Eight Pieces of Silk (seated)1 – Close your eyes and sit stillPoem: Close your eyes and sit with a deep mind, (hands) hold steady, (mind is) calm and think (concentrate on) Shen (spirit).Practice: Sit cross-legged and focus on the solar plexus.
Your head should feel like it’s hanging by a thread and your chest should be loose and relaxed.
Your waist and spine are relaxed (but straight) and comfortable.
Place your hands in your lap.
Your mouth is closed and your teeth are lightly touching.
Regulate your breathing so that it is smooth and even.
Your mind is clear and pure.
Condense your mind and intention (spirit) internally until you are at peace.
Your intention is in the solar plexus (center of the chest).
Remain like this for at least three to five minutes.

Intention: When you keep your attention on the center of your chest, you eliminate the excess fire in your chest and gradually calm your mind.
Any Qigong exercise should be done with a calm mind.
When practicing, hold your hands in front of your abdomen, this will help keep your mind focused and firm in your intention.
When you feel your chest and mind relaxing, your thoughts will slow down and your body will enter a state of initial relaxation.
Keep your eyes closed so that your attention stays on your body.
After keeping your attention on the solar plexus for 3 to 5 minutes, shift your attention to the “residence of the spirit” (at the top of the nose between the eyes, called the third eye), this will strengthen and calm the mind.

2 – Hands hold the headPoem: Tap your teeth thirty-six (times), two hands hold Kun Lun (head).Practice: first gently tap your teeth thirty-six times.
If saliva is generated, swallow.
Then interlace your fingers and hold the back of your head.
Push your head and body backwards while pulling forward with your hands.
Inhale as you tense up, exhale as you relax.
Repeat nine times.

Intention: When we tap our teeth, we strengthen the roots of the teeth and at the same time, we cleanse and awaken the mind for meditation.
When you tap your teeth you should feel the vibration that is produced vibrating through your head, this will remove tension in your jaws and stimulate your brain.
When you pull your head back and push it forward with your hands, you are strengthening your spine while clearing it of tension, but you are also relaxing the muscles in your back and neck, thus increasing the circulation of Qi in your spine.

3 – Hitting the Jade PillowPoem: Left right beat the heavenly drum, resounding twenty-four times.Practice: Continue from the last piece.
Cover the ears with the palms of your hands, with the middle fingers in the area of the Jade Pillow cavity (under the external occipital protuberance).
Place your index fingers on your middle fingers and lower them to tap your head.
This will generate a drumming sound in the brain cavity.
This exercise is commonly called “Ming Tian Gu”, which means “playing the heavenly drum”.
Tap twenty-four times with an even, steady beat.
You can tap with both fingers at the same time or alternate fingers.

Intention: When practicing this exercise, your ears should be completely covered by your palms, this is the only way to feel the drum effect.
Then focus your attention on the sound of the drum and allow the vibrations to travel through your skull and brain.
Drumming clears the mind.
When you’ve finished, you’ll feel that everything is clearer and that you’ve just woken up.
You should beat the drum slowly, to allow time for each vibration to travel completely through your skull, and only then beat the drum again.

4 – Turn your head repeatedly or lightly shake the sky postPoem:Turn slightly (the head) to release the Tian Zhu (column of heaven, i.e. neck).
The red dragon (the tongue) stirs up liquid saliva, rinse the drum 36 times, the liquid saliva fills the whole mouth, a mouthful divided into 3 sips, use Yi (mind) to send it to the abdominal wheel (navel).

Practice: Continuing from the last piece, move your hands down and place them on your lap, palms facing upwards comfortably.
Keeping your shoulders still, turn your head to the left and then to the right 24 times.
After that, move your tongue inside your mouth to generate saliva.
Swallow this saliva in three gulps.
Each time you swallow, use your intention to send the saliva to your navel.

Intention: The head is considered to be the “sky”, and the neck is the one that supports the sky and is responsible for the connection with the rest of the body, hence its great importance in qigong exercises.
By turning your head repeatedly, you will relax and stretch your neck and prevent headaches, caused by stagnant energy in the skull.

Saliva is considered to be the water that quenches the body’s fire.
Saliva, which is constantly produced by our body, is an elixir that keeps the body clean and free of unwanted germs. When your mouth becomes very dry, it’s a sign that you’re about to get sick.
When you swallow your saliva, imagine it going down to your navel and cleansing your entire digestive system.

5 – Hands massage the door to essencePoem: Seal your breath and rub your hands together until they’re nice and hot, massage the Essence Door on the back of your back, finish that bit of breathing, think of the fire burning your belly.Practice: Inhale through the nose and bring the air to the middle dantian (solar plexus) and hold the breath gently.
Rub your hands together until they warm up.
Then place your palms on your back, in the kidney area, and press down while massaging with circular movements 24 times.
Then inhale again and repeat.
When massaging, unite the mind of intention and Qi and concentrate it on the navel or lower dantian.
This concentration warms the abdomen.
When you’ve finished the massage, sit quietly with your hands in your lap and feel the energy of the kidneys burning in your navel or lower dantian.

Intention: The kidneys are considered to be the gateway to essence and the residence of pre-birth energy (our parents’ energy).
When the kidneys are weak, hormone production is deficient, sexual vitality decreases and the body degenerates more easily.
By rubbing your hands together and massaging your back, you are using external Qi to nourish and strengthen the kidneys.
By transferring your attention to your navel, you will store the qi in your lower dantian (energy reservoir).

6 – Double wheel hand spinPoem: left and right arm rotate, two feet are comfortably extendedPractice: Extend your legs comfortably on the floor, with your arms alongside your body.
Lean forward and extend your arms with your palms facing downwards and your fingers comfortably curved inwards.
Then circle your hands up and back while slightly bending your upper body backwards, as if you were rowing a boat.
Then continue the rowing movement and circle your hands downwards and then forwards to repeat the circle.
Repeat the same movement 9 times, then reverse direction and repeat another 9 times.

Intention: In this exercise, it’s like turning two wheels on each side or like rowing, and it increases the circulation of Qi in the 6 energy channels of the arms.
The legs are stretched out on the floor to open up the other 6 energy channels.
This exercise will open and circulate the energy in all the body’s energy channels.

7 – Lift, press and hold your feetPoem: Interlace the fingers of the hands, lower the head repeatedly to hold the feetPractice: Interlace your hands and raise them above your head, palms upwards. Imagine you’re lifting something and holding it above your head.
Stay like this for 3 seconds, then turn your palms down and touch the top of your head.
Press your hand down while lifting your head for another 3 seconds.
Finally, separate your hands and bend forward, use your hands to hold and pull your feet back.
Keep your knees straight and stay in the position for 3 seconds.
Repeat the process 9 times.

Intention: When you lift and push your hands upwards, you are stretching the muscles in your torso, front and back.
This stretch also relaxes the body’s nervous and digestive systems.
Then, with your hands raised, stretch forward until you are holding both feet.
This stretch goes from the feet, legs, waist, back, shoulders, arms and hands.

8 – Enter the sky, slow transportationPoem: Wait until water in mouth comes, rinse again swallow saliva, do this 3 times, swallow water in mouth 9 times, swallow noisily, in hundreds of vessels Qi adjusts evenly and automatically, whole sky (body) slow transportationPractice: Cross your legs and place your hands in your lap.
Close your eyes and sit quietly.
When enough saliva has accumulated, rinse and swallow 3 times with an audible gulp.
After swallowing, keep your attention on your navel and feel the Qi circulating gently throughout your body.
When more saliva accumulates, rinse again and swallow 3 more times.
Repeat one more time, for a total of 9 times.

After completing these eight pieces, sit calmly and breathe regularly for about 3 minutes.
When you’ve finished swallowing and your body is warm and full of Qi, imagine that your skin and the area around your body are full of fire.
This image will bring Qi to the skin and build the shield of the Qi Guardian (Wei Qi) around the body.
This means that you must lead the Qi to the skin to form a protective shield around the body.