Chi: Discovering Your Life Energy

by Waysun Liao

Overview

Chi is the invisible energy of life that flows in and around us throughout the universe. Used skillfully, it can have a remarkable effect on health and vitality—to the degree that you’d be tempted to call it magical, if it weren’t so completely natural. Here is a perfect introduction to chi that explains in a direct and simple way what it is and why it is essential to a healthy and vital life. It provides an easy-to-understand explanation of chi, and then helps readers recognize, develop, and strengthen their own chi through specific breathing techniques and basic exercises, all demonstrated by the author.

There are many books on chi development through t’ai chi and qigong practice, but this one goes deeper to enable you to understand the fundamental principles as you cultivate it. This book is a reference for alternative health professionals such as acupuncturists and shiatsu therapists and their patients, as well as for anyone who practices t’ai chi, qigong, aikido, and other chi-based martial arts.

To learn more about the author, please visit his website at www.taichitaocenter.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780834823600
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	07/14/2009
Series:	Shambhala Publications
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	195,800
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Master Waysun Liao studied t’ai chi in a Taoist temple in his native Taiwan from the age of twelve. He is the founder and master of the Taichi Tao Center in Oak Park, Illinois, where he has taught for nearly forty years.

Read an Excerpt

From Chapter 1: What Is Chi?

We Are Made of the Life Energy Signal—Chi

Each one of us is endowed with a
piece of the one original energy, the Tao. This energy,
through a series of transformations, becomes our Chi.

Our body is made of dust
(material), which is amassed and propelled by the
invisible force and activities of Chi. When you see the physical
form of a friend, you are not seeing the
real her, but only the material from which she is made.

Have you had the experience of attending a funeral or wake? If you were able to gaze upon the corpse of the person you once knew, you could easily see that "they" were no longer there. The
force that animated their body held the real person you knew, not the lifeless material in the casket.

Similarly, you might claim to
have seen a tornado

either in real life or on
television. But actually, you did

not "see" the tornado. What you
saw was merely the

debris that the tornado churned
up and held together

in form. The actual force we call
a tornado was the invisible

part you could not see that held
the whirling

debris together and gave it
power.

Similarly, it is our Chi that
holds us together, animates us, and makes us who we really
are. It is our true self. It is the source of consciousness,
awareness, and life. Without it, nothing lives.

While our invisible life force
signal, Chi, is in orderly action, life thrives and
well-being abounds. Conversely, when this signal of the life
force, Chi, is in decay, becoming weak, or in the
process of disintegrating, the “life” of the material body
is in a chaotic state. When Chi deteriorates, suffering
predominates, even leading to death.

Since this life energy signal is
composed of the memory of the cosmic force, it can
behave only according to the law of its nature: it is always
in motion, transient, and dynamically playful. These are
the same characteristics of the one universal energy from
which your Chi came.

Because of its likeness and affinity to the original cosmic force, our life energy signal is
capable of harmonizing with that original cosmic force.
Our life energy can tune in to the signal of the
original natural force and follow its direction. It can
harmonize with the One-chi in order to continue, to
multiply, to adjust to changes, to fine-tune itself, to adapt,
and to “survive.”

Your Chi will always seek to
harmonize itself and will always seek balance as best
it can. It will cause you to take action that will bring
harmony and balance to your life and body. The degree to
which your Chi signal can maintain its integrity and
clear reception of the original One-chi signal is
the extent to which your Chi is able to succeed in
maintaining harmony and the force of life within your
body. The degree to which your Chi signal is confused,
weakened, and off-balance is due to factors that muffle
and block the signal from the One-chi.

The next time you feel hungry or
thirsty, realize that you feel the life energy signal
in motion. When you are content, or you are
depressed, realize that it is only your life energy, the Chi,
reacting in harmony or conflict with other forces.

Like Mother Nature, or the
weather, sunny “blue-sky” days and unpredictable stormy
events coexist in our life. Everything in the
entire cosmos is interrelated and interconnected. Chi is
constantly tuning, changing, and reacting just like the forces
that govern the weather. Change is a natural part
of life energy sustaining itself. The question is whether
the changes in your life serve to help balance and
sustain you, or whether the changes cause disharmony and
distress. The condition of your Chi will determine the
answer.

Because we are all made of Chi,
and because our Chi flows in the same way the entire
universe moves, we are an integral part of this
universe—the children of this cosmic entity. The next time
you watch this wonderful and amazing universe, the world
we all are born into, consider yourself inside
this immense cosmos—interconnected with everything—not
outside or separate from it.

This is not just a comforting
truth. It is a calling, a responsibility, a momentous task
and opportunity. In fact, it is a matter of life and
death for us to wake up to our true identity right away.
We must take immediate action to correct our mistaken
notions of who we are and what our relationship to
nature really is. It is our mistaken notions that cause
us to live in a way that weakens our Chi signal and
thus our access to harmony and life.

Losing this critical connection
to your true self, the Chi, causes your life energy
signal to evaporate and weaken at an accelerated rate. The loss
of Chi consequently causes the decline of your mental and
physical condition. It is therefore a priority for those
concerned with their well-being to take action to stop the
further decline of their Chi. You must hasten to learn to
feel, to understand, and to reconnect back to your internal
Chi, the life energy, to decelerate or even to stop Chi’s
evaporation.

After all, it is your life energy
signal that matters most when you care about your
life—not the air you breathe, the food you eat, the
drugs you take, or other health-care measures—it is only
your core life energy that counts. Without this core,
all other efforts toward well-being are worthless. This core is the true “you.”