The Five Elements In Modern Life

[Thrice Daily]

The Five Elements In Modern Life 
 

How do you work with five elements in daily life? are there any simple everyday practices you use? 
 

What books, resources or personal experiences have you found most helpful understanding five elements?

 

After playing with five elements in various ways, I decided to dedicate a year to one element, then for five years I focused on one element a year… I started with Metal and finished five years later with Earth

 

to keep me anchored to the element throughout the year I did something quite simple… 

 

Instead of buying clothes randomly I selected only the colours that were associated with that element and wore that colour for that whole year. 

(and the preceding element, so there was a bit of variety, and they work well together)
 

So every morning I’d have a reminder of the elements and the qualities I was working with. It was more like play really. It was an interesting experiment. I MIGHT ACTUALLY REPEAT IT  

 

What are your experiences of the Five Elements , I’d love to read more…

[RobB]

Getting a BaZi analysis is a fun way to start getting into the ways that the Wu Xing manifest in the world. Find out what your Day Master is, have a think about how that manifests in you. Find out the Day Masters of some of those around you. Have a think about how that manifests in them. Consider the interactions between those elements and how that manifests in your relationships with those people. Work outwards from there...

[Gerard]

The flow naturally in all of us all the time. The trick is to remove all the blockages that prevent us from feeling that flow. Remember that flow also follows principles: generating, reverse generating, overacting, destructive/conflictive and reverse destructive cycles; mother-child relationship and your own Ba Zi chart to find out your strengths & weaknesses plus favourable and unfavourable directions (this last bit is mandatory) or else you'll live a miserable life.

 

Free Ba Zi chart:

 

https://www.geomancy.net/content/products-services/ba-zi-analysis/about-ba-zi/free-ba-zi

Make sure you find out the hour of your birth.

 

In addition to that:

 

https://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/Love/CFAPersonality.htm
 

Don't skip the Time Zone (location you were born).

 

Practices that focus on the Five Forces:

 

1. Ba Gua Zhang

 

2 Xingyi Quan

 

 

Love this old kung fu training. No shirts, and lots of drills and hard work. Led by the teacher Zhang Jun Feng. Taipei early 70s.

 

 

Edited October 1 by Gerard

[awarenessrules]

@Gerard I have read that bagua has a lot more benefits than Tai chi which is popular in west. Sadly the authentic bagua teachings are not available online as compared to Tai chi. Can you kindly point out some good lineage teachers in west that teach bagua online?

[Gerard]

Hello,

 

Unfortunately you can't learn BGZ online correctly let alone deeply as there is a lot of stuff going on. All the small details and levels of refinement only come from direct instruction.

 

For example:

 

 

 

 

 

1. First video: basic stepping in a linear form. This is only to show the mechanics of how to move forward but in circle walking the inner step moves straight whereas the outer step moves in a curve motion. This video is not showing that in detail despite what the title says. 
 

The next step is changing direction in the circle: hook (kou bu) & swing (bai bu) steps must be performed while keeping the rest of the principles in place.

 

2. Second video is not for beginners as the Palm is usually taught last in the 8 Mother Palms set in some schools of BGZ, or first as part of the Old 8 Palms (post-heaven) set in other schools of BGZ. 
 

You clearly see the teacher being fully engaged with the student makes sure he starts walking properly without making obvious mistakes.

 

Let me ask you: do you think you'll be capable of learning this ONLINE?

 

First of all you need to learn how to walk in a complete different way you have been doing your entire life. It'll be extremely challenging in the beginning without a doubt.

 

Quite possibly this person learnt from a video. 

 

Edited October 3 by Gerard

[awarenessrules]

On 10/3/2024 at 2:34 AM, Gerard said:

Hello,

 

Unfortunately you can't learn BGZ online correctly let alone deeply as there is a lot of stuff going on. All the small details and levels of refinement only come from direct instruction.

 

For example:

 

 

 

 

 

1. First video: basic stepping in a linear form. This is only to show the mechanics of how to move forward but in circle walking the inner step moves straight whereas the outer step moves in a curve motion. This video is not showing that in detail despite what the title says. 
 

The next step is changing direction in the circle: hook (kou bu) & swing (bai bu) steps must be performed while keeping the rest of the principles in place.

 

2. Second video is not for beginners as the Palm is usually taught last in the 8 Mother Palms set in some schools of BGZ, or first as part of the Old 8 Palms (post-heaven) set in other schools of BGZ. 
 

You clearly see the teacher being fully engaged with the student makes sure he starts walking properly without making obvious mistakes.

 

Let me ask you: do you think you'll be capable of learning this ONLINE?

 

First of all you need to learn how to walk in a complete different way you have been doing your entire life. It'll be extremely challenging in the beginning without a doubt.

 

Quite possibly this person learnt from a video. 

 

 

No teacher available in my country for Tai chi or Bagua or Qigong. Where did you learn it and who was your teacher? Also if I don't have teacher what if I just do walking meditation? Would it benefit me? The sitting meditation alone is very ungrounding tbh. 

[Gerard]

In Australia, where I live. Not as many teachers as in the most popular USA but you can find quality instruction if you dig deep. 
 

Seated meditation alone is awful especially in our modern, mental, academic, technological and thinking too much world. Keep it to a minimum.

 

Walking meditation. Try this video:

 

 

 

[Ascetic]

Wood, Earth, Metal, Fire, Stone

Wood Pacifies Earth, Earth Softens Metal, Fire is built upon Stone, and Stone is the nature of the Universe.

I'm not sure if I'm wrong somewhere.

I read a novel once and it had a cultivation manual called Five Yin-Yang Phases Secret. Its really fascinating trying to bring things from fiction to life with the same seriousness that one may get from a real method like Zhan Zhuang.

[Taomeow]

15 hours ago, Ascetic said:

 

I'm not sure if I'm wrong somewhere.

 

Only everywhere.

 

Among other things, I wonder how the author of this theory managed to transport us into a Waterless world --

given that 70% of the surface of our planet is Water, and roughly the same amount, the human body.    

[Ascetic]

The book had it right, it was my own understanding/memory. To be fair maybe there are different understandings than the initial. Like I am more oriented with fire in the mix, so that may be the reason as to why stone came up instead of water.

 

Regardless my understanding is that humans do not own water, when I look at the ocean I am not comforted. My Ego deflates and the friendless of Earth is entirely gone.

Edited October 6 by Ascetic

[Taomeow]

15 minutes ago, Ascetic said:

The book had it right, it was my own understanding/memory. To be fair maybe there are different understandings than the initial. Like I am more oriented with fire in the mix, so that may be the reason as to why stone came up instead of water.

 

If you want to commit those things to memory, here's the real diagram of the five phases of qi (aka "elements") and their relationships:

 

 

In taoism, it is neither "secret" nor debated, anymore than the multiplication table in arithmetics or the periodic table in chemistry/physics is secret or a matter of personal preference.  It is what it is.  And just like the multiplication table is to be memorized long before you can do calculus, it is to be memorized long before you can do "taoist calculus," so to speak.