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The foot is not the ankle. Seems like an obvious statement, but I bet you’ve mixed the two together or haven’t clearly
differentiated them enough to get that this statement is actually deeper than it sounds. And he likes having thought of it so well, he says again, “The foot is not the ankle”.Robert Frost aside, it is important to realize that twisting in the foot and ankle are two seperate circles that can be created on two different planes. It all gets really messy when you talk about spheres, but before you start developing the spherical nature of Bagua, I think it is important and necessary to focus on single, individual circles. This is exactly analogous to creating circles in Spiraling Energy Body before you create spirals and before you create spheres. The circles have to be clearly felt and developed before you progress. This isn’t advanced BaGua material. It is our basics. It is just one part of the 16 part neigung system.
If you are a beginner, this may be too advanced, but you can learn an important concept for how every component of the 16 part neigung system is learned and integrated: seperate and combine.
First you need to be able to feel your foot. Next, you need to be able to feel your ankle. At first you might have only felt them as a nebulous blob, but eventually over time, you get better at distinguishing your foot and ankle and feeling them more and more clearly. This is seperating. You’ve made a clear, felt distinction. Eventually you be able to feel them seperately one at a time and then at some point your mind will relax enough to feel them both at the same time. Not as a a nebulous blob but simultaneously and distinctly. This is combining. Seperate and combine. That’s the basic learning process Bruce teaches. Learn A, then learn B. Then learn A and B together until they become a thing, C.
So you need to know the foot isn’t the ankle because you are going to do different things with each as you progress. For example, and inward twisting of the legs might twist the ankle in and the foot in at the same time, but the circles go in very different directions. The circle in the ankle is parallel to the floor. The circle in the foot is perpendicular to the floor. If you’ve mushed them together you probably think that turning the toe in is twisting the foot in. It’s not. Twisting in the foot goes across the metatarsals of the foot whether you are twisting in or out.
Play around with this and see if you are clear about how you twist the foot versus how you twist the ankle. The foot is not the ankle.
Thanks for this, James. Valuable for all levels, I think.
I’m not very familiar with Spiraling Energy Body, but I’m aware that the circle, spiral, sphere progression is a big thing in Bruce’s teachings. I would really like to hear your thoughts about it and maybe a short introduction to the Spiraling Energy Body methodology would be helpful.
Spiraling Energy body is for me the most difficult neigung set to learn that Bruce teaches. It assumes that you have a lot together before you even start.
I’ve studied Spiraling Energy body with Bruce on three full week long retreats and at least one weekend seminar and I’ve never understood exactly what the hell Bruce was trying to teach. I think some of the seeds that he planted are starting to grow and become clearer, but I’ve got a long way to go. So with that (as Bruce would say), here is a really over simplified version of where it starts.
In Energy Gates you learned the downward flow of energy and downward dissolving. So for the first time after you’ve gone down, you start to scan and dissolve upward. And if you weren’t already doing it, you should be scanning the etheric body from above your head to below the feet as well as the physical body both downward and upward. Part of this is learning how to use the Energy of the Earth to assist the upward flow. Remember Heaven flows down and the Earth flows up.
There is another practice that starts with making circles in the tan tien and a whole procedure for how to jump them to every other gate in the body and then back again. The circles eventually connect through spirals, but that’s just too f’ing complicated to describe never mind do.
The basic procedure is like this:
1) Your attention is on the lower tan tien and it is quiet or still
2) Make a circle in any direction around the tan tien. The circle has to be even (circular), smooth, felt, and real (not visualized which 99.999999% of practioners will do and never learn the real procedure)
3) Make that same circle jump to any gate while maintaining the same circle in the tan tien
4) Just have the circle in the gate continue without the circle in the tan tien
5) Jump back to the tan tien maintaining the same circle in the gate
6) Stop making the circle in the gate but keep the tan tien circle going
7) Quiet the tan tien (stop the circling)Do this for every single gate with every angle (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and every angle in between) in every direction (clockwise, counter-clockwise), and various sizes and various speeds. The circles get faster and faster and eventually the circles form a sphere.
All this is done while standing in a personalized posture that Bruce gives you by reading your 3 tan tiens. So, you are doing all of these energetic gymnastics while doing a standing posture that is specifically designed to be the most challenging posture (beneficial from another point of view) for you to hold at that point in time.
You also start to learn how to integrate this practice with cloud hands and the three swings. There is also a specific methodology for how to sequence the gates to have the spirals of energy start to connect them.
There is another whole practice about dissolving energetic crap that is coming at you all day long. You can learn how to be aware that you are both projecting this crap onto others as well as learn how to stop it from coming into your system.
So, that’s the big overview. My comments are that this isn’t easily done and takes genuine practice time. The trick is to move through it in the sequence that Bruce teaches and only move on when you’ve really learned a level solidly. I’d also note that I do a lot of circular stuff that I’ve never heard Bruce specifically teach but comes out of experiences with my practice based on Spiraling Energy body. So for example, I’ve learned to rotate the lower tan tien in specific ways to create energy flows up, down, in, out, left and right, front and back. I can do this in the lower tan tien or any gate I choose. Typically I use my hands for Hsing-I, lower tan tien for Tai Chi, and the gate in the center of the foot for Bagua. Ultimately they all are connected at once but it becomes a question of emphasis and where you initiate your movement from. When you start to open the etheric body multiple circles can be created at once in multiple directions, planes, etc. It might sound a little esoteric, but it really is easier to experience as felt pressures within the body rather than visualized circles.
Thanks for the reply. Sounds impressive, intimidating and and far beyond my horizon. But good to know where the journey goes.
James, I’m diggin’ your posts, Man! Really good stuff. It can be difficult to sit down and crank out a long post that is coherent and useful for those who read it. You seem to be doing it on a regular basis, and I really appreciate the time you’ve taken.
It seems like I’ve heard your name before, are you one of the models for the Power of Internal MA book or one of the DVDs?
I’m the guy on the cover going the wrong way.
Awesome.
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