You may have to rephrase that question; does the question operate under the assumption that a person knows how to use it, and uses it a certain way, or, does the question ask how to use ki energy? To save you the time and trouble I will attempt to answer both ways.

As to how I personally use it, I use it primarily for healing purposes, however, I do not know how I use it. When I start doing Tai Chi Chuan, my ki (Chi in Chinese) just flows on its own, I have no conscious control over it its just, well, kinda there. I start a Tai Chi form, and my body heats up, but as far as consciously circulating it, as far as consciously moving it, I don't know how to do that, it only moves in my body whenever I do Tai Chi or Chi Kung.

As to how to use Ki energy, from my understanding you have to train really hard at whatever internal martial art you do for a period of 10 years, and with internal martial arts you have to dedicate your life to them to hope to become a master. The internal styles of martial arts, influenced by Daoist philosophy, operate under the assumption that man is lower than heaven, but higher than animals. The reason for example, that we share similarities with the great apes, some Daoists would argue, is not because we descend from them, but because it is just the "earthly" part of us. It is in fact the spiritual side of man, as they say, that endows him with intelligence, creativity, etc. Having an earthly and spiritual nature, a human being however, is ultimately ruled and dominated by the will of heaven, or rather more correctly put in a Daoist context, a given human being does not really have a choice in the manner. Therein lies the paradox of Daoism; there is free will, but there is only one heaven. You can do as you like, but to be selfish leads to an early grave, to learn to be truly selfless, leads to eternal life. It is based on the assumption that the spiritual aspect of man lasts forever, and that it is in fact more powerful than the physical, the internal martial arts thus focus on energy circulation, rather than muscular development, because only through energy circulation can a human body maintain its physical strength even unto old age. However because energy circulation is so murderously hard, the Shaolin monks argue that you have to develop both.

How else do I put this? Yes, ki can become so powerful in a person, that only 20 minutes of Tai Chi Chuan per day, will keep their body in a teen like condition; lean, healthy, and fit, even unto middle age. However to get away with that with only 20 minutes of Tai Chi per day, means that the person has become a virtual torrent of chi, someone's whose chi has reached such monstrous levels, they are even superhumanly strong should their mind will it. The superhuman physical strength feats atributed to the Daoist masters of old, stems from the fact that chi, having the power to add to the tensile strength of the skin rendering it imune to cuts (Shaolin iron shirt), also has the power to add to the tensile strength of the muscles, rendering them imune to tearing. A daoist sage can have so much chi energy flowing through their body, their entire system is saturated with it, and so saturated, their skin can not be cut, and when exerting great strength their muscles and tendons can not be torn, nor will their bones break. That is how Shaolin monks are capable of exerting great feats of physical strength without being injured, namely, by concentrating hard and chaneling their chi energy to the muscle groups involved. Sages of Daoist meditation at Wudang mountain, are said to need no concentration at all, they can summon, at will, whenever they wish and without even so much as batting an eye, great superhuman strength. Some Daoist masters, to save the lives of other people, were reputedly so strong they killed tigers with their bare hands.

From my understanding, using chi involves near fanatical practice without obsession, over a period of many years. It takes, all told, roughly 60 years, 4 hours of training per day in Chi Kung, with a humble heart during those 60 years of training, a perfectly humble heart, for chi to circulate so strongly in your body, that you can use it at will. See, if there is any hint of arrogance in you, chi won't circulate. If there is any hint of doubt in you, it won't circulate. If you are fanatical about gaining power, about being like the old masters, chi won't circulate. Myself personally I feel that my body heats up a lot, not because there is anything special about me, but because I have no feeling of self worth to speak of. Basically, because I see myself as generally worthless, I have no arrogance in my person to speak of. It is precisely because my self esteem has been so low for so many years, I feel, that my chi circulates more strongly than most. Again though, nothing special about me, other than the fact that I endured years of psychological abuse, and have no exagerated sense of self worth. Anything I say, I say out of brutal honesty..

See I never went to a big name college, nor did I ever receive love or encouragement of any kind, nor did I posses for many years what Americans call "confidence" which is in fact, arrogance. Moreover, I do not get along well with Saudis, Europeans, and many north Americans, but I get along perfectly well with Mexicans from poor backgrounds, Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese, and low caste Indians. In other words I don't get along well with snobs. Snobs, only get along well with other snobs, and I figure if I don't get along with the "cool" people, it must be because I'm not a snob myself, as they have a talent for detecting each other. I credit that, not being born special, to my relatively strong-for-a-beginer chi circulation. I know that many people practice for years, Tai Chi I mean, before they begin feeling their body heat up. Again, because my self esteem was somewhere in the negatives for so many years, my opinion of myself, when I started chi circulation work, it circulated strongly almost right away. I had a brief period, wher I took pride in what I did, and in taking pride, pretty soon my body did not heat up as strongly as it used to be. When confronted once, about my chi kung practice, I was told "aren't you puffing yourself up in thinking that just because you practice that, that you're better than some people?" That got me thinking, that the man was right; I stopped puffing myself up as he said, and pretty soon my body felt like it was on fire again from my Tai Chi practice.

When I was my low self esteem, no ego self, my body felt like it was on fire from the way the chi was circulating. When I started developing "self confidence" as Americans call it, nothing there, I was just dancing, but there was no chi. I know from personal experience that arrogance disrupts the chi flow, and too much of it stops it outright. I do not know exactly how to use chi, but I know that arrogance gets in the way. Master Yang Lu Chan, the revered founder of the Yang Style of Tai Chi, worked as a janitor for the entirety of his young life before his master, Master Chen something, taught him any Tai Chi. The history says that Yang surpassed Master Chen's own children, and nor have any of master Yang's descendants even touched his level of skill. Yang Chen Fu, reportedly, became morbidly obese because, even though he became a skillful boxer in his own right, so skillful that he deliberately threw a fight against Wang Lai Shen, he fell into a deep depression because he knew he did not achieve his ancestor's skill. Pretty soon he got careless with his training, began over eating, and the man died of a heart attack. Even as an overweight man though, Yang Cheng Fu was so skillful, his speed was disporportionate to his build and size. Even though he was a large man, standing at 6'1 and weighing 270 lbs of mostly fat, his hand speed was said to be that of, if comparisons are to be drawn, that of Bruce Lee. The man was lightning fast, and against Wang Lai Shen, according to the Yang's, he did not throw a single punch, nor did he ever attempt to apply a joint lock, and because he never took any aggressive action against the man, Wang Lai Shen was declared the winner of their skill contest. As the generations of the Yang family went on, their skill deteriorated more and more, each successive descendant feeling shame over not having attained the skill of their legendary ancestor. See, the Yang family, even though they practice of course their family's martial art, are not as skilled as many masters of Tai Chi Chuan throughout China, the students of Yang Lu Chan's students have in fact surpassed the Yangs themselves. Therein lies the family's shame.

My personal take on it? I feel that the Yang family does not posses the skill of their ancestor, because they take too much pride in being descended from him, and pride I know, gets in the way of chi circulation. Because non-Yang family members have no similar pride to speak of, they simply train, accept what they are given, and because they are standing in no one's shadow nor is there pressure to ever live up to that standard, many come close to achieving said standard in fact, there are masters of Tai Chi in China, as skillful as Yang Lu Chan was. Masters whom no one in the Shaolin temple can defeat, masters, who posses seemingly superhuman skill. The reason that is I feel, has to do with their greater humility, and I feel that Yang Lu Chan's mastery came not from his Tai Chi Training, because many people can get that now, more than ever, but from his 10 years working as a janitor for the Chen family.

If you wish to become a master of chi, you will have to work as a janitor at some point in your life. Myself personally I want to travel to Japan, and work as a janitor over there for a little while before attempting to sell a video game idea I've got. I don't want to work as a janitor here though, I'd rather work as a janitor for Japanese women.

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