Where did you learn Microcosmic Orbit ? (Books, DVDs, schools, teachers)

[mizpulyn]

Hi guys ive seen many sources and authors refered about Microcosmic Orbit.

Iam trying to find which are most respected self-learning materials about MCO.

 

Can you post where did you learned MCO from ?

I know many here learned MCO from a teacher - oral transmission which is of course the ideal way.

 

But if you would recommend a self-study source to learn MCO what would it be ?

 

Iam interested in self-study so books, video, web articles are prefered. Please be specific about the title. Author and title of the book or dvd, etc.

 

I know aboout Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming - Qigong Meditation but for me this book is too encyclopedic/academic (430 pages) and he also keeps mentioning in this book you should read his previous book before you start (Embryonic Breathing - another 400 pages) - i dont want to read 800 pages to start practice

Also Mantak Chia is mentioned a lot but he already has like 60 books and 50 DVDs - if you learned from Mantak Chia which title would you recommend most from his catalogue about Microcosmic Orbit

Also Jerry Alan Johnson is mentioned, but i dont know his work at all, i dont know which of his books describe MCO.

 

Could you guys post if you self-learned MCO... where did you learn MCO from ? What titles would you recommend ?

 

Please dont post "i heard this and this should be good"... iam trying to gather tried and tested sources that really worked for people in the field, so i prefer recommendations that really worked FOR YOU... THANKS A LOT
 

[Gerard]

Hi,

 

You need to focus on purifying your mind by cleansing your internal organs, opening meridians, joints...basically remove all post-birth characteristics and progressively let go of all worldy desires and transcend karma.

 

This is a lifetime work.

 

MCO is a bogus practice in its own right. It will happen when you attain a certain level after following a traditional system for a period of time. You need an experienced teacher who also practices seriously for this.

 

Examples: Chinese Traditional Internal Martial Arts, Buddhist Vipassana.

 

Vipassana means seeing through the true nature of reality or Insight into the true nature of reality. It means seeing things as they truly are. It is the direct and intuitive understanding of the true nature of all mental and physical phenomena.

 

Vipassana is based on the Four Satipatthana, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. That is to say, Insight is realized by the consistent and progressive application of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

 

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness are:

 

1. Mindfulness of the Body,

2. Mindfulness of Feelings,

3. Mindfulness of the Mind, and

4. Mindfulness of the Mind Objects.

 

Good luck.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Gerard

[mizpulyn]

Anyone else care to share where he or she learned MCO from. If you dont think it can be learned from book or dvd you dont have to reply

[SonOfTheGods]

Anyone else care to share where he or she learned MCO from. If you dont think it can be learned from book or dvd you dont have to reply

 

Get The Most Out Of Your MCO

http://thedaobums.com/topic/39387-get-the-most-out-of-your-mco/

[dawei]

Anyone else care to share where he or she learned MCO from. If you dont think it can be learned from book or dvd you dont have to reply

 

I originally read it here, which I think is one of his smallest and best book:

 

Chi Kung: Health and Martial Arts

by Yang Jwing Ming

 

I then searched online to find something which supported the method and found a rather detailed write-up which I printed out.   I pieced together all of what seemed to make the most sense and then I decided to simply try it... and the rest is history.

 

I then went on to look at some of Yang's other books and doing some of the meridian tests he mentions and I was able to re-produce those as well.

 

I think there are lots of variations on the MCO and have enjoyed reading how others have slight differences but all I know is what worked for me.

[Leif]

KAP 1 video course from http://www.kundaliniawakeningprocess.com/  it's live but basically self-learning video course, includes manual and videos for later download of the live session, core part of their method is MCO

[voidisyinyang]

http://www.springforestqigong.com/meditation-cds-and-downloads/#small-universe-30

 

and Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality book

 

google it for links

[Gerard]

If you dont think it can be learned from book or dvd you dont have to reply

 

 

I want to reply because you are writing in public. Also to save you time. Put your energy in something that works, not spiritual materialism.

 

MCO would be like the young apprentice looking at the master's finger...

.

 

I hope this video will teach you something.

 

[6345789]

I learned mco as the "Small Universe" through studying Spring Forest Qigong.  I have used a guided audio for years, and still do - usually but not always, and i do this practice for 30 minutes to 2 hours.  I do it daily.  i have used home-study materials but also studied with Master Lin in classes in person.  I believe he considers this a "core" meditation practice and it is usually the first one  recommended  for self-healing.  He describes it in the back of  his Level 1 book which includes the basic sfq movements.  In the sfq system you can learn this from the book or the cd.   i think the guided cd  is really useful. 

 

The small universe and the sfq active exercises will help you make yourself a nicer person, get ready.  Yee ha!

[Rocco]

I learned it from Mantak Chias book.

[GreytoWhite]

I would not recommend learning this from a book or DVD. I understand this is what you would prefer but please, take a word of caution from someone who has experienced extreme qi deviation. In-person teaching and supervision is required. If you can get a seminar in and then buy the distance learning material you will at least have a better idea of what you need to do, reminders of practice points, and usually continued contact with a teacher is easier after you've met them. 

[vonkrankenhaus]

I first learned the small circulation starting in around 1974, mainly from my sigung in person.

 

I have learned quite a bit about this from always training since that time.

 

I have seen materials by Yang Jwing Ming and Mantak Chia recently, and others - there is a lot of information published about this now, and most of it seems quite applicable.

 

I prefer learning completely from skilled teachers, especially in the first 10 years.

 

Ironically, it is really after learning quite a bit that things seen in books and videos become easiest to see and quickly apprehend.

 

 

-VonKrankenhaus

[mizpulyn]

wow thanks guys for links and recommendations !!!

 

KEEP THEM COMING... we all have lifetime of study ahead so decent library of BOOKS THAT DO WORK is handy...

 

i ESPECIALLY appreciate you post links to where YOU ACTUALLY LEARNED MCO... thats priceless, not suggestions based on "i heard that this and this should be good" or "people mention this a lot on DAOBUMS, AMAZON, etc."... if you google MCO you get many books but the questions is what really WORKED FOR YOU and got YOUR MCO started... and what is just "another" generic book about taoist yoga or qi energy ...

 

iam from a small shitty east-europe town so finding a real "non-bogus" teacher who actually has GENUINE KNOWLEDGE is quite impossible here, there are 1 or 2 taoist or gi gong courses, but i believe they are just exploiting the fashionable name for some basic stretching, light Yoga excercises you can read from any book with a QI or YOGA in its name... i work 9-5 and commute home long so i dont have time to travel across country to meet some teacher who again might not be legit in these regions...

 

its a simple numbers game...

 

people in BIG cities with strong asian and/or alternative sub-culture (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Toronto, London, Hong Kong, Sidney) have big advantage finding GENUINE teacher... but its not always possible everywhere...

Edited October 11, 2015 by mizpulyn

[voidisyinyang]

You can call the qigong masters for energy - you don't need physical contact with a teacher as the teachers do phone healings.

 

http://springforestqigong.com does phone healings and so does http://guidingqi.com - those are both real qigong masters that I have trained with.

 

Then you just order the self-learning course - the small universe C.D. guides you through the meditation so you just follow along with the C.D.

 

So you can get a phone healing to feel the energy and then practice on your own and then do a follow up healing maybe 6 months later, etc.

[GreytoWhite]

There are some legitimate teachers in Eastern Europe. I know the Polish Yiquan Academy is quite good.

[Taomeow]

.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Taomeow

[dawei]

I would not recommend learning this from a book or DVD. I understand this is what you would prefer but please, take a word of caution from someone who has experienced extreme qi deviation. 

 

 

wow thanks guys for links and recommendations !!!

 

It may be time to balance the thread with what GreytoWhite mentions of QI deviation... and Taomeow says of letting it awaken on its own.

 

There are two basic methods:

1. Stillness methods - Some here can talk about and closer to what Taomeow suggests; let the practice awaken it (I don't follow this method and if I am mis-representing it, then I would hope others will write more).

2. Movement methods - This is the more active approach which I think most response are about and comes with serious responsibility in proper practice... and if Qi deviation occurs, who are you going to get to fix it? 

 

I can tell you I also had Qi deviation and without a QIgong Sifu to fix it, I would of been in bad situation... I later learned how to fix it myself but under some guidance.

 

I can do the movement method while driving a car and get it going...

 

In looking back at it all, I would like to have learned the stillness method to be able to see how I could balance all of it and employ either method.    

 

I would ask for some stillness method folks to chime and explain how that works.

[Blackfinger]

I can't see Taomeow's response above...

 

but my understanding of the 'stillness method' (though I haven't heard it called this before) is that in the course of one's practice(qigong/neigong, meditation, LDT awareness etc) qi will be drawn to the LDT and once this is sufficiently active, the qi will naturally want to leave the LDT into the perineum etc and enter the start of the MCO. In fact, it can be quite a struggle to prevent the qi from entering the MCO, when it wants to. Once started naturally, the MCO can be aided with breathing and posture etc, as well as 'song/releasing', especially through the clipping passes.

 

The other way of doing it (the movement method?), I understand, primarily employs the imagination. My understanding is that linking the movement of the MCO to the imagination increases the potential for qi deviation depending on how the imagination is employed, and delusion (phantom signs of progress etc.), and also creates what can become a negative dependence by tethering the activity of the MCO to the imagination.

 

Same principle, I understand, with the energetic level of merging kan and li (Which can be done by adjusting posture and centre of gravity so that the yi is, after time, free to reside elsewhere whilst kan and li are being merged independent of it.)

[GreytoWhite]

The movement method as it was taught to me required very little imagination. The exercises I learned in martial neigong were explicitly designed to work on the MCO as it was considered incredibly important to be able to spiral and sink qi.

[MTmind]

How did the first person who used this learn it? 

 

Lots of thought provoking circulation inspiration in the book Holding Yin Embracing Yang by Eva Wong.

 

Off to my bed and some internal introspection... thanks for the Bruce Lee finger pointing at the moon link. 

[Gerard]

The exercises I learned in martial neigong were explicitly designed to work on the MCO as it was considered incredibly important to be able to spiral and sink qi.

 

Bagua naturally opens the MCO and the Macrocosmic as well....and then the MIND which is EVERYTHING that matters in the end. Besides, regulating the emotional mind is a very important task as the main cause of qi not flowing well and disease (according to TCM wisdom) are emotional imbalances.

 

....

 

Yes the scene from Enter the Dragon is my favourite from Lee's (blessed from being born in the year of the dragon); the first scene that impressed me as a 7-year-old and motivated me to think outside the box, my entire life, never take anything from granted, question everything! (except for Taoist and Buddhist wisdom, of course)

[Leif]

iam from a small shitty east-europe town so finding a real "non-bogus" teacher who actually has GENUINE KNOWLEDGE is quite impossible here, there are 1 or 2 taoist or gi gong courses, but i believe they are just exploiting the fashionable name for some basic stretching, light Yoga excercises you can read from any book with a QI or YOGA in its name... i work 9-5 and commute home long so i dont have time to travel across country to meet some teacher who again might not be legit in these regions...

 

just because you touched this, in case you might be living in Trzeskoprsky or anywhere near Prague and are also looking for other practices besides MCO , there might be more but I'm aware of xing yi lineage http://xingyiquan.wz.cz/  and Hunyuan qigong http://practicalmethod.cz/  that are both as genuine as one could get

[Bearded Dragon]

I'm not going to recommend anything. I'll just mention some points that work for me which you probably won't hear anywhere else.

 

1) Proper pelvic rotation is very important to open up the lower spine. Don't force it though. Add in a mental rotation from the front of your dantien up and around down to the tip of your tailbone. This starts the energy shooting up through your lower spine and it should be obvious if you have a moderate degree of sensitivity. I had originally rotated down from the front of the dantien through the perineum to the tip of the tailbone but the opposite works 100x better.

 

2) Get the lower part then jump to the upper. Raise up through the sides of the neck into the parts on either side of the occiput. Tilt your head slightly forward in order to open up the occiput where your neck joins your skull. You should really feel something coming up to the top of your head. Coming at it from both top and bottom tends to help with the more difficult part of opening the middle of the back.

 

3) Sink your chi into the ground. This is difficult because it's not obvious if you're doing it properly. I don't think of the orbit coming back down the front. I just relax everywhere. If you get this then you naturally feel energy pooling in your dantian without the needless practice of visualisation. Intent and visualisation aren't the same. Anyway, I sink all the way to the ground because I think it's more beneficial than just sinking to the dantian.

 

There are thousands of different ways to get it, all of which might work better at different levels. Gather as many tricks as you can and try them out. I get all mine from different martial arts people.

[Taomeow]

The movement method as it was taught to me required very little imagination. The exercises I learned in martial neigong were explicitly designed to work on the MCO as it was considered incredibly important to be able to spiral and sink qi.

 

Similarly, until I needed it for taiji neigong, there was no point running it, once I did, there was no need to imagine it.   I didn't practice any specific exercises, it was more like a waigong to neigong transition of awareness while doing the form, and then it gets "embodied" and you can put it on autopilot, and you can turn it on or off as needed.  Control is crucial.  I've heard too many stories of all kinds of side effects, from mildly annoying to life-disrupting, to favor "learning" it "just because you can."  Yes you can -- but can you turn it off?..  Can you turn it off when it's draining your qi instead of circulating it?  Do you know where you're "leaking?"  Do you know where you are "blocked," "deviated," "entangled," "stuck," and how to fix it before running the MCO?..  That's the part a book or DVD may overlook. 

[exorcist_1699]

From Taoist point of view,  somewhat different  from TCM's  , both men and women's bodies at post-heavenly  (後天)  level are said to be  yin  , but   with  the sole  yang , the essence of life,  hidden  in  different places of their bodies ;   so   female practitioners should pay attention to different starting point and direction of qi  in their  practice , especially   when  doing their MCC...

Edited October 15, 2015 by exorcist_1699