tai chi controlling chi energy

lol awrite its cool bro

 

Actually I have to disagree.
The earliest known reference for the character for Qi in Chinese was in fact in reference to the vapor rising from a corpse, not in some mystical way but in the foul stench of decomposition kind of way.

Qi has many meanings but processes involving air and/or vapour are among the most common in medicine.
In physical pursuits Qi refers to biomechanical efficiency with particular reference to correct use of breathing and the diaphragm.

Qi only became associated with "energy" after the use of electricity became commonplace.


Dao

 

Chi can have different meanings, but in martial arts it is an energy that flows in your body and is controlled by the intent.

To find it and use it usually takes a long time.

I would say you are born with it working but loose it at a young age, usually before age 6 or 7.

Cheers

 

Bio-tensegrity

Nothing more

 

Yes, I think that is what the mechanics of it seem to be related to.

 

Traditionally there were two forms of 'chi': one was breath and the other was energy.

Obviously the ancient Chinese who labelled these things 'chi' didn't have the detailed understanding that we do today about how the body works, so they came up with explainations which we wouldn't accept nowadays, such as 'meridians' along which they believed energy was supposed to flow.

 

and some how later "chakras" and vedic ideas got mixed in.
then also "auras" and other stuff.
Corruption of ideas when translated to another culture and language

 

I know diddly about chakras and vedic stuff, but I was under the impression that they were Indian in origin rather than Chinese. Not sure where 'auras' come from (apart from someone's imagination, obviously!)

 

pretty much from the indian subcontinent.
just another case of people confusing stuff from other cultures

 

Like having a large donner in a naan bread? :love:

 

id say more like ordering a donner pizza at a chinese-thai-fish & chip shop.
this i have done before

 

Change that donner to a chicken kebab and I'll have one! Or two or three...

 

Just my luck to happen on this when feeling really hungry. dammit you guys, I'm on a diet!!

 

I agree with this.Cultivating chi isn't something that can be done in a matter of months.The practice takes years and years of dedicated training to bring to fruition.The results are good health and a calm mind rather than the ability to knock someone twenty feet across a room.

Not too sure if its is awake in young children as I can't recall experiencing these feeling at a young age.Once you have felt chi,and I don't mean a bit of tingling in the hands as that is the kindergarten stage,you are left in no doubt it is real and not a product of your imagination.In my experience it does tend to follow some of the meridians on these ancient charts,especially the governor and conception vessels.

 

You can always go for the Chi-seburger - not sure if it will keep the pounds off.

 

I don't believe it's some independent unidentified energy.. As I've said before I think it correct that the feeling(s) that emerge are kineasthetic. Whilst I think energy is a decent overiding translation, in a similar fashion to english it's the context and application that is crucial.

Qi Gong is comprised of 3 components.

Breath
Imagination (Yi)
Posture

Kineasthetic feeling (qi) follows yi. Are you sure these feeling aren't developed through the above 3 components, rather than uncovering (what is still a feeling) of an exclusive entity.

Bio electricity or whatever else may exist. All these things are as maybe, but what I do know is that if you go through the classics replacing "qi" with kineasthetic feeling it brings so much sense to those (martial) proceedings.

Everything you feel comes through your nervous system. All movement, inside, outside is "kinaesthetic" the word is related to the greek word for movement. You stand still, your insides don't freeze and stand still with you. Your body works, your blood flows.

When you can listen, you will feel this movement. Breath and yi (imagination/ intent), and good posture all come together to bolster, and provide a platform for cultivation of ones kineasthetic feeling. (qi)

 

Qi is a mystery until you've felt it, until then it doesn't really matter what anyone tells you about it b/c it generally manifests itself in different ways for different people. Some people feel coldness, others warmness, others tingling or pressure or something else. When you feel it, you'll know.

I strongly disagree with many people(mostly westerners, no offense guys:hat these days who generalize Qi as "simply" this or "simply" that and "nothing more". Western diagnostic equipment, as advanced as it is, can only detect changes to the physiology when Qi manifests itself, but fails to actually pinpoint it to any one physiological process. Modern western medicine and scientist generally tend to agree that it is an amalgamation of many process occurring simultaneously. In other words, they know something is happening, but they really can't say what exactly. When you attempt to oversimplify the concept, you will fail to gleam the "精华" or "awesome creamy essence"(sounds so wrong) of it.

However, on the flip side having had experience with Taijiquan, Yiquan, and Tongbeiquan, it is also dangerous to overly focus on it's mysticism. When doing that, it's easy to lose focus on the fact that Qi is aiding tool, if not just as a way to explain cool things going on inside rather than being the primary focus. Controlling Qi or using Qi in a Qi-blast or some other is just complete daffodils..and you'll lose yourself to a fantasy world.

In my opinion, the best way to go about is not to lean too hard to either of these two extremes. Good teachers will teach you how to cultivate the Qi and utilize it within the confines of the style rather than go into detail to tell you where it comes from, what muscle or organ or system of organs or combination of bodily functions cause it nor will they tell you it's some all encompassing Force binding the Universe and here's how to tap into it. At most, if you're struggling to understand their initial instructions they might tell you to use your imagination a little bit and think about it from a different point of view. I had to think abstractly initially to understand the concept and when I got it, I stopped that path of thinking and focused on it's useful applications.

 

Wow...this more less sums up how i interpret sensations generated through yiquan ZhanZhuang



Nice

 

Sorry, but I can't agree with this at all. I can't accept that modern doctors with modern diagnostic equipment have failed to pinpoint something that ancient Chinese philosophers and medicine men had no problems pinpointing. How is it that an ancient Chinese medicine man with no diagnostic equipment was able to identify what a modern doctor cannot? Please explain this to me and the forum.

Not only that but what you are saying hinges on whether or not qi actually exists. For qi to manifest itself(even in different ways), it would have to actually exist somewhere in the human body in the first place. I think it is far more likely that modern diagnostic machines can't detect chi not because of their own faults, but because qi doesn't actually exist.

If I am wrong then please tell me what processes in the human body are attributed to chi.

 

Whether you accept it or not is your choice, but the fact of the matter is that modern diagnostic equipment cannot find the source or the exact workings of Qi within the human body. What does the ancient Chinese medicine man have anything to do with this? I stated in my earlier post that Qi is something you feel on your own. It is different for everyone. TCM chose to explain Qi the only way they thought possible, as something mystical. There is no set quantitative measures for what Qi exactly is. You think that because pieces of technology like an MRI machine or Iphone or laptop has been developed by humans that we have the answer to everything. Sorry to disappoint you my friend, but we really don't....there will probably be questions about our own anatomy and many many other things left unanswered for a very very long time. We humans used to know what constituted Greek fire, but now we don't. How come men in ancient Greece wearing togas could make this stuff, but now we have all manners of scientific knowledge and equipment but yet we cannot? We still don't really know how the Egyptians built the pyramids(the ramping method is just a theory). You think that because we have all this "science" now that we're should be ultimately better than our ancestors at answering life's questions. The truth is yes, most of the time we are, but sometimes we aren't. By the way, what are you basing your info off of where modern equipment can quantify Qi. I'm basing mine off of my close friend and shixiong who did his master's thesis at U Sydney on this subject after studying TCM for 5 years in China. He had loads of data from scores of tests with all kinds of diagnostic equipment from subjects. He concluded that Qi was a series of physiological processes operating two at a time, three at a time, 4 at a time, but it was impossible for the moment to single out any one process as the cause.

I never said I knew exactly where Qi started within the human body, but I know it's there. Qi is just a word I use to describe the sensation you can call it whatever you want really, but it's difficult to use a specific term given in modern science b/c of the range of sensations. Scientist have been able to use diagnostic equipment to observe certain aspects of Qi, such as changes in heat to certain parts of the body. But the question remains on where that heat came from and dissipated w/o becoming feverish or being exposed to outside sources of heat or coolness.



Seriously, you put modern technology on a pedestal....humans got along just fine without it for a long long time