Ki

Chinese medicine is a fascinating thing. For over five thousand years they have passed on this incredible knowledge of the human body. How they got the information is something I don't know, but when I try to apply what I do know about the human body and the electro-chemical process used to keep it alive, well, parts of it do make sense to me. I wish there was an easy way to explain it.

First, let me point out that I am a Christian. I am a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church. One aspect of my church's ministry concerns physical health. While we teach vegetarianism as a healthy lifestyle, there are a lot of us who do eat animals. A study conducted a number of years ago showed that vegetarians live on average seven years longer than people who eat animal foods.

I have lived in Asia for nearly four years. I've experienced Thai massage, and it is incredible.

Now to tie these three things together.

The human body runs on an electro-chemical process. The body does generate its own electrical power. I think that this is what is refered to as ki/qui energy. Using a term I first heard when I joined the SDA church, it is the "spark of life."

In college biology class, we took a knife and cut a small section of a leaf and put it under a microscope. I observed a stoma, a small waterway if you will, that was processing water to the rest of the leaf. Even though it was cut off from the rest of the plant, this small part of the leaf was still alive. It had the ki energy or spark of life in it. The proteins in the plant are still living.

When an animal is killed, the life in the animal ceases to exist. The electro-chemical process ends. When we eat the animal, we eat dead protein. When we eat vegetables, we eat living protein. Living protein is better for our bodies than dead protein. The living protein helps keep the electro-chemical process going, while dead protein slows it down. As a biblical philosopher once asked, what does the living have to do with the dead? They are not compatible.

Most martial arts do come from a Buddhist religious tradition. From what I have read, even Buddha was a vegetarian, and taught it to his followers. Most Buddhists I have met since coming to Thailand do eat meat and drink alcohol, and I find this disappointing. Makes it hard for me to find places where I can have a good meal.

The brain and the nervous system run on this electro-chemical process, and the various nerve clusters throughout the body act like junctions or terminals or routers for the electrical impulses that control the five senses. While getting a Thai foot massage, the therapist touched a sensitive part of my foot. She told me that I snore. She also touched another part of my foot and told me something else that was true about me. Granted, most men do snore. But there are also a lot of people who do not. Fifty-fify chance of getting it right. Two for two, however, piques curiosity. Should have gone for seven out of seven, since the foot has a lot of nerve endings that are wired in with other nerve endings, so there is more that our feet can tell us if we paid attention. and took better care of them. The methods of Chinese medicine and Thai massage are designed to keep the nervous system "clean" and operating smoothly. Massage helps work out some of the kinks, not just for muscles, but for the nerves and pressure points, as well.

The breathing exercises associated with ki are important. If we breathed better, we would have less problems with our respiratory system. We do not breathe deep enough. We do not use the muscles in our diaphrams, so we do not get enough air deep enough into our bodies. People who sing or are publi speakers understand the importance of this. Speaking from the diaphram increases our projection of voice, and also prevents sore throats that are brought on from shallow breathing.

So yes, ki is important.

Taoist magic uses ki energy, but that is the stuff of the video games and movies. I think the Force of Star Wars borrows much from this concept. The ki was not meant to do magic tricks, but when it is allowed to do what it is designed to do, it will give us a long life. My Christian belief says that God is the giver of life, and the ki is a gift from God. We should not abuse it, but we should take care of it as such. We have heard that the body is a temple. The best way I can explain this is to compare it to the Old Testament temple in the wilderness used by the Hebrews. At night there was a glow that came from the holy of holies, the dwelling place of God's glory among His people. I see the ki energy in my body in the same way. My body is a temple, and the electro-chemical spark of life is God in me. It does not make me God, but it does make me His child. And the power He gives me is not to be abused.

This is a point of view. I'll probably make changes to it as I continue to grow as a Christian and as a martial artist. For me, this makes sense, and if it doesn't make sense to you, that is okay. We have different life experiences to draw upon, and different ways of saying the same thing. It makes life interesting, and shows that we have much, much more to learn as we grow as human beings.