"Enjoy Self, Love Self"

What I'm taking home from Teacher Wei's 2025 Retreat

By Megan Kaun

Last week, I had the profound honor of supporting Zhineng Qigong Teacher Wei's/The World Consciousness Community's (TWCC's) first-ever retreat in the United States at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, California.

Like many spiritual journeys, I arrived carrying burdens, struggling with triggers of rejection and finding it difficult to find my clear, independent mingjue state that is the foundation of our practice. How inconvenient!

I admit that I was expecting some sort of magic (aka healing) at the retreat. I did not expect that it would be a turn of phrase that Teacher Wei says all of the time that would transform my understanding of safety, trust, and freedom.

"Enjoy self, love self."

Sometimes the most profound wisdom needs to meet us at exactly the right moment.

The Gateway of Enjoyment (N-n-n Joy!)

What I've been playing with is a process, an alchemical pathway that begins with this fundamental instruction to "enjoy self, love self." When we're triggered or disconnected from "true self" or mingjue, self-love can feel distant. How do we bridge that gap?

The answer, I found, can begin in the body.

When I feel uncentered, I've been practicing finding something—anything—to enjoy about being in this body. It might be the comforting warmth of sunlight on my skin, the gentle expansion of my lungs as I breathe, or a warm feeling in my heart. There is always something available to enjoy through our sensorial experience, no matter how small.

Jennifer Posada, whose work deeply explores self-love, speaks to this embodied approach in her book "The Oracle Within." She describes self-love not as an abstract concept but as "a physical experience of delight in your own being." This resonates with what I've been exploring—that enjoyment creates a bridge to love, particularly when we direct that enjoyment inward.

"The body," Posada writes, "is not separate from the sacred—it is the very temple through which we experience it." When we find something to enjoy about our embodied experience, we open the door to genuine self-love.

From this state of enjoyment, the leap to loving myself becomes much more accessible. Self-love isn't just a nice addition to our spiritual practice—it's the foundation for all of our healing and awakening.

"Trust Self"

The second step I've been playing with came during one of Teacher Wei's teachings on trust. So I started saying to myself:

"I am mingjue trust."

Before the retreat, I caught myself seeking safety in external circumstances—being surrounded by loving people, controlling my environment, avoiding triggers. I was looking outward for what can only be found within. Teacher Wei spoke extensively about the critical importance of trust at the retreat—trusting your healing process, trusting your body's wisdom, trusting the consciousness field and its infinite love for you, and trusting the reference framework of "qi science". Most importantly, Teacher Wei emphasized trusting that you are exactly where you need to be, doing exactly what you need to do—even when you're not in your pure mingjue state.

In other words, our practice is not about perfection; it's more about unconditional love and trust.

I realized that true safety doesn't come from controlling my surroundings or ensuring everyone treats me kindly. True safety comes from an unshakable trust in myself. When I trust myself completely, I am always safe, no matter what external circumstances arise.

As Teacher Wei explained, from this place of self-trust, it simply doesn't matter if someone likes you or dislikes you, praises or criticizes you, accepts or rejects what you do. None of it threatens your safety when you're acting from your pure "baby heart" and trusting yourself completely.

Freedom

The third step emerged naturally for me from this foundation of self-love and self-trust:

"I am mingjue freedom."

This is where the transformation happens. When we love ourselves genuinely and trust ourselves completely, we step into an infinite world of freedom: freedom from fixations, freedom from triggers, freedom from anything that would limit or control the expression of our true essence.

This understanding connects beautifully with the complete mingjue mantra, the mantra of the clear observer: "I am mingjue love, I am mingjue peace, I am mingjue happiness, I am mingjue gratitude." These aren't just affirmations; they're invitations to embody unconditional virtues that arise naturally in the pure awareness state. The mingjue mantra IS the reference framework of our "qi science" practice.

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The three-step process I've been playing with since the retreat —enjoy self/love self, trust self, and access freedom—creates a pathway from my separate self to my essential interconnected essence and back again.

The gift of this practice is that it begins wherever we are. Even in our most triggered, disconnected moments, we can find something to enjoy about our embodied experience. From that enjoyment springs self-love. From self-love emerges self-trust. And from self-trust blossoms freedom—the freedom to be our most authentic selves.

If our purpose as humans here on earth is to become the truest expression of our essence, then finding this freedom isn't just beneficial—it's essential.

I led a group through this simple process in a recent practice group. You can check out the video here. Let me know what you think!

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Megan Kaun is a certified Zhineng Qigong Healer and Teacher in the Hearts Rooted Collective. For more information about Megan, her offerings, and her work, visit her website at www.IntoTheHumm.com.

Megan Kaun at the 2025 TWCC Retreat with the "Dragon Oak".