REACH OUT!

 By Phillip Starr

The principle of “Extend” is probably the most important of the Four Principles of Qigong, although I hesitate to say that say that one of them is superior to the others. It is the one principle that is used by everyone – and I mean EVERYONE, including those who don't practice any form of martial art – everyday. Repeatedly. And this often causes many and varied problems.

If you'll look back at the article, “The Four Principles”, you'll see that the last one, Extend, refers to a basic concept. It's so important that I will repeat it again here:

“Where your mind (yi) goes, your qi goes...and your body wants to follow.”

From the aforementioned article...

“The principle of Extend means that you must extend your mind.   This has to do with yi (意, pronounced, “yee”), which translates as, 'intention, will, idea, imagination.' If your yi is extended forward, your qi is likewise extended forward.  Your body would like to move forward but you can prevent it from doing so.  If someone pushes against you, you will be very resistant because your yi and qi are extended forward and your body wants to move in that direction.

On the other hand, if your yi is directed back behind you, your qi also moves backward and your body would like to follow suit.  If someone pushes you from the front you will go sailing backward because that's where your yi and qi are extended and it is where your body actually wants to go.”

The principle itself is easy enough to understand and quite easy to apply. However, students often fail to realize that THIS PRINCIPLE IS ALWAYS IN EFFECT, WHETHER THEY ARE PRACTICING IN THE TRAINING HALL OR GOING ABOUT THEIR DAILY LIVES. And there are two addendums to this principle. The first is:

“Anything that is given energy will grow.”

And from that idea you should have already extracted the second addendum, which is:

“That which is denied energy, dies.”

Take the example of a sore throat, for example. Until I moved to China where virtually everything is polluted, I very rarely suffered from a sore throat. When I felt a sort throat coming on, I used a qigong technique to draw energy from the area and the offending bacteria died. The sore throat would quickly disappear. This is opposite what most people do; when they feel their throats becoming scratchy, they focus their minds on it; the YI is concentrated on the afflicted area. And what does this do? IT POURS ENERGY INTO THE SORE THROAT!!! And whatever is provided energy will grow... Consequently, the throat problem often gets worse.

I once had a taijiquan student who undertook the study of a form of qigong about which I knew very little. One day when she came to class, she told me that her other qigong teacher had taught her a very effective method for eliminating her sore throat. I asked about it and she happily told me that he'd shown her how to pour energy into the area and so on. I was very concerned and told her that I could not agree with his suggestion. I recommended that she forget about it. Naturally, she didn't take my advice and went ahead with her other teacher's instructions. Her throat problem became very serious and within 48 hours, she had to go to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing and swallowing food! So much for her teacher's ignorance being passed on to her.

This is a good example of how people inadvertently misuse this principle on a daily basis. They needn't know anything about qigong at all; it is a natural principle of our existence but because it is not easily observed, people remain ignorant of it. If you stop to consider the implications of this principle – that where your yi goes, your qi goes – you will be astounded. It goes way beyond sore throats!