The term is pronounced "chee kung". Qi is translated as ‘energy’ and Gong as ‘work or practice’. The closest complete translation is ‘energy cultivation requiring the integration of mind and body’. Qigong is based on the concept of Chinese Qi physiology. The ancient Chinese believed Qi was the most fundamental entity making up the world and that everything in the universe resulted from the movement and change of Qi. By building up our own Qi a practitioner of Qigong can achieve a higher level of intellectual and spiritual state of mind.
There are thousands of varieties of Qigong. Qigong was developed in China over several thousands of years. It uses breathing techniques and slow, graceful movements to develop and flow Qi throughout the entire body. It is often confused with the internal martial art of Tai Chi. Qigong is much different in that there are no martial applications contained within the exercises. Authentic Tai Chi, like the form taught at Palm Beach Tai Chi, while incorporating Qigong within the form also contains martial applications in each and every moment.
What is Chi?
The Chinese word Qi usually means gas, as in air (kongqi) or oxgen (yangqi). But sometimes Qi has an extremely broad meaning. For example, in the famous poem “Zhengqi Ge” (“Song of Correct Qi”), Zhengqi (correct or universal qi) includes the sun, the stars, mountains and rivers. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, human life relies on yuanqi (original qi). Yuanqi is translated into English as “original (inborn) vital energy”.
What is the Qi in QiGong?
It sometimes refers to the air we breathe, sometimes to the universal qi, or to the original vital energy (yuanqi). But there is also a special and important type of qi, which we can feel when practicing qigong. It is sometimes called “real qi” (zhen qi). After practicing qigong for a certain period of time, most people can feel that the acupoint on which their attention is concentrated becomes warm and expansive. This sensation is called “feeling of qi.” Along with a rise in your qigong level, a feeling of qi will develop. For example the feeling of qi can circulate along the ren-du channels. After finishing the step of changing qi into spirit, your feeling of qi can circulate along all the main channels of the body. In other words, your feeling of qi will gradually develop and eventually be felt throughout your body. As a result, your original vital energy or yuanqi can be recovered, your chronic diseases cured, and your health improved. The feeling of qi may have some unknown connection with the air you breathe and the universal qi. It is known that the feeling of qi varies with the same frequency as breathing.
It is not known what causes the feeling of qi In recent years some scientists have found that in the state of qigong, brain waves have a lower frequency and greater magnitude, and are more synchronized. Also, the temperature at the acupoint to which one’s attention is directed is 1 to 3 degrees Celsius higher than other parts of the body. From modern physiology we know that such an action as bending a finger as caused by brain waves whose messages are sent to the finger through the nervous system; the terminal of the nerve releases some chemicals which enable the corresponding muscle to stretch or to retract. Proceeding from these facts, we propose that special brain waves, generated while practicing qigong, cause the expansion of the micrangium, thereby increasing the blood supply and stimulating the acupoint, which in turn causes a feeling of warmth, expansion and other sensations ~ the feeling of qi.
As mentioned above, the feeling of qi depends on the mind; however, to a certain extent, it is independent of the mind.
For example:
1. Even after having a short nap, one can maintain the feeling of qi, if one has felt it before the nap.
2. When calm, one can unconsciously reach the feeling of qi in some acupoints where he has previously concentrated his attention for a certain period of time and has therefore made it open to qi.
3. Sometimes one may experience the feeling of qi in “opened” acupoints, even though he may not be focusing his attention on those acupoints.
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Relaxing and Calming Qigong
By Wang Pei Sheng & Chen Guanhua
Concepts and Definitions of Chinese Qi-gong
http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/lifestyles/chinese_qi_gong_concept.html
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