Month 5 Discussion

[Anonymous]

Month 5 begins Part 2 of the Taoist Meditation Circle.
Part 1 was all about returning and being present and aware and recognizing distraction.
Part 2 will give us the basics of Meditation. Breath is the link between our conscious and unconscious mind.

In month 5 we could use 30 minutes of meditation (20 min. seated and 10 min. standing). The goal seems to be getting to know your diaphragm using 3 sets of 5 breaths (15 breaths). In part 2 these 3 sets of breaths will expand to between 5 and 10 breaths each.

Learn to feel the diaphragm clearly. If your diaphragm isn’t moving you are not breathing.

There is a generous amount of information on the instructions this month. Can anyone add to my beginning outline for this month.

[Anonymous]

yah–here is my outline

(hello to all–my name is ania by the way & I live in NYC)

general:
by tapping become aware of tight spots
open n stretch tight spots by breathing into them
can place an object on spot as u breathe (3X5)

A.
1st 3 days use breath to relax mental awareness
recognize the way in which diaphragm is moving (smooth or jerky etc)
become aware of the entire front of your body

B.
6 days
tap diaphragm for 15 breaths, then rest
day 1 only center
day 2 right side
day 3 left
days 4-6 freely flowing to tap any parts that needs it

C.
next 6 days
lift diaphragm
rotate n make circles with it without arching spine or moving head
using D as leverage point bend your chest

for movement connect D to the rest of body—use it to move different parts of the body right n left

[Anonymous]

I have more difficulty this month than the previous months. I seem more distracted with the focus on breathing from the abdomen and diaphragm. I may need to be patient and continue on knowing that something will improve with continued practice.

How is this month going for others?

[Anonymous]

Hi, Joan. This month has been going well for me. I’ve found focusing on the diaphragm has actually deepened the relaxation of my mind. The guided meditation is very useful, too.

[Anonymous]

I continue to have difficulty with this entire month’s meditation. There didn’t seem to be enough to do this month besides counting breaths and feeling the diaphragm clearly.

Without all the specific body parts to focus on this month I shortened my meditations because I haven’t recognized distractions at all, can’t recognize any emotions, and don’t feel the noise my inner organs produce.

What am I missing here?

[Anonymous]

I have difficulty some days too. Particularly if I am holding some emotion in my belly like after an argument with my spouse or a difficult day at work. I discovered if I use the small cocoon silk-reeling exercise from the Chen silk-reeling routine along with tapping I can often release the tension in the belly and bring awareness there. Some days it may take me the entire 30 minutes to release. If that is the case, then I try to push the session a little longer.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Joan.

I didn’t have the same experience as you. I found this month’s meditations fairly deep. Here’s how I practiced what I took from the guided meditation:

1. For 3 sets of 6 breaths, feel and relax the diaphragm. Keep the diaphragm slightly lifted.
2. For the next set, add feeling and relaxing the belly, getting it to move with the diaphragm.
3. During all this keep alert to the onset of distraction.
4. Add in awareness of the front of the body. I did two breaths on the front of each of the body parts; face, neck, chest and upper arms, belly and lower arms, pelvis, upper legs, knees, lower legs down to the ankles, feet, bottom of the feet. That takes 3 sets and a bit to do.
5. Then I tried to feel any tensions or something not right and let it go. I did this for the rest of the meditation and it kept me occupied. I found that 30 minutes went by really quickly.

Anyway, that’s what I did. I look forward to hearing from other folks about how it went. I’m also looking forward to month 6. I’m finding that my sitting has gotten a lot more focused and present over the past 5 months.

Best of luck to all,
Matthew

[Anonymous]

Matthew, that was an excellent description of what should be going on with month 5. Thanks for the details that fill in what I missed in my practice this month.

I look forward to month 6 to continue the process of discovery.

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I guess we’ll all have different experiences struggling and/or coasting through the various elements of this material. After many years of dilligent and daily qigong and tai chi practice, with the help of this ‘circle’ I’m finally beginning to feel that my ‘sitting’ is ‘settling in’. That said, I’ve a sense that I may need to revisit earlier months because I’m still really struggling to sense the signals of impending distraction – sometimes I spend much of the session being distracted (monkey mind sitting on a bucking horse!) and acknowledging distraction (albeit without blame). My day job (academic) is pretty cerebral and I have a sense that distracting thoughts are partly due to the way my brain is wired. That said when I’m focused on an intellectual task I have no problem remaining present ! I’ve noticed that Bruce has folded in quite a bit of iterative revisiting of earlier themes so maybe I’ll ‘hang in there’ for month 6. The new topic of anxiety is interesting and I’m trying to feel for it rather than think about it! On the practical side, having spent months learning to count using beads rather than in my head, I’ve now had to put them down when doing the tactile belly stuff!

[Anonymous]

After forty minutes of standing today I was finally able to release all tension from my abdomen. It felt like the tension was flushing down through my feet and into the ground. My body awareness became heightened and it felt like I could send my breath to any body part as needed. Not that it will last but it was a great moment for me.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Ted. That’s great. If your experiences are similar to mine, the sensation of this as a new bodily awareness may not last, but what you’ve learned will become part of your bassline awareness. That’s an important milestone. This stuff works, doesn’t it?

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Matthew. All of the meditation circle content is top-notch. It really does work.

[Anonymous]

Good work Ted!

[Anonymous]

Hi Joan, I just began month 5 today but feel like focusing on my moving diaphragm actually helps keep me present. Also, doing 5 breaths at a time seems to help too.
One thing though is Im not sure what Im to be focusing on inbetween breaths-I feel like I just want to keep going so not to get distracted.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Anonymous]

Joan, I checked again the excellent job you are doing here and the reactions on it and your struggle with them not so unsimilar to my struggles.

I think the others have long standing practices which may already solve tension questions without much need for searching for them what is a main part for me in my preferred sitting practice.

Here tensions, pains and uneasiness occur especially in this diaphragm month 5 and the more in the midriff and lifted spine month 6.

These questions seem to get an interesting answer in the belly rolls of month 7. The instructors knowing Bruce approach should tell which of the many instruction videos in the web could be used for learning it by these nice female dancers having many approaches.

In the longevity breathing CD Bruce demonstrates by an participant – the exact location can be given- the three parts from the heart , the stomach and abdomen for separate und full movement in oneness. I was rather astonished that I am better now as I thought getting a full blood flow from the heart to the whole body causing heat.

This three parts have similariies to the separation of the abdomen from the stomach region which move alternatively in waves by filling thhe abdomen first and then the stomach and the other way. The difference to belly breathing is creating spce in the chest for liver breathing by belly rolls touching this part as a fourth one if you like by the stomach as a separating line in the beginning of chest and chest.

But the move as waves – belly breathing is by doing the three parts more a simple in- and outbreath – uses all three parts of belly breathing.

Axel

[Author]

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