Milarepa wrote:
Hi Bruce,
Is the Ki used by Karateka not the basic element of spiritual power?
Hi, Wayne,
I think the ki/qi used in the martial arts is mostly a matter of body mechanics and alignment with some augmentation by the use of the breath.
If Ki is that force which binds all life, in fact, energy of life,
Energy of life is one sense of ki/qi. But don't go overboard w/ that. E.g., the Chinese word "tianqi" literally means "heaven qi," but in usage just means the weather. If you talk about the weather as some sort of life energy, you'll probably get some strange looks.
it seems maybe, and i'm thinking out loud here, Ki, was somehow erm, a pre-cursor to Reiki?
If you mean that ki is somehow changed into reiki, then I don't know. So far, I don't have any reason to believe that.
Or, putting it a better way, Reiki is more refined than Ki?
It looks and feels different to me. See comments below.
I'd be real interested in your feedback on this. Also, as you're very familiar with Qigong, do you feel, sense, or expereince a difference with Qi, as in Qigong, on the one hand, and Reiki on the other?
They're different, at least in my experience of them. When I do reiki practice, it feels somewhat higher-frequency -- in the literal sense of frequency, which appears on another thread -- than qi in qigong practice or qi healing. Someone who's my qigong student noticed the same thing the first time I emitted reiki onto her hand, although I hadn't mentioned the difference in frequency to her. Reiki isn't associated with as much sheer heat as yang qi, but it's not cooling like yin qi. (On the other hand, when I've been the recipient of reiki hands-on treatment, it's usually felt hot.)
When I look at qigong energies, I see yang qi as clear or yellow, and yin qi as dark blue. I usually see reiki as gold (with a sparkling sort of appearance that yang qi doesn't have), but sometimes as violet.
Bruce