Chi Kung
What is Chi Kung?
“Dance to the tune of the heart, because the universe is playing that song”
Chi Kung , quite simply is the cultivation of ‘chi’ or life force within the body.
How is it done?
Through developing your internal awareness of the subtle energy structures and systems in your body, and engaging in various movement and meditation techniques, your energy systems will become re-organised, cleared of any inherent or acquired blockages, tonified, harmonized and synchronized. This firstly facilitates an increase in the body’s energetic capacities and secondly, raises up the body, mind, spirit complex towards a realized state (Tao).
Three main ways of practicing Chi Kung
1) Through diligently learning and perfecting external form. In this way strong awareness and mindfulness of the body is cultivated and the body’s chi systems begin to be developed. This is the slowest way to develop but suits those who are attracted to external form.
2) Through bringing a strong internal awareness to the body while engaging in various exercises. Here the emphasis is on the energy pathways and systems in the body, and the practice works towards the development of improved quality and flow of chi. This way of practicing brings quicker healing results and has a stronger re-organizing effect on the body. It is harder to grasp initially but suits those who have some meditative discipline. Here mindfulness and calm concentration skills are the major catalyst to establishing successful cultivation of chi.
3) To do nothing and connect to the body’s own intelligence which will do everything perfectly for us. This is the highest level of Chi Kung. Here it doesn’t matter what is happening externally. Such practice is based on recognizing that the body has within it a higher intelligence than our own lower and interfering mind. If we are able to disengage and become a truly detached observer then the “Body Automatic” will reorganize everything perfectly for us It sounds simple and it is, but the success of the practice hinges upon two elements:
a) how much are we willing to let go with the lower mind and trust this higher intelligence,
b) how deeply can we become attuned to the higher vibrations and chi fields that we might find around us.
This practice is usually undertaken initially under the guidance of, and within the powerful chi field of a Chi Kung Master or Healer who can both transmit the essence of the teaching, and generate a powerful energy field to support the practitioner as they go through their own attunements.
Today many things are called Chi Kung, without embodying the essence of Chi Kung. There are many people who have learned and taught complex external forms of exercise, and yet, when asked, admit to never having felt any connection to chi. Whilst such wonderful disciplines as Tai Chi and Ba Gua most certainly are Chi Kung, to engage in them merely as a series of external forms, even when externally perfected, does not embody the essence of Chi Kung. And yet to take a walk in a forest, and truly imbibe the life force and essence of that forest, allowing our own energy system to become harmonized with it can be the highest level of Chi Kung.