Pour brandy into two glasses. Video 5—SoundsTrue.com/MasterKeyExercises
Mastering Willpower
Boosting Your Qi Power
Now is a good time for us to pause briefly, assess where we stand, and establish where we go from here. In Part 2, Awakening the Four Golden Wheels, you came into possession of the master key to happiness by awakening and empowering the Three Dantians, the Central Meridian, and Awakening Awareness. Now in Part 3, Exercising the Four Golden Wheels, I will guide you through a series of four exercises known as the Essential Practices, which are designed to develop that seed you planted in Part 2 into a mighty tree.
The Essential Practices presented in this section will considerably increase and refine your energy reserves. Each practice exercises all Four Golden Wheels by repeatedly pumping in fresh Qi and pumping out stagnant Qi. And just as physical exercises like aerobics and weightlifting will improve your circulation and strength, the Essential Practices will improve your Qi circulation and boost your Qi power.
Over the course of the day you constantly draw on your Qi reserves, especially as you interact with other people. These energetic flows take place invisibly, and at this stage of your Qigong development, you are going to start noticing them more and more. For example, while exploring a visionary idea with a colleague at the office, you might notice that you are both exchanging Wisdom Qi; while hugging a loved one during a tender moment, you might notice that you are exchanging Love Qi; while watching an exciting basketball game with a group of friends, you might notice that you are all exchanging Vitality Qi; in the midst of contemplating your future, you might notice that you are channeling Heaven Qi; and while exploring practical ways to increase efficiency at a budgeting meeting, you might notice that you are whipping up Earth Qi. And to the extent that these interactions unfold in Awakened Awareness, you might also notice that you are more centered and peaceful as these activities take place.
After working with the Essential Practices for some time, you will begin to realize that you are projecting more wisdom, love, vitality, excellence, inspiration, practicality, and peacefulness each time you express yourself. The quality of your social interactions will improve. Conversations will flow more smoothly. People will feel good around you. You will become more magnetic. Others will listen to you more attentively and you will have more interesting ideas to share with them. Your life will become more productive, meaningful, and serene.
Admittedly, your everyday problems won’t magically disappear, but you will be better equipped to deal with them. You will also have enough energy to plow through troubling times while keeping your life aimed in a meaningful direction and filled with stimulating activities relevant to your growth. You will acquire dynamic happiness—the ability to remain inwardly contented even when unexpected reversals of fortune occur.
Xiao Yao taught me hundreds of different Qigong exercises, but the Essential Practices stand apart from all the rest. These exercises are the foundation of his Qigong system. My master practiced them regularly his entire life. I learned them in the boiler room when I was a boy, and I continue to practice them regularly as well. I have discovered, as I hope you will, that they ripen like fine wine and deepen over time. These are lifelong practices.
Many of my students have used the Essential Practices to improve their lives in significant ways. They serve as powerful tools for personal growth, self-empowerment, and life transformation. You too will discover this if you practice them sincerely.
The four exercises include:
Three Treasures Standing Meditation: The first practice my master ever taught me was Horse Stance. Though it was hard and taxing, this practice strengthened my willpower tremendously. The Three Treasures Standing Meditation consists of a sequence of static standing postures intended to give you the benefit of Horse Stance without the strain. This first Essential Practice exercises your ability to channel the Four Golden Wheels into your willpower.
Four Golden Wheels Exercise: This practice exercises the Four Golden Wheels while your body is in motion. Being able to access the Four Golden Wheels while the body is active is an essential skill to develop if you want to tap into your Qi reserves throughout the day. This second Essential Practice develops that skill by repeating a series of slow, gentle movements that activate the Four Golden Wheels.
Lotus Meditation: This exercise is a visualization practice that involves the purification of your physical body and the invocation of a Holy Being in a beautiful, ethereal garden. Then you merge that being into the Four Golden Wheels, with special attention given to the Middle Dantian. Lotus Meditation amplifies your capacity for compassion, and with its mastery you will embody the power of universal love.
Connecting Universe: In this exercise you circulate the energy stored in the Central Meridian in a series of loops in order to reorganize your entire energy field by drawing in fresh Qi from all over the universe. Connecting Universe is one of the most integrative practices I learned from Xiao Yao. I spent hundreds of hours practicing it in the dark chamber. Continued practice of this exercise also dissolves negativity.
Recommendations for a daily practice program of these four exercises tailored to your own needs will be presented later in chapter 17, Practice Guidelines. And before we get started, I would also like to offer one important word of advice. In the technical instructions for all the exercises that follow, I will repeatedly ask you to “become aware” of some aspect of the practice. Each time you run into that phrase, please take a second or two to gently awaken your awareness as you practice. That small, subtle refinement will dramatically improve your experience and accelerate your progress.
Now, before we dive into Three Treasures Standing Meditation, let’s play a little game to test your willpower.
EXERCISE 11 Changing the Taste of Brandy Using Willpower
The following exercise is often performed by Qigong masters in China to demonstrate their ability to transform the taste of alcohol through their willpower. This sounds impossible, but once you understand the basic principle behind the process, even as a beginner you can achieve instant success with a little concentrated effort.
The stronger the alcohol tastes the more notable the effect, so using brandy or whiskey is recommended. The exercise doesn’t require you to drink any more than two tiny sips, but if you are underage or don’t drink alcohol, you may use freshly squeezed lemon juice as a substitute. The effect is less dramatic, but still discernible.
1. Pour a few ounces of brandy into two glasses. Place one of the glasses off to the side. Place the other glass directly in front of you.
Pour brandy into two glasses. Video 5—SoundsTrue.com/MasterKeyExercises
2. Rub your hands together vigorously for twenty seconds, then hold them about a foot apart on either side of the glass in front of you as you create a Qi Field between your palms. Feel your energy penetrate the liquid inside the glass for twenty seconds.
Create a Qi Field.
3. Pick up the glass. Visualize a brilliant light shining down from your hand into the liquid and beyond it. Feel your energy flow through the brandy and purify it, draining away the dark, heavy quality of the liquid. Visualize the alcohol becoming brighter. Continue doing this for up to one minute.
Purify the brandy with the Qi of your palm.
4. Imagine beams of golden energy shooting from your fingertips and use that Qi to “stir” and refine the brandy. Feel your Qi inside the glass transforming the alcohol. Visualize the brandy gradually becoming more and more smooth. Smile as you continue doing this in a steady and relaxed way for up to one minute.
Send golden light from your fingertips.
5. Use the Blade of Sword Finger to seal the energy in the glass, but don’t touch the alcohol. “Stamp” the brandy energetically with a Yin Yang symbol nine times to keep the refined brandy Qi sealed in.
Seal with Sword Finger.
6. Now sip the refined brandy from the glass you just worked on, and then taste the brandy from the other glass. Taste the difference?
The results of this exercise are often startling. The alcohol in the two glasses tastes undeniably different. The brandy in the first glass has a lighter, smoother flavor. The brandy in the second glass is so strong it can make you wince and sometimes even gag. The reaction is physiological, not psychological. For further validation, you can repeat the exercise and let another person taste the two glasses. If your willpower is strong enough, you can even perform the exercise standing a few feet away from the glass. A powerful Qigong master can even change the taste of the alcohol remotely with the glass in another room, or even from miles away.
Consider the implications of this exercise. If you can transform the taste of alcohol in under a minute using your own willpower, what do you suppose happens when you recycle hurtful thoughts about yourself throughout the day? And what kind of effect do you have on others as a result of your negative projections? As a society we are increasingly concerned about air pollution, water pollution, electronic pollution, and noise pollution, but how mindful are we about the “pollution” caused by our own consciousness?
If you believe that your thoughts and feelings have no bearing on objective reality, you won’t have to assume any responsibility for them. Most of us relate to our own consciousness in this manner. We behave as though the contents of our minds and hearts don’t affect our bodies and the people around us. But what if the line dividing our private thoughts and the outer world were permeable and not solid? How would you feel about cruelty, jealousy, and other forms of inner violence you projected onto others—and yourself—if you realized that each time you generated a negative impression you were leaving behind an invisible “bloody fingerprint”?
The first Essential Practice—Three Treasures Standing Meditation—teaches you to empower your willpower by fusing it to the Three Treasures and the Four Golden Wheels. You accomplish this goal by holding several different static postures while standing in a high Horse Stance. Each posture activates one of the Three Treasures as well as one of the Four Golden Wheels and your willpower. When you hold the posture steadily for a few minutes each time, all these elements amalgamate. Then the final posture integrates all the Three Treasures, all the Four Golden Wheels, and your willpower together simultaneously.
ESSENTIAL PRACTICE 1 Three Treasures Standing Meditation
Three Treasures Standing Meditation consists of five different postures. The sequence includes:
1. Starting Posture
2. Heaven Posture
3. Earth Posture
4. Human Posture
5. Universal Posture
Posture 1: Starting Posture
1. Stand comfortably with your feet pointing forward, one and a half to two shoulder-widths apart. The proper distance varies depending on your weight and body type, so find a position that feels natural to you and then close your eyes.
2. Keep your knees slightly bent and tuck your pelvis in. Imagine that you are sitting on a tall stool.
3. Relax your arms at your sides with your elbows slightly bent.
4. Relax your shoulders. One simple way to relax the shoulders is by lifting and tensing them up, then letting them drop back down again. Repeat this three times.
5. Stretch your tailbone downward. To do this, imagine that you have a “tail” and imagine touching the ground with it.
6. Keep your spine supple and relaxed, like a willow tree.
7. Next, stretch your head upward by imagining that your head is a buoy floating on a calm sea.
8. Softly touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
9. Relax your entire body. Feel that you are breathing Qi through all the pores of your skin.
10. Smile and allow a pleasant, happy feeling to spread everywhere.
11. Listen for the sound of an imaginary bell coming from far, far away.
12. Good. Now hold Starting Posture for three minutes before moving on to the next posture.
Settle into Starting Posture.
Video 6—SoundsTrue.com/MasterKeyExercises
1. From Starting Posture, with your eyes still closed, raise your arms slowly to form an open circle around your head. Keep your palms facing outward. Imagine that your arms extend high up into the sky. Find a comfortable position that minimizes the tension in your arms.
2. Inhale, pay attention to your Upper Dantian, and as you exhale, expand your Upper Dantian until it fills the space between your head and your arms, forming a large “beach ball.” Feel the essence of your Wisdom Qi flow inside the ball between your hands.
3. With your palms still facing out, absorb inspiring Heaven Qi through both your palms and your arms. Feel the celestial energy flow into the ball of your expanded Upper Dantian. As you hold this static position, relax and become aware of the Heaven Qi and Wisdom Qi empowering your willpower, infusing it with inspiration and intuition. Keep standing in Heaven Posture for three minutes, then move on to the next position.
Heaven Posture empowers your will with inspiring wisdom.
1. From Heaven Posture, with your eyes still closed, lower your arms to your sides and form an open circle in front of your Lower Dantian, with your palms facing inward. Imagine that your feet are roots sinking deep into the ground.
2. Inhale, pay attention to your Lower Dantian, and as you exhale, expand your Lower Dantian until it fills the space between your arms, forming a large beach ball. Hug your expanded Lower Dantian. Feel your Vitality Qi flow inside the ball between your hands.
3. Absorb Earth Qi through your legs. Feel this grounding energy flow into your expanded Lower Dantian. As you hold this static position, relax and become aware of the Earth Qi and Vitality Qi empowering your willpower, infusing it with productivity and charisma. Stand in Earth Posture for three minutes, then move on to the next position.
Earth Posture empowers your will with grounding vitality.
1. From Earth Posture, with your eyes still closed, raise your arms slowly and form an open circle in front of your chest. Keep your palms facing your body. Imagine that you are hugging the horizon.
2. Inhale, pay attention to your Middle Dantian, and as you exhale, expand your Middle Dantian until it fills the space between your arms, forming a large beach ball. Hug your expanded Middle Dantian. Feel your Love Qi spread into the ball between your arms.
3. Now absorb all the Human Qi in the world—the love and tenderness stored in the hearts of all living beings. Feel this energy flowing into your expanded Middle Dantian. As you hold this static position, relax and become aware of the Human Qi and your own Love Qi empowering your willpower, infusing it with compassion and tenderness. Stand in Human Posture for three minutes, then move on to the next position.
Human Posture empowers your will with love and compassion.
1. From Human Posture, with your eyes still closed, readjust your arms into the “universal hand position.” To do this, place one hand pointing up vertically in front of your upper chest and place the other hand near or under your elbow with your palm facing up. Either hand can be in either position.
2. Inhale, pay attention to your Central Meridian, and as you exhale, expand your Central Meridian both above your head up into the sky and down into the Earth below your feet. Feel the Three Treasures blending inside the central core of your body. As you do this, visualize yourself standing inside a large golden pyramid, and then imagine a smaller golden pyramid appearing and covering your upper body. These two pyramids help integrate the energy inside the Central Meridian.
3. As you hold this static position, relax and become aware of the Three Treasures and the Four Golden Wheels empowering your willpower, infusing it with dynamic happiness. Stand in Universal Posture for three minutes. Then, when you finish, return to Starting Posture and nourish your Qi.
Universal Posture empowers your will with spiritual well-being.
