Hair Breathing (Part 4)

I hope you enjoyed the hair breathing exercises. Personally, I talked about them with pleasure. Even more, I would like to believe that you have not missed a single day of classes and can now freely feel the energy flow passing through your hair, wherever it grows.

The Taoist concept of breathing is not limited to drawing in air through the nose or mouth. The ability to control the movement of qi (both air and breath) and distribute its flows in any direction is an integral part of Taoist yoga. To master this ability, you need to learn the body breathing exercise. As your skill grows, they will become increasingly important.

The healing potential of “body breathing” is truly limitless. Having mastered this type of breathing, you will learn to use energy that you usually lose forever. With its help, you can heal your ailments and continue the path of spiritual and physical development.

In the conservative West, little has been written about “breathing the body.” Therefore, I want to introduce “body breathing” exercises to as many people as possible.

I began my instructions by describing the “hair breathing” exercises as the most understandable. You can touch your hair with your hands and feel it with your “sixth sense,” which makes it possible to manipulate its energy on a mental level. Once it is possible to create a mental image, the exercise is performed without much difficulty.

When breathing through the lungs, energy is extracted directly from the hair strands. In previous sections, I taught you a few techniques to make this easier, such as tongue sucking, cheek retraction, or squinting your eyes. You may benefit from contracting the muscles of the perineum and/or anus in combination with the “sealing the first gate” (penis/vagina) exercise. Everyone is different, so the choice is yours. This is where you need to be flexible. In order to move forward, you must continue to do the exercises. However, what works for me may not work for you. Don't be afraid to experiment. I use a similar approach when describing static “second treasure” exercises. I'll cover every exercise without exception, but I'll leave some room for you to maneuver. In other words, you must master all the forms and practice them daily, and you can choose combinations of different exercises, trusting your own instinct. Taoist yoga has never been a conservative, rigid practice, but, on the contrary, is a flexible and evolving teaching that allows for personal creativity.

Humor always sparkles in the smiling eyes of a Taoist sage. Never forget this. To experience a noble feeling of compassion, you need to treat the world around you with a certain amount of irony. However, I do not deny moments when serious reflection is necessary. In the same way, I do not encourage stupid smiles and stupid laughter. I'm just paying tribute to a healthy sense of humor. So, reader, if you and I ever meet, please smile at me!
One of the Taoist practices that makes me smile is “hair breathing.” I hope you haven’t forgotten the “inner smile” exercise and regularly perform it using the “microcosmic orbit” method. These exercises can be successfully combined with those exercises that you will become familiar with throughout the course of classes offered in the book. For example, after you complete the “hair breathing” exercise and mentally direct the swallowed saliva into the tan tien, the chi energy can be directed along the “microcosmic orbit”. Also, one should not forget about the regular practice of the “six healing sounds”. These exercises are especially useful in the evenings, they help you completely relax before going to bed. In this case, the “triple heater” sound is most effective.

This week you will be introduced to the Facial Hair Breathing exercise. Facial hair is a by-product of sexual energy (ching qi) and corresponds to the kidneys. The “external openings” of the kidneys are the ears.