Sunday, May 24, 2009

Movement & Stillness

Qigong has moving forms and still meditations. Internal martial arts have forms and applications, but also stance training or other meditative practices.
Movement circulates Qi. Movement with relaxation opens the channels. Stillness allows the Qi to settle. Stillness with intent helps the Qi to condense.
To build health I think both movememt and stillness are required. Unfortunately it is very easy in practices like taiji to overlook the 'quieter' parts of training. There are always sequences to remember, applications to understand, details to appreciate, etc. But unless the Qi is allowed to gather and concentrate, I suspect that all that movement will always fall short of the mark.

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