1 Bagua Body Unification Method

BAGUA MASTERY PROGRAM

;~-.~ 1:1 • :1: '~:?'7

MODULE 3 BAGUA Boov UNIFICATION METHOD

BRUCE FRANTZIS

Copyright© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis

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Table of Contents

Section 1: Overview of Body Unification Exercises ............................. 7 Overview ..................................................................... 7

What to Expect over Time ......................................... 8

Intermediates ........................................................................... 9

Progressive Stages of Bagua and Tai Chi Practice .......................................................... 10

Stage 1 ..................................................................................... 10

Stage 2 (Intermediates, Phase 1) ........................................ 10

Stage 3 (Intermediates, Phase 2) ......................................... 11

Stage 4 (Intermediates, Phase 3) ......................................... 11

Stage 5 (Meditation) .............................................................. 11

Section 2: Unification Exercise #1-The Palm Strike, Phase 1 ....................... 13 Overview .................................................................... 13

Hand Motion: Linear or Circular? ............................ 14

Benefits ........................................................................ 15

Meditation .............................................................................. 15

Phase 1 Instructions ................................................. 17

Basic Alignments ....................................................... 17

Arm and Leg Movements ......................................... 19

Arm Twisting Methods ......................................................... 20

Important Points to Remember ............................. 20

Section 3: Unification Exercise #1-Palm Strike, Phases 2-5 (Intermediates) ..................................... 23 Progression of Practice Phases 2-5 ....................... 23

Instructions for Phases 2-4 ..................................... 25

Phase 2: Face Forward and Shift Weight .............. 25

Phase 3: Shift Weight and Turn Your Waist .......... 26

Phase 4: Add the More Difficult Palm Strike to Weight Shift and Waist Turn .............................. 28

Phase 4: Alternate Version ................................................... 30

Important Points to Remember for all Phases .............................................................. 30

Section 4: Unification Exercise #2-

Drill, Phase 1 ........................................ 31 Overview ................................................................... 31

Benefits ...................................................................... 32

Personal Health ...................................................................... 32

Chi Development ................................................................... 34

Healing .................................................................................... 34

Martial Arts ............................................................................. 35

Meditation .............................................................................. 35

Instructions ............................................................... 36

Version 1: Basic Steps ............................................... 36

Section 5: Unification Exercise #2-Drill, Phases 2-5 (Intermediates} •.•..•••••• 39 Progressive Phases of Drill ..................................... 39

Phase 2: Turn Your Waist ........................................ 42

Phase 3: Shift Your Weight and Turn Your Waist ........................................................ 45

Variation 1: One Hand Rises and Descends .......... 47

Variation 2: One Hand Rises while the Other Falls ................................................ 47

Phase 4: Back-weighted Step with Waist Turn ........................................................ 50

Phase 5: Forward and Back-weighted ................. 54

Important Points to Remember ............................. 54

Section 6: Unification Exercise #3-Cut, Phase 1 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••...•••••• 57

Overview ................................................................... 57

Learning Progression .............................................. 58

Benefits ....................................................................... 59

Personal Health ...................................................................... 59

Meditation .............................................................................. 59

Instructions ............................................................... 59

Moving between Inside and Outside Cut Positions ............................................... 62

Section 7: Unification Exercise #3-Cut, Phases 2-4 (Intermediates) •••••••••••• 65 Phase 2: Stretch to Corners, Bend to Middle ...... 65

Phase 3: Bend to Corners, Stretch to Middle ...... 69

Outward Cut .............................................................. 70

Inward Cut .................................................................. 71

Phase 4: Add Forward Cutting Action .................. 72

From the Outward or Inward Cut to the Midpoint ......................................................... 72

From the Midpoint to the End of the Inward or Outward Cut ............................................ 73

Over Time and with Practice .................................. 73

Important Points to Remember .............................. 74

Appendix 1: Martial Applications ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 77 Body Unification Exercises .................................... 77

Palm Strike ................................................................. 77

Drill ............................................................................. 78

Cut .............................................................................. 81

Section 1 Overview of Body

Unification Exercises

Overview Many people move their bodies with very little internal cohesion between body

parts. Unification exercises are designed to help address this problem. They can

also be considered warm-ups since they prepare you to take on the more difficult

practices of the internal arts, such as Bagua Circle Walking or tai chi solo forms.

The three elementary unification exercises presented in this module firmly

connect all parts of the body in a relaxed way. A primary goal of all internal arts

training is to release tension, and link all the body's parts into a unified whole.

Using a rubber band or rope as an analogy, another goal of these exercises is to

significantly increase the elasticity or spring of your body's soft tissues. They

remove slack from the soft tissues, but not to the point that they become taut

7

© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.

8 Bagua Mastery Program

and ready to snap like a tight wire. Such tightness would make you more prone

to injury.

Although these internal connections can eventually be achieved by Walk

ing the Circle, practicing tai chi or a qigong form, they can place an incredible

burden on people whose bodies are poorly connected. Starting your practice

with unification exercises can significantly reduce that burden.

The exercises presented in this document open up key energy channels in the

body. They provide a simple and relatively concrete path for your mind to enter

into your body.

The first two exercises, Palm Strike and Drill, unify the body for all bagua and tai

chi vertical and forward-back movements. The arms and hands move vertically

up and down, and forward and back in front of you.

The third exercise, Cut, unifies all hand and arm actions that move side to side on

a horizontal plane of motion.

A fourth and intermediate exercise-Roll the Ball, which is presented in Module

10 (available in the fourth installment of the Bagua Mastery Program™)-unifies

the actions ofturning your waist and legs in a revolving spherical manner around

the body's centerline.

As a lineage holder in both bagua and tai chi, I can tell you that it's well worth

the effort to learn and practice these exercises as a gateway to the Taoist

vision of internal health, chi development and meditation. They can also serve as

preparatory exercises for other martial arts.

What to Expect over Time

What follows are instructions for basic and intermediate execution of the

first three exercises. They provide a good introduction to get you started, but

complete instructions for even one exercise could fill volumes of text. Live


Module 3: Bagua Body Unification Method 9

training with a competent instructor is the best way to realize the potential of

unification exercises.

Each of the exercises consists of two clear parts. In both parts, your hands and

arms must become progressively more connected to the inside of your belly and

internal organs.

• In the first part of each exercise, you will bend your arms and palms inward toward your body. Over time, you should have a clear feeling of a non-straining type of pressure moving from your hands through your arms into and gently compressing your internal organs.

• In the second part, your hands or arms stretch or extend. Over time, you should have a clear feeling of a non-straining type of pressure moving from your decompressing internal organs through your arms and into your hands.

Intermediates

Regarding the arms:

• As your torso, arms and palms shrink, close and retract, you should also have a sense of chi moving backward and downward from your hands, through your arms and simultaneously storing in your lower tantien and/or spine.

• Eventually, you should not experience your arm as being separate from the inside of your body, but rather your hand and arm being seamlessly connected to your lower tantien and spine.

• In time, when your hands or arms stretch or open, you should have a clear feeling of a physical flow gently expanding and releasing from within your decompressing internal organs. It then moves away from your belly, through your spine into and through your arms and then your hands.



• You should feel a sense of chi releasing from your lower tantien and spine, which moves upward and outward through your arms into your hands.

• Eventually, this should result in the lack of experiencing your arm as being separate from the inside of your body. Your hand and arm will instead feel seamlessly connected to your lower tantien and spine.

When you have found these feelings within your arms, spine and torso, then try

to find parallel feelings within your legs, spine and torso.

Progressive Stages of Bagua and Tai Chi Practice

Traditionally, bagua warm-up and unification exercises, Circle Walking and tai

chi practice follow clear and progressive paths of training. Stages 2-4 are for

intermediate practitioners who have, by definition, training beyond the initial

stage. Stage 5 is Taoist meditation, which can be introduced during earlier stages.

Stage 1

Initially, any exercise or movement is taught and practiced in a general way, in

accord with fairly vague instructions. The purpose is for students to get the

general shape of the movements without getting bogged down to the point of

mistaking the forest for the trees. Metaphorically, the cup is being built, so that

later you can fill it with the highly specific internal chi work and more precise

details of how the physical movements should ultimately be practiced.

Stage 2 (Intermediates, Phase 1)

This stage involves incorporating into your body's physical structure gross

external alignments (neigong component #3) as you perform the movements.

After this is accomplished, more detailed internal alignments, which are not

easily observed, are taught and incorporated into the movements.




This stage incorporates opening and closing techniques (neigong component

#7):

• Internally within your body.

• In the overall quality of chi you manifest to power your physical

movements.

• In the method by which you absorb chi into your body and

project it away from you.


This stage incorporates all the remaining methods and techniques of the sixteen

neigong, including the most advanced levels into the warm-up, Circle Walking or

tai chi practice upon which you focus.

Stage 5 (Meditation)

This stage incorporates all the meditation techniques of Taoism one by one

equally across all the methods from warm-ups to the Single Palm Change to tai

chi's solo forms as is appropriate to the student's background. These methods

may vary depending upon the specific Taoist spiritual tradition to which one

belongs-either Fire or Water.


Section 2 Unification Exercise #1:

The Palm Strike, Phase 1

Overview There are five phases or versions of the Palm Strike exercise. Phase 1 is

presented in this section, which involves your weight beginning and remaining

evenly distributed on both of your feet. Your feet are parallel to each other.

Phases 2-5 are intermediate-level practices and will be discussed in the next

section. In these phases, additional elements are added, such as weight shifts

and turning the waist.

All versions of the Palm Strike help unify the body for bagua and tai chi move

ments where the arms and hands move vertically up and down and/or forward

and back. The coordination of the hands moving on upward and downward

planes together with the palms rotating in Phase 1 solidifies the coordination

and body unification needed in the following phases.

13



A B c D E

Figure 3.2.1

Phase 1: Palm Strike

F

Hand Motion: Linear or Circular?

G

The hand motions ofthe Palm Strike (in any phase) may be practiced in two ways:

• Essentially linear. Done in this way, you move your hands in a straight line forward and back, but with a very gentle arcing motion, so your motion is essentially circular although not obviously. This is the best method for learning the basic arm motions.

• Clearly circular. Done in this way, you move your hands using a clear rising circular motion with a large and unambiguous upward and downward arc. This is the best method for manifesting the essential bagua chi method of"shrink and grow" and integrating it in your body.



Benefits

For personal health, the straight line hand movements especially strengthen

your liver, lungs, heart and spine. The upward curving motions particularly ben

efit your intestines (and thereby, digestion) and kidneys, and strengthen your

diaphragm and thereby breathing in general.

If you are a healer, the more straight line hand movements increase the energetic

sensitivity and strength of your hands as well as your ability to absorb and project

chi from your palms and fingers.

The curving method clearly helps develop a distinct awareness of rising and

falling chi in the body.

Meditation

The Palm Strike can be applied to meditation practice. The primary goal of the

straight line movement is essentially to pop open your mind (although it also

works on the psychic functions of the liver). So, as your palms retract, you focus

on your awareness going deeply into your mind; as your hands go out, your mind

lets go and expands.

This alternation causes your awareness and spirit to move from being sluggish

to more present. Instead of the mind having a general lack of internal space, it

moves toward the experience of internally having unlimited open space.

Done in an upward curving fashion, the Palm Strike is an intermediate opening

and closing method of meditation.

• As your palms extend and rise, you move out from the depth of your mind or central channel, through the inside of your body and outward to the boundary of your etheric body in all directions. This develops a sense of your mind going outside of your physical skin into your etheric body and beyond. This expansion of your conscious awareness (i.e. your mind) should happen not just to the front of you, but to the side and behind you as well.



• As your palms descend and return to your mid-abdomen, bring your awareness from the edges of your etheric body to deep within the core of your mind, and if possible your central channel.

By constantly having your mind alternate between going out towards your ethe

ric body and coming deeper into your mind's core, your mind can more easily

take stock of and recognize all the places where it naturally freezes. By repeti

tively doing the Palm Strike exercise over and over again and recognizing these

stuck points, you can activate your mind's ability to create spaciousness and free

movement inside itself. You thereby prevent yourself from becoming stuck.

As the internal sense of your mind becomes significantly less compressed it be

comes easier for your awareness to inhabit your etheric body.

Figure 3.2.2

Beginning/Final Position

Either of these two positions could be the beginning or final position.



Phase 1 Instructions Three key elements throughout the Palm Strike exercise should be kept in mind:

1. Maintain the connection of your palm and arms to your spine through

your shoulders.

2. Your hips, torso and shoulders should face directly forward and not to the

side.

3. Practice slowly at first to link your body into a single unit. Afterwards

practice only as fast as the speed that allows you to maintain the maximum

internal connection between all parts of your body. Build up to moving at

faster speeds only very gradually.

Basic Alignments

Figure 3.2.3

Key Alignments of the Palm Strike Exercise

© 2010 Bruce Frantzis-AII Rights Reserved.


The following basic alignments should be maintained. The letters below

correspend to the letters in illustration 3.2.3 on the previous page.

A. Stand with your feet pointing forward, somewhere between

the width of your hips and shoulders, depending upon

which width gives you the greatest sense of comfort and

stability.

Ideally, your feet should be parallel. However, don't fret if

one or both of your feet splays out slightly as it might give

you a greater sense of your feet and legs being connected

to the ground. With practice and when your body allows it,

your feet will gradually move closer and eventually end up being parallel. Figure 3.2.4

B. Your weight should pass through the middle ofthe arches of

your feet and finish at the bubbling well points (Figure 3.2.4).

C. The bottom of your crotch should be rounded-neither leg collapses

· inward or puts pressure on your knees.

D. Both elbows are bent.

E. Keep your midriff (located on your sides between the bottom of your ribs

and your hips) open and notcollapsed.This last action serves two important

functions. First, it raises your chest off your solar plexus and diaphragm,

which improves the anatomical basis of good breathing. Second, it opens

up the spaces between the vertebrae of your middle spine and keeps

them from being compressed.

F. The palm of one arm is placed either at the side of your hip or midriff. The

palm faces forward, fingers pointing down.

G. Ideally, the other palm is located on your centerline, somewhere around

your upper chest. The upper palm also faces forward, but the fingers point

up.



' ' '"'"" /--, {/'\l (('----"~\

~- 1·\ ~( ~

~......,

A B c D E F

Figure 3.2.5

Basic Hand Movements

Hand movements are divided into two clear parts: Upper palm retracts to the midpoint (A-D);

and the opposite palm extends into a Palm Strike (0-G).

Arm and Leg Movements 1. Figure 3.2.5A-G: Through the entire Palm Strike movement, both palms

rotate at the same sp~ed and in direct coordination with each other. Your

fingers continuously rotate from facing vertically upward to vertically

downward and then back upward again. One arm rises and extends

forward as the other falls and retracts.

2. Figure 3.2.50: In moving from the Palm Strike to the midpoint, sit in your

kwa. Both palms simultaneously turn to arrive near the body's centerline

in the middle of the abdomen.

3. Figure 3.2.5A-G: The forward palm moves back toward the torso and the

elbow bends halfway. The palm at the hip moves forward and the elbow

unbends halfway.


G


4. Figure 3.2.5A-D: As your palms come together, decrease the space in the

crooks of your elbows and twist your leg muscles inward.

5. Figure 3.2.50-G: In moving from the midpoint to the Palm Strike, rise out

of your kwa. The lower and upper palms finish reversing their original

positions. What was the lower palm rises to in front of your chest and what

was the upper palm descends to your hip. Twist your leg muscles outward.

6. Figure 3.2.5G: At the end of the Palm Strike, the upper palm is on your

body's centerline in front of your chest with your fingers facing upward.

Your elbow should be partially bent with the tip facing toward the ground.

The shoulder should be relaxed, firmly connecting your arm to your spine.

The lower palm arrives at the side of the hip or midriff as the elbow bends

yet more and its fingers point toward the ground.

For beginners, it's best if you apply regular Taoist breathing throughout the movements. Just remember to breathe in a relaxed manner.

Arm Twisting Methods

There are two ways to twist the arms.

• In the first method, you rotate/twist both arms inward to the midpoint and outward from the midpoint to the Palm Strike.

• In the second method, the retracting palm rotates/twists inward throughout the movement while the extending arm rotates/twists outward.

Important Points to Remember • Be sure to keep your four points aligned and don't contract the

neck, chest or shoulder's nest areas, which can be challenging.

• Maintain the connection of your palm and arms to your spine through your shoulders.

• Your hips, torso and shoulders should face directly forward and not to the side.



• Practice slowly at first to link your body into a single unit. Later, you can practice as fast as you can while maintaining maximum internal connection between all parts of your body. Build up to moving at faster speeds only very gradually.

SAFETY NOTE: In unification exercises and all bagua and tai chi tech

niques, nurture your body by being especially careful to protect your knees.

INTERMEDIATES: OPEN AND CLOSE When practicing arm twisting method 7: From the beginning position to the midpoint, shrink and close the joints and cavities of both arms and the midriff, kwa and belly to bring energy inward to the lower tantien. From the midpoint to the Palm Strike, open the kwa, belly, midriff and the joints and cavities of both arms to send your energy outward from the lower tantien, through the inside of your body and spine to your palms.

When practicing arm twisting method 2: On the side of the retracting arm, shrink and close your arm joints, shoulder cavity, kwa, midriff and belly to bring energy inward from your palm, through the inside of your body to your lower tantien. Grow and open everything on the side of the extending arm to send energy from your lower tantien, outward through the inside of your body to your kwa, spine, arm and palm.

When opening-closing in either method, be sure to open-close your midriff on .each side of your body, the area between the bottom of .

- tt· ,J#Wtfw ?~,:~, , W' the ribcage and hips. This action ensures thafyour chest does not compress your solar plexus and opens the lumbar vertebrae to maximize the power your body generates. When you close your midriff, "' .:c.4':' ;. }, do it slightly and not to the point of completely closing it down.

Use either the methods of regular or reverse breathing while expanding or shrinking your belly to power your movements. In regular breathing, exhale to the midpoint and inhale from the midpoint to the finish. In reverse breathing, inhale to the midpoint and exhale to the Palm Strike position. ,~-~

~


SKIP AHEAD Section 3 is only for intermediate practitioners. Skip ahead to Section 4 unless you can perform all of the instructions in this section reasonably well.

Section 3 Unification Exercise #1: Palm Strike, Phases 2-5

Intermediates

Progression of Practice Phases 2-5

Phase 1 was presented in the preceding section. The following phases are only for

intermediate practitioners.

Phase 2: After stabilizing Phase 1, repeat the same hand movements coordinated

with shifting your weight in a wider stance, but don't turn the waist. This enables

you to derive the movement of your hands from the driving force of the legs.

This and the next phase's method of shifting weight in coordination with the

Palm Strikes are especially germane for martial artists and athletes.

23



Phase 3: Add to Phase 2 by turning the waist in the same direction you shift

weight. The legs move the waist and the waist moves the hands until all three

sufficiently link to become one indivisible action with each

amplifying the chi-power of the other.

At this point, you should internally let the force of the legs

driving the weight shift turn your waist. Your hand move

ments derive from the movement of chi inside your legs

rather than the gross physical movement of externally

shifting your weight.

Phase 4: After the obvious external movement of your legs

and waist has gone internal (invisibly), add and incorporate

all the internal chi methods and components of the sixteen

neigong. Begin with opening and closing the belly coordi

nated to your breathing. Also add the more difficult Palm

Strike method.

Phase 5: After each level of basic chi practices are

stabilized, the final phase is to incorporate all related chi

methods of the sixteen neigong as specifically done in

meditation. Many of these methods go beyond what is in

Figure 3.3.1

the basic chi practices themselves, or what is found in the higher levels of bagua

or tai chi as fighting internal martial arts.

These methods derive from the meditation methods of monastic bagua, which

specifically implement the methods of Taoist meditation according to the

teachings of the I Ching, using Circle Walking, bagua energy postures, the Single

Palm Change and sitting meditation.



Instructions for Phases 2-4 As you learn each phase, begin with slow motions (but not super slow) to link

your body into a single unit before you gradually increase the speed to medium

(but not super fast).

Phase 2: Face Forward and Shift Weight

In Phase 2, face forward and shift your weight. Slightly widen your stance.

1. The hand methods of Version 2 are exactly the same

as Version 1, but the weight shift is done with a wider

stance.

2. Keep the four points aligned as you shift your weight

completely from side to side while still facing directly

forward and not turning your waist to either side.

3. As in Version 1, coordinate the movement of your

palm strikes so your arms become parallel to each

other as they arrive in the middle of your weight shift

and forward-backward hand movements.

4. The Palm Strike completes when your weight has

fully shifted to one side (Figure 3.3.2).

5. Shift your weight completely from the weighted to

the opposite un-weighted leg by pushing off from

the original weighted leg.

6. Close the kwa on your weighted side and open it on

your un-weighted side.

Figure 3.3.2

Figure 3.3.3

7. Finish with the Palm Strike and your weight fully on one leg, torso facing

forward and to neither side (Figure 3.3.3).



Phase 3: Shift Weight and Turn Your Waist

In Version 3, you shift your weight and turn your waist.

Figure 3.3.4

Palm Strike: Beginning of Version 3

1. With your weight on one leg, face forward and have your open hands at

your sides with palms up.

2. Begin shifting your weight and turning your waist toward the leg to which

you are shifting. Also begin to do a Palm Strike with the hand from which

your waist is turning away.

3. When you reach the midpoint of your weight shift, then move both palms

as usual in coordination with your complete weight shift and waist turn, so

both move in tandem and finish simultaneously.


A


Figure 3.3.5

Both Hands Reach the Final Position Simultaneously

4. Add waist turning to Version 2 weight shifting.

5. Your extending leg powers both the weight shift and waist turn. Shift your

weight back and forth, from side to side and alternate your waist turning

toward the direction to which you shift weight.

6. Hand motions and weight shifts remain exactly the same as in Versions 1

and 2.

B c Figure 3.3 .6

Palm Strike: Phase 3


D E


Phase 4: Add the More Difficult Palm Strike to Weight Shift and Waist Turn

A B c

Figure 3.3.7

Palm Strike: Version 4

This variation involves a weight shift, waist turn and a more difficult version of the

Palm Strike. Practicing this more difficult and high-value version will prepare you

to do the arm reversal movements in the Single Palm Change. This is especially

true for the Heaven and Water palm versions. It can also help you better learn the

coiling movements of Chen style tai chi. Before practicing this variation, you must

have significantly opened your body from practicing the earlier versions.

1. At the midpoint of the movement, your forearms will touch rather than

not touching as in earlier phases (Figure 3.3.78).



A B c

Figure 3.3.8

Palm Strike, Version 4: More Difficult Option

2. At the first point of contact with your forearms, your rising palm faces

upward and the fingers are just forward of the tip of your upper arm's

elbow. Next, you move that palm a bit further sideways across your body,

and rotate it until your thumb faces up vertically (Figure 3.3.8A). Your

upper palm also rotates to a thumb-up position. At this point, shrink and

close everything you can and twist your arms further, so your palms rotate

upward (Figure 3.3.8 B).

3. Then, as you shift and turn to either side and do a Palm Strike, grow and

open whatever you can. Both forearms now twist against each other as the

lower palm rises to do a Palm Strike and the upper palm descends to the

side of your hip (Figure 3.3.8C).



Phase 4: Alternate Version

1. Establish a steady and smooth shifting of weight and twisting of your arms

and legs. You should arrive at the middle of your weight shift at the same

time your palms have arrived at the midpoint-palm position. See Figure

3.3.8.

2. At first, make sure your midriff area stays open and does not collapse.

Then, from this open position, close your midriff to the midpoint of the

movement and open it from the midpoint to the completion of the

movement.

3. During the entire movement, the retracting arm should twist inwardly.

Close your joints, kwa and other body cavities on this side of your body.

4. Likewise, the extending striking palm should twist outwardly. Open your

joints, kwa and other body cavities on this side of your body.

Important Points to Remember for all Phases

• Be sure to keep your four points aligned and don't contract the

neck, chest or shoulder's nest areas.

• Use either the methods of regular or reverse breathing while

expanding or shrinking your belly to power your movements.

• Maintain the connection of your palm and arms to your spine

through your shoulders.

• Practice slowly at first to link your body into a single unit.

Later, you can practice as fast as you can while maintaining

maximum internal connection between all parts of your body.

Build up to moving at faster speeds only very gradually.



Drill, Phase 1

Overview The Drill unification exercise strongly trains the body's rising and falling currents

of energy. Equally, it is a fundamental method for enabling chi to absorb into and

emanate from the lower tantien, spine and left, right and central channels. Drill is

done with a more projecting intent and yang (rather than yin) internal strength.

This unification exercise and its many variations may be done using only one

hand at a time or both hands simultaneously. In this text, only the one-handed

version is presented with illustrations since it's sufficient to warm up the body for

the Single Palm Change. The second version that uses both hands is explained

without illustrations.

31



A

A B c D E

Figure 3.4.1

Drill, Phase 1 with the Left Hand and No Waist Turn

Benefits

The value of Drill is multifold in terms of balancing the body's various natural

processes while practicing qigong, bagua or tai chi.

Personal Health

In the normal course of a day, your physical body performs a multitude of up

and down vertical motions during which your internal organs rise and fall,

muscles extend and retract, and fluids are affected in various ways. If these

vertical physical actions become unbalanced (and therefore do not operate

smoothly), they can have subtle yet direct correlations to negative emotions.

Negative emotions can be yin, where sadness and generally being down are



A

F G H

Figure 3.4.1 (con't)

Drill, Phase 1 with the Left Hand and No Waist Turn

examples, or yang, where anger and being hyper are examples. Yin/Yang

emotions can naturally become irritated, disturbed or unbalanced because they

are directly connected to and can be influenced by correlated disturbed vertical

physical flows.

In reverse fashion, disturbed flows can also make the body prone to physical

disease or injury. So, if these vertical flows are made smooth, ill health problems

and stress-related emotions are intrinsically more likely to become balanced and

disappear.

Drill enables your tissues to more easily turn or twist from left to right. So, for

example, if you raise your hand and you turn it either up or down, you will get a

slight or large amount of rotation or twisting around the muscles into your arm.

Over time, a function of Drill is to get this turning to transfer into your legs, and

even more importantly, inside and between your internal organs.



Chi Development

The main function of Drill is to bring your body's constant sense of rising and

falling energy fully online. So, when your hand goes up, your chi rises from your

feet to the crown of your head and fingers. When your hand goes down, your chi

descends from the top of your head and inward from your fingers to your torso

and finally your feet.

Healing

You can adapt Drill to many hands-on techniques that are based upon twisting

and spiraling of physical tissues or energetic pathways in the body.

As the Palm Strike, Drill can dramatically enhance a bodyworker's ability to bring

energy directly into the palm, back of the hand and fingers. This enables the heal

er's chi to penetrate be

low the skin deeply into

a client's/patient's body

exceptionally well and

with minimum effort. It

also increases sensitivity

to heal any place in the

body, including the mus

cles, fascia, bones and

visceral organs.

The energetic strength engendered to bring up chi from the feet and not only

to the fingertips, but also past the boundary of the etheric body, gives the

practitionerthea bilityto actually project energy sufficiently outofthei rfi ngers. (The

intermediate level ofthe basic Drill unification exercise is derived from the sixteen

neigong.) This gives the healer the ability to realistically trace the line of a specific

pulse to its related internal organs. This allows the healer to obtain a diagnosis or

directly cause an immediate energetic rebalancing of the organ itself as a prelude

to the appropriate Chinese medical intervention, which the diagnosis indicates is

required for healing.



When in China, I constantly heard of many people who practiced these unification exercises-including bodyworkers, acupuncturists and herbalists-that claimed they were incredibly valuable aids in their learning curve for acquiring the sensitivity to feel a body or take pulses well. The sheer volume of chi that floods their fingertips directly translated into the ability to feel what was on the other end. That is they could then feel inside someone else's body, whether pulses, physical tissues or chi.

Martial Arts

Drill is probably the most common exercise shown in bagua books because of its

importance to martial arts applications (see Appendix 1 on p. 77).

Meditation

Drill can engender an extremely regular rhythm within the mind and spirit

because it regulates and balances the body's up and down energy currents. So

the mind can become quite capable of generating a great amount of motion and

yet simultaneously be quite still.

Metaphorically, your mind and spirit become like a cylinder that turns around a

thin thread running through its center. So, although you may have an incredible

volume of physical and mental movement, the thread in the cylinder's center

remains very, very still. This is regardless of the speed at which chi moves or your

mind processes information inside the cylinder.

Eventually, all the turning, twisting and potential spiraling of chi within your

physical movement, body and chi activates the thread of stillness at the center.

This thread can give you access to your body's central channel of energy where

it concentrates in your torso, neck and head and the bone marrow of your limbs.

In terms of meditation, Drill inculcates stillness within movement and move

ment within stillness, a fundamental principle permeating all of Taoism and

Buddhism.



Instructions

Version 1: Basic Steps

Beginning Position (Figure 3.4.2A): Begin with your feet parallel and torso facing forward. Your hands are at your hips, palms face down with your arms well bent.

1. One hand rises and drills and moves toward your centerline (B).

2. The rising hand moves in an arc forward from your hip and across your

body to arrive at the centerline of your body (C). As this occurs, your arm

extends forward about halfway of the total distance.

3. Gradually, the hand fully extends and moves up the centerline of your

body to arrive with your fingertips at a height between the bottom o~your

throat and the top of your head (D-E).

4. Your arms and legs twist outward and your armpits slightly open in

coordination with your arm extending.

5. Gradually, rise out of and open both sides of your kwa until fully open at

the end of your hand rising.

A 8 c Figure 3.4.2

D


E


6. Twist your legs outward in proportion to the speed of the rising hand.

Evenly rotate/twist your arm outward from your shoulder to your fingertips.

7 Your hand descends and turns over to face palm down. In reverse order, it

exactly retraces the path it took to rise up.

8. Your upper hand moves down your centerline to the middle of your

abdomen (E-G).

9. Next, it leaves your body's centerline to return to the side of your hip, palm

facing down (G-1).

10. Your arm gradually bends and twists inward.

11. Your arms twist inward and armpits slightly close in coordination with your

arm bending and retracting.

12. Gradually, sit in and close both sides of your kwa as your hand descends to

your hip.

13. Twist your legs inward as your hand descends. Twist your legs inward in

proportion to the speed of the falling hand.

14. Repeat the exercise with the opposite hand.

Chi should sink downward from your elbow with a sense of internal strength.

H Figure 3.4.2 (con't)



HOW HIGH SHOULD YOUR HAND GO? How high your hands go depends on how much your body wants to stretch according to the seventy percent rule. Factors to consider include your general state of flexibility or the need to accommodate a physico/limitation derived from illness or injury. Only have your looser arm go as high as your less flexible arm. Only move your less flexible arm to the place where you can connect to the maximum extent-rather than disconnect-that arm and its hand to the inside of your body, especially your spine, internal organs and lower

,~:.~ tantien. 1:•~;1: z

'1=~~



Drill, Phases 2-5 Intermediates

Progressive Phases of Drill Although the hand motions remain the same as in Phase 1, the

leg movements ofthis exercise can be done in five progressively

more difficult ways. Each phase demands increasingly greater

bodily coordination:

1. This phase is presented in the previous section. In Phase 1,

you face forward, keeping your weight evenly distributed

between both legs without shifting weight or turning your

waist.

39


Figure 3.5.1


2 Turn at the waist from left to right, keeping your weight

evenly distributed between your legs (Figure 3.5.2).

3. With feet wider apart than in Phase 2, the rising. and falling

of a single hand (Figure 3.5.3) or both hands (Figure 3.5.4) is

coordinated with the shifting of your weight and the turning

of your waist. If you move only one hand, it rises as you turn

to one direction and falls as you shift weight and turn to the

other side. If you use both hands, one rises as the opposite

falls.

4. Your weight is on one leg with the other extended forward

and turning your waist (Figure 3.5.5).

A 8

Figure 3.5.3

Drill, Phase 3:

c

Figure 3.5.2

D

Shift Weight and Turn Your Body, Single Hand Variation

During this series of photos, Bruce's feet are always on the same line. Notice that Figures A and Dare basically shot from straight ahead while

Figures Band Care shot at 30- and 60-degree angles, respectively. The different angles are meant to best show the position

of the hands and waist turns.



Figure 3.5.4

Drill, Phase 3:

Shift Weight and Turn Your Body, Double Hand Variation

Ultimately, this version is the most central to the Single Palm Change and becomes particularly important once you can coordinate your hand movements. The first three phases will help you achieve the necessary hand coordination.

5. While shifting weight back and forth between your

front and rear legs (Figure 3.5.6), this method uses

both hands to drill simultaneously. One goes up and

the other goes down as you alternate turning your

waist left and right on each leg. This more difficult

way of practicing Drill is mostly of value to those

interested in the martial arts tradition.

Figure 3.5.6


Figure 3.5.5


' I (

\ \_

I ·t 'L_j (

A B c D E F

Figures 3.5.7

Drill, Phase 2: Waist Turns

The complete rising and falling of the right hand.

Phase 2: Turn Your Waist This is variation is essentially the same as Phase 1 with a few additions, which are

geared toward opening up the body's horizontal channels, also called "collateral

meridians:' These meridians go around the body like belts at different heights

and connect the vertical acupuncture meridians to each other. Activating these

collateral meridians helps to energize your internal organs.

1. Coordinate the turning of your waist with the rising of your hand in such a

way that your waist moves your hand and not vice-versa.


\ @

G


H J

Figures 3.5.7 (can't)

Drill, Phase 2: Waist Turns

The complete rising and falling of the right hand.

K

2. During the rising part of the movement (Figure 3.5.7 A-F), turn your waist.

Also turn/twist your legs and arms outward. Use both to create an energetic

flow that rises up from your foot, moves through your legs, activates your

lower tantien, internal organs and spine, and sends a steady upward wave

of chi to your fingertips.

3. Let the rising current of energy power the turning/twisting of your waist

and your rising hand. This causes internal strength to flow into your forearm

and fingertips.



4. Use the rising current to help lengthen your waist and release a strong yet

relaxed expansion of your internal organs and abdominal muscles.

5. When you are able to perform more advanced intermediate-level

instructions, let the chi rise up either your spine-or better yet, your

central channel-and open everything you can as your body grows. Also,

turn/twist the legs and hands in opposite directions with the legs twisting

inward when the hands twist outward.

6. During the descending part of the movement (Figure 3.5.7G-K):

• Turn your waist back to where it began and twist your arms and legs inward.

• Use your intent to encourage a descending energetic wave from your hands and head through your torso, pelvis, legs and feet into the earth.

• Power your falling hand by the turning/twisting of your waist. Move your arm, hand and fingers first down your centerline to the middle of your abdomen, and from there away from your centerline to the side of your hip.

• Slightly bend your fingers and turn your forearm to generate pulling or gripping power in your hand.

• Abiding by the 70 percent rule, compress your waist and gently pressurize your internal organs and abdominal muscles.

• For a higher level of intermediate practice, twist the legs and hands in opposite directions with the legs twisting outward and the hands twisting inward.

• Create an energetic flow that descends from your head, spine and fingertips, moves through your arms, and compresses and settles into your lower tantien, internal organs and spine. The energetic flow then moves down through your feet.

• Your chi should also descend down the centerline of your body in front of your spine-or better yet, your central channel.



7. After the descending wave of chi from your head and fingertips reaches

your feet, continue it into the earth. (Ideally, this downward wave into the

earth will naturally generate a rising wave that you can use to power the

next cycle of upward movement.)

In Phase 2 and later phases, you position the hand that is still in space (unmoving)

in such a way that you "anchor" your moving hand. There are three progressively

more difficult methods that gradually stretch the inside of your body more and

more.

• Keep your unmoving hand's wrist straight and let your fingers

project chi toward the ground.

• Press your unmoving hand's palm downward to project chi to

the ground. Do not lock your wrist.

• Position your unmoving hand behind you, so the back of your

hand touches the vertebrae just behind your lower tantien.

This is the height on your spine where the energy gate known

as mingmen, or "the door of life" is located. (The corresponding

acupuncture point known by the same name is located a little

higher on your body.)

Phase 3: Shift Your Weight and Turn Your Waist

Phase 3 has two variations that incorporate wider stances, weight shifting and

waist turning. In the first variation, one hand moves; in the second, both hands

move.

For more information about how to place your feet wider, shift weight and turn your

waist, see the revised edition of Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body.



PHASE 3 OF DRILL DIFFERS FROM CLOUD HANDS Phase 3 of Drill with both arms moving is very similar to the movement known as Cloud Hands that is practiced in various qigong and tai chi styles. However, there are several main differences, including:

• The motion of Drill as specific to bagua is done with a more tightly elliptical and less rounded angle of the arms than in Cloud Hands.

• The bottom hand moves with a more vertical rather than with a more horizontally rounded motion.

• Ideally, the upper elbow and hand in Drill finish directly on the body's centerline rather than at a forty-five-degree angle, as often practiced in Cloud Hands.

• Drill is practiced with more projected intent and yang /rite mal strength than is Cloud Hands. ~~~~

'~-;.~

A B c

Figure 3.5.8

Drill Phase 3: One-handed Variation

Legs are wider than in Phase 1: Beginning position (A); Drill motion as done with weight shifting and waist turning (B-C).


I


Variation 1: One Hand Rises and Descends

Beginning Position: Your waist is turned to the right, and your weight is fully on your outside (right) leg.

1. Your unmoving (left) hand may assume one of two positions. One, the back of your hand is behind your back and rests on your spine, ideally just behind your lower tantien. Or,

two, it remains palm down at your hip.

2. The hand, waist and other actions are the same as in Phase

2. Only now you will shift your weight by pushing off from

the weighted leg and turning your waist fully from one

side to the other (Figure 3.5.88-C) Be sure to maintain

your four points as you turn. Over months of practice,

your legs should progressively get wider and hips lower as A your body stretches out and you become internally more

coordinated. Remember the 70 percent rule.

Variation 2: One Hand Rises while the Other Falls

Variation 2 has the same weight shifts, waist turns and hand movements as

Variation 1 only now both hands will move simultaneously-as one rises the

other falls (3.5.8A-C).

1. Complete the upward movement of Variation 1. Move your weight, so it is

on the leg toward which you have turned. Put your unmoving hand beside

your hip with your palm turned down.



A 8 c

Figure 3.5.9


Both hands simultaneously rise and fall in coordinated and opposite directions to each other.

D

2. Shift your weight and turn your waist toward your other leg. Lower your

upper hand and in direct coordination with the downward movement, drill

upward with your other hand. When you have finished your weight shift

and waist turn, your upper and lower hands will have reversed positions.

3. As you continue to shift your weight and turn your waist from side to

side in coordinated opposite fashion, one hand will rise as the other falls.

Your hands now move like two objects attached to the opposite ends of

a pulley. So as one object (hand) rises, it causes the other object (hand) to

fall in proportionate speed to the other.



E F G

Figure 3.5.9 (con't)


Both hands simultaneously rise and fall in coordinated and opposite directions to each other.

4. As your hands rise and fall, shift weight and turn your waist.

5. When you reach the midpoint of your weight shift and waist turn, face the

front with both palms facing each other on either side of your centerline

at the height of the middle of your abdomen (Figure 3.5.9 D).

6. At the end of your weight shift and waist turn, your rising palm faces your

body's centerline. At a minimum, your fingertips should reach your chin.

Your falling palm is at the side of your hip, facing the ground (Figure 3.5.9A

and G).

7. As you continuously shift between right and left, establish a smooth and

steady weight shifting and turning/twisting (or in time, spiraling) of the

arms.



TWO WAYS YOUR HANDS RISE AND FALL Initially, it is easier to close your entire body while moving to the middle and to open when you move to the sides. Eventually, however, the upward moving hand goes forward and upward as the joints and kwa on the same side of the body open; the descending hand moves downward and backward as the joints and kwa on the same side of the body close. Like a pulley system,. the strength of your descending hand causes your ascending hand to rise.

In the easier version, you breathe out to the middle position and in to the side positions, if you are practicing regular Taoist breathing. If practicing reverse breathing, do the opposite.

In the more advanced version, you pick a handwith which to coordinate your breathing. With regular breathing, you breathe out as that hand rises and breathe in as it falls. For reverse breathing, . ..~:.~ do the opposite. l~W

Phase 4: Back-weighted Step with Waist Turn

One of the primary steps of straight-line walking and Circle Walking is a back

weighted step. Here, you fully sit on your back leg with as close to one-hundred

percent of your weight on it as you can with no strain or muscular strength. Your

other foot is in front of you with your front knee somewhat bent-although not

fully straightened or locked under any circumstances.

In this phase of Drill, put your body in the same position, which continuously

activates the soft-tissue twisting and rising and falling of energy necessary to

Walk the Circle well.

Once you can do this version of Drill, you can dispense with practicing the earlier

versions and concentrate on Phase 4 and ultimately Phase 5.



Beginning Position:

• Your front (right) foot is well in front of the rear (left)

leg with your right foot either flat on the ground or

your heel raised with the ball of the foot on the

ground. Keep it this way for the entire warm-up

(Figure 3.5. 70).

• Put as much of your weight on your rear leg as you

can without any strain, muscular strength or tension.

Keep it this way for the entire unification exercise.

• As you become more internally coordinated and

stretched, your hips should go lower and your front

leg extends farther forward from your rear leg.

• Your waist is turned to the right with both sides of

your kwa closed.

Figure 3.5.1 0

• Your right hand begins at the side of your right hip, palm facing

down.

• Your left hand begins and stays at your hip for the entire

exercise, or rests on your lower spine as in previous phases.

• Ideally, all of your joints and cavities are closed and your spine is

slightly bowed.

• You may either look forward (best option) or down if that

enables you to feel the closing actions of your body better.



G F E D c B

Figure 3.5.11

Drill Upward: Back-weighted Step with Waist Turn

1. Drill upward with your right arm and hand.

• Rise up out of and open your kwa on both sides as you simultaneously open all of your joints, cavities, belly and other body cavities, and gently extend your spine.

• Twist your legs inward to slightly straighten them. Twist your arm outward.

• Let your legs slightly straighten, but not to the point of locking.

• Opening and twisting actions should be the source of your hand propelling upward.

• Allow your chi to rise up from the bottom of your feet to the crown of your head and your fingertips, as in previous phases.

• Initially, your waist turns to face directly forward rather than to either side. Get the advice of a competent instructor or master as to when to turn further as there are many subtle points involved in turning (including safety procedures).


A


F

~' 1P J~' c

~ E D c 8

Figure 3.5.12

Drill Downward: Back-weighted Step with Waist Turn

• Keep your four points aligned.

• As your right arm gradually extends, the palm and fingers will perform all of the same turning actions as in Versions 1-3.

• The center of your palm will finish on your centerline, palm directly facing your body between your throat and top of your head.

2. Move your body and arm down.

• Sit in your kwa, turn your waist to the right, and twist your arm in and your legs out. Close both sides of your kwa and all of your joints, cavities and belly, and gently bow your spine.

• Bring your chi down from the crown of your head and your fingertips to the bottom of your feet, and if possible below, as in previous phases.

• During this sinking movement, be sure to continuously bend your arm, relax your shoulder and keep your elbow tip as

perpendicular to the floor as possible.


A


Phase 5: Forward and Back-weighted

This version uses both hands to drill simultaneously, one up and one down, as you

shift back and forth between your front and rear leg, and alternately turn your waist

left and right once on each leg.

This method simply expands on Versions 3 and 4. Its primary

function is to link the primary twisting, turning, rising and fall

ing actions of Drill through all four of your limbs. As in Phase 3,

Variation 2, use both hands moving up and down rather than

a single hand. Your stance is basically the same as Version 4,

and your back-weighted movements will be similar to those of Figure 3.5.13 Version 4.

In this version, your weight shifts between your rear and forward

leg rather than only being on the rear leg. This weight shift is

similar to what is done in straight-line walking and Circle Walking.

Version 5 is more germane to those practicing bagua as a fight

ing martial art and generally less applicable for those primarily

interested in bagua for health and meditation. Ultimately, only

live instruction by a competent bagua instructor can realistically

fill in all the minute nuances involved with this method.

Important Points to Remember

Figure 3.5.14

During this entire exercise and all its phases, several points should be maintained:

• Ideally, the tips of your elbows should face perpendicular to the floor, so that your arm gently extends away from your spine.

• Your shoulders should be relaxed.



• Evenly rotate/twist your arm out or in from your shoulder to

your fingertips.

• When your hands move either up or down, they should remain

on your body's centerline and not drift off to either side.

• Eventually, your goal is to have your forearm and elbow fully

on your centerline when your arm is raised, which enables the

natural internal strength of your entire arm to lift your hand up

and pull your hand down. This action more easily and naturally

activates the body's micro-cosmic orbit energy circulation and

central channel of energy.



Cut, Phase 1

Overview The Cut unification exercise sets the foundation for all of the horizontal waist and

arm movements of bagua and tai chi. The name of the movement comes from

the appearance of your arm or hand seeming to cut or chop though something.

When your waist turns and your arms move horizontally, your goal is to

unify your body and stabilize the interconnections within it. When turning the

waist side to side and moving the arms into various bagua energy postures,

many practitioners disconnect their arms from their torso-physically and

energetically. This unification exercise seeks to resolve this problem as your

weight from a fixed stance shifts one-hundred percent between your legs.

57



Figure 3.6.1

Cut, Both Sides

Cut only concentrates on one arm at

a time. Ideally, the physical pressure

and chi power should smoothly flow

in both directions between the edge

of your hand and fingers into the mus

cles of your torso and internal organs.

Commonly, however, the chi and con

tinuity of the movement between the

hands and torso becomes severed and

disconnected. Your practice should

seek to remove and re!;olve this

discontinuity.

The exercise involves alternating from

side to side and practicing inward and outward cuts.

Learning Progression

Like all bagua and tai chi techniques, Cut has various progressive levels that go

from the simple to the more complex. Each new level builds on the previous one

and becomes progressively more powerful and useful. Likewise, each new level

performs more functions and adds more value for the same practice time.

Phase 1 focuses on your external body structure and alignments. The next three

phases are intermediate stages, which initially focus on joining unified external

whole body movement to the internal movements of your joints and internal

organs. This eventually extends to include all of the energy channels inside your

body and your etheric field and more.



As each new level becomes stable within your body, it turns into becoming only

a preparation for the next level, which then becomes the only Cut exercise you

must practice. As such, the four phases of Cut unify the body in progressive

stages.

Benefits

Personal Health

Cut can strengthen your legs and internal organs; activate the body's collateral

acupuncture meridians; and stretch the muscles and ligaments of the neck and

shoulders, thereby relieving upper back, neck and shoulder pain.

To learn about Cut's benefits for martial artists in Appendix 1, p. 77.

Meditation

Spiritually, this exercise's purpose is to clear unconscious mini space-outs in the

mind, so you can maintain sufficient relaxed awareness necessary to remain

present in each moment. At a minimum, Cut can help you remedy mini space

outs by making you aware of when you unconsciously and internally disconnect.

By paying attention as your arm cuts through the air, it becomes very possible

to see micro-second by micro-second if and how, moment by moment, you

can remain present. Initially, when cutting outward, many practitioners project

outward into the future and are therefore oblivious to the present. When

they cut inward, their minds often fold inside themselves into a murky, turbid

unawareness of the current moment, which disconnects them from their external

environment. So Cut trains you to become very conscious of gaps in your mind.



Instructions Outside Cut-Final Position:

• Your palm is down.

• The weight finishes fully on your outside leg.

• Your weighted leg and cutting arm are on the same side of your body.

• Your forward or cutting arm is extended to 50 percent of its full potential extension to a

straightened position.

• Ideally, the palm of your cut hand is on your body's centerline (Figure 3.6.2), but no further sideways

than your shoulder's nest (Figure 3.6.7).

• The back of your non-cutting hand rests on your lower spine, behind your lower tantien.

Inside Cut-Final Position:

• Your palm is up.

• The weight finishes fully on your inside leg.

• Your weighted leg and cutting arm are on

opposite sides of your body.

• Your forward or cutting arm is extended to

50 percent of its full potential extension to a straightened position.

• Ideally, the palm of your cut hand is on your body's centerline.

• The back of your non-cutting hand rests on your lower spine, behind your lower tantien.


Figure 3.6.2

Final Position:

Outside Cut

Figure 3.6.3

Final Position:

Inside Cut


VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL KWA FOLDS Either side of your kwa can fold and unfold both vertically and

horizontally. Horizontal kwa folding and "unfolding" or stretching is

used to turn the waist from side to side, usually with one side folding as the other unfolds or stretches. Vertical kwa folds move your torso forward and down toward your legs, and are usually followed by vertical unfolds to move your torso up and back again. An example is the Forward Spine Stretch warm-up introduced in

Module 7. Kwa folds are usually taught as an introduction to the full sixteen neigong method of opening and closing the kwa.

Vertical kwa folds and stretches are usually

used when the body goes up and down,

such as while squatting or bending

forward. Horizontal kwa folds are more

common when the body turns side to side,

as in the various phases of the Cut exercise

or during medium to very large waist turns

in qigong, bagua and tai chi.

Folding the kwa primarily affects the

illiopsosas and adductor muscles. The

illiopsosas is like an elastic, springy rubber

band that can be folded or compressed

and released (stretched) vertically up or

down, or horizontally sideways. It can also

move toward or away from either its top or bottom, or fold and stretch from center to

periphery-either vertically, horizontally

or both simultaneously.

Figure 3.6.4

llliopsosas and

Adductor Musicles

/'The practice of opening and closing the kwa·:is a more advanced

and fuller practice, which involves omni-directional growing (expanding) and shrinking (condensing) from deep within both sides of your kwa. This method primarily focuses on a center-to-periphery movement of chi within the energy gates located on either side of the kwa, or a compression and release of bodily fluids located in



>> A closing and opening of the energy gates or fluids in the kwa

can strongly influence the illiopsoas and a~ductor muscles to move in a manner like a kwa fold and unfold. A closing of the kwa causes

both a vertical and horizontal kwa folding to activate. An opening of the kwa stimulates both a vertical and horizontal kwa stretching

. ,~:.~ and unfoldmg. I~{~]J:

... ':! :.'7

Kwa folds and opening and closing of the kwa are part of the Marriage of Heaven and

Earth Qigong.

Moving between Inside and Outside Cut Positions

Figure 3.6

Move between

Inside and Outside Cut Positions

© 201 0 Bruce Frantzis- AII Rights Reserved.


To move between the inside and outside Cut positions:

1. Shift your weight from side to side.

2. Turn your waist by horizontally folding the side of your kwa to which you

are moving and unfolding the side of your kwa from which you are moving

away.

3. Let your arm move in a rounded curving motion, driven by the actions of

your legs and torso.

4. As you move from an outward to inward Cut, gradually and continuously

rotate/twist your arm so that your palm turns from facing up to down.

5. As an alternative to #3-4 above, you may find it helpful in the early stages

to not rotate or twist your arm as you move from side to side. You can

either keep your palm up or down. Then, when your sense is that your legs,

waist, spine and arm gel as a unified whole, you can rotate/twist your arm.

6. Maintain your arm extended to 50 percent offull extension as you inwardly

and outwardly Cut left and right. Do not bend or stretch your arm.

7. As you move back and forth, project your intention into the edge of your

cutting palm in a yang manner, as if you were cutting something with it.

8. As you move, your elbow tip faces perpendicular to the ground or as close

as possible while keeping your shoulders down.

In this phase, your goal is to not move your arm independently in space, but

only as a joined connected extension of your legs, waist and spine. This is a step

toward making whole body movement possible, which is a central governing

principle upon which all bagua and tai chi movements are based.

Do a cycle of outward and inward Cuts a minimum of five to ten times with one

arm and repeat with the opposite arm.



Cut, Phases 2-4 Intermediates

Phase 2: Stretch to Corners,

Bend to Middle Now that the previous phase has connected your arm to your torso and legs,

next add extending your arm to seventy to eighty percent of full extension on

inward and outward Cuts. Bend your arm to fifty percent as you shift weight to

face forward at the midpoint (weighted fifty-fifty), as you appropriately twist your

arms and rotate your palms to seventy percent. Finish completely to one side.

65



Beginning Position (not shown): Your waist faces directly forward at the midpoint. Ideally, your palm is positioned on your centerline along with your forearm: the palm is up if you wish to do begin with an outside Cut; the palm is down if you wish to do begin with an inside Cut. Your arm is 50 percent bent with both armpits half closed.

A B

Figure 3.7.1

Cut: Stretch to Corners

1. Do a right outward Cut by pushing off your left leg, turning your waist

outward and keeping your four points aligned. Upon finishing, your right

arm should be 70 percent extended, elbow still bent, straight out and

directly in front of your torso's centerline (Figure 3.7.1 A).

• Only extend your arm 70-80 percent. Avoid the tendency to fully straighten and lock your elbow. Your cutting arm is driven by your waist and legs.

• Twist your arm outward, so that your palm turns to face down as you extend your arm.

• As your body shifts and turns, open your kwa and joints while projecting chi out from the edge of your palm.



• The edge of the palm remains more or less on your centerline

(Figure 3.7.1 A), but under no circumstances goes wider than

your shoulder's nest (Figure 3.7.1 B).

• Twist your arms and legs outward. Your cutting arm is driven by your waist and legs.

2. Turn and shift weight to the left and begin an inward Cut.

• Move to the midpoint, shrink, close your kwa and joints, and bend your arm to 50 percent.

• Rotate your hand to halfway at the midpoint where your thumb is more or less pointing up

ward, and absorb chi into your palm and fingers.

• Twist your arm and legs inward.

3. Complete the inward Cut to the left.

• Turn your waist and shift your weight completely

to the opposite side while rotating your arm, so

your palm finishes facing upward.

• Extend your arm to 70 percent, grow and open your joints and kwa, and project energy from

the edge of your palm. Ideally, your cutting palm

should finish on your centerline and not beyond

it.

• Continue to twist your arm inward while twisting

your legs outward.

Figure 3.7.2

Inward Cut

4. Change direction again and practice an outward Cut in Figure 3.7.3

two similar stages. Outward Cut

5. Continuously repeat outward and inward Cuts with each

done in two stages. Ideally, the edge of your palm remains more or less

on your centerline, but under no circumstances goes wider than your

shoulder's nest.



Between the end of either an inward or outward Cut to the next movement's

midpoint:

• Shrink your body.

• Close your kwa and joints, and anything else you can.

• Twist your legs inward.

• Bend your arm to 50 percent.

• Absorb chi into your fingers and the edge of your palm.

• Rotate your hand halfway (more or less) to where your thumb points up.

Between the midpoint and the inward or outward Cut's end:

• Grow your body.

• Extend the bend in your arm from 50 to 70 percent.

• Open your kwa and joints.

• Twist your legs outward.

• Your palm rotates to finish facing down or up and you project

chi into your fingers and the edge of your palm.

Do a cycle of outward and inward Cuts a minimum of five to ten times with one

arm and then repeat with the opposite arm.

Take your time to integrate this phase of practice before moving forward to

the next phase, which can take anywhere from days to months. You want the

opening-closing and twisting actions of your waist and legs to cause your arm

to extend and retract, and fully energize the edge of your palm-both when

absorbing and projecting chi.



Phase 3: Bend to Corners, Stretch to Middle

In this phase, your cutting arm will finish to the sides for an inward or outward

cut with a fifty-percent extension. Your arm will stretch to a seventy-percent

extension at the midpoint of your side-to-side movement.

A

Figure 3 .7.4

Bending and Extending

8

A) 50-percent Bend B) 70-percent Extension



Beginning and Midpoint Positions:

• Your weight is evenly distributed between your feet your right arm is extended 70 percent and your right thumb points up on your body's centerline (ideally, along with your forearm). Your elbow tip is perpendicular to the ground.

• Your body grows as your joints and kwa open.

• Your arm twists inward and absorbs chi into it.

• Ideally, your right leg twists outward and your left twists inward.

• Alternately, if this is overly challenging, both legs can twist outward at the midpoint position and inward when you shift

weight to the side.

Outward Cut 1. Turn your waist and shift your weight to the right

by pushing your left leg into the ground.

2. Bend your arm to 50 percent.

3. Add and mesh inside your movement a seamless

arc of your arm and hand with a distinct sideward

Cut.

4. Twist your arm and hand outward to finish with

the palm facing down.

5. Depending on your degree of control, the rotating

palm's edge might end up initially finishing in

front of your shoulder's nest, or ideally in front of

your centerline.

6. Although mostly facing sideways, your elbow tip

should still sink strongly toward the ground. So,

Figure 3.7.5

Outward Cut

while twisting your arm muscles outwardly, add a bit more twist in the

upper arm than in the lower, which·makes your elbow tip face downward.



This method of Cut is used by martial artists to train pulling actions with the thumb and edge of an open palm.

Inward Cut 1. As you move back to the midpoint, extend your arm to 70 percent.

• Twist your arm inward and rotate your palm halfway.

• Twist your legs outward. (In the more advanced option, your left leg twists outward while your right leg twists inward.)

• Grow your body and open your joints and kwa.

• Project chi out of the edge of your palm.

2. Smoothly shift your weight to the left, turn your waist to the side and finish

the inward cut.

• Fully shift your weight and turn your waist to the left by smoothly pushing off your right leg.

• Your arm bends to 50 pecent.

• Twist your arm inward.

• Rotate your palm to face up.

• Shrink your body and close your joints and kwa.

• Twist your legs inward. (In the more advanced option, your left leg twists outward while your right leg twists inward.)

• Absorb chi into your fingers and the edge of your palm.

• Sink your elbow tip to point perpendicular to the ground, or as close as possible.

3. Change direction and practice an outward Cut in two similar stages.

Repeat inward and outward Cuts a minimum of five to ten times. Then, switch

arms and do the same with the opposite arm.



Phase 4: Add Forward Cutting Action

Next, you will create a combined forward and sideways palm Cut for both your

inward and outward Cuts. Follow all Phase 2 instructions regarding bending the

arms to the midpoint and stretching them from the midpoint to the sides.

About three-quarters of the way to concluding the horizontal arc of the arm's

sideward motion, continue the circular arc of the arm from the armpit and upper

arm-but not from the hand.

At the motion's end, as your armpit makes its final extension concurrent with the

arm's arc, add a forward cutting action into the mix. Practice until both the side

ward and forward motions merge. This merging originates from the twisting of

the elbow and wrist and infusing energy into the edge of your hand in a forward

direction. So the arm still moves sideways, but the hand moves forward like a

straight-line tangent off a circle.

From the Outward or Inward Cut to the Midpoint

• Your fingers and palm draw chi from beyond your hand

through your arm and into your spine and lower tantien.

• Your body shrinks as you close all of your joints, cavities and

spine. This is the mechanism that enables you to absorb and

return chi from your palms and arms to your spine and lower

tantien.

• Your arm twists inward if you are doing an inside Cut or

outward if you are doing a outside Cut. Your palm rotates and

your arm bends to 50 percent regardless.

• Ideally, the inside leg twists inward and the outside leg twists

outward. Alternately, if this is overly challenging, you can twist



both legs inward to the center and outward to either side.

From the Midpoint to the End of the Inward or Outward Cut

Add a forward slicing Cut to the circular arc of your arm.

• Your lower tantien emanates and projects chi up your spine,

through your arm to the bottom of your palm's edge and

through it to finish at the top of your little finger, and outward

beyond your hand.

• Your body grows as you open your, joints, kwa, other cavities

and spine. This is the mechanism that enables chi to move from

your tantien to your hand and beyond, and which energizes

the cutting edge of your palm as you rotate it.

• Your arm twists inward if you are doing an inward Cut or

outward if you are doing an outward Cut and extends to

70-80 percent.

• The straightening leg twists inward and the bending leg twists

outward.

Repeat your inward and outward Cuts a minimum of five to ten times. Then,

switch arms and repeat.

Over Time and with Practice

Move toward incrementally turning your waist to ninety degrees or more.

• Open your kwa on the side that your leg straightens and close

it on the side receiving your weight (onto which you turn).

• Have a sense of your chi filling the edge of your palm.

• Your elbow tip faces perpendicular to the ground and

energetically sinks downward.



• With outward Cuts, your armpits should slightly open and with

inward Cuts they slightly close.

• Reverse the opening, closing and twisting twice in each cut,

regardless whether turning inward or outward. Start from the

side while fully weighted, moving to the midpoint facing

directly forward (50-50 weighted). Next, from the center, shift

to the side where you are ideally 1 00-0-percent weighted.

Over time, turning can be made more powerful by not allowing your feet to shift

position or otherwise move at all. This increases the body's internal compressions

dramatically-both closing and condensing and releasing and opening.

Go back and review all of the previous instructions and be sure you can practice

them well.

Important Points to Remember

During all four phases of Cut, inward and outward cutting actions have many

points in common.

• Ideally, the feet are parallel; slightly wider than your shoulder's

width.

• Your weight finishes 100 percent on one leg or the other.

• The leg shifts and waist transitions through the midpoint to the

opposite leg should be smooth, even and gradual.

• In the final position, your waist is turned toward your weighted

leg.

• The cutting palm should finish between the level of your

heart and throat, whichever gives you the greatest sense of

connection.

• Your arm and palm continuously and evenly rotate.

• Your armpits never completely close down.



• The inward Cut's palm only goes as far as the body's centerline

and not beyond to the opposite side. The outward Cut's palm

does not go sideways past your shoulder's nest.


Appendix 1 Martial Applications

Body Unification Exercises

Palm Strike

In its opening phase, the straight-line, Palm Strike hand movement is more useful

for making straight-on strikes, creating vibrating strikes and exploding internal

power at minimum distance. Its closing phase is more useful for sticking, control

ling, trapping and pulling an opponent's arms closer to you purely by making

skin contact with their forearm or wrist (Figure 3A.1 ).

Figure 3A.l

Palm Strike

77



When done circularly with a larger upward curving motion (See Section 2), the

Palm Strike, in its rising phase, is quite valuable in two ways: it develops the

strength and penetrating power of your fingers; and the palm can rip and tear

internal organs or break multiple ribs at once. Its retracting motions use the

fingers to claw and pull out pieces of anatomy, such as collarbones, nerves

surrounding the heart, and ligaments and tendons attached to joints. It also

allows the fingertips to grab and pull an opponent without needing to close the

hand.

Dri II The Drill exercise is a basic barebones version of bagua's fundamental signature

fighting technique. It is equally used defensively and offensively. It is a basic

deflection and grab or arm-control technique that is usually followed by a strike

or throw with either the same or opposite hand.

Among its many martial functions are:

• Controlling your body's centerline, a basic feature of most Chinese martial arts.

• Easily training the body for basic vertical and horizontal physical rotating (and eventually twisting and spiraling) of the forearms, upper arms and hands. This is a method used in almost every bagua movement and martial application in one form or another.

• Giving your body the ability to really express its energetic power right through to your hands and fingertips.

• The upward part of Drill is a fundamental attack technique for every kind of upward or diagonal strike existing in martial arts.

• The downward part of Drill creates a myriad number of cutting palm edge strikes as well as other downward strikes and throws.



Although Drill is normally done vertically, its martial applications are not

limited to vertical motions. By simply changing the angle that the fingers face

and altering the angle of your elbow tip and armpit, your entire arm can Drill at

every angle from one-hundred-eighty degrees upward to zero degrees facing

the ground.

A B

Figure 3A.2

Drill

c

Using Drill techniques done at angles from zero degrees downward to one

hundred-eighty degrees upward, you can metaphorically create ten-thousand

(i.e., an infinite variety of) applications in real time. Among the specific martial

techniques Drill seeks to develop are:

1. Upward drilling motions that cause an opponent's hand to rise (Figure

3A.2 A) or be thrown up in the air using the pengjin (expansive energy) of

your arms (3A.2 C). Although peng jin manifests in your arms, ultimately

its source is a direct consequence of developing peng jin in your legs from

practice of mud stepping in Circle Walking.



2. Practice of the upward motion also develops the ability of the fingers

to Drill inside an opponent's body in a manner similar to drilling a hole

through a piece of wood or stone. If developed sufficiently, the fingers can

penetrate flesh, or at minimum knock vertebrae out of place (Figure 3A.2

B), separate ribs, or take an internal organ and twist it radically out of place.

If you have sufficient chi, these abilities can be used to cause damage to

an opponent, penetrate inside their body and develop the sensitivity and

strength to actually move the tissues there with minimum effort. Moreover,

if Drill is done with a closed fist instead of the hand open, it can deliver a

substantial uppercut.

Figure 3A.3

Downward Drilling Motion

The motion of Drill enables or directly creates at least half of the martial movements included in the 64-movement linear and circular bagua forms.

3. Downward drilling motions pull an opponent directly down or to some

angle on the side of your body (3A.3). If done with all of the internal power

specifics attached to the technique, it can be used to sprain or dislocate

vertebrae and snap an opponent's shoulder, neck or spine. This is done in a

similar manner to the primary pull down technique (called tsai in Chinese)

of tai chi chuan that incorporates a melding of the pressing down and

splitting techniques of tai chi (called an and lieh, respectively).



Cut The movements of the Cut exercise have several basic applications.

1. At its most simplistic level, an outward cutting movement can be used like

an impact momentum orientated karate-like chop to crush what it hits

whether the head, throat, neck, ribs, chest, spine or arm of an opponent.

Figure 3A.4

Cut Serves as a Strike

2. While at a more sophisticated level, the inward or outward Cut serves as a

strike where it can be used to slice, rend and tear through an opponent's

flesh or bone like a knife. The effect is quite different from the shock impact

of an impulse momentum orientated karate-like chop.

For more details regarding the difference between impulse momentum strikes and wave or cutting strikes, see The Power of Internal Martial Arts and Chi, Chapter 3.



Figure 3A.5

Cut Develops Your Ability to

Grab and Pull Your Opponent

3. Practice of the Cut exercise can

develop your ability to inwardly and

horizontally grab and powerfully

pull an opponent. This is not just

downward as in Drill, but also upward

or sideways to either throw or break

an opponent's balance while you

counter with your opposite hand.

Figure 3A.6



Figure 3A.7

Inward Cut:

Bring Your Opponent toward Your Body

2. The inward Cut, toward your centerline, can bring your opponent toward

your body.

A

Figure 3A .8

Inward Cut:

Pull Your Opponent Sideways

B



3. An inward Cut can pull an opponent outward and sideways (Figure 3A.8 A).

As you Cut, you can either grab your opponent's arm or stick to it with the

skin of your palm as it faces down, and counter with your opposite hand or

foot.

4. Similarly, an outward twisting, turning and cutting movement will pull the

opponent away from you and allow you to counter with either your hand

or foot (3A.9 B).

A

Figure 3A.9

Outward Cut:

B

Pull Your Opponent Away from You


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1 Bagua Body Unification Method