WATER’S DWELLING PLACE: Notes of Taoist Inner Alchemy (Art of Conscious Living Book 1)

This book is the pathway to search for Qi, through breathing and exercise, using the energy channels of the Small Celestial Circuit, activating the internal movement of the tiger (Yin, the female energy) and the dragon (Yang, the male energy) to establish the body's psychophysical equilibrium.Through Nei Dan, a journey of knowledge and understanding of the Taoist Inner Alchemy and the relationship between Hathayoga and Tàijíquán."I was already a yoga teacher when I started to be interested in Taoist psychophysical techniques in the middle of the 1980's. In 1990, in both Hong Kong and in the Chinatown of Singapore, I had taken lessons of Qi Gong and Tàijíquán. These lessons caused me to have doubts and perplexities on the level of teaching that I had found in the West.I had the impression that in the form (Tao Lu) and in the techniques that we study in the West there was something missing. There was always a lot of talk about Qi, the inner energy and about extra sensorial perceptions linked to the flow of this Qi, but nobody seemed able to help you to feel it. “Ok, so what is this Qi? How can I perceive it?” The majority of Italian instructors that I have known replied with the seraphic smile of Buddha “You'll see... You need time... When you're ready you'll feel the power of Qi... And then you won't need to ask any more questions.”When I was in Hong Kong I asked an old Chinese man to teach me some Qi Gong exercises. The first thing he did was to point the index and middle finger of his right hand at about twenty centimetres from the centre of my forehead. I felt a light electric current and then a light pressure, pleasant and intermittent. It seemed that the space between his fingers and my forehead had became dense and he was managing to command it with his will: it was Qi."