spiraltao

I would just like to roll back into town, in a robe, jogging pants, wife beater, whatever... I just wanna ROLL ENLIGHTENED!

I heard weed burns up yer jing...

Kent howard on turning the circle ala Wang Shujin! ONe super important exercise herein. If one follows this to a tee, your stepping will at least have the proper foundation! From Lao Xie of DGS. Really say alot if you listen.

Great photos! I think these will be of great help in personal study and to help others, on the things I know and hasve mastered.

Thanks for all of the useful information. I can see why song is mainly in the shoulders and hips. While playing with my partner Nick (fellow bagua player, Ng family dude) i wanted to try and use a whipping palm to break his super strong grip. He is short but very strong and his grip is really something, at any rate, I kept this in mind as he was playing vice on my wrist, then I let the whip out and he said "OW!" and let go. Hurt his back, cuz he was too tense, I suppose. I thought that was slightly relevant.

I am open to friending, if it doesn't work out we are adults and we can deal with it like that. I am quite easy to get along with though.

I know watermelon is a very yin fruit, cooling.

A Taoist master recommended the Hua Hu Ching to me.

Actually I went and read the Gao Ji Wu stuff and this is close to what I was getting at. I think I mis spelled it, it is a tai chi term, SUNG. "Song (alert relaxation) is a concept that many people are familiar with as emphasized in taijiquan but in baguazhang the use of song is somewhat different. In baguazhang we concentrate on song in two places,the shoulders and the hips. The rest of the body must have jin (power)." "In order to really master baguazhang, in my opinion, the most important thing is to ¨lian yi bu lian li¨, that is to train the intent not the strength. This means that correct strength or power comes from correct intent."

Thanks all! Just got off phone with sifu. He said far too often the answers are right in front of us.

I simply don't understand why people think baguazhang is so difficult, the actual combat seems quite easy to comprehend for me. It is the body mechanics that I do find difficult, that is why I spend so much time on proper body mechanics, so they will be second nature if need to be used.

I will give this a go and try to keep it simple as to avoid a language barrier. Despite our language barrier, I will give a go at this, ChiDragon. First of all, chi travels slightly slower than blood, thus the need to perform the movements slowly, to properly circulate chi and maintain intention and focus. Motion (yang) carries stillness (yin.)

I suppose shen would have been the correct term, I associate yi with will, but i guess it takes the shen to create the jing to change it from will to action. This is a very simple concept, does it make sense. In the songs it says the yi is the general. That could be my mis understanding.

Can't go wrong with Lao Xie Matsuo, in my opinion. He makes some very difficult concepts perfectly understandable. Golden stuff! Looks like I will be getting the Tom Bisio book, lol.

WOW! I am so happy I found this thread. If I were to have to recommend one baguazhang book, it would certainly be BAGUAZHANG-Theory and Application by Dr. Yang Jwing Ming and Master Liang Shou Yu. It has the dragon form, swimming body and deer knife forms. I have yet to get that far into the book though, I have concentrated on the songs. What I like is that the authors offer translations of the translations of the songs. It is like a textbook. It is rather expensive, but worth it. Can you elaborate on the Gao, Liang and Fu styles? I suppose my favorite is Liang being that I know a few of the applications and doing the form is like a big shot of speed! I have learned the first six changes from Wang Shujin's linked palms book by Kent Howard, which is a very affordable book.

I seen that Tom Bisio has a book out about the ding shi postures. I have yet to find any highly detailed info on these postures in book form anyway. Can anyone recommend a book that would have good input in regards to these fundamental postures?

...of course, the waist is the yi that guides them!

Nice to see a sense of humor. Can you explain why fa jin is exclusive to tai chi? Just like Shanlung already stated a handful of people can fajin naturally. Chidragon would please attempt ot explain what fa jin is, other than having to feel master's jin. No hostility here either, just still very confused.

I respectfully disagree with this statement! Please explain why other martial arts DO NOT HAVE IT and what does fa jin get substituted with in arts other than tai ji.

Your last sentence is closest to what we consider play. Practice is just not ENOUGH to describe the way I do my baguazhang. Their are strict rules to our bagua play! in fact several songs, ;)/\. Play goes beyond practice. Are we not out to rid the ego as daoists? The child playing is pretty much ego free in my opinion. I feel another way to look at this is the practitioner vs. the player, but that is a whole other can of worms so to speak. I hope this helps you understand where I am coming from Chi Dragon.

Nilo said:"I have his book and the way I understand it he just says to stand for 1 hout a day and allow the movements to happen if they arise and however they arise, the movements will be unique to each individual. Works for me. The activations are not needed. "

I believe you and am planning on making this and a DGS purchase within the week! I am super excited. Opening the Energy Gates is a super awesome book.