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Qi Gong (04)
...Qigong
and its intimate relation to the Chinese martial arts are often
connected with spirituality. They have thereby been considered the
province of religious practitioners in the popular imagination for
many centuries. This link is much stronger than with other techniques
in traditional Chinese medicine. Qigong was historically practiced
extensively in Taoist and Buddhist monasteries as an adjunct of
martial arts training, and the claimed benefits of martial qigong
practice are widely known in East Asian martial traditions and popular
culture. In addition, the traditional teaching methods of most qigong
schools (at least in Asia) descend from the strict teacher-disciple
relationship conventions inherited in Chinese culture from
Confucianism.
In some styles of qigong, it
is taught that humanity and nature are inseparable, and any belief
otherwise is held to be an artificial discrimination based on a
limited, two-dimensional view of human life. According to this
philosophy, access to higher energy states and the subsequent health
benefits said to be provided by these higher states is possible
through the principle of cultivating virtue (de or te
德,
see Tao Te Ching). Cultivating virtue could be described as a process
in which one recognizes that one was never separated from nature (a
Taoist metaphor for this is the "uncarved block" - which
refers to a primal, undifferentiated state of being free of artificial
discrimination), a process made possible with the energy made
available to the qigong students after they sincerely choose and
implement what they are taught as positive lifestyle choices, which
will include practicing specific qigong techniques for ameliorating
the effects of previous choices seen as less virtuous (see karma).
It is claimed by some that
the level of an individual's qigong accomplishment is fundamentally
dependent upon the level of their virtue. Therefore in qigong, the
practitioner's focus on virtue is an extremely important technical
requirement, especially in the advanced levels. Without such
continuous cultivation of virtue, one will not be able to achieve a
highly relaxed and tranquil mind/body state.... |
