Embryonic Breathing mechanics

[lm]

I have several YMAA videos that mention EB and have read and taken notes on: Small Circulation, Embryonic Breathing, and Qigong the Secret of Youth. I would like to start EB and have been doing candle gazing to get used to sitting. My question is about Normal Abdominal Breathing in EB. At rest I can see my abdomen rise and fall and breathing is "soft" and "slender." With effort, I can increase the total volume of air several times over. I have trouble understanding the joint use of "deep" with "slender." Are more movement and volume required than the normal at rest amounts. If so, how much more? As much as possible and remain comfortable (no regulating)? Will the amount naturally increase with practice? I would like to have more confidence as I begin. LM

[joeblast]

I'll write more later, but one of the keys to "deep" I've found was the psoas - the diaphragm interacts with it towards the central inferior aspect. start your inhale there, let the psoas feel like its dropping a bit as you expand the abdomen and let the inhale gently roll forward and upwards along the diaphragm. also let the breath start from there = dont use your air passageways to draw in air, let the draw come from the bottom.


with respect to increasing total overall volume - when doing EB its not usually a focus to increase to depth - you can do depth increasing exercises any time, really. BK Frantzis recommends a 70% rule with regard to training - his stuff is very water-method focused and gentle, so you can take that into consideration. but for a calm, soft, slender, deep breath, when beginning EB I found it quite beneficial to slightly exaggerate abdominal motion to help facilitate getting the breath all there as opposed to "breathing from the nostrils" or throat or what not. anyway, your lungs are like a balloon and can expand significantly beyond the chest capacity that you have and at some point in the breath you will be putting an increasing energetic component into simply providing the extra lung stability (the same goes at a more subtle level with the air through your breath passageways - more air flow = more air pressure = more energy input into "maintaining structural integrity." and in lessening that aspect, more subtle still is the little bits of air turbulence that also rob energy from the breath via vortices that form because the breath is moving fast enough - do eb and get it slow enough and at some point even the breath turbulence disappears, and this is very cool because you cant feel yourself breathe when you get to that point!) so the general 70% rule will allow for pretty much the most energetically optimal breath where physical components are at their "least level of energy consumption." that's part of the main focus - get all of your physical processes into a low-energy state and keep your awareness centered at the dantien and that will generate more energy, and when your body has all this extra energy and you're not doing anything with it, it will automatically put those resources to good use in the direction of core processes.

another of my teachers always says to do "the one breath" which has this congruence with EB; part of the process of eb and getting it all smooth is to work on the transitions between inhale and exhale and make those smooth enough that you have this rolling transition from one to the other. start rolling between the two and your mind doesnt distinguish the difference quite so much - realizing my focus, at some of my more profound moments - hehe aka the first spark of the mind's distraction after some indeterminately long moment - I realize I've only been moving my abdomen with my awareness focused there and very little else, shining peacefully

[lm]

Thanks joeblast for your reply. I had to research the psoas but did not find that as helpful as the rest of your reply. Now, my only quandary is one of focus. Dr. Yang says to "cut off any emotional disturbance and keep the mind at the Upper DanTian and the Real Lower DanTian." Also, "if you are able to pay attention to the DanTian (either Upper DanTian for Shen or the Real Lower DanTian for Qi) and coordinate with your breathing..." and so I ask, is it and? Is it or? Is it humanly possible to focus on and feel keenly more than one point at a time? Thoughts or wisdom from anyone would be appreciated. LM

[joeblast]

There's a minor interaction there between the psoas and the diaphragm, they meet at the very bottom of the diaphragm. Mostly just a way to conceptualize starting the inhale at the very bottom of the diaphragm.

It is possible to focus on more than one area at a time - but like having to crawl before walking, walk before running, you need to get some practice in focusing on one thing at a time first - so focus on the lower dantien first and practice until you feel that the motions are well regulated, perhaps even to the point of regulating without regulating - at that point you will need to spend less "mental capital" on the action and can more easily multitask. Regulate every day! That's actually a very good term for what to do with EB - you are regulating your breathing, so for whatever metabolic and cardiovascular rate your body is currently in, there will be an optimal breath that will be the most energetically efficient. Some good points in the EB book centered around the timing of the breath - so for example if the huiyin is poorly coordinated with the abdomen, the breath wont be as energetic as it could possibly be. Night and day when they're coordinated well, each section has a sort of multiplicative coefficient, the better the coordination, the higher the coefficient goes.

[lm]

Thanks again. Now I feel a bit more confident and can proceed hopefully without expectations (disturbed Xin).

[joeblast]

no problemo!

from the eb book, Xin and breath mutually support - so by focusing your awareness on the physical mechanisms of the breath, that's usually enough to keep your awareness occupied, though the Xin will always intrude sooner or later - its key to simply return to the breath when the Xin pokes its head in the door, because after a while of doing that...for me it was as if the Xin tires of trying to perturb your practice although, one must stay in practice to continue deepening that aspect! hell the Xin gets up and dances if you let it