Circle Walking: Making Your Body Conscious (Part 1 of 2)

By Paul Cavel

Bagua is a pure energy art derived from Taoist philosophy and the I Ching (Book of Changes). It has been practised for millennia to embody the universal energies of change and, at advanced levels, can become a vehicle for spiritual development.

For more mundane yet meaningful pursuits, bagua can become a high-level martial art or an effective self-healing practice. High-performers will find it a great way to get a total-body workout and a powerful way to obliterate stress. Bagua, when practised in its full range, is a rigorous and aerobic internal exercise that releases tension from the body and develops your vital life-force energy, called qi in the East.

Bagua offers a wide range of developmental possibilities unlike single-application practices, so over time, as your goals and needs change, you can continue your basic practice and direct your intent towards that which you wish to accomplish. It’s a very economical practice for modern living, when time is of the essence.

The Minimalist’s Paradise: Walking the Circle

The foundation for bagua is Walking the Circle. For some students, Circle Walking alone offers enough depth and benefits to keep them engaged and interested for many years. Apart from being a martial art, a lot of the benefits offered by bagua can be achieved through Circle Walking alone. And, of course, there is no need to specifically train martial applications or train with a martial intent if you aren’t interested in fighting. (Likewise, don’t think you can use bagua to fight if you don’t specifically train the various layers of bagua zhang.)

Regular practice can serve as a no-nonsense, efficient method to open and heal the body, raise and develop your energy, create vibrant health and vitality and, if you choose to walk fast enough, a low-impact, aerobic workout. Bagua could be called the minimalist’s paradise since there are no long forms or complex sets of movements to learn “before” you get to the internal content. You go straight for the meat … or tofu, if that’s your thing — that which gives the possibility of profound and lasting health and vitality. 

Circle Walking Is a Qi Generator

Initially, while Walking the Circle, movements can be clunky and broken. Over time and with practice, your motions will become smoother and more continuous. It’s like starting up a turbine. At first its sluggish and then, as it gets going, a self-perpetuating flow just continues on. Also, like the turbine, when your walking evens out, you start generating serious power … internal energy, qi.

The base energy from the food you eat —jing (or fuel for the turbine)— is circulated through your system as you walk, upgrading and refining that energy into qi (or thrust coming out of the turbine). 

Qi, in this model, is a higher vibration of energy than that which you get from food and rest. This jump in energy is what makes your body stronger, healthier and more vibrant; and your mind more awake, aware and alert.

Water Method practices are ultimately designed to develop your energy in preparation for advancement towards spirit and Emptiness. Bagua can contain all 16 neigong (components of internal power), which can be incorporated into the Circle Walking practice, initially creating a strong, flexible body, and later, developing the spirit. All of this and you’re only walking around in a circle! Not bad.

As you Walk the Circle, you continuously bring up, produce and refine energy through the application of the 16 neigong — or at least those which you embody — as they are woven into your practice. The degree to which neigong are integrated within your practice determines how refined your energy can become.

But here’s the trick: to make the next progression you don’t need to learn a new form, you simply add more internal components, which creates more depth to your practice. In this sense, it’s like having a turbo charger fitted to your car. The car looks the same, but now you have a lot more power under the bonnet. As you upgrade, deepen and refine your practice, you arrive at a point where you are able to generate an enormous amount of qi. At times you can get so caught up in the continuum that you literally have to stop yourself from practising as the space that opens up inside you is absolutely sublime. All nagging thoughts, worries and anxieties are obliterated as your energies open up, flow freely through your system and grow.

Making Your Body Conscious

Initially through Circle Walking and bagua practice, you put your body through its paces. You feel the tensions and restricted areas in your mind, body and qi, and focus on opening them up, on bringing them alive. Taoists call this process:

“Making your body conscious”.

When your practice session finishes, you simply relax and, with it, space opens up, a sense of physical emptiness. A willingness and acceptance of physical and mental stillness can accompany this emptiness — albeit superficial.

Later, after some practice, experiences of physical emptiness and stillness can start to enter into your Circle Walking and bagua practice and become quite profound, leaving you in a state of not needing anything and simply being. This state can be amplified and enhanced through sitting practices before and/or after a bagua session. This is the extreme end of the minimalist camp: doing nothing and being absolutely content … at least for a while!

In Part 2, we’ll get into the Single Palm Change and spontaneity — bagua’s specialty.

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