
Guan or guanxiang (looking and thinking) is used to regulate men-tal activity. It is usually divided into fanguan (looking inside) and waiguan (looking outside).

Fanguan means looking at yourself. When you do this, imagine you are looking at your internal organs and getting to know something about the function of your body. In doing so, you can learn more about yourself and keep yourself fit, feeling as if you were holding the moon and making your heart clean in a fresh breeze. Waiguan means watching things and phenomena in the world. In so doing, you can get your internal organs welt coordinated and live in harmony with your environment. Many things can be the objects of observation, including fleeting clouds in the sky and brawling streams on the earth. This method can also be used to cure ail-ments. When you feel hot, you may think of ice, and when you feel cold, you can look at fire.
This method has been regarded important in traditional qigong exer-cises, and many skills of this kind have developed such as guanchan (looking at chan), guanxin (looking at the mind), guanzizai (observing nature), guanxiang (looking at reality) and some others.