Mantak Chia was the first Qi Gong master to write and
teach in our country. He taught The Inner Smile as the most powerful
self-healing tool.
Stay focused on the smile, and let one appear on your face as you do
the exercise!
1. Eyes…Start with the eyes. To practice
with the inner smile begin by closing your eyes and smiling sincerely
into them. Relax and feel a deep smile shining through your eyes. By
relaxing your eyes you can calm your entire nervous system.
2.Jaws…Smile down your face into your jaws. Your jaws are a major
storehouse of tension. When you allow the energy created by that “inner
smile” to go into your jaws, you may feel your body letting go
and tension releasing. This may be accompanied by tingling sensations
and noises or not.
3.Tongue to Palate…The tongue is the bridge
connecting the back (yang) and front (yin) channels. Place your tongue
on the roof of your mouth, but it is easiest to leave it in front in
the beginning. When chi flows into the tongue it may produce
different sensations…perhaps a warm tingle.
4. Neck and Throat… the neck region is another
reservoir of tension. Contained in this area are many important nerves
and blood vessels vitally important to your well being. The neck is
the bridge between your brain and your body. If you are in a traffic
jam, knotted with tension and anxiety, the messages between your brain
and organs will be confused and tense. Tighten your neck muscles, then
slowly allow them to relax. Tuck in your chin, and let your head sink
into your chest. Relax the neck muscles by creating the illusion that
they are no longer necessary to hold up your head. Smile into your
neck and throat and feel the tension melt.
5. The Loving Heart…The heart pumps blood
and chi energy through your veins and arteries. In Taoist yoga, the
heart, along with the kidneys, is the main transformer of chi energy.
This means that the heart is capable of both increasing your available
chi and raising the quality of its energy to a more refined level.
The arteries are said to belong to yang energy and the veins to yin
energy. The arteries, therefore, have a positive charge and the veins
a negative one. When you smile and fill your heart with love, you increase
the rate of blood circulation and with it the exchange of yin and yang
energy chi in the bloodstream. So smile into your heart, and feel the
loving energy of the smile spread throughout your circulatory system.
Feel the stream of relaxation flow down and spread
from your face and neck into your heart. You may sense the heart to
be cool and calm, and at the same time feel its physical substance.
Extending the smile relieves stored tension and enables a new kind
of functioning to take place. Fill your heart with love. Let your heart
be your “sweetheart”.
6. Lungs…Radiate the love in your heart to
your lungs. Feel the lungs soften, and breathe with new ease. Feel
the air inside lighten up as it enters and leaves your lungs. Feel
their moist, spongy quality as you relax and fill your with energy.
7. Abdomen…Now smile into your liver on the
right side, just below the rib cage. If your liver is hard, if it is
difficult to feel, soften it with your smile. Smile it back to life,
rejuvenate it with your love.
Direct the smile into your kidneys, in your lower back just below the
rib cage on either side of the spine. The adrenal glands sit on top of
them. Smile at your adrenals, and you may sense a burst of adrenalin.
Smile to the kidneys and fill them with love. Like the heart, this will
increase the flow of chi circulating through your system.
Allow the smile to flow throughout your central
abdomen, through the pancreas and the spleen. Then gently rest the
smile in your navel. All of your organs can be “smiled to”. The process of smiling
into the organs lightens their work load, and enables them to function
more efficiently. They have a hard job pumping and purifying hundreds
of gallons of blood each day, breaking down raw food into digestible
energy, cleansing toxic substances and storing our emotional tensions.
By smiling into your organs you’ve made their day a cheerful one.
8.Middle line... Swallow saliva into lower abdomen…Smile
again in your eyes. Smile down into your mouth and swish your tongue
around to collect saliva. When your mouth is filled with saliva, put
the tip of your tongue to your palate, tighten your neck muscles, and
swallow hard and quickly, making a gulping sound as you do. With your
inner smile, follow the saliva down your esophagus, through your internal
track and to your navel. Your saliva is a lubricating nectar which
is dispersed throughout the body from the navel center. Smile away
the nervous energy in your stomach, and you will eat better food and
find it easier to digest. Relax the smiling energy into your small
intestine, large intestine, and rectum.
9.Back line... Spine…Now bring your focus back
to your eyes. Smile into your eyes, your tongue, then begin to smile
down the inside of your spinal column. Make sure your posture is straight
. Descend one vertbra at a time, smiling into each until you have reached
the coccyx. The spinal column protects your central nervous system
and is crucial in increasing your chi circulation.
You may experience a feeling of great ease, warmth, and comfort in each
vertebra. When the lumbar, coccyxal, and pubic areas are relaxed, energy
is released, and flows more easily up the back.
10. End by collecting the energy
at the navel…With
practice, the entire smiling meditation can be done in just minutes,
although at first it may take you longer to really feel the smile.
To collect the energy, simply concentrate your mind on your navel, and
imagine your energy spinning like a slow top inside, spiraling outward
movement, inside your navel about 1 ½ inch deep, and 24 times
back in to the navel. Men spiral clockwise; women spiral counter clockwise.
Then reverse and circulate the energy in the opposite direction.
11. Practice the inner smile
in your daily life. If you remember to
practice your inner smile during your daily life, it can bring tremendous
results and can transform your life.
Introduction