Jiulong Baguazhang

[Scott R. Brown]

Well the funny thing about that is.. some people in the bagua community are of the belief that after enough work with the neigung/circle walking part.. the intermediate or adept practitioner then gets the advanced stuff directly from the Dao itself, or perhaps Heaven. I think the phrase is something like "the teachings of celestial dragon" or something like that. Kumar mentions it in his books.

Some people came to the art precisely because of things that "dropped out of the heavens" on them (in a metaphorical and spiritual sense).

The first person I ever saw do bagua never did any forms at all. He was/is a virtuoso jazz guitarist and does bagua as his "companion art" to music. He walked out and did a freeform impromptu jam (what some bagua people would call a "swimming dragon" improvisation). In many respects you really could say Stan learned it "right from the sky". He soared on pure love for his thing and the joy of "doing it". Just like his music really.

Dog gone it. Why can't more people see martial arts in this respect. The Celestial Dragon is all around us everyday.

"Free form" was part of my Black Belt test some 30 years ago!

[DRAGONSIHING]

I was a student of Dr. Painter's starting many, many years ago when he first opened a school. I guess that makes me Dale's Kung fu uncle. LOL... Started off with Tao Chi Chuan or daojichuan. After several years trained in baqua and xingyi. Also school had a qigong/mental/philosophical side, too. Have seen pictures of Sifu Painter as a young man with his teacher. I have also taken classes in bagua and xingyi from a Grandmaster. His styles were also a family system, suppressed and kept secret during all the trouble in China, but good enuf to teach to Chinese Army Special Forces. He also taught qigong. Styles were different, but most of the basic principles were the same. all worked for me in the past and still do today. am now mostly practising Yang Tai and again what I learned 30+ years ago applies. Learn basics well and you can adapt to other internal systems. Still learning and when I quit it will be time to dispose of remains. Any more questions you may just want to pm me which would be ok.

[Dale Dugas]

sihing,

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us in the thread.