CHI FLOW AND EXERCISE SELECTION IN CHI KUNG TRAINING
It is chi flow, not the exercise itself, that gives us chi kung benefits
Question
Dear Sitaigung,
In the past, you recommended specific exercises to overcome specific health problems. Nowadays, with the tremendous improvement in your teaching methodology, you kindly explained to us that it is the chi flow induced by and following the exercise which leads to the benefits of Chi Kung.
At our current level of attainment, how important is exercise selection to overcome specific health problems?
For example, if a new student has a problem in his lower back and practices only Lifting The Sky or only Carrying the Moon, would there be a difference in his recovery if all other factors were equal?
Steffen
Answer
The discovery that it is chi flow or energy flow, and not the chi kung exercise itself, that brings chi kung benefits like overcoming pain and illness, promoting good health and vitality, contributing to longevity as well as enhancing mental clarity and spiritual joys, is recent, and as far as I know it has not been advocated explicitly before like we do.
We also have discovered that it is chi flow, and not the force training exercise itself, that eventually develops internal force.
This does not mean that we discover chi flow or internal force. Chi flow and internal force have been present since millennia. Ancient classics have clearly mentioned that harmonious chi flow results in good health. There is no doubt that kungfu masters in the past had internal force.
In other words, chi kung practitioners in the past had chi flow which overcame illness and gave them good health, but they were unaware of this fact. They probably thought that it was the chi kung exercises they performed that gave them the beneifts.
Kungfu masters in the past had chi flow which developed their internal force. But they were unaware of this fact, and probably thought that it was the force training exercises that gave them the internal force.
We discovered the fact that it is chi flow and not the relevant chi kung or kungfu exercise that gives good health or that develops internal force. The exercises generate chi flow and the chi flow brings the benefits. If past masters discovered this fact before, they did not publicize it the way we do.
An excellent analogy is cash flow. It is the cash flow, not the job people do, that enables them to repay debts (which corresponds to overcoming illness), and to enjoy comfortable economic life (which corresponds to internal force contributing to vitality).
We need the job to generate the cash flow, but it is the cash flow, not the job, that brings the benefits. Even if they do their job well but there is no cash flow, they will still be in debt and cannot enjoy comfortable economic life. In the same way even if chi kung practitioners perform their chi kung exercises well, and kungfu practitioners perform their force training methods well, if there is no chi flow, they will still be sick and have no vitality.
Realizing this fact and putting it into practice give us a lot of benefit. We are able to achieve a lot of results in a relatively short time. It becomes ridiculous but true that when other practitioners need years, our students can get the same results in months!
This background information gives us insight when answering the question.
In the past when I did not know this fact, I focused on teaching specific exercises to help students overcome specific problems. For example, if a patient had back pain, I would teach him Carrying the Moon. If another student had kidney stones, I would teach him Nourishing Kidneys.
Even at that time I was aware of the holistic aspects of chi kung besides its thematic aspects. In other words I knew that while holistically all chi kung exercises would overcome health problems, thematically certain exercises were particularly effectively in overcoming certain problems. But my focus then was on the type of exercise, rather than on general chi flow.
Now having known the fact about chi flow, I also employ the holistic and thematic aspects of chi kung in my teaching and healing. But my emphasis now is on chi flow rather than particular exercises.
The philosophy hasn’t changed. But there has been some change in emphasis.
How important is exercise selection to overcome specific health problems depends much on the attainment level of practitioners.
For us in Shaolin Wahnam in general, at our current level of attainment, exercise selection is not important in the sense of being necessary. In other words, it is not necessary for us to select the correct exercises for particular health problems. As long as we perform any exercise, which may be in chi kung, kungfu or other activities, as long as there is chi flow, we can eventually overcome the health problems! This statement may sound ridiculous to other people, but it is true.
To take an outlandish example, suppose you have back pain. If you swing your arms about and generate a chi flow, your chi flow will eventually overcome your back pain!
As an analogy, it does not matter what job you do or what activity you do, as long as it generates a cash flow, your cash flow will eventually enable you to repay your debt. Suppose you just hop about on a street, and people throw money at your feet, which is your cash flow, you will eventually be able to repay your debt.
However, to say that it is not important in the sense of being necessary is not the same as to say it is not important in the sense of being cost-effective. If you select an appropriate exercise to generate an appropriate chi flow, you will be more cost-effective in overcoming health problem than generating a chi flow at random. Hence, exercise selection is important in the sense of being cost-effective.
To illustrate the importance of exercise selection, we may classify practitioners into three categories, namely beginners’ level, intermediate level and advanced level.
At the beginners’ level, practitioners do not know enough chi kung exercises or chi kung philosophy to make wise selection. Hence, at this level, generating a chi flow irrespective of what exercise he performs is more important than selecting an effective exercise.
At the intermediate level, practitioners have some knowledge of chi kung exercises and chi kung philosophy. Here, choosing an effective exercise is more important than generating a chi flow at random. For example, if a practitioner has knee problems, choosing Rotating Knees to generate a chi flow is more important than generating a chi flow with Carrying the Moon.
At the advanced level, practitioners are both knowledgeable and skillful. If an advanced practitioner has knee problems, it is more important for him to generate an effective chi flow than selecting an effective exercise. Irrespectively of whether he performs Carrying the Moon, Rotating Knees or any other exercises, he can direct chi to his knees to overcome the problems.
If all other things were equal, when a new student has a problem in his lower back and he practices only Lifting the Sky or only Carrying the Moon, there will be a difference in his recovery. Regardless of whether he practices it as chi kung or gentle physical exercise, he will recover faster is he practices only Carrying the Moon. This is because Carrying the Moon is more suitable for overcoming lower back pain than Lifting the Sky.
Let us take four new students, A, B, C and D, for a rough comparison. A practices Lifting the Sky from another school. B practices Carrying the Moon from another school. C practices Lifting the Sky in our school. D practices Carrying the Moon in our school.
Roughly A will take a year to recover, if he ever does. B will take nine months to recover, if he ever does. C will take six months to recover, and he will. D will take three months to recover, and he will.
Other people may be angry at the statements. As I have often mentioned, that is their problem, not ours.
Here are the reasons for my estimation. Most other schools practice Lifting the Sky and Carrying the Moon as gentle physical exercise. Gentle physical exercise does not generate a chi flow, and therefore does not overcome back pain or any health problems.
But if A and B are dedicated in their practice, they may at times enter into a chi kung state of mind without their conscious knowing. At such time they may have a chi flow, which may hopefully overcome their back pain. Carrying the Moon is more effective in this respective than Lifting the Sky.
We practice Lifting the Sky and Carrying the Moon as chi kung in our school. Each time C and D practice, they generate a chi flow, which can overcome back pain or any health problems. D will overcome his back pain sooner because Carrying the Moon is more cost-effective for this purpose.
The example of the four new students above illustrates the interplay of the relationship between the art, the student, and the teacher in the process and result of learning. In any art, there are three components that determine how well the practice of the art art progresses and how fast and far the desired result will be.
These three components are the art, the student and the teacher. Students A and B will not overcome their back pain because the art they practice is not chi kung but gentle physical exercise, which does not overcome pain and illness. If they ever overcome their back pain because they may occasionally enter into chi kung state of mind and therefore have some chi kung benefit. B will have the result faster because Carrying the Moon which he practices is more cost-effective in this case than Lifting the Sky which A practices.
C and D will overcome their back pain because the art they practice is chi kung, which will overcome pain and illness. Although like A and B, C and D are new students and therefore do not have the knowledge for effective exercise selection, they have competent teachers who select the exercises for them and help them to generate chi flow.
Should C or D try to be smarter than their teacher and pay attention to their form rather than chi flow, they may not overcome their back pain. Some students unwittingly do this. When their teacher asks them to discontinue performing their chi kung forms and enjoy their chi flow, they do not follow the teacher’s instruction and continue performing their chi kung forms, not realizing that they perform their chi kung forms as gentle physical exercise rather than as chi kung.
This usually happens to new students. They do not realize how lucky they are that they have a rare opportunity to practice genuine chi kung taught by competent teachers. These students think they are smart and practice what they think should be done, and not what their competent teachers tell them to do. This situation is aggravated today where most chi kung teachers are not competent, teaching chi kung patterns as gentle physical exercise rather than as genuine chi kung, and they are unaware of it. We in Shaolin Wahanm may give these students who think they are smart another chance or two. If they persist in not following instructions, that is their choice and they will miss the wonderful benefits of chi kung. In the past I would ask such students to leave immediately. But I have been softened by Western culture, and now allow them to stay, hoping that they may change later on or leave on their own.
Carrying the Moon is an excellent exercise to generate a chi flow
The questions and answers are reproduced from the thread 18 Lohan Hands: 10 Questions to Grandmaster Wong in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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