Nan Huaijin's "Meditation and Taoism"

Recently, I studied "Greater Mind Method" with teacher Li Xiaodong, so I started meditating every day. So Brother Cuiling lent me this book - "Sitting in Meditation and Cultivation" by Nan Huanjin. The original title seemed very lofty - "Sitting in Meditation and Cultivation and Immortality". Moreover, Cuiling said euphemistically, you can’t read books without borrowing them.

As expected, I finished reading it in a week. Of course, the book is also very thin.

This book helped me clarify three questions.

Nan Huaijin made an impressive analogy.

For example, if there is a hollow leather bag or ball, do you punch the air in? I hope that this energy will only stay in a certain part of the leather bag or ball. Can you do that? Obviously impossible.

The human body is like a hollow leather bag or ball. The type of Qi is that it flows everywhere or you want Qi to stay in only a certain part of the body. Unless there is a physiological dysfunction or a serious illness, it is absolutely impossible.

Some people can do it, but it is just an illusion of psychological consciousness. It is because the psychological consciousness focuses on a certain part of the body. The nerves, muscles, and blood will all work with the concentration of consciousness, not a breath of energy. As the consciousness condensed into one piece, it stayed there obediently.

There are so-called seven limbs of sitting in meditation, that is, seven key points of the limbs:

The first is to sit in the lotus position with both feet (either single lotus or double lotus). The second is to form Samadhi mudra with both hands, with the thumbs lightly touching. Third, the spine is straight. Fourth, the shoulders are stable. The fifth is to retract the head and jaw. The sixth is the base of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. 7 means the eyes are half closed (or slightly closed).

There are also some things to note:

First, smile. Second, when the weather is cool, wrap your knees and the back of your neck to keep them warm. Do not leave your knees exposed even in hot weather. Third, the buttocks can be raised by two or three inches to prevent the center of gravity from shifting backward.

These meditation points are roughly the same as Teacher Xiaodong’s requirements.

After meditating, you may have many reactions.

The first is the reaction of the legs.

For example, when you sit cross-legged, it is normal for your legs to feel sore, swollen, numb or painful. It's not entirely because the blood vessels are suppressed, it's actually when the Qi machine starts to react.

Including myself, I also feel that the pain is unbearable when I sit cross-legged, but after enduring it for a while, my legs feel particularly comfortable when I no longer sit cross-legged. And the next time you sit cross-legged, you will be able to sit cross-legged for longer.

The second is the reaction of other parts of the body.

For example, numbness, soreness and pain may be found in some parts of the body, as if feeling sick. Teacher Nan Huaijin said that this is not a problem with meditation, because meditation is just one of the ways to rest, and people and animals will never suffer from problems because of rest.

In fact, it is a good thing to prove that you have a physiological reaction to a latent disease, because you didn’t know that your body was sick before, and you can feel the pain. In self-medication.

For example, I also found that my face was numb when I was sitting quietly, especially the left side of my face. Teacher Xiaodong told me that I might suffer from hemiplegia in the future. Therefore, be careful not to stay up late and control your emotions. It is precisely because of meditation that we can detect it early and heal ourselves.

After reading this book by Teacher Nan Huaijin, I became more determined to meditate. Sitting in meditation is to cultivate the body and mind.

I don’t ask for immortality through meditation, but I want to cultivate a strong body and a calm and compassionate heart. I hope that’s enough!