Dorje Boleskine

Here is Bruce Frantzis talking about the 7 principles that are to be developed within Tai Chi Pushing Hands.

Hi Djore,

 

Yes, I've practiced with Kumar quite a few times and his Ba Gua is pretty cool stuff. When he demonstrates like that he goes totally freestyle with full power and speed, so it looks pretty crazy. Regular practice seems less wild and much more focused.

 

In his system you train with very slow straight line walking, and later get going faster and faster on the circle. Often you will double your speed repeatedly, while trying to maintain some nei gung skill like abdominal breathing, or dissolving tension or feeling some part of your body, or bringing specific thoughts or emotions to mind, or seeking some specific spiritual aspect, and so on. And for each one your work on, you can then add more and more layers to your practice, and speed up the walking to get it deeper and more profoundly "wired in".

 

To me you need chi gung first to build your system up and make it healthy. Martial arts then takes you from normal to strong and fully integrated. Then more spiritual pursuits open up, as you are now strong and resilient enough physically, and have faced all your fears and hang ups during martial arts sparring and fighting. Meditation is the step that comes after the first two. If you skip right into delving into your minds deepest corners, you won't have the strength and calmness that chi gung and martial arts provide. They are the bulwark you need to keep you grounded when working within yourself.

 

His system has three steps:

1. Learn the 5 chi gung sets

2. Learn IMA for health: tai chi short form, hsing-i san ti, and ba gua circle walking

3. Pursue a specialization: chi gung tui na healing, Taoist meditation, or one of the three internal martial arts in full.

 

Step 3 can take your whole lifetime, to master only one of the specializations.

 

Jess O

Yeah that freestyle bagua looks amazing!

I dont know why that last post is there three times! Is there a way I can delete two of them?

Yeah, Kumar's ba gua system is pretty awesome, I've enjoyed training in it.

He's had many students since he started teaching it in the 90's.

 

We have a class here in Berkeley:

http://www.watertradition.net

 

Come get with us and check it out some time.

 

Jess O

Berkley is where Bruce Frantzis filmed his Bagua Mastery Program right?

I found this video of one of Bruce Frantzis’ top instructors teaching BaGua. This guy seems to be pretty good. His name is Paul Cavel has anybody here heard of him?

Yeah, sort of. It's actual movement of the soft tissue. Think of bending a bow string to shoot an arrow.

Here's how my friend Paul Cavel describes the method I learned it from:

 

The Marriage of Heaven and Earth

 

In this movement you learn how to stretch all the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia of the body.

 

The work is then taken deeper into the fluids of the body - the blood, lymph, synovial and cerebrospinal fluids. When this material is fully integrated the body moves as one interconnected piece.

 

The energetic work combines the descending and ascending energy currents to move chi through the micro and macro cosmic orbits. The energies of heaven and earth are joined within the tan-dien (the centre point of the body).

I found a video clip on Youtube with Paul Cavel talking about bagua and moving the fluids of the body.

Is it really possible to change ones DNA with exercise?

The Dragon and Tiger Qigong Online Course looks interesting! I have the book and DVD. I have noticed that Bruce Frantzis will also be teaching an Instructor training this year in Hawaii.

Hello Tao Bums. I look forward to engaging in the discussions.