QIGONG
One of the tools of TCM has been practiced in China for thousands of years, with the aim of preventing and treating diseases, to improve and make life fuller and more satisfying, to optimize physical and mental performance. The practice is extraordinarily effective for: strengthening the awareness and functioning of the organism by obtaining a better physical shape, fighting diseases, decreasing stress, strengthening the immune system, stimulating the capacity for self-healing, strengthening emotional balance and mind-body integration, slow down the aging process.
A variety of Qigong styles and techniques are taught at L'e space , however the prevailing style is Master Pang He Ming's Zhineng Qigong.
Teacher Giovanni Zappulla
Course: Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5.15pm to 6.15pm
Pang Ming is both an innovator and a preserver of qigong. Born in 1940, Pang Ming approached qigong and martial arts at a very young age.
A few years later he graduated in modern medicine at the age of 20 and later in traditional Chinese medicine.
After graduation, he continues to deepen his path in martial arts and qigong. He is said to have practiced with nineteen masters from whom he would later learn practical knowledge for his next system. In addition to this "heart-to-heart transmission", Pang Ming dedicates himself to a philological research of the ancient texts of internal alchemy accompanied by a scientific revision of the same. It is thanks to this precious work that in the early 1980s he defined his science of qigong with the text 智能 气功 科学 功 法学 "Zhineng qigong kexue gongfaxue" and later with 混元 整体 理论 "hunyuan zhengti lilun".
In the same years he played a key role in various initiatives, including:
1. Main speaker at the first national meeting of qigong teachers.
2. Founder of Qinghuangdao Practice Center, Shandong Province.
3. Founder of Hebei Research and Treatment Center.
In 1998, after the enormous success of the centers he founded, he is the first in China to receive a note of merit from the ministry of sports and health that defines zhineng qigong "the most effective qigong in improving health".
Pang Ming has nine books to his credit.
Qigong as interpreted by Zhineng Qigong was formulated according to traditional principles by Prof. Pang Ming in the 1980s. Zhineng Qigong is a very popular school in China and the Chinese Sports Bureau has defined it as "the most effective qigong for health improvement". The main techniques of the first level are:
1. 捧 气 贯 顶 法 Pengqi guanding fa: a sequence of movements and visualizations. The task of the sequence is to collect the qi that is around to bring it within us. This causes our body qi to increase and consequently improve bodily and mental functions.
2. 三 心 并 站 庄 Zhanzhuang: This is a static form of qigong which has the task of releasing the flow of qi in the body and relaxing the lower back.
3. 揉腹 功 Roufu: “self-massage of the belly”. This practice acts at the level of the middle dantian. It was one of the preliminary practices of the Shaolin Monastery.
4. 拉 气 Laqi: “pull the qi”. It is a form that works on external qi with possible therapeutic application. It is in many ways similar to pengqi guanding fa.
5. 蹲 墙 功 Dunqiang: “crouched against the wall”. This form, long kept secret in Taoist monasteries, has the task of quickly freeing all the energy channels of the body. It acts in particular on the renmai and dumai channels.
6. 抻 气 Chenqi: “stretch the qi”. This method has the task of moving the qi from the outside to the inside by acting on the gaohuang acupuncture point. It represents, like laqi, a simplification of the basic exercise Pengqi guanding does.
In Zhineng Qigong there are nine great characteristics that indicate the points that differentiate it from other systems of practice. These are:
1. A particular theoretical apparatus: the theory of hunyuan sets. It includes hunyuanqi theory, set theory, human hunyuanqi, awareness theory (yishi), daode theory, life process improvement theory, hunyuan medical treatment and other topics.
2.An own system of practices. These include three types of exercises: dynamic, static and spontaneous movement. Each type of exercise must go through the three phases of external, internal and median hunyuan from the initial to the highest level. Zhineng qigong is divided into three stages and 6 levels of practice. In the first level there is pengqiguanding fa which belongs to the external hunyuan stage. The second level, xingshenzhuang, trains the hunyuan of mind and body. The third level, wuyuanzhuang, trains the true hunyuanqi of the internal organs. The second and third levels belong to the internal hunyuan stage. The fourth level trains the hunyuanqi of the central channel; the fifth level trains the hunyuanqi of the center line and in the sixth level one returns to the origin (also called complete fusion in the primeval source). The fourth, fifth and sixth levels belong to the middle hunyuan phase. The six levels of practice have all been formulated according to the different vital activities. There is also sanxin bing zhanzhuang which is a basic method of the entire system of exercises, with the characteristic of ferrying from one level to another.
3.Zhineng qigong gathers the strengths of other systems. Zhineng qigong has collected the essence of the methods of the Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, medical, martial, folk and numerous other schools, transforming their organic structure into a complete system.
4
A new set of teaching methods: the three transmissions (with the heart / mind, with the word and with the body). Heart / mind transmission essentially indicates the composition of the field. The transmission with the word indicates the teaching principles of qigong. Transmission with the body is assuming a posture. The three transmissions allow people with different levels of health and different reception abilities to obtain results.
5. In using awareness we are not looking for stillness and emptiness; nor do we move the thought as in the type of celestial circulation exercises, but only ask to use the consciousness in an active way to gather the psyche in the movements of the body.
6
Through the method of regulating the flow of qi by means of qi, we safely and reliably do not practice in a dangerous way. This includes conducting qi by means of thought, conducting qi by means of the body, and conducting qi by means of sounds.
7.Zhineng qigong belongs to open systems. Form, qi and mind must remain open so that the internal qi of the body and the qi of the natural world remain connected. This makes it even better to harvest the hunyuanqi of the natural world. The combined training of external and internal hunyuan allows you to clearly see the results in the treatment of diseases and in the effectiveness of the exercises.
8
The outer hunyuan of zhineng qigong is the hunyuanqi of the natural world. The process of issuing external qi is none other than the skill training process by which the hunyuanqi of the natural world is regulated. Doing so does not harm one's dantian qi.
9. Clear reactions to the practice. It includes reactions to disease, reactions to the pouring of qi into the diseased spot, and reactions to practice.