In the previous article we discussed the differences between mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation.  Mindfulness meditation is a state of mental awareness marked by inclusive observation and sensitivity, awareness as well of immediate experience, and a state of consciousness free from conditioned or intellectual thought.  Concentration meditation in contrast is exclusive, meaning the mind focuses on a narrow part of experience, whether it be a point on your body or some object of perception.  Whether or not these different approaches to meditation culminate in the same end is beyond the scope of this article, but I can say with relative certainty that the methods of practice inherent to them are diametrically different. 

While all meditative techniques should aid in opening the mind, improve awareness and sensitivity, and work to improve mental focus, energy work is the practice of consciously developing and utilizing the subtle, and for most people, imperceptible force of life that flows through us all. 

To break down thousands of years of Eastern philosophy and spiritual practice into two bullet points:

1. Energy should be accumulated before it can be consciously utilized. 
2. Energy can be accumulated in 2 ways:

• through mental focus
• by utilizing physical tension or oscillating tension (contract and relax)

The first component is sufficient, as the mind is capable of perceiving and controlling energy.  But adding the physical component can expedite energy development and manipulation.

The following techniques come from a variety of sources and schools I’ve encountered over the last 12 + years.  I aim only to relay actionable principles of meditation for those intent on dedicated self study or for those looking to expand or diversify their current training.  These methods are a combination of my experience with various meditation teachers in the USA, China, and Thailand, personal practice for over 10 years, extensive studies on the topic including a combination of various schools of qigong, Tai Qi, and Eastern and Western healing arts.   

Breathing Techniques and Internal Energy Development: Fanning the Fire of Qi

Deep abdominal breathing is the foundation of energy development.  The seat of energy in the body is located about an inch and a half below the navel, and an inch to a few inches within the body.  The exact location from person to person may vary slightly, but focus on this general point will suffice in the beginning.

Key elements, which are not essential, but which do expedite development include erect posture, whether you’re seated or standing, relaxed limbs, and pressing the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth just behind the pallet.  From here, breath deeply, imagining air and the energy within traveling down to the seat of energy.  Despite the fact that your lungs cannot expand to such depths, it doesn’t take long to feel pressure in the lower abdomen.

In sports play, athletes use chest breathing to pump oxygen throughout the body.  In meditation however, one should allow the chest to remain static and relaxed, while the lower abdomen acts like an energy pump.  Focus on the seat of energy will eventually result in a host of sensations in that area, as well as heat, which may be localized or cause the whole body to flush. 

You can imagine there is a fire in your abdomen that is aroused and fed with every deep breath.  As you exhale, this fire should not leave with your breath, but should remain in the abdomen in an ever expanding ball of heat and pressure.  Energy can enter, but at this stage, you should not let it leave.  Master Su, one of my qigong masters in northern China, would test development by spontaneously striking students in the stomach.  An advanced student would not only feel no pain, but the pressure and energy within the abdomen would make the exterior rock hard.  This is the foundation of Shaolin QiGong (Wai Gong) training. 

Don’t be tied down by imagery however.  Some focus on a bead of light and others a dense marble of energy.  Allow your mind to find comfort in your breath, and work to apply concepts as they make sense to you.

Energy Development and Self Healing Meditation: The Small Universe

The small universe should not be attempted until you can clearly distinguish fantasy from genuine energy sensations in the lower abdomen.  As mentioned in the previous article, Traditional Chinese Medicine  identifies two primary energy channels which line the center of the front and back of the body: the conception vessel in front, governing vessel in back.  Filling these channels with qi energy is the foundation of self healing.  The why’s of this are all over the web for your googling pleasure.  I’d like to remain focused on the how’s. 

External Pointers:

• Keep the tongue pressed against the roof of the mouth
• Sit or stand with strong posture, muscles relaxed
• Head should be upright, as if suspended by a thread from the top of the head
• If seated, legs should be crossed or in the lotus or half lotus position
• If standing, knees should be slightly bent, hips tucked under slightly

After growing energy in your lower abdomen, there is a fair chance you’ll spontaneously accomplish the small universe at some point.  Your health will be strong, your mind clear, and your body relaxed and marked by fast healing and gains in strength and speed.  Even if this occurs, learning to complete the small universe with willpower will allow for greater skills and energy control later on. 

Small Universe Meditation

Begin breathing meditation as before, fanning the flame of qi in the lower abdomen.  After a few cycles, and after you feel your breath is long, deep, and under full control, mentally push (or pull) the accumulated ball of energy down to the genitals, and up the center of the back to the top of the head.  That just about sums it up.

For beginners, a technique which may help maneuver energy through a few sticking points in the body is use two breath cycles to complete the small universe.  The first inhalation draws breath and energy to the seat of energy.  The first exhalation accompanies mental focus on the point between genitals and anus.  (This may or may not be accompanied by tightening the anus.)  The second inhalation sends breath to the Crown Point on the top of the head and energy between the legs follows, and the second exhalation sends breath out through the nose.  Then the cycle begins again. 

This should be performed at least once a day, and if your mind is in a relaxed state, the more the merrier.  When you find your attention waver, rest briefly, or stop the session.  Traditionally, before sun rise, at noon, and again after dark are considered the ideal times to perform energy meditation.  And if performed outdoors, try to have the sun to your back.  These are principles which should be taken with a grain of salt in my opinion.  Superstition should never replace hard work.  Honest practice will reap rewards.

Reverse Abdominal Breathing

Reverse abdominal breathing is an old Taoist technique hidden away in the alchemist’s tool kit.  This is not a beginner’s meditation, and even advanced practitioners may find no real use for it.  It will however enhance energy accumulation, as well as pave the way for completing the Small Universe.  But do keep in mind, this type of breathing can be dangerous, so don’t persist if something doesn’t feel right.  Find a guide.

Reverse abdominal breathing is exactly what it sounds like.  Your abdomen contracts when you inhale, and it expands when you exhale.  This method of backwards breathing is difficult to master, because, well, it’s backwards.  But it has two unique advantages in terms of energy development.  The first advantage is that contracting the abdominals creates tension, and this tension, as mentioned above, accumulates energy.  For experienced meditation practitioners, the first attempt at this breathing method will tend to generate an awful lot of heat in lower abdomen.  It’s the incorporation of mental focus and physical tension.

A key component to this style of breathing is the contraction of the anus while inhaling.  At the onset, breathing into the lower abdomen and fanning the flame is a safe transition.  But the main reason for reverse breathing and the tightening of the anus is to draw energy past the seat of energy behind and beneath the belly button, and all the way down to the  anus, which is an energy sticking point in the small universe meditation.  Upon exhalation, the sphincter will relax along with the abdomen (causing it to expand back to normal), and energy accumulated and trapped at the point between the legs is able to travel up the back to the crown point on the top of the head, and out through the nose, thus completing the small universe.

Note: This meditation is dangerous because it can, in the untrained person, create excessive tension in the chest, and increase blood pressure.  It is not ideal for those looking to ‘relax’.  They key is to learn to relax the chest and draw a deep breath without straining your normal breathing patterns or creating undue tension outside of the specified area. 

Breath Holding, Pressing Air, and Clenching the Molars

While breath holding and muscular contraction is nothing new to qigong or energy work, and quite prominent in many systems, clenching the molars is a technique I have only encountered through martial arts training.  I credit this contribution to energy work to Hapkido.  The techniques I’ve practiced were taught me by Master Sean Bradley, he himself a direct student of Jae Han Ji, the founder of Sin Moo Hapkido.  As esoteric as the following technique may seem, it is profoundly effective.  Note: I’m relating concepts, but specific applications may vary.

Once deep abdominal breathing is natural and comfortable, you can attempt to hold your breath for several seconds mid breath.  Breathing in for 5 long seconds, holding your breath for 5, and exhaling for 5, would be a start.  As and muscles surrounding the lungs strengthen, increasing the length of each segment aids in both oxygen efficiency and energy development.   Once this becomes comfortable, adding a brief period of abdominal contraction, or in some cases, total body tension, while simultaneously clenching the molars, will develop tremendous power if practiced religiously.  Other variations to experiment with may include muscle contraction of a selected striking tool like a fist or palm, or another region of the body after the breath holding segment.

This technique will not only increase physical power and raw aggression, but proponents argue it offers ‘higher-mind’, or elevated consciousness, benefits.  This is the stuff of legends, truly (perhaps true legends?).  In many Hapkido circles, time control, the slowing down of time while under attack, or the speeding up of time when attacking an assailant, along with mind control and telepathic awareness are topics discussed casually alongside physical technique. 

How this form of meditation produces such mental power is far from conclusively understood.  Dr. Bradley speculates that clenching the molars physically stimulates the mid-brain, which may cause the pineal gland to emit DMT, a naturally occurring psychedelic drug responsible for the perceptions of altered time during near death experiences, as well as a host of other fringe psychological, psychedelic, and hallucinogenic experiences.  No one can deny that in moments of life or death challenges, that seeing what is not normally seen, and thinking what is not normally thought, is a powerful and invaluable state of mind for a martial artist, once one learns to control it.

Energy Channeling for Martial Arts and Spiritual Healing: The Big Universe

Once you’ve acquired a heightened sensitivity and awareness of your energy you’ll be able to expand, should you choose to, into more esoteric aspects of energy work.  The ability to channel energy lines the pages of every martial arts epic as well the pages of new age healing magazines.  Mystic healers and martial artists for centuries have been credited with phenomenal skills of healing and hurting with energy.  Jesus Christ, Siddhartha Gautama the founder of Buddhism, Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, Yue Fei the founder of Xing Yi Quan, and Morei Eushiba the founder of Aikido, to name a few high profile energy workers. 

While some systems of spirit healing don’t consciously cultivate mental control of energy, and instead cultivate selfless compassion and mental focus to perform energy healing, one can broach the subject more methodically by building on the meditative practices mentioned above.  Once the small universe meditation is second nature, and your health, both mental and physical, is balanced, you’ll be ready to channel this energy to and through various parts of the body for improved self healing, enhanced martial techniques, or energy healing others. 

This is not technically difficult, but it does rely entirely on the foundation of energy work previously built.  Jumping to this stage too soon will be fruitless, so listen to yourself and take your time completing the small universe.  You’ll know when its time to progress, as its quite likely you’ll be aware of this energy spontaneously moving to your extremities before you consciously direct it to.  And as I said in the previous article, don’t chase sensations.  It is all too common for those hungry for energy advancement to create or perceive sensations for the sake of expediting progress.  True progress will be undeniable if practice is conscientious and dedicated.  It may just never get publicly recognized.

Seated Meditation

After cycling your energy through the small universe, you can begin to redirect it through other paths.  Breath in to your deep abdomen, fan the fire, and this time upon exhalation, rather than sending your energy up your spine to the crown point, focus on the palm of your outstretched hand.  The path will detour at your shoulder and travel through your arm.  Breath back in deeply to your lower abdomen, fan the flame, and exhale, again focusing on your palm.  Repeat. 

Adding Tension

There are two methods of enhancing this technique with tension.  The first of which is a bit safer and easier to apply.  Breath in to your deep abdomen, this time adding a 5 second pause while lightly clenching your outstretched fist or tightening the muscles of your palm, and then relax and exhale.  The tension will cause energy to stagnate in that region, and relaxing will allow your energy to flow more smoothly to and through your hand. 

The tougher method, another Taoist contribution from Tai Qi qigong, is called condensing breathing.  This time the tension coincides with the initial breath in.  This is, needless to say, tough, as people generally hold breath or exhale during physical exertion.  As you breath in, clench your fist and the muscle of your forearm, and visualize condensing your breath and even squeezing the muscles themselves inward, deep into the bone, into the marrow in fact, until your arm feels that it is suspended by nothing.  Upon exhalation, relax, and allow energy to flow freely through your arm again.  Repeat. 

This is a well kept technique in the alchemist’s tool kit.  Performing this technique with every major region, and more specifically, every major bone in the body will build tremendous power and energy control.

Tai Qi Type Meditative Movement

Again, after one is practiced in energy work, learning to control and direct that energy is the next rung on the ladder.  There is nothing very profound about the physical techniques in Tai Qi, and in fact, I’d argue most are outdated and impractical.  Two benefits of the method are worth mentioning.  The first is developing a sense of rootedness, learning to stand firmly on the ground as if your legs have sprouted roots, rather than merely stand on top of it.  All balance and power in martial arts comes from learning to derive power from the ground, as muscular force is not suspended in mid air, but is acting as a coordinated unit from a fixed surface.  This principle is one of the most essential principles in all of martial arts, and is the root of all balance and power.

The second is coordinating mind and body.  When the mind is focused, and energy is sufficiently developed, it will flow freely to the point of focus.  Mind, body, and spirit act together.  Dedicated practice in this manner, whether it be in Tai Qi itself, or whether you experiment and coordinate your mental focus with slow meditative martial techniques you’re familiar with, will reap great rewards in terms of energy control and martial arts power development.  In working with my advanced students and clients, I find this principle is the most difficult to impart.  Patience is required.

Awakening the Third Eye and Raising Levels of Consciousness

Most people have heard of the third eye.  It’s commonly associated with esoteric skills like telepathy, telekinesis, and prophetic vision.  It resides in the frontal lobe of the brain, just behind the forehead.  Opening the third eye leads to elevated states of consciousness, higher intelligence, wisdom, and awareness.  For a martial artist, it means seeing what is not commonly see, faster than most become aware.  For healers it means intuiting the root cause of illness, and facilitating energy healing with compassion and wisdom.

This is where most scammers and charlatans exploit those in need of spiritual guidance.  There is no way, save for being enlightened yourself, to really discern between a skilled deceiver and someone with true spiritual gifts (I use that word in the most secular fashion).  Progressing in meditation from basic energy work into the realm of mental development is a lonely path.  There are few dedicated to the path.  And many of those who are, are sacrificing the truth of spiritual advancement for acknowledgement from others for their mystic skills.  If you are on this path yourself, try everything, keep the good, discard the bad, and regard your teachers with a healthy skepticism.

In theory, this is no more complicated than any of the previous exercises mentioned above.  It does however presuppose those exercises, and necessitate a heightened sensitivity to your energy, as well as the ability to concentrate it in certain regions of the body.  There are two methods that work well for what I call third eye meditation.  The first is simply to consciously complete the small universe several times, and after, rather than finish the circle, exhale and concentrate on the area within and behind your forehead.  Pressure will arise, but it should not be forced or tensed.  This will be a cycling of energy.  As breath is drawn in, energy is collected in the seat of energy under the navel.  As you exhale that energy travels down to the groin, up the spine to the crown point at the top of the head, and settles behind the forehead.  This is perhaps a good primer.

With time you’ll be able to disregard breath and focus solely on the third eye.  This does not need much elaboration, as it eventually acts like its own control center, perceiving and thinking beyond your normal limits.  Your mind will act faster, absorb more information more quickly, your memory will improve, your self confidence and compassion for others will also grow considerably.  A part of you will awaken that has always been there, but that you’ve neglected. 

Healing Hands

Discussion of mystic or holistic healing comes after the discussion of the third eye instead of following the discussion of channeling because there is much more to it than willing energy through your body into another.  I’m still not capable of articulating this as precisely as I’d like, but suffice it to say that healing is born of selfless compassion.  Energy is empty in itself, a force for good or evil.  It needs guidance and focus.  It requires understanding.  The intuition and wisdom awakened with the third eye are essential for enlightened energy use and healing.  And as always, if you’re chasing recognition or special skills, prepare yourself for disappointment.  An honest quest toward peace and self discovery is not only more likely to lead to wisdom, but to higher states of energy awareness and use as well.

From the time we are young, life is a process of accumulation.  We acquire knowledge, physical skills, and material possessions.  Success in this world often depends on accumulating more than those around you.  Wealth and knowledge are associated with power.  Innocence and ignorance are only charming traits in children. 

A white belt, fresh in off the street, enters a martial arts studio for a variety of reasons.  Some students seek self defense instruction, some seek improved health and fitness, and some look for a guiding light or deeper spiritual guidance.  A good martial arts system should be able to provide all of these things and more. 

Most martial arts systems are terribly oblivious to the needs of a new student, in the same way perhaps a language school may first teach you how to converse with other students and talk about personal interests before you learn how to order food in a restaurant.  These skills are essential and will come in handy, but you need to learn to survive first, and from there proceed to develop a cohesive framework of understanding. 

There are a few martial arts systems that focus solely on self defense training.  Most others offer more to a student than survival skills.  They offer physical education and the fundamentals of proper body structure and power theory.  They offer philosophical principles that can provide not only principles of application of martial techniques, but also moral principles governing the use of those techniques.  And last but not least, they provide dogma in the form of training theory and physical technique.  This dogma makes the white belt very strong, and consequently, the black belt very weak.

Education in the west is a process of methodical indoctrination.  All subjects are analyzed, deconstructed, and the pieces are spoon fed to students.  By studying the parts, and eventually adding them together to arrive at a picture of the whole, the student gains confidence and control over his field of study…if he is in fact capable of reconstructing the parts.  A martial arts novice may learn three basic kicks, three blocks, and one or two hand techniques.  These techniques are the core of the art, the foundation upon which the rest will be built.  

The student practices these techniques class after class until proficient.  He/she begins to fight under controlled scenarios to apply these techniques on resisting opponents.  If he’s diligent and conscientious, he’ll rise to the head of the class and dominate classmates, and occasionally, teachers.  His web of knowledge and ability to perform is better developed and more intricate than his peers.  He has broken down the stuff of combat and reconstructed it piece by piece.  While this game may be nourishing to his ego, it squelches his spirit.  His mind is increasingly boxed in and robotic.  And then it happens…

He fights someone more advanced, or from a different background than himself, or worse, he’s confronted with a no-rules fight-for-your-life self defense situation.  His opponent’s movements are unorthodox and confusing.  His rhythms are different.  His footwork is strange.  And he’s not holding back or respecting rules of engagement.  And everything he knows is ineffective. 

He can’t defend himself.  Now for someone who has more than 5 to 10 years of training, hundreds of hours of fighting under his belt, and can break brick with his hands, head, and feet, his problem is not physical limitation.  He has the power to kill his opponent with the right strike.  He just can’t find and apply the right strike.  More often than not this leads to frustration and doubt, and if humiliating or painful enough, the student will denounce his system and seek out one that seems more complete.

In truth he possesses all the tools he’ll ever need.  But he’s grown into the mold…mentally.  His mind is incapable of letting go, of adapting, of forgetting his years of conditioning.  His fights are regurgitations of the past; he is never operating fully in the present.  A return to the present, learning to see combat as undivided, life as undivided…and new, learning to live fully in the now and forget the past is the key to transcending one’s system, and one’s ego. 

Seeing beyond (or forgetting) the ‘self’ is the key to perceiving immediate truth, as well as acting and reacting without limitation, despite the fact that one’s technical base is finite.  I know of only two ways to arrive at this that bear relevancy to martial arts training.  One is to fight, fight hard, and fight until doing so feels no different to you than meeting a friend for coffee.  Experience will put to sleep all concern of life and death, of victory and defeat, and you’ll be left with a free mind capable of grasping the infinite.

Experience fighting (expand the metaphor to any other craft if you wish) will teach you to let go of your fears, and with them, your ego, and to rely on intuition and immediate perception.  Your techniques will flow naturally and effortlessly.  The other method of achieving effortless action in martial arts, and again, life, is religious (in the agnostic sense) meditation.  Proper meditation is the art of forgetting and the fresh experience of undivided reality.  Meditation is tasting the strawberry.  

For those new to meditation and interested in reading more, please refer to my previous article on meditation – Meditation for Beginners: Meditations for Peace, Power, and Martial Arts

General

• Basic to Advanced Self Defense
• Women’s Self Defense and Rape Prevention
• Comprehensive Martial Arts Training

Skill Specialization

• Striking Skills (Hand and Foot Techniques)
• Trapping Skills (Close Range “Sticking” Techniques)
• Grappling Skills (Joint Lock and Throwing Techniques)
• Footwork and Movement Skills
• Flexibility Training
• Sash Whip or Rope Dart Training
• Power Meditation and Energy Work

General Fitness Training

• Resistance and Weight Training
• Cardiovascular Conditioning
• Interval Training
• Circuit Training
• Stretching
• Diet Assistance

Martial Arts Fitness

• Fitness Kickboxing
• Fitness Kicking
• Boxing
• Martial Arts Conditioning (bodyweight calisthenics and plyometrics which improve strength, balance, flexibility, and functional power)