Dragon breaths

The dragon breaths method"s goal is to enhance the flow of chi in your body and practice the manifestation of jin energy. It consists in placing your hands in different dragon palms and making dragon energy flow through your body. There are two steps per breath: 1- Inhale and gather chi, 2- Exhale and manifest jin.

Before you do any dragon breaths, you should fill yourself with chi by doing the "Gathering chi" method at least 9 breaths. Fill yourself with white energy.

Standing up, your legs together, knees bent lightly, do a few deep quick breaths to activate the flow of chi in your body. Visualize red glowing energy coming from your dan-tian and filling up your body. In this exercise, you will place your hands in a starting position while inhaling, then you will "push" your hands to the ending position while exhaling with strength and vocalizing the "Aahhhhhhhhh" sound. When we write "push", we mean putting strength in your movement and feeling the chi pushing in strongly thru your hands, palms facing the direction of the push. You can start with the physical movement, and when you are comfortable with the technique, add the visualizations.

We give here a small video clip showing the Dragon Breathing Kata, by Bill Mc Cabe and two of his advanced students. We are thankful that Bill Mc Cabe gave us his permission to use his clip in our teachings, making it much easier for you to understand. Below are the explained steps of his kata, followed by the rest of our instructions. Unless stated otherwise, keep your thumb and index extended, while you keep the other fingers bent. You don't need to go as fast as these guys. Start slowly and increase speed only as you feel like it.

Download clip (Windows media format)

Step	Inhale	Exhale
Step 1	Hands joined flat together in front of your dan-tian. Inhale. Quickly bring both of your hands up above your head in a 45 degree angle each side. Place your hands in bell shape.	Exhale. Push the chi from each side towards the front, getting your hands closer, in front of your throat.
Step 2	Left hand over your right shoulder, right hand over your left shoulder. Spread your legs in horse stance, wider than your shoulders, and knees bend a little. Gather chi from your body.	Bring back your hands together in front of your throat, and push down and towards the front, distancing your hands to each side. You arms end position is 45 degree down in front of you, hands distanced a bit wider than your shoulders.
Step 3	Left arm still, right arm rotates inward and up, using the elbow as a pivot. Only your for-arm and your hand is moving. Bring your right hand up, palm facing up, to the front right side of your head.	Rotate it back down the same way it came up, but pushing chi downwards and front, so you hand reaches the position it had at the end of step two.
Step 4	Right arm still, do the same as step 3 with your left hand. Take is up in a circular motion.	Rotate it back down the same way it came up, pushing chi downwards and front.
Step 5	Bring your hands higher that your forehead, crossing them with touching.	Push your hands down and front, ending the same place as in steps 2, 3 and 4.
Step 6	Hand crossing together in front of your face, palms towards each side of your head.	Bring your hands downward at the level of your solar plexus. Make your hands into a triangle, touching thumbs and indexes, bending slightly the other fingers. Push forward and up a bit, so you end the movement at the level of your throat.
Step 7	With your two writs touching, left hand pointing down, right hand pointing up, both palms facing forward, bring your hands to your left hip. Start breathing in. You will describe a circle counter-clockwise with your hand positioned in this manner. Bring your hands in front of you to the right, up, above your head, to the left and down back to your left hip.	Push forward with your hands, palms forward, joined by the wrists. Finish this push with your hands in front of your, aligned with the middle of your body, right hand up, left hand down.
Step 8	From the actual position of your hands, you will rotate your hands 180 degree, so that your right hand points down, and your left hand points up. Palms still facing forward. Bring your hands to your right hip and start describing a circle clockwise. Bring your hands to the left, upward, above your head, to the right, down to your hips.	Push forward with your hands, palms forward, joined by the wrists. Finish this push with your hands in front of your, aligned with the middle of your body.
Step 9	Same as step 2, cross your hands in front of you.	Same as step 2, pushing down, forward, hands end on each side.
Step 10	Cross your hands in front of your face. Keep the dragon palm with index and thumb extended, other fingers bent.	Push in front of you while keeping your hands crossed.
Step 11	Bring your legs back together, with your hands down in front of your dan-tian. Lift your hands up like in step 1, 45 degrees up.	Push on each side of your body at shoulder level, palms facing the direction of the push.
Step 12	Cross your arms in front of you, your right hand in front of your left shoulder, and your left hand in front of your right shoulder.	Uncrossing your arms, bring each hand to their shoulder, palms facing down, and push down to the level of your hips.
Finishing step	Bring your arms above your head, describing a big circle, and bring down your hands in front of you, down to the level of your dan-tian, hands in the position of the "meditation mudra". Inhale and exhale 4 times, strongly at first, and softly at last. Keep this position for a few seconds while breathing normaly.

When you become agile with the physical movements, add the reversed breath in your movements. Pull your abdomen a little while inhaling, and push it out while also pushing chi with your hands.

Once your movement and breaths are mastered, add the visualization in your mind. With each breath in, you gather white light around you in your body. The light swirls from outside to inside. With each breath out, the light becomes hot red light dense enough to feel it. Most of it moves inside your body and making it strong, but your hands are glowing red and spraying red light outwards, in the direction the palm is facing.