How Does Qigong Practice Connect Us With the Earth?
By Jill Gonet and Guan-Cheng Sun
8/15/2002
Many spiritual paths shun the sensory world and the senses themselves. But indeed it
is possible and good to consider our senses as a gift that connects us to the
primal wisdom of our bodies and of the earth. In our Qigong practice we are
regularly connecting the lines between the mind and the body, and working to
synchronize the two, thereby bringing our body's consciousness and our intuition
into balance with the intellect. When we have begun to synchronize our mind and
body, we immediately notice the difference in the quality of our experience,
that we are, to an increasing degree, allowing ourselves to be here on the
earth, with dignity and genuineness. As our practice helps to bring the body and
mind back together and synchronize them once again, our lives become less of a
concept, and more of an experience. We learn to live here, on the earth, with
sacredness, everyday sacredness, in the present. And more and more our lives
become the expression of this deepening experience.
Our modern,
civilized, culture has conditioned us into a constant state of mental
distraction, and we come to think of this as normal. But this state of mental
distraction is so far removed from the natural simplicity of people and our
earth, that many people hardly ever experience the true nature and quality of
the self or the earth.
Our culture also conditions us to notice messes
and problems, whereas things that are done well often go unnoticed. We, as
Qigong practitioners, may have had our health and well-being increased so
naturally that it might not even have registered to us how our current state
compares to where we were before we took up practice. Each practice session that
we accomplish on a regular basis is a cumulatively significant action.
When we synchronize our body and our mind we discover the innate wonder,
the simple miracle, of this earth. Our perceptions help us connect our own
personal wisdom with the greater wisdom of our context, a wisdom so clean and
skillful in its means that we may not have fully realized its presence all
around us. Many different styles of Chinese martial arts were developed by
observing, and feeling, the movements of animals such as eagle, tiger, snake
etc. These arts were inspired by the wisdom of the animals. And, in a similar
state of being attuned, the ancient Chinese developed herbalism, as well as
acupuncture by experiencing the internal energy flow along the acupuncture
meridians during their energetic practice. The connection to the greater
wisdom of our context heightens our existence. When we are genuine, and able to
be as we naturally are, the greater wisdom that is in fact the ground of our
being offers us tremendous energy and support. Meaningfulness, beauty, dignity,
abound. And "peak" experiences multiply, even in the most mundane of
circumstances, and among the everyday problems of life, when we synchronize our
body and our mind, as well as connect with our larger body, the earth.
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