October 19, 2017
Podcast from: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/qigong-101/
[00:00] Introduction/GainsWave
[02:55] Robert Peng
[08:28] When Robert Started Studying Qigong
[25:55] Robert's 100-Day Water Fast
[36:51] Organifi/HumanCharger
[37:58] Continuation
[39:56] Breathing To Get Nutrients
[50:03] Other Benefits From Practicing Qigong
[54:18] Awakening One's Qi Power
[1:03:56] Implementing Qigong In Your Everyday Life
Ben: Hey. It's Ben Greenfield. This podcast is brought to you by one of the world's leading age management practices headquartered in South Florida. I've gone down and seen them, they have actually a nationwide network with over 80 clinics of highly trained and credentialed physicians. They do hormone therapy, they do sexual wellness treatments, they do health counseling, testosterone therapy, growth hormone therapy. The dude, Dr. Gaines, who owns the place, he's Harvard-trained, he's a pioneer in the use of hormones and meaning he does a good job. He doesn't just like put you on a bunch of stuff and then waltz away into the sunset. They take care of you down there. They adjust everything as you go. It's amazing. They also do treatments like sex treatments, like the P Shot, and the O Shot, and the GainsWave so you get better orgasms and better sexual performance if you have issues down there. They can just like fix them all overnight. It's crazy. You get 250 bucks off of any of their treatments down in Florida. If you want to get on a plane, go to Florida, go to Venice Beach, get your body fixed, go to Florida, get your crotch fixed, you text the word “GAIN” to 313131. That gets you 250 bucks off. Text the word “GAIN” to 313131 and you too can go into GainsWave. Reinvent yourself.
In this episode of The Ben Greenfield Fitness Show:
“The [0:01:25] ______ collect energies of wisdom. So when the energy here is strong, you feel like you're guided. It's not logical, but anything happens, you make a decision, you feel as if it is guided. You make the right decision more likely. Like you have a good GPS, right?” “The problem, or we say disease, in terms of energy is the blockages. So whenever the blockages is cleared away, when the energy flows right, then healing starts.”
Ben: Okay. Do you have your tea?
Robert: Hm?
Ben: Do you have your tea? Did you make any tea?
Robert: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just got a tea. That's your tea?
Ben: Where's your tea?
Robert: Yeah. That's mine.
Ben: Oh. Okay. Well why don't we start this podcast off with a toast. I'm here in Robert Peng's office in New York City. Robert Peng is a Qigong master who has been studying since the age of eight. And he was born and raised in Hunan, China, and he now is based out of New York City. You've learned a lot about him already from the introduction I've given you. But it is here to his New York City offices that I have traveled via bicycle, train, car, et cetera. I just rode my bike seven miles through New York City and almost got killed coming to see you, on a city bike, and I breathed in a lot of New York fumes. But based on the fact that my children and I have been studying your book and your DVD for the past several months leading up to this interview, I'm learning quite a bit about Qigong and how much is enhances the way that we feel, our energy throughout the day, and how much benefit I've got out of your book, your audios, and your videos. I'm incredibly honored to be here. And for those of you listening in, everything Robert and I talk about today, you can go check out. Just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/peng. That's bengreenfieldfitness.com/PENG. And Robert and I raise a toast. Tell me about this tea that you've prepared.
Robert: Alright. Thank you, Ben. Thank you for coming.
Ben: Is this a traditional Chinese tea?
Robert: Yeah. You see that little box, then the water drains into the box…
Ben: Oh, the box there on your desk? The water drains into it?
Robert: Yeah. And two paths. One is the path who made the tea, and the other is a pitcher actually.
Ben: Oh, interesting.
Robert: Yeah. So then when we finish, there's a drain to stop the tea leaves so that it can be pure.
Ben: This is very interesting. What is this called? What style of a tea maker is this called? I'll link to it for people.
Robert: This is called Kung Fu Tea.
Ben: Kung Fu? As in Kung Fu Panda?
Robert: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kung Fu, yeah.
Ben: Kung Fu Tea? Alright.
Robert: Kung Fu Tea. Yeah.
Ben: I'm going to have to get one of, it's actually, it looks like a piece of art.
Robert: Yeah. I'll tell you later how you can get it. The Kung Fu tea is a way of drinking tea. It is not really what tea it is, the way of drinking tea. Kung Fu is the exact same word, Kung Fu. But it's not that we're drinking tea or playing Kung Fu and fighting each other. Kung Fu originally…
Ben: As much fun as that would be.
Robert: Yeah. Originally meaning a period of time that you dedicated very strongly. You could say it took me 10 years of Kung Fu to reach this [0:05:40] ______. It took me hours of Kung Fu to write this article. So meaning dedicating time that you focus on. That means Kung Fu originally. Yeah.
Ben: Oh. So Kung Fu is almost like this, there's a book called “Deep Work”…
Robert: Deep Work.
Ben: And it sounds very similar to his concept of Kung Fu. Like when I wake and I write in the morning, that's my Kung Fu. It's deep work. No one is up. It's 5:30 AM.
Robert: Exactly.
Ben: And I'm by myself. Immersed. That's Kung Fu. And this Kung Fu Tea is based on the same concept?
Robert: Yeah. Originally, it means that you take some time because Kung Fu, this way of making tea, actually today I gave you a bigger cup. Normally I have it with the smaller ones.
Ben: Oh, wow. I was going to say if this cup is big, I'd hate to see small. It's like the size of a shot glass.
Robert: And it is [0:06:23] ______. Drinking Kung Fu, meaning you don't talk about, you're not pressed with the time.
Ben: Mhmm. Right. I get it. So you basically…
Robert: Yeah. So it can take you hours.
Ben: You're drinking tea with the affluence of time?
Robert: Yeah.
Ben: Interesting.
Robert: Like my wife and I, sometimes we are in upstate New York in our country house, we can drink teas for five hours.
Ben: It's almost like tea meditation.
Robert: Tea meditation. That is our downtime.
Ben: I like that.
Robert: Actually that's part of my training, or part of my Qigong.
Ben: I've heard of candle, my kids do candle meditation where we'll light a candle and we'll go into our infrared sauna, and their task is to just study the candle for about 20 minutes. And it's great for a child's attention span. And then my wife and I, of course, will sit on the back porch occasionally and work out way through a glass of wine in a half hour or so.
Robert: Yeah. That is your downtime.
Ben: But five hours of tea is something I'll have to work up to. That sounds like a formidable task. Now my, funny story for you, my children and I have been putting in your video each night, my two nine year old boys. And we stand there in front of the video before bed and we go through, we've been through your three dantians exercise, and your sword finger, and the qi ball, and even changing the taste of brandy. Although we used mom's kombucha instead of brandy because I don't want the social workers showing up at my door when I tell people on the podcast my kids are drinking brandy. And we felt so great with it. And the funny thing is my boys now ask me after dinner, even if, when I was nine years old, I wouldn't have even thought about doing Qigong. But after dinner now, they say, “Dad, we need to go do our Qigong.” And they go down there and they wait for me in the basement next to the TV, and I turn on the TV, one of the few times during the week when we actually use the TV and we do another segment of your Qigong video. We're at video three now. Almost done with video three, and then we'll move onto video four.
Robert: [0:08:16] ______ exercise. Oh. It's…
Ben: Yeah, these Master Key…
Robert: [0:08:19] _____.
Ben: Right! They love it! And you began studying, they're nine years old, am I correct, you began studying when you were eight?
Robert: Yeah. I was eight.
Ben: Tell me about that.
Robert: A lot of people ask me, “How did you learn it? How? Is it from your parents or your family?” Actually, it's not. Before eight years old, I have done nothing about Qigong martial art. Actually, at eight years old I was sick. I was sick, yeah. I was having a very severe pain on my chest. It's okay if I'm not doing anything. But whenever I ran or if I jump especially, the severe pain was so hard. Sometimes I can get fainted because of the pain. Of course my mother brought me to the doctor and they prescribed this or that. It never changed. They were just getting worse. So in the end, the doctor gave her the best prescription, was to say, “Well, your son need a break. Maybe he need to quit school and stay at home, rest.”
Ben: Wow.
Robert: Which is good news for me 'cause as a little boy, I hated school.
Ben: Yeah.
Robert: But that good news doesn't take long. Only two days. ‘Cause first day, “Oh, good.” Then you're getting bored at the end of the day 'cause you don't know. This other time, it was very colorful. ‘Cause when it's the time off work, all the other kids are in the community. But when it's school time, they went to school. The adults went to work, and some went to kindergarten, and then I was alone. So it's not so much fun. So for two days, and I was so bored, then I have to find something more interesting…
Ben: You're getting cabin fever. [0:10:17] ______ crazy.
Robert: Right. Staying at home, I snuck out. Then I find some ants, [0:10:25] ______ 40 kinds of ants because it was spring time. Beautiful. Then I could explore more, more further.
Ben: And you're just by yourself, out exploring because you're not in school?
Robert: Yeah. Just boring. Yeah. Find all the [0:10:41] _____ , strawberries. Then not far from my home, there's a wall. Actually it's a resort hotel surrounded by walls.
Ben: In China?
Robert: Yeah. Chinese like walls. Yeah. And…
Ben: I think they've got the biggest one.
Robert: Yeah. You can see it even from the moon, right? But that wall was not that big, of course. High enough to stop us from going freely inside. ‘Cause my family, my hometown was a steer and iron plant. When China and Soviet Union were very close, they sent engineers and built that factory actually. So that resort hotel was hosting the guests at that time. And then when I left, then it was a reception area for the VIPs. That's why an ordinary person, especially the boys and girls are not allowed to get in freely. So we had to go through the gate, but the gatekeeper was very bad. So many times we'd jump, get over the wall and jump inside. Before, we visited there too, but not too deeply.
Ben: By the way, what year was this?
Robert: That was 1972.
Ben: Okay. So back in the early '70s. Gotcha.
Robert: Yeah.
Ben: So you were just a little boy, you were exploring nature, you're not in school.
Robert: Yeah.
Ben: And you were just wandering.
Robert: Yeah, just wandering. The inside, 'cause inside there is much, much more colorful than the others. They have fir trees, they have swimming pools. Like another world. So I like to go there a lot. Then one day I explored deeper and then there's a red brick building and big pipes connecting all the other buildings. This is a boiler room. So I snuck slowly near the door of the boiler room, then I saw a middle-aged man shoveling the cole in there, and that was my master.
Ben: The man shoveling coal?
Robert: Yeah. Well of course we didn't know each other before then. So snuck in, peeping. Then he saw me. He was like, “Oh! You want to watch the fire? Come in!” I think a lot of other boys did the same before me. So he was quite familiar with little boys peeping then. “Come in. Watch the fire. Don't burn yourself.” Then of course we were in a conversation. “Why didn't you go to school?” I said I got sick, stay at home. He looked at me, later, years later I learned the skills of healing, he was doing the healing on me by scanning with the gazing power.
Ben: Just with his eyes?
Robert: Without touching even.
Ben: Interesting.
Robert: So not too long, I was recovered actually. Without noticing it. But of course our conversation was…
Ben: When you say, “Not too long,” do you mean you came back repeatedly to see him over several days, or was it just during that first time you saw him?
Robert: Oh, after that I visited him every single day.
Ben: Oh, wow.
Robert: Actually, when we left…
Ben: What drew you to him? What made him seem so interesting to you?
Robert: I don't know. It's just like maybe, he looked like a middle-aged man, like my age now, but he was already late '80s. So he looked really much younger than his age.
Ben: Right. Perhaps an early adopter of anti-aging and longevity principles.
Robert: Yeah. ‘Cause practicing Qigong, there's so much benefits. One of the main benefits is longevity, anti-aging for sure.
Ben: Anti-inflammatory, lower plasma cortisol, the things that can cause accelerated aging, it actually, very similarly to deep sleep and transcendental meditation, it seems to have very similar effects.
Robert: True. Yeah. And you have you have a very young nature too.
Ben: Right.
Robert: So he's 80 years old, but he likes to have fun many times when he's not teaching me. When he's teaching me, he's serious. Then he has a very, very good childhood, child mood, and he can do a lot of fun things. So that's how we first met. Then when we left, when I left, he said, “Feel free to come anytime.” Then of course I had nothing to do, I go every single day. Later I joke, I say, “You didn't mean when you say this.” It's just greeting right? He didn't know I'm making [0:15:07] ______ . He was laughing. I think it's nearly about several weeks later, he was such a wonderful storyteller. Actually later I went there for the story, more for the story than for the fire at first. And I liked to watch the fire. But after a few weeks, one day from nowhere, he said, “Do you like Wushu?” Wushu means kung fu, martial art in Chinese. I say, “Yeah! Of course!” “Do you want to learn it?” “Of course! Yeah! I have no teacher.” “I can teach you.” Well, before that I had no idea he knows anything. The only thing I observed was that when he shoveled the coal, he was so graceful. Like that big pile of coal in the shovel doesn't look heavy at all.
Ben: And by the way, not to interrupt and go down too deep of a rabbit hole or to make you feel self-conscious, but even just watching you right now as you're talking, your movements are, they are fluid. They are graceful. I've noticed that about you on your videos too. It's almost, dancing isn't quite the best way to describe it, but it's fluidity. Fluidity and grace, which what I've noticed myself after beginning to use these principles more during my workouts, when I'm deadlifting, or breathing, or running. Everything seems more fluid.
Robert: That's right.
Ben: And so you began to study kung fu under this master?
Robert: Yeah. So I started kung fu, or martial art, that's how I started. But when he, or raised, as they, how to do martial arts, he doesn't look like a bulky, big man. He looks ordinary. If he's walking on the street without some other guys, maybe the robber might take him as the victim, which will be very wrong of course.
Ben: He's not like Jean Claude van Damme.
Robert: No. He's like so ordinary. But when he's doing that, he's a powerful martial artist. He could freeze a fierce animal by just, barehand.
Ben: He could freeze a fierce animal?
Robert: Freeze meaning like he could just disable like big bulls.
Ben: You
Ben: You saw him do this to a bull?
Robert: Yeah. Well I saw many other things. He can talk, communicate with many birds and animals spiritually. Used his hand gestures, then he can make the wild animals trained.
Ben: Yeah. This is very interesting. Certainly for those of you who are listening in who are more scientifically bent, more left-brain, there are some definite physiological principles that underlie this related to the heart-brain interaction and the electromagnetic field that the body produces and one living being's ability to influence the field of another living being via their emotions, their movements, et cetera. So some of this is deep in quantum physics and science. But you observed this man do these things and he began to teach them to you?
Robert: Yes. Yeah. When I started martial arts, eagle claws and horse stance, the horse stance is the first exercise…
Ben: Horse stance being a Qigong exercise?
Robert: Yeah. Qigong and martial art. ‘Cause what I have been saying, you practice martial art without Qigong, when you reach to some certain level, it's very hard for you to reach higher. ‘Cause Qigong is a very good base for the martial art. So the horse stance can be a good base. You stand bending, like you're riding a horse, it's very hard. Very hard. ‘Cause this is like…
Ben: You're keeping your hips kind of locked in external rotation.
Robert: Yeah. And he said 20 minutes. Two minutes, you begin to feel burning charcoals on your thighs.
Ben: Right. It wakes up your glues, your external rotators. Absolutely. I've experienced that.
Robert: Yeah. It's challenging.
Ben: It's like an isometric contraction.
Robert: Yeah. It's challenging. So every time when I'm going to do that, I said, “My god, I have to do a horse stance.” But then one day, I was expecting some grueling experience before that, before having the fun exercise. Then a few minutes later after starting horse stance, I got in a trance. It feels as if someone is pulling a stool under my butt. Then it's like you're sitting there without any chair, really. Then I was in a trance. When I come back from my trance, my master was very pleased 'cause he knew that I crossed, you cross one barrier. You're transformed with energy. He said, “You know how long you were there? Four hours.”
Ben: Four hours, standing there in horse stance?
Robert: Four hours, horse stance, no move. Yeah. After that, I began the energy flow along the meridians. It's so strong and then horse stance never a grueling torture but a fun.
Ben: You began to feel more energy flow through your body?
Robert: Yes. And also feel the core here in the lower dantian, which is the lower torso. It's much more anchored.
Ben: And we'll talk about the dantians later on for those of you who haven't heard that phrase before, want to know how to awaken those. And this guy in your book, your “Master Key” where you talk about this story, this is the mysterious Mr. Tan? Is that who this is?
Robert: Yeah. Well his folk name, like his name when we, in our community is Mr. Tan. But his monk name, his Buddhist name is Xiao Yao.
Ben: Xiao Yao?
Robert: Yeah, Xiao Yao.
Ben: Okay. So you studied under him, and at what point did you begin your journey taking a deeper dive into this radial spiritual transformation that you talk about it in the book? Because I know that you did like a hundred-day fast and you moved on, did a lot of things, and I assume this wasn't when you were eight years old.
Robert: That's more than that. Well 'cause I started with martial art, at first it's martial art, martial art. I learned many forms and getting stronger. I sort of like to test or try. Then it happened one day, one of my close friend, the closest friends, he was beaten by some gangs on the street. So I was fighting for, and I got into a street fight. Of course I won, but then I realized, actually I was not so happy to fight with people. I was scared actually. I won, but I was scared to death 'cause I thought policemen would come arrest me and shoot me. And also especially when I have to visit the guy that I beat in the hospital, he was two years older than I. As soon as I entered the room, he was still, still scared. But actually at that moment I have a transformation in my own self. I said, “My god, he's just another boy like me. Why at the moment when I was fighting, I was like a monster? Or he was like a monster in front of me. I just want to kill him.” So I was sympathetic, I was feeling something wrong with me. Of course my mother was very sad, was not happy. My master was very pissed. And the good punishment is to kneel down on a washing board. You know the washing board?
Ben: Yeah, exactly.
Robert: Then leaning against the wall, then you have to kneel down for two hours.
Ben: On a washing board?
Robert: It was very painful.
Ben: That is painful. It's painful on a freaking wooden floor. [0:22:46] ______ a washing board.
Robert: And two hours. Well the pain is nothing. Actually, it was very painful. But the thing I cannot bear was disappointing my master 'cause I was feeling something not so right to fight. I mean a street fight especially. Then later on, not til after that, my master one day said, “What I've taught you all these couple of years is you learn very good base for your Qi grounding. And you can lead either way. One is you keep practicing it. I teach more forms.” He taught me how to use the brooms as a weapon. Chopsticks can stab. He can use a rope, a soft rope, then you put energy in that rope, it begins to tighten.
Ben: Now are these all Qigong practices or is this taking the method of Qigong and applying it to other martial arts when you're doing things like broomsticks and chopsticks?
Robert: Yeah, both. Both. If you just learn the martial art without Qigong, this energy support, it's just the form.
Ben: You don't have the power.
Robert: You don't have the power, yeah.
Ben: It'd be like, well for example, one thing that I do is I play tennis. And I've noticed that now that I'm able to channel some of my energy, I can put more energy into the ball with less effort. And I would imagine, even though I'm not big into boxing and sparring, I've done a little bit of it, that similar concepts would take place when you are fighting.
Robert: That's right.
Ben: You're going to channel this energy. Or striking. Or running. Or turning over the pedals on the bicycle.
Robert: Oh, yes. I have many students, they are martial arts, top martial artists, but when they learn this Qigong, they find that their fist much more penetrative. And other sports too. Like of them are golf players, they do the meditation and then they find they score much better.
Ben: Yeah.
Robert: So it's very good, it's like alloy. You add the energy in your practice, then it's a totally different thing in another way. So that's why Qi practice, or Qi, or Qigong is actually is a lifestyle. It is not something they think, or only monks or some special people are doing in an exclusive place. You can apply it in your daily life.
Ben: Similar to meditation.
Robert: It is meditation.
Ben: It is meditation. That's right.
Robert: Qigong is moving meditation.
Ben: When my boys and I do it, that's exactly what it is. It “counts” as our mediation for that day. Now at what point did you do, because it's kind of interesting. I've had people talk about fasting before on the show. I recently interviewed Dr. Jason Fung who talked about everything from intermittent fasting, to alternate day fasting, to benefits in terms of longevity of caloric restriction and self-control. You did a hundred-day water fast. Is that right?
Robert: Yes, yes.
Ben: Now why did you do that?
Robert: Well it was, actually after deciding to quit martial arts and to do the next road that is more the healing energies…
Ben: And how old were you when you decided to take that route?
Robert: I think I was about 14. That was after my junior high school. It was, when you finish junior high school, I have an entrance exam for the senior high school, and then we have a long break. And at that time, my master returned to the mountain already. The mountain, his monastery. ‘Cause when I met him, he was working as a boiler room attendant. A hermit. Nobody knew he was top martial artist and a legendary healer. I don't know whether you've heard about the Chinese cultural revolution. It started in 1966, ended in '76. We call it “10 Years of Disaster”. ‘Cause at that time, no religion was allowed. So of course he as a monk has no place. The monks were taken over by the villages. So he wandered to my factory to work as a boiler room. But after 1976 has finished, in '79 he was called back to the monastery. So he was rebuilding the monastery. So before that, we were together for about seven, eight years. Almost every single day. A double life. My school life, then my martial art life. Secret. It was secret.
Ben: Your friends didn't know? Did your parents know?
Robert: My parents knew later. For the first two months, I even kept it secret from him. That's number one thing he said, “We practice, we keep it secret.” I was so good to keep it a secret from my parents even. Then my mother, “It's strange,” she said. “This little boy before, so lazy in the morning. Now all of a sudden get up at five o'clock, disappear for a few hours, come back home so hungry. So she was like, “What are you doing?” “Oh, I was jogging.” She was not so convinced. So I told my master, then he said, “Ask your parents to come to see me.” So they went to see him, surprised. Because they never knew each other before. Then they talked for about two hours. I was kept out of the room. Not allowed to get in. Two hours later, they went out. They said, “Go with Master Tan.” So they kept it secret for me too. Until the cultural revolution finished in '76. Then we began to, a lot of things recovered. The Qigong is reaching a high climax in China.
Ben: It's gaining popularity.
Robert: Getting huge popularity. The followers are thousands, millions of them. So he was called back to monastery and rebuild it. So after that, I visit him every year. Like two times in my summer and winter vacation. So it was after that, my junior high school, then break, I went there. He said, “Tomorrow, we do the big one.” Big one means empowerment. ‘Cause he mentioned many times. I was expecting it, but when it comes, really. ‘Cause I know it is a hundred, when you say hundred days, [0:29:26] ______, it means clarifications. ‘Cause for this purpose is three things. [0:29:33] ______ means clear your energy. Clear your body, clear your energy. [0:29:38] ______, concentrate energy. ‘Cause when it's clear, then energy is flowing more smoothly. So anytime you need some energy to your fingertips, the energy all swamps there, doing the healing. So the third part is bring out your potential power. So three steps. Cleansing, concentrate, potential power. A healing of yourself or healing others. So that is three steps. And it's during this hundred days water fast that you can make it very, very pure. ‘Cause ordinary life, you have these distractions, other distractions. Eating all this, it is very hard to get a vacuum, clean things. So that is the purpose. And also spiritually. You can envision a lot of things. You can get so deep insightfulness of what can happen in your life. Like life will have ordinary feelings. We have the feeling of pain, sadness, cold, all this physical or emotional. But when you're doing that mediation, all those feelings will lead to extreme. The pain that you never experience in your ordinary life, you experience there.
Ben: When you are fasting, you mean.
Robert: You are fasting.
Ben: And so if you are lonely, then you would experience a higher degree of loneliness during an extended fast?
Robert: Right.
Ben: Now is the same true for positive emotions, if you're full of positivity like peace, or love, or joy, or gratitude? Would you also amplify those emotions through your extended fast?
Robert: Yes. And it's always going after that you go through this.
Ben: Okay.
Robert: Actually the most difficult one is the itchiness. The itchy, it feels like…
Ben: The itching?
Robert: Itching, yeah. It feels like millions of ants are biting you. But any moment is…
Ben: How many days into a fast do you start to feel itching like that?
Robert: Well it goes through the organs. One organ after another. So every organ is connected with some feelings. Like the first you feel the coldness, then you feel heat, then you feel itchy, then you feel pain. All these kind of things go, and you practice this. And the practice is to actually just challenge [0:31:57] ______. Like the first few times I was not so experienced, meditation is so painful then, I opened my eyes, I just moved my body a little bit, [0:32:09] ______, everything disappears. You still feel okay, but then when you're in deep meditation again, it comes again. Until you really surrender. I said, “Okay, I gave up. Even if I die, I go to hell, I go through it. So the moment you surrender is that you're open totally.
Ben: About how many days into a 100-day fast do you experience something like that?
Robert: For the first, I think 20 or 30 days, all this experience is coming. When you finish this, then it won't come again. If you go through this, then the nirvana comes.
Ben: And this was when you were in junior high?
Robert: Yeah. Junior high.
Ben: There's not many junior high boys who'd do a hundred-day water fast.
Robert: No. It's not easy.
Ben: Just not out of their own volition.
Robert: And it's not only that, you have to have a higher master who can guide you through.
Ben: And so was this guy checking in on you as you went, Mr. Tan?
Robert: He comes to me every single day.
Ben: Okay.
Robert: Every time, it's pitch dark.
Ben: You were in a small, dark room this entire time?
Robert: Yeah. It's actually right under, it's in the basement. The basement of the temple.
Ben: What about your parents?
Robert: Oh, they, no problem. ‘Cause they know I'm visiting him, then they feel…
Ben: Right.
Robert: Yeah. ‘Cause he's like our family member too. Every now and then, he was inviting my family, and we have dinner…
Ben: ‘Cause they knew him and they trusted him.
Robert: They trusted him, and…
Ben: And you were just water. You didn't have any vitamins, or minerals, or anything? Bone broth?
Robert: The first 20 days, three jujubes. You know jujubes? The Chinese dates?
Ben: Yeah.
Robert: Three jujube a day.
Ben: I bet those tasted good.
Robert: Best three meals. After 20 days, just water. The water I can drink as much. And no light. The only light I could see was when he'd come and see me, 'cause you always hold incense. This long incense lit already. So he came, you can only see all this coming, then we talk in the darkness. He taught me in the darkness, meditate. Then when it really, when we reached near the end, it can last about one and a half hour. I think. Or even longer. Then he will go, and then that light, keep going, disappear. That's the only light I could see. Then the last, I think before 15 or 20 days before I finished, he began to bring some juice, and some fruit, and some thin porridge to help me to transition. Actually when I finished, I went out and it was night. So when I went out of the dark chamber, then the second day, I opened my eyes, my are are now so shocked by the light. But that meditation, that experience in the dark room is very risky if you don't have a powerful person. ‘Cause for some time your breathing is so slow, it looked like a dead person. ‘Cause if you put your finger on the nose, you cannot feel the air by breathing because one inhale takes 20 minutes. Exhale 20 minutes. So he's like, we call it small death.
[Music Plays]
Ben: Hey, I want to interrupt today's show to tell you about the best-tasting gently tried superfood powder on the face of the planet. When I talk like this, it makes it sound even better. No, I'm serious. There's this stuff and it goes in my smoothie just about every morning. It's a coconut and ashwagandha infused green juice. It has the following wheat grass juice, horseradish tree, which is also known as moringa. It's like one of the most potent super foods that exist. Spirulina, chlorella, great omega 3 fatty acid sources, even if you're vegan. Matcha green tea leaf, coconut water powder, ashwagandha, did I mention, which is great for reducing cortisol, increasing testosterone. It's got organic red beet root for your blood and turmeric in it. Really cool blend, and it tastes amazing 'cause they don't put a bunch of artificial sweeteners in there. They flavor it with monk fruit, also known as luo han gao, and organic orange flavor, organic mint flavor, organic prebiotic vegetable powder, and organic lemon flavor. So check that out you get a 20% discount on this stuff. You go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/organifi, that's with an “I”. bengreenfieldfitness.com/organifi and use discount code Ben, and that gets you 20% off when you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/organifi and use discount code Ben.
This podcast is also brought to you by one of the most unique biohacks that is tiny and portable and that I travel with all over the world because it gets rid of jetlag like gangbusters. It increases energy levels, it improves mood, it increases mental alertness. And the mechanism of action is that it shines this white light, a calibrated white light into your ears, way different than blue light. And what that does is it interacts with the photo receptors on the interior of the ear. You have these photosensitive proteins on the surface of your brain that you can actually get to through your ears. So it's almost like going out in the sunshine. So it's called the HumanCharger. The HumanCharger. And I'm telling you take, you this thing anywhere on the globe and you can banish jetlag. Kiss it goodbye. But also you get instant energy anytime you need it. Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/humancharger. Just like it sounds, bengreenfieldfitness.com/humancharger and use code Ben20 to save 20% off. That’s bengreenfieldfitness.com/humancharger and use code Ben20.
Ben: Your body, I would imagine, is conserving a great deal of energy by limiting the amount of oxygen it was taking in. ‘Cause you have to produce far less ATP and you have less oxygen.
Robert: Yeah. [0:38:13] ______ big life. ‘Cause this is the total transformation. You touch the bottom. To make a comparison, if you want to clean a pound you want out take all the water, take out all the mud, wash it, then refill the water, then we say, “Totally clean.” That was like that. That's why your body wants to be dead. [0:38:39] ______ like this. So when I was in that [0:38:43] ______, he was with me all the time. All the time 'cause we make sure that the energy is moving smooth, crossed some barriers. ‘Cause otherwise you might be a big death.
Ben: So during that period of your fast, he stayed with you to make sure that you don't die.
Robert: Yeah. It was about seven or eight days I was motionless, just not conscious. But it was beautiful internally. But I didn't know he was beside me, he was guiding me through energetically.
Ben: Amazing. And for people who are listening who might be nervous, there is not a 100-day water fast requirement in your Master Key program. But I've gone through it.
Robert: Yeah. I don't encourage people just doing it on their own 'cause it's not a simple way of just not eating. Some breathing, some exercises helps you to get nutrients from the air. That's why I didn't lose too much weight.
Ben: Helps you get nutrients from the air?
Robert: From the air.
Ben: Now there are some people that, of course, poke a lot fun at this concept of breathatarianism, people who believe they can only survive on air and I don't believe that to be true at all. But tell me about the breathing that allows you to gather more nutrients from air.
Robert: Well there are many breathings, we're born with natural breathing, but the were hundred kinds of breathing. There's one breathing called navel breathing. Navel breathing is way of your breath when you are still inside mother's body 'cause that is the connection with the mother. But the moment when you are cut off the navel cord where you bond, you cry. You cry. And if you don't cry, the doctor, your parents will get worried 'cause that means you're not completed. According to the main energy system, the cry is to open the channels of meridian. The first channel of the meridian is long breathing. That's why we cry to open the long meridian, and large intestine, and stomach, and all of this. 24 hours make a circle. The organ's energy connecting to each other called the meridian is connected to your fingers, to your toes, all this. So this breathing, then combining it with another way, we call it body breathing and some special ways of controlling it, then you're not only breathing through your nose, you're breathing through your skin. Breathing through your hairs. And then something in the air in the oxygen, in oxygen, I don't know scientifically…
Ben: Yeah. This is a concept I'm actually not familiar with. I could see in the same way that, for example, lipids, or oils, or even toxins are absorbed through the skin, that you could absorb air through the skin or certain elements from the air. I also know of this concept whereby, and there was an interesting study that was reported on it on the GreenMedInfo website about how when humans have large amounts of chlorophyll in their system from eating wild plants or dark leafy greens that when sunlight hits your skin, you can actually photosynthesize and create ATP in the absence of calories in a very similar way to the way that a plant would produce energy. And so the idea that one might be able to somehow have an ionic exchange from air or some element of air moving through their skin or through their body just by breathing, it makes some amount of sense that you could at least sustain life for a certain period of time. But that, although, I imagine isn't quite as satisfying as a turkey dinner.
Robert: Of course. But interesting enough is that when I was, that's something before I started big one, the hundred days, my master told me, but I had the same kind of question or doubt to say, “What if I get hungry? What if I'm cravy?” But it's so interesting, I was feeling hungry or craved something to eat only the first few days. Then later, it didn't occur to me that I wanted to eat 'cause you're very satisfied in my stomach. And of course I didn't weigh, but I didn't look like I was losing too much weight.
Ben: You actually see something kind of like this, in everything from the show Naked and Afraid to people who do long 24, 48 plus hours fasts is you get to a point where your body begins to burn very efficiently ketones as an energy source. You start to break down the tens of thousands of calories of storage of adipose tissue that you have in your body, and all of a sudden you become less reliant upon glucose. But the pathway to get there kind of sucks. You're definitely uncomfortable and hungry for a certain period of time before that occurs. When you came out of your hundred-day water fast, was that when you started to begin to experience some of the healing powers that you tapped into?
Robert: Yes. Yeah. That's one of the purposes of my master, to try to sharpen my energy. They call it “zapping”. Zapping is like, well we can try it later after we finish, we can do little mini sessions for you. That kind of feeling is like electricity. I had this when I was a little boy. Before even I met my master. ‘Cause like I have to focus for several minutes, then I press on you fingers, like static electricity. I thought everybody can have this. But actually it is a very special gift. My master must have must have realized this. Then he wanted to train this as my special power. So in this hundred-day water fast, after all that cleansing experience, like I said, when it's cleanse, then the energy is concentrated and the [0:44:50] ______ power is super amplified. So before I have to focus for several minutes, I cannot apply it in my healing. But after that I can feel as like I can constantly go with my mind. I can lead it to your stomach, to your lungs, through the fingers, or through some energy channels. Then the powerful healing can happen. So people that get this can feel refreshed, they can feel, their own potential potential is activated. So in my treatment, I do a little bit of this to activate their own healing power.
Ben: So here in your office where we're at right now, we're sitting at your massage, we actually are recording on your massage table, this is the table one would lie upon and you would actually take your Qi, your energy that is in your own body and you would actually touch people at certain meridian points to “zap them”. Or to cause your electricity to flow into them, your Qi to flow into them?
Robert: Sort of like that. First it's not electricity. ‘Cause someone was saying, “It feels like electricity. Can you light the bulb?” I say, “Why bother for me to light the bulb? Put it in the socket.” So it's not my energy. It's the channeling. It's the transformation of the universal of energies, we're like a medium. We interpret the universal energies in a way that the clients or the patients can receive.
Ben: So if someone came you with, for example, back pain, you would touch them in certain parts of their body to cause that to disappear in a way?
Robert: Well for healing session, it's combined with some body work. We call a Taichi press. We press a lot. This is to make you more settled more relaxed. Then I'll transform some energy and to open up. Because all the problems, or we say disease in terms of energy is the blockages. So whenever the blockages are cleared away, when energy flows right, then healing starts. That's how…
Ben: That's the whole concept behind acupuncture, for example.
Robert: Right. Yeah. So nowadays 'cause, why we call the stress the big killer. Stress is like, someone even said stress is the only factor that cause a disease, which in some way is true because the stress is like a hand holding you here. And this hand doesn't let go. Then your hand becomes numb because you cannot have the energy supply…
Ben: Yeah. ‘Cause of the tension.
Robert: Yeah. The stress is like this. But when you're doing the meditation, we do the healing, the Qigong, or meridian, or acupuncture, whatever, the healing we call it actually is like a pinch on that hand, then that stress release. Then when energy flows well, that's how you're going to heal.
Ben: Is this like that video that I've seen on YouTube where you'll see this, I don't remember the guy's name, it's got millions of views and he'll like come up to people and touch them. And he's in his practice, and their limbs will twitch. Like when he when you touch a certain point, it as though it is like a nerve that he's touching that's causing a limb to twitch. Have you seen this?
Robert: Oh, that…
Ben: It sounds similar to this zapping concept you're talking about.
Robert: From Malaysia, Indonesia.
Ben: Yeah, I think so.
Robert: Yeah. I met the producer from England, I think.
Ben: Yeah, yeah. It was a British show.
Robert: He went to me when I was in Australia. ‘Cause I was in Australia for seven years. One of my organizers called celebrity speaker, his organization organized speaking so I was one of the members. And he was there, then we met. He showed me the video he filmed, [0:48:57] ______.
Ben: Yeah. I don't remember. Someone literally sent that to me like two days ago, and it was perfect timing because I was watching, I also interviewed a guy named Scott Dolly who's a bodywork practitioner back in the US, and I'll link to that podcast episode if you guys want to go listen to it. Just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/peng. I'll hunt down this zapping video too and show it to guys if you want to see what it's looking like. But I want to bring this full circle back to Qi because obviously there's a huge element of this that you don't need to go see a practitioner for, you don't have to use it to fix an injury that you've had, but there's this practice of Qigong that I've personally discovered and began to derive a great deal of benefit from. It's a series of moves, and breathing, and all the things that you demonstrate in your videos, but tell me first of all about what you have discovered as far as the physical or the physiological benefits of this. You mentioned lower cortisol, you mentioned longevity. What other things happen physically when you're practicing the kind of things that you demonstrate in your videos?
Robert: Well the huge scope of the benefits, well basically you'll feel your body more in harmony. So you feel you're young because you, it's such a good harmony and all sort of through the meditations, all the cells, the tissues are like you have a spring cleaning every single day for your room. It's always fresh. So then you're sleeping better. You have more restful sleep and you have a very good mood. So physically you have less pain, you…
Ben: Lower blood pressure…
Robert: Yeah. Lower blood pressure, and a good appetite. In my master's words, they say you have “six No worries”. No worry for eating, meaning you have a good appetite, you have good digestion. No worry toilet is also digestion. You don't have colon things, problems. Clean with the colons. No worry sleeping, you have good energy. No worry energy, meaning that whenever you need to use energies, you can call it. Like say for example today you have, all of a sudden you have an assignment that you have to stay up the whole night. Some people cannot handle it. You can keep your energy high. So all this, and no worry emotions. The emotional balances is actually this is one of the most outstanding things. My master, he was a top monk, but at that time he was down as a boiler room attendant, he has a million reasons to be very angry and resent it. But I've never seen him angry. He was smiling, easy…
Ben: Very zen.
Robert: Very zen, just an easy person. Easy going. While I try to learn a lot, I'm still learning, in this learning process. But I find that is the most beneficial thing for physics. ‘Cause when you are in a very good [0:52:16] ______ you avoid a lot of heart attack. ‘Cause all this is from, it's not just physical. It is emotion.
Ben: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I recorded a very interesting podcast about this.
Robert: Cardiovascular problems and pains…
Ben: In many cases, a heart attack is a combination of stress and poor minerals and hydration. It's a one-two combo.
Robert: That's right. And fatigue. Many things, many things. I have people, they suffer depression, severe depression, fatigue, chronic fatigue syndromes.
Ben: So if someone wants to begin with kind of like awakening their Qi power and feeling Qi if they haven't done it before, there's all sorts of things that you demonstrate and I know that a lot of this is more conducive to someone like watching one of your videos versus audio, but you talk about sword finger, and you talk about creating a Qi ball, and you talk about awakening your dantians by touching your third eye and feeling that light, and touching the middle dantian in the chest and feeling the light, and the lower dantian, and my kids even got to the point where they just did a Spartan race, they did a mini Spartan race. And before they started, I came up on them, they were both standing facing each other, touching their upper, their middle, and their lower dantians. And they were doing that because they learned in your video about how you want to have balance between all three, you want a strong head, your upper dantian, a strong mind. You want to strong kind of core, chest, your love dantian. You want a strong vitality, your lower dantian, and you want to be kind of firing on all cylinders. And I know in your video you kind of teach how to awake each of those dantians, and my kids were doing that before their race which brought joy to my heart to see them tapping into that. But for someone who just wants to get started with their first Qigong exercise, what exercise do you think is best for some of the first awaken that Qi power?
Robert: Well, to awaken the Qi power in a way of game way, I mean to arouse interest, changing brandy is very interesting.
Ben: Changing the taste of brandy.
Robert: Yeah. Changing the taste of brandy. ‘Cause to do that, you don't have to be very powerful with the Qi. As long as you follow the procedures that I introduce, then you focus, 'cause everybody has Qi. Everybody has Qi. Just now you mentioned the dantian. “Dan”, D-A-N, means elixer. “Tian”, T-I-A-N, means field. Elixir field. So I have three dantians. Upper dantian in your chest, middle dantian in your heart, lower dantian in your lower torso. They collect different kinds of energy. The one, upper dantian collects energies of wisdom. So when the energy here is strong, you feel like you are guided. It's not logical, but anything happens, you make a decision, you feel as if it is guided. You make the right decision more likely. It's like you have good GPS, right? They're always guiding in the general right direction. As we call it, this is center of wisdom. And the center, when energy is strong and well here, you have good decisions. You have good intelligence. Otherwise you get very confused. Yeah, very confused. Like [0:55:41] ______ get malfunctions. That is the upper dantian.
The middle dantian collects energy associated with the feeling, feeling loved and feeling you are more capable of giving love like you have a Buddha heart. But when it's very weak, then this Buddha heart becomes like a thin glass, easy to be a broken heart. A little shake, it's broken. So always carry the broken heart, you feel more likely to be the victim of where you are or who you are. Some people always complain. Actually in terms of energy here is too weak, they feel vulnerable. Even people beside him or her sneeze, then it's nothing to do with you, but you will find the changes. Why do you sneeze? What do you mean? Well if I know this change [0:56:26] ______ miserable. That is because here is not so well developed with Qi. We call it middle dantian, will of love. The lower dantian, lower torso, they collect energies to give you more vitality. When Qi is strong here, you're like a juicy fruit. Like you don't feel tired easily. If you feel tired, you go sleep very quickly, and you rest. You have very good rhythm of go and rest. But when here energy is so weak, then that energy is very weak, then you need to rest, you have time, you cannot. And when you need energy you are not high enough. So all this is are the main three energy centers that actually we cultivate. We cultivate. So you asked me about the good practice, we have hologram palm empowerment to practice each one of them.
Ben: The hologram palm empowerment, yeah.
Robert: ‘Cause the interesting thing is that someone can be very developed in one of the dantian, then the other is very weak. That is the time we begin to feel the imbalance. So for example you may have upper dantian very strong, very developed, but middle dantian under-developed. So what is this person like?
Ben: And so in that case, you would like be very, you'd have a good strong mind but you wouldn't have a lot of love, or caring, or compassion.
Robert: Yeah, you won't if you don't have enough.
Ben: So you're basically like a smart [censored]?
Robert: Or they feel depressed. I have quite a lot of clients, they're very successful. Millionaire, multimillionaire, but they feel depressed. They don't feel happy. People won't understand this. “You have everything, why are you not happy?” Everything but a good heart. And a good heart…
Ben: And what about, you could have like a strong middle dantian and be happy and be full of love, but for example like a weak lower dantian, not have vitality, or courage, or bravery.
Robert: Yeah. The lower dantian also has another big power is that you're, firmness. Like if you have a very big heart but lower dantian is weak, many spoiling mothers are like that type. So what happens? They sacrifice everything, but in the end their children are treating them like a doormat. It's because why? They're pouring their energy of love, they lose the power of vitality core. Then their firmness is shattered. Or if you have a very big heart but upper dantian is weak in your head, if you have this kind of neighbor or friend, they can be very lovely but annoying maybe. They might knock at your door at midnight, waking you up from deep sleep and telling you how to cope with your insomnia.
Ben: Yeah. It's funny. And reading about the imbalances, because honestly if you think about it, there's six different imbalances you can be in, and the seventh which would be a strong upper, middle, and lower dantian, I've began to be able to identify, in myself for example, I'm relatively strong upper and relatively strong lower, but I need to work on my love, and my empathy, and my caring more. And I've noticed that when I'm doing this palm empowerment of the three dantians, and I believe that's what, you call it “the three treasures” exercises. Is that the one?
Robert: Yeah. Three treasures is putting them together.
Ben: Oh, no. Yeah. That's right. “Four golden wheels“. Is that the one where you're waking the three dantians?
Robert: The exercise in my book, I have a different focus. One hologram palm empowerment is more like a sharpener. You have some problem here, you don't have to practice all the time. You just sharpen it. Hologram palm of upper dantian, middle dantian, lower dantian, central meridian practice to hold them together. ‘Cause central meridian is a very, very, very important channel. It goes from top head to the perineum, shooting down to connect the Earth Qi, which is more grounding and motherly, and going up, connect with the Heaven Qi, which is more expansive and wiring. And they cross three dantians. So you are like an organic part of the Qi. Otherwise it's [1:00:48] ______, no matter how developed they are, they're not in one unit.
Ben: So you always finish your hologram palm empowerment by ensure that you're grounded to the Earth?
Robert: Through central meridian, yeah.
Ben: And that energy is passing from the Heaven down through your body?
Robert: Yes. Or you do a simple exercise called three treasures standing meditation. That is a practice. 15 minutes.
Ben: Yeah. It's not very long. And you have audios too. I keep those in my MP3 player. What I did, and this is what I recommend to people listening in, I read your book to kind of learn the story and to study up on what Qigong is, and now I'm going through the videos so that I can see what each exercise from the three treasures to the four golden wheels looks like, and my goal is to be able to get to the point where I can just use your audios when I'm travelling and not have to see the video.
Robert: You got my purpose, actually.
Ben: So that's kind of the way that I've stacked things. And I'll link to your book, and your videos, and your audios in the show notes because again, for those of you listening in, a lot of these things, you need to kind of see and go through slowly, and I just want to introduce you at least to this concept. So you like that idea of if someone hasn't done Qigong before, just learning how to awaken their upper, their middle, and their lower dantian using something like three treasures and four golden wheels would be the place to start?
Robert: Four golden wheels is the good one. ‘Cause four golden…
Ben: Four golden wheels.
Robert: Yeah. Some people, standing meditation's been challenging if they have never done meditation or standing meditation before. Four golden wheels is a movement practice. It's a lot of fun and it's also easy.
Ben: My kids actually like it. They…
Robert: Yeah. The shaking, they love the shaking.
Ben: They like the shaking. They like, and I was doing, before I read your book, I used to shake for about five minutes each morning. I learned that from a Navy SEAL commander named Mark Divine. He told me every morning wakes up, he does the Qigong shaking. So I started doing it and you feel the nitric oxide coming out your fingertips and feel this awakening of energy and blood flow, and it's great for bowel movement, and lymph fluid, and all sorts of things. But what my kids like is that when we're doing the empowerment, your hologram empowerment where you pull the pearl of light out the upper and you move that around, and you move to your middle and to your lower, a lot of times they're describing their light, “Dad, it's a firefly. It's a great ball of fire.” One of my sons the other day told me it was like a somersaulting hedgehog or something like that. They come up with all these crazy cool ideas. But it's fun to see them experience that energy. So four golden wheels, and for those you listening in, I'll put a link to kind of like a YouTube demonstration of that as well in the show notes. But another question that I have for you Robert is in terms of a practice, yoga would be like whatever, you might do a 60 minute yoga session three times a week, or for weight training you might do 30 to 45 minute weight training session two to three times per week. For something like Qigong, is there a way to practice it that is best? Like is it best to do tiny amounts each day? Is it best to do like one of your longer 45 to 60 minute sessions and just do that on like a weekend? How do you recommend, for people with limited time, to be able to implement Qigong into their lives?
Robert: Yeah. Well it depends on the different people. Someone, of course if you can commit longer, I recommend at least half an hour. But someone, they don't even have that much time. 10 minutes is enough for your daily practice. If you want to say, “I just want to have Qigong for my sense of well-being. I don't want to be a Qigong practitioner, I don't want to be a Qigong healer, I just want to have good benefit Qigong. 10 minutes is enough.
Ben: And when you're doing those ten minutes, what is it that you would do? Like how would you kind go through a week? Would I do, for example on the morning of a Monday, do my upper dantian, and on the morning of a Tuesday my middle, and Wednesday a lower?
Robert: Yeah. It's good you make a plan, like you make a plan for a week or for a month, then you find one that you want to try to start first. It's hard for me just tell which one is the best one for any individual, but like say hologram palm empowerment for upper dantian, I want to do it for about a month. So every day you can do about a month. Then of course at the weekend, you can combine it with some other exercises to make it in one hour or 30 minutes. But every day, you can do about 10 minutes to refresh it. And very important one is not 10 minutes, is 24 hours a day. Then you'll say, “How can I do that?” It's called nourishing Qi. In my book I didn't put, that's what I want to do in my second edition, to make nourishing's part more reached in my book. I didn't put too much effort on talking about that. But in my interview with Tami Simon, it sounds, my Qigong ecstasy reading, or on my YouTube, I have an interview with her. I talked the whole one hour talking about…
Ben: On how did you Qigong for 24 hours a day?
Robert: Yeah.
Ben: Give me a glimpse of this. Are you talking about similar to a water fast where you're literally focused [1:06:01] ______ ? You just kind of like carrying the Qi power with you throughout the day. Like when I ride my back up through New York City today, focusing on channeling my Qi…
Robert: No. There are two ways. That's what my master, even it frustrated me. ‘Cause his way of teaching is you do this without telling you first. Then I try to figure out what is that. He said, “You should do 24 hours a day.” I said, “How can I?” “Do that.” He said, “Just do it. Don't ask.” Then he frustrated me for about a month, then one day he just used one minute to tell me, I remember it forever. He called it “ripen the melon”. Watermelon, you ripen it before, before it is ripened, you take it and it still sticks there. But then you wait until it ripen, click! You go! So he waited until I really got frustrated, really easy to understand, then he said, “And now you're working hard practicing, but you need to nourish your Qi. You need to allow the Qi to work for you instead of you are driving the Qi around everywhere. ‘Cause when you're practicing, actually you're manipulating the Qi. You're moving the Qi, upper dantian, all this, this is the work. Then afterwards, you should allow the Qi to get its own will to work inside your body. How to? He said, “First, always dantian.” He's just amazed about dantian, but when we said dantian without specifically saying which part, it always refers to lower dantian in lower torso. It's still not possible for you to think about lower dantian all the time. He said, “Anytime you are aware that you are a Qigong practicioner, think about your lower dantian. “
Ben: Why is that? Why the lower? Why is it so much more important, your lower dantian compared to your middle or your upper?
Robert: Lower dantian is the lowest among your three dantians, so it's also like a warehouse. They store all the energy. So anytime you say, like after we talk, I put my hands on [1:08:20] ______ , I'm not only thinking, anyway that you can treat or [1:08:24] ______ on your lower dantian, you can tap on your lower dantian, push in on your lower dantian, think about lower dantian, or even say “Good morning, dantian.” So the more frequent you greet your lower dantian, the more refreshed you made your Qi. So you make Qi home, then the Qi generate. So the more authentic ways that Qi works you.
Ben: And what would be an example of how going throughout the day you can keep that lower dantian activated?
Robert: Yeah. You say now when I'm talking, every now and then I put my hands on the lower dantian.
Ben: I've noticed that. So you're actually connecting with you…
Robert: Yeah. Or here's another way to make [1:09:03] ______, thinking of your lower dantian as your holy baby. You have to twin sons…
Ben: I have twin boys. I didn't give birth to them, but I witnessed it.
Robert: Although you are so far away, you're now here in New York, they are in Washington, everything, your spirit, it's connecting that all. No. Spirit is never disconnected. ‘Cause anytime…
Ben: Yeah. No, I believe it is connected, yeah.
Robert: Yeah. It is connected. So anytime, you have some time, you take the pictures or you think about them, that is the way, how you treat your little dantian. So you and the Qi are constantly interactive. That's what we call nourishing your Qi. That can make your Qi always simmering inside of you.
Ben: There's a lot of physiological benefits to that as well in terms of digestion, bowel movements, your gut-brain axis, a lot of things that are related to the way that you look, and you feel, and you perform the rest of the day when you take that invisible energy that you can feel flowing to your body and be able to direct it. My personal physician back home is, he's an Eastern medicine practitioner who does acupuncture when I visit him. And now I'm doing Qigong each night with my boys and I'm tapping into the power of gratitude each morning by doing gratitude journaling. And I'm realizing that when you have a strong fit body, that's not enough. And when you're biohacking your brain or you're studying, and researching, and teaching, that also is not enough. You have to a strong body, a strong mind, and a strong spirit. And I think that Qigong is perfect for that.
Robert: It's integrating that. Yeah, it's true.
Ben: And your video, your Master Key video, your Master Key audios, and your Master Key book, for those of you listening in, I tried it, a lot of resources, and Robert's were the first ones that actually made sense, and I know that you practice what you preach, and your story which you tell in detail in the book, is fascinating. And so…
Robert: I'm just curious, how did you get to know my practice?
Ben: Do you really want to know what I did? This is the way that I do a lot of things. I will order about ten different things off of Amazon from 10 different experts and I'll go through them and read the previews, read the table of contents, read the chapters, usually this is to Kindle, so I'm just sending the samples. And the one that resonates with me the most, the one that I find most interesting, and that's the book that I'll actually purchase and read in full. And then from there all delve into that person and just follow that one person like a horse with blinders, kind of ignoring what the other people say.
Robert: Really? That's how you found me?
Ben: That's how I found you was I downloaded a preview of your book on Amazon along with about nine others, and yours was the most compelling, most interesting, and the most educational I guess when it comes to this stuff. So I'll link to that in the show notes. For those of you listening in, go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/peng. That's bengreenfieldfitness.com/PENG. And in the show notes there, I will not only link to some of Robert's books, and audios, and videos, but also his YouTube channel, I'll find you a video of that four golden wheels exercise, I'll link to my previous podcast episode with Scott Dolly where we talk about a bit about creating Qi balls and all sorts of interesting things. And then also perhaps I'll even throw a good link to some Kung Fu Tea resources out there for those of you listening in. Robert, thanks for letting me come and invade your office and arrive sweaty after riding a bike through New York…
Robert: You're more than welcome! It's such an honor. It's such a pleasure to meet you personally. When you sent the invitation, of course I began to study, and then they said [1:12:46] ______ such a great talent to make things all happening together around you, and you're creating your own powerful community. That's good talent.
Ben: Well my hope is that I find things that really make people's lives better, and reveal that to the world. So you've been a great help with that today. Thanks for coming on the show, man.
Robert: Thank you very much, Ben. Thank you.
Ben: Alright. Cheers.
Robert: Cheers!
Robert Peng is a world-renowned Qigong Master, healer, and author of “The Master Key: Qigong Secrets for Vitality, Love, and Wisdom” book, CD and DVD series.
Robert was born and raised in Hunan, China. At age eight, he began an intensive apprenticeship under the close guidance of the legendary monk Xiao Yao, an enlightened master known for his profound healing ability and martial arts skill.
At age fifteen, Robert performed a 100 day water fast in a small dark room at a secluded monastery in the remote mountains of Hunan province. He underwent a radical spiritual transformation and awakened amazing healing powers.
Master Xiao Yao encouraged Robert to develop his healing skills by studying with other Chinese masters. He pursued his training quietly while attending university in Changsha where he majored in English Literature. When he was twenty-nine years old, he began to teach publicly, and within five years he had trained over 150,000 students all over China.
With his deep understanding and practice of this ancient Chinese healing art of Qigong, and with extensive life and teaching experience in the western world, Robert has developed a unique way to teach Qigong that people from different culture can easily understand and follow but meanwhile still enjoy the real essence of this ancient Chinese art of wisdom, love and vitality.
In 1997, Robert was invited to relocate to Australia. Seven years later, he moved to New York City. And it was to his New York City offices where I traveled – all the way from Washington State – for a personal one-on-one deep dive into Qigong with the man himself, Robert Peng.
During the fascinating discussion that ensued, you'll discover:
-Why Robert went form severe pain at eight years old to discovering the mysterious “Mr. Tan”…[8:22]
-How Robert's master stopped a raging bull with his bare hands…[16:55]
-Why Robert held “horse stance” in a trance for over 4 hours…[18:35]
-What he discovered during a 100 day water fast in a small dark room and his radical spiritual transformation that occurred afterwards…[25:35]
-How to gather nutrients with the way that you breathe…[39:30]
-How Robert “zaps” people with healing powers…[43:40]
-Research into the physical benefits of Qi Gong, like anti-aging, lower cortisol and lower blood pressure…[46:50]
-The six emotions that humans worry about, and how Qi Gong addresses each…[49:45]
-The first exercise you should do if you want to experience Qi or “awaken Qi power” if you have never have done Qi Gong before…[54:03]
-The three dantians and the different types of imbalances that can arise if your dantians are not all strong…[59:55]
-How you can “secretly” practice Qi Gong 24 hours a day…[65:15]
-And much more!
Resources from this episode:
-Book: The Master Key: Qigong Secrets for Vitality, Love, and Wisdom
–All Robert Peng's “Master Key” titles on Amazon
–My podcast with “The Scraper” Scott Dolly
–The” Zapping” video (Robert Peng zaps Australian Prime Minister)
Show Sponsors:
-Organifi – Go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com/organifi and use discount code BEN for 20% off your order!
-HealthGains – Text the word “GAIN” to 313131 to receive a $250 voucher toward your HealthGAINS treatment.
-Human Charger – Just go to HumanCharger.com/ben and use the code BEN20 for 20% off.
Robert Peng told me you have a 50% off code for his 14 week course. The course starts this Saturday and would appreciate if you could let me know what it is so i can save the money.
THANKS