LEARNING CHI KUNG SKILLS FROM A MASTER
Learning from a Master
Question
I practice Aikido. Five years ago, my diet was good, but last year I had a bad cold and I could not remain strong, I feel extreme fatigue and I have no energy for anything. My defence is continuously down, because I worry a lot and think too much.
I want to ask you which exercises you recommend to restore my health and overcome the extreme fatigue. I read your book "The Art Chi Kung". I wanted to know what specific exercises should I do to regain my health every day and for how long.
— Lucas, Argentina
Answer
Many people have asked me the sane question. They have asked me to recommend specific exercises to overcome specific diseases.
I shall answer your request by providing you with three facts.
Chi kung can overcome any disease, but this does not mean that every patient can overcome his illness. In the same way, everyone can become a millionaire, but it does not mean that everyone is a millionaire.
The fact that chi kung can overcome any disease is a great inspiration and brings hope to many patients when many diseases are considered incurable according to certain medical philosophy. This is a fact, not a supposition or a fancy. Many patients who suffered from what many people think was incurable, have become healthy again after practicing chi kung taught by us, or undergoing our chi kung healing.
The second important fact is that chi kung is an art, and like any other arts, skills are more important than techniques. This means that even if you have the right techniques but do not have the appropriate skills, you will not get the desired results. The situation can be made clearer if we use an analogy.
Suppose you want to be able to swim. So you write to a good swimming instructor for some swimming techniques, and he describes them to you. Even when you know the techniques you will still be unable to swim because you don't have the appropriate skills.
Suppose you want to be a surgeon. So you read up the techniques of surgery from a good text book. Even when you know the techniques, you still cannot perform surgery because you don't have the appropriate skills.
It is the same with chi kung. Even if I tell you the techniques to overcome extreme fatigue, you will still be unable to overcome your extreme fatique because you don't have the appropriate skills.
How do you acquire the appropriate skills. Learn from a competent teacher. This is the third important fact. If you want to be able to swim or to perform surgery, you have to learn from a competent swimming instructor or a master surgeon. If you want to overcome extreme fatigue by practicing chi kung, learn from a competent chi kung teacher.
Chi kung is an excellent way not only to overcome your extreme fatigue and restore your good diet, but also to give you good health, vitality and longevity.
I would like to add that a lot of chi kung practiced today is actually not genuine chi kung but gentle physical exercise. If you learn from a competent teacher who teachers gentle physical exercise, you will learn gentle physical exercise, not chi kung. Gentle physical exercise cannot enable you to overcome extreme fatigue or restore your good diet, but chi kung can.
In the same way, if you learn from a competent swimming instructor, you will learn swimming, not surgery. Knowing how to swim will not enable you to perform surgery, but being qualified as a surgeon can.
The analogy is the same, but there is a big difference in the examples. You and most people can easily tell the difference between swimming and surgery, because their outward forms are very different. It is unlikely you will confuse swimming with surgery.
But it is not easy for you and most people to tell the difference between gentle physical exercise and genuine chi kung because their outward forms are the same. It is very likely that you and most people will confuse gentle physical exercise with genuine chi kung. Indeed the very fact that you asked me your question indicates that you are already confused.
The crucial difference between gentle physical exercise and genuine chi kung is that the former works on the physical body whereas genuine chi kung works on energy. If a practitioner does not know what working on energy is, he is very unlikely to practice chi kung.
Nevertheless, many people may say that their art works on energy without really knowing what it means. This situation is common in daily life. Many people, for example, may say that Aikido is a harmony of ki, which means a harmony of energy, but they do not really know what it means.
The above is taken from Question 1 in December 2014 Part 2 of the Selection of Questions and Answers.
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