12. Qigong – Where does the practice lead?

Progressing in qigong, as with any undertaking, will be far faster and more enjoyable with a sense of purpose and an understanding of the process. A good analogy for this is driving a car. With no clear sense of destination, you risk getting lost and eventually running out of gas. With no clear understanding of the road conditions you could damage your car or even put yourself at risk. So when it comes to qigong, learning the correct approach to practice is paramount. A good teacher, for example, will help you refine your technique, be able to suggest exercises suited to your ability and help you to work with the obstacles that inevitably arise with any worthwhile practice. A teacher will also be able to help guide you towards useful study material in order to add depth and richness to your practice. So what is the purpose of qigong? Where does it lead? And what can one expect along the journey?

One of the first things you may notice as you start practising qigong is a general feeling of relaxation, well-being and an increased awareness of the sensations in your body. During these first steps into qigong you gradually use the exercises and advice of the teacher to adjust how you use the three regulators of qi - the body, breath and mind (see article here). During this time you will notice your posture improves, your breath becomes fuller and more relaxed, your mind starts to settle and you “cling” to old mental patterns less. As you release old patterns that no longer serve you, you will find you have more energy at your disposal.

As your energy builds you begin to feel more vital, clearer and at ease. From time to time however you encounter sensations of discomfort. This happens for a number of reasons. Firstly, as the coarser tensions/blockages/old patterns lose their grip, energy flows more freely until a new resistance is met in the mind and body. Here, we perhaps feel discomfort in ways we had not experienced or been aware of before. This effect is cyclical in nature; energy meets a tension, awareness is brought to this tension, tension is gradually released, more energy flows in the system, an increase in energy within the system meets new points of resistance. This cycle continues, gradually working through subtler and subtler layers of tension and resistance. It’s important to note here that tension and resistance in and of themselves are not problems. They are natural products of polarity and polarity is a beautiful creative force. Issues arise as tensions are left unresolved and gradually build up in the mind-body matrix leading to stiffening, stuck patterns and premature ageing.

As one observes this process unfolding naturally, this process of attentive non-doing (wuwei), cause and effect becomes more apparent. A subtler, clearer understanding of how the different aspects of self interrelate develops and expands. Not only do we notice the relation between breath, body and mind, we also notice more about our relation with the things within our immediate environment such as food, family, friends work etc. We start to see how they have a direct impact on our internal world. This further grows as we start feeling our connection with nature, society, ideas, information, the larger world, etc. This develops a wisdom and knowledge born from experience.

As our direct experience and energy continues to grow, the joy of self cultivation produces a keen and curious spirit. We become more and more inspired to explore the people and world around us and how we relate to and experience them. As we grasp the inter-connectedness of our reality more deeply, we slowly learn to be more in harmony with it. We expand our consciousness, our energy and more importantly, we embody this expansion and are actively involved in it.

Ecosystems are a perfect example of this. Each element within the system performs its role, taking care of itself while also actively contributing to the overall health and energy of the ecosystem. If, however, we were to remove an insect from this system and isolate it in a jar, without the support of the ecosystem it would suffer and probably die. Moreover, the ecosystem would also suffer as it no longer enjoys the benefit of the work of the insect. Remove the jar and the insect can once again happily go about its business. We are somewhat like this insect in many ways, only we come with a complication… instead of a jar keeping us isolated, it’s our egos’ use of the mind that keeps us isolated. Qigong is a tool through which we can start learning to work with the mind, rather than being trapped by it.

This brings us to the concept of ‘expanded’ and ‘contracted’ states which we will discuss in our next article ‘Spiritual Growth’. In the meantime, here are a few interesting facts for you to ponder over and marvel at the inter-connectedness of the universe and our place in it. And don’t forget to check out the video accompanying this article at the bottom of this post.

Water

• Approximately 71 percent of the Earth is water.

• Water has now been found to have more states than previously believed. One of which is crystal-like and

  another two which are liquid states.

• One newly discovered state of water occurs when water is placed next to a hydrophilic surface. The water

  molecules organize themselves differently and build a negative charge close to the hydrophilic surface and a
  positive charge further away from the surface. This effect can be used to generate electricity.

• Up to 60 percent of the human body’s mass is water.

• 99 percent of the molecules in the body are water molecules.

• Human biology contains many hydrophilic surfaces.

Bacteria

• A handful of soil contains more bacteria than the entire human population.

• The human skin micro-biome is made up of roughly 1,000 types of bacteria which help protect us from

  outside intruders.

• The gut micro-biome is inhabited by roughly 100 trillion bacteria.

• The bacteria in our body outnumbers our cells by 10 to 1. This equates to 1-3% of our body mass.

• Although it is still being investigated by scientists, it is thought that the number of virions (virus particles)

  in the human body may outnumber the total number of bacteria by 10 to 1. This would mean that virions

  found in the body outnumber human cells by 100 to 1.

• Approximately 8 percent of human DNA has been found to come from viruses and bacteria.

• The health of the gut has been found to improve from walking barefoot and owning a pet.

Quantum Entanglement

• Entanglement is a phenomenon in which the behaviour of one particle directly affects another. For

  example, if a one particle of a pair is known to have a spin of a certain speed in one direction, the other

  particle will have a spin that is of the same value in the opposite direction. Changing the position, spin,

  momentum and polarization of one particle will immediately affect the position, spin, momentum and

  polarization of the other particle.

• Entangled particles continue to show this behaviour regardless of the distance between them.

• The effect is believed to be instantaneous irrespective of distance.

• These effects have been shown on photons, neutrinos, electrons, molecules as large as buckminsterfullerenes

  (C-60) and small diamonds.

• Some scientists theorize that the majority of particles in the universe are entangled, that this entanglement

  remains irrespective of time and hence these particles have been entangled since the big bang.

• The human body has approximately 1.5 X10^28 electrons.

Happy pondering,

Dawa & No Mi.