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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy: |
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Qigong and Tai Chi:
A Balancing Act
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by Bill Douglas |
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Over the decades I've practiced Tai Chi & Qigong meditations, I've realized that one of the many powerful benefits they offer us in our lives is a sense of balance. This is reflected in the fact that studies at John's Hopkins found Tai Chi improved balance in practitioners TWICE as effectively as other balance conditioning exercises. But, this is only a reflection of what is happening within.
Tai Chi & Qigong facilitate a stimulation of both right brain and left brain, and beneath that the corresponding fields. Human beings have a dynamic, aggressive, analytical hemisphere of brain and energy field, and conversely they have a receptive, contemplative, intuitive side. The modern digital world of control and manipulation of the environment, etc. etc. through exploding technological advances has heavily relied on the dynamic aspect of our humanity.
The problem with this is that our receptive, passive, contemplative nature is underutilized and often ridiculed. We tend to rely on leaders who act fast, act hard, and don't second guess themselves. People who choose action first and consideration later. We can see the results of that behavior in our growing quagmire in Iraq.
Our receptive, intuitive nature, is a quiet subtle part of our being. It has trouble gaining ground in our sparkling television, blasting stereo, increasingly violent movie world we are drowning in. However, without that intuitive, receptive aspect of our being intact, our visions have no opening with which to come through. Our greatest visions come from the quiet places of the mind and heart, from a state of mind that Einstein called "wakeful rest."
The bible says "When there is no vision . . . people perish." As we charge ahead with technology that doesn't "listen" to the earth's needs our global temperature rises, and the arctic and Antarctic ice shelves continue to change and melt. As we answer violence with violence, and recently answered violence that had not even occurred but we "suspected" would occur, our world becomes more distrustful, more angry, and less likely to see any solutions accept violent ones.
Once, at a time when I had delved deeply into the limitless receptive nature of my awareness during months of intense Tai Chi, Qigong, meditations and quietude, unplugging myself from the world of TV, radio, newspapers, etc., to become clear, I had a series of visions. Both beautiful and disturbing. One of the more disturbing ones was I saw in my minds eye was a haunting scene of children growing up in an inhospitable planet, strife with hunger, toxins, a harsh and dying environment. Through the dust and smoke of forests long reduced to ash and stump I heard the children speak to me. Their words chilled me, as they spoke, "Why? Why have you done this? Why didn't you do what you needed to do to stop this from happening?" And I realized this was our planet earth, in the future. I will remember this vision forever.
Famous visionary, Nostredomus, once wrote that none of his visions has to occur, and humanity has the free will to create a new future at any time. I too believe this. If we can attune to our receptive, passive nature, we have the ability to shift the acts of our lives. We can begin to be drawn to occupations and activities that support this aspect of our economy and society, withdrawing ourselves, our energy, and our resources from those activities that unbalance our lives, and pouring our energy into healing actions for us, our community, and planet.
The Hopi Indians spoke extensively about a vision they held called "koyoniscatsi", meaning "life our of balance." They foresaw that humanity would come to a point of decision, a crisis of consciousness for the planet. The Chinese character for "crisis" is made up of two other characters, "danger" and "opportunity." Like an alcoholic, the first step to healing is to realize there's a problem, a danger to be dealt with. Then the "opportunity", the vision of opportunity can come.
We are burning fuels like a drunken sailor, and squandering obscene fortunes on endless weapons while humans die of AIDS, and starvation, and at the hands of those weapons in the millions. Our compassion for these people is not a distraction, but would likely be our salvation. Why? because it would add to the receptive, passive energy in the world, rebalancing our energy.
When one sits in quite meditation, deep and simple solutions can find space to evaporate up through our consciousness. Visions of masses employed in creating renewable energy solutions to the world's needs that does not add to global warming, and people employed in masses not for war but for helping to solve the desperation that is often the fuel of war, solutions that create a world that is livable rather than squeezing human spirits into intolerable work and living situations with smog clogged traffic constipated freeways.
There are simple solutions to all our problems, and as simple as it sounds our first step to healing all our problems is to find the quiet, the contemplative, and "receptive" aspect of our nature. Because there is help within, throughout, and behind us all the time, . . . if we can "receive" it's subtle messages. The quiet places of the soul will then help humanity learn to move through our active dynamic lives with a smooth grace that flows and heals, rather than in harsh and destructive jolts and starts. Life will become a flowing continuum into infinite possibility, rather than an aneurysm producing sprint off a cliff.
Bill Douglas
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Bill Douglas,
Tai Chi & Qigong Author |
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Bill Douglas is the author of the #1 most popular T'ai Chi book in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
He can be reached at smartaichi.com His work, called "visionary" by the world's top T'ai Chi experts, is entitled, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong."
Bill is also the presenter in Britain's #1 best selling T'ai Chi DVD, Anthology of T'ai Chi & Qigong: The Prescription for the Future, and author of the acclaimed inspiration book, The Amateur Parent - A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe. It is available at www.smartaichi.com, and at amazon.com.
Bill is also the Founder of World T'ai Chi & Qigong Day:
worldtaichiday.org
and World Healing Day:
worldhealingday.org
now celebrated annually in 80 countries and recognized by the United Nations World Health Organization for it's healing work.
He is a media source on a host of natural health, social, & environmental issues and has been interviewed and/or published by media worldwide, including The New York Times and The South China Morning Post.
smartaichi.com
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