REVERSE BREATHING AND THE MICROCOSMIC ORBIT


When you do a reverse-breath, you inhale while slightly pulling in the abdomen and simultaneously pulling up the perineum/anus area. If you do these things correctly, you'll feel a sort of pressure area at the anus/perineum (AP) area that you can sort of pull up the spine to the lower back (Mingmen) area. Upon exhale, you let the pressure area drop forward and downward. This cycle of movement is the basic power-storage movement that is common throughout the Chinese martial-arts. I'm also pretty sure that the mechanism was well-known in the Japanese martial-arts, based on a comment I read in an old novel about ki and power development.

Try the above inhale pulling in and upward, then the drop-release exhale a few times. You should be able to feel the general mechanism pretty easily. What makes this mechanism difficult for westerners to grasp has usually been the vague and obscure directions in so many of the old texts and directions. For instance, some directions talk about breathing the qi in through the Huiyin, into the coccyx, up the sacrum, and to the Mingmen. "Breathing the qi" in doesn't so much refer to breathing an exotic energy inward as it refers to pulling the elastic tissues of that area inward.

Next, as you do the inhale part of the cycle, pay attention to the superficial area of the back and your spine ... try to push the slight tension in the lower back up the outside of the spine to the top of the head, on the inhale. Just get it generally correct, without worrying too much about perfection. On the exhale, as the dantian drops forward and downward, imagine that drop as pulling tension area from the top of the head down to the lower abdomen. Mentally follow that more superficial circuit that works in synchronicity with the cycle of the reverse-breath inhale and exhale.

Now, let's return to previous discussions about a reverse breath and how, when you have your arms and fingers slightly extended, you can feel the pull-inward at the fingertips (maybe other places, too, depending upon your development) with the inhaled reverse-breath. Imagine the tissues you feel at your fingertips and part of an elastic, sheet-like connection over your body and that you feel the pull at the fingertips because your elastic "suit" is being pulled upward at the perineum/anus area. Do a few inhales and feel for that connection between the fingertips and the perineum/anus/huiyin. As your body's elastic connection continues to develop, you'll begin to feel the connection grow and spread to all over the body. It's this connection that the dantian uses to control the body.



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