Yang Family Tai Chi Discussion Board

Hi!

I feel the Chi outside of my body (with my hands and arms)? What can I do to feel the Chi inside of my body? Just more training?

Thank you for the answer!

Yes. Another thing to consider: stop imagining that there is an inside and outside of your body.

Login,
You should read Zhen Manqing's foreward in "Essence and Applications of Taijiquan". It will clear things up for you about qi.
It did for me.

Bob

And, as Yang Jun said in Michigan last November when asked how to feel one's qi (and in the latest newsletter), do the form 3 times back-to-back every day. I'm still building up to that. I can manage twice; but there always seems to be an interruption before a third rep.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bob Ashmore:
<B>Login,
You should read Zhen Manqing's foreward in "Essence and Applications of Taijiquan". It will clear things up for you about qi.
It did for me.

Bob </B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Login,

Can you explain why you want to feel Qi/Chi?

I think this is both a very simple subject and an extremely complex one. My usual approach to the topic of Qi/Chi is quite simple. Depending on your goals, the "why" may be much, much more important to explore than the "what."

Most of what I value about "sensing" Qi could be shown in about five minutes to someone with only a little background in Tai Chi. This does not mean this is all there is to know, but it is all I feel I need to focus on in my practice.

Compare knowledge of "Qi" with knowledge of blood flow or spirit. These latter are critical things, and yet I do not feel that instruction about feeling them would be as important as instruction about how to use them. In my view, everyone feels Qi all the time; but we may not feel why that feeling is immediately relevant to what we want to do. That is the reason I ask about your goals in asking the question.

Take care,
Audi

This could really start something interesting.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Audi:
<B>Hi Login,

Can you explain why you want to feel Qi/Chi?

I think this is both a very simple subject and an extremely complex one. My usual approach to the topic of Qi/Chi is quite simple. Depending on your goals, the "why" may be much, much more important to explore than the "what."

Most of what I value about "sensing" Qi could be shown in about five minutes to someone with only a little background in Tai Chi. This does not mean this is all there is to know, but it is all I feel I need to focus on in my practice.

Compare knowledge of "Qi" with knowledge of blood flow or spirit. These latter are critical things, and yet I do not feel that instruction about feeling them would be as important as instruction about how to use them. In my view, everyone feels Qi all the time; but we may not feel why that feeling is immediately relevant to what we want to do. That is the reason I ask about your goals in asking the question.

Take care,
Audi</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Audi,
The most common explanation I've ever heard for chi kung is that somehow we've "forgotten" how to use chi and we need to reteach ourselves.
I have often wondered about this explanation and have never felt comfortable with it.
If chi is so vital, how could we "forget" about it or how to use it?
I do a bit of chi kung every day. I like to feel the energy and follow it around.
However, I don't think too much about chi when I do form work, at least not per se. I think about "energy" a lot, but that is more in the way, as I understand it, of jin not chi.
Chi and jin are highly related, I know this, but the jin flow happens without my thinking about the chi at all. The chi is just there and I use it to work the jin.
As you say, we don't think about our blood flow, our nerve pathways, any of that kind of thing, and all of those systems work just fine, why should we need think about chi?

Ditto!
As my parents would say "As long you brush your teeth, wash your face, and comb your hair, you only have to watch your behaviour and you attitude".

Chi is an important yet unimportant subject in tai chi. Why do I say this?

In Tai Chi chuan if you apply the basic theories, center clear, draw the spiritual circle, full and empty clear, and so on the Chi will automatically go.

You can't force the Chi to do anything or rather I should say you SHOULDNT force the chi to do anything because if will cause only harm to you. The Chi must flow naturally. This does not mean you dont move the chi, because you do but you do not force it. If you feel Chi outside the body im assuming that you feel a different in airpressure while you practice, a tingle like static, or a swirlling around the fingers. If you feel this just leave it be do not focus on it. If you feel the chi rise from the back to the crown and back down or rather rise get stuck or fall anywhere do not pay it attention.

Chi is like a little kid when you try to feel it, it will jsut hide. However when you simply apply the theories of tai chi it will come out because you are not paying attention to it. When you apply the theories correctly your chi will cultivate. You must cultivate this chi to be able to issue internal force. Think of your body like a flexible gas tank you have enough gas to run but if you never request more the gas tankw ill never expand. Thus while practicing to increase the Chi you must increase the mental intention applied to the practicing. When you do this the amount of chi will increase. Feeling or not feeling is unimportant until high level which takes a very long time to cultivate.

As far as the uses of Chi dont worry about it you will only drain your self. Reserve the chi and let it cultivate and flow naturally unimpeeded. This way one can extend ones life and live free of desease.

As to what chi actually is, well there is no real clear documentation. I think of it as a governing force. This governing force balances the two flows of the nervous system and blood flow. The regulating factor we can control is the breath. These three things work in unison to form the chi or lifeforce of the body. I hope that helps..