The Tao of Natural Breathing_ For Health, Well-Being, and Inner Growth - Dennis Lewis [30]
Abdominal breathing—especially when it is slow, deep, and long—combined with certain mindfulness practices directed to specific energy centers, can also help us receive the energies of the earth, nature, and the heavens. This form of breathing turns on the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms our brain and body. This allows our inner attention to clearly sense vibrations, impressions, and movements of energies in and around us that are ordinarily invisible to us. It is the sensing of these vibrations, as well as of the centers that can receive them, that allows these energies to be absorbed into our organism.
PRACTICE
Opening your solar plexus
1
Sit or stand quietly and watch your breath for several minutes. Now put your hands over your abdomen and feel the energy ball behind your navel expanding as you inhale and contracting as you exhale. Allow your awareness to go deep inside the tissues in your abdomen. After several breaths, let the energy ball spread, during the inhalation, from your navel area up into your solar plexus (located slightly higher than midway between your navel and the bottom of your sternum). As you exhale, sense the solar plexus and navel areas contracting. As you begin to relax into your inner sensation, your breath will gradually slow down by itself. Put your hands over your solar plexus, and bend over slightly from your waist. See how your breath responds. Repeat this several times. Then stop the bending and bring all your attention to the solar plexus area. Watch how it expands and contracts with each inhalation and exhalation. Work in this way for several minutes.
Releasing deep tensions
2
When you begin to feel your solar plexus becoming more sensitive and open, sense the air going from your nose through your solar plexus and into your lower tan tien (Figure 19). Envision the air as a long thread of silk connecting the whole front of your body from your nose down to your abdomen. As you exhale, breathe out through your mouth. Make sure your mouth is mostly closed, and that your exhalation is slow, quiet, and steady. Allow all the air in your lungs to be exhaled fully before inhaling again. As you exhale, sense that all the tension in your abdomen, solar plexus, and chest is going out through your breath. Breathe quietly in this way for five or 10 minutes. Pay special attention to the area around your solar plexus. Feel it become continually softer, as though something were melting. Then let go of any intention with your breath and simply take note of the various vibrations in and around your body. There’s nothing to do but watch and sense. Work for at least 15 or 20 minutes in this way.
SHEN
Shen is generally translated as spirit or higher mind. It is also a substance or energy in the human body. Though shen can be either original or acquired, we will not differentiate it in this book. Sometimes called “celestial chi” because of its origin in the stars, this energy resides in the upper tan tien, the energy center located between the eyebrows in the area of the pituitary gland in the brain (Figure 20). This center controls the basic energy of the mind, the energy required both for clear thinking and for awareness. Shen is the light of lucidity, of consciousness, that shines through our eyes when we are awake. When this area is opened and energized we experience strong intuition and a sense of real purpose. When it is closed or weak, our attention is scattered and we feel distracted or indecisive. There are many stories of Taoist or Chinese doctors who will not treat someone in whom the light of shen is too weak. For without suffi-cient shen, without a certain level of “spirit,” healing becomes impossible.
Figure 19
Shen Can Be Increased
A certain amount of shen