Cultivating Energy
Cultivating Your Energy Fields
At the heart of cultivation practice is the preparation of your inner soil, referring to the process of clearing impurities and harmonizing the energies that comprise the physical body — all in preparation to accommodate greater levels and intensities of light that will come with your awakening.
Many practices will accomplish this — but only if done regularly with proper focus and intention. Quick advancement is not the goal. Rather, the greatest benefits come over time with the discipline, dedication and perseverance required to align mind, body and spirit into a coherent working unit.
While we recommend devoting at least 1/2 hour three times a week, you may do more or less as your intuition guides you. Consistency of effort is required to advance, preferably at the same time and days each week. Here are some exercises we’ve found helpful in our practice
Standing meditation
One of the best exercises we practice (daily) is standing meditation. We recommend it to all our students.
The object is to stand still, gazing at a point in the distance (look of the eagle), while the mind and body relax.
Be generally aware of your breathing and energy entering at the top of the head, as well as the relaxed in/out movement of the lower abdomen.
This exercise is to develop relaxation and hollowness to promote energy flow. Other benefits come as well.
Try to do 10-15 minutes daily at the same time. In our gung ho days, we used to stand for an hour at a time.
Don’t overdo it. Build up to whatever amount of time you’re inner voice tells you to train. Seek medical attention if you experience pain or shortness of breath.
We also recommend meditating on the Microcosmic Orbit:
Sit quietly. Erect. Hands folded in lap. Tip of tongue touching center of soft palate. Breathe through nose.
Bring breath down the front (Ren, or Functional Channel) to tan tien. Concentrate on each point in turn until it opens, working your way around perineum and up the spine (Du, or Governing Channel) to head and back down front.
Finish by circulating qi around tan tien 36x each direction.
Qigong
Qigong is essential for gathering and cultivating the qi. It is a core activity of internal (ju) training, along with standing and meditation (among others).
Falun Dafa incorporates a set of five exercises that covers them all. It is one of our favorites, especially for those who don’t have the time or inclination to do separate sessions of each in their practice regimen.
The following video shows the core Falun Gong exercises, which include standing, qigong and meditation in a series of 5 exercises performed three times.
Be sure to devote sufficient time for standing and meditation exercises, since this video is for demonstration purposes and does not allocate adequate time to either area for our purposes (so pause it when you get to them).
We would be remiss not to include yoga, tai chi, guided meditations and other practices that help to cultivate energy. We trust that you will be guided to the ones that are best for you.