Any particular metaphor you use for chi?

[thelerner]

I wrote this question to one member and thought it'd be worthy of a larger discussion.

What metaphor do you use for chi?

 

how does that work with accumulation and circulation?

[silent thunder]

I pictured it like a series of buckets, tiered over one another. 

Cultivate to acquire energy to fill them up, overflow them, store, horde and maintain energy... that sort of thing.  Feel vital?  Buckets are full.  Simple.  Feel shitty?  Buckets empty.  Simple. 

 

Looking back I see the wholly unsustainable tension inherent in that model.  A fear based, materialistic notion of gaining, hording, losing energies, having energy stolen or leaked, worry, constant need to oversee and remain watchful.  lol... the high energy and certainty of youth.  Seeing and relating to the energy body as another material body (same shape even), just more ephemeral than the one typing these symbols now.

 

This model crumbled painfully, gratefully and spectacularly under its own tension.

 

Then the buckets were replaced with ideas of tubes.  Tubes that could constrict, or expand to account for vitality or weakness... tubes that still kind of flowed into buckets.  More of same really, but a new awareness in the relation to the constriction/expansion that replaced the notion of empty and full buckets.  Flow constricted, feel shitty.  Flow expanded, feel amazing.  I'd found a similar tune sung in another octave.  Still much tension in the tubes, obligations to cleanse them, worry over potential sources of constriction that then become sources of... constriction.

 

More crumbling.  Pain and relief simultaneously. 

As uncertainty has expanded, stress has diminished.

Certainty breeds tension in me it seems apparent now.

 

Then there were streams and rivers, that led into eddies and pools.  Tubes and buckets gone.  The flow of the streams converging into rivers naturally.  Energy flows as it flows, not as directed.  Allowed to be and go without forcing, seeking or obsessively directing. 

 

Flowing through banks of... hmm what are the banks made of?  what is the river made of?  Fuck... constriction.  sneaky devil...

 

Lately it's light.  Light that flows like warm oil, or cascades like stars made of sound.  Varying colors of light flowing directionally as rivers and directionlessly as isness, depending it seems on awareness and identification with sensation. Patterns of light flowing into, diverging.  Light of myriad variety as tangible as they are ephemeral.

 

Gold light, white light, lavenders and blues lately.  Swimming in light.  Unfolding as light.  Made of light, singing out light in thoughts and words and deeds... deeds and movements generating light.

 

verbs verbing verbs...

 

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by silent thunder
fixed a non-sensical sentence... i hope

[Lost in Translation]

This reminds me that I need to make time for practice...

 

When I am still, and focusing on my breathing, I imagine the air entering as clean, bright, white light. As the light enters my body it flows where it will, picking up the filth it finds along the way. By the time I exhale, the light has turned dark and muddy, sometimes oily. It's not pretty. I continue this process for as long I desire. My goal is to reach a point where the light leaves as clean as it enters, or at least isn't completely dark. Success is by no means guaranteed.

[freeform]

Change-information in action

[Sebastian]

7 minutes ago, freeform said:

Change-information in action

 

You mean like when information is changing in the body ?

[freeform]

1 minute ago, Sebastian said:

 

You mean like when information is changing in the body ?

 

Yes. But not just the body - everything. Qi is the information behind change  or transformation - whether in your body or in the environment.

 

Everything is changing...

[rideforever]

Recently I have been doing some psychological work, trying to heal some pain and whatnot from my family experiences.

And as I do so, I feel chi suddenly start to flow, in my ankle, leg, here and there.

Which means that chi is connected to the personality and mind, meaning your inner experience of your identity is connected to the "chi".

[Sebastian]

11 minutes ago, freeform said:

Yes. But not just the body - everything. Qi is the information behind change  or transformation - whether in your body or in the environment.

 

Everything is changing...

 

What drives this information change through Qi ? Would you say it's Tao ? Would you say your intent can subjectively influence this information exchange ?

[freeform]

7 minutes ago, Sebastian said:

 

What drives this information change through Qi ? Would you say it's Tao ? Would you say your intent can subjectively influence this information exchange ?

 

I so just wanted to leave it at 'change-information in action'

 

But that's unfair.

 

Qi is already change-information in action - nothing drives it - although it is borne of Dao, yes.

 

Qi is influenced by conditions or qualities...

 

For example, let's take Ride's post:

22 minutes ago, rideforever said:

heal some pain and whatnot from my family experiences.

And as I do so, I feel chi suddenly start to flow

 

Trauma in the body - on the level of Qi - has the quality of stagnation... it's constricted and immobile - this information of stuckness is physically manifested as tightness in the tissues and muscles of particular areas of the body... on the level of consciousness, it will appear as a psychological trait that cannot be easily let go of.

 

If you affect actual change on the level of consciousness like Ride managed to, then the qi will flow and the tissues will release.

 

In the Daoist arts, making the change on the level of consciousness is considered risky, because it's very easy to 'reattach' to the trauma in a slightly different way, causing the qi to constrict again...

 

If you affect change on the level of Qi then you won't even know you're letting go of a trauma - you'll just have a release (and usually a small spontaneous movement) and qi will flow and both the physical and consciousness aspects will be let go of without even realising.

[Sebastian]

3 minutes ago, freeform said:

Qi is already change-information in action - nothing drives it - although it is borne of Dao, yes.

 

Thanks. The way I see it,  Tao is the orchestra chief.  He provides order and harmony for his musicians. If they don't align with the conductor, then the result would be chaotic musically. They might start comparing themselves to other musicians, to other instruments, etc... and completely lose the rhythm or the point of the whole thing.

 

It's like the subtle intent of nature's Qi, there is a design and intelligence there. Why do the trees pattern a certain way, why do sunflowers follow the Sun, why do flowers bloom the way they do, and why is there human evolution ? Because the Qi is intelligent, and this intelligence comes from the creator in the form of (informational) messages.

 

Is it a fixed intelligence ? No, otherwise there would be no growth. The intelligence is beyond our intellectual grasp, and it is constantly in flux too. The orchestra chief adapts, learns from his musicians and even collaborates with his students.

 

By collaborate I mean, you can align with the conductor for one moment, and ask him to subtly change his intent about something. This is prayer, or "shen" driving the Qi.

 

It's true that Qi has physical characteristics left to itself, like the 8 movements of Chinese Medicine, and it can contract/expand, etc... But I also think that Qi can mold itself around intent, and this intent can be sent to the ends of the Universe.

 

Qi + intent is information change, to me. It is prayer.