The dantian is important in Neidan, qigong, neigong, tao yin and other breathing techniques, as well as for traditional Chinese medicine and is also widely used throughout East Asian meditation and martial arts theory, especially the neijia school of Chinese martial arts and Tai Chi Chuan.
According to principles of Chinese alchemy there are three dantians in the body:
The lower dantian is located 1.3 inches below the navel and is also called the golden stove.
The middle dantian is in the heart and in Western anatomy is associated with the Thymus gland.
The upper dantian is in the brain just behind a point directly between the eyebrows and corresponds to the Third eye, in Western anatomy this point corresponds to the Pituitary gland. 
In speaking specifically of the lower of the three points, the term dantian is often used interchangeably with the Japanese word hara (腹; Chinese: fù) which literally means simply "belly". In Chinese and Japanese tradition, it is considered the physical center of gravity for the human body and by extension the seat of one's internal energy (qi). A master of calligraphy, swordsmanship, tea ceremony, martial arts or comparable disciplines is held in the Japanese tradition to be "acting from the hara". (However it should be noted that whereas the dantian is a fixed location anatomical region of the body that the centre of gravity is a theoretical concept and can move about even moving outside of the body in relation to the movement of the limbs.)
Taoist and Buddhist teachers often instruct their students to center their mind in dantian, held to aid control of thoughts and emotions. Therefore, acting from the dantian is considered to be related to the state of samadhi.
The dantian also roughly corresponds to the Indian concept of the manipura, or navel chakra in yoga philosophy, thought to be the seat of prana that radiates outwards to the entire body.
References
- Taoist Yoga by Lu K'uan Yu, Rider 1970 ISBN 0712617256
- Doctrine of the Elixir by R.B.Jefferson, Coombe Springs Press 1982, ISBN 0900306157 Full text here
- Spiritual Disciplines, Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks the Paper entitled ‘Spiritual Guidance in Contemporary Taoism’ by Irwin Rouselle, published by Princeton University Press, 1960 ISBN 0691018634
- Chia, Mantak. Cosmic Orbit: Connect to the Universe from Within. Universal Tao Publications (2005). ISBN 974-85401-4-6
- Porkert, Manfred. The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine. MIT Press (1974). ISBN 0262160587
External links
- Doctrine of the Elixir by R.B.Jefferson
- Secret of the Golden Flower
- Seiki tanden
- The Three Dantian, Hara and Seika Tanden
See also
- Haragei
- Jing (TCM)
- Pushing hands
- Aikido
- Tai Chi Chuan
- Meditation
- Mindfulness
- Misogi
- Kiai
- Kundalini
- Secret of the Golden Flower
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Tuesday September 09, 2008 at 03:44:37 PDT (GMT -0700)
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