
Liu Feng Cai, Bagua expert
They call it the mother of martial arts, Kung Fu. Considering its age and the powerful influence it has had on all other martial arts on the planet, this is probably true. On the other hand, as we all know, the designation “mother” isn’t always positive as in “That’s a mother of a problem.”
And Kung Fu IS a problem because, over a period of thousands of years, it has taken on so much more than the average person can even imagine. It’s like the difference between studying math (ugh!) and learning just enough numbers to make change.
It’s probably happened to all of us at least once. That unsettling moment when you look at a word you’ve just written and then question its spelling – even though you’ve used it countless times before – because now it appears entirely foreign. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of, upon becoming suddenly aware of being observed walking down the street, watching helplessly as your gait becomes stilted until you feel as though you’re no longer in control of your own limbs. How is it that in this split second we’re reduced to a third grade literacy level or made strangers to our own two feet? Somehow, we must have gotten in our own way.