The Power of Wind, The Crash of Water

A personal moment with the Tao

My internal practices have often yielded memorable moments. For me, the practices are much more than martial arts. They are part of my connection to the Way of nature.

One of the unique features of the Nine Dragon Bagua system is its relationship with the ancient Yijing (I Ching). Its 8 Trigrams (Gua) are used as guides to emulate specific forces. These are templates for movement and attitude, becoming part of one’s psyche that can be expressed in multiple ways.

One learns to express the forces these trigrams represent. They become part of the mind-body and can appear in unique, personal moments.

I have a walking route that I use for exercise. It takes me down to the shore of Lake Ontario where I have a spot that I almost always have to myself. To say I am fortunate to be there as often as I wish is to understate it.

My recent walk there was exceptional. The sun was shining, the temperature was ideal, and the sound of wind dominated the air. In fact the wind itself was the prime feature as it was unusually strong. As I walked, I could see the lake in the distance with whitecaps topping many of the waves.

I arrived at my usual spot and scanned the entire scene. The wind was blowing directly towards me and I was thrilled to witness the sheer power of such a combination of wind and water. That is the very definition of Feng Shui and here I was standing before a potent demonstration of it.

The strength of the wind on the expanse of the lake was producing 5 foot waves. They were crashing intermittently against the massive rocks on the shoreline, sending the occasional spray skywards. I could feel the power of the water. It was a feeling of pressure being turned on and off as the waves hit the land.

I grabbed my phone and shot 30 seconds of what I was seeing:

As I stood there, the feelings I associate with the Nine Dragon Baguazhang “Water Palm” started to rise within me. It’s an internal motion that emulates the sensation of being water.

Adaptable yet unrelenting; soft yet unstoppable; smooth yet forceful.

I started to sway gently, my arms moved into Water Palm Yin (downward) and then slowly to Yang (upward). I watched the waves rolling into the shore and my movements easily matched their motion. As a wave clearly was forming and rising, I would be in the Yin position, moving towards Yang as the wave began to crest…then crashing down and returning to Yin for the next wave. I would speed up, slow down, wait, restart, over and over.

Suddenly a single wave crashed into the rocks with such force as to send a spray directly at me. I was instantly wet from head to foot!

It was glorious!!

The moments of being water flowed through me, one after the other. I lost all sense of where I was for several minutes as the waves were in charge of my movements during all this.

And then the inner impulse subsided. While the lake was still active, my inner connection with it was slowly withdrawing. It felt natural and complete, almost as if the lesson had been imparted and I was allowed to continue on with my day.

Part of me wanted to recreate the entire episode, but I knew that would be forcing a situation and would not be the same. Such coercion is almost always going against natural forces. So I offered thanks with folded hands and headed home.

Experiences like this are unpredictable. They appear as the result of practice and openness. They always feel fresh and without an end. They remind me of Lao Tzu’s words:

The Tao is like a well

used but never used up

It is like the eternal void

filled with infinite possibilities