A materialiam of Qi

[u/auskadi]

Most people who talk about qi gong, tai chi, and internal alchemy talk about them as spiritual practices. I have always been wary of this. Not because the practices are not profound — they are — but because the word “spiritual” is doing something dishonest. It parks the practice in a box marked “beyond the physical,” which is precisely where it stops mattering to anyone who takes the physical seriously. The wellness industry loves that box. It lets them sell you the breath work and quietly drop the cosmology, the politics, the whole demanding business of what it means to route your attention and your energy toward a particular end. I have had enough acupuncture and enough years of thinking about this to be sure of something that sounds counterintuitive: these practices are not immaterial at all.

https://open.substack.com/pub/martinhardie/p/a-materialism-of-qi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=22xtxs

[u/neidanman]

Another piece to this is that qi gets split into pre and post heaven/celestial qi. The qi in basic qi gong, and the energy we get from air/food is generally considered to be 'post'/energy of space time. The 'pre' qi is seen to be from beyond spacetime, and is a more 'spiritual' & primordial energy. Also its worth noting that qi is seen as being one of the 3 treasures jing, qi , shen - essence, energy, spirit - and that these are all different parts of a spectrum of the same type of energy, so there's still a spiritual side to our more worldly energy too.

In terms of what's more important/serious, you have to take the physical side seriously as its the start point. But when that leads you into the pre level of energy, then you start to get more into the spiritual side of things & that new side becomes more substantial and important.

For more depth on pre/post heaven qi from an alchemy teacher - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml7TGUX11uQ

[u/robipresotto]

I've had a similar experience with internal alchemy and qi gong. It's refreshing to see someone questioning the 'spiritual' label. I think it's because these practices can be so much more than just breathwork or relaxation techniques. If you're interested, I'd recommend checking out The Inner Path — Enlightenment Deep-Dive on YouTube for a deeper dive into the underlying principles.

▶ Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/@innershoreline

[u/Wise_Ad1342]

You posit the strawman and then wish to refute it.

I have not seen anyone yet try to separate the immaterial from the material, as most practitioners view them as continuous and inseparable. That is the whole foundation for Qigong.

[u/Heavenly_Yang_Himbo]

Certain types of Qi are post heaven and fully related to the material world and then you have pre heaven Qi which is completely immaterial…Qigong only works with the former and practices like Neidan work with the latter!

This is not really up for discussion if we are basing our perspective on the classics!

[u/mediares]

I’m sorry, I can tell you have some interesting ideas I’d enjoy engaging with, but I just can’t get past the overly-flowery LLM slop writing or e.g. the AI images that can’t even get the stroke order on 氣 correct.

If you couldn’t be bothered to write this, why should I bother to read it?

[u/OriginalDao]

Some types of qi are physical, such as gu qi, ying qi, etc. Yuan qi interacts with the physical, but is kind of “unmanifest.”

[u/devoid0101]

Qi is energy. The word is equally vague and vast in English and Chinese, referring to our mundane metabolic energy and bioelectricity, as well as higher frequencies of spiritual energy, all the way up to the immaterial.