than 800 million people practice Qigong or T’ai Chi internationally—nearly 20 per-
cent of the world’s population.
Qigong and T’ai Chi consist of soft, slow, continuous movements that are circular in
nature. When practiced by a master, the movements are so slow and fluid that they
look like swimming in air. The softness of movements develops energy without nerv-
ousness. The slowness of movements requires attentive control that quiets the mind
and develops one’s powers of awareness and concentration. The continuous circular
nature of the movements develops strength and endurance. Yin and yang refer to
the balance of forces in the universe. T’ai Chi movements are designed to express
these forces in balanced form by pairs of opposites. For example, a motion that ulti-
mately involves turning to the right often begins with a small movement to the left.
In Qigong, students learn to sense their qi and follow it as it moves around the body.
As they become more skillful, they learn to strengthen their qi and direct it to spe-
cific areas of the body that are weak or ailing.
For most people, Qigong and T’ai Chi are personal disciplines. Most practitioners
spend 30–60 minutes a day doing the exercises. With more intensive practice over
many years, some become masters. A T’ai Chi master is generally one who has
exceptional skill in doing the form or in using the principles in boxing and in life. A
Qigong master is one who has developed the ability to emit healing energy and has
achieved proven success in healing with qi. Masters may also have qualities that are
generally considered supernatural in the areas of special insight and spiritual tran-
scendence. Rarely, if ever, will a true master call herself or himself a master. Rather,
they say that “the practice is the teacher” and that “the qi is the teacher.”
It is difficult to learn Qigong or T’ai Chi from a book, audiotape, or video. While
simple forms may be grasped this way, the more complex forms are nearly impossi-
ble to learn without a teacher’s guidance. In the Chinese tradition, one chooses and
remains devoted to a teacher. The teacher-disciple relationship is revered as the only
path to advanced skill. The honor and reverence that is bestowed on the teacher is
part of the belief system that empowers the disciple.
Yang is the most popular form of T’ai Chi and was developed in the early 20th cen-
tury by Yang Cheng Fu. It is composed of 108 separate motions, which can take
6–12 months to learn. When they are strung together, the result is a cross between
slow-motion shadow boxing and dancing. Each movement has a name, like
“repulse the monkey,” “the snake creeps down,” “the white crane spreads its wings,”
or “parting the wild horse’s mane,” which describes what it looks like or what pur-
pose it serves. For example, when one is trying to concentrate, monkey thoughts are
distractions. As the monkey is pushed away, the person is not allowing distractions
to take attention away from the process of the moment. T’ai Chi also has breathing250 ABSOLUTE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TOALTERNATIVE MEDICINE