Celebrating Qigong
By Miranda Smith

Once relatively unknown in the west, qigong has become so popular in recent years that weekly classes are springing up in places as diverse as expensive spas to neighborhood parks and recreation centers—and 4 and 5-day intensive seminars are available in many cities. But even so, many people are uncertain about what qigong is, what it does for someone, and which of the many forms are the most appropriate for them.

What is Qigong?

Qigong is a holistic system that encompasses training for the body, mind, and spirit, although most of the qigong currently taught in North America focuses solely on the body. In one form or another, qigong is an ancient discipline. Turtle shells dating from pre-historic China have carvings on them of forms that are still practiced today. However, qigong has not stood still for all this time; over the centuries, qigong has been modified and refined to suit changing times and knowledge.

One way to describe qigong is to say that it is the practice of moving energy, “qi,” through the body in specific ways. Qigong practioners say, “Where qi flows, disease disappears.” And so does stress, high blood pressure, and a host of other physical and psychological symptoms of distress and imbalance. In China, hundreds of replicated research projects have conclusively demonstrated the above effects and more, while in the west, this work is just beginning. For many years, researchers here were blind to this avenue of study because they had no experience with the effects of qigong, but both research money and time are now being given to it. To see some of these studies, search the web for key words such as “qigong research,” “qigong blood pressure,” and so on.

You might think that something this effective would be very hard to do—visions of pretzel-shaped legs and Shiva-like arms may be dancing in your inner eye. But that’s not the least true. Qigong is far easier to practice than yoga, for example, and is even possible for people who are wheelchair-bound.

One Qigong, two Qigong…

You might also think that every type of qigong is similar to every other kind—that any differences between one class and other are simply a difference in the skill of the instructor. But this isn’t so. In China, there are three major schools of Qigong, Shaolin Qigong, Wudang Qigong, and Emei Qigong . Each of these schools is different; while both Shaolin and Wudang Qigong focus most intensely on martial arts, Emei Qigong concentrates on health and healing.

Emei Qigong is also the only school of qigong to have a lineage holder devoted to disseminating his knowledge to people in the west. Founded nearly 800 years ago by Bai Yun, an enlightened monk who combined 3.600 disciplines, schools and practices to create it, the secrets of Emei Qigong were passed only to monks of the Emei Linji school, with the highest and most treasured secrets passed to only the succeeding Lineage Holders.

But all this began to change a generation ago. Between WWI and WWII, the 11th Lineage Holder envisioned the coming chaos in China and the rest of the world and decreed that henceforth, the lineage would pass between a monk and a chosen layperson who would share the title of Lineage Holder as well as the information entrusted to them. Through a series of events too lengthy to discuss in a short article, the first lay Lineage Holder, Grandmaster Zhou, then passed and shared the 12th Lineage with Ju Zan, who was also the head of Chinese Buddhism, holding a title equal to that of the Tibetan Dalai Lama. Ju Zan then passed the Lineage to Fu Wei Zhong, a young man who was already an accomplished medical doctor at the age of 12 as well as a teacher of martial arts. When Ju Zan passed the lineage to Fu, he entrusted him with two missions. The first was to find and train his successor monk, and the second was to teach Emei Qigong to laypeople in both China and the west. His eventual goal was developing teachers both inside and outside of China who could be trusted to pass on the knowledge as they had learned it.

After years of isolation and meditation, Grandmaster Fu, the 13th Lineage Holder of Emei Qigong, emerged and began fulfilling this mission. He has developed and is continuing to refine qigong forms that are appropriate to western people; has written several books for English-speaking readers; and has prepared a series of classes to teach basic qigong as well as train teachers.

Grandmaster Fu has also found his successor monk, whom he is training in China for six months of the year. In spring and summer, when he is based in the U.S., he travels to make his knowledge available in this country. By simply attending a beginning class, students can learn to heal themselves and others with safe techniques that protect the healer while they treat the client; practice a gentle qigong form that enables them to generate and store qi; and use a heart-centered philosophy and techniques to clear past and present negative emotions and events.

Miranda Smith, a farmer, farmer teacher, and agricultural writer for more than 30 years, has been enjoying the benefits of Emei Qigong since 2003, when she began studying with Grandmaster Fu. Contact Miranda at miranda@tagoresmith.com For more info on the
Emei Qigong April workshops please call 954.472.7807 or see the display ad in this issue of Aquarius.