Chi -- the Energy and Essence of Life

Physicists have been saying for decades, maybe centuries, and mystics for eons that everything is made of energy. It's one thing to learn that fact as a kid so you can spit it back on a science exam. It's another thing to accept it intellectually.

It's something very profound and different, however, to really get inside that notion and understand intuitively, unquestionably, what that means. When you do that, the knowledge becomes an inalienable part of your life ... and it changes you. Because thoughts, too, are energy.

The idea that all things are made of energy is different from the notion that matter is formed from atoms with electrons spinning in orbit around nuclei and the possibility that everything can be broken down into essential elements defined by the Periodic Table. That statement may be true, in a microscopic and mechanical way.

The dog lying against my leg as I write this article may be physically composed of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, calcium, and so forth. But she and her irrepressible little spirit are also something more. Infinitely more ... and infinitely precious.

If you take the precise number of molecules, the exact ratio of elements contained in this dog, stir them all together and watch the result ... you will not reproduce her. You won't even come close. She is a product of the mysterious energy that animates her and makes her uniquely herself.

Whether you want to call it spirit, or soul, or aura, or essence ... there is a key energy in absolutely everything. People, dogs, plants, mountains, cities, buildings, rocks, cars, appliances, streets, rivers, clouds, you name it. American Indians, among others, indeed spoke of Spirit ... and built their religions around that notion. Mountains, deer, corn, rain ... everything had Spirit. Cognitive, sentient Spirit that could be felt, honored, addressed, and even bargained with.

If you pay any attention at all to the world around you, you know exactly what I mean by this concept of essential energy. You feel it in an automatic attraction or repulsion to other people, places, objects ... and even ideas. When the energy around you is steady, congruent, and supportive ... you feel safe, calm, serene, and happy. This can come from being in a special place, or being with a special person, or even running a special fantasy on the movie screen of your imagination.

It works the other direction, too. Some people give you the creeps ... just by being in your air space. Some places can make you physically ill if you stay in them too long. Some memories can ruin your whole evening's mood. Their energy with yours jangles, clashes, hurts, wounds, and repels.

The Chinese call this thing ... this energy ... this essence: Chi. Pronounced ch-ee. And sometimes spelled Qi. The presence of Chi ... as seen and sensed in absolutely everything ... is a fundamental undertone that shapes their whole world view, and touches everything from their concept of medicine to their ways of architecture.

Over the centuries, the Orientals ... like those of us in the West ... have constructed perspectives about how things work, have mapped out principles on which they see life operating, have devised strategies to manipulate advantages for themselves and enhance their health and comfort. Maneuvering the flow and quality of Chi is crucial to many of these thoughts and tactics.

This very approach presents us with novel concepts ... which open up new possibilities if we move to integrate some of their ideas with some of our own. The result, in my experience, has indeed been a stronger and more empowered way of managing myself and my personal world. Once you have experienced and recognized this thing ... you take it for granted and work with it the way you do the color red, the sound of the wind, and the feel of yourself located inside the structure of your own body.

As I said in the beginning ... it becomes a part of you. And you are forever changed.

(c) 2007 Rebecca Brents, All rights reserved.