Tan Tien Chi Kung

Smiling and Laughing Chi Kung

BODY SENSING

In Chi Kung practice, the art of sensing and feeling is the primary form of cognition, taking precedence over all other forms of knowledge. Our mind directs and guides Chi, but if we cannot feel and sense our body, the mind cannot give direction and guidance. To be able to feel and sense, our nervous system needs to be in a relaxed state. The moment we are stressed and tense, our ability to feel and sense the processes in our body declines. We tend to then become even more disconnected from our body, and as a result, become more confused and upset.

As members of industrial and postindustrial cultures, we have to relearn to value and listen to our body and become sensitive to what it wants to tell us. Modern life has increasingly emphasized abstract cognition over other forms of knowledge, particularly embodied forms of knowledge. Widespread “dis-ease” is a result of the sharp decline of basic body awareness and a generalized lowering of Chi pressure. This feeling of “dis-ease” generates negative emotions that are then projected onto people and the world around us. Precisely because of the desperate conditions this situation engenders and the resistance it creates, there is an awakening to the need for a new, more embodied way of understanding ourselves and the universe.

Tan Tien Chi Kung is a very effective practice in the process of relearning to be open to the many dimensions of ourselves and to connect with our own body. And as we become more centered in and aware of our bodies, we can more easily be open to others and to the world around us.

THE INNER SMILE

The 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. 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.

INNER SMILE

The process of internal transformation in Tan Tien Chi Kung starts with the Inner Smile practice, in which we send a warm, loving Inner Smile down to the lower brain and lower abdominal area. It is the key practice for keeping Chi pressure in the lower Tan Tien and the whole body, and is the most effective practice for keeping all energy routes in the body open.

Although the Inner Smile at first sight would appear to be an easy practice, it actually represents a great challenge. It holds in all its apparent simplicity a highly concentrated way to change our whole attitude toward life and toward ourselves. It is the key to shifting and transforming our inner disposition and attitude so that we open ourselves to the ability to “flow with the stream of life.” It helps us learn to not “push against the river” and use force on ourselves and others. It trains us to accept ourselves and others so that, as we raise our awareness and mindfulness, transformation can come from within and not from above or outside.

The practice of the Inner Smile is not a shrewd trick or an easy device to forget or repress our pain. We need to recognize that we will invariably experience existential and other forms of pain as a natural part of the ups and downs of life. What the Inner Smile practice does is train us to look deeply into ourselves and to transform the pain into a source of self-transformation and empowerment. We become truly invulnerable not by ignoring pain but by becoming more vulnerable and in touch with ourselves. By so doing, we can be more sensitive to others and to the world. It is good to shed tears as we detoxify ourselves. In a patriarchal culture like ours, men are not supposed to shed tears because it shows their weakness. As we learn the Inner Smile, we open up to our deeper self and learn to process our pain. In this way we restore the energy flow so that we can laugh and smile again as we learn to embrace ourselves, others, and the world. The Inner Smile practice trains us to sense, feel, see, and hear deeply; it trains us to accept and embrace what is there so that our experience of life is opened up again.

By smiling into our whole body and being, we affirm the intrinsic goodness of existence and our gratitude for being alive. The inner smile creates the ground for self-esteem, which is necessary to develop inner dignity and self-empowerment.

The Inner Smile may be seen as a first process of alchemical transformation on which all the others depend; it is the beginning of a new way of being. The practice teaches us to accept ourselves as we are, with a unique blend of good and negative energies. We need both of them in order to grow. Without the negative energies there would be no impulse for the transformation process and we could not raise our energy supply. The energy potential hidden in negative energies would remain repressed and untapped.

SMILING AND LAUGHING ENERGY PRACTICES

Smiling and lowering the upper mind down to the lower mind, the lower Tan Tien, is of particular importance as a way to tune in to our life source and raise our life force. By so doing, we make it possible for the diaphragm to relax and freely move up and down. This also makes the lungs and heart happy. Laughing and smiling are perhaps the best ways to connect with the lower Tan Tien, generate Chi pressure and inner power, restore the free flow of energy, and increase immunity.

It is good to experiment with and experience different forms of smiling and laughing. We then learn to bring our smiling and laughing within us, shifting from outward smiling and laughing to inner smiling and laughing. It is a process like hitting a drum on its outside and causing vibrations inside; the vibrations start on the outside but resonate within. With inner laughing, the vibrations are more subtle in the lower Tan Tien, and more powerful Chi pressure is generated. The more inward the smile is, the less the lungs are used and the more energy is economized and natural (embryonic) breathing is approached.

OUTWARD LAUGHING

Smiling and laughing Chi Kung are such natural forms of relaxation that we hardly think of them as a Chi Kung practice. Yet they are among the most effective ways to restore the water energy/fire energy balance in the body. By making the sound “Ha,” as we do while laughing, heat is released and excess fire energy is expelled, and the body is cooled and thereby rebalanced. The sound “Ha” together with the sounds “Ho” and “Hum” constitute a triad of sounds that serve as seed mantras in the hundred-syllable mantra in Tibetan Buddhist practice, by which the highest wisdom energies are invoked. The very low sounds that Tibetan monks make when chanting their mantras are very similar to those heard on NASA recordings from space of the sounds of Earth, Saturn, and other planets. The deep mantra tones originate from deep in the belly and thereby create powerful vibrations in the lower Tan Tien, raising internal pressure and power to move Chi.

INNER LAUGHING

Specific sounds raise particular energy frequencies in each organ. The sound “Ha” is the sound that makes the whole body feel good, as it generates Chi and makes energies move, so that a state of wellbeing is experienced.

The Inner Smile is not only essential to get in touch with ourselves. It is also the key that makes it possible for us to get in touch with, receive, and absorb universal, earth, and cosmic energies.

Smiling down into the body has multiple beneficial effects, including releasing toxins, restoring the energy flow, and increasing the capacity of the body to heal itself.

The Inner Smile begins at the eyes and the mid-eyebrow point and moves down to the heart and then to the lower Tan Tien. 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.

GROUP LAUGHING

As we physically relax, letting go of muscular and emotional tensions, and turn on our very special subtle smile, we gain access to the inner realms. We open the pathways of the parasympathetic nervous system and become more alert in inner sensing.

Inner Smile energy practice #1

1. This exercise teaches us to smile to the mid-eyebrow, eyebrows, eyes, mouth, jaw, tongue, lips, cheeks, ears, shoulders, rib cage, and brain. We then 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. Begin by smiling to the mid-eyebrow. Relax and let go of all mental, emotional, and physical tension. Smile to the eyebrows, and visualize them growing long to the sides.

INNER SMILE SPIRALING OUT TO THE UNIVERSE

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).

4. Open your mouth and relax your jaw, separating the upper and lower 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. Visualize all the energies of the head and face sinking down into the chest and all the way down to the navel and lower Tan Tien.

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

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 continue to empty the upper (observing) mind into the lower Tan Tien.

8. Become aware of your inner universe as vast, empty space. Keep on sinking down, into the darkness of your empty space. Keep sinking, and experience the vastness. Stay relaxed and alert. Rest.

Inner Smile energy practice #2

First laughter: start either standing or sitting with both palms covering the navel—left hand over right for men, right hand over left for women. Start to laugh out loud and feel the abdominal vibration. Laugh out loud continuously for five minutes. Rest, cover the navel with the palms, and feel it become warm. Visualize a warm, bright ball of energy in your abdomen. Then visualize the ball of energy forming a spiral (the Tai Chi or yin/yang spiral). Visualize the energy spiraling in a clockwise direction. Then visualize the energy spiraling in a counterclockwise direction.
Second laughter: begin practicing inner laughing, which is like a tickling in the throat. Continue to feel the warm ball of energy in the navel, and continue to visualize this ball of energy spiraling clockwise, and then counterclockwise. This will keep the Chi in the navel area.
Third laughter: begin practicing the silent, inner laughter, which is like the vibration that resonates on the inside of a drum. Keep the vibration resonating inside you for five minutes. Rest, keeping the navel covered with your palms. Spiral the energy in the navel, as described above, to store the energy in this area.

Inner Smile energy practice #3

Focusing your awareness on the mid-eyebrow, 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.
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.
Feel yourself responding to that special person’s smile with a smile of your own. Feel your eyes smiling and relaxing.
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.
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.
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 mid-eyebrow, 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.
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.
Smile at the white light or mist and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw the white mist into the mid-eyebrow, 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.
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.
Smile at the yellow light or mist and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw it into the mid-eyebrow, 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.
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.
Smile at the blue light or mist around you and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw it into the mid-eyebrow, 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.
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 gallbladder, you will also activate the green cosmic light above and around you.
Smile at the green light or mist around you and very slowly, with a soft, long, deep breath, draw it into the mid-eyebrow, 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.
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.)

Inner Smile energy practice #4

Sit, stand, or lay down in a comfortable position.
Cover the navel with the palms—left hand over right for men, right hand over left for women.
Smile into the mid-eyebrow and feel it relax. Smile and relax the upper mind, and allow it to sink, moving slowing down to the neck, down to the chest, and gradually down to the lower Tan Tien.
Feel the navel area starting to get warm. Visualize a ball of energy in this area, and then visualize this energy spiraling like the Tai Chi (yin/yang) spiral. Feel the Chi getting warmer and warmer.
Feel the Chi in the navel area getting warmer and warmer and starting to rise up through the spine to the brain.
Keep five percent of your awareness on the spiral of energy in your lower abdomen. At the same time, visualize the energy that has risen up to the brain begin to form a spiral in the head. Continue to spiral that energy, feeling the Chi pressure in the brain begin to grow.
Feel the Chi pressure pushing outward as it grows stronger. Gradually guide the Chi into the sinuses and allow it to build until you feel the Chi pressure push down into the nose and open the sinuses. Feel the nose open and your breathing improved. Moving Chi down into the sinuses in this way may help prevent colds and flu.
Touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth. In this way, you will link the Governor Channel (the line of energy that runs up the spine) to the Functional Channel (the line of energy that runs down the front of the torso), thus connecting the Microcosmic Orbit. Slowly let the Chi drop down by itself to the navel area. Smile down into the navel a while and feel the energy being condensed and safely stored in the lower Tan Tien. Remember to always bring the energy back to the lower Tan Tien, as this is the best place to store it. It is unsafe to leave excess Chi in your organs, as this may cause the organs to accumulate too much energy and overheat from the process.