Lower dantian not below the navel?

[Gerard]

I can't answer that as my practice really started here even though I'm originally from Europe. Moved to Australia in the late 90s. 
 

The one thing I can remember is that in 2008 I attended Vipassana retreat in Thailand but before starting the LT went nuts the first night I slept in the hotel. I guess my energetic body was trying to adapt to the moving above the Equator. 
 

It would definitively warrant a serious study but the practitioner needs to live back and forth between hemispheres in order to write down all the changes one will experience as a result of living in the opposite directions of the sphere. 
 

In the southern hemisphere vibration is higher in the lower centres: lower Hun, lower Jiao plus the fact of Australia being in the SE (wood-fire). Less activity in the upper dantien. 

[Sahaja]

Here is what was in Scripture of the Immaculate Numen - 4th century CE  Daoist text on the Dan tians. . 
 

Lord of the Great Dao] Most High announces: The upper cinnabar field
is between your two eyebrows. The middle cinnabar field is in the Crimson
Palace, or the heart. The lower cinnabar field is three cun beneath your navel. Altogether there are three cinnabar fields. The Ruddy Infant resides in the
palace within your upper cinnabar field, the Perfected Being resides in the
palace within your middle cinnabar field, and the Newborn resides within
the palace of your lower cinnabar field. In between and slightly higher than  your eyebrows is the Bright Hall; it is one cun underneath [the skin]

Ge Hong also 4th century CE in his Scripture on Heaven, Earth and Humans talks about dantian (with some slight locational differences) in reference to meditating on the one.

 

At times, it is located two cun and four fen beneath the navel in the lower cinnabar field. Other times, it is below the heart in the Golden Porte of the Crimson Palace, i.e., in the center cinnabar field. It can also be found in between a person’s two eyebrows: one cun beneath the skin is the Bright Hall. 
 

Both authors were located in northern hemisphere, presumably. 
 

per Fabrizio Pregadio in the Encyclopedia of Daoism - different Daoist texts placed the lower dantian in various locations - 1.3, 2, 2.4, 3, or 3.6 cun (inches) below the navel 

 

 

 

[Khun Paen]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:20 AM, Taomeow said:

On the surface of the body, the LDT corresponds to the 氣海 REN 6 (Qihai) or Sea of Qi acupoint, which is located 1.5 body units (cun) below the navel.  Cun is one's personal unit of measurement -- all bodies are different but all bodies are fractals, so your cun may be different from mine, but you can easily determine yours.  Most "average" bodies will have approximately similar average cun values  but someone short or taller than "average" (whatever that means) might do better not relying on inches or centimeters offered by various "approximators" and finding the actual point on his or her actual body.  Precision matters more in acupuncture of course, dantiens don't need to be located within millimeters, so a rough idea of where your very own "1.5 cun below the navel" is  should suffice.

   

 

At the back of the body, 命門 Du 4 Mingmen or Gate of Life point is located exactly opposite your LDT.  Of course neither one is merely a point on the surface, it's more like a vortex connecting the two.  

 

is 1.5 cun behind the middle finger, or below it? Because behind the middle finger for me is only one inch. And I rarely see the lower dantian described as being one inch below the navel. I mostly see 1.5 or 2 inches below

[Taomeow]

5 minutes ago, Khun Paen said:

is 1.5 cun behind the middle finger, or below it? Because behind the middle finger for me is only one inch. And I rarely see the lower dantian described as being one inch below the navel. I mostly see 1.5 or 2 inches below

 

The above says 1.5 cun. 

Unfortunately, I don't understand what you mean by "behind the middle finger or below it."   

[Khun Paen]

3 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

The above says 1.5 cun. 

Unfortunately, I don't understand what you mean by "behind the middle finger or below it."   

I mean, when you take the index finger, and middle finger, and put them under the belly button to measure 1.5 cun. Do you focus into the stomach exactly at the level where your middle finger is touching. Or, do you take the index finger of your other hand, put it under the middle finger, and focus into the stomach there instead. I've seen acupuncture videos measuring 1.5 cun both of these ways. 

Edited March 8 by Khun Paen

[Taomeow]

3 hours ago, Khun Paen said:

I mean, when you take the index finger, and middle finger, and put them under the belly button to measure 1.5 cun. Do you focus into the stomach exactly at the level where your middle finger is touching. Or, do you take the index finger of your other hand, put it under the middle finger, and focus into the stomach there instead. I've seen acupuncture videos measuring 1.5 cun both of these ways. 

 

Don't put fingers onto your stomach at all if it's confusing.  Instead, mark the size of your own personal cun on a piece of paper or on a measuring tape or on a piece of string and use that.   

 

Keep in mind that for the location of the lower dantian, it's fine if it's approximate enough, it's not really a point you need to locate as precisely as for sticking a needle therein.  

 

Many years ago, someone let me borrow a simple little machine with two electrodes and a graduated scale that measured electrical conductance on the surface of the skin (and doubled up as a treatment device, but I don't remember by now how exactly it was used.)  The acupoints have significantly higher conductance -- when you hit the correct point, the measuring needle on the scale would instantly jump.  It made it easy to find precise locations.  That machine was very simple -- there's modern devices however that are designed for the same purpose, fancier and computerized and costing way more -- but some acupuncturists might have them in their office.  You could perhaps try to find one of those and measure the precise location "scientifically."