THE EMPTY VESSEL

1) Base of Your Vessel: feet, legs, hips, hands, forearms, lower abdomen.

2) Open Space of Your Vessel: open clear space through:
torso, head, and upper arms.

3) Focal Point: center your mind in the center of your brain. Feel the expansion of energy forward and upward from there.

Follow these four cues to practice THE EMPTY VESSEL:

1) RELAX AND ALIGN POSTURE (Same as Seated Meditation #1 EXCEPT HAND POSITION):
-Arrange your environment to be quiet, comfortable, and free from distraction.
-Sit forward on the front edge of a chair or bed.
-Feel your feet firmly on the ground, with your weight evenly spread across the surface of both feet.
-Rest your hands, palms up on your thighs. Place one palm on the other with your thumbs touching. Relax and soften your hands.
-Let your elbows feel heavy, so your shoulders relax and sink down.
-Imagine a string attached to the top of your head pulling you gently upright. Feel as if your body is filled with helium. This opens and expand the space in all joints.
-Roll the tip of your tongue to lightly touch the roof of your mouth.

2) SMILE AND BREATHE CONSCIOUSLY (Same as Seated Meditation #1):
-Adjust your emotional attitude with a subtle smile. Let the feeling of smiling relax your face, eyes, and forehead. Smile down through your whole body, letting your whole body soften and relax.
-Focus into your lower abdomen and become aware of your breathing there. As you inhale feel as if your lower abdomen and lower back fill with your breath. Exhale and allow your abdomen to relax back toward your spine. Let your breathin.g become slow, quiet, and soft.

3) VISUALIZE THE QI PATHWAY:
-BASE OF YOUR VESSEL: feel your feet, legs, hips, hands, forearms, and lower abdomen as heavy and rooted into the ground. This is the base of your vessel.

-EMPTY SPACE IN YOUR VESSEL: feel open, clear space through your torso, head, and upper arms. You may also imagine this area as a blank screen. All thoughts, feelings, images, etc., dissolve on this blank screen or in this open space of your vessel.

-FOCAL POINT: center your mind in a sphere of energy in the upper dantian.

4) IMAGINE AND FEEL UNIVERSAL QI FLOWING SMOOTHLY ALONG ITS PATH:
-Allow a feeling of cool, peaceful, universal energy to expand upward and forward from the upper dantian sphere. Imagine and feel universal qi from the Source of your being lighting up your upper brain and forebrain, enlightening your mind.

-Focus into the cool peaceful energy expanding upward and forward from the upper dantian for at least 15 MINUTES. Whenever your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the upper dantian as if nothing matters at this moment. Return to the intention of enlightening your mind with universal qi as many times as your mind is distracted.

CONCLUSION:
-To finish this practice, feel your body as a whole from the inside. Allow a feeling of relaxation to fill every cell. Rest your mind in that feeling.

-At the end of your practice, stand up and do the following STRETCHES:

1. Reach both arms overhead. Interlace your fingers and turn your palms up. Inhale through your nose and press your palms as high as you can overhead. Exhale through your mouth and lean to one side, feeling the stretch on the opposite side of your body. Inhale and return to center. Exhale and lean to the other side. Repeat each side three times.

2. Bring your hands down in front of your chest, with fingers still interlaced, and palms facing you as if you are holding a large beach ball at chest level. Inhale through your nose. Exhale through your mouth and rotate as far as you can to one side, staying upright. Inhale and return to center. Exhale and turn to the opposite side. Inhale as you return to center. Repeat three times to each side.

3. Shake out your arms and legs. Shake your legs one at a time from the hip, letting your foot hang loosely. Shake your hands from your shoulders, letting your hands hang loosely.

4. Finish your practice by placing your hands on your lower abdomen and taking three deep breathes in through your nose and out completely through your mouth. Collect core energy in your lower dantian. Carry that energy into your day.