From 500 to 600 Hours
In this stage, I meditated for a full hour for a hundred days. What a world of difference it is compared to the current one and my first gong for the Zhan Zhuang San Xing Ping, which I performed in 2016 for my Level 1 exam. Back then, I only stood for an hour during the last week of the gong, at that time that was a huge challenge. An hour seemed so incredibly long, and it took an enormous amount of willpower to stay standing for an hour. Now, it’s completely different at all levels.
Physically, it’s bearable. I just never stand completely still for the full hour. It seems like my body keeps making automatic corrections every now and then and sometimes has to let go of the posture for a moment. Then it immediately adopts a much better posture. It’s truly as if my body becomes completely autonomous for a moment and slips out from under the control of my mind.
Emotionally, it’s a breeze now. I remain calm and observant no matter what. There’s no fear of emptiness or anything like that. And I no longer have to rely on willpower to perform the exercise. I never thought I could ever become so calm inside.
Mentally, it’s becoming increasingly easier to become completely still. To get there, I’ve learned that during the first 20 minutes, when the body is also searching for the perfect posture, the mind is free to think, associate, or whatever it wants. The silence comes naturally once the body is properly aligned. How that works is still more or less a mystery. It feels as if the power of Jing and Qi lovingly embraces my mind and takes it into emptiness, into silence.
A Change of routine
For a long time, my routine was writing in the morning, training for Body & Mind around 10 a.m., preparing lessons, doing paperwork, studying, and grocery shopping until 2 p.m., and having a hot meal around 3 p.m. Eating in the afternoon ensures that I don’t have to teach on a full stomach. After dinner, Zhan Zhuang. That went pretty well for a while, but there were two drawbacks to this routine. First, after the Centers Merge, I didn’t do anything at all until my evening class started. I lay on the couch, usually reading. A waste of time, even though I did read a lot. The second drawback was that I was training on a full stomach. That felt increasingly uncomfortable.
Since June 15th, I meditated after 10 p.m. and sleep like a baby afterward. Before I moved my meditation to late evening, I always woke up at first light—around 5:30 a.m. Now I sleep very soundly until 7:30 or 8 a.m. I feel very good when I wake up. So we’ll keep that up. I always thought that after evening classes, I didn’t have the time or desire to meditate properly, but that’s not the case at all.
During the day, I no longer walk around constantly thinking I still have to stand/meditate for my gong. This isn’t just because I practice late and end the day with my meditation. It’s become such a part of my daily routine that I’m no longer afraid of forgetting to practice.
At this stage of my practice, I manage to stay in the qigong state for about 45 to 55 minutes. The minutes that remain are difficult to get through. It feels as if my body and mind have absorbed enough qi and are saying, “enough is enough” Hopefully, remaining steadfast will prolong the qigong state even further.
Worries I previously couldn’t banish from my meditation seem to have lost their influence. It no longer matters what happens during the day; Whether something was dragging me down or lifting me up—depression, euphoria, and everything in between—as soon as I stand, an enormous sense of calm comes over me.
Fasting
I seriously started intermittent fasting. Every day, I have 8 hours of eating followed by 16 hours of fasting. I got used to it remarkably quickly. It feels great, and the pounds just flew off. I lost 7 kilos in 6 weeks. Hunger is good for you too! It sharpens the mind, inspiration flows, and concentration improves. For a moment, I was afraid that hunger would hinder me during exercise, but as soon as I stand, the feeling of hunger disappears immediately.
Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2016 for an article on autophagy. Autophagy is an effect that occurs during fasting and literally means that the body starts eating itself. However, that process begins with the clearing of damaged cells. So, through controlled fasting, you can ensure the body rids itself of cells that cause diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. What a beautiful and logical insight that is. It explains why so many people are developing cancer and Alzheimer’s these days. We eat all day long. A bitlax; there’s always something in the fridge or cupboard.
This reminds me again how our metabolism stems from primitive humans. People who were regularly hungry. Hunger apparently also plays a role in maintaining good health and a long life. It’s not without reason that fasting is promoted in Traditional Chinese Medicine as one of the best preventive measures for maintaining health.
Additional observations:
Halfway through this stage, I felt intense stagnation and pain while breathing for a few weeks on Gao Huang Zhu – the miracle point – small mountain. This is precisely where the old information about bronchitis, and possibly also the pneumonia I had in 2023, was hidden. I really had to reach deep to release the trapped qi in that area. I inhaled gently, gathering the old qi, and on exhalation, I felt it dissolve. It took days to release it all, but I succeeded. Sending healing Qi with healthy information to parts of my body has been incredibly easy ever since, and it always works! This way, aches and stagnations in the Qiflow dissolve. It doesn’t matter where the pain is. I had a toothache starting, but even in my teeth, the pain subsided within a few minutes and didn’t return. I’m curious to see what the dentist will find at the next checkup.
It’s so wonderful when you discover how easy this ultimately becomes. It took time, but the reward is commensurate with the effort you’ve made. Effort isn’t the right word either. It’s not effort, but simply doing it and letting it happen. Just let go of the feeling that it’s an effort.
August 7: Today I did the 7th exercise of the Body & Mind a little too enthusiastically. I’d never had a groin injury before, but this time it was a hit. Fortunately, the pain and discomfort during the Centers Merge were very bearable. Here too, I sent healing attention and Qi to the area where the pain is. After two days, it was fine again. It remains amazing how well and easily this works.
But the best part of this phase was apparently saved for the last week. On August 11th, after teaching the first Qigong classes after my summer vacation, I felt the Qi flowing freely throughout my body for the first time. It was an almost magical experience! I often felt a strong flow, but at the same time, there was always an area or point where I felt a bit stagnant. Somewhere during the exercise, my body corrected itself ever so slightly, after which it suddenly felt like a dam had burst. The sensation was incredibly strong, and I literally felt like a wave of light. I have no idea how long this state lasted, but after this session, I really felt like this was what I’d been practicing for so long.
The unfortunate thing is that you hope, and almost expect, to be able to evoke this feeling in your practice. But unfortunately, it took a few days before I accepted that I wouldn’t (yet) reach this state effortlessly. A few days during which, against my better judgment, I tried to reproduce that small correction. It’s like you got a glimpse into heaven for a moment.