I am pretty inexperienced in this aspect of chinese martial arts and i have been searching everywhere for a “straight” answer and could not find anything,not even in the “religious” point of view…so,what i want to ask is: WHAT IS QIGONG?
PS: I am not really questioning what is qigong in “scientific and cold” point of view or whatver,i just want to know what C.M.A practioners call qigong,i don’t care if its a religious,exoteric or scientific point view.
I’m probably wrong, but here’s one personal take on it.
Qigong roughly translated means “vitality exercises” - exercises or training to increase mental and physical vitality.
In terms of training, I use the word as a category for kinds of exercise that have a strong introspective component. They look at physical sensations, heart-mind, and breath for example, in relation to movement and stillness. A maxim could be “If you relax deeply enough, you can find a huge amount of energy.”
This is a very limited view of course, as I know practically nothing about esoteric aspects of Chinese medicine and don’t incorporate many such ideas into my training. All that’s interesting to me are the basic, foundational practices that don’t require complex ideas or very special techniques.
Let’s see now…
Check out my archived article eXtreme Kungfu Qigong Hard Qigong & Water Fights. I give a general overview on qigong in the section subtitled "The Five Categories of Qigong’.