I'm so glad you found this helpful. It's been a productive line of thought for me and I appreciate your comment.
I kind of think that the trying to explain Qi-to-a-materialist dilemma is similar to that of coming across people who say they don't understand poetry.* I mean, I get that poetry isn't for everybody, but I tend to think that the point of a poem is to transfer an experience via words, in the most efficient way possible so that the words not only don't get in the way, they actually contribute to the feeling of the experience... Saying you "don't understand poetry" is akin to saying you don't feel the vibe of a creepy place, or the heart-swelling joy of a shaft of light coming in through a forest overstory. THOSE things are qi, are poetry's point, are the flow of the hunt, in a way.
*I wonder if it's just that the non-poetry folk find it harder to pick up the energy conveyed by words and so poems then look kind of like word salad and arbitrary choices. ??
Re: Hunters R Us
I kind of think that the trying to explain Qi-to-a-materialist dilemma is similar to that of coming across people who say they don't understand poetry.* I mean, I get that poetry isn't for everybody, but I tend to think that the point of a poem is to transfer an experience via words, in the most efficient way possible so that the words not only don't get in the way, they actually contribute to the feeling of the experience... Saying you "don't understand poetry" is akin to saying you don't feel the vibe of a creepy place, or the heart-swelling joy of a shaft of light coming in through a forest overstory. THOSE things are qi, are poetry's point, are the flow of the hunt, in a way.
*I wonder if it's just that the non-poetry folk find it harder to pick up the energy conveyed by words and so poems then look kind of like word salad and arbitrary choices. ??