Body Mind Spirit

There are many wonderful benefits derived from practising chi kung, and they may be generalized into the following five categories:

1. Curing illness and promoting health.
2. Enhancing vitality and developing internal force.
3. Promoting youthfulness and longevity.
4. Expanding the mind and the intellect.
5. Spiritual cultivation.

Many chi kung types focus on only one or two of the above categories, but a few cover all the five. For example, most types of medical chi kung aim mainly at curing illness, virtually all sexual types of chi kung emphasize solely on youthfulness, whereas Shaolin Cosmos Chi Kung touches on all the above five categories of benefits.

What kinds of illness can practising chi kung overcome?

According to Chinese medical thought, practising chi kung can cure as well as prevent all kinds of illness, including diseases like asthma, diabetes, hypertension and cancer which are generally considered “incurable” by conventional medicine. Practising chi kung is also very effective for overcoming psychological problems. (Please see the following section.)

How does practising chi kung cure so-called incurable diseases?

One must, first of all, realise that the conventional medical paradigm is only one of many ways to look at health and illness, and it is not necessarily the only correct way. According to the Chinese medical paradigm, there is no such a thing as an incurable disease, although a patient may be incurable if his disease, even a simple one, has done damage beyond a certain threshold. No disease is incurable because it is our natural birth-right to overcome all types of diseases — if our psychological and physiological systems are working the way they should work. Illness occurs only if one or more of these natural systems fail in their functions. When all our systems are functioning naturally, the Chinese figuratively describe this condition as harmonious chi flow, i.e. the energy flow that supplies the right information to every part of our body (and mind), that provides the right defence or immunity when needed, that repairs all our wear and tear, that channels away toxic waste and negative emotions, and that performs other countless things to keep as alive and healthy, is functioning the way it should. If this harmonious chi flow is disrupted, illness occurs. The forte of chi kung is to restore and enhance this harmonious chi flow, thus overcoming illness, irrespective of the labels one may use to define its symptoms, and promoting health, which the Chinese have always considered to be more important than curing diseases. It is significant to note that the claim of chi kung to overcome illness and promote health is not based just on the above philosophical explanation, but on thousands and thousands of practical cases.