An introduction to ChiMuKwan Ki Breathing

ChiMuKwan Ki Breathing is a Taoist method of training, handed down from a spiritually enlightened ascetic to the great Grandmaster Sosan DaeSa more than 100 years ago on Keum Kang, the most beautiful mountain in Korea.

The practice of ChiMuKwan Ki Breathing has as its goals:

• Improved mental, physical, and spiritual health
• Greater energy and power
• Greater spiritual awareness

Those who diligently practice ChiMuKwan Ki Breathing enjoy strong health, youthfulness, self-understanding, and enlightenment. ChiMuKwan KiDo helps to eliminate the separation of mind and body and provides a source of boundless energy to its practitioners.

Those who incorporate ChiMuKwan Ki Breathing into their practice of Taekwon-Do benefit from greater relaxation, flexibility, strength, energy and power, and harmony with their surroundings and fellows.

Grandmaster Oh Kum Yul President of the Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association

The origins and lineage of ChiMuKwan

The great Grandmaster Sosan DaeSa lived alone for many years in the natural world of the Korean mountains. Born in 1870 in a remote mountain village in Kang Won Province, he entered at Buddhist temple at age 12 after losing both parents. Shortly afterward, he began to live a Taoist life. The great Grandmaster Sosan DaeSa spent more than 90 years seeking further knowledge of the Tao and self-enlightenment. During this time, he received his knowledge and practiced the methods of ChiMuKwan Ki Breathing.

He lived far from people and worldly matters in a remote mountain cave and often traveled as far as China and Manchuria to meet others who followed nature and the Tao. In 1962, at the age of 92, he accepted Grandmaster Oh Kum Yul as his only disciple. The great Grandmaster Sosan DaeSa transmitted the teaching of Ki Breathing to his disciple, spending 17 years teaching him before departing this world.

Grandmaster Oh Kum Yul, born in 1935 in the city of Pusan, Korea, started to seek a new life in the mountains of Korea at age 27, following nature and finally settling on Mt. So Rak. It was there that he met his teacher and received his knowledge of Ki Breathing. After the death of the great Grandmaster Sosan DaeSa, Grandmaster Oh Kum Yul traveled for years among the mountains of Korea, living in harmony with nature. In 1995, after being recognized as a great master and being asked by many to teach the methods of Ki Breathing, Grandmaster Oh Kum Yul returned to civilized society to begin his teaching.

The meaning of ChiMuKwan KiDo Breathing

Literally, ChiMuKwan KiDo means "universal energy way school." Chi refers figuratively to the energy of the universe as it is gathered in your abdominal Ki center entering the world through cosmic holes; Ki refers to universal vital energy; and Do refers to a path that is followed for a lifetime.

Cosmic holes are pathways for energy. In the universe, energy travels through the otherwise empty vastness of space. In the atom, energized particles move in the empty space surrounding the nucleus. In our bodies, the energy transmitted through the nervous system traverses gaps between our nerve cells. Our bodies are made of countless microscopic cells. Membranes containing holes surround the cells. Energy passes in and wastes pass out through the holes in the membrane. This exchange sustains our lives.

Without cosmic holes to serve as channels for energy, neither the vast universe, nor we could exist. Cosmic holes and the energy that moves between them are the basis of all existence. This fundamental concept is the key to understanding ChiMuKwan KiDo.

The great Grandmaster Sosan DaeSa chose the name ChiMuKwan KiDo, after long, rigorous study, as the only appropriate name for his discipline. "ChiMuKwan KiDo" captures the universal energy available to its practitioners and the methods used to tap it. "Do" indicates that the discipline is a Way, a path and study and practice of a lifetime.

ChiMuKwan KiDo principles

The fundamental principle of ChiMuKwan KiDo is that a healthy life requires constant expulsion of dead energy and nurturing of fresh energy.

Dead energy is energy that accumulates in the body, but that cannot be used because it is of a form or nature that cannot contribute power. For example, after physical exercise, unused (leftover) energy cannot eliminate fatigue. When dead energy merely collects in the body, it deteriorates and does more harm than good. As pond water becomes stagnant and develops an odor as it sits, so dead energy stagnates, unless it is replaced with fresh energy.

Fresh energy is rejuvenating. As fresh energy enters the body, it replaces dead energy. As a fast-running stream remains fresh because its waters are constantly renewed, so fresh energy keeps the energy in our bodies in a constant flow. If fresh energy constantly replaces dead energy, we can greatly increase the energy available to us.

Our bodies are filled with channels through which energy can flow in and out. People often consider the nine large openings of the body to be the main channels of the body. ChiMuKwan KiDo considers more than 84,000 small openings in the body to be worthy of study and practice. The breathing and physical exercises practiced in ChiMuKwan KiDo manipulate these thousands of tiny openings and cells in the human body that serve as channels for energy.

The cells of the body (except for those in some parts of the bones) breathe, absorb food, and create and expel waste. They also grow, reproduce, and in time die. Cells require fresh energy and oxygenated substances to function. They contain tiny channels, served by the capillary blood vessels, exchange wastes for the food and substances required for their metabolism. Cells cannot metabolize if these channels become clogged.

Unless fresh energy can replace dead energy, fatigue develops. All of the channels of the body must be kept clear of clogs that would block the intake of fresh energy. If the channels become blocked, disease can develop because dead energy accumulates in the cells, actually turning into poisonous substances in the body that eventually settle in the internal organs. The body becomes less and less able to expel its wastes and begins to deteriorate. This is why the bodies and rooms of unhealthy people develop an unpleasant odor. As people age, their inability to exchange dead energy for fresh causes reduced mobility and the diseases of senility, such as circulatory and heart disease, arthritis, and more. Similarly, cancers can result from the same causes.

Exercise is crucial to a healthy body and mind. Exercise promotes the flow of energy in the body. Some scientists believe that the human body can live as many as 140 years if sufficient supplies of nutritious oxygenated substances can circulate freely throughout the body. ChiMuKwan KiDo enhances longevity by improving our ability to clear clogged channels and more effectively metabolize food and eliminate wastes, including dead energy. The faster we remove dead energy from the body, the better we feel.

Conversely, lack of exercise, often accompanied by poor posture and uncoordinated breathing, results in increasing amounts of dead energy within the body. Often this dead energy appears as fat. Stress and anxiety also follow.

ChiMuKwan KiDo combines breathing and physical exercises with meditation to nurture our ability to increase the flow of fresh energy throughout our bodies. The exercises improve circulation and flexibility. In Oriental medicine, the internal organs are considered to be connected to the spine and other bones and joints. Maintaining a flexible skeletal system thus improves the circulation and health of the internal organs.

Each effect enhances the others, so that body and mind become stronger, more flexible, and more energetic. Ultimately, the practice of ChiMuKwan KiDo prevents disease and promotes youthfulness, resulting in optimal health

ChiMuKwan KiDo meditation

ChiMuKwan KiDo meditation emphasizes an empty mind, proper posture, and proper breathing. Hyeol Ki Do, like Taekwon-Do, does not consider mind and body to be separate. ChiMuKwan KiDo meditation increases the unity of body and mind.

Meditation is commonly practiced in the Ka Boo Joh posture (in English, the lotus or half-lotus positions). The early stages of practice focus on developing proper posture. Unless the proper posture is maintained, pain and other side effects can result. Once the correct posture is achieved, however, even beginners can experience the sensations of energy in motion. With practice, the rewards are limitless.

Most people push the lower spine outward when sitting on the floor. For them, maintaining this posture requires hard intentional effort and muscular stress. Without training, the circulation and movement of energy actually decreases. Therefore, achieving the benefits of ChiMuKwan KiDo meditation is impossible. However, with proper training and practice the posture becomes very natural. The spine is positioned properly: the lower spine, pushed inward, settles naturally on the pelvis. Energy can then flow freely throughout the body. The breathing technique practiced during meditation forces out dead energy and brings in abundant fresh energy.

The benefits of ChiMuKwan KiDo

Body and mind become one.

Youthfulness and improved health are fundamental benefits of ChiMuKwan, but ChiMuKwan KiDo equally promotes the strength and energy of the spirit.

ChiMuKwan KiDo returns the body to its youthful state. The body has abundant fresh energy and little dead energy. The energy channels of the body are unblocked, allowing energy to flow freely in and out of the thousands of channels of the body. The body, which becomes flexible and strong, produces a fresh fragrance.

Consider a child and an adult climbing a mountain. Although the adult moves faster, the child naturally keeps the circulation very active. At the top of the mountain, both are tired, but it is the adult who becomes stiff. Returning to the youthful state eliminates the stiffness and soreness that otherwise follow strenuous exercise.

A healthy body, though fundamental and necessary, is not the ultimate goal of Hyeol Ki Do. When body and mind become one, you truly taste the joy of ChiMuKwan KiDo. With a relaxed body and empty mind, you can detach yourself from your body and achieve self-actualization. From this moment on, the distinction between life and death disappears. Harmony of body and mind is the key to enlightenment.

This enlightenment serves as the means of practicing the most advanced ChiMuKwan KiDo training method, the separation of body and spirit. The spirit can travel far in the universe, away from the body. The distance at which it travels depends on the strength of the body. The great Grandmaster Oh Kum Yul often separated his body and spirit for as long as two months. His spirit traveled far in the universe while his body maintained the proper posture.

Each of us can realize how and why the body was brought into the world at birth and become free of the burdens of life and death. This is the ultimate point, beyond the limit of worldly matters. Without reaching this point, we cannot enjoy true freedom. The expulsion of dead energy from the body achieves this state of physical and mental well being. Returning to the imperishable state of the spirit and freedom from worldly matters is the true understanding of the self.

Doing once is better than seeing one hundred times.

ChiMuKwan KiDo glossary

Chi - Literally, Universal energy, "KI" in Korean.

Mu - Martial

Kwan - School

 

Ki - Universal Energy

 

Do - Literally, way or path. The Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character romanized as tao.

 

ChiMuKwan - The practice of ChiMuKwan is incorporating breathing, sitting, and exercise for improved physical, mental, and spiritual health and complete harmony between mind and body.

 

Ka Boo Joh - Literally, leg sitting. A sitting posture in which the legs are crossed, with one foot or both feet resting on the opposite thigh or thighs. The spine is held straight and the neck is bent slightly forward.

 

Tao - (Chinese) Literally, way or path. To Taoists, the Tao represents both the composition of our universe and the practice of living in harmony with universal and worldly forces.

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