Sometimes when people see, hear, or even experience some of the effects of long term qigong practice for themselves, it can seem a little bit… magical. It is great to be full of wonder and interest about the world around us, but it is also helpful to have a practical understanding of how things work, as this helps us to more effectively and reliably achieve the results we seek.
The benefits from qigong can be truly amazing, but they are certainly not magic, they are actually a very practical outcome of developing our skills through qigong practice. This article will look at some of the reasons why qigong can sometimes seem magical, and give you the key to having some of this qigong ‘magic’ in your own life.
Mysterious Qi
Some of the things we talk about in qigong can seem mysterious. Energy flows, meridians, energy fields. And some of the things you may experience as part of your qigong practice may also seem strange and unusual. Feeling tingling, heat, and magnetism moving within your body. Feeling the space around your body filled with energy. Being able to feel the energy flow not just in yourself, but through the environment around you. Seeing the colour and other qualities of your energy change as you practice. And – if you have the opportunity to receive qigong healing from an experienced qigong practitioner you may feel their energy pushing and pulling and moving things within you. How can that possibly NOT be magic?
When we say something is mysterious, that means that it is a mystery to us, or in other words that we do not understand it. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be understood, simply that we ourselves do not yet understand it. Experiencing something for the first time is an opportunity to learn and discover! That which seems mysterious to begin with, can become obvious and seem common place once we have investigated and understand it well.
50 Names for Snow
Anthropologists have discovered that the Inuit people have over 50 different words for snow – whereas in English we might just use one – snow… When we focus on something and spend a lot of time working with it, we start to notice many more details about it, and we start to be able to do more things with it as well.
Everyone of us has sensed our own energy before, whether we have thought of it that way or not. We have felt warmth inside our body. We have felt movement – maybe our stomach gurgling or the movement of our pulse. We may have felt tingling, and any number of other sensations from the presence and movement of our energy. When we practice qigong, we focus much more directly on our energy than we may have ever done before, and as a result of this we notice many more details about it. As we notice those details, we discover patterns, and we develop skill to influence that energy and work with it.
When someone starts to describe some of the details that have been observed over decades of experience and practice, it can seem fantastical, but it is only because our awareness and understanding has not developed yet. If we put the same amount of focus and attention into it over a similar period of time, it is likely that we will begin to notice many of the same things.
Gong Means Practice Over Time
And this is where we start to create some of that magic in our own life too. The word ‘qigong’ is made up of two parts. ‘Qi’, which means energy, and ‘gong’ which means work or skill. The word ‘gong’ is used to describe any high level of skill that takes time and practice to achieve. It is the same ‘gong’ used in Gong Fu (also spelled Kung Fu), which often refers to skilled martial artists, but can equally apply to any type of skill. Someone who is highly skilled at calligraphy is said to have Gong Fu at Calligraphy. Someone who is a skilled singer has Gong Fu at singing. Someone who is very persuasive in the way they speak has oratory Gong Fu – and so on.
Understanding this meaning of ‘gong’ can help us to understand some of the nature of the ‘magic’ in qigong.
We see this in every area of life – skilled athletes perform many feats that to your average person seems magical, but we understand that they have developed their skills and abilities over time through hard work and practice.
Incremental Progress
It is the same with qigong. While to begin with our skills may be rudimentary in nature, with practice over time they grow little by little. Each little bit of incremental progress adds up into something which can seem impressive and truly magical to those who have not gone through a similar process, but it is just a natural outcome of consistent practice using correct methods over time.
Part of the nature of this process is that there will be times when not much progress seems to be happening, and then other times when there are sudden leaps and breakthroughs of new perceptions and skill. I think anyone who has practiced qigong for awhile can vividly remember each of the times that they became aware of some previously unnoticed aspect of their energy, or developed a new aspect of skill in working with it. These moments can seem TRULY magical, but as you continue to practice they become commonplace to the extent that you may not pay much attention to them because they are always there in the background.
Each of these new breakthroughs can seem monumental at the time, but they only come as a result of all that ‘gong’ or hard work and practice that you put in during the times that it didn’t seem like much was happening.
Bamboo Spends Five Years Underground
Sometimes it can seem a bit like the growth pattern of bamboo. Giant bamboo plants can spend five years underground before the shoots start to appear above the ground. All that time they are preparing, building their root structure, and then when the time comes, it seems like the whole stalk grows all at once. Once above ground, the giant bamboo shoot can grow at a rate of 91cm a day until it reaches its full height of up to 30 metres.
How to Experience Qigong Magic in your Life
If you want to experience the magic of qigong in your life, the secret is all in the gong. Being persistent in your practice over an extended period of time. You will almost certainly have many interesting and maybe even surprising experiences along the way, maybe some right from the start of your qigong practice. But the true ‘magical’ benefits accrue over time.
There are a couple of things that can help you with this. One of these is to find good instruction to help guide you in your practice. This will help you to have confidence that you are practicing in the right way, and ensure that you are getting the most benefit from the time that you put into it. Long White Cloud Qigong has a range of online qigong courses that go in depth into a range of different qigong practices, including how to practice them, and also how each practice works – so that you can understand what you are doing and direct your energy in the most effective way.
Long White Cloud Qigong also has a directory of certified qigong instructors all over the world, there may be one near you that you could even contact to help guide you in your practice in person.
The other thing is to put things in place in your life so that qigong practice becomes a habit that you continue with almost without thinking. In this way it will not take as much of an effort for you to practice regularly, and the ‘magic’ of qigong in your life can accumulate over time. This article provides some suggestions of how you can do that.