What is Qi?
Traditional Chinese culture, qì or ch'i is an active principle forming part of any living thing. Literally translates as "breath", "air", or "gas", and figuratively as "material energy", "life force", or "energy flow". Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts.
Qi / Chi in Reiki and Qigong may have similar positive effects on a person’s physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, and both include the ‘life force energy’ in their name (‘Ki’ in Reiki and ‘Qi’ in Qigong) and as the fundamental root of each practice, they are actually quite different from each other.
Reiki is a Japanese method developed in the 1920s by Mikao Usui, while Qigong is Chinese technique that is significantly older.
Reiki (靈氣) is probably best translated as the ‘Universal life force energy’, while Qigong (氣功) as the ‘Life force energy cultivation’, but this translation is limited without going into depth of explaining Kanji (Chinese characters) and further exploration of the Vital energy/Life force energy as a concept.
Chi Kung) is an ancient Taoist path of spiritual advancement using meditation, as well as breath and energy control. It evolved from the system designed by Bodhidharma the twenty-eighth patriarch after Shakyamuni Buddha and Father of Chinese Chahn Buddhism which was later adopted by the Japanese and evolved into Zen. Masters of Chi Kung are able to raise, control, and direct personal and universal life force and use this subtle energy to open specific energy channels within the body and aura.