How is enlightenment measured in Qi gong practice? Identifying and connecting experientially to the four levels of qi that we work with in qi gong

Over the next few articles I want to talk about practical ways of identifying different levels of qi. In this article I am simply going to identify these levels, name them, and give some simple exercises for identifying them. To do this I am going to be using comparisons between the four kingdoms mineral, plant, animal and human.

The names of the four types of qi are:
1. “Jing-qi”, or life-force energy
2. “Qi”, which equates to consciousness or mind energy
3. “Shen-qi” which equates to self-awareness (spiritual?) energy
4. “Wu-qi” which equates to words like primal energy, non-dual energy, all pervasive energy, causal energy.

Plants possess the first form of qi. Animals possess qi-types 1&2. Humans possess qi-types 1-3. The fourth type of qi, Wi-qi could be said to inhabit and pervade all four kingdoms of mineral (in inanimate matter), plant, animal and human.

Identifying Jing-qi:
Compare a living plant and a dead plant, or a living tree and a dead one (if you can actually go out and do these exercises physically). What is it that you can see, feel and sense as present in the living plant that is not present in the dead one? That which you see feel and sense is the living plants jing-qi, or life force energy.

Identifying qi:
Compare a living plant with a living animal. What is it that you see, sense and feel as being present in the animal (literally “animating” it) that is not present within the plant? That which you see sense and feel in the animal, not possessed by the plant is its qi, or mind and consciousness energy
(Note: somewhat confusingly, the word “qi” is used as an umbrella term for all levels of energy, and in the case of this level, the same basic term is used specifically to refer to mind or consciousness energy)

Identifying shen-qi:
Contemplate your own, and human beings capacity (sorely underused unfortunately) to reflect upon ourself, our mind and our being in a way that an animal is not capable of. This capacity of human beings is their self-awareness qi, which might also be termed as soul or spiritual qi.
(Note: I am not saying animals have no soul or spirit, just not in the same self-aware sense that is being referred to in the above exercise to clearly identify this level of qi)

Identifying Wu-qi:
Observe that any object, mineral, plant, animal or human has a certain innate being-ness or presence. This sense of being-ness or presence is paradoxical in the sense that it every object has its own unique presence or being-ness, and yet at the same time the essential being-ness that we sense is the same in every object everywhere. It is like the intuitive glue that unites the whole universe into a single unified being. Wu-qi is sometimes simply referred to as the Tao.

Concluding thoughts
The objective of Qi gong practice is to unite these four levels of qi into a unified, harmonious, functioning whole within our own being, to marry the “higher” or “heavenly” energies of Wu-qi and shen-qi with the lower or “earthly” energies of qi and jing-qi. You could say that enlightenment in qi gong practice involves progressively higher and deeper levels of harmonizing, fusing and engaging these four levels within the body of the practitioner.

In my next article I will guide a more detailed contemplation for connecting experientially to jing-qi.

© Toby Ouvry 2010, you are welcome to use this article, but you must seek Toby’s permission first! Email: info@tobyouvry.com