Philosophy or the ‘love of wisdom’ is the key to deep internal qi training. All training, and life, is based of the observations of how the universe works. The ancient Chinese broke it down systematically starting from the Dao and the yin/yang to the I Ching. The Dao is the everything. The I Ching is the myriad of things that evolved differently from the same method of the yin/yang multiplying on itself over billions of years.
You might be wondering why the philosophy of the universe (you can read more with the eBook) is important to know for our training. This is a fair point. I have had many students in my kung fu classes who did not take it serious until their training got deeper. Then, they started to appreciate the deeper aspects to the training.
Body development, movement, and health are all reflected through the observations of the universe. The universe uses a simple rhythm of repetition (fractal math) so that it doesn’t have to reinvent itself for anything new (most of our DNA is the same as a fly). In Daoist philosophy, this theory was written by Lao Zi 2500 years ago. “People are based on earth, earth on heaven (the universe above), heaven on the Dao and the Dao on what is naturally so.”
Since our goal is to flow with qi, we must learn the ways of not only our physical bodies, but the ways of earth, the universe and how things are naturally so. Therefore, we must study the natural philosophy of the ancient Chinese to improve our skill levels. The practice and study of qi is a lifetime of work.