The Tao of Natural Breathing (10 page)

Studies have also shown that negative ions are constantly being depleted as a result of pollution, air conditioning, closed spaces, concrete buildings, artificially generated electrical fields, deforestation, and so on.
²⁶
These studies, of course, come as no surprise to Taoist masters, who prefer to undertake practices for health and spiritual growth in the midst of nature—near mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, and so on—where negative ions are most abundant. The importance of negative ions has become increasingly recognized in science and industry, and ion generators have become widely available for home and office, as well as for automobiles. Many Japanese businesses now have air-conditioning systems with ion generators. They are even being used in space capsules to help astronauts overcome tiredness and various psychological maladies. My Taoist teacher, Mantak Chia, frequently refers to the importance of negative ions, and to the use of special breathing practices to absorb them into the body.

Taoists use many special breathing techniques, including swallowing the breath directly into the digestive tract,
²⁷
to absorb and transform energy in the atmosphere, including negative ions, not only for meditation and spiritual awareness, but also for self-healing and longevity. For the Taoist, the conscious cultivation of breath offers a powerful way not only to extract energies from the outside world but also to regulate the energetic pathways of our inner world, helping to bring our body, mind, and emotions into harmonious balance. Taoists believe that it is this balance, the beginning of real wholeness, that lies at the heart of health and well-being.

THE “THREE TREASURES”

As a result of thousands of years of experimentation and observation, Taoists maintain that human life depends on the unobstructed movement and transformation of three main forces, which Mantak Chia calls “earth force,” “cosmic force” (the higher energy of self, of nature), and “universal force” (the energy of the heavens, of the stars). In the human organism, these forces manifest as three different substances or energies—the “three treasures”:
ching
, sexual essence;
chi,
vitality or life force; and
shen,
spirit. We receive these energies from several main sources: from our parents (heredity), from the food we eat, and from the air we breathe. Though we are generally not aware of it, we also receive them directly from the earth, nature, and the stars through the soles of our feet, our skin, our palms, the crown of our head, and other energy centers of the body. According to Mantak Chia, numerous Taoist practices are designed to teach how to better attune to, absorb, and digest these energies.
²⁸

Inner Alchemy

Taoist practices are also directed to a kind of inner alchemy—the transformation of sexual essence into vitality, and vitality into spirit—both for health and for spiritual evolution. This transformation takes place in the three main energy centers of the body, called “tan tiens,” or “elixir fields”—located in the lower abdomen, the solar plexus, and the brain. It is in these centers that the real alchemy of the human organism takes place. The energies circulate from these centers through various energy pathways, called meridians, that bring energy to all parts of the organism (
Figure 12
). In Western terms, the tan tiens and meridians are roughly analogous to electrical generating and transforming stations that create electricity from various raw materials of different density and efficiency—such as coal, oil, and natural gas—and deliver this power through a complex network of wires to our homes and thus to our appliances.

“ORIGINAL CHI”

One of the most crucial forms of energy for our overall health and well-being is the energy we receive through heredity—from the sexual union of our parents, of yin (female essence) and yang (male essence). This is called “original chi.”
²⁹
A major part of our original chi is our sexual essence, or ching, so we will not discuss ching separately. According to Mantak Chia, our original chi is stored mainly in the lower tan tien, in the center of a triangle formed by the navel, the point on the back midway between the kidneys, and the sexual center (in the area of the pubic bone). The exact location of this center, which varies depending on a person’s weight and structure, is about one to two inches below the navel and approximately one third of the way in (
Figure 13
). The lower tan tien is the basic storage battery of the body, providing the core energy needed for the combustion and transformation of the energies we receive from food, air, and so on.

Figure 12

From the Taoist perspective, an abundance of energy in the lower tan tien makes it easier to assimilate all the other forms of energy available to us. This energy center, like all the others in the body, is a kind of magnet that can attract outside energy with a corresponding vib-ration. The Taoists would say, “where there is more, more is given.” They would also say, without much overstatement, that our health and well-being begins with keeping a certain reserve of energy in the appropriate energy centers of our organism, especially in the lower tan tien, the area of our sexual essence or vitality. When we sense energy in this area, we generally feel balanced and centered. When our energy is blocked in this area, or when we have insufficient reserves, we may feel a general physical weakness and imbalance. We may also catch ourselves behaving in judgmental or critical ways toward ourselves and others. Our energy can be blocked or lost in a variety of ways, including excessive negativity, tension, stress, daydreaming, talking, and sexual activity, as well as through gossip, criticism, worry, and so on. Although some of the lost energy is replenished automatically through eating and breathing, our original chi gradually dissipates as we grow older.

We can, however, learn to intentionally “conserve” our energy and to “recharge” our battery—to keep our lower tan tien open and filled with energy—through mindfulness (awareness) practices with the help of special breathing practices. Two of the most basic of these breathing practices are
normal abdominal breathing
and
Taoist abdominal breathing.
Normal abdominal breathing, in which the belly, rib cage, and lower back expand on the inhalation and contract on the exhalation, has a variety of benefits, including an automatic massage of the inner organs and an increased flow of chi around these organs. “It also helps to pro-mote the flow of blood, lymph, and hormones, and ... reduces the work of the heart.”
³⁰
This form of breathing is similar to the soft, natural breathing of a baby or young child. Lao Tzu makes reference to it in the
Tao Te Ching
when he says: “Focus your vital breath until it is supremely soft, can you be like a baby?”
³¹
The other basic form of breathing, called Taoist abdominal breathing or “reverse” breathing (since the belly, sides of the rib cage, and lower back go inward on inhalation and outward on exhalation) compresses and packs the energy in the lower tan tien and the surrounding organs. It also aids in the circulation of this energy through the meridians. We will explore reverse breathing in Appendix 1.
³²

Figure 13

PRACTICE

As we saw in Chapter 2, one of the keys to health and healing is the work with self-sensing—the development of inner attention and awareness. Without this work with our inner attention and the eventual ability to control it, the breathing practices described in this book will have little impact. In discussing the importance of attention, an acknowledged master of chi kung and Chinese medicine writes: “By attention we mean both the experience of consciousness and the activity of the brain that lies behind it. Regulating attention allows the practitioner to bring his/her Qi into a comfortable condition. Finding this state of comfortableness and ease is the key to successfully apply Qi Gong to eliminate disease, strengthen the body, prolong life, and promote intelligence.”
³³
What is crucial in these breathing practices is thus to undertake them with full clarity, effortlessly and comfortably, that is, without strain, without any effort to achieve some result that you think you
should
have. Also give yourself plenty of resting time after each practice, so that you can sense its influence on you.

Opening your belly

Figure 14

1

Sit or stand quietly. Observe how you breathe for several minutes, then put your hands over your navel. As you inhale, sense that you’re breathing directly from your nose through a long narrow tube into a balloon behind your navel. As the balloon expands, so does your abdominal area. As you breathe out, the balloon contracts and you have the sensation that the air is squeezed slowly back up through the tube and out through your nose (
Figure 14
). Obviously, the air that you inhale does not go into the abdomen; it goes into the lungs. But the “sen-sation” of a movement going from the nose into the abdomen relaxes your abdominal muscles and tissues and helps the diaphragm move lower into the abdomen and massage your inner organs. Be sure that your shoulders and chest remain relaxed during this exercise.
Do not use effort.
Simply visualize and sense the movement of the balloon in your belly. Simultaneously sense the downward and upward movement of the diaphragm as you inhale and exhale.

Sensing your diaphragm

Figure 15

2

To get an even clearer sense of the movement of your diaphragm, lie on your back with your knees bent, your feet slightly apart and flat on the floor, and your arms at your side (
Figure 15
). As you inhale into your belly, let the balloon expand as much as possible. At the end of the inhalation, hold your breath, making sure that no air can escape through your nose or mouth. Then, without breathing, gradually flatten your belly and gently shift the balloon of air up into your chest. Simultaneously, sense your diaphragm moving upward. Now flatten your chest and shift the balloon back down into your belly. See if you can feel your diaphragm moving downward at the same time. Move the balloon back and forth several times in a pumplike motion. Rest for a couple of minutes and observe any changes in your breathing. Try the exercise two or three more times.