INTUITIVE MIND AND INTELLECTUAL MIND
Chi kung
Question
Sifu, you ask us not to think of anything during our practice. But towards the end of a chi kung session, I say a prayer and send a blessing to someone, is this thinking of anything?
-- Ivan, USA
Answer
No, this is different.
First of all I would like to explain this concept of not thinking. Due to linguistic or cultural factors, some people may worry that they may become stupid if they do not think of anything. This is not true. In fact it is the reverse. If they have the ability of not thinking of anything, then when they think they will think better.
Not thinking of anything is different from not being able to think. Not thinking of anything is clearing the mind of all thoughts. When our mind is clear of all thoughts, we attain mental clarity. When we have mental clarity we can think much better when we choose to think. People whose mind is constantly full of myriad thoughts cannot think efficiently.
Our chi kung is excellent for developing mental clarity. Clearing our mind of all thoughts is a requirement for all our chi kung practice. So, when a student has practice our chi kung for 6 months, he has trained to have mental clarity for 6 months.
For convenience, mind can be classified into two dimensions: the rational mind and the intuitive mind. Please remember that this is only for convenience.
We use our rational mind to think, to intellectualize. On the other hand, our intuitive mind does a lot of important things which we normally are not conscious of, like regulating our breathing and clearing out harmful viruses. We also use our intuitive mind to perform high-level chi kung skills, like activating a cosmic shower which we did yesterday.
When people think of a lot of thoughts with their rational mind, they cannot focus. They have to clear their mind of thoughts so as to be focused and relaxed, to enter into a chi kung state of mind. Only then can they perform chi kung, otherwise they are just performing chi kung patterns as gentle physical exercise. As they progress they go deeper into the intuitive mind.
The intuitive mind is very powerful. We must always use it for good, never for evil. Saying a prayer or sending blessing is using the mind for good. The process needs thought, or thinking, but it is performed intuitively, which is different from rational thinking or intellectualization.
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