Articles
GUIDELINES FOR YI REN QIGONG PRACTITIONERS
By Guan-Cheng Sun and Jill Gonet
Yi Ren Qigong is the practice of cultivating our inherent potential and well-being through a growing awareness
and enhancement of "Qi" within us, as well as surrounding us. The Chinese
character "Yi" means change, the upper part symbolizes the sun and lower part
symbolizes the moon. Through the dynamic interactions of Yin and Yang, the
character "Yi" graphically suggests how change occurs in the natural world. The
character "Ren" means human. Yi Ren Qigong is an integrated series of Qigong
exercises for balancing and harmonizing our bodies, emotions and minds. The
practice encompasses communication and interaction between the mind and the
body, as well as communication and interaction between people and their
environment, including other people, society, and nature.
For successful
Yi Ren Qigong practice and to make great progress, we have the following
suggestions:
(1) YI REN QIGONG AS A COMPLEMENTARY FORM OF
HEALING
Yi Ren Qigong classes and training are not meant to replace the
care and attention of your medical doctor, though Yi Ren Qigong does provide a
wonderful form of complementary healing in combination with other types of
treatment. In some cases, Qigong alone gets to the root of a problem, but please
continue to be seen by your regular care provider as needed, and to be monitored
for any chronic conditions you are working on.
Many of our practitioners
report enhanced success when Yi Ren Qigong practice is combined with other forms
of treatment. Many practitioners have found that, over time, their dosage/need
for medications such as allergy medications, pain management medications, asthma
inhalers, synthetic thyroid hormone, and others may decrease (or in many cases
be eliminated). Please work in cooperation with your medical practitioner to
monitor correct dosages for any medications you may be taking.
(2)
COMMITMENT AND DISCIPLINE
Yi Ren Qigong emphasizes that everyone holds
the primary responsibility for their own health and well-being. For successful
training, it is necessary to have commitment and discipline. Achievement depends
on growing awareness and enhancement of Qi, and integrating the Qi with the mind
and the body. This deepening awareness will only come about through continued,
regular practice. In the beginning, students should follow instructions to do a
continued practice for at least 40 minutes a day. Practice at a convenient time,
such as before sleep, after getting up, after work, or in any spare time. But
don't practice right after a big meal. Yi Ren Qigong practice should be delayed
for at least 40-60 minutes after a big meal.
(3) AVOIDING
DISTURBANCE
During Yi Ren Qigong practice, our energy level is increased
and the internal energy flow is enhanced. At the same time, we are achieving a
relaxed and meditative state. In this case, we should avoid any disturbance as
much as possible, because a sudden disturbance can cause nervousness or tension
in the body, thereby affecting the energy flow. In case of sudden disturbance
(phone calls, noises, etc.) while you are practicing Qigong, please take a deep
breath, and bring the energy back to your lower abdomen area first, then do as
you need to do. Practice can then be resumed, or else finished by doing the
ending exercise.
Regarding disturbances during class--please come to
class on time! We are committed to providing a classroom environment where each
practitioner can learn the transformative practice of Qigong. In order to
achieve our goal, in each class, we need everyone's cooperation and support. If
you are late, and the rest of your classmates have quickly gotten into a relaxed
and peaceful state, it disturbs the entire group when you come in. If you have
to be more than 15 minutes late, we suggest that you avoid disturbing the whole
group, and simply practice at home that evening instead.
In addition,
some people may be very sensitive to or have an allergenic reaction to perfume,
so please do not wear perfume to our Qigong classes.
(4) INDICATOR OF
THE RELAXATION STATE DURING QIGONG PRACTICE
In Yi Ren Qigong training, we
initially activate the bio-energy-information system and concentrate on
increasing the strength of the energy field between the hands. Building up this
field naturally guides the body to a state of relaxation. So the relaxation
skill improves automatically as the energy field becomes more active and
stronger. In addition, when the practitioner achieves a proper state of
relaxation, the saliva secretion naturally increases. This is a clear indicator
of progress in Qigong practice and means that the practitioner is relaxing well.
(5) UNDERSTANDING THE FUNCTION OF QIGONG PRACTICE
There are many
different types of Qigong, and a variety of books and videos available to the
student. In China today there are hundreds of forms of Qigong. Many Qigong
practices have been passed down for centuries through families and spiritual
communities such as monasteries. Some healers or masters may, in many cases, be
teaching from a tradition without really knowing why or how this can help
people, or if an exercise is properly geared to the condition or level of the
person who is going to be practicing it. Without a thorough understanding of the
body's energy patterns, the functions of exercises and how they correspond to a
practitioner's situation or stage of development, it can be dangerous to
practice without someone to check on your body's response to the practice. It
can also be dangerous to do exercises from different Qigong systems
simultaneously. The systems may not be complementary, and the purpose or
effectiveness of some of the exercises may be either questionable or else
inappropriate. The Yi Ren Qigong system is a synthesis of carefully tested
exercises from different traditions, in addition to a core of exercises which
represent over 25 years of Dr. Sun's personal experiences with Qigong. In
combination with exercises from the Yi Ren Qigong system, if there is some
exercise from another system you really want to include in your practice, please
check with Dr. Sun to ensure that it is enhancing your progress.
The
following is a basic overview of the Yi Ren Qigong process:
Overview. The
training and practice in our courses consists of a series of stationary and very
subtle movement meditations for regulating energy circulation in the body. The
purpose of these exercises is to build up more energy, and to get the body's
energy field active and stable. Practitioners work on developing their body's
information system and understanding its function. The increasing energy in our
bodies amplifies the body's signals, and as we turn the mind's attention toward
the body, the body begins to tell us which places need healing. We activate the
body's energy centers in order to enhance and improve the body's energy flow and
to eliminate energy blockages. This triggers and activates self-healing, with
each body's own repair system cleansing and detoxifying the body of accumulated
negative energy, information and waste products caused by illness, injury,
tension, stress, and emotions.
When practitioners have mastered these
basics, and have learned to listen to what the body's information system is
telling us, we begin to train the mind to direct the flow of energy; we focus on
bringing movement, energy, and the mind into unity. Practitioners develop
greater skills in self-healing as a result of the practice, due to more
free-flowing energy throughout the body, and also due to changes in perception
and emotional attitude that may have led to physical manifestations of
illness.
I. Relaxation. Usually, we use too much energy and attention to
focus, many times over what is necessary. When people don't know the correct
degree for concentration, this creates pressure and stress in the body. When we
relax, we release the stress. Once the body's energy field becomes active,
through movement and breathing, it amplifies the body's signals which are
telling us to balance the excess mental energy.
II. Breathing. Oxygen
helps fire to burn. In order to get more energy we need more fire to burn waste
products in the body. The brain also needs a lot of oxygen in order to do its
work. Natural breathing, as adults do it, cannot support how much oxygen we
actually need in the cells. We need to restore our true breathing style, from
nose breathing, to abdominal breathing and skin breathing (natural breathing
functions in infants and children which have declined in adults).
III.
Energy Field. This is the basis of how the brain communicates with the body'
different parts. The brain uses this energy field and the nervous system to
communicate with each part of the body. It's almost like the brain has a radio
station for receiving this information from the neuron system and the energy
field. In this class, we learn to listen to what the energy field is relaying to
the brain's radio station. The energy field is the body' system for
communicating both with itself, and with other bodies, in a healing situation.
Western medicine, and most of Eastern traditional medicine as well, is lacking
an understanding of this function--of the body's energetic field and its
communication function. As our energy levels increase, we become more deeply
aware of this connection between the mind and the body, and are able to use the
information we receive from the body's communication network in order to
facilitate our own healing process.
IV. Self-Healing. Practice
improves health, triggering both the body' alarm systems (when we should stop
doing something because it's not good for us) and repair systems to get active
(the repair systems release pain and waste products). We have a lot of systems
in the body and practice allows them to work at higher efficiency and realize
their potential. We are working to change and cleanse our body's internal
environment to regulate the expression of healthy genetic information. We have
both healthy and unhealthy genetic information, but changing the body's internal
environment allows and fosters the expression of the healthy information.
V. Emotional Regulation. Excess amounts of emotions such as fear,
depression, anger, etc., are capable of hurting our health. How do we control or
regulate our emotions? We practice and become more attuned to them and the
situations in which they arise. We restore each organ's regulation function of
the emotion associated with it. This is something that traditional Chinese
medicine understands very well, and our energetic practice gives us a very real
and powerful set of tools to use to get our emotional lives into balance (tools
that aren't based just on mental thinking or will power). When we learn how not
to be at the mercy of our emotions, we feel better all around, and don't lose
energy repeatedly in negative cycles that only produce an internal environment
full of chaos; instead, we are more able to maintain balance. The life within us
and surrounding us takes on greater depth and significance as we break out of
our habitual responses and continue to develop ourselves.
VI. Balancing
our intellectual and intuitive systems. Intellect is our natural ability to
reason rather than to feel or act, and intuition is our natural ability to know
things directly rather than through reason. Usually, we have been trained
intellectually rather than intuitively in our educational system. And that
creates an extremely unbalanced situation between our intellectual and intuitive
systems.
But when we have bought our mind, energy, breathing and
movement into greater unity through our practice, they begin to function more
seamlessly and we come into greater alignment with our deep consciousness--which
includes the very intelligent body-consciousness. By increasing the energy
circulating throughout the body, we stimulate the body into new levels of
awareness, and the body begins to understand things the mind cannot see. In
general, it's easy for the mind to lie to us and to hold illusions; the mind may
also have had some incorrect information installed, but when the body begins to
be aware, it can correct the mind's misperceptions. Once we have worked through
blockages in the body's energy-information system, and the energy pathways flow
more freely and clearly, the mind, or intellectual mind, and the
body-consciousness, or intuitive mind, become connected and form a working
partnership that allows us much deeper and more accurate perception for
navigating our everyday lives, activities, and decisions.
(6) PHYSICAL
AND EMOTIONAL SENSATIONS OF QI
Practitioners of Yi Ren Qigong will
experience a variety of physical and emotional sensations after awakening their
own bio-energy-information system. In the beginning, the feelings may include:
warmth, heat, cold, internal vibrations, numbness, heaviness, itching, soreness,
tingling, largeness, smallness, buzzing, internal movement like water current,
fluttering in the body, excitement, happiness, laughing, crying and much more.
Try not to consciously repress or stop the sensations until they gradually and
naturally fade away on their own because these experiences are characteristic of
the body's response to the increased energy flow and stimulation. In some cases,
the increased sensations will include pain during a healing process in the Yi
Ren Qigong practice. It hurts for a short time and then feels better or
completely restored.
(7) IMPROVING OUR SELF AND HELPING
OTHERS
The Yi Ren Qigong system is designed to improve people's lives and
well-being. To enhance the individual's life and to help each other is our
purpose. However, before practitioners use the power and energy that they have
gained for healing others, we should first focus on healing ourselves and also
learn how to protect ourselves. Our own self-healing process should be our
primary focus, especially for new practitioners. Dr. Sun suggests that before a
practitioner completes the actual energy flow and regulation around the small
universe (which can take up to three years on average), we should not use our
healing energy to heal others often. When we are able to use the power to assist
another, we need to be careful to monitor how much we are giving so that we do
not exhaust or damage ourselves.
(8) AWARENESS OF THE PRACTICE
ENVIRONMENT
One of the ways Yi Ren Qigong practice enables us to heal
ourselves is by cleansing our internal environment. The internal environment of
the body is steadily cleaned out as a result of enhanced breathing, and as a
result of greater emotional and physical strength. These positive changes in the
internal environment strongly encourage the expression of healthy genetic
information. During Qigong practice, we should avoid any toxic environment and
choose the most relaxed, peaceful and comfortable place possible.
For
those who would like to practice outdoors, please don't practice outside in bad
weather or in a strong wind. Please be aware of some trees, plants and flowers
which may have a positive or negative effect on your Qigong practice. For
example, pine, cypress, elm, willow, fig tree, maple, cassiabarktree, walnut,
poplar, grape, camphor tree, crape myrtle, nopalxochia, orchid, cactus, and
others may bring a greater positive effect on our Qigong practice. But oak,
mango, chinese scholar tree, palm, eucalyptus, peach tree, sensitive plant,
tulip, magnolia, and others may give you a negative effect when you practice
around them. You also may discover that the liver feels good when you practice
under a pine tree; the spleen feels happier when you practice in a willow tree
field; the kidneys feel stronger when you practice close to a cypress; and the
lungs feel better when you practice next to poplar trees. You may feel that the
Qi increases when you practice Qigong near fig trees; it may benefit those with
low blood pressure, but you should avoid them if you have high blood pressure.
These are just a few references abut human/plant interactions from
traditional Qigong thinking about the practice environment, but any given
individual may experience these interactions differently.
(9) QIGONG
PRACTICE AND MENSTRUATION
Female practitioners may experience more
vigorous flow, but with less pain and fatigue than they may have felt
previously. Part of the reason for this has to do with the body's increasing
ability to send out negative information. Some of our female practitioners may
find that their bodies are learning to dump negative accumulations via the
monthly menstrual flow. You may notice that this increased flow occurs in
menstrual periods over the course of several months or for a year or two. This
increase in flow is temporary; after a while it mellows back out. If you want to
cease practice during your period, that may be what your body wants, but it is
also okay to practice if you avoid focusing on and stimulating the abdominal
area, and focus instead on overall energy flow. Massaging the feet, the detoxing
exercise, the shoulder relaxing exercise, and the small and large universe
exercises would all be appropriate for enhancing vital energy during
menstruation and alleviating discomfort.
(10) QIGONG PRACTICE AND
SEXUAL ENERGY
Sexual energy is a very important form of Qi, a
concentrated form of creative energy. Until a certain level in the cultivation
process, practitioners are most apt to "leak" this energy to the outside. As you
become more adept in your Qigong practice, you will find that your handling of
sexual energy flows is likely to transform. Committed practitioners may find
that their body becomes savvy about conserving its energy, even in a sexual
situation; this is a natural outcome of the cultivation process--that the body
channels its energies more and more effectively and "conservatively."
For practitioners who would prefer to redistribute sexual energy back
into the body's general circulation, we suggest that you relax the minus center
and guide the sexual energy into the body's larger circulation pattern by
performing the large universe exercise and/or the active small universe
exercise. The swimming hands set of Yi Ren taiji also effectively recirculates
sexual energy back around the body.
(11) DEVELOPMENT OF CHARACTER AND
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Yi Ren Qigong practice leads to the real
synchronization of body and mind. At higher levels of cultivation, this leads to
enhanced generosity, openness, acceptance, patience, and many qualities of a
positive nature. Enhanced energy can easily lead to enhanced compassion and
patience, for example, because when we feel good and our needs are taken care
of, it's easier to be patient with others.
All of us are in the process
of learning to nurture our energy, with calmness and harmony, through our
practice. This harmony, with energy behind it, works on the character of the
practitioner from within. Then our thoughts, will, and spirit become more
positive, productive, and loving.
For practitioners who do not sense
these changes in themselves over time, please consider that in fact our life
situations are the most crucial field of our Qigong practice, one that requires
the willingness to look at ourselves. During energetic practice, the energetic
body develops and health increases, and then this practice naturally deepens and
begins to connect with emotional states/wounds that have happened in the past.
In some cases, practice creates a new unbalance between our emotions and our
energetic level--and this old negative information always affects the quality of
our lives.
We have to work hard to create a new balanced state between
our emotions, mind, and body. It is important to be paying attention to this
process, as we are always bringing in new energy to break through or break down
the old balance that may have been holding us in place (and making us more
deeply affected than necessary by negative/toxic people and environments). When
we haven't broken through an old negative balance we are so much more at the
mercy of negative transactions, so it's necessary to build up a new balance. It
doesn't matter if we change the mind first or the energy first, we're always
engaged in creating a situation of new balance. Once we've cleaned out or begun
to clean out old negative emotions/wounds, and loosened their grip, we've
accomplished a great deal: a degree of detachment. And once we've moved out of
our old box, gotten some detachment, we naturally change our perceptions and
what we see. It becomes easier to maintain the clean, wholesome, and original
nature of our personal space and not become lost or deeply affected by unhealthy
or toxic environments. Once we are living harmoniously within ourselves in an
integrated way, we can live with others more harmoniously
too.
Cultivating qualities, such as patience and compassion, comes with
Yi Ren Qigong practice because we become increasingly aware of energy
interactions in our life and environment, and start to look at meeting our
needs. If we find we're in a particular emotional habit pattern, we figure out
what it is we need to do that will make us happy, what sort of change needs to
happen? When we are taking care of ourselves and making sure our needs are met,
we automatically become more gentle and patient with others, whereas if we're
not dealing with our own needs and we're repressing our feelings, we don't have
very much gentleness or patience for other people.
When practitioners,
through the cultivation process, develop qualities of energy, patience,
openness, compassion, it is in fact because we are learning to love ourselves
better, and also because we have the power and energetic support to go for those
qualities.
(12) AN EXPERIENTIAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN
THE MIND AND THE BODY
With every practice session, with increasing energy
and deepening awareness, we are engaged in forging a better partnership between
the mind and the body. As we learn to synchronize what may have been very
separate realms, practitioners come to understand a basic premise of Yi Ren
Qigong practice: the body is the carrier and mirror of the mind, and the mind is
the navigator of the body.
One of the outcomes of continued practice is
that we find ourselves increasingly attuned to our intuition. With better
intuition, we are unable to lie to ourselves about our wounds and our needs. We
also begin to see our potentials more clearly, and to stop being afraid of who
we are. We begin to feel more relaxed and peaceful; we feel increased
self-confidence and self-acceptance. As our self-conflicts resolve, we learn how
to find and maintain the balance between the intellectual mind and the intuitive
intelligence. When the mind and body become synchronized, we find greater energy
available for our life activities and continuing self-development.
(13)
LEVEL CHANGES AND REFINING OUR NATURE
By continued practice, we will
naturally realize the mirror function of the body, learn to listen to the body
again, and understand what it is saying. We will feel our self-state begin to
change--for example, from a passive state to an active state, or from negative
habitual responses to more positive ways, from unbalance to balance, as well as
other changes. We may require much less sleep and still feel very energized. The
positive elements we strive for include honesty, love, kindness and compassion.
True practice requires of us that we become mature in our mind and emotions. As
increased energy levels restore and reinvigorate the body, they also become the
means to transform these other aspects of the self from
within.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How do I combine meditation
with my Qigong practice?
Meditation is part of Yi Ren Qigong practice. It
might be better if you practice Qigong first, to activate your
bio-energy-information system (BEIS), and keep the BEIS on, and then do your
meditation practice. This way, you are naturally integrating Qigong practice
with meditation, and not only will you save time, but you will also get better
results and enjoy a higher quality of meditation.
How do I choose my
practice routine ? Which exercises should I regularly include? How do I choose
which ones ?
In Yi Ren Qigong practice, if you are in the beginners
class, it is good to do the homework practice by following the instructions. But
if you are in level 2 or further advanced, we suggest that the "small universe,"
mind-kidney connection, and "large universe" exercises should be in your regular
practice routine. There are many exercises available for many different purposes
and conditions of people in the Yi Ren Qigong system. As far as how to choose
the right exercise, it depends on each individual's purpose and needs. With an
increased internal energy level, and deepened awareness, you may find that with
some exercises you have more affinity, or a special response (warmth, pain,
negative emotion release, more energy, more creative and productive, etc.),
either while you are practicing or after you finish the exercise. This is
usually a good sign that the particular exercise is a good "fit" for you. Also,
with continued practice, we naturally find our intuition enhanced and we can
listen to the body's suggestions. Then we naturally know which exercise we
should choose. However, if you are not sure, or you are a beginner and have some
special areas for which you would like corresponding exercises, please ask Dr.
Sun for assistance or discuss with him which exercise(s) would be most helpful
to your condition or special area of concern.
How many times should I
repeat my exercise when I practice at home?
As you know, when we practice
together in class, we usually do six or twelve repetitions of an exercise, and
this is in part to help everyone remember that exercise. It is different when we
do our exercises at home. Please remember our basic principles of Yi Ren Qigong
practice: first, we are integrating our breathing, movement, energy field and
consciousness and bringing them into unity; and second, we are developing a more
perfect balance between our intellectual system and intuitive system.
In
order to get great results and make good progress, it is better to repeat one
exercise over and over again. But it is not enough simply to repeat; it is very
important to keep the quality of the exercise high. During practice, we first
make sure we are consciously feeling the actual sensations of the energy field;
second, we check to make sure the saliva flow has increased; then third, we
check for a harmonized and relaxed state of the mind and body. This harmonized
and relaxed state is the precondition for continuing to repeat the exercise. In
the beginning, practitioners repeat an exercise relatively fast, but as each
individual's energy level increases, the movement naturally becomes slower. For
example, beginners repeat the "small universe" exercise about 20 times in 10
minutes, but a more advanced practitioner might repeat the "small universe"
exercise only three times in 30 minutes. The point is to find the best rhythm,
with the movement synchronizing with your own energy field; this is the most
effective way to balance the intellectual system and intuitive system. Each main
exercise should be continued for at least 20 minutes in order for the
practitioner to enjoy the most outcome.
CONCLUSION
With continued
practice and with the awareness of growing Qi, the practitioner will experience
many positive changes, for example, feeling more and more creative and
productive, and less and less stress. The physical body will become healthier
and stronger, with increasing energy. The quality of sleep will improve, while
the actual hours of sleep required may decrease, leaving more time to do the
things we want. Emotional swings will level out, permitting more balance and
happiness than before. During this process of growing awareness, our outlook on
life may change too. It will become easier to feel compassion and caring about
other people, and to break through our negative habitual patterns as we begin to
experience universal connection and spiritual development.
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