Closing in Qigong/Meditation practice

[The Way Is Virtue]

Edit: Will try to make my question more to the point:

From your understanding, what are the reasons for doing closing after practicing qigong or meditation?

The reasons I am aware of are to try to help prevent qi stagnation in certain areas of the body, and to help direct excess qi back to the lower dan tian where it is more safely stored. What other reasons might there be for doing closing?

Edited October 10, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[Dao Shi Zi Ran]

Edit: Will try to make my question more to the point:

From your understanding, what are the reasons for doing closing after practicing qigong or meditation?

The reasons I am aware of are to try to help prevent qi stagnation in certain areas of the body, and to help direct excess qi back to the lower dan tian where it is more safely stored. What other reasons might there be for doing closing?

 

 

 

You've pretty much got it. A proper closing should guide excess Qi to the lower Dantian for storage and to keep it from causing an imbalance. It also serves to seal up the body's Weiqi fields so that your energy is not scattered, which could leave you open to energetic pathogens or even influence from spiritual beings. Closing also helps the mind to return to normal waking consciousness. It is very important to do a closing so you reset your body and mind to "normal", kind of like rebooting a computer. Hope that helps.

[The Way Is Virtue]

You've pretty much got it. A proper closing should guide excess Qi to the lower Dantian for storage and to keep it from causing an imbalance. It also serves to seal up the body's Weiqi fields so that your energy is not scattered, which could leave you open to energetic pathogens or even influence from spiritual beings. Closing also helps the mind to return to normal waking consciousness. It is very important to do a closing so you reset your body and mind to "normal", kind of like rebooting a computer. Hope that helps.

 

Ok, thanks!

There are taoist/qigong closing practices that involve rotating the palms over the lower dantian or possibly other areas as well. Different traditions appear to have variations on this, but it usually involves rotating the inward facing palms over the lower dantian. The number of rotations seems to vary from different traditions, and exactly how the hands are positioned and rotated varies as well. This process seems to at least in part be used to gather qi back to the lower dantian, but I do not really understand why the palms are rotated in circles to do this. For example, some will start with small counter-clockwise circles that increase in size for a certain number of rotations, and then switch to clockwise circles of the palms that slowly decrease in size. Some just seem to do a certain number of clockwise circles. Can anyone shed any insight on what the exact purpose of these circles are, and why some closing methods will first rotate one way and then switch to the other direction? Some will place one hand on the outside to rotate one way and then switch the other hand to the outside to rotate the other way as well.

 

As an aside to this, I have seen some taoist arts teachers for which the left hand is held outside the right hand for the taoist hand seal (for men) or when rotating the hands over the dantian , and some teachers who place the right hand outside the left for the hand seal (for men). I understand that it has something to do with yang embracing yin or vice versa, but have no idea why this is actually done this way. Has anyone ever come across an explanation for this?

Edited October 10, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[The Way Is Virtue]

Hi TWIV, good thread. Did you happen upon a previous post entitled How important is a closing? yea I said it.? Some gem posts there.

Best,

R_V

 

No, I hadn't seen that thread. Thanks for the link! Some more interesting points in that thread as well about closing.

 

I still would be interested in hearing more about reasons for placing either the left or right hand on the outside in the taoist hand seal and when rotating the palms over the lower dantian area, and why exactly the circle or spiral motions with the palms are done over the lower dantian area when closing, if anyone knows.

Edited October 11, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[Reader]

From your understanding, what are the reasons for doing closing after practicing qigong or meditation?

 

Doing CLOSING after practicing qigong and/or meditation depends on what you have OPENED? It would be not necessary for many of us. Correct me if I am wrong .

[Gauss]

Edit: Will try to make my question more to the point:

From your understanding, what are the reasons for doing closing after practicing qigong or meditation?

The reasons I am aware of are to try to help prevent qi stagnation in certain areas of the body, and to help direct excess qi back to the lower dan tian where it is more safely stored. What other reasons might there be for doing closing?

 

You may want to check out exercise 3 from Falun Dafa. It has 4 rotations around Dantian.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEUMJcsoDls&feature=related

[Friend]

Edited November 16, 2011 by Friend

[The Way Is Virtue]

Doing CLOSING after practicing qigong and/or meditation depends on what you have OPENED? It would be not necessary for many of us. Correct me if I am wrong .

 

Hi Reader. From some of the replies on this topic it does seem that some view closing as not only just a proper way to end out of qigong/meditation, but also as involving literally closing or sealing in some ways. It would seem closing practices can include both aspects, at least in some traditions. I personally have always viewed 'closing' as more of a proper way to end a qigong/meditation session to help prevent qi stagnation and any other ill effects that might potentially occur from not ending properly, as that is how it was taught to me. One of my meditation teachers merely taught that one should just come out of meditation slowly and sit relaxed until you feel your system has returned to normal, and then get up and walk around slowly for a bit to help any buildups of qi to balance and smooth out more. In other traditions various types of self massage and patting are used along with some other procedures. It is probably best to follow whatever closing procedures are taught in the particular system that one is practicing and one can always consider adding more if they feel so inclined or if they are running into issues. That's my view anyway.

Edited October 11, 2010 by The Way Is Virtue

[The Way Is Virtue]

Hi There,

Qigong Forms are like written memory in a dairy book. It is how the creator trained and found it well for himself and teached and passed this as fixed method to after-generations (parroting by them). Some Qigong Set where developed by Masters other by people who become Masters some who remember they are masters and some who not een Master but have the teachings from the other realms .

A human energy body is a living system and underlying changes because of various sources that affect the human like weather, seasons, direction, surrounding, etc and also inner energy, health, mood, yin yang balance.

Methods which are high are Wu Wei . One will then always practise with best results according the moment.

There will be also a time when the body moves arcording the Qigong set but the time, speed, reach and manner is different than learned. It is that one not change a practise when it has a good result and even when changes happen then they are minor and passed on rules are never broken. This to Change without changing.

 

So back to the topic is that it is individual how long a closing procedure is.

If one not master to maintain the flow while one do the closing movement then one has lost a big part from the closing(And the master just tell you the procedure and movement to close and the explaination of the intention of the movement but not the other thing). (I wasted much time to perceive it myself and it took hours of repetition

of the closing I learned for weeks, 1-2 hours a day, a bit exaggerated .... just one week and about 1 hour a day)

And there are closing that are very diffcult but looks very ease like the spiral and circles above

dantien or the navel because one need the abillity to move the energy with their hands and not with the mind, the mind should observe and guide. The mistakes are too slow, too fast and slipping I experience here (For everything I use the Handfields in my exercises)

A other thing would be moving above or around a blockage and maintaining the speed, instead of moving the force through the blockage and adjusting the speed. Clockwise and Anti-Clockwise are choosen arrcording the goal. Depending on polarity(which can change) of the body, one direction is to store and the other direction to release (one will feel it). When one watch a famous number of movement this would be 24/36 or 36/24 and at least 12 is either stored or released here.

Also the greater number of repetition is to "hit the target" it is like using a shot gun rather than a sniper rifle.The Wu Wei Method would be to let the point-area move the hands until it stops and pull to the area.

(It feels like a "ching" some kind of "Woah awake..what?" and slurps in for me).

... again

Enough ^^

Q

Hi Friend, yes, perhaps some can do this more intuiitively or more by just allowing the closing practice to take it's natural course or the like, but many teachers teach a set closing sequence, which may be for the reason you indicated that it is better to make certain that all the bases are covered, so to speak. Thanks for your feedback on this.