Primary Body-Focus Zones In Qigong Practice

Qigong practice employs a system of sophisticated body-mind interactions which are the core of its practice. For the sake of convenience we speak of distinct body and mind actions, but these actions are always on the verge of affecting each other. The mind is implicit in the body and the body in the mind. These two converge in a vision of the body that is subtle in form. Mind-image and body sense gravitate to a number of distinct zones. It is from these zones that the primary alignments (pathways of wholeness), activated in qigong, occur.

Meditation is a gesture of total being that encompasses and integrates body and mind. In qigong, this gesture arises as particular interpenetrating body and mind actions. Body-action encompasses a vast array of posture and movement. Mind-action encompasses a similar vast array of visualization, intention and concentration exercises. The locus of activity of this "gesture of total being" is usually a series of body-focus zones. They are the hub of the wheel of fundamental meditative intentions. Qigong looks at the body and its zones in terms of spatial-spiritual relationships. Some schools of meditation focus on these zones so all objects of mind may disappear. Qigong focuses on these points so that the universe, heaven and earth may appear, moving from the periphery of consciousness onto the center.

The Primary Body-Focus Zones

There are many qigong schools. In each of them the number and significance of body-focus zones may differ. The intent of one's practice may be the deciding factor in terms of where in the body your focus will gravitate. Qigong is practiced for health, martial arts and spiritual development. What is presented here represents a more spiritual approach to qigong. Practitioners with this approach will consciously or unconsciously gravitate to the six zones outlined below. These zones are not static but interact with the others for a comprehensive effect. The six zones are: the Heaven-Linking Zone, the Earth-Linking Zone, the Lower Dantien, the Middle Dantien, the Upper Dantien, and the Hands (movable zone).

The Heaven-Linking Zone

The crown of the head is the primary zone of interaction with heavenly energies, realities and principals. "Heaven" refers to the spiritual existence in its non-material, transcendent forms. Within that understanding there are many possible differentiations. We can recognize many realms of increasing subtlety with various beings and energies existing in those realms. Heaven can also refer to general spiritual transcendence whether conscious of particular realms or not.

The physical area of this zone encompasses the crown of the head and adjacent points. These points include the baihui (Heaven Gate, posterior fontanel area), yintong (Seal Palace, third eye area), yuzhen (Jade Pillow, medulla area and a point a few inches behind the hairline). While this covers a large area of the head, it is the crown itself that is most important for this zone. The whole crown is a linking point and can become permeable to the energies of heaven. While this is desirable, it is most common for people to become aware of this area through the opening of its adjacent points.

There is a lot of spiritual lore regarding this area and its major point, the baihui. Many people start on a serious spiritual path after having a powerful spiritual experience. An energy-phenomenon on or through the crown of the head has sometimes been reported. This includes things such as baptism of the spirit, spiritual initiation and empowerment. One man I know, upon simply hearing a holy book being chanted, without any inward participation upon his part felt an incredible, powerful spiritual energy suffuse him through the crown of his head to his feet. The founder of a contemporary meditation school based on ancient Cherokee teachings (Sunray Meditation Society), Dhyani Ywahoo, describes the baihui area (posterior fontanel) being checked for softness as a sign of spiritual growth. The Tibetan Buddhist practice of consciousness transference at the time of death (phowa) aims to eject consciousness through this point (via the central channel) for a high rebirth. Another man I know, shortly after meeting the person who would become his primary qigong teacher, both felt inwardly and heard audibly a "popping" in the baihui area. Jewish mysticism pictures the Divine Attributes in the form of a man with the crown being the point of inception of the unmanifest becoming manifest.

Three potential functions of this zone can be described:

1. Initiation into direct spiritual growth through an introduction to living spiritual energy;

2. By flexing this area through spiritual practices one can maintain the current of spiritual transformation;

3. Opening the ability to ascend through spiritual spheres and therefore encourage the transcendence of normal life.

The Earth-Linking Zone

The soles of the feet and the base of the spine are the primary zones of interaction with Mother Earth energies. Important adjacent points include the navel (qihai) and the opposite point on the spine (mingmen, Gate Of Life).

To understand the relation of qigong to earth energies it is helpful to review the varied religious and spiritual understandings of the earth:

1. Anthropocentric: This view sees humanity as the goal of God's Creation. Earth, in this view, has value in relation to human beings and their fulfillment of God's Plan.

2. World-Denying: Some views of the mystical and Gnostic type see the earth or earthly existence as a source of suffering, so they seek to transcend it. A corollary of this view is that the earth or earthly existence is essentially unreal. The spiritual is considered the only true reality (acosmism).

3. Devotional: In this view the earth is considered a divine being. She can become a source of spiritual meaning when approached in a worshipful way.

4. Magical/alchemical: Positive spiritual magic sees humans as mediators between different planes of existence. This means that humans can function as transformers, raising the heavenly energies to earth and the earthly energies are raised to heaven. In internal alchemy the energies of earth are brought within for personal transformation.

Of the above, qigong most fully embodies the magical/alchemical point of view. This implies that qigong is relational. The practice of qigong has us project subtle aspects of our selves to embrace and harmonize with the earth. We then collect the subtle impression of the earth to act as a transforming agent in ourselves and all dimensions of our being. The Earth-Linking Zone is the initial bodily area activated in this function. Transformation often implies transcendence. But what we are transcending in qigong is not the earth per se, but an experience of reality that remains disconnected to its spiritual nature. This spiritual nature is as much a part of the earth as anywhere else. Some of the religious antecedents of qigong such as Taoism have approached the earth in a worshipful way; modern qigong retains the sense of cultivating harmony with her energies.

An Introduction to the Concept of Dantien

The concept of dividing the head and torso of the human body into three zones has both Eastern and Western parallels. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism sees a lower zone starting from the base of the torso up to the solar plexus region. The middle zone extends from the solar plexus to the mid-brow region. The upper zone encompasses the mid-brow and above. These realms correspond to the desire, form and formless realms, respectively. In Jewish mysticism, the text called the Sefer Yetsirah (Book of Formation) indicates the elements of fire, air, and water-earth with letters of the Hebrew alphabet. These letters are visualized in the mid-brow, heart and navel areas respectively. The Christian Hermetic emblems of Robert Fludd show a similar dividing of the human body. The lower region could mean the sublunar elemental region, the sphere of the senses, the darkness of physical differentiation or the lower, impure waters. The middle region represents the astral, ethereal region, the seat of the soul and vital spirit, the mediator between upper and lower. The upper region refers to the unity of the light of human nature, the divine fire-heaven, the intellect, the subtle, spiritual fire.

The dantien concept itself is Taoist in origin. Early Taoist sects believed that certain deities called the Three Pure Ones dwelt in these areas of the body. Later Taoist sects focusing on internal alchemy saw these places of the body as where the internal elixir was produced. The word dantien literally means elixir-field and a contemporary qigong teacher has referred to them as "energy-incubators." All manner of spiritual impressions are nurtured in the dantiens including heightened forms of consciousness and emotion (along with qi). The stationary or "condensed" state of the dantiens does not occupy the whole of the respective zones but is more often acting as the center of it. Dantiens often exist in a more expanded state when they are acting as relay stations for the transmission of self into the universe and the universe into the self. Here they coordinate the impressions of self and universe. From a larger perspective, the body or universe as a whole can be related as dantiens or even two mutually interpenetrating ones. As well, any body part can be made into a dantien. But for the remainder of this article dantien will refer to any one of the three dantiens.

The Lower Dantien

This dantien is in the lower division of the torso. Imagine a downward facing triangle composed of three points, the navel (qi-hai), the point opposite the navel on the spine (ming-men, Gate of Life) and the perineum (hui-yin, Gate of Death). In the middle of the triangle and a bit lower than center is this dantien. This dantien is often associated with the Sperm Palace in men and the ovary area in women.

The lower dantien is the furnace for prebirth and physical qi; earth generative and root energies have a close affinity with it. In Taoist Internal Alchemy the vital essence or jing is refined here. In qigong the attempt is made to nurture the prebirth and physical qi and unlock its potential spiritual growth. By expanding into and condensing energies from earth as well as cosmos a new center is formed. This center with a fiery core, a periphery as large as the universe and as fine as air, motivates the energy of transformation. This energy can move outward for the skillful empowerment of everyday life or inward and upward in subtle internal alchemy.

The Middle Dantien

This dantien is in the middle of the torso. Some texts indicate its position at the solar plexus, others the heart region; many will find that it is in fact movable between them. Emotion is generated here along with post-birth qi which is accumulated from the essence of air and food. In Taoist Internal Alchemy, qi or vital energy is refined here. Esoteric Buddhism focuses in this area to visualize an enlightened form of self that expands into the universe to achieve a "mutual empowerment of self and other."

The quality of consciousness and qi that accompanies this dantien is subtler than the previous. Being associated with emotional warmth, this dantien is often a locus for the development of enlightened self care and the care of others. Its image should be beautiful, its feeling-sense warm and pure, the emotional tone loving and serenely happy. When working this dantien we recollect these qualities from the beginning, move out toward them in expansion and collect them on condensation. Fully nurtured, we can then radiate them outward in self expression or turn them inward, descending downward to nurture the vital essence or upward to even more subtle spiritual realms.

The Upper Dantien

This dantien can be found by imagining a line running from the medulla at the base of the skull to the third eye between the eyebrows. At roughly the midpoint on that line is the upper dantien. Four of the five senses are centered on the head. Combined with the centrality of the brain in all that we do, we can make a general association of the upper dantien with perception. In qigong the quality and depth of perception is important. The depth of perception is attained by activating the spacious nature of consciousness; the quality is attained by identifying consciousness with spiritual light. These are coordinated through the upper dantien. It is said that one's spiritual and mental qi reside here. In Taoist Internal Alchemy the vital spirit is cultivated here. It is the transforming of one's mental and spiritual qi into transformed consciousness and perception as outlined above that is the essence of qigong practice with this dantien. The image when working with this dantien is almost always composed of pure light. Its feeling sense is spacious, detached and clear.

The Hands: The Movable Zone

The hands have some special functions in qigong. For each of the other five zones the hands have the role of magnifying energies in and around them. They do this through actions of picking up and pulling back, expanding outward and condensing inward, in the region of the zones. They can also move energies up and down through the zones, along the meridians, either through a general magnetizing effect or actual projection into qi gates.

Specially configured hand positions called mudras are extensively used in qigong. In these practices hands are both signs and symbols, pointing to spiritual reality as well as participating in it. In these forms the hands enable particular confluences of qi, emotions and consciousness.

The hands are windows into the entire practice of qigong. The powers of giving and receiving, initiating contact and expression, so important in qigong, are seen clearly in them. In this sense the hands act as extensions to the organism, magnifying and amplifying spiritual realities as a projected center. These centers (the hands) revolve and pivot in relation to the greater centers of the torso and head. Within themselves the hands open and close, expanding and condensing around the center, the laogong (Labor Palace).

The Mystery

Discontent with living at the surfaces of things is a driving force in many spiritual seekers. This stems from a perception that there is a mystery beyond the surface of everyday life. Too often the mystery becomes associated with that which is beyond life. Qigong starts from the assumption that the mystery is embedded in life, in the very embodiment of things and beings. Qigong treats the body not only as a mystery but a pathway into mystery. Where there is mystery there is illumination. The body itself is on a path into mystery and illumination.

The vision of the body in qigong is the practice of qigong. In qigong, illumination of the spiritual mystery is gained in confluence with physical existence and embodiment. The six primary body-focus zones coordinate the impressions of the spiritual mystery so they become conscious, so they become light.

References

Kaplan, Aryeh. (1990). Sefer Yetsirah: The Book of Creation. Samuel Weiser Inc.

Roob, Alexander. (1997). Alchemy and Mysticism: The Hermetic Museum. Koln: Taschen.

Sogyal Rinpoche. (1992). The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. HarperSanFrancisco.

Wong, Eva. (1997). Taoism. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.

Yamasaki, Taiko. (1988). Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.

Ywahoo, Dhyani. (1987). Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings From the Wisdom Fire. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.

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