Breathing

[brentcochran]

listening to david's talk last night reminded me of the importance of learning how to breathe naturally and the incredible benefits immediately experienced.

longevity breathing
by bruce frantzis
https://www.energyarts.com/energy-arts-system/frantzis-core-chi-gung-program/longevity-breathing.html

healthy living through free, natural breathing
by dennis lewis
http://www.dennislewis.org/free_breathing.htm

here's another article, which after the first half (which is mostly history), starts to discuss breathing in taoist and western tradition:

daoist alchemy in the west: the esoteric paradigms
by lee irwin
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/volumevi/dao.htm


"the wise man breathes from his heels."
~ lao tse, tao te ching


i hope this helps with anyone inspired to start breathing naturally and benefit from it's results, or people looking to augment their energy work.


i wish you all good health and vitality.

much love,

~ brent

[Strider44]

yeah abdominal breathing is emphasised in all the eastern philosophies.. i do tai chi and its full of visualisations to help you get what its trying to teach you eg imagine hugging a barrel to emphasise roundness in the arms/chest (roundness being a key principle) a visualisation to develop abdominal breathing is to imagine a huge steel sphere, like a wrecking ball hanging from your coxys and pulling your spine into a straight line, place your focus on the big heavy ball your holding between your knees.

breath of fire in yoga helps to cos it relaxes the abdomen, much more than your average situps do. do it by lying flat on the floor, lift your torso and legs about 6 inches of the floor (so your balanced on your tailbone) and pant like a dog as fast as you can for as long as you can (better just through the nose imo).. the panting is like this http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cb7v3thow_o only the posture here is different and not really working the abs as balancing on your coxys is.

[kickleeoutthevan]

this is all great stuff.

the more we work on this stuff the more instinctual it will become.

[brentcochran]

i can't tell you how great it makes me feel to know someone read these articles, thanks for commenting :)

it sounds funny, but you can learn how to breathe :eek:

lots of love,

brent

[Art]

hey all,

i recently have been looking into taoism and have found its approaches to breathing exercises were more refined and detailed than simply "belly breathing". have made some great breakthroughs using "their" methods. learned enough to find out about dan tian (there are 3, upper, middle, lower - lowest usually referred to as dan tian), which is similar to 2nd chakra. this led to microcosmic orbit (mco), similar to kundalini rising, but has a downward flow as well. experienced mco last night, and while most consider it a lesser energetic experience than kundalini rising, having experienced both i would say, maybe so, but not by much. very powerful.

key to this experience for me was breathing and relaxing. i was not trying to circulate mco, but have been focusing on creating dan tian for some time. again, yesterday evening, mco happened while sitting there doing breathing exercises. not as spectacular as kundalini rising, which is why i think i got to experience it. during kundalini rising, the "shot" startled me, and i became fearful, so that was a "quick" event.

yesterday's mco lasted over 30 minutes, and could have lasted longer, but i chose to go inside and be with friends. was an experience that left me in a state of bliss. again, key to experience was not that i was trying. sounds ridiculous, i know. i think mco is constant, having the ability to be aware of it is the barrier because expectations do not match.

highly recommend!!!

mco best described as a movement of energy from dan tian, up back to crown on inhale, down front, from crown to perineum, back to dan tian, and again. no holding of breath, no expectations to jump to middle or upper dan tian, just simply breathing and circulating energy. feel very lucky i could create a state of being that would allow for me to experience this.

should this sound like something interesting to you, there's much information out there. best advice would be to focus on breathing exercises, clearing the mind, and focusing on building (lower) dan tian. when the time is right, mco (or the ability to become aware of it) will happen.

[moderator note - discussion of specific schools of thought or methodologies are discouraged on the forum - please pm with any specific taoist (or other) systems. discussion of generic breathing practices (regardless of where we learned of them) we have experienced and benefitted from first hand is encouraged, however!]

[anisquared]

4 counts of inhaling, 4 counts of holding, 4 counts of exhaling, and another 4 counts of holding. it might be beneficial to work this practice with some of the other techniques described, as it does lend itself to creating an interesting altered state of consciousness.