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This post is closely related to my last post, “Neigung Core I thru V Simplified”. I suspect that the initial opening of the three tan tiens is taught in Gods but Bruce never taught this verbally at any of the Gods events that I’ve attended. He taught Gods more recently and may have gone deeper at those events. If anyone attended, it would be nice to share.
So, I’m approaching the tan tiens using Bagua. My practice is pretty simple at the moment. I’m using the palm changes to practice opening the lower, middle, and upper tan tiens. I’m sure there is a lot more to this than I can figure out, but this seems to work at a basic level.
As I walk and change directions, I’m initially just bringing each tan tien online in a certain order: open the lower tan tien, open the upper tan tien, than use the lower and upper tan tiens to open the middle tan tien. If you don’t recognize this progression, I’ve heard Bruce mention this on more than one occasion.
Opening the lower tan tien is the same procedure as Opening the Energy Gates, OEG, and Spiraling Energy Body, SEB. I’m using the neigung sets, but I’m only trying to concentrate on the lower tan tien. Unlike OEG, I don’t go down the legs to below the feet. I’ve already completed that work. I short-cut the process and setup the downward flow onto the lower tan tien until I get the rising energy of SEB. That’s my upward expansion energy of Bagua and the primary energy of the single palm change.
I walk and get the rising energy working well. It is present in every palm.
Next, I allow the rising energy to open the upper tan tien. In exactly the same way I focused all of the downward flow on the lower tan tien, here I concentrate all of the upward flow on the upper tan tien until the downward flow starts. The energy eventually flows all the way down the body. This downward energy is the primary energy of the double palm change. It creates an incredibly heavy downward flow that is powered not only from above but below.
At this point I’ve got an upward expansion flow and a downward condensing flow. Up and down. Down and up. I’m just playing with yin and yang. They are both present all of the time, but one is emphasized more than the other at any given moment.
Next, open the middle tan tien. I use the upward and downward flows simultaneously to open the middle tan tien. The two flows are allowed into the middle. The eventually fill it and fill the central channel. This creates a center to periphery flow that radiates from the middle tan tien and the central channel.
Eventually the center to periphery flow fills up enough to fill the etheric body and begins to change over to its opposite – periphery to center.
These are the main flows that are happening all the time: up, down, center to periphery, and periphery to center.
This may simply be neigung but you can map these to the palm changes. Up is emphasized in the single palm change. Down is emphasized in the double palm change. Wind and Thunder can be viewed as the change when either the up or the down fill and turn to their opposite flow. Fire maps very well to the opening of the middle tan tien and the center to periphery flow. Likewise, Water is the opposite flow when the periphery is so full it begins to switch back to the opposite direction.
Mountain the seventh is multi-dimensional and uses all of the flows simultaneously. It adds the background of emptiness.
I suspect in the eighth palm, you break out of your personal view of the universe. All of this develops an incredibly individual point of view while beginning to wake you up to the fact that it is all empty. You don’t have to be bound to this point of view.
Basically my Bagua practice is about getting better at each flow. I want smoother and smoother flows without gaps.
There are other ways to organize the palm changes around the flows I’ve described. Ultimately I don’t know exactly how these are organized. I’ve never been taught any of this. It just comes out of my practice. We won’t know for sure unless Bruce either verifies one of my posts or he tells us.
Here’s a slight variation that is also possible:
Single palm: up
Double palm: down
Wind palm: The change over of either the lower or upper tan tien as it fills and begins to flow in the opposite direction: down changing to up or up changing to down.
Thunder palm: Both change overs happening at the same time where they clash in the middle creating the vibration/shaking that is a hallmark of the palm change. So, down is changing to up and up is changing to down simultaneously and they bash into each other in the middle. This sets up for the Fire palm.
Fire palm: Down and up are balanced and flowing into the middle tan tien. They concentrate there like you are focusing to a point. The middle tan tien fills and spills. It fills and then starts spilling over into the central channel. Eventually it fills and begins to move center to periphery.
Water palm: The Fire palm completely fills the etheric field and this palm is the change where the flow starts to move from periphery to center. It is more than this. It becomes completely spherical and includes the change over of any periphery in any direction to the other side. IMO, that’s why there is a lot of back and forth when Bruce demonstrates this palm. It is ebbing and flowing back and forth in all directions.
Mountain palm: This palm is multi-dimensional. The spherical nature of the palm change is established. You can use any flow in any direction in any combination. You begin to notice the background. The stillness that is the opposite of all this movement. You also begin to understand how it is all coming from the tai chi space and that it is ultimately empty. The palm also makes you realize that you have a very personal view of it all. The body of individuality could be described as your personal point of view as well as everything you think of as you.
Lake palm: Find the opposite of you – the universal.
A few notes about this organization of the palm changes. Notice that all of these are from the yang perspective. They all use the expansive energy. I like this because it leaves room for the 16 where there are eight yang palms and eight yin palms. I also like this arrangement because it meets a lot of criteria that is based on Bruce’s teaching. For example,
* The trigrams are ultimately instructions for the three tan tiens
* It includes the progression of opening the three tan tiens that Bruce has described for years.
* Each palm builds on the previous one(s). There is a definite sequence.
* The expansive energy of the single palm change is present in every palm change.
* There is constant change and flow of energy.
* You have to understand the tai chi space.
* You have to have all of the 16 part neigung unified.
* The channels have to be capable of aligning.
* The trigrams become transformations of yang and yin as well as form
* The tai chi space is the source of all form
* It opens the body and chi in the sequence that Bruce laid out in the BMP.
* You start to see that everything is empty including everything you perceive as “you”
Check out Bruce’s video, “Bagua Zhang Fire Palm Video”, at 2:05. This is a good illustration of how I think you create power using the tan tiens. You can’t see what Bruce is doing internally, but check out his left arm and hand. Don’t look at his right which is capturing and moving Olaf. The left hand is the important hand.
Notice Bruce’s left side is equally full and active as his right. Notice that his central equilibrium is maintained. You can almost see the line of force from his upper tan tien to lower tan tien.
IMO, he is opening the lower and upper tan tiens to create the “pressure” that opens the middle tan tien which is coming out both his arms and his legs equally. There are more cruder and more refined ways to create that movement.
The body mechanics of this are fundamental to Bend the Bow. The chi mechanics come later.
Thanks James.
I have no idea what you’re talking about on “Lake.”
I’ve watched all of Paul Cavel’s Youtubes on Bagua and see no clues there either on palm changes.
Robert,
Either do I.
Bruce will be teaching more about this is November. It would be best to wait and see what he says; however, in the spirit of the Lake hexagram, let’s join in discussion and practice.
I can comment on my experience and speculate that the “joyous” in the Lake palm comes from reconnecting with the universal. In the hexagram two lakes (the top and bottom trigrams) join to form a single, unified symbol. In like manner, in the Lake Palm change we dissolve everything that we thought was us and rediscover the universal. I only get tiny tiny tiny glimpses of this. The great stillness is when the real is revealed and the false is successfully dissolved away. The real was always there, it is simply rediscovered. The tiny droplet of water that we thought was us joins with the universal lake that is all of us.
Notice the shift: the Lake palm becomes the bridge to meditation.
The shift to meditation is the beginning of step #6. After the great stillness, you start #7.
Summary of “Liu Hung Chieh’s Overview”:
1) Get everything from your finger tips to your toes and everything in between to become integrated into one unified entity.
2) Open the three tan tiens, yin/yang, left/right, central, and all of the smaller channels.
3) Create a stable mind.
4) For martial purposes, understand and embody how every square inch of your body can rotate like a sphere.
5) Find the one change.
6) For spirituality, learn about the chi of spirit and emptiness so you can eventually understand the chi that enables you to know who you are.
7) Eventually understand the nature of the universe.
Hi James,
Just watched Bruce’s webinar on the re-release of The Bagua Mastery Course (in digital format online).
And yes, he will be doing a workshop on the Lake Palm Change in the fall.Slowly, slowly I’m adding a few elements to my bagua practice.
I have had a live instructor this year (Ted Hillson, who studied with R.W. Smith). No theory—just martial arts.But on my own this popped up:
in the context of Pre-Birth/Before Heaven/Internal energyFor orientation purposes:
South ⬆︎
☲
☵
☷
☰ HeavenNow focusing on:
SouthEast ↖︎
☴
☰
☶
☱ LakeI work with this 4-tier arrangement of the trigrams
from top to bottomFacing S.E.
1. ☴ Wind
2. ☰ Heaven
3. ☶ Mountain
4. ☱ LakeAcupuncture:
S.E. pre-Heaven ☱ Lake embraces the Yang Chiao Mia Extraordinary Vessel
(The Yang–yang,empty–Linking or Regulator Vessel
in which energy moves from the depth of the earth to the top of our heads, is where we can move in all directions from the solid base of our feet on the ground. The Yang Chiao Mai brings balance and harmony to all yang circulations.
It is the Positive Heel Vessel–opposite the Yin Chiao Mai
(☶ Mountain) Negative heel in the N.W. direction.Physical practice:
My physical practice facing S.E. is very simple.
I do Shanghai Hospital Qigong (stand facing the S.E.)
swinging the arms like a pendulum back and forth–about 30 degrees forward and 70 degrees to the back.)I divide 3 sets into lower, middle and upper.
1. Lower set (hip level) could be the lower dantian
2. Middle set (waist level) could be the middle dantain.
3. Upper set (shoulder level) could be the upper dantian.
or
1. Lower set could be your body aura below the feet.
2. Middle set could be your physical body.
3. Upper set could be your body aura above your head.Thing 3
Thing 2
Thing 1 ⬆︎I do the 4 trigrams at each of these 3 levels 3 times (Reps.)
(as if it were the gua of the I-Ching–Dui #58, in this case in the Lower Canon of the I-Ching:
Dui
Dui ).Shao Yang
(Young Yang before changing to ☰ Heaven,
Supreme, greater, maximum Yang. )First, the Top gua
Set 1: ☴ WindSwinging arms
Rep. 1:yang
yang
yin ⬆︎Rep. 2:
yang
yang
yin ⬆︎Rep. 3:
yang
yang
yin ⬆︎Second, the 2nd gua from the Top, its opposing gua from the N.W. : ☰ Heaven:
Set 2:
Rep. 1:☰ Heaven
swinging armsyang,
yang,
yang ⬆︎Rep. 2:
yang
yang
yang ⬆︎Rep. 3:
yang
yang
yang ⬆︎Third, the third gua from the Top, ☶ Mountain
Set 3: ☶ Mountain
Rep.1: ☶ Mountain
Swinging armsyang,
yin,
yin ⬆︎Rep.2: ☶ Mountain
yang,
yin,
yin ⬆︎Rep.2: ☶ Mountain
yang,
yin,
yin ⬆︎Fourth (and finally) the Bottom gua,
the pre-birth gua, the pre-Heaven gua, the gua which represents your internal energy, the opposite of Wind☴ Wind (Dui)
☴ Wind (Dui)when Wind’s bottom yin lines (Initial Six) change to yang lines (Initial Nine), and Wind’s top yang lines ( Top Nine) change to yin lines (Top Six) you get:
☱ Lake (Dui)
☱ Lake (Dui)This is the dynamic change in the I-Ching gua.
The change of the yielding line (to yin) at the top represents one’s gentle and Joyful personality.
Set 4:
☱ Lake (Dui)
☱ Lake (Dui)Rep.1:
Swinging armsyin,
yang,
yang ⬆︎Rep.2:
yin,
yang,
yang ⬆︎Rep.3:
yin,
yang,
yang ⬆︎The physical practice is very simple:
you just swing your arms.
Yang forward swing
Yin backwards swingThe mental practice is complex.
You’ve gotta know the trigrams of the S.E. and their relationships with each other.
And you’ve gotta know the trigrams of the opposite side of the circle in the N.W. and their relationships with each other and their relationships with the corresponding trigrams of the S.E.The RESULT:
it makes me smile insideFrom all of this change rises an Inner SMILE.
no martial art application (no up-rooting your opponent),
no energy posture (no raising Qi to heaven)
no corresponding Tai Chi posture (no jou-elbow strike),
No healing sound (no muuuur–cow bellows)
no circle walking (no clockwise young yang–increasing yang)Just a smile of joy.
This is the Qi of spirit.
With me it comes spontaneously without effort,
a nondoing.☰, ☷, ☴, ☳, ☲, ☵, , ☱.
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