THE UPPER DAN TIEN - CHANGING FOCUS
After one has spent enough time training Zhan Zhuang, it becomes possible to lift one’s feeling-awareness point of focus from the Low Dan Tien to the Upper Dan Tien. The timing of this shift is often the result of the ‘opening’ of the low Dan Tien (at least to some degree) and its subsequent linkage or connection with the Middle and Upper Dan Tiens. This alchemical experience is first initiated within the Central Central and then creates a sense of expansion of awareness that goes far beyond the confines of the physical body.
One element to the idea of Dan Tiens ‘opening’ is that of a sense of vastly expanded space, seemingly within the body and yet somehow also beyond it. As Master Wang Xiang Zhai has said, “When I stand, the earth is in my hands. The universe is in my mind.” Another element to all this is the fact of Shen (spirit, spirit of vitality) controlling and leading the Qi (vital energy) which in turn motivates the body. As the classics say, “...the mind leads the Qi and the Qi leads the body.” Therefore you have as an end result, the mind leading the body or - Shen (spirit) ruling our corporeal form. And the location where all this takes place - the Upper Dan Tien.
