Small heavenly orbit

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Open Dao is correct about this.

Also, the ren and du mai are not the only purpose of circulating jing.

Depending on what you practice, it is very common for the jing to simply illuminate the entire body.

Huang Yuanji said that when you focus on the middle palace (solar plexus area), you should assign one breath to leave and one to enter.  These two breaths are the full cycle of yang and yin and during meditation the breath will go from being two separate breaths, to one full cycle, back to being two separate breaths again.  He calls this the "mystery gate subtle portal," (it is also called this in xing ming gui zhi and many other places).   In order to open the portal, yin and yang have to be harmonized in such a way that the breathing doesn't seem like two anymore, it only seems like one continuous cycle (前後相隨 front and back follow each other).  Once this has happened, the mind will go into a state of mixed unclarity.  This is where the subtle portal is located, since yin and yang have joined chaotically and are not separated, then the mind gradually slows down, becomes unclear, and eventually enters a deep state of Yin energy, or quiet.  From the deep quiet is where genuine yang energy emerges from.  Chen Yingning said that small quiet produces small energy, and great quiet produces great energy.

Once you have this, then the subtle portal will open and the qi will go everywhere in the body.   the key concept here is that while you have one qi, you can't quit practicing.  you have to wait until the qi becomes quiet again and returns to the root.  That way you will have both created and stored your Qi.  This is called "xing ming shuang xiu," or xing and ming mutual cultivation.   Again, Chen Yingning said that ming was like the oil inside of a lamp and xing was like the brightness of the lamp.  without the oil there could be no brightness, but without the brightness the lamp would have no use.

The mind illuminates the essence and then returns to the essence.

Of course when you practice this, the ren and du mai will have activity, but so will the governing channel, the yin qiao, the sky gate, the three dantian and so on.

Opening the body to yuan qi has many many stages of preparation before the actual circulation of yuan qi.

I created this thread to talk about what people here mostly refer to as MCO, since there is a great deal of incorrect and scary knowledge floating around on the internet.  I really want to contribute something safe so that less people are injured by the funny methods of some so called Qi gong masters.

[gendao]

Next, the three vessels of the du, ren, and chong [should be selected for cultivation because they] are the source of creation for all the other channels and vessels. And yet, mention of this particular vessel the yin qiao is scattered throughout the Cinnabar scriptures where it is variously referred to by many names. It is called Root of Heaven; it is called Death's Door; it is called the Resurrection Pass; it is called the Ghost Door of Feng Du; and it is called the Root of Life and Death. As the governor of the spirit, it is often called the Peach of Well-Being. Above, it penetrates the mud ball and below it reaches down to the Gushing Spring [KI-1. If one has knowledge of [the du, ren, and chong], then one can induce the true qi to accumulate and dissipate [at will], all from these barrier orifices. Thus, the heavenly gate will be constantly open, and Earth's Door will remain forever closed. The buttock vessel will flow throughout the entire body, linking and flowing freely both above and below, harmonious qi will naturally ascend to the imperial court. The yang will grow and the yin will diminish, fire will issue from the midst of water, and flowers will blossom through the snow. This is what is referred to by 'When there is a languid ebb and flow between the Heavenly Root and the Moon Grotto, then the 36 officials are all spring-like.'

 

When this is achieved, then the body will become light and strong. The adept's aged countenance regains its vitality; in quiet silence, he becomes recondite as if he were an imbecile or intoxicated. [such experiences] are proof [of the effect]. It is essential to understand that the location of the southwest is in kun earth, in front of the perineum, behind the bladder, below the small intestine, and above the divine tortoise. This is the ground where heaven and earth day by day engender the root of the qi and give birth to lead. Physicians do not understand this.

So, what exactly is the "divine tortoise" and where exactly is this kun earth location, then? Edited October 3, 2015 by gendao

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Just flipping through Hu Haiya's commentaries today and saw his assertion that Kun is in the feet and Qian is in the head, if that helps at all.

[Daeluin]

From the Shuogua, one of the ten wings of the Yijing, translated by Master Zhongxian Wu in Seeking the Spirit of the Book of Change. This is a wonderful book for an introduction into the basic ideas of daoist cosmology.

 

First, on the Xiantian (precelestial) arrangement of the Bagua:

 

 

Heaven and Earth settle into their positions; Mountain and Marsh (or Lake) intermingle their Qi (vitality); Thunder and Wind intertwine with each other; and Water and Fire do not repel each other. The Eight Trigrams interconnect with one another. To learn where we are going is the forward way. To know where we have come from is the reverse way.

 

Then, on the Houtian (postcelestial) arrangement:

 

 

Supernatural Being makes everything emerge from Zhen / Thunder. All things are well arranged in Xun / Wind, meet each other in Li / Fire, obtain nourishment in Kun / Earth, celebrate in Dui / Marsh, interact in Qian / Heaven, return in Kan / Water, and achieve in Gen / Mountain.

 

Continuing:

 

 

Ten thousand things emerge from Zhen / Thunder. Zhen / Thunder corresponds to east. The ten thousand things are arranged well in Xun / Wind. Xun / Wind corresponds to southeast and signifies that all things are clean and neat. Li / Fire means brightness (clear), all things meet one another. It is the trigram of south. The sages face south to administer affairs of the world and govern with brightness (open heart) because of the symbolic meanings of Li / Fire. Kun is Earth, and all things absorb nourishment from Earth; therefore, it is said, "obtain nourishment in Kun." Dui / Marsh corresponds to exact autumn (west), all things rejoice; therefore, it is said "celebrate in Dui; interact in Qian." Qian is the trigram of northwest and it represents Yin and Yang approaching each other. Kan is Water. It is the trigram of exact north and represents return (all things return); therefore, it is said, "return in Kan." Gen / Mountain is the trigram of northeast, all things achieve accomplishment and commencement; therefore, it is said, "achieve in Gen."

 

So in the postcelestial world, we can look to Kun for nourishment.

In the postcelestial world, we can find Kun in the southwest.

 

Zhang Boduan discusses this in his Wuzhen Pian, and Fabrizio Pregadio has an interesting commentary in his Awakening to Reality:

 

 

 

NOTES ON POEM 7

 

This poem concerns an essential aspect of internal alchemy: the collection of True Yan, which is the initial ingredient of the Elixir. As soon as one comes upon True Yang -- which in fact is continuously regenerated within the postcelestial domain, even though it is hidden from it -- one should store it safely and let it join with one's True Yin, the fundamentally pure consciousness that underlies the cognitive mind.

 

1-2 You should now that the source of the stream, the place where the Medicine is born, is just at the southwest -- that is its native village.

 

The symbolism of the first half of this poem is complex. The Medicine is True Yang. In the postcelestial domain (the world in which we live), True Yang is contained within Yin, and is represented by the unbroken line within Kan ☵. This line is the One Breath that Kun ☷ receives from Qian ☰ as they unceasingly stay joined to one another. On the one hand, therefore, the One Breath is hidden from the world (being concealed within Kan ☵), but on the other hand, it is constantly regenerated by Kun ☷. Since Kun, in the postcelestial domain, is positioned at the southwest Zhang Boduan says that "the place where the medicine is born is just at the southwest," and calls this the "native village" of True Yang.

 

And of course the rest of this poem+commentary is also important but I'll move on, leaving those other truths hidden in the books for people to explore on their own.

 

I've been reading more from Chase and Shima's An Exposition on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, and there is indeed a commentary on the location of the divine tortoise:

 

 

When this is achieved, then the body will become light and strong. The adept's aged countenance regains its vitality; in quiet silence, he becomes recondite as if he were an imbecile or intoxicated. [such experiences] are proof [of the effect]. It is essential to understand that the location of the southwest is in kun earth, in front of the perineum, behind the bladder, below the small intestine, and above the divine tortoise. This is the ground where heaven and earth day by day engender the root of the qi and give birth to lead. Physicians do not understand this.

 

Its emphasis on the yin qiao notwithstanding, the practice of internal cultivation via the extraordinary vessels presented in Eight Vessel Scripture is not a matter of tracing their trajectories so much as focusing on key loci associated with them. Zhang reiterates this point in his emphasis on the lower cinnabar field. The southwest is the direction associated with the trigram kun, which also pertains to the abdomen. Appended Commentaries of the Classic of the Changes of Zhou states that "Kun denotes earth [and] the abdominal region."

 

A similar and more poetic passage appears in Chen Nan's Song-dynasty manual of Daoist practice, Emerald Emptiness (Cui xu pian); "The moon shines brightly over the southwest road and great medicines are produced in this place."

 

However, the cinnabar field is not located just anywhere in the abdomen. Zhang specifies its location "in front of the Caudal Funnel, behind the urinary bladder, below the small intestine and above the divine tortoise." The Caudal Funnel (wei lu) is the perianal region in the vicinity of the acupuncture hole Meeting of Yin (CV-1), and the divine tortoise (ling gui) is a euphemism for the penis. In this scheme, the yin qiao, as the root of all the extraordinary vessels, is naturally located at the base of the lower cinnabar field "in front of the Caudal Funnel, and behind the genitals."

 

A turtle is renowned for being able to hide within its shell or poke its head and limbs out. Some turtles are able to poke their heads out pretty far. Perhaps this mechanism was thought as similar to the changes of a penis. I'll speculate here the divinity is related to the penis' ability to release the True Yang that is nurtured by the principles of the southwest, that is in relation to the cultivation of the yin qiao. We've read earlier in the thread that as the yin qiao is cultivated, the testicles begin to draw in and changes can be felt therein. The rest of Poem 7 from above details the timing necessary to make use of the Lead / True Yang when it emerges, before it is no longer usable.

 

Finally, Liu Yiming has a chapter related to this which may convey another important principle. From the translation by Fabrizio Pregadio in Cultivating the Tao:

 

 

13

 

The Other House and My House

(Taija wojia)

 

The Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality) says:

 

Desist from exerting your skill in crafty pursuits:

discern the method of not dying of the other house.

 

It also says:

 

This perfect Treasure is in every house --

it is only that the foolish people do not recognize it.

 

Both passages show the place where the precelestial Medicine is generated.

 

People in later times have not understood the secret truths of the ancients. When they see the words "other house" and "every house," they imagine that they refer to women, and fall into the techniques of the "female elixir" (guidan). They commit themselves to filthy practices and create damages of all kinds. People like these, who enter the animal realm, could not be enumerated. How could they know that, since the precelestial Breath comes from Empty Non-Being, it cannot be sought in what has a form and an image?

 

Now, human beings are endowed with the precelestial Breath: they possess it since their birth, by virtue of their father's essence and their mother's blood. However, this Breath grows day after day and night after night, and when the Yang culminates, there is necessarily the Yin. The Yang in the Palace of Qian ☰ moves to the palace of Kun ☷. At that time, Qian becomes empty and turns into Li ☲, and Kun becomes full and forms Kan ☵. The reason why Li has this name [separation] is that it separates itself from its own Yang; and the reason why Kan has this name [cavity] is that it traps Li's reality. When the Yang is trapped within the Yin, it does not belong anymore to "me." This is why we speak of the "other house."

 

The Wuzhen pian says:

 

You should know that the source of the stream,

the place where the Medicine is born,

is just at the southwest --

that is its native village.

 

The southwest is the land of Kun ☷, the place where the Yin culminates and the Yang is born. Lu Ziye said:

 

The Medicine comes forth in the southwest, the position of Kun;

if you wish to seek the position of Kun, how could it be separated from that "man"?

I have disclosed the secret in clear words, and you should remember it;

but I am afraid that when you meet him, you will not recognize the True.

 

The name of this man is "man who does not die," or True Man (zhenren). An ancient immortal said:

 

If you want a man not to die,

you must seek the man who does not die.

 

This "man who does not die" is just the same as the "method of not dying of the other house."

 

When we speak of "my house" (wojia), we mean that one's own True Yang has separated from oneself; therefore Li ☲ represents "me." When we speak of the "other house" (tajia), we mean that one's own True Yang has been trapped by the Yin; therefor Kan ☵ represents "the other." The names "other" and "me" are owed to the separation between Kan and Li, and these names are used until the Yang returns. When it returns, what is "other" becomes the same as "me," and what is "me" becomes the same as the "other." They are just one, and they are not two.

 

The Huanghe fu (Rhapsody of the Yellow Crane) says:

 

When you take as a model man and woman generating life,

you certainly release the mechanism of Heaven but cause

the dispersion of the mechanism of Heaven.

 

...

 

I hope these words are able to lead others toward greater clarity.

 

[Phoenix3]

Bump.

 

can someone suggest a good way of circulating this orbit?

 

I believe the Spring Forest Qigong method has a way of using the hands, but I would like to know more than one method.

 

thank you

[Cheshire Cat]

According to Stuart Alve Olson, the sitting form of the eight pieces of brocades is the initial catalyst of the MCO method. It's presented in the book "Qigong teachings of a taoist immortal".

 

 

[Joolian]

@Apeiron&Peiron Do you speak of the 31 TTP exercises in the middle of your post?

Would be interested to hear your experiences with it if you don't mind. So far I have only learned the first 5 exercises of them and doing them occasionally since I am doing mainly FP.

 

I don't want to split this thread, so you could also PM me...

 

On topic, I also tried the small universe meditation from spring forest and found it a good safe way. But since it is not my main system I haven't done that meditation very often. Yet I think it can be very potent in the long run.

[Joolian]

16 minutes ago, Apeiron&Peiron said:

I liked the tao tan pai exercises a lot. But I didn't like that the system was only available in pieces. So I learned what I could from it and went back to spring forest qigong with greater understanding than before. But what I really liked was that it seemed to pinpoint parts of the nervous system (the vagus nerve specifically) where tension can build and energy can bottleneck. That made very easy to keep a quiet mind. But, again, what I didn't like was that it wasn't the full system. Knowing what I know about alchemy from the classics, I can see how it will transition (with the seated exercises) into the process. But the system-specific shen exercises and so on were not available. And, since it involved compression of energy into the dantian, I didn't want to mess around with blending systems (because compression isn't a technique that the classics mention).

 

You could check out the 31 exercises here. The Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego, which had a direct connection to Lew K Share, sells them:

http://www.taoistsanctuary.org/shop/qi-gong-31-exercises

Thank you for your answer. Very nice on the vagus nerve and the nervous system. I should do the exercises also more often...

But do you already know that you could learn the rest of the system from Sifu Terry Dunn?

At least I know that he knows the shen exercises, the Six Stars, The Nine Flowers and The Five Dragons. I don't think that the whole system is lost.

 

Edited November 21, 2017 by Joolian

[Limahong]

On 9/29/2015 at 11:24 AM, sillybearhappyhoneyeater said:

Remember in the long run that this is less about moving Qi and more about cleaning your body and mind of obstructions.  If the Qi is healthy, it will move naturally, and you should be aiming to be healthy.

 

Hi sillybearhappyhoneyeater,

 

Your above statements speak volumes. The importance of a healthy body and mind is key. They provide the frameworks, foundations, infrastructures, organisations, arrangements... for Qi to move naturally.

 

I learned of the above importance the hard way without a teacher and a proper understanding of good texts. I am a third generation overseas Chinese and I am almost blind to Chinese texts. A great shame and I am shameful. Anyway not too late now that I have arrived at TDB.

 

I chance upon your thread because of the 'names' of some of the serious Bummies. They caught my attention and I am not proved wrong to be attracted thus. From a quick scan of the thread - courtesy and gentlemanly sharing of experience, knowledge, explanation... prevailed. Will read more in-depth at my own time.

 

Thank you for starting this thread.

 

- LimA

Edited November 23, 2017 by Limahong