Valley Spirit Center Qigong
January 26, 2007
"Chinese Qigong has been practiced with a recorded history of over 2,000 years. But it
"The Way has its reality and its signs
but is without action or form.
You can hand it down but you cannot receive it,
you can ignore it but you cannot see it.
It is its own source, its own root.
Before heaven and earth existed it was there,
from the ancient times.
It gave spirituality to the spirits and to God,
it gave birth to heaven and to earth.
It exists beyond the highest point,
and yet you cannot call it lofty;
it exists beneath the limit of the six directions,
and yet you cannot call it deep.
It was born before heaven and earth,
and yet you cannot say it has been there for long,
it is earlier than the earliest time,
and yet you cannot call it old."
- The Crookbacked Woman and the Sage
Chuang Tzu, Translated by Burton Watson, 1964
Crone
Taoism
The Supreme Medicine has three
distinctions:
Ching [essence], Qi [vitality]. and Shen [spirit],
Which are elusive and obscure.
Keep to nonbeing, yet hold on to
being.
And perfection is yours in an instant.
When the distant winds blend together,
In one hundred days of spiritual work
And morning recitation to the Shang Ti,
Then in one year you will soar as an immortal.
The sages awaken through
self-cultivation;
Deep, profound, their practices require great effort.
Fulfilling vows illumines the Heavens.
Breathing nourishes youthfulness.
Departing from the Mysterious,
entering the Female,
It appears to have perished, yet appears to exist.
Unmovable, its origin is mysterious.
Each person has Ching.
The Shen unites with the Ching,
The Shen unites with the Qi,
The breath then unites with the true nature.
Before you have attained this true nature,
These terms appear to be fanciful exaggerations.
The Shen is capable of entering
stone;
The Shen is capable of physical flight.
Entering water it is not drowned;
Entering fire it is not burned.
The Shen depends on life form;
The Ching depends on sufficient Qi.
If these are neither depleted nor injured
The result will be youthfulness and longevity.
These three distinctions have one
principle,
Yet so subtle it cannot be heard.
Their meeting results in
existence,
Their parting results in nonexistence.
The seven apertures
interpenetrate
And each emits wisdom light.
The sacred sun and sacred moon
Illuminate the Golden Court.
One attainment is eternal attainment.
The body will naturally become
weightless.
When the supreme harmony is replete,
The bone fragments become like winter jade.
Acquiring the Elixir results in
immortality;
Not acquiring it results in extinction.
The Elixir is within yourself,
It is not white and not green.
Recite and hold ten thousand
times.
These are the subtle principles of self-illumination.
The Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Classic. The Taoist Guide to
Health, Longevity, and Immortality.
Translated with commentary by Stuart Alve Olson. Rochester,
Vermont, Inner Traditions, 2003.
"At the higher stages of energy continuation, one will find his
movements are now being
governed by the movement of his internal energy. This is the Qi of energy,
not breath,
to which I refer. There are essentially three basic ingredients for higher
accomplishment:
1. Mental tranquility and physical relaxation. 2. Application
of the integrated supple
strength of the whole body. 3. Continuity of the internal energy
without interruption
from movement to movement and moment to moment throughout the entire form."
- Wu, Ta-yeh, 1989
"The perfect man has no self;
the spiritual man has no achievement;
the sage has no name."
- Chauang Tzu
“Put everything into the initial connexion.
The posture thereafter must spring from that connexion.
The initial connexion has to be whole-hearted.
What happens thereafter must not be a distraction.
In other words, the heart keeps pumping out that connexion.
The technique is a whisper.
What is completed between you has the feeling of an entirety – of a being.
The responsibility is to be open.
The working of the mind is too slow to deal with real life.
To be sincere in this matter is not a question of thinking about it.
Sufficient practice must be undertaken so that basic body usage is not a
grinding problem.
It is impossible to describe how thorough going your dedication needs to be.
What bit of you has the wisdom to know what is unknowable?
There is no mind to deliberate or be backwards.
If there isn’t a feeling of coming home and finding a lively peace within then
you are missing the point.
If there is a way of life or living it has to be joining from the heart.
The eyes are so quick to translate your heart feelings.
The ground is a heart platform.
Although important the eyes have to take second place to the heart.
Be open to the connecting of your heart with the other person’s heart.
If the other person wants information about you let them open their heart.
Connecting is not a personal matter.
In any real interchange it is the Third Heart that counts.
Light and embracing, but embracing as a giving from the heart rather than
capturing.
And the inspiration of the Third Heart is nutrition for your becoming.
The spirit must be allowed freedom to dart about and tempt the heart at the
right moment.
To be a believer is to be a positive being – a believer is someone who is
becoming.
Becoming leaves no imprint.
Becoming swallows what is commonly known as destiny.
Spirit is the effervescence of real interest in something other than yourself.
The essence of true destiny is yielding.
The essence of yielding is softness.
The essence of softness is entering.
The essence of entering is welcoming openness.
The essence of openness is heart.”
- Grandmaster John Kells, British Tai Chi
Chuan Association
"We usually translate the word
qi (pronounced "chee") as "vital breath," or "life energy,"
or "subtle energy," or even "spirit" which is an association with the
Latin-derived words
for breathing such as respiration, inspire and expire (literally in-breathe and
out-breathe).
Almost every culture on Earth symbolically associates Life Energy with Air and
Breathing
which, of course, makes a lot of sense since breathing is the number-one
requirement
for human life.
The character for the word Qi
even shows us the air we need to breathe. There are two
components to the character, and I have colored the lower part red to
distinguish it from
the upper. The part in red represents grains cooking, and the part in black
represents
steam, i.e. visible air rising from the cooking pot. When you think about it,
this character
shows us all the things we need to take in for survival: air (as the rising
steam), water
(there must be water in the pot to cook the grain, otherwise there would be no
steam),
and food (the grain itself)."
-
All
About Qi: Living Stress Free Naturally, 1/18/07
Qigong Tip # 52 by Mike Garofalo
“Qi gong therapy, as well as other branches of Chinese medicine, can be
reduced to
two simple principles: the cleansing of meridians to achieve harmonious energy
flow,
and the restoration of yin-yang balance.”(The Art of Chi Kung, by
Wong Kiew Kit)
Energy is a word used to describe both Eastern and Western exercise. From the
Western
perspective it usually relates to input and output, whereas the Eastern point of
view is one of
cultivation, management and preservation. The East uses the power of the mind,
breathing and
physical movement to promote health, wellbeing and longevity. The health of the
internal
environment, i.e., our organs, is of primary importance as they govern, from a
traditional
Chinese medicine standpoint, the muscle strength, tone, flexibility, joint
mobility, circulation,
breathing, posture and health digestion, and the emotions. The purpose of
Oriental exercise
is to enhance the health of the internal organs, the spine and the brain.
Optimum internal health
is reflected in a body that reflects strong smooth and toned muscles, flexible
joints, tall elegant
posture, healthy lustre in the skin, sparkling eyes and happy light voice and a
calm and relaxed
state of being."
-
The Tao of Oriental Exercise, by Monica Linford, Living Now Magazine
"Thirty spokes join together in the
hub.
It is because of what is not there that the cart is useful.
Clay is formed into a vessel.
It is because of its emptiness that the vessel is useful.
Cut doors and windows to make a room.
It is because of its emptiness that the room is useful.
Therefore, what is present is used for profit.
But it is in absence that there is usefulness."
- Tao Te Ching, #11
Translated by Charles Muller
Red Bluff, Tehama
County, North Sacramento Valley, Northern California, U.S.A.
Close to the Cities of Chico, Orland, Corning, Los
Molinos, Cottonwood, Anderson, and Redding CA
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