Practising standing postures
in the Cardiff class
Nei Gong, which means ‘Internal Work’ in Chinese, is a process that works with the physical, energy, and spirit bodies, to clear blockages on many levels giving us good health and a balanced nature, but it is also a method of connecting with the Universe and realising our true nature. The Taoist Monks use this process as they strive to develop and become one with the Tao.
It includes many stages such as, relaxing, aligning, lengthening and connecting the body, Sung breathing exercises, awakening the Dan Tiens, opening the Acquired and Congenital Meridians, and in the later stages, balancing the Wu Xing or Five Elements and settling the Heart-Mind as we awaken our spiritual nature.
Qi Gong, TaijiQuan, and Dao Yin exercises are all part of this Nei Gong process, but meditation, especially towards the later stages of the process, is a very important part to spiritual development, and is practised in what the Taoist Monks call, Internal Alchemy.
Acquired and Congenital are Taoist terms, Congenital Qi is the energy that we are born with and when it’s used up we die, Acquired Qi is gained from the food we eat and the air we breath and this tops up our Qi throughout our lives, unhealthy living can quickly diminish our Acquired Qi and we become in danger of using our Congenital.
We start by opening the twelve surface meridians or the Acquired Pathways, and then we progress to the deeper eight extra-ordinary meridians or the Congenital Pathways.
When we are born we are connected to Heaven and Earth, our Dan Tien is awake and our Congenital meridians are open. As we grow older we are influenced more and more by the world and its negativity, our energy systems begin to switch over to the Acquired state of being and our Dan Tien slows down, we are now following the creation path of birth, illness and death. Our aim is to switch back to the Congenital state and reverse the process in ourselves.
We are a microcosm within a Macrocosm (the Universe), and the Nei Gong Process of Internal Change is a map to follow in order to return us to the source or Wuji.