Balancing Chi: A Great Secret of Life

First published in T’ai Chi, Journal of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, June 1988

T’ai Chi Ch’uan and T’ai Chi Chih, performed properly and on a cumulative basis, tends to circulate and balance the Yin and Yang aspects of the ch’i (intrinsic energy or vital force, as some call it). This is one of the great secrets of life, not only bringing healing and energizing effects, but speeding the level of evolution to a high degree. In this respect the two disciplines have great spiritual value and all true lasting healing is spiritual in nature.

I found, in the mountains of India, that these matters are well-known to advanced Yogis. Ch’i is known as prana in India, and kundalini and shakti are other names for this universal energy.

The great sage, Sri Auribindo, said that if the Universe were abolished, this prana could build a new Universe in its place, which is exactly what Indian philosophy says will happen.

All things seen and unseen are really a conflux of moving energies, a reflection of the Tao. When the Yin and Yang aspects are out of balance, there is ill health and worldly events are affected in a negative manner.

We are dealing with a totality here, each event affecting all other events–this is the profound teaching of Hua Yen Buddhism, the Buddhism of Totality.

“When the horse in Szechwan catches cold, the cow in Hunan sneezes,” says the Zen teacher. Inner and outer disappear. “Not two,” says the Buddhist.

Flowing with the Tao

Chinese cosmology says the first manifestation of life was brought about by the Yin ch’i separating from the Yang ch’i, long before there was a Heaven (Yang), Earth (Yin), or Man (wedding of the two).

When we begin to circulate and balance the ch’i–and there are other disciplines, such as the mental Nei Kung (“Nai Kan” in Japanese) that work toward the same goal–we begin to flow with the Tao.

We note an increase in intuition and creativity. Chronic ailments improve and there is an increase in composure, the feeling of well being.

Professor Wen-Shan Huang, author of “Fundamentals of Tai Chi Ch’uan,” spoke of ch’i a priori, (ch’i with which we came into this world) and ch’i a posteriori (ch’i that is accumulated and stored in this lifetime).

If we cease our self-clinging for a moment and look at things on a broader basis, we realize the world (and ourselves) are the products of ch’i. We know that electricity is ch’i in action, and this intrinsic energy lies dormant in stones and mountainsides.

Everything is throbbing with life, latent and active, so we become one with the totality as we share in the Universal ch’i (which really is not individual, though the effects make it seems so). Is this not healing–making whole?

‘All healing, in the end, is self-healing.’

Four accredited T’ai Chi Chih teachers are former cancer patients. Examples of T’ai Chi Ch’uan masters teaching well into their nineties are well-known. True healers are using this force, often without really knowing what they are doing.

The Japanese Healing Church, Seikai Kyu Sei Kyo, makes active use of this ch’i with little knowledge of it, projecting it for healing effects–(first felt as intense heat). Very real benefits result.

Good acupuncturists do not treat symptoms. They stimulate the flow of the intrinsic energy and balance it; the results are felt all over. Taking pills to relieve pain or to apparently cure some disorder without trying to affect the cause is somewhat like rolling up a window of the car so the knock in the engine won’t be heard.

All healing, in the end, is self-healing. The sincere practice of T’ai Chi Chih, without squabble about different schools and other ego trips, enables us to accumulate, circulate, and store the most valuable of all products (and in some ways, the real one).

Guided by the mind, the ch’i comes to life–this is equivalent to safe kundalini practice. Then we perceive the results and benefits. Only the one drinking the water knows if it’s hot or cold. From a healing standpoint, we are not healed, we are made whole.