The Wonders of Qigong

I have discovered that for me, a workout utilizing the Chinese internal arts of qigong, taijiquan, baguazhang and xingyiquan yields benefits that are largely unknown and unmatched by any other modalities I’ve experienced.

Just considering the meditative aspect of qigong – standing, for instance, provides an awesome experience of near enlightenment. It is by no means easy to learn or to motivate oneself to practice, but every time one does it, the feeling is the same – “This is so great. Why don’t I do this every day?” Consider a few words from Lao Tzu: “If I have even just a little sense, I will walk on the main road and my only fear will be of straying from it. But people love to be sidetracked.” And he goes on to say, “Everyone knows this, yet no one puts it into practice.”

Qigong standing (zhan-zhuang), involves standing in a very precise posture in accordance with the “tai chi principles,” – the principles of proper body mechanics, while employing various mental techniques such as visualization, breath direction and mindlessness meditation, and from time to time, changing to a different posture. As B.P. Chan suggested, “calm the mind; loose the body.” Relaxed but not collapsed. Loose, but with proper structure, alignment and center. What is so difficult about it is the act of being alone with yourself for an extended period of time, without fidgeting, and controlling your mental activity, especially when it comes to emptying the mind of thoughts. (mu-shin in Japanese). Few people can be comfortable being alone in their own minds, not moving their bodies, yet being awake. At times, the postures can become not only uncomfortable, but painful and one must learn how to relax enough to let the pain disappear, as well as when to give in and change postures to alleviate the pain. As my teacher used to say, “maybe someday the body disappears.”

But the investment is a small price to pay for the reward. When you can conquer your own body and mind, you experience what Bruce “Kumar” Frantzis calls “relaxing into your being.” Animals and babies do that naturally. We have to train ourselves to do it. But just think about it. Although we are all beings existing in nature; in our environment, we aren’t aware of our relation to nature or our environment, as being a part of it. We are cut off from nature, almost as separate as robots or machines are from living, animate entities. But it’s not surprising when you think about it. All of nature is about survival, and for humans, survival depends upon money, so the majority of a human’s day is filled with activities and thoughts centered on making money, including people they work with and for, bills they have to pay, planning for the future, material things they have to buy and repair, familial obligations, etc. No other animal functions in this manner. They are guided by instinct tempered by generations of adaptation to find food, protection, procreate and protect their offspring. All of this instinctual behavior exists solely in the present, with no thoughts of the past or future.

Regarding the aforementioned human’s day-to-day activities, we are only vaguely aware of the extent to which they occupy our thoughts. After all, you can’t know what you don’t know you don’t know. By doing standing meditation, and trying to quiet your mind, you will gain this knowledge that you didn’t know that you didn’t know. You will find out just how difficult it is to empty your mind – how so many thoughts and even anxieties keep creeping back in, like what you have to do later today,  who you have to call, what you’re having for dinner….It becomes like a game of wack-a-mole, where just as you banish one thought, another pops up. But that serves as a valuable lesson. It teaches you just how much a slave you’ve become to the obligations and choices in your life. It teaches you just how much you need to practice letting go, and standing meditation is an ideal vehicle for facilitating that practice.

I spoke earlier of how disconnected we’ve become from nature. This concept of how humans stand in relation to nature, and the difference in how it is treated from a Western and Far Eastern perspective can be demonstrably seen in visual art. Western paintings feature humans in the foreground with a landscape in the background. Far Eastern paintings feature landscapes in which humans are merely one component that is no more important nor focused upon than the mountains, rivers, houses, or other animals.  Also, the formal structural perspective is different. In Western art, the subject is in the foreground and space recedes into the background via what’s known as 2 or 3 point perspective. In Far Eastern paintings, space is represented vertically, thus placing the viewer IN the painting. Instead of being outside the painting looking at it, or into it, the Chinese engage the viewer to actually occupy the pictorial space conceptually.

The concept of relaxing into our being provides an exhilarating experience of freedom. That may be the most important component of this. When one can stand and let all thoughts go, one has obtained a freedom – a freedom from stress, worry, money, other people, the past, the future…..everything! As Mr. Chan put it, “Don’t let your brain interfere with your life.” You become like a component of a Chinese landscape painting – a mountain, a tree, a bush, a flock of geese, a boat, a cloud, etc. You are united into the interconnected being that is nature, taken to its most extreme metaphor, being Joni Mitchell’s poetically cosmic proclamation, “We are stardust.”

What even adds more to this is that after you’ve been studying the Chinese internal arts for many years, you accumulate quite an extensive repertoire of exercises and forms – all which employ these principles, to utilize. A broad palate of colors. You could literally spend all day working on various sets of exercises – some “motion looking for stillness,” some “stillness looking for motion.” Longevity breathing. Cancer healing exercises. Standing sets, sitting sets, lying down sets, hanging leg sets. In other words, some exercises are postures you hold while not moving, but you feel a great deal moving inside of you, and your body actually heats up while standing still. With the others, you are in motion, (like a tai chi form), but you find a stillness inside of yourself. Having such a wealth of material at your disposal gives you such a feeling of joy. It’s almost like being in a verdant wonderland where you can choose to walk on several different trails through the woods, along a river bank, up a mountain, or on a deserted ocean beach at midnight . You can keep going all day opening up the blockages in your mind and body, supercharging your autoimmune system, strengthening your ligaments, tendons, and connective tissue, increasing your flexibility, discovering new things about your body, challenging your mind and will power, making thrilling discoveries and bringing joy and happiness to your being as you “relax” into it. For that time, the boundaries between you and the natural world dissolve, as does stress and worry, and you become truly one with nature. In a sense, this is a simple tool we all have at our disposal to reach a state of enlightenment without even leaving our homes. What more can you ask for?