Simple Chi Kung_ Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy - Mantak Chia [13]
The basic principles governing all moving forms include relaxation, softness, slowness, and fluid movement. This creates a rhythmic regularity within the body. The purpose of moving forms is to keep the moving parts of the body limber and flexible, to promote circulation of blood and energy throughout the system, and to harmonize external movement of the limbs with internal flow of energy. One of the major guidelines in the practice of moving forms is summed up in the phrase “Seek stillness within movement and seek movement within stillness.”
To fully understand the role of movement in Chi Kung, however, one must also comprehend the central significance of stillness. In the sitting meditation forms of Chi Kung, for example, there is also movement, but it is all internal—in the flow of energy through the channels, the circulation of blood in the vessels, and the cyclic waves of breath—while externally the physical body rests in motionless serenity. The rhythmic external motions of the moving forms can only be maintained and kept in harmony with the cyclic rise and fall of breath by a mind that rests serenely in an undistracted state of internal stillness. Thus, like the eternal ebb and flow of the waves on the sea and the cyclic turns of day and night in the firmament, movement and stillness constitute the essential yin and yang poles of Chi Kung and comprise the complementary cornerstones in all forms of practice.
BALANCING THE BODY AND THE MIND
In Chi Kung, balance of the body is achieved through relaxation. To relax, the practitioner performs a series of stretching and loosening exercises that eliminate tension from the muscles, joints, and tissues. Total relaxation of the body is a prerequisite for maintaining proper posture, freely circulating blood and energy, breathing correctly, and establishing a stable sense of mental quietude. Conversely, any tension in the muscles and tendons, or tightness in the joints, tends to throw the body off balance, obstruct circulation, inhibit deep abdominal breathing, and distract the mind.
With practice, as the body becomes progressively more relaxed, the autonomic nervous system switches over to the calming, restorative, parasympathetic branch, which balances the endocrine system and activates the body’s internal healing mechanisms.
Balancing the mind is one of the most challenging aspects of spiritual practice and meditation. Chi Kung seduces the mind into stillness with its slow rhythmic movements and circulation of energy. As the energy or frequency in the body increases, so too does the “one-pointed awareness” in the mind. Your intention—Yi—is the power of your mind to circulate energy, heal your body, and connect to the energies of the universe.
Chi Kung and Abundant Health
Numerous studies conducted in China and the United States have established a solid scientific foundation for Chi Kung as a means of preventing and curing disease. It is an effective adjunct in the treatment of chronic pain, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic fatigue, heart disease, and cancer, among other ailments. Heart disease and cancer are considered the two major killers of modern times. Despite an amazing surge in medical technology, our ability to cure or prevent these two scourges has made limited progress; in fact, arterial disease and cancer are more widespread than ever before. The age-adjusted mortality rate for cancer has remained the same since the 1940s; one third of all Americans will contract cancer during their lifetime. In the face of these discouraging statistics, Chi Kung gives us a way to take control of our health and help shift the odds in favor of a long and healthy life.
Chi Kung is based on the premise that the human body is an energy system; its fifty trillion cells all require energy to maintain their function, and that energy needs to flow continuously and smoothly. Regular practice