In this context it means teacher, tutor, master. I believe direct translation is teacher or father.
My Shifu is the person that teaches me / guides me through my Shaolin Martial Arts practice.
My words will not go far to explain, and as most energy based arts, discovery is the only way to truely understand. In fact my Shifu suggested when I started not to read about anything online or to watch other instructors videos as he understood that in doing so I may have built expectations and directed toward my interperation rather than his guidence for me to discover for myself.
My descriptions will be mechanical in nature, there are deeper and more detailed ways that people with far more experience and mastery of this area could explain.
First, the meaning of Qi. This has multiple meanings in its interperation, I will simplistically describe it as 'life energy', which all is made, it also means breath, being that in language terms, we breath inwards for life, so we pull in Qi, the energy of life through breath (which is one aspect).
I mentioned Jing & Shen, which are different forms of Qi, the Ying Yang being the balance of forms of Qi. Again, I know this is described from a point of minimal knowledge, and I am sure there are much more concise descriptions from those that know more than I.
In my scientific mind, the concept of Qi from the early Taoism interperations reconciles inside my mind with my small understanding of physics (I studied at BSc level).
- Reverse breathing
- In general, people breath with an inhale expanding the chest, an exhale deflating the chest
- In my learning, the dantien, more specifically the lower dantien can be very loosely described as the Qi center
- Breathing into and out of the lower dantien, or I think its called diaphragmatic breathing, is something to learn, most people do not breath this way
- In reverse breathing, rather than the breath inward raising the lower abdomen, the lower abdomen falls / deflates, and the outward breath raises out the abdomen.
Qi Breathing
- Loosely described, a part of Qi Gong is learning to bring in Qi into all parts of the body, because all is Qi, and we are Qi, then we can pull in Qi.
- Again loosely, in breathing we draw in air that we convert to internal Qi
- Qi breathing I guess you could describe as more a state.
- The breath is so light and unnoticable, there is no consious recognition that you are breathing in and out
- However you are aware that the body is expanding and contracting as it pulls in and pushes out 'breath' or Qi
Spinal breathing
- Again, this may be described in part as a state of awareness and consiousness.
- With the 'diaphragmatic breathing', rather than awareness of the breath inwards and outwards and the abdomen and chest expanding / contracting, the focus / awareness is on your spine.
- You draw in breath / Qi into the spine, you can draw upwards towards your head, and also propagate it outwards from the spinal cord.
I hope this helps and makes some sense, I am trying to describe assuming no prior knowledge.
edit: spelling
edit to add:
There was a passage I read in an ancient chinese text (translated) that said "after enlightenment, one understands that the 'six classics' contain not even a word". The six classics being the writing of 6 Taoist masters, for me this describes how in this area of concepts, understanding can not be gained from reading the words, we already have the knowledge, and I use what tools I can to discover and explore these concepts.
edit: formatting
For all you guys interested in different types of meditation and Yoga, I've gotten into the Wim Hof method.
Wim Hof is a dutch extreme athlete who has been able break records like climb part of the way up mount Everast in nothing but shorts and sandels, longest barefoot marathon through snow, longest time spent in ice, longest time spent under ice water, longest marathon through the sahara desert without water, and has actively resisted ecoli and other bacteria injected into his blood stream using breathing techniques. Normally that bacteria would cause severe illness for 6 hours which would then pass without long term effects, but not only did he resist it, but he was able to train 12 test subjects to do the same.
He's also an expert in Yoga.
I'm almost done completing his 10 week fundamentals course the 2nd time around and it's great.
The 3 main pillars are: 1) breathing exercises 2) cold exposure like cold showers and ice baths 3) intention (basically, auto-hypnosis and harnessing the placebo effect and directing your practice towards various goals.
This stuff has all kinds of benefits and helps with: depression, anxiety, energy, inflammation, endurance, creativity, etc.
It also includes yoga, body weight exercises and other types of exercises, etc.
The breathing can really take you to intense places through accessing your own DMT as well as melatonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin and adrenalin, though I'm not USUALLY able to get psychedelic experiences out of it, Ive gotten a few that were AMAZINGLY peaceful, but others have gotten full blow visuals, although it really isn't about that. I am frequently able to get to a place of peace.
Basically, what you do is at least 3 rounds of at least 30 breaths, but you breath out a lot more than you breath in to fully saturate your blood with oxygen but not breath much of it out: essentially controlled hyperventilation.
Then, after the last breath (usually after the out-breath rather than the in breath) you hold you breath for as long as you can, and then when you have to breath you breath out...then immediately hold you breath again for another 10-15 seconds, and then that round is over.
While holding your breath is when a lot the amazingly peaceful sensations happen, but also after the blood rushes back to your brain after your 2nd breath in.
This also serves the purpose of making your body alkaline and warming it up for the cold shower or ice bath, and you are supposed to do those daily.
I've been doing it a year now and only recently started ice baths, with my coldest and longest one being 36 degrees of 2:45.
You have to be very careful not to get hypothermia or frostbite, and I would NOT do this stuff on drugs....but what most people don't realize is that tolerance to the cold REALLY DOES exist. People who have done this for years often no longer need anything more than a t shirt and shorts even in the coldest weather, and have INCREDIBLE control over their immune systems and their minds.
I would highly recommend it, though I'm still just a beginner.
I'm also very into martial arts as people mentioned, mainly Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but there isn't always any clear connection between martial arts and meditation, though eastern disciplines often make one. I like to have a connection there for myself, and many BJJ guys do the WH method, but fighting and meditative techniques are not always inter-related, though I think more martial artists could benefit from meditative practice for sure.
