Tan Tien Chi Kung

Chi and the Lower Tan Tien

CHI PRESSURE

In Tan Tien Chi Kung we learn to increase the flow of Chi in our bodies and strengthen the Chi pressure in the lower Tan Tien, organs, and fascia (connective tissue). Chi “pressure” refers to the result of condensing a large amount of energy into a small space. This is not unlike the effect of packing air into a tire until the tire becomes strong enough to safely support the weight of a heavy vehicle. “Strengthening Chi pressure” means to increase the level of Chi and to increase the internal pressure of the body so that we will be healthier and live longer. The by-product of this process is the ability to use that pressure for Chi power manipulation. Much like a living battery, we may build up and store energy (Chi). If we store enough of this energy, then we are able to use it to accomplish greater things, including the healing of our bodies. There are many ways in which to create Chi power pressure, several of which we will discuss in this book.

We can actually increase our vital energy, strengthen our organs, and promote self-healing by increasing the Chi pressure in our organs and body cavity. With increased Chi pressure, the circulatory system, lymphatic system, nervous system, and endocrine glands will all be activated, and blood, spinal fluid, and hormones will flow more easily. The practices of Tan Tien Chi Kung particularly increase pressure in the abdominal cavity, which increases the Chi pressure used to move the Chi, blood, and lymph fluid.

As we begin to increase the Chi pressure within the organs, the organs will start to gain in size, strength, and ability to store Chi energy. As the body starts to adapt to the increased amounts of pressure, it will start to be able to store more and more energy in order to release more energy. This can be likened to blowing up a large balloon. The balloon, when unfilled, is flaccid and has no pressure at all. When you start to blow up the balloon, it starts to stretch and fill up with air, and the air pressure within it increases. Our organs are very similar to that balloon, in that we can actually increase the pounds of pressure that our organs can sustain. As our Chi pressure increases and after we let the organs accommodate that new energy pressure, our body will be stronger and able to emit stronger Chi.

When people are sick, the Chi pressure in their bodies decreases and falls below the Chi pressure from outside, which is about 14.7 PSI (pounds per square inch). Sick people cannot take much pressure from outside; they become tired very quickly and irritated by people and circumstances. Life becomes a burden. A lack of Chi pressure also slows down all circulation (Chi, blood, lymph, and spinal fluid). It is a downward spiraling movement of the whole life force.

Developing the Chi pressure is one of the best practices we can use to reverse the downward spiraling movement of the quantity and quality of our life force into an upward spiraling movement. The increase of the Chi pressure in our lower Tan Tien through Tan Tien Chi Kung will enhance our healing, martial arts (Iron Shirt and Tai Chi), meditation abilities, and the art of daily living. It will also nourish our original force.

Chi pressure in the lower Tan Tien roots our body and mind. It is our grounding wire in the earth. When the Chi pressure is low, we will have no rooting. The energy in the body and mind will be unfocused and will quickly dissipate, causing overheating, headache, pain in the heart, and a distracted mind.

When you want to become a big tree, you need deep roots, which require a high Chi pressure in the lower Tan Tien. This is one of the reasons why Tan Tien Chi Kung is the foundation for Iron Shirt and Tai Chi Chi Kung. It is also important for meditation practice. The inner power in the Tan Tien helps us to regain our inner peace and stillness and our connection with the mind of the Tao.

TAN TIEN POWER

We need Chi and Chi pressure in the lower Tan Tien as a foundation for most of the Universal Tao practices, especially for Iron Shirt Chi Kung, Tai Chi Chi Kung, and meditation. The lower Tan Tien is the energy reservoir in the body. It is the place where we store the energy we generate, gather, and absorb in Chi Kung and meditation. If the energy is stored in the lower Tan Tien it can be accessed later, but if it is not stored, the Chi dissipates and cannot be used.

The lower Tan Tien is also called the “ocean of Chi.” According to Chinese medical theory, once the ocean is full, it will overflow into the eight extraordinary meridians, the eight principle energy channels of the body. Once these are full, the Chi flows into the twelve ordinary meridians, each of which is associated with a particular organ. The lower Tan Tien is therefore the foundation of the entire energetic system of the body.

We usually refer to the lower abdominal area as the lower Tan Tien; this is the area that Tan Tien Chi Kung particularly works with. However, as noted previously, we actually have three Tan Tiens: the lower Tan Tien (in the abdomen, the seat of awareness), the middle Tan Tien (the heart, the seat of consciousness), and the upper Tan Tien (behind the mid-eyebrow point, the seat of Shen, or spirit). You can read more about the Tan Tiens in the Universal Tao publication Opening the Three Tan Tiens in Six Directions. All three Tan Tiens are used in Taoist inner alchemy. Because of their capacity to deal with a large amount of Chi, the Tan Tiens are used as a “laboratory” for inner alchemical work. Translated from the Chinese, the word Tan means “elixir.” Tien means “field or place.” It is the place where all the energies of our body, the earth, the universe, and nature come together to form the “pearl,” the elixir of immortality, and the nourishment for our soul and spirit.

In Iron Shirt Chi Kung practice, we learn to stand effortlessly and relaxed in the “embrace the tree” position using our internal body structure and alignment or rooting. We also develop a powerful pelvic floor and centering in the lower Tan Tien. (You can learn about the practice of Iron Shirt Chi Kung in Mantak Chia’s Iron Shirt Chi Kung.) In Tai Chi Chi Kung we learn to move this “tree,” circulate the energy, and strengthen our internal power. (You can learn about the practice of Tai Chi Chi Kung in Mantak Chia’s Tai Chi Chi Kung.) All movements in Tai Chi originate from the lower Tan Tien. This important region is responsible for control and balance, two key ingredients in proper Tai Chi execution. Additionally, the Chi generated through Chi Kung practice is stored in the lower Tan Tien.

Practicing Tan Tien Chi Kung will develop our internal and rooting power and our ability to center the body and mind. “Internal power” refers to the amount of Chi available for management. “Rooting” keeps us grounded while we experience the beginnings of intense energetic expansion. As a matter of interest, it is good to know that rooting abilities will continue to develop proportionally with internal power throughout the growth process, thus facilitating the requisite balance for handling greater levels of Chi.

It is necessary that enough energy is stored in the lower Tan Tien so that it is filled with Chi pressure and that our mind is strong and focused in the lower Tan Tien area. This will also make us more focused, stable, and balanced in daily life, and will enhance our personal power. While the lower Tan Tien is both the source and container of Chi power, the mind acts as the commander that issues orders to the lower Tan Tien for directing Chi power. In this way, we can draw energy quickly and effectively from the lower Tan Tien and direct it for healing or other purposes.

THE LOWER TAN TIEN AND THE SECOND BRAIN

Taoist masters discovered that human beings have an upper mind or brain, and a lower mind or brain. We can call the first, upper brain the “logical” brain, and the second, lower brain the “intuitive” brain. The gut, or intuitive brain, receives important messages about our bodies and the world outside and passes these messages to our logical brain. When we strive to listen effectively to our intuitive brain with our logical brain, the result is a better connection to ourselves.

The existence of the feeling and awareness brain has been scientifically proven. In 1996 Sandra Blakeslee wrote an article in the New York Times about the “hidden brain in the gut.” It described the work of researchers who had found that the gut, or enteric nervous system, as they called it, functioned similarly to the brain. They had discovered that the large and small intestines had the same type of neurons as are found in the brain, and that the gut can send and receive impulses, record experience, and respond to emotions. In other words, the gut functioned very much like a brain.

We can use the gut as a brain and allow the head brain to rest. Why is this important? Because the head brain is a “monkey mind,” riddled with doubt, shame, guilt, and suspicion. It is always thinking, planning, or worrying. Most people just think and think and think. Scientists have discovered that when people spend a lot of time worrying, their upper, head brain uses a lot of energy. They say that the upper brain can use up to 80 percent of the body’s energy, leaving only 20 percent for the organs.

We need to use the brain in the head in order to perform complex functions such as reasoning, making plans, and making calculations. These are typical left-brain functions. However, for our daily life of consciousness, awareness, and feeling, which is typically governed by the right brain, we can use either the brain in the head or the brain in the gut. We should train the upper mind to be relaxed and to just observe when we do not need to be involved in specific mental activity. When we use the upper brain less, it becomes charged with energy and its power increases, and as a result more power is available to the body. When the upper brain is resting, brain repair and maintenance occur, and new brain cells can grow. This is the reason Taoism insists that we train the feeling and awareness brain in the gut—the “second brain”—so that we can use it when the upper brain is resting. With more charging of the upper brain, we have more power for creativity or whatever we want to use it for.

When you are not using the upper brain, allow it to rest by sending consciousness down to the lower Tan Tien, and send a warm, relaxed inner smile down to the abdominal area. Maintaining an awareness of the relaxed, smiling sensation in the lower Tan Tien is the first step in training the second brain. The key is to “seek the released mind” by relaxing, emptying, and sinking the upper mind down into the lower mind. We will discuss this further in Chapter 3.

SMILE DOWN TO THE LOWER BRAIN

Remember these guidelines:

Empty your mind down to the lower Tan Tien, and fill the lower Tan Tien with Chi. Move your conscious awareness from the head to the navel area—where the mind goes, the Chi flows—and allow your mind to direct all functions from the Tan Tien. See your “self” centered in the Tan Tien.
When your mind is empty, it will be filled. When the organs have extra energy, that extra energy will rise up and fill the brain with Chi.

LEFT: LOWER TAN TIEN AND SECOND BRAIN CONNECTIONS
RIGHT: UPPER, MIDDLE, AND LOWER TAN TIEN CONNECTIONS

CHI AND TRANSFORMATION

In the Taoist vision, there are three kinds of bodies: the physical body, the energy body, and the spiritual or light body. The immaterial spiritual (high) body has its genesis in the transformation of the material physical (low) body. These two bodies are mutually dependent on each other and are connected with each other through the energy (soul) body.

The practice of Chi Kung involves all three bodies. If we practice only with the movements of the physical body, then we are merely performing physical exercise and are not truly practicing Chi Kung, for there is no training of energy. For effective control of energy, we have to enter the “Chi Kung state of mind.” This is a meditative state that can also be called “entering silence.” In the Chi Kung state, we can tap energy from the cosmos.

Through training in Tan Tien Chi Kung, the inner movements of body and mind become more natural. The Chi flow, generated by the Chi pressure in the lower Tan Tien, also becomes more natural, and will ultimately move by itself. As the Chi Kung state is cultivated, there will be a transition from an external to an internal direction of the movement of Chi, so that ultimately, the body moves by itself, carried forward by the invisible powers of the universe. One cultivates the “Wu Wei state,” a state of actionless action, where it seems that nothing is done while in fact everything happens. Emptiness has generated fullness and nothing has produced everything.

As an inner energy practice, Tan Tien Chi Kung provides a focal point for a whole range of practices of the Universal Tao that promote various processes of transformation.

Chi Kung may be viewed as the practice by which separation and fragmentation, to which we are subject in our daily life as we become stressed and alienated from our true being, is overcome. We become inwardly united by the Chi flow as we are structurally properly aligned. In and through the practice, we learn to heal ourselves and become whole and undivided again, regaining our original state of being.

In the Taoist perspective, the recreation of unity within ourselves and the process of overcoming inner dispersion and fragmentation are crucial. This process is dependent on reestablishing within ourselves, through the practice, a sense of inner unity in which polarities are harmonized and one begins to feel at peace with oneself and the universe.

It is essential to this process that stagnations in the free flow of energy are overcome and the natural spontaneity of the movement of energy within the body and mind are restored. The practice serves to facilitate, enhance, and accommodate natural processes. The use of force (“pushing the river”) has a contrary effect, as it tends to block the energy flow by creating tension in the body.

Tan Tien Chi Kung has a key role in setting in motion and sustaining these transformative processes, not only in terms of physical health and self-healing, but also for the purpose of mental balance and spiritual growth.

In Taoist tradition and in Chinese medicine, the physical body and its activities are viewed as yang, the energy body or Chi body is considered yin, and the spiritual body is the unity and marriage of the two. This explains the unique emphasis in Chi Kung on Chi and the subtle, inner structure of the energetic process in human development. Chi provides the link between the physical and the spiritual bodies and activates their processes of mutual support and transformation. For this reason, Chi has been likened to the fuel that feeds the engines of a boat. If there is little fuel and it is of poor quality, the ship is not likely to carry the passengers very far and the journey will end before they reach the other shore.

The process of transformation of the physical body into an energy body is generated by the mind, which guides and leads the Chi. The Chi will go where the mind leads it. As a consequence, the process of transformation is decisively dependent on the quality of mindfulness and awareness.

The process of awakening the body and its potential for self-transformation depends on the commitment to self-transformation. This takes form in the discipline one develops and the resulting focus and attention to the process. This discipline is not primarily an outer discipline and does not depend on any outer authority; it is an inner discipline, nourished by one’s truthfulness with one’s experience as the basis of practice. This then serves to awaken and remind one of one’s inner commitment.

At the heart of Taoist practice stands the process of the alchemical conversion of energy: matter turns into energy and energy into matter of another kind and in another form. I have often observed that what is material dematerializes and what has dematerialized once again materializes into another form and state. Thus, the potential of the physical body to become a spiritual body is actualized.

As a rule, because of the materialistic perspective in today’s dominant culture and the immediate utility of Chi Kung for enhancing health, some may tend to use it as another outer fitness practice. However, only those who make use of it its original intention develop inner power.