Ba Gua Circle Walking Nei Gong: The Meridian Opening Palms of Ba Gua Zhang

This is by far the most useful book on bagua I've read. Most books on the martial arts give you the author's theories on various aspects of their art, with little practical application, or different exercises or techniques that are hard to get anything out of without the feedback of an instructor. Bisio's book is a great departure from this - it gives you enough information to understand the significance of Bagua circle walking neigong in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine and, to a lesser extent, Daoist alchemy. It also gives practical instructions for circle walking, and detailed instructions for getting each posture right. I'm somewhat skeptical about the possibility of learning circle walking from a book, but if that's your goal this books provides instructions which are clearer and more straightforward than the dozen other bagua books I have on my shelf - although you might want to get his video series to see how it looks in motion. (Ideally, of course, find a qualified master to learn from - but I understand most places in the world aren't overflowing with good bagua schools. Or even bad ones.)I've been to a number of Bagua schools where fixed palm walking is treated as a warm up that you rush through before you get to the "good stuff" of palm changes, forms and applications - sometimes teaching them in a weekend workshop, or not at all. When I started learning bagua I spent several months learning fixed palm walking, where most classes consisted of me walking around a tree for a couple of hours, with my master correcting my posture every now and then. Its not sexy, or even particularly interesting, but it creates a foundation you need to do anything more complex well. Bisio gives a good understanding of why fixed palm walking is so fundamental in Bagua, and gives instructions that even people who have been studying for a while should find worthwhile. The correlation between postures and qi meridians alone is more than worth the price.

I am 67 and have studied internal martial arts, as well as other Bodymind approaches, all my life. I have read most of what has been published on these topics, though it is rarer and rarer now that I find a book which really gives me something. This book, as well as others by Tom Bisio, is among the ones that do. I have corresponded with Tom, though I have not yet met him. As well as being extraordinarily knowledgeable and accomplished, Tom is also humble and seems to me pretty much free of the ego trips that unfortunately are so common in the martial arts. He is also unusual in that he genuinely wants to share all he knows, making it as clear and accessible as possible without (it seems to me) holding anything back.In this book on Bagua walking, he goes into great depth (as is appropriate, and also rare) about the precise details of posture. If you do not know this, I am telling you: that is the million-dollar secret in the internal martial arts. Getting the correct posture, then maintaining this while moving: that's the ticket! (As to the fighting, learning techniques is just to keep you interested while you move with good posture; combat skill comes through intuitively sensing relationship, not by learning techniques.)Anyway, Tom gives as good instruction as one can get in a book, and this particular walking practice is second to none for health and np meditation, and as a solid foundation for fighting if you are so inclined.Check out his web site too; good stuff there.

Well written, easy to follow, covers enough theory, gives instructions on how to do the circle walking neigong exercises and what meridian channels each exercise helps to open. Is not a book about applications of palm changes. It's a book of the neigong: the foundational "internal work" that makes baguazhang a neijia quan, an "internal martial art". So glad Mr. Bisio learned these lessons and compiled this information in English.

I have not been a student of bagua, so I'll let others address specific bagua elements of the book. I've been looking for a method to pursue neigong. Unfortunately, my taiji teacher did not teach neigong. Neigong methods may present a significant risk to the student without direct teacher supervision. This book provides what seems to be a safer method.Mr. Bisio outlines a path to the neigong. The alignments he describes closely parallels the alignments I was taught in taiji, with a couple bonus alignments I was not taught. I found the mud walking/stepping a bit more challenging than expected. Rather than achieving one minute per step in about three weeks as he described, several months later I'm only up to about 40 seconds. Still, the practice has helped my root during taiji practice.If you don't practice bagua, I recommend Tom Bisio's video, "Bagua Concepts Volume 1: Ding Shi". Seeing the video helped correct some elements I had been performing incorrectly.This is not a book you can read once, incorporate into your internal practice, and move on to the next thing. I personally expect to be working with the concepts in this book for the next several years.

It is very rare that a book of this depth appears that is so useful to both beginner and advanced practitioner as well. With copious explanations that make it accessible to people just entering the path, to extensive and detailed explanations of advanced theory, this book is a real treasure, the one we've been waiting for for 30 years. It's applicable to all internal arts. The real value is in the correlations between the positions and TCM energetics that enable you to customize your practice for health and healing.. now you know!i'm doing something I've never done with any other martial arts book, which is to annotate and summarize the information in 0ne note for concise reference. If you had only one martial arts book to buy.. this is the one..

This book focuses on just circle walking and not the martial arts side. Reasons for 3 stars. Took one star off because there are no photographes of the walking technique. It is drawings. You can figure out the hand positions from the drawings. You can figure out the basic walking technique. But two points of confusion will be with how to do the 4 step turn and how to transition from one hand posture to the next. This wasn't covered at all, the transition between hand postures,so complete beginners might get discouraged.The other star off is because there is no term reference in the back of the book. I am not familiar with the term "kua", and when reading through this was mentioned several times. The meaning was explained in the beginning, but you get a lot of info by the time it comes up again. So,having to go back and skim to find the definition took some time. The reference would also come in handy to look up specific meridian.Why i like the book. It is heavy on encouraging proper alignment, has info on what "palm", effects what meridians,and is plan language. Meaning not all new age sounding like some tai chi books are. Where the intention is a ridiculous visualisation of pushing waves of the ocean away from you.Why i bought the book. I have practiced tai chi, which turned me on to liu he ba fa(lok hup ba fa) that i practiced for 20 years. Now moving into a small house(100sqft) in northern Alberta. So was looking for something that can be practiced in a small space.Conclusion, the book is good for people already familiar with either ba gua or other internal arts. Beginners, with some reading,re-reading, and possibly some trial and error,will figure things out. Also for beginners, keep to the training schedule that is recommended for people not familiar how to "walk" yet.

Very good refresher.

This is a useful read for bagua players, mainly because there's not a lot of good stuff in English on circle-walking, and even less on meditative and health-building circle-walking. The author provides lots of insights, particularly about circle-walking's relationship to other forms of qigong and TCM. I'm sure I will refer back to this book on a regular basis. But I felt something was missing, with the discussion of meridians not fully integrated with the discussion of the postures, and not much on how the postures are trained. I was also hoping for more discussion of intent and imagery in circle-walking, but there was very little of this.

I always like Tom Bisio book, good picture and explanations. The shipping was fast and book in excellent shape.

Ba Gua ist – wenn überhaupt – eher als eine Kampfkunst bekannt, deren vollständiger Name Ba Gua Zhang ist. Aber wenn man einer der verbreitetsten Entstehungsgeschichten glauben darf, dann ist diese Kampfkunst von ihrem Bu Fa (der Beinarbeit) her von einer daoistischen Gehmeditation abgeleitet, die auch präventive und therapeutische Effekte hat.Tom Bision stellt in diesem Band Ba Gua als eine Art des Nei Gong (inneren Energiearbeit) vor, das genau diesen Ansprüchen genügen soll, wobei er allerdings die Darstellung ein wenig modernisiert hat. Erfreulicherweise weist aber eines der Kapitel auf die ursprüngliche Daoistische Form zurück. Oder zumindest auf eines davon, denn innerhalb der verschiedenen Daoistischen Schulen und Traditionen gibt es durchaus auch unterschiedliche Formen des Ba Gua Zhangs und so wahrscheinlich auch unterschiedliche Formen des Ba Gua Nei Gongs. In diesem Fall scheinen der Autor – und seine UnterrichtendenZHao Da Yuan und Li Zi Ming – der Longmen Pai-Tradition zu folgen.Das Buch beginnt mit einer Dastellung von Ba Gua Kreisgehmediation im Allgemeinen und erläutert dann kurz Qi Gong nd Nei Gong, Meditation und das Atmen, so wie einige Grundlagen der Chinesi-schen Medizin, wie Qi, die Meridiane, die Harmonien und die Vereinigung von Feuer und Wasser im Zusammenhang mit dem I Ging. Das Meridian-System wird dann in einem eigenen Kapitel näher beschrieben, bevor im vierten Kapitel das Bu Fa erläutert wird. Zunächst in gradliniger und dann in Kreisform. Hierbei wird ein Übungsregime für die beiden Geharten vorgegeben, das Anfänger sicherlich sehr schnell frustrierend finden dürfte, weswegen ich denke, dass dieses Buch eher für bereits etwas erfahrendere Praktizierende als Referenz von Nutzen sein dürfte.Als Nächstes werden die Acht Haltungen des Ba Gua Nei Gong vorgestellt und zwar mit Bildern und einer gut nachvollziehbaren Beschreibung. Darauf folgt eine tiefergehende Betrachtung des Meridiansystems und auch der sogenannten Sondermeridiane und ihrer Funktionen und Wirkungen, bevor im neunten Kapitel die Übungen des Ba Gua Nei Gong direkt mit diesem System in Verbindung gebracht wird. Dieses ist gefolgt von einer langen Symptomliste für die einzelnen Meridiane und Sondermeridiane, die eher ermüdend sind und vom Praktizierenden wohl nur in Krankheitsfällen zurate gezogen werden werden. Gerade hierfür wäre am Ende des Buchs ein alphabetischer Index nützlich gewesen, denn in der vorliegenden Form muss der nicht in chinesische Medizin Eingeweihte eventuell sehr lange nach „seinen“ Symptomen suchen.Das Buch schließt ab mit der Beschreibung einiger alternativer Laufmuster, was gerade für langjährige Kreisläufer eine willkommene Bereicherung des eigenen Trainings darstellen wird. Und schlussendlich – direkt vor der umfangreichen Bibliographie gibt es noch ein Kapitel über die Energiearbeit mit Bäumen und anderen Pflanzen, wobei auch die in der Longmen Pai gängige Zuordnung der Bäume zu bestimmten Anwendungen vorgestellt wird.Wie gesagt, für Anfänger auf jeden Fall „bitteres Essen“, das sicherlich besser verträglich ist, wenn man es mit einem guten Trainer angeht. Aber für diejenigen, die schon seit einiger Zeit im Kreis laufen auf jeden Fall eine gute Ergänzung – und auch Beitrag zu einigen Fragen, die man sich vielleicht noch gar nicht gestellt hatte.