SMALL HEAVEN

Follow these four cues to practice SMALL HEAVEN :

1) RELAX AND ALIGN POSTURE (Same as Seated Meditation #1):
-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 down on your thighs. 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 breathing become slow, quiet, and soft.

3) VISUALIZE THE QI PATHWAY:
-Imagine an energy pearl at each of these points:

1. Xia Dantian ("shah dahn-tee-en"): Lower abdomen (3 finger-widths below navel)
2. Hui Yin ("huway yin"): Perineum (between genitals and anus)
3. Wei Lu ("way loo"): Coccyx (tip of tailbone)
4. Ming Men: On spine opposite navel (between 2nd & 3rd lumbar vertebrae)
5. Da Zhui ("da zuway"): Base of neck (C7 vertebrae)
6. Yu Chen ("yoo jen"): At spinal entry to skull
7. Bai Hui ("bai huway"): Crown point (top of head, highest point on body)
8. Sang Dantian ("shahng dahn-tee-en"): Center of forehead
9. Chong Dantian ("jong dahn-tee-en"): Center of sternum (chest)
10. Xia Dantian: Return to lower abdomen

4) IMAGINE AND FEEL UNIVERSAL QI FLOWING SMOOTHLY ALONG ITS PATH:
-Begin this path by feeling an energy sphere in the lower abdomen. As you inhale, imagine and feel that sphere of energy expand and fill up. As you exhale, imagine and feel that sphere of energy relax inward and empty out.

-Draw some of that energy forward into the pearl at the Xia Dantian point. Give a few gentle squeezes at that point. Then, relax and feel the energy build in the glowing pearl at the Xia Dantian point.

-Follow that pearl as it moves downward to the Hui Yin point at the perineum. Imagine that the pearl leaves a trail of energy as it moves from one point to the next. Give a few gentle squeezes at the Hui Yin point, then, relax and feel the energy build in the glowing pearl at the Hui Yin point.

-Follow the same procedure through all nine points in turn until you return to the Xia Dantian point in the lower abdomen. Then allow the energy to collect in the sphere in the lower abdomen. Center your mind in your lower abdomen to finish the practice.

-Take 15 minutes or more to complete the entire path of the Small Heaven meditation. If you finish the path before 15 minutes is up, focus your mind into the lower abdomen for the remaining time. Whenever your mind wanders from the path of Small Heaven, gently bring it back to the last point that you remember and continue from there. Return 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.