kljohnson

Ki is something very real with many names and many forms. The only way to know this is to feel it, and to feel it your mind has to be open to it. It is easy to discredit something you cannot prove. I myself have felt Ki, and it is definitely not something to take lightly. Being a rational person I sometimes can't stop myself from thinking that it must be my imagination, or there is some other rational explination, but the more you feel it the more you know it can't be rationalized, only felt. Keep an open mind when doing an exercise, and the experience will be that much better, and gong fu (?sp) is offering you and excellent exercise!

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"Measuring success, By other's words, creates anxiety. What you desire, And what you fear, Are within yourself" (Tao Te Ching 13)

shadowkiller

My experience with Ki is that it is just a focus. Focus's on one part of the body like say the end of your fingers. There your focusing Ki. My experience in this subject is limited, but having trained in Ki society aikido with ki being the major theme through out the entire system, its rather interesting what you can do with it. It can make you very stable or very weak depending on what your focus is. Like if you are focusing on something that makes you nervous you are focusing bad ki and vice versa.

Its a pretty basic concept but most people just disbelieve what they cannot see.

shaolin-warrior

I hope this helps, I just finished reading John Bracy's book Ba Gua Hidden Knowledge in the Taoist Internal Martial Art. They speak in depth about qi. I don't profess to know anything about the subject of Ba Gua, but from what I've read, their movements are designed to nourish qi and prevent disease. Now if anyone can help me, I'm left with an interrpertation that qi has a direct coorilation with the principles of opposites and that the spirit of Ba Gua is contained in I-Ching. Now does I-ching relate to the physical as well as the spiritual? And if so, the key to understanding or experiencing qi is a bridge between the two? (spiritual and phisical)

BoarSpear

Uh OH...Okay lemmie preface this blasphemy by stating im a Taiji/baqua guy
The ENTIRE connection to the I ching and the Triagrams was made by the scholors who couldnt fight but wanted to contribute to the art The scholors all but destroyed Taiji and baqua by trying to incorporate mystical BS. These jerks sat around drinking warm beverages and spinning fantastic tales of superhuman ability and supernatural forces....someone should have pointed out scholors dont do martial arts, warriors do but hey the scholors had to get laid too right? so they acted like they had great secrets hidden in a mystical art to gain attention...truth of the matter was like most scholors their true skills were in fancy words not fighting ability...

No two styles use the same discription of the relationships....because none of them make sense...i have tried to find correlations, there arent any.

Ive gotta go but Im sure that will start some discussion i can continue when i get back...

gong fu

boar? i know there is alot of mystic BS tangled up into chinese martial arts. but i got the impression just then that you dont think qi exists?
explain?


peace.

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-Before Guns Men Had Balls-
-Shaolin Warrior-

BoarSpear

got chi? of course you do, so does everyone else, can you cultivate it? sure.
Will it help you win fights? I doubt it....i have never considered chi anything more than a side effect of the training...health? hey if you practice martial arts every day you should be healthy....But since i train to fight, and i dont expect chi to help that, i dont focus on chi

Tant01

If you look (very) deep into the history of the Tao, yin/yang and some mystical cults of Chinese arts (and medicine) you will find "myths" about the Yellow Emperor... Huang-Ti (2697-2598 B.C.) and his three special advisors, Su-nui, (the plain girl) Tsai-nui, (the harvest girl) and Shuen-nui (mystery girl). The links to traditional Chinese martial arts, medicine, breathing (Qi-gong) and T'ai Chi Ch'uan can all find common thread to this Yellow Emperor and his doctor, Pong Tsu... The book Su-Nui Ching (named after the plain girl) is one of the oldest medical texts.

Martial arts were often used as a metaphor to keep some things secret from the lower class.


Or something...





Just my theory...

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"In all countries where personal freedom is valued, however much each individual may rely on legal redress, the right of each to carry arms - and these the best and the sharpest - for his own protection in case of extremity, is a right of nature indelible and irrepressible, and the more it is sought to be repressed the more it will recur."

James Paterson