Longevity Breathing

[Anonymous]

Thank you Matthew .

[Anonymous]

Hello, everyone.

I went back and started listening to the Taoist Breathing CDs and want to clarify something I said in an earlier post, specifically about breathing into the central channel.

I may have mis-stated this. Bruce talks about the cylinder breath going down the *center line* of the body. He doesn’t call it the *central channel* and I think that may be an important distinction.

In lesson 7 of disc 2, he says, “Now that you’re breathing in this easy, relaxed way – breathing from your nose down to your dan tien, and from your dan tien up your center line and out your nose – as you inhale, let your organs begin to open and expand with your breath, like a cylinder that gets bigger and then shrinks back it its original size.”

In Lesson 8 he says, “As you breath now, as well as breathing down your center line and breathing like a cylinder, allow the cylinder breath to go underneath your ribs.” So he’s not talking about expanding the core channel, but about the center line and breathing into all the organs and having them expand.

In Lesson 10 he says, “As you’re breathing backwards, and expanding your cylinder from your center line, focus now on really opening up the kidneys.”

I have to go through the rest of the lessons again and see if he consistently refers to the center line as opposed to the central channel.

In the bagua mastery program there are several meditations and practices that involve the breath and awareness in the central channel and several ways you work with this energy. Another distinct practice, I think, related by specific to that program

This is a good example why it’s important to be discriminating and really dig deeply into this material. As I said in earlier posts, I’m not an expert or senior student of Bruce’s, and I don’t pretend to be an authority on this material.

I hope no one, especially Alex, was misled by my earlier post. I encourage you all to check our the Taoist Breathing CDs yourselves, as well as all Bruce’s other material. What I’ve discovered is that Bruce has been remarkable consistent over the years in how he presents and describes this material. I don’t think he does anything by accident or without careful consideration. That’s why I think the difference between the central channel and the center line of the body is probably an important distinction.

I look forward to comments from the group.

Best wishes and good practicing,
Matthew

[Anonymous]

Hello, again. One more thing…

I listened to lesson 12 of disc 2 and Bruce uses both terms, central channel and center line. But considering the whole of the Taoist Breathing CD instructions, I’m not sure if every time he uses the term “center line” he’s using it interchangeably with “central channel.” Perhaps a senior student or trained longevity breathing teacher could chime in and let us know.

Best,
Matthew

[Anonymous]

Matthew,

Following your and Dan Kleiman’s advice I bought the Tangora’s book ‘Cloud Hands’. I have found it to be a surprisingly good book with wealth of information and practice. Now I’m trying to figure out whether to buy some of his DVD’s or not. You’ve mentioned that you have his DVD on the Central Channel. Could you put in a couple of words as to its content? Was it useful to you? Does it produce an additional value to the book?

Thanks a lot,
Igor.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Igor.

I have two DVD sets from Robert Tangora. The first is called “Spinal Qigong Basics.” It’s one DVD and demonstrates one set of qigong, about 20 minutes long. It’s similar in a few of the movements to BKF’s Gods Playing in the Clouds. There’s a multi-DVD set that goes with it explaining the energy flows. I haven’t bought that one. I also have a set called “Master Wang Hay Da’s Zhoing Ding Exercises.” I did a weekend workshop with him on this and liked it. I practiced a little of it, but with all the other things I do, I didn’t really pursue it. Some of the Zhoing Ding exercises are the same as in the book. Some of the Spinal Qigong exercises are also the same as in the book.

The production quality is relatively low in terms of audio and video quality, as well as the lack of chapters or a TOC. Maybe they’ve been updated to include these, but my set has none of these. They are also relatively expensive, which is a bit of negative in my mind. That said, the quality of the content is very high, in my humble opinion. I think he really knows what he’s talking about. He’s warm and articulate in person and that comes through a bit in these DVDs. If I didn’t have my hands full with BKF stuff I would dive in.

I should reiterate my caution: I’m not a senior student of BKF’s and I make these recommendations only as an amateur. I’ve studied with a lot of people, but BKF’s material is the best I’ve come across. I don’t know where Robert fits in BKF’s scheme of things. Anyone interested in his work should keep all this in mind.

Let me know if you have other questions.
Best wishes,
Matthew

[Anonymous]

….I asked Dan Klieman about this, and he agreed they are the same. From my perspective I use the term ‘centre line’ to denote the anatomical position of the central channel, and then use the term central channel once it can be tangibly felt.

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