dan tien

[darth_freak]

training.

but ask you why you want to feel your dan tian? is it so important? train as you're supposed to train and in due time you will feel something.

Some trainings emphasize more on the use of the dan tian than others so it may be easier with those ones. But they're qigong practice so it's better to have a qualified teacher.

that's my opinion.

[Dvivid]

Do you have Large and Small intestines? That's your Lower Dan Tian, or elixir field. In America, we call it the Enteric Nervous System.

[dc]

sometimes people staple their dantien to lose weight!

[darth_freak]

maybe you could try embryonic breathing, it's supposed to be harmless as long as you just bring the qi into the dan tian, you may feel it after sometimes.
BUT you SHOULDN'T try to feel it! it will come with time and when you do you mustn't think "hey! that's my dan tian, yeepee!"
you can't allow yourself to be distracted, espcially during qigong practice...

what you said, dc, is kinda gross and weird...

[Inga]

kinda gross? i need a lie down to recover from that one.

paper, i've recently acquired a copy of master yang's book on embryonic breathing, of course i can highly recommend it.

[yeniseri]

1. There are actually 3 dantians, upper, middle and lower.
2. The dantian, generally speaking for our purposes, is the lower abdominal area.
3.. Speciifcally it is at qihai. (check acupuncture book). My reference is that it serves as a plexus as opposed to a specific point.

As we get older and due to stress, inactivity, and type of diet, etc our lower abdomen becomes stiff and lifeless. Our breath goes up to chest, stress accumulates on shoulders and lumbar areas and coccyx immobilizes (freezes) so we lose the natural 'elasticity' of the hip/waist/psoas zone.

Some great stuff on the psoas so check out also

[archi]

paper,
I guess you mean not feeling any particular sensation in your DT (warm etc.)?

From my observations generally there are people who feel it (Qi) quite easy - without any special effort (especially women), and people (like me) who... also were given that gift but under one small condition: "you must help to your success"
So I was, and still I am looking for excercises that help to "feel something".
Those are my suggestions that helped me most:
1. Meditation on DT - you sit/stay/lay down and concentrate
a) put your hands on your DT, you can be rub your hands
b) veery delicate contracting and loosing anus (ring muscle around it)
2. Rubbing hands to make them warm and then rub DT -
for ex. 36x CW and 24x CCW - may be more, perhaphs the more the better (but I'm not sure about that as whole that process must take some time)
3. Smile to your DT -
every time you do any qigong practice smile to yourself
4. "Smile even more" -
this is very very helpful, maybe the most helpful. Put both hands on DT and...just start laughing aloud. If you do this with other person(s) they help because smiling is infectious (I do not know if this is the best english word). Gently shake your abdomen with your hands while laughing.
(This practice I learned from Mantak Chia's seminars - sorry I know there are sceptics about Master Chia, but I'm not one of them)
5. Do not lose energy (!!!) -
a) very shortly I mean less sex or sex without ejaculation (eg. Healing Love from Mantak as well, unless there is any teaching about that from Master Yang - unfortunatelly I do not know that)
b) work less, rest more
c) keep warm and healthy
d) check your diet
6. Massage DT and kidney

Those are some quite easy and safe excercises, and are main techniques that helpled me the most.
Personally I do not recommend you doing reverse breathing techniques unless you are under really good and experienced teacher.

All that process of gathering Qi in lower Dan Tian is called "Warming the Stove", it must take time, so be patient, keep the faith and practice.

[archi]

As far as I know Dan Tian (Qi Hai) means something like field/ocean of elixir/Qi. This may be compared to the nature (which this in fact is) where there are oceans, rivers, sea etc. If you have DT = Ocean everywhere in your body then you probably live in energetic Waterworld.
DT is a place where there is big storage of energy (due to physiological conditions), in fingers (even in so called "21 finger") there are not such conditions.

Of course different parts of oour body work with energy in different way, eg. abdomen - stores, brain - uses:converts to thoughts, testicles - generate, muscles - use:acting/working, etc.

No I didn't play with Jet Li only with Bruce Lee and Steven Seagal
I do not get your question (if this is a question).

[darth_freak]

what they may feel are qi cavities, not dan tian; read Master Yang's book and you'll understand (the roots of chinese qigong and embryonic breathing should answer a lot of your questions more precisely than it is here)[/i]

[Walter Wong]

Have a big meal. If you have to loosen your belt buckle, then you're feeling your dan tien.

When you have some quiet time where you're doing nothing, take that moment and lay down or sit still and pay attention to any movement of blood or anything inside within your dan tien area. It makes it easier to do excersises connecting to your dan tien once you can recognize and feel it's existance.

[aardvark]

I have found that ymaa schools (at least where I am) do not stress the dantien in the beginning, rather as part of a gradual process that comes about naturally.

Along a different line of thought (same ideas, different order), I was explained early on the basis of heng ha breathing. Whether this helped improve my taichi versus waiting, I would be hesitant to guess.

It was explained as being simply reverse breathing done explosively. The heng is similar in mechanics to the 'oh!' inhalation of someone being surprised. The pronounciation of the word does change the mechanics slightly, but that is the basic idea. Likewise, the ha is similar to the exhalation of an explosive bench press or laugh. I played around with these in my spare time (like driving to work) to get the basic idea then played around with lengthening these breaths.

This helped clarify Jou Tsung Hwa's exercises as discused in 'The Tao of Taichi Chuan,' which in turn enabled me to locate my physical dantien (or at least the part that can be controlled). The major exercise is to lie down and fling a tiny weight (like a coin) from your abdomen using explosive breathing.

This results mainly in a strengthening of the diaphragm and surrounding musculature which isn't quite the same as the idea behind the meditaional dantien. If that is what you were referring to, forgive my tangent.

I would suspect that the word dantien is more inclusive than we westerners are comfortable with, along the lines of 'chi.'

[michaeljohnson3]

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