Internal Work I: The Field of Cinnabar

-Focus on the Dantian-, -Sink Qi in the Dantian-, -Center yourself in the Dantian-. Practitioners of Internal Arts are reminded of these basic principles innumerable times during their practice.

But, what really is this Dantian after all? If you feel uncomfortable listening to the often muddy explanations on the life-force, you can just think of the dantian as the area near the belly, the ideal centre of gravity of the body, as well as the set of muscles and fasciae that make it up. It is, interestingly enough, what Joseph Pilates called the powerhouse of the body (and right he was).

If, on the other hand, without falling under the easy spell of New Age mumblings, you crave for more, keep on reading.

A good starting point is (as it is almost always the case) the etymology: Dāntián 丹田 (in Japanese Tanden) is a double word. The first character means elixir, and the second one field. It is thus the field of the elixir, the place where the alchemical process leading to the body's transformation takes its dutiful place. But there is more: Dān is actually a very specific substance, the red cinnabar, or mercury sulfide, the chemical HgS ( 丹 is made up of the root for well, and a dot inside, representing the cinnabar in its ore). Why then elixir? Students of western and eastern alchemy will immediately recognize the elixir par excellence, composed by the two main alchemical agents, sulphur and quicksilver.

Two agents, one result.

Summing up: the dantian is a crucible, the meeting place of two agents whose merging brings about the body's medicine, the sought-after elixir of long life and physical power. I have not said what the sulphur is, nor the mercury, and I am not going to. I shall stop here instead, and wish you good practice.

Time to focus on my own dantian.