Bagua Mother Palms – Training Opening and Closings

[Anonymous]

I’ve previously posted examples of how I trained neigung elements using the eight mother palms. I thought I’d give a perspective based on opening and closings starting with the single palm change.

So, I’ll start by saying that I don’t think opening and closings are about the joints. The joints can open and close, but that’s only one, over-simplified version of the story.

The single palm change uses both opening and closing. What’s unique to the single palm change is that it is doing one or the other. The whole body closes, then the whole body opens. It is like there is only a single palm. If it is closing the whole body is closing. If it is opening the whole body is opening.

When I’m practicing opening and closings, the double palm change represents dividing the body into two pieces. Each piece can either open or close. So, you get open|open (that’s already “contained in the single palm change”), close|close (also already learned in the single palm change), close|open, and open|close.

But there is more going on. You can divide the body left to right, up and down, or front to back. There’s also in and out, but I do that in the later palms. So, I’m simply positing that the single palm change treats the whole body as one palm, and the double palm change divides it in half creating two palms. Study the form and look at natural divisions in the movement pattern where the halves of the body are opening and closing independently. The left opening, the right closing. Or, in combinations: the right hand going up while it opens, the left hand going down while it closes. Can you control the opening and closings? How are they interacting?

What do you do with the wind palm change? I further divide the body into yin and yang surfaces. In the double palm change, I divide the left and the right sides of the body. In the wind palm, I divide the right side into the yin and yang sides of the right side of the body. Now, I’ve got four pieces to play with.

But there is a problem: if opening and closing is about the joints, how can the joint close and open? We know the vertebrae can do this. You can isolate the movement so the front or the back opens more. When you open, is the back side of the vertebrae opening more? What do you call opening the front side more? Bruce has answered these questions. I’ll try to find the video it is on, but does this apply to the elbow joint? I’ve never heard Bruce talk about opening one side of the elbow joint more than another. So, either the joints aren’t the real issue of opening and closing or perhaps the whole premise of dividing a limb into yin and yang sides is invalid.

I’m going to propose that opening and closing has little to do with the joints other than the fact that the joints can be opened and closed. I’ll also propose that the wind palm closes on one side and opens on the other. Every limb in every direction. However, the wind palm is a very particular pattern: the close and open have to complement each other and never intersect. Like wind pushing a leaf along gently. So the close on one side and the open on the other are timed perfectly to never bump into each. Like two dancers that move in unison. One stepping forward while the other steps back.

Thunder is where the clash. Gotta go.

[Anonymous]

The pattern of Thunder is literally the opposite of Wind. In Thunder the two forces collide. There are a bunch of ways to bring forces together depending on your skill level. One way is to close one side and then close the other until the compression explodes. Another way to to expand one side and then the other until the forces intersect, create the compression, and explode. The vibration isn’t from shaking. it is the result of the violent nature of the clash. Like two cymbals smashing into each other.

In the Fire Palm, I make a similar open on both sides, but it is steady and continuously expanding. I want to study the intersection and stabilize it. Like a controlled nuclear explosion that is harnessed for energy. The outsides are both expanding in all directions. The intersection is in the central channel. Power comes from the central channel.

In the Water Palm, I’m compressing both sides. The compression in also in the central channel but it has two very different qualities. 1) It gets very dense and heavy. 2) It moves. It moves while maintaining an incredible sense of stability.

[Anonymous]

So Fire and Water have two sides and a middle.

What happens if you combine them or divide the body into halves and perform Fire on one half and Water on the other half? The left side is opening into the central channel like Fire and the right side is condensing into the channel like Water. Now, divide the body left | right, up | down, front | back. Can you make the opening and closings in all directions while having the forces create stability. The left is going left. The right is going right. They create a dynamic tension. That’s Mountain.

The Lake Palm works the crosses. The left leg and right arm. The right leg and left arm. What happens in the middle in the central channel?

Anyway, this is one way to train and master opening and closing using the Bagua Palm Changes as the container.

[Anonymous]

When you really understand opening and closing, you’ll realize it has little to do with the joints. You’ll also understand why the Single Palm Change contains all of the other palms. It is quite simple. You can only open or close and you need to gain conscious control down to the cellular level. The Single Palm Change is opening and closing every part of the body in unison. So, every part learns to do the only two things it can do: open and close.

You return to the beginning of the circle. You are back at the Single Palm Change. Everything opens. Everything closes.

[Anonymous]

Hey man nice posts! I like how you are breaking this down. From simple to complex to simple again. That’s Ba Gua for ya.
He was talking a lot about spiraling up and down the side channels as well as activating the yin and yang surfaces at 8th Palm. Kind of putting everything together at once. Definitely deep stuff. The form was kinda shortened, not the longer one that he did back in the day in Fairfax.
-Jess O

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the feedback. I usually consider these posts to be a complete waste of time since only 5-10 people ever read them. Next time we get together I’ll show you how this really works. Mountain is the beginning of in and out. Its too complicated to describe without pictures. It teaches you how to continuously lengthen (both open and close simultaneously) while compressing the water so much that it starts to wake up the outside. It basically is how the circles are ratcheted down yet start amplifying. Lake uses the circles to create the real spiraling that Bruce has always hinted at but never fully taught (neigung #9). The simplified forms contain everything you need to find what he has been trying to teach us. They’re actually better because they distill the essence of the palm changes.

Take care.

[Author]

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