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The Healing Art Of Qi Gong Interview

by on April 26, 2011 in Qi Gong

Worldwide there are millions of people practicing Qigong today, mainly due to its number of applications to prevent disease and get better health. The most widely known application is Medical Qigong, as a complementary healing-system. It is suitable for all ages and for the majority of health conditions.

It is a very effective and soft therapy, and it has been observed that practitioners recover from illness quicker, with fewer side effects than those observed when using allopathic therapies. However, the most important point is that practitioners learn specific skills that improve constantly their immune system with a very positive long-term effect.

External Qi Healing is a second application of Qi Gong and means an ancient method of transmitting Qi without touching. In meditative or spiritual Qi Gong, a third application, the practitioners focus on developing a clear and tranquil state of mind. There are basically two categories of meditative Qi Gong, Buddhist Fo Jia Gong and Daoist Dao Jia Gong, reflecting Buddhist or Daoist philosophies.

Finally, there are Martial Qigong (Wu Gong) applications and these refer to Wu Shu (Chinese Martial Arts). It includes exercises to improve martial art techniques, to strengthen the body in general, to improve coordination and flexibility, and to build up Qi. The most widely known martial art Qigong is Tai Chi.

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Qigong The Chinese Energy Healing System

by on April 8, 2011 in Qi Gong

‘Qi’ or ‘Chi’ means air, breath of life or vital energy of the body. Other names for Qi are Prana (India), Orgon (Wilhelm Reich), Num (Africa´s Kalahari desert), Pneuma (Greek), Nafas (Koran), or Ha (Huna). Qi is the subtle power that flows through all living things. The Qi level of a healthy person is high, clear and flows smoothly like a stream, without blockages. “Gong” or “Kung” means “skill of working with, or cultivating, self-discipline and achievement”.

Qi Gong, Qi Gung or Qi Kung, is a 5,000 year old holistic Chinese self-healing and meditation system evolving practice that includes healing postures, breathing techniques and self-massage. Qi Gong is suitable for everyone, every age and all physical conditions. The Qi Gong practitioner learns to control the Qi flow and use his/her mind to guide the Qi to all parts of his/her body to achieve a complete energetic balance. In dynamic, exercising Qi Gong, the entire body moves from one posture to another. In passive, meditative Qi Gong, the body is still and Qi is controlled by concentration, visualization and breathing.

The roots of Qi Gong
The roots of Qi Gong are very old and the principles can be found in native tribes’ philosophies and practices around the world. The oldest signs of cultivating life energy as a key to healing and spiritual power come from the Australian aborigines, around sixty thousand years ago. They concentrated life energy on a zone located four inches below the navel.

This same area is called the Dantien in Qi Gong and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Another example of ancient Qi Gong practices comes from Hawaii. The powerful Hawaiian healers were known as “Masters of the Breath”. They used movements like a dance and deep breathing exercises to accumulate Qi and project it through their hands to other persons. The most important roots and closest parallels for Qi Gong we know today come from India. There are actual remarkable parallelisms between Yoga and the Chinese Yin-Yang theory .

Different sources show that Yoga is older than Qi Gong and Buddhist monks from India have influenced some Qi Gong styles. However, informations have probably traveled in both directions, Taoist’s ancient tales and Indian yogis learned from each other and influenced their teachings until the present day.

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The Most Important Thing I Ever Learned About Awareness

by on April 8, 2011 in Tai-Chi

This weekend, I participated in a Chen-Style tai chi chuan weekend seminar followed by a private session with Chen Yingjun, Grandmaster Chen Xiao Wang’s son. These names may not mean too much to you, but they stand for the highest and purest skills that can be found in the Tai Chi world.

After training for over two years, completely isolated from any teacher or group, I was really looking forward to meeting Yingjun. Almost exactly ten years ago, I had already learned from his father Chen Xiao Wang in Germany, and so it was amazing to have this continuation of such incredible teachers. Yingjun started Tai Chi at 8 and had trained since then under his famous father. I guess it is not easy being compared with a living legend, but Yingjun seems to handle this in a very relaxed way.

During a lunch break, we talked about training and focus and Yingjun told me that he had been fully dedicated to Tai Chi training for the last few years. ‘Now I am almost ready to teach’, he said. Let’s get this right; Yingjun skills are already world-class. His movements and his power are so far developed that it is hard to imagine that there is any improvement possible. At least this is what I thought. ‘I still have to improve a lot; there is so much more possible’, said Yingjun, as if he had read my mind.

I was still thinking and looking at this smiling face. Here I was sitting beside a young, extraordinary man, who represented the exact opposite of our fast and superficial world. In his world, there is neither space for pretending to know something nor for people with a big mouth. You can either do it or not— you can’t fake tai chi. ‘I needed to work on my foundation, strength and perfect my skills before I start teaching’, Yingjun continued. ‘Tai Chi is like real life; without a good foundation, your skills stay weak, whatever you do. Focus on one skill at a time and train hard until you achieved it, then your skills will skyrocket’, he said.

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Taijiquan – Martial Art or Morning Exercise

by on January 8, 2011 in Tai-Chi

Even though there are at the moment a reasonable number of people practicing Tai Chi worldwide, there is still a mystery about it. Tai Chi is relatively unknown compared to Karate or Kung Fu. Some people are in doubt whether it is a special form of Yoga, Kung Fu or even a dance. Others associate Tai Chi with the image of a large group of elderly people in a park moving slowly in unison, performing a series of “dance like” movements.

T’ai Chi Ch’uan is a soft style (internal) martial art but is also called “art of moving meditation” and it is characterized by relaxed and soft movements. T’ai Chi theory and practice is formulated in agreement with many of the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. The slow, repetitive work involved in that process gently increases and opens the internal circulation (breath, body heat, blood, peristalsis).

T’ai chi, taiji, t’ai chi ch’uan and taijiquan are different spellings for the same discipline and the words mean literally “Supreme Ultimate fist”, or “The way of supreme harmony”. Tai chi is a shortened name and is generally related to health, relaxation and spiritual development. Taijiquan is used for Tai chi as an internal Martial Art. We use normally the shortened name but refer to all aspects of Tai chi, health and Martial Arts.

The term “Tai Chi” refers to the ancient Chinese cosmological concept of the interaction between the polar opposites of Yin and Yang, where Yin is represented by night, cold, negative, soft, earth, intellectual, feminine, and Yang by day, warm, positive, hard, sky, physical, masculine. “Quan” literally means, “fist” and denotes an unarmed combat method. Tai Chi as an internal martial art is based on the principle of subduing the hard with the soft by adapting and sticking to the opponent’s movements.

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Tai Chi And Self-defence

by on December 28, 2010 in Tai-Chi

Currently most of the Tai Chi schools worldwide focus on the health benefits. They are not incorporating the fighting aspects anymore. The traditional Tai chi, and specially Chen Style, belong to the most powerful and effective self-defence systems. The outstanding advantage of Taijiquan is the usage of natural and spiral movement, strength and reactions and a highly effective combat strategy, “moving a thousand pounds with a force of four ounces”. This allows the “weaker” to control a much stronger and heavier opponent. However, it is fair to say that effective self-defence abilities requires a solid Tai Chi foundation.

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