Psychology of Inner Perceptions - Mariana del la Vega

Do you want to learn more about “The Psychology of Inner Perceptions?"

Join Master Zhen on his 2025 trip through China: https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/product/china-trip-master-zhen/

Join his 4 day online class on “How to clear emotions”: https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/product/clear-emotions-training/

Or attend his healing classes upcoming February: https://www.zhineng-qigong-students-hub.com/product/master-zhen-healing-classes/

Zhineng Qigong blends traditional Chinese wisdom with modern psychology, exploring the intricate mind-body connection through Master Zhen's "Psychology of Inner Perception" and its approach to holistic healing through heart-centered awareness.

Master Zhen discovered at the Huaxia Centre (medicine less hospital) that emotional blockages can significantly impact healing, observing how patients with similar conditions respond differently to Qigong based on their emotional states and self-connection.

In Qigong, emotional blockages or "heart stones" obstruct the flow of Qi, impacting overall well-being. According to Master Zhen, mindfully acknowledging emotional trauma without judgment can promote mental clarity. By accepting these emotions without resistance, individuals can gradually heal from within, developing a deeper heart-centered understanding.

Zhineng Qigong enables healing by accepting emotions without reliving past traumas. By connecting with Shen (heart's spirit), practitioners raise consciousness without needing to rationalize feelings. Master Zhen's Psychology of Inner Perception provides a framework for healing through emotional awareness. The practice transcends intellectual analysis, offering a compassionate journey back to one's essential nature, liberating individuals from constraining narratives and fostering profound self-understanding.

Mindful moments:

• Zhineng Qigong blends traditional Chinese healing with modern psychology, emphasizing mind-body connection in health.
• Emotional states profoundly impact healing, with "heart stones" blocking Qi flow, as researched by Master Zhen at the Huaxia Centre.
• Master Zhen's Psychology of Inner Perception provides a theoretical and practical framework for addressing emotional barriers in Qigong
• Self-understanding emerges through compassionate heart-energy connection rather than intellectual analysis, promoting authentic living.
• A holistic health approach integrating physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions for comprehensive well-being.

Links and Resources:
Contact Mariana -  https://unasoy.com/
Mariana's other episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGG5WckEmNg
Discover Qigong Game: https://tinyurl.com/ymuywb6x

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Transcript

How important are emotions when it comes to healing? Could they be the key to total recovery? In his groundbreaking book, The Psychology of Inner Perception, Master Zhen explains how a new branch of psychology can help to clear our emotional state. In this episode, I discuss the principal ideas with Mariana de la Vega.

My name is Torsten Lueddecke and this is the Wisdom Qigong podcast. 

To learn more about the psychology of inner perception, join Master Zhen on one of his upcoming online courses or on his trip to China. You can find more information in the show notes. 

So hello everyone. Today I've got Mariana de la Vega with me for the second time.

We had an excellent and wonderful podcast a couple of weeks ago. For everyone who hasn't heard it, please go back into the show notes. Make sure you listen to Mariana. Mariana, I'm happy to have you back on the show. And we have a particular reason why we meet today because we want to talk about the psychology of inner perception.

Now, this is a based on a book and a training that master Zhen has, created many years ago, and it's hugely successful and popular in the community. But for those that who don't know what it is, we thought we'd explore it. And maybe we can get an idea of what this concept of psychology of inner perception is all about.

Hi, hi, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me for the second time. It's always a pleasure to chat with you and with the whole community. And well, the psychology of inner perceptions, it's just the culmination of all the experience teacher Shen had since he was in Huaxia Center. But first, I think it's useful and important to just remember where zhineng and qigong comes from, because It, it summarizes and also teacher, teacher Pang developed this whole science, from the whole tradition of Taoist, Buddhist, and Confucianist, traditions in China and the whole Chinese medicine, also tradition.

And this way of looking at the world, looking at reality as a whole entity. So it is a well known practice in Buddhist Chinese tradition that the way to wisdom is through the heart, the cultivation of the heart. So, Teacher Zhen, while he was in the recovery department in Huaxia Center, he discovered that for the same illness, for the same symptoms, for the same problem, two people reacted differently to the practice.

And he was, like, really curious what, what was happening. How come both of them practice the same methods at the same time with the same intention and they get different results. Some people quickly recover and some people then have maybe not so severe problems. We don't recover or have a slight recovery.

That's me. So, what is happening here? He, see, he had the opportunity to talk about this with Dr. Pang, of course, and with several other teachers and instructors. And he came to the realization that emotional blockages are, a very important issue in the recovery process, because there are some physical blockages that respond to the Qi therapy, the Hun Yuan Qi therapy, and of course the energy starts moving those blockages, but it can do so much, if we don't realize there is an emotional and mental pattern that, created or produced that symptom in the first place.

So, the emotional blockages, respond in time with the methods, the Zhineng Qigong methods and the practice, of course, but, people have to have the clarity, the clear mind to understand that the invisible people. determines or produces the visible. 

And by invisible you mean the emotions and the thought patterns, right?

Yeah, yeah. 

Yes. 

So it has been studied in some other traditions and researches, What comes first? Is it the emotion or is it the thought? And, you know, information moves really quickly in the universe and of course also in the human mind. Teacher Pang, Master Pang explains this in the Hunyuan Entirety Theory.

Yi Yuan Ti has two levels of movement. The first one is so fast. It's the whole information of the whole universe, because we as humans, as an expression of the universe, are also, receptacles of all this information. But if the human mind cannot consciously be aware of the whole information at the same time, it's just too much.

So just think of, for a moment, the information that is moving in each and every one of the body's processes, metabolism, electricity, you know, chemical processes, the whole information of the universe is moving is, is expressing through these processes. So we are not aware of that information. There's another movement in the mind.

which is logical thinking and concepts. And we can, again, all only be aware of a part of that. When we say, for example, universe, when we say any concept, there's a lot of information that comes from the universe. behind that concept universe, but we are not exactly aware of where, of from where we are expressing the word or the concept universe.

And we can understand that when you say universe, you may mean something different from when I say universe. Because it also depends on my story, my experiences, my education, et cetera, et cetera. But we have come to agree that when I say universe and you say universe, we communicate. You start realizing we're not talking about the same thing.

So this other movement of the mind is the movement which we are practicing with. All the movements, all the methods in Zhineng Qigong are starting to make you conscious and make your mind clear so you can really observe all these concepts. And these concepts make up a story. And that story produces an emotional reaction.

So, emotions, when repeated, start forming patterns. and that pattern in time becomes your character. So when I say I'm a shy person or when I say I'm an emotional or sensitive or, you know, I get angry easily, what I'm saying is that I have a repeated pattern of emotion. And sometimes that pattern initiated because like a self defense mechanism in some part of my life.

So it served a purpose, but now I can see it has no purpose anymore. So I can let it go. So even though the psychology of inner perceptions was derived from the Zhineng Qigong practice, we could say it's apply zhineng and qigong. We could use this term. Many people say, is it a method of Zhineng qigong? And teacher Shen says, it's not exactly a method, taught by Master Pang, by Dr.

Pang, but it is the application of the theory and of this experience working with so many people for over 30 years that were able to recover just practicing the methods. Because there was an emotional blockage that was, you know, preventing this recovery to happen. 

So is it also fair to say that, by learning the psychology of inner perception and applying these techniques, the actual Zhineng qi gong exercises become far more effective because the, the blockages are no longer there.

Because if I understand you correctly, this was the starting point of master Zhen that he observed. Okay. For some people, the zhineng qi gong exercises and the Huyuan Qi Therapy worked very well and they were successful in the healing and for others they weren't. And he found out that this was linked to these blocked emotions.

So basically by using the concepts of psychology of inner perception, we are clearing the way for the Zhineng qi gong exercises, the classic exercises that we all know to work efficiently. Is that, is that a correct thought that I'm having here? 

Yeah, yeah, it is, and it is in my experience, because, I believe, teacher, Master Pang, Dr.

Pang, created all these, menu of methods. All these methods are pointing to the same objective, which is wisdom, which is a clear mind, a stable mind, an awakened mind. So some of them involve movement, some of them involve sounds, some of them involve static meditation, but at the end of the day, all of them point to the same objective.

And In this sense, it also works with emotional blockages, especially, for example, the Level 3 methods. You work with the five organs, which are in charge of regulating the emotional qi, etc. But you need, like, a very disciplined practice. And what teacher Zhen also discovered is that many people are not that disciplined, don't have the patience and the commitment to the practice.

So they, sometimes abandon the practice. So this psychology of inner perceptions, is based on the fundamental. concept of the shen. You know what the shen is? We've talked about this, in many of your podcasts and in your page you have like special video explaining what shen is. Like shen is this part of the mind that is the boss of life.

It's the movement, of the awakened mind, the yuan ti. So, every time we bring our whole attention to one thing, that's shen. Like, you can think about your hand, And it's only a concept. It's only, a small movement of your attention. But when you bring your whole attention, your whole presence to your right hand, for example, that's the shen.

So that is, one of the key concepts in Hunyuan entirety theory, the concept and the, the explanation of what consciousness is. What I've learned, what I've experienced with teacher Shen is how do we practice that? It's really difficult to intellectually understand the whole theory of Shen and Yi Yuan Ti, but in reality we are already making use of it.

of the mind. So, how do we bring that to the practice? In Spanish we say, do you eat that cold or do you eat that hot? I mean, please explain to me, like in daily life. So, Teacher Zhen said, sometimes the easiest, the simplest, practice is the most effective. And when you bring your attention, when you bring your shen to something, to a blockage, the blockage naturally transforms and disappears because it is your undivided attention.

It is your non judgmental attention. It's your loving, compassionate attention to something. And that part of the mind, it's a very subtle, fine chi that transforms. The blockage, which is, a qi that is vibrating in a lower frequency. So, what is really interesting about this is that it is also a very good realization of what we really are.

Because when we are identified with the blockage, when we are identified with the emotion, with the problem, we become anger, we become fear. We become, sadness, we become anxiousness, anxiety, when you observe, when you make this distance, when you really observe and pay attention to what is happening, you can see that this is only a movement of energy.

The 

emotion is something that is just happening. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just happening. So the first, the, let's say the first, effect, the first result, the first benefit, is that you can let this energy just be. And in letting it be, it transforms and, becomes something else, disappears. We have a way 

you can discover Qigong.

So, at the Zhineng Qigong Student Hub, we know that understanding Qigong It's very important, and also that Zhineng Qigong in itself has various nuances that people can't easily comprehend. So we've approached it in the style of a video game. On this page, Discover Qigong, you can select your character, So you can either be a beginner, a practitioner, or a holistic healer or self healer, and you click on your character and it takes you to these different sections.

In these sections, you can explore the nuances. And when you click on a card, all of the resources pop up and we've made it really fun. Not many people know about it. So if you are interested, have a look and discover Qigong. 

Let me just see whether I understand that correctly. So what you're suggesting here is that I mean, I totally get that if I have blocked emotions, I cannot be my true self because it's in the way.

And it's, and I start to define myself through that because it, it kind of controls how I go through life and how I act in everyday situations. And you're, you're suggesting that through the, the act of observation and through the act of bringing you your awareness into this emotion or towards this emotion and staying with this emotion and, you know, or while observing it, it will disappear.

Is that correct? Because I think this is, this is really good news for a lot of us that are afraid. Of dealing with their emotions, because often this emotion stem stems from some kind of traumatic experience or something that we don't want to look at, which is the reason why it's a blocked emotion while we haven't really gone through it.

And in conventional therapy, you would probably be encouraged to relive it to go through the emotion in order to release it. And that can be scary for many people. hhat you're suggesting here is that the act of observation does the job. So there is no need to actually feel the pain or feel all of, you know, whatever the emotion might be.

The mere fact of bringing your awareness there and observing is. Is enough to resolve it. And, I'm saying this because, you know, I, I totally get that. And I totally share this experience. I know it is working because it's also working for me. And, the, the, the metaphor I have always in mind is it, for me, it is like, like a fog where you have fog in the, in the morning when you wake up.

And you see, it's all foggy outside and then the sun starts to shine. It's like the sun is observing the fog and through doing that, it disappears. The fog disappears. Now, I know that, you know, physically there's, it's a different concept, but I think this is the image that comes up for me, if I think of the, the, the power of observation.

And if I may add to that in my own experience, it's also true for many problems. There's, there's one thing, you know, if I have a problem, I can try to use my intellectual mind to think about it, trying to come up with solutions, which is very hard sometimes and often doesn't work, or I can just keep observing the problem and then the problem kind of dissolves.

And, so it's funny that this, this, this technique is not just working for blocked emotions. I personally think you can also use it for other, areas of your life as well. But in summary, I did say correctly now how you are working in the psychology of inner perception with blocked emotions and how you let them disappear, right?

Right, right. And the word, teacher Shane came up with, and I'm gonna also share the word I use for my own practice. He said, we're not really observing because that's, a word frequently used in Buddhist practices. And some people have trouble understanding what should I observe? What should I expect from observing?

Should I see something? Should I, you know? He says, okay, don't think about observing, just think about sensing and sensing. It's different from feeling. Let's say you have a cup with some liquid in it. So when you feel you, you bring your hand towards the cup and you try touching it. And if it's hot, you're going to get burned.

So when you feel you really get too close and then you can identify with what you're feeling. But when you sense you, you only like come close, but always keeping a distance, just sense, sense what is happening. And over the years, because I've been practicing with him for several years now, over the years I've come up with the word, just be with it, just a company, a company, like the example I like using when I explain this method is if you have like a two year old, infant, a two year old girl or a boy and he's, he's having a tantrum.

He's like, Oh, he wants some something, and you're not giving it. And He's, you know, throwing a tantrum and really lost control. If you try, explaining to him the, the problem or the, you know, what, what's happening, he won't be able to listen. If you try forcing him to stay calm, it will make things worse.

But if you sit with him and wait. and just be with him, be with the boy, be with the tantr it will pass, it will surely pass, and you will lovingly accompany this child in his process. So, in a sense, emotions are a tantrum that we, we are throwing, no? So, when we sit with them, lovingly, no judgment, No intention, not even the desire to transform it.

Just accept it, allow it. Then the emotion has not only, let's say, the space of the heart. to express itself. It has the whole universe. You're giving it permission to express it, itself. And what happens is that it transforms and disappears. And also a very important thing, and this is a phrase I recently read in a post, therapy, psychological therapies, help you re, let's say we all live in a prison, a prison of our mind, a prison of our, reference frameworks, our beliefs, our experiences.

It's like a prison. We feel we, we're not able to move from that prison. It is what is governing our lives. You said, earlier that your emotions are deciding. your life. So we all live in this prison. And when you go to therapy, the therapist sometimes help you, react, rearrange the furniture within the prison.

So you're uncomfortable in the bed. Okay. Let's try rearranging it. And what if we put the sofa over here? Would you feel more comfortable? Okay. Let's just rearrange. the furniture. But meditation, deep heart cultivation, lets you see that the door is always open, that you can decide to let go of the prison.

It is open all the time. So, what the other thing that I like very much about this method is that you don't have to retell the story. 

Yes. You 

don't have to relieve the whole story, the whole trauma. Because we are dealing with the heart at two levels. The physical heart, so you only concentrate on your physical sensations.

And you sense that, sensations, you accompany them, you let them be, you accept them. Just the physical sensations. They have no story. Okay. You feel your heart as if it is being pressured, or you feel like a tingling, or you feel some pain in some part, or you feel like an electric charge, or you feel like a sword is going through the heart.

Whatever you feel, just be with it. There's no story behind the physical sensations. And then we work on the other level, the emotional, spiritual heart. And the spiritual heart works with emotions. You don't have to know the story behind that emotion. Maybe it was something with your mother, maybe it was something with your father.

And when the image, the story, the picture comes to your mind, we always redirect our attention just to the emotional feeling. It doesn't matter where, where it comes from. You just let it be. So it's a very compassionate, practice. In that sense, 

and I think you, you are the, the metaphor you gave with the kid throwing a tantrum is perfect because it, I think everybody understands that there is no point trying to, to come with good arguments to convince the kid not to show, throw a tantrum.

Everybody understands there's no point. force the kids to stop screaming. We know it's not working. So, but still we are applying the same techniques for our own, in our own life against ourselves. And while you're suggesting here, this staying with this being with the emotion or being with the sensation, just sensing it.

And I'd like to, to, to emphasize one point that you mentioned, but I think we can't mention that or we can't. emphasize that enough. It is the, the, the fact that when you do that, you, there is no motive behind it. You don't do it with the goal to dissolve it. Right? Because the moment you do that, you are applying pressure and you are, you know, you're no longer just watching it.

You're no longer just being with it. You come with a motive and then it's not going to work. So it's really about being completely nonjudgmental. It's really about. Just being with it, sensing it, staying with it. I use the words observing with, observing it, but it doesn't matter which, which word we use because yeah, everybody will, you know, will have their own way of expressing that.

But the point is, you have no motive, you have no judgment. You just stay with it. And that is how it resolve. And, as you, as you reconfirmed, it means you don't have to go through the drama. You don't have to go through the story. I think it's even counterproductive. with this technique to do that. And that is why you let that go and you go back and put your focus into awareness onto the actual feeling or onto the actual sensation.

So, I was just, it was just important for me to make this point about the non judgment and the no motive when you're doing that. So I thought I'd come back to that, to that point. 

Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's one of the, most beautiful parts of this technique, of this practice. It's like I, I learned this from another teacher, it's like saying to the emotion, it is okay if you're here with me my whole life, I'm okay with this.

So, like I said, like I said, it's a very compassionate practice. It's a very loving practice because we, we keep fighting this battle with our emotions. I don't want to feel this, I don't want to feel this, I have to do something so this is no longer in my life. So this, constant battle, constant struggle only leads to, like, making it worse, making it, you know, deeper into your subconscious.

and it will keep deciding your life the way you look at reality. So there are many, scientific, scientific facts behind this. Also the heart in traditional Chinese medicine is called the emperor of the body. And the heart decides the state of the whole body. You know, if you think about it, the whole body needs blood to survive.

And it's the heart that is in charge of that. And to do that, to bring blood to, you know, even to the fingertips, to the whole body, it needs energy, it needs, some power. And this power, it is understood now scientifically, the heart emits much more electricity than the brain. And it also has a special communication with the brain.

So when you let go of the emotional blockages in your heart, you're also influencing the way you think, the way your mind works, the way your brain works, because the brain is always, you know, overreacting, overworking, you know. But when the heart says. Okay. Get still. The brain follows the heart. 

This is a great point, Mariana, because we all know how important it is to have a quiet mind, to have a peaceful mind, to have positive, constructive thoughts.

And yet, Many people struggle so much with it and there's always all these noises all the time and they're shouting at each other and screaming and making all kinds of nonsense, which obviously is in the way to, you know, to achieving any kinds of awareness or consciousness or getting anywhere in your life.

And, now a lot of people that try. To to force the mind to be quiet or looking for some kind of techniques to work with the mind to get quiet, you know, which might work for, for some people, but the, the alternative you are offering here is actually to work via the heart. Because you said, if I can work with my heart and sense the heart and, achieve that these blocked emotions are released.

It has an effect on my mind and then I don't have to work with my mind anymore because you know, it's automatically. Now, if my emotions are clear and I don't have these issues, then, you know, why would all these voices be in my head? There's no need for them anymore. So they quiet down and they disappear.

So I think this is a beautiful way. Also, it's something, you know, a great idea for people that struggle to come from the mind and trying to calm the mind and to feel it's not working. So this is another way and maybe a very intelligent way to approach it. 

And it's also, it is effective, it is deep, it is profound practice, but it's also very simple.

You just have to bring your attention to the sensations in your heart. And earlier we were talking about what Shen is, and it's this part of the mind. It's the functioning of the conscious mind. So in Chinese tradition, they say Shen, Shen's home is the heart. The brain is just the office. But the home is to bring it back to the heart.

So that is why in Buddhist tradition, they stress this so much. The way to wisdom, the way to your true self is the heart, the cultivation of the heart. So I was explaining earlier, like the first effect is that you make this distance and you say, okay, if I can observe, if I can sense, if I can perceive these emotions, it means I am not the emotion.

That would be like the second effect, which is a very deep, consciousness, true self practice. The first thing is to detach yourself from the feeling and just observe it. But the second one is, okay, if I am able to observe my experience, if I am able to observe feelings, emotions, thoughts, perceptions, It means there's an observer and something that is observed, and then you can redirect your attention to the observer.

So who is observing? And in that way, you start nourishing. And strengthening the shen function, you start returning to yourself, 

right? 

So it looks simple. It is easy to practice, but it's really deep what we're doing. 

Yes. 

And it has really changed the way I practice zhineng qi gong because I've observed many people, most people start practicing zhineng qi gong because they have a physical illness.

and they are really interested in healing the body. But we cannot stress enough that Zhineng Qigong objective is the realization of the, of the mind, of the spirit. So, the physical healing is just an effect. 

Right. 

It's just one of the benefits, but it's not the main goal. It's not what we're aiming at.

So, when you start noticing, The, the, the role that thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions have played in your life. They have been the boss all this time. They have been deciding what you do, what, what road to take, what, what kind of food I, I eat. Everything in our lives are decided by our emotions.

or emotional and mental patterns, which become, like I said, like a prison. But when you return, let's say, the leadership, the role of the boss, to the shen, to the clear mind, everything else falls in place.

Now, thank you very much Mariana for explaining this concept to us in a beautiful language and in a very straightforward way. So I think this is a great and anybody who's interested, I think it's totally worth to, to listen to this episode twice or three times to get all the ideas because then it can sink.

And in essence, although the, the, the, the concept is very deep. The practice itself and how to apply it is very simple and the effects are huge. And, I'd like to take this opportunity as well to mention that, for those of, of our listeners that would like to practice more, there are two upcoming workshops of, Master Zhen in January, February, I think.

And then there's also a very exciting China trip, where you can join Master Zhen for four weeks. It starts with an international conference on the psychology of inner perception in Beijing. Then there is two weeks of traveling through some of the most amazing places in China. And then there's two weeks of practice about how to free yourself from these emotions.

So this is obviously a wonderful thing happening next year. And we are putting the links to these events in the show notes. So for any listener who thinks, well, this is great. Now you can either join the online workshops in January, February, Or, you know, look at your budget and look at your time schedule and just join Master Zhen to China because this is going to be the trip of a lifetime and it's going to be a beautiful experience.

But now let me thank you, Mariana. I think you're also joining the trip, aren't you? 

Yes, yes, I'm, I will be there in China. It's going to be a beautiful retreat. We're going to visit some sacred special places for the Taoist and Buddhist tradition in China. So these are places full of good information, you know, a very strong qi field.

And, and then we're going to practice like intensive practice with this methodology and also, super abilities. Because, you know, when you start sensing your own heart, you start developing that clear mind that starts receiving paranormal information. So you're able to sense other people's hearts and guide them to release and, you know, let go of emotional blockages.

So it's a beautiful, beautiful practice. 

So for everyone, for whom all these reasons are not enough and all the beauty of China is not enough. The me fact that Mariana will be on this trip and be very inspiring companion, should give you the final push to say we are going to join this trip. Okay.

Thank you very, thank you so much. Thank you very much Mariana. Thank you for inviting me. And I look forward to our next episode one day soon. 

Me too. Thank you. 

We trust you enjoyed this conversation and we invite you to subscribe to our podcast so we can stay in touch and notify you of future episodes.

We will end today's episode with the eight verses meditation. Performed by Zhineng Qigong teacher, Katrien Hendrickx. Enjoy.



To get your free e book on the 8 verses meditation, please check the show notes below.