Translation to Transformation: Dissolving the Ego with Qigong - Nicolas Lovert-Dubert

Consciousness, ego and vulnerability through the lens of the Zhineng Qigong Practice. These are some of the themes Nicolas Lovert-Dubert shares insights on. Consciousness, in Qigong, is both a receiver and sender of information, forming the foundation for transforming energy and physical reality. Ego, extends beyond showmanship to encompass self-centredness. He also shares how vulnerability, becomes a strength when openly acknowledged. The Zhineng Qigong practice was used to improve his life and overall happiness.

Dr. Pang's philosophy that "no ego is the quickest way to enlightenment" serves as a central theme for Nicolas too. Qigong teachers he worked with, including Master Wei Qifeng, inspired him to react more consciously in various life situations. Being mindful of how he reacts in his everyday life. Because ultimately that's what we can control, how we react to situations that are happening to us. 

Nicolas shares an experience with jealousy in his Qigong practice. He recalls feeling jealous of a fellow practitioner who he perceived as being more advanced and having a better state of consciousness than himself. Instead of hiding these feelings, Nicolas chose to openly admit his jealousy to the entire class. Not being phased by fear...

Fear forms part of the ego's defensive mechanisms. Nicolas notes that ego is all about protection but ultimately limits you. Embracing vulnerability, instead of fighting it, unlocks personal power and authenticity. It’s using your frame of reference consciously that allows for broader perspectives and understanding.

Tune in to hear his story!

Mindful Moments:

• Consciousness in Qigong forms the foundation for transforming energy and physical reality.
• Qigong and Ego: Fear is used as a defensive mechanism. Opinionated attitudes often stem from ego and can lead to conflict.
• Vulnerability in Qigong: it shows deep strength, to make your weakness known. It's also an opportunity to grow, learn and have emotional release. Thus, freeing up energy that would have been used to protect yourself.
• Being happy in Qigong: Happiness is a choice and can be cultivated through daily practices.
• Authenticity in Qigong: Buddha experienced human reactions, even spiritual masters are not immune to normal experiences - this humanity makes them more relatable and authentic as teachers.
• Qigong masters: Nicolas provides valuable insight when working many masters, Master Wei Qifeng among others.

Links & Resources:

More about Qigong & Ego:

Music, the Ego & the Qi field in Qigong - Farinaz Kheradpicheh: https://youtu.be/lbUSS8ujY-E

Qigong Beyond Healing: Unveiling Consciousness - Federico Anguiano: https://youtu.be/MfeooolIzxM

Ask A Master - How to get enlightenment with Qigong? - Ft. Master Wei Qi feng:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyIq7hmddfs

🎙️🌟Explore more podcasts, events, and resources visit:
https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/

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https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/exploration-of-the-eight-verses-of-zhineng-qigong-meditation-e-book

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Transcript

As a French translator, Nicolas has worked with many Qigong masters from China. In this episode, he shares some of his learnings, taking us on a fascinating journey from consciousness via the ego and to the power of vulnerability. My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong Podcast. 

Thank you very much to invite me and thank you very much to watch us to whoever is watching.

I hope this moment will be a very good moment to share. Zhineng Qigong, for me, is one of a way to learn how to use consciousness in order to masterize the qi, in order to have a happy, fulfilled life. for me and for everyone that needs. 

So when you talk about consciousness, what does that mean to you? To 

be honest, not to use words just for the pleasure of, talking, consciousness is the receiver as well as, the one that sends.

It's also the state of being and all this merge in the middle between what is received and what is sent in the middle of the state of being is emerging state. 

I think what is very interesting here is that I think for most of us, when we hear the word consciousness, it is more about perceiving, you know, we, in everyday life, we say, Oh, I'm conscious of that, which means I am aware of that.

But you, you, but you say equally important, consciousness has a sending function. So maybe you would like to explore that a little bit. 

It's the most fundamental aspect that we try to learn in Zhineng Qigong, how we can produce information, which means, thoughts, intention, that will be efficient. to transform the energy and the physical reality.

And do you have any examples from your life or how you use consciousness? 

I just, just before this afternoon, I was back from a practice. And after the practice, it was very intense and there was tear reaction. So I was on my bicycle and I was just thinking. Relax. Relax. And I was experiencing, I say relax, and it's not just a thought.

Relax is an action that takes place in my energy and in my body that makes that everything flow better, open and relax. And I was thinking, this is the purpose of the Nengqi Kong, to be able to do this. 

So you're using your mind intention to create in every moment, ideally, of your life, what you would like for yourself.

And if I remember, we started the conversation and you said that this is the path for you to happiness. And one of the things that strikes me is that you seem to be very happy. Thank you. A happy young man.

Is that fair to say? 

I, I do my best.

It's very important in the, especially in the Zhineng Qigong, it's very important happiness because it's a way to, perhaps in daily life, we cannot be free from our mind fixation, from our emotion, from our reactivity, perhaps it's difficult to, deal with this. And, Perhaps we cannot be free from external attachment we have, but, we can choose a way every day, how we can.

Make us happy. We can dance or we can sing or we can love. In order to bring back the state of happiness, that can be the, good base for anyone, practitioner of the Zhineng Qigong or non practitioner. Everyone would like to be happy and would like to find a way to be more happy more often. 

And this happiness that, you're referring to is obviously something that you can also see in, you know, in a lot of the masters that you have worked with, because I know you are translating, masters into French, and what, you know, not many people have the pleasure.

To work so closely with these masters, you know, most of us, we know one master that we went to for a workshop or something like that. So this is a very privileged position that you're taking there. It's, not just obviously a contribution to the community, but it's also great for you because you are exposed to these, amazing people.

Now, what my audience would like to know, obviously, is, you know, what are the takeaways? So what are you learning? What have you learned from these masters? What stands out? Is there anything in particular? 

Many, many things. As you said, just to bounce from what you said, the working with, teachers, is very, tell her to go deeper.

Tell her to go deeper in the business way, which is, In our society, we need business, but most of the time we lose ourselves in business in a way or another, in money, material things, being busy, working. And so to be with people that's dedicated their life to go deeper with their consciousness, with their happiness, with their life, and in the same time to have a real job of this.

And, how to react when things doesn't go well, how to react when you are depressed. busy with things to do, how to react when, when you deal with people that are not easy for, for your mindset, that trigger your mindset, how to do all this. I learned a lot from teachers by looking at them, by talking with them.

They inspired me. They show me and they advise me. how to be more a conscious worker. 

So share that with us. What are the exact teachings that you took for yourself? I mean, obviously all of us would have different, you know, would draw different conclusions and take different teachings on, but what were the important teachings for you?

In a general way, now I enlarge the circle, not only business, but, To be more happy and to use happiness to improve my life, to live a life more conscious, especially I follow teacher way teaching more closely. And for him is very important to be conscious of a consciousness, to be self aware of a consciousness as it is important for Dr.

Pang these last years. And, this to, to understand deeper, the practical level and at the understanding level, why the ego is not a good solution to deal with daily life. Why it will lead to a dead end, why it will lead to more and more problems. and why it will never finish anything. 

So, so what is your take on the ego?

Because I think this is an important topic. I remember that, I might be quoted incorrectly here, but, I, I remember a story where, Dr. Pang was asked, which is the fastest way to enlightenment, and his answer was no ego. And, so this is a, a very interesting, idea, that is worth to look into.

And obviously you've been exposed to that. So maybe, you know, you could share a little bit what that means to you and how you're dealing with that and, how this shows up in your daily life. You, 

me, the people who listen, we know this by heart. It's the core of our daily life. It's, almost, the baseline of our daily life, huh?

It's the way we, we eat, the way we answer to the mail, the way we talk with our partner, the way, the way I choose my food, the way I cook, the way I eat, the way I decide what is important to me in, in my, in my daily life activity, as well as my job, as well with my friends, all, all this, all the time is, is highly influenced by the habit of the ego to self center everything around what I want, my judgment about everything, and then think this is the reality.

My feeling and my judgment are the reality and my point of view is how things should go. And all this is, all this is not true. It's just a partial, portion of the reality.

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So the self centeredness for you is, you know, an important aspect of the ego, right? 

Yeah. Yeah. To always bring things to me, me, what I want, me, what I know, me, what I feel. 

So you're again using your awareness and your consciousness to, to know that your perspective and your way of looking at things is just one of many.

But for, for, for a lot of people, the ego means something more, right? The ego means, that I have to be the best that I have to, you know, show the world how great I am, et cetera, et cetera. So it's interesting that you say this, because a lot of people would just, just reduce the ego to that aspect. Now people showing off and wanting to be the greatest, that's the ego Donald Trump kind of thing.

But you're taking it much further here when you say it's about self-centeredness. It's about, relating everything that happens to you. 

Yeah. Yeah. And think that my, my perception of the moment is the reality. And so when we talk, then you should agree with me because we talk about the reality and it's total mistake because it's just my perception.

And, the understanding, the feeling, the emotion, and, all this is just personal. There is nothing that is, shared. If a person has a totally different reference system, totally different mindset, perhaps we will not even agree at one single thing about what is the moment about. In the moment where we are triggered, in normal moments, we can agree on many things, of course.

Of course, normally, we can agree on many things.

So what I hear is that that also leads to being opinionated. Which is also a part of the ego, because opinionated means I've got a strong opinion on something. So you see, have a different worldview, but this is my worldview. So I have, I'm opinionated and I'll tell you, no, this is the way things are.

And 

I think it's great to mention that because, when we, when we, when we are looking for our growth paths and we take Dr. Pang serious and the idea of the no ego serious, we need to look for indicators. When our ego actually shows, because we might not be even aware that this is a way the ego shows up.

So I think every time, you know, we are opinionated and we're trying to convince someone of something, it is already, you know, a consequence of the ego showing up and, wanting to make sure we impose our perspective, our worldview on someone else, which is an evil thing. 

It's the beginning of war. 

Yes.

Absolutely. I'll start at 

this point. I am right. You are wrong. And I will prove you that you are wrong. 

But 

in daily life is so common and it's so promoted socially. Normally, socially, the more our ego is strong, the more we think people are great. 

Yes. Yes. So it's a good, it's a good, indicator. If I find myself being opinionated to look back at, okay, where is it actually coming from?

Am I coming from, you know, the ego here or what is actually happening? So it's a great, a way of, training my consciousness and my awareness of what's going on. And then, you know, maybe taking it to the next level and step out of that. 

Yeah, to step out of this and also to be able to embrace a more larger perspective of what is going on.

To be able to embrace the fear that makes that, we want to self protect and, and the suffering that is behind what will happen if I don't know. And if I am vulnerable, what will happen now in the social relationship, in the daily life In the business moment, no, I don't know. And I'm vulnerable and this vulnerability is just here and it's not something to fight, you know, to, to, to break through this, shell in order to, to see what is protected.

The vulnerability is, often our opinion being opinionated and having such a strong worldview is nothing but a protection because, as long as we stick to that worldview, we feel safe because it's like, I figured it out. I know what's going on now. If I let go of that, that's exactly what you're describing here.

I'm making myself vulnerable and I open up to the unknown things I might not know yet. And, yeah, but that is again, you know, if we talk about, about, life and about a connection 

in my daily life is, my perception, my feelings, my understanding mostly depend on data that I have in my mind.

Out of this data, I don't know. What, what I will feel, what I will perceive and what I would understand because everything that I receive immediately I interpreted it according to the data I already have about things, about me, about life and about the pattern that I already created. I pass the information in the pipe and it gets to a result.

But, the pipe are, is, they are, it's a, it's a formation. It has been created by, by me and by, by many others, but I actively participate to their creation and, and so to be able to recognize this level of, creativity, because it's also, very creative to be able to do all this, It seems to be a possibility for freedom.

So the creativity is not running all the information that you get through your pipes and your filters and your frame of reference, because that's not creative. It's just, you know, an automatic thing that we're doing. The creativity starts when you are aware of these filters and you're aware of the pipes, how you called them, and you're aware of the frame of reference, and then start to look at things.

Without these filters and come up with, you know, new and different ideas. Right. Is that, is that fair to say? 

I think, I think it's both because also to create the pipe was very creative when we were a child, when we learn how to become, how to behave like a grownup. How to take the pattern of my parents, of my teachers, of my friends, or to play with has been a very creative, empowering, happy play.

And then, as far as I lost the innocence of the childhood, I started to identify with the role, with the data, and all the play has been lost in the way. And just the dry aspect of being a grown up. Mostly remain. 

So the, the, the process initially was creative. I, I agree, with that. But once it has been established, there's no creativity anymore because it's just, automatic.

Right. Yes. Yeah, exactly. It's going on and on and on and on. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Yes. 

Same day again and again and again. 

Yes. So you've worked with, with, the teacher way a lot. I know that. Is there anything else that you've taken away from other teachers? 

Yes, of course. Of course. When I, when I learned, I started with, I started with a French teacher that used to practice more of a Chinese way, intensive and hard.

And then I discovered teacher way and I felt that he would be a very, big ally in order to awake consciousness. And so I follow him in teacher training in China. The time that was the three month teacher training with a big harmonious family, mostly with teacher, Lu, Lu and Ling. Many people know them.

I think Lu Zendao. And, Ling Ming and, teacher Shi Xiaofeng, teacher Tao and, teacher Wei and many of our friends that they had also. So I, I stay three months with them to learn the three level. And, then the next year I came again for three months and the next year I came again for three months to learn, to learn, to go deeper.

So I received a lot of information from all these teachers. They, of course, shared things that touch my beginner's heart. Every time they were talking about Huaxia Center, and all the little stories that they leave at Dr. Pang. All this is, when you are a beginner, it's a treasure. Oh, Dr. Pang! And, I received many very practical things in daily life with them about, show your vulnerability, show your weak point.

Very strong in Teacher Tao's mind. show your weak point. You don't know how to sing, sing every day for everyone. And don't be ashamed of who you are. Show what you don't know. And, 

It's interesting that you call that weak point, because, you know, I would argue with it. I would, I would say this is not a weak point.

If you know what you don't know, right. And if you show that that's a very strong point. 

When you show it, it becomes a strong point. But if you hide it, it's still a weak point. 

So you're basically transforming a weak point into a strong point by doing it. 

You don't want to be hurt at this part. You ride it and everyone could touch it and ah, it will be very painful.

For your ego and for your self esteem, but okay, show your weak point and show I learned a lot from this and I use it a lot when I work with others. I show that, I don't know that, my ego is strong and that I'm lost. And because like this, we can, we can refer to, to a more humanistic. way you can, we can refer to each other to a more humanistic grounds.

Yes. It's much easier to relate to you. If I see, well, you've got issues like me, you know, and you've got other stuff to deal with like everybody else. And I don't have to 

pretend to be the big one. So it saves a lot of energy also. Yes. I don't have to pretend to know. 

And it's also, you know, making life much easier because if the cards are on the table, It's just as you described, you don't have to pretend anything.

And there's nothing that can come up where people suddenly discover a weakness of yourself. It's out already. Everybody's there to know, right? 

You can improve because, everyone knows now. Everyone knows, you know. I remember one time in my group, there was a practitioner that is very, very good, much better than me.

He evolved and has a much better state of consciousness than me. I was feeling so jealous. And so I told to all the class that I was feeling very jealous. And once, once it gets out, okay, now there is nothing else to hide. And now I can improve and I can deal with this because I don't have all the complicated work to protect myself and to pretend I can use this energy to accept who I am.

Right. I think that's a very powerful, powerful thing to do. A lot of us would, would probably say that but more in a manipulative way. It's like, Oh, you're so great. You know, so much more than me hoping that the rest of the group would say, Oh no, you're good as well. But that is not the purpose here, right?

The purpose is to be honest. The purpose is to be honest and say, look, yeah, that's great. I mean, you are at a, on a level that I'm on my way to that level. And that's wonderful to have you in class here. And there's no problem with that, right? 

People, people can be much greater than me, and it's okay.

Exactly. I think, I think this is an important lesson here because we have a lot of teachers listening, you know, Qigong teachers, or therapists here listening to the podcast. And sometimes, they always feel the need. They have to be better than their students because, you know, otherwise, why would the students come to them?

Right. But this is, I think, a misconception. Because as you know, as, as, as well as I know, we can learn from anyone, right? It doesn't mean where this person comes from. It doesn't mean what is education as his background is there's a learning, you know, in every, encounter with every single person, if we are open to that, right now to get that pressure off.

Yeah. Also, I was just telling you earlier, I've got a cuff currently, so I'm cuffing, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, I should be, I should be healthy, right? Because I know Zhineng, qi gong. Now, yeah, but I've got a cough. So here we go. But a therapist, you know, might do that does healing work with someone else, you know, you might have, I don't know, a broken leg or whatever, or something going on, or a problem with the liver.

I think that is important to just admit these things. But it doesn't take a lot. From your power to do this work with other people as well So this honesty is very important and we need to take the pressure of the teachers and the therapists to be In this state of perfection in order to get their work done It just makes them more relatable makes us more relatable if we've got stuff going on in our lives and it creates a real connection And, and it's better than to have someone on a pedestal, that we think, Oh my God, this person is so wonderful.

And interesting enough, this is also, you know, a great thing about, you know, Zhineng Qigong and philosophies. We don't really have a guru in Zhineng Qigong, you know, we've got teachers, right? But everybody can be teacher to anyone. And this is not about, I mean, obviously Dr. Pang plays a special role because he's come up with the whole thing.

He's the creator of it. So, so we, we value that. But he's out there not to be a worshipped or anything. You know, he's just out there and wants to, you know, make a contribution to humanity. And most of the masters, I must say, act exactly that same way. Right. So, so that is, an important aspect of Qigong.

Now I'm getting a little off track here, but we started off track 

line. I agree with this way to go. I, I, I also very inspired by something that is not teach by teacher is that when they are not, the best, 

when they 

are not at the best, when they have emotion, when When they are lost, when they are reactive, this is also a very comforting that We are the same.

There are not some kind of special people that have something so special that me, I don't have. They deal with the same daily life, with the same, confusion, uh, anuh, they also are lost, they also have emotion, and they do their best, just as me, and, we can do our best together. This iuh, this, feed me very much also when I feel that I am not good enough.

I remember the, the, the life of teacher way. And I remember before to be teacher way, it was also not good enough. 

Right. And they say that way, Nicola, I remember a story about the Buddha, you know, the Buddha was hit, by a stone on his head and he said, ouch. And then people looked at him and said, but you are the Buddha.

And he said, yes. And that's the difference between a wooden Buddha and a human Buddha. And right. So I think that kind of illustrates what you were saying here. Yeah. 

Yeah. And that we are really, We, we are on the same baseline and we do our best. 

Yes. Okay. Well, thank you very much, Nicola. That was very insightful.

And I'm glad you shared a little bit from your life and your experience here. Thank you very much, Nicola. 

We trust you enjoyed this conversation and we invite you to subscribe to our podcast so we can stay in touch. We will end today's episode with the eight verses meditation performed by Zhineng Qigong teacher Katrien Hendrickx

Enjoy.



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