Have You "Stopped Breathing" While Doing Yi Fa Qi Gong? That's Not a Problem.

Some people who've been practicing Yi Fa Qi Gong for a while start to have an unusual experience. If they get very deep into the practice, in the middle of it, they suddenly notice that it feels like they aren't even breathing!  And yet, at the same time it seems that they aren't actually being negatively affected by this at all. It's as though they stopped breathing for some time and didn't even realize it.

In fact, when you are doing the meditation very deeply, be it the sitting meditation or the standing meditation where you are in the chan mudra, it is quite possible that you could get to a point where your breathing is so relaxed that you can't tell you are doing it.

It is a very common experience (talked about in the main Qi Gong document in level 2) where some practitioners might be standing, holding their hands in front of the dantien, and it suddenly seems like you haven't been breathing for quite some time! You don't feel like you're out of breath, you feel like you're just so perfectly still, and don't need to breathe.

Of course, in fact you are still breathing; but the breath has become so soft and so relaxed and so natural that it seems almost imperceptible.
This is not unique to just Yi Fa Qi Gong.  It has been known as a phenomenon in Qi Gong since very long ago; the master Lu Tzu talked about it in the 9th century.

This is not a problem, on the contrary it is an accomplishment!
It signifies you have gotten very deep into the natural and relaxed state of meditation.

However, please note that it can't be faked! If you try to fake it, you will just be tensing up and holding your breath, or trying to resist breathing as much as you actually need to, and then there are problems.
But if you are entering into a very relaxed state naturally, then you achieve this state of depth, of profundity, where it almost feels like time has stopped and you have become eternal. That's the opposite of a 'problem'.