The Spiritual Features of the Experience of qi in Chinese Martial Arts

The experience of qi in Chinese martial arts can constitute a secular spiritual experience—one not necessarily tied to religion. Five features characterize this spirituality: the centrality of individual experience; self-transcendence and the search for authenticity; connection with a transcendent dimension; the role of the body alongside an apprehension of something beyond the physical; and the use of imagination and metaphor to grasp that transcendent dimension. This suggests a form of spirituality that neither requires religion nor simply rejects traditional religions. The experience also reveals fundamental structures of human experience—how we experience our body and the world through it—indicating that phenomenology offers a valuable approach for studying spirituality.

Study at a glance

Abstract

I argue in this article, grounding on a phenomenological analysis of the experience of qi in Chinese martial arts, that the experience of qi in this framework can share the features of a secular spiritual experience, in other words of a spiritual experience that is not religious, at least not necessarily. I put in evidence five features that can characterize the experience of qi in Chinese martial arts and that arguably pertain to spirituality: (1) the importance of individual experience; (2) self-transcendence and the quest for authenticity; (3) the connection with a transcendent dimension; (4) the importance of corporeity and at the same time the apprehension of a dimension which cannot be reduced to corporeity; (5) the use of imagination in order to grasp a transcendent dimension that presupposes the use of metaphors. Consequently, the experience of qi in Chinese martial arts suggests the possibility of a form of spirituality that is not necessarily bound to religion and that at the same time is not a mere rejection of traditional religions. At the same time, I argue that the experience of qi in Chinese martial and energetic arts reveals radical possibilities of human experience at the core of which are fundamental transcendental structures of human experience, i.e., the experience of our body and the experience of the world through our body. This suggests the idea that phenomenology has an important potential for the investigation of spirituality and opens towards a research field that can be deeper explored.