Qi Gong – more than just relaxation?

According to Qi Gong practitioners, qigong can be beneficial in attaining the Dao or becoming one with the Dao. Dao cannot be translated, but it is given in the sense of a path. The term Dao (Tao) encompasses both the dualistic realms of the material world and the transcendent realms beyond duality. According to this doctrine it represents the highest state of being. Dao also means the essence, the primordial life force.

Literally translated Qi Gong means “working with the life force”. The origin of the exercises lies far back. First records can be traced back to the Zhu Dynasty (1100-771 B.C.) and the “Yellow Emperor”. The practice includes breathing exercises, body and movement exercises, concentration exercises and meditation exercises. These exercises are intended to harmonise and regulate the flow of Qi in the body.

The ancestors of Qi Gong were concerned with becoming one with the Dao, a spiritual path that would lead to enlightenment. The old masters saw the fact that regular practice also strengthened health as a nice, but insignificant side effect. Among Western practitioners, qigong no longer has anything to do with this original goal. This old Asian art of living is practiced as a relaxation method and for the care of health and is an important pillar of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Correctly performed Qi Gong exercises can be seen as meditation in motion, or as energy in motion, with the focus on observing the exercise sequence, i.e. on the body and on breathing. The thoughts should calm down, the body and the nervous system should relax, as the exercises should be consciously performed slowly and attentively. Qi Gong is similar to Yoga, which is practiced in fitness studios etc. Both Qi Gong and Yoga were Eastern tools that were part of the Eastern spiritual training system. However, taken from this system and practiced superficially, they have nothing in common with spirituality, since the essential spark and the underlying teaching and training are missing.

The Qi Gong therapy of Western practitioners has nothing to do with meditation and spirituality as taught by the Hermetic Academy. True meditation in the spiritual sense restores the lost spirituality, which enables access to the inner and outer worlds. Meditation gives us answers to essential questions of life as well as solutions for problems of everyday life, raises our consciousness and gives, among other things, inner joy and confidence. Fears disappear and confidence in our own life and in a higher power is strengthened. The relaxation of body and mind as practiced in Qi Gong is only a side effect but not the main focus.

The mind is sharpened through meditation, the meditator experiences clarity and truth and becomes an attentive observer of his own life circumstances. Thus he attains more and more dominion over all areas of life. The Hermetic Academy teaches the high art of hermetic Western meditation. It gives us tools for the true development of our personality, which in turn includes raising our consciousness, which can lead to a state of enlightenment. This does not only mean a brief flare-up of a state of enlightenment, but enlightenment as a permanent state. Thus a new person is born. This person has developed desirable virtues such as honesty, reliability, unselfishness, generosity, courage, forgiveness, self-discipline, patience, humility and many other qualities that enrich social relationships with his or her environment.

Through the spiritual practices of the Hermetic Academy, access to a higher spiritual reality is provided. This leads necessarily to recognizing one’s own life task and mastering one’s own life.