Four thousand years ago monasteries were set up in various parts of China to help people develop their mind-body-spirit. For a select few, training would be in-depth enough to understand the root of the universe through the use of the I Ching (Book of Changes).
Five Element practices were also studied as a method of understanding how manifestation occurred in the natural world. The five energies of manifiestation—Water, Wood, Fire, Metal and Earth—provide understanding about the workings of the universe and allowed ancient peoples to attune their daily practice in accordance with natural laws inherent in both the worldly and spiritual planes.
I Ching and Five Element practices were kept alive through generation after generation of masters devoting their lives to this work and passing on the body of knowledge in its totality to the present day.
What is unique about the ancient Chinese's approach is that they always begin with the physical body and secular practices that do not insist on any specific belief system or set of religious values. First, practitioners seek to make their body very strong, healthy and vibrant before moving on to deeper worker with the emotions and mind.
The Taoist Water tradition, one such group who studied the I Ching and the Five Elements in China, has been passed down through Lao Tse, author of the Tao Te Ching, to the present day by lineage masters who are responsible for keeping the system pure and whole. Learning from a lineage holder or one of their qualified instructors is, therefore, preferable to learning from a teacher who may have information from several different systems that are not necessarily compatible and have not been developed and tested over millennia.
Paul teaches the following programmes to create one integrated fitness, health and stress-management solution:
These practices were designed by the Ancient Chinese to study and embody the neigong system, consisting of 16 components that underlie internal power cultivation for health, healing and vitality. The neigong system is a science of energy development that serves as a map for understanding all functions of the body, mind and life-force energy that runs both. Get started training now!
Paul's Link to the Bagua & Tai Chi Lineage
Paul Cavel is one of only 12 senior instructors of Lineage Master Bruce Frantzis, who holds lineages in qigong, bagua, tai chi and Taoist meditation. The integrated health, fitness and stress-management solution that Paul teaches as exercise therapy comes from this pure tradition, taught by Energy Arts, Inc., which was founded by Bruce Frantzis.
Tai Chi Lineage
Lineage Holder Yang Lu Chan > Lineage Holder Chuan You > Lineage Holder Wu Jien Chuan >
Lineage Holder Bruce Frantzis (Paul's teacher)
Bagua Lineage
Tung Hai Chuan > Cheng Ting Hua > Cheng You Long > Liu Hung Chieh >
Lineage Holder Bruce Frantzis (Paul's teacher)
Tung Hai Chuan > Mai Gui (Ma Shr Ching) > Liu Hung Chieh >
Lineage Holder Bruce Frantzis (Paul's teacher)
Zhu Wenbao > Liu Hung Chieh > Lineage Holder Bruce Frantzis (Paul's teacher)
Lineage Master Bruce Frantzis
In 1981, Bruce Frantzis was accepted as one of only two disciples of Grandmaster Liu Hung Chieh. Prior to becoming a Lineage Holder, Liu had been declared enlightened by the Tien Tai School of Chinese Buddhism. For several years, Bruce studied qigong, bagua, tai chi, hsing-I and Taoist meditation daily with Liu in Beijing.
Bruce has studied with some of the greatest masters of Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China including Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, Kenichi Sawai and Han Hsing Yuan (I Chuan); Wang Shu Jin and Hung I Hsiang (bagua and hsing-i); Yang Cheng Fu’s eldest son Yang Shao Jung, T. T. Liang, Lin Du Ying and Feng Zhi Qiang (Yang and Chen style tai chi).
Bruce studied acupuncture and worked as a qigong therapist and tui na energy healer in medical clinics in China. In 1981, he was the first Westerner to be certified in Beijing by the People’s Republic of China to teach the complete system of Tai Chi Chuan.
Bruce has trained Paul since 1994, and certified Paul to teach as one of his top nine instructors.
Grandmaster Liu Hung Chieh
Grandmaster Liu Hung Chieh began his martial arts training at the age of 11 in Six Combination Northern Shaolin. At 14, Liu was formally initiated into the original Beijing bagua tradition, which housed the largest gathering of bagua practitioners in Beijing. It was originally headed by Cheng Ting Hua. His initiation into this Lineage was performed by Cheng Ting Hua’s son Cheng You Lung.
Being the last remaining original bagua school in Bejing, all bagua practitioners from all lineages came to practise together. This school was a true meeting ground for the top practitioners. It was here that Liu learnt Cheng Ting Hua’s Dragon Style as well as Yin Fu’s Willow Leaf Palm Style.
Liu lived with Ma Gui (Ma Shr Ching) towards the end of Ma’s life, being trained one-on-one daily in the deepest aspects of bagua. Ma Gui was one of Dong Hai Chuan’s top four st
udents who developed the bagua energetics and meditation practices to a very high level. Ma taught few people and was very intense in training his students. Liu’s basic movements (forms and applications) were from Cheng Ting Hua’s Dragon Style, but the higher level energy work and meditation practices came from Ma Gui.
After this Liu became head instructor of the Hunan Province Central Government Martial Arts Academy in Changsha from 1932-1934. It was during this period that Liu met one of Wu Jien Chan’s sons, which ultimately led to Liu living in Wu Jien Chan’s house in Hong Kong and becoming his disciple. Here Liu studied the deepest aspects of Wu Style Tai Chi.
Later Liu became interested in the spiritual path of Buddhism, which culminated in Liu studying with the Tien Tai Sect Buddhist Master Tan Hsiu Fa Shr. Tan Hsiu led Liu into Realisation of the Nature of Emptiness, or what in the West is called Enlightenment.
Liu then travelled to the mountains of western China where he spent 10 years studying with several Taoist Maters from whom he learnt the methods of Taoist Internal Alchemy. It was here with Taoist adepts that Liu completed his studies on chi and realised the root of the I Ching and its manifestations. Following Liu shifted his primary work from martial arts to Taoist meditation including the totality of bagua.
Liu returned to Beijing and spent the rest of his life working for the spiritual benefit of humanity as head of an important Northern Taoist Lineage. During this time, Liu only taught two people: Bai Hua to whom he passed down the Fire tradition; and Bruce Frantzis to whom he passed down the Water tradition, which is now the basis of the Energy Arts System from which Paul's Relaxation meditation System was derived.
Learn more about Exercise Therapy and individual programmes Paul offers.