Tai Chi - the BIG Chi!

The Big Chi

I relaxed my body and stilled my mind so that only chi, flowing at the command of my mind, remained…. In crushing defeat, I forgot anxiety, pride, ego. By emptying myself I gave the full field to chi. Gradually my technique improved. Then and only then, did my responses sharpen so that neutralizing and countering were the work of a moment. ”

Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing

from T’ai-Chi by Cheng Man-ch’ing and Robert W. Smith.

Which leads me to the BIG QUESTION of CHI. What is it? How does it function?

The word is used a great deal with some schools, and it is ignored in others. Since this is not an American concept, we have to rely on Chinese sources. I’m often told there is no accurate translation into English, so the translations are mostly vague or inadequate. I often ask those who are prone to using the word “chi” what they mean or experience with chi. I can’t say that I am satisfied with any of the answers. This is not to say that they don’t experience chi, but that the words haven’t been very helpful in learning about their physical experience nor clarifying my own.

Roughly (and safely) we use the word “energy” or “intrinsic energy” to capture it. But this is a circular statement because “energy” is also vague and we don’t have a good exact usage of this word in our daily life. It is right up there with “love” or “spiritual” or “God”. We mostly invest our own meaning and attach some experience to these words. These words mean what they mean to each of us personally. Another word to describe chi is “breath”. This, too, is inadequate because clearly chi is MORE than just breath.

Chi is not a personal experience that we self define, though each of us will experience (or not experience it) as a personal attribute. Chi is more objective, like breathing, or feeling a warm shower flow over your body, or your heartbeat. There is a there THERE! It is not some illusionary ghost that some magically see, but others sadly don’t.

For one thing, it is a whole body experience that begins with total relaxation. Cultivating stillness within movement, relaxing the mind and body, correct alignment and more are the prerequisites for chi. Then, and only then, the chi will flow unimpeded. It will flow you!

Perhaps “fill” is a better way to look at chi. As you move, it moves you and fills certain parts as needed. Flow is what happens when you allow movement of chi to happen. (I’m told that chi is flowing even if you are not moving.) This is analogous to breathing or surfing on a wave. You are being “breathed” when you simply relax and let breath happen. You ride that wave when you surf. With chi, you move and it will fill the body and move the body as directed by the mind.

Another thing to consider is that the path to chi is NOT an intellectual road map that gets you there. You don’t think yourself into experiencing chi. It is an experiential fact that is realized by giving up tension and the intellect. One needs to allow the parts of the body to work together in correct alignment with no internal gaps or breaks. You are now accessing the intelligence of the body. You can’t intellectualize yourself into chi. You can’t intellectualize yourself into breathing, or heartbeats, or blood flow, or seeing, feeling, hearing or the scent of a rose. Your body knows how to do this without “you”.

Maggie Newman, my long time teacher, tells us that Professor Cheng used to say that you could freely borrow chi from the universe at any time. Take all you like (it’s free!) The only catch here, he tells us, is that it is very hard to borrow. I like the relational implication of that statement. All of life has some energy. We live in an electromagnetic universe. We are part of that universe. On the level of atoms, our skin blends with the air around us. They are constantly exchanging energy with each other. Waves of energy are permeating the air and our bodies all the time. This just is.

If you are alive, you have chi. It may not be much, but it is there. Infants are FULL of chi. Poor physical and mental habits have not interfered with babies yet so they explore the world with their chi with gusto. We, on the other hand, can stand a bit of help in working with our chi. That is why tai chi (or chi gung exercises) is so invaluable. It is directly aiming at cultivating and using chi.

It’s clear that energy in the body exists and that the mind has a relationship, at times, towards directing it. There can be a spontaneous chi that will gather in some place in the body, as when some part heats up. In the tai chi form, we are shifting back and forth in order to circulate the chi. This literally moves the chi from one leg to the next. One description of chi compares the body to a vessel of water. Moving the vessel stimulates the movement of that water.

To me, the chi is the sensation you feel (and cultivate) from the sum total of the physical and mental experience of moving your body from here to there using tai chi principles. That is, the totality of the experience from the perspective of energy. This would include breath, mind, intent, and the unified aspect of the movement (all parts working together as a whole.) This assumes relaxation and proper alignment. When all of this is in place, a feeling happens that is distinct from other internal feelings. That feeling is chi, an internal energy that we all have, we can cultivate and we can direct. In one sense, this begins at the cellular level, but is experienced at a macro level, the whole body.

Your chi may have qualities associated with your state of your consciousness and physical stamina. Are you groggy? Relaxed? Alert? Jittery? Anxious? Tense? Spaced out? Fearful? Tired? Joyful? All of these various states will affect the quality of your chi. Our emotions contain their own expressive chi. Cultures will have an expression of mass chi. A calm and neutral state will help you work directly with your chi best of all. (However, we are not always calm and neutral and therefore need to make adjustments with various states of consciousness.)

Incidentally, by “neutral”, I don’t mean “dead”. Neutral is an open receptive state that is not clouded by other emotions. It’s a state of being available. There are no mental barriers between you and your body.

In general, we don’t tap into that energy because to experience it requires great focus and awareness. It’s always there but we don’t take the time or effort to cultivate this awareness. The reason we do tai chi is to increase our chi. The results? I have to say that in general, long term practitioners of tai chi (like yoga and other energetic type exercises – even running and swimming) look younger. OK, all exercise tends to do this to varying degrees, but the tai chi advantage is that what you learn can be applied to every moment of your moving life and it directly impacts your relationship to stress.

Even if you are resting on a bed, you can go inside and feel that energetic something in the body. Breath itself causes movement and movement causes chi to flow. You might even relate this chi to the chi of the air. Chi is the electric foundation to the other processes of the body. I am not saying that you will identify a line of a current flow in the body. I am saying the whole body, even in a resting state, has an electric component that is stimulating and supporting all of the other physical processes in the body. I believe this is what the masters are talking about when they talk of chi.