8: Deadly Serious Reasons To Laugh 
Baguazhang, solemn sister of Tai Chi Chuan, is well-known among internal artists. While she’s whispered about by Tai Chi practitioners and envied by Xingyi-ists, the diversity of her changing palms wraps a serious face around practitioners.
We take our practice seriously, almost religiously, certainly ceremoniously, circling deliberately the center of something. We walk around trees. We slip circles in mud. We step around and around posts and poles, bushes and barrels, and we saunter ‘round and ‘round on circles we find or circles we make on the floor, on the ground, or in the Earth.
We try to act humbly. But we’re so self-centered. Who else stares at themselves so much, so often, with such intensity? We gaze at our palms. We stare at our hands. We look right into those metacarpals, our eyes twisting and wondering right into our center(s). It’s so serious, self-centered circling.
She’s so deadly—Baguazhang with her rising, writhing, falling, coiling, drilling, screwing, turning, twisting—she’s very hot. Consistent play with power and passion turns Qi over into Jing! We learn Dim-Mak and Fa-Jing and we slip past, around, and behind opponents while attacking with multiple deadly blows. Our deadly practice with deadly seriousness provokes grace and beauty. The freedom of grace and power of beauty emboldens passionate practice: quaking Qigong sessions and round after round of form work, circle walking, and palm changing.
It is serious—sometimes too serious.
If you cannot beat him with one hand, you’re not doing Baguazhang!
—Erle Montaigue
Remember, though, relax. Your power comes from relaxation. And relaxation sinks deep in the belly roll of big laughter.
Stop acting so serious.
The King of 8
Beautifully written article, Steven. Effective seriousness is often accomplished by not striving for it – hence another counter-intuitive irony; seeming adages in Internal practices. Wow. The end of that phrase even rhymed a little.
Aaron,
If we follow Ghost Dog’s Samurai Code, we take very seriously simple, petty actions that we make each day, each moment, and we give great guffaws to the Great Changes that are out of our hands.
So I took some time to make sure each of these letters is in perfect order, describing my favorite palindrome: Drab as a fool; as aloof as a bard.
Sometimes the seriousness and over concentrated focus can actually lead to tension in the mind and body and foster an impedance fluid changeability.
If you cannot change, then you cannot adapt to a situation presented, whether it be in combat or just everyday life.
True. I hope you can hear the Song of Eight while you spiral in combat.