The picture above illustrates the The Microcosmic Orbit and can be found at the following link;http://www.naturespathcenter.com/pages/Intermclass.html I like to inhale down the Conception Vessel and exhale up the Governing Vessel. You do as you wish. Try one way and then do it another.
The above picture can be found at the following link;http://tantricshamanism.com/i.a.m
The above picture can be found at the following link;http://www.eservice.com.au/clients/intentional/docs/archive/20051027-newsletter-The_Power_of_Intention.html
We live in an Intentional Universe. Many people myself among them, believe that the Universe or Creation or Goddess/God is intentional and responds to our intentions. That is to say that the Universe has something it intends for its creation and responds to the intentions of it's creations. That does not mean that the Universe, a.k.a /Creation/Heaven/Goddess/God always responds positively or the way we expect. Obviously it does not. Sometimes it does. When that happens we all smile. When it does not respond as we hoped, we sometimes get sad or hurt or angry or all of the above and more.
I could go into how quantum physics and other aspects of the scientific community are exploring the possibilities of an intentional Universe. But if you are interested in that, the web, bookstores, and libraries are full of good information. So go and explore. I will just say that I believe that the Universe responds to out intention and the clearer and stronger our intention the more the Universe responds.
Now why do I say the Universe or as the Chinese call it Heaven, is responsive to our intentions? Because I want to talk with you about a chi kung principle. " Yi" or intention "leads chi" or energy. This principle is VERY IMPORTANT. What does Yi leads Chi mean? It means that energy or chi will follow or be guided by our intentions. One of my teachers said that yi was like deciding that you wanted to move water from point A to point B. Once you decide or intend you must than ACT on your intention . You start to dig a ditch between where the water is and where you want the water to go. If you dig the ditch and the ditch is graded down towards point B, the water will flow from point A to point B. That is an example of yi leading chi. Intention must be acted on to produce results. Committing to practice any good chi kung exercise for at least a half hour a day is VERY IMPORTANT if you really want to swim in the sea of chi and be a good chi healer. You can get good results in healing without doing a daily practice but you will never know the beauty of the Ocean of Energy that is our real existence. I realized that when I started my practice almost sixteen years ago in Cleveland Ohio. I was paying Mr Hilton Tam, my teacher one hundred dollars a lesson. He wanted us to practice twice a day for a hundred days. More on this later. I practice about three times the first week. When I came the second week. He gave me another lesson. As he took my money, he smiled at me and said, " Expensive lessons if you do not practice." I went home and thought about what he said. I realized I would never really experience chi kung if I did not practice with intent and dedication. I practiced everyday after that, twice a day for about two years. Because I did that and kept up my practice, I can write this kind of blog and feel confident about what I write. Even more important to me, I now know I live in a vast beautiful, loving and Intentional, Ocean of Chi and I am a loved part of that Ocean. Human society gives me trouble. But The Universe constantly gives me love and comfort and encouragement. My wife does that as well. I love them both with a passion and commitment they have both earned many times over. When I wrote on this blog about how to exercise and develop you energy body I said that it was important to stay focused on your practice no matter what practice it was you were doing. The Microcosmic Orbit, Sky nourishes Earth, Whole Body Breathing and all other Internal Arts exercises require you to stay focused on your movements. The movements are all internal. That is moving your awareness through your body on predetermined paths for a predetermined amount of time. During any practice your mind will wander away and you will find yourself thinking about something else. You will not know you have wandered away at first. Than you will become conscious that you are thinking about the kids or a friend or bills or a movie or situation. As soon as you realize you are not moving your awareness through your body let go of the thought/emotion and return gently to your practice.
The forgetting what you are doing during practice and suddenly finding yourself thinking/feeling something else is part of any practice or meditation. It is just as important as any other part of the practice. That is to say, adjusting posture, regulating breathing and relaxing unnecessary muscle tension all during the chi kung practice.
If we drift through a practice and do not pay attention to our wondering minds, or our posture or breath or muscles than we will get very little befit. If we catch ourselves often when our minds wonder and return to focus and do the other adjustments as needed we will get very good befits from our practice. Try both and experience the different results for yourself.
The quicker you can become aware that you are thinking/feeling instead of moving through your body the better and stronger your energy/mind/body will become. Learning to resist the seduction of thoughts and emotions and returning quicker to moving awareness through your body is like resistance during weight training. Resisting the thoughts/emotions produces a stronger mind or Yi or intent.
What is true for chi kung practice is also true for healing work. You must have an intent in mind before you start your treatment and you must return to intentional focus during the treatment. This holds true for the one doing the treatment and the one receiving it.
When you do internal chi kung not only are you making your energy body stronger you are making your mind and intent stronger. The more you can guide the chi though your body during practice the more you can guide it when you need to in healing. First you learn to guide the chi in your own body then you can guide chi in other peoples body during a healing session.
Chi kung and chi healing is not easy for most people to do because we are not use to focusing for any long or constant period of time. It is because we are not use to disciplined focus that so many or our problems on all levels of our lives occur. Chi kung is one of the ways we can turn our lives around and become a lot more happy, healthy and successful. By successful I mean more at peace with ourselves and our loved ones.
If I had to sum it up and I do, I would say the following. If you can learn to focus your awareness for long periods and your intent or Yi is strong and clear than your chances for a good on going relationship with the Universe in all it's myriad forms are excellent. One of the best ways to accomplish this, is to study and practice chi kung every day for at least a half an hour. I advise doing it first thing in the morning. That is when I do my internal chi kung practice. It gets done that way. If I do not do it the first thing in the morning, I often do not do it at all that day. I find that the day has ways of making me forget to do my chi kung practice later. As an added bonus, it also makes my day go better, inshAllah.
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