The Tao of Natural Breathing (18 page)

7

CIRCULATING THE VITAL BREATH

Where our breath goes, our attention can also go.
By learning how to breathe naturally—
that is, by learning how to breathe vitality
into every corner of our being—we not only
promote the expansion of our inner consciousness,
but we also stimulate the healthful,
harmonious movement of substances
and energies throughout our bodies.

Our health and well-being depend on the constant and harmonious movement of energy, of chi, throughout the whole of our organism—energy that Taoists believe comes not only from food and air, but also from nature and the stars. From the flow of blood and lymph, to the movement of the cerebrospinal fluid, to the flow of nerve impulses and the firing of synapses, to the continual release of hormones and enzymes, to the reception of perceptions and impressions through our inner and outer senses, a healthy organism is one in which the movement of substances and energies continues unimpeded as needed through the various tissues, organs, nerves, vessels, and channels of the body. A blood clot, for example, can result in a stroke and instant death. Congested lymph nodes can promote disease. A “pinched” nerve can result in the loss of movement or sensation. Unnecessary tension in our muscles and tendons wastes energy, reduces our organic sensitivity, and contributes to the build-up of toxins in our organism.

THE NEED FOR NEW IMPRESSIONS

What’s more, if we begin to observe our psychological life, we see that it functions analogously with and in close relationship to our physical life. Rigid beliefs and attitudes, as well as excessive emotionality (whether positive or negative), can be as dangerous to our well-being as plaquefilled arteries, since they can dramatically alter or impede the overall flow of our energy and diminish our inner and outer sense of spaciousness. Such psychological states can, if they become chronic, throw our entire system out of balance. Our experiences of ourselves can become so narrow that we lose any real sense of our own wholeness. Some great teachers, such as Buddha and Gurdjieff, use words such as
attachment
and
identification
to describe the process by which we lose touch with ourselves. When we continually “identify” ourselves with, or get swallowed up by, a particular image, idea, attitude, sensation, or emotional state, our awareness of ourselves, others, and our environment becomes extremely narrow. In addition, the circulation of energy in ourselves becomes disharmonious, and parts of ourselves do not receive the physical and psychological nutrition they need for health and well-being. What’s more, such identification reduces what Gurdjieff calls the “food of impressions” through which “nature transmits to us … the energy by which we live and move and have our being.”
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The flow of life, of energy, of impressions slows down, and we soon find ourselves exhausted—or even ill.

In my own history, it has become clear to me that my well-being has suffered most when my life seemed stale and devoid of movement, when it lacked new impressions of myself and the world, when it lacked organic satisfaction and meaning, or when there were simply too many impressions of one kind. At these times, I was caught, frozen, in a self-made prison of physical, emotional, and mental attitudes that excluded anything new from entering. It is clear not only experientially, but also scientifically, that the nervous system and brain need the constant but balanced stimulation of new impressions for both health and growth. As researchers Robert Ornstein and David Sobel point out: “The brain apparently has a need for a certain amount of stimulation and information to maintain its organization. When there is either too much or too little, instability results and disease may follow.”
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Nourishing the Brain and the Immune System

For most of us, the stimulation the brain needs arises mainly through our contact with the outside world, through social interaction, entertainment, study, travel, job challenges, and so on, and this stimulation helps,
if it is not overly stressful,
to keep the organism in balance and to nourish the immune system. Every sensory impression we take in influences us. Even the taste and smell of food can have a nourishing affect on the immune system. A recent Duke University study showed, for example, that enhancing foods with powdered flavors and odors gave elderly participants, all of whom had taste and smell deficits, significantly higher levels of B and T cells. These lymphocytes, which mature in the bone marrow, thymus gland, and other areas, are “the strike force that, most often, rids bodies of infection and disease.”
⁵⁵

New Flavors of Ourselves

The nourishment of the brain and the immune system through appropriate stimulation and information, however, is not dependent only on the perception of outer events. It can also occur through the perception of inner events, such as our ever-changing thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Self-observation and self-sensing enable us to experience new “flavors” of ourselves. They allow us to take in and metabolize direct impressions of our inner functions, attitudes, and energies. These impressions not only bring us a new sense of vitality, but they also begin to break down the confines of our self-image and give us a truer, more comprehensive sense of ourselves.

As we have seen, however, learning how to take in new impressions through self-sensing requires great inner relaxation. It also requires the ability to breathe into more of the whole of ourselves. Where our breath goes, our attention can also go. By learning how to breathe naturally—that is, by learning how to breathe vitality into every corner of our being—we not only promote the expansion of our inner consciousness, but we also stimulate the healthful, harmonious movement of substances and energies throughout our bodies.

MOVING OUR VITAL BREATH THROUGH THE MICROCOSMIC ORBIT

From the Taoist perspective, the natural movement of energy, of chi, in our organism is, in fact, the movement of our “vital breath.” This movement is governed by the law of yin and yang, which corresponds to the law of polarity, to the negative and positive charges of electricity and magnetism, and takes place through a complex network of energy pathways associated with the various sense organs, internal organs, and energy centers of the body. Energy flows from areas of greater “electrical” potential to areas of lesser potential. Illness and disease occur when this flow becomes blocked or unbalanced in some way. The channels can be opened or brought back into balance through a variety of means, including acupuncture, herbs, massage, meditation, special movements and postures, and, of course, work with breathing.

Based on their own observations and discoveries, Taoist masters and Chinese physicians believe that there are some 60 major energy channels, or meridians, in the human body. While some of these channels, called “primary channels,” guide the vital breath (our life force) to the various organs and glands of the body, others, called “psychic channels,” serve as special energy reservoirs connecting and feeding the primary channels. To understand the power of natural breathing from the Taoist perspective, it is necessary to explore the two main psychic channels: the governor channel and the functional channel. For it is these two channels that connect the main energy centers in our bodies. And it is these centers that absorb and transform our energy as it moves through them, and then supply the appropriate energy to the primary channels for distribution to the entire organism.

The Governor and Functional Channels

The
governor channel,
a yang channel, starts at the perineum (between the anus and sexual organs), moves back to the tip of the coccyx and up through the outside of the sacrum, and then rises up through the spinal column. When it reaches the skull, it continues to run upward along the surface of the brain up to the crown. From here, it descends through the middle of the face (about an inch and one-half below the surface of the skin) and ends at the palate at the top of the mouth. The
functional channel,
a yin channel, also starts at the perineum, rises up under the pubic bone and continues up the center line of the front of the body through the navel, solar plexus, and heart at depths of one to one and one-half inches until it reaches the tip of the tongue. In general, energy moves up the governor channel and down the functional channel, although it can move in the opposite direction as well. The energy circuit is completed between the two channels most efficiently when the tip of the tongue is touched to the roof of the mouth. This circuit is called “the microcosmic orbit,” or “wheel of life,” (
Figure 34
) and is the basis of Taoist alchemy for both health and spiritual growth.
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The Direct Sensation of Energy

Though our lives depend on the continuous circulation of energy through these two channels, the quantity, quality, and movement of this energy is often insufficient for the high level of health and vitality that is our birthright. From the Taoist perspective it is only through the direct sensation of this energy that we can correct this situation. Mantak Chia makes this clear when he writes that “Knowledge of the energy flow in our bodies makes it easy to understand why the Microcosmic Orbit must be kept actively open to accommodate and enhance the movement of Chi. When we do not know how to conserve, recycle, and transform our internal force through this pathway, our energy consumption becomes as inefficient as a car that only gets five miles per gallon. By practicing the Microcosmic Orbit meditation, we can get in touch with our Chi flow and locate blockages or weak spots in its path so we can correct them. This will help us use our life-force more efficiently and achieve better internal ‘mileage.’”
⁵⁷

Most of us, if we are able to be honest with ourselves, have to admit that we have little direct sensation not only of our life force but even of the major parts of our body—our belly, chest, head, and back. When we do have a sensation of these areas it is generally through some kind of discomfort, such as back pain, indigestion, headaches, and so on—signals that our energy is stuck in some way or not moving properly. Through working with the microcosmic orbit, however, we begin to sense these areas more frequently in the course of our lives, along with any tensions that may be developing. What’s more, our awareness gradually expands inward and we begin to have more-direct impressions of our bodies from the inside out, in relation to the movements and blockages of our life force. As we learn how to experience it directly through our sensation, the microcosmic orbit manifests itself as an ever-present pathway into the inner spaces and energy centers of our being. It is through impressions of the circulation of our internal energies within the framework of these spaces and centers that a real transformation can take place in our body and psyche—a transformation that can support both our health and our inner development.

Figure 34