Chi
Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI
The practice of chikung, especially the fundamental part, covers all forms of martial arts. Chikung, then, is part of the fundamental training of the higher level taichichuan.
Since taichichuan is a martial art, it focuses on the movements and the fighting skills for which it was originally designed. However, taichichuan has evolved from its initial focus on combat skills to a way of culturing the tao and improving our health. Consequently, the styles of taichichuan as practiced today are softer and slower in order to promote better internal training for energy.
Traditional martial arts training usually required that you be stronger physically before advancing to a higher level. This was necessary because since taichichuan is a martial art, a tremendous command of internal forces is needed to support the external activities. That is why ancient martial artists emphasized the importance of building up your own internal forces, concentration, and spirit before being able to perform the skills. For instance, if you specialize in practicing the skill instead of building up your fundamental forces, it could result in a dangerous situation in which you would break a bone, pull a muscle, twist your back or seriously injure your internal organs, causing hidden internal damage. In other words, if you have a good command of your internal forces, then you will be able to withstand an external impact while practicing. For example, you may get hurt while punching a sandbag or sparring with your training assistant. If this injury damages the chi system and blocks your chakras or meridians, you may suddenly die. Many people in China die during their training or within 3 to 6 months after competing in a contest.
A boxer focuses on developing his external muscles, so he has hard fists and strong muscles. When he punches a person, they may die immediately. If a martial artist punches a person, they will not die immediately, but die later. This is explained in the following manner: A boxer uses all his energy to hit a person on the outside and to cause immediate external damage. With martial arts punches more internal forces are used so when the punch occurs, it causes chi damage or blockages rather than only muscle damage. This damage will stay within a person's body for a long time until his body totally stops functioning. We can understand why ancient martial artists focused on the importance of strengthening your internal forces to protect your chi system when you are hit by another person: in such a situation, although you may receive an external injury, your internal forces will protect you from sustaining damage to other systems. Iron shirt kung fu helps you strengthen your internal organs. ¡@Of course this does not mean that we use kungfu as a skill for fighting people. We should use such methods to strengthen our internal organs and body : in this way we will understand more deeply the difficulty in understanding taichichuan. Taichichuan combines both the external and the internal forces (for example, it combines both Shaolin kung fu (more yang) as a base and the Taoist emptiness theory (more yin) for its performance.) Thus, by having yin and yang forces and by adhering to the principles of taichi which use yin and yang forces to make a higher and bigger form of force, taichichuan provides more power.
Originally, the practice of chikung was the basic training before we started any type of martial arts training. Nowadays, the weightlifting and jogging which have been substituted for chikung at the beginning of training do not provide the internal protection which chikung practice provided at the start of traditional training. As a result, contemporary martial artists injure their their joints (shoulders, arms, wrists, etc.), or their extremeties (legs and ankles, knees, etc.) because they began their training with weightlifting and not with basic chikung practice. This is why we see a lot of martial artists including Bruce Lee inadvertently injuring themselves. Weightlifting and jogging appear to be more effective at the beginning of training and make people look more powerful more quickly, but this fools people into thinking they have advanced to a higher level when they haven't. In this way, since they think they have more control of their body than they actually have, they will injure themselves attempting to do things, especially in contests. This results in internal injuries, limiting their advancement in martial arts because they must stop to recuperate or give it up completely. They may, in fact, die from this lack of internal forces which protect them.
In this way, we understand much about the importance of building our fundamental forces before we advance to any type of training. Chikung has its own path to advance step by step from the fundamental training which perfects our body first, mainly with the endocrine system, the balancing system, the immune system, mind and concentration system. Second, the intermediate training focuses on perfecting our circulation system, energy inhaling, and transforming system mainly to open our mind and our vision, enabling us to emit a bigger defensive shield and focus our mind to a much higher level. Third, reaching the state combining both body and mind together, we are able to empty our self at any moment without responding to external stimuli and thus understand much more about life situations, our consciousness, our ego, our real self, nature, and the Tao. Fourth, in the highest state entering the Tao, we let go of our self, stop using our consciousness and act according to the intuition of nature.
This all begins with the fundamental practice of chikung which leads eventually to our being well-prepared to begin the practice of the higher level taichichuan. These practices provide a synergistic effect which can support us as we focus on higher levels of power and understanding.
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