Multidimensional Model

[Anonymous]

I”m seeing all of Bagua in terms of a single abstract multidimensional model that applies equally to the joints, tendons, bones, side channels, guas, etc. It can be used to teach each of the palm changes progressively going round and around until you finally see the whole thing at once. Up/down, left/right, front/back are all the same from this perspective.

I’ll try to explain when I have more time.

[Anonymous]

I conceived this model in terms of the tendons, but it is really rooted in the energy gates. I’m blown away that I’ve returned to the very first material I learned from Bruce with a clarity that simply wasn’t possible 27 years ago. More importantly, I get what the secondary gates are and how they open the main gate.

This renewed understanding also gives new meaning to concepts like the yin within the yang and yang within yin; lengthening in and lengthening out; opening and closing the joints; how energy travels in both directions on both the yin and yang surfaces. It equally gives a deeper understanding to spiraling energy; energy gates, the cavities of the body, the three guas, the side channels, the central channel, etc.

[Anonymous]

Applying the model to the tendons will help you understand the first four palm changes. If you apply the model to the bones, you find Fire. If you apply it to the joints, you find Water.

[Anonymous]

James,

When practicing, your comments suggest (to me) the following sequence:

First four Palm Changes:
1. Heaven (S),
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

5. Fire (E),
6. Water (W),
7. Mountain (NW),
8. Lake (SE)

Maybe you aren’t as methodical (anal) as I am;
here’s my first-thing-in-the-morning sequence:
(keyed to the I Ching and meridians/vessels)

1. Heaven (S) (Single Palm Change)
(Posture 1: Holding up the Heavens)
(working Du Mai–governing extraordinary vessel)

2. Earth (N), (Double Palm Change)
(Posture 2: Holding the Lower Tantien)
(working: Ren Mai–conception extraordinary vessel)

3. Thunder (NE), Thunder Palm Change)
(Posture 3: Engaging the Liver)
(SPC:)
(working Yang Wei Mai–yang linking extraordinary vessels)

4. Wind (SW) (Wind Palm Change)
(Posture 5: Offering Gifts to Heaven)
(SPC:)
(working Yin Wei Mai–yin linking extraordinary vessels)

5. Fire (E), (Fire Palm Change)
(Posture 4: Connecting to the Heart)
(working Liver and Pericardium meridians)

6. Water (W), (Water Palm Change)
(Posture 8: Energizing the Kidneys)
(working the Lungs and Spleen)
(also working the Stomach and Large Intestine)

7. Mountain (NW), (Mountain Palm Change)
(Posture 7: Projecting Qi Forward)
(working the Yin Qiao Mai–yin heel extraordinary vessels)

My favorite:
8. Lake (SE) (Lake Palm Change)
(Posture 6: Raising Qi to Heaven)
(working the Yang Qiao Mai–yang heel extraordinary vessels)
(and the source, central channel–tai chi space)

Of course, I’m not at your stage of practice,
(27 years vs 7)
integrating the 7 layers, involving:

First:
tendons

Then:
bones,

Finding:
joints

Mix:

I’m working to integrate everything,
Bruce’s Bagua Mastery Course,
Bruce’s on-line Bagua Mastery Program,
James LaPlante,
I Ching,
Tai Chi according to the I Ching of Stuart Olsen)
Acupuncture,
Tom Bisio,
Robert W. Smith (disciple Ted Hillson live, who is now teaching the Eight Immortals routine)

Obviously all these different systems can’t be made completely consistent;
however, the more I practice, the more the commonalities appear.

Can you fill in some of the blanks that I’ve left with your conceptions?

Bob

[Anonymous]

A few diagrams would make sense of this post. For now, I’m using it to capture the thought behind the model. Anecdotally, I think I’m onto something. I usually sleep about 6 hours a night. Last night I was out for 12 straight and this morning I picked up right where I left off. Again, this period of sustained change is extraordinary and continues.

[Anonymous]

To make this a little less abstract I’ll apply it to neigung part #11. First a summary of what I’ve previously mentioned regarding Bend the Bow, and then I’ll add how BTB could be be trained to get three addtional “levels”.

A rough outline might look like this:

* Learn to vaguely connect the arms to the spine. (Arms at the same height using bend the bow movement)
* Learn how the arms move the vertebrae in all of the possible ways.
* Learn how to target a single vertebrae and manipulate it with the arms.
* Vary the height of the arms and learn how to target every vertebrae using bend the bow.
* Learn how to move them all at the same time.
* Connect the legs vaguely to the spine
* Learn how the legs control the vertebrae
* Connect the legs to a specific vertebrae
* Connect arms and the legs to the same vertebrae
* Connect the arm and legs to every vertebrae
* Rinse and repeat adding the head

Okay, so that’s the stuff I’ve talked about before. When you apply the model I’ve been referring to, you have add more steps.

* Control each vertebrae and penetrate the bone finding the yin within yang
* Penetrate all of the vertebrae at once finding the yin within yang
* Control each space between the vertebrae finding the yang within yin
* Penetrate all of the spaces at once finding the yang within yin
* Organize an adjacent set of vertebrae and the joint between into a set. Open each set using Mountain energy
* Open all of the sets at once

Bruce mentioning there are 9 levels of Bend the Bow starts to make more sense. How they’re actually organized might not be known yet, but the extraordinary level of mastery I’m talking about explains how a student of over 30 years was only getting to level 3.

Time will tell whether any of this is accurate or whether it is just an elaborate fantasy. Who knows?

[Anonymous]

So, the model explains how to create the yang up and the yin down (here I’m talking in terms of directions because at this point you wouldn’t understand expansion and absorption.). It explains how to mix them like Wind which creates a lever. It also explains Thunder which uses each of the three previous techniques and piles on a more sophisticated version where both directions are going at once.

Apply the model to the bones and you find Fire which requires mastery all of the previous four palm changes to pull off. Then you apply it to the joints and find Water. The yang within yin at this point is one of the first times you really start to understand yang expansion.

Mountain builds on everything before. Fire and Water (each of which are built on the previous four palm changes) are used to create Mountain. You are performing Fire and Water simultaneously and building structures of structures.

In Lake you bring it all together in the torso in the middle gua. Water is concentrated in the middle gua while the spine creates Fire. They are supposed to overlap in the same space. Up to this point they always occupied their own separate spaces. For example the middle of the bones is not the middle of the joints.

[Anonymous]

The model is equally applicable to the entire breathing apparatus. The lower and upper guas can be focused on either independently or as a set.

[Anonymous]

This is another way of looking at an earlier post of organizing around the bones or organizing around the joints. The model is more abstract and applies equally to both.

[Anonymous]

First four Palm Changes:
1. Heaven (S),
2. Earth (N)
3. Wind (NE)
4. Thunder (SW)

Note: The order is based on the order the palm changes are taught in the BMP.

integrating the 7 layers, involving:

First you have to penetrate the layers to get to the central channel. Messy, clumsy, incomplete, but you get there. Then you start opening from there. Messy, clumsy, incomplete, but you are starting to work more precisely. Work all the way out to the etheric. By then you probably know a little bit. Then the precision starts. You target the gaps and eliminate them. There are lots of strategies for any of these stages. Looking back, I would never have approached the subject this way. I only had to because that’s the way it was presented.

If you were teaching someone about a deck of cards, the suits, the numbered cards, the face cards – would you randomly shuffle the deck and start teaching whatever card was on top?

This is the way things are for two simple reasons: the first is the most prevalent, almost no one knows how this stuff really works. The second is a teacher has to make a buck.

If I write a book on Bagua, no one will talk about this subject the same way again. I think I’ve got the equivalent of Maxwell’s equations. I’m just working out the last bit.

[Author]

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