Front Line Inner Smile Practice

  1. Sit comfortably near the edge of your chair with your feel flat on the floor. Keep your back straight, but not stiff. Stay relaxed, and clasp your palms together in your lap. Press your tongue against the upper palate of your mouth.

    Figure 5. The Proper sitting posture.

    Figure 5. The Proper sitting posture.

  2. Close your eyes and become aware of the soles of your feet. Feel their connection to the Earth.
  3. Create a source of smiling energy up to three feet in front of you. This can be an image of your own smiling face, or of someone or something you love and respect, or any memory of a time in which you felt deeply at peace, perhaps feeling sunshine, being by the ocean, or walking in a forest.
  4. Become aware of the midpoint between your eyebrows through which you will draw this abundant smiling energy in front of and around you. Let your forehead relax; as the smiling energy accumulates at the mid-eyebrow, it will eventually overflow into your body.
  5. Allow the smiling energy to flow down from the mid-eyebrow through your face, relaxing the cheeks, nose, mouth, and all the facial muscles. Let it flow down through your neck. You can roll your head slowly and gently from side to side as you do this.
  6. Let the smiling energy continue to flow down to your thymus gland, which is located behind the upper part of your sternum, and picture it glowing with vibrant health. Feel the thymus gland become warm as it begins to vibrate and expand like a blossoming flower.

    Figure 6. The Front Line Organs

    Figure 6. The Front Line Organs

  7. Let the warm, smiling energy spread from the thymus gland into the heart. Draw more smiling energy through the mid-eyebrow, and let it flow like a waterfall down into the heart. When you smile inwardly to the heart, it will generate the virtues of joy and happiness. Spend as much time here as you need to feel the heart relax and expand with loving energy. Try to remember your best experience of love and fill your heart with that same feeling again. Love your heart. The heart is associated with the negative emotional energies of hastiness, arrogance, and cruelty. When you smile into the heart, these energies will dissipate, creating the space for the virtuous energies of love and joy to expand.
  8. Let the joy and happiness generated in the heart expand outward to your lungs. Feel the lungs open as the happy, smiling energy flows into them. The lungs may appear to be pink and spongy, or they may feel abundantly full. If there is anything you see or feel in the lungs that is unpleasant to you, get rid of it. You can clear the lungs of energetic, emotional, and physical pollution by smiling into them. Feel the air flow from the tip of the nose down into the lungs, following it all the way out to the tiny air sacs where oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide. Thank your lungs for breathing and helping sustain your life.You should feel your entire chest cavity filling with smiling, loving energy. The lungs are associated with the negative emotional energies of sadness and depression and the virtuous energies of courage and righteousness. When you smile into the lungs, you will dissolve any sadness or negative feelings, creating space for courage and righteousness to expand.

    Note: Remember you can go back to the source of smiling energy in front of you-your vision or memory of a happy moment-to get more energy any time during the meditation, If you feel your attention wandering, or it you feel the effect of the Inner Smile becoming weak or diluted, just gather more smiling energy from the source. The Chinese say,” If you want water, you should go to the well. “

  9. Next you will direct the smiling energy to the liver, the largest internal organ, located just below the right lung. Feel the liver become immersed in smiling, loving, joyous energy. The liver is associated with the sense of sight, as it controls the energy of the eyes. Use your inner vision to see the liver and determine its condition. Its surface should be smooth and glossy, and it should feel relaxed and uncongested. You can use your eyes to smooth out any part of its surface or to relax any area that seems tense. Feel gratitude for the liver’s work in detoxifying the body, helping to store blood, and producing bile. The liver is associated with the emotion of anger and the virtue of kindness. When you smile to the liver, you will dissolve any anger and allow the kindness energy more space to expand. The Chinese suggest this also helps strengthen your decision-making power.
  10. Let the smiling energy flow from the liver across the abdomen into the pancreas, located directly beneath the left lung. Thank the pancreas for making digestive enzymes, producing insulin, and regulating blood sugar. As you smile into the pancreas, see that it is healthy and functioning smoothly.
  11. Continuing around to the left, smile into the spleen, which is just next to the left kidney. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly where it is. If you smile in that direction, you will gradually get in touch with it. If you need to, return to the source of smiling energy in front of you, and let the smiling energy flow in through the mid-eyebrow and down to the area of the spleen.
  12. As smiling, loving energy builds up in the spleen, let it flow into the kidneys. Smile down to the kidneys and feel them expand with radiant energy. You can use your inner vision to inspect the kidneys to be sure their surface is smooth and glossy and that they are filtering properly without any congestion. The kidneys are associated with the emotion of fear. As you smile into them, fear melts away, and the virtue of gentleness can grow. Keep smiling into the kidneys, and let the smiling energy build up until they are full.

  13. Next, send the smiling energy down into the urinary bladder, urethra, genitals, and perineum.Women: The collection point for female sexual energy is located about three inches below the navel, midway between the ovaries. Smile the accumulated energies into the ovaries, uterus, and vagina. Thank the ovaries for making hormones and giving you sexual energy. Bring the combined sexual, smiling, and virtue energies up to the navel, and visualize the energies spiraling into that point.
    Men: The collection point for male sexual energy is located one-and-a-half inches above the base of the penis in the area of the prostate gland and seminal vesicles. Smile, and visualize the accumulated energies spiraling down into the prostate gland and testicles. Thank them for making hormones and giving you sexual energy. Bring the combined sexual, smiling, and virtue energies up to the navel, and spiral them into that point.
  14. Return the attention to the source of smiling energy in front of you. Be aware of the mid-eyebrow point, and allow more smiling energy to flow in through it like a waterfall pouring down into the organs. Once again immerse the thymus, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, urinary bladder (Fig. 3.43), and sex organs in smiling energy. At this point you should be feeling calm and peaceful.