Chi Kung For Magicians Options

Which is the best form or school of Qi Gong, one that works well with a persons development as a magician?

Have been practicing yoga for a while now and its benefits are astounding, wasnt keen on Qi Gong as the slow movements seemed to go against my more firery temperament but after much back and forth regarding the benefits of the two, yoga and qi gong, someone said it... that Qi Gong teaches you how to manipulate energy, yoga dosent, at least not at all in the same way. Sounds glaringly obvious but it swayed my opinion which was one for the marriage of yoga and magick as the perfect matrimony, being able to open physically blocked channels and assume new positions marking the progress of development etc.

Surprised to read just how many variations of Qi Gong there are, some involving elements such as sound into things and so I thought I'd ask and get a better opinion on which form would go well with Magick, am looking into the Alchemy of Baguazhang...

Think this should be in the Eastern section, forum has been sloooooow recently, not even sure if anyone is around (IMG:style_emoticons/default/face08.gif)

Peace
.M.

Perhaps I have been lucky but I've never had the experience of a teacher holding back 'inner techniques.' Most often you learn Qigong in Taiji classes. You might also learn it in other martial arts classes, but a class focused only on Qigong is harder to find. When I began learning Qigong back in the '80s it was horribly hard to find out any information. The only books I found were in China and they weren't especially good by today's standards. Now in my city, we have probably five good Taiji teachers who can teach Qigong well. There are a couple of Kungfu teachers who can teach martial arts Qigong, and one Bagua teacher who I assume is competent, although I haven't had a chance to check him out yet. In about the 90s, books came out by authors such as Mantak Chia, Yang Jwing-Yin, etc. They began to come out with some videos, but as it is today they are a mixed bag of useful and schlock. Now they have a fair amount of exercises demonstrated on You Tube. Some are good and some are bad, but they have the value of being free. Books are useful but seeing the exercises done and seen from different angles adds another dimension for practitioners. It doesn't entirely replace having an actual teacher, but can be a valuable addition. Mantak Chia's books tend to be a bit dumbed down or oversimplified, but this is perhaps necessary with beginners. Most of his books cover the microcosmic orbit, a favourite basic exercise. I also like Bruce Kumar Frantzis and his books.

I teach Qigong classes and I usually have people feeling their energy and being able to circulate their energy in the microcosmic orbit within four months on the average. Once you can do the microcosmic orbit then you will be able to experiment and move your energy in other patterns and other parts of your body--or outside of your body. The microcosmic orbit teaches you a lot about moving energy around. It acts as a 'seed exercise' as well. You learn to do it and other exercises and practices grow out of it and can be combined with it. I see moving energy as being easy. My old teacher used to say "Energy follows intent." By that he meant that if you focus your mind on anything-- for instance your right hand-- your Qi will naturally follow your focus. If you can feel it you will notice that much of your energy begins to flow into your right hand. If you focus on your left foot then your energy will begin to flow into and flood your left foot. Whether you can feel it or not that is what is happening.

There are exercises specifically to develop sensitivity, but generally speaking as your energy becomes stronger and healthier you become more sensitive to energy. Being able to sense energy is useful in many ways if only in building your confidence that you are actually doing something valid rather than just waving your arms and legs around. I generally give people about 15 exercises and tell them to choose the ones they like the most and practice them regularly. I try to give them a variety of different exercises to choose from. They are more likely to do it regularly if they enjoy it. At the beginner level it is like any physical exercise or like joining the gym. It takes a few months of regular work to get into condition and to build up your strength.

In general I agree with the above. Just about any school of Chi Kung will lead to competency if you apply yourself and learn the principles behind the practices. One particular school is not much better than any other in that regard, although some are more thorough than others. Ultimately to learn the full breadth there is no one tradition to study in that you will find concentrated in one place. In part this is due to the breadth of the practice itself, and in part it is because different teachers find themselves able to teach different skills.

Perhaps the most useful thing I learned about the movement of Chi, had to do with understanding what it actually means. From a western point of view we think of moving energy almost as taking hold of something and directing it to something else. Even in Yoga you are expected to relax into a posture, but 'hold' a posture. In Chi Kung, moving chi is about intentional and confident movement of energy, both physically and psychically.

This is the real point of learning to break things in martial arts practice - if you hesitate, the energy will not flow properly and the board/brick will not break. However, if you set your intention, and direct energy -past- the object, then execute that intention without hesitation, you will break the object and (with proper alignment) not injure yourself. It does not take any traditional chi kung training to accomplish this - children do it with zero internal training - but it is more than just physical mechanics too. When directing energy internally is done in the same way (with the same direction of intent, not the application of breaking) then moving Chi becomes effortless.

After that principle is grasped, any school of practice will be useful in terms of unblocking energy. Whether you will learn this principle from any given school or not is the question to ask when you begin doing their work (whether it's a book, a teacher, a video, etc.) I have only had a single Chi Kung instructor proper, and she indicated to me that although there are many esoteric methods in many schools of practice, really the 'secret' teachings of Chi Kung boil down to daily practice allowing Chi to do what is in it's nature, and that if you practice keeping your energy unblocked, Chi can flow unimpeded, and will do those things because that is the nature of Chi. That our unhealthy habits are the product of blockages that confuse our instincts.

When there are no blockages, the Chi flows; when Chi flows properly, the body seeks harmony; as the body seeks harmony, our health improves; if we maintain this state, our chi will be more plentiful; plentiful chi leads to all manner of wonders.

peace