Health is the greatest treasure to me. Health is valuable. With health, every moment is beautiful. With wisdom, you understand how the world works. When you have wisdom, you can understand how you as a human being work and how to be healthy.
With wisdom of emptiness, you will learn to unlearn. Unlearn habits imposed by others, learn to be empty, ergo spontaneous. This is how you reach higher levels of self-realization and you will start fulfilling the destiny you came here to fulfill.
When it comes to health, there are numerous aspects and various traditions. The most powerful practice that I know, and with which I resonate the most, is Qigong. This age-old internal energy cultivation method will be the main focus of many of my writings. Qigong is my practice.
For people who ask me for advice to live a healthier, happier life, I always have the same question for them: Can you simplify your life? Laozi asks: Do you have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the correct action arises by itself? These are very much the same questions. In the midst of all the confusion and uncertainty, can you only do what is important today? In the midst of all the mud, can you wait, retreat into nature, and simply watch what comes up from the inside once you have let the inner turmoil settle?
The key to understanding the Way is already in your hand. No need to go far. It takes but an instant to realize this. It takes but an instant. But you will spend the rest of your life practicing it. Every day I practice, every day I start from zero. You can start your journey today. The only day to start is today. If you cannot start practicing today, you can start thinking about what you can do today so that you will be ready to practice tomorrow. Your current situation makes no difference; the Way is right here anyway. The Way is like a slide beneath your feet. All you need to do is go low, reduce, and sit down on the slide. Then simply let go. Simply slide.
Forget your body and mind. Drop them. Let them live their own lives. Don’t burden them with a crazy amount of tasks. Let your body do what it does best. Do things with your body that your body enjoys doing. But constantly seek moderation. Do it, but do not overdo it. This is what I mean when I say that simplicity implies health, and that effort burns. No need to go crazy. When you overcomplicate things, and when you simply do too much and try too hard, you are lazy. A lazy mind won’t have the patience to wait and rest. A lazy mind needs constant action. A lazy mind burns out.
Simplicity implies health. Patience implies health. Time implies health. Take your time. Live with compassion and understanding. Take these as your pills. Take a little each day. If you are not here and now, don’t worry. You are on your way. You might still be in yesterday, or already in tomorrow. But little by little, you are getting here. You are on your way. It might take a while. When you stop your current business to practice Qigong, your whole being starts to settle and you connect with the present. Start from there. And live a simple day today.
When your senses are quiet, your feet grow into the ground and you become nothing. What you may have as conceptions in your mind as the past, the present and the future no longer exist. Your future starts arranging itself. You are part of it. With an empty mind and an empty body, you are part of it. When you practice this nothingness, everything in the universe comes together.
If this sounds intangible to you, it is not. With the practice, the abstract becomes concrete. The concrete becomes abstract. If you practice this, you will start to understand what it is like not to be. And you can act accordingly, without any action.
-Joonas
Find out more about our teaching training programmes on our Qigong blog as well as insight and advice on your practice.
