Chi – The Users Manual

“Do you think that chi is real?”

“I think it is just oriental mumbo-jumbo, there is nothing there that cannot be explained by science or biomechanics.”  This argument had gone on for months.  Eddie believed in the spiritual life within karate and John was a hardened scientist.  They had argued every time they met Eddie believed that she was spiritual energy and John believed that everything could be scientifically explained.”

“Can you not see that life force is magical?  Chi is the special energy that makes us alive, it’s what animates our body.”

“That is just your mind, I’m unable to see how that can be anything special.  You animate your body by simply using your mind.”

“But you can feel your chi moving around your body, you cannot deny those sensations.”

“But they are simply nerve responses to stimuli from the mind, there is nothing unusual in that.”

“What about your aura?  People can feel and see that, they have even photographed it with Kirlian photography.”

“Of course they have, it is a bioelectrical field a round of the body.”

“So what do you think of these people that cannot be lifted or pushed.”

“It is simply good postural alignment coupled with strong mental intention.”

“Okay, then what do you have to say about these no touch knockouts?”

“The instructor simply gets into the student’s head or intimidates the person before he conducts the so called knockout.  Any hypnotist or strong-willed person can recreate the same feat.”

“ Ah man….  you have no imagination….”

“The problem is that you have too much imagination!  Everything can be explained by science!”

“Excuse me…  everything?”

“Anything that can’t at the moment will be in the future!”

“But some things still remain a mystery, even to scientists?”

“Yes, but nothing that you have talked about or described as ‘chi’!”

“Apart from life force?”

“Mind, and bio electrical energy…”

“So scientists can recreate it?”

“Not exactly…..”  Just at that moment Sensei walked by.  “Sensei, we’ve been having a disagreement….”

“What a surprise!”

“Is chi esoteric or scientific?”

“They’re both the same to me.”

“How can that be?”

“Esoteric means ‘intelligible only to those with special knowledge’ – as I’m neither a scientist or spiritual guru, it’s all esoteric to me!”

“Then how come you teach us how to use it?”

Because using it and knowing what it is are two different things.”

“How so?”

“If you buy a washing machine, you get a ‘users manual’ with it.  It doesn’t tell you how the washing machine works, just how to make it work.  A significant difference.”

“Aren’t you curious as to how it works though?”

“A little, but I’m not a scientist, or a guru, I’m a martial artist and don’t want to limit my understanding of it.”

“Hang on a minute……  ‘limit your understanding of it?’….  you just said that you didn’t have one!”

“Not a scientific, or spiritual one, no…  but a martial artists, yes.  I have a user’s manual, I have been given instruction by my teachers in many layers that has led me to an ever increasing understanding of how to ‘be human’ more efficiently.  The one thing I have learned is that I limit my understanding by trying to put a frame around it.  Every time I think ‘this is it’ – it isn’t.  By having no barriers in my mind, it constantly expands.

Would this not be true of both science and religion as well?”

“Erm….  yeah…..  I think you just humbled both of us Sensei…..”

“Does it stop you arguing?”

“Not so much ‘argue’ as ‘healthy discussion’ Sensei.”

“Then maybe you just don’t need to set boundaries eh?”

Sensei walked off whistling ‘It’s not what you do but the way that you do it….’