Meditation

• Richt je op het “middelpunt”:
• het is toch alomtegenwoordig,
• het hele universum ligt erin besloten.
• Hieruit blijkt hoe de schepping werkt.
• Het enige wat je hoeft te doen is:
• door de TIANMEN in te gaan,
• en je alleen daarop te richten.
• Fixeer je er vooral niet te star op.
• Daar zijn ware Licht, Liefde en Leven.
• Het is heel goed, subtiel en waardevol!

“IK ben de deur, wie door mij naar binnen gaat zal gered worden; hij zal naar binnen gaan en naar buiten gaan en GENEZING vinden”
(Johannes 10:9)

Tian = Hemel, men = deur/ poort
Tianmen = hemelse poort

Qigong Meditation

We can also encourage our patients and students to practice meditation. Dr. Herbert Benson, M.D. has written numerous reference books documenting the beneficial health effects of meditation from a Western medical perspective. Many of our patients have already learned Transcendental Meditation techniques or Zen meditation but have let these practices slide as their lives became more hectic. Simply suggest to them that their renewal of these practices on a daily basis can have a significant effect on the efficacy of their acupuncture and herbal prognosis. This can give hope where despair previously prevailed. For those who have not studied meditation, there are many simple Qigong meditation methods, such as Dan Tian Breathing, which can be quickly and easily taught during an office visit. Offering public talks on these subjects can reinforce patient confidence and build your practice by increased public contact.
Qigong meditation is not limited to sitting practice. The Taoists speak of the Four Human Dignities: standing, sitting, walking, and lying down. Each of these postures has its own forms of meditation. Most of us are familiar with sitting meditation, walking or moving meditations such as Tai Chi, or lying down relaxation techniques such as the “corpse pose” in some teaching. However, in the Qigong tradition, the most important of all of these is standing meditation. Usually referred to as zhan zhuang (standing firm like a post), standing meditation is particularly tonifying, and is an absolutely essential foundation not only for promoting one’s own health, but also for accumulating Qi to heal others and for martial arts practice.
Walking meditation is very relaxing as well as strengthening, and helps teach one to integrate meditation into the activities of one’s daily life. It is also very soothing and relieves the stiffness after long periods of sitting, especially after seated meditation practice or following long periods in front of a computer! It has some features of active progressive relaxation methods, in that the natural weight shifting from one leg to another causes an alternating tension and relaxation in the muscles. This alternating action also acts like a second heart; it helps to pump the blood out of the legs and assists the venous blood return to the heart.
Lying down meditation is valuable for entering the deepest states of relaxation, since no muscular effort is required. It is especially recommended for people too ill to sit or stand. Taoist yogis practice lying down meditation for dream Yoga, and as preparation for being able to continue meditation while dying, when they might be too weak to sit up.
There are lots of varieties of Qigong meditation, in both outer posture and inner focus. Why so many? The answer is easy: different types of meditation work more effectively for different personality types.
For example, kinesthetic or physical personality types will prefer and excel at energy circulation meditations or progressive relaxation meditations that focus awareness on bodily sensations; they may also prefer standing or walking meditation as these variations are more active. For imaginative, artistic, creative and intuitive people, visualization exercises may be most effective. For heart centered and emotional people, meditations that focus on the transformation of negative emotional Qi into virtuous Qi as related to the Five Elements correspondences are appropriate.
Some patients may have reservations about practicing meditation. They may be atheists, or their religious views may make them wary of engaging in “Eastern practices.” You can assure those who are atheistic that there are “generic meditations” that require absolutely no faith to practice successfully. For those who adhere to a specific religion, you can direct them towards a meditation practice which incorporates their own religious views; there are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist, and other systems of meditation which use the added benefit of what Dr. Benson has termed the “Faith Factor”. In this way you can help people deeply and profoundly in dealing with the existential aspects of their malady.

Move More to Achieve Stillness

Active but gentle physical exercise is also one of the recognized tools used in modern Western stress management programs. Meditation, walking Qigong, and Tai Chi are three modalities popularly used in the West. In many ways, active exercise mimics the stress response (the sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight response”): the heartbeat quickens, adrenaline rises, pupils dilate, blood flow to the skeletal muscles increases. When one finishes an exercise workout, the body’s natural “cool down phase” self-activates: heartbeat slows down, muscles relax, and adrenaline secretions decrease. This “cool down phase” following physical exercise helps decrease the patient’s overall level of accumulated stress.

In China, Qigong and Tai Chi are the most common exercise modalities prescribed specifically for stress. The deep abdominal breathing combined with slow graceful motion helps to oxygenate the body, improve blood circulation, move lymphatic fluids, and release skeletal muscle tension. From an Oriental medical perspective, Qigong exercise deepens breathing and opens the chest, tonifies Zhong Qi (Ancestral Qi, Pectoral Qi), tonifies and moves Zheng Qi and removes stagnation, moves the Blood, strengthens the muscles and tendons, builds Wei Qi (Defensive Qi), tonifies Heart Qi and calms the Shen (Spirit).