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Tai Chi Breathing: Qi And Channels

Author: C. Guan Soo
Date Posted: January 28, 2009

Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, the concept of 'Qi' is extremely important. Qi can be translated as energy. It's a form of life energy. Every living thing has Qi, even plants.

For us – human being, Qi plays a very important role. It's your LIFE!

It regulates the proper functions of your body. The five vitals and six organs of your body must function properly in order for you to maintain good health.

The five vitals are the heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys; and the six organs are the stomach, gall-bladder, big intestines, small intestines, bladder and the three systems which include respiratory, digestive and eliminative.

The concepts of five vitals and six organs are based on I-Chings' yin and yang, plus "Internal Text of the Yellow Emperor". This means, if its yin and yang elements are balanced – all the internal organs and systems should function properly.

And good Qi circulations in your body maintain the functionality of the five vitals and six organs. It strikes a balance of elements in your internal organs and systems.

In Chinese medicine, it is stated that our body has various meridians and network that carry our vital energy or life energy throughout our body. There are many meridians and networks in our body. All these together are known as the 12 Meridians and Networks.

Each of our body has all these 12 Meridians and Networks, which is divided as follows:

1. Meridians which includes 3 Yin Hand Meridians, 3 Yang Hand Meridians, 3 Yin Leg Meridians, 3 Yang Leg Meridians, 12 Alternate Meridians, 12 Sinews Meridians, and the Weird Meridians of 8 Channels.

2. Networks which includes 15 Networks, Floating Network, Sun Network and 12 Skin Networks.

Out of these meridians and networks, there are 2 which belong to the Weird Meridians of 8 Channels, are the most important one – which is known as Ren Channel and Du Channel.

I have seen authors translated Ren literally to Employment Meridian and Du literally to Supervisory Meridian.

Yes, it is the correct meaning of the characters. I prefer to use Ren and Du as it is in Pinying as, frankly, I'm not too sure of its actual meaning to render it correctly in English. The reason I use 'Channel' is to differentiate these from the meridians which is more accurate to describe its nature.

Qi travels around this two major Channel to ensure your organs and internal systems function properly. The complete travel of the Qi through Du and Ren Channels forms a complete circulation cycle which is known as One Heavenly Circulation.

If the Qi did not complete the Heavenly Circulation, and gathers at Dantian, then whatever Qi we absorb or collected will be lost or faded away. Therefore it is important for you to make sure that the Qi is able to travel through both Du and Ren Channels.

Thus it is important to make sure that these Channels are connected while breathing – to guarantee that Qi flow smoothly through your body and serve you as your diehard loyal servant.

And this is specifically why Connecting the Channels in my 5 Steps Tai Chi Breathing are designed for – to increase the Qi circulation and guarantee you the maximum effects of whatever practices that you are doing now. This also increases the effectiveness of Abdominal Breathing manifolds.

The best thing about this technique, you don't have to lift a finger to do it. Straightly out-of-the-mind simple! It's sad to see that many do not know this technique and reap it powerful benefits for better health.

About The Author

C. Guan Soo is a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner who has 23 years experience in various meditation forms, martial arts, healing arts, chakra healing and meditation as well. He is the author of "Basic Tai Chi Breathing" and "Advance Tai Chi Breathing", which can be downloaded from http://www.TaichiBreathing.com

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of Tai Chi articles.

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