The Meaning of Chi-Gong
CHI GONG
Chi means Air and Gong means Power Training. Through the different poses you bring freshly oxygenated blood to different parts of the body, including the areas that are blocked. As you follow the Chi-Gong system you begin to free yourself from those blockages.
Chi-Gong originated in China. It was created over many centuries by the most powerful and wealthy kings and emperors, or the most intelligent and wise masters from various types of martial arts groups.
The original Chi-Gong has numerous training systems. These include relaxing and breathing techniques, tendon stretching, balance awareness, bone structure, posture and energy concentration development, as well as nerve and meridian line recharge for the purpose of increasing our inner force.
Because of this we can say Chi-Gong develops all elements of human physiology; it is the way to increase self-health awareness and to increase the rate of self-healing.
Chi-Gong also helps you to build up the core centre strength within your body. Everything needs a centre; you cannot build something without a centre – because we live on a planet that has a gravitational force pulling us down. If gravity is involved it is clear that the power and strength has to come from underneath. Take trees as an example. If the roots and tree trunk were weak and the branches were heavy and strong, the tree would die very quickly. This idea is not just relevant for plants, but also people.
Through the Chi-Gong system of calculation and awareness your movement has to match gravity, it has to bend in the best angle to support your body weight, the most efficient rotation to save power and energy for your body, increasing your flexibility and agility.
When you do Chi-Gong correctly your consciousness will reach to a new stage of awareness, your heart will feel complete contentment and calmness. At that moment you are thinking of nothing. If you want to do it perfectly you feel only gravity, feel the body, feel the enjoyment of life, feel your breath, feel the whole body flow, all working towards one direction, building your body towards balance and health. This is why it is also called a ‘moving meditation’.
Once you feel your body is balanced, your psychology will also feel balanced; it’s the easiest way to move away from negative feelings. It makes you, through this beautiful balanced movement, become content about who you are and what you can do, and that content psychology takes away the thirst for attention.
That negative search for attention causes a negative imbalance in life, so we have to rebuild the content feeling in our mind and body.
Today the underlying value of life is to live fast. Fast pleasure, fast foods, we want fast results in the body. The original Chi-Gong philosophy was far from fast – in fact it is the slowest. Giving yourself patience and time to research your body. Building a house takes time and research, from designing the blueprints, choosing the materials, creating the foundations, etc. Our body is much more complicated than a house, and far more valuable – you only have one body and it is not replaceable. There is no house that could be more expensive, more valuable than your own body.
But we aren’t always aware of such a simple truth. We don’t value our body as much as we should – Chi-Gong is the practice of valuing your body.
People don’t realise that they have to value their own body, before anyone else will value it. Chi-Gong was not developed for its appearance only; it was developed to feel great about life. That feeling is priceless.