The Three Adjustments of Body, Breath, and Mind in Qigong and Meditation

This ebook is an extraction of Chapter 4 from Chinese Medical Qigong (London & Philadelphia: Singing Dragon, 2013), edited by Tianjun Liu and Xiao Mei Qiang. It is most relevant to non-moving (standing or sitting) meditation practice, which is often referred to as “still Qigong” or “static Qigong” because it involves the cultivation of Qi (氣/气) or “energy,” just in a different form than moving Qigong. The text discusses the three adjustments of body, breath, and mind in Qigong and meditation practice. The adjustment of body involves physical posture and positions of body parts, the adjustment of breath refers to changes in breathing (from normal breathing to abdominal breathing to body breathing or fetal/turtle breathing), and the adjustment of mind deals with calming and emptying the mind and eventually "entering stillness" (Rujing / 入靜).