Sky Eye Gong Pt 2

“If the fruit looks good, it tastes better” Sifu Tse

Once we’ve been practicing for a while and have better energy and feel happier, people around us will notice this and want to be around us more. But we can also notice things that make us feel tired or drained, and this can happen in lots of situations to do with people and places.

When we practice Qigong we are open and relaxed, gathering positive energy. So if we close our body and do the opposite, this can help when we want to avoid negative energy. Negative energy could be from a place, a person, an environment, or situation and we can all sense when we want to avoid something. So Qigong is not just about gathering positive energy, it’s also about how to release negative energy.

Avoiding negative energy

Using the example of avoiding a person, Sifu said don’t pay that person more attention than you need to. Try not to look at them directly and avoid eye contact if you can. Then we are not connecting with them as much. Also, close the palms, and hold your thumbs to close the Laogong point. That way the Laogong point is closed instead of open like during gathering movements. Then, fold your arms across the chest, to close the Qihu point. So closing our body and acupoints helps to avoid gathering negative energy. It might not be possible to completely avoid picking up negative energy, Sifu said we still pick up some. But if we can close our body then we won’t be as affected.

Releasing negative energy

In addition to avoiding negative energy we also need to know how to release it. If we feel tense or unsettled or have been in a negative situation, then we can release it through doing movements like the flicking movements we learn in Wild Goose Qigong. But the main thing is to practice – the stronger we are, the easier it is to release negative energy.

“Think of things that make you smile! This helps to relax, and then eventually the negativity goes.” Sife Tse

Sifu said we can also change our energy through the things we think about, and that if we find somewhere quiet to go and think of things that are positive to us, this can make us feel better. Examples he gave of things we could think of are people that are important to us, like Simo, a beloved pet, or even thinking about a certain place that makes us feel calm. If you have a religion, you can think of god or religious images that make you feel good like Guanyin, or angels. Or if you are not religious, then think of family, friends, pets. Anything that makes you smile. Thinking of these things can also change your energy.

“Every Qigong student must aim for a certain standard and knowledge to get the best out of our Qigong practice.” Sifu Tse

Sifu said that he has lots of questions to do with the Sky Eye and the Dantian. How does the Sky Eye develop? Why do we focus on the Dantian first? But he says the answer is all to do with how much we practice.

“Qigong practice is a discipline, and disciplines help you to move to the right track in your life. But even if you don’t see it right away, it will happen eventually. With regular practice and discipline, more luck will come your way, and you will be able to see, feel, smell, and sense more about what is important or helpful for you. And all this is based on discipline, and practice”. Sifu Tse

“When will the Sky Eye open? You will know! Just keep practicing!” Sifu Tse

But he said of course it is very difficult to measure because we are all different. How and when we develop and what we need to practice is different for everyone – we each have different tastes, personality and spirit. So only you can know how you feel and how you are developing. This is why we need to develop an awareness of our body during practice, so we know what area of the body has tension or blockages.

“Just relax. We need to relax after practice and then the Qi will go where it needs to go. Every problem, area of tension or illness is a blockage, so that’s where we need the Qi to go. Then the body will start to heal and become better able to exist in this environment. So with good Qi, we can heal quicker.” Sifu Tse

The Dantian

 Sifu said that during our Qigong practice, we shouldn’t try to just aim for the Sky Eye and go really fast! We need to practice Qigong to get healthy and develop our Qi in the correct order. The Dantian is where Qi is stored and starts to develop which is why it’s important to focus on the Dantian first.

The more Qi we have the more it can develop and rise through the middle Dantian to the upper Dantian. The more relaxed we are and the less blockages we have, the more the Qi can circulate round all the channels and supply energy to all the organs and acupoints, including the Sky Eye. So the more we practice, the healthier we will get. We also feel less pain when we have more good Qi.

After movement we always do meditation. During movement we stir up the Qi and move it around, refreshing our energy and releasing stale energy. So during meditation, we settle the energy and sink the Qi to the Dantian.

Meditation is also Qigong and we can do meditation on its own, and like Qigong forms, there are different types of meditation postures that help with different things, depending on what you need.

Write things down

During meditation, we can often think and see a lot of different things, and it can be helpful for us to write these things down, as some of them might be useful and give us new ideas, or help us to go in a certain direction in life. Sifu is known for keeping a pen and paper with him so that he can write down things he thinks or sees.

Some of the things that we think or see can be memories or images and are actually just because our mind is calming down. But when we are calm and relaxed we might think of useful things. Examples of things that we can think or see are people, scenery, mountains, trees, or things that we are connected to, or if our eyes are closed we can also see certain colours and light. We can think about people, remember things we’ve forgotten, or have new ideas. So it’s always good to write things down.

He also said that the things we see during meditation are different from the sorts of things we see during dreams. This is because the things we pick up during meditation relate to what’s outside, not inside, because the Baihui point is like our antenna.

But he said that actually, don’t overthink things or take the things that you see too seriously. Just because we see things it doesn’t mean we are healthy, so we shouldn’t place too much importance on the things we see.

“Managing things is all about energy and feel, not what you see”. Sifu Tse

Sifu said that managing things is all about energy and feel, not what you see, and to show this he gave an example of putting a picture on a hook on the wall. He could see the picture and the hook, but that didn’t help him put the picture on the hook as much as feeling and balance, because in order to put the picture on the hook, he had to reach behind the picture, feel the hook with his fingers and feel the balance and weight of the picture, and so use more senses than just seeing to put up the picture. So actually, managing things is all about energy and feel, not what you see.

Another example Sifu gave is during healing when to assess a person, he said that hearing is much better than seeing and that he needs to move his ears close to areas of the person’s body, so that he can hear the sound of the person’s body.

“Sense is more important than study” Sifu Tse

To conclude the seminar, Sifu said. Always have a pen and paper handy, so you can write things down, whether that’s thinking of a photo, a memory, or any other idea. These ideas will help give you direction in life, and help you decide what things are important to you. Like all Qigong forms, Sky Eye Gong helps supply energy to your whole body, making you healthy, and improving your senses, including the Sky Eye. When this develops you can get more ideas and intuition which is helpful for lots of different types of people. For a musician, a new song might come to mind. A writer might think of a story. So always, write things down, and then you will find the jewel and catch it before the treasure chest closes, and this can help give you direction.

The next part of the form

Previously we collected Qi from the earth and washed the whole body with fresh Qi, smoothing the Qi to the Sky Eye, Baihui, Fengfu, Fengchi, bringing the hands to the Dantian where we pause slightly.

From here we continue to bring the arms up to shoulder height, relaxing the wrists and letting the hands hang loosely. We then Bagua step in a figure of eight while moving the arms up and down a little like wings. When we move the arms up, we open and move the chest slightly, and when we move down, we relax and push out with the hands slightly.

On the final step we draw Qi to the Sky Eye, then continue to bring the Laogong point past the Baihui to the back of the head, Fengfu, past the ears, then when we reach the Taiyang point we close the fingers and push the hands out to the side (not too fast), to flick away and release energy.

By Carly Collingwood