Spirituality and self cultivation?
Especially in the western civilizations, spirituality has been associated with blind faith, charlatanism, manipulation of people, misuse of power, churches, fanatics, extremism and even war. It is evident that such a cultural background provides many prejudices about spirituality especially as spiritually oriented people often lack credibility in modern society. It appears as a sharp contrast to the concept of self cultivation promoted by the educational system, economics and science. Especially the religious spirituality claiming exclusive access to divine powers and favored groups of people stands in clear opposition to the present globalization where everyone is subject to the same principles.
Master Chen’s concept of spirituality in the practice of qigong is quite different. He does not attribute supernatural powers to any divine entity nor does he claim exclusive access to it. He simply teaches how everybody can access the help of invisible powers inhabiting our environment. These powers will save no one from having to work hard and taking responsibility for one’s actions. In fact the goal of self cultivation could be very well reached without them, but for our convenience the use of these spirits accelerates the progress. Self cultivation would not be what it is if disciples were told to depend on spirits. A person with a high level of cultivation is a mindful person alive and when the person dies this mindfulness remains accessible as a spirit. Because except for humans all parts of nature are wuwei (無為, see “what is self cultivation?”), all parts of nature have such a spirit per se. Thus you may ask any spirited entity for support to progress in self cultivation, but you will have to go the way yourself. Obviously this is a subject, which is hard to describe in words and it is up to the interested student to take the chance of having the experience by him/herself. This requires a trusting relationship, however, without teacher it is a long way to get there.
