Resist Nothing

IT IS said that when you resist something, it exerts even a greater pressure. This is especially true when it comes to temptation.
Taken to to fullest extent, the axiom of "resist nothing" also applies to the art of qigong. When you do not hold back anything, especially when the flow of qi is strong, the river of energy finds its natural course.
Qigong involves a certain amount of meditation. In the course of your mental quest, you are inclined to "over-think", thereby ruining a chain of events that would be beneficial for a "turbo-charged" body.
Most of the novices who practise qigong tend to overdo it. They think it is some kind of a contest between their physical capability and mental endurance.
Qigong is none of that. It is all about activating a sluggish flow of qi that has led to a breakdown in your energy system. A human body that has poor qi flow will be apt to succumb to illnesses.
The quickest way to kickstart a steady flow of qi is to act "naturally", like a willow tree flowing with the wind and its branches gravitating towards the water level in the river.
Qigong today is basically the same as it was 500 years ago. The only exception is 500 years old, practitioners of qigong accepted the forms of qigong as a natural phenomenon. Modern practitioners are too "questioning". We are almost disbelievers in an art that has benefited thousands of generations of people who incorporated good health and longevity into their daily lives.
In the ancient days, those who learn and practise qigong were inadvertently wu shu students as well. Qigong was like chapter two of the wu shu schedule of activities. In those times, you practise qigong because you know it does wonders for your body, mind and soul.
It comes with the territory, so to speak. If I may be so bold as to say that modern folk are into the "instant reward" system. When we do something, we expect the rewards to be immediate and hopefully instanteous. Part of the secret of generating good qi is to resist nothing.
By resisting nothing, it means wilfully allowing your body and mind to "let go". Qigong like the brain's delta waves flows strong in the zone of passitvity. It is not easy to remain actively passive.
Do not expect anything. Hold no pre-conceived notions. Just move for the sheer joy of knowing you are partaking in a ritual that will actually jumpstart your magic carpet to the domain of the impossible and enter into the mansion of the unbelievable.
How strong is thy faith? How well do you know the qi in your own body? These are questions that have often been asked and seldom been answered to the satisfaction of many.
To put it plainly, your body knows every little but the soul that collects your bolts of thoughts, much like electrical impulses that create the reality that is us. Qigong is the mental exertions of pushing the qi throughout the individual's physical system.
If you have a well "irrigated" system, your body will remain well energised, and you will almost never fall sick. To achieve this level of fitness, you need to spend at least 20 to 30 minutes daily doing your "set of moves" that the ancients call qigong.
The thing is qigong comes in many forms. They are all tributaries leading to the same big river and finally end up in the ocean of power called The White Source. When you have sail upon these waters of life, you will never again belittle all that which makes up earth because finally you would have realised that everythign is interconnected.
Qigong begins with a single hand movement, and then it goes on and so forth. Begin.

The Shortcut to Excellent Health

ABOUT seven years ago, I was hospitalised with a bleeding ulcer. The good doctor happily admitted me into a ward for treatment and observation. Prior to the admission, I was bleeding internally for four straight days.
Strangely though, I didn't experience any drop in vitality, nor was I tired. Anyway, I think the doctor did a blood count and found that I had lost some significant amount of blood without realising it.
Again, I wasn't behaving like someone who had just dropped two or three pints of blood. In other words, I should be feeling sleepy, fatigued or just plain drowsy. The doctor asked me if I wanted blood transfusion. I said no and gladly returned to bed and rest.
The few times the doctor examined me, he asked: "Do you feel any pain?" When I replied in the negative, he shook his head and said: "You must be one of those who belong to the painless sufferers group."
Frankly, I have not heard of such a group and I was puzzled. However, I did know that I had been practising gigong on my own for some time then. After a few more stringent tests, I was told I had the virus Helicopter Pilori in my system, and that little critter of a virus was responsible for my bleeding ulcer.
I do not smoke, hardly drink coffee and not inclined to worry too much. So all that worked in my favour. After 48 hours, I was out of hospital and resting at home.
After that little unpleasant stay in hospital, I came to the conclusion that even though I had a bleeding ulcer I didn't feel any sensation of unpleasantness and pain because my qigong had played a major part in my "strange" condition.
So I continued to do qigong everyday. In fact, I took steps to learn a few more qigong moves. One of my office colleagues and a few others expressed interest in learning a particular form of qigong that seemed to be quite popular in one part of the city.
We engaged an instructor to come to our office building rooftop everyday at a certain hour to teach us. It was a crash-course of five straight days and the fee was 100 ringgit (roughly US$25).
When the trainer turned up, we were surprised it was a woman in her 50s. Apparently, her husband who was the real instructor was busy and had sent his wife who was also an instructress in her own right.
She imparted some valuable rather quickly. She told us: "My wish is for you to continue to do qigong long after the course is over because you will be throwing away good money and wasting my time if you do not follow my instructions."
Obviously, she was quite upset with students who were caught up in the moment while doing the exercises and then quickly forgetting them when the session is over. The five days of instruction came and went.
There were about eight of us. That was about three years ago. Today, I believe I am one of two who continue to practise what we had been taught. I do the qigong exercises everyday for about 20 to 45 minutes. It is just a simple set of exercises and does not require Shaolin Temple type of discipline. All it needed was a mental commitment and a self-discipline.
All in all, I have been practising qigong consistently for a better part of eight years. My health has improved by leaps and bounds. My visits to the company medical clinic have narrowed down to zero.
The few times when I catch a cold, the recovery period is 24 hours with minor effects. Sometimes when I get caught in a heavy downpour, my hair and clothes are wet and I entered the airconditioned office and not changed my clothes. So they dry under the aircon.
The usual effect on me - nothing. I don't get a cold. I don't feel under the weather and frankly, the rain has no effect on my entire physical constitution. So practising is believing as I have been preaching to all those who want to listen to me.
I have read a number of books on qigong and the fundamentals are all there, except in my cases, the movements are different. The principles of qigong are basically the same. If a qigong practitioner can achieve partial success in harmonising his heart, mind and soul, his body becomes a crucible of smooth, flowing energy. It is what the Chinese have been calling "qi" or "chi" for thousands of years.
In the old days, about 2,000 years ago, qualified doctors were few and far between. So if you happened to be a poor peasant in the heart of nowhere in outback China and if you fall sick, then may God help you. So some kung fu practitioners came up with the formula of building a body that is impervious to ailments and other bodily diseases.
The art of qigong has been going on for hundreds of years. Some have been honed to a fine degree, so much so that the really good qigong masters can move their own bio-kinetic energy to another person and cure him of diseases.
This qigong energy transfer still happens today but the masters do not like to talk about it or want publicity. Too much foreknowledge of this kind of healing only invites too many requests which would eventually be impossible to fulfil.
However, the person who subscribe by the philosophy and the art of qigong lives to see miracles taking place within his own body and in his life. His mind becomes sharper. Occasionally he can sense the thoughts of another party and the events that may take place.
These are not hocus-pocus stuff but can actually take place in the realm of qigong. No qigong master likes to talk about his uncanny abilities because some people will start calling him a crackpot or may suspect him of smoking some strange weed.
Personally, I have walked down the qigong road for sometime now and the results are amazing. It is not something I feel the need to brag about but it would be good that others know that the art of self-healing is within their reach.
Doctor's bills can sometimes be quite daunting. So if you want to take the first step towards the road to longevity, pick up a simple book on qigong and start reading. Then when you are ready, find a good qigong teacher and start learning practising. You have nothing to lose but only your illness.
As time goes by, I shall provide more insights into this astounding ancient art that came from the Middle Kingdom that is now called China.