Qigong Mastery: Connecting Mind, Body, and Breath

Discover the ancient practice of Qigong with us and learn how to harness the power of your breath and mind to transform your energy and overall well-being. In this episode, we sit down with Sifu Sharif, a distinguished expert in Qigong, who takes us through the fundamentals of this discipline. You'll gain insight into how Qigong’s mindful movements, breath manipulation, and mental intent can modulate your energy system. Sifu Sharif explains how emotions, particularly anger, can influence physical actions, offering a fascinating look into the interplay between our mental states and physical energy, and even bridging connections to Western bioenergetic systems.

Sifu Sharif doesn't just talk theory; he provides practical exercises to help you align your body and access its energetic center, even while sitting in an office chair. Learn how simple adjustments in posture can facilitate diaphragmatic breathing and connect you to your main energy center, located just below the navel. We also explore the three treasures of Qigong—the lower, middle, and upper energy centers—and their unique qualities. This knowledge bridges physical alignment with the flow of energy, tying into broader concepts from Chinese medicine and other related disciplines.

This episode also demystifies common misconceptions about Tai Chi and Qigong, clarifying Tai Chi's martial origins and its health benefits today. Sifu Sharif explains the three categories of Qigong: health, military, and spiritual, and offers an intriguing historical and practical perspective on the "Eight-Piece Brocade" Qigong routine. Experience firsthand the profound benefits of Qigong exercises, from enhancing your hand and forearm strength to stimulating your energy centers. Whether you're a newcomer or a seasoned practitioner, this episode promises a comprehensive guide to understanding and integrating Qigong into your daily life.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

What's going on, everybody? It's Ron Brown, LMT, the People's Fitness Professional, alongside my co-hosts.

Speaker 2 0:07

Mikey Fever. My bad, I was singing Nothing Like Us. That's what was so catchy.

Speaker 1 0:14

Yo and I got the brother Sharif, gs Sharif, anil Bey, kung Fu, can I call you a Kung Fu expert?

Speaker 3 0:22

Just say Sifu, sifu.

Speaker 2 0:24

Sifu, expert, grand chic, all that Rapper, metaphysical scholar and all that.

Speaker 1 0:34

So right now we're going to go into Qigong and I just want to first ask what is Qigong? That'll be the first question I ask, that's a great question.

Speaker 3 0:43

That's a great question. Qigong, that'll be the first question I ask. That's a great question. That's a great question. Just mind if I take a seat real quick, here we go, let's go, can you hear me? Yes, sir, yeah, we got you. So Qigong is a Chinese, chinese term that literally translates to breath work or energy work. Okay, the word qi does not mean specifically breath. In Chinese, the word qi generally means intrinsic energy, bioenergy, right, and because bioenergy is so diversified, there's so many different types of bioenergy that we give off the name. The word qi has like over 50 different uses in the Chinese language, so it can mean a number of things. But to be very specific, so, qi meaning energy, gong meaning training, how we train the energy, like you train a bicep. Ok, so to be very comprehensive, but very simple, without talking a hole in everybody's head, qi gong is the means by which we use the mind and the breath as a strategy To modify and modulate the human energy system. That's what Chico is.

Speaker 2 2:10

I see that.

Speaker 3 2:12

Because we say the mind and the body, the breath is the interface between the non-physical part of ourself and the physical part of ourself.

Speaker 2 2:26

There you go. Reeve, I got a question Does qingong involve movement, like when they swing energy around?

Speaker 3 2:35

Mikey, that's a great question. So here we go. And again, my big thing is practicality. Everything's got to be practical. There's nothing woo-woo out there, it's got to be real. Here we go. Dancing's got to be practical. There's nothing out there, it's got to be real.

Speaker 2 2:46

Here we go.

Speaker 3 2:47

Dancing moves energy in your body. Running on a treadmill moves energy in your body. You see what I'm saying Movement. So the simple answer, Brother Mikey, is yes, Physical movement moves energy. Yes, it does. So there's three. There's three ways to approach qigong in this respect. First and foremost, even if it's movement involved, for it to be qigong it has to be mindful movement. So most people, when they're running on a treadmill, they're watching the TV or they're listening to music. It's not mindful, Matter of fact, it's just the opposite. They're trying to distract themselves from the actual exercise. Get it.

Speaker 2 3:27

Got you.

Speaker 3 3:29

It's got to be mindful movement. There's three major approaches to manipulating the bioenergy. One is physical movement, one is manipulation of the breath, one is use of the mind. Our methods combine all three or we can individualize them, but our methods combine all three.

Speaker 1 3:54

OK, so explain that three again. Moving the physical body or movement Manipulating the breath or movement, manipulating the breath using the mind or the intent. Okay, Now the mind and the intent. How does it connect to the other two?

Speaker 3 4:18

Here we go. That's a great question, brother. And again, a lot of these things it's natural. It's what the body naturally does. Does we're just isolating it on purpose and magnifying these things on purpose? So think about you punch. You throw a punch, it hurts. Or you throw a punch punch is intended to hit someone right, but then you throw that punch because you're pissed off. Which one is stronger?

Speaker 1 4:44

pissed off, yeah absolutely.

Speaker 3 4:46

Why, though? See, that's the question why there's an energy that further amplifies the physical body, and that energy is an emotion. That emotion comes out of here gotcha, so the punch is weak.

Speaker 2 5:01

Just that you threw your whole. You're fighting. Basically, how do you say your momentum?

Speaker 3 5:05

A regular physical punch, boom. You can punch as hard as you can. It's going to have a magnitude of strength. But then when you add the anger, it elevates the magnitude Gotcha. So that means that the anger itself is an energy source.

Speaker 1 5:21

Now that anger. Where would that energy source of anger come from? Exactly?

Speaker 3 5:28

See, ron, you're cheating with that question and I got to tell the audience why Ron is cheating because Ron already knows the answer. Energetically, here we go Right. It's actually even in our language colloquially, when we want to say somebody was very angry, we say they were livid with anger. So energetically in our system all the organs produce different qualities of energy, some positive and negative. So one of the negative outputs of the liver is anger.

Speaker 1 6:08

Yes, sir, so Qigong is raw energy.

Speaker 2 6:10

Basically it's raw energy, because it sounds to me I know I don't want to sound repetitive, but it sounds like some middle pillow work, some Kabbalah in there like a tree.

Speaker 3 6:19

Well, see, brother Mikey went there there and it's 100 percent correct, one of the biggest. So we're talking bioenergetics, bioenergetic systems. Right and this is something I know directly because I'm involved in both. Right, the Eastern methods, like the Taoist Qigong methods, the Buddhist Qigong methods. They were more open, they weren't so suppressed or oppressed in ancient times. People nowadays have a little more access to them, whereas the Western bioenergetic methods are called magic, are called occult, are called why? Because of the Spanish Inquisition. So that's exactly right, dear brother, it's middle pillar Kabbalah work, but real Kabbalah, because most people are only familiar with philosophical Kabbalah, not operative. The operative Kabbalah is bioenergetics, it's Western Qigong.

Speaker 1 7:27

Now to bring it back to the body and energetics. Now, this anger coming from now anger could either uh anger depending on uh the person could damage the liver actually actual fact.

Speaker 3 7:43

But that's like eating Listen, strawberries are healthy, but if that's all you eat, it becomes a poison. Yes, sir, you see my point. Yes, sir, so the emotions are an energy, all of our emotions are an energy. Thought is an energy. We're going to get to that. But now thought takes on different qualities. So you've got low octane, you've got high octane, you've got diesel fuel, you've got. You see what I'm saying. So there's different qualities of energy, depending on what I need. I only need this much. If I have too much now, it's a problem.

Speaker 3 8:26

University, a number of years ago, a study was done about this, about excessive anger, and what they did is that they took subjects and they invoked excessive, prolonged anger in them, and then they had them breathe on ice crystals like snow. The snow turned. They had to breathe through a tube onto the snow. The snow turned purple. They fed the purple snow to to rats. All the rats died, yeah, yeah. So so to your point, brother ron. Yes, excessive anger, but that means what? Now you've got a runaway emotion. You've got a runaway energy that's not being governed by the intent properly so I'm gonna throw a shot in the dark with this one.

Speaker 2 9:03

That's like um with the Supreme mathematics. They say um five power refinement. But I have this power, but it's not refined.

Speaker 3 9:11

Not refined. Oh yeah, put it like this yeah, how many times have we said myself included, yo, that guy made me mad. Huh, huh, no, or I'm mad, no, I'm Sharif, see. So to say I'm mad means I'm drowning in an emotion that I invoked.

Speaker 1 9:34

Right, so now the emotion that you invoke. Now, going back to the three of the three, I forgot what you you named it. What did you name it? The three methods of manipulating body energy the three methods of manipulating breath intent okay, so you started with the intent or emotion it all depends so.

Speaker 3 10:00

So I'm glad you brought that up, brother ron, those three. There's whole qigong systems based on one of those three, like seated meditation is just using the mind See. Then the yogis and I'm oversimplifying certain yogic methods are just using the breath, get it. And then there's methods like the Pak Tung Kam, which is the eight piece brocade, which is the most popular Qigong movement routine in the world, the eight piece brocade. It just uses movement. They don't talk about breathing necessarily or specifically. There's no specific breath patterns, there's no specific visualizations or intent. You see what I'm saying. Ok, so you got methods that just use one of those three. Our method uses all three now.

Speaker 1 10:50

So how do you, you guys, connect all three? Is it a system to where it's like, okay, I'm gonna focus on meditation at this point, from this month to this month, or this day to day, and then I'm gonna then focus on, uh, breathing, and then after that I'm gonna focus on movement, or like, for instance, like in martial arts and karate karate, you start at a white belt, you learn the basics, you learn the basics, right, basic forms, you learn how to block, punch, whatever. Then you go to the next belt, which, depending on the system, yellow or green, whatever. Is it set up in that way?

Speaker 3 11:33

Are you talking about my method?

Speaker 1 11:35

Yeah, my method combines all three. Okay, so I'm a student, I come in and I learn all three off the top.

Speaker 3 11:45

Off the top, but but we don't. Here's the thing. As you know, brother Ron, it's far better to do than to talk. It's far so I don't talk a hole in my student's head about this stuff before we actually do it. Brother Mikey, you understand that we give the experience, then we give the election, you get it.

Speaker 2 12:10

We give the experience first, yeah we give the experience first.

Speaker 3 12:15

So do X, y and Z. Now watch this, brother Ron. You do X, y and Z and then you observe the result. So we don't want to do this in the very beginning. Follow me, this is important. I wouldn't sit a day one beginner once to learn Qigong and say, okay, sit down Now, imagine this purple light. I don't do that. We don't do that. You know why? Because I'm telling you what to think and guess what the mind can create physical sensation. So you know what we call that placebo cheek. It's not real. Yeah, you will. You will feel something, you'll go. Oh, I felt that. Because I told you what to feel. This is what I do and how I learn.

Speaker 3 13:00

Align yourself a particular way. Here's another three people your brother Mike you're going to love this and brother Ron too. Our method in particular, is replete with the number three for a reason. Okay, so here's a number. So, so, so, so, here is a three as well. In Qigong and this is general throughout Qigong methods there's three regulations. The first regulation is the body, the physical body. How do you regulate the physical body Alignment? You have to align the body properly. It's just like you, brother Ron, being a fitness trainer, you got to have proper technique first. The second regulation is regulating the breath. You have to learn how to breathe properly. The third regulation is the mind. The mind has to be able to observe the energy in the body once you have those first two regulations. But all of those three are interlocked, so when you align the body properly, the breath starts to naturally do what it's supposed to do. When the breath does what it's naturally supposed to do, the mind can start to observe what the energy is doing okay, so you?

Speaker 1 14:15

so you gave us six things that both, all three go, I mean all six go together. They intertwine, they're pretty much the same thing, but not right. Yes, now, now, if you can give us a demonstration of how does it look like, or how how would someone at home?

Speaker 3 14:34

I'm going to do one better. I'm going to. I'll definitely show you know, you know physical. But I'm going to do one better that you all can do and the viewers can do right now, while you're seated. While you're seated, we're all going to do it. We're all going to do it together. This is what I want everybody to do Take a deep breath right now. Ah, everybody did it horribly, but everybody did it the way most people do it. Here we go. Let me explain something. We learn in grade school that the lungs are supposed to operate by means of a muscle that's shaped like a pancake. That muscle's called the. What Diaphragm? Where is it located Under the lungs? The lungs are situated in the body lengthwise, not this way. So why does everybody, when I say, take a deep breath, why do they do?

Speaker 3 15:19

that they're not using their diaphragm. Now, when you look at infants and toddlers, when they take a deep breath, does their chest graze? No, the way it's supposed to work is that the diaphragm, upon inhalation, drops, and when it drops, it creates a vacuum in the upper torso which pulls air to the bottom of the lungs first, not the top. So 90 of the population adult population is chest breathing. They're not using their diaphragm. Therefore they're using 30 to 40 lung capacity off top. Okay, they're using more energy than they're creating with the breathing question on that.

Speaker 1 16:09

Now, I don't know if you know of anything called diaphragmatic breathing of course I know, okay. So now with diaphragmatic breathing, is that the same idea?

Speaker 3 16:18

or around the diaphragmatic breathing is the way humans are supposed to breathe. When you take singing lessons, that's the first thing you learn is diaphragmatic breathing. Okay, this is a return. How did Jesus say it? Not to wax religious, but how did Jesus say it? Only the ones entering into the kingdom have to be like little children. A lot of the high-level skill is relearning stuff that we naturally and intrinsically knew and then forgotten right.

Speaker 1 16:48

And guess what? Those are in my line of work, crawling and walking ain't that something, bro?

Understanding Qigong Energy Practice

Speaker 3 16:56

isn't that something? So let's get to the exercise. If you're sitting in a chair, I want you to put your feet flat on the floor and I want you to gently press, gently press your back on the chair gently. If you gently do it, you should feel your sternum flattened towards your spine. Do you feel that?

Speaker 1 17:21

I'm in a chair like an office chair, so okay yeah, you want to press the back to your chair if you're able to like.

Speaker 2 17:28

The stomach is going towards your back.

Speaker 3 17:31

I want you to feel your sternum, relax and flat oh yeah, this is a damn office chair.

Speaker 3 17:39

Oh yeah, yeah so it's going to be difficult for you all, right, alright. So well, here's a okay for you guys, because you're in an office chair and if you lean back it's going to go back. Yeah, I want you to sit up. Let me back up so you guys can see me. I want you to sit up, place your palms on your knees and then lean like your arms are struts. So you're leaning on your arms. You feel that, yeah, now relax your chest. You feel your sternum kind of soften and flatten towards the spine. Yeah, yeah, okay. Now what I want you to do is take a short inhale, only 10%, go, whoa, that went down by the navel, didn't it.

Speaker 1 18:29

Do it again, yeah.

Speaker 3 18:33

It didn't go on, the chest did it. It went down.

Speaker 2 18:35

Yeah.

Speaker 1 18:38

Yeah, posture Wow.

Speaker 3 18:42

That's the first alignment is the body. See that we just aligned the body a particular way. The sternum must be soft, the lumbar region, Brother Ron, you're familiar the lumbar region must be flat. You have to gently flatten the arch out of the lumbar. When you flatten the lumbar, the sternum flattens towards the chest or towards the back Right, and when you do that now the diaphragm is free.

Speaker 2 19:18

So when you inhale, it drops the abdomen expands.

Speaker 3 19:22

Am I right? Yeah, that's crazy yeah that's it.

Speaker 3 19:30

So I want you to explain that again. So people at home, no problem, do that. No problem if you're seated. Here's the easy way to do it. If you don't unless you're on like, if you're on a, if you're on a soft back, it's hard to, it's hard to do by by putting your back to it. So we'll just do it this way you sit up, place your arms on knees, straighten your arms so that they are like struts, so that you can gently lean forward on them. The leaning forward is what makes the lumbar region flat. When the lumbar is flat and not arched, relax the chest. You feel the sternum soften right From there. You inhale, you feel the abdomen expand right now. Here's the question you have to ask yourself so got? So watch this, you have the experience. Now we ask the questions what was expanding in the abdomen? Was it air? It feels like air, doesn't it?

Speaker 2 20:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:32

But your lungs are up here, so how was air getting down there? Guess what you just experienced. What's that you just experienced? Accessing your energetic body. This, two inches below the navel, is the main energetic center. Now, you've read this in books, you've seen it in Qigong books, but doing this just now, you've physically experienced it. That's good, see.

Speaker 1 21:02

Now that's interesting because you say that that's that we said right above the navel just below the navel two inches just below the navel. You say that's our main energetic center yes and this is also in my line of work called the center of gravity that's the core and the core, and also this is where, if you ever want, if you ever overheat, you can place uh like um water around that area to get your, your cold compress, that's right right, yeah, that is the.

Speaker 1 21:38

That's where most the heat of your body is you know, within that region too, man, it's.

Speaker 2 21:44

Maybe they say that's the biggest portal. You know, if you go into the cult spiritual world, Okay, that's an opening right there.

Speaker 3 21:50

Brother Mikey. Okay, see both of y'all. This is cool because of your respective fields of expertise, right? Yeah, all right, another three, and this is a very big thing. So, just like your home, if you look at your room, you have the walls physical walls, cool. But if you're an electrician, you're aware of another structure and that's the wiring behind the walls, right? So if you took the walls away and just look at the wiring, you'd be looking at the energetic body of the room. Make sense.

Speaker 2 22:23

That makes sense.

Speaker 3 22:24

Great analogy. Yeah, All right. So that's what we're talking about here the energetic body. Now there's another set of threes that are standard in Qigong. We call them the three treasures. It's literally three, threes.

Speaker 3 22:43

There's three spaces. You've got the upper space, middle space, lower space. Think of them as three environments, three climates, and each one of those spaces has a container. We call those the energy centers Lower energy center, middle energy center, centers. Lower energy center, middle energy center, upper energy center, right. And in those three containers you have three different qualities of energy. The lower energy center is the energy most associated with the physicality, with flesh. The middle energy center is the energy most associated with breathing and food combusted energy. The energy center between the eyes is the energy center associated with the power of thinking and consciousness. We call these the three treasures. See what I'm saying. In Chinese medicine, we call it the three treasures. Brother Mikey would call it Blue Lodge. Brother Rong the more science symbol of America, we would call it Chapter One in microcosms. All the same, there's only one way to tell the truth people.

Speaker 2 24:12

We might use different languages, only one way to tell the truth. It all adds up, it all makes sense in that, you know, when you say number three, it's so significant because even when teaching a child the songs are done in katasins of three a, b, c, d, e, f, g. Even twinkle, twinkle little stuff like it's all in patterns of three that's awesome right.

Speaker 1 24:33

So I want to take it back to qigong now. Now with qigong, right? So the three treasures, so I'm looking at the number nine, um, so you know, completion and everything like that.

Speaker 3 24:46

So so with the three sections, the three spaces, the three containers and the three energies now you showed us how we can control the body through posture and alignment.

Speaker 1 25:01

Yeah, that's one aspect. So the second aspect you were talking about was breathing. So I want to go over it. Let's go over, you know, the demo on that.

Speaker 3 25:14

We actually did, but let's repeat it. So the first thing is a lot, oh, yeah, we did that, we did that. But that's okay, let's do it again because I want to amplify it now. So remember, hands on the knees, straighten the arms so you could rest forward on them, relax the sternum, feel the sternum soften and flatten towards the spine. Good, now take a 10% inhale. Don't inhale big, just take a small inhale Go. You feel the lower abdomen expand, am I correct? Yeah, okay, now we're going to amplify this thing. Okay, gently, gently, tighten the perineum, which is where Between the genitals and the anus. Gently tighten, like you're trying to keep yourself from using the bathroom. Gently, not hard, and gently squeeze your lower abdominals so that they don't expand, so that they don't expand. The abdomen does not expand. You tighten the perineum, tighten the abdomen. Now, soften the chest. Do that same inhale go. If you did it right, you should feel your lower spine, right at the tip of the tailbone. Did you feel that?

Speaker 2 26:36

Well, I could have been sweating. It got me sweating.

Speaker 3 26:41

So, Brother Michael, this is why it's called qigong.

Speaker 2 26:45

It's energy work it's energy work.

Speaker 3 26:48

It's energy work. If you do it right, there's an immediate physical it does, because I was like damn.

Speaker 2 26:55

You can even see like I was doing that I have a mic mute muted so.

Speaker 1 27:02

so now with the energy work, so went breath, we went. Now the mind part, the mind piece.

Speaker 3 27:07

This is most important, okay, Remember what I said before, what I don't do. I don't tell people what to think ahead of time or what to feel ahead of time, because that colored their mind. So what happened with Brother Mikey? He immediately was like whoa, I got sweat.

Speaker 2 27:23

I'm going to tell you where you felt the sweat.

Speaker 3 27:25

You felt the sweat right here at the base of the skull. You felt the sweat right on the temples. Am I right?

Speaker 2 27:29

Yeah.

Speaker 3 27:30

Told you Okay.

Speaker 2 27:31

Hell yeah.

Speaker 3 27:33

So follow me, that is, the mind observing the result. Before you can have an intent, you have to have accurate attention. Let me repeat that, before you can have a proper intent, your mind has to know where the energy is. Let's do a simple exercise Ready, this is super simple. I want everybody just to raise their arm like this. No power, no tension. You feel your trapezius muscle squeeze, don't you?

Speaker 1 28:09

Yes, I feel my bicep more.

Speaker 3 28:12

Okay, that means this. That means the elbow's too far forward. Pull it back. You feel the trap now.

Speaker 1 28:18

I feel more of my shoulder.

Speaker 3 28:20

Okay, but right here. Okay, Now, roll no power. Roll the elbow down like this. Now, roll no power. Roll the elbow down like this. Nah, you let it out. Ron, Do it again. Put it up like this Keep the elbow squeezed, Roll the scapula. Is it all the way down? Is your elbow all the way down?

Speaker 1 28:43

Yeah.

Speaker 3 28:44

The power went from the shoulder of the trap to the back of the arm. The tricep didn't it?

Speaker 2 28:50

More of my lat Right here. I feel it right here.

Speaker 3 28:54

Now watch Lightly, mikey. Pull your elbow down further, pull it down more. Pull the elbow all the way down, all the way down, all the way down, all the way down. Good, now, watch down, all the way down. Good, now watch. Uh, ron, you just abandoned the exercise. Let's try it again. Do this. Bring it up, elbow back slightly. Okay, now you feel where the energy, you feel where the muscle is squeezing. Now no power, just roll it down. It left where it was. It's now in the back of the arm. Now watch Lightly. Point the fingers at the ceiling Lightly. Let the arm out halfway. Stop right there. Keep going, ron. Mikey, you stop. You feel it in the forearm now, don't you?

Speaker 1 29:43

I feel it more on my shoulder.

Speaker 3 29:45

That's because your shoulder's up Drop your shoulder, drop your shoulder. Drop your shoulder. Ah, now what? Go out a little bit further. You feel it in the palm, don't you?

Speaker 1 29:56

Yeah, my palm yeah.

Speaker 3 29:57

Now go out a little bit further. Now you feel it in the fingertips, don't you? Yeah, this is what we mean by regulating the mind. The mind has to be able to observe where the energy is at any point in the movement okay, so you?

Speaker 1 30:15

so this is, this is like the practice or the technique of when, when you're meditating and you're moving the energy throughout the body.

Speaker 3 30:24

This is all three put together. Before you can utilize the mind to move the energy accurately and honestly, the mind has to first know where the energy is honestly and not make it up you understand.

Speaker 1 30:42

What are the benefits of Qigong.

Speaker 3 30:44

Oh my God, you see what you just did.

Speaker 2 30:47

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 30:48

Watch, I want everybody to do it again. Elbow up. You feel the trapezius muscle squeeze Now. Okay, roll it down. Now the back of the arm is squeezed Now. Watch Halfway out. Now you feel the energy in the forearm A little bit more. You feel it in the palm a little bit more. You feel it in the fingers. Okay, here's one simple benefit In your blood vessels there are two things. What you mean? There are two things. There's blood. What else is in the blood vessels besides blood?

Speaker 2 31:29

Oxygen.

Speaker 3 31:31

Well, it's carrying oxygen Energy, or else the blood would just sit in the vessels it wouldn't move, I got you. So, wherever the energy is, what do you have? Increased circulation. When there's increased circulation, we have what Extra nutrients?

Speaker 1 31:49

Right, right Ta-da.

Speaker 2 31:56

This is beautiful man.

Speaker 3 31:58

I can consciously heal self-healing. I can consciously do this by directing the energy with the movement, with the breath, ta-da, okay, and that's just one benefit. There's many more, but that's just one.

Speaker 2 32:13

Isn't that called transmutation of some kind?

Speaker 3 32:16

Of course it's transmutation, brother. You are purposely self-recreating.

Speaker 2 32:23

Gotcha, gotcha. Of course it is.

Speaker 1 32:34

Okay, gotcha, gotcha, of course it is okay. So now, if you give us, give us more more benefits.

Speaker 3 32:36

Just you know, just to kind of like get people to understand the benefits. Absolutely okay, let's go back to what we did before this exercise. Sit at the edge of the chair, lean slightly forward, soften the sternum. When you inhale, the diaphragm drops. The abdomen expands. Do it real quick, but it expands all the way around. You feel it from the front sides and back right. Okay, well, what's under?

Speaker 3 33:06

your diaphragm people, your large and small intestine. What else I forgot? I forgot your kidneys. What sits on top of your kidneys, people, adrenal glands, that's right. Your diaphragm is massaging all of these now, brother Ron, what? Is the benefit of massaging Okay.

Speaker 1 33:25

Right Relaxation, what else?

Speaker 3 33:29

Lymph fluid. Lymph fluid, lymph fluid. The benefit of massaging is massage. Okay, right, relaxation what else lymph? Fluid toxins? Yep, okay, let's give you another benefit. When the diaphragm drops, it creates a vacuum in the upper chest. Well, a vacuum does what causes things to suck in. You're just not. You're now helping your heart. The heart works less.

Speaker 1 33:49

So longevity.

Speaker 3 33:53

If the heart is working less.

Speaker 2 33:54

What's that doing for your anxiety? What's that?

Speaker 3 33:56

doing for your heart rate, blood pressure.

Speaker 2 34:03

Drop.

Speaker 3 34:04

This is beautiful man, this is beautiful.

Understanding Qigong Energetics and History

Speaker 2 34:06

Okay, not to go off topic. Right, respectfully. Yes, people, from what I've read, misconstrue both qigong and tai chi.

Speaker 3 34:17

Tai chi is a martial art.

Speaker 2 34:20

Good question.

Speaker 3 34:21

Let's talk about it real quick, mikey. That's a great thing. The way the modern world sees tai chi, or it's been presented to the modern world, oh, it's a great exercise if you know what you're doing. What most people are doing is just doing slow motion movement, which has some benefit. Okay, this whole thing about Tai Chi being a health exercise was started a number of generations ago, okay, and it was an alternative. Tai Chi, of size, was started a number of generations ago.

Speaker 3 34:47

It was an alternative Tai Chi, so that the aged, elderly and infirm could get some of the benefits. Old Tai Chi was murder, death, kill stuff. There's people on the planet that still teach Tai Chi for combat, yes. So Qigong is an aspect of Tai Chi. In my Kung Fu style, qigong is an aspect. So and Brother Ron will like this you have once again another three, three different categories of Qigong Health or medical Qigong.

Speaker 3 35:26

The purpose of health and medical qigong is to regulate the body's energy as a platform to build radiant health. What do we mean by that? Health, or a clean bill of health is when you go to the doctor, get a checkup and you're not sick that day. What we mean by radiant health is that you're around a bunch of snotty-nosed first graders in the beginning of the school year and you can't get sick. Radiant health meaning a robust health. So that is the objective of medical qigong.

Speaker 3 36:04

The next level of qigong is called military qigong, for sports or for combat. What does it do? What is the objective? To use the mind and the breath to amplify the body beyond its normal capacity. Now, at that level you're kind of jailbreaking the body. So there's dangers. You have to be doing it right or you're going to hurt yourself. Okay, then there is spiritual or religious jingal. What is that? That is further amplification of the body, but we direct the energy, or the energy further application of the energy, to be directed at the centers of perception, to expand human perception. What did you say about middle pillar work, Brother Mikey?

Speaker 2 37:00

That's where you work at. In between both columns, you know the severity and the mercy column. That's right, it's where you at and your energy, as you put your energy over the war place, the abyss there you go okay, now qigong the word um.

Speaker 1 37:17

So you have uh qi and then you have uh chi that's called romanization.

Speaker 3 37:24

Let's explain it right. Right, chinese doesn't have letters. The Chinese languages have letters. They have pictograms, characters, characters, yeah. So Romanization, get it Roman, euro-psychology, western, okay, so it's spelled the way it sounds. There's two different systems of Romanization. Okay, there's pinyin and then the way guiles romanization. So QI is cheap, chi is cheap All the same, gotcha.

Speaker 1 37:55

And gong. What does that mean?

Speaker 3 37:57

Gong means to train like training. That's what gong means Like, for instance, in Chinese kung fu Right, what we call foundation training, in other words, how we turn the body into a weapon. It's called Ling Gong Train the skill, train the strength. Okay, that's what Gong means to train exercise.

Speaker 1 38:20

So Qi Gong in a nutshell is Train the Qi, now bioenergetic work.

Speaker 3 38:30

Same. Thing.

Speaker 3 38:31

But it's general, bioenergetic work is broader than qigong. Matter of fact, in Chinese Energetic work there's something called noigong. Noigong is broader than chikon. Chikon is noikon, because noi means internal, inside. You see, want me to give you guys an example?

Speaker 3 39:00

Take here, like this, put your arm like this, point your fingers towards 12 o'clock, right in front of you. No, no, right, 12 o'clock, right in front of you. No, no, right in front of you, right in front of you. Like you're saying stop, good, your fingers are pointing at 12 o'clock, right. But you'll notice your elbow was flaring slightly out to the side, right. This is what I want you to do. Let me stand up so you can see. This is what I want you to do. Drop the elbow to six o'clock so it's pointing straight at the floor. Keep it there. Matter of fact, I'm going to let you help it. Grab the outside of your arm to force your elbow to stay at six o'clock. Now correct the fingertips back. So pull the fingertips back to your eyelids. Now relax all the muscles and straighten the arm all the way out. This is Noi Gong. We hold this posture for 60 seconds, both arms. So outside, you're not moving, but there's a lot going on on the inside of your arm, isn't it? Yes?

Speaker 2 40:07

sir.

Speaker 3 40:07

Okay, relax.

Speaker 2 40:10

I feel the temperature rising See.

Speaker 1 40:14

That's the one. So, with the movement, what we just demonstrated is just small movements, small movements, but these small movements, these small movements, uh, change the, the wrist, change the hands, the intrinsic, uh, muscles in the fingers and and the palm and all around and um the tendons, the ligaments. Is that what it does?

Speaker 3 40:43

let me tell you what you're doing. See, remember, this is noigong qigong, right. What are we working on? Are we working on the physicality or are we working on the energy?

Speaker 1 40:53

We're working on the energy, but the energy will ultimately change. Yes, it will?

Speaker 3 40:58

Yes, it will, but the physicality, the changes in physicality, are a result. We need to change our focus to the energy. Now pay attention to how your right arm feels as opposed to your left arm. From what we just did, you feel a difference. Still, yeah, yeah, okay, see Now, what did you just do? Let's think energetics. Do you remember in grade school making a bio not a bio making an electromagnet from an iron nail and copper wire and then attaching it to a battery? You remember that? All right, the iron nail has what we call ferromagnetism because it's made of iron. Then, when you wrap the copper wire, the copper wire right is highly electrical, electrically conducive. You wrap the copper wire around the metal. You attach to a power source. You have a magnet Right. What's inside your bone?

Speaker 1 42:03

Marrow.

Speaker 2 42:04

Marrow.

Speaker 3 42:05

Red marrow, which contains what Hemoglobin, which is what Ferromagnetism? Yeah, I mean the connective tissue is piezoelectric because it's semi-crystalline. What does that mean, people? The piezoelectric effect means if you stress a crystal physically, it gives off a static electric charge. Let's do it again. Grab your elbow to pull down to 6 o'clock. Point the palm forward Right. Stretch the fingertips to point to the ceiling. You feel the connective tissue wrapping around your forearm. The connective tissue is the copper wire wrapping around the bone, which is the iron nail. You're creating a biomagnet. That's deep.

Speaker 2 43:02

That's true when the copper goes around the a nail, it creates a feel also as it is you're doing the same thing with the body now, with doing that with the body, would I give off an electric charge, so to speak?

Speaker 3 43:17

you're building one. You're building electrical and electromagnetic potential in the hands and in the form you're building it yeah, because the right arm for right now feels heavier than the.

Speaker 2 43:30

Yeah, like I don't know if you feel that, too, ron, like this, feels more heavier now it feels different.

Speaker 1 43:35

I feel I feel like, uh, my left hand, my left, my right arm is awake in my left right arm is awake in my left.

Speaker 2 43:45

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 43:47

This is beautiful, what both of you just said, because you demonstrated exactly what I said earlier regulation of the mind is the mind being able to notice the energetic difference and know where the energy is. In other words, you have to turn the, you have to train the mind to become an internal observer.

Speaker 2 44:09

you understand that's what you said with the middle chamber to reflect the chamber reflection chamber of reflection now the history of qigong.

Deep Dive Into Qigong Techniques

Speaker 1 44:20

if you can give us that brief, like brief, history of Qigong, yeah, sure, sure, sure.

Speaker 3 44:27

Well, man, we're talking human bioenergetics. We have to change the way we think to really understand the origins. We grew up in a Western society right where we believe progression goes in a straight line when actuality goes in a circle. So there were people in ancient time. Because their lives were more externally simple, they were more internally aware. Make sense.

Speaker 1 44:59

Yes, sir.

Speaker 3 45:00

So the history of bioenergy goes back to the origins of humanity itself. Now, if we're talking Chinese history, china has over 5000 years of history as a nation, so at least 5000 years.

Speaker 1 45:14

Gotcha Now so.

Speaker 2 45:17

Asia, Asia.

Speaker 1 45:19

That's right, being that you're creating electromagnetism within your body. Yes, with these movements, yes, of course, you can heal people with this. Of course, of course, developing this, yeah of course.

Speaker 3 45:38

But now you can see firsthand, Brother Ron, how that's done and how we can affect you Firsthand, Brother Ron, how that's done and how it can affect you.

Speaker 1 45:45

get it, yes, sir. Now is there any way you?

Speaker 3 45:50

could demo for us some Qigong techniques Absolutely, or Qigong routine.

Speaker 1 45:53

Yes.

Speaker 3 45:54

All right, so there's a very famous Qigong routine called the eight-piece brocade. All right, so I'll do. There's eight sections to it. I'll do one of the exercises from the first section, okay. So the first thing first, align the body. Okay, I open the palms like this and stretch the fingertips, and I push the thumb forward slightly. Why? Because if I hold it flat, I want you to do this real quick Hold your palm flat, flat and stretch the fingers. Okay, now, touch the middle of the palm, mikey, stretch the fingers like this, splat it, good. Touch the middle of the palm, okay, cool, but it's flat. Now, watch, push the thumb forward slightly. Ha, push the thumb forward slightly. Ha, that spot opens up. Feel it? Mm-hmm. Okay, the center of the palm is a very important energy center. In Chinese medicine. It's called the laogong point. Okay, that is the point by which healing energy emits, see, so we hollow the palm to open that point.

Speaker 3 47:02

All right, in this exercise, you're going to keep the palms this way throughout the entire exercise. So the palms are open, we keep them that way. Drop the hands, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Stretch the palms towards the ceiling and then here's one of the secrets Click your teeth together 50 times. Now watch, drop the arms to the sides, keeping the palms stretched, then bend the elbows and then down and relax. That's one repetition. You do that eight times, eight times. I know everybody's asking this question, so I'm going to already ask it for you. Why click the teeth?

Speaker 1 48:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3 48:09

This is why, brother Ron, you've heard of tapping, haven't you?

Speaker 1 48:15

Tapping yeah, that's Kali, no, no, no, what's tapping? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know about that, right. What's tapping? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a potment.

Speaker 3 48:25

You know about that, right, yeah, yeah, what's one of the benefits of tapping? You create a vibration in the bone structure. Okay, what part of the bone structure? The bone structure is connected to every part of the bone structure. That's why it's called bone structure, right, okay? So here's a very a lot of the deep secrets are very simple. Well, what if I wanted to create that vibration in the bone structure universally and in a most efficient way? You would tap the part of the bone structure that's directly connected to the bone structure and the brain.

Speaker 2 49:08

That makes sense. Wow, mm-hmm. It reverberates to the whole body. Once it goes up here, it goes, got you.

Speaker 1 49:18

Whole body?

Speaker 2 49:20

Yeah, that makes sense. And what does it do? Exactly?

Speaker 3 49:25

Increasing. See, for us, the knowing is in the doing. Right, remember we said about the regulating of the mind it's best for you to do it and observe the effects in your own body. But that said, that said, vibration, remember. Just like the connective tissue, the bone is crystalline. So knocking the teeth together creates a vibration in the bone structure, increases density, increases energy capacity as well, promotes the growth of marrow and, more importantly and more immediately, promotes the production of white blood cells. Great way to increase immunity.

Speaker 2 50:16

That's dope.

Speaker 1 50:18

Wow, because I was getting ready to say that about breathing, that increase in the immune system, absolutely, you know enhancing the immune system, so okay, and you do that. You said how many times?

Speaker 3 50:32

Eight times, eight times, so one exercise but I just did eight repetitions of that, and then you move on to the next one. There's eight exercises that you do eight times each.

Speaker 2 50:47

Okay, I thought it was 50. I thought you heard it. I'm like you got to do that. I'm like, oh, wow.

Speaker 1 50:53

Yeah, you got to click your teeth 50 times 50 times.

Speaker 2 50:56

Yeah, 50 times.

Speaker 1 50:58

Wow, before we cut out, can you give me one more exercise?

Speaker 3 51:03

Absolutely. We talked about medical Qigong, right? So this is martial Qigong. It's classic for my system. You guys already did it, so now we're going to do it the martial way. Okay, you guys already did it. Remember when I had you do like this with your arm?

Speaker 2 51:21

Yeah.

Speaker 3 51:22

And then roll it down and then go out.

Speaker 2 51:25

Yeah.

Speaker 3 51:26

Okay Now what we're going to do? Because we know where the energy is. We're going to use the mind and then the physicality to accentuate it. So I want you to do it with me, ron, okay, okay. First, hold a hand like this Now split the fingers and make a claw, now extend the index finger. There you go, okay. Hold the position like this Out to the side, to the side. Stretch the wrist See how my wrist is stretched, not like this, like this Yep, okay.

Speaker 3 52:01

Now, watch, bring the arm up soft, bring it up All the way up, all the way up, like this Yep, okay. Now, watch, bring the arm up soft, bring it up All the way up, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up. Good, now squeeze the trapezius muscle. Feel it Mm-hmm. Okay. Now I want you to use the mind, the mind. Put your mind on the tricep Now. Roll the mind. Put your mind on the tricep Now roll the scapula down. Ah, good. Now I want you to put your mind on your forearm Now go out halfway and squeeze the forearm. Good, now put your mind on the palm.

Speaker 1 52:47

Go out a third and squeeze the palm.

Speaker 3 52:48

Now put your mind on the index finger. Go all the way out.

Speaker 1 53:01

And relax what the hell was that? Okay, okay. So it's basically, like you said, the three, the mind, the uh, the, the mind, the body and the breath and the breath all together right, so it's a. It's a lot about awareness.

Speaker 3 53:25

It's mindful movement. In this respect, the mind has to be 100 percent involved.

Speaker 1 53:33

Yes, sir Sure. Yeah, yes sir Amen, that was a great demonstration, a good breakdown. I really appreciate it. We've got to come back to do some more Qigong videos. That was very informative. Now I want to go look up Qigong videos and check it out Real quick before you leave.

Speaker 3 53:56

I want you to tell the audience what that felt like for you. What did?

Speaker 1 54:01

it feel like what it felt. It felt like, um, like my, my hand and my forearm, strengthening yes, yeah, like I didn't even. I always, always ask uh, brother sharif, how is he like? Does he lift weights, right? No, weights. Now you know, but now you know it's like no need for weights, when it's like you got everything right there, your body correct, but you don't do push-ups or anything like that, I don't have to.

Speaker 3 54:31

Not, I used to do, I used to do them.

Speaker 1 54:33

I don't, I don't do, I don't have to know I just you don't really have to because I like, I felt the whole of that and that was one repetition. Yeah, and how long are these exercises done?

Speaker 3 54:48

You know like these exercises are. You know, some traditional martial arts systems have forms, routines, right yeah, one of the cool things about our style is that the qigong is built into the forms and into the techniques. So you felt how intense that was. Right yeah, in all forms we do this movement three times. Three is enough, isn't it?

Speaker 1 55:11

Yeah, all right, like every form, you start off like that.

Speaker 3 55:16

Yeah.

Speaker 1 55:18

Wow, and how many forms do you guys have?

Speaker 3 55:20

Well, we've got four main forms.

Speaker 1 55:23

Okay, okay, got you Very informative. That was Peace. You guys had. Well, we got four main forms. Okay, okay, got you very informative. That was peace. I really appreciate you. That's a different podcast, man. No other podcast is doing that right there Knowing the podcast is doing that. That's right. I'll see y'all tomorrow, thursday, and we're out of here. Peace, peace.