What exactly is a dan tien?

[KenBrace]

What exactly is a dan tien? I know the three dan tiens are major energy centers in the body (LDT, MDT, and UDT) but physically what are these centers? Are they glands, groups of nerve fibers, etc.? Anyone have a concrete understanding of what it is? The only thing I've been able to find are abstract explanations.

Edited October 21, 2013 by KenBrace

[ChiDragon]

What exactly is a dan tien? I know the three dan tiens are major energy centers in the body (LDT, MDT, and UDT) but physically what are these centers? Are they glands, groups of nerve fibers, etc.? Anyone have a concrete understanding of what it is? The only thing I've been able to find are abstract explanations.

Here we go, again, with another round at it...!!!

Edited October 21, 2013 by ChiDragon

[ChiForce]

Speaking only from experiences. Dan Tiens are "consciousness energy" regions located at 3 different parts of the front of your body. I think that Dan Tien could only exist if there is a consciousness energy focused on it. That's the reason why when you focus you mind to your Dan Tien, your chi moves accordingly.

[Apech]

https://www.google.com/search?q=thetaobums+dan+tien+tan+tien&oq=thetaobums+dan+tien+tan+tien&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8

[ChiDragon]

Please don't go there. That was where we all came from. It will just put us back into nowhere. If one knows, one should be able to put it in one's own word. The answer is very trivial. It may be found in the first initials of UDT, MDT, and LDT.

[Iskote]

The only thing I've been able to find are abstract explanations.

Then you seem to be on the right track.

Literally:

丹 dan - red; pellet; powder; cinnabar

田 tian - field; farm

Often translated as field of cinnabar.

Dan is also sometimes used in the sense of pill or medicine, but typically more in a symbolic sense than in a literal sense, or at least with the connotation of something beyond the ordinary.

 

Cinnabar is one of those words which appear to have been used fairly widely in taoist internal and external alchemy and related practices, and which has both a symbolic meaning in internal alchemy as well as a literal meaning and useage in external alchemy and in traditional Chinese medicine use. In regards to the term dan tian, it would seem most likely that this term originated in relation to taoist internal alchemy practices. This being the case, you would probably be wise to realize that the true meaning of this term is probably not at all straightforward, and a true understanding of its deeper meaning can likely only be fully understood after many years of practice of authentic internal alchemy or similar practices, i.e., through direct personal experience. Beware of pat answers.

 

P.S. To try to clarify a little further, in internal alchemy you have the concept of developing a 'medicine' or 'elixir' for development and transformation purposes. So in this sense a dan tian would be an area where this 'medicine' or 'elixir' is formed and processed. So you could translate dan tian as 'elixir field' when viewed from this perspective.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2013 by Iskote

[Thunder_Gooch]

Well take this with a few pounds of salt, but...

 

Your intestines in your physical body are an exchange point, load them up with food and water, and they extract nutrients, and expel waste from your body.

 

Your lungs exchange bring in O2, and expel CO2, and your heart moves the oxygen and nutrients around your body.

 

Your brain converts this chemical energy, glucose, O2, etc into bio-electro-chemical energy, it takes in energy in the form of nerve impulses from all the sense organs, and and exchanges energy along nerve fibers to guide the body.

 

So in the physical body the areas around where the the dan tiens exist are points of exchange.

 

The LDT, extraction of chemical energy, removal of chemical waste

 

MDT exchange O2 for waste CO2, circulation of O2, and nutrition throughout body.

 

UDT exchange of information input in the form of nerve impulses, output in the form of information sent to the nerves to move muscle fibers.

 

I hypothesize that the dan tiens perform similar functions in the "spiritual" body.

 

Just my $0.02

Edited October 22, 2013 by More_Pie_Guy

[Taomeow]

A dantien is like love. Everybody has the capacity, not everybody has the experience.

[dawei]

As part of your meditation, consider it as the Three [Great] Ones... and see what you come up with.

[ChiDragon]

What exactly is a dan tien? I know the three dan tiens are major energy centers in the body (LDT, MDT, and UDT) but physically what are these centers? Are they glands, groups of nerve fibers, etc.? Anyone have a concrete understanding of what it is? The only thing I've been able to find are abstract explanations.

Let's rephrase the question to say what is UDT, MDT, and LDT.....???

 

As I'd said earlier, it is very trivial. The answer is in the first initial of the three terms. The initials are:

U = upper

M =middle

L = lower

 

These are descriptive words for a particular location. Since this is related to the body, therefore, we have the upper body, middle body, and the lower body. If we even want to clarify it more explicit, then, the upper part is the head, the middle is the chest, and the lower is the abdomen. However, the ancient Taoists had their own esoteric terms for the different locations of the body. Somehow, they used the term dan tian(丹田) as a place holder. To distinguish the different location of the body, the head become the upper dan tian(UDT), the chest become the MDT, and the abdomen become the LDT.

 

There is a very common phrase that the martial artists are always use to describe when they had taken a breath deep down to the abdomen. The phrase is 氣沈丹田(sink chi to the dan tian).

 

Edited October 22, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Tsunami_MAPUA]

The only person I know so far (Perhaps, there's others) who try to locate the tantien physically is Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming. The lower tantien to him is the body's center of gravity.

[i am]

The only person I know so far (Perhaps, there's others) who try to locate the tantien physically is Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming. The lower tantien to him is the body's center of gravity.

And something of a "second brain".

 

Anyone listen to radiolab? They had a good one recently where there was an experiment with the effects of probiotics on mice. They found that what is in your gut directly effects how you brain functions, through the vagus nerve. (Or at least it does in mice)

 

Dr Yang (from what I remember) thought of the intestines as a second brain, and the two communicate. And of course a location with a capacity to store large amounts of energy, due to the physical makeup of it, and the ability of that very real physical material to store real physical energy.

[Brian]

The only person I know so far (Perhaps, there's others) who try to locate the tantien physically is Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming. The lower tantien to him is the body's center of gravity.

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/centerofmass.shtml

 

That's not really what dantien is, though...

Edited October 22, 2013 by Brian

[三江源]

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Edited July 25, 2014 by cat

[ChiDragon]

The only person I know so far (Perhaps, there's others) who try to locate the tantien physically is Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming. The lower tantien to him is the body's center of gravity.

 

Does that mean the LDT is a point located in the center of the chest or a little bit below it........???

Edited October 22, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Apech]

 

Does that mean the LDT is point located in the enter of the chest or a little bit below it........???

 

 

The centre of gravity of the human body is just below the navel where the LDT is. Dr. Yang actually regards the geographic centre of the body to be the diaphragm ... and the MDT to be located around there.

[Wells]

 

What exactly is a dan tien?

[Brian]

The centre of gravity of the human body is just below the navel where the LDT is. Dr. Yang actually regards the geographic centre of the body to be the diaphragm ... and the MDT to be located around there.

 

Center of mass really depends on personal geometry, obesity/fitness/muscularity, the person's sex, etc. My brothers and I have significantly different CMs and my sister has a different one still. For men it is often near the MDT and for women it is often near LDT. I honestly don't think CG really has any meaningful relation to DT, though...

[dawei]

What exactly is a dan tien? I know the three dan tiens are major energy centers in the body (LDT, MDT, and UDT) but physically what are these centers? Are they glands, groups of nerve fibers, etc.? Anyone have a concrete understanding of what it is? The only thing I've been able to find are abstract explanations.

 

It seems to me that a few are too caught up in debating "Where" the dan tians are, and that is NOT the question posed. Can't we get beyond limited understanding of 'location' and just get to 'how' it does this?

 

In this case, the OP is asking for the physical make-up. I think those comments which talk of the stomach as a bundle of nerves is the closest answer anatomically.

 

But the question may underscore a limitation in understanding, which a few have hinted at: That one has to get beyond the physical; these are energy centers and thus the 'real' question to ask may be: "where does the idea come from" (it is not haphazard as one suggests), and "How does it work on an energetic level" (which ties to the previous question of understanding where the idea comes from).

 

In a nutshell: it comes from Laozi... and it treats man as a microcosm of the universe... and there is something which resides in each center which makes one capable to return to the universal energy...

 

While these are more interesting Q&A for me, it may not be what the OP wants.

[ChiDragon]

Since the OP has no idea what dan tien is, perhaps the OP should have had stated:
What exactly is "dan tien"....??? rather than
What exactly is "a dan tien".....???

The "a" is the culprit which misled everybody. It is because dan tien is not a thing but only a location on the body....!!!

Edited October 22, 2013 by ChiDragon

[KenBrace]

Since the OP has no idea what dan tien is, perhaps the OP should have had stated:What exactly is "dan tien"....??? rather thanWhat exactly is "a dan tien".....???

The "a" is the culprit which misled everybody. It is because dan tien is not a thing but only a location on the body....!!!

I disagree. The dan tiens (like chakras) are things, not simply positions on the body.

Edited October 22, 2013 by KenBrace

[ChiDragon]

The "a" is the culprit which misled everybody. It is because dan tien is not a thing but only a location on the body....!!!

Edited October 22, 2013 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

I disagree. The dan tiens (like chakras) are things, not simply positions on the body.

 

Okay!

In this case, then you just have kicked me out of the conversation literally......

[KenBrace]

What exactly is a dan tien?

 

That's pretty much what mine is still like! lol XD

[KenBrace]

Okay!

In this case, then you just have kicked me out of the conversation literally......

 

Lol so you believe the same thing about chakras?