Charles Luk - Microcosmic Orbit

[Shi Da Dao]

The Microcosmic Orbit Technique (Hsiao Chou T’ien)

Trabslated By Charles Luk From The

I Fang Chi Chiai - Ancient Medical Formulas Explained

First stop your thinking (process). After regulating body and mind, sit facing east, with crossed legs. Adjust your inhalation and exhalation, and place the right hand upon the left one, drawing them close to the lower belly below the navel. Then knock the lower teeth against the upper ones thirty-six times to stabilise both body and spirit. Let the red dragon stir the sea thirty-six times (1), directing your (closed) eyes to follow its movements. Now let the tongue touch the palate. Calm your mind and count your breath three hundred and sixty times. When your mouth is full of divine water, rinse it a few times and then practice the four acts (2) by drawing up the anus to ensure (for the vital principle) free passage in the jen mo channel through the coccyx and the middle gate (between the loins) and then along the spine up which it moves faster. Close your eyes, turn them up and breathe in slowly through the nose without expiring, until the jade pillow (i.e. the back of the head) is pierced through. Then (the vital principle), as if being forcibly pushed up by the faculty of seeing, rises up the (central channel), circles the Kunlun peak (the top of the head), and descends to the magpie’s bridge (the tongue). Now swallow one third of your saliva which should follow (the vital principle) down to the Bright Palace (the heart) before returning to the ocean of prana (the lower belly). Pause for a moment and repeat the same exercise for a second and third time to make three circuits in all. This is called the reverse flowing of the Heavenly Current.

Rest for a little and, with your hands, rub the lower belly one hundred and eighty times. When taking the hands away, put a warm cloth over the navel and lower belly in order not to expose them to the cold air. (The ancients said: “The secret of immortality lies in the preservation of the heat in the Field of the Elixir [in the lower belly].”) Then, chafe the backs of the thumbs against each other until they are hot and, with them, rub the eyes fourteen times to quench the ‘fire’ in the heart, the nose thirty-six times to refresh the lungs, the ears fourteen times to invigorate the kidneys and the face fourteen times to strengthen the spleen. Close the eyes with (the palms of) your hands and beat the heavenly drum (3). Then raise your hands slowly over your head, bringing the two palms together (4) as if to salute the Heavens. Do all this three times and slowly breathe out impure air, inspiring fresh air, four to five times. Then (with crossed arms) hold the shoulders with your hands, shaking them a few times to invigorate your nerves and bones. Conclude by rubbing the jade pillow (the back of the head) twenty-four times, the small of the back 180 times and the middle of the soles 180 times.

1) The Red Dragon is the tongue; roll it round your mouth thirty-six times to make saliva flow, thereby reducing the scorching effect of the heat of rising prana. A quicker way is to roll the tongue back as far as possible.

2) The four acts consist of (a) drawing up, (b) touching, (c) closing and (d) inhaling. Drawing up the anus is to promote free passage of prana through the coccyx; touching the palate with the tongue is to make a bridge connecting the psychic centres in the head with those in the neck and the chest; closing the eyes to look up is to control the mind and to push up the prana; and inhaling without exhaling is to avoid dissipation of the vital energy.

3) Place the palms of the hands on the ears, press the second fingers on the back of the head with the first finger and snap the latter against the bones above the ears to make sharp sounds.

4) To connect the currents of prana in both arms, thus forming another circuit round the body.

Since the above is unintelligible without explanatory notes, this excellent Taoist technique has been largely forgotten in China where people cannot be bothered to investigate it. In my youth, I too was loath to read Taoist books which, like Ch’an texts, seem strange and unintelligible.

(The Secrets of Chinese Meditation: By Charles Luk Pages 205 -207)