workshop is not properly prepared then the work you produce will be of a poor
quality. For this reason, I have given a detailed description of the sinewchanging
practices of the internal arts in order to help demonstrate just how the body should
be developed. Despite the Sinew-Changing Classic, the text from which almost all
Qi Gong teachings regarding the transformation of the body are derived, being a
key component contained within all of the internal arts, especially arts such as Qi
Gong, it is often poorly understood and applied.
Another key factor that you will notice from my writings is that I rarely talk of
using the imagination. Visualisation and generated mental imagery are not a part
of the system I teach. Instead, various qualities of mental abiding are developed
along with a connection to the somatic experience of the practice. It is an
important quality of Qi Gong practice that we learn to relax, expand and absorb
the mind into our practice. This can only happen when the mind is free from
action. The mind cannot be free from action if it is generating visual experiences
or engaging with your imagination; in this way, the process of mental release and
visualisation are in direct conflict with one another.
I am still very much a student myself on this path; I am exploring and practising
and have no delusion that I am anything other than scratching the surface of these
arts. For this reason, I can only present to you what I have been taught, what I
have experienced and how I understand these arts according to my current
position. I ask, therefore, that you don’t take anything written in this book as
gospel. To take everything you are told 100 per cent on faith is never a healthy
way to approach life, but neither should we be closed off to new information. The
best approach to studying any art like this is to listen to what we are told, consider
it, try it out and then see what conclusions we come by through this practice. An
open and explorative mind is the healthiest mind we can have when engaging with
a practice such as Nei Gong.
Just a quick note now about text usage. Throughout this book I have used the
Pinyin system of Romanisation for the majority of Chinese words. Please note that
much of the theory in this book differs greatly from Western science. The classical
Chinese approach to understanding the organs of the body, for example, is based
around the function of their energetic system rather than their physical anatomy.
To distinguish the two understandings from each other I have used capitalisation to
indicate the Chinese understanding of the term. ‘Heart’, for example, refers to the
classical Chinese understanding of the organ, whilst ‘heart’ refers to the physical
organ as understood within contemporary Western biological sciences
