Walking Meditation-Etheric field and Peng Jin

Hi, Saul. Yes, I’ve put most of the meditative aspects on the backburner for now. There seems to be so much to master in terms of the basic physical alignments and practice that I want to wait a bit before trying the intermediate meditations. The basic meditations seem to me to be more dealing with the basic approach to practicing, and I’ve incorporated those: sinking to the LDT; softening the gaze; adding taoist breathing; feeling the feet and shins and the energy field of the earth; and center to periphery breathing. I haven’t been exploring peng jin yet. I’m finding the opening/closing, bend/stretch, and twisting methods very powerful physically and energetically. I’ve been working on turning the waist and can see that when this more strongly stabilized circle walking will take on a much more profound energetic component. I’m trying not to be impatient and I’m really moving slowly through all this, a little more slowly then the modules are moving. It’s OK with me that the 3rd installment is late, I’m still working on module 6. I’ve also gone back and started working through the intermediate instructions of some of the things from the earlier modules. It really is like a circle…

Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your reply, I’m glad to hear that you’re also finding there’s a lot of ‘basics’ to incorporate in the walking. Bagua really does feel like a whole other level of awareness art to me- especially in this system. Just hearing your list of components brings new ‘awareness’ of the holes in my practice! That said, this prog has really changed my practice by magnitudes and I’m sure its just going to continue to grow.
You mentioned ‘feeling the feet and shins and energy field of the Earth’ I wonder if this is what I feel and I’m calling it Peng Jin…….in fact I’m starting to wonder how can I differentiate between my etheric field and that of the Earth’s (as in theory I’m encapsulated within the Earth’s etheric field)???
All I know is sometimes I feel my whole etheric field, and sometimes I feel it even more strongly in the shins and feet………..it can’t be Peng Jin yet ‘cos its still no easier to keep my arms up in the air!

Happy circling…….

I usually keep meditation and my BaGua practice seperate. I prefer to let BaGua stir things up and then use inner dissolving to deal with whatever comes up. Each practice is challenging by itself so doing them together always seemed overwhelming. However, as I’ve started to work with the heart/mind more regularly there seems to be less and less difference between the two practices. You can’t help notice when your walking that something isn’t quite right. You might be contracted or be numb or be using too much strength or just have a strong emotion come up. I’ve done so much dissolving over the years that I immediately start the dissolving process as I’m walking. I’m not scanning the body in a methodical top to bottom fashion. It comes into my awareness and I just start tuning in like I would in meditation.

I’ve been working on circles and spheres and the yin/yang created by every circle. As I was doing palm changes I started to focus on the center rather then the edges of the circles. When I changed I noticed that the outer would start to slow and the inner circle would spiral toward the center. If you can stay with it, you can get a glimpse of emptiness and this creates a tremendous release of energy. It’s as though you jump the frequency of the energy you are working with to a higher body. It is exactly like the yin yang symbol expresses where the yang energy births the yin which births the yang. You are aware of both completing the yang and and simultaneously aware that its opposite is being created. It is the release of energy that we can use for martial applications or to release bound energy or drive deeper into meditation.

It seems to me that everything in BaGua is intended to help you become aware of all the myriad yin and yangs that are created by all of the circles and spheres. More importantly, you a supposed to find out what’s in the center. This is where I find that BaGua and meditation meet.