Tai Chi Finder

By Paul Cavel

Bagua is a pure energy art originally practised by those interested in the I Ching or Taoism—having been derived as a physical manifestation to realise the teachings of the I Ching. That is, bagua is an embodiment of the universal principles of change.

However, today things are changing as high performers find it a great way to get a total body workout and a powerful way to obliterate stress. This is because bagua serves as a rigorous and aerobic internal exercise that releases tension from the body, and develops your vital life-force energy, called chi in the East.

It is also a high-level martial art and, at its most advanced level, can become a vehicle for spiritual development. As such bagua offers a wide range of developmental possibilities unlike single-application practices. So over time, as your goals and needs change, you can continue your basic practice and direct your intent towards that which you wish to accomplish. Because of this it’s very economical since modern living is busy and time is of the essence.

The Minimalist’s Paradise

The foundation for bagua is Walking the Circle: For some Circle Walking alone offers enough depth and benefits to keep them engaged and interested for many years. Apart from being a martial art, all the practical benefits found in bagua practice can be achieved through Circle Walking.

Regular practice can serve as a no-nonsense, efficient method to open and heal the body, raise and develop your energy, create vibrant health and vitality and, if you choose to walk fast enough, a low-impact aerobic workout. Bagua achieves this by incorporating all 16 neigong (components of internal power) into the Circle Walking practice, initially creating a strong, flexible body and later developing the spirit.

Bagua could be called the minimalist’s paradise since there are no long forms or complex sets of movements to learn “before” you get to the internal content. You go straight for the meat—that which gives the possibility of profound and lasting health and vitality.

Circle Walking Is a Chi Generator

Initially, while Walking the Circle, movements can be clunky and broken. Over time your practice will become ever-more smooth and continuous. It’s like starting up a turbine: At first it’s sluggish and then, as it gets going, a self-perpetuating flow is maintained. Also, like the turbine, when your walking evens out, you start generating serious power or chi (internal energy).

What happens is that the base energy from the food you eat—jing (or fuel for the turbine)—is circulated through your system as you walk, upgrading and refining that energy into chi (or thrust coming out of the turbine). Chi, in this model, is a higher vibration of energy than that which you get from food. This jump in energy is what makes your body stronger, healthier and more vibrant as well as making your mental faculties more aware, awake and alert.

You are also developing your energy in preparation for advancement towards spirit and emptiness—if you so choose. All of this and you’re only walking around in a circle! Not bad, eh?

As you Walk the Circle you continuously bring up, produce and refine energy through the application of the 16 neigong incorporated in the practice. Depending upon how much neigong is in your practice determines how far you can go.

But here’s the trick: To make the next progression you don’t need to learn a new form you simply add more components, which creates more depth to your practice. In this sense it’s like having a turbo charger fitted to your car; the car looks the same, but now you have a lot more power under the bonnet. So, as you upgrade, deepen and refine your practice you arrive at a point where you are able to generate an enormous amount of chi. At times you can get so caught up in the continuum that you literally have to stop yourself from practising as the space that opens up inside you is absolutely sublime. All nagging thoughts, worries and concerns disappear as your energies open up, flow freely though your system and grow.

Do Nothing whilst Being Absolutely Content

Initially, through Circle Walking and bagua practice, you put your body through its paces. You feel the tensions and restricted areas in your mind, body and spirit and focus on opening them up and bringing them alive. Taoists call this process making your body conscious. When your practice session finishes you simply relax and, with it, space opens up, a sense of physical emptiness. A willingness and acceptance of physical and mental stillness can accompany this emptiness.

Later, after some practice, experiences of emptiness and stillness can start to enter into your Circle Walking and bagua practice and become quite profound—leaving you in a state of not needing anything and simply being. This state can be amplified and enhanced through sitting practices after a bagua session. This is the extreme end of the minimalist camp: doing nothing and being absolutely content…at least for awhile!

The Single Palm Change and Beyond

Once you have an understanding of and become proficient in Circle Walking, you can then progress to the Single Palm Change.

This is a very short, five-step bagua form—the foundation of, and which is contained within, all the other palm changes or forms within bagua. The purpose of the Single Palm Change is to upgrade and amplify all the benefits of Circle Walking, bring the twisting and spiraling of the soft tissue deeper in the body, giving access to deeper layers of contraction, producing light energy within and adding the possibility of martial practice.

Once you have learnt the Single Palm Change, you can learn any of the eight palms. Whether you learn all eight palms, or stick with only the Single Palm Change, you can develop your body, mind and life-force energy to a very high degree. These palm changes are designed to go directly into your core: opening, healing, balancing and developing your system as you practise.

Efficient Practice for Refining Your Being

Since the palm changes (also called forms or palms) are very short and concise, they never take more than 20 to 30 seconds to perform at the slowest speeds. They can be completed in a matter of a few seconds at high speeds. The palms are practised equally on both sides of the body in a left-right-left continuum, creating and maintaining balance as you practise.

With a regular exercise regime and walking at a reasonably fast pace, it is possible to practise the same palms tens or hundreds of times in a single practice session. You refine and hone the effectiveness of your practice whilst following an old Taoist dictum: Doing a little really well yields much more than doing a lot poorly.

Circle Walking initially opens up the body, increases blood flow and gets your metaphorical chi generator engaged and running. The Single and other palms delve deeper into your body, accessing deeper and deeper layers of stuck tissue and condensed energies. This is why bagua reaches the parts that other movement practices do not reach.

Spontaneity

When a particular palm change or technique starts to open up something inside you, you are free to practise that particular palm or technique again and again, working loose any bound chi. (Traditional Chinese Medicine and Taoists view illness, dysfunction and injury as resulting from or creating blocked chi.)

You are not restricted by a particular order of moves, or after a certain number of repetitions that you must then move on to another move as in tai chi or qigong. You can go into the body using whatever is working for you and open up that condensed energy to free yourself from it. This is one of many design features within bagua that gives you the ability to quickly and efficiently bring up old traumas and/or conditioning, accept it for what it is, let go of it and move on.

For several days or weeks you may have the same practice model whilst learning and developing a new palm or aspect of neigong, or opening up a specific place in your body. At some point everything gels or changes inside you and your practice changes with it.

Once that space is opened, or the particular aspect is integrated, it’s time to move on to the next component. It could be that your practice changes on a daily basis for a while—some days slow walking, some fast or both. You may practise one palm after the other or totally randomly. As the thought of a palm change comes into your mind you are already beginning that palm as your body reacts to your intent. This part of the practice obliterates inertia. You find yourself moving unrestricted without any sudden jerks and smoothly flowing through the well-oiled and practised palm. You move like a great river turning and twisting its way along its carved path through the earth. This kind of spontaneous practice of highly refined and developed techniques allows you to use, in the moment, whatever is available to you to achieve the desired results—pulling up the roots of physical and emotional pain and spiritual malaise.

The more you practise the deeper you go clearing out the residue of all past illness, injury and trauma. Delving in, layer by layer, you loosen and release the root causes of pain and discomfort. Traditionally the Inner Dissolving practices were brought into play to achieve these goals, initially through sitting and later with Circle Walking practice. The Inner Dissolving method is a progressive and sophisticated process by which you release all blockages in your body, mind and spirit.

It is through Inner Dissolving that you can fully resolve past traumas and truly work on emotional maturity and spirituality. Again, not by changing the forms or learning a new set, but rather by adding an essential new component to your foundation practice. All of these practices are only possible through actualising the basic rule of learning any high-level practice—separate and combine.

Whatever aspects of the game for which you choose to engage bagua offers the possibility of getting down to the real developmental work directly. It allows you the space to change and grow with your practice, spontaneously as your life unfolds.

Bagua offers you a certain je ne sais quoi—an edge in bringing you back to your centre—balancing the competing demands of the modern world and your inner world. Bagua grounds you in your body.

Bagua is a gift from the gods, an answer to the question: “How can I maintain stability and balance in a world full of stress and madness?”

Paul Cavel is a senior instructor of bagua, tai chi and Taoist meditation lineage holder Bruce Frantzis. Paul teaches qigong, bagua, tai chi and relaxation meditation as seminars and retreats throughout Europe. You can check out his blog and watch video clips at www.CircleWalking.com.