Tiger-Dragon Breathing Here's another way to do a breathing meditation.
Here we are using the powerful images and energetics of the tiger and the dragon.
Sit,
Stand,
Or lie down,
Paying close attention to the incoming and outgoing of your breath.
Keep your breathing as slow and deep as you can,
While still breathing comfortably.
So you can be sitting in a chair,
You can be sitting on a cushion,
You can be lying down,
You could be standing.
Any place that you're comfortable to do a deep,
Slow,
Gentle breath work.
Just spend a few moments centering yourself,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Breathing in,
Your abdomen expands.
Breathing out,
Your abdomen contracts.
Then as you inhale,
Breathe in the energy of the tiger as the root of earth.
Think of the solidity and strength of the tiger.
In the wuxing,
Or five transformational phases system,
The tiger represents the direction of west,
The element gold,
The color white,
And the lungs,
Our main organs of respiration.
It also represents the quality of courage.
And then when you exhale,
Breathe out the energy of the dragon,
The root of heaven,
As well as the openness and fluidity of the dragon.
See the dragon as a green dragon,
Which represents the direction of the east,
The element wood,
The direction of sunrise,
New directions,
And new possibilities.
Now just put your attention to your inhales and exhales.
Inhale,
Think of the strength and solidity of the tiger.
Exhale,
Think of the openness and fluidity of the dragon.
After a while,
Just say to yourself,
Tiger on inhale,
And dragon on exhale.
Spend some time just breathing in the image and energy of the tiger and the dragon.
Another thing you can do is change the inhalation to dragon and the exhalation to tiger.
This can help balance your being.
Just breathe this wonderful energy of the dragon and the tiger into your being.
You can also think of tiger as yang and dragon as yin.
Before you begin the meditation,
Think to yourself,
Do I need more yang to balance my nature,
Or do I need more yin?
If you need more yang energy in your life,
Inhale the tiger,
Exhale the dragon.
If you need more yin energy,
Inhale the dragon,
Exhale the tiger.
Whatever you decide upon,
And it can change from time to time or from day to day,
Spend some time just inhaling tiger and exhaling tiger,
Or inhaling dragon and exhaling dragon.
There's another mantra you can use here of a Chinese invocation,
Chinese mantra called xin ping qi he.
Xin ping means heart even.
Qi he means qi harmonious.
So you would breathe in xin ping,
Heart even,
Qi he,
Qi harmonious.
Xin ping,
Qi he,
Xin ping,
Qi he,
Xin ping,
Qi he.
Or you could just chant it or think of it as doing it in English.
Heart even,
Qi harmonious.
Heart even,
Qi harmonious.
Heart even,
Qi harmonious.
Or just say it in your mind,
You should breathe in,
Breathe out.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
To get the most out of this kind of practice,
It's good to spend as much time as you can with the meditation,
At least 10 to 20 minutes.
You can,
Of course,
Do it longer if that's what your system needs.
And the more you do these kinds of practices,
You will become more sensitive to what your energetic system needs at any given point in time and space.
So just sit with this and explore this and have fun with this.
