Qigong breathing

Qigong breathing is based on Taoist breathing methods that focus on returning the way we breathe to what is in harmony with nature. These methods focus on creating a circular breath that starts from the belly and is relaxed. These methods can be practiced sitting or while doing any of the Energy Arts qigong exercise sets.

Always breathe from your belly and not solely from your chest. This is the way you breathed when you were a baby. Belly breathing is the first step in learning Taoist Longevity Breathing practices and ideally should be incorporated into all Taoist qigong or tai chi practices. Belly breathing drops and lifts the big muscle of the diaphragm, the natural body mechanism that pushes air in and out of your lungs.

Belly breathing helps center your awareness in your body, rather than in your head, so that you feel more physically and energetically grounded. It helps you to relax your neck, shoulders and arms. It improves the circulation of blood and the flow of chi in your internal organs. Belly breathing provides a wonderful massage for your internal organs. Just as massaging your muscles adds to their tone and overall functioning, so will belly breathing benefit your internal organs. In terms of your health, massaging your internal organs is more important than toning your visible muscles. Belly breathing increases the blood circulation in the blood vessels that nourish your internal organs.

Ideally, inhale and exhale only through your nostrils. If medical reasons make this impractical, inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Inhale and exhale through your mouth only as a last resort.
When you inhale, feel your breath come into your nose, down your throat and into your lungs and belly. Let your belly muscles expand to move your belly forward.
When you exhale, let your belly return to its original position and relax. Do your best to completely relax your chest and not use any strength to puff it out when you breathe. You should have very little or no sense of air going into your chest.
First, practice by focusing on expanding and relaxing your lower belly. Your lower belly extends from slightly above the top of your pubic hair to your navel. Breathe in such a way that the lower belly does not move from below the top of your pubic hair. Avoid straining or any feeling of pressure in your genitals.
When you can expand and relax your lower belly comfortably, turn your attention to moving the middle belly when you breathe, which for most people is more difficult. The middle belly extends from your navel to just before your diaphragm. Placing your hands on the lower, middle and upper parts of your belly as you breathe will give you clear feedback as to whether and how much your belly is moving.
Finally, concentrate on expanding and relaxing your upper belly your diaphragm and solar plexus just underneath your lowest ribs. Try to have your diaphragm move downward as you inhale and upward as you exhale. This will help push air into the back and top of your lungs, parts that seldom get exercised. Eventually, you will be able to move all three parts of your belly in unison.


As you breathe, make both your inhales and exhales smooth and full, without strain. When your exhale is full, your next inhale will naturally and smoothly arise by itself. Conversely, if your last exhale is shallow and not full, your next inhale will not come smoothly. You may have a tendency to hold your breath, gulp your inhale or even hyperventilate. Deep and smooth breathing enables you to take in and use more oxygen, better release carbon dioxide and calm your nerves. Over time, you take longer breaths, increasing the length of your inhale and exhale, without strain.

To get the sense of how to breathe smoothly and deeply, practice breathing from a straw for a few minutes a day, in a smooth and steady fashion. It will help you tune in to your breathing habits, and, over time, help you overcome poor ones. Often lifetime habits of poor breathing can be overcome by practicing breathing with a straw for a few weeks.


Exhaling fully will get rid of the carbon dioxide in your cells and lungs and decrease its buildup in your cells, which produces sluggishness and yawning, diminishes mental clarity and increases stress. Exhaling fully will also make it easier for you to breathe in sufficient oxygen and make it easier for your cells to procure it.
You can do this in one of three ways.

The first is by exhaling a little more than you inhale. For example if you inhale for four seconds, you might take five seconds to exhale. This is the method to use when practicing breathing without doing any movements. You will use this method in Dragon and Tiger Movements 1, 3 and 4. The second method is to do an extremely rapid exhale one or two seconds very forcibly.

If you find yourself getting sluggish or yawning, you can do three to ten forceful exhales and wake yourself up. Rapid exhales are used in Movement 5 of Dragon and Tiger. The third way is to vary the speed of the exhale. For instance you might exhale 50 or 60 percent of your breath in the first two seconds and take four more seconds to exhale the rest of your breath. Dragon and Tiger Movements 2, 6 and 7 use this method.
Focus on not holding your breath between the end of an inhale/exhale and the beginning of the next inhale/exhale. Let one flow into the other in as relaxed a manner as you can. Holding your breath can cause emotional tension and jangle your nervous system. Breathe smoothly and evenly, without stop-and-start breaks or jerkiness. Involuntarily holding the breath both triggers and escalates stress.


As you breathe, keep the tip of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. If you make the sound “le,” as pronounced in the word let, your tongue will touch the correct spot just slightly behind your top front teeth. Eventually, the muscles on the base of your tongue will stretch slightly and allow you to maintain this position comfortably, without effort. When your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, it continuously stimulates and balances all your body’s acupuncture meridians.

The twelve main acupuncture meridians of your body are all connected to points along the governing and conception vessels, which are two of acupuncture’s eight extraordinary meridians. The points along these two special meridians interface with and influence all the acupuncture points and meridians within your body. These two vessels form the chi pathway that is called the microcosmic orbit. That place just behind your upper front teeth on your hard palate is the acupuncture point where the governing and conception vessels meet. At this point, upward-flowing energy from yang meridians in the back of your body changes to downward-flowing energy in the yin meridians in the front of your body.
There is no gain in putting tension in your body by straining to take longer inhales and exhales. Because breath is such a primary human function, it is quite possible to negatively pattern yourself and lock tension into your nervous system by forcing your breath. If breath induced tension lodges in your nervous system, the tension and stress will far outweigh the benefits of breathing quietly, softly and deeply in a relaxed manner. By staying within 70 percent of your capacity, you will wean yourself from pushing yourself and gain the habit of relaxation.


You can practice Longevity Breathing any time you remember to do so. The goal is to train the body to breathe this way twenty-four hours a day.

The Development and Manifestation of Good Qualities

The Development and Manifestation of Good Qualities

As we become competent in the practice of stopping and insight, we will first come to an understanding of the emptiness and unreality of phenomena and then we will become able to avoid them as hindrances to our practice; then both our body and mind will become pure and serene. In this condition many kinds of good qualities will develop and manifest themselves. We will now briefly describe two different kinds of development of such good qualities.

The first kind is the development of external good qualities, such as the giving of alms, keeping the Precepts, being filial to parents, respectful to elders, making offerings to images, observing the scriptural teachings, and many other good qualities.

But as these good outward developments may be confused with similar outward developments of evil qualities, we must be on our guard. The distinction between good external developments and bad developments will not be considered at this time, but should be kept in mind. The second kind is the development of internal good qualities by which we mean the good qualities that develop and manifest themselves in the course of our Dhyana practice. There are three groups of these good qualities:

(1) In the first group there are five of these good qualities:

a. The development of good qualities by right breathing: As we become competent in the practice of stopping and examining, both our body and mind will become regulated and adjusted and the delusions of our minds will cease. As our thinking gradually dies down, our minds will become tranquil and concentrated and the development and manifestation of good qualities will go one as far as they can go on under the conditions of this Karma world of action. But it is not until we begin to advance along the ten stages of bodhisattva-hood that our bodies and minds come into a state of perfect tranquility and our Dhyana mind attains a state of safety and abiding peace. At this earlier stage of Dhyana, we do not at first notice any tangible result either of body or mind, but after one sitting or two sittings, or it may not be until one day or two days, or after one month or two months, we will gradually become conscious that we are being forced to keep on with our practice, being convinced that as long as there is no interruption to our practice there will be a gradual gain even if there are no visible signs of gain. Then suddenly, we will become conscious that certain developments are taking place within our bodies and minds by which we are becoming more sensitive in their reactions to conditions. We will notice slight differences of pain and pleasure, heat and cold, heaviness and lightness, smoothness and roughness. At the time of feeling these differences, our bodies as well as our minds will become very peaceful and tranquil, very quiet and happy, very joyous and pure. It may be a very faint feeling at first, and wholly indescribable, but it will be real nevertheless. This is what is meant by the development of good qualities going on with right breathing at the time our practice. It is what makes right breathing of such fundamental importance in our practice of Dhyana. Or, under the same conditions of the Karma world before we have begun to advance along the ten Bodhisattva stages, all of a sudden we become conscious of our breathing and notice its peaceful respiration, its extent, and its transmission to all the pores of the body. We will suddenly see with our mental eyes that within the body are thirty-six good things. It is as if the doors of a granary were opened, and we saw within the riches of sesame seeds and beans. It fills our minds with awe and wonder and gladness, as well as peace and tranquility, and calmness and bliss. Such is the wonderful development and manifestation of good qualities that goes on in our practice of Dhyana coincident with right breathing.

b. The development and manifestation of good qualities by an examination of the essential impurity of that which we most have loved—our bodies. If, in the state of Dhyana under the conditions of the Karma world, preceding an entrance along the Bodhisattva stages we reflect upon the emptiness and transiency of both body and mind, suddenly we will have a vision of bodies lying dead and becoming swollen and decaying, with puss oozing out and maggots fattening on them, and scattered all about the bones of other dead bodies. With this horrible vision of the constitution of the bodies we have loved will come a feeling of sadness and compassion. This is what is meant by the development and manifestation of good qualities from insight into the impurity of all transient and component things. Or, in the midst of our quiet practice, there will come a recollection of the purity of our own body: we will seem to see our skeleton suspended before us. As we realize the significance of the five sensualities, we are filled with disgust at the thought that we must submit to the death of the body. With this thought we will lose all pride and confidence in our ego self and in the selfhood of others, and will gain a peaceful and quiet mind. This is the way good qualities develop and are manifested by the dissolving of attachments to things that were beloved, as we come to realize their impurity. The same thing is true of attachments to things outside of the body as we come to note their impurity, also. As attachments are dissolved, good qualities are developed.

c. The development and manifestation of the good quality of compassion: if, in the state of Dhyana, under the conditions of the Karma world, preceding an entrance upon the Bodhisattva stages we practice realizing the good qualities of other people, there will come a feeling of great compassion for all sentient life. In this connection we will have visions and recollections of our parents, our close kinsmen, our intimate friends, and our hearts will be filled with inexpressible joy and gratitude. Then there will develop similar visions of compassion for our common acquaintances, even our enemies, and for all sentient beings in the five realms of existence. When we rise from the practice of Dhyana after these experiences, our hearts will be full of joy and happiness and we will greet whoever we meet with kind and peaceful faces. This is the development and manifestation of the good quality of compassion. In like manner, we will come to realize developments and manifestations of other good qualities such as kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

d. The development of the good quality of insight into causes and conditions. Owing to our practice of stopping and realizing in the state of Dhyana under the conditions of the karma world, preceding an entrance upon the Bodhisattva stages, with both the body and mind tranquil there will suddenly come to us a clear insight into the causes and conditions of our life in the triple aspects of past present and future. At such times we will see clearly that there is no such thing as an ego personality or an ego nature of things, but that everything has arisen from the concatenation of causes and conditions of our own ignorance and activities. Under the conviction of this clear insight we will give up our conceptions of phenomena as having some attributes of reality, we will break away from our old prejudices, and we will attain to a more perfect concentration of mind with a correspondingly deeper peace and sense of mental security. Then there will arise within our deepest consciousness a more comprehensive intelligence, our minds will find a purer joy in the Dharma, we will cease to be worried about our worldly conditions, we will accept with patience that our personality is only the five grasping aggregates of form, sensation, perception, discrimination, and consciousness, we will accept with patience the fact that our external world is wholly made up of the mental reactions between our six senses and their corresponding fields of contact, we will accept with patience the fact that all our physical experience is within the compass of our physical senses, the objects of sense and our sense minds. This is what is meant by the development and manifestation of the good quality of insight into causes and conditions.

e. The development and manifestation of the good quality of the remembrance of all the Buddhas. In the state of Dhyana, under the conditions of the Karma world preceding an entrance upon the Bodhisattva stages, and owing to our practice of stopping and realizing, when our minds and bodies are quiet and tranquil then all of a sudden there comes into the memory a recollection of the inconceivable merits and purity of all the Buddhas. We recall their possession of the ten transcendental powers of the four fearlessnesses and the eighteen characteristic marks of a Buddha; there attainment of the Samádhis and emancipations, and their command over all manner of skillful means and powers of transformations, which they use freely for the benefit of all sentient beings. All such kinds of transcendental powers and merits are beyond our human comprehension. As soon we are dwelling on such remembrances of the Buddha’s transcending attainments and merits, we feel springing up within our Dhyana minds the development of a spirit of respect for all sentient life and a feeling of fraternity with them; we feel unfolding powers of Samádhi, and a sense of joy and bliss pervades both body and mind that wraps us in a feeling of righteousness and safety. At such times we are never disturbed by the appearance of any bad developments nor evil manifestations. When we retire from our Dhyana practice our body seems light and active and we feel so confident in the possession of good qualities that we expect everyone who we meet will respect us and respond to our good will. This is what is meant by the development and manifestation of good qualities and powers of Samádhi by our remembrance of all the Buddhas. Or, if, on account of our practicing stopping and observing at the time of our Dhyana practice we attain this purity of serenity of mind and body, then we will become conscious of the development within our minds of all kinds of ways of manifesting good qualities in the face of suffering, foolishness, pride, impurity, the disgusting things of the world, the impurity of food, death and the desire for survival after the death of the body. We will become conscious of an increasing love for Buddha, Dharma, and the brotherhood, of respect of the Precepts, of equanimity of mind, of a sense of awe for the celestial worlds, of the attainment of the four right viewpoints for our thinking, of the four right diligencies, of the four right powers of self mastery, of the five factors and the five faculties, of the Noble Path, of the six Paramitas that lead to enlightenment, of all wisdoms, and all transcendental powers of transformation, and we shall have powers of mind to distinguish every one of these things rightly and use them properly. The Sutra says that if we know our own mind on any one subject rightly then we can attain anything we will.

(2) The second conception of the internal developments relates to the faculty of distinguishing between trueness and falsity. It manifests itself in two ways.

a. The first relates to the development and manifestation of false forms of concentration. There is only one right way of practicing Dhyana but there are many false ways. According to our wrong ways of practicing there will be many different corresponding signs. We may feel a tickling sensation over our bodies, or sometimes a feeling of heaviness, as though our body were under pressure, or sometimes the very contrary, a feeling of lightness as if our body would float away, or sometimes of as though the body were held down by bonds. Sometimes there will be a feeling of unbearable sleepiness, sometimes of coldness, sometimes of heat; sometimes there will be strange changing conditions, now and then the mind will become obscure and again it will be alive with many bad perceptions; or concerned with all kinds of troubles and the complicated affairs of others; or at times we may become lightheaded and optimistic, and at other times very pessimistic; we will be filled with such fright that our hair will stand on end, and then again, there will be times of exciting happiness as though we were intoxicated. All such kinds of false developments may arise during the course of our practice, but we should pay no attention to them. If we become attached to any of these false developments, we will soon pass under the influence of ninety-five devils who will delude us into madness. When the gods or devils or evil spirits notice our susceptibility to these evil developments, they will sometimes give us increased meditating power so as to lead us on into deeper development of these evil manifestations. Sometimes they give one powers of knowledge and eloquence, sometime magical gifts so that we will be able to stir up people all the more. Under these conditions foolish people think he has attained enlightenment and they give him their faith and obedience, but his deluded mind is in a disturbed condition and is really in the service of evil spirits in their efforts to lead the world into turmoil. Alas to him who yields himself to such evil developments and manifestations! He will decline in his practice of Dhyana and after his death will fall into evil existences. But if we, truehearted followers of Buddha, notice that we are having these wrong developments and sham manifestations, then we should reject them forthwith. How may we reject them? Well, if we recognize them to be false and visionary, and take care not to think of them or grasp them or become attached to them, then they will soon vanish away. If we observe them with right insight, they will quickly pass away.

b. The other way of drawing distinctions between falsehood and trueness is the discernment by the practice of development and manifestation of right Dhyana. If we are practicing right Dhyana there will come into development and manifestation all kinds of meritorious qualities that will approve themselves to our enlightened consciousness by their benefit to our Dhyana practice. The body will become bright and transparent, fresh and pure; our minds will become happy and joyous, tranquil and serene; hindrances to our practice will disappear and good thoughts will spring up to help us; our respect for the practice will increase and our faith in it will deepen; our powers of understanding and wisdom will become clear and trustworthy; both our body and mind will become sensitive and flexible; our thought will be less superficial and more profound; our body will become tranquil; we will feel an instinctive disgust for the world’s lusts. Under these conditions, our minds will become unconditioned and desire-less, and both frankness and charm will characterize our daily life. This is the true and right development and manifestation that should follow our practice of Dhyana. These reactions are similar to the reactions we feel when we are with people—if we are with bad people, we feel irritated and annoyed, but if we are with good people, we are mutually benefited and feel at ease. Stopping and observing at the time of our practice helps us to discern between the wrongness and rightness of the developments that take place during the practice.

c. The third conception of the internal developments relates to making more use, in our practice of Dhyana, of stopping and observing as a continuing nourishment for these unfolding good qualities. If we wish to conserve and develop the good qualities, we must continually resort to the practice of stopping and observing. Sometimes it will be the practice of stopping that the situation needs, and at other times it will be observing that is needed. We should consider each situation separately by our enlightened insight and then apply the right remedy.