Explaining Qi/energy

[SPJ]

how do you explain qi?

people like to qualify and quantify things.

qualify something is know what it is.

quantify is to measure or gauge something in comparable "units"?

so what is qi?

and how do you measure qi?

how do you know your qi is larger or more than mine?

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[SPJ]

this is a question that everybody wants to explain somehow.

of course, who could do that will win nobel prise for medicine or physics

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but in terms of kung fu practice

how do you explain to your students

what qi is?

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[dirtyrat]

how do you explain to your students
what qi is?

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I wouldn't. IMO, it should only be used by practitioners of oriental medicine, or those who grew up in the culture. The word qi to me is some times used as a blanket term used to explain difficult concepts. Westerners need to be taught using terms they can understand. At least until the proper foundations are set. Otherwise you could cause more confusion than necessary and retard the students progress.

[Lee Chiang Po]

I wouldn't. IMO, it should only be used by practitioners of oriental medicine, or those who grew up in the culture. The word qi to me is some times used as a blanket term used to explain difficult concepts. Westerners need to be taught using terms they can understand. At least until the proper foundations are set. Otherwise you could cause more confusion than necessary and retard the students progress.

It has been a long time now, and I have only taught a hand full of people. Mostly family, but a few friends. In almost every case I was asked about Chi/Qi. I went ahead and explained as best I could about it. At least to what I personally consider it to be. And the way it was taught to me.
I started by explaining that they would eventually start to learn about Chi on their own simply through the practice of Wing Chun. This is what I describe Chi to be.
When we eat food, it is digested and nutrients are extracted by the digestive system. The nutrients are then carried by the heart to all parts of the body. It flows from the core to all the outer extremities. This energy is what fuels the body. Without it, you could not even move. It is life itself. Without it you would simply die. You can learn ways to exploit this energy to your benefit other than just fueling your body and living, and you can even learn to focus this energy. It is not some mystical power, or the force so to speak. The only way it can actually leave or project itself outside the body would be to bleed out, which will kill you.
Some people have higher energy levels than others. I think this has more to do with a persons fitness than it does with their genetic metabolism. The physical body can more efficiently use this energy if it is fit.
Chi can not project from the source. It can not be discharged into another person to disrupt his chi. You disrupt his chi by striking him in a particular place, and your own chi fuels the weapon that strikes this particular place. The disruptive chi, or energy is nothing more than impact energy. The inertia sp? of the strike generates it's own energy, and this transfers into the target. But it is not your own chi that is transfered exactly, as this is just the energy that fuels the strike. The actual energy that is transfered into the target is another energy all together.
Another way to explain this. Say you swing a bat and strike a ball. Your own chi, or energy fuels your body in swinging the bat. The bat then builds it's own energy as it fly's through the air at great speed. Then when the bat strikes the ball, it stops, but the energy that the bat has built up transfers into that ball. It is shock energy and the ball will go flying. The arm and fist builds it's own energy, and this transfers on impact into the target. Your own chi only fuels the fist, nothing more. That was the best way I had of explaining this to anyone I was teaching. I tried to ignore the questions, but eventually had to explain it or they might have gone to someone that explains it as some mystic force.
Having said that, this chi energy can be channeled within the body, and it can be focused into certain actions. It does this naturally, but you can focus large amounts of this energy into certain actions. Traditional Chinese Doctors do it all the time in treating people. It can be used to heal or harm. The human body can heal itself. Any wound that does not kill you will eventually heal. A TCM doc can focus this energy within your body to help the healing process.

LCP

[YouKnowWho]

how do you explain to your students

what qi is?

If you can

- run 5 miles with 7 minutes a mile and still not breath hard,
- Make love to your love one with 5,000 reps non-stop,

you have qi, otherwise you don't.

[David Jamieson]

Breath in.

Breath out.

You feel that?

That's qi.

[Lee Chiang Po]

Breath in.

Breath out.

You feel that?

That's qi.

The short version.

LCP

[mawali]

how do you explain qi?

people like to qualify and quantify things.

qualify something is know what it is.

quantify is to measure or gauge something in comparable "units"?

so what is qi?

and how do you measure qi?

how do you know your qi is larger or more than mine?

---

I hve no idea where these ideas come from but are all from emanate from a US audience (mostly) from the 1960's era.

Ditto! Andy Miles

[SanHeChuan]

Qi is a mental construct that allows us to make a better mind body connection and lets us believe we can surpass the artificial limits we have placed on our selves.

[David Jamieson]

Qi is a mental construct that allows us to make a better mind body connection and lets us believe we can surpass the artificial limits we have placed on our selves.

"qi" is literally "breath"

That is what it is.

breath that is not yet taken in, breath that is taken in, breath that has coalesced with your internal fluids and is delivered to the rest of your system.

It's not a mental construct, it is actually "breath" as it is raw and in a transformed state and how it works within you.

When you breath, all that breath is distributed everywhere. It is what powers you it is part and parcel to everything you do.

no breath = no qi = dead.

I think that many people try to define it as some other separate thing that they don't have.

Everyone has qi. Everyone alive does and there is even remnants of qi in those things that are not alive.

It is part of all things on this planet and it is effected by things not of this world (the sun for instance, the void for instance, the cosmic rays for instance) that can effect it.

perhaps people have so much difficulty with the idea of qi because they want to turn it into something it is not rather than accept it for the simple, yet not un-complex thing that it really is. Your life force.

[SanHeChuan]

I have heard of tian qi, gu qi, zhong zi, shen qi, wei qi, pi qi, yang qi, yin qi, yuan qi etc.

Can you break down what each of those are.

When you breath, all that breath is distributed everywhere. It is what powers you it is part and parcel to everything you do.

Breath is oxygen, and oxygen is distributed throughout the body for proper functioning of organs, muscles, and tissue. So, presumably through Chi gong and other exercises you increase oxygen flow for better health.

The flow of oxygen throughout our body is not something we usually consider under conscious control. In order to gain control of an otherwise automatic process we use visualization techniques (i.e. mental constructs) to create an Autosuggestion or self-hypnosis.

While oxygen is not a mental contruct the proccess by which we manipluate it through Chi gong is.

There are also other unconscious process that we can use visualization to control, such as, Vasodilatation and Vasoconstriction, which allows more or less blood to flow.

Also when you concentrate on activating a particular muscle you get better connectivity between brain and body producing better function.

[David Jamieson]

Can you break down what each of those are.



Breath is oxygen, and oxygen is distributed throughout the body for proper functioning of organs, muscles, and tissue. So, presumably through Chi gong and other exercises you increase oxygen flow for better health.

The flow of oxygen throughout our body is not something we usually consider under conscious control. In order to gain control of an otherwise automatic process we use visualization techniques (i.e. mental constructs) to create an Autosuggestion or self-hypnosis.

While oxygen is not a mental contruct the proccess by which we manipluate it through Chi gong is.

There are also other unconscious process that we can use visualization to control, such as, Vasodilatation and Vasoconstriction, which allows more or less blood to flow.

Also when you concentrate on activating a particular muscle you get better connectivity between brain and body producing better function.

Breath is not just oxygen. IN fact, oxygen is one of the smallest components of what you breath, the greatest portion being nitrogen.

Don't think of "breath" as "Oxygen" because it is far more than that. Breath is the substance that is consumed and transformed. What goes in is not what comes out. It is transformed in teh forge or your body to energy that is used as the body needs or as you exert it.

no qi = no energy = dead

Deal with qi holistically and try not to break it down into the active parts according to the periodic table of elements.

that's like saying humans are a bunch of cells.

well yes we are, but it is how those cells are arranged and how they are nourished and maintained that define us as a physical being.

qi is fuel and it is a working part of the machinery that it fuels. the machinery being you.

[SanHeChuan]

Labeling Oxygen and Nitrogen and all process they affect under one banner is a mental construct.

At 20% it is not the smallest in fact it is the second largest. While nitrogen may be more prevalent than oxygen, and an essential building block of amino and nucleic acids, it is involved in way fewer processes.

Argon is the second smallest and has zero effect on the body. And carbon dioxide being the smallest that they bother to mention is poisonous.

Deal with qi holistically and try not to break it down into the active parts according to the periodic table of elements.

When you don't break things down they become unclear. You get muddled in metaphor and end up in arguments like this one.

[David Jamieson]

Labeling Oxygen and Nitrogen and all process they affect under one banner is a mental construct.

At 20% it is not the smallest in fact it is the second largest. While nitrogen may be more prevalent than oxygen, and an essential building block of amino and nucleic acids, it is involved in way fewer processes.

Argon is the second smallest and has zero effect on the body. And carbon dioxide being the smallest that they bother to mention is poisonous.



When you don't break things down they become unclear. You get muddled in metaphor and end up in arguments like this one.

well, not necessarily. You can become more muddled by breaking things down quite often as well.

If we think of trees, we can discuss their value clearly without discussing species at all. there are myriad species of tree, but they have trunks and limbs and they can be used to produce wood of varying softness or hardness.

If we think of qi holistically, we don't get muddled over the idea that it is bio electric energy or the humors or an aspect of the humors etc etc.

It is simply breath.

Occam's razor applies here too.

[Lee Chiang Po]

well, not necessarily. You can become more muddled by breaking things down quite often as well.

If we think of trees, we can discuss their value clearly without discussing species at all. there are myriad species of tree, but they have trunks and limbs and they can be used to produce wood of varying softness or hardness.

If we think of qi holistically, we don't get muddled over the idea that it is bio electric energy or the humors or an aspect of the humors etc etc.

It is simply breath.

Occam's razor applies here too.

Either way, without trying to be exact and very technical, breath is Chi. Breath and food nutrients. They fuel the body, fuel the healing processes, and this chi can be channeled or focused into physical actions of our bodies. It is not a mystical force that can move outside the body and do magical things. It can not be used in that capacity to fight or otherwise. For a person to have greater chi than the next person would only depend on just how efficient his own body can use these fuels. A fit person who's muscles recieve and use more fuel can obviously show greater stamina and vigor. For me, the center of my strength seems to be in the abdomen. I can exhale sharply and focus this strength to most any limb, creating for a fraction of a second greater power than I would normally exibit. This is why we tend to relax to some degree, or should at least try to relax to some degree rather than flexing every muscle in the body when fighting. When we are flexing we are burning this chi like a locomotive. In short order you can drain the fuel tank. Relaxing sort of allows one to meter out this energy more effeciently and presumably over a longer period of time. If nothing else it might allow one to outrun his attackers.

LCP