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Part 3 contains a compilation of several Taoist texts that explain supplementary regimes of the Eight Brocades. Even though the tenets may vary, the main purpose is the same—the circulation of qi through the Lesser Heavenly Circuit. Each regime can be practiced on its own, within the Eight Brocades practice, or in conjunction with others. However, the first regime, Externally Patting the Eight Subtle Meridians and Twelve Cavities, is usually considered a preparation for the Eight Brocades practice. The second regime, Internally Opening the Eight Subtle Qi Cavities, is usually performed between the Fourth and Fifth brocades. The third regime, the actual yogic exercise of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, can be performed by itself, during the Eight Brocades, or in conjunction with the above regimes.
Development of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit
In many Taoist works, you will find frequent references to the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, or more popularly, the Microcosmic Orbit (hsiao chou t’ien). The Lesser Heavenly Circuit is the term for the process of intentionally circulating qi through the Control and Function meridians. In this process, qi is directed up the spine over the head and down the front of the body to the lower abdomen. Since qi is both energy and breath, if the breath cannot be mobilized, the qi cannot be moved; and if the qi is not mobilized, the blood will not circulate properly. All three (breath, energy, and blood) are interdependent, and they must function as a unit.
The Chinese refer to mobilizing qi as yun qi (transporting qi). If this term is not used or discussed in a Chinese text, the book is considered naive or worthless. Similarly, too many people just read popular English Taoist books and believe that all they need do is visualize qi and that somehow it will magically appear. (Some authors are also guilty of this belief.) To actually feel, let alone move, qi, you must cultivate it through the regulation and transportation of the breath.
The process, or practice, of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit did not come into use until sometime around the period of the Sui and T’ang dynasties (605 A.D.-905 A.D.). As in the development of the Eight Brocades, it grew out of many other practices that came before it.
The Lesser Heavenly Circuit
Stone rubbing (completed in 1886 A.D.) of a diagram of the inner alchemical realm of spirits in the body. Taken from the Nei ching tu (Classic on the illustrations of the internal functions). One of the more elaborate versions of the Taoist view of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit, it shows influences of the Mao Shan sect. Original is in White Cloud Monastery, Beijing.
The original arts of nourishing life exercises (sometimes referred to as breath-control exercises) were meant only to restore, strengthen, and purify the Three Treasures, so that the elixir of immortality could be produced. The method of stopping the breath, also called embryonic breathing (t’ai hsi), led the way toward the Lesser Heavenly practice of mobilizing the qi. This type of breathing is very much like Tumo (heat yoga) of Tibetan Buddhism and some pranayama regimes of Indian yoga.
In the Pao-p’u-tzu, Ko Hung describes an even older method of breathing handed down from the Han dynasty.
When first practicing mobilizing the breath, inhale through the nose and stop the breath. Quietly hold the breath and count 120 heartbeats while exhaling gently out the mouth. The inhalation and exhalation should be very delicate so that you cannot hear the passing of the breath, and so that a goose feather could be laid over the nostrils and it would not flutter. Through constant practice, gradually increase the count to 1,000 heartbeats. This is the way that the old can daily regain their youth.
Only gradually, over time, did the breathing techniques change their focus from restoring the Three Treasures and stopping the breath to directing the qi to various locations in the body. The seven bamboo tablets of the cloudy satchel (a classic Taoist text indigenous to the Hygiene School of Mt. Hua Shan) provides many examples of this earlier practice, such as in the following excerpt:
In a supine position, inhale through the nose and stop the breath. If seeking to cure abdominal pains, use intention to direct the qi and, with your imagination, lead it down to the location of the pain. When this location becomes warm, it will then be cured.
Before the process of the Lesser Heavenly Circuit was developed, respiration exercises focused primarily on sending qi to one of the three tan t’ien cavities—the lower, middle, or upper cavity. This practice was similar to kundalini yoga, except that only three qi cavities were focused on rather than seven chakras. As these cavities opened, the qi would be sufficiently stimulated to flow into all the other meridians and collaterals. The focus of this practice soon changed, however, to the orbital movement of the qi around the Function and Control meridians.
The three tan t’ien cavities
The circulation of qi up the spine and down the front of the body (the Lesser Heavenly Circuit) most likely developed from the early Taoist practice of the “returning essence to replenish the brain” method—which is the process of sending restored ching (refined blood and sexual essence) up the spine into the brain.
Keep in mind, however, that the present process of circulating qi through the Lesser Heavenly Circuit was never the starting point for qi circulation that we see in many of the popular Taoist books of today. The idea of circulating qi always existed in Taoism—as a result of the work of regulation (t’iao). But it was not limited to the circulation of qi just through the Function and Control channels; rather, the belief was that qi would circulate through all the meridians and collaterals in the body. Taoists always held that the effects of body regulation (t’iao shen), breath regulation (t’iao hsi), and mind regulation (t’iao hsin) were the catalysts for this type of circulation, which they referred to as mobilizing breath (yun qi) or simply free circulation.
The very purpose of the Eight Brocades—and of this entire book, for that matter—is to help you accomplish what is called circulating qi through the Lesser Heavenly Circuit; which means bringing your qi, or energy, up your back and down the front of your body. However, you must understand that this circulation is in one sense the goal, not necessarily the method.
Using the analogy of a crimped garden hose, uncrimping the hose nearest the spigot is necessary in order to get sufficient water flow and force to open the hose and effect free flow. Qi flow works in the same way: we must free up the qi nearest the lower abdomen in order to get it to flow freely. Too many books and teachers propagate the idea that, if we just imagine the qi circulating, it magically will. Too many people fail with this method, never acquiring qi and ending up quitting. It may, after years and years of practice, produce results, but the most efficient and traditional manner in learning to mobilize qi is first to open up the qi cavities (the crimps) along the qi meridian paths so the qi can flow freely.
This is how Master Liang first taught me to circulate qi—not by just imagining qi circulating. So don’t think so much about where you are going; rather, put more attention on how to get there. For without the right method (vehicle) the journey will be in vain.