Articles
Developing Character through Qigong practice
By Jill Gonet, MA and Guan-Cheng Sun, PhD
The New Times - October 2000 Vol. XVI, No.5
The word "Qigong," (pronounced chee gung), is composed of two characters in Chinese: the first character, "Qi,"
represents the life force, or vital energy; the second character, "Gong," means
the results or achievement of work or cultivation. So, Qigong is the practice of
cultivating one's inherent potential and well-being based upon the natural laws
of human consciousness and internal energy flow in the physical body. It
consists primarily of breathing exercises, meditation, stretch, and physical
movements. It is the foundation of all the martial arts, traditional Chinese
medicine and energetic healing. Although relatively new to the United States,
Qigong has a long history in China where the practice has been used to prevent
and heal illnesses, improve the quality of people's lives and increase
longevity.
There are many healing tools and programs in our physical
bodies. The key point is how to turn on those programs for healing. In Qigong
practice, the first step is to teach people how to activate and feel their "Qi,"
so that practitioners are practicing the breathing, movement, stretch, and
meditation exercises with the actual sensations and experience of the Qi which
exists within us, as well as surrounding us.
Some people call the Qi
that exists around every one's body an aura. And while Dr. Valerie Hunt
(Infinite Mind, 1995) describes it as an "energy field," we have found that it
is not only an energy field, it is an information field too. So, in Dr. Sun's
system it has been dubbed the "bio-energy-information system (BEIS)" which
exists around every one's body. All of the organs, tissues, and cells can
communicate with each other within that system, and they also relay these
communications "outside" their own system, and they do this all the time,
whether we are consciously aware of it or not.
The body's energy field
is also very important in how the brain communicates with different parts of the
body. The brain uses this energy field to communicate with each part of the
body--as well as with other peoples' bodies. It's almost like the brain has a
radio station for receiving this information from the nervous system and from
the bio-energy-information system. The brain operates both on the alternating
electric current of the nervous system, as it simultaneously operates within the
body's electromagnetic system. A unique aspect of Qigong practice is that we can
become deeply aware of this connection between the mind and the body, and use
the information we receive from the body's communication network in order to
facilitate our own healing process.
The energy field is the body's
system for communicating both with itself, and with others, in healing
situations. Western medicine and most of Eastern medicine as well, is lacking an
understanding of this function of the body's energetic field and its
communication function. And this communication is authentic. In other words,
once the mind has become connected to the body's energy field through the Qigong
practice, the mind is more peaceful, and more easily hears the signals and
communications for the body's consciousness.
The main function of all
Qigong practices is to keep our bodies, emotions, and minds in a perfect
balance. But without activating their own bio-energy-information system in order
to give them feedback about their own practice, many people actually can create
a new unbalanced situation with their practice. That is, if you can not feel the
Qi moving, you can overdo Qi , or under do Qi , or move it to a wrong
place.
As we said above, the first step in Qigong practice is to activate
and feel the Qi. The second step is to increase the energy level in the body and
to develop the bio-information system. So, how is it that the energy level
increases and people have more energy? Where is this energy coming from and how
is it activated? How is this possible? We have a technique that activates what
the Chinese tradition called the "life gate", to turn on the internal engine and
activate the kidney's energy-producing and energy-upgrading function. Then this
extra energy that has been released into the body is circulated throughout the
body's energy meridians by means of Qigong exercises. This increased energy flow
can trigger the alarm system in the body (we call this body's alarm system,
"internal 911"). When the internal 911 is stimulated, it can call the
corresponding rescue program including repair programs or healing programs. If
the corresponding rescue programs are connected and activated at the internal
body, the healing process begins.
Additionally, in this practice we
understand how intimately the body mirrors the individual's mental and emotional
states and events. In this type of energetic medicine, there is no formal
disciplinary boundary between the mind, body and emotions. Sometimes a shoulder
pain can be caused by anger, for example. A qualified Qigong teacher will be
able to get to the root of problems, instead of treating symptoms that are
effects, not causes.
To give the most cursory overview, the training and
practice in Qigong consists of a series of stationary and very subtle movement
meditations for regulating energy circulation in the body. The purpose of these
exercises is to build up more energy, and to get the body's energy field active
and stable. Practitioners work on developing their body's information system and
understanding its function. The increasing energy in our bodies amplifies the
body's signals, and as we turn the mind's attention toward the body, the body
begins to tell us which places need healing. We activate the body's energy
centers in order to enhance and improve the body's energy flow and to eliminate
energy blockages. This triggers and activates self-healing, with each body's own
repair system cleansing and detoxifying the body of accumulated negative energy,
information and waste products caused by illness, injury, tension, stress, and
emotions.
When practitioners have mastered these basics, and have learned
to listen to what the body's information system is telling us, we begin to train
the mind to direct the flow of energy; we focus on bringing movement, energy,
and the mind into unity.
Practice improves health, triggering both the
body's alarm systems (when we should stop doing something because it's not good
for us) and repair systems to get active (the repair systems release pain and
waste products). We have a lot of systems in the body and practice allows them
to work at higher efficiency and realize their potential. Practitioners change
and cleanse their body's internal environment to regulate the expression of
healthy genetic information. We have both healthy and unhealthy genetic
information, but changing the body's internal environment allows and fosters the
expression of the healthy genetic information.
Many Qigong practitioners
come to discover the extent to which emotions are affecting not only their
emotional health but their physical health as well. Excess amounts of emotions
such as fear, depression, anger, etc., are capable of hurting our health. So,
how do we control or regulate our emotions? And isn't this just some sort of
repression or forbearance? Actually, not. We practice and become more attuned to
our emotions and the situations in which they arise. We learn exercises that
restore each organ's regulation function of the emotion associated with it. This
is something that traditional Chinese medicine understands very well, and our
energetic practice gives practitioners a very real and powerful set of tools to
use to get our emotional lives into balance (tools that aren't based just on
mental thinking or will power). When we learn how not to be at the mercy of
their emotions, we feel better all around, and don't lose energy repeatedly in
negative cycles and/or habitual responses that only produce an internal
environment full of chaos; instead, we are more able to maintain balance and to
use our emotions appropriately. The life within us and surrounding us takes on
greater depth and significance as we break out of our habitual responses and
continue to develop ourselves.
Qigong practice leads to the real
synchronization of body and mind. At higher levels of cultivation, this leads to
enhanced generosity, openness, acceptance, patience, and many qualities of a
positive nature. Enhanced energy can easily lead to enhanced compassion and
patience, for example, because we feel good, our needs are taken care of, so
it's easier to be patient with others. Through practice, we are in the process
of learning to nurture our energy, with calmness and harmony. This harmony, with
energy behind it, works on the character of the practitioner from within. Then
our thoughts, will, spirit become more positive, productive, and
loving.
When practitioners do not sense these changes in themselves over
time, we must consider that in fact our life situations are the most crucial
field of our Qigong practice, one that requires the willingness to look at
ourselves. During energetic practice, the energetic body develops and health
increases, and then this practice naturally deepens and begins to connect with
emotional states/wounds that have happened in the past. In some cases, practice
creates a new unbalance between our emotions and our energetic level--and this
old negative information always affects the quality of our lives.
We have
to work hard to create a new balanced state between our emotions, mind, and
body, and pay attention to this process, just as we are always bringing in new
energy to break through or break down the old balance that may have been holding
us in place (and making us more deeply affected than necessary by negative
people and environments). When we haven't broken through an old negative balance
we are so much more at the mercy of negative transactions, so it's necessary to
build up a new balance. It doesn't matter if you change the mind first or the
energy first, we're always engaged in creating a situation of new balance. Once
we've cleaned out or begun to clean out old negative emotions/wounds, and
loosened their grip, we've accomplished a great deal: a degree of detachment.
And once we've moved out of our old box, gotten some detachment, we naturally
change our perceptions and what we see. It becomes easier to maintain the clean,
wholesome, and original nature of our personal space and not become lost or
deeply affected by unhealthy or toxic environments. Once we are living
harmoniously within ourselves in an integrated way, we can live with others more
harmoniously too.
When practitioners, through the cultivation process,
develop qualities of energy, patience, openness, compassion, it is in fact
because we are learning to love ourselves better, and also because we have the
power and energetic support to go for those qualities.
|
