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About Tai Chi and Qi Gong ( top )
Tai Chi and Qi Gong are ancient, holistic Chinese systems of self-healing exercises and meditations. Qi Gong means, “working with one’s life energy”, and Tai Chi means “balanced energy”. While these exercises are beneficial for the health and longevity of all individuals, they are especially important to practitioners of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Qi is the vital energy underlying Traditional Chinese Medicine’s view of health and disease.
Simply stated, practitioners who have balance and mastery of their own Qi will be better healers. As a student of TCM, practicing Tai Chi and Qi Gong provides the opportunity to directly experience the balance and harmony that underlie Taoism and the medicine that has developed from it. The study of Qi is not just an academic exercise but it is cultivation through daily practice. To become a truly effective practitioner, one must first learn to heal oneself, to refine one’s own Qi, and eventually "become the medicine".
According to an article published by www.online-ambulance.com (copyright 2004-2005):
Benefits of Qi Gong ( top )
"It is estimated that in China 200 million people practice qigong everyday. It is also one of the most broadly applicable systems of self-care in the world, which can be used by the healthy as well as the severely ill. Qigong combines movement, meditation, and breath regulation to enhance the flow of vital energy in the body, improve blood circulation, and enhance immune function.
Qigong (also referred to as chi-kung) is an ancient Chinese exercise that stimulates and balances the flow of qi ( vital life energy), along the acupuncture meridians (energy pathways). Like acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the qigong tradition emphasizes the importance of teaching the patient how to remain well. In China, the various methods of qigong form the nucleus of a national self-care system of health maintenance and personal development. Qigong cultivates inner strength, calms the mind, and restores the body to its natural state of health by maintaining the optimum functioning of the body’s self-regulating systems.
Recent medical studies in both China and the United States show that qigong can reduce stress, increase circulation, and provide resistance to disease. Today, most hospitals in China include qigong as part of their health care programs, with certain hospitals devoted solely to its study and practice. Thousands of qigong institutes also provide qigong instruction, while major centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzho train qigong teachers and carry out government-supported research.
Qigong can help resolve digestive problems, asthma, arthritis, insomnia, pain, depression, and anxiety, as well as cancer, coronary heart disease, and cases of HIV/AIDS. According to Wong Chongxing, M.D., Director of Research at the Rei Jin Hospital in Shanghai, China, several thousand hypertensive patients, had been instructed in basic qigong exercises, experienced dramatic improvement. His studies suggest that daily qigong practice lowers blood pressure, pulse rates, metabolic rates, and oxygen demand. David Eisenberg, M.D., a clinical research fellow at Harvard Medical School, says, these studies also indicate that qigong triggers the body’s relaxation response by reducing the level of dopamine, an enzyme that controls neurological activity.”
While there are thousands of styles of Qi Gong and Tai Chi to shoose from, rhe following article published by www.chihealth.org describes a collection of handed down through the tradition of the Ni family, founders of Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine:
The NI Family Tradition ( top )
These forms of Tai Chi and Qi Gong are taught at the Chi Studio as public extension classes of Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Santa Monica, Ca. The Ni Family tradition is heir to the wisdom and experience transmitted through an unbroken succession of 74 generations of Taoist masters dating back to the Han Dynasty, 216 BC. As a young boy, Master Ni Hua-Ching, was educated in spiritual learning by his family, and was then chosen to study with Taoist masters in the high mountains of mainland China, fully achieving all aspects of ancient spiritual science and metaphysics. Hua-Ching Ni considers his teaching to be the product of thousands of years of spiritual cultivation, and freely offers it to people to support their own path of growth.
After more than 31 years of intensive training, he was fully acknowledged and empowered as a true master of the traditional Tao, including all aspects of Taoist science and metaphysics.
In Taiwan for 28 years, Master Ni taught and practiced Taoist arts such as Tai Chi Chuan, Kung Fu, Taoist meditation and internal alchemy, as well as acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. He is the author of more than 50 books in Chinese and 40 books in English on various Taoist subjects.
Since his arrival in the United States in 1976, Master Ni has written books which are related to his life, his teaching, and the practice of traditional Chinese medicine and herbology. He has also given world-wide lectures on religion, natural philosophy and special practices for spiritual growth. His works are available through SevenStar Communications to all sincere people who are working toward their own spiritual development.
Master Ni says of himself, “I have dedicated my life to supporting people who have come through a hard life and are growing through diligent learning. This is my personal offering to all my friends.” He is the founder of Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the College of Tao and the Integral Way, and the Universal Society of the Integral Way. His work is supported by his students and friends, and his two sons, the eminent Doctors, Daoshing and Maoshing Ni.
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