Q: What is the teaching on having an active sex life, but also containing sexual energy for health and vitality?
A: In Mingjue Gongfu, this is really a question about the state of your consciousness. In other words, what is the relationship between mingjue (pure consciousness)and sexual desires?
Sexuality as a Natural State
Sexuality is a natural state. When two people come together, at its essence it is a hunhua process, or merging and transforming. Hunhua is the natural law of perpetual change. Like the image above, beyond our physical bodies, we are energy bodies merging together. In a balanced and harmonious state, sexual relations can be a beautiful and affirming hunhua process.
In qigong, sexual energy is called jing. Though it is usually stored in the lower abdomen, its source is the innate qi stored inside mingmen inner palace (the qi space anterior to the L2-L3 lumbar spine). Innate qi has two primary functions:
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- To descend into the pelvis and transform into jing (sexual or essence qi)
- To ascend into the upper abdomen, chest, and head to nourish the internal organs, central nervous system, and brain (consciousness)
When sexual feelings stir, it is easy to become controlled by them. We might use sex as a means of comfort or escape, or we might find ourselves craving more and more and becoming attached to the sensations. These forms of sexual expression consume a lot of energy. With too much innate qi transforming into jing and becoming depleted, this can also deplete the innate qi rising up, therefore affecting the state of our internal organs and consciousness.
High-Level Sexuality
We can all learn to enjoy sexuality in a free state. This means we merge our consciousness and hearts with the universal field. We become an entirety (oneness) with everything — a high-level state of unconditional peace, love, happiness, and gratitude — so the entirety supports us and our partner, and we also support the entirety. This is the most important practice for mingjue students.
Some spiritual traditions have specific guidelines, like how much sex to have at different ages. While that kind of information may be useful, that level of specificity can also create fixations, fear, and worry. Or increase the dualistic framework and its potential for separateness and conflict. Or increase the fixation or attachment to sex.
The mingjue focus is the experience of oneness. Universal qi nourishes both partners at the same time. Energy is free-flowing. The primary practice is to keep mingjue stable and free. If we lose some energy through sexual activity, that is fine. In this state, however, our sexual energy will not consume energy. In fact, it naturally undergoes transformation, rising upward to nourish our bodies and consciousness. This higher-level sexuality goes beyond the time-space dimension. It is universal love expressed between and through us.
Summary
In Mingjue Gongfu, the attitude toward sex can be summarized as follows:
- Whether we have sexual relations or not, we stay in a centered state. We do not get attached to or become enslaved by sex. There is no internal push energy or resistance.
- Sex is simply a tool of the hunhua merging and transforming process — to improve the flow of qi and blood, and to harmonize the relationship between partners.
- The primary focus is to cultivate a harmonious mingjue entirety (state of universal oneness). We can experience the sensations and physical arousal, but not get attached to them.
- Sex is an expression of love, but is not the same as love. At a high level of Mingjue Gongfu, love manifests as the merging of qi and consciousness between partners. These are the conditions for unconditional and universal love to appear.
Adapted from the course,“Awakening the Inner Healer,” Module 4, Part 2 (April 2023), as taught by Teacher Wei.
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PRACTICE: MINGMEN BREATHING
Why Mingmen Breathing?
This powerful practice can strengthen innate qi, which is the foundation of healthy sexual energy. Abundant innate qi can also enhance overall vitality and clarity of mind.
Practice this every morning and watch yourself transform!
Practice:
First, locate mingmen inner palace. You can imagine a horizontal line going backward from the navel, toward the lumbar spine. Just anterior to the lumbar spine (between L2-3) is the mingmen inner palace. This is an empty qi space.
Note: during menstrual cycles and pregnancy, women should mostly use gentle qi (energetic) contractions, and less physical contractions.
Inhalation
When you breathe in through your nose, also draw qi in through the heavenly gate (top of the head), down into mingmen inner palace.
Practice this a few times.
Then add in some contractions: when you inhale, contract huiyin (the perineum) and duqi (the navel) toward mingmen inner palace. Feel qi from the baihui (crown of the head) draw down through the diaphragm and into mingmen inner palace.
Pay attention that duqi and huiyin draw in and up, but the diaphragm draws downward. So with each inhalation, feel how the pressure inside mingmen increases. This pushes the low back backward and opens up the lumbar vertebrae. Also feel qi entering the inner space of the spine.
When you breathe in, qi from three directions converge inside mingmen.
Exhalation
When you exhale, relax in sequence:
First, relax mingmen inner palace. Then relax duqi and huiyin. Then gradually from the hips to the knees, ankles, and toes. The next step is to relax going upward, from the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and fingers.
This relaxation is a process, but it is very fast; it may not be easy to distinguish each step from the others.
Repeat, breathing in and out. Mingmen inner palace is the center of this practice. It is the center of power.
But remember! Mingjue (pure consciousness) is the master. Mingjue stays inside mingmen inner palace as you breath. Mingjue also combines with the breathing and is in the breath.
When you are finished, hold a qi ball in your palms in front of duji. Slowly raise the qi ball up in front of you, to above the head. Turn the palms down toward baihui, then slowly lower palms, pouring qi down through the head, neck, chest, and abdomen. Place palms on duqi.
Rest for a while there.
Always hold the question: Who is observing this breathing? Who is initiating the breath?
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DEEPENING YOUR PRACTICE
We offer creative materials to help deepen your practice, make it more playful, or clarify the theories. Review them as you feel inspired. Keep whatever supports your process; disregard if not useful. Better yet, find other materials to personalize your practice. There will come a time when you go beyond all images and tools.
This 2-minute video captures the hunhua (merging and transforming) nature of sexual relationships. In Mingjue Gongfu, it is important to bring your primary awareness to the oneness beyond the polarities, as well as the conscious qi field beyond the circle — in other words, the entirety of the two partners and the entirety they form with the universal, collective field. The two-as-one are continually nourished by universal qi.
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REFLECTIONS FROM THE COMMUNITY
Two participants in the past shared on the practice of Mingmen Breathing:
One person shared…
“It’s a powerful feeling. On an energetic level, it seems the whole qi field around is contracting towards mingmen. It’s starting to become an Open/Close practice. Membranous tissue gives support to qi and roots it in body. On exhaling/relaxing, it’s helping me to open my hips, spine and shoulders. Lumbar vertebrae are now much softer, and some pain on the thoracic vertebra is disappearing.”
Another person shared…
“During the class, when teacher Wei said to bring mingjue deeper into the Mingmen Palace, I went to when I was a pre-conception baby… I felt all the love of the universe… Then I felt all the love of my mother and father, when I was in my mother’s womb… The amniotic fluid was pure qì of universal love… My parents are no longer here but these days I have felt them very close. This practice cleanses all the information of our ancestors, frees us from all their charge and reinforces their loving disposition to live. The same thing happened to one of the students in my group. From this practice, he feels a deep love for his parents, he feels the love that united them… We shared some tears of love.”