Q: How long does it take to refine Qi and refine Qi in Qigong practice?

Mr. Zhong: It takes about ten to fifteen years to refine Qi in the first stage, and five to eight years to refine Qi in the second stage. These two stages respectively represent the integration of body and mind. Refining Qi is self-cultivation and refining Qi is mind cultivation. For the ancients, the body was difficult to repair, so it took so many years, and the heart was easier to repair, so it was less. Maybe we will feel strange. Aren't all the 12 Mahayana Buddhist Sanzang talking about returning to the heart by all means? Isn't the heart as hard to control as a spirit? Why is it easier to repair the heart? That's because, in terms of Confucian and Taoist methods, they have repaired their bodies before repairing their hearts. The human body with the intention of life has a strong animality, and it will take a long time to wear it off. Refining refined qi can be said to be a person's basic training, that is, people can only be called after this procedure. Without this procedure, they are not called people, but people who are in a daze all their lives. Confucius said, "People can make it happen, but they can't make it known." This is such a person. People after practice are real people, also known as real people. Because the endocrine and animal parts of the body can achieve a high degree of coordination, real people can turn animal nature into a good driving force. The beast is the devil, worldly desires, and the five elements and five poisons are also called. People have all kinds of ups and downs, such as worldly desires, Wuyun Wudu and Bashitian, and there will be situations at any time. If the refined gas is not enough, just like the space rocket itself is not well studied, the natural materials inside are not well selected, the hull is not installed, and the pipeline is not well equipped. As a result, the eight meridians of the strange meridian, the seven wheels of the midvein and the twelve meridians are not accessible, and the meridians are not smooth, which naturally leads to obstacles. Therefore, it takes a long time to refine the refined gas. It takes a long time to build the body, slowly establish the outline and integrate the body and mind, so as to be a complete person. Modern people emphasize reading and don't talk about self-cultivation. Modern people study mostly to get diplomas and use reading as a tool, so it doesn't matter about self-cultivation. In modern language, self-cultivation means personality education, which is the convergence of family education, literacy, sentiment and education. The ancients' education focused on people-oriented education, which was the first step to establish peace of mind. Therefore, the ancients said "cultivate one's morality, keep one's family in order, govern the country and level the world", and cultivate one's morality is the first step, but before cultivating one's morality, it was the keynote of life of sincerity and integrity, and only with this attitude can one cultivate one's morality. You can do other things only after you have cultivated your body, and if you know the truth of self-cultivation, you will have a way to lay a good foundation for your life from the level of refining qi, and then you will be ready to go and put it aside. If you are clear about it, you will be carefree, that is, if you fix it, you will naturally put it down, and you will achieve a life attitude of not being stained, knowing what to do and not doing something. Just like Zhu Gekongming, Liu Bei only came out of the mountain after three visits to the thatched cottage. Modern people, on the other hand, must volunteer themselves, go everywhere, help this and that, all in search of opportunities. Of course, there will be some differences in practices due to different social patterns in ancient and modern times, but the basic thing should be the same, that is, the basic practice is insufficient. If you deal with various problems, your relative ability will be lacking. Even if you are a genius, there are still many things that will not be enough. What is not enough? Not enough gas, like a rocket, not enough fuel, not strong enough body as a vehicle, it is easy to have a situation, the situation can not be solved, and life stays in place. It takes more than ten years to cultivate one's morality by refining refined qi into refined qi. Although self-cultivation is called self-cultivation, it is actually cultivating the mind, and refining the spirit is cultivating the mind. So why not just go directly to refining the spirit, and spend so much time refining the spirit? That's because if you enter the refining gas directly without refining the refined gas, there will be no power, that is, if there is not enough storage and power, the realm will not be high, just like when the highly volatile fuel in the rocket is filled stably and harmoniously, it will soar into the sky and gradually enter the orbit, otherwise it will explode halfway and smash to pieces. If people don't cultivate themselves, or cultivate themselves without tolerance, they can't show their sentiments and temperament, and they can't see their tolerance. After a long time, they are just self-educated, which shows that it is not easy to practice refined gas! If the body is not repaired, people's persistence and obstacles can't be put down, can't be opened, and can't be realized. Because the meridians of the body are blocked and inaccessible, the heart will not burn completely, just like the carbon accumulated in the lamp wick, which will not burn, and the fire will become smaller and smaller. If your heart is blocked, you can't see your heart clearly. There are many things you can't understand, what you want to remember can't be remembered, what you want to internalize can't be integrated, what you want to transform can't be transformed, and what you want to promote can't be promoted. Your life will be like this. This is what I just said about the common people, and you can't become a real person. Real people must break through all kinds of obstacles and be able to gather their sincerity from the inside. A person who can be honest with himself, in modern words, is worthy of himself and the people in the world, and has a clear conscience. That is, as Mencius said, "I am good at raising my integrity, and I am not harmful to the world." Such a person radiates great light all over his body. Without practicing at that level, he can't produce that kind of light and energy. The less smooth the body qi used in the Xiafa, the deeper the persistence and the more obstacles. Even if you travel all over Qian Shan, you can't find wisdom. Obviously, you can row to the other side, but you can't see the promised land. Many practitioners, especially those who are destined to practice Buddhism and Taoism, have the same dilemma: they almost never practice their bodies, but only use their bodies to practice things. Those who get on the horse directly practice their minds, while those who get off the horse practice some so-called magical powers. In fact, they are "using" their bodies, not practicing their bodies. The practice of the ancients is to really cultivate the body, so that all the twelve meridians, seven rounds of the middle meridian and eight meridians of the strange meridian are accessible, and life becomes a light body. Buddhism's great compassion is not only a concept or a noun, in fact, it is a kind of extremely strong energy that life blooms, which can cover all beings and take care of everyone. In other words, self-cultivation to the extreme will show the basic life style of compassion. If your veins are not accessible and you don't have enough energy, there is no way to generate the energy of compassion. Even if you want to do it, you can't do it. If you want to realize it, you will get stuck in the middle of it. Why is it difficult to cultivate one's morality? In fact, it is because people are too persistent. Children are not persistent, children are only animal, and it is relatively simple to adjust the animal nature of children. However, as you get older, you gradually accumulate persistence and obstacles, and your mind is filled with some foreign programs, and then you have demons and lock people up. After being locked up, you can't see your heart, you can't see the truth, and it is very difficult to cultivate yourself again. The purpose of the ancients' talking about self-cultivation is to make our body become a accessible light body, which can be freely entangled and mastered in the room. If you can understand life, you can see heaven even in hell. This is not a matter of will in modern psychology, but a matter of body. If the body is strong enough, the mind will be strong. It is not enough to be strong enough by consciousness, that is, when you have enough physical energy, the energy of the heart can really be opened, just like a rocket rushing to the highest point, and you can see the whole world. The reason why you can see heaven in hell is because your life has reached the highest point, you can rise and let go, and you can be harmonious and different, but only if you have enough physical energy, not if I "want" to see it, I can see it. If we think that our thoughts, moods and consciousness can penetrate time and space, it is a joke. We are too arrogant to see our blind spots and have greater persistence. The more persistent we are, the easier it is for us to arrange things without corresponding head and tail, and the heart and hand are not connected. As soon as we pick up the east, we will leak the west, and there will be a lot of confusion in handling, more obstacles in our hearts, and more physical and mental energy consumption. Once the foundation is laid, you can understand it. If you bow your head, you will see the horizon of water. When you step backwards, you will see the realm of Nanshan. With less kung fu, less understanding and short journey, how can you see footprints, walk too fast, and how can you reach the other shore? I don't know if it is prajnaparamita when I see it. (24.3.3) Produced by Taipei Qigong Culture Society.