Meditation of the Inner Smile

PART TWO

Taoist Wisdom for Wellbeing. 

The inner smile is a meditation practice using the five transformational energies: wood, fire, earth, water and metal, known as the five elements from the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  This second part of the blog series looks at the mid line and back line stages of the meditation. Click the image below to visit part one, for preparation and front line guidance.

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Levels of the Inner Smile

• Preparation
• Create smiling energy
• The Front Line (Organs and Glands)
• Heart
• Lungs
• Liver
• Stomach, pancreas and spleen
• Kidneys
• The Mid Line (Digestive System)
• Intestines
• Rectum
• The Back Line (Brain & Spinal Cord)
• Pituitary gland
• Thalamus gland
• Pineal gland
• Left brain
• Right brain
• Spine
• Closing
• Storing Qi in the Dantian
• Close the meditation

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The Inner Smile Process - Part Two

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6)      Smile Down

• Continue smiling warm light down into the bladder, genitals and perineum.
• Feel these area soften with smiling energy.
• Thank these areas for all the work they do in the body; elimination, reproduction and sexual energy.

Return to Yin Tang

• Bring the smile back up to the middle eyebrow.
• Take a few breaths into the mid eyebrow filling this area with smiling energy.
• Feel this area soften as light is drawn in.

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7)      The Mid Line (Digestive System)

• Inhale and as you exhale smile down into your mouth.
• Encourage saliva production by moving your tongue around your mouth.
• Imagine your saliva as a golden healing nectar.
• Fill your saliva with smiling energy.
• Put your tongue to the top of your palate, tense your neck and swallow with a gentle gulp.
• Use your mind to follow it down towards your navel through your esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum.
• As the saliva goes down the body feel the smiling energy soften these areas.
• Smile into your large and small intestines, colon and rectum.
• Inhale a warm light into your digestive system filling with smiling energy.
• Exhale a grey mist.
• Thank these organs for the work they do in ingestion, digestion, absorption and elimination.

Return to Yin Tang

• Bring the smile back up to the middle eyebrow.
• Take a few breaths into the mid eyebrow filling this area with smiling energy.
• Feel this area soften as light is drawn in.

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8)      The Back Line (Brain & Spinal Cord)

Central Brain

• Inhale and as you exhale take your smiling energy into the centre of the brain, just above where the spine meets the skull.
• Known as the ‘crystal palace’ this area is home to the pituitary gland, the thalamus gland and the pineal gland.
• Breathing in a warm light into the centre of the brain.
• Fill these glands with smiling energy and feel them soften.
• Thank your glands for all the work they do in stabilising hormone function.

Brain Cavity

• Inhale into your left brain filling this with bright light and smiling energy.
• Feel the left brain cavity expanding and radiating with light.
• And exhale.
• Inhale a bright light of smiling energy into the right brain.
• Feel the right brain cavity expanding and radiating with light.
• And exhale

Spinal Cord

• Inhale and as you exhale take your smiling energy moving down the spine.
• Feel the smiling energy wash over the spine filling each vertebra, bone marrow, muscles, tendons and nervous system soften with bright light.
• Smile down through the eight cervical vertebra.
• Smile down through the thirteen thoracic vertebra.
• Smile down through the five lumbar vertebra.
• Smile down into your sacrum and coccyx.
• Feel the whole spine illuminated with smiling light and energy.
• Feel the spine soften and relax.
• Thank you spine for all the work it does supporting your skeletal structure, for protecting your spinal cord and central nervous system.

Return to Yin Tang

• Bring the smile back up to the middle eyebrow.
• Take a few breaths into the mid eyebrow filling this area with smiling energy.
• Feel this area soften as light is drawn in.

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9)      Store Qi in the Lower Dantian

The lower Dantian is located about 2 inches lower than the navel and 2 inches internally within the body.  This is where Qi is stored, known as the main energy centre or powerhouse in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  The practice of the Inner Smile cultivates positive Qi, at the end of the meditation session, you collect, consolidate and disperse any excess Qi in the lower Dantian to help sustain your life force.

Formal closing the meditation must not be forgotten, as Qi can cause ill effects if not stored in the lower Dantian correctly. Only to be done at the end of the meditation. If you are only performing the front line inner smile to the organs, you can follow on from the kidneys into this formal closing technique. If the inner smile is used as a preliminary mediation to the microcosmic orbit, this technique is used at the end of the microcosmic orbit.

• Inhale as you smile down to the Dantian.
• Allow Qi to sink down to and settle at the Dantian.
• Women place their hands left over right over the Dantian (right against the abdomen).
• Men place their hands right over left over the Dantian (left against the abdomen).
• Rotate the Dantian in a spiralling motion, the Dantian drives the movement of the hands, not the hands leading the movement.
• Start with a small point and spiral the circle outwards around the navel area.
• The largest the circle reaches is the space between the top of the pubic bone and just below the solar plexus.

• Men start with a clockwise direction x 36 times and close with an anti-clockwise direction x 24 times.
• Men reach cultivated Yang Qi to the rest of the body during the outward spiral in a clockwise direction.
• Men draw Yin Qi into the Dantian to balance Yang in the closing anti-clockwise spirals.
• Men closing Qi = Yang embraces Yin.

• Women start with an anti-clockwise direction x 36 times and close with a clockwise direction x 24 times.
• Women reach cultivated Yin Qi to the rest of the body during the outward spiral in an anti-clockwise direction.
• Women draw Yang Qi into the Dantian to balance Yin in the closing clockwise spirals.
• Women closing Qi = Yin embraces Yang.

• To find the right way, imagine the pubic bone is 12 o'clock and the solar plexus is 6 o'clock, work out anti-clockwise and clockwise from mapping this on your abdomen.
• When you have completed 36 rotations, reverse the movement and circle the hands in the opposite direction 24 times.
• Start with a large circle and spiral inwards to a small point on the Dantian.
• By storing Qi in the Dantian this prevents ill effects such as excess heat in the head or heart.

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