannot apply the name ‘man’ to any being void of this faculty of meditation; without it he would be a mere animal, lower than the beasts.”6 When a blacksmith forges a chain, he begins with the first link and then he moves on to the second, third, and each succeeding link. Who was the first link in the chain that gave birth to successive generations of Bagua practitioners and teachers? How did that first Bagua practitioner discover these “secrets” and create this beautiful art?

It is common for martial art teachers to rattle of a litany of credentials and to list their “martial arts genealogy”.

But in many cases, this simply denigrates the genius or brilliance of the student. Throughout Chinese history highly gifted martial artists such as Dong Haichuan have yielded to cultural pressures and fictionalized mythical story’s regarding how they created their art. What is needed is a recognition of the validity and value of the individual creative process and the fruits of meditation. We value this process in all other arts and sciences. Why not acknowledge and value it in the martial arts?

“The confirmations of the Spirit are all those powers and gifts which some are born with [and which men sometimes call genius], but for which others have to strive with infinite pains. They come to that man or woman who accepts his life with radiant acquiescence.”7 There are many lineage martial artists who feel that they or others need to become living encyclopaedias of traditional (or relatively modern) forms and styles of martial arts. They frequently comment about the “treasures” that might be lost if certain techniques or forms are not documented. Why? Nothing that has been known, that is of value, can be lost. As the biblical quote says, “Ask and it shall be opened to you.”

If you were an artist who paints masterpieces, you would have trained with other masters, but you should not be expected to copy their paintings or to only paint in the style or form that they taught. As a painter you should be free to express your own creativity and to contribute to the ongoing evolution of artistic expression. Dong Haichuan did this with his expression of Bagua and Chen Pan Ling did this in the synthesis of his Tai Chi Chuan.

Why can’t you?

“Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.”8 In their private conversations many martial art teachers and leaders in the martial arts community talk about this issue of blind conformity to the past and some have called for clear disclosure and a rational approach to discussions of past teachers and teachings. Within the internal martial arts communities there are numerous teachings and practices that are based upon wild unsupportable claims or that constitute superstitious beliefs. For example, claims of immortality, the ability to fly, immunity to bullets, the ability to render opponent’s unconscious without touching them, or psychically transporting oneself from one location to another.

21

An application of ‘Dragon Holds a Pearl‘ performed as a double brachial stun to the neck.

I frequently suggest that this technique be applied as a throat grab while rushing the opponent and pushing them rapidly backwards.

15

Blind faith and worship of teachers and unquestioning conformity to past teachings is unhealthy for the teacher and the student and is indicative of cults. The greatest impediment to personal and spiritual development is ego.

I categorize the “modern” development of the Asian martial arts into three categories: 1. The originators — brilliant creators of martial art systems and philosophical teachings!

2. The conformists — followers of the originators who carry on the system and its teachings but who strongly oppose change and evolution.

3. The reformers — teachers who seek to evolve their art to a higher level of expression and who want to adapt to the times, culture, and needs of the age in which they live and teach.

Honor the past and those who lived it, preserve its treasures, but do not fear change. Learn from past practitioners but evolve the art. I believe that it is a moral failure not to contribute to evolutionary change and adaption to modern requirements through the martial arts.

“How can the earth hang in space?

Balance.

How can fire consume wood?

Focus.

How can water flow?

Change.

How can you be all of this?

Patience.”9 In the material to follow I am going to describe internal martial arts training in nature by using several examples, the example of training in the outdoor elements such as cold air and water, the example of training in nature and its effects on our relationship to animals, how both experiences can affect our consciousness and perception of reality, and finally, how training in nature and the experiences it brings to us relates to and parallels with our training in the internal martial arts.

Cold Weather Training I train outdoors 365 days a year, during all four seasons and in all forms of weather. I am especially “addicted” to cold weather training. The colder and more extreme the winter conditions are the more I enjoy my training session outdoors. A good day for me is a day with sub-zero temperatures. Do not misunderstand, I love all the seasons but the heat and humidity of summer along with the persistent gnats and mosquitoes takes some of my joy away. I also purposely train on all kinds of ground surfaces from snow and ice, to rain and mud, and as the demonstration photographs in this article show on uneven ground and the side of steep hills. I have trained on ocean reefs, the edge of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and on mountain tops.

When I train outdoors in the winter, I generally wear a pair of flip flops, shorts, or a swimsuit. I have come to relish the sensuality of cold as my slow and deliberate Bagua circle walking and palm changes guide me across the snow and I slip through the frigid air at 5 AM in the morning. The most common question that I get regarding my cold weather training is “How can you do that and not become hypothermic or get frost bite?” and my answer is breath control and blood flow regulation. I employ a series of deep breathing exercises prior to and during my Bagua training and this allows me to practice comfortably outdoors in the winter for thirty-to-forty-five-minute training sessions in temperatures from -6 to -23 Celsius. When I begin to feel cold or uncomfortable, I move my training indoors.

My formal Asian martial arts training began in the early 1960s and in 1968, after my discharge from the United States Army, I began to study and practice free diving. Free diving is diving without the aid of mechanical equipment, such as air tanks. At first glance, free diving appears to be the simple activity of swimming, holding your breath, and diving underwater to see how deep and how long you can go down, but it is far more than that. I took up free diving because I recognized its similarities to martial arts training. I also learned to combine training in East Indian yogic breathing and meditation with free diving. Lake and ocean water at 50 meters or more is often cold and to dive and swim in these waters requires the ability to use breath exercises to regulate your body temperature.

23

There are other aspects of free diving that are applicable to internal martial arts training. Consider that swimming miles out into the ocean and diving meters down into the water requires serious skill, concentration, and the ability to overcome fear. Free diving is one of the most dangerous sports practiced today and it is highly recommended that free divers never dive alone. I will admit that I almost always dove alone and that I had numerous close calls. There is a significant difference between practicing meditation and breath control through Bagua, Tai Chi, or Chi Kung in your heated or air-conditioned home or martial arts school while sitting on a yoga mat or practicing in an environment where drowning is a real possibility.

The internal martial art of Tai Chi Chuan has been called, “Swimming on dry land” and most forms of Bagua have some form of freestyle practice referred to as “Swimming Body Palm” or some similar descriptive name.

When I swim out into the ocean or a lake my mind, body and spirt are in the same “place” or “space” as when I am Bagua circle walking or playing with my Tai Chi forms. Free diving is a form of meditation that alters consciousness and metaphorically parallels Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua Zhang, Dao Yin and Chi Kung training.

“You are a vibration, a word, a sound.

You are an image, a mirror, a light.

You are water, fire, heaven and earth, spirit and flesh.

You are a drop, a river, an ocean.

You are oneness.

Then how different are you from heaven and earth?”10 Anyone who has ever lived close to the earth or nature, or has had extreme experiences in nature, will readily agree that nature has the power to alter human consciousness. I have experienced this phenomenon many times and in many varied environments, from the extreme heat of the desert to massive winter blizzards, in river white water, from sunlight dancing off waves, to free diving miles from shore in the ocean. Nature is our greatest teacher and a mirror of the Universe around us and within us.

To prepare for free diving, you must strip off the restricted breathing of normal life and enter a slow rhythm of deep, relaxed breathing. It is not just the breath and breathing muscles that relax; it is your entire body and every nerve and blood vessel in it. Your mind becomes aware only of breath and the gentle rocking of the water. Over and over, you repeat the cycle of diving, rising, diving and rising, and breathing and holding your breath. When you enter the water and dive down you feel the pressure of the cold water on your body, and your vision is minimal to none. Your outward senses are dimmed as your inward senses are expanded. The water becomes an ocean of consciousness within which you dive and merge. Free diving opens the door to deeper levels of consciousness.

We have all experienced the inadequacy of words and general conversation to explain our most significant and life changing experiences. As we try to share the most meaningful moments of our life we are met with blank or bored responses, remarks like, "Oh, that is nice," or competition in the form of, "That reminds me of my trip to Spain." These reactions occur because many people have no experience with which to relate to these unusual states of consciousness, states that are only obtained through dedicated study, sacrifice, struggle, and years of practice.

When I discuss free diving, people immediately ask me, “How deep can you go or how long do you stay underwater?”. They have completely missed the point. This is not a competition, at least not for me. Rather, it is a training technique. It does not matter how deep I dive, one foot or a hundred feet, or how long I stay under water, one minute or five minutes. It is not how deep you go in the water it is how deep you go within. It is not how long you stay underwater but how long you stay in a sense of timelessness or what has been called the “eternal now”.

There is another element to free diving that offers an important insight into the practice of Bagua, risk. Free diving has an element of risk involved. On one occasion I was almost hit in the head by a kayak paddle and once I free dove for such a long time that I could no longer tell the difference between the air and the water. States of disorientation commonly occur with free diving. The relationship between risk and internal martial arts training may not have occurred to you. Have you risked yourself in your training yet? Have you released yourself to the training, just given up all expectation, and “invested in loss”?

“Risk and pain are the ingredients of change.”11

24

Our wilful self begins to emerge around the age of two. Some personalities never mature past this childish, wilful, needy self. They never risk giving it up. This is what Zen masters described as a cup so full that there is no room for the teacher to add anything. If you cannot pour a little stale water out of your cup, there will not be any room for fresh water. True Zen koans are not word puzzles they are studies and lessons in human experience.

“Imagine that you are a child, caught in a dream of unhappiness. Would it be unkind to beat you with a stick that perchance you might awaken to paradise?”12 Nature, Animals, and Consciousness

“Man patterns the Earth, the Earth patterns the Heavens, the Heavens pattern the Dao, the pattern of the Dao is natural.”13 They materialized from the pre-dawn twilight shadows like apparitions, almost invisible in the pre-dawn light. A troop of seven deer entered the area where since four in the morning I had been practicing Bagua Zhang and Tai Chi Chuan. Deep in the woods of a large state park, I was in my favorite valley surrounded by the old dunes and towering oak trees. Dawn was just arriving and with it came the deer.

They seemed totally unconcerned about me as they slowly filed by. They browsed awhile and then began the steep climb up a steep 600-foot dune. The thought quietly came to me, "Why don’t you go with them?"

One of my earliest martial arts teachers (Kempo) had been a U.S. Army special forces instructor and Native American. He had once remarked to me that it was possible to walk right up to deer (animals) in the wild. I had always wondered if this was true and if this was true, how it was done. This was the day I would find out.

The deer went quickly up the dune and over the top. As I climbed up after them, I marvelled at their strength and stamina. After all, this was an extremely high dune, one of a whole day of dunes for the deer. As I reached the top of the dune, I saw the trail they had entered. I followed it. Immediately, I saw the deer browsing and they saw me.

What should I do? Instinctively, I knelt, I slowed my heart rate, and I did not make eye contact with them. I entered the same state of quiet meditation that my Bagua practice provided to me.

It worked, or at least the deer did not run away. They watched me warily and continued to browse. As they moved away from me, I stood up slowly and carefully followed them. They stopped and looked back at me. Once again, I knelt, relaxed, and did not make eye contact with them. Again, they did not run.

The deer and I repeated this sequence of manoeuvres for about forty-five minutes. Each time they moved, I followed. Each time they turned to look at me, I knelt. Each time we did this, I got closer.

After one hour I was right in among the troop of deer, only two to three feet away. Now I was a part of the herd.

On we traveled through the woods sometimes browsing (not me), sometimes walking, and sometimes running together. In difficult areas where I fell behind, they waited for me and after I had made my way around deadfalls

25

or wetlands, on we would go. At one point, startled by two hikers the whole wild group of us bolted in unison and charged straight up a dune. I ran laughing at the sheer spectacle of me running with, and in the middle of a herd of wild deer. I can only imagine what the hikers thought.

I spent four hours walking and running with the deer crossing deep into the woods and dunes. I felt I could have remained with them forever, but I knew that it was time to leave them, the peace of them, their gentleness, their acceptance or at least toleration of this ugly, clumsy man in their midst! Standing close enough to lay my hand on a doe’s neck (I did not do that), I looked into her warm brown eyes and said a sad goodbye.

I remembered feeling different that day and experiencing a level of training in nature that I had never felt before. I was intoxicated by the sheer physical power we shared in our mad runs and dashes through the dunes. Nature is a beautiful classroom and gracious teacher and can be so delightfully unexpected. Locked away from it in our cars and houses, our material lives and matters of consequence, we lose so much of true-life experiences and our true selves.

How is such an experience possible? Deer like cows, sheep, and horses are herd animals and if they are approached with gentleness and not threatened, their curiosity and need for affiliation can draw them to you. I have shared this story and taught this ability to certain of my students, but few have the patience required to accomplish running with deer.

I have a theory that when we meditate, such as when we are practicing Bagua Zhang or Tai Chi Chuan moving meditation, we enter an alpha or theta brain wave state (this is a fact) and animals can sense this peaceful state of human consciousness and/or see or sense changes in our electromagnetic field. It is well documented that animals can see or sense energy fields that are invisible to us within the electromagnetic spectrum.

“Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.”

Chuang Tzu Awareness of the Dao and its Relationship to Training “How do I know the way of all things at the Beginning? By what is within me.”

Dao Te Ching “Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī As a lifelong traveler along the Path, I have learned to speak many languages. To the philosophically minded I am philosophical, to the practically minded I am a pragmatist, to the mystic I embrace mysticism, and to the spiritually minded I join them in spirit. To the Muslim I speak of the Quran, to the Christian I quote the bible, to the Daoist I share with them the Way, to each man and woman I meet I honor their truth and listen to their story.

This is how I learn.

The opinions that I have expressed in this article are not judgments they are my perspective on the truth that I have experienced through the training methods that I have described, and my interpretation of reality based upon these experiences. I am fully aware that we are all unique and that we all perceive the world from a different vantage point. I honor our differences.

As we have learned in the Dao Te Ching, “The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao.” and further that the true Dao is unknowable. It is beyond human comprehension to know the Dao and if the Dao did not reveal itself to us through society and nature, we would not know it.

I have been asked more than once what are, among the vast multitude of Bagua systems, and the complex array of training methods and techniques, the best way to learn Bagua. Lao Tzu in the Dao Te Ching spoke of the importance of simplicity, patience, and compassion as our three greatest treasures.

26

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.”

Lao Tzu Daoist circle walking and the old eight palms adhered to the principle of simplicity but as the art of Bagua Zhang spread and was adopted and magnified by generations of teachers it became overly complex and has deviated from the guidance provided in the Dao Te Ching and other Daoist literature.

Bagua embellishes the two arts of Taiji and Xingyi. But they are not as profound as Bagua. The foundation is inexhaustible change. In the use of energy, it lies between Taiji and Xingyi. Now we have books. Naturally, the knowledge inside them is not profound.

A lot is wasteful lies.14

One of the most profound concepts that a student can follow in life is the independent investigation of truth along the path to knowledge. You do not have to go to far back in history to a time when most people could not read or write. Only the rulers, government bureaucrats, philosophers, and priests could read and write. Therefore, they became the educators and interpreters of classical and religious books and documents. In the quote above Sun Xikun, who was a Daoist and the author of the book the “Genuine Transmission of Bagua Quan”, talks about the availability of books on Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua Zhang, and Hsing Yi Chuan, but he points out that they are not as “profound” as direct instruction from a qualified teacher, and they contain “wasteful lies”.

Earlier, in this article, I talked about two major ways of acquiring knowledge, one way being through teachers and schools and the other through meditative and transcendental experiences in nature. I use the term “meditation” here in a very broad sense and within its many definitions I include adventures in natural environments. I have had profound experiences in nature simply by being present in a moment and open to extraordinary input. As I have discussed in this article sometimes these experiences have been the result of extreme training activities and on other occasions the result of encounters with animals in the wild. These animal encounters have included the Great Blue Heron, white tail deer, and mountain lions, but they have also included the occasion squirrel that comes up to me while I am training and sits on my foot or the duck that walks between my legs while I am in straddle stance.

Disciplines like Chi Kung, Dao Yin, Ba Gua, Hsing Yi, and Tai Chi are not the only paths to extraordinary experiences. As I have mentioned, and as many people have reported, extreme sports activities such as free diving, long distance running, rock climbing, and many other sports activities that require endurance, to push the human body to its physiological limits, and cause pain, do result in extraordinary experiences and altered states of consciousness.

27

There are many scientifically documented physiological, neurological, and psychological factors that contribute to changes in consciousness and awareness of the world around us and changes may result from the effect of ritualistic repetitive breathing practices on arterial blood gases and blood chemistry, especially oxygen saturation and carbon dioxide levels. Alterations in our blood chemistry are known to affect brain wave activity and to induce increased alpha, theta, and gamma electrical wave forms and the amount of time that a person may spend in these creative and transcendent states.

In 2016, a study reported in the Journal of Human Hypertension looking at slow diaphragmatic breathing reported that it improved autonomic nervous system sympathetic vagal nerve modulation which resulted in a parasympathetic relaxation response and in this specific study lowered blood pressure and reduced self-reported stress levels.15 From the psychological side of the equation, entering a relaxed and receptive mindful state of consciousness combined with the “intent” of our emotional mind as we enter nature “invites” dreamlike meditative, transcendent, and extraordinary experiences. A common denominator reported by many who have experienced these altered states of consciousness is a profound sense of wonderment, joy, and elation.

“What about intuition? That is Ba Gua in motion. At some point, you must leave the surety of your solo dance and in a blinding whirl of movement give into intuition. Just surrender to it, like your last breath of air.”16 Some teachers and students of meditation call these deep meaningful moments satori, awakening, enlightenment, transcendence, self-realization, or Illumination. I have come to recognize that these moments of awakening and insight are events and are not, in most cases, a permanent transformation. They are rather part of our learning process and if they are not followed by actions, they fade over time and have little effect on our growth and development.

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

Zen Koan Training at Horseshoe Lake

Horseshoe lake is a small hidden lake off a long dirt road punctuated with the footprints of elk and deer. The lake is, of course, shaped like a horseshoe, hence its name. The lake is surrounded by trees, deep moraines, and a massive sinkhole.

28

I had arrived at Horseshoe lake on my heavily loaded mountain bike, which was packed for a three-day camping trip. Upon arrival I unloaded my bike and set up camp and after starting a fire and cooking a sparse dinner, I retired to my tent for the evening.

The next morning, I woke up before dawn amidst a light snow fall. I stepped out of my tent and immediately felt the early morning chill and cold wet snow falling on my head and face. On impulse I decided to practice my martial art forms at the lake shore. Upon reaching the shoreline I impulsively chose to wade into the water and practice my morning martial art forms standing in the cold water immersed up to my neck. The water was bone numbingly cold and I soon lost all bodily sensation.

I began with Chi Kung practice and concentrated breath control and on increasing blood flow into my skin, hands, arms, and legs. In a few moments I felt comfortably warm and acclimated to the snow and the cold water I was immersed in. After achieving a level of relative comfort in the water I began to practice Tai Chi and was soon lost in the moving meditation of the form. I found that the cold water and the numbness it provided helped me to “blend” into the lake, air, and snow.

This is how I greeted the sunrise. I watched the sky slowly brighten and the clouds turn into a pastel pallet of colors. I watched as the lake began to reflect the clouds and their colors like a perfect reflecting pond. The air, the water, the sky, the clouds, my body, my mind, and my spirit all felt interconnected.

Just when I did not think that this moment of unity with nature could be any more profound a troop of nine deer walked to the water’s edge and began to circle the lake. Now all the elements were indeed perfect as the sky and clouds, the colors of the sunrise, the trees around the water’s edge, the deer and I were all reflected in the lake at the same moment. It was a stunning moment of unity and oneness with nature.

Outdoor Training and Conditioning Weapons and Tools Just as I have shared that my personal preference is to train outdoors in all four seasons and to use the external environment such as water and cold weather as an integral part of my training and conditioning regimen, I also like to craft my own weapons from wood and natural materials I find in my training area.

For example, if I am going to teach an outdoor class or conduct a multi-day training retreat, I teach students how to find and to craft a wooden knife, staff, sword, or training sticks. Each student will search for and locate the material that they need and then we will sit together and craft our weapons as we talk about our training or whatever topic seems important.

I also use iron balls from 4 to 7 kilograms (approximately 8 to 15 pounds) during the practice of my Bagua, Tai Chi, and Chi Kung. If you have not employed iron ball training while performing your forms you will find it adds a significant element of difficulty and improves breath, balance, focus, and concentration. I prefer body weight conditioning exercises, Dao Yin, Chi Kung, and natural movements using weapons and iron balls. When I do not have iron balls with me, I attempt to find rocks of the correct weight and size. When I am practicing Bagua or Tai Chi forms I practice both empty handed and with a single 7 kilogram iron ball or with two 4 kilogram iron balls.

29

Monkey Spits Its Food

30

Conclusion Things that begin and end with only words, lack value and offer us nothing more than self-delusion. It is our actions and deeds in service to humanity that matter, not our words.

Over the years many students have announced to me that they follow a Buddhist, Daoist, or Confucianist path.

When possible, I respectfully suggest that considering the passage of time, changes and differences in culture, society, and language, as well as the of the loss of scriptures and alterations in original text, what they are following is their own imagination and personal interpretation of what they believe is Buddhism, Daoism, and/or Confucianism.

This article has been about finding your own path to knowledge and understanding and investigating truth for yourself in the hope of discovering a facet of reality. The student who enters upon this path may find value in using both the ancient and modern tools found in martial arts such as Bagua Zhang and Tai Chi Chuan and the practices of Chi Kung, and Dao Yin. There is greater truth to be found in exploring the self through experiences in nature than can be found in any dusty old texts, as I previously quoted, “It is an axiomatic fact that while you meditate you are speaking with your own spirit. In that state of mind, you put certain questions to your spirit and the spirit answers: the light breaks forth and the reality is revealed.”

What is essential and lasting and what is meaningful and true, is what we experience along the path of our lives.

Along my path I have learned this, you cannot give a gift you do not possess, and you cannot teach what you do not know. You can only know the secrets that you have experienced. You can only pass on what is accepted. Only the fish understands the sea, the bird the air, and you, only you can know the higher things and the secrets that God whispers in your heart.

“How great the multitude of truths which the garment of words can never contain! How vast the number of such verities as no expression can adequately describe, whose significance can never be unfolded, and to which not even the remotest allusions can be made! How manifold are the truths which must remain unuttered until the appointed time is come! Even as it hath been said: "Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it.”17

31

A Song of Bagua, Dancing with the Wind Let the spirit dance begin!

By breathing out and breathing in.

I hold my destiny in my palm And thus, embrace its healing balm.

Open then the door within By breathing out and breathing in.

I reach the heavens in my search Just as a bird must leave its perch.

Enter then the flowing wind By breathing out and breathing in.

I reach to pull on the dragon's tail And trace the air along this trail.

Swim then through the abiding wind By breathing out and breathing in.

The white snake tongue spits And into eternity I gently slip.

Push then the clouds with the wind By breathing out and breathing in.

I open my soul like a sail And set off through the gale.

I am not alone within the wind By breathing out and breathing in.

So, let the spirit dance begin...

Footnotes 1. Montaigue, Erle. Advanced Dim-Mak: The Finer Points of Death Point Striking. Paladin Press, Colorado, USA, 1994. pp.303, 304.

2. Shujin, Wang, Howard, Kent. Bagua Linked Palms, Translated by Chen Hsiao-Yen. BlueSnake Press. 2009.

(Kent Howard Internet Post 2007) 3. Miller, Dan, Pa Kua Chang Journal, Origins of the Circle Walk Practice in Ba Gua Zhang 4. Lawton, Gregory, Scent of a Forgotten Flower, Muyblue Productions, USA, 2017, second edition, p. 10.

5. Ibid, p. 7.

6. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Paris Talks. UK Bahá’i Publishing Trust, 1972 eleventh edition reprint. P. 175.

7. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London. UK Bahá’i Publishing Trust, 1982 reprint. P. 121.

8. Bahá’u’lláh. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. US Bahá’i Publishing Trust, 1990 pocket-size edition. p. 213 9. Lawton, Scent, p. 7.

10. Lawton, Scent, p. 19.

11. Lawton, Scent, p. 10.

12. Lawton, Scent, p. 10.

32

Footnotes Continued 13. Liang Shou-Yu. Baguazhang: Theory and Applications. YMMA Publications. 1996. P. 111.

14. Sun Xi-Kun. Genuine Transmission of Ba Gua Quan. Joseph Crandall translator. High View Publications.

1934. p. 11.

15. Chen S, Sun P, Wang S, Lin G and Wang T. Effects of heart rate variability biofeedback on cardiovascular responses and autonomic sympathovagal modulation following stressor tasks in prehypertensives. Journal of Human Hypertension. February 2016. Doi:10.1038/jhh.2015.27.

16. Lawton, Scent, p. 9.

17. Bahá’u’lláh. Gleanings, p. 177.

References 1. Montaigue, Erle. Advanced Dim-Mak: The Finer Points of Death-Point Striking. Paladin Press, Colorado, USA, 1994.

2. Lawton, Gregory. Scent of a Forgotten Flower. Muyblue Productions, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, First Edition 2010.

3. Shujin, Wang, Bagua Linked Palms. Translated by Kent Howard, 2009 4. Miller Dan, Pa Kua Chang Journal, Origins of the Circle Walk Practice in Ba Gua Zhang.

5. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, UK Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1972 eleventh edition reprint.

6. Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990.

7. Liang, Shou-Yu, Baguazhang: Theory and Applications. YMAA Publications. 1996.

About the author Dr. Gregory T. Lawton is a licensed physician and acupuncturist. He is the founder of the Blue Heron Academy of Healing Arts and Sciences where he teaches biomedicine, medical manual therapy, Asian medicine, and martial arts. Dr. Lawton is nationally board certified in radiology, physiotherapy, manual medicine, and acupuncture. He is the author of over 200 books and educational materials, some in the area of mystic poetry and prose. Since the early 1960s Dr. Gregory T. Lawton has studied and trained in Asian religion, philosophy and several martial arts including Kenpo/Kempo, Bagua Zhang, Hsing Yi, and Tai Chi Chuan. Dr. Lawton’s most noted Asian martial art instructor was Professor Huo Chi-Kwang who was a student of Yang Shao Hou. Art and Photograph Credit Photographs by Abass Ali and the author. A special thanks to Abass Ali for his assistance with the demonstration photographs and for his expert photography skills. The artistic images are the work of the author.

33

34

35

The Tai Chi Renegade Project

I

started taichirenegade.com with my instructor Erle Montaigue, a well known author and Taiji master in 2009 with the aim of re-editing a number of Erle's previously published books and make them freely available on the internet. Tai Chi Renegade was created to promote the lifelong work of Erle Montaigue (The Erle Montaigue system) and the original website was maintained until shortly after Erle's passing in 2011.

Erle Montaigue was originally labelled as the "Tai Chi Renegade" in a Black Belt magazine article by Ron Baker.

We used this as the title for the website but Erle in a quiet moment stated that he would have preferred not to be that renegade...it was a necessary role he had to play so he could get the information out from behind closed doors.

It is over ten years since Erle’s passing and I have a new collaborative partner in Nasser Butt (Editor of Lift Hands Magazine) so we are breathing new life back into the old website.

We are both products of the Erle Montaigue system and have a keen interest in presenting this system to the greater martial arts community in an easy to digest format. Nasser and I catch up on a weekly virtual chat that lasts many hours and I have travelled to his part of the world (Leicester, UK) on numerous occasions. In these sessions we question everything, including our understanding of martial arts and the Erle Montaigue system.

Nasser often uses our time together to go over future articles for ‘Lift Hands Magazine’ and create future direction for his magazine. Our training is an ongoing progression with many wrong turns and the occasional enlightened moments. Not all of this information finds its way into ‘Lift Hands Magazine’ and we will develop taichirenegade.com to supplement this information and create easy references to further your study.

Left to Right: Anthony Pillage, Mo Teague [centre] & Gavin Richardson

What sort of information will Tai Chi Renegade have?

Not a lot at the moment…but you will find quick easy links to;

• All editions of ‘Lift Hands Magazine’ • Many of Erle Montaigue’s E-Books that he made available to me for Tai Chi Renegade Articles…some short some much longer to discuss the many aspects of training in a martial art such as Taijiquan and other components of the Erle Montaigue system. Many of the articles will be a product of Nasser and my weekly private chat.

My primary role as a Podiatrist gives me insight into the health and injury aspect of martial arts and I will create content relating to exercise prescription for injury prevention and recovery that will hopefully be useful for martial artists of all ages.

36

Is Online Learning available?

At this point in time we are not offering online learning modules because of the difficulty of providing a truly useful way for you to learn a movement activity like martial arts. We may add additional content like video to supplement our content if it adds to the conversation. In the future an online learning platform may be useful to supplement class based learning and we will develop this if the need arises. An online learning platform would require extensive ongoing management and investment…not a ‘Zoom’ free account and a make it up as we go along approach. If (Don’t hold your breath) we went down this road in the future it would be paid membership access (online classes) plus free content.

The Answer is ‘Yes’ and always…

You still need a good instructor to assist you in your study of your martial art but this website may give you fresh eyes to look at some of the information that your instructor presents in your regular classes. It is not intended to make you a great ‘keyboard warrior’ so that you can sprout your knowledge across martial arts forums. Neither is it intended to provide you with tricky questions for your instructor. Remember that your instructor is on a learning journey just like you and we are all seeking understanding and awareness through the study of our art. If you find that they don’t have an answer to your question it could mean that you didn’t ask the question in the ‘language’ that they understood. Don’t ask tricky questions to be a smart arse.

What if I have a ‘Question’?

Experience is a great teacher…

Erle once showed me the huge amount of emails and requests for further information that he received on a daily basis and this experience has persuaded me to remove commenting from the website.

If you have a ‘Question’ about anything we put up on the website the ‘Answer’ will be…do some more training.

If you still have a ‘Question’ we will again redirect you to the first response. The website is a resource to help with your study of your martial art…the website is ‘Free’ but understanding comes with a price and that is ‘Study’ (time and effort directed appropriately). In other words we won’t have a comments section or a contact form or ‘Forum’ for you to ask questions…we don’t have the time because we are studying our art and creating content for you.

What about a FAQ section?

This is definitely on the ‘To Do’ list and we will create a ‘frequently asked question’ FAQ section for easy reference. We come up with enough of these questions ourselves and it would be fair to share the answers as long as you understand that our answers may change and require updates as we discover new sources of information…just saying.

37

Is it a ‘Pretty’ website?

All children are pretty or handsome to their parents but I have to say at the moment the website wouldn’t get asked out on too many dates. As time and finances permits I will increase the visual appeal of the site.

Taichirenegade.com is back and we will provide you with a useful reference…what you do with the information is up to you.

38

Yang Ch'eng-fu Form - The Martial View A Brief Introduction Peter Jones

C

arrying on where we left off in the last article, we'll be taking a look at the next few moves in the Yang Ch'eng-fu form — these are, Push left, Pull back and Chee. Also, we’ll be taking a look at some of the points that we are striking. Please remember that the points you’re learning about are dangerous and this is for informational use only. I realise that the moves I've shown so far can be found in the small San-sau, but I wish to give the readers a different perspective.

Push Left [Figure 1] Your partner may throw a right roundhouse punch towards you head [Figure 2]. Meet his punch before it hits you, with your left palm striking his Pc6 point [Pericardium 6], near his wrist, and at the same time your right palm strikes the corner of the eye Gb1 [Gallbladder 1], and then immediately strikes your partners neck St9 point [Stomach 9]. Up to that point you can find these in the small San-sau. Now then, as Erle would say, “Never give the sucker an even break!” We, therefore, keep the move going with your left palm going straight into your partners neck — once again striking St9 point.

Figure 1

Points Pc6 [Pericardium 6] — You will find Pericardium 6 point around the crease of the wrist about one hand's width back from the wrist. When striking here, it is straight in, or downwards! When this is struck it can upset the yin-yang balance in the body. This point is used in both push left and pull back.

St9 [Stomach 9 — You'll find this point on the neck near the Adam's apple. When striking this point its angled towards the backbone. Few pointers with St 9 — it will slow the heart rate down, lower the blood pressure, it can cause KO with a light strike or could cause death with a heavy strike. So in other words very dangerous — Do not strike!

Figure 2

Pull Back [Figure 3] Your partner may have thrown a straight punch, and you meet his strike with your right palm. You pull down with a jerking motion, causing a whiplash effect to your partner’s neck, which could cause knockout. Again, “Not giving the sucker an even break” — during the jerking motion the other palm will strike into the neck using the back of the palm to St9.

Figure 3

39

Chee [Figure 4/5] With this one we strike into Liv14 [Liver 14] or Cv 14 [Conceptor vessel 14]. Your partner is going to grab you around your neck, before he gets there, you strike him using Chee into either one of these points [Figure 5].

Figure 4

Points Liv14 [Liver14] — You will find Liver14 point just below the nipple about two ribs down, this strike is straight in, this point is deadly it will cause KO, [Knockout], can also cause mental problems, as well as heart problems, it could cause liver to stop functioning.

Figure 5

Cv14 [Conceptor vessel 14] — You will find conceptor vessel 14 point in the centre of the body [solar plexus]. Again this is another dangerous point.

This can stop the heart, also cause mental illness, and you could die from coughing, vomiting attack.

Gb 1 [Gallbladder 1] — You will find Gallbladder 1 point at the corner of the eye, [again a dangerous point] because its near your eye. It will cause eye damage, also extreme nausea, loss of memory.

I have only covered the ace-points very briefly, there is a lot more to learn and understand about them!

Please remember that all the points are dangerous and are not to be used on anyone! What’s offered here is for informational purposes only to help the student understand and develop their art!

We will continue with the martial applications of Yang Cheng-fu’s form in the next issue of Lift Hands Magazine.

40

19

Introduction

T

he axe has been used by humankind for millennia — both as an implement for harvesting and shaping wood and as a weapon.

According to E.T.C Werner in his book, Chinese Weapons: The first use of the fu — 斧 — battle-axe, according to the Shih wu chi yuan quoting the Yu fu chih, quoting the Huang Ti Chih fu yeah nei chuan, was when Huang Ti [2608-2598 B.C]was about to attack Ch’ih Yu. Hsuan Nu made a battle-axe of gold, and this was the beginning of the use of the axe as a military weapon. It was engraved with the figure of a male phoenix holding a sword [dao] in its mouth. The god of the battle-axe was Wang Chang… Another name for the battle-axe was liú 劉.

The Chin shih so mentions three different kinds of axes: the chi with a rounded blade fixed to a tube into which the haft is inserted; another with a crescent-shaped blade and a large, heavy shaft; and the yueh with a straight blade.

The axe is the fifth of the Wudang Hand Weapons.

The primary skills it teaches are based upon P’eng and Arn, including the basic concepts of a ‘yin’ attack!

It teaches four methods involving cutting, chopping, hacking and eviscerating using the knife-edge of the hands The axe — like the other weapons — develops and trains the reflexive actions to perfection. It is the first weapon which begins with a low attack — teaching us to move from low to high and than to the middle.

The Solo Method

Figure 1

Figure 2

44

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

The Solo Method Stand in a reverse Gōng Bù stance with your right leg forward and your left leg back. This isolates your hips, so that your primary movement comes from your waist. Your weight distributions are 70:30 percent in favour of the left leg. The hands hold the classic ‘old man’ posture — left hand p’eng and right hand hinge [Figures 1 & 8]. The right hand is held slightly yin in this case.

In this method both hands are going to strike a split second apart, so the waist turns will be very short and rapid.

An observer watching the drill appears to see both hands striking together simultaneously. The waist turns right/ left as the knife-edges of both hands strike downwards in a hacking motion [Figures 2 & 9]. Both knife edges now

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

instantly hack upwards around neck height as the waist continues its shake from the previous left turn back to the right, and the weight shifts forwards onto right foot [Figures 3 & 10].

As the waist continues to shake both palms role and cut downwards around neck height and continue to pull in towards chest [Figures 4, 5, 6 & 11, 12, 13] as the weight shifts slightly back. Finally both palms now roll to face downwards with fingers pointing inwards — as you thrust the weight back towards the front leg, both knife edges strike forward towards the midriff, [Figures 9 & 14].

46

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 13

Figure 12

Figure 14

The Two-Person Method

A

B

To start the method B attacks A with a low attack using both hands. Note that this is a simple training method — the position of B’s hands simply represent any low type of strike or even a ‘shoot’!

A instantly shakes his waist right/left as his two knife-edges chop downwards, just above the wrists. Take care, as gravity is on the side of A — and this will produce a very destructive attack with ‘heavy hands’!

47

A bounces off B’s arms as the palms roll and the knife-edges of the axe now attack B’s neck at ST9, as his weight shifts forwards. Take care not to connect to the points as a strike here can be fatal!

A now continues slightly past B’s neck as a result of the previous strike…

The axes roll and A chops downwards striking B in the Vagal triangle on Bothe sides of the neck.

Again, the momentum of the previous strike natural shifts A’s weight slightly backwards taking his axes with him.

A’s weight and momentum once more shift forwards…

… As he strikes the mid-riff of B with both axes .

B now rolls his arms from under A’s…

48

… and over.

B has now reversed the position as he thrusts his weight backwards and drops his axes onto A’s arms and cuts downwards, and continues the drill.

The images below show the last 3 movements from a different angle.

A Word of Caution The points and targets mentioned in this drill are for reference purposes only! They are extremely dangerous and at no point should any attempt be made to actually strike your partner!

49

C

hen Pan-Ling’s 99 posture taijiquan (Tai chi chuan) as handed down to CPL’s senior disciple Colonel Y. W. Chang and to CPL’s son Grandmaster Chen Yun Ching as taught to Shifus’ Du Chang and Sung Kai of Taiwan and lineage heir Master Xiao Yi Chen. Mark Small of Asheville, North Carolina studied with all these teachers except Du Chang and CPL himself. This hallmark of Chen family system (Ling Yun Pai) combines concepts from the Chen village broad-framed laojia once modified by Yang Lu Chan’s third son, Chien-Hou. It is performed in a “middle frame” stance at a relatively even and slow pace. The essence of the CPL form, according to Col. Chang in his Chen Pan Ling’s Original Tai Chi Chuan Textbook (Chinese edition 1963, English edition 1998) is “striking [with] internal energies.” These short sudden bursts called fa jin are enhanced with silk reeling (Chan Si Jin) or classical spiralling energy training. It is believed that this expression of internal energy was found in Yang Lu Chan’s old Yang style, before he moved to Beijing to teach the Imperial Banner Battalion.

Above: The author Mark Small with Grandmaster Chen Yun Ching Below: Chen Pan-ling

Chen Pan-Ling taijiquan was influenced early on by the “family tradition” of 1894 popularly known as the “brotherhood” of Nei Jia Quan. Among CPL’s five teachers in taijiquan instruction also came from Li Tsun-I’s and Liu Tsai-chen’s xingyiquan (hsing I quan) as well as from Cheng Hua Ting’s, Hsu Yu-Sheng’s, and Tung Lien-Chi’s baguazhang (Pa Kua Chuan). (See Original Textbook lineage chart.) Influences from these other internal practices allow the CPL combined form to harmonize as well as to separate yin from yang in linkages of our hands to our rooted central equilibrium as found in a broad range of nei jia regimes. Certain movements may utilize one hand “defending like a bear” while the other hand “strikes like an eagle," in accord with the classical principles of xingyiquan. For instance, the CPL movement #19, “fist under elbow” has the drilling aspect of xingyiquan's two handed tzuann quan. As well, movement #21 “slant fly” resembles xingyi’s use of the linked stepping with the arms found in the chicken form. Baguaquan’s body mechanics of hiding the elbows under the arm pits, moving through center equilibrium between postures, and separating the upper body from the lower body allows CPL players to “turn the axles and spin the wheels of the body," as Master Kai Sung was want to say. An example of this is found in the circular stepping used to “deflect, parry and punch” in movement #96 at the end of the CPL 99 form. This resembles bagua's arc and swing stepping used in conjunction with an upward boring palm.

It is beneficial to train our energy through small, medium, and large circles from the opening movement #2 to the closing movement #99, then, half stepping can be seen to be faster stepping, as in baguazhang and as with xingyi’s follow up stepping. Our knees are kept bent and we withdraw the neck and hollow the chest (kung hsiung chin pei). The straight palm techniques of bagua are alluded to in the CPL “deflecting shove” movement #12 before “parry and punch," as well as in the deflecting of movement #96 following the “twist step”. Also, the sealing palm of the CPL style can be complimented with joint locking (jin na) or folding movements. For instance, the push in the “grasp bird’s tail” movement #5.6 may have a binding (na) aspect

52

following the opening press forward action in movement #5.4. The three internal practices of taiji, xingyi, and bagua all respect the classical principles of sticking to, yielding to, and following to neutralize our partner before issuing or returning energy back into them.

It is said in the theory and application of xingyiquan, as taught by Grandmaster Shou-Yu Liang of Vancouver (one of Mark’s teachers), that keeping upright and deflecting your partner's advances by circling the elbows and revolving the hands is only possible after you have combined Qi (Chi) and mind intent energies (I), condensing Jin (Chin) intrinsic energy into your bones. Loosening the joints (song jin) is the foundation of more expressively yang or “strong movements.” In order to do this we unify the four extremities (shao): hair is an extension of the blood; fingernails are linked to tendons; the teeth to the bones; and the tongue to the muscles. Visualizing such internal energetic associations throughout practice and to the conclusion of the CPL 99 posture form will help you envision your engagement with an opponent.

Ling Yun Kai Chung Level Inner Door Students

When there are no longer “gaps” in our internal energy and our form is smoothed out over time, then we are more able to creatively know the principles of the internals, go beyond or blend them in appropriate responses to our opponent, while adhering to the classical nei jia principles evident in all the martial arts that neutralize opponents using a wider array of applications found in the classical principles of da di nein na shuai — striking, kicking, joint locking, as well as throwing.

Sources: https://www.plumpub.com/sales/taichi/coll_chenpanling.htm https://taichicertification.org/chen3.htm http://chenpanling-family.com https://www.amazon.com/Pan-lings-Original-Chuan-Textbook-Chiao/dp/0966024036 https://www.facebook.com/NeijiaPrimer/

53

Mark Small

A

lan and I have never met physically, yet in many ways it feels like I’ve known him for forever and I consider him a dear friend.

I was introduced to Alan by our mutual friend, Dr Greg Lawton, as a fellow ‘orphan of Yang Shao-hou,’ — through our inherited Taiji lineage — and straight away I realised that here was a man with not only a wealth of experience and knowledge, but one who actually understands his art as well.

Alan is one of the most humblest people I know, always crediting his teachers with the knowledge he oozes and he has studied under some major tour de forces of the internal arts — namely Professor Huo Chi Kwang, a direct student of Yang Shao-hou and later with Master Tuey Staples.

Alan’s articles appear regularly in Lift Hands, and we sincerely hope that they will continue to do so in future issues in order for all of us to develop and understand our arts better through his decades of experience and practice.

So, without much further ado, I’m going to ask Alan to give us a brief insight into his background.

Welcome Alan Ludmer. Over to you…

My early training was in western boxing and then old school karate. I studied Shotokan for a number of years and finished with a Ni Dan rank. In 1969, I was very fortunate to begin Tai Chi Chuan with Professor Huo Chi Kwang. I was a private student and primarily studied the Yang Family Form with him through 1978.

I moved to St. Louis in the mid 1970s, and began studying with Master Tuey Staples. I have been with him for almost 50 years. I studied several Tai Chi Chuan forms including Yang Personal Family, Short Yang, Chen Tzu, Old Wu and Ba Gua Chuan. My focus is upon using martial movement to understand energy, health, being in the present. I have authored and co authored a number of articles on Tai Chi Chuan and Internal Martial Arts for a variety of martial arts magazines.

I have been very fortunate in acquiring high quality teachers.

Professor Huo Chi Kwan introduced me to the internal arts.

One of his primary gifts was the understanding that the art is built upon specific principles which guide movement. My current teacher, Tuey Staples, great gift is constantly working with me to understand how the principles make the moves work.

Tuey teaches that mastery comes when you can remain in the present in all physical, emotional, and mental situations. When one is present, then all paths are open.

59

Alan Ludmer training with Tuey Staples in 1975

The internal martial arts have been very good to me. They have kept me physically strong; and helped me to maintain the emotional/mental balance necessary for a successful family, business, and personal life. The art has helped me become a warrior, not just in physical sense, but someone capable of being a strong and compassionate father, grandfather, husband, friend, boss, and person.

LH: Thank you for that Alan! Indeed, both, your pedigree and path in the arts and what they represent are inspirational to say the least!

Well, if you are ready for your questions, let us begin - If you could have personally witnessed anything, what would you want to have seen?

AL: I would have liked to have personally witnessed the first American Constitutional Congress in the 1780s which developed the United States Constitution. So many amazing people, such brilliance and dedication to an original idea of self government by a nation's citizens.

LH: What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

AL: If I were younger, I might have a very non PC answer. However, now that I'm older, I've found that I'm more invisible than I realize. I guess that I would like to be somewhere that genius is creating something. It is incredible to watch someone create something new out of completely disparate parts.

LH: Wow, I must admit, this is one of my favourite answers! As a child, what did you wish to become when you grew up?

AL: As a child, adulthood was a vague concept. It was either a lawyer or the second baseman for the Chicago Cubs.

LH: What animal best represents you and why?

AL: An owl! I like their embodiment of wisdom and that their actions are thoughtful and efficient.

71

With Tuey Staples in 2019

LH: What is your greatest strength or weakness?

AL: Strength - ability to see a process, think things through, make something happen. Weakness — sometimes not being as sensitive to the feelings of others!

LH: What is your favorite memory of any one of your grandparents?

AL: I only knew one grandmother. She was a poor, uneducated farm woman from Lithuania who venerated education. One day I drove her past the local library. She comminuted that it wasn't just a library, it was a treasure house of knowledge.

LH: How do you want to be remembered?

AL: As someone who gave more than they took.

LH: What have you always wanted and did you ever get it?

AL: I wanted to end my early sense of insecurity and vulnerability. The martial arts greatly helped me to attain needed validation and security.

LH: Do you know your heritage?

AL: Yes, I recently did a major family history project for my Mom's family. I'm descended from a long line of Lithuanian Jewish People.

LH: Are you still learning who you are?

AL: Every day! They say that boats are safe in the harbor, but that is not why boats are constructed. Every day should be an adventure to learn and to grow.

LH: What, if anything, are you afraid of and why?

AL: I worry for my children and grandchildren. Our current political, social, economic, etc issues are frightening. I want a better world for them.

LH: What is the most memorable class you have ever taken?

AL: My Tai Chi classes with Tuey Staples. It is like studying music with Mozart. He constantly amazes me with his insights, ability, and dedication to growing his students.

LH: What book has influenced you the most?

AL: ‘If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him!’ by Sheldon Kopp. This helped teach me the value of looking inside myself as opposed to looking to others for answers.

LH: What ridiculous thing has someone tricked you into doing or believing?

AL: Not sure!

LH: Who or what has been the greatest influence in your life?

AL: My parents. They taught me values, perseverance, and to strive to be a good person.

LH: What is the craziest thing one of your teachers has done or made you do?

AL: Early Karate teachers stressed physical confrontations. We would go into bars and start fights. Luckily I wasn't killed.

LH: When did you screw everything up, but no one ever found out it was you?

AL: Not sure

61

62

With Professor Huo in 1987

With Professor Huo — Chicago, 1970

LH: If someone made a movie of your life would it be a drama, a comedy, a romantic-comedy, action film or science fiction?

AL: A drama with a good ending!

LH: If you could select one person from history and ask them one question — who would you select and what would the question be?

AL: Just before my first Tai Chi Teacher, Prof Huo Chi Kwan made his final return to China, he presented me with a scroll. The scroll contained a quote from Confucius' Doctrine of the Mean. It said, ”The Superior Man finds in himself what lesser men seek in others." The point is I needed looking to others for answers and to look within myself.

LH: How would you describe your art in ten words or less?

AL: A Journey to being present.

LH: Thank you so much Alan! Some very insightful answers for our readership. We hope that we will continue to benefit from your expertise and knowledge in future issues of Lift Hands.

63

64

81

SIMPLY A TEACHER Dr Gregory T. Lawton

I am simply a teacher, only moments ahead of you on this journey, and yet I lead.

I cannot change you. I cannot give you what you will not accept. I cannot teach you what I do not know. I cannot pass to you a gift I do not possess.

If you will not accept what I can give, what purpose is there to this?

I cannot give you all the love you long for, the love for which you so desperately search. I can only point you in the direction of true love and hope you will take that path. I cannot be all the people in your life you hoped would love you.

I am a teacher. I am not God.

I am here to encourage you, to assist you, to simply point the way for you. My responsibility is to simply lift you up, not carry you along. Therefore, lift up your burden, arise and struggle.

Take the steps along the path of your life, your special life.

Find your truth, your goodness, your gifts and use them no matter what the cost, no matter what the sacrifice.

The truth is this — life lived without knowing yourself and acting on that knowledge is a sad, faded dream of what your life might have been.

About the authorKindly reprinted with permission from:

Dr. Gregory T. Lawton is an author of many books, most of them in the area of health science, but also in the genre of Asian martial arts, philosophy, poetry, and prose. Dr. Lawton is a passionate award winning artist and photographer who finds his artistic and creative inspiration in nature, and who frequently attributes the source of his images and writing to the 19th century Persian Prophet, Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, and the 13th century Persian poet and Sufi Mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī. Dr. Lawton has been a member of the Baha’i Faith since 1970 and embraces the Faith’s principles related to the promotion of world unity and peace.

Pakua Chang, The Path of the Eight Diagram Palm A Collection of Lectures from the Blue Heron Academy by Dr. Gregory T. Lawton First Edition, August 2012 Second Edition, July 2017 2040 Raybrook Street, SE Suite 104 Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 616-285-9999

66

Lift Hands would like to thank Katherine Loukopoulos Sensei for providing this exclusive book free of charge to our readers. To get your download link please visit and join our group page on FaceBook: Lift Hands: The Internal Arts Magazine

A

ccording to Master Shoshin Nagamine of Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu Karate Do, a strong person is mentally sound and physically fit. Strong people perform at their best each day of their lives, and fully concentrate on the task at hand. A strong person brings into completion all tasks regardless if those tasks are exciting or boring. A strong person is one who does not crumble in the face of a challenge and charges head on onto completion. Karate ‘Do’ is the path to personal development and excellence; most often it is a solitary path.

My first karate teacher who was a student of Master Shoshin Nagamine, Zenko Heshiki Sensei, took the path less traveled and became a Zen monk. In 1993 at Hawaii’s Chozen-Ji he was ordained as a Zen priest in the Rinzai sect of Zen and received his Buddhist name, Genshin Zenko.

In his book KU: A Lifetime of Karate and Zen (Outskirts Press, Inc. 2020, Pages 89-90), Heshiki Sensei goes on to say that no matter how proficient one is in the techniques of karate or its literary knowledge, this does not translate as Budo.

The Seven Virtues of ‘Bu’ venerated by Confucians and described by the legendary Master Bushi Matsumura are as follows: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Forbids wilful violence Governs the warrior Fortifies the people Fosters virtue Appeases the community Brings about general harmony Encourages prosperity

Heshiki Sensei further goes on to say that “the Way of Bun-Bu” often translated as the “pen and the sword” has to be studied and practiced as the most important operational unit. Therefore, “Bun-Bu Ryo Do” is translated as “The Way of Literary and Military Arts”.

Bun — cultural, civilization, culture and art Bu — martial, military affairs, military arts Ryo — two, both, old Japanese coin Do — Tao, Way The real test of ‘Budo’ and ‘Bun-Bu Ryo Do’ came when the planet was attacked by an invisible opponent: SARS-COV-2. Not knowing what it is, the health organizations did not know how to combat it. The virus spread like wild fires and brought nations to their knees. While the body bags were piling up at an alarming rate, those with cool heads started to notice that the elderly were most vulnerable and when infected most often died. The World Health Organization asked nations to take precautions such as social distance, wear face masks, plastic gloves, wash hands and use lots of hand sanitizers.

68

While the elderly lived in fear, the younger citizens of the world did not adhere to the professional protective warnings and the virus kept spreading. Inevitably, governments took it upon themselves to pose severe restrictions, lockdowns, closed stores, restaurants, bars, schools, and most recently, posed travel bans and curfews with stiff fines to violators.

Seasoned martial arts teachers saw their ‘businesses’ (their dojo) closed and ‘customers’ gone. We know of them because they complained the loudest. On the other side of the spectrum, there were sensei who loved the martial arts and to close their doors was not an option. They took it to technology to bring the lessons to the students.

In my case, I am among the ‘elderly’ and have been confined to my home for a year with limited contact with people.

According to Dr. Shalev’s A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement, the recorded physical health effects of solitary confinement include: • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

chronic headaches eyesight deterioration digestive problems dizziness excessive sweating fatigue and lethargy genitourinary problems heart palpitations hypersensitivity to light and noise loss of appetite muscle and joint pain sleep problems trembling hands weight loss

2020 March 26 — Corona Virus Armour For Shopping

A lack of physical activity may also make it difficult to manage or prevent certain health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

A prolonged lack of sunlight can cause a vitamin D deficiency, which can put older adults at risk of fractures and falls. These injuries are among the leading causes of hospitalization and death for older adults. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/solitary-confinement-effects#physical-health-effects

69

Not knowing how long the Pandemic would last, I took to ‘Bun-Bu Ryo Do’ in order to save myself from the pitfalls of prolonged isolation and to safeguard my sanity. The pandemic lockdown offered me long hours of quiet time. This is what I did during one year of isolation: • • •

• • • • •

I wrote and published a Kobudo book. Although the book was finished since 2007, during this Pandemic I found the time to proof-read several times. I am grateful to Nasser Butt Sensei for teaching me how to publish it on demand.

Wrote four articles for Lift Hands e-magazine Learned many new technology skills that included Zoom as a tool; started to teach karate and kobudo classes via Distance Learning. I found it difficult to speak to a camera but with patient participants I overcame my fear. Learned all about lights and lighting for better Zoom picture.

Reached out to other martial artists and participated on their Zoom lessons.

Read many books; the idea came to me to video tape myself doing Book Reviews. I did not know how to it; I just picked two or three positive points that made the book special. Amazingly, the authors were enthusiastic.

Cleaned out closets, drawers, and made care packages. Polished silverware, and planted flowers.

Created a room for ‘uchi deshi’ (live in student) because I know that one day the Pandemic will be defeated.

Started to write another book.

Although I have experienced some of the symptoms listed on Dr. Shalev’s A Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement, I have worked hard on my ‘Bun-Bu Ryo Do’. It is far from a perfect situation; however, patience is one of the strongest self defense techniques in our arsenal of martial arts.

We keep walking…

Katherine Loukopoulos Bubishi Team Austria 19 March, 2021 Lift Hands - Vol. 17

70

How to order your copy: Click on the link provided, or copy and paste into your browser. https:// www.peecho.com/ print/en/677092 The website takes you directly to the page to order the book.

1. Which size do you like? Select the size.

Next…

2. Would you like color? Select the color. Next…

3. How many copies would you like?

Discount and Pricing. Next…

(There is a discount pending on the number of copies.)

4. Where can we ship your order?

Next…

74

75

H

i guys some of you may know me but for those who don't allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Gavin Richardson I have been studying Traditional Martial Arts for almost 40 years. I started with karate and Western boxing while at school.

I hold a number of different black belts in karate and full contact kickboxing I am also a Jeet Kune Do instructor under Bruce Lee’s student and friend Richard Bustillo. I also represent Mo Teague teaching functional JKD here in Liverpool.

I started studying Tai Chi with Nasser Butt over 12 months ago and I really enjoy being the brand new beginner in the class.

I won't lie to you, I found learning the form fairly difficult because it's so esoteric and subtle in its movements with no definite preformed set of basics like I'm used to following in the karate World.

In my well-known karate world, my instructors would give me a definite list of techniques to follow for example Age Ucke — rising and block or Gidan Barri — lower block then punch, so on and so forth, but with the Tai Chi, Nasser will say wave your arms around like this, rotate your wrist like that, transfer your weight from here to there, and every time he will do it with a slightly different explanation so I find it difficult to remember what's coming next.

Also one of the big challenges I had when I first started learning was to relax.

My entire martial art career, which started at a very young age, was based on being very boom boom, and in your face, with strong emphasis on hardcore punching and kicking with full power and full focus all the time.

Now I'm being told you need to use just enough energy to raise your hands, use just enough energy to rotate the wrist use enough energy to stand up straight.

It's completely the opposite end of the training from what I'm used to!

As an instructor I've spent years and years training with different age groups from little kids around 5 years of age right up to people in their 70s and 80s.

You find in the karate world once people get to around 50 years old they start to dropout, as it becomes very difficult for them. Teenage kids and young men and women train all over the world, but to find someone still active, still training, still doing it in their 50s, 60s and over is a rare sight these days. People want some more relaxed form of exercises than the hardcore karate I grew up with.

One of the things I love most is the age range in Nasser’s class.

On the days I can get down to train with Nasser, I'm usually the youngest in the room. Maybe one or two slightly younger than myself, but in general I find myself training with a gang of old ladies and a couple of the older lads.

It's great that we all train together and we have a good laugh. Most of them think I'm completely insane because I drive about 125 miles from my house to Nasser’s dojo in order to train and to learn.

Most of these guys are living just around the corner and can be there at the class in 10 to 15 minutes.

For me distance doesn't make any difference! I just put the radio on, play some tunes, put my foot down and before you know where you are, I'm outside the door ready for another session.

76

If I'm stuck on a move and can't remember what comes next, I can ask the older ladies stood next me, “What comes next here?” or “Do I turn left or right on the next move?” They all are happy to help me get it right.

I'm 6 feet tall and about 18 and a half stone in weight [259 lbs for you Yanks], and like I said before I've been training for nearly 40 years — so if I punch or kick something it gets broken the way it’s supposed to! That's just the way I've been trained, so to go to a style and a system where I'm learning nice, slow, fluid relaxing movements was unbelievably alien to me when I first started working with Nasser.

All the people in the dojo who have got prior martial arts experience can still see my karate training in my movements. An experienced eye can pick out postures and stances that come naturally for me now. It seems everything will have a karate Japanese style flavour to it with some square edges and definite stances. My goal, however, same as everybody else, is to become a lot more fluid, to become a lot more relaxed and to be able to flow through the form using the correct breathing, balance, and posture that we all strive to attain.

It's funny when I ask the girls, “What comes next here?” I say, “Just remind me, do I go left or go right?” You can see them smile as they come over as if to say, “Here we go again… it’s that thick Scouse fella again, he can't remember anything!”

They point me in the right direction and give me a few tips, and tell me to change feet and change my weight from one foot to the other, straighten my back and so on and so forth.

I'm the new boy in the Tai Chi world and I am the learner and it's great. Everybody wants to help the new guy.

But once we've gone through the form and we move into the combative side of things, and we start to look at the applications of the actual techniques we have just been practicing then I am 100% comfortable with what's

going on, and find it very easy to convert the nice soft flowing movements of the form into effective martial art principles and techniques.

77

It's at these times that I have to take a step back from some of the older people in the class and train with some of the younger physically strong members of the group. Although they may be far ahead of me in the Tai Chi training, they get a bit of a surprise when we go hands-on and they realise that the big Scouse fella can swing people about if he needs to!

Whilst learning the form has been a bit of a challenge I fully understand the combative side of the training as it very similar to karate and JKD. At the end of the day a punch is a punch a finger jab is a finger jab.

For me I see the differences in what we do, as being very similar to accents.

With being from Liverpool I've been told I have a rather strong and unique accent. So the way I might say tomato will be different to the way somebody from London or Paris might say the same word! But once we peel away the way we say it and look at what we have, we realise it's all the same stuff.

This shows up every time Nasser shows us something and explains its meaning or application, or Bunkai as we call it in the karate world.

Take for example the move ‘fishes in eight,’ Posture 25 in Erle’s book on the form.

The hand positions are almost identical to a karate move we call Cake-uke pronounced cack-hey ook-hey.

Two completely different names and explanations of what they do until you put them into the combative contexts.

For my karate students, I just say do the cake-uke and turn your left arm 90 degrees over to the right, so the hook of your hand is inside the elbow. And hey presto a karate move is now understood in the Tai Chi form. The similarities between what we do doesn’t stop there. I could go on for hours and hours talking about the way the Tai Chi moves and combinations are the same as our karate combinations. We just have a different name and a slightly different flavour or accent depending on the analogy you want to use.

As we all know Nasser Butt is a mine of information and knowledge — his research and practical training is second to none in his field.

As a student of martial arts, I feel it's a huge honour to be able to travel down to Leicester to train with Nasser every week — most weeks for a couple of hours, I'm there as a one-on-one student, just absorbing as much of his knowledge as I can before bringing it home to pass on to my students back at my own dojo.

Quite often while In Nasser’s class, I will find myself holding a sly little grin as he explains a particular technique or combination, as I think to myself, “We only practiced that exact same thing last night or last week in my club! Ok, we were wearing a completely different uniform and giving it a completely different name,” but doing the exact same thing and achieving the exact same outcome.

Then other times he will show me something that I've been doing for years and flip it 180°!

Combinations or techniques that I've done in the past that I thought, yeah this works fine — once performed in a slightly different way, gives a completely different outcome, and that's when you find yourself scratching your head going, “Oh my God, why didn’t I see that before it's so obvious!”

Sometimes you need a teacher to point out mistakes, or not necessarily even mistakes — just point out a different way of doing things. When the penny drops you see there's another way, there's a better way, there's a more effective way and I'll take that knowledge back and share it with my students so they've got more options and more tools in a toolbox.

As we move forward into 2021, all we can all do is hope that this Covid situation eventually dies down, the dojos reopen and we can all get back to do and what we do best.

Although I stand in front of the laptop and I do online classes for my students, it's not the same standing there talking to a computer jumping up and down waving your arms and legs around in front of a camera, hoping that someone on the other end of the internet is enjoying what you what you are doing and appreciate the time and effort that you're taking to make these online classes.

78

I've no doubt we've all sat there staring at the wall thinking, oh my God I need to be in class.

I need to be training.

I need to be punching something or somebody…

Or lots of different somebody’s!

I just need to be in the dojo to enjoy the atmosphere and see my friends.

Yes, we can practice at home. Yes, we can practice in the garden. Yes, we can do a form wherever we've got space, but to stand in front of your instructor and have someone say to you “When you turn left, tuck your right foot in, drop your left arm, raise your right elbow,” or whatever the case maybe, that's what we need.

That's the essence of learning, having someone with more knowledge just correct you in and help with your fine-tuning of your art. To help you train your own way and to train for your own particular Form or Kata, or whatever you want to call it, until it is perfect as you can be.

This is what Nasser does, he is a friend, a teacher, a mentor and a Guide. I for one cannot wait to get back in the car and drive down the road in order to train with my friend and learn the new skills and systems he has to share with us. To be a beginner in the class again and to have the girls show me the ropes, and tell me to change legs again while they roll their eyes!

Respectfully.

GAVIN RICHARDSON | HEAD OF TRAINING Email PBAProfessional Bodyguard Association

79

I was born in the womb of the Mother, In emptiness beyond form and thought.

From Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, Woven with breath never taught.

At the crown of my head springs knowledge, Poured from Sky’s infinite space, That finds itself only when offered, The ground with my feet at the base.

In this art, invest loss, offered freely, With time we give grace to our shape.

Shine with a lustre of long efforts moulding, On my terms, in my eyes, my own fate.

Pearls of knowledge, of many lines and many lives, Handed down through endless silk threads.

I follow what ancients sages pondered to scale, Mountain passes, where only eagles dare to tread.

And though there may be constant struggle, Between my Head and my Heart.

Thunder rages deep in my belly, The intent of my gaze lights the spark.

For the cotton blossom youth I do thank you, Playful essence of my ever questing will, When muscle fade and back bends I hold steady, With the iron tempered sinews of skill.

This warrior knows the real battle, Is to forge from the fragments of this soul, A blazing sword to cut through the shadow revealing, The Truth that will make us whole.

One day we will come to know that victory, That gold, is in kindness given with ease, In the shores starry night lapping the Moon in her breast, In the Sun’s smile on a gentle summer breeze.

So for the journey my friend take this compass, And cloak to ward off the night’s chill.

The power we seek in our universe’s movement, Will come when we are finally still. ©RamaKrishna

80

The author demonstrating the ‘scissor’ or ‘cross-step’ of Baguazhang in its classical stance.

B

aguazhang, (also pronounced Pa Kua Chang), is considered to be the daughter/sister [female relative] of Taijiquan and hence, belongs to the family of the Neijia or internal arts. It is deemed the youngest of the ‘internal arts’.

The name literally translates to Eight Trigram Palm or Eight Shaped Palm Boxing, referring to the trigrams of the I Ching — the Taoist Book of Changes, and contains the best of Shaolin and Taoist fighting methods: 八 = bā [eight/8] 卦 = guà [divinatory trigrams of the Book of Changes/fortune telling] 掌 = zhǎng [palm of hand; sole of foot, paw] The history of Bagua, like Taijiquan, is shrouded in controversy but can be traced back to one man — Dong [Tung] Haichuan [circa1796-1882]1, or simply 'Dong the fugitive' — a resident of Wen An district in Ho Pei Province.

Dong was deliberately vague about the origins of his martial art and many theories have arisen as to the reason why?

Dong claimed that he had encountered a dwarf whilst wandering in the mountains near Beijing, who led him to a Daoist monk — whose name he couldn’t quite recall — living on a mountain, the name of which escaped his memory!

The most commonly held belief is that Dong, himself, invented the form and was too embarrassed to admit it for fear of losing face! It was a commonly held practice in those days to attribute ones work to ancient sages in order to gain respect and acceptance from your peers and society in general.

Another, belief is that Dong was a wanted man, on the run from the law and that was the reason why he was so vague! Whatever, the reasons, one thing is for sure — the art has been added to and subtracted from, over the years, in order to arrive at the highly complex martial and healing form that we have today!

Portrait of Dong Haichuan

Whatever the truth may be — somewhere between the legends, stories and ‘facts’ — most historians agree that Dong and his Bagua first make their appearance during a banquet held by the Emperor’s nephew Prince Su Wang2, where we are told our intrepid hero, whilst disguised as a eunuch3, is weaving in and out from amongst the crowd of guests carrying food trays without dropping anything or bumping in to anyone!

——————————————— 1. The date of birth of Dong — just like the origins of Bagua is disputed. However, it is generally accepted that lived between 1796-1882 with a margin of error of 1 or 2 years depending upon the source.

2. In some accounts the banquet is held by the Emperor himself.

3. There is no evidence to say that Dong was actually a eunuch. It is claimed that in order to hide from the law, he thought what better place than right under their noses, serving at the court in the Imperial Palace — where custom required you to be a eunuch. It is thought that the age at which Dong appears at the palace would have deemed it very dangerous for him to have had the surgery and that instead he somehow duped the royal physicians into believing that he had!

Further, there are no records of Dong actually exhibiting the physical or medical attributes associated with eunuchoidism!

82

So impressed was the Prince with this servants agility, watching him leap from the court walls whilst carrying these trays that after the feast he questions him about his skill. It is at this point that Dong introduces himself and his art — Baguazhang.

The Prince demands a display of his skills and finds them so unique that he immediately appoints him as teacher to the palace guards thus ensuring Dong’s fame throughout China and in subsequent history!

There are many other versions or stories of how Dong ends up in the services of the Prince — including those of him being a revolutionary as well as an undercover assassin pretending to be a eunuch — but whichever version you follow, they all lead to the Imperial Palace.

All versions of history more or less agree that Dong did not have many students whilst teaching the Imperial Guard, since commoners could not gain access to the heavily guarded palace. It is only after his retirement and upon moving outside of the place that Dong starts to gain a following and even then, his final tally of actual students is uncertain. However, it is accepted that his eight most distinguished students were: Yin Fu Ch’eng Ting-Hua Sung Ch’ang-Jung Ma Kuei Ma Wei-Ch’i Chang Chao-Tung Liu Te-K’uan Liu Feng-Ch’un These students were commonly referred to as the “eight great students” in China, of which the two most senior students were Yin Fu and the legendary Ch’eng Ting-Hua, who was killed during the Boxer Rebellion by German soldiers. Each of these students would go on to develop and train highly skilled students of their own which would include the likes of Sun Lu-T’ang4, Jiang Rong Jiao, Gao Yi Sheng, Li Zi Ming, Chang Chunfeng, He K'o Ts'ai and Sha Kuo-Cheng to name but a few5!

Further, virtually all historians agree that Dong’s teaching methodology required that any prospective student must already be proficient in another martial art before he would accept to teach them, and then he would teach them the first three Palm changes and the remainder would be taught according to their already specialised skillsets. This is oft seen as the reason why there are so many diverse styles of Baguazhang all tracing their roots back to Dong. In modern terms, it would appear that Dong was taking on postgraduates and preparing them for their ‘Masters,’ followed by their ‘PhDs’!

The central core of the system is its form, performed upon the perimeter of a circle generating, both, circular and spiral movements, whilst twisting and turning, and learning to relate our own centre to that of the circle, until all eight palm6 changes have been completed. Since we have two hands that would give us a combination of 64 palms [The I-Ching has 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams] from which one can derive thousands of applications!

——————————————— 4. It was Sun Lu-T’ang who linked the 3 arts of Baguazhang, Taijiquan & Xingyiquan as belonging to one “family”.

5. The list of students and their respective students to the present day representing all the various styles of Bagua and their common as well as unique teachings, is far, far too great to list here.

The purpose of this article and subsequent articles is to give a brief overview of one of the most visually beautiful and brutal of the Chinese martial arts.

6. The palms being shown and named here those from the line of Chang Chao-Tung via his student and martial arts scholar Jiang Rong Jiao [Chaing Jung-Chao]. Although Chang knew and trained with Dong Haichuan, it is said that much of his Bagua also stems from training with Ch’eng Ting-Hua as the two were friends. Chang was a big powerful man, whose background was in Hsing-I and this influenced his Bagua to be more direct and less evasive compared to Yin Fu’s or Ch’eng Ting-Hua — whose background in Shuai Jiao incorporated more throws.

83

Above: A young Chang Chao-Tung demonstrating one of the more extreme movements of Bagua — ‘Duck Lands on Water’ and the author in the same posture.

In future issues we will be looking at some of the inner workings of Bagua, including some of the phenomenal training methods associated with the art. However, below I will give a very brief description of the eight palms and what they represent as we continue with the general overview of the system. Readers must be made aware that the descriptions may not match what you know or study according to your own ‘systems’. As I have already stated above, Dong taught each student according to their speciality and each line went on to develop their own unique methodology, so being different doesn’t necessarily equate to being wrong as long the rules of Bagua are being followed.

T

he eight palms are the most important part of Bagua’s training apart from the actual circle walking itself!

The palms can be practiced statically as qigong stances — in fact some of the greatest practitioners like Sun LuT’ang practiced just standing for a very long time as a part of their initial training!

The postural rules for the practice of Baguazhang are the same as those for Taijiquan — i.e. crown of head raised, tuck in the sacrum, relax the shoulders, etc.

Chang Chao-Tung 1859-1940

The palms in Baguazhang are held with a slight tension — unlike that of Taiji. The fingers are separated, with the palm held slightly concave — ‘Dragon Palm’ — as well as the forearms holding a small amount of inner tension.

Jiang Rong Jiao 1891-1974

The ‘Dragon Palm’

84

Palm Number One This represents heaven and its trigram from the I-Ching is: ‘unbroken, unbroken, unbroken’. [The trigrams are given with the bottom line first.] It breaks7 a hold from the opposite hand of the opponent.

——————— ——————— ——————— The palm faces up as in Figure 1 and is said to have the physical ability to heal the head.

Figure 1: Palm Number One — Heaven

Palm Number Two This represents earth and its trigram is: ‘broken, broken, broken’. It also breaks a hold from the opposite hand from an attacker — but this time when held from the underside.

——— ——— ———

——— ——— ———

The palm faces down as in Figure 2 and is said to have the physical ability to heal the mid-abdomen and all the organs in that region.

Palm Number Three

Figure 2: Palm Number Two — Earth

This represents fire and is considered the main fighting palm of Bagua. Its trigram is: ‘unbroken, broken, unbroken’.

——————— ——— ——— ——————— It faces outwards as in Figure 3 and also breaks a hold from the opposite hand of the opponent, and is said to have the physical ability to heal the eyes.

Palm Number Four This represents thunder and its trigram is: ‘unbroken, broken, broken’.

Figure 3: Palm Number Three — Fire

——— ——— ——— ——— ——————— The palm faces slightly inwards, with the fingers tilted upwards at an angle of approximately 45º as in Figure 4. It is said to have the physical ability to heal the left side of the abdomen and all the associated organs within that area.

It breaks a hold from the opposite hand of the opponent.

——————————————— Figure 4: Palm Number Four — Thunder

7. These breaks or releases, will be covered in the next issue of Lift Hands and all palms are shown with the right hand.

85

The main fighting palm of Baguazhang — Fire

Palm Number Five This represents wind and its trigram is: ‘broken, unbroken, unbroken’.

——— ——— ——— ——— ——————— The palm is held sideways with the fingers pointing forwards as in Figure 5, and breaks an opponent’s hold from a grab from the same side hand.

It is said to have the physical ability to heal the first seven vertebrae.

Figure 5: Palm Number Five — Wind

Palm Number Six This represents water and its trigrams is: ‘broken, unbroken, broken’.

——— ——— ——————— ——— ——— The palm is held akin to Number Four Palm [Thunder], however, in this case, it angled downwards as in Figure 6. It also breaks a hold from an opponents grab by the same side hand [right on right/ left on left] by rotating through the action of the waist and moving the opponent’s centre forward.

It is said to have the physical ability to heal the kidneys.

86

Figure 6: Palm Number Six — Water

Palm Number Seven This represents the mountain and its trigram is: ‘broken, broken, unbroken’.

——————— ——— ——— ——— ——— The palm is held akin to Number Five [Wind], however with the wrist flexed and the fingers pointing vertically upwards as in Figure 7. This palm breaks a same hand hold much like Number Five palm except for, it cuts down using the knife-edge of the hand.

Figure 7: Palm Number Seven — Mountain

It is said to have the physical ability to heal the neck.

Palm Number Eight This represents the clouds and its trigram is: ‘unbroken, unbroken, broken’.

——— ——— ——————— ——————— The palm is held spiralling outwards with the thumb below and the small finger [pinkie] above as in Figure 8. This palm breaks a hold from the opposite hand by spiralling forwards — thrusting the fingers towards the eyes or throat.

Figure 8: Palm Number Eight — Clouds

It is said to have the physical ability to heal the right side of the abdomen and all the organs associated without area.

I

t is said that Baguazhang has the fastest footwork of any martial art. This can be attributed to its unique stepping method known as ‘mud-stepping8’ [Tāng Ní Bù — 趟 泥 步]: The unique stepping method gathers no momentum, the power comes from the waist alone thus the practitioner is able to stop immediately and go the other way. There is never any weight placed upon the leading foot. The stepping is fast but only fast within each step's own boundaries. The momentum of each individual step must not go into the next step, it must stop when the foot stops, and then the next step is begun. In this way the feet are able to attack the opponent's ankle or at the highest, the groin.9

However, one should note that this a most excellent training method for strengthening the legs, while teaching us effective rooting, kicking, balance, timing, coordination etc — all the prerequisites of any fighting system — and is NOT how we move in a realistic self-defence situation, where the feet usually take care of themselves in 'natural stances'!

——————————————— 8. Although there are many stepping methods in Baguazhang such as ‘L’ and ’T’ steps as well as rolling steps etc, the main stepping method utilised by most schools as its foundation whilst walking the circle is the ‘mud-stepping’ method. We will explore this method of stepping in future issues of Lift Hands.

9. Erle Montaigue: Baguazhang — The Complete System Volume One

87

B

aguazhang consists of several forms and countless training methods thus, giving us a complete fighting and healing system much like Taijiquan. The forms can be generally broken into:

Above: Attacking the head to generate a violent throw — part of the Shuai Jiao of Baguazhang.

1.The Circular Form — This is the most commonly known form.

2.The Animal Forms — These can be broken down into 3 sections comprising of; The 8 Animal Forms [Bear, Monkey, Phoenix, Snake, Unicorn, Lion, Falcon/ Rooster, Dragon], the Animal Qi Shaking Forms and the 2 person Animal Training Sets.

3.T h e L i n e a r F o r m — T h i s f o r m emphasises the fighting aspects of the art and is performed as a 2 person learning aid, much like the Pauchui of Taijiquan. Not all schools of Baguazhang have a linear form and it is generally accepted by historians that these forms were developed by later practitioners and did not form a part of Dong’s original teachings.

Baguazhang, just like Taijiquan is practiced at 3 heights — referred to as “basins”: 1. Upper Basin — In practicing at this height, the practitioner is more or less standing upright and the walk is almost like normal walking.

2. Middle Basin — At this height, the practitioner sits, with the knees bent, and the centre of gravity of the upper body and sacrum settled over the legs.The walking here is that of mud stepping.

3. Lower Basin — This is considered the most difficult height with the legs bent as much as possible, forming a triangle between the knee, the buttocks and the heel. The centre of gravity of the entire body settles over the legs and walking here is done as slow as possible.

T

Above: The Small Person’s Method — Moving swiftly to the rear and applying a neck break whilst attacking the knee.

Below: The Large Person’s Method — Using a single hand [Pounding Palm] to smash through an opponent’s defence.

he fighting art of Baguazhang has been much misunderstood in modern times, leading to some truly exotic fighting techniques being practiced today, alongside purportedly mind-bending esoteric interpretations of certain ideas due to its ‘association’ with the I-Ching!

The art is magical enough on its own merit based upon the essence of nature itself and change. If you understand these two simple things then Bagua, like Taiji and Xingyi will yield all its ‘secrets’ to you. It will not help you deflect bullets, levitate or walk on water, but — through practice and patience — it will ‘change’ everything. And change is the key! If the person who leaves home in the morning is the same as the person who returns back at night — then that person has failed to interact with every single element of their surroundings!

Like all good martial arts, Baguazhang develops certain core skills and ideas, giving us the tools which are considered prerequisites of self-defence. However, one must absolutely make a clear distinction between martial arts & self-defence — they are NOT the same thing!

Martial arts are basically designed to teach us certain skills and principles — practicing them does not mean that the practitioner knows how to fight!

88

Self-defence, however, is where we take these skills and ideas and transfer them into a realistic fighting art for the street through specific training methods.

Baguazhang has 2 main methods of attack and defence:

Deer Horn Knives

The Larger Person’s Method — for those who are literally able to smash their way through any obstacle offered by their opponent in order to reach their centre and the Smaller Person’s Method — reliant more upon the evasive techniques developed through the circular form by moving rapidly to either side and attacking from the rear!

Baguazhang incorporates all the typical striking methodologies associated with martial arts — strikes, kicks, elbows, throws etc —however, it specialises in the palm techniques and uses the open hand to devastating effect and — depending upon the lineage — contains only one fist. Dim-mak [diǎnmài — 點脈/diǎnxué — 點穴] is built into the system — in other words a student doesn’t learn these points separately and add them on to their techniques.

T

here are several weapons forms in Baguazhang and these are simply considered an extension of the empty hand. The weapons vary, again, depending upon the school. Whilst the Deer Horn Knives, the Dao [sabre —large and standard] and Pole appear in most systems as standard — other weapons such as the Elbow Knives and Bagua Needles are found in the schools from the line of Ch’eng Ting-Hua. Again, like Taiji, Bagua also has a Straight Sword [Jian] form — common in Sun style — further other styles even incorporate escrima type sticks as a part of their curriculum.

The heavy weapons — especially the large broadsword — are not really deemed practical for fighting. They are more orientated towards developing strength. Most beginners would start with the regular size weapons as it was believed that if the student moved on to the heavier weapons too soon, they would simply rely on physical strength to wield the weapon as opposed to using the centrifugal motions of the art!

A

s a healing art Baguazhang is just as effective as Taijiquan.

It, too, acts upon the acupuncture meridians of the human body, sending out Qi along these channels while healing and nourishing the organs concerned.

The constant twisting, turning, and bending during form practice is a great physical exercise for the joints, muscles, tendons and bones as well as the internal organs.

This is by no means a detailed account of Baguazhang, but merely a very brief introduction to this amazing art.

In future issues of Lift Hands we shall look at some of the specific methodologies and training methods associated with Baguazhang.

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

Baguazhang — The Complete System Volumes One & Two; Erle Montaigue Pa Kua Chang Journal — High View Publications; Editor: Dan Miller ; 1990-1997 Jiang Rongqiao’s Baguazhang Chinese-English Edition; Translated by Andrea Falk The Cheng School Gao Style Baguazhang; Edited by Liu Fengcai

89

Fa-jing Ch'uan Internal Chinese Boxing Schools are pleased to announce our fifth annual T'ai Chi Ch'uan Camp on the sundrenched island of Cyprus in November 2021 Based at the scenic Hadjios Valley Resort in Mazotos - a couple of kilometres from the pristine beaches off the Mediterranean coastline — this will be a great opportunity to learn one of the most ancient Chinese martial arts, renowned for its health properties, on the island of Aphrodite over 3 days.

The camp includes: Qigong Old Yang Style T'ai Chi Practical Training Methods For Health/ Martial Arts Self-Defence Whether you are a novice or already have some experience and would simply like to brush up on the foundations, or have ever wondered how the art is used as a system of selfdefence - then this will be the perfect way to get a great insight into T'ai chi Ch’uan (Taijiquan).

You will receive a minimum of 5 hours/day

of training under instruction over 3 days.

Date: Friday - Sunday, November 2021 TBC Training will begin at 12pm Friday.

Cost of training: 240 Euros for those registering by Friday 26 September 2021.

(The cost will rise to 260 Euros for those registering after this date.)

Cost of Accommodation: TBC Euros/Villa based upon a minimum of 3 nights (Fri/Sat/Sun) at Apollo Villas. Each additional night is TBC Euros for those wishing to extend their stay or arrive earlier. We have negotiated an exclusive special rate with Apollo Villas, allowing you to spend three days in luxury at an incredibly low price!

Please note, although partners and family are welcome, accommodation will be prioritized for those training as this is a busy time of the season!

Each villa is selfcontained and has two bedrooms and can sleep up to 4 people sharing.

All villas are fully furnished, including a

functional kitchen as well as a washing machine and fridge. Full Wi-Fi is available throughout the resort at no extra cost.

Meals: All guests will find a basic ‘Welcome Pack’ upon arrival at their villa for making their own breakfast , etc.

For lunch and supper we have negotiated a special rate at the local Mazotos Tavern - based in the centre of the village, where Bambos and his family serve up the most delicious traditional meals with a wonderful friendly service!

Alternatively, folk are free to make their own arrangements or even cook in the villa, buying produce from the local high street, if they so wish.

Participants will be expected to arrive on site by Friday morning latest or Thursday* evening earliest and depart Monday or after the final training session on Sunday, unless they have extended** their stay in advance and are departing later depending upon flights.

92

*/** These will incur additional charges.

All accommodation costs must be paid in full at the time of registration. (PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE NONREFUNDABLE.) Nearest Airport: Larnaca (15 km from resort).

Information for local carhire services is available upon request.

Please contact Nasser Butt for further information and registration: Tel: +44(0)7792242150 Email: explosivefist@gmail. com Visit our website for further information on what we teach: www.fajingchuan.co.uk Website for Hadjios Valley: www.apollovillas.com/ hadjios-valley/ PRICES/DATES/ AVAILABILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE DUE TO ONGOING COVID PANDEMIC. PLEASE CONFIRM BEFORE

BOOKING

The Oldest Established School of The Erle Montaigue System In The UK

Ammanford Scouts Hall Monday 7.30 - 9.15pm Wednesday 7.00 - 9.00pm Sunday Full Day (Monthly)

Peter Jones Chief Instructor Taiji Pa-Kua Internal Fighting Arts

taijipakua@gmail.com

Gaku Shi Juku Kendo Kai www.leicesterkendo.com

Dim Mak & Taijiquan

W

henever, the word ‘Dim-mak’ or ‘Death Touch’ is mentioned — eyebrows are raised. There are those who simply dismiss it as ‘fool’s gold’ and others who claim that they can knock an opponent out by just the wave of their hand without even touching them!

The common Chinese terminology used is: 點穴 — diǎnxué, meaning to hit a pressure point (martial arts) / dim mak 點 — meaning point / dot / drop… diǎn 穴 — meaning cave / cavity / hole / acupuncture point xué Or alternatively, 點脈 — diǎnmài, meaning to hit a pressure point (martial arts) / dim mak, where the term 脈 [mài] refers to blood vessels, veins, arteries.

That the human body has vulnerable ‘points’ should not be in any doubt. This much should be obvious even to the non-martial artist.

You do not need to be an expert or a blackbelt to understand that a strike to the eyes, throat, neck, groin, knee etc will cause serious injury — and potentially even death where the neck is concerned.

It is not our intent to have an in-depth discussion upon the subject of Dim-mak for that would be a vast topic indeed. The aim here is simple — to present evidence showing that Dim-mak is inherent within the art of Taiji Boxing as an integral component of the dynamics at least as practiced by the ‘Old Yangs’ themselves.

Further, the skill of attacking acupoints was one which required a skilful teacher and developing the skills of controlling, seizing, capturing and sealing, as well as knowing how to reduce measurements to the “width of a hair”!

The art of Taiji Boxing is brutal! According to Yang Cheng-fu in his book Methods of Applying Taiji Boxing1 [Taijiquan Shiyong Fa — co-written by his student Dong Yingjie in 1931], we are told that skills involved in learning Taiji Boxing include: – Tearing the Sinews & Breaking the Bones – Striking Acupoints – Passive & Active Hands – Five-Elements Hands – Marrow-Penetrating Punch – Heart-Removing Punch – Spying-the-Tiger Elbow – Too-Close-to-the-Mountain Bumping – Mandarin-Duck Kicks

98

– Saber Palm & Sword Finger – Slyly Seizing Hands – Bypassing the Mountain to Strike the Ox (This last one does not have anything to do actually striking an ox. The meaning of the phrase is to cause internal damage with no external sign.)

As we can clearly see, the top two items on the list are not for the faint hearted! Indeed this list alone should put paid to the argument that Taiji is a ‘soft’ art for health alone and not a martial art. Whilst the practice of Taiji does indeed invigorate one’s health — this is simply the by-product of practicing the martial art itself!

Taiji Boxing adheres to the moral concepts that all life is sacred and should be preserved, it is, also, pragmatic enough to understand that such may not always be the option available — in which case ensure that there is no suffering and the best way to ensure that is to bring about death quickly through the most violent means! One only needs to regard the image of a lioness hunting to understand what this entails — she is being merciful when her teeth rip through the throat of her prey guaranteeing an instant end to the struggle.

The Yangs weren’t reckless in their teaching, nor were they secretive as folk tend to believe — they would teach if you were deemed worthy and passed their criteria of selection.

According to Yang Ban-hou — the only other Yang other than Lu-ch’an himself, to have attained the title “Yang the Unmatchable" — in his book Explaining Taiji Principles2 [太極法說 — Taiji Fa Shuo; circa 1875], we are told: Controlling his vessels, seizing his channels, capturing his sinews, and sealing his acupoints — these four skills are to be worked toward after you are able to measure down from the level of a foot to the level of an inch, then to a tenth of an inch, then to the width of a hair. When his vessels are controlled, his blood will not circulate. When his channels are seized, his energy will not move. When his sinews are captured, his body will have no control. When his acupoints are sealed, he will lose consciousness.

By controlling certain vessels, he will seem half dead. By seizing certain channels, he will seem fully dead. By capturing certain sinews, his power will be cut off. By sealing the lethal acupoints, he will not survive. Basically, if he is without energy, blood, or spirit, how will he have any control over his body? However, even if you have ability in the skills of control, seize, capture, and seal, these particular effects will not work without specific instruction in them.

To understand the theory of vessels, channels, sinews, and acupoints, it is necessary to be clear about which techniques will save or kill. To understand the techniques that will save or kill, it is necessary to be clear about the acupoints for life and death. In the acupoint art, how could you go without knowing them [seeing as not knowing them might result in killing someone by mistake]? To know how to activate the life and death acupoints, it is necessary to be clear about the technique of sealing. Sealing is what determines both life and death.

However, these skills were only to be taught to students according to the following rules: There are acupoints that save and acupoints that kill. They cannot be learned without personal instruction. Here are three reasons why: because of how difficult they are to learn, the fact that they are a matter of life and death, and the degree of a person’s talent. There are eight kinds of people not to be taught: 1. the disloyal and unfilial, 2. those who are fundamentally unkind, 3. those with crooked intentions, 4. those who are rude and reckless, 5. those who think themselves superior to others, 6. those who care more about rules than they do about people, 7. those who are fickle, 8. those who will have an easy time picking it up and then just as easily discard it

99

It must be understood that these eight people are not to be taught.

Criminals of course do not deserve to be considered at all. As for those who may be taught, they are eligible to be given personal instruction in its secrets. There are five kinds who may be taught: [1] those who are loyal, filial, and gracious, [2] those with a mild temperament, [3] those who will hold to the method and not discard it, [4] those who will be true to the teacher, [5] those who will complete the study as ardent as when they started.

These types will be resolved to complete the study without having doubts and can be shown the whole thing, and what will be given to the pupil is illumination. It goes from those who already know it to those who will know it, the torch being passed down through generations, always by this process. But what a shame it is that of those who know martial arts, some turn out to be criminals.

It is said that Chen Yanlin was one of the first students of the Yang family system who revealed this information to the public. In his Taiji Compiled: The Boxing, Sabre, Sword, Pole and Sparring3, published in 1943 — Chen states: The human body has a hundred and eight acupoints, seventy-two of which are non-lethal and thirty-six of which can be lethal, and seven of those can bring about immediate death. When an acupoint is sealed off, it is like the skin is on fire, or a dream of the earth quaking. It can cause sinew to separate from bone or instantly kill. If you encounter someone who has obtained it, it is like suddenly awakening to reality.

When sealing, you must understand how to use it, know when to use it, and be magical when using it. Then you will be able to enter apertures like shooting an arrow. If you are able to know where the target is, without veering off at all, gathering your energy and concentrating your spirit, then you will always hit the mark. These are the general circumstances of sealing off acupoints. As for all four skills of controlling, seizing, capturing, and sealing, you will not be able to gain them without specific instruction from an expert.

A typical strike to the ‘vagal triangle’ in the neck — in this case Stomach [ST] 9 — whilst attacking Large Intestine [LI] 12, located just above the elbow, and simultaneously kicking out the knee from behind using a variant of the posture ‘fishes in eight’ — a dynamic of ‘an’ from the ‘Old’ Yang Style.

According to the legend, he was permitted to borrow a manuscript from the Yang NB: Please note that this is family [most likely the aforementioned Explaining Taiji Principles above], for one for illustrative purposes night only. However, unbeknown to the Yangs, he allegedly had several scribes only. Do not attempt as it waiting at his house who supposedly copied the entire manuscript in a single night can represent a serious so that he could study it at his leisure. The Yang family were very miffed with danger to life!

Chen — apart from the obvious fact that he had betrayed their trust, but also because he had recklessly shared their ‘secret’ teachings with all and sundry! As one can see from Ban-hou’s writing above — who should, or could be taught was very important to the Yangs, who took their responsibility on sharing such lethal information very seriously!

Another version of the story states that Chen Yanlin actually ‘stole’ the notes and works of Tian Zhaolin — the only non-family member of the Yangs, who had received full transmissions directly from Jian-hou and had trained with and was friends with Shao-hou. Regardless of whatever the truth may or may not be, the reaction of the Yang family cannot be underestimated.

The fact that Yang family Taijiquan involved the skill of striking vital points is further confirmed by another student — Xu Long-hou [ also known as Xu Yu-sheng, Xu Chong-hou].

Xu, a disciple of Yang Jian-hou — who also trained under Yang Cheng-fu and with Yang Shao-hou himself — in his book Taijiquan Shi, Taiji Boxing Power [Developing Power in Taiji Movement], published in 1921 and republished in 1934, tells us the following about Yang Shao-hou:

100

Shao-hou taught according to the studies learned from his uncle, Yang Ban-Hou (1837-1892), which included bone twisting methods, techniques to injure the adversary’s muscles, grasping veins and tendons as in Shou Wei Pi-Pa (Hands Play the Lute), fast hands combined with explosive kicking methods, joint locking, and methods to affect qi and blood through striking vital points.

And again, Chen Wei-Ming (1881-1958), the famous disciple of Yang Cheng-fu, also alludes to this in his book T’ai Chi Ch’uan Ta Wen, when asked, what other fighting techniques does T’ai Chi use?

Other methods I have heard about (but for which I do not know the use) are grabbing the ligaments, attacking pressure points, and special techniques of seizing and controlling.

Note the glaring admission being made here by one of Yang Cheng-fu’s foremost disciples in the brackets above — not only is he confirming that Yang Taiji fighting techniques involve “attacking pressure points,” he also admits that he does “not know the use”!

Whilst ‘Point striking’ has become a fad in the last few decades in Western martial arts giving rise to some crazy notions, as well as the strikes being recklessly demonstrated upon unwitting students from ‘dead duck’ situations to boost the master’s ego — it is advisable that would be practitioners pay heed to the Yang family rules above.

Whilst most martial artists attempt to ‘patch’ these ‘techniques’ onto their existing art — in reality it is not that simple a case.

To truly be able to use such methodology on a reflexive level — like an animal — requires not only many years of skilful instruction and training, it must be already inherent within the dynamics of the art itself. It is for this very reason that most martial artists are unable to execute a point strike under attack, leading others to believe that it is a useless skill!

The Old Yang style of Taijiquan is a master teacher of these skills.

Notes and References 1, 2, 3 — for the sake of conformity I have adhered to the Brennan Translation [https:// brennantranslation.wordpress.com] of the referenced documents although other translations are available.

Xu Long-Hou’s Taijiquan Shi, Taiji Boxing Power (Developing Power in Taiji Movement) Published in 1921.

Translated & Annotated by Bradford Tyrey, Bradford Tyrey, North China Publications, USA, 2006.

Translator’s Preface, pp.4.

Chen Wei-ming. T’ai Chi Ch’uan Ta Wen - Questions and Answers on T’ai Chi Ch’uan. Shanghai, 1929.

Reprinted by the T’ai Chi Ch’uan Research Association of the Republic of China, Taipei, 1967. Translated by Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo & Robert W. Smith, 1985. Blue Snake Books, an imprint of North Atlantic Books. pp.

24.

101

Regular Contributors:

U C

Tony Bailey Louiseneige Be Nasser Butt Amy Faulkner Andy Haynes Peter Jones Dr. Gregory T. Lawton Katherine Loukopoulos Alan R. Ludmer Gavin Mulholland Krish Pillay Colin Power Gavin Richardson

seful

ontacts

Editor: Nasser Butt Email: lifthandsmagazine@gmail.com Peter Jones - Chief Instructor Taiji Pa-Kua Internal Fighting Arts taijipakua@gmail.com The Guild of Internal Martial & Healing Arts Email: theguildofinternalarts@gmail.com

102

The Art of Louiseneige Be

The Circle

103

105

106