everything wrote:It seems weird because we have an every day understanding.
I feel energized or tired. I add fuel to my car and it can produce motion.
Yet we don’t understand “internal” and “Qi”, and scientists can’t define “energy”.
There's a difference between something concrete and an abstraction. As Feynman points out
energy is an abstraction. If you point to
types of energy or
energy sources physics has a fair amount to say about them. Fossil fuels, electricity, light, heat, and so on. I think qi is an abstraction or concept as well. Qi in fengshui is different than qi in philosophy, or TCM or MAs. When I use online translation SW qi is often translated as gas. An online dictionary has - gas / air / smell / weather / to make angry / to annoy / to get angry / vital energy. Joseph Adler translates qi as psycho-physical stuff.
Adler wrote:The concepts of qi and yin-yang are well-known enough not to require much explanation here. Suffice it to say that qi, or psycho-physical stuff, is the substance of which all existing phenomena are constituted, including all the phases of matter, energy, mind (xin) and even the various forms of spirit (shen). The term is used in both a general sense, referring to the primordial stuff of which all things are composed, and more specific senses. For example, Zhu Xi uses both general and specific senses in one sentence, in reference to the human body: "The pure qi is qi [here meaning something like "breath"]; the turbid qi is matter (zhi)."(8) It is convenient, although over-simplified, to think of qi as a fundamental vapor that can condense into solid matter and disperse into finer and finer forms. It is much like the aer of the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Anaximenes, who claimed that it (like qi) was the fundamental substance or nature (physis) of all things.(9)
Looking at Chinese qi is usually used in context or with an adjective, but westerners on the web often seem to discuss qi without real context. My opinion.
everything wrote:We seem to know very little even when the actor who played Captain Kirk can actually go to space.
Not only commercial space travel, but space tourism - that's great!