One of the most ancient Taoist practices in Qigong or internal alchemy is something called the small heavenly orbit.
In this practice we are gently guiding qi up the back channel called the du mai that runs up our back and across our head and all the way down to right under our nose,
And then the front channel called the ren mai back down to lower dan tian.
Nowadays this practice is sometimes called the microcosmic orbit.
And as I mentioned earlier it's very very important not to try to force this energy to run up and down.
You need to just gently guide it.
This practice we are going to do right now is sort of a preparation for being able to do the small heavenly orbit.
What we are going to be doing is guiding energy from our lower dan tian through 12 different centers,
12 different important qi centers in our body.
And as you go up to each center imagine it lighting up or relaxing,
Opening,
Strengthening.
Usually we go through this three times but because of time constraints we are going to do it twice here.
And in this practice we do what we call reverse breathing or embryonic breathing.
As we breathe in our abdomen contracts,
As we breathe out our abdomen expands.
This is the type of breathing to do when we want to move energy or create a lot of qi.
So we'll do a deep breath,
Six deep breaths for each of these points and we'll go through twice.
It would be good once you learn this practice to do it at least three times but here we are going to do it twice and we are going to do six deep slow gentle breaths for each one.
So we begin in the lower dan tian.
Dan tian means field of elixir or field of medicine.
The lower dan tian is situated right behind our navel a third of the way inside our body.
So we concentrate on this energy field in our lower abdomen.
Six slow deep gentle breaths.
Now we send our intention down from our dan tian to our perineum.
This is a point called the hui yin or returning yin.
As you breathe into this area pull up slightly on your perineum.
Now we move up to our wei lu,
The tail gateway or our tailbone.
So again we are seeing this in our mind's eye of lighting up,
Of opening and releasing any kind of stress in our lower back.
Now we move up to ming men,
Essence gate.
This is a point in our lower back between our kidneys.
This is a very important energy point sometimes called the gate of destiny.
Now we move up to shuang gon,
The double barrier.
This is in the very middle of your back directly across from the solar plexus.
And then once again we move up to da chui which means mysterious barrier and it also means the big bone at the top of your spine.
So we are continuing to do this reverse breathing,
Putting our whole attention on each point as we go along,
Seeing them light up,
Strengthen,
Relax,
Open energetically.
And then we move up to yu jian,
The jade pillow,
The point right at the base of your skull.
Very important energetic center.
And then moving up to the top of the skull,
The bai hui or hundred gatherings in the yoga system called the crown chakra.
This is also the point where we receive celestial energy from the sun,
The moon,
The stars.
So very very important area.
So let's breathe very deeply and seeing that lighten up and relax and become energized and focused.
Now we move down to shuang gon,
The celestial eye,
The third eye between your eyebrows.
Our celestial eye actually extends one inch out from our forehead and then goes three inches behind our forehead,
Deep in our brain connecting to our pineal gland.
Now we move down to what we call the magpie bridge,
The point right under our nose.
This is a point in Chinese medicine that is used when someone faints or passes out.
The Chinese medicine doctor would press on this point to bring them back.
So very very powerful point.
So again,
Six deep breaths into this point.
Now we move down to the shuang jin,
The mysterious well,
Right at the bottom of our throat along our clavicle.
Breathing into this point six times.
Then the last point called the jin gong,
The bright palace,
That's our heart center between our nipples.
This is also the middle dan tian.
The heart is considered the place where our shen,
Our spiritual self resides.
It also is where our cognitive mind resides as well.
So this is a very powerful and potent point.
So let's breathe into this one,
Lighting this up.
Then we're going to go through it another time and we go back down to lower dan tian and breathe into this area six times,
Lighting it up,
Energizing the center,
This very important center of your qi body.
We move down to our perineum,
The hui yin point.
Pull up slightly as you breathe into this area.
Now we move up to the tailbone,
The wei lu.
And then up a little more to the ming men,
The essence gate and the lower back between our kidney and adrenals.
Then move up to the shen guang,
Middle of your back,
Directly across from the solar plexus.
And then up to a mysterious barrier also called the da zhui,
The big bone at the top of our spine.
And then from there to the jade pillow right at the base of our skull.
This can sometimes be a difficult area to bring qi through.
So really concentrate on lighting that area,
Relaxing that area up.
Now we move up to the bai hui,
The crown chakra on the very top of our head.
Now guided from the crown chakra,
The bai hui,
Down to the celestial eye between our brows,
Sometimes called the wisdom eye,
The eye that we can see into other worlds with.
So let's really light that area up as well.
Now we bring the energy down or focus our intention down to the magpie bridge point right below our nose.
This is the last point on the du mai meridian.
And now we go to the point at the bottom of our throat called the shuang jing or the mysterious well.
And then the last point,
The bright palace or heart center.
We really light that area up as well.
And to end,
We bring our intention or attention back down to lower dan tian,
Putting our palms over our dan tian,
Kind of sealing all this qi that we brought up and down,
Back and down the front and lit up all these wonderful points.
For those of you who are interested in pursuing this practice,
I'm not sure you know,
But I have a group and it's under my profile page and it's called Taoism with a T slash Taoism with a D.
And I will type up all these points in there so you can have something to refer to.
It's free to join the group.
There's a chat feature where you can ask me questions about anything that I've been posting.
So I invite you to do that and I invite you to do this practice and maybe spend even more time with it,
Maybe going through it three times and it will help energize your whole system.
