Flowing Freely

All things in the natural world curl, twist, and swirl in patterns like flowing water. You see it in clouds, smoke, waves in the ocean, sand dunes, the whirls in long summer grasses, the markings in the walls of slot canyons.

Spiders build their geometric webs in herky-jerky spirals, adding a bit of chaos to the design. Looking up in the night sky we can see rivers of stars that sometimes seem to follow the curving form of animals, if not gods and goddesses.

The Chinese give the name, Li, to these water-like flowing patterns. The Chinese written character carries with it the pattern and order of nature. Humans are part of nature, born out of the earth rather than into it. Everything that composes our bodies is found in nature, and the primary marker of life on earth--carbon--is not formed in the earth but in the fusion reactors that power the stars.

The philosopher Lao Zi (fourth century B.C.) says, "People follow the earth; earth follows heaven, heaven follows Tao, Tao follows its own nature." 

The quality of Li is a part of us. It's opposite, Zi, wich is logic and reason, is acquired and, unfortunately, it is too easily acquired in a society that urges us to follow clocks rather than the cycles of nature. We hurry from one place to another, never taking the time to enjoy the journey. We spend more time reading about and watching other people live their lives that we spend paying attention to our own.

The flowing, graceful exercises of Qigong help us to slow down and pay attention, to recapture and express that flowing part of ourselves that we share with the rest of nature. Not just our bodies but our minds become supple and more alive. Flowing internal energy creates flowing consciousness, the mind is freed and so are we.