There are several different concepts being discussed on this thread, that may or may not bear any relation to one another. They may occur concurrently, but often have little to do with each other. Some of these are:
Kundalini awakening
Enlightenment / stripping of ego
TaiChi / QiQong / Energy work
Okay Ross, this is the thing:
Energy work can obviously be done by anybody who wants to practice it, but there's a certain level where you might say a different intelligence comes into play and that does have to do with awakening. Strictly speaking when you are trying to do it such as the practice of Kundalini yoga, which I understand has a Taoist equivalent, (the directions of the microcosmic orbit is called the water and fire path, and Kundalini energy from the base of the spine is referred to as the wind path) then that's actually the mind faking it. But this energy can unfold in a fairly natural and progressive way in someone's practice when they do get to such a point, for whatever reason it just kind of happens in a shorter period of time for some people, maybe without practice and would then naturally be more intense. It also depends on how out of whack you've been, because its basically a restoration of the natural flow of energy. This is where it can help to have some foundation in this kind of work, otherwise one can become very depleted physically. But I don't want to paint a picture like this is some big serious thing, for example some people in the east calls themselves Tai Chi "players." That is the best attitude with which to approach it.
How this relates to enlightenment is its a matter of consciousness, so that's why I say just because these things are happening it doesn't necessarily mean the person is enlightened. IF the process is completed and thorough it obviously would include the mind, but for example there may be a Tai Chi master who has mastery over the body but still have some psychological egoic identification, they may never see the need to address that (or the concept may not even occur to them) because they are more interested in the body. Even when someone is intellectually enlightened (so to speak) it doesn't necessarily mean the psychological aspect is included, atleast completely. Because the mind and body are one there is a transformative process for both, so you could say it's a matter of the unfolding of that process, which is going to look different for different people - it doesn't mean everyone becomes physically adept and/or geniuses once that's completely actualized. If you think about it a lot of it has to do with previous training, for a monastic obviously all the study and meditation practice will kind of come together - with an ordinary guy they might just kind of really show up in whatever form their life happens to take.
So when I say someone is enlightened, I don't refer to the completion of this process (which is what I was getting at with it as a developmental process) - but rather whether identification with the personality structure has been seen through. I think this would be an accurate way to say "this person is enlightened", because that's where ego comes in. This transformative process can continue to happen or it can happen before this point, chances are there is some both before and after - it usually doesn't all culminate at one point, and there is atleast some work before. I remember a Sufi teacher saying something to the effect of things never working out the way you think, and it usually comes through your least developed faculty - so perhaps it can be viewed as a sort of balancing out so that it becomes a more coherent whole, it being all one.
