Practising Zhen Qi Yun Xing

Prévia do material em texto

A practicing student tells of his practice:
 
Step 1
 
My shixiong explained that the first step is to concentrate on my solar plexus, a space in the
middle of my chest. In order to properly da zuo, a person must be indoors, seated in a comfortable
manner. No leaning back on anything. The spine can support itself. He explained that while sitting
to da zuo, it’s important to make sure that your legs don’t get cold. With the hands placed on the
knees, first a person should relax all muscles in their body. Even while relaxed, the trunk can keep
itself sitting upright. Many people may have trouble identifying the condition of their own muscles,
whether they are relaxed or not, but with some practice anyone can get the hang of it. While
sitting, if a spot starts to ache, it is probably a sure sign that spot is too tense. Relaxing the area
will make the pain go away.
 
After the body is sitting comfortably and relaxed, it is time to gather qi to your solar plexus. The
technique calls for a person to breathe naturally, automatically, not controlling the breathing at all.
This was actually more difficult for me than it should have been, because I was too used to
practicing intentional breathing techniques. Once your attention is called to your breathing, some
people may find it difficult not to regulate it. This is the most challenging part of this technique. Guo
shixiong instructed me to focus on my solar plexus while exhaling, but to empty my mind while
inhaling. This means that you are supposed to be aware of your breathing and coordinate your
mind along with it. In Chinese, this “mind” is called yìnian (). You’re supposed to focus your yinian
on your solar plexus while exhaling, but be an empty vessel while inhaling, with no yinian, no
thought or feeling whatsoever.
 
It is quite difficult to think about nothing, because even trying to think about nothing means that
you are thinking about trying not to think. It is one of those things that all people can naturally do,
but seem to forget how. It cannot be purposely done, it can just naturally happen, but on the other
hand, the ability to have it naturally happen can be improved through training. To some people this
may seem like a logical contradiction, but such is the essence of this nature. Is it active or passive,
or both, or neither? The English language is probably not the best choice. It lacks the words that
clearly describe such things, and this is why many Chinese arts always have an air of mystery
about them. Trying my best to explain, I can just say that you are supposed to be aware of your
breathing, but not control it. With each exhalation, be aware of your solar plexus, and with each
inhalation, there is no awareness. Your mind does nothing but focus on your solar plexus, and
then cease to exist, existing again only in your solar plexus, and then fading into nothingness
again in a slow and calm rhythm. Everyone must experience this for themselves while trying to da
zuo.
 
Even after da zuoing many times, I still have trouble clearing my mind, knowing that I am inhaling,
but also not thinking about the fact that I am inhaling, because my mind is supposed to be blank.
Many times I found myself reverting to a habitual rhythm of slow abdominal breathing like the kind
that I have learned in the past, and keeping my yinian focused on my solar plexus. This is not the
Zhenqi Meditation 5-step way, but it helped me to cut my thoughts down to only two thoughts of
breathing and focus. The goal of the Zhenqi Meditation 5-step method is to silence the perpetual
storm of thoughts, reducing your mind to just one thought, one yinian focusing on one spot. When
there is just one thought, masters can make it fade away also, to reach the pinnacle of meditation,
absolute stillness.
 
Reducing myself to just two simple thoughts allowed me to improve. Occasionally, I stopped
thinking about my breathing. My lungs just did it themselves. I didn’t feel the air travelling through
my nose or in my lungs. Occasionally, I had achieved a state of just one single thought, the yinian
in my solar plexue. I was feeling the same pulsating that I usually feel when practicing other forms
of qigong, until my yinian also started to flicker. A few times, it was gone, then it came back again.
I can’t say for how long, and I don’t know if it happened during inhalation like it’s supposed to, but
for a few brief moments, I was empty. Meditating sometimes made me heat up, sweat, become
very calm, restful, and experience other such sensations. It could be a side effect of the
physiological switch between the sympathetic system and the parasympathetic nervous system,
but I noticed that after meditating, joints in my body that were a bit inflamed have calmed, the
nerves were not alarmed and that the fluid has dissipated. One day while practicing this first step, I
felt that my solar plexue was expanding, to the point that I felt like my rib cage had gotten bigger. It
didn’t, but I felt like it did. It was a weird feeling that I did not enjoy very much, but such is this
meditation. People do feel many kinds of weird things. When Guo shixiong decided that my solar
plexue seems to be open enough to accept the flow of qi, he explained the next step to me.
 
Step 2
 
This step is even more difficult than the first. Now, the goal is to sink your yinian to your dan tian
with every exhalation. When you inhale, you are empty. You are sitting in a room, but you do not
exist, just an empty shell with no mind. You are supposed to be this way, but of course, you can’t
feel this way or think this way. When inhaling, there is no yinian. None whatsoever. It can take
many hours of practice before a person can achieve this state of being empty upon inhalation.
When exhaling, the yinian reappears in your solar plexue, then slowly drifts down to your dan tian.
Qi always follows your yi, so when your yinian falls down to your dan tian, qi will also flow down to
there. This second step requires a slow and rhythmic cycle of your yinian dropping from your solar
plexue to your dan tian, then nothing, and doing it again with the next exhalation. Reduce all
thought to just one yinian, and even that is supposed to vanish when inhaling.
 
Just like step 1, I would habitually revert to other techniques and practice abdominal breathing ,
pushing qi down into my dan tian upon exhalation. I would constantly remind myself that I am
supposed to be practicing wubu gong. Everything has to just happen. I’m not supposed to be
doing anything on purpose. I’m only supposed to be feeling how my yinian drops down to my dan
tian. This one single thing, a thing that I am just supposed to feel happen, but not intentionally do.
 
I tried letting go of everything. I let my lungs breathe however they breathe, and I let my mind do
whatever it wanted to do. I was really calm, really, doing nothing, almost falling asleep. Thoughts
and images came up and passed by. I didn’t pay attention to them. They just passed by and I was
doing nothing, almost asleep. Then I would remember that I am supposed to be doing the one
thing, and return my yinian to my dan tian. Sometime in the middle of this meditating, while
ignoring thoughts, not having thoughts, and trying to keep my yinian in rhythm, I think that it must
have worked properly a few times. For a few brief moments, my yinian did drop as I was exhaling,
and there was no yinian as I was inhaling, no other thoughts, and I had successfully done the
technique, at least a few times.
 
One time while meditating on this second step, I felt like my body was disappearing, or, changing
shape. My chin was connecting with my knees, and I was becoming small, like a ball. Then I felt
like I was falling, there was no world, there was just a black void of nothingness. I was not a body,
I was just a black ball of nothing falling down through the world of black nothing. I opened my eyes
a few times, and I sawthat I was still me sitting in a room, but every time I closed my eyes I
reverted back to feeling like a was a ball falling down through the black. I felt like my dan tian was
very small and dim. My yinian had trouble finding where it was. I could not focus my yinian on my
solar plexue. there was no more solar plexue, because when my eyes closed I was just a ball. My
dan tian was there, but the connection was too weak and my yinian couldn’t get there. I could no
longer focus my yinian where it should be, so I opened my eyes, rubbed my hands together, and
stopped that meditation session. Each session is supposed to last approximately 50 minutes, but
that one session ended after 40 minutes. I felt like there was no point in continuing when I could
do nothing else but feel like a black falling ball. It wasn’t scary, it was just a strange feeling. Since
then I da zuoed a few times and did not experience it again.
 
 Guo shixiong explained to me how meditation cannot be intentional. When purposefully practicing
breathing exercises, it is like starting a fire under an empty kettle. You intentionally place sticks
and logs, intentionally place the kettle, and intentionally start a fire, fanning the flames to make it
hot. The kettle does get hot, but it is empty, so no matter how much you work the fire, you will
never be able to simmer any water. The kettle will just get hotter and hotter until it burns itself,
burns you, becomes red and loses its shape. (Fill dantian first and dont heat it before. Most are
making this mistake and get nowhere)
 
Abdominal breathing exercises are good to oxidize your blood, massage your internal organs,
lower your heartbeat and blood pressure, increase your lung capacity, and many other good
things. As long as you don’t involve your yinian, breathe as much and as deeply as you wish. It
can be a problem however, when your yinian is involved. Do not pump the flames of an empty dan
tian. There can be hazardous consequences to your mind and your body. Guo shixiong says that
dynamic qigong is a complementary practice. After people have gathered a certain amount of qi,
they can move it around their bodies by practicing the routines. Without qi, the routines are nothing
more than simple calisthenics, or a very boring dance. Novice practitioners shouldn’t waste time
practicing those routines. They should first fill their body with qi by practicing da zuo, and only later
try the dynamic routines. After feeling how small and empty my dan tian was, I am inclined to
agree with him. It was so dim that I couldn’t even find the point to focus on. It’s a disturbing
thought, knowing that my dan tian is so empty, and that I will need to da a lot of zuo before there is
anything significant in there.
 
Step 3
 
The way to improve your meditation technique is by silencing your breath. After much da zuo
practice, you may notice that your breathing gets slower and lighter. It will become noiseless, and
the rhythm will stay constant. You do not do this on purpose. It will just happen. Before meditating,
you can clean out the gunk in your nostrils, if you wish. When your body becomes used to
constant meditating, it will become calm and still as soon as you begin, as if on cue. Guo shixiong
says to let everything happen naturally. The breath will become noiseless on its own. The qi will
flow on its own, to wherever it wishes to go. You do nothing. You think nothing. All you should do
is feel your yinian drop with each exhaled breath.
 
This is easier said than done. I still can’t feel without thinking. For now, I just let go. My breath gets
silent. In or out, I don’t care, I don’t pay attention. Thoughts may pass through my mind, but I don’t
care, I don’t pay attention. Then I focus my yinian, and maybe it works, or maybe I ruin it by
thinking. Sometimes I think about my breathing, or I feel the air on my nose, or I think about
moving my yinian down instead of just feeling how it drops by itself. Very few times do I get it right,
but when I do, I feel like that is the real qigong. All the things that other masters have taught me so
far about qigong, all I’ve been doing is lighting fires under empty kettles. I have felt the fire, and I
have felt how the little amount of moisture that was already there reacts to the fire, but I’ve never
poured any water into it.
 
After one session of da zuo, I may feel like I got two or three small drops down in there. This is just
the first baby step. Guo shixiong says that this is the true way to practice qigong. Practice is
actually not the right word, because you shouldn’t do anything. You just sit still, and with time, you
may start to feel some things. When you feel things, don’t think about them, they just happen, but
you are sitting, and you don’t care. This is the stage that I am at now. I wish that I could use my
yinian properly, dropping it down with every breath and filling my dan tian with qi, but I can’t yet.
 
Guo shixiong says that if a person can da zuo for many hours a day, their qi can fill up over their
baihui in less than a week, and they would have successfully activated their circular qi flow cycle,
which grants strength and smarts and cures illnesses. The activation of this zhòu tin ( Small
Circulation) is just one rung in a ladder that can keep reaching to new heights. I am still stuck on
step 3 of the most basic introductory technique. That is why I can’t write about steps 4 or 5 right
now. I need to keep practicing.