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Atticus
Hola folks,
I’ve become kind of fascinated by qi gong. Can anyone recommend a good introductory read that covers all the basics and doesn’t neglect the spiritual aspects and the art of external use? I’m pretty much starting at point zero; I had a very little instruction in tai chi (which I gather is related but different) several years ago, but that’s it. Live instruction would be nice but is just not available where I live.
Jax
I have two books I can email to you that are pretty good for beginners. The files are about 12 megs. Check your email and let me know if for some reason it doesn’t work.
Kol Drake
A bit of FYI…
Generally, Qigong is considered having four major areas of application:
1. Healing Qigong (Yi Gong). Healing Qigong (sometimes translated “Medical Qigong”) is the preventive and self-healing aspect of Chinese medicine. We are all exposed to stress. Qigong teaches us how to control our reactions to stress so that life events do not cause such symptoms as high blood pressure, frustration, or anxiety. Healthy people practice qigong to become super-healthy. Healers use qigong to prevent “healer burn-out” and to maintain a positive presence.
2. External Qi Healing (Wai Qi Zhi Liao). Qigong includes a sophisticated system of health assessment and non-contact treatment called External Qi Healing (EQH). The healer learns to tap into a well of healing energy in nature and “funnel” it through his or her body. Unlike some purely intuitive systems, EQH includes exercises that increase sensitivity to energy fields and efficacy of treatment. The more you practice External Qi Healing exercises and meditations, the more effective your healing treatment. External Qi Healing techniques may be used as a stand alone form of wellness treatment or may be combined with massage, acupuncture, Therapeutic Touch, osteopathy, or any other form of body-work. Because treatment is generally performed at a distance from the body, EQH does not violate psychotherapists’ professional ethics (which do not allow touching the patient) and is thus an ideal adjunct to body-centered psychotherapy.
3. Sports Qigong (Wu Gong). In sports and martial arts, qigong is the key to strength, stamina, coordination, speed, flexibility, balance, and resistance to injury. Qigong exercises can improve performance in any sport, improving the golf drive, tackling ability in football, accuracy in tennis, and stamina in swimming.
4. Spiritual Qigong (Fo Gong, Tao Gong). As a spiritual discipline, qigong leads to self-awareness, tranquillity, and harmony with nature. The spiritual aspect of qigong evolved from Taoism and Buddhism.
I feel like Kol should have an honorary title – encyclopedia? librarian?
Do you have specific book references that you’ve used Kol?
Kol Drake, P.I.
(Purveyor of Information)
*****
edit update
*****Being flip… sorry.
Know of the forms and styles from working with a friend in healing style and weapons forms a half dozen years ago. Perfect! you’re like our own little WikiJedi hahaMany thanks to both of you for the information, and thanks again for the books, Jax. I’m looking forward to learning more and incorporating into my practice.
Yoshio
Master Jax, I was wondering if You could sent me the books as well?
I’m already doing Qi-Gong every morning, as I wrote in my training journal. This Qi-Gong exercise includes two main setups.
The first one I do is for “opening” the joints. In this you start with your ankles, go on with your knees and hip-joints, turn over to your writs which are to be followed by your elbows and shoulder-joints.
The second one is for to create a kind of sphere of awareness around you. The instruction for this one can be found here.
So now I’m looking forward to expand my knowledge and also my variety of exercises a bit and so would be very much interested in the books.My review of the first result of this inquiry, cross-posted from my training journal:
I figured out pretty early that learning the basics of energy work was going to have to become a priority for me — I seem to be well behind the curve in terms of a starting base of knowledge in this area. So for the first book in the outside study portion of my PLP, I solicited opinions on a good introductory guide to qigong and was directed to Michael Tse’s Qigong for Health and Vitality. I’m happy to report that the book gave me a fairly straightforward introduction, a simple learning plan, and only one serious disappointment (easily rectified, I think, with more study).
First the book itself. Unread copies are going for upwards of $250.00 on the intertubes — the book is apparently both beloved and out-of-print — which might say something about the quality of the work.
The first three chapters introduced me to the fundamental principles of qigong, as well as Chinese medicine in general. In some places, it’s an introduction only in passing, though, a lot of things tossed in with little context: I know now, for example, that the stomach and spleen are associated with the element earth, but I have very little idea how that information is useful. Perhaps further comprehension will come from practice, but more on that in a minute.
Chapter 7 is “how to practice”, while 8 and 9 are “what to practice”. I now have a basic set of qigong and tai chi exercises and a simple plan for how to work them into a daily practice: basically, do three exercises each day for a week, until they’re well learned, then move on to the next three. Back in Chapter 4 there was a rough sketch of how a few exercises could be put together into a routine for various health issues — and this is where I think that practice will help me understand how the background stuff about the elements and the compass directions and the acupuncture points, etc., fits in. Right now I’m not seeing the patterns, but this is only my first week of any experience with real qigong; I’m probably not going to be capable of seeing them until I’ve got some breadth of experience with the actual work.
The book ends with a chapter on meditation, written very simply. I picked up a couple of intriguing ideas, which I might want to revisit after Meditation 101, but for the most part it’s basic basic.
My disappointment was the chapter on healing others. Before I say more, I understand that I have to practice and get my own energies straight before I even think about trying to work with others. I get that, no problem. But the chapter was almost entirely void of useful information; it’s rather the equivalent of a teaser trailer. This really isn’t a problem — I’ve already decided that I’ll be reading a book on energy medicine down the line a bit, and I’m so new that I really have no business even thinking about using energy work on others for quite some time. Just a disappointment that the author didn’t think to include this information for continued practice.
So to sum up: this book gave me an introduction to the underlying principles, a basic practice plan that I’m adding into my daily training, and some areas for further contemplation as I work with the fundamentals.
Otherone
Hey jax if you still have those books available could you send them to me as well???
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