During his workshops and retreats in the U.S. last year, Master Liu emphasized
the importance of the mind’s focus in our practice. What is our
intention for our practice? Is it healing? Then we need to focus on our
healing intention. Is it to open the mind’s wisdom to receive information?
Then that is our intention. Is it for greater peace and well-being? Create
that intention for your practice.
Many people when they start to practice Zhineng Qigong quickly start to
feel the qi. As the qi becomes stronger, they associate pleasant physical
sensations with the qi, and then often become focused on “feeling
qi.” In other words, their mind’s intent is to feel even more
of the pleasant qi sensations. They may even think, “I am feeling
so much qi! I must be practicing very well!” As a result, these
sensations may increase even more and all one is doing is thinking about
feeling the qi.
Similarly, many students will experience colors, images, or visions when
they are practicing. When this happens, they may think, “How wonderful,
or how interesting.” Then every time they practice, they are seeking
out these images or other sensory information, or trying to find meaning
in such images.
But this is not true Qigong practice. When we practice, we need to remember
our intention for our practice. For example, “I am practicing Qigong
to heal and strengthen my lungs.” We need to visualize the lungs
as perfectly healthy and feel what healthy lungs feel like. We must use
all the powers of our mind’s imagination, using all of our senses,
to experience our desired result. Then we practice. |
We know that when we do the opening
movements, we are releasing disease or blockage as we expand our qi field
to connect with primal qi. When we do the closing movements, we know that
we are absorbing and integrating the primal qi with our own – and
that our intention is immediately realized through the transformation
of the qi and information.
When we are focused on simply feeling the qi, or watching the images that
come into our minds, then our intention for healing is not as strong and
powerful. For the best results, train your mind to stay focused on the
practice, without indulging in the distracting thoughts or the sensations
and images that may come to you. Let those things go and return to concentrating
on the visualizations.
Even when we are not doing the Qigong forms or meditations, we can still
use the mind to actively and consciously practice our intention as we
go about our daily activities. This is a creative endeavor. For example,
if your intention is for healing, as you shower, visualize releasing all
disease from your body.
When you are in a beautiful place, feel the qi of the place and absorb
it deep inside. When you eat, fa qi the food with the intention of your
body taking in all the nutrition and transforming qi into healthy cells.
When someone gives you a compliment, send the good information into the
place that needs healing. Then affirm – “completely healthy!”
“Normal!” There are many, many ways to practice Qigong in
our daily life, but we must actively use the power of the mind to make
them work for us.
Completely trust yourself in this process. This requires belief in the
qi, faith in the power of the practice, and trust in ourselves. When we
know how powerful our minds are, then we can progress or heal very quickly.
Jan Lively has studied Zineng Qigong since 1998 and has been studying
in China on retreats since 2002. She was certified in China by the Hua
Xia Zhineng Qigong teachers in China. She works primarily with people
healing from cancer, and is one of the co-founders of the Noble Circle,
a non-profit organization for women with cancer.
|
Editor-in-Chief
Deborah Lissom
Editor
Barrett Shaw
Contributing Writers
Deborah Lissom
Jan Lively
Debra Weisenberger-Lipetz
Glenna Zogg
Gail Lansdon
Sue Ashwell
Zhineng Qigong Science is published by
ZQ Educational Corp. All rights reserved.
No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without
the express
permission of ZQ Educational Corp.
|
This is a short exerpt from a class that
Master Liu taught at a Healing Retreat in China in 2009. This only covers
through the second verse. The rest of the Eight Verses can be found in
Master Liu’s new book on Zhieneng Qigong which will be published
later in 2010.
Eight Verses
Ding Tian Li Di
Head touches the sky, feet stand on earth.
Xing Song Yi Chong
Body relaxes, and the mind expands.
Wai Jing Nei Jing
Be respectful and quiet.
Xin Cheng Mao Gong
Mind is clear and appearance is humble.
Yi Nian Bu Qi
No distracting thoughts.
Shen Zhu Tai Kong
Mind expands into infinite space.
Shen Yi Zhao Ti
Feel the mind shining into the body deeply and inwardly.
Zhou Shen Rong Rong
Entire body is harmonized with Qi.
We are teaching eight verses today.
These are the eight verses of Lift Qi Up and Pour Qi Down.
The words of the eight verses of Lift Qi Up and Pour Qi Down are in my
book, Basic Theories and Methods of Zhineng Qigong. But what is the meaning
of the eight verses? Here when we explain the meditation of eight verses,
at the same time you should focus the mind to practice the meditation.
When you are hearing or reading it, you need to feel and experience the
words’ meaning in the heart and mind.
We can also call the eight verses of Lift Qi Up and Pour Qi Down the eight
verses of the Zhineng Qigong system, because in the Zhineng Qigong system,
we always use the eight verses meditation, from Level I, Lift Qi Up and
Pour Qi Down, to the last level methods, including the Three Centers Merge
method, Body and Mind, the Five Organs method, and the Central Hunyuan
Stage methods. This eight verses meditation is a really good method to
help us enter a deeper experience – the entire Qi of our life, the
Yi Yuan Ti, and the universe unite and transform to become oneness. Therefore,
we can enter into an even deeper experience by adjusting the mind. We
know that adjusting the mind is turning all the senses of the body inward,
back into the home of the mind – we say back into the center of
the Yi Yuan Ti to become full of Yi Yuan Ti. In this way, we practice
a deep practice with full awareness Yi Yuan Ti, or using our true Yi Yuan
Ti in order to consciously and actively induce the Qi of the entire body.
The Qi of the Yi Yuan Ti, inner organs Qi (emotions), |
body Qi and the Qi of the entire universe then unite
and integrate to become oneness. In completing this process, we are opening
the heart and mind from the bottom of the heart and mind, heart to heart
and mind to mind with the whole universe, living in the new point of life.
To truly experience the new level of Qi in your life and to feel the changing
of the new point of life, we need to live in the truth of life, totally
freeing the heart and mind. In practicing this way, when we enter that
experience, we will truly open all the abilities of our Yi Yuan Ti. We
can call this “paranormal ability” or “transnormal ability.”
In the Lift Qi Up and Pour Qi Down method, Grandmaster Pang told us that
“if we only practice the eight verses meditation well, that’s
the same as if we have practiced two-thirds of the entire Lift Qi Up and
Pour Qi Down method.” Therefore we know how important it is to practice
the eight verses. We know that the eight verses meditation practice is
based on the correct posture of the body, the regulation of the breath,
and adjustment of the mind. When we regulate the posture and breath, and
adjust the mind well, then we are practicing the eight verses. From the
beginning, the eight verses say: “Head touches the sky, and feet
stand on earth. Body relaxes, and the mind expands.” Here, we need
to know that Grandmaster Pang wrote the eight verses by following the
Chinese poem. When we practice it, we need to move the second verse –
“Body relaxes, and the mind expands” – to the first.
Then when we practice, the first verse is “Body relaxes, and
the mind expands,” then we practice the
visualization “Head touches the sky, feet
|
stand on earth.” This is the process
of beginning practice. We can’t begin the practice from “Head
touches the sky, feet stand on earth, body relaxes, and the mind expands.”
We know this. We first must practice “the body relaxes, and the
mind expands” to start the practice of the eight verses together.
The body relaxes, and the mind expands:
The body relaxes.
What is the meaning of “body” as we are using it? The meaning
of “body” is not only the physical body. The word “body”
means the body of the Qi-field and the physical body. This includes the
body of the Yi Yuan Ti Qi-field (mental Qi-field body), the body of inner
organs Qi-field (emotion Qi-field body), and the body of the Physical
Qi-field, and the physical body.
Everybody knows the meaning of “relax.” The whole body is
very relaxed. We know the ability of the body to relax is based on having
correct posture. When the body relaxes, it lets the body of the Yi Yuan
Ti Qi-field, the body of the inner organs Qi-field, the body of the Physical
Qi-field, and the physical body relax. However, it is important first
to relax themind and then let them integrate and harmonize into oneness.
This also lets us feel inside the Qi-field of the Yi Yuan Ti (mental)
which is very peaceful, quiet and relaxed. The relaxing lets us feel very
peaceful inside of our mind. Through this, we adjust the mind to let all
senses of our body return back to the center of the head – the center
of the Yi Yuan Ti. When entering inside the center of the Qi-field of
the Yi Yuan Ti, the feeling is pure, transparent, and very clear. When
we are feeling the Qi-field of our Yi Yuan Ti as well, then we need to
consciously and actively use our mind’s consciousness to do the
meditation. Therefore, we can say that we use the consciousness of the
mind actively
and inwardly to induce the Qi of our Yi Yuan Ti, penetrating through each
layer’s Qi body, penetrating through each layer’s Qi body
of our entire life qi information, to let our Yi Yuan Ti Qi-field integrate
with the emotion Qi-field, our Yi Yuan Ti Qi-field and emotion Qi-field
integrate with our physical Qi-field. Then we let our life Qi, following
the Qi of the
Yi Yuan Ti, go through each layer of the organs of our whole body. The
Yi Yuan Ti, with Qi, induces Qi and penetrates through each organ of our
whole body and integrates with each organ of our body, letting each
organ of our body fill with Qi. This lets inside meridian channels open
completely, with Qi and blood flowing freely inside. The emotions are
very balanced and peaceful; the mind is very clear.
Master Liu Yuan Tong taught at the Hua Xia Zhineng Qigong in China
for
eight years and has taught Zhineng Qigong in Malaysia, Indonesia, Belgium,
Holland, Sweden, and the U.S. His website is LifeQiCenter.com |
Zhineng Qigong teachers always tell us to keep our intention
for life very clear and present in our daily practice and clear also
in our daily activities. Master Liu has sometimes described intention
as looking up through the clouds, always going higher, breaking through
to the light of the sun.
Intention is this way, like something always pulling us towards our
highest well-being, whether we are focused on physical health or emotional
balance. During the most difficult times, such as during chemotherapy,
it is crucial to maintain this clear intention, knowing that this is
a temporary situation, always seeing our intention for life, always
feeling the pull of life to higher levels.
• • • •
For beginners the use of intention usually means thinking
of healing and then, depending on the student, as they progress in their
practice, visualizing the healing. Over time as the student’s
gong fu increases, their practices change and they go deeper into a
more direct experience of intention.
Often in the West we see intention used to refer to a
future goal, future healing, or future progress. The word, intention,
can have these implications but in Zhineng Qigong, we are referring
to a realized, fully, directly-experienced state of well-being.
For example, if a student has a broken leg that is healing,
their intention would be to directly experience the bones already completely
healthy, strong, and normal. They would walk with the Bai Hui lifted,
placing their weight evenly on each foot without limping. They would
experience each step through the eyes of a person with strong, flexible
bones, moving easily. Their intention would be experienced as this direct
awareness of themselves as a person with strong, normal legs.
If they start to limp, they should hesitate, smiling into
the bones with the feeling of love, experiencing the powerful qi that
flows through us when our heart is open. I know this is possible because
I broke my knee, ankle, and foot and walked normally after the cast
was removed; no matter how easy it would have been to have limped, I
didn’t.
With each step I deliberately placed each foot on the
ground, opening the yong quan in |
the bottom of the foot to the
earth, pressing down fully into the earth. If I had allowed myself to
limp, several problems would have evolved from this.
First, I would be distorting the correct position of my
spine, which would cause future problems with the whole spine, the hips,
and the leg on the opposite side, as everything would be out of alignment
with the limping. The qi field of the organs in the area could also be
thrown out of balance.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, if I were to limp,
I would be experiencing myself as disabled or unhealthy, or sick and unable
to move normally. This energetic information or qi information would then
be communicated to my body-mind and I would then be receiving the information
that my leg would not work right or that I was sick. This would be the
exact opposite of my healing intention and have the opposite effect.
This understanding of intention, not as a future event,
but as a direct immediate experience of ourselves, with our intention
already a fact – is extremely important in our healing. How many
devoted students do we see (from many different practices in addition
to Zhineng Qigong) who see themselves in the process of healing, and who
are, consequently, never fully healed. They are always in process.
This is very hard for students to really grasp, this idea
of a direct, immediate experience of themselves as completely healthy.
This is different than visualization, which is a step in the process,
but different than really experiencing yourself completely healthy. I
know that when my kidneys weighed 14 pounds, I had a very hard time experiencing
myself as having norma-sized, healthy kidneys because the pressure of
the large kidneys inside was so constantly present. So, I found photos
of myself before kidney disease had progressed. Photos where I was rappelling
down a cliff, or photos of my picking up a newborn horse like a human
baby. I had them blown up to 8x10 size and hung them all over one wall
in my bedroom so that I could see them as I fell asleep. I did this because
I knew that energetically the information of total health and normalcy
was always present, deep insideof me. I knew that I just had to connect
with this energy information, and I then I couldexperience myself this
way again. This is the information of the Yi Yuan Ti, the pure information |
that we can connect with inside
ourselves when we connect directly and do not go through the frames of
reference that tell us we can only heal through medicine and surgery.
Then, as I walked, I walked as a person with a small belly with tiny kidneys,
lots of energy, and complete freedom of movement. I experienced myself
this way – the direct experience of total well-being. This is very
different from visualization. Yet, you may question whether it is possible
to feel and experience yourself as totally healthy when you are in pain
or stiff from arthritis.
There are many ways that Zhineng Qigong teaches us how
to accomplish this.
The most important is to open the heart. When we open the heart to ourselves
and others, then our qi is open and flowing, which causes any pain to
release. When you practice smiling into the pain or difficult area, your
heart immediately opens and the qi flows.
You can try this with something simple. Most people have
some pain in their neck or shoulders. Just sit quietly with the Bai Hui
lifted and turn your head slowly to each side. When you encounter some
pain, just stop moving at this point and experience the pain. Then smile
into that area, loving your neck or shoulders, your heart open and happy.
Most of us will observe that the pain almost immediately releases and
disappears. This is because the opening of the heart releases the blockage
causing the pain, and the qi flows, opening up the whole area.
Of course, the practice of the forms is designed to help
the qi open and flow, helping the release of all disease.
Deborah Lissom has studied Zhineng Qigong since 1996, and has been
studying in China on retreats since2001. She was certified in China by
the Hua Xia Zineng Qigong teachers. She has taught at the Brown Cancer
Center, Louisville School of Massage, and Indiana University, as well
as her own classes at Willow Pond Healing Center in Louisville, Kentucky,
USA. |
