Simple Chi Kung_ Exercises for Awakening the Life-Force Energy - Mantak Chia [35]
Always breathe into the lower abdomen and perineum to avoid trapping negative energies in other parts of the body, especially in the brain, the heart, or the liver.
After practicing the postures, be sure to place the tongue on the roof of the mouth to connect the Microcosmic channels so that all energy from the head can be drawn down through the Functional Channel to the navel for storage. Do not leave energy in the head or upper body.
Guidelines for Simple Chi Kung
One of the most powerful aspects of any Chi Kung practice is the ability to experience the vital connection between our individual being and the infinite being of the universe. In traditional Chinese thought, this connection is built in to our bodies before we are born, and it is known as the Three Treasures.
The Three Treasures constitute the triunal link that connects each and every human being to the infinite power and wisdom of the universe; these treasures are the basic components of the Inner Alchemy that comprises the Nei Kung (“internal work”) school of Chi Kung.
Prior to birth, the Three Treasures are bound in a seamless undifferentiated unity, which is known as their “prenatal” (sian-tien) aspect. This seed of the Three Treasures begins to sprout at the moment of conception, differentiating itself from the rest of the universe like a drop of water spraying loose from a wave in the sea. The seed forever retains its primordial links to the universe from which it sprang, but once it sprouts and takes on an individual life cycle, this unity transforms: the Three Treasures separate into their distinctive postnatal manifestations of body, breath, and mind, while their primordial roots are held in deep reserve as primordial essence, energy, and spirit.
Essence
Prenatal essence is the primal urge to procreate and proliferate life in material form. It manifests in the polar power of gender, ensuring perpetual regeneration of all species of life. Prenatal essence gives rise to the production of sexual vitality, which is stored—in the form of hormones—in the adrenal glands and sexual glands.
Postnatal essence is synthesized from the material nutritional essences of food, water, and air. Its most important forms are the vital bodily fluids, such as blood and hormones, neurotransmitters and cerebrospinal fluid, enzymes and electrolytes.
Energy
Prenatal energy is the primordial power of the universe—the movements and cycles of the stars and planets, the vibration of atoms and molecules, the universal energies of the cosmos, such as light and heat, and the electromagnetic and nuclear forces.
Postnatal energy refers to the energies we derive from the earth’s natural resources, such as food, water, air, and the five elemental energies. Our bodies transform these resources into the energies of our vital organ systems, breath and speech, bodily movement, cellular metabolism, and the energies of emotion.
Spirit
Prenatal spirit is the primordial Mind of Tao, which endows every sentient being with the original light of awareness. It may be compared to the wetness of the ocean’s water.
Prenatal spirit lies hidden like a precious pearl deep within the temporal shell of the postnatal human mind. Like a restless nomad, it wanders from lifetime to lifetime, pitching camp in this body, then moving on to the next, without ever being recognized or remembered by its temporary hosts—until the day in the life of a particular being that the temporal human mind awakens to primordial spirit’s subtle presence and sets it free from the delusions that bind it to mortal flesh. It is this prenatal aspect of the human mind that is immortal.
Postnatal spirit is that part of our consciousness that is tied in to everyday living. Part of the goal of the Taoist practice is to connect the postnatal