Jing of embryonic breathing (胎息經)

[exorcist_1699]

"Jing of embryonic breathing" (胎息經) , one of the important Taoist writings which elaborates the principles of   embryonic breathing , is  written by an anonymous Taoist   sometime before 450 A.D.

 

In recent centuries, people started to talk  about the Microcosmic circulation, but seldom  are they told  that capable of initializing  embryonic breathing is  the precondition for doing the MCC. Maybe you can skip the MCC, doing it or not really depends on what way / school you follow, but  hardly can you skip the stage of embryonic breathing. So, its importance is clear , no need to emphasize.

 

 

高上玉皇曰:

 

胎從伏氣中結，氣從有胎中息。氣入身來謂之生，神去離形謂之死。知神氣，可以長生。故守虛無，以養神氣。神行即氣行，神住即氣住。若欲長生，神氣相注。心不動念，無來無去，不出不入，自然常在。勤而行之，是真道路。

 

 

The  Heavenly Jade God said :

 

" After having the pre-heavenly qi brought under  control , a spiritual fetus starts to  form somewhere at our abdomen, and , we start to breathe in an embryonic way  where pre-heavenly qi resides.

 

What is called life is when qi enters our body, what is called death is when  shen  detaches from it .  If you knows Shen and qi well , you can live endlessly.  Stick to  Emptiness , and consolidate it so as to nourish Shen and qi. 

 

When Shen moves , qi moves; when Shen resides  , qi also resides. In order to live forever,  let Shen and qi have intercourse , and hold each other.

 

Let no minds arise . No mind comes, no mind goes;   no mind enters, no mind leaves . In that case, Shen and qi naturally coexist with each other . Practice this  diligently and you will find  it  a real way towards eternal life ." 

Edited September 10, 2016 by exorcist_1699

[joeblast]

lots of good translations like this in the ymaa embryonic breathing book.  mine's long gone, lent out too many times and it never returned.

[Wu Ming Jen]

Master Jou Tsung Hwa"s book Tao of Tai Chi Chuan has a great chapter on mixing pre natal and post natal chi with Taoist breathing as well as the 9 different breathing methods. Master Jou was a good friend of Dr Yang and one of my first internal arts teacher.

[Aetherous]

About breathing without breathing, AKA embryonic breathing - there are two schools of thought...

The first states that you literally are not breathing...you don't have to, because your body has perfect respiration without the mechanism of inhale and exhale.

The second states that you're breathing, but the mechanics are so refined or the mind is elsewhere, so that it seems like you're not.

 

The first group would say that the second group has simply never actually achieved embryonic breathing.

[idquest]

About breathing without breathing, AKA embryonic breathing - there are two schools of thought...

 

The first states that you literally are not breathing...you don't have to, because your body has perfect respiration without the mechanism of inhale and exhale.

 

The second states that you're breathing, but the mechanics are so refined or the mind is elsewhere, so that it seems like you're not.

 

The first group would say that the second group has simply never actually achieved embryonic breathing.

 

Andrew Nugent-Head tells an interesting story about his teacher, Dr. Xie, who was a highly accomplished master. While visiting the USA for the first time, Dr. Xie had a luxury of having a proper bathtub in a hotel room. After some time, Andrew heard some splash noise from the bathroom and decided to check on Dr. Xie if he was OK. It turned out Dr. Xie decided to check if he could breath with his skin while submerging his nose into the water - purely daoist scientific approach to a problem. He could not, and he stated the fact that the embrioinic breathing is not about breathing via the skin. I'd invite everybody who claims they can breath without nose and mouth to reproduce that experiment and see for themselves.

[Aetherous]

Andrew Nugent-Head tells an interesting story about his teacher, Dr. Xie, who was a highly accomplished master. While visiting the USA for the first time, Dr. Xie had a luxury of having a proper bathtub in a hotel room. After some time, Andrew heard some splash noise from the bathroom and decided to check on Dr. Xie if he was OK. It turned out Dr. Xie decided to check if he could breath with his skin while submerging his nose into the water - purely daoist scientific approach to a problem. He could not, and he stated the fact that the embrioinic breathing is not about breathing via the skin. I'd invite everybody who claims they can breath without nose and mouth to reproduce that experiment and see for themselves.

 

I'm going to not take his word for it, despite apparently being called a highly accomplished master.

 

First step for anyone attempting this is the prerequisite of actually getting into the embryonic state. If you can't, then your breathing depends on inhalation and exhalation, which depends on the nose or mouth...subtly breathing is not it.

 

Second step is being able to enter the state at will, rather than spontaneously (not sure how possible that is), and be able to submerge your face under water during it. To me, that seems to be a lot of mental and physical activity, and would take a person out of the state. Even the water touching the face would be a shock to the system and cause breathing to take place in response.

 

It's possible that it could be tested scientifically somehow.

[liminal_luke]

I´m not sure whether it´s true or not, but I think I saw Kumbhamela video footage of Hindu mystics being buried alive for not-sure-how-long and emerging from the earth just feeling just fine.  

[joeblast]

  duration of breath becomes a function of gung after a while.  one would need a superlative amount of gung to do certain things.  its silly to say one thing is absolutely something or another, words are always but an obscure finger pointing away somewhere.    with no depth of experience in a matter, one might as well be a chicken clucking in the yard about it.

[exorcist_1699]

A persistent no-Mind will definitely lead to a stop of our present way of breathing. People who can't experience it is only because they haven't come to a mind settled enough , condensed enough .

However, a stop of our old way of breathing doesn't necessarily immediately gives rise to a new way of embryonic breathing . What most likely happens is an uncomfortable lengthening of that duration of stoppage, say from stop breathing for 2 minutes , to 5 minutes...with a crystal-clear ,magnificent Mind there to safeguard you , before the emergence of the embryonic breathing .

 

Edited May 10, 2016 by exorcist_1699

[joeblast]

its an error to have stopped in the first place, in this context

 

people like the nice little bits of quiet that happen during the stoppage, but dont want to put in the work to have kept it moving the entire time until a sustainable transformation takes place.

[Jim D.]

I have experienced embryonic breathing technique. For me, it was a matter of imaging that the breath I took in stayed within my lungs and was not exhaled (In reality, it was exhaled out of my lungs). But the image became so strong and convincing it eventually felt as though I was holding my breath in comfortable and rebreathing it down into the Tan Dien, or abdominal region. As I said, it was a matter of imaging, not acutally.

 

The benefit of this technique was being able to slow down my respiration significantly, which relaxed my body and mind, and spirit.

 

But like anything, it takes work, it is uncomfortable at first, and is every time I began because it takes a great deal of concentration. But once I got into it, it became second nature. Do I do it now, no. I would rather take a Melatonin before I go to bed.

[Taoist Texts]

About breathing without breathing, AKA embryonic breathing - there are two schools of thought...

 

The first states that you literally are not breathing...you don't have to, because your body has perfect respiration without the mechanism of inhale and exhale.

 

The second states that you're breathing, but the mechanics are so refined or the mind is elsewhere, so that it seems like you're not.

 

The first group would say that the second group has simply never actually achieved embryonic breathing.

Both groups do not know what they talk about, because they both say that EB is absence of breathing, either actual or seemingly. In truth, the EB is your normal breathing on the outside, its just done differently on the inside.

[CelibacySeeker]

Both groups do not know what they talk about, because they both say that EB is absence of breathing, either actual or seemingly. In truth, the EB is your normal breathing on the outside, its just done differently on the inside.

 

yeah, it's like taking substance of the breath into work and the breath is going normally but can cease of course but itself when it's full itself.

[Aetherous]

Both groups do not know what they talk about, because they both say that EB is absence of breathing, either actual or seemingly. In truth, the EB is your normal breathing on the outside, its just done differently on the inside.

 

Group A totally disagrees.

[Taoist Texts]

Hehe, I know.

 

Stopping of breath is unusual and feels good, also the text describe the beginning of the eb as 'the regular breathing stops', so when people experience stopping,  it they go - aha! this must be the eb!

 

But it is not. Stopping is a sign of a good progress but still far from the eb.

[小梦想]

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Edited August 11, 2018 by 小梦想

[Aetherous]

Hehe, I know.

 

Stopping of breath is unusual and feels good, also the text describe the beginning of the eb as 'the regular breathing stops', so when people experience stopping,  it they go - aha! this must be the eb!

 

But it is not. Stopping is a sign of a good progress but still far from the eb.

Please go on...especially with quoting the text.

 

I'm pretty set in my ways on this subject, but do like to be challenged to a new POV.

[Taoist Texts]

All the misconceptions and guesswork about EB stem from a phrase in Bao-pu-zi 

 

《抱朴子·释滞》：“得胎息者，能不以口鼻嘘吸，如在胞胎之中。”

 

"Whoever obtained EB, can do without inhaling through nose and mouth, similar to an embryo in the womb".

 

Note, that same as the OP text, he does say what it is not, but does not say what it is exactly.  So people are reduced to guesswork, thinking that it is the breath stoppage or some kind of DT contractions, or leading qi, or stopping thoughts, or whatever. Which it is not . A pointer to what it is (p 1056).

[小梦想]

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Edited August 11, 2018 by 小梦想

[Taoist Texts]

The link you provided doesn't work for me.

 

[Aetherous]

All the misconceptions and guesswork about EB stem from a phrase in Bao-pu-zi 

 

《抱朴子·释滞》：“得胎息者，能不以口鼻嘘吸，如在胞胎之中。”

 

"Whoever obtained EB, can do without inhaling through nose and mouth, similar to an embryo in the womb".

 

Note, that same as the OP text, he does say what it is not, but does not say what it is exactly.  So people are reduced to guesswork

 

It's pretty clear what it is, both based on the name as well as that description...no guesswork required. Embryonic breathing has to do with not breathing...without inhaling through nose or mouth. It even describes why it's called embryonic breathing...because babies in the womb don't breathe through the nose or mouth.

 

For the same thing from a different school of thought, look into kevala kumbhaka.

 

But if you're saying that they were really trying to describe the internal elixir by saying "embryonic breathing"...well, perhaps that's actually a different thing.

Edited June 26, 2016 by Aetherous

[Taoist Texts]

 

 

Now, my breath has as far not stopped when this pulsing happened, but something quite extraordinary, not normal at all, started to happen during training none the less. So, the 100s of sources who claim this and that regarding EB, don't really hold up to this one person, who told me how EB starts. 

 

I totally agree. Yours is a good achievment, congrats on that. Please make sure you dont overdo it.

 

 

 

If you are willing to share your personal experience with EB and how it works, i'd be very happy to read it. 

 

 

I understand, but sorry, no can do. This stuff is secret for a number of reasons.

 

Giving me another book to read that has yet another theory is just another book with another theory.

Absolutely, no argument there. Btw, thats one of the reasons for secrecy. If i told here my personal experience here it would be just another story adding to confusion, nothing more.

[Taoist Texts]

It's pretty clear what it is, both based on the name as well as that description...no guesswork required. 

Hehe, There was this master of Single Yang or whatever, who had a sarcastic retort to those who claimed having the EB:

 

"You say you obtained embryonic breathing? Where is your embryo then?"

 

(He is an irritable dude.)

[小梦想]

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Edited August 11, 2018 by 小梦想

[Taoist Texts]

i will send you a PM.