Jing of embryonic breathing (胎息經)

[Jim D.]

There is nothing comfortable about not breathing. Try falling through ice and having no where to come up for air. Image it. You can see the sky above you...light...and you are holding your breath while the carbon dioxide keeps building up in your lungs until it feels like your going to burst from the pain of your lungs expanding. Then you do exhale and there is relief.  But in a panic you suck water into your lungs, suck some more water in, and you loose consciousness from lack of oxygen, and pass out and die. Why would anybody not want to breath unless your David Caradine in his last moments of ecstasy...oops!  I guess I made a mistake...I held my breath tooooooo long. I would like to ask him if not breathing was worth the high.   

 

The embryo is metabolically connected to its mother, and does not have to breath. But as you know upon coming into this world it has to breath air or it will die. So, the doc helps the baby to start breathing. The doc doesn't tell the mother, well your baby can contiue on in its embryonic state not breathing because it is a better place to be. And the baby doesn't indicate in anyway that it does not want to breath.

 

I still say, that EB is a state of imagery...a state of meditation...a state caused by lowering  our respiration willingly. Nothing magic or etheral about it.

Edited June 26, 2016 by Jim D.

[Jim D.]

On Altruism: You come out of your home and you see a child walking into the street. You run to her to redirect her. Is this altruism, or is it instinctual? You know, a gut reaction without thinking about it. You just do it. But the neighbors see you do this kind and maybe heroic thing, and they make a big deal out of it. Now you're embarrased, and you put your head down while blushing. You don't want attention drawn to you...but you like it. Now your on the news and tell everyone you're just being a good citizen, doing what anybody would do, or would they?

 

Now, is it a disinterested concern of yours regarding the child you saved from harm. Is it selfless now, or was it ever?

[joeblast]

 some stuff one just wont get by words alone, but by bringing fundamentals to their logical conclusions.  there one sees where and how the words are disconnected from reality.

 

Hehe, I know.

 

Stopping of breath is unusual and feels good, also the text describe the beginning of the eb as 'the regular breathing stops', so when people experience stopping,  it they go - aha! this must be the eb!

 

But it is not. Stopping is a sign of a good progress but still far from the eb.

"regular breathing stops" = bringing the flow of air beneath the threshold of neural detection.  respiration does not stop.  

 

as the movements become more internalized, therein the "external breathing disappears" - this means not moving the qihai so much and using the huiyin more.   

 

All the misconceptions and guesswork about EB stem from a phrase in Bao-pu-zi 

 

《抱朴子·释滞》：“得胎息者，能不以口鼻嘘吸，如在胞胎之中。”

 

"Whoever obtained EB, can do without inhaling through nose and mouth, similar to an embryo in the womb".

 

Note, that same as the OP text, he does say what it is not, but does not say what it is exactly.  So people are reduced to guesswork, thinking that it is the breath stoppage or some kind of DT contractions, or leading qi, or stopping thoughts, or whatever. Which it is not . A pointer to what it is (p 1056).

"without inhaling through the nose and mouth" = not using anywhere air touches to facilitate the  movement of air.  this is key to getting rid of the 40 cycles per second resonance that the olfactory nerve fires into the midbrain.  there is a vast amount of energy unlocked by achieving this.

 

It's pretty clear what it is, both based on the name as well as that description...no guesswork required. Embryonic breathing has to do with not breathing...without inhaling through nose or mouth. It even describes why it's called embryonic breathing...because babies in the womb don't breathe through the nose or mouth.

For the same thing from a different school of thought, look into kevala kumbhaka.

But if you're saying that they were really trying to describe the internal elixir by saying "embryonic breathing"...well, perhaps that's actually a different thing.

babies in the womb absolutely do make breathing motions through their nose and mouth - but the "breathing" is done in the gut, assisting the flow of blood through the umbilical cord.  there's no guesswork required after the fruit has been realized, but on the way there,  damn right there was a lot of troubleshooting to do.

 

this is precisely why I tell people to take the rote path there, because if one is just trying to let their breath be natural, you'll never bump up against your limits and have to figure out how to streamline the process.

 

but that's mostly anapanasati - which is a very integral aspect of EB.  dont conquer anapanasati and EB is necessarily limited in potential.

 

the yi is harnessed (yang)  until the yin manifests naturally, once the yin is ripe then   movement (yang, energetic) arises   - therein lies EB.

 

if one thinks its about "not breathing" then one is  already off in the weeds.

[Jim D.]

You ever wonder why babies start crying after the doctor hits them in the butt. It's not the slap. They want to get back in the womb where its warm, dark, and the breathing's better.