TheIaidoWay

My advice would be what others have said, get some books or research it on the internet. You should look for Qigong exercises on the internet or buy a book that has a bunch of Qigong exercises with illustrations that explain them. Or try looking up Psi balls on the internet as well (it's not exactly martial art, but it does deal with ki {non martial artists people sometimes refer to it as psi}). Once you get a book or find some exercises on the internet, just start doing them and before long you should start to experience Ki/Chi first hand.

Ask yourself this, if Chi/Ki/Qi is eneregy that exclusively comes from the earth, then why does it involve breathing? I think to best use Chi/Ki energy, which I believe is the natural life force energy that's everywhere, you have to root yourself to the earth in your stances and movements because understanding and using gravity allows you to have the most power and efficiency in all around body and energy movement. But I don't think Ki is something that just comes up out of the earth. When you do Chi or qigong exercises it always involves breathing and bringing that energy from the air into your center and then using that energy in different ways, but how we gather in more energy originally involves breathing, and I associate breathing with breath and spirit. I think we all have our natural Chi/Ki that's part of our breath of life that God's given us, that's where all our energy comes from and God continually supplies us with all of the spirit energy we need while we're alive. Qigong to me, when we take in air, and build up extra chi, it's like feeding off the constant IAM spirit presence of God that's in the air. Genesis 2: verse 7: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and BREATHED into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE; and man became a living soul." The breath of life, the holy ghost in all living things, and the constant spirit of God in the air all around us to me is what makes up Chi/Ki energy. EVERYTHING comes from God. He is the Lord of Spirits. All spirits come from him, all energy/spirit comes from him, all life energy flows and is supplied/replenished by the Spirit of God. Whether it's a demonic spirit, an angel, or the soul and spirit of a human being it all comes and is sustained by God. John 20, verse 22: "And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Recieve ye the Holy Ghost:..." Now the Holy Ghost is in everyone, even those that haven't recieved Christ as their Lord and Savior, that is shown many times in the Bible, the one that comes to mind in the N.T. is when the one man in Acts lies about what he's given (he hasn't yet been baptized or recieved the Holy Ghost as Christians do) but once he's called for his lie, he dies and it says that the Holy Ghost left him. This shows that God, the Holy Ghost, is in all of us. The act of recieving the Holy Ghost upon baptizim or accepting Christ as your savior is a sanctification inside yourself where all your sins are forgiven and you are completely restored and replenished spiritually by God with his Holy Spirit and thus born again anew. And like a child you can now understand and see clearly and simply through the Holy Ghost. I bring up the Holy Ghost and distinguish santification from unstanctification because I don't want to make it sound like just doing Tai Chi breathing fills you with the baptizim of the Holy Ghost and makes you a new creature as is written in scripture and experienced today. But I do believe that God is everywhere and Chi is part of his spirit energy that surrounds us and sustanins us in everyday life through our breathing which is where I think Chi energy comes from. In short, to me, I think Chi energy is the Life Breath that God has given us and that constantly circulates through us as we breath. We are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that deals with the Spirit/breath of life in all of us.

I joined this forum 5 or 6 months ago and made a few posts about looking for a martial art and asking advice about what art might be good for me... I just started taking classes in Taijiquan, and I do believe it is Wudang Taijiquan. The Instructur usually just refers to it as Taijiquan, but before my first class I talked to him and he told me that it was Wudang and explained all about how it was a soft style martial art, and how it was neigong or internal gonfu. I've only been to two classes (technically you could say three). Last Wed. evening I took part in a hour or so long weapons class (followed along during opening postures and brocades), after that first hour or so of the weapons class they had a push hands class as well that lasted another hour and a half or so where I followed along. And then on this last Thursday I attended another push hands class (which I should be attending weekly from now on and the Weapons class periodically when I can). After only 2 classes, I'm no expert. But I can vowge for its' effectivness health and body movement wise, I can already walk better (I broke my leg and dislocated my ankle about 6 years ago, and since then my left leg hasn't walked with the same straight motion it used to, I'd walk with it sometimes swinging outwards more than it would normally), but since the classes I'm already walking more normaly on my left leg without muscle stress or tension in it. Along with that, I can say that the kind of Taijiquan I'm begining to be taught definately has fighting/combat orientedness about it. The different steps and motions (which are done slowly) are training for blocking and throwing and stuff. I was standing their following along with the Instructor, Lao Ma, as he explained the importance of the hand movements to one of his Senior Students and how they're used to capture an in coming punch and then throw the attacker away and off balance. So the Wudang Taijiquan I'm beginging to learn is definately combat oriented, it's just a different kind of training from Hard style. My Instructor has studied the art for over 40 years I think, he said he traveled to China 20 years ago and learned from someone (don't remember his name) the ancient Wudang forms there (He learned the stuff here in America first, and then traveled to China to Really learn and get cretiqued). What he teaches is Breathing Tehcniques/Qigong, Push Hands, and Weapons (he might teach more but I don't know yet because I just started). The basics of it is just about strengthing your Dan Tian (center) and using that internal power. There are mostly older people in the classes I've been to, so if your looking for something to do into your 60's D+C Taijiquan would seem to be it.