Taoist Water Method Retreat - Meetings by the River

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his retreat will focus upon standing meditation, locating and dissolving energetic and structural blockages, cloud hands and Taoist breathing and Pranayama. For those who have worked with Ram before there will be an opportunity to focus on specific movements or aspects of the method as well as receiving suggestions for new practice elements.

Taoist breathing and chi gung Proper diaphragmatic breathing saturates the blood with fresh oxygen and purges carbon dioxide. Oxygen supports an alkaline environment in the blood and tissues while carbon dioxide contributes to acidosis. Good breathing regulates and balances pH balance in the blood. In the city or other oxygen poor environments, or as a result of poor diet, blood overloaded with acid waste can result in hypoxia-oxygen starvation, a condition which many modern folk mildly suffer from; this is compounded and indicated by shallow breathing, shortness of breath and over acid blood.

Oxygenation is one of the best methods of quickly restoring pH balance in the blood. Good blood is vital to all the body’s health and good breathing can begin to make us more conscious of the cycle of detox and retox that the body performs. This cycle is often out of balance, with many bodies being overloaded with toxicity through poor diet, poor environment and shallow breathing.

Detox and healing only occur when the autonomic nervous system is in parasympathetic mode—when the nervous system is relaxing. Taoist breathing can give even beginners pretty good access to how the nervous system feels when it is releasing and when it is restricting. Part of this process leads the mind toward subtlety and good concentration as it returns us to the way we breathed as babies—softly, rhythmically and without strain or effort. Perhaps the most important aspect of the programme is that good breathing, once recovered, will go on all the time. Thus the benefits occur not only during practice times.

Breath links mind and body; it is the only autonomous vital function that can be controlled.

Good breathing will:

Boost blood circulation
Oxygenate the blood
Stimulate glandular secretion
Improve digestion
Activate detox and immune response in the body
Calm the mind Banishes stress and thereby stops secretion of adrenalin and cortisol

Good air and correct breathing are effective therapeutic tools to prevent and cure disease and to detox and regenerate the body. Sun Ssu-mo wrote in the Tang dynasty:

“When correct breathing is practised, the myriad ailments will not occur….those who wish to nurture their lives must first learn the correct methods of controlling breath and balancing energy. These breathing methods can cure all ailments great and small”.

Most of us were born with healthy and active diaphragms. Slowly, as we become increasingly subject to external influences, the diaphragm begins to reduce its movement and breathing becomes shallow. This begins to occur from a very young age. Most modern people, by the time they have reached their teens, are already using only the upper part of the lungs to breath with diaphragmatic movement minimalised. This reduction of movement is rarely due to poor lungs. More often than not, it is as a result of shock and assertive influences upon the nervous system. This can occur subliminally—young children are incredibly sensitive—or it can come as an automatic response to what is perceived by the body to be the appropriate way to behave. For most people it is all very simple to redress. Taoist breathing and Pranayama, when properly taught, have profound effects on the nervous system and the overall being.

When correct breathing is practised, the myriad ailments will not occur... those who wish to nurture their lives must first learn the correct methods of controlling breath and balancing energy.

The more obvious results are increased lung capacity, better oxygenation, increased movement of the diaphragm and increased motility [inherent movement] in the abdominal organs. These are profound effects and they are very easily put in place. Most people can learn basic Pranayama in a short space of time and within a few hours of practice the average person’s lung capacity will increase at least by 30 percent. Often, after a dozen or so hours of practice lung capacity can double. When we begin to learn Pranayama it is very clear that the constrictions of the diaphragm are seriously impeding the breath. We notice the inability to lengthen breath or to gently hold or extend it or to smoothly exhale without snatching for breath. Within a short space of time, restrictions fall away, good breathing returns.

These are not miraculous events, they are simply a recovery of what we once were born with. The cardiovascular functions of the diaphragm are often under estimated. The diaphragm is a most powerful body muscle. It’s operation compresses the liver, the spleen and the intestines stimulating abdominal circulation. By compressing the lymphatics and blood vessels of the abdomen, the diaphragm aids venous circulation from the abdomen towards the thorax. Good breathing and an active diaphragm can act as a second heart. During the retreat participants will learn how to locate and release restrictions in the physical diaphragm; they will learn the sequence of breathing that best assists the maximum number of body functions. We’ll work directly with the nervous system and each participant can expect to recognise the link between nervous system and diaphragmatic movement.

There is no mystery, it’s all very obvious with a little light in the right place.

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