People who practice Oriental medicine do certainly greatly benefit from regular meditation, Qigong (Chi Kung), or Tai Chi. Each one of these activities can shore up and raise the flow of chi or life energy and give the body the extra defense it needs to repel disease and pain. From what these healing arts masters say, choosing an acupuncturist in Maitland or Chinese medicine therapist with the ability and skill to transmit chi through his hands and needles, is one of the most important things to consider for someone seeking Chinese medicine treatment. This healing power increases both the diagnostic and therapeutic responsiveness of the patient. The weapons used in Tai Chi practice and other chi enhancing and promoting techniques, especially the Tai Chi Ruler on the Sword form may boost the healing chi power of the acupuncturist and better hone his technique of needle insertion. The sad thing about this is only a few people dared to venture this path.
According to legend, the NCKL or Nei Kung Chi Liao was rediscovered by Fu She, the alleged creator of the Path of Nature-Way of Tao and 8 Trigrams/Ba Gua, some 8,000 years ago. Some researchers believe that this antedated acupuncture by more than three thousand years and was perhaps the first ever healing art procedure of China. Taoism only began about 200 B.C. During the Han Dynasty, Taoism started to become an organized religion created by Chang Tao-ling and its real secrets were hidden from the public. They were prevented from being taught outside of Taoist monasteries and family style traditions. For centuries, this tradition was handed down from generation to generation until around 800 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty, it was taught to Lu Tung Bin, one of the eight immortals. Lu Tung Bin was a great Chinese healer as well as a Chi Kung-Nei Chia master and was mainly responsible for the creation of Tai Chi Chuan. A very popular Tai Chi master, Lu Tung Bin’s teachings were imbibed by the Yellow Dragon Monastery which was founded over seven centuries before his birth. He played a significant role in the development of the Taoist Elixir Style that included the NKCL and other various healing arts.
For thousands of years, Oriental Medicine has undergone a series of refinement. Today, it has provided people with a number of excellent health advantages. The practitioner and especially the patient can gain several amazing benefits if they follow the Eight Branches Style of Chinese Medicine.
1. Meditating the Taoist way has been shown to boost chi, which is metaphorically called, “the light”
2. The battery that generates chi is Chi Kung
3. The source that moves chi is the Tai Chi Chuan/Nei Chia
4. The emollient is the dizzy spinning activities of Chan Su Jin-silk
5. The guiding light that takes in and utilizes chi for illumination is the shen (mind/spirit/heart).
While acupuncture animates the physical energies, Tui Na influences the spirit and body, herbal medicine bolsters intellect, and touch is the sensation that excites the heart shen. The elements of the Eight System of the Healing Practices of Taoism, more often than not, tend to overlap.
In order to instantly experience spontaneity, it’s important to understand the self-cultivating disciplines of softness, openness, and looseness. The Chi, Shen, and Jing can play an essential role in the alchemical metamorphosis self cultivation and development of a person. You can compare them to the wave, vapor-gas, and liquid states of matter and hence are crucial in the reinvigorating, balancing, and restoring of wellbeing and health of both the body and mind. Namely, based on the quality and quantity of one’s essential chi or bio-magneto-electrical energy, which influences the states of consciousness and nervous system of a person, the body and mind can either be in a state of imbalance or balance.
When practicing the art of Shen Kung, one can see steady alterations in states of energy and matter from the fundamental to the higher levels more so when they are in the Alpha mental state. Taoists use the word “Tzu Ran” to describe an alluring image mirroring self spontaneity’s meditative state. Rather than cracking your outer shell or being, soften it in order to prevent pre-conditioning. “Wu Wei” is another term Taoists have used to describe spontaneity in harmony with nature, a pliable mind and body, and uncomplicated motion that moves with the flow.
The following is a short list Taoist philosophies that mirror this idea:
• “Work out things by yourself, and don’t depend on any kind of expert.”
• “The truth gets more and more distant of you look for it outside of yourself.”
• “The Tao is just nearby, but everyone looks far away.”
You can attain an Alpha state of mind when performing advanced chi cultivation techniques every day. This can be your initial step towards greater balance in your body/ mind that can result in greater wisdom and knowledge. A highly experienced Taoist master thinks that people start to eventually live more and more in Wu Wei and Tzu Ran until these practices become an important part of their life. By practicing Shen Kung, all of these concepts, which are one of the aspects of the natural life medicine of the ancients, can be experienced first-hand.
Chi Kung essentially has five important schools of thought: martial arts, medical, Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist. In America, impromptu chi kung practices that have no set forms have seen a steady rise in adherents in recent years. Shen Kung, Chi Kung, Nei Kung and Jing Kung are collectively known as the four degrees of chi cultivation. The three styles of chi kung practice, the sitting, lying down, and standing positions are performed in both moving and stationary forms. The NKCL aspect of “healing oneself” is performed via Shen Kung which is one of the higher degrees of chi kung. People need to learn the 31 foundation exercises of the Taoist Elixir Style first if they aren’t sure what Tai Chi or chi kung is or if they’re just beginning the practice.
Shen Kung’s more advanced exercises consist of six seated methods and six standing methods, including the Earth Meditation or “quiet sitting” to balance and harmonize the body-mind using the eight psychic or extra energy channels (meridians). These deeper chi movements and meridians are the storehouses that hold the ancestral energy, jing chi that’s responsible for the nourishment of the twelve organ energy channels. The regulating energy of jing chi plays a significant role in the programming of the body-mind at the DNA, RNA, and cellular level.
As seen by Fu She 8000 years ago, there are a number more pervasive associations between the Ba Gua or Eight Trigrams of the Mysterious Turtle and the eight additional energy channels. Fu She was also responsible in enriching all the Eight Branches, notably Tui Na, Feng Shui, acupuncture, and herbal medicine, and with the same universal principles that unite the trigrams meridians and the chi kung-nei chia.
As gleaned from the laws of yin-yang of natural balance and harmony, the life-nourishing and Taoist aspects of Shen Kung can be performed to heal oneself. To heal others, the practitioner uses Medical Chi Kung–NKCL. This healing minus the needles technique is a wonderful system and is considered one of China’s most ancient healing art. It is an easy to perform discipline but very deep which is compatible to Taoist philosophy. You’ll be able to apply it to others if you have the urge and a strong will to learn and comprehend it.