And Qigong is?

One of the most frequent questions I get is, "What is Qigong?" Honestly, it should be the easiest to answer, because Qigong practice is simply a way to return to our natural, healthy, spiritually aware state. But somehow I still struggle to articulate what Qigong is. There are literally thousands of variations and approaches to Qigong. Some have a lot in common, some are totally different from each other. But they are all Qigong. In a nutshell, Qigong is energy work. A closer definition, at least for our practice, is self-nurturing energy work.


The lineage of Qigong in which I train and teach is called Hunyuan, which can also be translated as Primordial. This style of Qigong draws from Daoism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Chinese Martial Arts. The majority of our practice comes to us from one the headstone figures in our lineage, Grandmaster Hu Yoazhen. Further information on the complete lineage in which I train can be found here: http://chentaiji.com/about/lineage.html


We can also sum our practice up as being Wujigong, or the practice of nurturing stillness. That is one reason we place so much emphasis on meditation and standing Qigong. A key component to all our practices is nurture; nurturing ourselves, nurturing our training partners and nurturing our world.  We nurture in stillness and silence; we nurture in all our movement; and we nurture as we move through life.


Following is very good video on The Primordial Qigong State: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIwyIseuMwI


And, here is nice summary of self-nurture from Pema Chodron:
"As adults, we begin to cultivate a sense of loving-kindness for ourselves—by ourselves, for ourselves. The whole process of meditation is one of creating that good ground, that cradle of loving-kindness where we actually are nurtured. What’s being nurtured is our confidence in our own wisdom, our own health, and our own courage, our own goodheartedness. We develop some sense that the way we are—the kind of personality that we have and the way we express life—is good, and that by being who we are completely and by totally accepting that and having respect for ourselves, we are standing on the ground of warriorship."


But the key to good Qigong is Qigong itself: Nurturing Qi, our inherent wholeness; and simply being--now.  Yes, it's really that simple--and that powerful.