D_Glenn wrote:neijia_boxer wrote:No that is not right. In TCM, there is an ancient text that talks about "qi"takes somewhere around 24-27 minutes to circulate through the entire body. So it takes this route around 50 to 60x a day. So that is why 30 minutes is enough for acupuncture session for "qi" to touch all the needles. So... sadly if you are a short form sucka, you have to do your form 2 or 3 x, if you are a long form player, you need to do it once at a pace of 24-27 minutes of play.Steve James wrote:Well, wouldn't want to dispute the ancient texts, but ... qi has to be able to move at the speed of yi. And, just from a conceptual pov, qi is present everywhere all the time. Anyway, I'm not sure that the speed of qi depends on the speed of movement.
It's Weiqi (Defensive qi) which travels in the fascia layers beneath the skin. Which is different than the Yingqi (Nourishing/ Nutritive qi) which travels in the 12 meridians in a 24 cycle/ 2 hours per meridian. The 'Ling Shu Wei Qi Xing Pian' states that the Weiqi circulates 50 times throughout the body in a day, 25 cycles in the day, 25 cycles at night. As neijia_boxer mentioned it's concerning the minimum amount of continual time you would want to practice a neigong/ Daoyin exercise which works out to 24-27 minutes to come back to where you started. The actual movement that's happening in the cycle of Weiqi is nothing you have to worry or give any thought towards.
But what's being controlled with our 'Yi' (intent/focus) is more so the 'exiting' and 'entering' of our Weiqi, which is not a disruption of the Weiqi cycle, unless you're sick, or don't yet have a surplus of Weiqi built up in your body. So 'Yi' appears to make the Weiqi move so fast because it should be right there underneath the skin, just waiting to 'exit' from the fascia layer and into the skin where it opens the pores to sweat, which in turn brings the movement of Yingqi and blood out to the smaller vessels and micro-capillaries of the extremities. Using the 'Yi' to control the 'entering' of the Weiqi is also important where the opposite happens, pores close, stop sweating. There's a Martial saying my late teacher liked to say, it went something like 'Use 'Yi' to sweat and drive the movements of the exercise; but exercising and sweating without using/ practicing your 'Yi' is just the waste of a sweat; (and sweating without exercise is a sign of an internal imbalance).'
***taijicannon wrote:In our form of taiji I've heard it said that each of the three thirds represents a full cycle of chi through the meridians in the order they are supposed to go in according to tcm theory i.e. doing all three thirds of the form results in the chi cycling through the whole system thrice.
The movement of Weiqi is not really a route, like a river, but like the lunar tides that move around through the earth's oceans, flooding up into the deltas at the front of the tides, and receding from the rivers and deltas behind it. It starts at the back of the legs (UB meridian), outside edge of the arms (SI meridian), and mid-lower back, called the Taiyang meridians; then gradually moves around the arms and legs to the Shaoyang meridians; then further around to the Yangming meridians then to the kidney meridian and heart meridian where it starts moving in a wave up the leg and front of the body and from the shoulder down the inside of the arm; then back down around the front of the body towards the back, circling back around the leg to the starting pointing, and around the arm to the starting point at the Taiyang meridians. It's like a tide that's moving and enveloping your body and four extremities at the same time.
So sweating is a positive thing, especially if you're using 'Yi', which in the basic sense means being mindful of what you're doing and not daydreaming or else you won't really learn anything from your training practice. Sweat is some part Yin Fluids but it's one of the ways our bodies get rid of toxins, so sweat is a good thing as it's getting rid of 'Turbid Qi'.
Somewhere along the way the hippies misunderstood the texts and thought they were losing 'Wei Qi' through their sweat, but it's 'exiting' to open the pores, and then coming back inside (entering) when the pores close.
Advanced usage of 'Yi' is being able to make the 'Five Palms' sweat, at will, and see beads of sweat forming on, say the palm of your outstretched hand, in a matter of seconds, (provided you're not in a breeze that's just evaporating it before any beads can form).
fwiw
.