OPENING THE HEART
Opening the Heart
Question
Dear Sifu, one of the things that inspires me most is your open heart.
How important it is to keep an open heart in order to progress in our chi kung training? In other words, what is the relationship between an open heart and progress in chi kung training?
What are the best ways to open our hearts? What are the best ways to keep always an open heart so it does not close again?
Santi
Answer
Thank you for your kind words. Many people also have told me that they find me always happy. In the Chinese language, to be happy is “kai xin”, which literally means “open heart”.
Chinese masters discovered from direct experience that when people opened their heart, they became happy. It is worthy of note that opening the heart comes first. Then people experience happiness.
The causes for opening the heart vary. Giving money to a child or a priest may not open their hearts. But if you give a child a toy, or devote yourself to the religion the priest is preaching, you can open their heart.
In our school, we have an excellent method to open our heart. We smile from our heart at the start of every lesson. When we do so, our heart opens, and we feel happy. Many students have told me that it is the best lessons they have learnt from our school.
Keeping an open heart is not only very important in the progress of our chi kung training, but it is more important in life. There is a saying in Chinese that the greatest fear is to close the heart. When a person’s heart is close, he loses the ability to experience joy. He becomes depressed for life.
Having an open heart also means being open to new learning. When a person’s heart is close, he close himself to all learning. When a person’s heart is open, i.e. when he is happy and open to learning, learning becomes a joy.
One of the best ways to open a person’s heart is to give him what he needs for the present moment. If a person is dying of thirst in a desert, giving him a lot of money may not open his heart, but giving him water to drink will.
Another of the best ways to open a person’s heart is what we do every time we start our practice, i.e. to smile from the heart. You can try it right now. Sit up and be relaxed. Smile from your heart. Immediately your heart opens and you feel happy.
If you practice our chi kung every day for six months, you will have smiled from your heart, and subsequently will have experienced happiness for six months. If you do this every day for three years, you heart will be habitually open. This is an excellent way to keep your heart open, and it will not close again.
We start every lesson with Smiling from the Heart
The above article is reproduced from the thread Developing and Deepening the Fundamental Skills of Chi Kung in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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