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I’m just wondering if there is a place for doing Standing practice like the I Chuan Forms or Santi as part of my Bagua practice?
Thanks
Bruce
Hi, Bruce.
As I understand it, there are two perspectives to this question. In the bagua mastery materials, Bruce is pretty clear that circle walking with the energy postures fulfills the function of standing in the other internal arts. However, from another perspective, cross training can be valuable and so standing could be beneficial to the practice of bagua. I think the issue is that for cross training to be effective, you really have to train deeply in the arts you are combining. So standing would be good as additional cross training as long as you’re still doing the circle walking with the energy postures. For me it becomes a matter of how much time I have and what I make a priority in my practice.
I look forward to other, more experienced bagua players’ responses to this question.
Hi Matthew,
Thanks for your reply. Bruce makes a point of saying ‘Standing and Moving are Different. (Modules 1-3, p.19).
For me I enjoy Standing and I start all my moving practice after standing for at least one hour. But I’m interested, like you, as to what gives you the most bang for your buck, as time is limited.
Regards
Bruce
Yes, standing is really important. I assume you’ve checked out Bruce’s DVDs on I Chuan. They’re part of his Hsing-I program. Pretty great stuff.
Yes, Bruce notes that bagua and standing are different.
But this is noted in the context of prescribing Standing as the very first warm-up exercise for bagua.
He doesn’t think that extended periods of standing are necessary, but he ends this warm-up lesson by saying “Eventually, you will incorporate all sixteen neigong as you practice standing.”
What could be more important?
Jeez! I gotta do more standing.
So I’m keeping a close eye on:
one of my primary teachers (sana shanti of Nelson, B.C.),
Dan Kleiman of Brookline, Mass. and
Mark Cohen (in his new book on standing, “Inside Zhan Zhuang.”)
I’d answer your question in a slightly different way. For me, standing is just another reindeer game. You know the kids Christmas story “Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer”? There is a scene where all the reindeer are trying to learn to jump, but the purpose of the reindeer game isn’t to learn to jump as high as possible. The purpose is to learn to pull Santa’s sleigh.
So, what’s the purpose of standing? If you haven’t learned the basics that standing is supposed to help you learn, you should make time for standing. That is if you want to learn in the most efficient way that the Taoists found most people learn. My point here is that there are many ways to learn the material. It’s all reindeer games until you really get what the Taoists were exploring.
What is Mark Cohen’s lineage? Thanks.
I just finished reading his book.
It says he has lineage in Yiquan and the Yang and Wu styles of Tai Chi Chuan.
He refers many times to Wang Xiang Zhai, the founder of Yiquan, but since Wang died in 1963 I doubt that he studied directly with him.
I found no other evidence of his lineage on the Internet.
I know Bruce’s view on lineage.
Bruce offers public documentation of his lineage.
To me, a rank amateur, “lineage” is not a big deal.
Thanks a lot. I agree with Bruce when comes to lineage. For me, lineage information is a good way to have a rough understanding of what is possible. It does not mean that a person without a good lineage is not good, but it takes more efforts to figure it out.
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