I had lunch with a  Wife seeking to become a Chi Gung Student, a Student and his Brother this past Friday afternoon.

Michele, asked me why people who once learned Chi Gung, and develop a practice, simply stop practicing. I thought on this over the weekend, but then I remembered that Energy Arts had allowed me to send out this very Answer from Master BK Frantzis way back in 2005; and since I certainly could not better the following answer, I felt it would be a true service to once again expose us all to it once again. I also believe that many in our Energy Arts Family are new, they would and could glean much from this particular Blog. 

 The following is an article written by B K Frantzis, Ph.D,  initially printed in the March 2005 Energy Arts Newsletter ; and used by permission from Energy Arts, Inc.

  One of my Certified Teachers asked me why students stop practicing Chi Gung or Tai Chi Chuan.   THE TAOIST PERSPECTIVE: Enlightenment is Not Easy.  The Taoist perspective is that people are either on the road towards life or one the road towards death.   People move towards destructive energies to pay off negative karma. They have inner compulsions, based on natural inclinations and habits that will lead them to making choices that are not in their best interest. These people have karmic propensities that lead them more toward the road of death. This is one underlying reason why people stop practicing.       

  All practitioners realize that Taoist Energy Practices inherently come with inner difficulties to overcome and pass through. If experiencing negative karma, anyone will have to make peace with it before they can pass through it and head towards the sublime. You can't have one without the other. If you persist in these practices, the sublime can surface and become predominant. If personal evolution and enlightenment were easy, everyone would already be there.

  Taoist practices are Internal. Their nature is to help you become aware of what is in your body, mind and spirit. The only thing you are going to get when you go inside yourself is what is already there. Many people fear their negative propensities and don't want to face them. However, if you don't know what is going on inside you, how are you going to fix whatever you encounter there that isn't working? How are you going to evolve as a human being ?  

 WESTERN PERSPECTIVE : Destructive Emotions Lock into the Nerves   From the perspective of Western medicine, negative habits and destructive emotions lock into your neural transmitters. You develop inner rhythms that cause the firing of the nerve synapses that trigger the habits, and a certain inertia that gets in the way of establishing new habits. Every time you feed the habit or emotion, it locks in harder. A metaphorical example is the puppy that was beaten with a stick by a child. When that puppy grows into a 120 pound mastiff, he is still afraid of any child holding a stick.

  Time needs to be taken to relax the nerves and establish positive rhythms. The nature of Taoist Energetic Practices is that they take you inside yourself. Their nature is to help you become aware of what is in your body, mind and spirit and provide the means to clear out what is destructive inside yourself.   However,, when some people begin confronting their negative propensities, they become afraid and don't want to face them. They stop practicing!  

 Western Exercise in External .  Many Westerners go to the Gym; run and ride bikes; play golf, tennis and basketball. These are familiar practices, many of them learned in childhood. With them comes the knowledge that you get better with practice. Doctors routinely suggest them for boosting circulation and getting endorphins to release.   They are inherently competitive, whether you are competing against yourself or others. They are results oriented and, as you get better, they reinforce and reward the ego. You can measure your results and you are in control of them. You feel you are doing something inherently "good".  

Taoist practices are opposite in nature. At some point, they free you from the need to compete and show that you are better than someone else. Results are not easily observable and measurable, and in many cases, their value is only to yourself.   These inherently internal practices bring you increasingly into contact with your ego and the flow of your energy and how you act and react to them. And when you begin contacting that energy, for better or for worse, you will contact areas of your emotions or thinking or areas of your psychic being that may make you feel out of control. You start traveling in unfaniliar territory. You become uncomfortable, You are afraid to work through these feelings. You become fearful of what you may encounter. You stop practicing!  

 Teachers Open the Gates   Taoist teachers know about these blockages. They encounter them in themselves and their students on virtually a daily basis.   Classes help people establish new rhythms and are a support system when people begin traveling through their inner landscapes and begin to encounter their negative emotions. Teachers lay down the infrastructure and habits of practice that will establish the inner discipline and the new rhythms that will help their students persist through these difficult periods. They help their students travel the road to life.   And if through the practice of Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Gung, and the releasing of some of the negative emotions that bind you, you can see how life might be better, then at least that sets you up for getting in control of your fate and overcoming your negative karma.  

 The only poem I remember from childhood was "Invictus" by William Earnest Henly. It is a good metaphor for the obstacles encountered when practicing Taoist Energy Arts :  

   It matters not how barred the gate,  

   How charged with punishment the scroll,

   I am the master of my fate,  

   I am the captain of my soul.  

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 Lineage Master in the Taoist Arts, BK Frantzis has over 40 years experience in Eastern healing systems, Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Gung, martial arts and Meditation, including 16 years in Japan, India and China. He spent twenty years studying Zen, Yoga, Kundalini and Taoist Fire traditions. This training provided the foundations for extensive study of the Water Method with Taoist Lineage Master Liu Hung Chieh. Frantzis has peeled away the metaphor and vague language surrounding the concept of chi. Based in Marin County, California, BK Frantzis teaches Instructor Certification programs, Retreats and Coporate and public seminars in North America and Europe.   For more information on Master Frantiz' Teachings, Books, Videos and Seminars, contact :  http://www.energyarts.com/  or call 415-454-5243