Ming men and dan tien: clarification sought

Thanks for the Ocean Breathing (OB) link. From this, it looks like Michael combined Walter’s breathing method with a qigong form he created. Interestingly, in the link, Michael states that he combined the breathing with qigong in order “to open the lower dantien”. As Michael often uses “dantien” to mean the Door of Life, I take this to be another instance of Michael stating that the purpose of OB is to open the Door.

Sometimes Michael does not refer to the mingmen as an area that physically lies back by the kidneys, and he instead refers to it as the “prenatal inner space” of the dantian (i.e. they lie in the same space). While this view is not necessarily consistent with some Daoist literature (and one I don’t personally share), it also resolves the issue of the center of the dantian being the focus in his framework.

Thanks for the clarification. I had a vague memory of Michael saying something similar on QF2013, hence the conditional phrasing of the hypothetical question in my previous post. If the dantian and mingmen occupy the same space, then, as you say, making the centre of the dantian the point of focus is unproblematic.

I think it better in most cases to not put too much intellectual mental thought into the meaning of the practice, but instead to just do the practice and let the practice *teach you* what it is about. Once you put an intellectual idea onto a practice as to what it is supposed to be, you immediately limit the possibilities that can unfold.

Whilst I don’t disagree, I think that, in this instance, much of my mental effort has been spent on trying clarify and understand the difference in perspective between you and Michael. I’ve been a little surprised that the two of you differ on the purpose of OB, on the importance you attach to the Door (“I would disagree with the sales pitch about the Door of Life you are quoting from his 2008 course”) and, possibly, on its location. But there again, I’m a lover of consistency. Others might proclaim vive la difference!

Whilst thinking about this reply, I was reminded of the emphasis Michael seems to place on pre-natal chi in QF forms. In the extract below he talks about the importance of using pre-natal chi in the Five Animals.

I have taken his comment to heart. In my Chi Kung Fundamentals course, I spend a long time from the very start doing a very simple chi kung movement I now call Ocean Breathing, a brilliant term coined by Senior Instructor Walter Beckley, who was experimenting with similar simple breathing methods. The secret in these methods is to get “mindless” as quickly and directly as possible, while still focusing on the lower dan tien. The image of water gets you out of the heady concept of breathing air, and into the deeper watery rhythms of your blood and jing. I link in a heart centered Inner Smile with this state of floating in waves inside the dan tien, and being aware of a vast ocean inside the body, an inner ocean of chi, bigger even than the outer ocean.

The dan tien is no longer a tiny, hard to find point inside a dense little physical body — it is immense, and from the very start the source of all pure chi used in the Healing Sounds. I teach students to see their bodies filling with clouds of different colored chi from this inner ocean filling their vital organs and entire body, before they breathe it out using the Healing Sounds. And I give them dynamic movements to help release the chi, by integrating the Six Healing Sounds with the oldest chi kung movement known in China, the Five Animals Play. In between each sound & animal movement, I have them internally breathe between the vital organ and the dan tien.

In one sense, nothing here breaks new ground. It simply provides more examples of the difference in view between you and Michael. But I thought the examples were interesting enough to comment upon!