So what is Chi really?
Posted: July 21st, 2011 | Author: Master Derek Croley | Filed under: Ancient Chinese Secrets., Our Cool School. | Tags: Asheville, Chi, children, Humility, internal martial arts, internal power, Jedi training, kung fu, martial arts, qigong, self defense, Sharpen the saw, tae kwon do, tai chi, white oak martial arts, world tai chi day | No Comments »
There is all kinds of information available on the subject of chi. Much of it is correct from a certain point of view, but the problem is that chi is an oriental concept and doesn’t really translate very well to the western mind. The differences in culture are really just as important as the differences in language- oriental people just think differently than we do.
So here it is. Chi is change. A change of state like ice to water. A change of velocity- acceleration or deceleration. A change in temperature. The change of seasons. The difference between air and wind. Chi is simply when something changes.
For martial arts we are interested initially in change as it pertains to your body. The common termonology in internal martial arts is that a person has chi or does not have chi. This is a silly statement as everybody has chi. Your heart pumping is chi. Your nervous system firing is chi. Your body is always changing and moving, and therefore has chi until you die. For this reason, chi is often defined as “life force” or “vital energy.” This is true enough.
To have chi for martial arts means that you are using your core muscle agility to fuel your movements while the rest of your body is melted and empty, giving you a tremendous amount of efficiency and more power then you ever thought possible. The change we are most interested in within your body is the change within the core muscles. Not tension, not relaxation, but movement.
When you can do this you will find that you can relax every other part of your body, giving you what is called empty force. This means that not only will you have tremendous physical power, but you will achieve a much higher degree of physical health than the average person. They used to call this the art of immortality as practitioners of these arts would live into their 70′s and 80′s when the average person lived to their mid 20s.
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