Stormer,
Here's some suggestions from fellow student (and we are all novices and learning! Even Master LIn is always learning. IT is one of the reasons I love him so much):
It is not so critical. It is simply just thinking of energy to help yourself move it. It is moving anyway and it is a way to get your mind, body and breathing all kind of focused and together.
You can think of it anyway that works for you. This is not really about a specific direction or place.
Actually, your image of a column of energy surrounding your body is a nice one. I think that Master Lin is talking more about a column of energy INSIDE your body filling the torso from head to bottom of torso. However, he says, "The size of the column depends on your visualization". I have asked him about this, as well as other coaches, both here at LS and at the SFQ CEnter. THey have all told me basically the same thing: it is what will work best for you in terms of focus, feeling the energy, relaxing etc.
ANd remember, SFQ has no "bad" or "wrong". There is no harmful effects here no matter what you do, there is only "good, better, best".
But since you asked, here is how I understand it in terms of "good, better, best", as a teacher and student of SFQ myself:
"Best" is just feeling the energy and/or going into the emptiness, no special thoughts, just feeling it and being there.
"Better" The message, signal, information is simply "I am healing, my channels are open, I feel good and using the visualization of a column of energy filling your torso from the bottom to the top of the head. It can also surround you. When you move the energy it is just following your hands, or visa versa, whatever you feel or think, just trust that.
Still "good" is to worry about it and be concerned!
THere is no "rocket science" to this. IF there is anything that over rides all other things, it is to give yourself a good message and signal: this feels good, I am healing, channels open. And/or with visuals and/or sound and/or smell and/or feel or whatever works best for you.
And the more that you just relax into the movement and posture, the more you WILL feel the energy.
Master Lin says that is the best. THe visual is just to help people feel the energy, because some people cannot feel it moving, especially at first. So, by using visualization, it helps the feeling. And/or visa versa.
It does not have to go around the channels in your visuals, it can simply just go up and down.
One visualization I like to fit this exercise (and feel free to use it if it helps you), is I visual the column first in a single color, different colors for different sessions, depending on what comes to me first (lately I have been using bright green, like in the comic book super hero, Green Lantern. Just a bright, ray of green about the same size as my body filling it up and spilling over to shine out a bit from my body.
Then as my hands move, I visualize a ball of energy about the size of a tennis ball in each palm, either a different color or just white or whatever. I visualize the balls of energy in each hand and I am rolling them up and down the column on energy all inside my body.
The basic intention of Master Lin, I am pretty sure is to move energy INSIDE your body, just as you KNOW you are moving energy OUTSIDE your body, since your hands are moving outside your body.
However, in many forms of qigong, including SFQ, the hands are seen almost like magnets that can ALSO move energy INSIDE the body. So, the visualization is simply to help you know, feel, sense, whatever verb you like that there is energy moving inside your body and you are helping it.
The moving of Yin and Yang is kind of like an "energy massager" inside your body. Move the energy in whatever pattern direction, etc you feel will best fit your hands, your body, your mind and the direction the hands are moving in.
I have sometimes visualized it as moving around the Small UNiverse while doing this: whichever hand is moving up is moving it up my back and then as it moves down, it moves it down the front inside my body. Not stopping like in the meditation, just moving along those channels. Other times, I just move it up and down, and the energy balls are even bigger, maybe the size of balloons or even volley balls, taking up the entire width of the column. And they are transparent and made of light, so they can pass through each other, just as they can pass through everything else inside my body, still healing and cleansing and opening channels as they go.
Remember, the most important thing is it perfectly "good" to be concerned about the "perfect" way to do this.
You are doing fine by caring and that is the most important part: your intention!
And even better to just let it go and get into it and play with it, while still having that focused intention and attention. A spirit of play can be much better in this.
I hope that helps.
But it will work well no matter what!
