Qigong Meditation Stop and Look Method (Zhi Guan Fa)

"Zhi" means "to stop" and "Guan" means, "to look after," "to investigate," and "to take care of." This means that after your Yi has controlled your Xin, you should concentrate on watching the thoughts as they appear. When one comes, you should stop it immediately, not allowing it to grow. You should keep your consciousness aware of what is happening and use your Yi to stop each new thought. This process is called "Zhi Nian Fa" (stopping thought method).

You will often find that, once you have stopped one thought, another one appears immediately. You stop that one, but another one pops up as if there is no end to the cycle. In order to stop this negative cycle, you must wait until your mind is clear, calm, and peaceful, and then put your Yi there before any more thoughts come up from the Xin. If you can keep your mind in this neutral state, further thoughts will be stopped. The following are methods commonly used by meditators to stop the new thoughts from appearing.

Generally, there are three steps to stopping the Xin and Nian:
1. Tie to the Origin and Stop Method (Xi Yuan Zhi). "Xi" means "to tie," "to bind," "Yuan" means "relationship, origin, and cause," and "Zhi" means "to stop." In this training you bind your Xin and Nian to one place in the same way that you would tie an ape to a post. If you can keep your Yi centered in a particular spot, you can control your Xin and Nian, but if your Yi is weak, your Xin and Nian will run wild.

There are two places, which are commonly used to center your Yi. The first place is your nose. Place your Yi on your nose and pay attention to your breathing. Gradually, the generation of new Xin and Nian will stop. The second common place is the Lower Dan Tian. Concentrate your Yi at the Dan Tian and feel and sense the generation and movement of Qi. Gradually your Xin and Nian will become quiet. Click to learn how Chinese medicine treats Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

2. Restrain the Xin and Stop Method (Zhi Xin Zhi). Once you have tied up the ape, you still have to calm it down, or it will continue to run around the post. This is the taming process. Once you are able to bind your Xin and Nian in one place, you must stop the thoughts from being generated by the Xin. You need to understand the reason why the ape is still running wild, whether it is due to hunger or some disturbance, and you need to understand why your Xin is still generating distracting thoughts. If you are taming an ape, in order to keep the ape in the cage without running wild, you must understand the feelings of the ape and try to solve the problem in order to calm it down. Once the ape realizes that he will not be able to escape and will not be harmed, and furthermore, that he will be taken good care of by the master, he will gradually get used to it and calm down.

3. To Comprehend the Real and Stop Method (Ti Zhen Zhi). This is the last step in stopping thought. In this step you analyze how Xin and Nian are being continually generated. Like dealing with an ape, once you understand the cause of its wildness, you can determine how to calm it down. Only after you have calmed it down are you able to lead the Xin to understand and comprehend the nature of reality. Finally, the new disturbances of your Xin will be stopped. It is like educating the ape so that he understands that when he is staying with the master, he will have plenty of food and a nice place to stay. At this point you will not need to keep the ape tied up. Only when you are able to untie the ape (your mind) and have it stay calm and peaceful have you reached real regulation. Then the Xin and Nian, which are generated, will not run wild, and the Yi will be able to direct them effortlessly.