The Fifth Secret…
As I mentioned last time, my original teacher, Master Share K. Lew, always gave the secrets of qigong very early in teaching. The four he talked about were eyes, mind, movement and breath. If you’ve missed the previous 4 posts, you’ll find my take on these secrets there.
Over time, it’s been pretty clear to me that there’s another secret, one that isn’t talked about as commonly. I don’t know why this is, but in the tradition of Master Lew, I’d like to offer it here.
Before I get into that, it’s important to remember that unlike the common saying, knowledge (or in this case “secrets”), is NOT power. At best, knowledge is potential power. If you don’t apply your knowledge, then it’s useless to you. Real power comes from taking action on what you know.
With that in mind, here is the fifth secret of qigong:
Heart
What I mean by this is holding a space of compassionate regard for yourself and others. This borders on empathy and can be described by understanding the difference between being open-hearted and bleeding from your heart.
Having an open heart energizes you. But if you are too open-hearted, then you become depleted. At the same time, if you close your heart it also makes you weaker. As always, balance is crucial.
For some people, it’s a scary idea to be open-hearted and compassionate. Usually this comes from a history of being hurt or traumatized. In reality, the kind of open-heartedness I’m referring to is amazingly powerful and empowering at the same time.
This is so important these days that I’m going to spend time over the next few posts addressing it. In fact, I may have a video demonstration of exactly how powerful this is in an upcoming post. I have to see how the video comes out before deciding to share it with you.
In the meanwhile, remember the 5 secrets of qigong and practice them. Ideally, every day.
Be well,
Dr. Bruce
