Practicing Out of Balance

Some students have asked me regarding how to effectively maintain cultivation practice when they are sick, or very tired, or swept up in emotional turmoil, or deeply distracted by some other activity. This is a very important subject.

With regards to all four points of difficulty, clearly it is easier to Show Up when you are in a state of Balance.

All four of the situations you describe are basically situations of being unbalanced.

And yes, all four can be difficult.
The fact is that when you are challenged, that's when it's easy to lose balance.

It's in those moments that you have to have the level of consciousness to be able to realize that you're out of balance, and then get back to it.

Getting back to Balance can be as simple as remembering to Breathe; but you can't expect to be able to achieve that if you are only trying to remember doing that when the unbalanced situation arises.

So now this is where Discipline comes in.

If you can engage with Qi Breathing on a regular basis, doing it when things are in Balance, that will make it much much easier to remember to Breathe, and restore Balance, when things are difficult.

Experiencing Harmony

Harmony is one of the four qualities of De (as expressed in the I Ching), the power that can be roughly translated as "Virtue". It is not a concept of morality in the western sense, but rather a state of being.

So Harmony (like the other three aspects of De: Unity, Discipline and Truth) is something you have to work towards, but it is also something that you experience. De can also be translated as "power", and it is the true source of your spiritual power, for Qi Gong or anything else.

So how do we experience Harmony while engaging in Cultivation practice?

The key to Harmony is to understand how to have a direction, in your meditation, in your Qi Gong movements, and in your activities in the everyday world, all while not being unbalanced by your own self-referencing world-view. In other words, being driven by your own 'lust of result' to try to impose your agenda on the world.

But you also shouldn't concern yourself too much about fearing your own Inferior Person, those desires to try to impose yourself on reality, because that fear can also paralyze you and unbalance you.

Rather than trying to resist your own attachments, let go of concerning yourself with attachments at all, and focus on the bigger panoramic vision, first of yourself, and then of yourself in the world.

Find your own vast nature. Not the small little and petty inferior person. The vast and open Superior Individual constantly referred to in the I Ching.
Relax.
Show up, and then open up.
And when you do, connecting to that vast Panorama, you can choose any direction to move within that panorama, and it becomes liberating.

When you aren't doing this, that's when you feel more closed. It feels like you're on a railroad track, you have blinders on, you only see a tunnel going one direction.

When you're acting in Harmony, you see the whole panorama and it feels open and free, to move in any direction while keeping your goals in mind.

How to Understand "Relaxation" in Yi Fa Qi Gong

This is a very useful video to understand some of what I mean with regards to 'relaxing' into Qi Gong practice. Although it's obviously being presented from the point of view of martial arts, it's coming from a tradition that makes some use of Qi Extension, and thus it relates to some of what we talk about in the Yi Fa Qi Gong practice.

 

Note that I'm not saying you need to do these stretches in particular (you could if you want to, but they're geared toward martial arts practice), I'm saying pay attention to what he's talking about just what 'relaxation' means.

 

People tend to tense up their muscles, while in Qi Gong the point is to keep the musculature relaxed while still holding an internal firmness. So I've found it's very important to remind people to relax while they practice; holding tension in the musculature makes it very ineffective for Qi circulation. But at the same time, this doesn't mean to be all floppy; the POSTURE is firm, the musculature is relaxed (and the breathing is relaxed as well).
There is a parallel in this when it comes to one's consciousness during the practice; you do not want to be mentally tense while you practice. You DO want to be in the Active Consciousness, but this means being very present in a very relaxed way!

 

Also note what he's talking about "mind" and "putting the mind into the body". When he says "mind" he's talking about what in Yi Fa Qi Gong we call "active consciousness". When you are really present in the active consciousness, your body is not tense, your mind is not tense, but you are fully connected in the body and so without any great effort other than that attention you are able to be in good control of your posture and movements.

 

Qi Gong and Control

The following is a rewriting of advice given in the private teaching group for the Yi Fa Society.  If you are interested in joining the Yi Fa Society, please get in touch!


What does Yi Fa Qi Gong teach us about control?


If you are like most people, you want control, but it is the wrong sort of control.
Your notion of control is based on a feeling of not being in control in the first place.
So in fact, the way you try to be in control is an expression of your lack of control.

REAL control is awareness.

When you can become aware of your body as it is, rather than trying to make it into something else, to force it to behave a certain way, then you take the first step to being a master over yourself.
When you can get to the point that the body is so natural and relaxed that the breath seems to stop, then you have achieved a type of control that can't be compared to anything in common understanding.

The first thing you have to do to gain real control is to accept fear, and carry on anyways.
The second is to be able to relax, to be relaxed.
Think about it, who is in control in a situation?  Let's say on the battlefield, who is in more control: the guy who is freaking out, or the guy who is relaxed?

The next step, in that relaxation, is to be connected to the whole body. You start with an anchor: the lower dantien, the straight spinal column, the breath. But from there the goal is to be inseparable from your whole body as it is.

In a boxing match, who is more in control: the guy who is rigid and tense, or the guy who is fluid and relaxed? The guy who knows his body, or the guy who doesn't? The guy who can think and move as one, or the guy who thinks and only then moves?

If you can relax and be so connected to your body that your breath seems to stop, then you will be in more control than you ever have been in your entire life.