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qigong: essentials of breathing
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definition
qigong: essentials of breathing
After learning the basic standing position, the second part of preliminary Qigong is breathing. There are two main types of breathing; they are called Buddhist and Taoist simply because the various traditions used one or the other more often.
The Buddhist is the easiest because it is basically just deep breathing, akin to choirboy breathing. Let your diaphragm go down and your abdomen expand. This pulls the air into to the lungs. As the abdomen goes back, the diaphragm is kicked up and the lungs empty out. As you do that, though, you should visualize the upper and lower Dan Tiens. As your diaphragm does down, focus your Yi, or concentrated mind, on the lower Dan Tien, at the Conception Vessel 6 point (Qi Hai), which is three finger breadths below the navel. "Tien" means a collection place or focus field and Dan means elixir. Thus the Dan Tien is a field of elixir or focus point; a gathering point. In breathing, first focus down; the breath circulates down three finger breadths below your navel. Then switch to the upper focus point which is between the eyebrows, the upper Dan Tien, and exhale. That is Buddhist breathing.
Taoist breathing is exactly the reverse. In Taoist breathing, also known as fetal or reverse breathing, your abdomen goes in as your lungs fill up, putting pressure on the lower part of the body which helps press the lower part of the spine, thus kicking energy more forcefully into the spine, sending it up to the top of the head. This is why one does reverse breathing it is more powerful it kicks the energy into the bottom of the spine and pushes it up to the top of the head.
In general, Buddhist breathing is stronger in pulling energy down to the lower Dan Tien. Taoist breathing is stronger in kicking energy up through the spine to the upper Dan Tien. When beginning to learn Qigong, the teacher usually introduces both sets and lets the students practice on their own.
(Allee)
see also:
qigong: introduction
qigong: basic stance
qigong: overview and uses
footnotes