What is Chi and how to develope it

ZillaBilla,

Here is the reply:

My company just organises the Holistic Living festival, we do not
employ or endorse any practitioners. We also do not have any chi goong
people involved with the event or the company.
Best wishes... Neil Riley

Bit a dead end

 

Oh well, maybe I was wrong about the address/organization, but Im gonna be down in Singapore end of this month, I'll try and to check the guy out again hopefully get some evidence for all to see, though I dont know how he will react to such an endeavour.

 

What a load of twaddle, don't believe your chinese propaganda. The so called cave dewellers built stone henge 10,000 years ago. Which required machines and mathematics to build. Your ignorance is breath taking. Save your racist comments for elsewhere.

The Bear.

 

Bear, Bunny,
Come on guys, have you ever been around somone who is "High Energy"? Why is it so hard to understand? "High Energy" or "Strong Presence" are perfectly acceptable terms even though we don't Quantify it. You don't say "That persons energy level is 45% higher than his" and just because we can't quantify it we don't say "Well since we cant give it a number there is no such thing as two people with different energy levels". The Chinese would say "Lots of Chi" and even though they are screaming to you "We are talking about the same thing", you refuse to belive them. Chi will indeed give you "Super Natural Powers"! It will not however give you OTHER THAN NATURAL POWERS! Somone said earlier that they were training their Chi through swimming, YES YOU WERE! don't you get it. And the one who was told that they had "Strong Chi" even though they did not "belive in it", yes you do indeed have strong Chi. This conversation is like trying to convince someone in the existance of sunlight, they don't belive in it yet it makes them able to see none the less. The problem with Chi is that people say they don't belive in it until they are taught how to identify the feeling of its movement and once they get it they say "Oh, I've always felt that to some degree or another but I nerver "Called" it Chi!

 

Hello Bunny, Bear and fellow MAP forest dwelling animals.

As you all may have noticed this thread has turned in to a very thick mess of views and opinions from which it is difficult to see anything coming to light. Due to this I would like to apologise to my fellow MAP'ers for making this mess thicker with my various attempts at explaining what 'Qi' is. Thus, I have once again gone back to the drawing board and devised an explanation that I believe may be more palatable to the more scientific minded MAP'ers. My only wish is that my fellow MAP'ers will forgive my prior transgressions and give their valuable time to examine my new explanation, and offer their opinions and suggestions whether positive or negative. Additionally I apologies for the length of this explanation, though I think it was necessary.

What is ‘Qi’?

‘Qi’ is the name given to the energy of the mind. In other words, ‘Qi’ is your consciousnesses, focus, intention, awareness, you are your consciousness, thus, you are your focus, intention and ‘Qi’. Your focus/intent is your awareness of your external world (trees, people, buildings, etc), and your internal world (feelings, thoughts, emotions, instincts, sensations, etc). The way ‘Qi’ moves in your body is by following your focus/intention/awareness, in addition, internally the blood follows the ‘Qi’, hence, where your focus falls externally or internally ‘Qi’ follows.

A simple test to feel your ‘Qi’ is to straighten out one of your index fingers, and concentrate on feeling the tip of your finger, (this will take various amount of time to work for different individuals). After, intently feeling the tip of your finger for however long, you should feel your blood pulsing in the area of your focus, if your focus is strong enough, you can feel past the pulsation and feel the ‘Qi’ or energy put on your finger by your intent/focus/awareness, this feels like a warm, numb, expansive feeling. This feeling is your ‘Qi’, it is very subtle and requires relaxation and strong focus to feel, with practice the awareness/focus/intention grows stronger, thus the ‘Qi’ also grows stronger. Now we have to look at what consciousness is.

Consciousness is awareness, which is in turn your focus/intent/awareness. A living conscious being is always focusing on something, whether it be consciously or subconsciously, the intent is always on something, either internal (dreams, feelings, thinking, fantasizing, etc) or external (eating, walking, doing, etc). Thus, we may say that in a living conscious being the ‘Qi’/focus/intention/awareness is always active whether internally, externally, consciously, subconsciously or any combination of these. Hence, we may also say that a non-living being, is not conscious, and has no ‘Qi’, intent, focus, awareness.

The ‘Qi’, focus/intent/awareness can be trained, this may be trained by any means that directly require your concentration/focus/intent/awareness to be stable and strong, thus it may be said that we can train ourselves in everything we do by being more aware/intent/focused. However, there are specific exercises called ‘Qi Gong’ (Internal Martial Arts are high level ‘Qi Gong’) that specifically and very cleverly train the focus/intent/awareness and with practise move to more subtle levels that we call ‘Qi’. The way ‘Qi Gong’ works is by gaining awareness of all of your being internally (organs, muscles, fascia, thought, feelings, emotions, etc) and externally (touch, sight, hearing feeling, etc). Through these exercises we strengthen our intent/focus/awareness/’Qi’, thus in turn we gain fine control (this increases with practice) over our internal and external components.

How do ‘Qi’ and ‘Qi Gong’ relate to martial effectiveness. By increasing our control over ourselves by means mentioned above. An internal martial artist gains superior control and coordination over the body. This control is in turn used to move the muscles, joints, fascia in wave like motions. In other words, the controlled yet relaxed coordination and movement allows an individual (after a lot of practice) to stack the energy from different parts of the body in to one or several points, creating an increased force at the point of contact. This is in turn increased by moving intention/focus/’Qi’ in circular patterns (like gears), aside from increasing the force generated it also overcomes inertia, allowing the practitioner to move seamlessly and fluidly. This method of coordinating the various parts of the body, with all the different parts in turn circulating, can both produce and absorb large amounts of energy, it works similarly as gears would work to decrease and increase power. On higher levels this circular coordination becomes more and more internal with practice. Thus at these higher levels the internal movement of the practitioner is not visible to the eyes of the opponent, yet create powerful energy vortexes in the practitioner that may be used to absorb and emit energy, this is known in Internal Martial Arts as ‘Spiral Force’, and is one of the first levels of attainment of martial proficiency. However, in order for this force to grow stronger and become one with the practitioner a lot of practice is required. This is to make the ‘Spiral Force’ inert in the practitioner, down to a subconscious level, so that the practitioner can manifest this force spontaneously in any external movement, wit the same natural manifestation as a sneeze would be if you got pepper in your nose.

The reason ‘Qi Gong’ is good for a practitioners health is as follows. As mentioned previously the focus/intention/awareness leads ‘Qi’ in the body, the ‘Qi’ in turn leads the blood. Some ‘Qi Gong’ exercises work directly on the internal organs, by focusing, moving your intention and being aware of your internal organs you can in turn lead the ‘Qi’ to them, which will in turn lead the blood. The blood will increase circulation in the internal organ, and bring extra oxygen and nourishment to it, thus helping it regenerate and enliven the organ. At higher levels when the ‘Qi’ is strong, one may even enliven the organs to such high levels that they operate beyond their normal capacity (like supercharging an engine). This regeneration and optimization of the internal organs directly effects the performance of the brain, which in turn increases focus/awareness/intent/’Qi’ which then revert positively by allowing you to optimize your internal organs to even higher levels, it is a self contained beneficial cycle. This is why the first step in Internal Martial Arts is to gain health, thus in turn affecting ones focus/intent/awareness/’Qi’ positively.

However, the ‘Qi’ is imbued within the ‘Tao’. The ‘Tao’ being the way or path of ‘Taoist’ self cultivation, for the perfection of the human, for the benefit of all and everything. It is impossible to explain how far reaching and profoundly deep the ‘Qi’ and in turn the ‘Tao’ are within existence, but I will humbly try and point the reader to some of its all encompassing splendour. Though I forewarn that I am no expert and anything from here on may be quite bizarre, this is also coupled with the fact that this topic at higher levels transcends language, or at least normal ability of language users.

Consciousness being awareness/intent/focus, thus in turn ‘Qi’ may be cast on to anything internal or external, thus it may be understood that your attention/focus/intent/awareness may observe anything. This discipline of ‘Qi’ cultivation is of Chinese ‘Taoist’ origin and several facts about the Chinese language must be understood. The Chinese language, unlike English is character based. Each character may represent an number of different meanings, when spoken this would be down to pronunciation to differentiate between meanings, whereas when written it would be down to the interpretation of the reader. An example of this is the character ‘Wu Li’, this character has several meanings, one being ‘Physics’, another ‘Patterns of Organic Matter’, another ‘Enlightenment’, these are just a few. In the same manner the character ‘Yi’ means ‘Mind’, ‘Change’, ‘Intent’, ‘Focus’, and more. Thus in classic ‘Taoist’ texts it is said that the ‘Qi’ follows the ‘Yi’ and the blood follows the ‘Qi’, this is the main basis of all Internal Martial Arts of ‘Taoist’ origin.
There is a multitude of ‘Taoist’ classics on all manner of subjects, but the greater ones were written by people imbued with the ‘Tao’, in other words those who cultivated their ‘Qi’. Thus it is hard to find the correct interpretation of these texts, or what the author meant, without yourself not cultivating the ‘Qi’, because the ‘Qi’ once again relates to the mind. In order to understand correctly one must reach a level of awareness/focus/intent/’Qi’ to the a level comparable with the author. This will allow one to grasp the correct, objective meaning. Since awareness/intent/focus, thus in turn ‘Qi’ may be cast on to anything internal or external, it may be said that ‘Qi’ is everywhere. So it may also be said that anywhere your ‘Qi’ may fall, that on which the ‘Qi’/focus/intent/awareness is on at the moment may in turn influence your level of ‘Qi’/intent/focus/awareness. In to the above paradox the Yin/Yang diagram comes in to play (Yin/Yang diagram is called ‘Tai Chi’), this diagram represents balance, this balance is stands for objective awareness/focus/intent/’Qi’. Thus, in other words it is a balanced state of mind that may perceive and react without being skewed towards any extreme. This sate of mind is in turn what is used to perform martially in Internal Martial Arts. However, on higher levels this sate of mind is moved to ‘Wu Chi’ which is complete emptiness or void, from this ‘void’ state of mind, all and everything may be perceived perfectly. There are various other concepts that come in to play here, but are to complex and require practice of ‘Qi’ cultivation and objective study of ‘Taoists’ classics to be understood. Thus, they will not be discussed here.

Conclusively, I hope that the reader may now have a feel for the depth and immensity of the ‘Qi’ cultivating arts. Particularly the understanding that everything one does internally or externally, consciously or subconsciously has an effect on ones ‘Qi’. Thus, one may see why Internal Martial Arts are more than a hobby or pastime and are more akin to a way of life, and perhaps understand why myself and fellow IMA’ists have been defending the concept of ‘Qi’ so fervently.

ZB

 

I'm sorry, but this is just plain amusing. The Saxons, Norse, Romans, Celts, Picts, they were all just sitting in caves were they? Maybe you should try reading some ancient history which hasn't been rewritten to suit propoganda purposes.

Ooh, ouch. I'm an imbecile apparently. Oh well. Actually this is a public forum, in fact its a public discussion forum. If you can't quite work out what that means then I'll explain for you. Public means open to anyone, sure, we have rules such as no personal attacks or profanity, but basically anyone over the age of thirteen is allowed to join. Discussion is defined as an earnest discourse on a topic, or consideration of a subject by a group. It is not a conversation where everyone must agree with you, think how boring that'd be.

Notice the various comments above about qualitative measurement rather than quantitive. Apparently you've decided to ignore this.

In which case why use an archaic system, which is covered with mystical associations and repeatedly misused for marketing purposes leading to it being laughed at to describe what is basically fitness?

 

Throws hands in the air, bows respectfully and wanders off to practice Tai Chi.........................many thanks for the disscussion.

 

Exactly bunny.
All the effects that are being described, are what happens when you train hard and practice your art. Funnily enough this is the same secret that afore mentioned Ueshiba Morihei said was the secret of aikido. No secret techniques, No dim mak, no mystical energy, just practice very hard every day! Oh and I think some guy called Mushashi kinda said same thing when he was saying that if you want to use a cut, practice the cut 1,000 times a day. Now that is wisdom. Training 1000 techniques a day for 1 year will produce a better effect than 10 years feeling your 'qi'.

The Bear.

 

I see, no one bothered reading my new vast explanation on pg 11.
In that case, there is not much more to be said to the un-believers.
Thanks but no thanks. Qi is everything, without it you are merely scraping on the door of the great. Good luck scraping.

 

He He, Zilla you say the funniest of things. I think of it as more clawing and the hinges could be weakening. Run! The forest animals are gathering.

The *clawing* Bear.

 

The door has a lock on it, the lock is beyond the animals. I feel safe.

 

Sounds good to me, you lock yourself away nice and safe and we'll go and explore the real world.

 

Ha, How ironic. 'qi' practicioner feels safe behind locked door with no hinges. Is that your inside the door training?

The *Not So Dumb* Bear.

 

ha ha, not quite, me and fellow IMA'ists will go explore reality, while you animals can sit behind the door and squeal, we may let you in later. If you behave.
Question Bunny, have you read my new explanation on pg 11, I wrote it for the benefit of you animlas..

 

Well I enjoyed the to and fro. Thanks for the contributions. Look at that we didn't convince each other but we did find some thing we could explore together.
You may be right about chi, good luck to you all.
I'll finish where I started my main cause for irritation is when chi practitioners try to use the obscure areas of science that are poorly understood as some kind of validation. Zilla and Gyaku thanks for your input. You haven't tried to tell me that Einstein or Hawking proves you were right and for that I'll get the first beer in when we meet.

 

Ok, I won't use the 'O' word anymore, just thought we were having a nice scientific discussion, where I thought it was ok to use a nice scientific word...open a nice science journal and for some strange reason you'll find it all over the place...oh well I must be wrong eh!

I'm officially bowing out of this thread. To all the people (teacher et al)who discussed things in a nice and polite fashion thank you very much, I enjoyed your input, it has made me think, and that goes to people from both sides of the debate.

 

*Polar Bear sniffs air*

hhmmmmm, can smell any 'qi'che, they all must of left.

*turns and head back to head home to the north polar, since polar bears don't live in the forest.*

sheesh all that wisdom and don't know where a polar bears come from. They gotta get out more. Right Bunny.

Campaign for plain Glaswegian:
For all non-glaswegians please refer to Robert C. Nesbit for the definition of 'qiche'.

 

What a sad day it is for some, came close but got nothing, and left with nothing, due to own ignorance and laziness, well, at least there is room for improvement.

 

Who those people are is a matter of opinion though.

 

indeed.