Simple Chi Kung_ Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy - Mantak Chia [4]
Chi is the basis of all traditional Chinese healing arts, from acupuncture to herbal medicine. It is the very breath of life, animating every function of our body and mind. When we are healthy, our chi flows smoothly through every part of us. Chi gives our blood the energy to flow and nourish all our cells; it powers our immune system, our digestion, and our nervous system. Chi is the power behind our mental energy, our ability to think clearly, our reason, our willpower, and our decision-making ability.
We are born with chi. It is the inherited life-force energy derived from the egg and sperm of our mother and father. This energy is our Prenatal Chi or Original Chi. It is stored in the lower abdomen around the navel, kidneys, and sexual organs; this area is known as the lower tan tien, the Elixir Field. Our Original Chi is like a battery; it is the basis of our constitutional strength. If our battery has a strong charge and can easily recharge after a slight drain, then we are “preserving our Original Chi” and will enjoy good health.
Our Original Chi also helps us to process and absorb energy from other sources, particularly from the air, food, and water. We also absorb energy from the sun and moon, the earth, the stars and planets, and directly from nature. All of these sources of energy provide us with Postnatal Chi, which combines with our Original Chi to form the chi of the organs and the energy channels.
Chinese medicine views each individual human being as an interconnected and inseparable whole of body, mind, and spirit, unified—in part—by the flow of chi. In Chinese thought, chi is the life-force energy that powers the “machine” of the body. Chi is the power source that enables your eyes to see, mouth to taste, muscles to move, organs to function, and your mind to think. Chi is the human equivalent of the electricity that makes a TV work; without electricity to drive it, a TV becomes merely a useless shell filled with wiring.
Chi Kung is based on the premise that the human body is an energy system. As long as it has energy or chi, it is alive; when energy is gone, it is dead. This makes good scientific sense. A living cell has an electric charge and the differences in electric potential allow nutrients to flow into and out of the cell. Messages and information pass through the nerve cells via electrical impulses. The life-force energy that moves through the heart, spreading circulation to the entire body, comes from this bioelectrical energy.
LIFE-FORCE ENERGY
Energy is the invisible, immaterial substance that propagates life and animates our bodies with movement. It gives birth to our thoughts, emotions, and consciousness. Energy describes and infuses both the infinite space of the universe and the infinitesimal space of the smallest particles. It is the spiral dance of the planets, the magnetism between the electron and proton, and the attraction between male and female. Energy is in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the emotions we feel. It is the force that allows the planets, stars, and galaxies to work in perfect harmony. Mountains arising, forests growing, rivers flowing, and all of life’s proliferations are expressions of this life-force energy.
Energy is that elusive substance we are all seeking. It is that vital force that makes life exciting, fun, creative, and joyful. Call it chi (Chinese), prana (Sanskrit), ruach (Hebrew), spirit, youthfulness, or vibrant health, energy is what we crave. Quantum physicists describe energy as the nature of the universe, but even they can’t really explain what it actually is. We can allude to it and we can feel it, but it is beyond our best mental concepts and explanations. Instinctively, we know that the more energy