SCHOOLS AND PRACTICES OF QIGONG |
|
Qigong exists in many varieties. There are different schools and practices of Qigong. Pro tanto, they fulfill different tasks and serve different purposes.
If fact, the word “Qigong” emerged not so long ago. It happened only 30 years ago, when Chinese methods started gaining popular interest, so an appropriate brand name needed to be invented. Thousands of years before, ancient Masters, every one practiced his own style, if asked what they were doing, they would reply: “dao yin”, “ang mo”, “jing zuo”. But those were not even names or appellations. Because “I am breathing” or “I am quietly sitting” can’t be appellations or terms.
Now, when practitioners have opportunities to transmit their skills westward there arose the barest necessity to name their methods. The most wide-spread term that has gained the most popularity through the world is the word Qigong. But it is important to take into account that one and the same word sometimes may refer to the things as different as an elephant and a butterfly, for example when we call both animate nature.
There are various ways of operating Qi energy. There are various qualities of this energy. There are various purposes of its further use. That is why schools using one common name Qigong are so different. There are Martial Qigong (when with psycho-physical training a person improves his or her martial qualities), Medical Qigong (when a practitioner develops his healing abilities like third eye vision and so on), Religious Qigong and many other types…
On the contrary, there are methods called differently and descending from different corners of the globe which, never the less, are much closer to one another then the same named systems from one country of origin. These are, for instance, Zhong Yuan Qigong System, Patanjali Yoga, Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Osho, Seraphim Sarovsky Orthodox Hesychast, Bodhidharma’s Zen, Taoism of Lao Tsu, Gurdzhiev Sufism…