Returning to Your Wild Nature: The Power of Heng Ha

"If you want to heal, you have to be wild." Teacher Wei Qifeng

At Teacher Wei's recent retreat in Burlingame, California, there was what I can only describe as "the wild day"—a day when things got beautifully and powerfully wild as we explored one of the most important teachings in Zhineng Qigong: returning to our true nature.

And what is our true nature? It's our wild nature. It's what Teacher Wei calls our "baby heart"—that pure, unconditioned essence that existed before we learned to squeeze ourselves into the boxes of social acceptability.

Teacher Megan Kaun's recent "Wild Nature" Qi Science class:

Beyond Social Programming

When Teacher Wei speaks of returning to our wild nature, he's not advocating for unconscious, reactive behavior. True wildness isn't about acting out carelessly or impulsively.

Real wildness is returning to our true self, our original "baby heart". It's releasing the control we've imposed on ourselves to constantly follow social norms and morality. Now, this doesn't mean social structures are inherently bad—they help organize our systems and provide useful guidelines. But Teacher Wei points out something crucial: we often use social morality to control each other, and more importantly, to control ourselves.

The problem arises when we become so fixated on social norms that we equate following them perfectly with being a good person. This creates a constant state of judgment—of ourselves and others—which inevitably generates negative emotions and blocks our natural flow.

As Teacher Wei boldly stated: "If you want to heal, you have to be wild."

The Cost of Staying Tame

When we suppress our wild nature out of fear—fear of criticism, fear of ruffling feathers, fear of not being accepted—we don't just lose access to our authenticity. We also block our true potential, including our "super abilities."

Think about the incredible physical feats humans can accomplish—extraordinary athletic performances, acrobatic marvels, moments of seemingly impossible strength or agility. These emerge when we transcend our conditioned limitations and tap into our natural power. When we consistently prioritize social acceptability over authentic expression, we cut ourselves off from this wellspring of potential.

Surrendering to our wild nature isn't just about personal freedom—it's about breaking old patterns, dismantling blockages, and opening up our creativity. It's about trusting ourselves and the universe enough to know that we'll respond appropriately in each moment, even if our actions might not always be socially conventional.

Enter the Generals: Heng Ha Practice

During the wild day at the retreat, Teacher Wei emphasized our practice of Heng Ha.

Heng and Ha are known as "the two generals"—and if military terminology makes you uncomfortable, as it initially did me, consider this: these generals represent incredibly powerful forces that reside inherently within us. They have the energetic capacity to manage and flow the energy of 100,000 soldiers. Imagine the executive presence, the energetic bandwidth, the ability to navigate complexity and conflict that would require. That's the kind of power we're talking about accessing within ourselves with our Heng Ha practice.

You'll often see statues of Heng and Ha flanking the entrances to temples—guardians that keep negative forces at bay. In our practice, they serve a similar function, protecting us from what Teacher Wei playfully calls "the devils"—our internal blockages and limitations.

Heng corresponds to the lower dantian. When we practice Heng, we go down energetically, opening blockages in our foundational energy center. The Heng general is depicted with his mouth closed, representing this downward, gathering energy.

Ha works with the upper dantian, specifically the Shen Ji Palace. When we practice Ha, we move energy upward, clearing blockages in our higher energy centers. The Ha general has his mouth open, expressing this upward, releasing energy.

Heng and Ha, the two generals

The Practice of Getting Wild

At the retreat, Teacher Wei organized us into groups and issued a challenge: Be as wild as you can. How loud can you get? How crazy can you be when pracicing Heng Ha?

What followed was... well, it got intense. We were really trying to access that untamed part of ourselves, to use our full acoustic capacity, to embody our inner wildness. We thought we were being pretty wild.

Then Teacher Wei demonstrated how it's really done. His Heng Ha reverberated throughout the entire room in a way that made our attempts seem, frankly, still quite tame. The sound didn't just fill the space—it seemed to move through all of us, clearing blockages simply through the power of authentic expression.

This is the key to Heng Ha practice: you're not straining your voice or forcing sound from your throat. You're leveraging your acoustic capacity starting in the Lower Dantian to move energy through your entire being. You're embodying your inner generals—those powerful forces capable of dismantling whatever limits you.

Teacher Wei mentioned that initially, you might feel some strain in your throat area. This isn't cause for concern—it's actually the opening of that energy center. With practice, you develop the capacity to flow this energy freely without strain.

The Invitation to Wildness

Returning to your wild nature means remembering that you have a full toolbox of authentic responses available. You can be sweet and soft when the moment calls for it, but you're also not afraid to take decisive action—even to say strong words or make strong actions if truly needed—when the situation requires it. This isn't about aggression; it's about having access to your full range of natural responses.

In our mingjue (pure consciousness) state, we can trust ourselves to know what's needed in each moment. We don't have to constantly check our responses against external standards of acceptability. We can act from our baby heart, our wild nature, our truest self.

This is what Teacher Wei means when he says that accessing our wild nature is "healing at the root." It's not about seeing something we don't like and cutting it out—it's about transforming the fundamental habits and patterns that created the limitation in the first place.

This is what being constrained by the box of social norms looks like

The Courage to Be Authentic

Returning to your wild nature requires courage. It means you might ruffle some feathers. You might face criticism from those who prefer the predictable, tamed version of you. But consider this: how much of your life force have you spent trying to fit into boxes that were never meant to contain your full essence?

Your wild nature isn't something to be feared—it's something to be celebrated and reclaimed. It's the part of you that existed before you learned to apologize for taking up space, before you learned to shrink to make others comfortable, before you forgot that your authentic expression is a gift to the world.

The practice of Heng Ha gives us a concrete way to reconnect with this power. Through sound, through vibration, through the full embodiment of our energetic capacity, we remember what it feels like to be unrestrained, authentic, and powerfully alive.

Your baby heart is waiting. Your wild nature is calling. The only question is: are you ready to answer?

The fierce lion within us all