Christianity and the whole "ki" issue

[JerryLove]

i deal with this topic on a daily basis with teaching. My theory is ki is generated through mediation/prayer as Anthropologist of religion see it..

 

And how would you support this hypothesis?

For the christians the ki energy would represent the Holy Spirit entering your body and giving you the strength of the lord.

The Christians don't deny the existance of power; they simply argue that any power not from God is evil. How can you differentiate the holy spirit from satan in this context? You seem to be simply assuming whatever best helps your position be accepted.

Meditation is a form of prayer

Pray: an address (as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought

 

Meditate: to focus one's thoughts on : reflect on or ponder over

 

The words do not have the same meanings nor attempt the same goal. Next you will be calling spiritualism a type or prayer (and that's explicitly condemned in the Bible)

Jesus mediatated/prayed out in the wilderness for 40 days.

Jesus went into the desert in order to be tempted. He fasted for 40 days and then was tempted.

He received special power form the Holy spirit to overcome Satan's temptations.

Are you claiming that God would have otherwise succumed to Satan's will?

I see no differenc ehere no matter waht your cultural beleifs are.

The Bible does see a difference. Heck, even accepting "it's praying" doesn't help because it's praying to something other than Jehovia; which is a violation of the first commandment.

[daeinwolf]

I am glad that you made the distinction between meditation and prayer JerryLove.

 

I have a few Christian friends that practice internal arts. From what I have learned from them they feel that ki is like any other "energy" created by God.

 

I am just thankful that I do not have to worry about conflicting interests such as this.

 

SiK---Joshua

[Sauzin]

I'm not a Christian now but I used to be and I would like to offer a few observations. First, most if not almost all Christian martial artists have no problem with ki. They draw parallels to the holy spirit, God’s energy, or that God's power created life and life's energy (or power) is therefore the power of God. But regardless of all these assumptions and prepositions a mere 400 years ago they all would have been burned to the steak by their peers. Traditionally Christianity has had a very narrow view of what consists of God's power and what doesn't. But recently it has gotten much larger. It always seemed odd to me how the God's word (or the interpretation thereof) became more PC and non-condemning the more open minded its practitioners became.

[JerryLove]

Having a similarity to something Godly does not make something Godly, and the fact that many proclaimed Christians fail to see the problems is irrellevent. Satan can offer power to, and we can draw parallels between Satan and God in a similar manner. Is Satanic energy OK for Christians to draw upon?

 

You may be open-minded if you wish, but to believe that "all energy is OK" first requires that you reject elements of the Bible as untrue... Which is fine with me, I'm all for honest heresy.

[Gou Junxiong]

Qi(ki, ch'i, chi), is commonly translated as vital energy. It refers to the energy of the body which is garnered from food, water, breath, sunlight, etc. This energy was studied for healing and martial purposes. The martial arts and medical leaders of the time, tended to be buddhist or daoist monks. So the theories of qi were influenced in part by this culture. But not everyone who studied qi was a buddhist or a daoist, and the effects of qi are still being studied in china now, which is an atheist state under the communist regime.

 

I am a practicing christian myself, and have studied qi for three years. I am discriminating in my studies, and I try to seperate the religious theories and beliefs from qi as best I can, and study just true healthful cultivation. I don't find qi to be the energy of God, or the Holy Spirit, nor do I think it is the power of the devil. It is simply the energy of the body, God built our bodies to be self sustaining. By learning how the body flows I can keep it in better health, and increase the benefits of my martial skills. This is just my take on things though.

[Vash]

I like the idea of Chi. First, I accept the hypothesis that it is a biological energy similar to electricity. Second, it's a darn good visualization technique, and visualization is an awesome tool.

 

I don't see how the concept of this energy in any way conflicts with Christian belief. I've been a Christian for a good little while, haven't seen or heard a thing which shows contradiction, with the exception of religious connotations that chi sometimes has.

[italian_guy]

 

I am a practicing christian myself, and have studied qi for three years. I am discriminating in my studies, and I try to seperate the religious theories and beliefs from qi as best I can, and study just true healthful cultivation. I don't find qi to be the energy of God, or the Holy Spirit, nor do I think it is the power of the devil. It is simply the energy of the body, God built our bodies to be self sustaining. By learning how the body flows I can keep it in better health, and increase the benefits of my martial skills. This is just my take on things though.

I think your attitude is correct I fully agree with that.

 

As I previously said in a post about kchenault article about christian and martial arts it is always possible to discriminate the various aspects of MAs taking the one compatible and rejecting the incompatible and I think there is no incompatibility with christianity in learning martial chi even if I know that there is a 'religious chi' which is strongly related with eastern religion but that is just an aspect not the whole thing.

[daoshi]

I'm not a Christian now but I used to be and I would like to offer a few observations. First, most if not almost all Christian martial artists have no problem with ki. They draw parallels to the holy spirit, God’s energy, or that God's power created life and life's energy (or power) is therefore the power of God. But regardless of all these assumptions and prepositions a mere 400 years ago they all would have been burned to the steak by their peers. Traditionally Christianity has had a very narrow view of what consists of God's power and what doesn't. But recently it has gotten much larger. It always seemed odd to me how the God's word (or the interpretation thereof) became more PC and non-condemning the more open minded its practitioners became.

 

hear, hear!

[daoshi]

One way to differentiate religious belief is the distinction between fundamentalism and non-fundamentalism. The fundamentalist will typically have problems with practices or beliefs in other systems.

 

One of the most positive aspects of martial arts study is the exposure to other cultural and religious beliefs.

[JerryLove]

In Christianity, the fundamentalist is the one who believes the Bible to be literal and without error.

 

Most fundamentalists I have interacted with hold the position that a source of power is either from God or not from God. To look for energy from "nature" or "the air" or even "yourself" would be turning to sources other than God and therefore be against God (and sinful).

 

Note tat the Bible explicitly condems sorcery and spiritualism as looking to sources of power other than God.