Why Bend the Bow and Meditation Next?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone given thought to why Bruce choose to teach Bend the Bow and Bagua Meditations next?

I have. It makes sense to me. Not only is the Lake Palm the Earth element, it is also the subject of the cerebrospinal and the synovial fluid. The Water Palm Change completed the mastery over the blood circulation. In Mountain you begin to find how to create stillness and in Lake you find the binding force of Earth. Earth begets Metal and Metal is the main subject of Bend the Bend. It is here that you really start needing to balance the left and the right. It is also here that you can use that balance to find the central channel and the space where expressions like “emptiness is form” and “form is emptiness” come from.

All of the palm changes before the Water Palm, set the stage for the Water Palm Change. Mountain begins the process of balancing in multi-dimensions simultaneously. Lake takes it to another level and you start to get glimpses of the early stages of emptiness. Dispersion can be understood at this point, but that’s combining the earlier material with the Lake Palm Change which of course is the goal. The Earth element is the integrator.

Seriously, when you start to practice the Lake Palm Change a lot, you need Bend the Bow. That is you need mastery of all of the third phase material Bruce lists on the BTB web page:

“Link together the physical and energetic movements of the internal organs to the spine and all the joints
Open and close all your spinal vertebrae simultaneously as one integrated unit
Regulate the fluids that surround your spinal cord and brain
Pulse the space between each spinal vertebra, one by one
Move each vertebra independently, one by one, in any direction at will without external physical motion
Become aware of and correct left and right imbalances in the body in general and in the spinal vertebrae in particular.”

The last one is the most important in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to mention why Bagua meditations. That’s simple. Bruce is primarily interested in meditation and has been teaching us more like the Bagua meditation tradition than the martial arts tradition. If you look at the BMP (particularly palms 4 through , I’d estimate that 95% of the video time is spent on meditation topics. Neigung is the foundation of the meditation tradition.

Think about it. Bruce started practicing meditation naturally at a very young age. Liu recognized Bruce’s natural interest in meditation long before Bruce did. Bruce would love to have a group of Bagua practitioners that he could teach the full Bagua meditation tradition. He needs an appropriate space and he needs prepared students.

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