Chi
Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI
These visualization techniques usually were only taught in ancient times to very advanced students who had studied for several decades: they were not taught to beginners. However, nowadays, a lot of people either want something exciting, wonderful, and mysterious about chikung to satisfy their need to escape, or are eager and anxious to learn unknown chikung secrets or shortcuts, or just out of plain old curiosity are interested in them. In other words, a form of supply and demand market theory explains how beginning students who are interested in these advanced practices are able to find teachers who will offer such training. This is contrary to the traditional training which specialized in building up our system from a holistic point of view (and not through the use of visualizations) including our body, mind and spirit at the same time while also safely building up our system step by step.
According to the ancient style of practice, we need to pass through four levels to reach the highest state. These are first, perfecting our chi system through our body‘s endocrine system which provides us with a strong body, healthy internal organs, a positive mind, and an inspired spirit. Second, perfecting our chi system through the control of our emotions and mind to reach the state of enlightenment, thus getting the way of ultimate wisdom of prajna ¯ëY. Third, perfecting our chi system through the letting go of our mind into a state of absolute emptiness which allows us to block out external stimuli and frequencies which penetrate throughout our systems, thus focusing on the unification levels of our systems allowing us to reach the state of true freedom where you can be a real free man. Fourth, perfecting our chi system to combine with nature and return to the way of the Tao which opens up all our channels, making the transformation and assimilation with the forces and Tao of nature possible. Mysterious or inner experiences usually occur at the third or the fourth level where there are more opportunities for different sorts of encounters of multiple levels, time and space dimensions, and so on. Therefore, if a beginner at the first level attempts to use an advanced technique from the third or fourth level, he won't have the strong protective shield of energy, the transformative power, or the deep-rooted center power which could anchor him when encountering the exchange, pollution or loss of energy thus making him even more susepible to the spiritual possession process by ghosts or extra ordinary powers. These center forces which anchor a person are similiar to the feeling of flying a kite where you are securely rooted on the ground by gravity and won't be buffeted or spun around by the wind blowing your kite. These forces are very important because they then allow us to return to our body safely during the process or state of traveling or exchanging energy with some other systems without being jeopardized.
Therefore, if we do something like moving part of our energy with our mind within our body to another part of our body, we will probably create some kind of problems related to the purification, the protection, the balance and the recharging system for body, mind and spirit in any situation. Visualization or any other sort of force emission or exchange seems to be fun and easy to do, thus satisfy part of our curiosity and creating a lot of unexpected surprises. However, if we do not have extensive practice in strengthening our fundamental energy which backs up our protection, exchange and charging system safely, then using visualizations is not truly helpful for us. If beginners insist on using visualizations (which are linked with our sensory or emotions), we suggest that they do so without using their minds to direct the process, thereby reducing the chances of encountering less problems or difficulties. Remember, though, that beginners using visualizations will not be strengthening their system from a holistic point of view.
Clear evidence of what can happen when beginners use visualizations in their practice comes from Mainland China (the People's‘s Republic of China) in the past two decades. During experiments to introduce chikung to approximately 100 million Chinese people, approximately 25% of them developed chikung deviation problems. These problems ranged from psychological problems (schizophrenia) to psychic problems (possession), from energy problems (blockages suddenly appearing to hinder the metabolism and circulatory system causing paralysis or some other strange problems), to suddenly dropping dead. Some of those with chikung deviation problems naturally recovered from within a few months to several years, but between 3% to 5% of the cases were incurable by known methods.
The Mainland Chinese authorities changed the focus of the chikung experiment to exclude visualizations and automatic movement chikung (something close to hypnosis) because such methods of training not only caused other more serious problems for beginners, but also created another problem for the authorities. The chikung masters had too much power over their students who thought they were gods; consequently, by the end of the 1980s, the authorities had arrested thousands of these chikung masters all over China. As a result of this, the highest chikung promotion organization in China has had to become more vigilant in the quality of chikung which is currently being taught in China. They reduced the danger (which is derived when the consciousness and subconsciousness are triggered by visualization and automatic movement chikung) by introducing other types of chikung (like shang kung and gwo lin types of gungfu) which use the mind less and emphasize the movement of the limbs instead. Still, these new types of chikung are rooted in sensations or feelings, but beginner students use their mind less when doing such relaxed athletic styles of chikung in order to balance themselves. Any kind of mind conduction or movement using visualization will require them to concentrate more on their upper dantien and the sensory center instead of their lower dantien and their balance system. If they concentrate on their upper dantien, they will have a terrible quality of life because of the instability of their chi, floating and sensitive to external stimuli, will be so easily provoked by different sorts of information, color, environment, people, among a myriad of things.
All saints and sages in different cultures and history have unanimously stressed the importance of attaining the perfect harmony, stability and balance while keeping yourself totally isolated and empty, and acting as a really free man who is able to control himself, attain high wisdom, and merge with his spirit into nature . In this way, if we focus on the practice of using visualization in the beginning stages, we will not be able to reach the state which the saints and sages have mentioned. We will be limited because our chi system opens up exactly like the access channel of a computer which recognizes only one sort of opening file. We may think that using visualizations will bring us results which exceed our imagination, but actually it works on the other way around.
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