In this video, I meet with my friend and fellow Water Method teacher Jason Roberts to discuss how to practise to cultivate qi and manifest the energies of the Five Elements.

We discuss:

• Where to put your focus and strategies for practising the Water Method as it is comprised of five neigong

  ...

Audio from a recording in California, March 2024 on how to make practice effortless with a video of an evening tai chi practice in California, May 2024.

Javi Martinez teaches tai chi and qigong in London

In this talk, I sit down again with Javi Martinez to discuss the three integrated streams of Taoist arts training: health/healing, martial arts and personal/spiritual development. Let us know in the comments which is your path... We can centre future discussions on the levels of practice you wish...

By Paul Cavel

In Part 1, we looked at how Circle Walking is the minimalist’s paradise. Once you have some understanding of and become proficient in Circle Walking, you can progress to the Single Palm Change, the core of both the monastic bagua and bagua zhang taditions.

The Single Palm Cha...

If you really want to be healthy, to feel freer, to become a better human being, you must first create balance. Taoist energy arts have been practised for millennia for these reasons, and many more.

Most popular is qigong (and younger tai chi), but in the Water Method, the focus is on neigong an...

In this video, I discuss bending-and-stretching neigong and lengthening neigong, and how they become one.

Wu wei is often translated literally, based on the Chinese characters. But Water Method practitioners have a much different understanding of the Taoist concept of wu wei. Following the principles of water, it starts with the physical body and goes through the Three Treasures, the Taoist path of a...

 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 purs...

By Paul Cavel

With my new bagua online course starting today, I’ve had a handful of people who’ve asked about bagua for meditation. I suspect there are more of you out there who might want to train bagua as a form of moving meditation, as classically trained for millennia in the monastic tradition....

Classically Taoist Meditation was done while sitting in the Emperor’s position. In this video, I’ll show you how to sit in a chair (or on a rock!) for meditation.

I’ve trained the monastic bagua tradition (focusing on the Single Palm Change) AND the bagua zhang (martial) tradition — including learning all Eight Bagua Mother Palms — from my teacher, Bagua Master Bruce Frantzis, in private and public tuition since 1994.

Find a Bagua Course

• Courses with m...

 By Paul Cavel

Most internal arts have a specific learning progression, which begins with a set of six or more movements in qigong, and up to 108 moves in tai chi. Then, as you practise the form over weeks, months and years, you sink into your body, mind and qi by adding layers of internal con...

 By Paul Cavel

In previous posts, I covered exercises for creating space in body, mind and qi to increase relaxation and release deeply bound tension. Now we’ll explore foundational breathing techniques to lull the nerves into a state of letting go and gently massage the internal organs to increa...

The kwa is essential to internal arts training as it powers all forms. In the this video, I’ll take you through the basic kwa squat to make sure you’re practising it correctly.

In my Taoist Neigong online classes, core Water Method training, we cover many layers of the kwa squat to help you r...

In this video I discuss how to develop your awareness.

The English version is available here.

Tigre et dragon est un système de qi gong médical en sept mouvements, originaire de Chine. Pratiqué depuis 1 500 ans par des millions de personnes, il utilise une méthodologie très simple pour ressentir, faire circuler, transformer et cultiver le qi (énergi...

 By Paul Cavel

See Part 1

PART 2: What Is Wu Wei? 

Wu wei is often described as “doing without doing”, but what does that really mean? How can you do something without doing it? This misunderstanding is generally due to scholars outside the tradition translating Chinese characters into English,...

 This one’s for you, Dr. Miguel!

Following the Path of Least Resistance

Following the path of least resistance is how you can heal your body from imbalances, injury, illness and other traumas. Overtime, you can accomplish more by making consistent, small changes than going for gold and then experiencing setbacks in the form of ...

By Paul Cavel

Although people who train the internal arts of qigong, tai chi and bagua do so for a variety of reasons, all motivations can be classified into three general categories: health/healing, martial arts and spiritual development. In reality, everyone trains for health because, at the...

By Paul Cavel

You are being bombarded by noise – unrelenting distractions in the form of notifications, news and marketing – that diminish peace of mind. It’s no wonder why stress is the number one cause of disease with 90 percent of illnesses and diseases being linked to chronic stress (accor...

Bagua is a pure energy art originally practised by those interested in the I Ching or Taoism — having been derived as a physical manifestation to realise the teachings of the I Ching. In this way, bagua is an embodiment of the universal principles of change.

It is also a high-level martial ar...