Lesson 1:

Ancient Practice Holds Key
to Perfect Health

You were born with the natural ability to heal yourself and others

Hello my friends. Welcome to Spring Forest Qigong.

Qigong is a study of the whole universe, including physics, chemistry, psychology, biology, astrology, electricity, and medicine. In this course we discuss medical Qigong, one of the cornerstones of traditional Chinese medicine.

In Chinese philosophy, "Qi" means air or breath, vital energy, or the Universal Force that forms all animate and inanimate things. "Gong" means work, the function and benefit of this energy, or self-discipline leading to the art of mastery. We are born with the vital and intelligent energy of Qi.

This complex energy substance, fundamental to life itself, is comprised of an informational message and its carrier (energy). In one word Qi means energy.

Chinese people have been practicing Qigong for over five thousand years. In the past several decades, China has studied Qigong, proving that Qigong can effectively help people in the prevention and healing of many diseases.

Today tens of millions of people in China practice Qigong, because of its great power of healing. Yet unlike acupuncture, acupressure, herbal medicine, or Tai Chi, Qigong has been a mystery to most people, including modern scientists. This ancient discipline combines mental concentration and breathing techniques with body movements to activate and cultivate our "vital energy" as it flows through the invisible channels, the meridians, of the body.

The Chinese have studied Qi in many facets of life. Studying the Qi system in apple trees, for example, uncovered a meridian system of energy channels in the trees, just as there is in humans. When they used an acupuncture technique to place wooden needles into certain spots, these apple trees produced wonderful apples every year.

They also had Qigong practitioners pass Qi to rice. The rice with Qi grew much better and healthier than rice without Qi. But the biggest study done has been to use Qigong to help with different kinds of sicknesses such as migraine headaches, arthritis, back pain, and cancers.

Some people said that Qigong was only an exercise, nothing to be excited about. Others said that Qigong was psychological. Others, who practiced Qigong with little benefit, said that Qigong was not real. For me, the results I experienced were compelling and demanded my focused attention. I practiced with a variety of accomplished and powerful Qigong masters. I went to the mountains, staying in the cave to do meditation. I stayed in caves to do meditation sometimes three days, or eight days. The longest period of time was two months. In the cave, there was no light, and you had to sit straight and fast with little water and some fruit. Some times you had to do a complete fast without water or any kind of food. In this way you could go deeper into your meditation and the emptiness. In the cave you hear nothing but the pounding of your heart.

The more I studied Qigong, the more I realized the simplicity and power of Qi, especially for healing the body. But whenever I asked my masters how much practice I had to do before I could heal others, some said twenty years, others said fifteen years, and others even said fifty years. I listened and practiced very honestly. But at the same time a voice kept telling me that Qigong is very very simple.

Spring Forest Qigong makes the healing power of Qigong simple, powerful, and accessible to all of us

I spent my spare time practicing and researching Qigong. Eventually I discovered that Qigong is not at all as complicated as most exercises tell us. I learned that the movement of Qi is an unconscious part of our daily lives. Our bodies work automatically to remove energy blockages every day.

This insight led me to develop Spring Forest Qigong.

I want to share the power and simplicity of Qigong with the world. I want to work together with as many people as I can to bring peace, love, and perfect healing to our lives through Spring Forest Qigong. Spring Forest Qigong exercises are so simple that every one can learn it, regardless of age. But do not be fooled by its simplicity. Spring Forest Qigong is also very powerful. Spring Forest Qigong not only can help you heal physically and mentally, but it can change your life.

To understand why and how we heal ourselves with Qigong, let’s explore the question:

What is energy?

You might say electricity, or sun, or light, or whatever you name it. But what is electricity, or sun, or light? We can continue this question-and-answer without end.

Energy is energy. Just like Tao (the law or principle of the universe), energy cannot be explained. Something that can be explained is not energy, but is one form of energy. A tree is a form of energy. The sun is a form of energy. A stone is a form of energy. And the air is a form of energy. Energy cannot be created. And energy cannot be destroyed either. But energy can be transformed.

But what is the original form of energy?

How Qigong works—the essence of Qigong

The Taoist masters of ancient China found that everything comes out from the emptiness and returns back to the emptiness. At the very beginning the whole universe is in the state of emptiness. When this emptiness comes to a point—a breaking point, two kinds of energy will be formed—yin energy and yang energy. Once these two kinds of energy are formed, they will attract to each other.

Those two kinds of energy, of Qi, form everything in the universe including matter.

We, too, are formed by those two kinds of Qi—yin and yang. Yin means something female, passive, and spiritual; yang means something male, active, and physical. Examples of Yin would be woman, water, spiritual life, and earth. Examples of yang would be man, fire, physical body, and sky. Yin and yang energies must be in a good balance. Either too much yin or too much yang will cause imbalance in the body. We call it sickness. Yin energy cannot live without yang energy, and yang energy cannot live without yin. And also in a certain situation, yin energy would change into yang energy and yang energy would change into yin energy.

When yin and yang are not in a good balance, a blockage will be formed in the body. Colds, arthritis, and tumors are simply the symptoms of the imbalance of yin and yang. This blockage prevents energy from flowing freely in certain energy channels.

We have many energy channels that run throughout the body to keep it fully functioning. There are twelve main channels, plus eight reservoir channels. Each channel serves a specific purpose. The main channels carry energy to wherever energy is needed in the body. Extra energy in the main channels flows to the reservoir channels. The body draws on energy in the reservoir channels when the main channels run low.

Blockages in the main channels and reservoir channels prevent energy from getting to parts of the body that need energy. Body functioning slows down or stops, and we feel sick.

If we want to get well, we have to open these blockages to rebalance the yin-yang energy.

How? Take medicine, practice Qigong and other exercise, or do both. I recommend that you look at or choose Qigong as complementary medicine, because Western medicine can serve you well.

Qigong practice let’s you remove blockages of the yin and yang energies so that the energy can flow through the body in perfect balance. With balance comes healing.

Qigong exercise and meditation are the active and preventative ways to heal the body, while medicine is a passive way to heal the body. Both play an important role, but Qigong can potentially heal the body more effectively and possibly with perfection.

Age-old practice helps heal modern problems

A perfect healing heals the body physically, mentally, and spiritually at the same time. As far as we know, most traditional healing techniques help the body physically. Qigong opens the door for holistic, perfect healing. This is needed more today than in the history of mankind.

With the revolution of modern techniques and computers, more and more people are working at their homes or office. Less and less physical work is required. Because of this, more and more people develop yin–yang imbalances in the body. As we have already discussed, yin energy is something passive.

Mental work belongs to yin energy, while physical work belongs to yang energy. Now we use more mental energy and greatly cut down physical activities. That means we have created a great imbalance both to our physical body and mental body. In order to gain back this balance, we need to find a way to correct this imbalance. And Qigong is the ideal exercise to help us achieve this goal and give us a perfect healing.

Session One Action Step:
Opening Your Lung Channels

Do you have allergies, asthma, or find it difficult to breath at times? In this session we talked about channels in the body. The lung and heart energy channels run through your arms, and by patting them, you can help heal your lungs. A student of mine couldn’t physically stand to do the Spring Forest Qigong exercises, so she did a lot of patting of her arms. The scar tissue in her lungs disappeared, bringing her lung capacity back to normal.

Lets do a test. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths through your nose. Notice how much your sinuses are open. Now hold your left arm out in front of you, palm up. With your right hand cupped, vigorously pat your left arm from the shoulder down to the palm of the hand. Then turn your left arm palm down, and pat from the shoulder down to the back of your hand. Repeat this cupping along each side of the left arm for 15 seconds. When you are done, immediately do the same thing to your right arm.

With a cupped hand, firmly pat the inside and outside of each arm

When you are finished with your right arm, close your eyes and take three more deep breaths through your nose. Did you notice a difference? You can do this any time you want to open your airways when they start to become constricted due to allergies, asthma, a cold, a sinus problem, lung cancer, emphysema, or congestion. Be sure to be firm with your cupping, not very, very hard, but firm enough so you can really feel it.

Another way to open your lung channels is to hold your arms over your head for two to three minutes. Ever notice track coaches telling their runners to put their arms over their head after a race or hard practice? Raising your arms above your head challenges the lung channels and helps open your breathing system.

Lie down with your arms at your sides, and notice the ease at which the breath goes in through your nose. Now place your hands just above your head on your pillow. After a couple of minutes, notice how the ease of your breathing improved.

Stress in the office combined with sitting for long periods of time can settle in the lungs. This can leave you with a feeling of "I just don’t have enough energy to breathe." Patting the arms can help.

Practice any of these techniques each day until our next session.

With much love,

Chunyi Lin


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Chunyi Lin, Qigong Master
Chunyi Lin
Qigong Master
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