Internal martial arts and energy work

Is there anyone here who is a student of the internal arts (Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Hsing I, etc.) who is also proficient at energy work? During my year or so of kung fu training I was excited to learn that these internal arts were part of the training but it seemed to me that most of them paid only lip service to the actual energy work going on. It seemed they were content to approximate the affects. Disclaimer: this is only the impression I got; in fact I'm almost certain that as a student of only one year I have no idea what I'm talking about in regards to the kung fu school where I trained :D What I'd like to hear about are the experiences of someone who really combines the disciplines of martial arts, energy work, and even psi together, as this is the path that I think I would like to take myself. One thing that especially interested me is the term fah jing, or the flow of energy/power that is an integral part of hsing i. It seems to me that fah jing takes the 'internal' or energetic parts of martial arts and elevates it to the level of psi. Am I getting the wrong impression? Thanks! ^ ^

James

Well man it depends, some schools won't teach you more about energy work until you have put in at least 5 years of commitment! Also, some teachers don't realize what they are doing unless that school is heavily influenced by energy techniques.

But can you imagine what sort of denial they have to go through? :)

Try to read "The Power of Internal Martial Arts" by Bruce Frantzis. It gives you a good idea, IMO. It's a pretty good book, also a very good read. Has a personal touch that I quite like.

The problem is that many schools pay lip service, but don't know a thing. With Chinese teachers it could be very well that they teach very different things to students, and you might not know whether you get the real deal. There is a secretive element involved.

Really read the book, it gives you a good overview over all kinds of martial arts and their involvement or non-involvement with energy work.

Oliver

Korpo wrote:

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There is a secretive element involved.

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Absolutely. When I took Pan Gai Noon, a karate-cized form of Kung Fu (the karate version would be Ueichi Riu) you had to be a brown belt (3 yrs.) before doing energy work. (Which was a lot like Qi Gong). And it wasn't really explained, IMO.

ps. This was a long long time ago. I'm an old woman now. :lol:

Thanks for the info guys! ^ ^

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Originally Posted by MysticSage816

most of them paid only lip service to the actual energy work going on

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I find this is the case with a good many religious observations, as well. When done properly, a religious ceremony should involve actual invocation of Deity and a lot of energy being generated, among other things, but it rarely happens in any modern religious setting.

I believe the reason for this is because the people leading or teaching or otherwise enacting the rituals are not actually aware of the energy or the true purpose of what they're doing. They're going through the ceremonial motions, and that's the end of it. Without the intent, there's no "magick".

I would suspect the same is also true of martial arts. The teachers understand the motions, the moves, the dynamics of the physical, but they don't TRULY understand that the energy is actual and that it's being manipulated and can be extremely powerful.

I'm absolutely sure that there are martial arts instructors who DO fully "get it", just as there are leaders of various religions who also get it and who really do understand about the power and the energy, but those people are few and far between in my experience.

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Originally Posted by OlderWiser

I'm absolutely sure that there are martial arts instructors who DO fully "get it", just as there are leaders of various religions who also get it and who really do understand about the power and the energy, but those people are few and far between in my experience.

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The true trick is being aware of that you are doing it, exploring that and transmitting that.

It is said that the founder of Aikido had tremendous amounts of Qi, but that at the same time his students did not seem "to get it". He seems to intuitively got the "right idea" when he learned in China, but either he did not transmit it at all, very secretively, or he did not get it at the conscious level.

Oliver

Akido is a good martial art for learning to use qi, but I hear that its rare to find a good teacher that knows about doing so him or herself. As afr as religion goes I have seen Muslims that seem to have very deep spiritual experiences after prayer.

It probably depends on the person, not the general population of anyone or anything. Ah, I hate searching for the unique and helpful, there is too much junk to sift through.

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Originally Posted by star

As afr as religion goes I have seen Muslims that seem to have very deep spiritual experiences after prayer.

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Oh, individuals having extremely deep spiritual experiences isn't uncommon. I was referring to the ritual of various religions and also to the teachings of a lot of them.