Why is this so hard to learn?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been trying to think of some posts that would be more beneficial to beginners. I’ve been posting a lot of stuff that is coming out of my personal practice because that’s what I’m interested in at the moment. But, I don’t think it is particularly useful except to make you think about this material differently. I think my approach is a little unique and it isn’t for everyone. I dated someone who put it this way: she said “Jim, some people think out the box, you think out of the galaxy!”. With that said here are a couple of thoughts and observations about why I think it is hard to learn this material. I hope this is helpful.

One of the toughest problems to overcome is tension. Everything in our culture teaches it. Moving the body without using muscular contraction is just a completely foreign concept. You’ve basically been taught and have trained your body to do it wrong for 20, 30, or 40 years. We all start with a lot of baggage. It just takes time to unlearn bad habits. In the beginning, trying to get your body to do even simple movements without tensing is like having someone screaming at you to relax. It doesn’t help that you can’t do anything the way your supposed to do it. So, we do what we can. This usually means using muscle and tension. It sucks that part of our practice time is still using and training bad habits. You’ve got to accept that this as part of the learning process and just keep training as best you can.

Another problem is that you have to be able to do multiple things at once. If you can’t relax your mind, trying to do multiple things at once will likely increase your tension. Mental tension translates directly into the body. This is worsened by our ambition and greed. Everyone wants to get to the next step, to be “advanced”. This was particularly difficult for me and continues to be a challenge because I can conceptually understand much, much quicker than my body can integrate and make the material useful. You’ll have made progress when you realize that you only cheat yourself by moving ahead too quickly.

One of the more insidious problems is that you need to be able to balance a whole bunch of sinkings and liftings in the body, but you probably haven’t learned them all. The problem is made worse if you only learn one side, either the sinking or the lifting. So, what happens? You learned this sinking movement and you practice it and practice it. You do it better and better until you completely collapse the body. Congratulations, because you don’t understand the corresponding lifting, you’ve trained your body to shut down more efficiently. Now you’re really confused. You did the sinking better than ever and it is shutting down the body. WTF!

I personally think that this is the single biggest obstacle to learning remotely or by yourself or without regular classes and personal instruction. If you have a good teacher that knows the system, they should be able to recognize the missing piece and teach the balancing lifting at exactly the right moment so you don’t shut down.

Another problem is misunderstanding what was taught or just getting it wrong. It is really tough when you think you understand something but you actually don’t. This is really confusing as you get into the more subtle aspects of Bruce’s system. I use two simple tests to try to keep myself honest. 1) Am I more relaxed and open. 2) Am I stronger without feeling stronger.

One final comment, don’t confuse the learning process with training. When you are with Bruce (or any good teacher), focus on what you are doing. Try to grasp the feeling of what he is teaching at that moment and get as clear a felt memory as possible. These are the seeds that you go back to later in your training and train over and over and over again until you can do it with the same ease as opening or closing your hand.

Keep training. I’m not particularly talented, but I am persistent and I think that is the most important key. To quote Calvin Coolidge, “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the posts James. I think everyone who reads them appreciates the time and effort you put in them.

“I use two simple tests to try to keep myself honest. 1) Am I more relaxed and open. 2) Am I stronger without feeling stronger.”

Those are good guide posts for us beginners. There many days, weeks where I’ve skipped training for a myriad of reasons, but remembering that baguazhang gives me strength is incentive to back to it. Plain and simple.

On another note, someone mentioned Laoishi Lam’s training on youtube. Good stuff!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/StandStillBeFit#g/c/5AC656794EE191C1

Stand still, be fit
Five simple postures in 10 episodes, with a gradual progression. • Each position is a progression from the last, so work up to about 20 minutes in each posture before moving onto the next. • Make sure to warm up before, and relax after, each exercise. • When your stamina has improved, try standing for 5 minutes each in all 5 positions. It’s hard work, so please be patient and do stop if you feel faint or too hot!

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