Getting Started: Serene Quiet Sitting

Methods to follow when getting started are:

1) Sit with upper body straight and feet touching the floor. Place hands on kneecaps and assume a natural, comfortable position, with buttocks occupying one half of your seat.

2) Recite the “Twenty Words” silently or in a quiet voice, imagining if possible that each word descends from above, down through the body, to waist level. This is the key. The “Twenty Words” are Guidelines for Life that we should observe as human beings. The Twenty Words are: Chung [Loyalty]; Shu [Forgiveness]; Lien [Incorruptibility]; Ming [Insight]; Teh [Virtue]; Cheng [Rectitude]; Yi [Justice]; Hsin [Trust-worthiness]; Ren [Forbearance]; Kung [Fairness]; Po [Philanthropy]; Hsiao [Filial Piety]; Jen [Benevolence]; Tz’u [Compassion]; Chueh [Awareness]; Chieh [Moderation or Fidelity]; Chien [Frugality]; Chen [Truthfulness]; Li [Propriety]; and Ho [Harmony]. The Twenty Words are recited to make the mind up-right, cultivate one’s nature, examine one’s conscience, and repent. Attention is focussed on the descending words as a technique for taming unruly ch’i.

3) Duration can be from ten minutes to several hours; know your own limits.

4) As ch’i descends to the navel, do not apply effort, let things happen as they will. In this way, due to intervention of perfect ch’i from the non-physical realm, illness can be cured and your body strengthened.

Serene Quiet Sitting is simple and easily practiced; its effects are rapid and easily noticed. Everyone can learn it. It is a quiet sitting technique without harmful effects, most suited to the present time.