I often approached oriental disciplines but I immediately came across a term that resonated obscure and very mysterious: "Energy". There was talk of "encouraging the flow of energy" or "conveying energy", sometimes "positive or negative energies", expressions that gave me an ambiguous idea of the term "energy". Accustomed to a rationalistic western approach, I was therefore perplexed by these "energies", which I could not fit into those "physical" known and scientifically measurable. However, the curiosity remained and above all the observation that Chinese civilization has been based for a long time, often maintaining a position of the avant-garde with respect to other civilizations, first of all, the western one, precisely on concepts so impalpable to us as that of "Energy".
As often happens in order to understand new and apparently incomprehensible phenomena, we must open our minds, find a different interpretation key and, above all, apply it in the concreteness of our actions. To be a bit like it happens in front of the artistic experience where it doesn't make sense to apply the criteria of rationality and scientificity in the classical sense.
The experience in my case was the approach to Feng Shui, a discipline that as an architect, immediately intrigued me and which I soon found confirmation in the practical application of my profession, also because after all, I had always applied it, albeit unconsciously.
In Feng Shui, we talk a lot about "Energy", or more precisely "Qi" since the purpose of this discipline is precisely to harmonize the energies in the relationship between man and his environment.
The energies that study Feng Shui are very concrete and are those that are studied by the laws of Western physics, light and sound in the first place, but also energies that we could define as energy manifestations: the movement (of people, waterways), geographical orientation, time, forms, etc... However, here is the key to reading, the emphasis is not on "what" these energies are, but rather on the perception that man has of them, that is, on "how" they act on us. Unlike scientific instruments used to detect a single energy phenomenon, man is a much more complex detector because he measures these energy manifestations not through numbers but through sensations and emotions, which in turn generate thoughts, behaviours, actions, states of well-being or malaise.
I think one example is clarifying: in Feng Shui, the concept of "Sha" is frequently used. Without going too far into the thousand meanings and nuances of this term, "Sha" means an "energy" that strikes, or more frequently threatens to strike, an observer in a given place. A typical sha is a threateningly shaped object placed very close to the observer, a sharp and looming edge of a building, a fast and intense flow of traffic directed towards us, a persistent and dazzling light aimed at our home. The sha, therefore, does not describe what kind of energy (light, movement, psychological effect of a form) is hitting us, but what kind of "energy" is generated in us when we perceive certain phenomena.
It does not matter therefore the "why" of a certain phenomenon with which we are going to confront, but rather the "how" this affects us.
Just as the Western language, based on the alphabet, measures terms and generates ideal models and the Chinese language, based on ideograms, suggests images that in turn generate emotions, the term "energy", or "energy manifestation" thus assumes a much more understandable and "acceptable" meaning to a Western mind.
It becomes evident at this point how using the word "energy" can become misleading and ambiguous, because for us it has a precise meaning and we can hardly overlap another reading. Therefore, using the original term "Qi", trying not to translate it and forcing it into a too precise "alphabetical" definition, can help to better understand and accept it.
This brief excursus on the concept of "energy" I think serves to understand how the visions and interpretations of the reality of East and West are both valid and complementary, depending on their own "truth" from which our point of reference and observation is. And it is also evident the richness that this Eastern vision can bring to our way of knowing the world and relating to it.
To conclude, I will briefly mention the results of the most advanced scientific research, in particular that of particle physics, where energy is the fundamental subject of investigation and research, just think of the famous equation of Einstein E=mc2, which basically told us that all the Cosmos is nothing but Energy, and where the most recent results of these researches are leading to a vision of the Cosmos surprisingly more and more coincident with that of ancient Chinese philosophy, starting from the concepts of Tao, yin and yang and energy ... or Qi Qi.