My first exposure to the concept of dantian was in a Karate class. I was 19 years old. My Karate teacher was talking about an energy field located in the abdomen. “Cool!” I thought. I couldn’t wait to experience it!
Here’s the problem. Lots of people talk about dantian, but few actually feel anything there. People spend years searching for dantian, but never find it. Many give up, convinced that dantian is either mystical mumbo jumbo, or a metaphor.
I was one of them. For years, I was thinking, “Where in the world is dantian?” (Now do you get the Carmen Sandiego joke?) Even after I met Grandmaster Wong, learned the real secrets of energy cultivation, and practiced for a few years, I still didn’t feel anything.
Mystical Mumbo Jumbo
I’m here to tell you that dantian is real, that it’s not a metaphor, and that with the proper training, and a bit of patience, you can feel it for yourself. Right now, as I’m typing this, I can feel a golden, pearl-sized sphere of energy in my lower abdomen — exactly as the Chinese classics describe. I don’t understand the physics behind it, but there really is a ball of energy in my belly. It’s not mystical mumbo jumbo, and it’s not a metaphor.
The Chinese word dantian (丹田) literally means “elixir field”. A better translation is “energy center.” It is the natural center for your body’s energy. Dantian is important not only for energy arts like Qigong, but also for martial arts, especially Tai Chi Chuan and Shaolin Kung Fu.
So Where Is It?
So where in the world is dantian? Traditionally, it is located slightly below and slightly behind your belly button. The classical measurement uses a biological inch, which is the width of your own thumb. So your dantian is located 3 thumb-widths below and 2 thumb-widths behind your navel.
But if you go searching for dantian with your thumbs, you’re not likely to find it. First of all, dantian can be in slightly different places for different people. Second, if you haven’t cultivated dantian correctly for a few years, there isn’t much to feel.
Three dantians?
To confuse things even more, there are actually three dantians:
- Upper dantian, located in the forehead.
- Middle dantian, located in the chest.
- Lower dantian, located in the belly.
The lower dantian is — by far — the safest and healthiest place to store energy. If you try to store energy at the middle or upper dantians, there are serious risks. To attempt this without the direct supervision of a high-level master would be, well, dumb. Why take the risk when there are safer and better options?
The lower dantian is also the most useful place to store energy. It acts like an energy bank account. The Qi stored there can be used for just about anything — vitality, longevity, mental clarity, martial arts, or even sex.
How Big is Your dantian?
Often, beginners are unable to perceive dantian because they are looking too hard for the golden pearl. For most beginners, dantian starts out bigger, not smaller. It may be the size of a baseball, a grapefruit, or even a basketball. That’s because the energy hasn’t consolidated yet.
Again, I don’t understand the physics behind it, but dantian seems to shrink as you advance. Or not shrink, but consolidate. For example, I can feel that my dantian is about the size of a pearl — but that’s just the core of the field. The energy from the core of dantian radiates out in all directions, like the light from the sun. So really, my dantian is a much larger sphere that extends past the boundaries of my body.
What a Fraud!
Incidentally, a student who can see energy (there are more of them than you might think, but they typically don’t say anything) told me that she was confused when she first met me. She was looking for the boundaries of my energy field, as she was used to doing with people. But she couldn’t find mine. At first, she thought I was a fraud. “This guy has the smallest energy field I’ve ever seen, but he calls himself a teacher?”
Then she realized that my energy field was much larger than she was used to seeing. She told me that she was shocked to see that the boundaries of the field extended dozens of feet from my body. I guess that convinced her to sign up for my class!
The large field that my dantian creates one reason why my students get such good results. When I teach a class, the students are actually inside my energy field. And when I walk around the room, my energy field helps to circulate the Qi. This is big reason why it’s critical to learn face-to-face from a master.
(By the way, my teacher’s energy field is even larger and more powerful than mine, which is why students in his classes get even better results.)
The Five Gates
My energy field is beneficial not just for students, but also for one of my life’s passions — martial arts. For example, when I punch, I can feel the energy going through what is known as the Five Gates:
- Dantian
- Shoulder
- Elbow
- Wrist
- Fingers
Single Whip
At first, you feel the energy getting stuck at the shoulder or the elbow. Actually, let me back up. At first, you feel nothing. You may feel a little tingling in the hands like we do in Qigong practice, but you don’t even feel the first gate, dantian. Like I said, it takes time to feel dantian, even if you’re doing everything correctly.
Once you feel dantian, you’ll begin to feel the energy moving through the five gates. When you focus on exercises that explode force (fā jìn, 發勁) like One Finger Zen, The 18 Arhats, or Single Whip, then you begin to feel the energy getting stuck in one of the gates. I’ll give away one of my hard-earned secrets: It doesn’t always seem to go in order. Sometimes it gets stuck at the shoulder, sometimes at the elbow, and sometimes at the hand.
But then, after years of practice, you feel it jump all five gates. It took me over 15 years to experience this. (The good news is that my students experience it about twice as fast — either because I was a bad student, or because I’m an excellent teacher, or both!) I’ll say this about the sensation of Qi jumping the Five Gates: It’s totally awesome.
Dantian and Health
Those who aren’t interested in martial arts still need to cultivate dantian. There is an important Chinese maxim that is a guiding principle in my school:
First circulate energy, then build it.
Beginners in my school know that I always emphasize circulating the energy. We want to clear the major energy blockages before doing anything else. Otherwise, you’re just adding pressure to clogged pipes.
But after we clear the major blockages, we can start building energy. When we build energy, it first goes to the rivers and streams of your body – the 12 Primary Meridians, filling them up. After that, it goes to the energy reservoirs — the 8 Extraordinary Meridians. And then, when all of your rivers and reservoirs are filled, the energy will naturally being to pool at dantian.
With all of this excess energy, you’ll have a lot more vitality. Basically, you’ve raised your stress threshold. You have reserves of energy which can be used to combat stress in all forms — negative emotions, unhealthy food, toxins, thoughts, physical trauma, or people driving slowly in the left lane.
Trust me — you want a reserve of energy, just like you want a reserve of emergency cash in the bank. That’s what I’ve got at dantian. If I stay up too late, or eat some stuff I shouldn’t have eaten, or if I’m tricked into to watching an awful movie like “The Expendables 2″ — I’ve got energy reserves to help me handle the extra stress.
Dantian and Visualization
Did you know that cultivating dantian is actually a form of visualization? At the end of every practice routine, we become gently aware of dantian. That’s visualization. That’s one way dantian is cultivated over time.
Another way is through the various stages of Cosmos Breathing. If you still can’t feel your dantian clearly, then it’s a good idea to practice Cosmos Breathing. But of course, you have to learn it from a master.
There are many other ways to cultivate dantian — One Finger Zen, Warrior Qigong (zhan zhuang), and Sinew Metamorphosis, to name a few. All of these methods help to build up the energy reserves, which in turn will all of extra energy to pool at dantian.
What is your experience with dantian? Go ahead and share it in the comments section below. I’d love to hear what you think.
Zenfully yours,
Sifu Anthony
Sifu Anthony Korahais used Qigong to overcome clinical depression, aching low-back pain, chronic bronchitis, and a heart murmur. He is the founder and director of the Flowing Zen Center in Gainesville, Florida, and an internationally recognized teacher in the world of energy arts. To contact Sifu Anthony directly, click here.
Nice article Siheng, I LOL’d at the expendables joke I had to stop watching it after 10 minutes, bravo for sitting through the whole thing!
Thanks for the lesson
Glad someone got my joke.
Hey! The Expendables wasn’t that bad!!!
Great article!
I’ve noticed that my surgery scar definitely affects dantian, based on how good my energy is flowing.
It is good to be a woman though, as I’ve noticed we feel dantian generally quicker than the gentlemen in our school
Mi amor, it was the worst movie ever.
I didn’t mention about women feeling dantian faster than men. Thanks for pointing it out.
Akemi:
Can you explain how your scar affects dantian? I have a surgery scar as well, and even when I am not practicing, maybe just sitting on the couch, I feel it burning (very much like Harry Potter…jk). I usually think of it as some form of energy, but not dantian because i am not practicing at the moment and i don’t often feel it there when I practice.
Amanda, I don’t think Akemi saw your post. Anyway, scars are considered a block to the flow of Qi. There is a great treatment using cupping therapy and massage that opens up the block. Akemi did it recently, and she had a cathartic emotional release during the treatment. We offer this treatment at the center, if you’re interested.
Thank you for posting so many blog posts lately, Sifu. I’m learning a good deal about the classics and about which movies not to bother with. I have a few questions about this post, and I’m particularly interested because I’d like to include objectives related to the Five Gates in my Aims and Objectives.
Questions:
1. What are the benefits of learning to visualize dantian? Especially, does being able to visualize dantian successfully increase the benefit gained from practicing dantian cultivation techniques such as One Finger Zen and zhan zhuang?
2. Is it necessary to feel dantian in order to move energy through the 5 gates?
3. How big is Grandmaster Wong’s energy field? Has anyone who can see energy been able to find the end of it?
Hey Andrew. Here are my replies:
1. Re: Visualizing dantian. It becomes a positive feedback loop — the better you can visualize dantian, the more you’ll be able to feel it, then the easier it will be to visualize, and so on.
2. Re: The five gates. Yes, it’s necessary to feel dantian before fully connecting the five gates. Otherwise, you’ve only got 4 gates.
3. I can’t see Qi like some of my students, so I can’t say how big my Sifu’s energy field is. But I’ll say this — I’ve been able to clearly feel the effects of it over 50 yards away.
Oh my, this takes me back. About nine or ten years ago, when I first ran across Sigung’s “The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu,” I tried practicing Horse Riding Stance from it, somehow equating depth of the stance and a general heavy feeling of the body with cultivating dan tian. I didn’t get anything out of the way I was doing that exercise but sore legs!
Shortly after the Flowing Zen 101 seminar two years ago, I ran into a Taiji instructor from the lineage of Dr. Yang Jwing Ming who taught me Reverse Breathing. I practiced it for a while under his direction (at one point, my dan tian felt about the size of a beach ball), but I discontinued the practice after we went out separate ways.
Interestingly, I don’t feel the dan tian very clearly when I do force training like One Finger Shooting Zen or Golden Bridge; I mostly feel the force diffused throughout my entire body (I like the feeling, it makes my entire being feel very powerful!)
Practicing Baguazhang force training, on the other hand, feels (to me, at my current level) the most “localized” of my force training. While my entire body feels powerful, I feel a definite “extra” amount of energy swelling at my palms, whereas in other arts, the entire body feels roughly equal in power. I suppose it could be the circumstances under which I learnt the arts (I learnt Golden Bridge and Two Finger Zen from Sigung at a regional course while I learnt Baguazhang from Sigung’s five-day UK Summer Camp course). I occasionally feel dan tian at the end when I think of it to complete the practice.
I’ve never felt my force go through all five “gates” when I explode force; I generally feel when it gets stuck at the elbow or when it gets manifested in my fist, One Finger Zen, or Tiger Claw. It’s a very interesting vibrating/explosive sensation! The first time I managed to explode force to my fist when I was practicing Lohan Asks the Way a few years ago, my fist felt so heavy and strong, and I was so surprised, that I nearly “punched” myself out of my stance, haha!
Thanks for the comment, Fred.
I didn’t mention it in the article, but there are also dantians located in the palms. When you practice Cosmos Palm for a long time, these start to fill up. But it’s crucial to fill up the reservoirs, and then the lower dantian, before storing energy in the palms.
Thank you for writing this article! It’s opened a lot of old memories I’ve had from meeting some other practitioners of martial arts. I just remembered the description of my old roommate’s martial arts training (I don’t remember the system’s name, sadly). Her sifu recommended to the students to engage or clench the abdomen (much like how ballet dancers do) for two reasons, according to her. At the physical level, it was for core strengthening and postural alignments. At the energetic level, she said it “spread” energy from the abdominal dan tian to the entire body “like squeezing water from a sponge.”
I’ve taken dance classes for a few years, so I reflexively “engage” the navel area (not to the point of extreme clenching like my ballet classmates), but I’ve never experimented with clenching the lower abdomen to the point that my old roommate does. Would that sort of hard clenching of the dan tian eventually lead to health problems down the road? I’d imagine so…
Engaging the core muscles is fine, but it’s not Qigong. Doing it as a form of Qigong sounds odd. The person you mentioned might not be doing Qigong. It’s common for people to use the word Qigong, but have no experience with energy. In that case, engaging the core muscles isn’t dangerous because it’s just physical.
Thank you for clearing that up, Sifu!
Though I sometimes ‘see’ energy (usually in colors lately), and I’ve even at times heard from the spirits of your teacher’s teachers teachers, I’m mostly kinesthetic in my experience of chi. And I can attest to being within your now familiar energy field during classes, no matter where I am in the room. So even if we can’t see how far it extends, we know it reaches at least those four walls.
Thank you for the feedback, Mary.
A very helpful article!
I was actually wondering about how having abdominal surgery of any kind would affect dantian, as Simu brought up.
I’ve only now started to feel dantian, I’d say in the last month and 1/2 or so? And it feels exactly like you said, and I’d say mine was the size of a volley ball. I naturally feel it best right at the end of practice, during standing meditation time. I can’t say I’ve tried to feel it any other time, but can you feel it at any time, not just practice time? Kind of like opening your heart?
Here’s a question for you… as of recent, I’ve been focusing more on just letting energy flow rather than building it (force training) because I feel like I may have some blockages and I want to make sure energy if flowing well first. But does your energy naturally build the more you practice, even if you aren’t particularly “working” on building energy?
“I can’t say I’ve tried to feel it any other time, but can you feel it at any time, not just practice time? Kind of like opening your heart?”
“But does your energy naturally build the more you practice, even if you aren’t particularly “working” on building energy?”
I hope you don’t mind, but I figured since I’m here, I’ll take a shot at those answers: Yes, yes, and yes.
To the first question, the only thing that would prevent you from feeling your dantian outside of practice is your state of mind. As long as you are in a qigong state of mind, you’re likely to be able to feel it. I’d probably not really pay it much mind, and go about my day in most cases, however.
To the third question, I believe Sifu has said in the past that our school’s qigong is always both building and cleansing, but the priorities are different at different times, with different intentions, and different exercises.
All Qigong is both building and cleansing. The question is — what proportions. For example, Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow is about 90% cleansing. But the Horse Stance is about 90% building. Exercises like Lifting the Sky are somewhere in the middle.
Yes, I can feel it any time. That was a progression for me. At first, I could only feel it in practice. Now I can feel it anytime I think of it, including right now as I’m typing. It’s not as powerful as while practicing, but it’s still palpable.
Focusing on clearing blockages is wise. And yes, when you do that, you’re naturally building some energy too. More importantly, you’re freeing up stuck energy, which has the same end result as building energy.
But at your level, you can both build and circulate. A little force training or building will help you to clear deeper blockages. In fact, for some deep blockages, you’ll need to build energy in order to clear them.
Great article, although I can’t see how on earth someone would be able to persuade me to see something like the Expendables I or II, I’ll take your word that it was as bad as it looked.
My dantian rarely feels exactly the same from day to day, but it is always roughly the size of a ping pong ball, unless it is not on that day. Sometimes it’s larger, and sometimes it’s smaller. Usually, it’s a little closer to my navel than what you describe, although sometimes it travels upward from there if I’ve been neglecting horse stance, and downward if I have been doing horse stance regularly.
Daisipak,another interesting and helpful article,thank you very much first and foremost.
Second,a question…if one builds up the energy reservoir in the dantian to the degree that you and Sigung Wong have,where the energy radiates outwards,can that give benefits to loved ones around that person,even if they don’t practice qigong? Like a mother or father who practices and becomes advanced,the family members in her/his household,do they benefit? If so,how?
Hi Andrew. Yes, I think it gives some mild benefits to people around. We’ve seen examples where student sit down with Sifu for some tea, and their pain disappears. But it’s not as powerful as practicing Qigong, and it isn’t likely to clear deep-rooted blockages.
Thank you for posting this Sibaak. It’s heartening to know that feeling the dantian takes time, which is a good reminder for me to practice patience and enjoy the practice as opposed to chasing results.
My experience is that I can feel my dantian more often as a “balance point” rather than an energetic field. For instance, when we are doing adjustments in stance training, I can feel my dantian better when I settle into my stance properly (as opposed to leaning too far forward or too far back). I can feel my dantian more as an energetic field when I’m doing cosmic breathing, but not when I’m say doing kung fu or One Finger Shooting Zen. Now I know that it takes time.
It sounds like you’re headed in the right direction, Chow.
No, it is not mumbo jumbo! Even before starting the practice I would feel dantian spontaneously in moments of realization of some concept or when I was in complete balance, so I know it’s real but never knew what it was. The same is true of bi hue (sp?). I feel it opening spontaneously at odd moments, including the middle of the night, waking me up. I have no control over either one and can’t feel either one “on command”. But just knowing that they are genuine localities of connection with the “cosmos” helps me to visualize them and know what to strive for in practice.
Incidentally one evening in class I tried to locate the energy centers in in the room with my eyes closed. When I opened them they correlated with yourself and students that had been to Costa Rica!
Hi Sifu,
I can feel dan tian best if I don’t try to locate it to a particular spot. My mind just becomes kind of present within that general area, and then there it is.
For me, it’s kind of like looking at something without trying to really look at it — like watching a wild animal you could scare aware by ‘looking’ too hard. I feel it pulsate as well, almost like dan tian is breathing in unison with my heartbeat.
Sifu Anthony, This is another instance in which I had been thinking off and on -Hmm what is dantian? and you posted an article. I don’t feel dantian yet. I had also been wondering why do I yawn so very often when I am in one of your classes but not so much when I am practicing at home and your article answered this (I think) —your energy field (?) Your articles are full of energy!
Thanks for writing/sharing articles. They are very helpful, enlightening! Suzanne
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Suzanne. To answer your question, yes, it’s common for students to yawn in class because I’m such a bore. Just kidding! It’s because the energy is flowing better in class. As for dantian, keep practicing, and you’ll get there!
Great article!
My first experience with chi at the dantien was a shock. I admit that when I started tai chi practise ten years ago it was for the martial arts aspect, not health or developing chi. On one class we were working on a variant of “Ocean Breathing” in a tall horse stance, the hands drifting in toward the dantien and out to the sides at shoulder hight in time with the breathing.
Without breing told what I expect I spontaneously started to feel pushing and pulling sensations. As my hands were rising away from the dantien they accelerated away from the body as if pushed by magnets. When I brought them back down I. Felt the same magnetic force and had to “force” my hands closer.
My instructor hadn’t warned me what to expect and I was a little freaked out at first. Then he reassured me that it was just my hands interacting with the chi at the dantien. Now it’s one of my favourite drills, though I don’t feel the push/pull anymore. I hope that means my dantien is bigger, not smaller!
Sorry I missed this comment, Geoff. In my experience, dantian actually becomes smaller, or rather more condensed, over time. The Qi gradually consolidates and compresses until it becomes exactly what the classics describe — a golden pearl of energy. Of course, the energy radiates out from the pearl, but the core, the center of that energy is roughly the size of a very large pearl.
I really appreciate your article .it has made me understand dantien can be found with patience.i only practise the 8 exercise qigong howlong before i can feel the dantien .
Hi Ridwan. It depends on the student. Some students feel dantian in a matter of weeks, but for other students, it takes years. Just keep practicing!
First, i’d like to thank you for bringing such physical clarity to an often abstract and intrinsically superstition-rousing topic as energy cultivation. Most people counter my attempts to share ‘human energy science,’ as i call it, with the same sort of skepticism associated with spreading religious beliefs, as if im pushing a philosophy onto them rather than sharing a physical healing process that we all possess; and i assume that’s because it seems more spiritual than “real” to beginners since it’s very rare to feel the energy right off the bat. So thanks again for taking a non-secular approach to energy utilization, as i believe this is key to enlightening the majority. That said, I have a few questions you may like to weigh in on:
1. I have been visualizing the energy meridians with my sense of awareness for many years, on and off (that is to say, without strict regimen or conservative teaching methods..mainly through meditation practice and brief qigong study), and i’ve come to notice where my blockages are located. I feel abundance in my extremities and an increasingly powerful collection in my lowest energy center at the sacrum (a past problem for me which i learned to improve through pelvic breathing, dropping the perineum on inhale). The dantian is sometimes felt, and also the heart and mind vortices can be felt with deep meditation, but i cannot maintain their density of presence in the active state of my daily life. I feel this is a source of negativity for me, as i associate abdominal function with vitality after having surgical work done below my waist line, causing much psycho-somatic inhibition during the breathing process. So my question is how to connect the circuit from my pelvis up through my abdomen and heart into my cervical area and of course the head? This is crucial, i believe, because i sometimes aim to cultivate energy to increase physical endurance during sport and ultimately feel a pain below my ribcage, as if the flow is halted at my diaphragm, not allowed to progress. So more specifically, are there exercises you could prescribe to open my heart and throat to release this abdominal pressure? Could it be solved through the intention of breath? Is there a specific way to visualize the energy above the dantian?
2. Recently, just the past several months, I have been having strong feelings of vastly powerful negative energies that permeate my sense of calm (which is usually quite firm) with what i’m interpreting as messages of impending doom or just heavy skepticism/hopelessness. These feelings manifest rarely, once for example in the presence of a single person (whom my ‘spider-senses’ told me was morally perverse, inside and out…and i dont seek to judge, as i try to love all beings, i just have always been blessed with a precise spirit of discernment when meeting ppl for the first time that has yet to be proven wrong) and again in a crowded supermarket (less acute). Ultimately, i feel my energy conductivity rise exponentially, as if something is pulling at my energy centers, attacking my sense of spiritual strength. Average persons whom i share this experience with tend to liken it to having ‘panic attacks,’ but i’m not the panicky type so that diagnosis simply doesn’t persuade. And im sure this is due to a poor explanation of my symptoms, as it’s hard to communicate matters of non-material nature without sounding like a looney. I’d like to know if anyone has had a similar experience to this, or has any theories as to the nature of its cause, or has any advice on how to remedy the situation if it’s simply a malady induced by an unbalance in myself.
3. Lastly, I’d love to hear feedback on whether you know any reputable teachers of energy cultivation located in NJ? My training is specifically targeting mental/emotional stillness for enhanced speed of decision-making, compounded with explosive physical power (locally concentrated in the feet and legs for sport-specific kick power), and of course expanding my ability to teach love and energetic abundance to those who suffer in ways they cannot or will not readily understand.
Thanks again for taking time to practice the way of cultivation and to share your expertise with us ambitious learners, and im sorry for the length of this text! Please feel free to answer whichever questions you feel most pertinent for your level of knowledge, and which to omit at your full discretion. Thank you for any guidance you can supply, and my best wishes go to the progression of your endeavors and those of your students.
Hi Frank,
First of all, I assume you meant my “secular” approach to teaching Qigong, not my “non-secular”. Although I do teach Qigong for spiritual cultivation, it’s absolutely non-religious. In fact, atheists would be perfectly comfortable in those classes.
I can answer all three questions in one go — you need to learn from me in person, or as a poor substitute, from my upcoming book. The secrets that I reveal in my 101 workshop (or any weekend workshop) will help you to open up the energy blockages that you talk about — the energy blockages along the front of your torso, as well as the energy blockages causing the “panic attacks”.
In terms of finding a teacher, these articles will help:
http://flowingzen.com/1729/finding-a-teacher/
http://flowingzen.com/5921/how-to-spot-bad-qigong-and-tai-chi-teachers/
All the best,
Sifu Anthony