Explanations about the Cyclical Breathing Without Retention

By Master Luong Si Hang – Vi Kien (Year 1980, 1993, 1998)

The Cyclical Breathing Without Retention will open the Enlightened Spiritual Heart.

Video Extract from the Year 1980

After the exercise of Concentration of Spiritual Energy, beginning practitioners should lower their arms like this. Keep them pressed against your side ribs. Keep your spine straight. Keep curling your tongue, incisors against incisors, mentally look straight ahead, and we now start the exercise of Cyclical Breathing Without Retention.

Here, I exhale fully. We must flatten our stomach.  Why do we flatten our stomach? When we flatten our stomach, we apply pressure on our kidneys. Our kidneys always contain some impure fluids. We should firmly flatten our stomach before we inhale. We should flatten it fully before we start inhaling.

Slowly, we give the mental order “Fill the navel, up to the chest, up to the head”. We keep curling our tongue, incisors against incisors, while giving the order mentally.

Why do we inhale and fill up the navel? The navel and the kidneys are related. When we fill up the navel, we apply a pressure which will open our back and bring warmth to our kidneys. Those who suffer from back pain have cold kidneys, or the energy vibrations of their kidneys are too weak which cause their back pain. When we inhale in this manner, we will provide warm air to heat our kidneys. Our kidneys are the most important organ in our lower sphere. When our kidneys malfunction, everything will malfunction.

Our kidneys are also the gate to Heaven. At that location, there are sceneries, workers, all kinds of activities in that lower sphere. Therefore, the kidneys govern the law of procreation. Humans reproduce thanks to the kidneys which allow the creation of the human body on earth.  Thanks to the kidneys, humans cultivate their seminal essence energy, which allows the birth of human beings. 

We inhale, filling up the navel, filling up the chest, up to the head, in accordance with our abilities. Those who cannot inhale a lot should still try to inhale until they can no longer inhale, and they should cultivate their will mentally “to fill up the navel, the chest, up to the head”, depending on their abilities.

Then we exhale and fully flatten our stomach, exhale fully, exhale fully. We should use our nose to breathe and not our mouth. When we exhale fully till the bottom of our stomach, we will apply pressure on both of our kidneys.

For beginning practitioners, if we ask them to breathe like this, they will never be able to do it. Therefore, they may breathe like this, inhaling a little bit, but they should keep practicing. They should give the mental order: “Fill up the navel, up the chest, up the head.” Then they can exhale. They may not exhale fully, but with time, they will lengthen their breathing. When their breathing lengthens, they will also improve the vital energy of the acupressure point between the kidneys called “Mệnh Môn”. This acupressure point is most important.

Women who have undergone childbirth have fully lost the vital energy of this acupressure point. Similarly, married men also will lose this vital energy. We must restore this vital energy in order to return to lucidity, purity, and lightness. However, we should proceed slowly without haste. Those who proceed too hastily and overdo themselves, those who hold their breath, will only practice this exercise like a martial art and cultivate their internal power only. To cultivate their internal power does not lead to spiritual salvation.

The cultivation of the internal power only helps the body to defend against kicks and blows. In contrast, we are opening the path of salvation for the soul, so we must inhale and exhale very slowly… With time, we will increase the length of our breathing. We will open the Yang Meridian which starts at the coccyx and flows up to this point, right at the upper lip. The Yin Meridian flows from here until the acupressure point called “Hội Âm”, located between the anus and the scrotum.  When our YIN and YANG meridians are unblocked, when we close our eyes, our energy will flow in a cycle like this. When we close our eyes, we will fill the pull of energy upward. Therefore, when we close our eyes and feel the lightness and purity, it means that we have achieved the free flow between the YIN and YANG Meridians. At that time, we will no longer suffer any major illness, and we will be able to eradicate complex illnesses in the future. We should do at least 6 full breath cycles when doing the Cyclical Breathing without Retention.

Here I am showing an average breath cycle, so that beginners who start practicing and those who cannot yet do the breathing can better understand. Otherwise, if I breathe like I normally do, people won’t be able to follow my example.