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Accumulation of Chi
Accumulation of chi in Sea Zen is conducted by four methods. The first method is breathing (Ul Soom) and the second is the hand posture(Soo In), the third is Heavenly Sound (Sun Eum) and the last is stretching(Hang Gong). The combination of the four methods in Sea Zen allows accumulation of chi. Accordingly, accumulation of chi not only stores chi but also allows you to warm up your body through wonderful stretching.
1. Breathing (Ul Soom)
The most significant key in the accumulation of chi is breathing. Through breathing, you can collect and accumulate chi that is spread out in the universe. But not all breathing accumulates chi. There is a special kind of breathing method called Ul Soom that can accumulate chi.
The basic breathing method for the accumulation of chi (Ul Soom) is breathing in through nose and breathing out through mouth. Through nose, you breathe in deeply and through mouth you breathe out lightly. In other words, in order to accumulate chi in waist chi vessel effectively, we must inhale deeply and longer and exhale lightly and shortly. When you breathe in, make your lips in "aum" shape (to keep your own breathing pace, the tip of your tongue should touch the back of the front teeth) and breathe in through nose as slowly as possible. When you breathe out, make "huh" sound as lightly as possible and exhale as much as you feel comfortable. (As you breathe out, as if you steam up the windowpane to polish, you should have a tense feeling inside your throat and make "huh" sound). The repetition of this inhalation and exhalation is Ul Soom. Ul Soom concentrates on breathing in and breathing out as naturally as possible.
Another important thing is that when you breathe in, you should expand the lower abdomen (Tan Tian) gradually. When you breathe out, try to sustain the expanded lower abdomen or Tan Tian so that chi can be accumulated in the waist chi vessel. When you breathe in again, try again to expand your already expanded lower abdomen gradually a little bit more. (Actually, the lower abdominal muscle should have come loose and sunken in a little bit by then).
At first it is not so easy to breathe in and breathe out (Ul Soom) while expanding the lower abdomen at the same time. But with a few days of practice you will feel your breathing natural and smooth. To see your progress, you can check if your breathing is deep and smooth. .
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2. Hand Posture (Soo In)
Enough chi is accumulated through Ul Soom. In a tense moment in daily life, if you repeat Ul Soom 5 times you will soon feel relaxed as chi is accumulated in the waist chi vessel. But for more effective accumulation of chi Sea Zen use other ways.
The first is the hand posture (Soo In). Soo In means the shape of hands. It is widely known that the hand is connected to every organ in our body. It is no surprise that a number of treatments in oriental medicine focus on hands.
What is the shape of hands that could best accumulate chi? As lightning rod is necessary to attract lightning, we need to make "chi rod" to attract and accumulate chi. This chi rod is Soo In and it looks like the shape shown in the picture below.
Each palm of your hands should touch each other as if you clap your hands, and bend your thumbs and index fingers. This hand shape creates the energy field around the hands and attract chi. Because Soo In attacts chi, we call it "the shape of heaven." Soo In also stimulates chi channels in the body and helps the flow of chi. Particularly, it strengthens lungs and bladders in the body.
3. Heavenly Sound
The accumulation of chi through Ul Soom and Soo In is strengthened once more through the process called Heavenly Sound or Sun Eum.
Sound is created in emptiness as it vibrates. In this principle, by vibrating the accumulated chi in the waist chi vessel through the Heavenly Sound, the stored chi is once again condensed. Just as the steel is made stronger by hitting the heated one, the powerfully condensed chi field in the waist chi vessel Tan Tian is made much stronger by vibrating and hitting the accumulated chi. This is what we refer to "the exquisite principle of heavenly sound." In this process, the accumulated chi gets down deeply into the waist chi vessel and is condensed more powerfully. The condensed chi then makes the waist chi vessel protrude along the waist line and we can see this phenomenon with our eyes.
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4. Stretching (Hang Gong)
We have so far made the "chi rod" to accumulate chi through the hand shape (Soo In), and pushed and accumulated chi to the lower abdomen through breathing (Ul Soom) and condensed the accumulated chi more powerfully through the heavenly sound(Sun Eum). But the problem is that the result can be less effective if these processes are performed separately. Therefore it is important that, in order to maximize the effect of the training, we should arrange and combine Ul Soom, Soo In and Sun Eum in balance. Each one of the processes serves as an important component of a product. Hang Gong is the process in which each component (each process) is arranged and combined with other components (other processes). As seen in the pictures above, the combination of separate components(processes) can be made through certain exercises, which are very similar to stretching.
The movement of Hang Gong is largely divided into two: standing movements and sitting movements. I will go into detail in the later parts. During Hang Gong, we sort out the purest chi just as we pound to harden kaoline (china clay) in order to get rid of the air bubbles in the clay. This process makes the condensing of accumulated chi more effective. This process also gets rid of the false chi and only authentic chi remains in the waist chi vessel. While the authentic chi is accumulated and condensed in this procedure, it digs down into the waist chi vessel and the true waist chi vessel Tan Tian is formed in the shape of yin and yang.
Hang Gong also maximizes the effect of physical exercise. Stretching the arms up and down stimulates the diaphragm and thus strengthens the internal organs and the whole body. The accumulation of chi in the waist chi vessel also gives us vitality and energy in our body. In this respect, it could be said that Hang Gong in Sea Zen serves as the synthetic art or a perfect combination of Ul Soom, Soo In and Sun Eum. |
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