Chi
Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI
Zen-style meditiation is a way which is supposed to lead us into the way of enlightenment and absolute freedom. However, as we have talked previously about the preliminary preparation for entering into a pure sitting zen-style meditation which begins with a movement-type of practice for our body first, until we reach the state of unification of both body and mind which results in a much higher (more balanced) mental condition to handle our thoughts and observations of everything. In this way, we have enough wisdom to enter into the state of sitting style zen meditation which focuses mainly on letting go of ourselves and the process of enlightenment. Therefore, it would be a mistake to start with just the posture of sitting meditation and study those so-called wisdom of words of Zen or the Tao: we don't𩾷 have enough inner experience and forces to allow us to understand thoroughly the insights and natural interaction about the whole process of pursuing life.
Hatha yoga, on the other hand, is a form of physical training. It's importance orginated from the significance associated with it when Shakamuni used it as a method to let go of his body ain an attempt to expand his level of the mental world to the larges but finally concluded that it was in vain. It claims to be the best method to open up our chakras and lead us to a higher understanding of our life, and to focus on a peculiar type of training to stretch our tendons, our muscles and skeleton to their extreme. However such stretching could pull our muscles, dislocate our joints, and fracture bones, among other things. These physical injuries are regarded as terrible situations when viewed in contrast to the promotion of our practice and also because the pure letting go of our body may not necessarily lead to the concentration and promotion of our mind. It may in turn cause the exhaustion of our body and fatigue in our mind (mental exhaustion) finally. Therefore, the meaning of letting go of our body should be built on trhe level after completion of the strengthening of our body first. With this as a base, we are able to talk about the letting go of our body. Similarly, when we talk about letting go of our mind, it should be built on the level of completing and the perfection of our mind and self-restraint/self-cultivation. All these procedures need a lot of practice and observation and listening to our chi/heart/mind/ [frequency/realself multilevel/chi+heart] .
Hatha yoga and Zen are two extremes of the same thing, They should be synthesized together to reach the middle way, which is what chikung is. When you are not focused on your physical body you can go into your internal organs; when you don𩾷 focus on letting go of your mind, you can calm down and get stable. Chikung does both of these. Just like fasting: many people regard fasting as a good method for body perfection owing to the extra metabolism of the body which may lead to the same efforts like hatha yoga or some other kind of physical suffering method to help get a better mental condition. Therefore, these methods are like the medicines which are poisonous. In this way, when we understand how limiting such problems are, we should have a more ordinary practice. Sensationalistic (highly sensory) practices have limited effect except for those people who bring a fuller background to the practice. A holistic practice is best especially if we want to avoid developing stubborness of the mind (which highly sensory practices can encourage).