The Three Levels Of Chi
There is actually a good definition for this thing we call Chi, one which explains away all the mystery. The problem is that internal energy has been a catch basket for whatever that people don't understand. The truth is that Chi responds very well to the definitions available in simple physics.
When one considers internal energy they must understand that there are several layers of it. These layers actually exist in stages, and they follow certain rules. To understand this consider that water is first ice, then water, then steam.
On the first level Chi is nothing more than a solid substance, it is the stuff which makes up things and bodies. That swivel thing you are sitting in, it is made of immutable and never ending chi. So is the stove and the computer screen and the VCR.
On the second layer, the one that most people deal with, internal energy is a plasma sort of energy. Ground your body, move your body in a way that promotes generation and circulation, and you can feel the energy moving around inside your form. Interestingly, this liquid lightening type of energy actually moves through the apparent concreteness of your body, coexisting with matter, and actuating it.
The body is solid, but there are degrees of solid. Consider the body a stove, and the arms pipes, and it is easy to follow, and even create, the rules of how to move Chi energy. The real trick, of course, lies with understanding the third level of internal energy.
The third level of chi is thought, and this is the stuff by which you move the energetical substance through your body. Thought is interesting stuff, because people believe it is sentences and words and such. Thought, however, is not words, it is the urge behind the words.
What effortless push of notion causes actual motion? What momentary impulse is behind all the symbolization that tries to describe intrinsic energy in a million different ways? What notion motivates us, from parasite to humanity?
To move chi through the body one must learn to consider the universe on progressively lighter levels. One must move the objects of reality with muscle at first, and then progress to less effort and more intention, and finally enrich perceptions to the point where one can actually perceive the grunt or whim that actuates all motion in this universe. In the end, it is the effortless non-energy of perception that enables us to comprehend and understand chi, and to move it by whim and notion, and this effortless, light method is the secret of Tai Chi Chuan.
About the Author
Al Case has practiced Tai Chi 4O++ years. You can see what he knows about
Internal Energy at
Five Army Tai Chi Chuan.