Inside Kung-Fu Magazine
September, 2004
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How do you think a practitioner can increase his-her understanding of the spiritual aspect of the arts?

A practitioner can increase his-her understanding of the spiritual aspect of the arts by cultivating mental and emotional awareness and self-control. The traditional way proposes such attainment can be gained through learning the correspondences between behavior, posture and the movement of the internal organs. Quite paradoxically, spiritual illumination and the capacity to render devastating force are the product of the same effort.

What do you consider to be the most important qualities of a successful martial artist?

Character. Living a life that is even, balanced, open and fluid.

Why would a person want to study Yin Fu ba gua quan today? What does it offer?

I personally feel that Yin Fu ba gua quan, even the complete the system, is not necessarily a discipline a modern person would want to learn. The world is different today; whatever we invest our time and energy in always needs to take into consideration the benefits and the costs. On the one hand it is fulfilling and romantic to experience the rigors of a real tradition under an orthodox teacher. On the other, the old ways in general have become obsolete. While original methods still uphold eternal principles, transmitting the shell of rules and techniques alone risks distorting one's energies, throwing one's judgment and perspective of life and relationships off track. The relationship between teacher and student must change above all, not to one of equality, because then a teacher merely becomes an information vendor rather than a harbinger of ancestral power and wisdom. The “feminine” principle is what I feel is missing in even the most upright traditional arts. Transmission of the live essence of Yin Fu ba gua quan in my generation already risked becoming forgotten. This has forced me the past ten years to examine in-depth the nature of community and relationships and differences in training approaches for women and men. Much of my writing and instruction on martial arts is about bringing forgotten material back out into the light.

Michael, could you begin by giving us some background on your book, “Way of the Saint”, what prompted you to write such a book?

My main objective for writing Way of the Saint: The missing link between Chinese medicine, mysticism and martial arts , was to present the highest principles and standards of martial arts as presented by the original Yin Fu ba gua quan system. I wrote it for several reasons: as an exercise to get more personal clarity about the system, to fulfill my obligation as a lineage holder of this tradition, and for my students. It tells of my life with Gong Baozai, and the trials and tribulations of our relationship, as he endeavored to transform my beliefs from that of an ordinary martial artist to a more conscious feeling human being.

The book spells out the essential principles he taught. I tried to portray the keys underlying the methods in a way that would be understood by a diverse audience: people interested in Chinese culture, medicine, spirituality, martial arts, Asian-American studies, cross-cultural studies, and for both practitioners and non-practitioners alike.

How do you tie in your work in Acupuncture and the field of psychology?

It's been a rough road assimilating all these endeavors together. My greatest challenge has been to gather the insights from these various fields in a single presentation. Chinese medicine as applied to life practice is the subject matter of the first two chapters of the Yellow Emperor's Classic on Chinese Medicine . This is where I feel the insights from the ba gua quan tradition taught by Gong Baozai most aptly apply. The power one accrues in self-cultivation indirectly leads to effectiveness as a diagnostician and therapist. It opens the range of how one can heal; for instance, I teach my patients simple yet profound things about their posture, movement, personality, character and relationships, and their association to their illness. I counsel them on how to release deeply entrenched blockages and substitute old patterns with new ones to achieve their greatest personal potential.

I also teach that illness is delusion; that delusion is denial of fulfillment of one's higher dream of service. I know this goes beyond martial arts and even traditional Chinese medicine, but this is where I feel medicine needs to go in order to evolve to its next level of really be useful to humanity beyond symptom identification and reduction. Acupuncture and psychology today remain in my opinion “middle class” because they chase behind the symptom and have little means to help one bring an individual, much less humanity, out of the deep seated fear engulfing the planet. The only way for people to effect real change in their personal lives, I feel, is to connect with the world cause. For that the patient as well as adept must have a means to develop “actualized” repertoires that do not have fear at its base. To do this requires a deep understanding of ‘change,' as compared to working from familiar conditioned response patterns to merely cope with the world. Yin Fu ba gua quan above all else, establishes the criteria for living from faith and hope, rather than resignation and fear. Imagine this spirit permeating the health professions and martial arts!!

Thank you, Doctor Guen for interviewing with us. You've certainly given us some great insights!

The pleasure has been all mine, Robert. Thanks for inviting me.

Publications:

Eight Standing Meditations of Ba Gua (video/DVD)
Yin Fu Ba Gua Quan Study Manual and Curriculum
Yin Fu Ba Gua Quan: Eight Lesson Primer

Coming out in 2004:

Yin Fu Style Ba Gua Quan: Essential Guide
Ba Gua Quan: Eight Trigrams “Fist”
Ba Gua Zhang: Eight Trigrams “Palm”
Way of the Saint: Missing link between Chinese medicine, mysticism and martial arts