BAGUA MASTERY PROGRAM
;~-.~
1:1 •
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'~:?'7
MODULE 3
BAGUA Boov UNIFICATION METHOD
Copyright© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis
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PLEASE NOTE: The practice of Taoist energy arts and meditative arts may carry risks. The inform in this text is not in any way intended as a substitute for medical, mental or emotional counseling a licensed physician or healthcare provider. The reader should consult a professional before unde ing any martial arts, movement, meditative arts, health or exercise program to reduce the chan injury or any other harm that may result from pursuing or trying any technique discussed in this Any physical or other distress experienced during or after any exercise should not be ignorec should be brought to the attention of a healthcare professional. The creators and publishers o text disclaim any liabilities for loss in connection with following any of the practices described i1 text, and implementation is at the discretion, decision and risk of the reader.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Overview of Body
Unification Exercises ... 7
Overview ... 7
What to Expect over Time ... 8
Intermediates ... 9
Progressive Stages of Bagua and
Tai Chi Practice ... 10
Stage 1 ... 10
Stage 2 (Intermediates, Phase 1) ... 10
Stage 3 (Intermediates, Phase 2) ... 11
Stage 4 (Intermediates, Phase 3) ... 11
Stage 5 (Meditation) ... 11
Section 2: Unification Exercise
#1-The Palm Strike, Phase 1 ... 13
Overview ... 13
Hand Motion: Linear or Circular? ... 14
Benefits ... 15
Meditation ... 15
Phase 1 Instructions ... 17
Basic Alignments ... 17
Arm and Leg Movements ... 19
Arm Twisting Methods ... 20
Section 3: Unification Exercise
#1-Palm Strike, Phases
2-5
(Intermediates) ... 23
Progression of Practice Phases 2-5 ... 23
Instructions for Phases 2-4 ... 25
Phase 2: Face Forward and Shift Weight ... 25
Phase 3: Shift Weight and Turn Your Waist ... 26
Phase 4: Add the More Difficult Palm Strike
to Weight Shift and Waist Turn ... 28
Phase 4: Alternate Version ... 30
Important Points to Remember
for all Phases ... 30
Section 4: Unification Exercise
#2-Drill, Phase 1 ... 31
Overview ... 31
Benefits ... 32
Personal Health ... 32 Chi Development ... 34 Healing ... 34 Martial Arts ... 35 Meditation ... 35Instructions ... 36
Section 5: Unification Exercise
#2-Drill, Phases 2-5 (Intermediates} •.•..•••••• 39
Progressive Phases of Drill ... 39
Phase
2:
Turn Your Waist ...
42
Phase
3:
Shift Your Weight and
Turn Your Waist ...
45
Variation 1: One Hand Rises and Descends ... 47
Variation
2:
One Hand Rises
while the Other Falls ... 47
Phase
4:
Back-weighted Step
with
Waist Turn ... 50
Phase 5: Forward and Back-weighted ... 54
Important Points to Remember ...
54
Section 6: Unification Exercise
#3-Cut, Phase 1 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••...•••••• 57
Overview ... 57
Learning Progression ...
58
Benefits ... 59
Personal Health ... 59 Meditation ... 59Instructions ... 59
Moving between Inside and
Outside Cut Positions ... 62
Section 7: Unification Exercise
#3-Cut, Phases
2-4
(Intermediates) •••••••••••• 65
Phase 2: Stretch to Corners, Bend to Middle ... 65
Phase
3:
Bend to Corners, Stretch to Middle ...
69
Outward Cut ... 70
Inward Cut ... 71
Phase
4:
Add Forward Cutting Action ...
72
From the Outward or Inward Cut
to the
Midpoint ... 72
From the Midpoint to the End of the
Inward or Outward Cut ... 73
Over Time and with Practice ... 73
Important Points to Remember ... 74
Appendix 1:
Martial Applications ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 77
Body Unification Exercises ...
77
Palm Strike ... 77
Drill ... 78
Section 1
Overview
of Body
Unification Exercises
Overview
Many people move their bodies with very little internal cohesion between body parts. Unification exercises are designed to help address this problem. They can also be considered warm-ups since they prepare you to take on the more difficult practices of the internal arts, such as Bagua Circle Walking or tai chi solo forms.
The three elementary unification exercises presented in this module firmly connect all parts of the body in a relaxed way. A primary goal of all internal arts training is to release tension, and link all the body's parts into a unified whole.
Using a rubber band or rope as an analogy, another goal of these exercises is to significantly increase the elasticity or spring of your body's soft tissues. They remove slack from the soft tissues, but not to the point that they become taut
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8 Bagua Mastery Program
and ready to snap like a tight wire. Such tightness would make you more prone to injury.
Although these internal connections can eventually be achieved by Walk-ing the Circle, practicWalk-ing tai chi or a qigong form, they can place an incredible burden on people whose bodies are poorly connected. Starting your practice with unification exercises can significantly reduce that burden.
The exercises presented in this document open up key energy channels in the body. They provide a simple and relatively concrete path for your mind to enter into your body.
The first two exercises, Palm Strike and Drill, unify the body for all bagua and tai chi vertical and forward-back movements. The arms and hands move vertically up and down, and forward and back in front of you.
The third exercise, Cut, unifies all hand and arm actions that move side to side on a horizontal plane of motion.
A fourth and intermediate exercise-Roll the Ball, which is presented in Module 10 (available in the fourth installment of the Bagua Mastery Program™)-unifies the actions ofturning your waist and legs in a revolving spherical manner around the body's centerline.
As a lineage holder in both bagua and tai chi, I can tell you that it's well worth the effort to learn and practice these exercises as a gateway to the Taoist vision of internal health, chi development and meditation. They can also serve as preparatory exercises for other martial arts.
What to Expect over Time
What follows are instructions for basic and intermediate execution of the first three exercises. They provide a good introduction to get you started, but complete instructions for even one exercise could fill volumes of text. Live
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 9
training with a competent instructor is the best way to realize the potential of unification exercises.
Each of the exercises consists of two clear parts. In both parts, your hands and arms must become progressively more connected to the inside of your belly and internal organs.
• In the first part of each exercise, you will bend your arms and palms inward toward your body. Over time, you should have a clear feeling of a non-straining type of pressure moving from your hands through your arms into and gently compressing your internal organs.
• In the second part, your hands or arms stretch or extend. Over time, you should have a clear feeling of a non-straining type of pressure moving from your decompressing internal organs through your arms and into your hands.
Intermediates
Regarding the arms:• As your torso, arms and palms shrink, close and retract, you should also have a sense of chi moving backward and downward from your hands, through your arms and simultaneously storing in your lower tantien and/or spine. • Eventually, you should not experience your arm as being
separate from the inside of your body, but rather your hand and arm being seamlessly connected to your lower tantien and spine.
• In time, when your hands or arms stretch or open, you should have a clear feeling of a physical flow gently expanding and releasing from within your decompressing internal organs. It then moves away from your belly, through your spine into and through your arms and then your hands.
10 Bagua Mastery Program
• You should feel a sense of chi releasing from your lower tantien and spine, which moves upward and outward through your arms into your hands.
• Eventually, this should result in the lack of experiencing your arm as being separate from the inside of your body. Your hand and arm will instead feel seamlessly connected to your lower tantien and spine.
When you have found these feelings within your arms, spine and torso, then try to find parallel feelings within your legs, spine and torso.
Progressive Stages of Bagua and
Tai Chi Practice
Traditionally, bagua warm-up and unification exercises, Circle Walking and tai chi practice follow clear and progressive paths of training. Stages 2-4 are for intermediate practitioners who have, by definition, training beyond the initial stage. Stage 5 is Taoist meditation, which can be introduced during earlier stages.
Stage 1
Initially, any exercise or movement is taught and practiced in a general way, in accord with fairly vague instructions. The purpose is for students to get the general shape of the movements without getting bogged down to the point of mistaking the forest for the trees. Metaphorically, the cup is being built, so that later you can fill it with the highly specific internal chi work and more precise details of how the physical movements should ultimately be practiced.
Stage 2 (Intermediates, Phase 1)
This stage involves incorporating into your body's physical structure gross external alignments (neigong component #3) as you perform the movements. After this is accomplished, more detailed internal alignments, which are not easily observed, are taught and incorporated into the movements.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 11
Stage 3 (Intermediates, Phase 2)
This stage incorporates opening and closing techniques (neigong component
#7):
• Internally within your body.
• In the overall quality of chi you manifest to power your physical movements.
• In the method by which you absorb chi into your body and project it away from you.
Stage 4 (Intermediates, Phase 3)
This stage incorporates all the remaining methods and techniques of the sixteen neigong, including the most advanced levels into the warm-up, Circle Walking or tai chi practice upon which you focus.
Stage 5 (Meditation)
This stage incorporates all the meditation techniques of Taoism one by one equally across all the methods from warm-ups to the Single Palm Change to tai chi's solo forms as is appropriate to the student's background. These methods may vary depending upon the specific Taoist spiritual tradition to which one belongs-either Fire or Water.
Section
2
Unification Exercise
#1:
The Palm Strike, Phase 1
Overview
There are five phases or versions of the Palm Strike exercise. Phase 1 is presented in this section, which involves your weight beginning and remaining evenly distributed on both of your feet. Your feet are parallel to each other. Phases 2-5 are intermediate-level practices and will be discussed in the next section. In these phases, additional elements are added, such as weight shifts and turning the waist.
All versions of the Palm Strike help unify the body for bagua and tai chi move-ments where the arms and hands move vertically up and down and/or forward and back. The coordination of the hands moving on upward and downward planes together with the palms rotating in Phase 1 solidifies the coordination and body unification needed in the following phases.
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14 Bagua Mastery Program
A
B
c
D
E
Figure 3.2.1 Phase 1: Palm Strike
F
Hand Motion: Linear or Circular?
G
The hand motions ofthe Palm Strike (in any phase) may be practiced in two ways:
• Essentially linear. Done in this way, you move your hands in a straight line forward and back, but with a very gentle
arcing motion, so your motion is essentially circular although not obviously. This is the best method for learning the basic arm motions.
• Clearly circular. Done in this way, you move your hands using a clear rising circular motion with a large and unambiguous upward and downward arc. This is the best method for manifesting the essential bagua chi method of"shrink and grow" and integrating it in your body.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 15
Benefits
For personal health, the straight line hand movements especially strengthen your liver, lungs, heart and spine. The upward curving motions particularly ben-efit your intestines (and thereby, digestion) and kidneys, and strengthen your diaphragm and thereby breathing in general.
If you are a healer, the more straight line hand movements increase the energetic sensitivity and strength of your hands as well as your ability to absorb and project chi from your palms and fingers.
The curving method clearly helps develop a distinct awareness of rising and falling chi in the body.
Meditation
The Palm Strike can be applied to meditation practice. The primary goal of the straight line movement is essentially to pop open your mind (although it also works on the psychic functions of the liver). So, as your palms retract, you focus on your awareness going deeply into your mind; as your hands go out, your mind lets go and expands.
This alternation causes your awareness and spirit to move from being sluggish to more present. Instead of the mind having a general lack of internal space, it moves toward the experience of internally having unlimited open space.
Done in an upward curving fashion, the Palm Strike is an intermediate opening and closing method of meditation.
• As your palms extend and rise, you move out from the depth of your mind or central channel, through the inside of your body and outward to the boundary of your etheric body in all directions. This develops a sense of your mind going outside of your physical skin into your etheric body and beyond. This expansion of your conscious awareness (i.e. your mind) should happen not just to the front of you, but to the side and behind you as well.
16 Bagua Mastery Program
• As your palms descend and return to your mid-abdomen, bring your awareness from the edges of your etheric body to deep within the core of your mind, and if possible your central channel.
By constantly having your mind alternate between going out towards your ethe-ric body and coming deeper into your mind's core, your mind can more easily take stock of and recognize all the places where it naturally freezes. By repeti-tively doing the Palm Strike exercise over and over again and recognizing these stuck points, you can activate your mind's ability to create spaciousness and free movement inside itself. You thereby prevent yourself from becoming stuck.
As the internal sense of your mind becomes significantly less compressed it be-comes easier for your awareness to inhabit your etheric body.
Figure 3.2.2
Beginning/Final Position
Either of these two positions could be the beginning or final position.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 17
Phase 1 Instructions
Three key elements throughout the Palm Strike exercise should be kept in mind: 1. Maintain the connection of your palm and arms to your spine through
your shoulders.
2. Your hips, torso and shoulders should face directly forward and not to the side.
3. Practice slowly at first to link your body into a single unit. Afterwards practice only as fast as the speed that allows you to maintain the maximum internal connection between all parts of your body. Build up to moving at faster speeds only very gradually.
Basic Alignments
Figure
3.2.3
Key Alignments
of
the Palm Strike Exercise18 Bagua Mastery Program
The following basic alignments should be maintained. The letters below correspend to the letters in illustration 3.2.3 on the previous page.
A.
Stand with your feet pointing forward, somewhere between the width of your hips and shoulders, depending upon which width gives you the greatest sense of comfort and stability.Ideally, your feet should be parallel. However, don't fret if one or both of your feet splays out slightly as it might give you a greater sense of your feet and legs being connected to the ground. With practice and when your body allows it, your feet will gradually move closer and eventually end up
being parallel. Figure
3.2.4
B. Your weight should pass through the middle ofthe arches of your feet and finish at the bubbling well points (Figure 3.2.4).
C. The bottom of your crotch should be rounded-neither leg collapses · inward or puts pressure on your knees.
D.
Both elbows are bent.E.
Keep your midriff (located on your sides between the bottom of your ribs and your hips) open and notcollapsed.This last action serves two important functions. First, it raises your chest off your solar plexus and diaphragm, which improves the anatomical basis of good breathing. Second, it opens up the spaces between the vertebrae of your middle spine and keeps them from being compressed.F. The palm of one arm is placed either at the side of your hip or midriff. The palm faces forward, fingers pointing down.
G.
Ideally, the other palm is located on your centerline, somewhere around your upper chest. The upper palm also faces forward, but the fingers point up.Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 19 ' ' '"'""
/--,
{/'\l (('----"~\~-
1·\
~( ~
~...,A
B
c
D
E
F
Figure 3.2.5Basic Hand Movements
Hand movements are divided into two clear parts: Upper palm retracts to the midpoint (A-D);
and the opposite palm extends into a Palm Strike (0-G).
Arm and Leg Movements
1. Figure 3.2.5A-G: Through the entire Palm Strike movement, both palms rotate at the same sp~ed and in direct coordination with each other. Your fingers continuously rotate from facing vertically upward to vertically downward and then back upward again. One arm rises and extends forward as the other falls and retracts.
2. Figure 3.2.50: In moving from the Palm Strike to the midpoint, sit in your kwa. Both palms simultaneously turn to arrive near the body's centerline in the middle of the abdomen.
3. Figure 3.2.5A-G: The forward palm moves back toward the torso and the elbow bends halfway. The palm at the hip moves forward and the elbow unbends halfway.
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
20 Bagua Mastery Program
4. Figure 3.2.5A-D: As your palms come together, decrease the space in the crooks of your elbows and twist your leg muscles inward.
5. Figure 3.2.50-G: In moving from the midpoint to the Palm Strike, rise out of your kwa. The lower and upper palms finish reversing their original positions. What was the lower palm rises to in front of your chest and what was the upper palm descends to your hip. Twist your leg muscles outward.
6. Figure 3.2.5G: At the end of the Palm Strike, the upper palm is on your body's centerline in front of your chest with your fingers facing upward. Your elbow should be partially bent with the tip facing toward the ground. The shoulder should be relaxed, firmly connecting your arm to your spine. The lower palm arrives at the side of the hip or midriff as the elbow bends yet more and its fingers point toward the ground.
For beginners, it's best if you apply regular Taoist breathing throughout the move-ments. Just remember to breathe in a relaxed manner.
Arm Twisting Methods
There are two ways to twist the arms.• In the first method, you rotate/twist both arms inward to the midpoint and outward from the midpoint to the Palm Strike. • In the second method, the retracting palm rotates/twists
inward throughout the movement while the extending arm rotates/twists outward.
Important Points to Remember
• Be sure to keep your four points aligned and don't contract the neck, chest or shoulder's nest areas, which can be challenging.
• Maintain the connection of your palm and arms to your spine through your shoulders.
• Your hips, torso and shoulders should face directly forward and not to the side.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 21
• Practice slowly at first to link your body into a single unit. Later, you can practice as fast as you can while maintaining maximum internal connection between all parts of your body. Build up to moving at faster speeds only very gradually.
SAFETY NOTE:
In unification exercises and all bagua and tai chi tech-niques, nurture your body by being especially careful to protect your knees.INTERMEDIATES: OPEN AND CLOSE
When practicing arm twisting method 7: From the beginningposition to the midpoint, shrink and close the joints and cavities of both arms and the midriff, kwa and belly to bring energy inward to the lower tantien. From the midpoint to the Palm Strike, open the kwa, belly, midriff and the joints and cavities of both arms to send your energy outward from the lower tantien, through the inside of your body and spine to your palms.
When practicing arm twisting method 2: On the side of the retracting arm, shrink and close your arm joints, shoulder cavity, kwa, midriff and belly to bring energy inward from your palm, through the inside of your body to your lower tantien. Grow and open everything on the side of the extending arm to send energy from your lower tantien, outward through the inside of your body to your kwa, spine, arm and palm.
When opening-closing in either method, be sure to open-close your midriff on.each side of your body, the area between the bottom of .
- tt· ,J#Wtfw ?~,:~,, W' the ribcage and hips. This action ensures thafyour chest does not compress your solar plexus and opens the lumbar vertebrae to max-imize the power your body generates. When you close your midriff,
"' .:c.4':' ;. },
do it slightly and not to the point of completely closing it down. Use either the methods of regular or reverse breathing while expanding or shrinking your belly to power your movements. In regular breathing, exhale to the midpoint and inhale from the midpoint to the finish. In reverse breathing, inhale to the midpoint and exhale to the Palm Strike position. ,~-~
~
SKIP AHEAD
Section 3 is only for intermediate practitioners. Skip ahead to Section 4 unless you can perform all of the instructions in this section reasonably well.
Section
3
Unification Exercise
#1:
Palm Strike, Phases
2-5
Intermediates
Progression of
Practice Phases 2-5
Phase 1 was presented in the preceding section. The following phases are only for intermediate practitioners.
Phase 2: After stabilizing Phase 1, repeat the same hand movements coordinated with shifting your weight in a wider stance, but don't turn the waist. This enables you to derive the movement of your hands from the driving force of the legs.
This and the next phase's method of shifting weight in coordination with the Palm Strikes are especially germane for martial artists and athletes.
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24 Bagua Mastery Program
Phase 3: Add to Phase 2 by turning the waist in the same direction you shift weight. The legs move the waist and the waist moves the hands until all three sufficiently link to become one indivisible action with each
amplifying the chi-power of the other.
At this point, you should internally let the force of the legs driving the weight shift turn your waist. Your hand move-ments derive from the movement of chi inside your legs rather than the gross physical movement of externally shifting your weight.
Phase 4: After the obvious external movement of your legs and waist has gone internal (invisibly), add and incorporate all the internal chi methods and components of the sixteen neigong. Begin with opening and closing the belly coordi-nated to your breathing. Also add the more difficult Palm Strike method.
Phase 5: After each level of basic chi practices are stabilized, the final phase is to incorporate all related chi methods of the sixteen neigong as specifically done in meditation. Many of these methods go beyond what is in
Figure 3.3.1
the basic chi practices themselves, or what is found in the higher levels of bagua or tai chi as fighting internal martial arts.
These methods derive from the meditation methods of monastic bagua, which specifically implement the methods of Taoist meditation according to the teachings of the I Ching, using Circle Walking, bagua energy postures, the Single Palm Change and sitting meditation.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 25
Instructions for Phases 2-4
As you learn each phase, begin with slow motions (but not super slow) to link your body into a single unit before you gradually increase the speed to medium (but not super fast).
Phase 2:
Face Forward and Shift Weight
In Phase 2, face forward and shift your weight. Slightly widen your stance. 1. The hand methods of Version 2 are exactly the same
as Version 1, but the weight shift is done with a wider stance.
2. Keep the four points aligned as you shift your weight completely from side to side while still facing directly forward and not turning your waist to either side. 3. As in Version 1, coordinate the movement of your
palm strikes so your arms become parallel to each other as they arrive in the middle of your weight shift and forward-backward hand movements.
4. The Palm Strike completes when your weight has fully shifted to one side (Figure 3.3.2).
5. Shift your weight completely from the weighted to the opposite un-weighted leg by pushing off from the original weighted leg.
6. Close the kwa on your weighted side and open it on your un-weighted side.
Figure 3.3.2
Figure 3.3.3
7. Finish with the Palm Strike and your weight fully on one leg, torso facing forward and to neither side (Figure 3.3.3).
26 Bagua Mastery Program
Phase 3:
Shift Weight and Turn Your Waist
In Version 3, you shift your weight and turn your waist.Figure 3.3.4
Palm Strike: Beginning of Version 3
1. With your weight on one leg, face forward and have your open hands at your sides with palms up.
2. Begin shifting your weight and turning your waist toward the leg to which you are shifting. Also begin to do a Palm Strike with the hand from which your waist is turning away.
3. When you reach the midpoint of your weight shift, then move both palms as usual in coordination with your complete weight shift and waist turn, so both move in tandem and finish simultaneously.
A
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 27
Figure 3.3.5
Both Hands Reach the Final Position Simultaneously
4. Add waist turning to Version 2 weight shifting.
5. Your extending leg powers both the weight shift and waist turn. Shift your weight back and forth, from side to side and alternate your waist turning toward the direction to which you shift weight.
6. Hand motions and weight shifts remain exactly the same as in Versions 1 and 2.
B
c
Figure 3.3.6 Palm Strike: Phase 3
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
28 Bagua Mastery Program
Phase 4: Add the More Difficult Palm
Strike to Weight Shift and Waist Turn
A
B
c
Figure 3.3.7 Palm Strike: Version 4
This variation involves a weight shift, waist turn and a more difficult version of the Palm Strike. Practicing this more difficult and high-value version will prepare you to do the arm reversal movements in the Single Palm Change. This is especially true for the Heaven and Water palm versions. It can also help you better learn the
coiling movements of Chen style tai chi. Before practicing this variation, you must
have significantly opened your body from practicing the earlier versions.
1. At the midpoint of the movement, your forearms will touch rather than
not touching as in earlier phases (Figure 3.3.78).
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 29
A
B
c
Figure 3.3.8
Palm Strike, Version 4: More Difficult Option
2. At the first point of contact with your forearms, your rising palm faces
upward and the fingers are just forward of the tip of your upper arm's elbow. Next, you move that palm a bit further sideways across your body,
and rotate it until your thumb faces up vertically (Figure 3.3.8A). Your
upper palm also rotates to a thumb-up position. At this point, shrink and
close everything you can and twist your arms further, so your palms rotate
upward (Figure 3.3.8 B).
3. Then, as you shift and turn to either side and do a Palm Strike, grow and
open whatever you can. Both forearms now twist against each other as the
lower palm rises to do a Palm Strike and the upper palm descends to the
side of your hip (Figure 3.3.8C).
30 Bagua Mastery Program
Phase 4: Alternate Version
1. Establish a steady and smooth shifting of weight and twisting of your arms and legs. You should arrive at the middle of your weight shift at the same time your palms have arrived at the midpoint-palm position. See Figure
3.3.8.
2. At first, make sure your midriff area stays open and does not collapse. Then, from this open position, close your midriff to the midpoint of the movement and open it from the midpoint to the completion of the movement.
3. During the entire movement, the retracting arm should twist inwardly. Close your joints, kwa and other body cavities on this side of your body. 4. Likewise, the extending striking palm should twist outwardly. Open your
joints, kwa and other body cavities on this side of your body.
Important Points to Remember
for all Phases
• Be sure to keep your four points aligned and don't contract the neck, chest or shoulder's nest areas.
• Use either the methods of regular or reverse breathing while expanding or shrinking your belly to power your movements. • Maintain the connection of your palm and arms to your spine
through your shoulders.
• Practice slowly at first to link your body into a single unit. Later, you can practice as fast as you can while maintaining maximum internal connection between all parts of your body. Build up to moving at faster speeds only very gradually.
Section
4
Unification Exercise
#2:
Drill, Phase
1
Overview
The Drill unification exercise strongly trains the body's rising and falling currents of energy. Equally, it is a fundamental method for enabling chi to absorb into and emanate from the lower tantien, spine and left, right and central channels. Drill is done with a more projecting intent and yang (rather than yin) internal strength.
This unification exercise and its many variations may be done using only one hand at a time or both hands simultaneously. In this text, only the one-handed version is presented with illustrations since it's sufficient to warm up the body for the Single Palm Change. The second version that uses both hands is explained without illustrations.
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32 Bagua Mastery Program
A
A
B
c
DE
Figure 3.4.1
Drill, Phase 1 with the Left Hand and No Waist Turn
Benefits
The value of Drill is multifold in terms of balancing the body's various natural processes while practicing qigong, bagua or tai chi.
Personal Health
In the normal course of a day, your physical body performs a multitude of up and down vertical motions during which your internal organs rise and fall, muscles extend and retract, and fluids are affected in various ways. If these vertical physical actions become unbalanced (and therefore do not operate smoothly), they can have subtle yet direct correlations to negative emotions. Negative emotions can be yin, where sadness and generally being down are
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 33
A
F
G
H
Figure 3.4.1 (con't)
Drill, Phase 1 with the Left Hand and No Waist Turn
examples, or yang, where anger and being hyper are examples. Yin/Yang emotions can naturally become irritated, disturbed or unbalanced because they are directly connected to and can be influenced by correlated disturbed vertical physical flows.
In reverse fashion, disturbed flows can also make the body prone to physical disease or injury. So, if these vertical flows are made smooth, ill health problems and stress-related emotions are intrinsically more likely to become balanced and disappear.
Drill enables your tissues to more easily turn or twist from left to right. So, for example, if you raise your hand and you turn it either up or down, you will get a slight or large amount of rotation or twisting around the muscles into your arm. Over time, a function of Drill is to get this turning to transfer into your legs, and even more importantly, inside and between your internal organs.
34 Bagua Mastery Program
Chi Development
The main function of Drill is to bring your body's constant sense of rising and falling energy fully online. So, when your hand goes up, your chi rises from your feet to the crown of your head and fingers. When your hand goes down, your chi descends from the top of your head and inward from your fingers to your torso and finally your feet.
Healing
You can adapt Drill to many hands-on techniques that are based upon twisting and spiraling of physical tissues or energetic pathways in the body.
As the Palm Strike, Drill can dramatically enhance a bodyworker's ability to bring energy directly into the palm, back of the hand and fingers. This enables the heal-er's chi to penetrate
be-low the skin deeply into a client's/patient's body exceptionally well and with minimum effort. It also increases sensitivity to heal any place in the body, including the mus-cles, fascia, bones and visceral organs.
The energetic strength engendered to bring up chi from the feet and not only
to the fingertips, but also past the boundary of the etheric body, gives the
practitionerthea bilityto actually project energy sufficiently outofthei rfi ngers. (The
intermediate level ofthe basic Drill unification exercise is derived from the sixteen
neigong.) This gives the healer the ability to realistically trace the line of a specific
pulse to its related internal organs. This allows the healer to obtain a diagnosis or directly cause an immediate energetic rebalancing of the organ itself as a prelude to the appropriate Chinese medical intervention, which the diagnosis indicates is required for healing.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 35
When in China, I constantly heard of many people who practiced these
unification exercises-including bodyworkers, acupuncturists and
herbal-ists-that claimed they were incredibly valuable aids in their learning curve for
acquiring the sensitivity to feel a body or take pulses well. The sheer volume of
chi that floods their fingertips directly translated into the ability to feel what
was on the other end. That is they could then feel inside someone else's body,
whether pulses, physical tissues or chi.
Martial Arts
Drill is probably the most common exercise shown in bagua books because of its importance to martial arts applications (see Appendix 1 on p. 77).
Meditation
Drill can engender an extremely regular rhythm within the mind and spirit because it regulates and balances the body's up and down energy currents. So the mind can become quite capable of generating a great amount of motion and yet simultaneously be quite still.
Metaphorically, your mind and spirit become like a cylinder that turns around a thin thread running through its center. So, although you may have an incredible volume of physical and mental movement, the thread in the cylinder's center remains very, very still. This is regardless of the speed at which chi moves or your mind processes information inside the cylinder.
Eventually, all the turning, twisting and potential spiraling of chi within your physical movement, body and chi activates the thread of stillness at the center. This thread can give you access to your body's central channel of energy where it concentrates in your torso, neck and head and the bone marrow of your limbs. In terms of meditation, Drill inculcates stillness within movement and move-ment within stillness, a fundamove-mental principle permeating all of Taoism and Buddhism.
36 Bagua Mastery Program
Instructions
Version 1: Basic Steps
Beginning Position (Figure 3.4.2A): Begin with your feet parallel and torso facing forward. Your hands are at your hips, palms face down with your arms well bent.
1. One hand rises and drills and moves toward your centerline (B).
2. The rising hand moves in an arc forward from your hip and across your body to arrive at the centerline of your body (C). As this occurs, your arm extends forward about halfway of the total distance.
3. Gradually, the hand fully extends and moves up the centerline of your body to arrive with your fingertips at a height between the bottom o~your throat and the top of your head (D-E).
4. Your arms and legs twist outward and your armpits slightly open in coordination with your arm extending.
5. Gradually, rise out of and open both sides of your kwa until fully open at the end of your hand rising.
A
8
c
Figure 3.4.2
D
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 37
6. Twist your legs outward in proportion to the speed of the rising hand. Evenly rotate/twist your arm outward from your shoulder to your fingertips.
7 Your hand descends and turns over to face palm down. In reverse order, it
exactly retraces the path it took to rise up.
8.
Your upper hand moves down your centerline to the middle of yourabdomen (E-G).
9. Next, it leaves your body's centerline to return to the side of your hip, palm
facing down (G-1).
10. Your arm gradually bends and twists inward.
11. Your arms twist inward and armpits slightly close in coordination with your arm bending and retracting.
12.
Gradually, sit in and close both sides of your kwa as your hand descends toyour hip.
13.
Twist your legs inward as your hand descends. Twist your legs inward inproportion to the speed of the falling hand.
14. Repeat the exercise with the opposite hand.
Chi should sink downward from your elbow with a sense of internal strength.
H
Figure 3.4.2 (con't)
38 Bagua Mastery Program
HOW HIGH SHOULD YOUR HAND
GO?
How high your hands go depends on how much your body wants to stretch according to the seventy percent rule. Factors to consider include your general state of flexibility or the need to accommodate a physico/limitation derived from illness or injury. Only have your looser arm go as high as your less flexible arm. Only move your less flexible arm to the place where you can connect to the maximum extent-rather than disconnect-that arm and its hand to the inside of your body, especially your spine, internal organs and lower
,~:.~
tantien. 1:•~;1: z
'1=~~
Section
5
Unification Exercise
#2:
Drill, Phases
2-5
Intermediates
Progressive Phases of Drill
Although the hand motions remain the same as in Phase 1, theleg movements ofthis exercise can be done in five progressively more difficult ways. Each phase demands increasingly greater bodily coordination:
1. This phase is presented in the previous section. In Phase 1,
you face forward, keeping your weight evenly distributed between both legs without shifting weight or turning your waist.
39
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
40 Bagua Mastery Program
2 Turn at the waist from left to right, keeping your weight evenly distributed between your legs (Figure 3.5.2).
3. With feet wider apart than in Phase 2, the rising. and falling of a single hand (Figure 3.5.3) or both hands (Figure 3.5.4) is coordinated with the shifting of your weight and the turning of your waist. If you move only one hand, it rises as you turn to one direction and falls as you shift weight and turn to the other side. If you use both hands, one rises as the opposite falls.
4. Your weight is on one leg with the other extended forward and turning your waist (Figure 3.5.5).
A
8
Figure 3.5.3 Drill, Phase 3:c
Figure 3.5.2D
Shift Weight and Turn Your Body, Single Hand Variation
During this series of photos, Bruce's feet are always on the same line.
Notice that Figures A and Dare basically shot from straight ahead while
Figures Band Care shot at 30- and 60-degree angles, respectively.
The different angles are meant to best show the position of the hands and waist turns.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 41
Figure
3.5.4
Drill, Phase 3:Shift Weight and Turn Your Body, Double Hand Variation
Ultimately, this version is the most central to the Single Palm Change and becomes particularly important once you can coordinate your hand movements. The first three phases will help you achieve the necessary hand coordination.
5. While shifting weight back and forth between your front and rear legs (Figure 3.5.6), this method uses both hands to drill simultaneously. One goes up and the other goes down as you alternate turning your waist left and right on each leg. This more difficult way of practicing Drill is mostly of value to those interested in the martial arts tradition.
Figure
3.5.6
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
42 Bagua Mastery Program ' I (
\
\_ I·t
'L_j
(
A
B
c
DE
F
Figures 3.5.7Drill, Phase 2: Waist Turns
The complete rising and falling of the right hand.
Phase 2: Turn Your Waist
This is variation is essentially the same as Phase 1 with a few additions, which are geared toward opening up the body's horizontal channels, also called "collateral meridians:' These meridians go around the body like belts at different heights and connect the vertical acupuncture meridians to each other. Activating these collateral meridians helps to energize your internal organs.
1. Coordinate the turning of your waist with the rising of your hand in such a way that your waist moves your hand and
not
vice-versa.© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
G
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 43
H
J
Figures 3.5.7 (can't) Drill, Phase 2: Waist Turns
The complete rising and falling of the right hand.
K
2. During the rising part of the movement (Figure 3.5.7 A-F), turn your waist. Also turn/twist your legs and arms outward. Use both to create an energetic flow that rises up from your foot, moves through your legs, activates your lower tantien, internal organs and spine, and sends a steady upward wave of chi to your fingertips.
3. Let the rising current of energy power the turning/twisting of your waist and your rising hand. This causes internal strength to flow into your forearm and fingertips.
44 Bagua Mastery Program
4. Use the rising current to help lengthen your waist and release a strong yet relaxed expansion of your internal organs and abdominal muscles.
5. When you are able to perform more advanced intermediate-level instructions, let the chi rise up either your spine-or better yet, your central channel-and open everything you can as your body grows. Also, turn/twist the legs and hands in opposite directions with the legs twisting inward when the hands twist outward.
6. During the descending part of the movement (Figure 3.5.7G-K): • Turn your waist back to where it began and twist your arms
and legs inward.
• Use your intent to encourage a descending energetic wave from your hands and head through your torso, pelvis, legs and feet into the earth.
• Power your falling hand by the turning/twisting of your waist. Move your arm, hand and fingers first down your centerline to the middle of your abdomen, and from there away from your centerline to the side of your hip.
• Slightly bend your fingers and turn your forearm to generate pulling or gripping power in your hand.
• Abiding by the 70 percent rule, compress your waist and gently pressurize your internal organs and abdominal muscles.
• For a higher level of intermediate practice, twist the legs and hands in opposite directions with the legs twisting outward and the hands twisting inward.
• Create an energetic flow that descends from your head, spine and fingertips, moves through your arms, and compresses and settles into your lower tantien, internal organs and spine. The energetic flow then moves down through your feet.
• Your chi should also descend down the centerline of your body in front of your spine-or better yet, your central channel.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 45
7. After the descending wave of chi from your head and fingertips reaches your feet, continue it into the earth. (Ideally, this downward wave into the earth will naturally generate a rising wave that you can use to power the next cycle of upward movement.)
In Phase 2 and later phases, you position the hand that is still in space (unmoving) in such a way that you "anchor" your moving hand. There are three progressively more difficult methods that gradually stretch the inside of your body more and more.
• Keep your unmoving hand's wrist straight and let your fingers project chi toward the ground.
• Press your unmoving hand's palm downward to project chi to the ground. Do not lock your wrist.
• Position your unmoving hand behind you, so the back of your hand touches the vertebrae just behind your lower tantien. This is the height on your spine where the energy gate known as mingmen, or "the door of life" is located. (The corresponding acupuncture point known by the same name is located a little higher on your body.)
Phase 3: Shift Your Weight and
Turn Your Waist
Phase 3 has two variations that incorporate wider stances, weight shifting and waist turning. In the first variation, one hand moves; in the second, both hands move.
For more information about how to place your feet wider, shift weight and turn your waist, see the revised edition of Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body.
46 Bagua Mastery Program
PHASE 3 OF DRILL DIFFERS FROM CLOUD HANDS
Phase 3 of Drill with both arms moving is very similar to the move-ment known as Cloud Hands that is practiced in various qigong and tai chi styles. However, there are several main differences, including:
• The motion of Drill as specific to bagua is done with a more tightly
elliptical and less rounded angle of the arms than in Cloud Hands.
• The bottom hand moves with a more vertical rather than with a
more horizontally rounded motion.
• Ideally, the upper elbow and hand in Drill finish directly on the
body's centerline rather than at a forty-five-degree angle, as often practiced in Cloud Hands.
• Drill is practiced with more projected intent and yang
/rite
mal strength than is Cloud Hands.~~~~
'~-;.~
A
B
c
Figure 3.5.8
Drill Phase 3: One-handed Variation
Legs are wider than in Phase 1: Beginning position (A); Drill motion as done with weight shifting and waist turning (B-C).
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 47
Variation 1:
One Hand Rises and Descends
Beginning Position: Your waist is turned to the right, and your weight is fully on your outside (right) leg.1. Your unmoving (left) hand may assume one of two positions. One, the back of your hand is behind your back and rests on your spine, ideally just behind your lower tantien. Or, two, it remains palm down at your hip.
2. The hand, waist and other actions are the same as in Phase 2. Only now you will shift your weight by pushing off from the weighted leg and turning your waist fully from one side to the other (Figure 3.5.88-C) Be sure to maintain your four points as you turn. Over months of practice,
your legs should progressively get wider and hips lower as
A
your body stretches out and you become internally more coordinated. Remember the 70 percent rule.
Variation 2:
One Hand Rises while the Other Falls
Variation 2 has the same weight shifts, waist turns and hand movements as Variation 1 only now both hands will move simultaneously-as one rises the other falls (3.5.8A-C).
1. Complete the upward movement of Variation 1. Move your weight, so it is on the leg toward which you have turned. Put your unmoving hand beside your hip with your palm turned down.
48 Bagua Mastery Program
A
8
c
Figure 3.5.9
Variation 2: One Hand Rises while the Other Falls
Both hands simultaneously rise and fall in coordinated and opposite directions to each other.
D
2. Shift your weight and turn your waist toward your other leg. Lower your upper hand and in direct coordination with the downward movement, drill upward with your other hand. When you have finished your weight shift and waist turn, your upper and lower hands will have reversed positions.
3. As you continue to shift your weight and turn your waist from side to side in coordinated opposite fashion, one hand will rise as the other falls. Your hands now move like two objects attached to the opposite ends of a pulley. So as one object (hand) rises, it causes the other object (hand) to fall in proportionate speed to the other.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 49
E
F
G
Figure 3.5.9 (con't)
Variation 2: One Hand Rises while the Other Falls
Both hands simultaneously rise and fall in coordinated and opposite directions to each other.
4. As your hands rise and fall, shift weight and turn your waist.
5. When you reach the midpoint of your weight shift and waist turn, face the front with both palms facing each other on either side of your centerline-at the height of the middle of your abdomen (Figure 3.5.9 D).
6. At the end of your weight shift and waist turn, your rising palm faces your body's centerline. At a minimum, your fingertips should reach your chin. Your falling palm is at the side of your hip, facing the ground (Figure 3.5.9A and G).
7. As you continuously shift between right and left, establish a smooth and steady weight shifting and turning/twisting (or in time, spiraling) of the arms.
50 Bagua Mastery Program
TWO WAYS YOUR HANDS RISE AND FALL
Initially, it is easier to close your entire body while moving to the middle and to open when you move to the sides. Eventually,
however, the upward moving hand goes forward and upward as the joints and kwa on the same side of the body open; the descending hand moves downward and backward as the joints and kwa on the
same side of the body close. Like a pulley system,. the strength of
your descending hand causes your ascending hand to rise.
In the easier version, you breathe out to the middle position and in to the side positions, if you are practicing regular Taoist breathing. If practicing reverse breathing, do the opposite.
In the more advanced version, you pick a handwith which to
coordinate your breathing. With regular breathing, you breathe out as that hand rises and breathe in as it falls. For reverse breathing,
.
..~:.~do the opposite. l~W
Phase 4: Back-weighted Step
with Waist Turn
One of the primary steps of straight-line walking and Circle Walking is a back-weighted step. Here, you fully sit on your back leg with as close to one-hundred percent of your weight on it as you can with no strain or muscular strength. Your other foot is in front of you with your front knee somewhat bent-although not fully straightened or locked under any circumstances.
In this phase of Drill, put your body in the same position, which continuously activates the soft-tissue twisting and rising and falling of energy necessary to Walk the Circle well.
Once you can do this version of Drill, you can dispense with practicing the earlier versions and concentrate on Phase 4 and ultimately Phase 5.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 51
Beginning Position:
• Your front (right) foot is well in front of the rear (left)
leg with your right foot either flat on the ground or your heel raised with the ball of the foot on the ground. Keep it this way for the entire warm-up (Figure 3.5. 70).
• Put as much of your weight on your rear leg as you
can without any strain, muscular strength or tension. Keep it this way for the entire unification exercise.
• As you become more internally coordinated and
stretched, your hips should go lower and your front leg extends farther forward from your rear leg.
• Your waist is turned to the right with both sides of
your kwa closed.
Figure 3.5.1 0
• Your right hand begins at the side of your right hip, palm facing
down.
• Your left hand begins and stays at your hip for the entire
exercise, or rests on your lower spine as in previous phases.
• Ideally, all of your joints and cavities are closed and your spine is
slightly bowed.
• You may either look forward (best option) or down if that
enables you to feel the closing actions of your body better.
52 Bagua Mastery Program
G
F
E
D
c
B
Figure 3.5.11
Drill Upward: Back-weighted Step with Waist Turn
1. Drill upward with your right arm and hand.
• Rise up out of and open your kwa on both sides as you simultaneously open all of your joints, cavities, belly and other body cavities, and gently extend your spine.
• Twist your legs inward to slightly straighten them. Twist your arm outward.
• Let your legs slightly straighten, but not to the point of locking. • Opening and twisting actions should be the source of your
hand propelling upward.
• Allow your chi to rise up from the bottom of your feet to the crown of your head and your fingertips, as in previous phases. • Initially, your waist turns to face directly forward rather than
to either side. Get the advice of a competent instructor or master as to when to turn further as there are many subtle points involved in turning (including safety procedures).
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 53
F
~'
1P
J~'
c~
E
D
c
8
Figure 3.5.12Drill Downward: Back-weighted Step with Waist Turn • Keep your four points aligned.
• As your right arm gradually extends, the palm and fingers will perform all of the same turning actions as in Versions 1-3.
• The center of your palm will finish on your centerline, palm directly facing your body between your throat and top of your head.
2. Move your body and arm down.
• Sit in your kwa, turn your waist to the right, and twist your arm in and your legs out. Close both sides of your kwa and all of your joints, cavities and belly, and gently bow your spine.
• Bring your chi down from the crown of your head and your fingertips to the bottom of your feet, and if possible below, as in previous phases.
• During this sinking movement, be sure to continuously bend your arm, relax your shoulder and keep your elbow tip as perpendicular to the floor as possible.
© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.
54 Bagua Mastery Program
Phase 5:
Forward and Back-weighted
This version uses both hands to drill simultaneously, one up and one down, as you shift back and forth between your front and rear leg, and alternately turn your waist left and right once on each leg.
This method simply expands on Versions 3 and 4. Its primary function is to link the primary twisting, turning, rising and fall-ing actions of Drill through all four of your limbs. As in Phase 3, Variation 2, use both hands moving up and down rather than a single hand. Your stance is basically the same as Version 4,
and your back-weighted movements will be similar to those of Figure
3
.5.13
Version 4.In this version, your weight shifts between your rear and forward leg rather than only being on the rear leg. This weight shift is similar to what is done in straight-line walking and Circle Walking. Version 5 is more germane to those practicing bagua as a fight-ing martial art and generally less applicable for those primarily interested in bagua for health and meditation. Ultimately, only live instruction by a competent bagua instructor can realistically fill in all the minute nuances involved with this method.
Important Points to Remember
Figure
3.5.14
During this entire exercise and all its phases, several points should be maintained: • Ideally, the tips of your elbows should face perpendicular to the
floor, so that your arm gently extends away from your spine. • Your shoulders should be relaxed.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 55
• Evenly rotate/twist your arm out or in from your shoulder to your fingertips.
• When your hands move either up or down, they should remain on your body's centerline and not drift off to either side.
• Eventually, your goal is to have your forearm and elbow fully on your centerline when your arm is raised, which enables the natural internal strength of your entire arm to lift your hand up and pull your hand down. This action more easily and naturally activates the body's micro-cosmic orbit energy circulation and central channel of energy.
Section 6
Unification Exercise
#3:
Cut, Phase 1
Overview
The Cut unification exercise sets the foundation for all of the horizontal waist and arm movements of bagua and tai chi. The name of the movement comes from the appearance of your arm or hand seeming to cut or chop though something. When your waist turns and your arms move horizontally, your goal is to unify your body and stabilize the interconnections within it. When turning the waist side to side and moving the arms into various bagua energy postures, many practitioners disconnect their arms from their torso-physically and energetically. This unification exercise seeks to resolve this problem as your weight from a fixed stance shifts one-hundred percent between your legs.
57
58 Bagua Mastery Program
Figure 3.6.1 Cut, Both Sides
Cut only concentrates on one arm at a time. Ideally, the physical pressure and chi power should smoothly flow
in both directions between the edge of your hand and fingers into the mus-cles of your torso and internal organs. Commonly, however, the chi and con-tinuity of the movement between the hands and torso becomes severed and disconnected. Your practice should seek to remove and re!;olve this discontinuity.
The exercise involves alternating from side to side and practicing inward and outward cuts.
Learning Progression
Like all bagua and tai chi techniques, Cut has various progressive levels that go from the simple to the more complex. Each new level builds on the previous one and becomes progressively more powerful and useful. Likewise, each new level performs more functions and adds more value for the same practice time.
Phase 1 focuses on your external body structure and alignments. The next three phases are intermediate stages, which initially focus on joining unified external whole body movement to the internal movements of your joints and internal
organs. This eventually extends to include all of the energy channels inside your
body and your etheric field and more.
Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 59
As each new level becomes stable within your body, it turns into becoming only a preparation for the next level, which then becomes the only Cut exercise you must practice. As such, the four phases of Cut unify the body in progressive stages.
Benefits
Personal Health
Cut can strengthen your legs and internal organs; activate the body's collateral acupuncture meridians; and stretch the muscles and ligaments of the neck and shoulders, thereby relieving upper back, neck and shoulder pain.
To learn about Cut's benefits for martial artists in Appendix 1, p. 77.
Meditation
Spiritually, this exercise's purpose is to clear unconscious mini space-outs in the mind, so you can maintain sufficient relaxed awareness necessary to remain present in each moment. At a minimum, Cut can help you remedy mini space-outs by making you aware of when you unconsciously and internally disconnect.
By paying attention as your arm cuts through the air, it becomes very possible to see micro-second by micro-second if and how, moment by moment, you can remain present. Initially, when cutting outward, many practitioners project outward into the future and are therefore oblivious to the present. When they cut inward, their minds often fold inside themselves into a murky, turbid unawareness of the current moment, which disconnects them from their external environment. So Cut trains you to become very conscious of gaps in your mind.
