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This is a question I’ve wanted to ask for some time, but I coulnd’t really find a correct way to word it.
I have the impression that there is a difference between generating chi-like feelings in the body with the mind and actually feeling chi.
I’m not speaking of visualization, it’s more like imagining feelings with the body. It’s very voluntary (so it shares some characteristics with visualization) but it’s not creating imaginary images. Rather imaginary sensations. There’s no word for that. If there was one, it would be something like “feelization”…
It’s different to the kind of chi sensations that come involuntarily like what you can get at the end of a movement or of a chi gung set when your chi is well balanced and you get a nice flow throughout the body. The difference is a bit like that between an imaginary picture in the mind and actually seeing the thing in full color and detail…When I started doing this, there would be a very large time gap between the moment I would generate the “imaginary sensations” and the moment some spontaneous and richer sensation of chi would follow. The time gap could be minutes.
Now the time gap is much shorter (seconds or less) but it’s still clearly there.This is how I manage to do the chi work in my body when there’s no physical movement involved, as in outer dissolving. It’s quite a different method than moving chi through movement, like Opening and Closing…
What is it exactly I am doing? Is it feeling the nervous system (as opposed to feeling chi) ? Is it what’s called guiding chi with the mind/intent (Yi Chu Dzuo)?
And most important of all : is this the right way to do it ?
What I think you are really trying to ask is “what is chi?” After 20 years of training, I still haven’t heard a single answer to this question that is satisfactory. I’ve read a lot Tai Chi, Hsing I, and Bagua books and still haven’t found one that really makes sense to me. This is either comical or tragic since everything we are trying to learn is supposed to be based on an understanding and utilization of chi.
My personal understanding of chi is much more aligned with the Taoist monastic tradition and the jing, chi, shen, wu, Tao progression that Bruce describes in his meditation books. This is the only organization of the material that currently makes any sense to me.
I don’t think that I approached the material the way you are describing. I never invested in any type of visualization whether it was creating visual images or feeling images. I just kept observing what was there and eventually started to find the heart/mind. So, chi for me is everything between the physical body and the heart/mind. What I’m currently training is how to use the heart/mind to direct the chi which in turn moves the body. When I’m successful, there is absolutely no tension and no gap.
I think they overlap. Visualisation can help with the mind intent such that you don’t have to think of chi to get it flowing.
For example this week at wing chun training we’ve been playing around with the idea of spinning our joints. Originally it was to get things in alignment, so we’d spin the hip joints to get our pelvis tilted properly, and our shoulders to get them attached and into their socket. But after a while we found that this idea (if done properly) really enhanced the chi flow quite dramatically. I could feel it when holding my instructor’s arm, where he started spinning his hips and generated more forward force, then lifted it up the spine, spun it through his shoulders and elbows, then through his wrists to his finger tips. When trying to move someone that way it’s maybe around 95% visualisation and 5% movement.
So I guess I wouldn’t forget about the visualisation. There may be a flow there but perhaps you just can’t feel it. As long as it works it probably doesn’t really matter. I think that was the idea behind I Chuan as well.
I think of the “generating chi-like feelings” as sensing the body. When I first began all I was able to do was “feel” the body. That is running “awareness” through the body. You can be aware of many different other layers of the body other than chi. So when you first begin, you are aware of those more gross layers until you finally ecounter Chi and other subtler levels of energy.
I have been practising Mian Quan for about 5 years. I never found straight visualisation useful, but in number of mediation/chi gung postures we would focus on ‘feeling’ our chi moving in particular ways. I still remember being really surprised and amazed to feel it leave my finger tips on one hand and enter those on the other hand, or leave my arm and go through my body to my other arm. It was a powerful way to start being able to feel it, and to move it. I can now use my focus/intent to move chi around my body and can feel it do so.
Cheers,
David
I’m not a sifu by any means, I’ve only been at Tai Chi seriously for a little under two years now, so take that in to consideration as you evaluate my advice and comments on your initial question.
What I’ve seen is that Chi (and I’m not sure about the many shades of chinese transliteration that the word can have) exists throughout your body, much like a circle. That is to say, it is at the top and bottom of your body at the same time.
Your mind is able to perceive the energy pathways through which chi moves, in any of the spots through which you choose to focus. At any given time when your body moves chi, a spot, a, has chi in it.
Chi moves through these energy paths. it moves at chi speed. your mental awareness will also move through these energy paths. it moves at brain speed.
What I’ve noticed is that Chi will follow my mind, but if my mind moves through the excercise faster than my chi moves through my body, it can generate the sensation your talking about, of a lesser sensation and a delay between one and the other. This is the case, because chi is still present in your whole body, moving through a spot, a, at any given time when energy moves through your body, but your brain is moving through the excercises faster than your chi is moving through your body.
I think that is where the challenge in Tai Chi comes, from getting your body to move with your chi, and your mind to move with it as well. the heightened sensation you get after a set of excercises is probably because you’ve chosen not to focus on feeling your chi, but rather on doing the movements, and let your body work it out naturally
it sounds like you’re on the right path, though, maybe just a little too focused on feeling the feelings your having.
It is said that the biggest secret to chi gong is to not think about chi at all. more and more, i find that if i focus on a singular aspect of what my chi does, i miss the subtle aspects about the rest of the body as well, I’d offer you that advice here.
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