Traveling the Road to the Small Universe
If you are already familiar with Spring Forest Qigong, you know that Small Universe is one of the most important meditations we do. Master Lin recommends that his students and clients practice it every day. But why? For one, it is an easy way to open the body’s front and back energy channels. And why is it so important to keep those two channels open? The answer takes us back to Qigong basics.
The body is criss-crossed with energy channels. When we are well, energy flows through these channels easily and abundantly. But when there is an energy blockage, energy can no longer flow freely. When energy cannot move freely, the subtle energetic blockage can grow and grow. In time, it can manifest as physical, emotional, or spiritual challenges. Tumors can show up. Depression can settle in. So many things can happen. But the energy blockage is always at the root: this is the Qigong perspective.
At this point, we usually start looking for help – usually in the form of different kinds of medicines. If you are reading this, then you probably know there is another way to resolve blockages. There is a way to help the body to use its natural healing ability. It is called Qigong.
If you are new to Qigong, we would like to invite you to think of all this in another way. For the sake of understanding, just imagine the front and back energy channels as one big two-lane road, one of those lanes is under construction. The lane under construction is blocked off. That means all the traffic, whether coming or going, has to use just that one open lane.
Cars are backed up for miles, because the road crew has to do massive re-routing, just a few cars at a time, to make sure there are no crashes that might shut the entire road down. And Imagine— if that entire road were shut down, no one could get to any of the other roads connected to them, either. No one would get anywhere. The line of backed-up vehicles would just get longer and longer. The people inside them would get more and more frustrated.
The only thing that will really help is to fix the road, remove the roadblocks, and get traffic flowing smoothly again on both lanes. How does the road crew do that? Heavy equipment, tools, and a plan of repair. This is what smoothes the way, opens the lanes, and lets everyone on the road go where they need to go. And how do we do that in our Qigong practice? How do we keep our energy channels clear and our body’s energy flowing? With the fundamental “tools” of breathing, movements, directed visualization, and mindset.
We can carry this metaphor a little further. Just as the road crew, working by night, uses the light of their lamps to guide their work and their way, in our Qigong practice, we focus on the light, and with its help we use our “tools” to remove blockages, repair any damage, and open energy channels for faster and more complete healing.
The ancient Chinese ancestors who developed Qigong were observant, intelligent, and intuitive; they were like engineers in their great understanding of the complexities and interconnections of energy flows and patterns, both in the body and in the world. You could say they knew the blueprints of the body’s roads much like today’s road engineers understand the flow of traffic. Both kinds of “engineer” understood that the roads and channels they were concerned with needed to be clear and open to be of use.
In Spring Forest Qigong, we learn that the front and back channels are the most important. When you raise your tongue to the roof of your mouth, you connect the two channels. This is the first step in opening the Small Universe. Along this main loop of energy channels is a series of very important vital energy centers, which we focus on during the Small Universe Meditation.
At the same time, the front and back channels connect to a small number of very important energy channels, which in turn branch out into a network of smaller energy channels embracing the whole body. So, the Small Universe Meditation keeps it simple: open those two main channels, and you benefit the rest of the body. And we do this by using the power of the mind. The mind is so powerful! This is a basic principle of Qigong: where the mind goes, the energy flows. Do you see how the mind can be so beneficial in healing, then? So, in meditation and Qigong practice, focusing the mind is very important.
Now, when practicing the Small Universe Meditation with Master Lin (whichever version you have is good), you begin by visualizing your energy and the energy of your ancestors (your generational energy) joining together, shining brightly in your lower dantian. The lower dantian is your body’s primary energy center, and it is located deep in behind your navel.
As you listen to Master Lin, you will notice he repeats the sounds of OOHM and MUAH over and over as you focus on each different energy center. These are two very powerful healing sounds whose vibration can clear blockages throughout the body. As you continue the meditation, you are guided to inhale and visualize your Master’s energy and the universal energy joining together, radiating into a specific vital center along the Small Universe. Then you exhale and move the energy to the next energy center.
We said earlier that raising the tongue to the roof of the mouth is the first step in opening the channels of the Small Universe. Both the back and front channels begin at the bottom of the torso: the back channel travels up the spine and over the top of the head to stop at the roof of the mouth, while the front channel moves up the front of the body, parallel to the back channel, and ends at the throat. When we raise the tongue to the roof of the mouth, it is like flipping a “switch” and connecting the two channels. And when you flip the switch, energy flows!
The result of practicing the Small Universe Meditation regularly is, quite simply, total health! As blockages disappear, health results. It is as simple as that. Because the Small Universe Meditation keeps “traffic” on our internal energy highway flowing smoothly, it is also the perfect meditation to help us prevent (or quickly get ahead of) things like colds or the flu.
Many Spring Forest Qigong practitioners (including Master Lin) have stories of using the Small Universe in this way. As soon as you feel the onset of an illness, you can start doing the Small Universe Meditation several times a day. If you can do it for 30 or 60 minutes each time, even better. You will be amazed!
In short, like making time for the simple healing movements we learn in Five Elements or Level One, making some time every day for this simple meditation is one of the easiest ways to keep your energy channels open and keep yourself on the “road” to health and happiness
