"Spiritual Qigong is not the pursuit of some metaphysical or transcendental state; rather, it simply involves the integration of Qigong into your daily life to reduce stress, prevent illness, and promote healthy, active aging."
Tom Rogers, President, Qigong Institute.
At its most fundamental level, Qigong practice addresses the two main causes of illness according to Traditional Chinese Medical theory: Qi deficiency and stagnation. Deficiency is indicated by chronic illness, and stagnation is most often associated with pain. But Qigong does more than help people to become or stay physically healthy. The third intentful adjustment in Qigong practice (besides adjusting the posture/body and the breath) involves the mind. Basically, this adjustment of the mind forms the foundation of spiritual Qigong. Interestingly, this is the part of Qigong that can have the most profound effect upon lowering stress and healing. Spiritual Qigong isn't about going somewhere or transcending something -- we already are where we want to go, but just don't realize it yet because of our conditioning (by media, society and culture, parents, friends, organizations, etc.) and aversion to change.
Spiritual Qigong is concerned with Qigong practice resulting in the "Qigong state", a focused awareness of existing in the present moment. This is also the goal of Zen Buddhism, which came from the Chinese Chan Buddhism, a mixture of native Chinese Taoism and Buddhism imported from India. The word zen literally means "meditation", as does it's Chinese counterpart and parent, chan (also spelled ch'an), as does the Sanskrit dhyana. The practice used by the Taoists and Chan Buddhists to reduce stress, increase awareness, and fully observe the present moment, was Qigong.
The state of mind that results from the practice of Qigong may be familiar to some as satori, being one with the Dao, nirvana, enlightenment, emptiness, or the outcome of meditation. From a physiological standpoint, the body is in a state of relaxation and regeneration. This state is achieved by eliciting the Relaxation Response, coined by Herbert Benson, Associate Professor of Medicine at The Harvard Medical School to describe the healing and stress reducing effects of a mind-body practice. In this case the practice is Qigong, a new category of exercise called Meditative Movement.
Spiritual teacher Eckart Tolle describes the process of achieving the Qigong state as "The transformation from time to presence and from thought to pure consciousness" (watch Eckart Tolle's explanation of enlightenment). This transition or path has also been referred to as the ancient practice of internal alchemy (the Chinese neidan or neigong).
Note that it is fairly straight-forward to achieve the Qigong state quickly through normal Qigong practice. Someone who knows nothing about Qigong may achieve the state after minutes, hours, or days of practice and instruction. Someone who regularly practices Qigong may achieve the state in minutes. The real challenge is not achieving the state; rather, the trick is maintaining the state throughout the day.
"With sustained 'listening', a more global sensation of energy arises involving the whole body. The 'practice' here is one of effortlessly allowing the attention to rest within the Inner Body, the field of Qi that is manifesting within and perhaps extending beyond the body. Breathing may be experienced over the entire body, as if the cells themselves were inhaling and exhaling. Yet, there is no imaging, description, labeling or conceptualizing involved in any of this. Gradually, the body itself becomes more transparent and the distinction between the doer, the observer, and the object of observation begins to dissolve. Directed attention itself begins to dissolve and what remains is Wu Chi - simple pure, awareness." Gunther Weil, PhD. Qigong educator and psychologist.
"What will people do when they want to explore the mystery of their lives — they will learn and practice Qigong."
"Mind loss is not unusual and it is not really associated with chronology. The magnitude of minutia is mind numbing." Dr. Roger Jahnke.
When we can look at our life and throw together all of our experience
simply as "life unfolding" and do our best to refrain from saying that
something was "good" or "bad", then we are well on our way to true
freedom. When we can drop into that place of presence, that inner
place where everything exists in a unified field of Qi, then we are
beginning the journey toward a truly stress-free life. There's
something
about judging things as good or bad that creates a certain "attachment"
to them - funny huh? It is that attachment that binds us, keeps us
from letting go and moving on in some cases. That attachment (even
to "good" things) is what creates expectations and keeps us from being
open to new and unexpected opportunities. Those attachments (to "bad" things) create fears that inhibit our growth. This concept of
attachment
is at the core of Buddhist philosophy and is key in understanding what
the Buddha (enlightened one) was exemplifying. Whether any of us will
ever achieve enlightenment in this body is another story, but we
certainly
can begin to make choices to move our lives in the direction that
best reflects our heart. Breathe Deep Newsletter. Francesco Garripoli, Chairman of the Board, Qigong Insitute.
What is Spirituality?
Spirituality is the most practical thing in the whole wide world. I challenge anyone to think of anything more practical than spirituality as I have defined it -- not piety, not devotion, not religion, not worship, but spirituality -- waking up, waking up!
When your illusions drop, you're in touch with reality at last, and believe me, you will never be lonely again. Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.
Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind.
You can become happy not by being loved, not by being desired or attractive to someone. You become happy by contact with reality.
"Life is something that happens to us while we're busy making other plans." That's pathetic. Live in the present moment. This is one of the things you will notice happening to you as you come awake. You find yourself living in the present, tasting every moment as you live it.
Every concept that was meant to help us get in touch with reality ends up by being a barrier to getting in touch with reality, because sooner or later we forget that the words are not the thing. The concept is not the same as the reality. They're different.
Researchers at the Boston University School of Public Health have demonstrated a link between the relaxation response (which is elicited during Qigong practice) and spiritual and psychological well-being. The study was conducted as part of a cardiac rehabilitation program.
(New York Times) Cultivation, or practice over time, is an essential component of spiritual Qigong. Kung Fu for Philosophers offers some insights into cultivation from the standpoint of language, the mind, and Chinese philosophy. Qigong could be substituted for "kung fu" in this article.
Meditation
The effects of mediation on human health and spirituality are profound. New research is emerging almost daily on the benefits of meditation on everything from mental well-being to cellular health to reduction of stress. The Qigong and Energy Medicine Database™ contains abstracts of scientific research on meditation while the Qigong in the Press page includes many articles in the popular media on meditation.
(Psychology Today)Buddhism and the Blues - Buddhist psychology's core techniques of meditation and awareness may have much to offer ordinary Westerners. To most people Buddhism is an ancient Eastern religion, although a very special one. It has no god, it has no central creed or dogma and its primary goal is the expansion of consciousness, or awareness. But to the Dalai Lama, it's a highly refined tradition, perfected over the course of 2,500 years, of analyzing and investigating the inner world of the mind in order to transform mental states and promote happiness. "Whether you are a believer or not in the faith," the Dalai Lama told a conference of Buddhists and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you can use its time-honored techniques to voluntarily control your emotional state. More.
Silencing the Monkey Mind: For those of us engaged in any form of meditative efforts, such as bio energy, traditional chi gung, or even Zen meditations, each of us can personally attest to the brain’s “wandering” tendencies. Long ago, Buddhist monks created an analogy describing the wandering activity of the brain akin to a “chattering monkey”.
From the Qigong and Energy Medicine Database™
Kilpatrick, et. al (2011) found that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in brain density in areas related to memory, sense of self, empathy and stress.
Hozel, Carmody et. al (2011) at Harvard Medical School found that mindfulness practice leads to increase in grey matter density in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.
Tei et. al (2009) suggested “that neuroplasticity effects of long-term meditation practice are carried over into non-meditating states.”
Tang, et. al (2010) report that short term meditation affects white matter changes in the brain.
Alan Watts, one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, echos Garripol's insights. Watts argues that our sense of inter-connectedness has been lost because we think that our personality, or ego, actually exists. This misperception gets in the way of our understanding reality and who we really are, with the ultimate consequence being the unconscionable fouling of the planet that we live on. We are not an organism separate from the environment; we are part of it.
We have to give up the ego. People say it is hard. It isn't really, because the ego does not exist. As Watts explains, "If you try to get rid of your ego with your ego, it will take you until the end of time." We need to let go of ourselves, our egos, and let nature be. Our fundamental self is happening, not doing. This truth is revealed through the practice of Qigong. Watts' prescient observations were just as valid in 1970 as they are now.
Note that Watts began his life-long study of eastern philosophy with Buddhism, and became well-known for Zen in particular, but focused his later years on Taoism, whose practitioners use Qigong.
...the most subtle principle of Taoism [is] known as wu-wei. Literally, this may be translated as "not doing," but its proper meaning is to act without forcing -- to move in accordance with the flow of nature's course which is signified by the word Tao, and is best understood from watching the dynamics of water.
For excellent scholarly work on Taoism see Livia Kohn and John Cleary. Also, each Breathe Deep Newsletter contains insights on the philosophy and practice of Qigong.
For contemporary reading on spiritual Qigong and the practice and philosophy of Taoism which utilizes Qigong, see The Empty Vessel: A journal of Contemporary Taoism. An example article is on awareness through breathing:
"...most of us lose ourselves constantly in one or another side of ourselves -- in our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and so on. As a result, we live fragmented, dishonest, and disharmonious lives. And while we might agree intellectually that this is true, many of us are not convinced enough to actually undertake the demanding work of self-awareness and self-transformation, a work that begins with learning how to sense and observe ourselves sincerely, to listen impartially to ourselves in action. Since our breathing both reflects and conditions the various sides of ourselves, a vital part of this process involves work with breath..." Dennis Lewis.
Watch an example of spiritual qigong expressed through dancing in the amazing Thousand Hand Guan Yin Qigong. All 21 of the dancers are deaf. Relying only on signals from trainers at the four corners of the stage, these extraordinary dancers deliver a visual spectacle that is at once intricate and stirring. Its first major international debut was in Athens at the closing ceremonies for the 2004 Paralympics.
The Rev. Deanne Hodgson, an associate pastor at the Church of the Beatitudes in Phoenix, counsels parishioners preparing for surgery in ways to discover inner quiet in bustling hospital settings. Hodgson is a registered nurse and certified Tai Chi instructor who leads classes in the Chinese mind-body relaxation exercises at the church. The classes are open to the public.
"We're constantly being bombarded, not only with sound but with visual 'noise,' " Hodgson says. "The challenge is to discover a peaceful place within yourself, and that's where the practice of meditation of any sort [e.g. Qigong] is very useful."
. The text uses alchemical metaphors to explore psychological transformations that are the heart of spiritual Qigong practice, and can be quite dense reading for people unfamiliar with Taoist terminology.
by Alan Watts.