r/TaoistMeditation

8. Enter into Stillness or Bringing in the Light.

OK, let's get started . . .

Heading into understanding and working with the "Small Heavenly Circle" or Microcosmic Orbit, the internet is repleat with content: diagrams, videos, web pages, and terminology mostly in Chinese. But how to begin? How to get the best results from your time, really? You must take it slowly.

Even masters of meditation who have studied for decades often need a simple and relaxing approach to relieve stress and help with awareness. There is no need to always jump into the deep end of the pool. It is not about the destination but the journey. You will explore and discover the wonders of your body, mind and spirit as you develop these meditation exercises. And they are exercises which must be practiced, not just learned from an academic point of view but felt and engaged with deeply, emotionally and spiritually, and repeated for months.

So, to begin with, is this wonderful exercise I often return to for the ease and rest it provides.

It has two names. I guess my master could not pick which name he preferred.

Enter into Stillness or Bringing in the Light

Sit comfortably, light an incense stick, and prepare to begin. At each step, concentrate for several long breaths, perhaps 5 breaths. Form the Tongue Bridge (as discussed in forum below.)

1. Look out at the horizon for several long breaths. Breathe and relax.

2. Lower your eyes to look out at about 300 feet away (90 meters).

3. Lower your eyes and look out 20 feet away (6 meters).

4. Lower your eyes and look 5 feet away (1.5 meters).

5. Lower your eyes and look straight down right in front of you.

6. Close your eyes and with inner sight look at the perineum, the area at the bottom of your body.

7. Use your inner sight to bring attention to a point where the spine leaves the hips.

8. Bring your attention up the spine to a point opposite of just below the belly button.

9. Bring attention up the spine to a point opposite the sternum (mid back).

10. Bring attention up to a point where the spine leaves the rib cage and shoulder bones attach.

11. Bring attention up to a point where the spine enters the skull. (Base of the skull)

12. Next, attention leaves the spine and travels up the cranium to the top of your skull. Focus attention on the tip top of your head.

13. Bring attention to a point a little bit above and between the eyebrows.

14. Finally, bring attention to the tip of your nose, eyes half open, and grow your inner smile.

Sit and be tranquil with the knowledge that you have completed Bringing in the Light and Entering Stillness.

Do this every day for a month

Hi, first off thanks for reading and take your time to reply if you choose to do so.

i had been doing meditation practices like sitting quiet , or chanting om (i didnt breathe properly though , i'd breathe from chest) for 1-2 year though not consistent. last month i got introduced to qigong and taoist meditation through online platforms and it felt natural to me so i thought yeah this is for me .

then i started doing belly breathing , inner seeing and hearing, from nathan brine book, also jingang gong and zhan zhuang. sometimes when i do it , my sense of time fades , mind calms and sometimes i have difficulty breathing in belly . i feel like there isnt any oxygen in the air im breathing so fast like hyperventilation or overbreathing. i'm also preparing for competitive exams so i have a lot of sitting hours and sometime i feel tingling sensations in my feet too.

now i don't know if i'm doing anything wrong or is this any side effects or something like that.

thanks for taking your time to read and reply

5

Discussion around Yi. Let us discuss more about Yi. Consider the following statements of idea.

Yi is easily researched and defined as 'mind intent' in several web resources. But let us delve, hmmm, Mind Intent?

Yi is not Chi, Yi comes before expression, before Chi. Our bodies' nervous system is a network of bio-electric connectors that cause muscles to do something. Perhaps Yi refers to those stimuli that occur a split second before something happens.

In Tai Chi we are taught to relax in movement. Perhaps what this is really teaching us is to relax all those impulses down to the fewest ones. This way, mind intent is connected more quickly to a result, without extraneous nervous activity causing unnecessary muscular actions. Thus, in combat the body moves as quickly as the mind with no thinking.

But what about in meditation? I believe it is only because of the Yi - Chi interaction that Taoist meditations are possible. (I have studied Buddhist Meditation and frankly, I don't believe they have harnessed this kind of energy. They might refer to it as attachment and something to be avoided.)

But in Taoist meditation it is said the eyes direct the Chi through the body. And best along meridian lines. (In meditation practice there are eight meridian lines called functional, which are different from the meridian lines of acupuncture treatment.)

The eyes accompany the breath and directs the Chi. Yi is in there also and directs the Chi as it is guided up and along the meridian lines, into the organs etc.

But there is also the Chi that is collected and feels warm, like warm palms, or organ healing. Here the Yi is accompanied by an increase of Chi, not flowing but concentrating, holding, then releasing. This is more likely in Chi Kung exercises which are numerous! For example, holding the ball, is an interesting expression of Chi collecting in palms and traveling between palms. This then can also be expressed outwards or inwards usually as healing palms.

So Yi follows the eyes with the breath and Chi follows the Yi. Ah the Golden Light!

Any comments or observations? Anything I got wrong or off? I am sure I missed something.