My name is Andrew Jan,
And I'll be guiding you through today's meditation.
In this session,
We'll explore the Inner Smile,
A Taoist practice in the lineage of Mantak Chia and Yi Ng,
With roots in the Dragon Gate tradition.
This practice invites us to release tension,
Open the body,
And cultivate positivity.
It is a way of treating the body as a temple,
Sitting comfortably between heaven and earth,
And feeling connected to something greater than ourselves.
The framework draws on the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine,
The theory of Zheng Fu organs,
As well as insights from Western anatomy.
Please note,
This is not medical advice nor therapy,
But an invitation to explore your own path of wellness,
Balance,
And spiritual growth.
So let's start the Inner Smile practice.
Sitting comfortably in your position,
Sitting on the edge of your chair with your feet parallel,
Knees at 90 degrees,
Or sitting comfortably on a cushion on the floor or your mat.
So the secret to this Inner Smile meditation is to turn on the switch.
And how do we turn on the switch?
We smile.
So the corners of the eyes go up.
The corners of the mouth go up.
And just as important,
The tongue goes to the roof of the mouth.
And see if you can get that wet,
Lubricated,
Slightly wet,
Silky feeling with your tongue touching the roof of the mouth.
So with the Inner Smile,
We're going to start with our awareness above the crown using all of the five senses.
All of the five senses.
Above your crown,
Can you feel like there's stardust or moonbeams striking your scalp and shoulders?
Can you actually see like dots of light flowing from the heavens down through your body to the earth?
Can you hear the inner sounds?
Maybe from the heavens there's that high-pitched Yi sound,
That high-pitched Yi sound.
And with your tongue carefully placed to the top of your mouth,
With your breath controlled and your lips together,
Feel like you make a connection to this sensation above the crown.
And this sensation really is heavenly Qi.
And sensing heavenly Qi or any other Qi is eternal delight.
So that makes you smile.
And with that positive frame of mind,
That positive attitude,
You feel like your body starts to become hollow.
Your whole head and face becomes hollow and starts to even disappear somewhat.
Tension disappears,
The face becomes soft.
And that pleasure makes you smile even more.
And like a river flowing from the heavens towards the earth,
This opening,
This dissolution of tension passes all the way into your loving heart.
Feel that sensation flowing into the heart.
The heart opens.
The tension around the heart dissolves like removing chains.
And all those sensations,
Whether it be that silky feeling from the tongue,
That heavenly feeling from above,
Or even just a warm,
Fiery feeling,
Feel the heart expand,
Loosen its shackles and open.
And with that comes more smiles,
More joy,
More happiness.
And that opening,
That feeling becomes quite infectious and it passes from the heart to the lungs.
Heavenly Qi from above,
The warmth and love from the heart,
Opens up the lungs.
You may feel like that metallic quality of the lungs with a high frequency,
Pleasurable release of tension in the lungs,
Making you feel tall and open.
And that current,
That flow of Qi from the heaven,
As it passes through the head,
Through the heart,
Through the lungs,
Now passes into the abdomen,
Into the area of the liver and the spleen.
So feel the fire from the heart,
The high frequency metallic sensations of the lungs.
Go to the wooden sensations,
The wooden tendencies of the liver,
And feel the tissues and structures around the liver soften,
Maybe releasing a warm,
Green,
Humid,
Expansive sensation in the right-hand side of the abdomen.
So that heavenly Qi from above,
Recognised,
Tuned in by the five senses,
As well as the tactile sense and temperature sense,
Which combines with the fire from the heart,
The high frequency tingle of the lungs,
The warm,
Humid sensations of the liver,
Passes over to the spleen,
The earth organ on the left.
So the structures around the spleen on the left side open up,
Tension dissolves,
We get that lovely,
Sort of wet sand,
Wet mud feeling.
We can feel the positive emotions of all these organs as we pass through them.
And as we open,
We smile even more.
And now our awareness now goes all the way down to the kidneys,
Bladder and sexual organs.
Feeling the back become loose and long,
The coccyx tuck underneath the navel sink.
Feel the silky,
Smooth,
Magnetic feeling in the pelvis as we awaken the Qing Chi.
Feel the connection to the five solid organs coming from the heavens,
Mixing with the fire of the heart,
The metal,
High frequency,
Strong sensation of the lungs,
The humid,
Green,
Woody feeling of the liver,
The earthy,
Wet sand,
Wet mud sensation of the spleen,
And the water,
Silky sensations of the kidneys and bladder.
And allow that feeling to pass through your legs into the earth.
Feeling grounded,
Feeling connected via the feet or the sitting bones to the earth.
That wet sand,
Wet mud feeling.
Maybe hearing the um sound.
Now the inner smile meditation you can do if you have a limited amount of time.
Just do the solid organs.
But if you have time,
We can take it into three stages.
And the second stage is to go through all the hollow organs.
The solid organs are known as the zhung organs.
And the hollow organs are known as the fu,
Which develops the theory of zhung fu.
So this time,
Start in the face again and work your saliva.
Move the saliva around to your mouth.
Place your tongue to the roof of the mouth.
And then swallow your saliva down,
Swallow your saliva down.
And with the mind,
Follow the path of that saliva.
Feel it going down the gullet or esophagus.
Feel it opening up the centre of the chest,
Going all the way into the stomach,
Making the stomach in the centre of the abdomen,
The upper abdomen,
The solar plexus area,
Go nice and soft and smooth.
Going down into the small intestine,
In the centre of the abdomen.
Feel the connection with the upper small intestine to the gallbladder.
Everything becoming soft,
Smooth,
Glistening,
Wet and lubricated.
Making its way all the way down to the large intestine,
Going to the cecum and then coming up the right hand side of the abdomen,
Across from the right upper abdomen to the left,
And then down the left hand side of the abdomen all the way to the sigmoid colon and rectum.
Feel all the hollow organs open,
Soft and smooth.
And with each advancing stage of this meditation,
Your body feels more open.
And in some respect it feels like that part of the body disappears.
The tension around it disappears and you're starting to,
What we say,
Start to access the divine by our body slowly dissolving and disappearing.
And last but not least is the nervous system.
So this is the third track.
So we begin with the smile in the eyes,
The smile in the face,
The tongue to the roof of the mouth.
We make both sides of the brain go soft and smooth with that energetic,
Eternal delight.
We feel that passing into the brain,
Into the brain stem,
The cerebellum.
And again,
As we acknowledge each part of the human body,
Each part of the physical material body,
When we dissolve the tension in that part of the body,
That part of the body tends to disappear from our awareness.
And then we go down,
Down,
Down,
Down the spinal cord,
Through the cervical cord and all its nerve roots,
Through the thoracic and all its nerve roots,
Going out to the arms,
Going out to the front of the chest and abdomen,
And then through the lumbar cord and nerve roots all the way to the legs,
And finally to the sacrum,
To the back of the legs and the buttocks.
So now we have smiled to the entirety of our whole body,
Worked through organ by organ,
Dissolved tension throughout,
And it is in this space,
In this space,
That our body can dissolve,
So that we can start to access the divine and feel connected to heaven and earth.
And to finish,
We can focus our awareness,
That special sensation of body dissolution,
We want to capture that feeling as an elixir.
It is a small taste of the nothingness,
It is a small taste of the oneness.
So if you can grab that body memory and store it and spiral it in the lower dantien,
Which is located midway between the navel and the back.
So spiral and spin outwardly towards the pubic bone and diaphragm,
And then once you reach the pubic bone and diaphragm,
Get smaller and smaller until you return to that one point,
Midway between the navel and the back.
Thank you for joining me in this meditation on the inner smile.
As you return to your day,
Carry with you a sense of warmth,
Enthusiasm and purpose.
Allow the smile you cultivated within to flow into your actions,
Your relationships and the way you meet yourself.
Remember,
The practice is always available.
A gentle smile inward can reconnect you to balance,
To your body and the greater flow of life.
All you need to do is raise the corner of your eyes and the corners of your mouth.
The rest will follow naturally.
I look forward to sharing the next meditation with you.
