kong zhuan he che

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

I was lucky enough to go visit my teacher for a few days, and what a difference!

We talked about many things, but one thing I especially want to share here, because it is of great importance to people practicing Qi Gong, is the topic of "kong zhuan he che."

He Che (connected cart) in Daoism is when the Qi in the Du and Ren meridians connect to each other.  In Qi gong terms, it is basically the same is Xiao Zhou Tian (small microcosmic orbit).

He Che is a valuable and important part of Daoist energy practices and something that takes a few years to develop.

My teacher is a very thorough and always points out both positive things and problems that can occur in practice, so this time around, when we were discussing the energetic connection in the He Che circulation, he pointed out a potential problem that can occur in some people.

This problem is called "kong zhuan he che," or "empty cycle connection," and is a common problem among Qi gong and Daoist practitioners.

Basically, this is the practice of using the intention to move Qi around the small heavenly orbit.

This is represented by many popular writers of Qi Gong books, whose names shall go unmentioned, and is also quite commonplace in the Western Qi gong community in general.

How many seminars have you gone to where a teacher claimed to teach small heavenly orbit by having you use the mind (and maybe some movement) to draw a circle up your spine and down your front?

I bet most of us have been to seminars like that.

This practice can provide some physical sensations, but it doesn't help build up and replenish ti Qi and any long term of valuable way.

The other problem is that this practice (which exists inside of a continuum of many older practices called "cun xiang," or "visualization") is that if you practice it for a long time, it can make you feel very tired.  I think this is the reason why many teachers advise not to overdo the small heavenly orbit.

 

Actual He Che practice, using post heaven Qi (we will just talk about post heaven Qi here, since pre heaven is a whole other can of worms) is better accomplished indirectly by either focusing on the lower dantian during practice (while empahsising correct posture and breathing), or by doing various auxilary Qi gong exercises which cause the Qi to naturally move through the du and ren meridians.   Trying to actively move Qi in these places, especially while visualizing things like hot coals or fire can be very harmful and not produce any good results other than maybe feeling tired and relaxed after practice.

To get the real benefit from he che practice, you need to either try to enter the pre heaven state through nei dan, or to do Qi gong which affects the he che by gradually building up a strong base of post heaven energy in the three dan tian, and finally causes the qi to move through the three gates of the back.

Post heaven practice takes much longer to achieve than pre heaven practice, but has the benefit of being dynamic and also directly working with other areas such as flexibility and balance.

Either way you do it, you should try to avoid doing "kong zhuan he che," since it doesn't provide very deep results and may actually be bad for you.  :) :)

[小梦想]

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Edited August 11, 2018 by 小梦想

[Uroboros]

My experience concurs with this post.

 

In doing a solid QiGong form, the processes initiated when they were ready.

 

I got sidetracked and have yet to open the first of the three gates completel, though.

 

I think its more about initiating and resting in that initiation then manually driving the process....

 

The processes are seeds within us. The right conditions activate the growth of the seed into the oak.