Diet and the Vital Breath

Yesterday my son (7mnths) had bad gas pains. We fed him prunes for the first time and they didn’t agree. I ended up holding him in my lap. I had earlier in the day read a section on eight-channel breathing and the microcosmic orbit. There was nothing in the reading to suggest that this would be a good method for healing, except that the method circulates the chi and accelerates Yang energy. It seemed to me, in my desperate state to help my son feel better, that if I could generate enough yang energy and circulate it through him and push any yin energy away from us that this may ease the pains.

I began by circulating my breath up my spine (tu mo) and then back down the front (jen mo) into the mortal cavity and up the center into the lower tan-tien. This was then forced further up into the heart.

I had read not to force chi up past the heart into the brain. My reading has not indicated why. I can assume it has something to do with the center being at the heart. This system forms somewhat of a spiral, moving around and then up the center to stop at the heart. There is perhaps nowhere else for ones energy to go. The energy spirals out from the microcosm and into the microcosm where from the heart it continues inward further into the microcosm, which of course eventually reestablishes connection with the macrocosm. There is no true in or out, micro or macro. These dualistic terms are in place merely for classification of the system’s motion. Once the energy cycles through the microcosm it must enter another macrocosm, and on, ad infinitum. We are connected to our cosmic self, the solar system, the Xaobala, by way of the microcosm, the personal body. This in turn is the Xaobala, the solar system, of yet another body. By connecting with these bodies we are pulling our energy from all sources.

I held my son, crying in pin, in my lap. I crossed my legs and sat him up a bit. I placed his head on my shoulder. He was on my right. I let my right hand cradle underneath him forming a cup. My left I held out to him palm up. I began to vibrate (a very deep humming) which I have done to sooth him since he was in the womb. I began the breath circulation. My son placed his right hand in my left. When this got heavy and I began to enter gnosis I changed the course of my energy a bit. Rather than taking my energy into myself and circulating it through I pushed it outward from the heart (li) and into him. Nearly as soon as I began pushing my energy out of my chest my son moved his hand from mine and placed it palm out flat against my chest. I could feel the chi moving at this point from me and into him. It almost felt as if he was pulling the energy from me rather than me pushing it into him. This chi moved through him arm and into his heart moving through the cycle in reverse, from his heart to his tan tien to his mortal cavity them up the front and down the spine. It moved out of the base of his spine and up into the base of mine. We formed a circuit. His breathing began to calm, evening out and his whining stopped. He seemed to sleep calmly and relatively pain free for a while.

While this did not cure anything, as he did wake up later with pains, it seemed to work while I was doing it. It may be worth working with an adult in order to get a report of effect.

Note: (on the results from the Evolution of the ChimPanZ)
Since the full transformation into Frater Tzu Jan I have found myself to be much calmer. I am not drawn to anger or aggravation as easily, and I am more aware and honest with myself about my feelings and the source of my feelings. To note, one of the sigils that was vital to the ritual and the personality of Tzu Jan was compassionate tolerance. This primarily due to the care-taking role I have found myself in with my grandmother. It has been very difficult in the past to maintain a calm air. My grandmother is 89 years old this year. She still works and drives herself to work. Though she still has these abilities, she is becoming frailer as the days pass. I find myself becoming aggravated with her when she attempts too much. I need to patiently allow her to do what she has the ability to do. It has been difficult to balance my want for her health and comfort and her desire to continue doing to the maximum (and a bit beyond) her ability. When I found her hauling out a big bag of trash, after she had complained of her back hurting, I was able to simply express to her my concern and the source of that concern (love) without becoming upset with her for doing.

There are several other positive results that have manifested over the past few days. One of them is actual a manifesting in this Blog. To write more was not a specific intent but the byproduct of an intent.

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My experience
Of myself comes crashing in
Into this moment
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In this there is the XaoTaoist yoga. This is the first of the arts, to cultivate the body so that the mind will follow, to cultivate the mind so that the spirit will follow and to cultivate the spirit so that the world will follow.

In cultivating the body it is important to consider what one puts in the body. This is the fuel that the body utilizes for all of its daily activities. Just with any fuel that one utilizes there is waste. Some fuels gum up engines and burn dirty; some fuels run and burn relatively clean, with little emission and little residue. There is also a larger concern with the fuels we use for the body. These fuels have been cultivated by the use of other energies, other fuels. This cultivation process affects the chi of the food we eat. Food that is still living holds within it a life force, yang energy. Food that has been killed holds death within it, yin energy. For the purpose of cultivating the body, for the purpose of the immortality of the Taoist yoga, and the xaotaoist yoga it is important that the practitioner take in as little yin energy as is possible. The diet that I have chosen is virtually vegan. I say virtually do to the consumption of yeasts and honey of which still holds much yang energy. It is important not to eat to dullness; to do this is to weigh the body down and to use too much chi in digestion. Digestion should be light and easy and the food digested should give more than it takes.

XaoTaoist Diet:

Cut down on yin foods (meats, dairy, eggs)
When you do eat meat, dairy or eggs only eat organic, cage free, ethically raised animal
Eat as many organic, local grown and in season foods as possible
Eat as little processed food as you can get away with
Don’t eat to dullness

Moderate:
Cut yin foods out of your diet all together

Extreme:
Fast every other day.

Morning Meditation (clearing the eight psychic channels):
adapted from: Hsin Ming Fa Chueh Ming Chih

Inhale; drive the vital breath into tu mo (channel of control) from the mortal gate to ni wan (the brain).
Exhale; drive the vital breath down jen mo (channel of function) to the mortal cavity.
Inhale; raise it to the lower tan t’ien (cavity of vitality) then to the navel (shu?) and out into the tai mo (belt channel). It circles out from the navel and meets at the small of the back. Perhaps to connect in the helix, spiraling up the spine, copulating snakes. It separates again at the shoulders and stops.
Exhale; Move it down the yang yu channels outside of arms to outside wrists, to tips of middle fingers, around to palms of hands, stop.
Inhale; pull energy up the inside of the arms, yin yu channels to the chest and stop.
Exhale; back down to the tai mo and then recombine with the mortal cavity. (Two lines)
Inhale: Bring the vital breath up through the ch’ung mo (thrusting channel) to the chiang kung cavity (solar plexus) and a bit higher under the heart. At this point the instructions are clear to not go above the heart[1].
Exhale; send the vital breath back to the mortal cavity. At this point it divides again to move down the yang ch’iao channels (positive[2], outside of the legs) to the toes and then to the yung ch’uan cavities (bubbling springs cavity at the souls of the feet) then stop.
Inhale; bring the vital breath up through the yin ch’iao cavities (inside of the legs) to the mortal gate and on to the cavity of vitality (lower tan t’ien, k’an?) to stop.
Exhale; back down to the mortal cavity to stop.

footnotes:
[1] This is where I questioned the reasoning earlier. Is this due to a gravitational situation or a force of energy? Is it that once the energy goes to far up the channel that it gets stuck or is resistant to turning back around? Is there a different method or purpose of pushing the vital breath up past the heart and possibly into the brain?
[2] Exhale is positive and inhaling is negative. Or so it seems. This should be corroborated as we find sources.