A Complete Guide to Chi-Gung

There are countless styles, forms and classifications of chi-gung in China, based on various theoretical schools of thought, different practical purposes and diverse points of focus in practice. Chinese sources cite anywhere from 2000 to 4000 distinctive styles of chi-gung practice. Some are founded on major philosophical traditions such as Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, others were developed to achieve specific results such as healing, martial power or spiritual insight, while still others are highly stylized forms named after the teachers who created them.

Despite this diversity, all forms of chi-gung practice share certain fundamental points in common. All of them work with energy, striving to achieve balance between Yin and Yang polarity and functional harmony among the Five Elemental Energies that govern the internal organs. All forms involve a subtle fusion of internal and external, movement and stillness, and all of them engage the Three Treasures of essence, energy and spirit as the fundamental elements of practice. Indeed, one of the most distinctive attributes of chi-gung is the broad range of its practical applications and its versatility in practice. Since it works with everything from the most basic biological functions and physiological factors such as sex and hormones, blood and digestion, to the most subtle spiritual faculties and higher cosmic forces such as intuition and intent, astral energy and psychic powers, chi-gung covers the full spectrum of self-cultivation, offering ‘different strokes for different folks’ without compromising its fundamental foundations in the universal principles of the Tao.

Five basic goals may be delineated as the primary points of focus in chi-gung practice:

Different schools of thought and styles of practice emphasized these various points to different degrees. The major categories introduced below are the ones with the longest historical pedigrees in China and are generally accepted in chi-gung circles today as the most important styles.

Of all the schools of chi-gung practice, the Taoist system is the most comprehensive and eclectic, for it places equal emphasis on physical health and spiritual awareness, regards a healthy body and a long life as the most important foundations for the ultimate goal of spiritual enlightenment, engages and integrates every aspect of life in the path of practice, and links everything together with the common denominator of energy. Moreover, in the Taoist approach, each individual practitioner is free to practise in a way that best suits his or her own personal inclinations, for the Taoist path is based entirely on the universal principles of nature and the cosmos, not on binding social or religious dogma. The only things required to practise Taoist chi-gung are one’s own body, energy and mind, and a quiet place to sit or stand.

The Confucian School

Westerners usually imagine Confucius as a stodgy old scholar who liked to lecture the world with clever philosophical aphorisms, not as someone who might practise chi-gung. In fact, however, Confucius (Kung Fu-tze) took a lively interest in Taoism and is said to have held the great Taoist sage Lao Tze in high esteem.

Confucius and his philosophical heir Mencius (Meng Tze) regarded chi-gung as an important system of self-cultivation, but they approached it from an entirely different angle than the Taoist school. While Taoists used chi-gung as a means towards individual spiritual enlightenment and regarded the body as a vehicle towards this goal, Confucians approached chi-gung as a way to balance and purify the mind and control emotions so that people would become better members of society. Confucius believed that many physical diseases of the body are caused by mental and emotional imbalance, and by extension, the ‘disease’ of social and political disorder also arises from a disordered mind. ‘To cultivate the body,’ he wrote, ‘first rectify the mind.’ Mencius elaborated this idea when he wrote, ‘To cultivate the mind, first eliminate desire and cultivate the pure primordial energy of nature.’ What all this boils down to is the idea that the individual must purify the mind and balance the emotions in order to attain physical health and become a useful member of society. This applies particularly to those who wish to govern society: social and political leaders can only perform their duties properly after a period of intensive self-cultivation to eliminate greed, aggression, pride and other ‘diseases’ of the spirit that lead to improper behaviour and dereliction of duty.

The Confucian school of thought regarded nature and the cosmos as a blueprint for human society, and in this respect they agreed with the Taoist school. The difference was that the Taoists focused on self-cultivation and harmony with universal forces as a means towards individual enlightenment and spiritual immortality, while the Confucians focused on achieving social and political order, not individual freedom. Chi-gung thus became a method whereby the individual learned to take his or her proper place in society by cultivating the virtues of balance and equanimity. Since society was viewed as a microcosm of the universal order, by learning to obey the universal laws of nature one also learned to obey the laws of society. Thus a peaceful, orderly state of mind became the basis of a peaceful, orderly society.

The Confucian school of chi-gung enjoyed a brief heyday during the Warring States and early Han periods. Individual self-cultivation through chi-gung was practised as a means of restoring social order after a prolonged period of chaos, and instilling a sense of duty and selfless service among the scholars who came to power when Confucian philosophy became officially accepted as the state creed. But before long, as decadence and corruption once again spread among the ruling classes of China, the ‘social school’ of Confucian chi-gung faded away. Indeed, one of the main reasons that Buddhism and Taoism became increasingly popular in China from the Han through the Tang was the cynical self-interest and unethical conduct displayed by the Confucian elite who governed the empire.

During the Sung dynasty, in response to the growing influence of Buddhism, which was still regarded as a foreign religion, and Taoism, whose emphasis on individual freedom was seen as a threat to social cohesion, reformist Confucian scholars launched a revival of classical Confucian philosophy. Borrowing heavily from their Buddhist and Taoist rivals, these born-again Confucian scholars once more advocated self-cultivation through the practice of meditation, breath control and internal alchemy in order to cultivate social harmony and political correctness. The idea was to draw people back into the Confucian fold by offering them a system of spiritual development that could compete with the major religions and thereby satisfy the human need for spiritual nourishment. Known as the Neo-Confucian movement, the greatest proponent of this reform was the scholar Chu Hsi, who took a deep interest in the Taoist meditative techniques and advocated mental quietude as the best way to cultivate the peace, harmony and other ideal virtues of Heaven in the human heart and thereby instil them in society on Earth.

For Taoist and Buddhist practitioners, the first step on the road to spiritual development was to leave the family and abandon society and retire to a monastery or mountain hermitage to cultivate enlightenment. For the Neo-Confucian school, spiritual development was adapted to serve society, not the individual, and spiritual virtues were cultivated as a basis for fostering social virtues. Furthermore, by promoting physical health and vitality, chi-gung made the individual a more useful and productive member of society. This was a unique and typically practical Chinese way of co-opting an independent spiritual tradition and applying it to social and political purposes.

The Buddhist School

Prior to the arrival of Ta Mo in China, Buddhist monks focused their attention entirely on the attainment of ‘Buddhahood’, or spiritual enlightenment, through intensive practice of still meditation. The world ‘Buddha’ means ‘one who is awakened’, and thus the goal of Buddhist practice is spiritual awakening, pure and simple. In Taoist terms, this means subjugating the postnatal human mind of emotion and personal ego in order to restore the prenatal mind of primordial awareness and thereby escape the endless wheel of karma and reincarnation. Unlike the Taoist school, however, the Buddhist school of thought regarded the body as an impediment to spiritual practice, and Buddhists attached little importance to physical health and longevity.

With the arrival of Ta Mo from India, who taught that a strong body is an important foundation for spiritual cultivation, the Buddhist school in China began to incorporate physical exercise in their spiritual practice. The Shao Lin Temple thus became famous both as a centre for the martial arts and for meditation, and chi-gung became the core practice in physical as well as spiritual self-cultivation.

However, the Buddhist school still emphasized the primary importance of cultivating spiritual virtues, particularly the cessation of desire and aggression, and Buddhists took a dim view of the Taoist practice of sexual yoga as a means for cultivating energy for spiritual work. The Buddhists believed that if a practitioner achieved a high degree of power through the practice of martial and sexual chi-gung, without having first conquered his or her ego, the power obtained through such practices would be used for deviant purposes. Martial prowess, for example, was seen as a dangerous attribute in one who had not fully eliminated anger, and sexual yoga was seen as a mere pretext for lechery. Thus the traditional Buddhist virtues of celibacy, non-violence, compassion, abstention from intoxicants and so forth remained of primary importance in the Buddhist school of chi-gung, and this precluded many of the supplementary energy practices utilized by Taoist adepts.

In Buddhist chi-gung, attention remained firmly focused on the spirit, with physical exercise used only to counteract the stagnating effects of sitting for prolonged periods in still meditation. Cultivation of personal power through internal energy work was discouraged due to the risks of deviation. Breathing exercises were used primarily as a point of focus in samatha (tranquillity) and vipassana (insight) meditations, not as a means of cultivating energy through internal alchemy. These restrictions, however, applied only to ordained monks in established monastic orders. For secular Buddhist practitioners, there was an increasing tendency to combine the health and longevity practices and the personal freedom of the Taoist school with the spiritual virtue and disciplined personal behaviour of the Buddhist school, and today, virtually all Chinese practitioners of chi-gung follow this syncretic path.

The Medical School

Evidence suggests that chi-gung originally evolved in ancient China as a form of preventative and curative healthcare, and that it was in fact the first formal branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Subsequently, interest shifted more to chi-gung’s applications in martial arts and meditation, and as a method of cultivating personal energy, emotional stability and peace of mind for daily life. Although Chinese physicians continued to prescribe chi-gung as supplementary medical therapy throughout Chinese history, the martial and meditative schools remained the predominant style of practice until the mid-twentieth century, when interest in the medical applications of chi-gung suddenly revived. Today, it is chi-gung’s enormous potential as medical therapy in human health and healing that is drawing the strongest attention to the field, particularly scientific attention, and paving the way for chi-gung’s dissemination throughout the world.

In medical chi-gung, the fundamental Taoist principles of Yin and Yang, the Five Elemental Energies (see discussion in the Introduction), balance and harmony, and so forth are applied to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. External physical symptoms of disease are viewed as signals indicating internal imbalances in energy. In TCM, the root cause of all disease is always traced to some sort of critical imbalance among the vital energies of the body, and therefore the cure always involves the re-establishment of normal balance among the energies of the human system and harmony between the human energy field and the forces of nature and the cosmos.

For example, whenever a patient’s symptoms include aching eyes and blurry vision, the first thing a Chinese doctor suspects is an imbalance in liver energy, not an eye problem per se, because internal liver chi manifests externally in the condition of the eyes and vision. Similarly, earache and hearing problems usually reflect functional imbalances in the kidney organ-energy system. When the internal imbalance of energy is corrected and normal functions of the organ are restored, the external physical symptoms simply disappear and the disease is cured. Diagnosing and treating disease in terms of energy balance is the most distinctive hallmark of TCM, and it’s based entirely on the principles of chi-gung.

The medical school of chi-gung also stresses the importance of physical exercise as a means for keeping the body toned and balanced and stimulating the free flow of blood and energy through the whole system. However, the type of exercise recommended in TCM differs greatly from the ‘no pain, no gain’ school of thought that still prevails in modern Western notions of physical fitness. Chinese medical chi-gung emphasizes soft, slow, rhythmic movements of the body synchronized with deep diaphragmic breathing. The purpose of these exercises is to stretch the tendons, loosen the joints, and tone the muscles, to promote circulation of blood, and to regulate all the vital functions of the body. The medical school adapted many forms of ‘moving meditation’ exercise for therapeutic use, including the ancient dao-yin and ‘Play of the Five Beasts’ forms based on animal movements, martial forms such as ‘Eight Pieces of Brocade’ and Tai Chi Chuan, and special exercises developed specifically to treat various internal organs. Massage and acupressure, which originally evolved as branches of chi-gung to help practitioners regulate internal energy, were also incorporated in the medical school of practice.

Although medical chi-gung focuses more on the links between energy and the body as a basis for diagnosing and curing disease, the role of the mind is certainly not overlooked. For example, visualization, which is normally used in Taoist meditation to manage energy for spiritual purposes, is also applied in medical chi-gung to facilitate the transport of energy to specific organs for therapeutic purposes. The importance of mental tranquillity and emotional equilibrium as preconditions for restoring balance to the human energy system is also a cornerstone of medical chi-gung, and sometimes still meditation is prescribed as means of first establishing mental and emotional balance prior to performing moving exercises that balance energy by working with the body and the breath.

There are basically two types of medical chi-gung – preventative and curative – and two forms of therapy: self-care through personal practice and transmission of energy from healer to patient. Chi-gung as a form of preventative healthcare is an integral aspect of every style and school of chi-gung practice, not just medical chi-gung. Indeed, one of the primary motivations for practising chi-gung in all schools of thought has always been to protect health and prevent disease, promote vitality and prolong life. In this respect, medical considerations constitute a common denominator in all styles of practice.

The curative applications of chi-gung are more specific to the medical school, and it is this aspect that is currently drawing such enthusiastic popular attention and serious scientific interest to the field. There are two ways to cure disease with chi-gung. One is by practising specific exercises designed to correct the basic imbalances responsible for particular diseases. These are basically the same sort of exercises used in preventative chi-gung, except that when used for curative therapy the exercises are practised for three to five hours and sometimes up to ten hours per day, rather than just an hour or two.

The other way of applying chi-gung as a curative therapy for disease is by transmitting healing energy from a master healer to the patient. Known in Chinese as ‘emitting energy’ (fa-chi), this technique is currently under intensive scientific scrutiny in China as a means of treating diseases such as cancer, AIDS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and other scourges that modern medicine has failed to deal with effectively.

Healing energy is transmitted from healer to patient through the lao-gung points on the palms of the healer’s hands. Usually there is no physical contact involved: instead, the healer stands or sits near the patient, with hands held anywhere from six inches (15cm) to three feet (90cm) from the parts of the patient’s body to be treated. After making sure that the patient is as physically relaxed, emotionally calm, and mentally tranquil as possible under the circumstances, the healer proceeds to emit energy from his or her palms and channels it into the patient’s system. Depending on the nature of the patient’s disease, the healer modulates the energy beamed to the patient so that it has specific therapeutic effects. To dissolve a tumour, the healer uses a laser-like energy that destroys cancerous cells without harming healthy cells. To cure infectious diseases such as hepatitis B or tuberculosis, the healer emits a sort of ‘killer chi’ specifically geared to destroy the specific pathogen involved. For Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other cerebral deficiency diseases, a type of energy is emitted that balances electromagnetic polarity in brain cells, stimulates circulation of blood and energy throughout the brain, and activates the synthesis and secretion of vital neurotransmitters whose depletion gives rise to these conditions. Thus the energy emitted from the healer’s hands carries both therapeutic power and specific information imprinted on it by the healer’s mind.

Fortunately, modern technology has now made it possible to record and measure the healing effects of emitted energy, so that it can no longer be discounted by sceptics as mere ‘anecdotal evidence’ or ‘voodoo medicine’. Scientific studies demonstrating the curative power of chi-gung in almost every type of cancer have been presented at international medical conferences throughout the world, and these papers are readily available from several medical institutions in China. Predictably, major Western medical journals have not been excessively eager to publicize these studies, because their results indicate that drugs, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and other forms of expensive high-tech therapy favoured by conventional modern medicine are not only less efficient in treating cancer, heart disease, AIDS and other degenerative conditions, but may actually further aggravate these conditions by damaging the vital organs, polluting the blood, inhibiting immune response and throwing the whole system off balance. Nevertheless, sufficient numbers of professional Western physicians have now personally witnessed the curative powers of emitted chi under scientifically controlled conditions to bring medical chi-gung into serious scientific consideration in Western medical circles.

The Martial School

The martial applications of chi-gung developed in two distinct stages in Chinese history. Prior to the arrival in China of the Buddhist monk Ta Mo from India, only the external physical aspects of chi-gung were applied in martial arts. Exercises based on the movements that animals use when fighting were practised to build muscular strength, develop speed, and learn tactics, but there was no concept of using the mind to guide energy or synchronizing physical movements with breathing.

After Ta Mo began training Chinese monks to integrate physical exercise with their meditation practice and taught Chinese martial artists how to enhance their physical prowess with spiritual cultivation, the martial and meditative schools of chi-gung both built their practices on the ‘internal elixir’ (nei-dan) of energy as the foundation for physical power as well as spiritual awareness. Ever since the time of Ta Mo, the Chinese martial arts have followed the path of internal energy practice, using spirit to cultivate command over energy, and energy to cultivate martial skills. The three main schools of internal ‘soft-style’ martial arts that evolved in China as a result of this shift are Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing Yi and Pa Kua, each of which developed countless variations.

The martial school also borrowed certain techniques from the medical school of chi-gung. For example, the meridiens and power points of the human energy system were carefully studied to learn how energy moves in the body, and specific fighting techniques were developed to incapacitate an opponent simply by striking a particular point in such a way that the body became immediately immobilized. Known as dian-shueh (‘Pressing Points’), this technique requires careful timing and great precision in striking, but its effects in fighting are far more devastating than anything that can be done with sheer physical strength.

While fighting prowess was the primary goal of martial chi-gung in traditional China, today the martial arts are practised more as a form of preventative healthcare than for fighting. Since all of the internal martial arts forms are designed to ‘martial energy’ under the command of mind, they may be practised just as well for purposes of health and longevity as for fighting. Soft-style Chinese martial arts are practised as much to strengthen and coordinate the body, enhance health and vitality, and cultivate spirit as they are to develop fighting prowess. These are basically the same goals pursued in all forms of chi-gung practice. The only real difference between martial, medical and meditative schools of practice is how the universal energy cultivated through chi-gung is applied in human life.

Moving Forms and Still Forms

Still practice (jing-gung) and moving practice (dung-gung) are the Yin and Yang of chi-gung, the two complementary poles of practice in all styles. This mode of categorizing chi-gung forms is based on the relative balance of stillness and movement in body and mind and in any particular form of practice.

Moving forms are generally defined as those which involve external movements of the body mediated by internal stillness of mind. Thus all of the martial arts and ‘moving meditation’ styles of practice are regarded as moving forms. The basic principles governing all moving forms include softness (rou), slowness (man), and smoothness (ho) of movement, balance and equilibrium in physical postures, and rhythmic regularity in the synchronization of bodily movements and breath. The purpose of moving forms is to keep the moving parts of the body limber and flexible, to promote circulation of blood and energy throughout the system, and to harmonize external movement of the limbs with internal flow of energy. One of the major guidelines in the practice of moving forms is summed up in the phrase, ‘Seek stillness within movement’.

Still forms are basically defined by the external stillness of the body, combined with the internal movement of energy, or ‘seeking movement within stillness’. Still meditation forms of chi-gung may be practised in sitting, standing or reclining postures. Rather than focusing on the synchronization of body and breath, as in moving forms, the main focus in still practice is keeping the mind fully attuned with the breath. Prior to practising any still form, however, the body should first be balanced with a series of stretching and loosening exercises, just as the mind must be stilled and the emotions calmed in preparation for the practice of moving forms.

In a nutshell, moving and still forms are the two great divisions that run throughout all the styles and schools of chi-gung practice. The moving forms are associated more with the body and the external aspects of practice, while still forms are related more with the mind and the internal aspects of practice, with breath serving as the functional link between movement and stillness, internal and external, body and mind. Moreover, all schools and styles of chi-gung employ both moving and still forms of practice, regardless of where the primary focus lies.

Ever since Ta Mo brought the martial and meditative traditions of Chinese chi-gung together at the Shao Lin Temple, movement and stillness have shared equal importance in chi-gung. Those whose primary goal is spiritual enlightenment through still meditation practice also practise moving forms to protect the health and extend the life of their physical bodies, while those who cultivate martial power by practising moving forms also practise still meditation to develop the volitional command of mind over energy and cultivate spiritual virtue as a preventative against the abuse of their martial powers.

Cultivating Nature and Cultivating Life

Cultivating nature (shiou-shing), cultivating life (shiou-ming), and cultivating nature and life together (shing-ming shuang-shiou) are terms that have been bandied about in chi-gung circles in China ever since they first appeared during the Tang period, but no two teachers or texts seem to agree on precisely what these terms mean.

‘Nature’ here basically refers to ‘human nature’, as reflected in the propensities and proclivities of human beings in their daily lives on earth. These include sexuality, personality, psychology, ego and self, family and work, and other aspects of postnatal human life. In terms of the Three Powers of Heaven, Earth and Humanity, ‘nature’ reflects the earthly pole in human beings, the temporal concerns of life that define day-to-day existence.

‘Life’ refers to the primordial aspects of human existence, the immortal spirit and universal energy that animate the human body during life, but survive it after death. These are the prenatal attributes of Heaven with which every human being is born but which remain dormant in most people until the moment of death. They include primordial awareness, the basic life-force of primordial energy, such esoteric spiritual faculties as clairvoyance and telepathy and so forth.

Forms for cultivating nature would therefore include all practices that engage the postnatal essences and energies of the physical body and the ordinary human mind. Sexual yoga, for example, is a practice for cultivating the sexual aspect of human nature. Diet and herbs work with the energies of the internal organs, and the slow rhythmic movement of ‘moving meditation’ exercises cultivate the essences of the physical body.

Forms for cultivating life work primarily with the primordial aspects of the human system, using still meditation as the main method of practice. This was the sort of single-minded spiritual cultivation practised by Buddhist monks in China prior to the arrival of Ta Mo. Those who exclusively cultivate the primordial spiritual powers of mind, while paying no attention to the temporal requirements and sensual proclivities of the body, often end up suffering from physical ill health, psychic imbalance and emotional malaise, as conditions in many monasteries throughout the world today reflect. Similarly, those who cultivate only physical health, bodily power, sexual potency and other temporal assets of human nature, without any consideration for the higher aspects of spirit which ultimately transcend life on earth, end up entirely immersed in the material aspect of existence, lose sight of spirit, and often abuse the powers of their practices for deviant purposes. This is the fundamental conundrum of chi-gung that was ultimately resolved by ‘cultivating nature and life together’.

What this means is that chi-gung should always be practised in a comprehensive, balanced way that cultivates both the earthly aspects of human nature as well as the universal facets of primordial spirit. Chi-gung masters recognize the fact that humans must live with their bodies and their emotions, that appetites for food and sex are as basic to human nature as flesh and bone are to the body, and that the demands of family and society must be met even by those who wish to devote their lives to spiritual cultivation. Similarly, even the most materialistic, sensualistic hedonist is endowed with the same fundamental energy and immortal spirit as the most high-minded saint. The only way to resolve the basic contradictions in human life between body and spirit, temporal and spiritual concerns, human nature and universal spirit is to cultivate both aspects together so that they balance and mutually support each other.

This has been the trend in Chinese chi-gung as a form of self-cultivation ever since the so-called Neo-Confucian revival during the Sung dynasty, when Confucian scholars began to apply the very same practices used by Buddhist and Taoists for spiritual enlightenment to the individual self-cultivation of social virtues and political order. By erasing the distinctions between secular and spiritual applications of practice, attention focused increasingly on the fundamental factor of life that links body and spirit, intersects the temporal and universal, and bridges the practical and spiritual aspects of self-cultivation in chi-gung, and that factor is energy. Therefore, cultivating nature and life together means cultivating the fundamental energy of life that connects individual human nature with the primordial source of all creation throughout the universe. When that energy is strong and well balanced, physical as well as spiritual health are gained, the needs of the body as well as the mind are met, and the individual’s primordial link with the universe is restored. This sort of balanced development of body and spirit by cultivating the basic energy upon which both depend has become a common thread in all forms of Chinese chi-gung.

Forms Based on Physical Posture

This way of classifying chi-gung forms is based on the posture adopted for practice and includes four basic categories: walking, standing, sitting and reclining.

• Walking: These are forms which involve ambulatory movement of the body, not just rhythmic movements of the limbs. Most traditional martial arts based on chi-gung fall into this category, such as Tai Chi, Hsing Yi and Pa Kua, although there are also ‘walking meditation’ forms used for spiritual practice, and walking forms of medical chi-gung for curing disease, such as the Guo Lin Chi-gung developed recently in China as a cure for cancer. In all cases, the walking is done slowly, deliberately, and in rhythmic synchronicity with breath.

• Standing: Standing forms include many of the chi-gung exercise sets that are performed in the traditional ‘Horse stance’. This is a very stable stance with a low centre of gravity designed to cultivate physical balance and a strong ‘root’ connection with the earth. In moving meditation exercises such as ‘Eight Pieces of Brocade’, the feet remain firmly planted to the ground, while the arms, head and torso move in various prescribed patterns, tuned to the inhalation and exhalation phases of breath.

There are also still meditation forms of chi-gung that are practised in the standing position, which facilitates the free flow of internal energy from head to feet. The standing posture takes maximum advantage of an energy factor called ‘potential gradient’, which determines the strength of the polar field in the human energy system between the Yang pole at the crown of the head and the Yin pole at the soles of the feet. The greater the distance between two poles in any given energy field, the stronger the potential gradient and the more powerful the flow of energy between poles. The enhanced field polarity in the standing posture increases the magnitude and accelerates the flow of energy through the meridians, and helps establish harmonic resonance between the human energy field and the greater force fields of nature (Earth) and the cosmos (Heaven). In sitting postures, the field is narrowed, with the perineum at the base of the spine rather than the feet serving as the negative Yin pole, and thus the overall polarity of the human field is proportionately reduced, resulting in a gentler, less dynamic flow of energy that may be more conducive to subtle spiritual work.

• Sitting: Sitting forms are those performed either in the traditional cross-legged postures such as Full Lotus and Half Lotus, or else seated on the edge of a low stool or chair, with feet planted firmly on the floor and a 90-degree angle between thigh and calf. While these forms are usually associated with still meditation styles of chi-gung, there are also some moving exercises that may be practised in the sitting postures, including the Eight Pieces of Brocade set.

The most important aspect in all sitting postures is the spine, which must be held erect and kept in alignment with the neck and head. While the standing posture encourages the full circulation of energy throughout the entire system, including the arm and leg channels, sitting postures tend to channel energy primarily into the Microcosmic Orbit circuit of the Governing and Conception channels that run up the spine, through the head and back down the front of the body to the lower abdomen. These are the main channels involved in the internal alchemy of the Three Treasures, and in the transformation and transportation of energy in the Three Elixir Field centres located below the navel, at the solar plexus and in the head. Sitting forms are therefore most frequently employed in chi-gung practices which cultivate spiritual energy and focus on internal alchemy, while the standing forms are used more to cultivate energy for physical strength, martial power and overall vitality.

• Reclining: The reclining postures are used only when standing, sitting, or walking forms cannot be practised, such as by the weak or elderly, or by those recovering from serious illness. Only the breathing and meditative aspects of chi-gung are practised in the reclining postures, not the moving physical exercises. In the reclining position, visualization is used as a substitute for physical movements of the limbs to guide energy to various parts of the body. The reclining forms are used primarily for healing work in medical chi-gung, although disabled people who cannot maintain an erect sitting posture may also use these positions for meditation practice. Due to the parallel alignment of the body with the surface of the earth in reclining positions, the field polarity of the human energy system is reduced to virtually zero, which means that energy must be mobilized entirely by breath and mind control, with very little boost from the potential gradient between sky and ground. This makes it particularly difficult to balance the internal energies of the human system with the force fields of Heaven and Earth in the reclining postures, but they are very useful for cultivating conscious mental command over breath and energy and applying visualization, intent and other mental faculties to guide energy through the body.

Forms for Balancing Body, Breath, and Mind

This way of classifying chi-gung forms is based on the main aspect of the human system that is brought into balance by a particular exercise. All of the various forms and schools of chi-gung practice work with the same basic three attributes of postnatal human life: the body, the breath and the mind. Each of these factors must be brought into balance as a precondition for working with their primordial prenatal aspects – essence, energy and spirit – to harness the power of the universe to enhance life. Various chi-gung exercises may therefore be classified according to the aspect of the human system which they bring into balance.

• Balancing Body (tiao-shen): In chi-gung, balancing the body is achieved by performing a series of stretching and loosening exercises that eliminate all tension from the body and establish a state of complete physical relaxation. Total relaxation of the body is a prerequisite for maintaining proper posture during practice, freely circulating blood and energy, breathing correctly, and establishing a stable state of mental quietude. Any tension in the muscles and tendons, or tightness in the joints, tends to throw the body off balance, obstruct circulation, inhibit deep abdominal breathing and distract the mind.

This category of exercise includes manoeuvres designed to stretch and loosen specific parts of the body, such as legs, shoulders and neck, slow rhythmic calisthetics to stimulate circulation and warm up the whole body, and various types of massage, tapping, rubbing and acupressure to soothe and balance particular muscles, joints and other tissues. As the body becomes progressively more relaxed, the autonomous nervous system switches over to the calming, restorative, parasympathetic branch, which balances the endocrine (hormone) system and activates the body’s internal healing mechanisms. Since prenatal essence is stored mainly in the glands, these body balancing exercises ultimately balance essence by regulating the healing responses of the endocrine system.

• Balancing Breath (tiao-shi): Balancing breath means establishing volitional control over breathing and cultivating a pattern of rhythmic breath driven by the expansion and contraction of the diaphragm. Our normal breathing patterns are anything but balanced: they are constantly interrupted by talking, accelerated or inhibited by emotional swings, impeded by tension, strained by physical exertion and left unattended by distracted minds. Since breath is a reflection of energy in the human system, erratic breathing patterns reflect and induce erratic energy flow and therefore, in order to balance energy, one must first balance the breath.

The various phases of breath may be brought into balance by practising different breathing exercises, such as bellows breathing, compression breathing, alternate nostril breathing and so forth. This category of exercises therefore includes all of the various modes of deep abdominal breathing used in chi-gung practice. Just as the physical exercises may be used alone to balance the body in preparation for chi-gung, so the breathing exercises may be done by themselves to balance the breath prior to performing the main practice.

Bringing the breath into balance also balances the energy system. Breath control establishes emotional equilibrium, harmonizes the Five Elemental Energies of the organs, balances Yin/Yang polarity, stimulates energy circulation in the meridiens, and synchronizes the human energy field with the electromagnetic fields of earth, planets and stars.

• Balancing Mind (tiao-shin): Balancing the mind means bringing the postnatal cerebral functions of the human mind under control so that the prenatal powers of primordial spirit may manifest. This involves clearing the mind of discursive thought and shifting attention from the external world perceived by the five senses to the internal world of essence, energy and spirit. A calm, tranquil state of mind, free of thought and sensory distractions, is an absolute prerequisite for any form of internal energy work with chi-gung. Neither body nor breath can enter into and remain in a state of balance unless the mind is also balanced.

There are various methods that can be used to balance the mind, such as establishing ‘one-pointed awareness’ by focusing attention on a particular object or image, allowing thoughts to dissolve naturally as they arise, shutting off the physical senses, counting breaths and so forth. Most of these techniques are standard devices designed to induce a stable state of mental tranquillity, clarity and inwardly focused attention prior to meditation. In chi-gung, the easiest way to balance the mind is to focus awareness fully on balancing the body and the breath. This provides a convenient point of focus for directing attention inward during practice and sustaining it long enough for external distractions to fade into the background. Then, when the body is fully relaxed, the breath is under control, the nervous and endocrine systems are synergized to activate healing responses, and internal energies are moving in tune with the rhythmic flow of breath, the mind naturally enters the same state of balance and harmony established by body and breath. If a mental, emotional or sensory distraction arises during practice, rather than allowing it to preoccupy attention and thereby disrupt the mind, one simply shifts attention back to a particular point of balance in the body or breath, and the distraction dissolves.

The key to managing the mind’s attention and thereby controlling awareness is the faculty of primordial spirit known as yi (intent, will). Intent is the agent that allows us to exercise volitional control over body, breath and mind, rather than letting them be controlled by other forces and factors, such as emotions, sensory perceptions, external energies, other people’s expectations and so forth. In practice, however, it’s much easier to use intent to control the body and balance the breath than it is to control and balance the mind – the very act of consciously balancing body and breath tends to balance the mind as well. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter whether the balancing act begins with body, breath or mind, because ultimately all three must be balanced in order to practise chi-gung.

All of these schools, styles, forms and variations notwithstanding, chi-gung basically boils down to three great categories of practice in which all of the different traditions, goals and applications of chi-gung may be subsumed. These are the ‘Three M’s’ of chi-gung: medicine, meditation and martial arts. One way or another, every style of practice may be relegated to one of these major categories, and many of them have applications in all three.

In fact, almost all great chi-gung masters in China, historically as well as today, began their training in one of these fields and then extended their practice to embrace all three. Virtually all masters of the internal schools of Chinese martial arts, for example, are also accomplished meditators and highly skilled healers, while most traditional Chinese doctors also practise martial arts for health and meditation to cultivate internal energy for healing. And ever since the time of Ta Mo, Chinese monks have practised chi-gung not only for spiritual enlightenment, but also for physical health and healing.

The common denominator that links medicine, meditation and martial arts is chi, the universal free energy of life that heals the body, enlightens the mind and empowers the practitioner physically as well as spiritually. Regardless of whether you enter through the gate of medicine, meditation or martial arts, once you are in the house of chi-gung you will discover that these and all other distinctions are irrelevant, because the basic energy you’re working with in chi-gung is, as Lao Tze points out in the Tao Teh Ching, ‘Without sound, without substance, dependent on nothing, unchanging, all pervading, unfailing. One may think of it as the mother of all things under Heaven.’