The Secret Taoist Method of Cultivating Qi

I. Posture

Posture is also called body regulation, body method, and similar terms. For anyone new to static or dynamic gongfu practice, mastering proper posture is absolutely essential.

Broadly speaking, practice postures fall into four main categories: sitting, lying down, standing, and walking. Static gongfu cultivation most often uses sitting, lying, and standing postures, while dynamic gongfu typically relies on standing and walking. In external qi therapy, you can also practice at any point during daily activities—walking, standing, sitting, or lying down—in addition to using specific postures during formal practice sessions.

(1) Sitting Posture:

1. Flat Seated Posture: Sit upright on a wide, flat square stool. Set your feet parallel on the floor, shoulder-width apart, knees bent at 90 degrees, with your thighs and torso forming a matching right angle. Rest your palms lightly on your thighs, elbows bent naturally. Keep your head straight, chin slightly tucked, waist and back upright, shoulders relaxed, chest gently drawn in, mouth and eyes softly closed, and the tip of your tongue resting against the upper palate.

2. Cross-Legged Seated Posture: Cross your legs and tuck both feet under your thighs, sitting steadily on the bed. Prop your hips up slightly with a cushion, and let your upper body lean forward a touch. Lightly interlock your hands (left hand on top, right thumb pressing the left hand’s ziwen point, left thumb and middle finger meeting) to form the Zi Wu Jue (Zi-Wu Decisive) gesture, held in front of your abdomen. Keep your upper body aligned as described for the flat seated posture. Alternatively, press your palms together in front of your chest in the Buddha Palm mudra, or rest your hands naturally on your knees in the Vajra mudra.

(2) Lying Posture:

1. Side-Lying Posture: Lie on your side on the bed (either side works, though the right side is generally recommended). Let your body curve slightly like a bow, draw your head in a little toward your chest, and rest it comfortably on the pillow. Keep your mouth and eyes softly closed, with the tip of your tongue against the upper palate. Rest the hand on your lower side palm-up under the pillow, adjusted to a comfortable height. Place your upper hand palm-down on top of the lower one, aligning the little, ring, middle, and index fingers of your upper hand with the knuckle creases of the same fingers on your lower hand. Let your upper thumb rest naturally in the web of the lower hand, between the thumb and index finger. Alternatively, you can let your upper arm rest naturally along the side of your torso. Let your lower leg extend naturally, and bend your upper leg, resting it over the lower one.

2. Supine Posture: Lie flat on your back on the bed, face up, head straight, limbs relaxed and extended. Rest your hands flat at your sides, or stack them on your lower abdomen (left hand underneath for men, right hand underneath for women). Keep your mouth and eyes softly closed, with the tip of your tongue against the upper palate, in the stacked palms configuration.

(3) Standing Posture:

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, head straight, waist upright, chest gently drawn in, knees loose and relaxed. Lift both arms in a soft curve, fingers naturally spread, as if embracing a ball in front of your chest or lower abdomen to form the standing stake embrace-ball posture. Alternatively, press your palms together in front of your chest for the standing stake Buddha Palm posture; or press your hands downward for the standing stake pressing-down posture; or hold one palm upright (right or left) and the other vertical, aligning the heel of the vertical palm with the midpoint of the upright palm’s ulnar edge to form the standing stake square-and-round posture. You can also stack your hands on your lower abdomen. Keep your mouth and eyes softly closed, with the tip of your tongue against the upper palate.

(4) Essentials of Posture Training: As Ming dynasty scholar Gao Lian writes in Eight Discourses on Respecting Life · Notes on Prolonging Life and Warding Off Illness: "Lay out a thick cushion, loosen your clothing belt, sit upright with a straight spine, lips and teeth together, tongue pressed to the upper palate, eyes slightly open, gazing steadily at the tip of the nose." Though there are many valid practice postures, they all follow the same core guidelines:

1. Loosen the Clothing Band: Loosen your clothing belt first: only when your belt is loose can your meridians flow freely, and qi move without stagnation.
2. Head as If Supporting an Object: Also called "suspending the crown," this means holding your head straight with a subtle sense of light upward lift, chin slightly tucked, so your neck stays relaxed and aligned.
3. Sinking the Shoulders and Dropping the Elbows: This means relaxing your shoulders completely and letting your elbows hang loose, with no tension or stiffness.
4. Concave Chest and Straight Back: Also called "straight spine with a hollowed chest," this means keeping your spine straight—do not bend it casually or lean against anything for support. With a straight spine as your foundation, gently draw your chest inward.
5. Relax the Waist and Loosen the Abdomen: The waist and abdomen are key areas for cultivating and guiding qi. The abdomen is the furnace for qi cultivation; the waist is the home of the kidneys, the location of the Gate of Life (Mingmen), and a vital checkpoint for meridian circulation. Relaxing the waist and abdomen without becoming slack supports qi cultivation and helps qi move smoothly.
6. Tuck the Buttocks and Relax the Knees: Tuck your buttocks slightly to keep your spine straight; relax your knees fully to allow unobstructed flow of qi through the foot’s three yin and three yang meridians.
7. Five Toes Gripping the Ground: For standing postures, set your feet flat on the ground, gripping with all five toes to make your body as stable as Mount Tai.
8. Lowering the Eyelids and Turning the Gaze Inward: Gently close your eyes and turn your gaze inward to observe the qi you are cultivating, or the area where you are guiding qi. As the Yin Fu Jing (Scripture of the Hidden Talisman) states: "The pivot lies in the eyes." The Ling Shu · Great Treatise on Confusion adds: "The eyes are the servants of the mind, and the mind is the dwelling of the spirit." The eyes are a key gateway for practice: when they are not scattered, the spirit can be gathered, cutting off both illusions and external distractions. Close your eyes softly, but not tightly—shutting them too hard will create total darkness and lead to drowsiness, while leaving them open will overstimulate the spirit and cause laxity.
9. Closing the Mouth and Turning Hearing Inward: Closing the mouth refers to gently pressing your lips together without clenching your teeth or tensing your jaw. As Laozi writes: "Block its openings, shut its gates." Turning hearing inward means drawing your sense of hearing back to yourself to cut off all external distractions.
10. Tongue Touching the Upper Palate: Also called "tongue pressing the upper palate" or "pillar tongue." This refers to resting the tip of your tongue gently and naturally against the upper palate, allowing the Ren and Du meridians to connect. As your practice deepens, the pressure of your tongue against the palate may naturally grow stronger, then retract on its own. This is a natural sign of progress in your skill, and should not be deliberately sought after.

II. Breathing

Breathing, also referred to as breath regulation, breath method, and inhalation-exhalation practice, is a central element of Dan Dao cultivation. The ancients paid close attention to breathing practice. Ancient texts document a wide range of names for breathing cultivation, including fuqi (absorbing qi), shiqi (assimilating qi), jinqi (ingesting qi), yanqi (swallowing qi), xingqi (moving qi), caiqi (gathering qi), among others. Many different breathing methods also appear in these texts, including upper breath, lower breath, full breath, surging breath, held breath, long breath, deep breath, and others. For the purposes of qi cultivation, the most commonly used methods are the following:

(1) Natural Breathing: Natural breathing is simply the breath we take in our normal, everyday physiological state. Due to physiological differences between men and women and varying personal habits, some people default to chest breathing, some to abdominal breathing, and some to a natural mix of the two. Whatever your natural pattern, adopt it as your base, adding only a subtle degree of intention to make your breathing conscious. This is the most commonly used breathing method for practitioners.

(2) Forward Abdominal Breathing: This breathing pattern develops gradually as you train in natural breathing, using conscious intention to deepen the natural abdominal movement of your breath. To practice: when inhaling, gently intend to relax your abdominal muscles so your belly rises naturally; when exhaling, gently intend to contract your abdominal muscles. With regular practice, the rise and fall of your abdomen will gradually and naturally become more pronounced. Do not force the movement. Focusing your mind on your navel during practice will help you establish this breathing pattern more easily.

(3) Reverse Abdominal Breathing: Reverse abdominal breathing is the primary breathing method used for qi cultivation, qi guidance, and emitting qi. To practice: when inhaling, use your intention to gradually contract your abdominal muscles, drawing your belly inward; when exhaling, use your intention to gradually relax your abdominal muscles, letting your belly rise. With consistent practice, this breathing pattern will eventually feel natural and automatic during practice sessions.

Once you have mastered reverse abdominal breathing, you can add a gentle perineum lift to the practice: when inhaling, slightly contract your anus and gently draw in your perineum; when exhaling, release both your anus and perineum fully.

(4) Latent Breath and Fetal Breath: Latent breath is a subtle breathing state that arises after long-term Dan Dao practice, when the breath has grown extremely soft and refined. Fetal breath is an even gentler form of abdominal breathing: the abdomen barely moves at all, and you will feel as if your breath is coming from your navel. Ancient texts often describe these two states in highly mystical terms, but they will emerge naturally as your qi cultivation reaches an advanced level. Do not try to force or pursue them deliberately.

(5) Other Breathing Methods: Beyond the core methods outlined above, there are also practices including long inhalation with short exhalation, long exhalation with short inhalation, breathing in and out through the nose, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, holding the breath after exhaling, and holding the breath after inhaling. These can be added to your practice as needed, depending on the specific gongfu method you are studying and your current stage of training.

(6) Essentials of Breathing Training:

1. When you first begin practicing dynamic or static gongfu, focus first on mastering the postures until your movements are fluid and relaxed. Only then add breathing training to your practice. Skipping this step can easily lead to breath-holding, tension, chest tightness, headaches, and other issues.
2. The ultimate goal of breathing practice is to make your breath deep, long, even, and fine. This quality comes from accumulated practice over time, and cannot be achieved by deliberately lengthening or forcing your breath.
3. Ancient practitioners categorized regulated breath into four distinct states, known as wind, gasping, qi, and true breath. The wind state is when you can hear your own rough, audible breath; the gasping state is when breath is silent but feels obstructed and uneven; the qi state is when breath is silent and unobstructed, but still not even or fine; the true breath state is the deep, long, even breathing that arises in a state of deep stillness. The ancients held that "clinging to the wind state scatters the mind, clinging to the gasping state knots the mind, clinging to the qi state exhausts the mind; only clinging to the true breath state settles the mind."
4. Before beginning your breathing practice, it is recommended to first exhale fully through your mouth, visualizing all blockages in your body’s passages and all turbid qi leaving with your breath. Then close your mouth and inhale clear air. Repeat this three times. Afterward, let your breath return to its natural rhythm, and gently use your intention to adjust into the specific breathing method you are training.

III. Intention

Intention is also referred to as mind method, or regulating the mind. Training the mind is a core component of qi cultivation. The She Sheng San Yao (Three Essentials for Preserving Life) states: "Gathering essence depends on nurturing qi; nurturing qi depends on preserving spirit. The relationship between spirit and qi is like that of a mother and child. Thus when spirit is concentrated, qi gathers; when spirit is scattered, qi dissipates. To treasure essence and qi without knowing how to preserve spirit is to eat the blossom and forget the root." This passage lays out the relationship between essence, qi, and spirit in practice, highlighting the critical importance of preserving the spirit.

Training intention is a vital part of qi cultivation, and its role is especially critical when guiding qi or emitting qi.

(1) Fixed-Point Intention Focusing: During practice or qi emission, focus your intention on a specific area or acupoint on your own body, such as the upper dantian, lower dantian, middle dantian, Yongquan, Laogong, fingertips, or palms. You can also focus your intention on a stationary object or fixed point outside your body.

(2) Directional Intention: During practice or qi emission, let your intention follow qi as it travels through the meridians, or follow the sensations of qi movement you feel in your hands or other parts of your body.

(3) Rhythmic Intention: During practice or qi emission, you can count your breath cycles with your intention, or align your intention with a set rhythmic movement or subtle vibration. Examples include the faint vibrations felt during vibrating stake practice, and the subtle hand tremors used when emitting qi.

(4) Strength-Augmenting Intention: During practice or qi emission, visualize yourself possessing immense strength, as if you truly held that power. Examples include visualizing yourself pushing a mountain, supporting the heavenly gate, or pulling nine oxen.

(5) Suggestive Intention: This is a form of intention training that uses verbal suggestion during practice or qi emission. Examples include silently reciting specific words or phrases, or visualizing the goals you aim to achieve through your practice.

(6) Borrowed Intention: This practice involves using an imagined, borrowed sensation during practice or qi emission, which, with training, can evoke a corresponding qi sensation. Examples include visualizing you are holding a ball, pressing on qi, channeling qi, expelling pathogenic qi, feeling qi as hot as fire, cold as ice, sharp as a sword, or soft as cotton.

(7) Essentials of Intention Training:

1. Your intention should coordinate naturally with your breath and posture at all times. For example, during dynamic gongfu practice, align your intention with the rising, lowering, opening, and closing movements of the form.
2. Intention practice should feel natural, and be cultivated gradually as you enter deeper states of stillness. Do not let your spirit grow dull, or your mind become scattered and lax. Hold to the principle of "neither forcing nor neglecting" your practice, and avoid becoming rigidly attached to any specific sensation or outcome.
3. Above all, train your intention with trust: no matter what type of intention practice you are doing, hold firm to the belief that consistent practice will lead to results—but do not rush or seek quick gains.
4. If visions or mental images arise during intention practice, do not react with joy or fear, do not dwell on them or speak of them. Work with whatever arises naturally, gathering your qi and collecting your spirit.

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