QINGQONG, OR THE ART OF LIGHTNESS

Art of Lightness

Nick leaping up two tables



Question

I am very interested in Qinggong (art of light body) and I was just wondering if you can help me. I have purchased some books which have detailed information, but not quite enough.

-- Adrian, Canada

Answer

Yes, I can certainly help you by giving you good advice, and my advice is actually very important though you may or may not appreciate it.

My advice is don't practice Qinggong from a book. You are very likely to harm yourself, often without your realizing it.

It is also very likely that the authors who gave detailed information about Qinggong training do not know Qinggong themselves. If they knew they would not have given the information in books for self learning. They would have known the risks involved.

Moreover, if they really knew Qinggong, they would make much more money giving demonstration of their art than by writing books. If they felt that it was morally wrong to earn money from their art, it would be far worse giving training information which they should know, if they had trained in it, would lead gullible readers into serious trouble training on their own.

Actually the basic training information of Qinggong is not detailed. It is very simple and can be written in half a page. It is acquiring the skills that takes much time — in matters of years — and the subtleties involved, though the method is simple, cause making mistakes likely to happen if trained without proper supervision.


Question

I was just wondering, if during training, the qi should be concentrated in certain spots of the body or just in the dan tian.

Answer

My description below is for satisfying curiosity, and not for self practice.

Different teachers may teach differently, but according to the method that I was trained in but which I did not successfully complete, one inhales when he jumps up, and exhales when he jumps down. When inhaling the qi is brought to the lungs, and when exhaling the qi is brought to the dan tian, and sometimes to the feet.

The method is simple, but there are a lot of risks involved. If you inhale wrongly when you jump up, the qi may harm your heart. If you bring your qi down wrongly when you jump down, the qi may harm your genitals.

If you try out the method for fun for a few times jumping up and down a chair, it is alright even though you make mistakes. The harm caused by making mistakes in a few jumps is not serious, and usually the harm will disappear on its own after a few days. But if you make mistakes jumping a few hundred times every day, and you continue that for a few years, the harm can be very substantial.



Reproduced from Qestions 5 and 6 of April 2005 Part 3 in Selection of Question-Answer Series

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