ARE THE LESSONS DIFFICULT TO LEARN?
A chi kung class
Question
Are the lessons difficult to learn? I may have difficulties learning as I am slow to catch up, and I cannot concentrate well since I get distracted with my body discomfort.
-- Tan, Malaysia
Answer
The lessons are easy to learn — if you learn the exercises from a master who teach them as chi kung. In fact they are so simple that on-lookers may wonder whether they work.
On the other hand, many of my students have expressed amazement that these apparently simple chi kung exercises can produce such profound results. Students who had suffered from so-called incurable diseases recovered after a few months. Students who came with clutches walked away after the course without clutches. Students who had practised other forms of chi kung for years but had no experience of chi, found chi surging and flowing inside them in the very first lesson.
A big problem, which is not obvious to many people, is that because the exercises look simple, and are actually simple if learnt from a master, some people learn from books or videos, or from mediocre instructors. The exercises are still simple, but they have lost their essence and are performed not as chi kung but as physical exercises. The amazing results, of course, will then be missing.
The difficult part is not in the learning, but in your own practising. If you practise consistently what you have learnt in the course — 15 minutes a sessions, two sessions a day — you would overcome your health problems in a few months. If you practise off and on, or do not practise, you will still have your health problems even though you may have learnt well.
A basic tenet in Chinese medical philosophy is that all treatment starts from the heart, which means the mind in English. Chi kung masters have advised that to have good result you need to have three “hearts” — the heart of confidence, the heart of determination, and the heart of perseverance. You need to be confident of yourself, be determined that you will overcome your problems, and persevere in your effort. If, even before you start to acquire the techniques and skills that will help you to overcome your problems, you cast doubt on your ability, you only make things difficult for yourself.
The above is taken from Question 8 of July 2001 Part 3 of the Selection of Questions and Answers.
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