Richard-Friedel

A great deal of Mantak Chia's principles of the role of pressure on the tan tian or tanden and energy from it pervading the body etc. is entirely confirmed by modern physiology. Using Google (search words: stephen-alexander The Circulation System) you can find a PPT file as a clear explanation of the respiratory pump, which is to be read with the Power-Point-Viewer.. This account has the advantage of being physiological rather than anatomical as is more often the case. When in the file use the right mouse button to go to the. slide #18 and then switch between forward and backward with the mouse button to see the filling and emptying of the abdominal cavity with blood in step with breathing. This is far closer to classics such as "Oriental breathing therapy" by T. Nakamura than western medical literature omitting the effects of breathing on circulation and largely limited to anatomical details. A further account based on Dr. Alexander is on http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~s3e0101/webser...ebdata/AoBe.pdf RF. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. Richard Feynman

One good source on this is the over 100 year old Dr. Nobuo Shioya, see http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~s3e0101/webser...ioya-shiki.pdf.. I just do it to get a fair degree of pressure in the abdomen. Ballooning out does not seem so important. I've added some comments in italics. I figure that bhastrika pranayama can be quite similar (see Ramdev on youtube). Abdomen pressure is crtical "keep navel near spine" Generally it must surely stand to reason that nature has some mechanism for opening up the bronchi. Pills and sprays are sort of unnatural. RF.

Hi, My name is Richard Friedel. I have studied Zen techniques with Toyo and Petra Kobayashi in Munich and am familiar with books on Oriental breathing, in particular "Hara, vital center of man" by Duerckheim, "Oreintal Breathing" by Dr. Takashi Nakamura and also "Deep breathing" by S. Otabe. I am particularly keen to help close the gap between western and eastern concepts of breathing.