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Month 15 Taoist Meditation Circle
Part 1: Feel the mind settle its awareness in your heart
Breathing with the back of the lungs–above rear diaphragm—without chest sticking out–Focus on having the breath become softer
–Fully using your diaphragm, relaxing your mind, and through that your body
–Effortlessly recognize what’s happening inside of you
–With the exhale release tension inside you
–Find a sweet spot where your mind can remain present
–Run through a check list of what you want your body doingChecklist:
1. Are you breathing with the your lower body, sides, back, kidneys
2. Are the front and back of diaphragm moving in conjunction with your belly
3. Is your midriff lifting?
4. Is your spine straight?
5. Is the crown of you head directly over the perineum?
6. Are your shoulders relaxed?
7. Is your head straight and neck not leaning?
8. If your mind is tense, release it.
9. Are your eyes relaxed?
Let your exhale become more effortless.
Settle in until your mind becomes pristine.Transition period (Days 1-10)
1. Breathe with the back of the lungs.
First recognize this: Lie on floor and press upper back into the floor
Enable this by rolling up a towel under your rear diaphragm
Bring heels close to buttocks
Place your palms on your chest to prevent it from rising
Breathe with your belly, sides, kidneys, front and sides of diaphragm in a smooth and continuous way2. Stand with upper back pressing into a wall
3. Sitting on a cushion or a chair. Back straight without something pressing into it
Front of chest remains still (neither up or down, in or out) with only your upper back moving
Ability of the back of your lungs to expand and deflate with ease
Find tightness and release it.
Gradually, slowly, and without rushing
Let the diaphragm open more slowly than your mind might want to push it
Tendency for heads of tilt—keep crown of head over perineum
Breathe, soften and become aware of what’s happening inside youAfter Day 10:Pincer movements
Breathing simultaneously from your belly and back of the lungs benefits your physical heart and mental state
Endless cycle of pressing and releasing your heart
Just breathing with the belly doesn’t activate this.
Keep palms on chest to make sure there is no movement from there
Breathe with a relaxed focus.
This element of Taoist breathing differs from Yoga or other breathing methods and has been beneficial for thousands of yearsPart 2:
Guided Practice:
Stabilize your breath Get an awareness in your heart.Remain present using all the techniques of the past year. Is my body relaxed? Go through the checklist. If you feel any physical tension, release and relax it. Physical tension will lead to mental and emotional tension which will downgrade your ability to remain present. Bodily pain can distract you. Correct this by looking for ways to positively adjust your body alignments.
Physically move in a way that resolves your pain. The tendency for most people is to have awareness drop to zero when pain is resolved.
How to reduce physical pain while keeping awareness on everything else?
1. Put a little more awareness into several areas simultaneously. (The physical pain, your movement to get rid of the pain, and everything else that you were aware of while meditating.
2. You will be able to meditate for longer periods of time without becoming distracted
3. This process increases the effectiveness of your meditation from 20 to 70 percent.
4. Breathing and physical movement are easily linked. If you have a smooth breathing rhythm this will be easy.
5. Try 5 or 6 times to shift your body while breathing smoothly. Ongoing awareness of this breathing pattern will become a habit.
6. Involuntary holding your breath happens
7. Sensations when breathing smoothly will be felt differently by people.
8. Feel the difference between the breath becoming stronger and one that is falling apart.Breathing From the Physical Heart
–Heart cells activate people’s emotions.
–The heart produces more electrical activity than the brain.
–Next stage of becoming more present is to get your mind to settle in your heart
–After your breathing becomes regular and rhythmic in your abdomen and back of your lungs let everything come into sync and settle inside your heart. Let your mind become quiet. Feel the physical sensations that come in and out of your heart.Emotions affect your lives in good ways and ways not so good.
Thanks, Joan. I was wondering when your post would appear. Helpful as always. Thanks, matthew
Where is the tape transscript breathing and squeezing the heart?
It is similar to the treatment of the kidneys whereas liver and spleen got a direct breathing and cleansing within them also putting them together in a wavelie manner.
Axel
I’m really liking this month. Still working on kidney and back of diaphragm. I am stiffer back there than I expected. Settling in is getting more complicated with everything you have to check. Like a golf swing.
Do any of you ever have one side of the body get stuck. Every once in a while I find one whole side is stuck during the pre-meditation check. It is always my right side.
I occasionally sense that I’m more ‘stuck/blocked’ more on one side than the other – I usually notice it in my midriff area when I circle my torso in the seated position (covered in earlier months)
No, I don’t notice that. One thing I have noticed is that when working with the diaphragm, I tend to overdo it and push too hard. I notice the muscles in my mid-back getting sore because I’m working too hard at getting the diaphragm moving. I find this doesn’t happen when I back off and follow the 70% rule. It’s easy for me to push too hard without really being aware of it.
I can overdue easily and push too hard. Especially now that we are into the back. I have to be very cautious about that or I just make any stiffness worse. I’ve been doing the Taoist back stretch to try and get a little more flexibility in the kidney diaphragm area.
……….I’ve found it helpful to google thoracic diaphragm images. Some of the stuff on line really helps me both understand and feel what’s going on with the diaphragm. One particularly helpful site is ‘diaphragmatic breath with Jnaneshvara Bharati’. Seeing the anatomical juxtaposition with the heart really brings home the significance of the diaphragm in massaging the heart.
Colin, this is really a very helpful to be studied nearer. I quote”
Figure 2: View from Right
The diaphragm is the large, oval-shaped object (item #20) at the bottom of this photo (Figure 2). The view in this photo is from the right side of the body. The right side of the rib cage, the right lung and the pleura (lining of the lung) have been removed for this view.
Notice that the heart (#19) is resting on top of the diaphragm. This is one of the visible ways we can easily see how diaphragmatic breathing has such an intimate relation with the functioning of the heart. It is also interesting to note that the right vagus nerve is visible at the top of the photo (#13), as this nerve is critical in physical relaxation of the autonomic nervous system (the right vagus nerve is also visible in Figure 6).
As the next tape squeezes – it not breathes from the heart – the heart I get it immediately no longer seeking the diaphragm from the back as rear diaphragm but as by breath inner upwards moving unit. But I must study it further as the energy went to other places in the neck and head producing the famous tibetan a sound.as a natural release ot the heart opening also outer energy field as also a Chinese qigongmaster said.
Axel
I finally completed listening to Bruce’s Month 15 instructions and revised and finished the guided practice section of notes.
Thanks Colin!
Great input
the revised edition still the squeezing of the physical heart by the diaphragm and the activation of the lungs. I begin to understand it.
No flow to the other organs by an opened heart by finger snipping near its sides as in the Dragon gate book of Dr. Baolin Wu.
the five elemental cycle is also lacking as I exposed in the string on longvity breath nearby.
Axel
I’ve recently noticed that my awareness of subtle emotional signatures is very hard to sustain when I’m learning to focus on the new physical things we’ve been learning ( Kidneys, rear diaphragm). I was getting a lot of feedback on emotional signatures after the time spent specifically focusing on them, but when we turned back to the kidneys my awareness of them diminished. Is anyone else finding this to be true?
When I take a “break” , boom there they are, but as soon as I refocus on the diaphragm I really don’t pick up on them much.
Does anyone have any tips for stabilizing this awareness as you move into a heightened focus on some of the more physical aspects of breathing etc.?Thanks!
Steve
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