Hearbeats And Dyspnea

如意抽絲，綿綿不断

Like drawing silk from a cocoon, continuous and unending.

綿綿瓜瓞，呼吸悠悠

Like the continuous growth of spreading vines, the breath flows long, deep, and serene.

吸如抽絲，呼如吹灰

Inhale like drawing silk from a cocoon; exhale like gently blowing away ash.

Those three quotes follow the usual trend one can witness as far as breathing techniques are concerned in old practices. Still, this rule, which often makes someone unable to see the forest for the trees, represents a tendency. Indeed, if taken too strictly, limited to such breathing, one would miss, for the least, the gulping/regurgitation and apnoea techniques. As always, this depicts an oxymoron that has already been solved in this blog.

Till One's Last Breath

導氣令和，引體令柔

Guiding the vapours to attain harmony, stretching the body to achieve suppleness.

龜縮頸，耕牛之力

The turtle retracts its neck, the strength of the ploughing cattle.

龜尾升氣，丹田煉神*

The turtle tail makes vapours rise, Cinnabar Fields refine the spirit.

What if keeping a flat stomach for the author of this blog requires imprinting various motions on a rather tiny segment of the body while breathing in and out? Devoid of any muscle contraction, this leads, among other things, the abdomen to be swallowed, the whole body fascias to extend, the backbone to straighten all the way up to the cervical vertebrae, the buttocks to tense and the eyelids to open¹.