Filling the Gaps

[Anonymous]

A big topic for more advanced practice is the subject of gapping out. If you have any interest in martial arts this should be a significant focus of your practice. In my experience this is more a subject of meditation than physical movement because it relies heavily on your ability to stay present and more importantly to be able to feel both yin and yang simultaneously with a relaxed mind. As a beginner, you might not be able to feel your chi, but you should be able to feel the natural wind and unwind of your tissue. Once you start getting the nerve release that happens toward the end of the limit of your twist you are well on your way to be able to work on this principle. I imagine there is some ideal way to do this, but realistically you’re probably going to fumble through it.

The basic concept is easily understood but the practice is extremely challenging. I’m amazed how much I gap when I practice. I’ve got a lot to learn but you have to get to the point you can recognize the gapping before you can eliminate it.

The concept is to never allow anything to stop. That’s it. If you allow anything in your body or mind to stop — you’ve gapped. This is particularly true the faster you move. When you are trying to fa jing you are probably trying to move as fast as you can. I’ll bet you gap every time.

The trick is to be able to feel the chi starting to move in the opposite direction before you’ve completed a twist, turn, spiral, lengthening, opening, or closing in any direction. If you are moving energy down, you need to feel it start moving up before you complete the down; otherwise, you’ll gap. If you are twisting in, you need to feel the twisting out before you start twisting out.

Here is a two person exercise to help you catch the feeling. One person stands and starts to extend their arm. Extend it at a steady pace so your partner can easily match the speed of your extension. Go as far as you can. Your partner wants to pull the arm gently just before you’ve reached your maximum extension. The person extending their arm should try to notice how the body will naturally gather its energy in the opposite direction to maintain your balance and to keep the arm from ripping off the body.

The person pulling the arm isn’t trying to pull you over. They should be trying to add just a little more extension before you start pulling back. Try this and let me know if you get the feeling.

The concept is simple. Once you get this, you’ll have a solid basis for understanding the trigrams. One interpretation of them is understanding this simple process of yang changing to yin and yin changing to yang.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the practical advice. As you mention, gapping out in meditation is a huge concern. I find that progress in sitting helps my progress in Bagua (though I’m only starting my second year of Bagua after 25 of taiji). I’ll try this exercise next time I get a chance.

[Anonymous]

The real game starts when you can use your heart-mind to create a spiral. The ability to stay present is absolutely necessary to use the energy that is released and stay with it. As usual I found this in an ass-backward fashion, but I understand it enough now to start training it the way we’re supposed to learn it. It isn’t enough to just release the energy. You want to be able to play with it and bring some of it back into your tan tien so you can store a little of the energy that is released with each change. I think I’ve got the most fundamental way to release energy. I’m still trying to work out wu jing. When Bruce did the photo shoot for the cover of “The Power of the Internal Martial Arts”, he used wu jing to do the push. I couldn’t tell what he was doing at the time. I was just trying to keep from getting my teeth knocked out. To create the energy of Heaven and harmonize with it, you have to pick the same reference point as the universe – no change. That’s why you aren’t in the game until you start working with the heart-mind and your central channel. It is also why no one is even remotely as strong as Bruce.

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