Qi- Gong

By George Mera

Qi- gong is a completely holistic way to maintain health; preventing diseases before it appears and contemplating all the aspects of life to help maintain homeostasis. From ancient time Qi- Gong advice you in the proper way to eat; handle your emotions and how to turn negative thoughts into more optimistic and how to live in balance with nature.

In practicing Qi gong we imitate a newborn baby, his spontaneity and relax movements, a baby is always looking inwardly unaware of his surroundings, the baby's knowledge is intact and close to the origin, he does not differentiate among objects, therefore his eyes are like guru's eyes looking at everything as it belongs to him. 

The baby's generating center of energy is the abdomen (Dan Tien) the breath moves the energy which flows gently and naturally to the limbs with no destination or purpose, like the river pour into the ocean. Chinese tradition believes we have three brains, one in the head, another in heart and one in the abdomen, being the most important the DanTien.

Western civilization believes that we have a chip in the brain which controls automatically all our internal functions and there is nothing you can do about it if we have good organs or genes we are lucky, otherwise medicine will take care of you. Masters affirm that their abdomens can learn, the organs can become smart, that we can reconnect with the spontaneity that the baby has in his abdomen. The Sifus or masters can feel the meridians or channels which run the energy to the hands, head, and feet.

 

To explain this concept of controlling the internal functions imagine two types of lights, the spotlight which focus in one particular area and the flowed light that focus in a bigger surface; all our education has been conducted in focus, pay attention and how much information can we retrieve, the ability of doing this determine how smart we are.

On the other hand imagine you are driving  a car having an animated conversation with a friend,  if somebody will ask you if you notice the new billboard or other details on the road, you probably wouldn't be able to answer because you didn't pay attention you were driving automatically  how do you think your organs work? You may say automatically but there one part of the brain that makes this possible, the difference between Chinese mind and ours is that they believe that this part of the brain is accessible to us and possible to control.

Most of the Chinese achievements in sciences and art have been discovered not with the intellectual spotlight but with a bigger spectrum the flowed light.

A baby is not an emotional being, he recognizes the mother's vibration for surviving purposes, he has instincts, but the emotional link is not there yet, emotions are taught, his heart -brain is not judging. The baby mind is like the sky vast and empty with no ego, personality or indoctrination; his mind is receptive, eclectic and ready to reconnect with infinite mind.

 

 Qi-Gong is not only a heritage of China but these thousands of exercises are practiced in many parks around the world; when the no initiated in Qi Gong observe the suave movements it might look like an eccentric, foreign and ineffective type of activity.

Exercises in this part of the world are related with speed, strength, coordination, and balance so Qi gong looks weak in comparison and it might look like that because we have not been exposed in our culture to the effectiveness of the internal exercises.  We judge things externally but we are going to live longer life not because our muscles are strong but because our organs, immune system, and our brains are in harmony with the world that surrounds us.

I've seen skeptics converting into Qi Gong in the first class, because you can feel the sensation of Chi immediately, is difficult to describe Chi as is difficult to explain electricity in two paragraphs, but you turn the switch in and there it is, when you are relax, in a nice environment with no expectations something mysterious starts flowing through the body a sensation of calmness and contentment appears, then you realize you are more than your body and mind, then the present moment is more than enough more than you expected, is neither physical nor mental is your whole being at peace.

Chi is the way in which the earth vibrates, it manifests in many forms, it could acquire the form of a plant, animal or human, we are dancing at the same tune that the earth plays but in slightly different ways and the earth is dancing the same tune in which the universe is vibrating, we are all expressions of the same primordial thing that the universe is made of.

The universe is an organism and we are part of it, the ignorance of this interdependence of things, the common sense that things and events are separated, creates a sentiment in humanity of conquering and subjugation of nature, without realizing we are fighting our own reality and us, so life becomes a struggle instead a celebration.