What is the Dantian?
Neidan, Martial Arts and Neidan.
Hi friends, today I've released a new video on the Qigong Project Youtube channel about the Dantian in Neidan, Qigong and Martial Arts which you can see below.
The paid content this week is an article about the use of reversal in Neidan practice, one of the most important points of practice which is never seen in Qigong or the Martial Arts.
Did you learn more about the Dantian? It is such a deep subject and it is very important to get it right according to the practice you wish to study so you can be sure that you will achieve your goal in the long run!!
In this week's material for monthly and yearly subscribers we are learning about the concept of reversal in Neidan, why it is different from reverse breathing, as well as other important ideas in Neidan such as:
the majority of the points of the body which Neidan practitioners focus on to establish concentration,
why Neidan is a technique without a technique,
when it is appropriate to use specific techniques in Neidan,
two Daoist Qigong techniques which we can use in Neidan practice at specific times to improve the energy flow.
There is lots of good information in this post so if you aren't already a monthly or yearly subscriber and are interested, maybe now is a good time to subscribe, especially since you can take advantage of seven days of free subscription before deciding if you want to keep it or not.
Reverse movement in Neidan:
Many people have heard that there are two styles of breathing which include Buddhist and Daoist breathing.
They take Buddhist breathing to be normal abdominal breathing in which the abdomen inflates on inhalation and relaxes on exhalation while they hold that Daoist breathing, also called reverse breathing is done by drawing in the lower abdomen on inhalation and relaxing on exhalation.
They believe this is the standard practice of Neidan, but if you ask them which texts this concept is mentioned in they can never tell you, or they wrongly mention concepts such as “lifting,” (提) which they incorrectly assume means an intentional contraction of the anus rather than its true interpretation as the spontaneous movement of the genitals and anus when the pre-heaven Yang energy moves during deep meditation.
In this article I will explain what reversal really means and show how it not only has nothing to do with reverse breathing, but how reverse breathing in Neidan is actually counterproductive, along with the times when reverse breathing is useful, why it exists and why we practice post-heaven techniques at specific times.