Lesson 6 Stabilizing the breath and energy in your lower dandien.
Continue to breathe down on your inhale to your lower dandien.
And on the exhale,
Breathe up the central channel of your body,
Up and out to your nose.
Now however,
I want you to keep some part of your mind always in your lower dandien.
So that whether your breath is going towards your lower dandien or away from your lower dandien,
You become aware,
Very clearly aware of this energy center in your body.
The lower dandien is about one third the distance between your navel and pubic hair.
The Chinese call it the lower dandien.
It is called the hara in Japanese.
It is the central point where all the energies that affect your physical body come from.
All that which is physical in your body,
Its energies run through the lower dandien.
Have a sense now of the lower dandien filling and becoming more alive with each inhale.
And have a sense of it stabilizing and becoming stronger with each exhale.
As you do this with more and more breaths,
Slowly notice the energy that is in the lower dandien and just feel it.
For some it may be warm.
For some it may feel like wind or electricity.
For some it may just give your whole body and mind a kind of a mood.
But whatever it is located,
Sooner or later your breath will go down the central channel and it will arrive at your dandien and stably just arrive there and be comfortable being there.
At that point you want to notice the energy that is within your breath spreading from the lower dandien.
Spreading upwards toward the top of your head and all the way out your arms to your fingertips and downwards all the way down your hips,
Your legs,
Your feet to the ends of your toes.
So that by being aware of the dandien,
The energy that is in the dandien,
Which is now going to your whole body will allow you to feel anything that is happening anywhere in your body.
The next step will be to feel any place where that breath enters and where it is not smooth.
Also to be aware of where it is smooth.
Feeling the breath as it enters everywhere in your body will be your next focus.
Continue this breathing letting the lower dandien become stable.
Inhaling from your nose,
Down your central channel,
Down your throat,
Your chest,
Your belly to your lower dandien.
Exhaling from your lower dandien to your navel,
Your solar plexus,
Through your lungs to your throat and out.
What does this feel like?
What is it like now to relax,
Being consciously aware of both the count of your breath,
How many breaths you're taking,
The sensation of breath and energy moving down your central channel and the sense of your dandien filling.
Continue this and breathe in as long in this fashion as you like.
