I found two letters of my friend old Abdullah. I had long forgotten them, for they were given to me back in 1930 or ’31.

I found two letters of my friend old Abdullah. I had long forgotten them, for they were given to me back in 1930 or ’31.

06 Jul Neville Goddard Lectures: “The Cabala”

Posted at 21:09h in Neville by Cool Wisdom

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by Neville Goddard

Jan 15, 1965

This past Wednesday I had occasion to go to an old Bible of mine and there They are now molding and falling apart. They were simply instructions on the Cabala. And the first portion of them would not interest you because it’s all very technical in Hebrew, but there are other portions of it that I know will interest you. And this is what he said in one: “Creatures are never guilty of the seeming wrongs they do. The Lord ordained all deeds, and he alone performs all that is performed.”

That’s what it starts with. He accuses no one of evil, for all have fulfilled his command and performed his service. If there is evil, I the Lord alone am evil (Is. 45:7).

When you first read it on a certain level of awareness you are startled. It’s in conflict with everything that you hold dear. But he doesn’t stop there. He takes a very small, little passage of the Book of John, the 4th chapter of John, it’s a conversation between Jesus and the woman of Samaria, and he said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (verse 21).

And then he stops there. When you read it you wonder what it is all about. Now listen to this grand old man’s interpretation of it.

Yehudah…he translates

Yehudah as Jew; we Anglicize the word Yehudah and call it Judah.

Judah is spelled just as you would spell the Lord’s name, Yod He Vau He, only you insert a Daleth, the letter “d” into the word. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob; in all lists of the sons of Jacob he is given the position of fourth. In the genealogy of Jesus, that is, the one given us in the Book of Matthew, he is the fourth: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers.

He’s the fourth one mentioned and yet he’s the fourth of the twelve. In the New Testament, he is the first in rank of those who are sealed, as told us in the 7th chapter of Revelation (verse 5). Here he is sealed, the first one to be sealed among those who are forever the redeemed. And this is what the word Yehudah means: “Salvation is from the Jews.”

And you wonder, but what does it mean, a Jew born after the flesh of Abraham? No, the Jew born after the faith of Abraham that brings itself to the point where it is culminated in the promise fulfilled, the promise made to Abraham, the promise of the child (Gen. 17:15; 18:14).

And these are the old the promise made to Abraham, the promise of the child (Gen. 17:15; 18:14). And these are the old man’s words, he goes back and he quotes, “You worship what you do not know” and then he translates it in this manner: “You serve; you are blind to that which you serve. You do not know why you serve but you serve.

We know what we serve, we know what we worship. We are the beholders of the eternal principle; we are the knowers of the little child. Yehudah stands for ‘the presence of his praise.’ The center of his presence is the mouth, or king; the king is the little child.

All heaven obeys the little child; and all earth is compelled to manifest that which the heavens obey; and they obey only the voice of the little child. You must always forever think of the Christos as the little child.” These are Ab’s words. I’d long forgotten that letter. I’ve had it now, say, thirty-four years in an old Bible that I rarely have occasion to refer to.

Then you go back and you read the 8th chapter of the Book of Proverbs, and start at the 22nd verse and go through, say, to the 31st: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his way, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before he brought forth the earth. When he laid the foundations of the earth, I was beside him as a little child. I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men. He who finds me finds life; he who misses me injures himself; he who hates me loves death.” Now, here is the personification of wisdom. The Hebrews took all abstract ideas and principles and personified them.

So the first creation of God was wisdom, the first emanation. The verb “created” me can also be translated— and possibly has a far greater claim to the new definition of it rather than the old one “possessed” me. The King James Version said, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way”; the Revised Standard Version said, “The Lord created me.” But both are correct from this Hebrew verb. You can’t separate God’s creative power and his wisdom from himself…but it’s personified as a little child.

Now he said, “He delights.” Well, he delights? If you read both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version you would think that a little child was the source of delight. Not so in the Hebrew text. In the Hebrew text this “he delights” means that wisdom is the one who experiences the emotion of delight; the creative power is experiencing the emotion of delight. It’s all coming out of the Lord and the Lord is defined for us as “I AM.”

That’s the source. But his creative power and his wisdom is that which experiences the emotion of delight; it is the little child. So Ab said, Always think of the Christ as the little child. And we who are called Yehudah, we the Jews, said he, not by the accident of birth of the flesh but by the faith of Abraham; those who heard the promise, regardless of their racial background, those who heard it and remained faithful to it; and came forward in faith to all the horrors of the world, no condemnation, they were only doing God’s will; and came to the point where it was the little child which was promised. We are now the “knowers of the little child.” Everyone who is the knower of the little child every one is numbered among those called “salvation from the Jews.”

Everyone comes into that state because they know the little child. As Blake said, “The dead heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep. All things heard the voice of the child and began to awake to life.” The voice of the child? Yes, he is the very breath, as told us in Ecclesiastes (3:19), he is the breath of God and the breath of God makes man alive.

Let him remove his breath from man and man dies. But, what is this breath? It’s called breath…breath is the wind. And the wind and Spirit are the same word in Hebrew, but the primary meaning of the word ruwach is really wind.

So when they find the child, one said, “I didn’t hear a voice.” But you heard the wind, didn’t you?

Well, that was the voice of the child. That was the voice of the child calling the dead from that eternal sleep. So if you heard the wind, you began to awake, and you awoke from what really was the sleep of death. And eventually all will hear the wind, which is the voice of the child, and all will awake to life.

Every word I’ve told you is true. You’ve been promised a child. You’re going to get that child. After you get the child which is born to you, another one is coming that’s something entirely different… and “a son is given.” These are the words, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Is. 9:6).

Not the same thing. The child is born and you hold the child in your own hands; that child is born, a sign of your birth… it’s all about a birth. But the next one isn’t born; that was begotten of God and given to you when God decided to give you himself It is God’s purpose to give man himself, as and given to you when God decided to give you himself It is God’s purpose to give man himself, as though there were no other in the world, just God and you.

And to prove that he succeeded in his purpose which was to give you himself, if God is a father then he has a child. If he gave you himself, then you are the father of that child. So the second part of this statement from the 9th chapter of Isaiah “unto us a son is given.” First a child is born, that comes first—because he can’t give you his son on this level, the son is Spirit. He can’t give it to flesh and blood, “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1Cor. 15:50).

To inherit the kingdom of God as God, you must be God the Father; kingdom of God” (1Cor. 15:50). To inherit the kingdom of God as God, you must be God the Father; and there is no way of knowing that you are God the Father unless you are also the father of his son.

So, unto us a child is born to signify our birth in the land of Spirit, and to us is given a son. The child is born because it signifies our birth in heaven, in the world of Spirit; and then comes the gift, a son is given, and that son is David. “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee” (Ps. 2:7). This is the Lord speaking to a spiritual state called David.

Then David comes as a gift. He gives you himself, and in giving you himself David has to appear in your world and call you Father. If he doesn’t call you Father, and it’s any other relationship, God did not give you himself; for God is the father of David. “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.”

So David comes into the world, your world individually and calls you Father. Every one in this world is going to have that experience; then you will know the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. For if you are the father of my son then you and I are one. If I am the father of your son and your son is the same son that is my son, then who could deny the oneness of the two of us? The only way in the world that you’d ever know the oneness of God is through his Son.

So when I found this old paper falling apart—undoubtedly it was written on a very cheap piece of paper, all typed, and all broken up like this…handled it very gently… it’s been eleven years— and here he analyzes this wonderful, simple thing. But now I can understand it better having experienced in the last thirty-odd years since he gave it to me.

So what is he saying, that the creatures are not blamed for any seeming wrong that they commit, what does he mean by it? When he gave it to me I didn’t have the experience, but now I know. If you came into a place like this, but now it’s more animated than it is now, suppose they were dining or dancing, walking around, and all animated; and while you came in invisible to them–for you came in Spirit, you are awake— as you come into the place, you know that this animated world is animated only because of you.

This whole vast moving world you are moving it. And to prove that you are moving it, you arrest an activity in yourself; and at that very moment that you arrest it in yourself everything freezes, but everything freezes. You observe them, you go over and you simply look at them closely, and they’re dead, all dead. Then you release it in yourself, and they become once more animated and continue to fulfill their intentions.

Suppose you could change the intention…for it comes from above, they’re only fulfilling your service; they’re all under compulsion. Now you know what the “mouth of God” is, for he spoke, and the mouth is the little child. The mouth or the king, and the king is the little child, the breath of God.

And you know exactly what you did, you arrested an activity in your own being, and that arrestment was the taking back of your breath… and they died. How could you condemn any man in this world for what he’s doing when you are animating it all? You set the whole thing in motion when you are in Spirit. While you are here in the flesh, you too are subjected to your own command from above.

So if you come into the world to tell the story of your eternal principle, you are subjected to the same thing that you, from above, subject the whole world. That’s the price you pay for the expansion of your own creative power. There is only God in the world, nothing but God. God is playing all the parts; there is nothing but God. He plays the wise man’s part and the fool, the lover and the one who hates.

Now let us go back, “He who finds me finds life”—how to stop it and start it. “He who misses me injures himself’ he continues in the wheel and he’s hungry, and he hasn’t quite satisfied the hunger to find him. “He who hates me loves death”— look at the whole vast world and you can’t condemn them, they don’t know of the little child, they don’t know of the creative power of God called Christ Jesus, and they are in love with the world. They want to extend this little thing—they’re in pain– another day, another month, another year. They have two homes; they want four to feel more secure.

They have a dozen suits; they want two to feel better dressed than the other. They go through life wanting more of death, for this world is dead and people don’t know it. I know it. I have seen it. I stopped it, I stopped it and started it, at sections, and I’ve done it more than once, so it was not a mistake the first time. So I know what he means by “He who finds me finds life.”

So the creative power of God is personified as a little child. Paul speaks of the creative power of God as Christ Jesus in the first chapter, the 24th verse of 1st Corinthians: “And to those who are called, both Jew and Greek, Jesus Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” So, the power of God is personified as Jesus Christ.

But always think of Jesus Christ as the little child, always the little child who always delighted in the presence of his Father, and he was the one who always experienced the emotion of delight.

The creative power experiences that. He’s not the source of it; he’s the one who experiences the emotion of delight. When one comes to this realization and finds the little child signifying his own birth from above, thereafter he finds the son that is given. And then the son that is given reveals to him who he is, and he breaks the wheel of death. For this is the mystery of life through death: “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much” (John 12:24).

So, God became man in his creative power that man may become God (Phil. 2:7), so all the commands are by God to God. Man as we see him in this world is part of the eternal structure of the universe. This thing called Neville—and all of its phases from the time it appeared on the scene until that moment in time when it vanishes and ceases to be to those who are left at that moment in time has never passed away, and it was not really brought into being. It was always a part of the structure of the universe.

I am animating it, as we are animating with the creative power, animating all of this in this world. I will leave it forever… it will still be part of the eternal structure of the universe, and unless animated, it remains dead in its every little aspect. The babe that nursed the mother, the little one reluctantly on his way to school, the little boy trying to find his way in life, the man, all of that, are simply garments that you animate. And the day will come, you and I, having gone through all the furnaces, experiencing this creative power that is God, will awake, and we are the creative power of God and one with God. Then we can say we are Yehudah.

We’ve been saved, we’ve been salvaged from the world of death. Suddenly we all awaken, and God and his son, the creative power of himself, are one.

Then a new venture…a new play with the same characters, for they remain part of the eternal structure of the universe. We conceive an entirely different drama. Now, tonight if you went to a play and you saw the actors, would you condemn them for the parts they play?

If there’s any condemnation, is it not to be given to the author? Well, the author conceived the play. The author is God. And there was no one to animate the characters but God; and he had to actually pass through the experiences that he conceived. But all these things were dead. Believe me I have seen them dead, but everything.

And the day will come that everything we in our world have discovered concerning the great scientific discoveries of the world will not be so. Not a thing will be as we now see it. Gravity… well, every child who goes to school has been taught what we believe gravity to be…there isn’t a child in the world… and they prove how true it is by not jumping off the top of the building: We know we’re going to fall to the floor. And yet, having arrested an activity within myself which made everything stand still, things that should fall didn’t fall. A bird in flight didn’t fall; it remained there stationery in space because in me it was arrested.

So where is gravity? And tomorrow we’ll change all that today we’ve discovered, or think we’ve discovered, and rearrange the play so completely we can then take our creative power and with a rearrangement of the play, using the same characters, play a far greater play to expand beyond what we have expanded our creative power. And that is Jesus Christ.

So when he said, “We are Yehudah, the knowers of the little child. We are the beholders of the eternal principle, so we are Yehudah. And you worship what you do not know, because you do not know what you serve and why you serve, but you serve.” Man plays all these parts and he doesn’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing. He knows he started in the world by the actions of a power not his own. He was born physically certainly by the actions of powers not his own. And he finds himself in a family, he doesn’t know why. He finds himself moving through the world, he doesn’t know why.

And all are serving this compulsion from above, which is spoken into being by the little child who is delighting in these experiences. We are one day born above. We’ll hold the little child, the symbol of it, when we enter that creative world and start the whole thing; and we give the spoken word until every power can be exercised that is God and redeemed. For he’s only redeeming himself; leaving man just where he is as part of the eternal structure of the world.

So in the end nothing is condemned: “Forgive them, Father; for they know not what they do” (Luke 22:34). They don’t know. So the words at the end of the trial, “Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and power to release you?” He said, “You have no power over me were it not given to you from above” (John 19:10). A man dares to say to Caesar’s representative that you have no power over me? He knew exactly what he was talking about, for this one said to the Samaritan, “We know what we worship; you do not know what you worship.” Caesar thought he knew, and Caesar’s arm, Pilate, thought he had the power either to release him or to crucify him; and he told him, “You have no power either to release me or to crucify me were it not given to you from above; therefore he who delivered me into your hands he has the greater sin”…if it be sin. Because no one (??) it, it’s all a play. We stepped upon the stage well rehearsed to play the part we’re playing, to exercise this creative power that is personified in scripture as Jesus Christ. We were told it all before we started.

In that lovely poem The New House: “Now first as I shut the door I was alone in the new house and the wind began to moan. Old at once was the house and I was old. My ears were teased with the dread of what was foretold: nights of storm, days of mist without end, sad days when the sun shown in vain, old griefs and griefs not yet begun. All was foretold me, naught could I foresee; but I learned how the wind would sound after these things should be” (Edward Thomas). After the whole thing is over you know the sound of that child…the wind…you hear it. So when the little child is found wrapped in swaddling clothes, and they hear the wind, they don’t suspect that the wind that they hear is the voice of God calling one from the grave.

So he called me from the grave. I was buried in the sepulcher of my skull, and the wind came; he breathed upon me. And what a wind! All was foretold me, but while I’m playing the part I’m so lost in the part I cannot foresee it. Yet it was foretold me. And the promise, the end, was foretold me: He would give me a child, and the child would signify my birth, though I am old. For Abraham was old, he was a hundred years old, and he was told, “You will be now exiled for four hundred years.”

Well, four hundred is the numerical value of the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the symbol of that last letter is a cross; the letter is Tau. So while I wear the cross of flesh and travel through this world exiled from my true home to expand the power that is mine, at the very end he will keep his promise exiled from my true home to expand the power that is mine, at the very end he will keep his promise and give me the child. And that will be my exit from the world of death.

And so, I will come back having received his promise. And before he takes off the garment, the cross, he will give me himself, and that will be given to me in the form of his son. He will give me his son David as my son. Before he calls me back I will have full consciousness of the fact that I and my Father, whom men call God, are one, when it gives it to me here in the world of shadows by giving me David as my son. Then he rips the whole thing, so I will never occupy it again, tears it from top to bottom, this temple.

Then he lifts me up in the form of a fiery, fiery serpent. Then he seals the bargain which he made with himself by descending upon me in bodily form as a dove, and smothers me with kisses, that I will know he has kept his promise and is satisfied with the journey now that is at its end.

But although anyone who has it longs to depart to be one with that creative power from on high rather than below being worked on, the need keeps one here still in the flesh. So you can tell it and tell it to those he sent to hear it. For everything is ordered, there’s nothing out of order.

Not one person is here tonight that shouldn’t be here, and not one person is missing, not one. What is being said this night, this night had to be heard by those who heard it. He sent you as he sent me. Not a thing is out of order. As Blake said in his risen state today: “Do not be intimidated by the horrors of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection.

Follow this course and you will receive from your own ego an even deeper perception of the eternal beauties of nature. You will also receive an ever increasing release from all that now seems to you so sad and terrible” (Modern Painting—said to Max Beckman in a vision). On this level it is. who would deny it? But believe me, it is ordered, everything is ordered, everything is correct.

Now when you hear it for the first time you resent it, you resist it. When I first met my old friend Ab …and Ab was adamant about it. And here, only last Wednesday, opening up an old Bible— I wanted to get that interpretation against my modern interpretation–and I went back to it, and here among the leaves were two letters from Ab. Undoubtedly, I have another two or three dozen letters buried somewhere in other books. Where they are I don’t know. But here, in rereading them, he takes the word itself “Cabala” and brings it down in its four wonderful states, and shows you what it really means. You and I have been taught that it really means “the unwritten mystery,” that which is the oral tradition, carried forward from generation to generation, orally–the father tells the son and the son tells his son, and so on, to keep this great mystery alive. For when he breaks it into its component parts in the Hebraic tongue, he shows you exactly how you arrive at the very name, and takes all of the characters of scripture, and they’re all personifications of eternal states. It was the habit of the Hebrew to take every abstract idea, every principle and personalize it. So he starts off with the great father Jacob, the father of the twelve, and shows these twelve as the grand twelve transparencies, the twelve crystals, the twelve stones that received the commandments— and all these he called the pneumana and this the phenomena. And no command is ever given to the phenomena; it’s under compulsion to do what it does. All commands are given to God in the pneumana and then that is expressed in this world of phenomena.

But here, you wouldn’t think this orthodox rabbi…for that’s really what he was all of his life until the revelation came, the visions came. A strict Jew in all that you would consider the orthodox Jew to do concerning diets, dress, everything, all the habits, and he speaks today of the little child. He couldn’t have done it unless the same thing happened to him that happened to Paul, who was also a very strict orthodox Jew. But you can’t resist the revelation when it happens. No matter what you are before, you have to go along with the tide after the revelation. So he could come and say, “We are now Yehudah…the same because we are the knowers of the little child.” Prior to that, you are simply persecuting everyone; everyone does because he was commanded to. No blame; that was the order from above, the part he had to play as it was written, as the play was written. And while he’s on his way to persecute comes the revelation of the little child. And from then on, your entire course changes and you move in an entirely different direction. So tonight, to quote him again, “The creatures are not judged or condemned for the seeming wrongs they do, for the Lord himself ordained all deeds, and you move in an entirely different direction. So tonight, to quote him again, “The creatures are not judged or condemned for the seeming wrongs they do, for the Lord himself ordained all deeds, and judged or condemned for the seeming wrongs they do, for the Lord himself ordained all deeds, and the Lord himself performs all that is performed. And if there be evil, I the Lord alone am evil.”

Now let us go into the Silence and just set our hope fully upon the grace that is coming to us at this revelation of Jesus Christ, who must always be considered as the little child revelation of Jesus Christ, who must always be considered as the little child.

Q: (??) how would you feel on another level if some member of your family kidnapped and killed… if you don’t feel they are guilty in their heart?

A: Your question is perfectly marvelous. On this level make every effort to test his promise on this level: Whatever you desire and you believe that you received it, you will. So test your creative power on this level.

Q: (??) I won’t blame…

A: I’m telling you, what I said for the last three-quarters of an hour, almost fifty minutes now, that this is a play and God is playing all the parts. And you do not fully realize the being that you are until the end. The purpose of this play is simply to expand his creative power beyond what it was prior to the start of the play. There is no limit to translucency, there is no limit to transparency, no limit to expansion. There’s a limit only to contraction. He’s placed a limit on contraction which was man, a limit on opacity which is doubt— he calls it the devil or Satan in scripture. So there’s a limit to this opacity and to contraction; but no limit to translucency or to expansion and man expands beyond what he was before. For he then is the creative power of God and the play is over. There’s a rejoicing because of the greater expansion of the creative power.

Then comes a new play; not any end where you sit down and simply rock in a chair. It’s a creative God of whom I speak, and we go on forever expanding the power that is the creative power of God. There’s only God. And so, God and his creative power really are one. He said, “I and my Father are one…but my Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), so that his power to create great as it is could not be as great as the source of that creative power; yet they are one.

You can’t separate his creative power from himself So he said, “I and my Father are one, but my Father is greater than I.”

I’m not asking anyone to even envision some hurt, but as the great poet said, “I am involved in mankind; every man’s death is the death of me. Never send to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for me.” So I can speak, yes, of my child, my daughter, my son, and not know that you are, in the real sense of the word, as much my child as the one I call my child. And so, if a mother had one child injure the other, and she was fully aware of the fact both were her children, she would ask the judge to be merciful when the one who injured the other is brought before him to judgment because they are both hers. That story of Solomon and the child, he found out the true mother when the other one who was not the mother said, Cut it in half But if you knew every one is as much yours as the one you think is yours, you’d be merciful with all.

Q: Neville, would you comment on the mystical meaning of Jews and Gentiles.

A: Jews and Gentiles. The Gentile in scripture—you take the New Testament, the part of it was simply the heathen, the pagan who had multiple gods. The Jew beginning with Abraham had the one God. It was always against any duality of gods; God and God only. “I am the Lord your God, the Holy one of Israel, your Savior… and besides me there is no God” (Is. 43:3,11). That they went astray, yes, and had Baal and multiple gods; but, basically, the Hebraic God is the one God.

Now, the pagan world into which this thing broke had multiple gods. They worshipped the stars, they worshipped everything–a god of health, a god of wealth, a god of power, a god of death, a god of life, and they prayed to their multiple gods. Today in our Christian world although we give lip service to one God, we have multiple saints, and we pray to this saint for this, and that saint for the other.

I am told that in Italy, or any great Catholic world, they’ll pray to this one and if they don’t get answer within a week, slap him in the face, go to another god. That was told me if they don’t get answer within a week, slap him in the face, go to another god. That was told me by an impresario in San Francisco two years ago. He said, “I actually saw it happen. I’m born a Catholic, I’m still a Catholic, I’m raised a Catholic, I’m a Catholic.” He said, “I’ve seen it.

They’ll go and pray before this one for awhile and if he doesn’t come through with what he’s asking for, they’ll spit on him, throw him out, ‘He’s no good!’ and go to another god.” Well, they still give lip service to one God, and call it by a name, they’ll call it Jesus Christ, but they don’t know who Jesus Christ is.

Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination, that creative know who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is your own wonderful human Imagination, that creative power that is in man, and it’s one with the Divine Imagination. You don’t need any saints in this world, don’t need anything in this world to whom you pray, none. No intermediary between yourself and self that is God. God and his creative power are one.

So the gentile was the pagan of multiple gods. So he sends Paul to the gentiles, for Paul was equipped as the orthodox Jew and when he saw the real revelation, he was sent to the gentiles.

Peter went to the Jews. And then you get the story. But all these are simple…alright, I go to everyone. I don’t care whether you’re Catholic or a Christian Scientist or a Jew or anything else in this world, Mohammedan, I don’t care. I know what I’m telling you is true; it’s based upon experience. The whole thing is unveiled before me; I’ve experienced it. And so, I wasn’t always (??) because it’s true, this is everlastingly true. There’s only one God, one being playing all the parts.

There will be no conflict between gods when the drama is over but a rejoicing because the play came out just as predetermined. God planned everything as it has come out and as it will be consummated.

Q: (??) if everything is supposed to be planned and we are the actors and come in with a script, then the whole thing is a fatalistic type of thing…just sit back and …

A: On a certain level it seems that way. You cannot avoid the conclusion of predestination when you read the letters of Paul. In the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans, when he tells us: “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (verse 29). These five terms…I don’t see how anyone can take the five terms of foreknowledge, predestination, to be called, to be justified, and to be glorified and arrive at any other conclusion than predestination.

Yet within the framework of a predestined play, the actors are given much freedom; because whether you are rich or poor does not alter the play, whether you are known or unknown. But if you want to be known more than to know of the creative power of God, then you are denying him in this world and falling in love with death; for this is death, when you want more and more of this state as the world seems to want it.

Tonight they are praying for Churchill’s recovery. What Churchill’s recovery? Let the old gentleman go. Ninety years old and he’s lived such a full and wonderful life, they’re asking people on TV and radio, “Let us pray for his recovery” That’s the most stupid thing in the world! Let the old gentleman who has played such a full and wonderful life close his eyes as they close tonight.

He’s not in a coma. Well, let him be free after ninety years of this. But no, the average person thinks well that’s oblivion, so let him have another one year of miseries. The old boy has been miserable for the last two years, being helped around. I mean, I would be embarrassed if all my normal, natural functions had to be assisted. Let me go when no one has to help me with any natural function.

Q: The Bible speaks of (??)…now when Jesus went through the cross and resurrection, he was expanding his creative power. He also made the statement, “If a man keeps my word he shall never see death”…this trying to be translated “without going through the actual physical experience.” Do you feel that is possible with the birth of the Christ child and coming into this angelic presence?

A: That is a story you can put into another frame. I have entered worlds without going through the womb of woman, worlds just as real as this. That if anyone had held me tightly and did not allow me to return here to this world where I now stand and address you, and asked me for my credentials, they’d be no part of that world that I could ever point to and show I was ever born there. Would they believe it? Because to the world one has to go through the womb of woman to enter it. But I’ve entered these worlds as a man, and there’s no record that I ever should have ever left. Well, this is only to teach the mind of man to begin to think in terms of something greater than that which is confined to the cradle and the grave.

But Christ Jesus is the power… and don’t think of him on a wooden cross. As I look at you, that’s where he’s crucified. The creative power of God is actually crucified right there where you are now, and when you say “I am,” before you tell me who you are, you’ve called upon his name. That’s his name! And this body he has to carry it all through these four hundred years of real furnaces. Symbolical number, granted, it could only be ten years or seventy years, but while you bear this you’re bearing a cross. And that’s Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ is only the power, the creative power and the wisdom of God, and he’s in you when you say “I am”. You begin to imagine, that’s God in action.

So forget the traditional concept of a man on a wooden cross, that isn’t true at all. As told us in that wonderful Book of Galatians, the 3rd chapter: “0 foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by the working of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you ending in the flesh (verse 1)?” For a thing to be portrayed you go to the theater…that’s a portrayal.

Or I can portray by telling you in verbal form. Or I can portray by going to the canvas and painting a picture. There are many ways of portraying an event. And he uses the word advisedly: “Before whose eyes Jesus Christ”— which is the power and the wisdom of God— “was portrayed as crucified.” And you heard the story.

For the new version, called the English Bible, or the New English Bible, they use an entirely different expression of it. But the Revised Standard uses the word “portrayed” and so does the King James Version. But they use the word “you heard”…”in faith you heard the gospel.” That New English Bible: “Did you receive the Spirit by the working of the law or by hearing the gospel in faith?”

So we’re told, one must hear the testimony of Jesus and respond to it, he hears it. Or you can go to the screen and see it portrayed on the screen, if portrayed correctly. But not a man on a wooden cross! This is the cross that the creative power of God wears. And if you destroy it, this is dead. But he’s not destroyed. And when I reach the end I awake, individualized, as a companion of God and yet one with God. (inaudible)

The Son is his creative power. The whole creation groans and waits longingly for the revealing of the sons of God. They always think of the Son as his creative power and his wisdom, but all things concerning God— God being man–is always personified. So you will never lose identity yet you are his creative power. Goodnight.

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Source

https://coolwisdombooks.com/neville/neville-goddard-the-cabala/

The Three Dantians – Finding and Increasing Your Energy

The Three Dantians – Finding and Increasing Your Energy

Whether I am teaching tai chi, qigong, or meditation, eventually the conversation turns towards a discussion of how to find, focus on, feel, and build energy in the three dantians. New students want a roadmap, or at least an idea of what to focus on and how their practice is going to improve their health. More experienced practitioners are typically excited about what they are feeling and want to bring their energy, health, or meditation to the next level.

The three dantians are energy centers in the body described by Chinese medicine as cumulation points (vessels) in the head, chest, and abdomen. Meditation, tai chi, and breathing techniques can be used to build energy in the body to improve health. This energy can be felt in these three areas.

The good news is that practitioners at any level can make greater progress by understanding a bit more about the three dantians because it makes the whole process of meditation and building internal strength less mystical. We just need to learn a little history, know where they are located, and why they are important to our practice.

Pro-tip: Learning about internal energy and the use of it during movements and meditation takes continual learning on the topic over a period of time. Check out books and resources on Amazon that help expand your understanding and knowledge.   

What is the Meaning of the Word Dantian?

Our one word – Dantian is the combination of two Chinese symbols. Understanding what Dantian means in Chinese also helps us understand the concept as a whole. Dan (pronounced “Don”) is the character for Cinnabar which is prized element that used in many Chinese medicines and red dye for tattoos and art. It is most often translated as “elixir” to convey the idea that is a powerful healing substance.

Tian (pronounced “Tea-en”) means field. This gives us the idea that it is an open area that is fertile and capable of new growth. What you should also get from this half of the word is that it conveys the idea of cultivation. Building energy in this “elixir field” takes time, just like growing plants does. Secondly, the energy starts small just like a seed eventually turns into a stalk and then a full plant or tree.

If you are looking for dantien – dantian – dan tian – dan tien you are still in the right place. The most common spelling is dantian.  Read more about the reasons behind the differences in pronunciation here: Tai chi 101 : Is it Tai Chi, Taiji, taichi, or T’ai Chi Chuan?

What is the Dantian?

The dantian is an energy center. It is a place in the body where energy is stored and built and is a major point of focus during meditation for exercises (e.g. qigong, yoga) designed to improve or increase someone’s energy. In total there are three dan tians, but when people talk about “the” dan tian they are usually talking about the lower dan tian because it is the originating source of the energy that travels to the other two. For many martial arts, their sole focus is the lower dan tian because it promotes balance and power for striking. Their art or their interest doesn’t include meditation or internal development so the one, lower dan tian is all they are concerned with.

All major Eastern practices have focuses on the dantian for different purposes and call them a different name. Japanese martial arts call the lower dantian the Hara for example. Meditation traditions such as Daoism and Buddhism focus on the dantians while altering their breathing to reduce heightened thinking and emotions. Yoga and Ayurvedic traditions also have centers where energy is stored. While the Indian chakras and Chinese dantian are fundamentally different, they are both energy centers that can be used during a practice to increase, reduce, or improve an energy.

Is the Dantian Real and is the Energy Real?

I am intentionally avoiding the many foreign words used to describe energy because I feel it complicates things and results in a lot fewer people improving their practice and life because they get caught up in theoretical or esoteric arguments. Chi, Qi, or Prana are all energy. There are also different versions of each of those energies. But here is what you need to know:

You know when you have low energy and very low energy like when you are sick. You know when you have high energy like when you drink caffeine, are enjoying a fun event, or are motivated by your work. You also can admit that there are times in life when you have more energy like when we are young or in good shape. Additionally, you can detect “cleaner” energy when you are around happy people or are not forced to make decisions that go against your ethics.

Think of meditation, yoga, tai chi, or qigong as a way to clean up the energy you have, get more of the good stuff, and get rid of the dirty stuff. What is the outcome? Your body can use the energy to heal. You are more enjoyable to be around and enjoy life more. You are more accepting of things when they don’t go how you want and are less affected by negative situations and negative people. Learning about the three dantians sets this process in motion.

What Are the Three Dantians?

Let’s begin by simplifying what the three dantians are and how they work together. Then we focus on each one to get the whole pictured.

Think of the three dantians as energy centers that are stacked on top of each other. Each dantian has a different energy that serves a different purpose. They are connected as a single concept because through our practice we build energy in the lower dantian first. This gives us an abundance of energy and vitality in the same way that saving extra money gives us the ability to invest in new things rather than just scraping by day-to-day. If your energy is low, that’s kind of what you are doing. Your body has to divert your resources to just getting by. So what happens when you catch a cold or get injured? Everything has to stop because you don’t have enough energy to make it through the day-to-day and also heal.

The second of the three dantians is the middle dantian. After building up the energy in your lower dantian, you have a surplus to expand up and feed your health. It is believed that the middle dantian supports our organs, blood, and respiration.

Once our health is taken care of, you have a surplus of energy to positively impact your thinking and emotions. The third or the three dantians is the upper dantian. I believe that there is a lot of confusion out there about the upper dantian and I think that it is probably because most people have not fully developed the lower two dantians so when they talk about it they might be speculating. Also, the upper dantian is very different from the lower two. Whereas the lower two dantians are characterized by what we are building and what we are doing, the upper dantian is all about emptiness and what is missing. Here’s what I mean, clear, enjoyable, productive thinking is the outcome of not being overrun by emotions, not having “monkey mind” and runaway thoughts, and having a ton of fresh oxygen in the blood. A lot of people see being able to focus or concentrate as a learned skill or special ability. In truth, focus is what is left when all the other nonsense goes away.

Yes we could get all mystical thinking about this stuff but at a basic level it just makes sense. If you have enough energy and health your body will repair itself. Once the body has its basic needs met, you have access to really clear thinking, epiphanies, new business ideas, and ways to “respond to opportunities” rather than “reacting to problems.” Pretty cool right?

3 Things to Know So You Can Locate You Dantians

I really want to jump up and say “Hey! The 3 dantians are right here!!! But, I would be doing you a disservice. That conversation is really difficult if we enter into it thinking that the dantian is a thing, like and organ that we could see on an X-ray. We would also be wrong to think that the dantian is a just a space, like air that is trapped between organs. Instead, think about an injury that you may have had. Like a deep bruising or pain from a twisted joint. The pain from the injury radiates out and can be felt in bone, muscle, tendons, and the skin. If I were to ask you where you are hurt, you would describe “where” the pain is radiating to. However, you probably feel pain in tissue that is totally fine, right? Because the next day it is smaller, and then smaller the day after that.

The dantians encompass areas of the torso, chest, and head that includes all the surrounding tissue. It can be felt and the sensation of each dantian can be made stronger through breathing and meditation.

The Physical Dantian

A physiological view of the dantian is limited because it doesn’t jive with how our culture defines physiology.  It cannot be cut into.  It cannot be located due to its relationship to adjacent body parts.  However, it is felt due to its central relationship to the entire body.

The Metaphorical Dantian

It is solid and yet it is spacious.  A room is no-thing but is defined by things (walls, ceiling, floor) around it.  Without those pieces, a room doesn’t exist.  I love this picture of the pelvic musculature because it looks like the sinks that were made in a factory near my house as a kid.  With the guts removed, you can imagine that the lower dantian is the middle space, equal-distant from the walls of the pelvis.

The Sense-ational Dantian

human body cell

The dantian can feel like it grows and shrinks or even changes temperature. Yet, I don’t know of any research that shows that the dantian is connected to the endocrine system or is cellular. My thinking on this is that my body is trying to explain these sensations through the only other experiences that I have.

Where Are the Three Dantians?

So as we begin to talk about where the three dantians are, keep in mind that we are talking about spaces, fields, that are central in the body. They can be as small as a marble and as large as a tennis ball depending on how much effort you have put into cultivating them. The sensation of the dantian also radiates out, giving us the sense that it larger than the central area it is located in.

Finding the Lower Dantian

The lower dantian (Xià Dāntián – 下丹田) is in the exact center of the body. It is located two inches below the belly button and is centered in the middle of the abdominal cavity. The energy of the lower dantian is called Jing which means primordial or original energy. Think of it is the energy that gave and gives us life. When we use it up, we pass away! So the process of aging is the using of and eventually running out of Jing. The good news is that 1) Jing can be replenished through practices like qigong, yoga, tai chi, and meditation and 2) we can also use less Jing as we live by staying healthy and reducing stress. Extra or strong Jing is like an investment that starts to earn interest. The interest in this case travels up to the middle dantian to improve our health.

The Middle Dantian Might Not Be Located Where You Think

The middle dantian (Zhōng Dāntián – 中丹田) is located directly behind the sternum in the center of the torso. In my experience the middle dantian feels like two bowls with their bottoms pressed together. The bottom bowl is like a bell jar over the diaphragm and organs and the top bowl is filled with the lungs. When I meditate on the middle dantian and inhale, the sensation travels up into my chest and down to connect with my belly simultaneously. When the sensation is strong, it actually pulls me up into a slightly better poster.

I disagree with a lot of information that is out there about where the middle dantian is located. Many people believe the middle dantian is located at the heart. From a tai chi and qigong perspective this doesn’t make a lot of sense. In tai chi we work diligently to reduce the pressure and intensity on the heart with hard exhales when we are issuing force like when we punch and kick. In qi gong, we are actively trying to relax our muscles and slow our breathing. So we can’t focus on the heart organ intensely and simultaneously reduce pressure and temperature. We can however focus below the heart on the middle dantian to benefit all of the organs above and below.

The energy of the middle dantian is called Qi. It is best described as “vital force energy” and is the same energy that we get from food, air, and what we drink. Let’s step away from the esoteric for a second and think about this. If we eat and drink in a health way, our organs and body are more healthy. If we eat poorly, our body has to extract what it can from the food just to keep us going and very little is left for extra activities or repairing tissue.

If we practice or meditate on the lower dantian regularly, we have extra funds that are transferred up to be converted into Qi to nourish all the organs in our torso. For many of us the health benefits are the main reason we are doing tai chi, yoga, or meditation and building of clean, usable Qi is already a success. However, when our physical needs are met and we are “healthy,” we now have the bandwidth to positively affect our life, those around us, and do some good in this world. Good can mean helping others but it can also mean doing well at your job to support your family as well as serving others. This is where the upper dantian and the energy Shen come in.

How to Find The Upper Dantian

The upper dantian (Shàng Dāntián, 上丹田) is located in the center of the head, directly behind the point centered between the eyebrows. It is most often associated with the pineal gland. It is important to note that it IS NOT the point between the eyebrows, often referred to as the third eye. This is a big mistake that I made early on in my training that stopped my development for several years. I thought the upper dantian was the third eye and that’s all I concentrated on. The truth is that we do need to concentrate on that point as part of our practice initially until we develop a feeling like it is open. However, if we stay focused on the forehead we can’t progress

The energy associated with the upper dantian is called Shen. Shen is best translated as spirit, but is described in more understandable terms as; awareness, intention, intellect, decision-making, planning, and memory. As we move from the lower to upper dantian, the energy becomes more and more subtle and harder to sense or feel. This is another reason that so much emphasis is put on the lower dantian so Shen can be felt strongly when your progress gets you here.

In my experience, the upper dantian feels like a pressure both in a physiological and psychological sense. Physically the pressure expands in a really pleasant way, pushing out through the third eye and up thorough the very top of your head. Mentally it feels like pressure that creates a fullness so that thoughts are slow or not jumbled and everything comes to a standstill in the same way that a full jug doesn’t slosh around.

So as a recap, energy is built in the abdomen through meditation, concentration, and breathing. This energy (Jing) fuels us and when there is enough extra it (Qi) moves up through the torso and heals or tonifies our organs making us more healthy. When our body is able to sustain our health, the excess energy is distilled into a more pure substance (Shen) which travels up to the head and enables clear and calm thinking. After that is established we can begin to experience the absence of thought, stress, and chaotic thinking which is know as Wu Ji.

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How Do We Activate the Lower Dantian and Build Energy in Our Body?

So many traditions have a system of movements or meditation to build energy in the lower dantian and move the energy up through all three dantians. What I am hoping that you will get from this information is an understanding of how your system or practice might progress and what you should be focusing on. That being said, there are some practical steps that can help us activate the lower dantian and build energy in our body.

• Sit or stand and focus on your lower abdomen
• Place both palms on your abdomen, two inches below the belly button
• Breathe deeply but naturally to fill the entire pelvis area
• Pay attention to any subtle changes in that area. You may feel warmth, pulsations, tingling, or a fullness
• filling the entire pelvis

The two important principles that begin cleaning and building energy are posture and breath.  We 1) maintain a good posture and 2) regulate our breathing.  Then we 3) coordinate our movements with our breath and at an advanced level 4) move our energy internally with our intention. No practice for discovering and building energy in your dantians is the centuries old microcosmic orbit meditation. It is a very tangible way to make progress.

How can I learn to find, use, and build energy in my dantian?

When people are new or newish to this concept, there are really only one or two ways to really sense the dantian and begin to build energy up and that’s qigong or some sitting meditations. This is incredibly difficult for people who already have experience meditating or doing a moving art. For example, too much is going on in yoga and tai chi for a person to get the postures right and focus on energy in the dantian. Can you move from and be aware of the dantian during these activities? Certainly. But can you build awareness of the dantian and build energy there? That would be tough.

Most styles of sitting meditation outside of the Taoist camps also make this difficult because you are often focusing on the opposite; letting go, relaxation, etc. Totally fine but qigong and meditative sets like the Microcosmic Orbit specifically build energy to the level you can feel it. Don’t take this the wrong way, and think you shouldn’t do those practices. You just need to build the energy up, wrap your mind around the process, and then it is easy to incorporate back into your moving or sitting practice.

The one qigong set that I love that has enabled practitioners to learn qigong on their own is the Good Morning Good Evening Qi Gong Set. You can read about my experience with it here.

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Source

https://taichibasics.com/three-dantians/

Qigong for Beginners: How to Get Started

Qigong for Beginners: How to Get Started

An introduction to the ancient system of improving your life through practice and perseverance

Photo by antonika.

As a lifelong student of both Eastern philosophy as well as martial arts, I’ve been curious for some time about the ancient Chinese healing practice of qigong.

When I began this study, I expected much less than what I got.

You see, qigong is far more than just exercise. Although that is its primary medium, qigong is rife with some of the best and most well-supported health methods I already promote.

For example, qigong places a special emphasis on sunlight exposure and practicing barefoot on the naked earth.

These are both well-researched tactics in the health and longevity space. Light is hugely influential on biology. I’ve written a whole article on the subject on Better Humans:

How To Use Light To Optimize Your Mind

Improve Your Sleep, Increase Focus, Raise Testosterone, & Lower Inflammation Using The Power of Light

medium.com

Earthing, on the flip side, is the practice of walking barefoot on the earth so you are electrically connected to the earth. This has positive effects on heart function and inflammation that are well-backed by research.

There are many cases like these where qigong guidelines correspond to research-backed modern health practices.

Qigong is itself a well-researched practice as a single entity. China includes it in their medicine system alongside more modern approaches.

In keeping with this, my aim here is not to dissect qigong into the parts that I already know to have benefit. Instead, it is to describe qigong as a whole and how I practice it as such.

My reason is this: Qigong was around for hundreds of years before science proved the benefits of sunlight, breathing, meditation, or mobility. I believe there may be parts of this practice that are good for us, even if not yet directly backed by science.

As far as my personal experience goes, in the short time I’ve been practicing, I’ve become calmer but more energetic, and my resting heart rate has dropped below 75 consistently for the first time since I developed adrenal problems in 2017.

Now, it would be crazy to say that this article will teach you how to do qigong. This would be akin to writing an article to teach you kung fu. Qigong is a practice, with attenuate levels of skill and mastery.

What I can teach you is how to start, while also providing you an image of just what qigong is and how it can benefit you over the course of a lifetime.

Health Benefits of Qigong

Before we go any further, I imagine you’d like some proof. Talk of energetic forces and blockages will put off many a skeptic.

With that said, I invite you to contemplate all the very real energies that flow through our bodies. Blood and lymph fluid carry chemical energy in and out of our bodies at every level of physiology. I’m not saying that this, specifically, is qi, but it is at least a metaphor for all of our body’s literal “life force.”

As far as energy blockages? Consider the Fascia: connective tissue that lines and connects every bone, tissue, and organ to every other bone, tissue, and organ. Tension in the fascia is known to slow blood flow and create mobility restrictions as well as impair organ function in completely different body parts.

When it comes to qigong research, there’s some pretty cool stuff. Research in this area is not well-funded, and some of these studies have small sample sizes. Yet some of the results seem promising.

If you’d like to read research on qigong, the Qigong Institute has collected abstracts of studies on the subject. You can also search for “qigong” in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases.

What Is Qigong?

Qi is the Chinese medicine concept of life energy, the animating force which flows through all living things. Gong translates roughly to work, particularly to positive outcomes achieved through practice and perseverance. Qigong, then, is the practice of improving one’s life energy through practice and perseverance.

What qi is specifically? Qi is ineffable, unobservable, at least in any complete way. It is something one can sense, and there are real-life corollaries that hint at its existence, but it is not something that can be fully understood itself, nor is understanding it fully the goal.

A popular Daoist poem describes a snail and a centipede. The snail asks the centipede, “How do you move all those legs?” and in thinking about it, the centipede becomes very confused and is unable to move at all.

Qi is viewed similarly. Improving one’s qi is something that is the goal and aim of qigong, but understanding fully how this occurs or what qi is is not the point. Theory and real-life corollaries can help, but at the end of the day, it is about practice more than theory.

When it comes to qigong practice itself, Chinese medicine divides qi down into multiple categories. These are:

• Breath qi — from respiration
• Food qi— from diet
• Original qi — passed down from parents or universe
• Internal qi — qi residing inside the body
• External qi — qiemanating from the body
• Nutritive qi — qi that flows along the energy meridians
• Protective qi — qi that forms a protective barrier against pathogens (immunity)

The dan tian

One of the most common terms in qigong is dan tian. The dan tians are energy centers in the body of which there are three. Dan translates to elixir, and tian to field, thus the dan tian are fields (or pools) of the elixir of life and wisdom (qi.)

Each dan tian corresponds to a different body energy. The lower dan tian is considered the most important and is located in the lower abdomen near the navel.

The lower dan tian stores qi and sexual energy called jing. If a qigong practice refers to the dan tian and does not specify which one, it is always the lower dan tian.

The jing energy of the lower dan tian flows downwards through the body towards the earth and is associated with physical and sexual vitality. It is associated with the yin energy of the yin and yang.

The middle dan tian is located at the level of the heart, stores qi, and is related to respiration and the health of the internal organs. It is the balance between yin and yang and flows both upwards and downwards in the body.

Finally, the upper dan tian is located in between the eyebrows at the point known in some cultures as the third eye. The upper dan tian stores shen, which is a term referring to spirit or conscious energy. It flows upwards towards heaven and is associated with yang of the yin and yang.

Qigong views each dan tian like a reservoir. Jing, qi, and shen are used up in dealing with the stressors of life, but the reservoirs are refilled through meditation or qigong techniques, good nutrition, breathing, and time in nature.

Furthermore, each of the three energies—jing, qi, and shen—is associated with different organs and organ pathways as well as functions and movements.

Beyond this, qigong also categorizes based on the five Chinese elements.

You can learn more about the etymology and categorization of qigong by reading a book such as The Way of Qigong by Kenneth S. Cohen, but also simply by practicing.

Just remember this base in the dan tians as well as the jing, qi, and shen forces, as they are the foundation of qigong.

Qigong Fundamentals

Qigong is separated into two categories, active qigong and passive qigong.

Active qigong (dong gong) is that with which the West is most familiar. It involves movement and activity and is associated with yang energy but conceals yin. Externally the body is active and moving, but internally the mind is still, peaceful, and at rest.

Passive qigong associates with yin and conceals the yang. Externally the body is not moving. It is still, yet internally the mind is working actively to cultivate qi.

Basically, active qigong is exercise and qigong flow while passive qigong is meditation.

Both passive and active qigong share certain elements, namely time of practice, breathing, intentional relaxation, posture, and visualization.

Time and place

The time of day is important in qigong, and it is not recommended one simply practice whenever. Ideally, qigong should be practiced early in the morning at sunrise.

If you practice more than once during the day, the next best time is at sunset to close out the day. Generally, it is recommended that morning practice start slow and build up in intensity, in order to prime your qi for the day you are about to take on.

Sunset practice should instead focus on starting with higher energy movements and steadily becoming less energetic and more calm. This is to close out your day in peace and calm.

As far as location, nature is a huge component of qigong. If it is sunny and warm, qigong should be practiced outdoors and in a park or other beautiful, natural locations if possible. Alternatively, if it is dreary, rainy, or cold then qigong should be performed indoors.

Orientation is also a component. Based on the season, you should face different directions during your practice. In springtime, qigong is best practiced while facing the east. This season and direction are associated with the liver and gallbladder. In summer face the south, and the high qi organs are the heart and the small intestines. In late summer, face any direction, but imagine the qi coming up from the ground. Late summer is associated with the spleen and stomach. In autumn the qi direction is the west, and the associated organs are the lung and large intestine. In the winter, face north, and the organs of focus are the kidney and bladder.

Personally, I think the direction you face may or may not matter so much. I cannot find scientific backing behind these specific directions, but it may have value. Still, I choose to adhere to these guidelines, and I will sometimes pick the direction I face based on the organs I am interested in healing.

If nothing else, the practice of belief and visualization may be the sole benefit from adhering to these goals. Basically, it might be a placebo effect, but every day we learn that placebos are still positives, even if the reason for the benefit is simply our belief rather than from the practice.

Fortunately, the techniques ahead of us have definite grounding in scientific reality. Good posture, breathing, and relaxation are unarguably good for us.

Qigong Posture

“All qigong techniques are based on the qigong stance. Like a musical composition, the stance is the theme, and the other qigong movements are the variations.” — Kenneth S. Cohen, “The Way of Qigong”

Posture is the center point of qigong. Your posture either restricts or facilitates your qi, as well as the effectiveness of other components of qigong such as breathing or relaxation.

As stated in the quote above, qigong posture is the theme of qigong. Your posture will vary as you move through active qigong or assume different positions for passive qigong, but adhering to the qigong stance as your foundation should be on your mind.

The theme of qigong is effortless effort. It is relaxed efficiency and nonaction, a concept in Daoism by which you are able to perform life’s activities with the absolute minimum necessary force, so that it may appear you are not acting at all, yet life molds itself around you.

With regard to posture, this results in a feeling of smooth relaxation in everything.

Head and neck

Xu Ling Ding Jing: “Empty the neck, let energy reach the crown.”

• Release the muscles along the outside of your neck as well as down your spine, lengthening and opening. The head should feel light and balanced atop the spine.
• Your spine should feel long and open. You should neither slouch nor be rigidly standing tall. Imagine a string is attached to the top of your head from heaven, giving a feeling of being lightly suspended.
• Lightly touch the tongue to the roof of the mouth, relaxed, with the lips slightly touching. Saliva is considered to be a powerful component of Jing energy and should be swallowed if necessary.

Shoulders and elbows

Chen Jian Zhui Zhou: “Sink the shoulders, drop the elbows.”

• Shoulder tension creates a cascading chain reaction down the torso, as well as being associated with anxiety. Allow the shoulders to sink down towards the earth without tension.
• Be careful not to roll the shoulders forward nor to tighten them back. Simply let them naturally sink.
• Simultaneously, loosen the elbows. The elbows should always be slightly bent during qigong, as should the knees and fingers.

Back and chest

Chen Jian Zhui Zhou: “Central and erect.”

• The spine acts as a highway for qi. The spinal cord transmits messages from the brain to the rest of the body. If the spine is crooked or bent, this cannot happen as efficiently.
• With a stable and centered spine, you should feel your bones stacked one on top of the other, requiring less effort.
• Think of the spine as a rope rather than a stick or pole, attached at one end to your tailbone and stretched slightly to the string at the top of your crown from head and neck exercise.
• Allow the spine to feel open, with space between each vertebra. Give your vertebrae room to breath.
• Do not try to wrench your spine into a perfectly straight line, but instead aim for openness and to be mostly straight. Focus instead on the feeling of stability and openness as well as uprightness without effort.
• Your chest should feel open and slightly sunk, but not concave. It should not be wrenched open nor hunched in. Good chest posture should come naturally from your spinal and shoulder posture.

Hips

Song Kua: “Relax the Kua.”

• The kua is the area of the hips where the thighs and trunk crease. It includes our hip flexors and psoas.
• Relaxing the muscles around this area allows qi from the lower dan tian—the most important energy center in the body—to better flow to and vitalize the rest of the body, as well as allowing for healthier movement.

One thing you may notice is that the qigong stance is in itself a powerful exercise. It highlights areas of tension in your body. Merely holding the stance for a few minutes is enough for many to notice the knots in their shoulders, or realize their hips are sore from merely standing with slightly bent knees.

Despite the very relaxed nature of this stance, tension held in your body becomes very obvious. This is good: Now you are more aware of yourself, which is an essential component of qigong.

Qigong Breathing

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Beginning with qigong posture, we can now move on to qigong breathing. There are many breathing techniques and meditations in qigong practice, but we’re just going to cover the basic breathing in this article. I do still recommend picking up a copy of The Way of Qigong or looking up more techniques if you are interested deeply.

Like other parts of qigong, though, the basic techniques can last you a lifetime and yield most of the benefit.

Qigong focuses greatly on effortlessness, and if there were a way to sum up qigong breathing in two words it would be “breathe naturally.” You should not force the breath but merely guide it, and breathing should follow your natural current.

In qigong, we breathe with our stomach first, then the chest. We also breathe through the nose, rather than the mouth. To start building your qigong breathing, begin using these steps:

• Place your palms on your belly.
• Inhale through the nose and allow the abdomen to expand as your lungs fill with air.
• Exhale and allow the abdomen to contract, thinking of your belly button getting closer to your spine.
• Imagine this process gently massaging the internal organs as well as allowing the lungs to take in more oxygen than shallow chest breathing.
• Do not tense or restrict the chest. If your chest expands too as you inhale, that is fine. Heed your body’s natural desires and do not restrict them militantly.

Over time, abdominal breathing should allow you to naturally lower your breath rate as you begin to feel more calm and relaxed.

As you breathe, look for the six qigong qualities of the breath:

1. Slow
2. Long
3. Deep
4. Fine
5. Even
6. Tranquil

Keep these in mind as you breathe. Also keep aware of the four stages of the breath:

1. Inhalation
2. The turning point from inhalation to exhalation
3. Exhalation.
4. The turning point from exhalation to inhalation.

Do not force anything, merely observe and gently guide towards deeper more relaxed breath.

Simply practicing this natural breathing during your qigong daily will gradually improve your breathing in general. Also, feel free to practice this any time you can during the day.

That said, don’t feel the need to force this style of breathing if you are doing a workout or an activity that asks for faster or more energetic breathing. There are different natural breathing styles for different activities. The qigong way is actually to allow for these other styles as they are appropriate.

Standing Meditation

Soon we will detail some passive and active qigong techniques, but first I’d like to start with the standing meditation.

China is one of the only places where standing is itself given great thought and contemplation, and Kenneth S. Cohen dedicates a whole section to standing meditation in The Way of Qigong.

This meditation is where I start for every qigong session I do, be it passive or active qigong. You can practice any time of day, with your qigong practice or separately, but Cohen suggests it be early in the morning if possible.

Personally, I think a great way to do qigong is to do 5 minutes of standing meditation upon waking, before anything else in your day.

To practice the standing meditation, assume the qigong stance.

1. Your feet should be shoulder-width or a little wider, with knees comfortably bent and a relaxed demeanor overall.
2. Cup the hands in front of the lower dan tian, in front of your navel, with palms facing your abdomen, elbows bent, and fingers slightly bent.
3. For position two, raise your hands to heart level, the middle dan tian, with palms facing down to the ground, elbows still bent.
4. For position three, raise the hands to in front of your brow, the upper dan tian, palms facing forward away from you, elbows still bent.
5. It is recommended to either perform one long session of standing meditation on one of these positions or to split the meditation between all three evenly.

Kenneth’s prescription for the standing meditation is to practice for 5 minutes a day, with the session split between each position, for a week. For week two, increase to 10 minutes, and for week three onward, increase to 20 minutes.

Kenneth suggests practicing for a minimum of 20 minutes a day once you reach week three and a maximum of 40 minutes per day. However, remember to listen to your body. If you are not feeling good while practicing long, it is suggested you shorten your session.

I believe that consistency is better than intensity, and 5 minutes daily is better than 20 minutes once a week.

Passive Qigong

Photo by Simon Migaj on Unsplash

Passive qigong, again, refers to meditation. There are as many passive qigong techniques as there have been masters throughout history, and probably more.

With that said, qigong meditation has two main forms: ru jing (entering tranquility) and cun si (healing visualizations and concentration.)

Basically, ru jing is about being aware without any particular goal. This would be in line with Indian vipassana meditation, where the point is to simply observe one’s internal state without judgement.

Cun si, which I believe is the true hidden gem of qigong meditation, is about visualizing healing or other states so that the body and mind may follow in turn.

I have long been a fan of visualization, from the first time I read Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Malts to now when I’ve added qigong cun si to my practice. I feel that visualization tunes our minds toward better outcomes. I am not sure if there is any metaphysical element to visualization, though I do personally believe that there is.

Inner nourishing qigong (Nei Yang Gong)

Nei Yang Gong, or inner nourishing qigong is the most widely practiced cun si style meditation in China today. It is extremely gentle and focuses on healing the body.

There are two variations for this meditation listed in “The Way of Qigong,” with variation B being slightly more gentle than variation A. The only difference is that in variation A, you inhale, hold the breath, and then exhale, whereas in variation B you inhale, exhale, and then hold the breath.

It is suggested that Variation B be used for those who are weak, ill, or have respiratory problems, whereas Variation A is fine for most people.

Having done both, they are both quite gentle. I do not think there is any harm to choosing one over the other, just a matter of personal preference.

To do the inner nourishing qigong meditation:

• Begin by sitting comfortably in a chair, lying on your back, or lying on your side. Breathe abdominally through the nose and try to keep your mind focused on the lower dan tian.

Variation A

1. After a few minutes of breathing, allow the tongue to touch the roof of the mouth and inhale. At the same time think the words, “I Am” in your head.
2. At the top of the breath, gently hold your breath and think the words, “Calm And.”
3. Exhale and think the word “Relaxed.”
4. Repeat this process. You are forming the phrase “I am calm and relaxed” as you inhale, hold the breath, and exhale.
5. Go through at least one more round, making for at least three rounds. You can do as many as you’d like and should do as many as feels natural, but do at least three.
6. After a week or so of practice, you can begin adding syllables to the middle portion of the meditation. For example: inhale “I Am,” Hold “sitting calm and,” Exhale “relaxed.” The full phrase is inhale “I Am,” Hold “Sitting calmly, body strong and,” Exhale “Healthy.”
7. You can also change the phrase based on a need or healing desire. Just do not exceed nine syllables for the breath-hold portion. For example, when having thyroid problems, I have used the phrase, “My thyroid is resilient and healthy.” Split into Inhale “My Thyroid,” Hold “Is resilient and,” Exhale “healthy.”

Variation B

1. For Variation B, we follow the same structure except that the breath-hold is after the exhale, not the inhale.
2. For example, Inhale “I Am,” Exhale “Calm And,” Hold “Relaxed.”
3. As with the first variation, you can increase the middle phrase up to nine syllables and also create your own mantra. Either use “I am sitting calmly, body strong, and healthy,” or create your own phrase.

There are tons more meditations to be found in the qigong art, and I strongly suggest finding some. A word though: Do not over-meditate. I find it best to do no more than two meditations in one session.

I think it is better to use greater energy on one or two meditations and then start your day than it is to do several meditations and end up with a jumble of feelings and thoughts.

As I’ve mentioned many times, I really love Kenneth S. Cohen’s “The Way of Qigong.” It has some 10 meditations that cover everything from mental clarity to very mild astral projection.

Active Qigong

Photo by Mark Hang Fung So on Unsplash

This is where things get kinda fun. It is also where I will hand you the reins in finding your own practice. Thankfully, we have YouTube—which is an easier way to learn movement than by reading.

Active qigong is centered around using movement to guide qi, increase qi, open up the meridians, and also teach you low-level martial arts.

It’s also just straight-up fun.

Unlike yoga where you can end up holding static and muscle-burning positions for minutes at a time, qigong is constantly moving in what many refer to as qigong flow.

The positions are generally light on the body, but if they were to be sped up, many of them could be powerful fighting techniques.

Active qigong is by far my favorite movement practice for achieving both feelings of health, as well as activating the body and starting the day with a powerful calm energy.

I should first say that the best way to practice qigong is in a class. In China, qigong is often practiced by hundreds of people, all gathered in a park or other nature setting, as they follow the graceful movements of a master.

Qigong is intended to be social, which is just another proven health benefit of this ancient art. If you were not already aware, community and social connectedness is beneficial for your health, and one of the most common shared traits of supercenturions—people who live past age 110—is that they have close personal relationships and a community such as church in which they are regularly involved.

However, qigong is not as popular in the West, and finding a class or group may be difficult depending on where you live. You can still benefit massively by getting some DVDs or just hopping on YouTube.

One of the first sequences I did while reading “The Way of Qigong” was a 12-minute sequence on YouTube called the 5 Element Qigong Practice by teacher Mimi Kuo-Deemer.

As mentioned early in this article, there are five Chinese elements which correspond to organ systems in the body. This qigong flow brings health and vitality to these systems with movements that correspond to each of the five elements.

I started by simply doing this 12-minute guided flow every morning at sunrise:

I think you’ll be amazed by the simplicity as well as the feeling this practice evokes in your body.

In the words of a friend, the best way to start qigong is to just get on YouTube and find a teacher you like. It’s really that simple.

There are an infinite number of qigong practices, as there have been many teachers and qigong is not a rigid philosophy.

One that has been around for many hundreds of years and is a great starting place is The 8 Brocades. This is the first active qigong practice in “The Way of Qigong” and can also be learned here, as well as in the following video from Mimi.

Regarding finding more active qigong to do, you can either dive into the video library of a YouTube teacher like Mimi, or search things like “qigong for liver function.”

Another amazing resource is the work of Robert Peng, a qigong master who began practice as a young boy and who has continued to this day. His book The Master Key and his many DVDs are great for learning qigong.

I personally like to learn a new qigong flow at least once a week, while practicing another as my daily flow based on my needs.

This past week I have been using the 8 brocades as my staple practice, but I am going to do a flow called Xi Sui Jing, or Bone Marrow Cleansing, tomorrow. This flow is focused on cleansing toxins and is attributed to the Buddhist sage Bodhidharma, who founded the Shaolin temple, home of some of the greatest martial artists in the world. Here is a video of that practice by the Alliance for Martial and Healing Arts.

Qigong is an ancient Chinese healing art. Despite seemingly mystical elements, many novel health techniques such as earthing, healing visualization, and nostril breathing were being used in qigong already thousands of years ago.

When it comes to using qigong yourself, this is a daily practice that takes a lifetime to master. However, the most basic techniques are arguably the most important, and you can begin with a few simple meditations and movements to pursue a powerful life of health and wellness.

My recommendation is to make time every morning at sunrise and, if possible, at sunset to practice qigong.

In the morning upon waking, I start by practicing qigong posture and breathing, followed by the qigong walking meditation. After 5 minutes of this I feed my dogs, brush my teeth, and make a cup of bone broth or tea.

Then I meditate using the inner nourishing qigong meditation. This meditation is the most commonly used qigong meditation and is a form of healing mantra. I try to do 20 minutes if I have time, but 5 minutes will suffice.

I fully intend to continue learning qigong for years and even decades to come. The health benefits I’ve already noticed—lower anxiety, easier breathing, and better resting heart rate—are more than enough to keep my interest.

However beyond that, I believe qigong fills a sorely empty hole in the lives of many: a dedicated practice aimed at living in our highest state of health.

We as westerners think too much about reaching goals, which, by definition, means we are “not there yet.” I believe that qigong, whether it is all placebo or not (it’s not) allows us to feel healthy instead of just wanting to be healthy.

Do not underestimate the power of ancient arts simply because they are ancient. On the one hand, their age means they have not been created through the scientific method. On the other hand, it means they have accumulated the wisdom of generations and very likely contain truths and benefits we are still not aware of scientifically.

As always, thank you for reading and good luck on your journeys for optimal health and better living!

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