Chi
Kung Culture Society of TAIPEI
The use of visualizations is regarded as a higher form of chikung practice. Usually, only after they had developed enough fundamental and advanced chikung training (after one or two decades of practice) did ancient people begin the practice of visualization. (When using the visualization technique, you use your mind to create a linear movement or assimilation of an image. But now many people begin their practice with visualizations in the very first lesson of chikung!
We can see the inherent danger in using visualizations if we think of the structure of a pyramid. A pyramid has a large and solid base from which it gradually ascends to a very acute angle at the top: the basic foundation can easily and adequately support the upper portion of the pyramid. Just imagine if our type of chikung training were developed in a manner just the opposite to the contruction method for a pyramid - if we were to build an inverted pyramid from the ground up: first would come the top pinnacle which would then expand out to the broad base high up in the sky. Needless to say, such a practice would be very unbalanced and more easily destroyed than a chikung practice built on a broad and solid foundation.
When we talk about the forces coming up from our body we may classify them into three levels of forces: first, the upper dantien forces; second, the middle dantien forces; and third, the lower dantien forces. Each of them provides different types of forces and frequencies and each of them has different functions. We have to build up these forces according to our body needs. For instance, our lower dantien requires large, broad, stable and receptive forces like magnetic power which provides a sphere of protection, concentration, and balance. Second, our middle dantien requires adequate circulation of electromagnetic waves as a heat release, appropriate respiration (inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide) and the exchange of negative forces with positive forces to provide the perfect transforming system for our body. Third, the upper dantien requires cool and steady forces to maintain the efficiency of our mind and spirit to control our brain鷔 response to external stimuli (because our brain acts like a radar continually sending out our frequencies and bringing back a lot of waves to create a responding mode. Such a process could cause trouble effecting our harmony and peace. Therefore, the radiation emitted from our brain, especially the alpha and beta waves, are easily influenced by the surrounding forces generated by modern electrical appliances and the radiation from other people who carry strong desires, rigid ideology and/or stubborn minds. By understanding the function of the three dantiens we will understand the training for the lower dantien (the fundamental training of chikung) is so important because it is able to combine and control the three systems (the three dantiens)into one well-balanced cooperative relationship.
If we tinker with this interplay between the three dantien systems and focus on the practice of visualization before we are strong enough, then we will experience imbalance or interference from the external world in any situation and we won't be able to obtain peace and harmony. Instead of obtaining our goal of emptiness and the Tao, we will just be fooling around with mysterious experiences or fantastic external frequencies.