Engaging & Balancing the Sphere in Qigong, Bagua & Tai Chi

Posted by Paul Cavel on 24 March 2010

Engaging & Balancing the Sphere (1)

When you have embodied the spherical aspect of the internal arts it will naturally appear in every form you practise whether Circle Walking, bagua, qigong, sitting or breathing. Until then, your focus is on creating circularity in your movements.

So this lesson is much more suited to the long-term student. Although beginners could also use the information as a compass, as a directional indicator of where you are heading.

Balancing the Body in Motion

Now let’s look at engaging the physical opening of the sphere balancing the body in motion. When you move in qigong, and specifically in Gods, you look for motion in all directions at once rather than sequentially. However, in the beginning, you will need to practice each of the six directions individually, in pairs, two planes together and finally the whole sphere.

As you open from the kwa and spine you look for:

• The tail bone lengthening down through the legs to the feet as the upper spine lengthens up to the crown of the head to achieve the down/up energy/expansion.
• Whichever parts of the fingers, hands and arms are facing forward, the knees and toes expand forward as the spine expands back slightly to achieve the forward/back energy/expansion.
• The shoulder blades, perineum, pelvis and rib cage open to the sides to achieve the left/right energy/expansion (and in some cases the elbows, hands and fingers).

All of this is happening simultaneously in order to create the spherical opening of the body and then everything shrinks back to where it was on the close, again all together. Bagua does this exceptionally well, but before you put this into your walking or bagua you need to practice with both feet flat on the ground for quite a while.

First in stages (mentioned above) build up to the spherical expansion of the body in the standing qigong posture “hug a tree.” Practice until you can obtain a very comfortable and relaxed spherical operation of the body with ease and without tension. Then, add this spherical work to your regular qigong sets, but not yet in your bagua or tai chi as you need absorption time. Over the coming months we’ll take this work further.

A Word about Spherical Work

This is quite a tricky piece of kit to play with and so, as normal, I suggest the age old method of separate and combine. There is so much going on that if you don’t adhere to the methodology we discussed last month, you’re likely to leave out crucial components and eventually hit the glass ceiling.

Practice either the breathing or the physical opening but don’t make them combine yet, be patient–all comes to he who waits. Remember the 70% rule: Don’t push, don’t force and relax into your practice.

Have a relaxing practice,
Paul

Any physical and/or energetic exercise can carry risks. Do not attempt these exercises if you have any physical, emotional or mental conditions that may make you susceptible to injury.

© 2010 Paul Cavel—All rights reserved. Links are appreciated, but copying or distributing any portion of this article without written consent is prohibited.

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