Obsessed with anus

One of the reasons why yoga, chi-kung, Taoist meditation or even tai-chi are considered to be esoteric practices is that the activation of one's anal muscles is used.  In the advanced stage, all muscles in the pelvic floors muscles will need to be activated, anus muscles being included.  Even in the beginning stage, some teachers advocate its activation: contracting one's anal muscles.   It will be interesting to see why this approach has been taken in both the initial and the advanced stage.

A few years ago I came across a public-training video of famous tai-chi neidan teacher in Hong Kong, master Yuen KangJiu (袁康就).  Master Yuen advised beginning students to do this during early flu: "inhale, contract your anal muscles, hold your breath, count three (Paul: or 4 or 5, I don't remember the exact number, which number being mythical or otherwise), exhale".  He said doing it a few times (and can be done without anybody noticing, say, while commuting to work in the morning) could cure early flu.  Well, perhaps it works for some, but I would rather suggest folks to take two tablets of 500mg Paracetamol during early flu, as recommended by our medical professionals.

The beauty is: it is easy to understand, easy to do, and without side effect.  Perfect for the mass-market, the McDonald of chi-kung.  Some people may like to do to "give it a try", but unfortunately it is unlikely to increase your chi much no matter how hard you contract, not to mention that doing it more than a few times can easily tired out your little muscles!

So is this thing just for some initial fun?  Not at all, according to the famous Taoist Neidan text Taoist Yoga (translated by Charles Luk into English), it is one essential technique (among many)  in the advanced stage of macrocosmic circulation, with the objective of facilitating massive chi to go up one's spinal cord without mindfulness (不用意: mindfulness being reserved for the preparatory stage of microcosmic circulation).  This is what the text said on page 140/141,

"...devised a small round piece of wood with a convex top of the size of a (small Chinese) bun (man t'ou) and covered with cotton to sit on in order to close the anus and so prevent the macro-cosmic alchemical agent from scattering away."

Interested readers can refer to the text for more details of this technique and for other related techniques.   Astute readers may starting wondering: how does sexual chi-kung work with this part of our human body.  Perhaps Mantak Chia talked about it, I have no idea.

Interested readers can also refer to my previous post: Hold your breath and squeeze your anus.

Final words...

Takumi Terakado (寺門琢己) is a famous body-sculpturing expert in Japan, teaching and training Japanese ladies how to improve their bone structures, in particular shoulder blades (upper body sculpturing) and pelvis (lower body sculpturing).  The objective is to build a more (sexually) attractive body as well as a more healthy body.  The drawing below is one of his techniques for treating constipation: adding pressure to one's anus.  If anyone thinks that TT is a practitioner of esoteric practice, he is wrong.  Triumph International is currently selling a hot line of health/body sculpture pants for Japanese ladies - designed by our Terakado-san!

Manga by

Takumi Terakado (寺門琢己)