SinMoo Meditation

"For meditation, in Korea, people go to the temple to learn. But I teach you exactly. The whole meaning of my book is in what I teach today. When trying to understand these concepts think of the whole meaning, the larger concept. Combine the philosophies of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Zen into one. Then you will understand the whole meaning. Combine feeling, breathing and touching into one whole. See how the concepts relate. Then you will see the whole meaning. Three is one, one is three. This is the pure and exact meaning of Sin Moo. Once you understand and live these tenets, you can study Sin Moo Hapkido - or any other martial arts - efficiently and learn control effectively."  

 With numerous breathing and meditation exercises, Sin Moo Hapkido shifts the focus from the multitude of external kicking and joint locking techniques for which Hapkido is known, and places it on internal training and ki development. Danjun Breathing (DJB) is the first technique taught by Grandmaster Ji Han-Jae in the art of Sin Moo Hapkido. Slow, controlled breathing lengthens life, breath only through the nose, with the mouth closed, and use the stomach to move the diaphragm-not the chest or shoulders. Inhale deep and long, allowing the nasal passages nasal to warm the air as it enters the lungs. The normal breathing cycle lasts 6 seconds (3 seconds to inhale and 3 seconds to exhale) Learn to inhale for at least 8 seconds, retain the breath for another 8 seconds. Your breathing cycle will be 3 times longer than normal, and you will live longer. The legendary white crane lives 1000 while a dog lives a mere decade. Why? The white crane takes in 6 months to exhale- one breath each year! However, a dog pants quickly with his mouth open and tongue hanging out. 

There are three times of day that Grandmaster Ji recommends practicing DJB regularly. Before sunrise, noon when the sun is highest, and sunset are all important energy times of day that are perfect for mobilizing ki within your body. In correlation with the time of day, it is important to have the sun to your back while practicing DJB, especially when practicing outdoors. The back side of the body is the Yang side, and while our back is toward the sun, our "body becomes charged" in much the same way a solar panel becomes charged by the sun. 

The opposite effect happens when you face your front, or Yin side of the body, toward the sun. This will tend to sap your strength and the benefits of DJB will not occur. Dojunim says that when meditation is done properly, many good questions will come up. If you have no questions, then you are not doing it properly. For martial arts training, moving ki can increase strength and power in given techniques. 

 Ki can help muscles work more effectively to form protective barrier against strikes as well as to move to areas of injury to help facilitate healing. in everyday life, proper ki movement helps control respiration and digestive functions, which can help one relax, make better use of oxygen intake, and assist in proper food digestion. There are different roads you can push your Ki through to do different techniques. There is control of the Ki for throwing, for killing, for proper practice of martial arts.