What is Listening Jing?
Passive awareness is a good way of defining Listening Jing. If we use the analogy of feeling the Qi there is an immediate image of reaching out (to feel) and by doing this we are using the Yi in a proactive manner and we, therefore, change the pattern/quality of the Qi we wish to experience. Changing the analogy to “listening” there is no longer the need to reach out, rather a need to stay quiet. By experiencing the Qi in this way, and because we are no longer moulding it to suit our need to recognise it from our previous experience, there will always be new flavours/adventures.
Listening Jing is the passive awareness that we have when we’re doing Qigong, or we should have when we’re doing Qigong and guiding the Qi, using the Yi (cognitive, reasoning, mind). I will teach you some exercises that you can do to help you build up that awareness of the Qi and your confidence in yourself to be able to do it. A lot of people think this can’t be done and it’s magic and it’s for other people and have got a skill. Anybody can do this.
If you reach out for the Qi, feel for it, it will be there. But this causes you to get “stuck”. Your Yi guides the Qi, it moulds it. So every time you finish doing some Qigong and you do this “feeling for” with the preconceived awareness that Qi feels like a spongy ball, or feels like two magnets, that is what you will get.
You are not using Listening Jing. You are still guiding.
When you listen to Qi there is no input. You don’t input it, you don’t do anything when you listen to sounds coming in. You don’t need to stretch out to get to them. The passive awareness that I’m talking about is when
you place your palms facing each other and accept what is there. Whatever it is. By doing that, you will experience a lot more. You will start to experience a lot more of the qualities, the essences, involved in each of the meridians.
Appreciating the differing qualities of Qi
Qi manifests in a myriad of ways but if you are not using Listening Jing you are effectively putting a barrier up that stops you from experiencing these qualities and flows. The more skilled you become in the use of Listening Jing the more you will experience.
I often use analogies to describe what Listening Jing is. Here are a couple that might work for you.
Listening Jing and watching wildlife
Imagine walking into a forest with the intention of seeing the wide variety of wildlife that lives there. You arrive, full of anticipation, park your car and stroll into the forest. In the first five minutes you see nothing so you go a bit deeper into the forest. Ten minutes later and you have only seen fleeting glimpses, so fleeting that you have been unable to tell what caused the movement. You keep going, picking up pace through frustration and see nothing. Hungry and fed up, you find a spot to sit and have some lunch. Sitting there, quietly, you start to notice birds landing in the trees around you. Then, through the trees you notice deer grazing as they slowly move through the forest.
Your loud, clumsy, marching had startled all the wildlife and they were creating distance between themselves and that threating noise. Once you became quiet and still there was no threat and they settled down to normality. If you keep reaching out to “feel” your Qi you are still influencing it. You are still moulding and guiding it. You will not be able to experience its true, settled, nature until your body and mind are quiet. It is in this state that you appreciate the true nature of your Qi. This is Listening Jing.
Listening Jing – Qigong is like driving a car
What? How can Qigong be compared to driving a car?
When you practice Qigong you use the Yi (the brain) to guide the Qi. This is akin to driving a car. You are in control of the steering, the accelerator, the brakes, the gears, etc. This is guiding the Qi by using the posture, any tensions, any stretches, the breath, the eyes, etc. The Yi guides the Qi in much the same way as you drive a car. All the decisions made when driving are made by the Yi. All the decisions in Qigong are made by the Yi.
What happens outside of the car is completely outside of your control. You have no influence over the other traffic, pedestrians, animals, potholes, weather, etc. But you are aware of (should be aware of) your surroundings. You use your awareness to keep your distance from other vehicles, to alert or avoid pedestrians and animals, to avoid potholes and also to drive to the weather conditions. This is the realm of the consciousness and in Qigong this is the function of Listening Jing.
The Yi uses focus to guide the Qi. The Shen (consciousness) listens and passes that information to you. Initially, this passing of information is via the Yi where it is translated into language and concepts that are familiar to our physical lives. Later, that information comes direct as our exposure to our energetic being increases.