Chi
Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI
Usually physical practice of chikung refers to the concentration of power on and in our muscles which is operated mostly externally. In other words, our energy will surround around our muscles and skeleton much more than around our internal organs. This means that the energy stored within our internal organs including our brain will be diverted over the entire surface of our body (as in iron shirt kung fu) both internally and externally.
The mental practice of chikung comes after we have perfected our body both internally and externally. The frequency of chi related to our brain is quite unstable so we need a perfect body to create a center of control for our mental activities. This means that our internal organs and limbs are equally strengthened, resulting in our beong stronger and balanced enough to allow us to progress further in the mental practice of chi. Our subconsciousness is our biggest enemy in attaining peace and harmony. When the chi in our body circulates perfectly, it provides us with magnetic and concrete forces (concentrated forces which can steady us) to help us stop thinking so much. In this way , the possibility of entering a state of tranquility or enlightenment during practices which use our mind (e.g.,visualiztion,) (which usually take the form of sitting medititation or both movement and sitting meditation) may be easily achieved. The spiritual practice of chikung will be the most difficult type of practice because it requires the combining of both body and mind after each are perfected. We then need a completely unified training to combine the three levels of forces (body, mental and spiritual)together. Usually it starts with training our body to concentrate without using our mind. Then, our body works for itself to coordinate with our mind, with our body both absorbing the excess energy of our mind and controling our mind. Finally, we reach the state of merging together with our mind.
The training of our mind usually refers to the control of our consciousness and subconsciousness in a balanced form, which requires a perfect match with the training of our body at the same time. Our body is the foundation of a building which requires a perfect structural design and fundamental (preliminary) construction first before the completion of the walls and other facilities and decorations later. Therefore, our mind will always work together with or be influenced by the signal and frequency produced by our body. If such signals and frequencies are not stable and are bad, our mind will never be able to calm itself down. In such a way, if we continue to use our mind with a strong determination regardless of the balance within our whole body, our mind will go burning like crazy and we will lose our balance and even our life. Therefore, our mental training requires a sound coordination with our body: the perfection of only our mind will be something like a useless illusion. ¡@The spiritual practice of chi combines the body, mind and spirit together in a more holistic point of view. In other words, this practice advances step by step vertically from a broadened horizontal base like a pyramid. Most important for such a combinations requires adequate charging of our energy or a balanced form of coordination between body and mind, mind and spirit, like the trinity body in Christianity that can not be separated into parts. So, if the energy or force is not fully charged, there will be no connection between the linked levels. If each level works on its own patterns, it will create a disintegration process of chi in which our body is not unified, resulting in physical, mental, and spiritual problems will occur. Then we will be in big trouble.
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