Intensive physical exercises are necessary to maintain physical fitness: fitness, aerobics, walks in the mountains, various types of yoga. If I have to choose, then I will focus on qigong.
Marbella, Spain. - 27 years ago, Patricia and I first came to one of the clinics in Marbella to take a course of dietary nutrition. We were advised to do this by an acquaintance who spoke about dietetics with such enthusiasm that we were overwhelmed by curiosity. We liked it and we could not give up these three weeks on the water and soups, with exercise, swimming and walks. Abstinence in food should carry something useful, since it is an integral part of all world religions, both Western and Eastern. On the other hand, if you closely link abstinence in food with the spiritual component, then you can emasculate the very essence of spirituality. If you want to understand the quest of the mystics, it is better to read the works of St. Teresa of Avila or St. John the Godfather than go to the Buchinger clinic.
In my particular case, abstinence is intended to give rest to my poor body from the stress that I put it during the year during travel, overwork, social and cultural tasks (a nightmarish combination!), As well as as a result of all other overloads, worries, the vigils and hassles of everyday life.
Here I go to bed early and get up at dawn, exercise in the morning, and write and read in the afternoon. When you are on a diet, thought and memory do not work so well, but even so, I always write better in the peaceful silence of these mild evenings, the mild climate created by Mount La Concha and the beautiful gardens of Marbella than anywhere else. …
Losing the excess weight that annoys you is one of the results of therapeutic fasting, but by no means the most important. The main one, it seems to me, is the feeling of purity and balance, which is usually achieved by the one who rid his body of food, forcing it to absorb what is in it in excess. But simply restricting food is not enough here. Vigorous exercise is needed to stimulate this process. Exercises for all tastes are developed here: fitness, aerobics, walks in the mountains, various types of yoga. If I have to choose, then I will focus on qigong.
I have not studied it and, in truth, I am not particularly interested in the origins and philosophical content of qigong, because I am afraid that if I venture into its theoretical aspect, I will come across viscous pseudo-religious reasoning designed for fools, which martial arts strive to adorn themselves with. … It is enough for me that this is a thousand-year-old Chinese set of exercises, which once upon a time branched off from Taijiquan. Besides the fact that he is the complete opposite of "martial art". The essence of these exercises is rather difficult to explain, but one thing is clear: those who perform them daily should be in a state of inner peace, concentration and calmness.
Initially, you need to have a lot of patience and trust in order to succumb to the charm of these slow and measured movements, which immediately seem to a beginner as just a new way of breathing, different from the usual one. My wife, for example, the living embodiment of impatience and mobility, was so bored in class that she preferred more active sports. But it is thanks to this endless slowness of movements and changes in qigong postures that it is possible to suppress the seething of instinctive human passions, which are the source of violence. As in any other creative work, it is about the pursuit of excellence. Therefore, it is recommended to practice it in front of a mirror, since it is our display that will show that no matter how much effort we make to achieve harmony, grace and impeccable beauty of movements, the ideal will always remain unattainable. And in order to get closer to it and try to achieve it, concentration of thought is just as important as physical mastery. Anyone can understand the fundamental principle: form determines content not only in the field of literature and art, but also in the daily life of people. And everything that is done with the calmness and choreographic perfection of qigong movements is the most refined form of beauty.
No matter what they say, martial arts cannot be called harmless: they are based on using everything that is from the beast in a person to turn him into a killing machine, to maximize his innate tendency to brutal violence into an organized destructive force that can destroy the enemy like an experienced martial artist breaks a whole pile of bricks in two with a single blow of his hand. Qigong, on the other hand, wants to rid a person of this innate aggressiveness and show him that life can be better if every time we give vent to our rage, our every action is performed as gently and calmly as physical qigong exercises.
All these movements embody certain images. To separate the hands is to "dissolve the waters"; stretch your arms up, resting your feet on the ground - "to hold the earth and the sky so that they do not collide with each other"; run your hands from top to bottom along the body - "wash in the rain"; to make a revolution around oneself - to turn into a "tree swayed by the wind", and to remain in a calm state, filling the body with soft tenderness, means "feeling" your own spine, heartbeat, blood flow. Thanks to this calm dance, the air we breathe not only reaches the lungs, but also circulates throughout the body, from head to toe.
A full qigong session lasts no more than half an hour, it can be performed by people of any age, in any physical form, even in the most neglected. At the end, you feel incredible physical and mental calm, as if an emaciated body thanks us for giving it so much attention, care and affection for such a short period of time. I do not know of a better way to deal with a bad mood, discouragement, shattered nerves and bouts of anger, that is, precisely those mental states when it seems that life has no meaning or justification. Interestingly, after practicing qigong gymnastics, we are not in high spirits and do not dance with joy. We just become calmer, more balanced, more ready to face all sorts of surprises, and we also begin to better realize that life, with all its difficulties and sorrows, is the most exciting adventure.
This, ultimately, is the path to peace and peace of mind: to tame the ruthless beast possessed by desires - sublime and bloody, as Freud and Bataille taught. This beast sits within us, and when it breaks free from the cage in which it is held by human society and culture, it causes disasters throughout the history of mankind.
My first qigong teacher was a Cuban physician who studied the art in China and spent all his holidays there to perfect his skills. Then there was a young German woman Janet, so flexible and airy that when she made her movements and turns, it seemed to me that she was about to lift off the ground and disappear and dissolve into airspace. She accompanies classes with soft, enveloping and rhythmic Chinese music. And she does not force the newly admitted students, but rather convinces them to completely immerse themselves in exercises for the sake of health, beauty and pacification.
She convinced me. Now I can even afford to note that if billions of two-legged people devoted half an hour to qigong every morning, there would probably be less wars, poverty and suffering, and people would listen more to the voice of reason than to their passions, which (now it is already obvious) can commit suicide on our planet …
