Shi Heng Yi belongs to the 35th Generation of Shaolin Masters and is the director of the Shaolin Temple Europe 歐洲 少林寺 located in Germany. He knows the training methods to develop the unity of body and mind, merging internal and external power.
(By Shi Heng Yi ) Let’s not translate the word Qi, but most probably you will find something which is related to life force or being energy. Something that was necessary in order to nourish life. So in Asia Qi is something we’re surrounded with.
Qi is something necessary for us humans to survive. Qi is something the plants need to survive. Qi is something this complete universe is made out of and it’s just sometimes related to being energy.
Now the “Gong” means: its an ability or it’s a skill. So Qigong literally translated means you are having some skill in doing something with this life force. It is in a way symbolized as the sun shining onto the surface of water.
So on the one side some be symbolized as fire and the ocean is symbolized as water. So when fire shines on the water something’s happening. So what’s happening? Well… Something starts to change.
Change is happening. Like what? Like the water is able to transform itself into steam. At the same time steam in form of clouds. They are able ultimately also to transform themself back into raindrops again.
So how can it be that the Qi is able to regulate in such a way that either can nourish you with more fire or release more. It is because I think one master described it in a very nice way that he said: “Everything in this world is made out of energy, but how come things appear differently?” Because you always have energy merged together with some type of information.
If we talk about Qigong, what it is about? To discover something that we have always been surrounded with it but maybe due to our lifestyle never realized that it is there, never really experienced that it is there.
And you know in a common way it’s possible that you go to any type of school and learned some Qigong and what we’re learning is some type of movements. There is something about movement.
But definitely, it’s not reduced to be the only movement. this Qigong you can understand as being something which is conceptualized. Conceptualized means you know the theory, you probably understand it, but you have never experienced the Qi.
You have never felt what is the Qi. But at the moment the tapping into the area and really feel and experience what this energy is, and then it’s nothing that you need to imagine to be there.
If you don’t feel you need to imagine it. When you are having a type of practice where you step by step using methods in order to refine yourself. Your mind becomes calmer. Your sensitivity for yourself, the awareness for yourself, the awareness for your surrounding becomes finer.
Well, then there will come the day where you will know what Qi is and don’t need to imagine anymore. Qigong always consists of three different pillars. The first pillar is the physical movement itself that you are practicing.
So it’s the structure of how your body is aligned, so the physical. The second aspect throughout the practice is the way how you are breathing and how you are using the breathing to support for example the physical movements.
And the third aspect is the intention or also meaning what is your mind doing while you’re doing all different types of exercises. It’s the physical, it’s the breathing and it’s the mental state or the intention that you’re putting into movement.
Unless something is really really wrong with your body, everybody can practice Qigong. If your body is in a decent state, you don’t have too many injuries or anything like this and you would actually say: these are normal things every human has, then definitely with the Qigong practice you can improve that state of your body and everything else that you made out of.
So, but if you realize that some specific movements you are having pain, then I will probably consult somebody for that before you go into practice. If there are some type of sensitivity and if you are sensful about what you are doing, I think you will feel very very quickly what the body wants to tell you.
When it comes to Qigong, I think the word refinement is something which is fitting like very good. So into the way how the Qigong is practiced, there is something about refinement, which means pay more attention to something finer.
This refinement can be to the breathing, it can be to what do you feel about your own Body. And refinement on the one side also goes hand-in-hand with depth. So you’re going deep into something.
So you are penetrating in different types of layers. So and well… Dependent on how much and under what circumstances you are practicing the Qigong, you simply have another depth of understanding.
And is it better? Is it worse? No, it only means, the deeper you can watch into the ocean, the more you know what’s going on down there. If you only stayed up on the surface and only care about the waves on the surface of the water, maybe that’s already nice for you.
Maybe that’s enough already. But still, somebody who is able to penetrate into the ocean, beyond the surface. You simply have more possibilities to see what is going on. And what is going on means, sometimes maybe you just realize okay now I’m angry.
But there are different stages, there are different states of when does this angriness starts to rise, when does it have the highest point, what can you do in order to help the angriness to disappear quicker.
And why do I think this is important? Because if I just ask myself in what type of state I would like to be in, then definitely I can say: staying in an angry state… it’s destructive, not just for yourself but also for the people that are around you.
But these things that you are deciding: I want to learn something in order to control myself better, I want to learn something to regulate myself better, I want to learn something to somehow try to adjust myself better, I would say Qigong is a very good method in order to start.
.. to start the walk to this path.
Recommended Book
For thousands of years, the Chinese have had a secret. A secret that has allowed them to treat illness in its earliest stages, a secret that allows athletes to perform amazing, seemingly superhuman, feats of strength and agility, a secret that promises a long and healthy life to those who understand and apply it. That secret is Qigong.
In this book Qigong: Foundation Practices: Twelve Health Exercises from the Wah Family System by John Munro, you will learn: Introductory meditation techniques Exercises to develop your breath capacity Principles of posture for qigong Exercises to become aware of your own energy Qigong concepts from Chinese medicine The location of the twelve major meridians Exercises for each of the twelve major meridians These exercises provide an excellent starting point for beginning qigong practice, and provide a firm foundation for further study.
