Organ meditations

[Maddie]

Does anyone have any experience with any of the various qigong and Taoist organ meditations like inner smile, healing sounds, ect. When I first began to meditate several years ago these were some of my first mediations. I had some interesting experiences such as repressed memories that came up and such. Just wondering if anyone else does or has done this type of meditation and what experiences you may have had? 

[dawei]

I think in general, this is the most important 'practice' anyone can do... if you can't smile at your own organs, how can you smile to life itself.  

 

For all the bad press that Mantak Chia gets, and some valid... his book on the inner smile is worth understanding. 

 

I don't meditate, so can't speak from that angle...  In my Medical Qigong phase, smiling = extending love and healing. 

 

Now, the 'smile' is same a thought or action or non-doing.   

 

Don't get caught up in the smile is a happy moment or a healing moment.  It is simply life itself... smiling at you too. 

[dawei]

So to get back to topic !  LOL

 

Organ mediation is useful.  In Medical Qigong, the progression is: Purge, tonify, regulate.   

 

I only raise that as what is organ meditation trying to do, within the three progressions? 

 

I might suggest, if you are only doing one of the three.. consider the three. 

[joeblast]

just dont flex them

[Maddie]

Ok so for a little more background and explanation for my self and my experience personally.... Qigong was basically the first practice I got into and the reason was to help me deal with a lot of past trauma particularly childhood trauma but other trauma as well. In my study of qigong I did become aware of the inner smile and healing sounds from Chia, but a student of his (Gilles Marin) had written a book that took the practice to a much deeper level than what I had learned from Chia. In his book I learned to use these same techniques but to go much deeper into the organs, especially into their emotional and mental aspects. I might spend (at times) up to an hour looking deeply into a single organ, basically breathing in its associated color with the smile, and breathing out what ever was in there that no longer served me with the associated healing sound. The unexpected thing that happened was that I would uncover repressed emotions and forgotten memories that tended to relate to that organ. 

   For example one time I spend an extended amount of time on my kidneys, breathing in blue, exhaling "dirty qi" with the "choo" sound. I reached a point where it was quite challenging, as totally repressed memories from childhood that terrified me came to the surface, as well as the same quality and sense of fear as at the time I was experiencing the event that caused the fear in the first place as though I were a child again. While that part was unpleasant, on the other hand long standing phobias and mental blocks that I had carried with me all my life up to that point began to fade away, so in that regard it was extremely beneficial. 

   The same held true for the other organs, anger with the liver, sadness with the lungs, ect. I also experienced some other unexpected beneficially health benefits. Gilles includes in his organ meditations the other body parts associated with each organ as well. So for example with the liver meditation one breathes green qi into their eyeballs as well and I noticed an improvement in my eye sight as well. I was in college at this time and previously if I sat in the back had to use glasses to see the board clearly. After a little while of doing this meditation I no longer found my glasses to be necessary. 

   Since then I have moved on and now primarily do Buddhist mindfulness meditation, but still have fond memories of the early days of meditation with the organs. 

[liminal_luke]

Not really doing any organ meditations now, but I`m also drawn to this kind of practice.  What particularly strikes me is how each organ (or organ system, really) has a certain...ummm, I dunno...flavor?  What I mean is that I got so that I`d recognize the difference in feel between a kidney feeling and a liver one, and so on.  My shiatsu teacher in massage school once said that she could be blindfolded and have someone put her finger on someone else`s meridian point and know which meridian it was from the quality of the qi.  I just find this fascinating.

[Maddie]

I think it is fascinating as well!

[JohnC]

Gift of the Tao 2 has a specific set of movements that work with each organ.

[Maddie]

Is it the five animal sports? Because that is a Qigong set that does that. I've dabbled with the version that Doctor Yang put out.

Edited December 6, 2017 by dmattwads

[Miroku]

Organ meditations are great. I love to smile and gently massage my organs with my mind (sounds really weird) before I go to sleep. Sometimes I also do meditations with sound and colours and movements but only when I can sleep in as I have noticed that I tend to sleep long and deep due to the organs needing extra chi. Seems like I will have to stand more before doing it again.

However, cool experience with emotions. I haven't noticed something like that, but I didn't do it much tbh.

[thelerner]

Minke DeVos from Silent Grounds has great one, Deep Body Smile.  Takes you through the bodies system in a very Daoist way.  On her Tao Basics CD. 

Giles Martin has a good indepth meditation slowly lighting up the bone structure in The Bone Dreaming Meditation on his Sleeping Chi Kung album. 

Similarly most Yoga Nidras do a good job working and relaxing the outer body. 

 

My experiences with these types of meditation is generally deep relaxation and a nice feeling of clearness.  For example near the end the Deep Body Smile has you slowly shining on a cleansing light on both sides of the brain, clearing out the mental cobwebs. 

 

Edited December 5, 2017 by thelerner

[Astral Monk]

9 hours ago, dmattwads said:

Is it the five animal sports? Because that is a Qigong said that does that. I've dabbled with the version that Doctor Yang put out.

I dont think its the same, though there maybe some crossover. Five Animals gets into the realm of activating spontaneous qigong.

 

8)

[Astral Monk]

Anyone been doing Spring Forest Qigong's 5 Element set? Id be interested to hear ppl's experiences.

 

In short, it works the 5 organs through cultivating associated emotions, in conjuction with qigong. Chunyi Lin recommends the healing sounds eleswhere, not sure if he combines them in this case.

 

8)

[Dioni]

On 1/12/2017 at 3:24 PM, dmattwads said:

Ok so for a little more background and explanation for my self and my experience personally.... Qigong was basically the first practice I got into and the reason was to help me deal with a lot of past trauma particularly childhood trauma but other trauma as well. In my study of qigong I did become aware of the inner smile and healing sounds from Chia, but a student of his (Gilles Marin) had written a book that took the practice to a much deeper level than what I had learned from Chia. In his book I learned to use these same techniques but to go much deeper into the organs, especially into their emotional and mental aspects. I might spend (at times) up to an hour looking deeply into a single organ, basically breathing in its associated color with the smile, and breathing out what ever was in there that no longer served me with the associated healing sound. The unexpected thing that happened was that I would uncover repressed emotions and forgotten memories that tended to relate to that organ. 

   For example one time I spend an extended amount of time on my kidneys, breathing in blue, exhaling "dirty qi" with the "choo" sound. I reached a point where it was quite challenging, as totally repressed memories from childhood that terrified me came to the surface, as well as the same quality and sense of fear as at the time I was experiencing the event that caused the fear in the first place as though I were a child again. While that part was unpleasant, on the other hand long standing phobias and mental blocks that I had carried with me all my life up to that point began to fade away, so in that regard it was extremely beneficial. 

   The same held true for the other organs, anger with the liver, sadness with the lungs, ect. I also experienced some other unexpected beneficially health benefits. Gilles includes in his organ meditations the other body parts associated with each organ as well. So for example with the liver meditation one breathes green qi into their eyeballs as well and I noticed an improvement in my eye sight as well. I was in college at this time and previously if I sat in the back had to use glasses to see the board clearly. After a little while of doing this meditation I no longer found my glasses to be necessary. 

   Since then I have moved on and now primarily do Buddhist mindfulness meditation, but still have fond memories of the early days of meditation with the organs. 

Great to hear your experience! Which book do you suggest from Gilles Marin to learn this exercises? 

[Maddie]

16 hours ago, Dioni said:

Great to hear your experience! Which book do you suggest from Gilles Marin to learn this exercises? 

"Five elements, Six conditions"