Towards a Torah Qi Gong

Injecting the Light of Consciousness into the Habits of our Feet

Brazen- so the title caught your eye after all, did it not? Torah and Qi. These are indeed rather disparate concepts filling the great spectrum of our shared reality. What exactly could this odd juxtaposition really be getting at? Moreover, what exactly are you trying to tell me about my feet?

Definitions:

Torah refers to the 3300 year running transmission of highly encoded sacred information depicting the nature of existence. It can be said to constitute the essential kernel of destiny that has defined the Jewish people over the millennia. As the saying goes, תורה is the Tree of Life.

Qi is the ancient Chinese construct of the essential life energy constituting reality. When cultivated within framework of a devoted life practice Gong, the practice of 氣功 functions as :

“a powerful system of healing and energy medicine … using breathing techniques, gentle movement, and meditation to cleanse, strengthen, and circulate the life energy.” -my teacher, renowned scholar Kenneth Cohen

Integration: is it to be found between these mutually ancient, mutually significant, yet perhaps mutually exclusive traditions?

Now for a word of introduction.

Hello inquisitive people of The Medium. My name is Yaakov Lehman. I am a 28 year old part time Rabbinic Student/ part time social entrepreneur living in Jerusalem. At least seven hours of my day are spent immersed in the Aramaic and Hebrew glosses comprising the corpus of Legal and Mystical Judaic texts. Or to put it simply - learning Torah.

Just what exactly does that look like look like to an outsider? Myself alone in the wee hours before dawn glaring into the depths of a profound Chassidic work, my trusty stainless steel frenchpress at my side standing guard against that perpetual aggressor known as sleep. Or in daylight hours arguing out complicated line of Talmud with my הברותה (chavrusa- learning partner) in our quaint Beis HaMidrash, located smack in the heart of Jerusalem's notorious “Ultra Orthodox” Mea Shearim neighborhood.

The other half of my waking day is spent living the Israeli tech dream as co-creator/project manager of The Israel App, a GPS powered virtual tour guide featuring unique multimedia content covering hundreds of sites around Jerusalem.

The other (non-existent) half finds me involved in a variety of tantalizing life endeavors, one of which is teaching Qi Gong. My history as a Sino-enthusiast goes back to my first Chinese language class in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 13. A few years later I would travel China for a month with my family, which perked my interest in the history and cuisine of this fascinating culture. In the course of undergraduate studies in Globalization at UC Santa Barbara, I attended a Chinese class every single day right through to the advanced Mandarin course I completed before graduating.

Following a move to Europe for grad school, and subsequently embracing of my Jewish identity, I would go on to write two Masters theses integrating these two life passions:

Sephardic Success in the Streets of Shanghai: A Social Capital Analysis of Baghdadi Jews in 18th and 19th Century China @ The London School of Economics

Re-Evaluating Traditional Belief Systems in Global Diaspora: Ba’alei Tehsuva Judaism and New Confucianism Compared @ The University of Vienna

Here in Israel I took a 200 hour Yoga/Tai Chi teachers training course in the heart of “the west bank” (great place to work on diffusing tension). This summer, I enrolled in a 4 year advanced teachers training course in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado with Kenneth Cohen.

So the stage is set, you see, for some good old fashioned cross-cultural integration. Let the fun begin.

| ~ עֵינַי תָּמִיד אֶל יְהֹוָה כִּי הוּא יוֹצִיא מֵרֶשֶׁת רַגְלָי ~ |

My Eyes are always to The Infinite Source, He releases me from the ensnarement of habit --King David, Psalms 25:15

To break it down super elemental, the Torah is a manual that informs humanity how to illuminate the dark and unconscious spheres of human experience with the light of conscious intention. This overarching principle is meant to vivify an assorted array of life phenomena:

• It is the capacity to relate kindly and compassionately to that annoying colleague at work.
• To act with courageous authenticity in a world of false vanities.
• To grasp the incredibly potent, though highly concealed, spirituality inherent in savoring a delicious meal.
• You know, all that good stuff.

The Torah posits that life does not consist of meaningless and mundane banalities. In fact, it is often the case that the most trivial or morose parts of life contain the potential for the greatest awakening. The above statement is especially true when we filter it through the matrix of human psychology. We are creatures of pattern. Our unconscious habits have deeply imbedded themselves without our daily life routine. I wake up. I brush my teeth. I check the news. I make a coffee. Aye aye captain…

But who is the captain of the ship, and what do I really mean by “I”?

Are any of these actions driven by the dynamic engine of free will driving human existence. Or are they merely well executed source code embedded into my being after years of unconscious neural programming. When meditated on properly, this question has the power to greatly enhance the resolution of our world perspective.

The Hebrew word for habit is regel רגל, which also means feet. The Torah is instructing us to take the reins over our ‘feet’ to overcome the dreary unconscious monotony of habit using the power of the mind. I can wake up with goals to accomplish, brush my teeth because I value and respect my presence in the world, check the news because I wish to better relate to humanity, and drink coffee as a means of efficiently accomplishing my busy schedule. This is living consciously, with purpose.

The capacity for abstract moral contemplation is the distinguishing feature of the human experience.

Animals too have feet and also follow patterns. Yet they remain incapable of ethical contemplation; they cannot conceive humanity. They are not able to make the right choice in a tough situation. They are not able to take time out of their busy schedules to lend a hand in a time of need.

Humans are able to display this rarified nobility of spirit. They can choose to set aside a short term selfish pleasure for long term benefit of the collective. That is significant.

Moreover, we humans have the potential to live out the full spectrum of our lives illuminated by the light of purpose, of consciousness. This requires goal then is to bring this awareness all the way down to the feet, the far end of our biological spectrum carrying our unconscious habits. Now you understand the subtitle of this piece “Injecting the Light of Consciousness into the Habits of our Feet”

Which brings us to the Qi Masters.