Qi Centering Exercise 2
Meditate the Center
Here you use the meditation exercise from the chapter about posture to get a distinct sense of your center. The essence of meditation is really to think about nothing at all at least in Zen but in this case we still allow ourselves to use this method for another purpose, which is just as commendable.
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It is also a clear feature of meditation, as of any form of spiritual stillness, that it allows you to perceive your body and its essence more closely than in other states of mind.
This exercise is rather abstract in nature and can be difficult to grasp, before you have any sense of your center. Therefore I recommend that you start with the previous exercise, the center breathing in a square, and stick with it until you get a clear result. Then it is time to try this one. It will enrich and deepen your experience.
How to do it
- Sit in the way described in the text about meditation, earlier in the book. You do not have to sit on the floor. A chair is fine too if you can sit in it with a good posture. Unfortunately, that is difficult in most chairs. This time it does not matter much how you are dressed, as long as you do not wear clothes that are tight around your belly. You should feel comfortable, so that you are not distracted.
- In this exercise you do best to close your eyes, since you should turn your attention inward. Therefore you need to lock out what is around you. Avoid letting your eyes turn upward inside your closed eyelids, because that tends to make you drowsy.
- Make a closed figure with your hands, and have them rest in your lap, close to your belly or even touching it, in front of your center, about three finger widths down from your navel. The best is a figure that creates an opening in front of your center. Maybe the hands are too low if you let them rest in your lap. If so, bend your arms a little, so that your hands rise to the correct position. The important thing is to keep the opening that your hands create right in front of your center.
- Breathe with your belly, using long and extended breaths that stimulate your qi flow. Enter the breathing with your mind, to be aware of its source in your center. The position of your hands makes this easier for you to perceive. They sort of create a frame around your center and thereby enhance your experience. Continue with the belly breathing, and do not bother about anything else than this breathing and its source.
- When you succeed in fixing your attention on your center, it gives sort of a resonance all through your body, which makes your breathing particularly vitalizing. It is hard to keep your attention on your center all the time, but as soon as it is there you get this resonance, this sudden gush of inspiration. Even if you cannot describe it intellectually, this exercise will by time give you a deepened assurance of your center and its significance.
- Sit as long as you can without getting uncomfortable. It does not have to be for very long a few minutes can have a great effect. Whatever you experience during this time, you will surely find that subsequently you have gained new energy, and you feel cleaner and clearer than before.
I know that this exercise is vague and almost incomprehensible by nature. But now we are dealing with the very essence of qi and its flow. This gets intangible. You will still be increasingly comfortable with the exercise, as you continue repeating it.
If you have tried this exercise a few times and still get no particular impression from it, although you belly breathe and your qi is flowing then you can ignore it. In that case this exercise just isnt suited for you, so you spend your time better if you focus on other exercises in this book those that give you more.
Qi Centering Exercises
Here is a set of simple exercises to find the center of your qi flow. That makes you grounded and your qi flow powerful. You don't really have to follow the order given below, but you may want to do so the first time around. Then you can focus on the ones you find particularly rewarding.
© Stefan Stenudd
This is a chapter of my book Qi: Increase your Life energy.
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