A while back, Shizi Orchard wrote this piece for folks who are new to internal arts in general and Jiulong in particular. If you know someone who is curious about the facts behind Qigong, Tai Chi, Bagua, and yoga, please refer them to this excellent article.

It is mildly ironic that, at the height of our culture’s technological advancement, the populace is turning to the teachings of ancient mystics in order to re-connect with themselves, each other, and the surrounding environment.    Part of people’s attraction to taijiquan (tie-jee-chwan), yoga, and qigong (chee-gong) may be the depth to which the mind and senses are integrated with body movements.  This three-way connection is extremely important to one’s sense of completeness.  Properly practiced qigong seamlessly integrates body, heart, and mind into a single unit enabling one to live a balanced and joyful life.

Qigong is a relatively new term used to describe an ancient practice.  It is made up of two parts: ‘qi’ and ‘gong.’  Gong translates simply as ‘refined skill.’  Qi is not so simply translated.  Some people translate ‘qi’ as breath, air, universal energy, or life force.  The Chinese character for ‘qi’ is made up of parts that create an image of rice cooking in a stove while steam raises the pot lid.  This alludes to the animating action of the ‘invisible’ steam.  Qi can thus be thought of as the quality, or force, that exists within all things that imbues each thing, animate or inanimate, with its own particular essence.

Qigong is, therefore, the skill of developing one’s essence.  When one’s essential being is stifled, or under tension, qigong theory says the qi is sluggish, or stagnant.  When one’s essence is expressed freely and without hindrance, it is said that the qi is abundant and flowing freely.

There are thousands of styles of qigong.  All styles are based on the universally accepted principles of relaxed and grounded posture, diaphragmatic breathing, fluid and effortless movement, and fully awakened, yet tranquil, awareness.  Different styles of qigong were created for different purposes.  A style may have been designed as a therapy for a specific health problem, as a daily wellness practice, as a method of attaining spiritual enlightenment, or as a method of developing martial power.

A well-known clan of caravan guards from Sichuan Province, China preserved many traditional health and martial skills in their family art.  The Li family used the term ‘Wu ho’ (woo-hoe) to describe their qi development theory.  ‘Wu ho’ literally means ‘no fire.’  The fire referred to is the collection of ‘burning desires’ that we tend to use to justify our actions throughout life.  ‘No fire,’ or Wu ho, refers to being able to direct one’s actions with a calm mind in all situations.

Normally, we waste much energy by responding inappropriately to the conflicting desires generated by the three energy centres, or dantian (dan-dee-en), that direct our behaviour.  The lowest energy centre is called the Jing Dantian.  It is located in the abdomen at the urogenital plexus.  This centre is associated with our inherent genetic potential, procreative drive, physical expression, and sense of sensuality.  The Qi Dantian, in the middle of the body at the solar plexus, is associated with our emotions, circulation, communication, and breath.   Our passion for all things emanates form this centre.  The pineal gland, in the centre of the head, houses the Shen Dantian.  This energy centre is associated with our cognition, intention, imagination and creativity.

The Daoist qigong taught by the Li family is expressly designed to align and unify the three dantians (Jing, Qi, and Shen) so they work together harmoniously.  The particular details of any method can be overwhelming.  There are innumerable postural adjustments, breathing instructions, methods of visualization, energy pathways to open, connections to make, movements to polish, and a tranquil mind to maintain on top of it all!  The ancient saying, “The mind commands, the body moves, and the qi follows,” gives the secret to simplifying one’s qigong practice.  In the final analysis, one must train so the intention-mind, or Yi (yee), clearly leads the heart-mind, or Xin (shin), and the energy, or qi, will manifest as needed and whereever it is needed.

Qigong theory also explains that qi will not flow if there is tension.  This tension includes muscular tension, emotional tension, mental tension, and spiritual tension.  Thus, the Li family places pre-eminent value on what they call the ‘Four Virtues’ in their practice of wu ho/qigong.  By living the principles of Honesty, Humility, Patience, and Sincerity, the student is able to calm the passions of the Xin (heart-mind) and achieve emotional balance.  If one truly lives the Four Virtues, one stops internally generating mental and emotional conflicts, and this lack of internal tension frees up energy, or qi, for more productive use.  One stops operating from a fear-reactive basis and moves to a mindful-responsive basis of interaction.

It is well documented that mental and emotional stress, or tension, can lead to physical tension.  Thus, clearing out conflict in the heart and mind by embracing Honesty, Humility, Patience, and Sincerity in every moment also reduces muscular tension.   It is less well known that bodily tensions and distortions affect how you feel and think.  For instance, it is very difficult to feel truly happy and free if you are hunched over and frowning, with your fingers, wrists and arms twisting into your chest.  Conversely, it is difficult to feel truly morose with your head back, arms outstretched, and a huge smile upon your face.

Thus the Yi (mind) and the posture (body) combine seamlessly to calm the Xin (passion).  Once the Yi and Xin are united, the spirit becomes indomitable and the body becomes filled with qi.  In the Li family qigong, Quiet Sitting is the first method introduced.  By just sitting, one develops a clear mind, the passions settle, the body relaxes, the posture straightens, the breath deepens, and the three dantian (energy centres) align.  After learning to sit, the student learns standing and walking exercises that build upon and deepen the rich process of aligning the will, passion, and action initiated by the practice of the Four Virtues.

Clearly, chasing your qi is not the answer many people think it is.  Merely focusing on developing magical qi, or breathing exercises, or escaping into meditation is not as helpful as the advertisements suggest.  To truly develop internal energy, one must do the very hard work of using honest self-observation to eliminate the internally-generated illusions impeding one’s progress and skilfully balance the needs of one’s genetic potential, passion and will.

The good news is that with thirty to sixty minutes of daily practice, anyone may access better health, improved vitality, and peaceful clarity.  Some of the well-researched health benefits of qigong include improvement in blood pressure, cerebral blood flow, posture, balance and respiration as well as a decrease in anxiety, depression, stress responsiveness, and sensitivity to pain.  So sit, breathe, clear your mind and enjoy more quality in your life!

Dr. Yancy Orchard, a Saskatoon chiropractor, began studying Jiulong Baguazhang with Dr. John Painter in 1994.  Dr. Painter is the inheritor of the entire Li family system of health and martial skills called Daoqiquan.  Dr. Orchard presently shares his knowledge of Bagua and Qigong at the Sheng De Wu Guan in Saskatoon.  Inquiries welcome,  please call 306-652-7026 or email saskatoonbagua@sasktel.net.

This is the article we have been waiting for!  Finally here are clear instructions for appearing to be cultivating the skills needed for effective Jiulong practice, but doing as little work as possible. If you have been wondering how to participate in the art without actually having to practice, this is the way to achieve it. If you follow these methods you are assured of remaining in the art while not actually doing anything. It all comes down to preventing the Dragon from appearing. To this, you have to kill the Dragon.

For those who missed my article “What is the Dragon?”, the Dragon was defined as “an imprinted mind/body pattern of feeling that spontaneously reacts to the needs of the moment with correct force, angle and speed without conscious control”.

It appears without warning and is the result of having practiced the skills outlined in my previous article. The problem is that if the Dragon starts to appear and teach you something, you might be stuck with a lifetime of exploring its lessons. This entails a lot of work, some of which can be fun, but some of it can be difficult. So rather than start down this road, it’s better to kill that Dragon right at the beginning, but still enjoy being in the Jiulong arts.

Stop practicing

This is obvious, but needs to be approached with caution. Remember that the Dragon comes out on its own as a result of properly set mind/body patterns (engrams). So practice of any kind will generate patterns. You must be diligent about practicing such that you can perform the outward appearance of Jiulong skill without any chance that patterns go deep enough into the mind/body system to come out spontaneously.

To accomplish this there are some simple steps you can take. First, make sure you have no regular practice schedule. Regular practice at the same time on a daily basis tends to set engrams automatically. You know this from other aspects of your life. You perform many tasks in exactly the same way each day and as a result, can perform them without thought. For example, you probably brush your teeth with same angle, pressure, speed and number of strokes every time. This regular repetition locks in these features. As a result, you can think about other things while brushing, and be confident those brushing patterns are doing the job. In the same way, regular practice of Zhan Zhuang Standing will, with enough repetition, create the various elements needed for automatic effective movement. Elements like rootedness, stability, relaxation and correct connections which lead to whole body movement need to be kept from sinking into the unconscious.

A good and simple way to achieve this is to skip Standing altogether and only practice high speed movements. This will ensure that you will be able to perform the movements, but no internal skills will be contained in them. Also, you will still have the benefit of looking like you know Jiulong.

Only attend workshops to collect notes.

Another excellent method for avoiding engram creation is by only attending workshops to take notes. By diligently trying to write down everything you hear in a workshop, you will have a record of the knowledge. Then you can say you learned all this material in a workshop, thereby giving the impression that you “know” all this stuff. One warning, though. Be sure not to read the notes later. And, don’t fool around with the methods shown. Playing with ideas and methods in a relaxed, casual way can allow engrams to start being created without being aware of it.

Only work on the physical.

Of course, in order to participate in the art at all you have to develop a little bit of skill. It is possible to do this and still kill the Dragon. This is because there are two primary components to the patterns which create him:  the physical and the psychological.

The psychological components are the attitude (Xin) of the movement and the all important intent (Yi) which provides motive power to the movements. By focusing only on the physical aspects of a movement, you starve the Dragon of the feeling and intention that make the movement a powerful martial skill.

Let’s take Rolling the Pearl as an example. To get the full benefit of this posture, you would try to feel the expansion of the lower arm and the projection of the upper arm while filling and expanding the entire body. Since these components are the prime sources of the power of the Dragon, all you need to do to deny him these is to perform the movement of Rolling the Pearl as a purely physical action. By holding the posture simply as a physical position, devoid of any image, the posture will be weak and able to collapse quite easily. More importantly, it will have little martial effectiveness and will not be practiced repeatedly, thereby preventing an engram from being created.

So if you must practice in order to show your skills, make sure it is only physical, empty of imagination and feelings of power.

Intellectual analysis to recreate spontaneous action.

If the above steps still result in the Dragon appearing, you need to look at ways to stop him as he starts to reveal his lessons. Remember that experiencing the Dragon can lead to exploring his possibilities. This will easily lead to work having to be done, and we want to avoid work, right? You still want to kill that Dragon, don’t you?

While you are working with a partner in any way in Jiulong, the chance that a fascinating martial application, or energy-feeling may be discovered is present. When we work with someone, our actual level of ability is revealed to us through seeing our responses to various situations. For example, when playing with the “Two Dragons in the Clouds” game, it is common to experience winning and losing from moment to moment. When you are bested in any way, you may experience an immediate desire to do the same move against your partner. It feels like by returning the experience to you partner will even the score in some way. This is, of course, revenge. And it happens to most people in this game. It reveals your level of control over your responses. Without some measure of control, you will constantly be reacting to your partner, thereby giving him the upper hand. While you are seeking revenge, he is knocking you down.

Of course, to get better at this control, you simply return as quickly as possible to the present moment of the game. The problem is that this places you back into the stream of spontaneity, which is obviously the land of the Dragon. So, to avoid this we disrupt the spontaneous flow. Here’s how:

When a really cool moment happens, say an unexpectedly effective martial technique, or a moment of seeming to lose your balance and recovering it “magically”, rather than instantly return to the game, stop to attempt to recreate the technique.

When you stop in order to examine what just happened, it stops the flow of forces out of which that technique appeared. A moment ago you were walking, turning, deflecting, attacking, neutralizing….now you are thinking. This is an excellent way to kill that Dragon.

By analyzing a technique you will be attempting to isolate all the elements that went into that moment. This is a comparatively slow process since you have to identify everything one element at a time. Figuring out where your arms were, which way you were walking, how fast the turn was, the exact impact point, and the level of power you put into the movement, etc., takes time. In addition, you have to do the same thing for your partner since he was 50% of the equation. This takes more time.

Then you will both try to set up the move as it was, and apply as many of the components you identified as possible. The result is usually a similar version of the movement but it will be unsatisfying somehow. It will not quite work the way it did in the original spontaneous moment, so you will spend some time adjusting this part and that part, always trying to get that same effectiveness.

In a few cases you can actually recreate the technique. But the good new is that you will have prevented the Dragon from forming. He IS that moment of sudden effective movement. By stopping the flow of movements in order to think about them, you leave the Dragon behind.

Doubt

This is another excellent Dragon killer. And it is so easy! All you have to do is doubt the methods and the concepts behind them. What could be easier than just telling yourself things like “What if this is not true?” or “How do I know I am not imagining the effect I just experienced?”. These kinds of questions place you in a position of being unsure of what you are learning. This can negate any attempt to practice correctly as you will have the sense that perhaps this is a waste of time. Talk about an excellent Dragon slayer!

Since the Dragon appears after the mind/body patterns (engrams) have been established, it is a good idea to circumvent the patterns before they form. Doubt does this by injecting unresolved uncertainty into the learning process. If you can’t practice whole heartedly, the practice will not go far into the mind/body so the patterns are much less likely to take root. Here are a few nice doubt-creation ideas:

Interpret all feelings of energy or “qi” as illusions. The simplest way is to tell yourself that you made up the sensation.

Adopt the position that all thoughts and intentions are isolated events within the brain. They have no effect on the body. This ties in well with the above idea in that you can decide that any effect is an illusion that you made up. Be sure to ignore all evidence to the contrary. When you launch someone across the room, tell yourself he let you do it.

These methods will have you doubting the ability of the methods to generate any skill or power. That way the Dragon doesn’t get any fuel.

Be fickle

This will have you jumping from one technique to the next, one practice to the next, one style to the next. The idea here is to always be looking for the “flavour of the day” be it a method, skill or whatever. If an arm bar worked for you in the last class, decide that you “know” how to perform it and start looking for a better technique to handle that particular situation. As I’m sure you have guessed by now, this hopping from one idea to the next will prevent any one idea from taking hold.

The beauty of this method is that by cherry picking from various techniques you not only remain on the surface of each one, you also won’t string them together in any kind of flow.

Don’t meditate

This might be the single best way to kill the Dragon. Although it is best used in conjunction with the above, on it’s own it is very effective.

Meditation as practiced in Jiulong is described as sitting quietly, waiting for the mind to settle. This process is one of patience and on-going practice, with one of the results being a naturally quieter mind. In other words, the thought process is less active (although still functioning) so one’s perceptions are less filtered through thoughts. Perceptions requiring a physical response that are not filtered through the screen of thoughts allow for faster and more direct responses. In other words, when your mind/body system operated with less interference from thoughts, it functions more efficiently and allows for more immediate spontaneous reactions. Oh, there’s that word, spontaneous. As you now clearly know, this is that fertile ground in which the Dragon thrives. So by avoiding meditation, you can keep your mind busy and this prevent the mental flexibility inherent in spontaneous actions.

Conclusion

So now you have some very concrete ways to kill the Dragon. Remember that this will ensure that you don’t gain any real skill in the art, thus preventing you from making any of the personal discoveries inherent in Jiulong practice. This way you avoid all the work that is involved in allowing the Dragon to guide you to higher levels of a ability. To get there required on-going effort. And that last thing you need is an exciting discovery that will urge you to work at learning more about the possibilities the art offers you.

Of course, if what you want is to actually develop skills, then just do the opposite of what has been said here. Then the Dragon will develop and you will be stuck with fun and self-knowledge. And who wants that?