qigung

Master Chang is getting eager to promote his qigung since he and his master are the only two people in this world have ever learned the whole thing of their system.
I understand his anxiety but not much I can help. I tried to figure out how he feels about teaching us: Analyzing Dickens to a bunch of people who hardly memorize the 26 letters of English.

Qigung is the basis of any martial art, and in modern time, it has been developed into diversified methods to improve health. Qiqung can be generally categorized as two: one is to exercise Qi with Will, one is to exercise Qi spontaneously. The later is called Spontaneous Qiqung. It happens when the state of your brain is between awake and asleep. The Qi of your body will find the ill parts of your body and heal them by shaking, rotating, swaying, any possible involuntary movements your body is able to endure. But Spontaneous Qiqung has hazards; if the ending movement is not complete, one might feel sick or dizzy until it is made up next time. Another risk is, it's said, that some people had been possessed during practicing Spantaneous Qigung.

Exercising Qi with Will is encouraged since it almost has not any side-effect. I said "almost" because some martial art genius might gone crazy if he/she has evil thoughts, but don't worry, you and me are far away from there.

Any movement of Qigung is to help your Qi to flow as you wish, and you can move the flows simply by thinking without moving. Concentration is the first thing, and it is the most challenging part as it requires you to get rid of all unrelated thoughts. Nevertheless, your attempt to do it is the first step of improving your body and mind.

 Image is from:
http://bloomerang.wordpress.com/2006/08/23/meditation-quit-eluding-me-me-quit-eluding-meditation/

It has been one and half years since I started Qigung classes and I do feel benefited by it. The most obvious phenomenon is that my Dan Tien(about 10cm below belly bottom) gets hot easily.

When I just started learning Qigung I felt funny whenever our master said: "Breathe your Qi back to Dan Tien." It was so much like magic to me and the best I could do was to "think" that my breathes were going back there. Our master did not teach us martial art until one year later, and all the movements for cultivating and controlling Qi don't look cool or real at all. But hey, your thoughts will lead Qi! Now I'd have my Dan Tien maintain hot merely by thinking, and it feels so good.

The image is from http://study.qmvip.com/236/122664.html

Getting Qi to Dantien is a fundamental step of Qi Gung. It is important because, according to Master Chang, our Yuan Qi dispersed from our Dantien as our umbilical cord was cut after our birth.

There are many way to get our Qi back to it, such as rubbing your underbelly clockwise and counterclockwise alternatively. As you're rubbing it, try to feel that you are absorbing the heat from your palms to your Dantien through breathing. Note that your palms must be warm, if they are not, rub your hands first to get Qi in your palms.

This is especially helpful for women suffering from uncomfortableness during period because the position of Dantien happens to be uterus.

About Yuan Qi, please refer my earlier message "More about The Adagio of Qi" below.

Getting your Qi to run through your torso is the most important step of Qi Gung learning. The circulation of Qi feels like a warm flow passing, and one is supposed to be able to control Qi's circulation through a lot of practice and great concentration. As the picture shows, the Meridian on our back is called Du and on our front is called Ren. As the Qi goes through them, our central nervous system, heart, lungs, spleen, liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines and bladder will be adjusted and refreshed.

We are taught a lot of ways to help open up these two meridians and in fact, meditation is also one way to get there.

Practicing Qi Gung one needs a lot of trust, trust this antiquated wisdom not yet proved scientifically, trust your own body and trust the power of Qi.

I have been doing Arm Swining for about five months and felt nothing until weeks ago. My fingers will get warm easily and it's different to the heat simply casued by gravity. Last night when I was doing it in a park, I tried to have all my fingers warm up evenly by adjusting their position slightly. My index fingers and middle fingers usually will get warm easily, and my ring fingers will catch up shortly. I managed to let my thumbs get the Qi by moving them a little bit upward and began feeling warmth that not only from inside of my flesh but also like a film of warmth covering them. Arm Swinging is a really easy Qigung, if you are interested, you can check the pictures from the following web and refer the text of my translation if you don't read Chinese:
http://www.meimen.org/health/wonder/wonder-how.html
This Qi Gung is from Meimen-- Plum Gate, called Arms Swinging.
* Keeping doing it for at least ten minutes, and three times a day(We eat three meals a day, if you eat four times a day do it four times).
Doing it for 30 min continually will be more effective in health improvement. After doing it each time, take some warm water to facilitate your blood circulation and stabilize the qi in our body.
The Chinese text of the above website is translated as following:
1. Stand with your feet equally wide as your shoulders, two feet parallel to each other. Stretch up arms ahead at the level of your chest, palms facing down. Breath at ease.
2. Swing your arms backward like pendulums, relaxedly and naturally. Do not attempt to lift your arms backward, just swing them back and forth following the laws of gravity and inertia, relaxedly. Keep your fingers stretched out easily. Don't use force.
3. Bent your knees a little bit whenever your arms stretch for the fifth time, like you are about to jump.

So it's like you stand straight for the first four arm-swinging and during the fifth time bent your knees a little, twice . You can easily find a rhythm of your own. Each swing takes about one second, and it doesn't matter a little bit faster or slower. Only never do it hastily like you try to finish it as soon as possible. Doing it outdoors or in pleasant environment is suggested for one can absorb better qi from nature. Put down all the thoughts as possible when you are doing it.

Note: People who have problem standing can simply swing their arms when sitting. Some very ill people are able to stand up after doing arm-swinging for several months continually. It is very common to feel your limbs are numb, sore or painful, it means the qi in your body is trying to adjust and recover its order. Most common sign is feeling warmth in your body that is different to the heat resulting from exercise. It is a positive sign of healing. Continue doing it and most of the uncomfortable feelings will be gone. Otherwise, check doctors to find out the cause of discomfort.

The English edition of website of the Meimen Gate:
http://www.meimen.org/English/e_index.htm

As students arrive at diferent time, Master Chang will tell as to do meditation before the class starts. Meditation is much about breathing, he taught us to combine our nose with our Dan-Tien(丹田), an idea of course was mysterious enough. This Sunday the mystery developed further. He first told us to move our eyeballs at circles, which made sense. Then he asked us to move them at circles of different dimensions: instead of left-down-right-up, the circles should be down-back-right-forth and left-back-right-forth. After that he told us try to inhale with our left eye and exhale with our right eye or inhale with right eye and exhale with left eye. The air we inhale with one eye supposedly will go through the Spirit Gate(神門穴), an Apuncture Point between our eyes, and reach to another eye.

According Master Chang, the Seven Holes(七竅) on our face: eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears are connected to each other, there is no reason that nose is the only one breaths. Master Change said once you can operate your Qi freely in your eyes, you will not only see the outside world but also every part of your own body.

I know Qi Gung is much about changing one's mindset, but what we are told by Master Chang would be considered exaggrating even in a fiction. For example, in the most advanced class students don't even move or stretch out their body like what we do in the beginning class, the only activity is thinking. Through thinking only they operate Qi in their body.

Hitherto the only thing I learned about the eyeball Qi Gung is "Close your eyes to cultivate or rest your spirit"( 閉目養神)which we do every now and then. For seeing things we desire, and our desires consume our energy.

Last Sunday Master Chang taught Qi Gung for eye protection. That's exactly what I need as my eyes began degenerating. I suppose I need cataract surgery soon, to replace my degenerated lens with artificial ones. Master Chang said after some QiGung emphasizing hands, we can conceal our eyes with hands so our eyes will be able to absorb the Qi we just operated in/between hands. He taught us to breath with our pupils.

A newcomer of our class raised a question that has been in everyone's mind: "How come our pupils will breath?" Master Chang explained that our breathing through nose to lungs provides only outer Qi, and our inner Qi comes from breathing of every part of our body other than nose and lungs. That's the purpose of abdominal breathing(diaphragmatic breathing), too. One of my sisters, a scientist trained in the US, doubted what we were doing of practicing diaphragmatic breathing. Now I know what to say to her, no mater she buys it or not.

I felt nothing when struggling to breath with my pulpils. I guess all my classmates felt the same way. But I am not frustrated for I began to feel the very subtle flows of air above my palms when I concentrate. The following task is how to operate the air flows into other parts of my body.

Master Chang told us when you are practicing Qi Gung and feel hot at certain points, you will know they are the paths of Qi. (熱即氣道）If the a path of of Qi is not warm enough, it means there is some problem of your body.(不熱有恙）

There are two kinds of Qi, outer Qi and inner Qi, outer Qi is the air we breath into our lungs, and inner Qi is taken through every part of our body, from head to toes. Taking outer Qi is inhale and exhale(呼吸), taking inner Qi is impel and expel(汲卻), sort of how fish breath, or include and exclude(吐納).

The precondition of cultivating inner Qi is getting to a state of absolute tranqil first. According to an ancient book, such a state can be compared to canoeing in the raging ocean. It seems contradict that tranquility during canoeing in tumult waves but I am tempted to try. And following the absolute tranquility is the powerful engery--靜極生動.

During the practice, heat is supposedly emerging from Dan-Tien(丹田)--10cm under the belly bottom. For beginners the heat might not last long, but a good start begins here.

There are 360 acupuncture points and 12 meridians in our body, but Chinese medicine never completed a thorough study of all of them over the past thousands of years. In fact, Chinese medicine only has been able to study few of them.

There are various Qi in our body, but Yuan(元), Tzong(宗), Yi(營), Wei(衛) are the major four categories. Yuan Qi originally comes from inheritance, which runs through our head and torso. Acquired Yuan Qi comes from food and the good Qi from nature and will transfer into the other three Qi through our heart, lungs and spleen.

Tzong Qi is produced in our chest with the air, food and water we take into our body. As the carrier of oxygen, Tzong Qi is like the starting point of all of the Qi. Yi Qi runs with our blood, sending nutrition to everywhere in our body. Wei Qi is enveloping our meridians to protect them. The four Qi function comparably to our heart, lung, digestion system and immunity system respectively.

Continuing my earlier notes. Because of the resonance, our heart can work so efficiently. In fact, the frequencies of resonance, just like genetic codes, decide the formation of our organs. The formation of each organ might need one or more than one particular frequency during the embryo cell division. And because of resonance, they are affecting each other. that's why some symptoms of, let's say liver, actually should be traced back to the problems of kidneys. When one organ is sick, its disordered resonance will affect every organ of our body, that's why accurate diagnosis is impossible if you see each organ as independent part of our body, nonetheless it's how western medicine sees things.