The Tao of Natural Breathing (19 page)

PRACTICE

As I describe it here, the circulation of the vital breath is based on the microcosmic orbit meditation (as taught to me by Master Mantak Chia), a meditation that until recently was passed down only from teacher to student, and only after a student had demonstrated a high degree of commitment and perseverance.
Do not undertake this practice until you have worked through all the preceding material in this book and have begun to awaken your inner sensation in relation to the whole of your body.

When working with the circulation of the vital breath, it is important to be in a relaxed, receptive state—a state in which you are open to receiving new impressions of yourself. As you will see from Appendix 2, each of the energy centers of the microcosmic orbit has specific psychological attributes associated with it, depending on whether the center is open or closed. Eventually, through self-sensing, you will begin to receive direct impressions of the condition of each center—and thus of your emotional and psychological state.

To prepare for this practice, begin by working for 10 minutes or so with the smiling breath, breathing into your various internal organs. Then spend several minutes breathing gently into your abdomen. Sense your belly expanding as you inhale and contracting as you exhale. As this sensation becomes clearer, give up any effort and just allow your breath to rise and fall spontaneously. Take your time. See if you can sense that you are being “breathed” from deep within your abdomen.

As you undertake this practice, don’t dwell too long on any one center, especially the centers of the heart, point opposite the heart, and head. Before the microcosmic orbit is completely open, keeping your attention too long on any one center can disrupt the flow of energy in your body. Don’t focus on the heart, point opposite the heart, and head centers for more than 20 to 30 seconds each. For the other centers, one to two minutes each should be sufficient.

1
Awakening the energy of your perineum

Put your attention on the energy center in your perineum, between your sexual organs and your anus. Sense this area as clearly as you can. Once you have some sensation of this center, especially of its vibration, breathe into the area with a long, slow inhalation (
Figure 35
). Feel how the center seems to expand with your breath. As you exhale, let go of any tension in the area, any grasping or trying. Repeat this process until you can sense the energy in your perineum coming to life.

2
Awakening the centers of the governor channel

Now, allow your attention to begin to move up the governor channel to your coccyx and sacrum. (You may even find your attention going there quite spontaneously.) If you have trouble sensing this or any other area, use your fingers to probe it. Then work with your breath in the same way you did with your perineum. Once you begin to sense the area opening, move on, one by one, to the kidney point, opposite the navel; thoracic 11, opposite your solar plexus; the point between the shoulder blades, opposite the heart; cervical 7, which is the large vertebra at the base of the neck; the jade pillow, which is at the base of the skull; the crown point, at the very top of your head; and the mid-eyebrow point, which we worked with in earlier chapters. Don’t try to force the sensation. Just allow each point to begin to open by itself as a result of the energy of your breath touching it. You don’t need to go through all the points of the governor channel in one sitting. You can spread them out in 10 or 15 minute sessions over several days. If you do spread them out, however, start again with the perineum with each new session and quickly review the points you’ve already sensed.

Figure 35

3
Awakening the centers of the functional channel

When you finally reach the mid-eyebrow point, touch the tip of your tongue lightly to the roof of your mouth just behind your upper teeth, and keep it there for the duration of the practice. (A good location is about where your tongue would go naturally when you say the letters “le” of the word
let.
) Now let your attention begin to go down the functional channel through your mouth and tongue to your throat center. Again, breathe into and out of this center until you begin to sense a vibration of opening. Then let your attention go in turn to your heart center, about one and one-half inches up from the bottom of your sternum; your solar plexus, about three quarters of the way up between your navel and the bottom of your sternum; your navel; your sexual center, in the area of the pubic bone; and finally back to the perineum. Take your time with this work. Impatience will only get in the way. What is important is to begin to actually feel the vibratory sensation of each center.

4
Circulating the vital breath

Once you can locate and sense the various centers, the next step is to begin to experience your breath energy as it circulates through them. This is not an easy practice. The Taoist classics make clear that sensing the microcosmic orbit in its fullness can take many years. It is important to remember that most of us have little experience working with our attention and energy in this way. For most of us, the energy centers are jammed up with tension and are barely discernible to our awareness. As a result, the process of opening the centers can on occasion be uncomfortable. As you continue to practice gently, however, you will begin to experience a new sense of movement in yourself, and much more direct contact with your energetic presence.

On the surface, the practice is quite simple. As you inhale, sense the breath energy moving up the governor channel from the perineum through the various centers. As you exhale, sense the energy moving down the functional channel from your mid-eyebrow point through the various centers and back again to your perineum. Be sure that the tip of your tongue stays in contact with the roof of your mouth. You can also occasionally try reversing the process—breathing up the functional channel, and down the governor channel. This will help clear the channels of any tensions or toxins. Don’t worry if you can’t sense some kind of movement through all the centers. Simply observe what takes place—where you can sense yourself and where you can’t. Over time, the channels and centers will begin to open more fully, and you will receive new, direct impressions of your inner energies as they move more efficiently through your organism.

In the Taoist tradition the microcosmic orbit is also sometimes referred to as the “the small orbit.” The Taoists also work with the “macrocosmic orbit,” or “large orbit,” in which the vital energy is moved not only through the governor and functional channels, but also through channels in the legs and arms. And there are still further practices that involve other energy pathways deep in the interior of the body as well. Unfortunately, many people begin working with these “higher” practices before they have laid the proper foundation for such work. This can lead not only to confusion, but also to physical or psychological harm.

HEALING AND BALANCE

Breathing through the microcosmic orbit is itself an advanced healing and meditation practice that is the basis of most of these other practices. It can have powerful effects not only at the level of our physical health, but also at the psychological and spiritual levels. Chi kung masters through the centuries have said that when you can experience energy flowing through the microcosmic orbit, hundreds of illnesses can be avoided or cured. When students ask Taoist master Mantak Chia how to deal with their illnesses, he generally tells them: “‘Just do the Microcosmic Orbit; this will connect the parts of your body as a whole. Seek balance first, and many problems will be solved.’”
⁵⁸

This balance, however, is not static. It is based, rather, on a constantly renewed inner attention to our true physical center of gravity—the lower tan tien, the energy center just below the navel—in the midst of the inner and outer movements of our lives. The rhythmical expansion and contraction of natural breathing, originating deep in the belly, supports this attention and helps activate the energy of this center and circulate it throughout our bodies
for a more complete sensation of ourselves.
As we have seen, it is this overall organic sensation that can help free us from what Lao Tzu calls our “our narrow sense of self,” and begin to open us to the alchemical forces of healing and wholeness.

APPENDIX 1

Specialized Breathing Practices

The integration of natural breathing into our everyday lives is perhaps the most practical work we can do on behalf of our health, well-being, and inner growth. We have already explored some of the many physiological effects of such breathing on the various functions of our organism. We have also discussed the salutary effects that natural breathing has on our emotional lives. There is nothing mysterious about the many effects of natural breathing on our lives. They are based on the inner workings of our organisms, on the laws of the Tao, of yin and yang—on the laws of life itself. Through self-observation and self-awareness, we can begin to experience these laws and live and grow in harmony with them.

Once we have begun to practice natural breathing on a regular basis in the ordinary conditions of our everyday lives, there are a variety of specialized breathing practices we can undertake for specific needs. These needs might include cleansing the respiratory system; relaxing in the midst of stress; revitalizing specific organs of the body; getting rid of congestion or headaches; and so on. There are scores of traditional practices to accomplish such goals. In this Appendix, I have included several of my own favorites. Because these practices depend on the ability to sense ourselves and our energies from inside, long practice with natural breathing is generally necessary before we can obtain real benefits from them. An exception to this is the “six healing exhalations,” a simple, yet powerful healing practice that can be undertaken by anyone at any time.

THE “SIX HEALING EXHALATIONS”

The “six healing exhalations” is an ancient Taoist breathing practice that uses the power of sound to help heal the organs of the body and transform the negative emotions associated with these organs. I first learned this practice from Master Mantak Chia, who calls it the “six healing sounds,” and have since come across many references to it in the Taoist canon. Master Chia teaches the six healing sounds in conjunction with specific postures and movements designed to help the sounds reach the appropriate organs. He points out that the “frequencies” of these sounds can help cool and detoxify our organs and speed up the healing process, and maintains that anyone who practices these sounds daily will seldom get sick for very long.
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Description of the Sounds