This book is designed to accompany and complement Ken Cohen's home study audio-visual program: The Essential Qigong Training Course: 100 Days to Increase Energy, Physical Health, and Spiritual Well-Being. Please demonstrate your appreciation for the hard work of the author, artists, and publisher by respecting the copyright and not scanning, duplicating, or in other ways copying these materials. This program is offered for education and personal development only and is not intended to diagnose, prevent, or treat disease, nor to substitute for therapy by a licensed health-care professional. Please seek the advice of your physician before beginning any personal health care program. Educate your doctor about the benefits of qigong, and make him or her a partner in your progress. Health-care providers are encouraged to incorporate these methods in a complementary care program or, where appropriate, as tools for patient education. Qigong is a method of self-care and is most effective when part of a healthy lifestyle. You will not benefit from qigong if you are indulging in an unhealthy diet, drinking too much alcohol, or using recreational drugs. Though it should be obvious, please note that it is dangerous to practice the meditations on this program while driving. You may certainly listen to the CDs in your car in order to familiarize yourself with instructions, but it would be foolish to try to practice at that time. Meditation, and qigong in general, requires an environment free of distraction. Chapter 1 ... 1 Introducing Qigong: A Tree with Many Branches Chapter 2 ... 21 Organs, Elements, and Three Treasures: Fundamentals of Qigong Philosophy Chapter 3 ... 27 Getting Started: 100 Days to Success Chapter 4 ... 29 Your 100-Day Training Course Chapter 5 ... 43 External Qi Healing Chapter 6 ... 49 Answers to Commonly Asked Questions Chapter 7 ... 53 Personal Reflections on a Qigong Life Glossary ... 55 Resources for Further Training ... 57 About the Author ... 59 I offer a bow of profound gratitude to the masters who have shared their qigong arts, including: William C. C. Chen my main teacher in Taiji Quan , a great man and great martial artist, who gave me the tools for cultivating health, strength, and self- understanding; B.P. Chan my first qigong teacher, for demonstrating in his life and work the power, value, and spiritual depths of qigong and the martial arts; Share K. Lew for transmitting profound Taoist methods of qi assessment and treatment; Liang Shou-yu for making One Finger Zen and other Chinese healing and martial arts available in the West Gao Fu (and her teacher, Feng Zhiqiang) for sharing the wisdom and power of Chen Style Taiji Quan and the Hunyuan (Primordial) Qigong System; Taoist Abbot Huang Gengshi, Ph.D. for his friendship and guidance and for teaching me by words, training, and example how to be an antenna for the universal qi of Heaven and Earth." Gratitude and Blessings to the Native American and African Elders who helped me to trace the roots of the various energy healing methods back to our common ground. I thank the artists, editors, film and audio crews, and staff of Sounds True, People Productions, and Intrepid Films for their technical expertise and commitment to integrity in business. I thank my students and helpers for demonstrating various techniques on the Qi Healing DVDs. And most of a11, to my family, for their love and support. Qigong, pronounced "chee gung," is a Chinese term consisting of two components. Qi means life energy and breath, the essence of life. Gong has several meanings, including work, skill, or the benefits and merit gained from any activity. Qigong is thus "qi work." It is an ancient Chinese system of exercise and meditation that makes the mind and spirit tranquil, improves performance in sports such as the martial arts, and cultivates health, well-being, and long life. Thus, there are three major kinds of qigong: spiritual, sports, and healing. Spiritual Qigong: Qne with the Universe Qigong is a spiritual discipline, inspired by ancient Chinese shamans, Taoists, and Buddhists, all of whom sought harmony and peace in the solitude of nature. Through qigong, spiritual seekers learn to unify the qi within their bodies with "primordial breath of Heaven and Earth," the spirit and energy of the universe. Because of their connection with these forces, qigong students are able to replenish themselves when vitality is low. Qigong also increases artistic sensitivity and expressiveness. There is also a very practical reason why The qigong practitioner feels as though Nature Chinese monks have always promoted and uses his or her eyes to see herself. The pine tree practiced qigong. Qigong exercises prevent the expresses its life, its qi, through the painter's physical stagnation and mental imbalance that brush or the poet's words. A great painting, like may result from excessive meditation. According to a great poem, pulses with life energy. It has qi Taoism, too much spiritual practice (xing) results yun "qi rhythm." in stagnation, atrophy, weakness, and delusional states. For example, I once met a Chinese monk In addition, athletes who practice qigong are who had spent nearly two decades meditating less likely to suffer broken bones, bruises, or other in a cave. He was an expert at harmonizing sports-related injuries. And if an injury occurs, internal qi but had lost the ability to have a the qigong practitioner recovers more quickly. Of harmonious conversation with a friend. He was course, there are limits to toughness and resilience. not enlightened but, rather, obsessed with himself. Because of better bone density, if a qigong student Buddhists, who disparage fundamentalism, would falls on the ice or is tackled in Football, he is less say that he "stunk of Zen." likely than an untrained person to be injured. On the other hand, too much exercise (ming) However, this does not mean that he can repel and not enough meditation dulls the mind and bullets or should take illogical risks. During the spirit. For optimal health, we need body and Boxer Rebellion, no amount of qigong made the spirit, exercise and meditation, awareness of Chinese martial artists invulnerable! A qigong the inner world and the outer. In other words, person accepts his or her mortality. health requires balance and moderation. The Healing Qigong: goal of qigong may be summarized as xing ming shuang silt, "spirit and body equally refined and The Importance of Practice cultivated." Cultivate your whole being, as you There are two kinds of healing qigong: Personal would cultivate a garden —with attention, care, Healing Qigong, the best known aspect, and even love. prevents illness, improves health, and is a powerful and enjoyable way for healthy people The Way of Sports: to enhance their vitality and well-being. With Golfgong Anyone? more than 100 million practitioners, personal Qigong is a powerful way to improve every healing qigong is the most widely practiced form aspect of sports performance. The various of complementary and alternative medicine in the exercises and meditations increase strength, world. It is also the most scientifically tested. stamina, speed, flexibility, coordination, The other kind of healing qigong, called sensitivity, and precision. A martial artist who External Qi Healing (Wai Qi Liao Fa), is a kind practices qigong is able to anticipate and avoid of Chinese Therapeutic Touch in which the healer his opponent's strikes and has more power in his attempts to assess the qi of a patient, client, or punch. A qigong tennis player is lighter on her partner and to project healing qi through his or feet and spots holes in her partner's defense. A her hands to restore balance. The healer holds her swimmer uses qigong to improve coordination hands near the patient's body and makes various and loosen the muscles for longer and quicker therapeutic gestures, such as circling the hands in strokes. I have trained golf pros who increased the air or "tapping," as though sprinkling qi onto their drive by fifty yards after only a few months the patient through the finger tips. Principles and of qigong. Qigong teaches the supple waist techniques from External Qi Healing work well and whole-body-coordinated-power (zheng ti with other healing therapies, such as massage jin) necessary for sports excellence. A more therapy or acupuncture. A masseur who knows powerful qigong routine can give an athlete the how to project qi through his hands is much more competitive edge. effective than one who does not have this skill. Personal practice and experience are the basis ability to prevent or cure these two epidemics has of EQH. An energy healer cannot heal a patient been deadlocked for more than sixty years. unless he or she can feel the qi. EQH is more than Mortality rates from heart disease have a technology; it is as much art as science. fallen one to two percent per year—perhaps In this book, when I speak of "qigong," you from earlier detection and subsequent lifestyle may assume that I am referring to Personal adjustments—but arterial disease is more Healing Qigong. However, because Personal widespread than ever. According to United Healing Qigong and External Qi Healing are States government statistics, by age twenty, there based on the same philosophy and principles of are signs of cardiovascular disease in half of the posture, breathing, and mindfulness, most of the American population. information will be relevant to both disciplines. The age-adjusted mortality rate for cancer has remained the same since the 1940s; one third of all Americans will contract cancer during their lifetime. Yet, we do not have to wait for God to roll the dice. In fact, a hopeless and helpless attitude can fuel tumor growth and cause the arteries to harden more quickly. Through qigong practice, we can take control of our health. Although life is always a gamble, and no therapy is certain, qigong can shift the odds in favor of a long and healthy life. Qigong is based on the premise that the human body is an energy system. As long as it has energy or qi, it is alive; when energy is gone, it is dead. This makes good scientific sense. A living cell has an electric charge; differences in electric potential allow nutrients to flow in and out of the cell and messages to pass through the nervous system. Like a computer, the electrical signaling system can Ken Cohen practicing qi healing become corrupted through "incompatible programs"—pollution, poor diet, stress. Or the Repair, Restore, Rejuvenate electric signals and information they carry may Experimental evidence demonstrates that qigong become fragmented and ineffective as a simple may be an effective adjunct in the treatment consequence of aging. The body's "wiring" of chronic pain, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, becomes frayed and circuits are broken after headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic long-term use. Qigong is like a computer repair fatigue, and, very importantly, cancer and heart utility that optimizes the body's energy, shifting disease—the two major killers of our time. In data to make it more accessible. It also mends spite of the miracles of medical science, our the "wiring" (the nervous system) and restores the body's original "system." This system is the it has reached such a serious stage that it shows body's healing program, the body's innate ability up in a medical examination. In a sense, cancer to repair itself. is cured before, by medical definitions, one even Our ancestors probably had a better ability to has it. The qigong practitioner experiences a heal themselves than modern people. Yes, they profound shift of identity; she experiences herself had stresses, but a saber-toothed tiger attacks as an energy being, in harmony with the energy only for a moment. Ancient peoples were not of nature and life. She senses any break in the subject to the prolonged stress of air, water, land, flow of energy within or between self and nature. noise, and light pollution, or overcrowding and She has the tools to remedy a "disturbance in the poverty. Anthropologists have documented that Force." (Thanks to Star Wars for this term. When Paleolithic peoples were taller, stronger, and the movie was released I was so excited—a had more competent immune systems than their Hollywood production about qi!) civilized descendants. The system that qigong restores is not the one from childhood, but the one from humanity's childhood, an ancient genetic code for health that remains largely dormant in the modern world. Put in Chinese terms, qigong exercises and meditations improve health because of three effects on the qi, the life energy. Qigong: •Cleanses the qi of impurities, pathogens, and toxins. •Gathers the qi, creating a reservoir of healing vitality in the body. •Circulates the qi, opening places of stagnation and blockage, where the energy channels are dammed. As qi moves, it becomes clearer and healthier, like a rapidly flowing mountain stream. Healthy qi is distributed to areas of disease or distress. These qualities are not just theoretical. The qigong practitioner learns to actually sense energy in the body. He or she is able to detect when qi is turbid, depleted, excessive, or stagnant, and knows what to do to balance or correct the condition. One of the greatest benefits of qigong is that illness is sometimes detected while it is still sub-clinical, that is, before How Many Kinds of opposites: up and down, right and left, inside and Qigong Are There? outside, open and close, warm and cool, tension and relaxation, active and passive, masculine Every now and then I encounter a student and feminine. T'ai Chi is a unique and beautiful who confidently informs me, "I have already style of qigong that blends spirituality, sports learned qigong." Imagine that! More than seven conditioning, and healing. thousand styles of qigong, most requiring at least Qigong is like a great river that stretches from a year or two to master, and here is an immortal the mythic past to the present, fed by three streams: who has learned them all! But the mistake is spirituality, sports, and healing. It continues to easily forgiven. As in any field of research, the evolve. Variations on classical systems or entirely more you study, the more you realize how little new styles are always emerging based on the you know. It is easy to be an "expert" when you creativity and insight of practitioners. are a beginner. Qigong students generally learn one or two Qigong in Legend and History styles. A professional teacher may know dozens of styles, a pharmacopoeia of techniques that may be Qigong is as old as Chinese civilization. The tailored to the needs, interests, and talents of the Spring and Autumn Annals, written in 240 B.C. student. The styles are sometimes named for what describes a legend that is linked to the history they do, for example: Bone Marrow Cleansing of' qigong. All of China was once covered by Qigong, Healing Sounds Qigong, Muscle flood waters. Stagnant waters produced disease Transforming Qigong, Harmonizing with the and plague, and the people called upon their Seasons Qigong, Intelligence Qigong, Invigorating gods for help. The God-Emperor Yu used his Qigong, Coiling Qigong, Relaxation Qigong. mystical power to cause the rain to subside. He Some qigong styles are named after their real or danced on the land with a bear-like gait and legendary founders, for example Taoist Monk used a magic pole to etch deep into the earth's Chen Xiyi's Sleeping Qigong, Peng Zu's Longevity surface a pattern that looked like the Big Dipper Qigong, Eighteen Buddhist Monks Qigong. constellation. The waters flowed into the newly Qigong systems may reflect their places of formed river beds; the constellation of sacred origin, such as Mount 0 Mei Qigong, Mount rivers delineated the ancient provinces of China. Wudang Qigong, Shaolin One Finger Zen, or As the flood ended, people reasoned that just Tibetan Qigong. It is also common for a qigong as stagnant water breeds disease, so stagnant system to be named after an animal, martial art, energy in the body creates the conditions that or aspect of culture: Soaring Crane Qigong, feed illness. Exercise can stimulate and move Snake Qigong, Xingyi Martial Art Qigong, Eight the energy of life. It can clear the body's energy Brocade Qigong. channels, or meridians, of' obstructions to health. The famous slow-motion exercise, T'ai Emperor Yu moved like a bear because he knew Chi (more correctly spelled Taiji Quan ) is that animals and natural forces can inspire people an example of a qigong system that is based to move with grace and power. on a philosophical principle. T'ai Chi means Qigong-like postures are found on ancient the balance and harmony of complementary rock art throughout China. We see pictographs and petroglyphs of people imitating the frog, fish, least suitable for everyone. Next to each figure bird, and sheep in gesture, posture, and dance. is the name of the disease that the exercise was As early as three thousand B.C., Chinese tribal intended to treat. people donned animal masks, and under the The second century A.D. "father of Chinese leadership of a bear-masked shaman, imitated medicine," Hua Tuo also drew on the healing the animals in a ritual winter dance to drive example of nature to create his famous qigong away evil forces. Warriors and soldiers imitated system, the Five Animal Frolics, based on the the bear to cultivate strength and courage, the movements of the Crane, Bear, Monkey, Deer, and snake for flexibility and stealth, the eagle for Tiger. The Crane is the most relaxing of the Frolics. speed and precision, and the tiger for power. Not The Bear is for strength, especially in the bones, surprisingly, the most ancient word for doctor legs, and waist. The Monkey teaches suppleness in Chinese is a picture of a feathered, dancing and flexibility. The Deer develops grace and shaman. These various animal gestures became vitality. The Tiger cultivates power and focus. the foundation of healing qigong exercises. Hua Tuo said that just as a door hinge will not Archaeologists discovered one of the earliest rust if' it is used, so the body will achieve health references to qigong (called dao-yin, "leading by gently moving and exercising all of the limbs. and guiding the energy," in ancient times) in Or as one of my colleagues once remarked, an inscription on twelve pieces of jade from paraphrasing Hua Tuo, "The reason the teeth approximately 500 B.C. It describes how fall out rather than the tongue, is that the breathing causes the qi to gather and descend to tongue is always moving!" The modern Chinese an energy reservoir in the lower abdomen. Once actress, Guo Lin, attributed her remission from the qi becomes tranquil and stable, it "sprouts" uterine cancer to her practice of the Five Animal and spreads all the way to the crown of the head. Frolics. (Note: I was one of the First Five Animal From this same period, there are records of a Frolics instructors in North America and have qigong-like "Crane Dance," sometimes performed been teaching it since 1978. A video of the Five at court to magically confer longevity or as a Animal Frolics is available from the qigong symbol of the ability to transcend death. Research and Practice Center, listed in the In Chinese literature, the word "dao-yin" first Resources at the end of this book.) appears in a famous book of philosophy, the Ke- Much of the early history of qigong will yi (Constrained in Will) Chapter of Zhuang Zi never be known because it was never written (369-286 B.C.). down. Taoist and Buddhist monks and martial The first illustrated book of dao-yin, the Dao- arts masters passed the oral secrets to their most Yin Illustrations dated I68 B.C., shows people in trusted students, those who had earned the animal-like postures that are remarkably similar knowledge after proving their moral character. to qigong exercises practiced today. Interestingly, the illustrations present figures from all walks of life—peasant and nobleman, disabled and healthy, male and female, young and old — suggesting that qigong was not the domain of an educated elite but was practiced by or at