According to Taoist adepts, a form of life-affirming energy that vitalizes the human spirit has three essential parts. Chi represents the essential energy or life force, while jing represents its essence, how it manifests in your life. The third element is the spirit or original field of energy that is accessible by anyone with the will and knowledge to do so.
In contrast to the Taoists, the adepts of Yoga focused their attention on the human soul. They found that the energy that vitalizes it also had three essential parts. Prana represents the essential energy or life force. Structural kundalini represents its essence because it supports energetic interactions on the level of soul. The spirit of prana, prakriti, is its original form or organizing principle that – like the spirit of chi – can be accessed by anyone with will and knowledge.
Keeping It Together
On the levels of spirit and soul, life-affirming energy acts like a cosmic glue. It radiates from its source into your subtle field; it’s then transmuted into the complete spectrum of frequencies needed by your subtle organs and bodies. From the subtle levels, it continues to radiate into your physical-material body, filling all available space and connecting it to the subtle dimensions of consciousness, energy, and etheric matter. Once it has been deployed throughout your subtle field, it becomes the medium through which all energetic interactions take place.
The Structure and Function of Subtle Energy
Unlike energy that exists exclusively on in the physical-material plane, which in its different forms can manifest as force, electrical charge, and/or resistance, etc., life-affirming energy has no individual qualities. It can’t be seen with the physical eye or visualized by any of the instruments which enhance human vision. It can’t be heard, felt, smelled, or tasted. Till now, they have resisted detection via the instruments of science and the conscious awareness of the rational mind. Yet, in some ways, its existence has already been suggested by science, first by George Riemann in the mid-nineteenth century, who suggested that light was produced by the warping of the fifth dimensional space and later by Super String Theory, which burst on the scene accidentally in 1968.
As Super String Theory suggests, everything that exists in the material world owes its existence to six non-physical dimensions whose energy supports the physical-material universe. Of course, for those people who are consciously aware of subtle energetic interactions, the existence of non-physical energy on the level of soul and spirit is an undisputed fact.
Subtle Energy and the Breath
The study of subtle energy and its relationship to the breath has been an indispensable part of Yoga and Taoism for millennia. Indeed, ancient Taoist and yogic adepts recognized that, to sustain the life and spiritual well-being of a fully sentient human being, a continuous unrestricted intake of subtle energy in the form of chi and prana was needed.
The ancient adepts also recognized that karmic baggage and the intrusion of distorted energy into an individual’s subtle field could disrupt the transmutation and distribution of subtle energy. In order to ensure that life-affirming energy could radiate freely, both the Taoists and Yogis developed systems of breathing exercises for their followers.
Pranayama
In ancient India, yogic adepts developed a system of breathing exercises known as pranayama. In Sanskrit, the sacred language of India, prana means ‘the life force,’ and yama means ‘restraint.’ Thus, the techniques of pranayama became a method designed to control and modify the quality and quantity of life-affirming energy radiating through the subtle field on the level of soul.
In China, Taoist adepts developed a comparable system of breathing exercises designed not only to control and modify the quality and quantity of life-affirming energy on the level of spirit, but to oxygenate the physical-material body, enhance the function of the immune system, and improve the functioning of the bodies’ internal organs.
The Breath of Life
In this addition of the ‘Inner Awareness Newsletter,’ I’ve included two exercises, one drawn from Yoga, and one drawn from Taoism.
In Sanskrit, the yogic exercise is called Kapalabhati. Kapala means skull, and Bhati means shining or illuminating. The main function of Kapalabhati is to draw prana upward through the Shushumna meridian, the main masculine meridian in the back of the subtle field, to the crown chakra and beyond. With practice, it will also enhance the flow of prana throughout the other branches of your energy system.
The Kapalabhati is a three-part exercise. In the first part, your breath is rapidly expelled through your nose; in the second part, your breath is retained, and in the third part, air is slowly inhaled into your respiratory system. If practiced in moderation, the Kapalabhati can become an important part of your regimen of energy work.
To begin the exercise, find a comfortable position with your back straight. Once you’re relaxed, put your positive hand (your right hand if you are right-handed, your left hand if you are left-handed) on your abdomen, and for the next few moments, pay attention to the rhythm of your breath.
The first part of Kapalabhati consists of a rapid series of sharp rhythmic exhalations followed by passive inhalations. During the passive inhalation, be sure to relax your abdomen gradually so that the air enters relatively slowly. Yogic texts suggest that you should expel air for about two tenths of a second, and you should inhale air for about seven to nine tenths of a second. The speed, in fact, is not important. Rather, it’s the rhythm and force of expulsion which provides you with the positive effects of this exercise.
The second part of the Kapalabhati begins right after the last forced expulsion. As soon as it’s complete, you will take a long, deep breath through your nose and hold it. At the same time, you will remove your hand from your abdomen. Retain your breath until you feel a strong surge of energy shooting up your spine from your first chakra through the Sushumna to your seventh chakra. As soon as the energy reaches your head, you will feel lightheaded and perhaps a little dizzy. Immediately exhale through your nose when you feel these sensations. As you exhale, force the prana, which the exercise has released, back through your body.
In this phase of the exercise, your breath will be audible like a sigh, and it will resemble the breathing of Sumo wrestlers as they prepare themselves to fight. After the first long exhalation, without separation between exhalation and inhalation, take a second breath through your nose.
Continue in this way for ten rounds. Then take five minutes to feel the effects that the Kapalabhati has had on your energy system.
Now, a note of caution: Be sure that you are gentle with yourself. Once you’ve learned the exercise, increase the number of rounds slowly and never stress yourself. If you do, you’ll simply undermine yourself in other areas, and instead of enhancing your flow of prana, you will restrict it even more.
Revised Dantian Breathing
The second exercise I’ve included is called Revised Dantian Breathing. In its traditional form, it’s one of four breathing techniques used by Taoist practitioners. The other three are known as natural breathing, reverse breathing, and embryonic breathing.
These breathing exercises are designed to expand your diaphragm muscle and lungs to make space for more life-affirming energy to be collected and distributed through your subtle field on the level of spirit.
The Chinese word “dantian” is usually translated as “elixir field.” Although most Taoist practitioners believe that there are three dantians in your subtle field on the level of spirit, my research indicates that there are seven.
The dantian Taoist adepts refer to in dantian breathing is the abdominal dantian, a major energy center found slightly under and behind your navel. The abdominal dantian’s main function is to store ancestorial chi, the energy you inherited from your parents. This energy is used to vitalize your subtle field and to enhance your discernment and ability to make appropriate decisions. Taoist practitioners also believe that the abdominal dantian is the source of jing, the essence of chi. However, my research indicates that it’s the lowest dantian located between the ancles that is the original source of jing.
In Revised Dantian Breathing, you will adapt the traditional technique to fill your first dantian and its subordinate cavities with this life-affirming energy.
To begin the exercise, sit in a comfortable position with your back straight. Breathe deeply through your nose for two to three minutes. Once you’re relaxed, use your intent to center yourself in your first dantian and its two subordinate cavities located on each side of your ancles. Unlike will and desire, which can easily be highjacked by your individual mind and ego, your intent is generally a free agent that can be used in energy work. To use it effectively, you must not watch yourself, try too hard, or entertain self-limiting thoughts.
When you’re ready to continue, assert in a normal voice, “It’s my intent to center myself in my first dantian and its two subordinate cavities.” Once you’re centered and you can feel and/or see the cavities, use your mental attention to guide the jing that flows into your subtle field on your next inhalation to your first dantian. On your exhalation, use your mental attention to distribute the jing to its subordinate cavities and from there through the meridians that connect them to the organs and bodies in your subtle field on the level of spirit.
Continue in this way for ten minutes. Then take about five minutes to enjoy the effects that dantian breathing has had on your subtle energy field.