Cultivate Internal Power and Vitality with the Lower Tantien
By Paul Cavel
Although people who train the internal arts of qigong, tai chi and bagua do so for a variety of reasons, all motivations can be classified into three general categories: health/healing, martial arts and spiritual development. In reality, everyone trains for health because, at the bedrock of all practice, is developing and growing internal power and vitality. This is only possible if you have some way of dealing with the daily tension and stresses of life, and can maintain a degree of health and well-being.
In the Water Method, creating power starts with moving the physical body in specific ways. As discussed in my previous article, internal neigong or “energetic power-development” techniques are designed to specifically target the energy, organs and fluids of the body; whereas external forms of exercise target the large muscles of the body. Qi (pronounced “chi”) tells the body what to do and not the other way around, so training to directly affect the energy of your body has the greatest potential effect on your overall health and well-being.
Regardless of your motives, everyone must start with a focus on learning form movements imbued with neigong, that is internal power techniques, in order to apply them to any desired end – whether that is to become healthy, maintain or further high-performance results in any area of your life, effectively fight or defend yourself, or take on the greatest spiritual challenges of the human condition to do with understanding why you are here on the planet in a physical body in the first place.
The Central Energy Gate
From one perspective, in order to call any movement qigong or “energy skill/practice”, the lower tantien must be actively engaged. This is because the lower tantien is the central command centre for the entirety of the body’s energy. For this reason, the state of your lower tantien determines your level of health and vitality.
The lower tantien is aptly located about two or three fingers’ width below your naval, on the centreline and in the core of your physical body. The human energetic anatomy is made up of thousands of energy channels with many energy gates along those lines, especially where they cross and at major junctions, e.g. the joints, organs and cavities of the body. All of these lines trace back to and link into the lower tantien, the central energy gate. When the lower tantien is engaged, all active flows and their corresponding energy gates can be powered up.
Naturally you must first learn how to contact your lower tantien – with your mind and feel it, not visualise it – in order to activate it. Many people believe that Water Method practices are metaphorical or visualisations, but instead the focus is on the kinaesthetic, felt-sense and specifically not on creating (inadequate or potentially false) images, projections or mind maps.
If you presently cannot feel your lower tantien, it is not that you cannot engage it through practice, as in fact it is always engaged to some degree as you go about your daily life, but rather it is a case of how active, how alive. The degree to which you can feel, contact and move qi through and within the lower tantien determines the degree to which you can activate and apply this essential aspect of neigong training to cultivate power and vitality.
Neigong Hierarchy
The early stages of neigong training are all about learning how to tune into your body and feel your qi – your life-force energy – at ever-greater depths. This awareness is necessary to begin working with neigong threads and build your skill set.
Within the neigong hierarchy, there are 16 broad categories with two levels of practice:
The first 12 neigong are known as the preparatory practices.
The last four neigong are known as the completion phase.
The fourteenth neigong – working with all the uses of the lower tantien, of which there are many – lies within the completion phase. In practical terms, this translates to the lower tantien bringing together and unifying all the previous, active threads of neigong. Except for a true adept, a practitioner will actually work towards unifying whatever aspects and depths of neigong that are alive and embodied – not necessarily the entirety of all 13 previous neigong. For example, a practitioner might be training to unify whatever layer of energetics on which they are working, such as the etheric field, yin-yang circulation, pulsing currents, etc., as all are ultimately governed by the lower tantien. When the lower tantien is engaged, it can power up, flood and amplify all previously embodied flows.
Achieving control of and initiating all techniques from the lower tantien takes time, effort and consistent practice, but when active, yields a direct experience that could not be projected or imagined. Eventually you can link in all the layers of qi techniques to this one, central control mechanism. This allows your intent to be in one place while your awareness monitors the various flows throughout your body to determine whether or not your effort is successful.
As in all qigong learning, there are layers upon layers of techniques within each of the 16 threads of neigong, and practices to wake up and fully activate the lower tantien are no different.
Live Training Is a Must
The experience of training in person with a teacher who embodies these methods is not only a must, but the energy that is created by a group of practitioners is invaluable, especially in the beginning, for tuning into the subtleties of working with qi on such a refined level. I have taught very little on the lower tantien in the last 29 years, focusing instead on helping students to establish their foundation in the first 12 of the 16 neigong. With my Membership programme now in full swing and covering the essential neigong curriculum in a step-by-step and progressive manner (from a beginning to an intermediate level of training), I feel the time has come to start sharing some of the more profound teachings of the Water Method in my live courses. This depth of training absolutely requires that the lower tantien is actively engaged.
Last year in London, I began to lay out the progression to make contact with and activate the lower tantien directly. Some of these aspects will be reviewed in London this summer, 9-11 August 2024, before we dive deeper, venturing as far in as those in attendance are capable of going.
I’m also offering a four-day qigong course in Rennes, France ahead of the London training, where I will start from the beginning again to help you tune into, make contact and solidify your connection with your lower tantien. This teaching will reinforce the material presented in London last year while offering much more depth (although I don’t envision the course going as deep as the London course this year).
New students are welcome to join us in both Rennes and London to learn the fundamentals, and I will devote time to helping dedicated students tune in to where they personally experience gaps of awareness or need refinements. The students in attendance will, therefore, influence and be a part of shaping the curriculum. This is true for all more profound teachings that come from a living tradition, such as the Taoist Water Method.
Spherical Learning
In my tai chi book, I cover how a circular approach to learning yields more fruit than solely following linear progressions. For this reason, as we move forward, you will see some of the same techniques applied to different neigong threads and some new ones to learn.
Without familiarity of territory, people can easily become lost; without progression, there is no possibility of advancement.
Neigong is both a complex technical pursuit and an art. The training is circular, yes, but when it comes to the more profound aspects of practice, it becomes spherical – with each progression enabling a whole new level of understanding and embodiment of all techniques you already know. Moreover, traditional Water Method training has always allowed for a certain amount of spontaneity and is never set in stone. This enables students to broaden their understanding of the big picture and gain momentum, yet remain firmly grounded in technical accuracy.
Eventually every thread of neigong is brought alive and tied into the lower tantien, where all aspects of practice are unified and embodied as one. Indeed this is the definition of the sixteenth and last of the neigong threads – bringing all internal techniques together into one, seamless and effective whole … in body, mind and qi.
Making the Connection
Whether you are a beginning-level practitioner or more advanced student of the Water Method, my aim is to help you hone your skill set with contacting, connecting with and activating your lower tantien.
All students are welcome to join us in both Rennes and London:
Qigong and the Lower Tantien
Rennes, France
3-6 August 2024 (weekend-only option)
Activating the Three Leaders in Qigong, Tai Chi and Bagua
London, UK
9-11 August 2024 (Friday evening optional)
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