subject: Pa Kua Chang, Walking The Circle, And Entering Insanity To Discover Sanity [print this page] Pa Kua Chang, or Bagua Zhang as some describe it, is a peculiar martial art where in one participatings in walking the circle till one discovers the reality of one self.
Like a pet dog chasing his tale till he locates Buddha.
Like Black Sambo forming leopards into ... liquid gold.
Like just what is the race of men racing to?
Dong Hai Chuan was a likable man with a fascination for martial arts. He engaged in Shaolin Kung Fu, so the folklore goes, and reached a point where he was so really good he took to the road and started roaming, seeking instructors able to educate him more.
His search led him throughout the Wudan Mountains of rural China, back where the mystic sanctuaries stood, and legends had it that archaic understanding existed in pure design. His search led him to an odd religious sect whose specialists thought that one could certainly find out the reality of the universe by ... walking the circle.
So Dong walked the circle, every day, in search of his divine nature. For 9 years he walked the circle, and one might well picture the taunts of passersby.
"Consider the old man chasing his shadow!"
"Hey buddy! Place it on a straight line and you may get somewhere!"
"Har de har har!"
Yet, rain or shine, under blazing sunlight and during freezing snow, Dong carried on his trek, seeking the reality of himself.
At last, some 9 years into his quest, he stated to the monks of the mysterious sect that ... wasn't it odd that ... the tree he was walking around appeared to be chasing him? That the tree in fact appeared to bending over?
Was the tree bending over? Or was something in his mind bending over? Or was something in his mind just coming to be ... unbent?
The monks eyed one other, and one carefully proffered, "An additional 2 years."
So on went Dong, round and round, circle after circle, nose after tail. And maybe this is where he incorporated his Shaolin with the never-ending walking of the circle. Probably this is where the circle came to be imbued with the art of violence, and came to be not exactly a repository of religious fanaticism. Probably this is where the creative mixture of self with the fanatical seeking of God comes to be ... whatever it comes to be.
Did Dong at last manage to catch the reality of himself?
No reference of 'the bolt out of the blue' striking the one time young lad is made in the histories. Just what is recognized, nonetheless, is that he accomplished a high degree of proficiency, that he was so profound at circle walking that he had the ability to defeat the Emperor's bodyguards, and come to be primary teacher of that renowned 'clan.' And there are tales of him vanishing under the attacking hand, of tiing up mighty warriors in fragile knots exactly to observe them fall, of consulting his followers even after demise.
Bolt out of the blue or proficiency, this author thinks that skills is the more valued. However, that stated, we reach the heart of the fable.
We recognize not whether Dong discovered himself, however we do understand that an individual who walks in a circle is insane. Such purposeless endeavor, specifically in this godless earth, is the heart of insanity. Yet ... is insanity not just a quality that others can not get a hold of? Does not one have to go 'in' sane to locate real sanity?
The guy who pounds his palm upon a stone, hour after hour, day in day out, year after year ... does he make tough the hand? Or at last divine that the universe really is built of space?
That kid who will come to be old doing his kung fu forms, does he battle hordes and legions in his mind? Or does he exhaust his mind of all hordes and legends?
That acorn ... will it truly come to be an oak?
The acorn could fall down a deserted gopher hole, and it may root into fertile dirt ... however it is time that makes the mighty oak, and the infinite and insane want to grub into the ground ... merely to view the sky.
We are all grubs ... however have we got a hold of the earth? Will we see the heavens?
Trust Dong Hai Chuan for the answer to that one, yet only ask if you are walking the circle, if you are pursuing yourself with Pa Kua Chang, round and round, year after year, breath after breath.
