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WOMB BREATHING

IN CHAN MEDITATION, when you refine the breath to a certain point you may develop what’s called “womb breathing.” The Taoists have practices to deliberately attain this state, but in Chan meditation it happens by accident.

When you breath in this way, it is as if you are a baby in the womb. The baby doesn’t use its nose, mouth, or lungs to breathe. It breathes through the umbilical cord in its navel that connects it to its mother.

In womb breathing, we don’t use an umbilical cord, but our chest is no longer breathing. It is as if every pore of our body breathes. When we exhale, the air goes out of all our pores. When we inhale, our pores absorb the air like a sponge.

Although this happens accidentally in Chan, it shows how rooted Chan is in the subtleties of our breath and physical bodies. Chan is like climbing a tree. You are trying to get to the top; along the way there are branches that you could go up, but these are diversions from your goal. In Chan, if we experience womb breathing we don’t make a big deal out of it. We don’t progress in that direction through our awareness or intention. We don’t try to deepen or magnify the experience. Our goal is rather to go back to what we were doing, coming back to the present moment and refining our minds. We don’t pay much attention to breathing through our pores.