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Self-Preparation

How to Feel and Conduct Chi

MASTERING CHI

One of the most basic foundations of Universal Tao is mastery of Chi. If you cannot control Chi, you cannot practice Cosmic Healing Chi Kung. In Universal Tao, there are five stages to learning to master Chi. Once you have succeeded in one stage, you may move on to the next.

By far, the easiest way to learn these five steps is to train under the supervision of a Universal Tao Certified Instructor. At the time of this book’s publication, there are over two thousand certified instructors around the world. Go to www.universal-tao.com and click on the instructor directory to find a qualified instructor near you.

This book alone may help to bring you, the reader, a greater understanding of the principles of this particular form of Chi Kung. However, as has been the case for over five thousand years, the true way of Taoist teaching is through oral transmission. For a complete learning experience, both teacher and text are recommended.

Step 1: Conserve Chi

Our first goal is to learn to conserve our Chi. There are any number of metaphors you can use to visualize this concept: For example, when a battery is totally drained, it is harder to charge; in the same manner, when you are drained of energy, it is harder to regain energy. As another example, you have to have money to make money; in the same manner, you have to have Chi to make Chi.

To have more Chi, we need to maintain control of the gates through which energy normally leaks out and unwittingly drains our life force. We leak energy:

• through our reproductive system
• through negative emotions
• through constantly turning our senses outward

Without knowing how to conserve the Chi that we already have, what is the point of acquiring more?

Step 2: Balance Chi

We next must learn to balance our Chi; that is, we seek to keep a smooth and balanced flow of energy moving throughout the whole body. If our energy is imbalanced, we may have too much energy in some places and not enough in others; we may also be too yang or too yin. We may have excess or deficient heat, cold, damp, or dryness. This imbalanced energy tends to make us go to extremes.

Step 3: Transform Chi

Next we learn to transform our Chi into more beneficial energies. For example, through the Taoist Sexual Chi Kung practices taught in the Universal Tao system, we can transform sexual energy into basic life-force Chi. Through other practices (such as the Inner Smile and the Six Healing Sounds), we learn to transform negative emotional Chi into positive virtuous Chi. Thus Chi is not only the foundation of our health but also the basis of spiritual development.

Step 4: Increase Chi

When we have completed the first three phases of mastering Chi, we then learn to increase it by tapping into the vastness of Universal Chi. It is very important to master the stages of conservation, balance, and transformation before we emphasize increasing our Chi. Otherwise we may waste the energy we bring in, or we may inadvertently amplify the imbalanced or negative energies that we have not yet learned to bring under control.

Step 5: Project Chi

Finally, we learn to extend our mind to tap into the Universal Chi and project that energy to heal our body, mind, and spirit and to heal other people. The practice of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung sensitizes your hands to the feeling and movement of Chi; it uses the mind-eye-heart power to absorb Universal Chi into the palm and crown and to send it out through the hands and beyond, so that you can help restore balance in others without touching them or draining Chi from yourself. (This may sound fantastic, but recent researchers in Chinese Chi Kung hospitals have measured the energies emitted by Chi Kung masters and found them to be of different varieties and frequencies. This research has been corroborated by experiments in the United States at such places as the Menninger Institute.)

MIND, EYE, AND HEART POWER

The opening of the mind, eyes, and heart and the use of intention is vital for further activating and increasing your Chi. In Taoism we achieve this by cultivating our Yi (pronounced “yee”). Yi leads and guides Chi. With our mind we control thought patterns. With our eyes we control the senses of sight, hearing, smell, and taste. With our heart we control all our organs and their related emotions: the kindness/anger of the liver, the joy/impatience of the heart, the openness/worry of the spleen, the courage/sadness of the lungs, and the gentleness/fear of the kidneys. Yi controls all these things. It is mind-eye-heart power melded with our intention.

Every excellent achievement in our lives depends upon the quality and efficient operation of our Yi. Combining the awareness of the mind, eyes, heart, and intention into one creates a rich and rare alchemical mixture. The power of Yi is the magical catalyst that assures energetic results.

YI LEADS AND GUIDES CHI

When you have control of Yi, you are inwardly aware of your mind, senses, and heart; you are outwardly aware of the universal energy. Now you are capable of receiving the abundantly available healing power of the universe; you can tune into everything, inwardly and outwardly in all directions. This is what we are here for: to heal and become whole again. We have higher goals to reach. The foundation for reaching our goals is a strong and healthy body.

Cosmic Healing Chi Kung is merely an extension of the universe within yourself. With your Yi, you draw the universe in through your palms, skin, heart, and crown, absorb its power, condense it, transform it, and use it for the benefit of all.

To learn to activate and control Yi, you must master the foundational practices of the Universal Tao system.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF UNIVERSAL TAO

A practitioner’s level of skill in Cosmic Healing Chi Kung will be based upon his or her mastery of the Universal Tao system as a whole. One can easily learn the simple movements of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung without doing any other Universal Tao practices. However, if one truly wishes to master the art of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung, it is important to have a firm foundation in the basic Universal Tao practices.

To attain skill in Cosmic Healing Chi Kung, one should know and practice the Universal Tao basic meditations: Cosmic Inner Smile, Six Healing Sounds, Microcosmic Orbit, Iron Shirt Chi Kung, and Healing Love. Most of these practices, being integral to the exercise of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung, are described in this book. Beyond this basic level, the Universal Tao System offers many other intermediate and advanced Chi Kung practices and meditations. The further one advances, the greater one’s mastery of Chi. Your increasing level of skill in the Universal Tao system will reflect immediately in your Cosmic Healing Chi Kung practice. Furthermore, you will discover that you can incorporate many of your Universal Tao practices directly into your practice of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung.

Once you have learned the basic meditations of Universal Tao, you can begin the unique preparatory practice for Cosmic Healing Chi Kung. The preparatory practice consists of a few parts; work through each part at your own pace and eventually join them together as a whole. Always start with Warm Up the Stove at the abdomen and direct the fire down to the sexual center to transform the sexual energy. Next practice Cosmic Inner Smile, followed by Bone Breathing, Marrow Washing, and Microcosmic Orbit.

Warm Up the Stove

This exercise teaches you to activate the Chi of your Lower Tan Tien, a reservoir of energy in the lower abdomen. (See chapter 2 for more information about the Tan Tiens.) It also allows you to transform potent sexual energy to Chi.

1. Sit on the edge of a chair with your hands clasped together and your eyes closed.
2. Begin “bellows breathing,” moving your abdomen in and out quickly. Emphasize the exhalation by breathing out forcefully. Take eighteen to thirty-six breaths in this manner. Then rest for a moment, covering your navel and feeling nice and warm.
3. Begin “inner laughing,” as if you were attempting to contain laughter, so that you feel your abdomen vibrate on the inside. Practice this for a few minutes, allowing the movement of your inner laughter to grow stronger.
4. Rest now, and use the mind-eye-heart power to gather Chi (now felt as a warmth behind the navel) into the Lower Tan Tien. Picture the Tan Tien as a stove with burning fire behind your navel. Feel nice and warm.
5. Once the Tan Tien is warm, smile down toward it and the sexual organs, and feel the warm or fiery Chi flow from the navel area to the sexual organs. Women should bring the Chi down to the uterus, and men should bring the Chi down to the testicles. Feel the Chi as sun shining on the water; the rays of the sun purify the water until it becomes rising steam. This transforms sexual energy into Chi, and this Chi rises up the spine into the brain, helping to activate the crown and mideyebrow energy centers.
6. Focus your awareness in the sacrum. At the very tip of the sacrum is a hole, called the sacral hiatus, in the coccyx. Breathe into this hole until you feel some activity—perhaps a tingling, numbness, or pulsing—there. Activating this point will generate suction. Feel the suction force pulling Chi through the sacral hiatus into the body; breathe into it until you feel it become activated. When the sacrum is activated, you will feel the suction easily, as well as breathing in the cranium and mideyebrow. Keep gently smiling and softly breathing into the Lower Tan Tien and feeling the suction into the abdomen from the sacrum. Focus 95 percent of your awareness in the Lower Tan Tien and 5 percent in the sacrum, the crown, and the mideyebrow. Be aware of the Lower Tan Tien breathing and observe internally the pulsing and breathing in the sacrum, the mideyebrow, and the crown. Breath in this manner thirty-six times.

SMILE DOWN TO THE LOWER TAN TIEN

Cosmic Inner Smile

The Cosmic Inner Smile is a powerful relaxation and self-healing technique that uses the energy of love, happiness, kindness, and gentleness as a language to communicate with the internal organs of the body. Each organ corresponds to a specific element and color. For example, the kidneys correspond to the element of water and the color blue, while the heart corresponds to the element of fire and the color red. Using the appropriate color or element, one can guide healing power into each organ.

The practice also aids the transformation of negative emotions into positive virtuous energy. This transformation is a very powerful Chi Kung practice. A genuine smile transforms negative energy into loving energy that has the power to relax, balance, and heal. By learning to smile inwardly to the organs and glands, you will cause your whole body to feel loved and appreciated and to enjoy more Chi.

The Inner Smile begins at the eyes and the mideyebrow point and moves down to the heart. As you activate the heart, loving energy will flow out and you will feel the energy of your Inner Smile flow down the entire length of your body like a waterfall. This is a very powerful and effective tool to counteract stress, tension, and negative Chi.

1. Focusing your awareness on the mideyebrow, close your eyes and imagine that you are in one of your favorite places in the world, a place where you feel safe, relaxed, and happy. Recall the sights you saw there, the sounds you heard, and the scents, sensations, and flavors you associate with that place.
2. Imagine that one of your favorite people is standing in front of you, smiling to you with loving, happy, radiant, shining eyes. Smile to your own face, slightly lifting up the corners of your mouth.
3. Feel yourself responding to that special person’s smile with a smile of your own. Feel your eyes smiling and relaxing.
4. Smile down to the thymus gland and picture a white flower blossoming. Gently inhale into the thymus gland, connecting your breath to the olfactory organ. Smell the good fragrance.
5. Aim your inner attention at your heart. Picture the heart before your inner eye and smile to it. Smile until you feel the heart smile back to you. Picture your heart like a red rose, gradually opening. This will activate the love and fire of compassion in the heart. The heart’s red light and loving awareness will, in turn, activate the cosmic red healing light or mist from above and around you.
6. Smile at the red light or mist and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw the red mist, love, and compassion into the mideyebrow, down through the mouth and throat, and into the heart, where it gradually overflows to the small intestine. Retaining the red light and the love and compassion in the heart and small intestine, exhale the cloudy black or negative energy. Repeat this breathing eighteen to thirty-six times, or until the heart becomes bright red before your inner vision and starts to radiate loving red light out to the tongue, mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. Allow the red light to whirl around you and form a red aura. Feel your skin glowing with red energy.

RED FOR THE HEART WHITE FOR THE LUNGS YELLOW FOR THE SPLEEN BLUE FOR THE KIDNEYS GREEN FOR THE LIVER

INNER SMILE

7. Let the heart’s loving energy radiate out to the lungs. Aim your attention at the lungs; picture them before your inner eye and smile to them. Smile until you feel the lungs smile back to you. Picture your lungs like a white rose, gradually opening; smell the good fragrance. This will activate the courage in the lungs. Once you invoke the white light and courage to shine from within the lungs, you will also activate the cosmic white healing light or mist from above and around you.

8. Smile at the white light or mist and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw the white mist into the mideyebrow, down through the mouth and throat, and into the lungs, where it gradually overflows into the large intestine. Retaining the white light and the feeling of courage in the lungs, exhale the cloudy black or negative energy. Repeat this breathing eighteen to thirty-six times, or until the lungs become bright white and start to radiate the white light of courage out to the nose, ears, eyes, tongue, and mouth. Invite the white light to whirl around you and form a white aura covering your skin like autumn dew.

9. The spleen, pancreas, and stomach correspond to the yellow color of the earth element. Aim your attention at these organs; picture them before your inner eye, and smile to them. Smile until you feel them smile back to you. First connect to the heart. The heart is the root of compassion, and it is always a good idea to take a moment and connect with the heart and feel its connection to the other organs. Picture the spleen center as a yellow rose, slowly opening and radiating a yellow light. This will activate the cosmic yellow healing light or mist from above and around you. You might see the golden yellow aura of a wheat field ready for harvest.

10. Smile at the yellow light or mist and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw it into the mideyebrow, down through the mouth and throat, and into the spleen center. Fill the spleen center with the golden yellow light. Exhaling, expel feelings of worry and the cloudy, sticky energy. Repeat this breathing eighteen to thirty-six times. Then allow the light to radiate out to your mouth, nose, ears, eyes, and tongue. Wrap the golden aura around you, leaving a golden shine on your skin.

11. The kidneys and bladder correspond to the blue color of the water element. Aim your attention at these organs; picture them before your inner eye, and smile to them. Smile until you feel them smiling back to you. Picture the kidneys as a blue rose, slowly opening. See them radiate the blue healing light of gentleness. Once you’ve invoked the blue light of the kidneys, you will also activate the blue cosmic light above and around you.

12. Smile at the blue light or mist around you and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw it into the mideyebrow, down through the mouth and throat, and into the kidneys. Retaining the blue light and the feeling of gentleness, exhale, expelling feelings of fear or stress and the cloudy or negative energy. Repeat eighteen to thirty-six times, or until the blue light of gentleness starts to radiate out from your kidneys to your ears, eyes, tongue, mouth, and nose. Gather the blue mist on your skin, enveloping yourself in a blue aura.

13. The liver and gallbladder correspond to the green color of the element wood. Focus your attention on these organs; picture them before your inner eye and smile to them. Smile until you feel them smile back at you. Picture them as a green rose, slowly opening and radiating green healing light of kindness. Once you’ve invoked the green light of the liver and gall bladder, you will also activate the green cosmic light above and around you.

14. Smile at the green light or mist around you and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw it into the mideyebrow, down through the mouth and throat, and into the liver and gallbladder. Retaining the green light and the feeling of kindness, exhale, expelling the dark red cloudy heat of anger. Inhale the nourishing green of the forests, inviting in kindness. Repeat eighteen to thirty-six times, or until the green light has completely filled the liver and starts to radiate out to your eyes, tongue, mouth, nose, and ears. Invite the green light to form a green aura around you.

15. Smile down to the sexual organs and reproductive system. Smile until you feel them smile back to you. Feel the heart (love) and sexual organs (arousal) uniting. Observe how this process transforms sexual energy into Chi. Now imagine this Chi as a beautiful, gentle pink color that radiates from your sexual organs. Thank the sexual organs for their work in keeping you alive and healthy. Rest. Do nothing. Gather and store the energy by smiling and use your mind to “spiral” the energy to the Lower Tan Tien. (Spiraling is a way to condense Chi in an area so that it may be stored.)

Microcosmic Orbit

I began my practice of Chi Kung when I was a child. After many years of practice with many Chi Kung forms, I started to forget the first form, so I learned it again. One day when I tried to practice and review all the forms that I had learned, I couldn’t remember many of them. I sat down and thought, “I only have two hands, two legs, and one head. Why are there so many forms to remember?” I said to myself that there must be one main thing that they all have in common. I started to search, and I found out that the most important thing is feeling the Chi within us, and being able to increase, transform, take in, and stay in touch with the universal, cosmic, nature, and earth forces.

Many people, including some Chi Kung masters, have come to me and said that they have been practicing Chi Kung for years but they don’t feel any energy. They think that they must be performing their Chi Kung incorrectly. I tell them that the hand movements of the Chi Kung forms are nothing by themselves. There are hundreds of different Chi Kung forms in China. You could spend seventy lifetimes just learning the hand movements. But if you do not also practice meditation, your Chi Kung suffers.

The practice of Microcosmic Orbit meditation will help you to feel Chi more easily inside, outside, and around the body. It awakens, circulates, and directs Chi through two important energy routes in the body: the Governor Channel, which ascends from the base of the spine up to the head, and the Functional Channel, which runs from the tip of the tongue down the middle of the torso to the perineum. Microcosmic Orbit also strengthens Original Chi and teaches you the basics of circulating Chi. It allows the palms, the soles of the feet, the mideyebrow point, and the crown to open. These specific locations are the major points where energy can be absorbed, condensed, and transformed into fresh new life force. Dedicated practice of this ancient esoteric method eliminates stress and nervous tension, energizes the internal organs, restores health to damaged tissue, and builds a strong sense of personal well-being.

Microcosmic Orbit meditation is the foundation of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung. Your Chi Kung practice is dependent upon the quality of your meditations and your ability to perfect the Microcosmic Orbit. In order to master Cosmic Healing Chi Kung, you must practice this meditation daily.

1. Focus on the Lower Tan Tien (the area where the Original Chi is stored, between the navel, kidneys, and sexual organs). Feel the pulsing in this area, and observe whether this area feels tense or relaxed, cool or warm, expansive or contracting. Notice any sensations of Chi: tingling, heat, expansiveness, pulsations, electric or magnetic sensations. Allow these to grow and expand. Let the Chi of the Lower Tan Tien flow out to the navel.
2. Use your mind-eye-heart power (Yi) to spiral the Chi in the navel point, guiding and moving it. Let the energy flow down to the sexual center (the ovaries for women, or the testicles for men).
3. Move the energy from the sexual center to the perineum and then down to the soles of the feet.
4. Draw the energy up from the soles of the feet to the perineum and then to the sacrum.
5. Draw the energy up from the sacrum to the Door of Life (the point in the spine opposite the navel).
6. Draw the energy up to the mid-spine point (the T-11 vertebra).
7. Draw the energy up to the base of the skull (also known as the Jade Pillow).
8. Draw the energy up to the crown.
9. Move the energy down from the crown to the mideyebrow point.
10. Touch the tip of your tongue to your upper palate; press and release a few times. Then lightly touch the palate with the tongue and leave it there, sensing the electric or tingling feeling in the tip of the tongue. Move the energy down from the mideyebrow to where the tip of your tongue and the palate meet.
11. Move the energy down from the palate through your tongue to the throat center.
12. Move the energy down from the throat to the heart center.
13. Bring the energy down from the heart to the solar plexus. Feel a small sun shining out.
14. Bring the energy back down to the navel.
15. Continue to circulate your energy through this sequence of points, making at least nine cycles. Once the pathways are open, you can let your energy flow continuously like a river, without needing to stop at each point.
16. When you are ready to conclude the exercise, collect the energy at your navel.
         Men: Cover your navel with both palms, left hand over right. Collect and mentally spiral the energy outward from the navel thirty-six times clockwise and then inward twenty-four times counterclockwise.
        Women: Cover your navel with both palms, right hand over left. Collect and mentally spiral the energy outward from the navel thirty-six times counterclockwise and then inward twenty-four times clockwise.

Six Healing Sounds

Everyone has heard stories about gifted beings who possess great healing powers. People seek out these gifted healers. Yet even in the best of circumstances, how much time can a great healer spend with you? One hour a day? One hour a week? What happens the rest of the time?

For optimal health, you must learn how to take care of yourself; you must learn how to clear out your negative energy and transform it to positive healthy energy. Maintaining yourself in this way will surely enhance any other therapy you are receiving.

The Six Healing Sounds practice is a simple yet powerful tool to promote physical, energetic, and emotional healing and balance. Regular daily practice of the Six Healing Sounds will help you keep in touch with the energetic and emotional state of your internal organs. Practice this exercise in the evening before you go to sleep. By clearing out negative emotions before sleeping, you allow the night’s rest to recharge your energy positively. This practice will greatly benefit your personal Cosmic Healing Chi Kung practice. It will help sensitize you to the varieties and differing qualities of Chi. This knowledge will also help you in diagnosing and treating others. If you are healing others, you can teach them one or two of the Six Healing Sounds each session to enhance the effects of your therapeutic work.

The sounds are used to generate certain frequencies for specific healing. Each sound can generate different energy for the healing of different organs. Growing the good virtue of the organs is essential so that the negative or sick energy has less room to grow.

Once the movements, sounds, and information have been integrated into your practice, you can simplify and make the Six Healing Sounds more powerful. For example, when you are settled into the lung sound and you are breathing white healing light and feel the mideyebrow wide open, you can bring your awareness to the Tan Tien and the universe. Chi will flow from the universe into the Tan Tien, and just the right amount and quality of Chi will flow from the Tan Tien into the lungs and large intestine. This technique works for any of the healing sounds; just set up the location (the organ) and connect to the universe, and Chi will flow to the correct location.

When practicing the Six Healing Sounds, keep your eyes open only while making each sound. Take a deep breath and smile to the organ between each healing sound exhalation.

For more details of this practice, see the book Taoist Ways to Transform Stress into Vitality by Mantak Chia.

Lung Sound

Element: Metal Associated Organ: Large intestine

Sound: Sssssss (tongue behind the teeth)

Emotions: Negative—grief, sadness, depression

Positive—courage, righteousness, high self-esteem

Color: White, clear, metallic

Season: Fall

Direction: West

LUNG SOUND

Position: Sit in a chair with your back straight and your hands resting palms up on your thighs. Have your feet flat on the floor about hips’ width apart. Smile down to your lungs and be aware of any sadness, grief, or excess heat in your lungs. Slowly inhale, and raise your hands up your center line, with your fingers pointing toward each other. When your hands pass shoulder level, begin to rotate the palms out as you continue raising your hands in front of you and above your head, with the palms up. Point your fingers toward the fingers of the opposite hand and keep your elbows slightly bent.

Sound: Part your lips slightly, holding your jaw gently closed. Look up through the space between your two hands and push your palms slightly upward as you slowly exhale and make the sound sssssss. Picture and feel any excess heat, sadness, grief, depression, sickness, or dingy white color expelled and released as you exhale slowly and fully.

Resting Posture: When you have completely exhaled, rotate the palms to face downward with the fingers still pointing toward each other. Slowly lower the palms and bring them just in front of the chest, feeling the lungs’ aura.

Close your eyes and be aware of your lungs. Smile into your lungs, and as you inhale, imagine that you are breathing in a bright white mist of light. Breathe this light into your lungs and feel it cooling, cleansing, invigorating, healing, and refreshing your lungs. Feel it flowing down to the large intestine to balance the energy of the yin lungs and yang large intestine, allowing the courage quality of your lungs to emerge. Grow more courage so that sadness and depression have less room to grow. With each inbreath, feel yourself drawing in cool fresh energy. With each outbreath, mentally make the lung sound and release any remaining sadness or hot energy.

Repeat at least three times. For the first two repetitions, make the sound aloud. On the third or last repetition, make the sound subvocally (so softly that only you can hear it). To alleviate extreme sadness, depression, cold, flu, toothache, asthma, or emphysema, repeat six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four times.

Kidney Sound

Element: Water

Associated Organ: Bladder

Sound: Chooooo (with your lips forming an “O” as if blowing out a candle)

Emotions: Negative—fear, shock

Positive—gentleness, wisdom

Color: Dark blue or black

Season: Winter

Direction: North

KIDNEY SOUND

Position: Move your hands to cover the kidneys. Smile to your kidneys, and be aware of any excess cold or heat in the kidney region. Then bring your legs together, ankles and knees touching. Lean forward and clasp the fingers of both hands together around your knees. Inhale, and pull your arms straight from the lower back while bending the torso forward (this allows your back to protrude in the area of the kidneys). Tilt your head upward as you look straight ahead, still pulling on your arms from the lower back. Feel your spine pulling against your knees.

Sound: Round the lips slightly and slowly exhale while making the sound chooooo. Simultaneously contract your abdomen, pulling it in toward your kidneys. Imagine any fear, sickness, imbalances, excess cold, or excess heat energy being released and squeezed out of the fascia surrounding the kidneys.

Resting Posture: After you have fully exhaled, slowly straighten until you are erect and return your hands to touch the aura of the kidneys. Close your eyes and again be aware of your kidneys. Smile to your kidneys, and on the inbreath, imagine you are breathing a brilliant luminous blue light mist into them. Feel this mist healing, balancing, and refreshing your kidneys and bladder, and picture them glowing a bright blue color. On the outbreath, imagine you are still making the kidney sound.

Repeat at least three times. Repeat six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four times to alleviate extreme fear, fatigue, low-pitched ringing in the ears, dizziness, back pain, bladder or urinary infection, or problems of the reproductive system.

Liver Sound

Element: Wood

Associated Organ: Gallbladder

Sound: Shhhhh

Emotions: Negative—anger, frustration, resentment

Positive—loving kindness, benevolence, forgiveness

Color: Green

Season: Spring

Direction: East

LIVER SOUND

Position: Place your hands over the liver. Smile to your liver, and be aware of any anger, frustration, resentment, or excess heat in the liver region. Slowly begin to inhale a deep breath as you extend your arms up from the sides with your palms up. Raise your palms over your head. Interlace your fingers together and turn your joined hands over to face the sky, palms up. Push out through the heels of the palms and extend the arms up, keeping the shoulders relaxed. Bend a little to the left and stretch your right arm slightly to gently open the area of your liver.

Sound: Open your eyes wide (the eyes are the sensory opening of the liver). Slowly exhale, making the sound shhhhh subvocally. Feel that you are releasing any trapped excess heat, anger, illness, or negativity from your liver and that these are riding out of your body on your breath.

Resting Posture: Once you have fully exhaled, close your eyes, separate your hands, turn the palms down, and slowly lower your arms to the sides, leading with the heels of the hands. Smile, and inhale a shiny spring green mist, illuminating the liver and gallbladder. Bring your hands back to rest on the liver’s aura. Close your eyes and smile into your liver. With each inbreath, breathe fresh Chi into your liver and gallbladder. With each outbreath, mentally make the liver sound.

Repeat at least three times. Repeat six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four times to alleviate extreme anger, to relieve red or watery eyes, to remove a sour or bitter taste in the mouth, or to detoxify the liver.

Heart Sound

Element: Fire

Associated Organ: Small intestine

Sound: Haaaaaw

Emotions: Negative—arrogance, harshness, cruelty, hatred

Positive—joy, honor, respect, love, happiness

Color: Red

Season: Summer

Direction: South

HEART SOUND

Position: Let both hands rest on the heart. Smile to your heart, and be aware of any arrogance, haughtiness, hatred, giddiness, cruelty, or hastiness in it. Slowly begin to inhale a deep breath as you extend your arms up from the sides with your palms up, as you did with the liver sound. Raise your palms over your head. Interlace your fingers together and turn your clasped hands over to face the sky, palms up. Push out through the heels of the palms and extend the arms up, keeping the shoulders relaxed. Bend a little to the right and stretch your left arm slightly to open the area of your heart.

Sound: Keeping your eyes soft and relaxed, look up through your hands. Slowly exhale, making the sound haaaaaw subvocally. Feel that you are releasing any trapped heat, negative emotions, illness, or imbalance from your heart and that these are riding out of the body on your breath.

Resting Posture: Once you have fully exhaled, close your eyes, separate your hands, turn the palms down, and slowly lower your arms to the sides, leading with the heels of the hands. As you move, inhale a bright red mist into the heart and small intestine. Bring your hands back to rest on your heart’s aura. Smile into your heart. With each inbreath, breathe fresh Chi into your heart. With each outbreath, mentally repeat the heart sound.

Repeat at least three times. Repeat six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four times to alleviate extreme impatience, hastiness, arrogance, nervousness, moodiness, jumpiness, irritability, tongue ulcers, palpitations, sore throat, heart disease, or insomnia and to detoxify the heart.

Spleen Sound

Element: Earth

Associated Organ: Pancreas, stomach

Sound: Whooooo (gutturally from the throat)

Emotions: Negative—worry, excess sympathy, overthinking

Positive—fairness, balance, equanimity, justice, openness

Color: Yellow

Season: Indian summer

Direction: Center (where you stand, looking out to the Six Directions)

SPLEEN SOUND

Position: Place your hands on the body so that they cover the spleen, pancreas, and stomach area. Be aware of your spleen, and smile sincerely into it. Inhale deeply as you move your arms outward in an embrace, and aim the fingers up under the left rib cage. Place the fingers of both hands just beneath the sternum and rib cage on the left side.

Sound: Look out, lean into your fingers, and gently push your fingertips in. Exhale slowly and make the sound whooooo from the depths of your throat. Feel yourself releasing any trapped heat, worry, mental fixations, or excess sympathy.

Resting Posture: Once you have fully exhaled, close your eyes, slowly release the hands, and extend your arms out, embracing the earth. Return your hands to the resting position on the spleen’s aura. Smile to your spleen, pancreas, and stomach. With each inbreath, inhale fresh Chi to your spleen, pancreas, and stomach as a brilliant luminous yellow healing mist that cleanses and refreshes your organs. With each outbreath, mentally make the spleen sound.

Repeat at least three times. Repeat six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four times to alleviate extreme indigestion, heat or cold in the stomach or spleen, worry, nausea, hemorrhoids, fatigue, organ prolapse, or loose stools.

Triple Warmer Sound

The term Triple Warmer refers to the upper, middle, and lower torso and to the distinct metabolic transformations that occur within each area. The Upper Warmer is the area above the diaphragm, where the heart and lungs are located. This area tends to become hot and is responsible for respiration and cardiovascular circulation. The Middle Warmer, the area between the diaphragm and the navel, becomes warm and is where the digestive organs are located. The Lower Warmer, the area below the navel, is responsible for reproduction and elimination and is cool in temperature. The sound heeeee balances the temperatures of the three levels by bringing hot energy down to the lower center and cold energy up to the higher centers.

TRIPLER WARMER SOUND

Position: Lie on your back with your arms resting at your sides, palms up. Keep your eyes closed. Smile. With a single inhalation, breath first into the upper part of your lungs to expand the Upper Warmer, then into the middle of the lungs to expand the Middle Warmer, and finally into the lower lungs to fill the Lower Warmer. Breathing in this way creates more space inside the torso for each organ, helping to release and circulate any internal heat or cold.

Sound: Exhale while making the sound heeeee subvocally, flattening first your chest, then your solar plexus, and finally your lower abdomen. Feel the dark and cloudy color and the cold energy exit from the tips of the fingers.

Resting Posture: Once you have fully exhaled, do not focus on any emotions or purification process. Instead, just let go and relax your body and mind completely.

Repeat at least three times. Repeat six, nine, twelve, or twenty-four times to alleviate insomnia and stress.

When you have completed the Six Healing Sounds, just rest, smile, and do nothing.

Smile to Connect with the Universe Within

Paradoxically, in order to project ourselves out into the immensity of the galaxies and the universe to gather limitless resources of Universal Chi for healing, we must first journey within ourselves. In order to “go out,” we must first “go in.” The vehicle for this magical journey is powered by our ability to relax in mind and body. As we physically relax, letting go of muscular and emotional tensions and joint and bone structures, and turn on our very special subtle smile, we gain access to the inner realms. We open the pathways of the parasympathetic nervous system. This helps us reduce the outflowing habits of our senses so that we can be more alert in sensing our inner universe.

This exercise teaches us to smile to the mideyebrow, eyebrows, eyes, mouth, jaw, tongue, lips, cheeks, ears, shoulders, rib cage, and brain and then to let the observing mind (the upper brain) sink down into the Lower Tan Tien. Practice this exercise until you become familiar and comfortable with it.

1. Smile to the mideyebrow. Relax and let go. Smile to the eyebrows, and let them grow long to the sides. Lower these relaxed sensations down to the Lower Tan Tien.

SMILE AND RELAX TO THE MIDEYEBROW, AND THINK OF THE EYEBROWS GROWING LONG

2. Smile to the eyes. Relax the eyes and feel how nice and cool they are. Let the eyes draw back in their sockets and start to sink down to the chest and gradually down to the abdomen, the home of your feeling and awareness mind.

3. Relax the two broad muscles extending from the outer portions of the upper lips across the cheekbones. Lightly smile, feeling the muscles’ connection to the upper front of the ears. Gradually feel the ears growing long (up and down). Feel the ears grow all the way down and connect to the kidneys.

SMILE AND RELAX THE EYES, SINK INTO THE EYE SOCKETS, AND GRADUALLY FEEL THE EYES DROPPING DOWN INTO THE ABDOMEN

4. Open your mouth and relax your jaw, separating the upper and lower ^Preparation teeth. Feel the jaw relax. Once the jaw relaxes, the shoulders will relax and drop down. Continue to feel the jaw relax until you feel saliva start to come out. Relax down to the rib cage. Feel the rib cage drop down, softening all the joints, relaxing down to the Lower Tan Tien. Let the tongue relax back in the mouth. Feel the tongue start to drop down into the throat to the chest and all the way down to the navel, sinking the “floating” sensation down to the Lower Tan Tien.

SMILE TO THE EARS AND LISTEN TO THE KIDNEYS

5. Smile to the shoulders. Relax until you feel the shoulders drop and the rib cage relax.

SLIGHTLY OPEN THE MOUTH AND SMILE DOWN TO THE JAW. RELAX THE JAW, AND THE SHOULDERS AND TONGUE WILL RELAX DOWN TO LOWER TAN TIEN.

6. Lightly close the lips, but keep the teeth slightly separated. Physically begin a childlike smile, with the corners of the mouth gently uplifted and the outer edges of the eyes softly crinkled up. Breathe through your nose.

7. Smile into the brain and empty the upper (observing) mind into the Lower Tan Tien.

8. Become aware of your inner universe as a big empty space. Keep on sinking down, into the darkness of your empty space. Keep sinking, and experience the vastness until you get closer and closer to the center, the “original force.” Stay relaxed and alert so as to be able to see one dot of light. It becomes a galaxy spiraling inside you.

BRING THE SENSES DOWN TO THE LOWER TAN TIEN

True Breath: Skin Breathing

Our bodies are nourished by both physical food and the unique combination of forces that surround us. Our daily caloric requirement is about 6,000 units. We receive only about 2,000 calories from food. The other 4,000 calories come from the forces around, above, and below us: electricity, magnetism, cosmic particle energy, light, sound, and heat. If we don’t know how to absorb and transform this cosmic food, we have to depend on others to supply us; we have to ask a priest, monk, or holy person to give us our daily spiritual food.

The Taoists discovered that we can learn to absorb these surrounding and universal energies through the skin and the major energy centers. Absorbing energy through the skin is called the True Breath. This powerful energetic technique requires the Cosmic Inner Smile and relaxation. The more we can relax, the more the body and the skin can open to the energy around us. The practice allows us to extend the mind, to touch the force, and to draw that energy back into the body.

Bone Breathing

Bone Breathing is one of the main practices of Cosmic Healing Chi Kung. The bones and joints of the body have the ability to store Universal Chi to be used by the body. The Bone Breathing process uses the mind and the eyes to absorb Chi into the bones and joints. The practice also strengthens the body so you can hold a higher energetic charge, which is a prerequisite for handling the greater amounts of energy needed for Cosmic Healing Chi Kung. The better your Bone Breathing is, the better your Cosmic Healing Chi Kung practice will be. You will be able to absorb external Chi effortlessly, so you will not need to use your own energy in your healing work.

This method of drawing external Chi through the skin into the bones also helps replenish the bone marrow, thereby reactivating the production of white blood cells. Sending Chi into the bones will enhance functioning of the immune system. This process also helps to clean out fat in the bone marrow (“Washing the Marrow”), one of the main causes of osteoporosis (brittleness of the bones). Tension in the muscles close to the bones is decreased so Chi and blood can flow into the bones easily, enabling them to become stronger.

There are several variations of the Bone Breathing process. Here we will introduce you to the first type of Bone Breathing, inhaling and exhaling Chi through the skin and packing it into the bones. In this method, you imagine that your bones are like hollow tubes, and that you breathe and suck the Chi into the bones. Let your breathing follow a normal pace. Do not strain or hold your breath for too long.

1. You can do this practice in the sitting position (on the edge of a chair, feet flat on the ground, back straight) or any Iron Shirt Chi Kung posture. Using your mind-eye-heart power, breathe in a short breath and at the same time feel suction in your hands. Suck into your hands the Chi of the atmosphere and then of the universe, and breathe in a few more times. Taking small sips of breath, use mind-eye-heart power (Yi) to suck the Chi from the atmosphere into your hands. Once you can clearly feel the increase of Chi pressure in your hands, extend the feeling through your arms. The entire skin surface of the arms breathes in the Chi; feel your skin holding this pressure.
2. Inhale one deep breath and then lightly contract the arm muscles to squeeze the Chi into the bones. Hold the breath and the muscle contraction for a moment to condense the Chi into the marrow of your bones. Then exhale. Upon exhalation you should feel a distinct heaviness in the bones, meaning that the Chi has been condensed and packed into the bones successfully. (As you become more practiced with this exercise, you will learn to use more Yi, less muscle, and softer breathing to draw Chi into the bones.) Repeat six to nine times. Then rest and feel the Chi that has been condensed into the bones.
3. Practicing the same technique you used for your arms, breathe in progressively through the bones of the forearms, upper arms, scapulae, collarbone, sternum, and ribs. The breathing progresses cumulatively; after breathing to the forearms, you’ll next breathe to the forearms and the upper arms, and then to the forearms, upper arms, and scapulae, and so on. You may feel a different sensation as you breathe in each area, depending on the bone structure and quality of the marrow. In some areas the feeling is cool, while in others it is warm or tingling.
4. Inhale and exhale in the same way through the toes, feet, and legs. Then, in a step-by-step progression, breathe up through the calf bones, thighbones, pelvis, coccyx, sacrum, and the spinal column to seventh cervical vertebra (C7). As with the arms and upper body, progress from structure to structure cumulatively.
5. Finally, breathe in through the arms and legs simultaneously. Combine their energy as it flows up past C7 and up through the neck and skull. Imagine the whole skeleton is breathing, expanding and contracting as a unit. Breathe in this way for at least nine breaths.
6. Conclude by collecting energy at the navel.

BONE BREATHING THROUGH THE FINGERS

Marrow Washing

You can wash your bone marrow with earth force, universal force, or cosmic (man) force. These energies help cleanse and rejuvenate the bone marrow. Specific techniques attain different results. Now, we’ll explore Marrow Washing with universal force and violet light.

1. Men: Place the left palm on the top of the head, and cover it with the right palm. Bring your awareness to your Personal Star (the star that appears in your mind’s eye and is located just above your crown) above you. Lightly press the palms and move them in a clockwise spiraling pattern to the right ear, then to the back of the head and then to the left ear. Repeat nine times in a row, and then rest and feel the increased Chi pressure in the crown. Do three sets.
Women: Place the right palm on the top of the head, and cover it with the left palm. Bring your awareness to your Personal Star above you. Lightly press the palms and move them in a counterclockwise spiraling pattern to the left ear, then to the back of the head, and then to the right ear. Repeat nine times in a row, and then rest and feel the increased Chi pressure in the crown. Do three sets.

SCOOPING UP THE NORTH STAR AND THE BIG DIPPER

BUBBLING SPRINGS POINT

2. Face your palms toward the heavens and feel that you are scooping a galactic Chi ball from above. This Chi ball contains the North Star (violet) and the Big Dipper (red). See the dipper fill with violet-red energy. Imagine you reach out your arms to hold the dipper handle and pour the violet-red liquid over your crown. You will feel a numbness descending. Face your palms down toward your crown and pour the whole galaxy onto your crown. You may perceive this energy as violet amethyst and red light frequencies. Smile.

3. Guide the sensation of liquidlike Chi down into your skull; deep into your brain, cervical vertebrae, sternum, thoracic vertebrae, and lumbar vertebrae; and down through your legs. Feel it enlivening your bones, penetrating deep into the bone marrow, washing, cleansing, and energizing. The Chi spills all the way down to your feet. Feel it connecting with the earth through the soles of your feet; be aware of the Bubbling Springs point in the feet breathing and pulsating.

4. Touch your navel with the fingers of both hands. Focus on the Door of Life (the point in the spine opposite the navel, also known as Governor Vessel 4), and let the energy activate in the Lower Tan Tien and kidneys. Chi will rise up to the brain.

5. Move your hands down to touch your femur bones. Feel your hands penetrate into the bone and into the bone marrow. Feel a tingling sensation, like that of an electric shock, moving all the way down through the bones of the leg and down to the soles of your feet.

CHI SPIRALS LIKE THE GALAXIES

6. Slowly move your fingers down your legs, touching the bone and bone marrow as you go, until you touch the earth. Extend yourself down past the earth to touch the galaxy on the other side. Raise your sacrum and picture yellow light or Chi coming up from the earth and the other side of the galaxy. Focus on the Lower Tan Tien and feel it fill with Chi. Do this visualization three times. Go back down to the squatting position.

7. Place your palms facedown on the earth and be aware of the galaxy and the yellow light. Make three to six circles with your hands to gather the yellow Chi from below. Touch your heels and feel the yellow Chi flowing up the leg bones. Feel the bubbling of your bones as the Chi passes like an electric current up through the feet, tibia, and fibula, femur, pelvis, and spine. Touching your bone and bone marrow with your fingers, slide your hands up along the back of your legs; slowly come all the way up to touch the coccyx and the sacrum. Concentrate on your sexual center so the energy will flow and spread out to the sexual organs. Bring your hands to your navel and gather the Chi into the Lower Tan Tien.

GATHERING EARTH CHI