Secrets of Qigong

Qigong vs. Neigong…

Posted in Qigong by Dr. Bruce

If you’ve read the post from yesterday, you know some of the deeper meanings associated with the concept of qigong. Today I’d like to offer the bigger context within which these exercises fit.

Neigong (literally, “inner cultivation”) is a sub-category of what is referred to as the internal arts. The softer martial arts, such as taijiquan, xingyi and baguazhang are included within the general category of internal arts as well.

Within neigong are such disciplines as qigong, shengong and jinggong, each of which have their own specific sets of exercises.

A diagram may make it easier to understand:

From this diagram you can see that qigong is a subset of the larger category, neigong.

So what exactly is neigong anyway?

The characters for the word look like this:

You might recognize the second character from yesterday’s post as ‘gong’, meaning cultivation. The first character means “inner” and in this context means controlling mind and breath for specific purposes.

I originally learned this concept from my first teacher, Master Share K. Lew. He talked about the differences between qigong and neigong (which he spelled chi kung and nui kung) as being this:

Qigong is a category of exercises focused on cultivating personal energy, strengthening the body, improving circulation and increasing balance.

Neigong is a larger category that includes qigong as well as specific exercises for developing skills such as greater awareness, intuition, the ability to access larger energies of heaven and earth, etc.

These days most people don’t know about the distinctions between these ideas, and thus tend to speak of all Oriental internal exercises as “qigong.” Now you know the difference!

Be well,

Dr. Bruce

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