Does physical exercises cultivate chi?

[Guest winpro07]

Edited February 7, 2008 by winpro07

[SFJane]

Nice points. Good to see you here again. You have to excuse Pietro....he's Italian so he can't help it.

 

Craig

 

haha, thanks! good to delurk every now and then and share my delusions when the spirit moves me.

 

 

Jane,

I didn't say I didn't believe in it, only that I'm agnostic. I can do a lot of very interesting things. I want to be brief so here's my nutshell argument. Since you brought up santi... in anything I do with intention (even that is a loaded word, I could easily just say attention), I can (even without willing it so) make my palms red, make my fingertips sweat, cause my palms to slightly blister... I can move the soft tissue of my body, open and close the joints and internal cavities and vertebrae of my spine, move my organs, etc. All the things described in Bruce's method. Other things as well.

 

 

Yea all good stuff, all to be expected. If I sink one elbow or the other while holding Pi I can cause the same side of my body to visibly drop lower than the other side, starting from the collar bone. If I rest the lightest touch of my extended arm on someone and sink that side rapidly it can visibly cause the other person's body to sink at the same time regardless if they are facing me or looking me or not. I prefer them facing away as they can not get visible cues of what my arm is doing in the space between us.

 

So, is this because I am having an experience with something called "qi? Or is it simply my conciousness directing my intention (yi) to these areas and the body (nervous and circulatory systems) responds. Why is there an intermediary called "qi?" I can readily prove these skills but nobody can prove "qi." Not only can I do it, but I can teach it others.

 

I call it chi because that what it is called. It is just a word. I am just as capable of calling it huna, ki, prana, interchangeably because they are not four difference energies that have been independently discovered. The energy of chi is part of the human experience. People that get involved with mind body stuff regardless of culture or language encounter this energy. Whatever you want to call it, there is an energy in us that responds to intent. I prefer chi because the chinese seemed to have made the most of understanding the nitty gritty aspects and fine print about how and why chi is, how to use it, how to get more. What to do, what not to do, how to fix it if it is messed up, etc. Most other traditions can not seamlessly use one ability, chi, to enhance their martial power, their healing abilities or their meditation.

 

Zen Aikido, Reiki and Shiatzu all say to get more ki, focus on the hara and or central channel. That is about as sophisticated as it gets.

 

With Huna you get some healing energy and shaman energy

With yoga you get healing energy and meditation and fun sex.

 

The combined weight of all the allegedly Taoist or Buddhist energy work, the Yellow Emperor's classic, the I ching, the hard shaolin chi going to chi gung tui na to Taoist nei dan, The Chinese culture, energy development wise, is more sophisticated and more exacting down to the very fundamentals as to what kinds of chi do what and how and why. Everything from the chi of food, the chi of buildings and their locations to the ground, to self defense by weaponizing chi is thoroughly understood in a depth not found in other cultures' *occult* cornucopia.

 

If you can feel and control your chi through intent. Then very quickly you get bored with the low level energy work involved in most other systems. That is why I abandoned zen, reiki and aikido for tai chi and chi gung and nei dan. It was far more powerful, more complex and more complete.

 

If you can manipulate your own chi through intent, then you should be able to learn any chi move from a written or oral description of it. It does not matter what it is. Chi becomes a new extension of your overall capabilities and you can attend to all sorts of things by using intention and chi. you can play with it and experiment with it and test yourself and other people.

 

A couple observations, generalizations and stereotypes.

 

People that say they uber magic, chi or psychic abilities invariably do not.

 

People that rely on sheer visualization and imagery for internal power tend to be as internally powerful as bowl of soup.

 

I have met people who rely on visualizations and they can seem pretty intense but they can not translate the chi they think are controlling and turn it into a healing or martial application. Said people tend to be really be into focusing on the aura and yet have no control over their openings, closings, soft tissue, fai jin, etc etc

 

The only people I have met that have the real deal chi, also have the ability to reproduce the result without variation and are able to teach it as well. The strongest IMA players I have interacted with are those that focused primarily on the development of Yi. They lead their chi by intention and not by coloring their personal energy blue or red and streaming it in their mind eyes. They just make effects happen with no fanfare fuss or strain or drama, just like what you were talking about Buddy.

 

Why sell yourself short Buddy? I could care less what people really think chi is or is not. Or what percieved cultural baggage is associated with it.

 

When I use my intention or as Peter Ralston calls it, 'feeling-attention', it creates effects that I can control and predict. Regardless if I am sitting dissolving, doing self repair chi gung or pushing on someone. It is something that has not only grown through meditation and cultivation practices but is something I can consciously and volitionally improve on.

 

 

I also have found through trial and error that some people simply can not sense your chi or their own, even when you are moving their chi underneath their own skin. Even when you sink someone else's body with your directed chi, they have no idea what is happening or how. Those people tend to have absolutely little or no kinesthetic perception whatsoever. they have never taken more than a half a second to make a conscious effort to focus on and listen to their own bodies, their own emotions and thoughts.

 

I am willing to go so far as to say, some of the most chi oblivious people are actuaries and accountants, engineers and mechanics, heavily left brain leaning people. All head and arms and hands. Many are naturally clumsy, klutzy and uncoordinated physically. They do not occupy their body at all, it is a just a mobile brain tank. You can sit and meditate for an hour, do san ti or ba gua and then try to make them feel the chi coming out of your hand and they can not feel anything. They tilt their head like they are scanning for something but you can tell they are not even extending presence into their hand, they don't know how to listen to their hand, the space in it or around it. Completely unable to perceive chi at all.

 

If you ask such a person to consider meditation, their answer is "why would I do that?" They literally can not perceive much of anything over the furor of the own thoughts. Real absent minded professor types. Brilliant in their chosen field and yet energetically deaf dumb and blind.

 

On the other side of that, you get your terminal right brained people. Those that have been in arts all their life and are prone to being sensitive and moody. The musicians, the dancers, the sculpters, the body workers. Those drawn instinctively to massage, meditation, body work, yoga, and yes, nei jia.

 

These people can sense chi in themselves and around them even when they do not have a word like ki or prana to describe it, they have sensed it since childhood.

 

They tend to have a higher incidence of self reported psychic or spiritual experiences through out their lives. In those people there are higher incidences both of innate spirituality or tendency to religiosity as well as higher incidences of mood disorders and mental illness. Those are the people I encountered when I was involved with wicca, reiki, lightbody, etc

 

I have met very sensitive intuitive massage therapists who absolutely have no orthodox or systematic training in any energy discipline or practice, accurately describe where in their body i was manipulating their chi. They can feel with eyes closed or open. You don't even have to lead them, you just start messing with their chi flows and they sense you are doing 'something' immediately.

 

Over the last decade that I have been really involved in using the three internal arts for the three purposes of self healing, self defense and personal development I have discovered these generalized stereotypes.

 

I have found that those that can, without training of any kind, easily feel me moving my chi are the best people to teach. The transfer of skills is smooth, they grasp what you saying and why very quickly. It makes perfect sense to them.

 

On the other hand, those that can not feel their own inner body and can not control it, or those that can not feel the chi coming out of the palm of their own hands or yours are, * in general* a waste of time.

 

The combination of being able to listen to and accurately feel chi seems to be biological sensitivity. I have noticed that those people sensitive to energy, noticed this sensitivity early in life. They tend to be more intuitive and pay attention to sensations in their body or energy around them.

 

It is not a matter of said left brained people being inferior in any way. They truly do not and can not get it.

Edited February 7, 2008 by SFJane

[Buddy]

"Why sell yourself short Buddy?"

 

LOL, I doubt I'll ever be accused of THAT!

[doc benway]

I think at least one really good pearl has come out of this thread - namely, the importance of focusing on the yi, not the qi.

Nice to see you posting Jane, I always appreciate the clarity and thoughtfullness of your posts.

Steve

[AugustLeo]

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[SFJane]

Jane,

 

I enjoy reading your posts. They are informative and instructive in a wonderfully refreshing way. I hope you keep posting.

 

Michael in RI

 

Thanks Michael,Steve, Max, anyone else I missed. Good to see you guys again

[Guest winpro07]

having the ability to prove that spiritual energy by any name does not exist forces the synic into a special corner of belief called "I am just a body" or "When i die, thats it". This is a very hard belief to carry. It makes empty every act of our lives, and enforces the ultimate fear in a big way. A good cynic will argue that they are happy with life as it is, and will be ready to give up everything "when its my time, its my time" The big challenge in this life is fear, and our final resolve with it. All those cynics out there gripped with terror at their last breath.... Some would say that consciousness-not spirit(energy) continues after death without the body. What is this consciousness that continues after the body comprised of -what is its medium? The soul or spirit body continues where? it cannot be seen, but we must believe, or lose everything

Edited February 10, 2008 by winpro07

[Buddy]

The Advaitists would say all is Brahman. That there is no real separation between the individual consciousness (jivatman) and universal consciousness (paramatman). The searation is illusion (maya). So there is no vehicle for consciousness.