“By emphasizing the active use of consciousness as its primary principle, ZNQG captures the most fundamental aspect of ancient Qigong practice. Once this concept is understood and internalized, practitioners will actively apply consciousness during their practice, aligning their thoughts with the requirements of Qigong. Gradually, this approach extends beyond practice sessions into daily life, ensuring that all life activities conform to the principles of Qigong. As a result, the quality of life becomes entirely different. While this may sound simple, achieving it is far from easy. To accomplish this, we must thoroughly examine all aspects of consciousness. In daily life, our minds are constantly active, filled with numerous ingrained impressions. If we do not use Qigong knowledge to "cleanse" these imprints from our minds, it will be impossible to align our life activities with the requirements of Qigong. Therefore, let us now delve deeper into understanding consciousness.”

Next, Dr.Pang elaborated on the concept of consciousness from various perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, medicine, Buddhism, and Taoism. We have distilled the content relevant to our practice for everyone to understand. Today, we will focus on the definition of the subconscious from a psychological perspective, which is highly insightful. The original text from the book reads as follows: "The term 'consciousness' emerged after Buddhism was introduced to China. Before that, ancient China referred to it as 'mind' or 'spirit,' broadly meaning advanced neural activities." "Psychology: Consciousness is considered the sum total of all psychological activities. Psychological activities refer to emotions, moods, temperament, thinking, memory, abilities, etc. All these activities take place against the background of consciousness." Additionally, psychology defines the subconscious as follows: "Primordial Consciousness Layer: It resides at the most 'fundamental level' of all neural activities. Under normal circumstances, it is obscured by the conscious layer and submerged by conscious activities. Only when conscious activities cease can it manifest. It does not rely on conceptual activities but directly aligns with information. Hence, it is non-analytical and non-conceptual. When concepts come into play, conscious activities begin." Please take the time to reflect deeply on this definition of the subconscious. By doing so, we can better understand when we might catch glimpses of our subconscious in daily life—that hidden force that silently influences and controls our life activities. Furthermore, we can explore the principle of how the subconscious emerges and flows during our practice of “Do-nothing” meditation.

“In Buddhist practice, the cultivation of the Four Dhyanas and Eight Samadhis also requires conscious awareness to function from beginning to end. In the First Dhyana, when one starts practicing and gradually becomes calm, one becomes aware of the inner body, feeling very comfortable. After comfort arises, a sense of joy and delight emerges within the mind. By amplifying this joy, allowing it to fill the entire body, every part of the body becomes joyful, as if every pore is radiating bliss—happy and comfortable. This, in fact, is a sign of sufficient qi. When genuine joy arises, it corresponds to the ‘living zi hour’(活子时） in Daoist practice. However, the Buddhist ‘living zi hour’ is different from the Daoist one. In Daoist practice, the ‘living zi hour’ emphasizes kidney qi and kidney yang, which can easily lead to sexual arousal. In contrast, Buddhism focuses on filling the entire body with qi, making every part comfortable. Sometimes, practitioners may even laugh during meditation out of sheer bliss—a genuine, heartfelt desire to smile. Once this kind of feeling arises, one should ‘discard it’—let it go and not cling to it in the mind. Isn’t this an active use of consciousness? If one does not abandon it, progress in practice becomes difficult, and there is a risk of falling under the influence of ‘demonic joy’ (the demon of delight). Some practitioners of spontaneous qigong may feel joyful and start laughing during practice. If this laughter continues uncontrollably, they may become ‘possessed by the demon.’ In Buddhist practice, at every stage of cultivation, whenever a sensation arises, one should not cling to it but actively discard it. This continues all the way to the stage of ‘neither perception nor non-perception’—where there is neither active thought nor absence of thought. Even at this stage, there is still some subtle mental activity.”