Simple Chi Kung_ Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy - Mantak Chia [7]
Human beings often enslave their minds and squander their energy to satisfy temporary desires. In the Tao, the practitioner transforms these base emotions so that spirit becomes the master and the guide through the journey of life. In order to harness the power of the universe for the benefit of humanity, human beings must pattern their bodies as well as their minds on the universal order of creation reflected in nature and the cosmos, for this is the context in which human life evolved. When practicing the Tao, one must learn to balance physical health and vitality with spiritual awareness and virtue, and in this way, one truly goes with the flow of nature.
YIN AND YANG
The Tao Te Ching says, “One gave birth to two,” which came to be known as yin and yang. Yin and yang are the polarities of the universe—night and day, life and death, male and female. This basic polarity is the premise of all manifest existence, the foundation of all creation, and the basis of all movement and change. Yin and yang form the field in which energy and matter engage in their ceaseless play of formation and dissolution, interaction and transmutation.
Yin, whose ideogram originally meant “the shady side of a hill,” refers to the negative and the dark, the passive and the female, the moon and water, the soft and the yielding, the internal and the lower aspects in any field, formation, or system of energy. Yang, which meant “the sunny side of a hill,” denotes the positive and the light, the active and the male, the sun and fire, the hard and aggressive, the external and the upper aspects and parts of any whole. It’s important to realize that yin and yang are not two different types of energy, but rather they are the two opposite but complementary poles in any given form, function, or field of energy. Yin and yang are also mutually transmutable: as the day progresses, the sunny side of the hill becomes shady and yin, while the yin side lights up and becomes yang.
The Chinese characterized the chi of the heavens as yang: outward flowing, expansive, positively charged; they characterized the chi of the earth as yin: inward flowing, receptive, negatively charged. In general, energy flows up the front of the body from the earth, flowing up the inside of the legs and arms toward the heavens. Correspondingly, energy flows down from the heavens, flowing down the back and down the outside of the arms and legs to the earth.
This external pattern of yin and yang chi should not be confused with the body’s internal meridian patterns. The body has its own directional map, defined by its meridian system. The yin meridians of the upper body flow from the chest down the insides of the arms. The yang meridians then take the energy up the arms to the head. From the head, the yang meridians bring the circulation of energy down the outside and back of the body to the feet. From the feet, the yin meridians of the legs bring the circulation of chi back up the insides of the legs into the chest. From the chest, this cycle of energy repeats. While it’s good to have a general sense of energy flow in the body, it’s not necessary to know all the meridian pathways in order to benefit from Chi Kung, just as you can benefit from cardiovascular exercise without knowing the anatomy of the heart.
According to the tenets of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), imbalance in the yin/yang polarity of various energy systems in the body is the root cause of all disease. The best way to cure disease and prevent degeneration is therefore to restore natural, healthy balance in all facets of the human energy system. Chi Kung is the most direct and effective way of achieving this goal, as its practices naturally balance the yin and yang energies of the body.
Some Chi Kung practices are inherently more yin—specifically the ones that involve meditation or postures with little or no movement—while others are more yang, focusing on activities such as stretching muscles, articulating joints, and flowing movements that move internal energy. By combining these two styles, yin and yang, practitioners