Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

CHI ART is a term coined by Grand Master Chi Jen Liu to describe his special paintings. True to the nomenclature, his paintings are essentially the "art of energy." Grand Master Liu paints them for the sole purpose of creating balance between personal, feng shui, and cosmic dimensions. Chi Art is a meditation expressed in a visual form. Looking upon the mantra charms, diagrams, and symbols stimulates your subconscious mind, triggering subtle, yet deep states of transformation.

According to feng shui philosophy, everything is made of energy and everything around us has a frequency. Your body has an energy field that registers as frequency and your brain emits measurable frequency waves.

These ideas are most often communicated in spiritual and non-scientific terms, however in recent years, neurological studies with Tibetan monks have provided substantial science that shows clear evidence of what ancient sages have known for centuries: that meditation can alter the brain’s functions and create a heightened state of awareness, which greatly increases your happiness and productivity.

High monks with 10,000-50,000 hours of meditation practice over 15-40 years were tested against college students who were recently taught how to meditate. "What we found is that the longtime practitioners [Tibetan monks] showed brain activation on a scale we have never seen before," said Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin’s new $10 million W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. "Their mental practice is having an effect on the brain in the same way golf or tennis practice will enhance performance." This demonstrates that the brain is capable of being trained and physically modified.

In particular, the monks showed extremely high gamma wave activity while in meditation. Gamma waves are one of the highest brain frequencies and an indicator of high mind focus, alertness, exceptional memory, peak performance in learning, and an increased capacity for experiencing happiness and compassion. The college students who were untrained in meditation showed little or no gamma wave activity while meditating. Even in a non-meditating state, the monks showed higher than normal gamma brain waves because of the training their brains received in meditation.

To increase gamma brain activity in ancient times, feng shui masters, Taoists, and seekers of self-realization would retreat to caves that were isolated from cities to meditate and cultivate mind power. Sacred caves are known for their high concentrations of the earth’s geomagnetic frequencies and the power of the crystals and minerals within. Seen as the internal spaces of Mother Earth, meditating in a cave is symbolic of "going within the self."