include Elixir Fields.

Funny thing.  After nearly a decade and a half of working with the Healing Tao system, I feel like I really cracked the nut of the microcosmic orbit.  I had long lost any thought that it could balance energy in the profound way that the books advertise, and that its place within the HT system requires.

There was talk, at the HT-USA Discussion board, about people generally getting the back vessel to work pretty well, but the front vessel not nearly as well (thank you, Plato, for your insights).  This led to experimentation on my part, I casually put together this method - and was astonished at how well it worked, and how neatly it solved so many classic problems with the microcosmic orbit (mo).

There are two major changes in this version of the mo:

        1. Front vessel first.

        2. Include Elixir Fields. (chakras / energy centers / tan tiens)

                a. Gentle Openness in the center.

                b. Gentle Radiance.

                c. Psyche.

If a student learns to open the back vessel first (as taught in the books), they'll naturally come to a point in their learning sequence where they can bring the dense energy of the lower tan tien up the spine and into the head, but where they've not yet developed the skill and openness to bring it down the front.  This leaves the lower tan tien as yet unbalanced, its nourishment diverted, and the very potent and dense jing energy lodged in the delicate wiring of the upper centers.  This is the most prominent dangerous situation that the microcosmic orbit seeks to resolve!, ... yet the standard learning sequence carries the risk of getting you into just that situation.

Worse yet, most people - especially men - enter the HT system for the sexual practices, and the skill of sublimating aroused sexual force up the spine supplies some initial sexual prowess.  This fulfills many people's primary interest in the system, and so avid learning often stops there.  Additionally, in dual cultivation, when aroused sexual energy moves up and interacts with the higher centers it opens the doors to wonderful variations of orgasm, and the intimate sharing of planes of consciousness: all the wonders of sexual tantra.  All of this tends to leave the front vessel neglected.

Without the practice of the front vessel, the lower tan tien never gets properly balanced and healthy sexual energy conservation can't happen.  In the short term, this can be just frustrating, and perhaps physically painful.  In the long term, it leads to serious disorders.

It boils down to this: Unless a student is proficient with the front vessel, they're likely to hurt themselves by bringing jing up the back vessel.  The conclusion becomes obvious: Learn the front vessel first.  

(Note: Sequence suggestions are a matter of emphasis, not of exclusion.  Balance and harmony in your own body is always senior to any external rule of sequence.  It's most important to develop your own sensitivity to your body's internals - and gradually learn to adjust your practices accordingly.  For instance, in learning the orbit, you might emphasize front vessel work and include back vessel work to a lesser extent, as you feel is appropriate for your body.)

As it turns out, the goals of the mo are accomplished far easier - and to a much greater degree - when the front vessel is run as the first leg of the orbit.  Running the front vessel first brings the energies of heaven and the higher centers (everything airier than sexual) to mix with jing before jing gets moved.  By this mix, jing's dense, polarized, and adamant nature is transformed; it becomes supple, gentle, kind, "compassion energy" or "the elixir".  This heals the lower jiao as a first step and, if there is surplus, the compassion energy spontaneously bubbles up into the body.  I've found this over and over and over again: it's better to balance jing before moving it.

The back vessel is the culmination of yin and the expression of yang: It originates from the bottom as substance that expands upward as part of self-expression.

The front vessel is the culmination of yang and the expression of yin: It's action starts from the top and flows down, as a function of open space and receptivity.

Often the receptivity and openness that is needed to get the most out of the front vessel is missed.  For most people, it's a more familiar sensation to let the substantial yang flow of the back vessel simply continue on to run over the top and down the front; the front vessel gets run by the momentum of the back vessel.  Big mistake.  You'll get next to nothing out of the microcosmic orbit this way.

The front vessel has it's own force: receptivity and openness, yin.  The feel for these qualities is often elusive for many, yet without including yin aspects to work with the front vessel, there is no hope of getting yang balanced by working the microcosmic orbit.  You can run energy in a stream up the back and down the front all day, and you won't get any really satisfying balance.  I know, I've done it, a lot.

The most effective way to get a handle on the yin qualities is by working with the sensation of open spaces along the center line of the body (a.k.a. the core vessel, the center thrusting route, the central vessel).  We work with these central open spaces, initially, in order to tangentially affect the energy flowing through the microcosmic orbit.  (With practice, a more reciprocal relationship becomes clear: the purified energy flowing through the orbit also nourishes the deep central areas of the body-psyche.)  There are three specific ways to do this (described below) that promote flow, transform energy, and work deeply with the psyche.

After working with this just a little bit, it becomes clear that we're working with a structure that aligns with the Hindu system of chakras, and at least partially with what Taoists refer to as tan tiens, or elixir fields.  While this theoretical overlap was unsettling to me at first, results in the body is where it's at.  The dramatic increase in beneficial mo results is palpable.

"Openness" refers to a sensation of gentle open space generated by attention.  In this technique, there's no need to do anything physical, except to relax.  So, when running the front vessel, simply start by gently creating a sensation of gentle open space at each one of the centers indicated, one by one, from the top down.  The crown will naturally draw in some heavenly energy, which - in a moderate dose - is important for the mix.  You'll find that the sensation of open space in the center creates a mild vacuum, so that energy just falls down the front vessel in successive steps... or, more accurately, is drawn down by the next open space ahead of it.

You'll also find that it's fairly easy to create a sensation of gentle radiance at each one of these centers.  While the openness creates a flow down the front, the radiance interacts with the energies that flow through the obit, and refines and balances them.  This is a two-way street: The orbit energy gets balanced by the elixir fields and some of the orbit energy spontaneously goes into the center of the body, which I've found to be very nurturing and pleasurable.

Deep aspects of the psyche can be readily accessed at the open spaces shown, and the psychological yin qualities are at least as important as mechanics.  Submitting the mind to Quietude, feeling gratitude in the heart: Openness, gentleness, receptivity at each successive center all the way down.  This is all part of 'accepting Heaven'.  In addition to the simple practice of generating these virtues, the openness allows the balanced energy to nurture the deep psyche in ways that I've found very gratifying and balancing.

- Don't worry about trying to implement each of the three aspects of the elixir fields every time, in equal amounts.  Just experiment with the methods, get a feel for what they do, practice.  

- An excellent adjunct practice for opening the elixir field spaces is Yi Swallows Chi.  You wouldn't necessarily do Yi Swallows Chi during the same practice session, but as a separate practice it gradually develops the supple space in the core of the body. 

- If you choose to exclude heavenly energy (you may feel that you've had plenty of it, for now, for whatever reason), then you should be particularly attentive to include plenty of radiance from the heart center.  (Which you shouldn't be neglecting, anyhow, but... )  It'll help provide enough higher vibe to refine the yin substances of the lower abdomen.

While many of the points on the orbit can be worked with, I find that it's especially important with this technique to make sure that the energy connects all the way down to hui yin (the point at the perineum).  The high vibe energies need to interact with the yin-most part of the body; it's key to the heaven-jing-earth alchemy (and to uniting yin with yang, in general).

When you activate the lower elixir fields, the refined energies merge with the energies in the lower jiao, which is very healing.  From that stage, you can do a number of different things:

        - If you feel complete, you can just stop right there.  Let your lower jiao be nourished.

        - If you want to continue practice and you want to emphasize an anchored approach, and/or you are working on building energy in your lower tan tien, you can go straight from this to the little orbit.

        - If you have a surplus of jing, and if you've balanced it with the above techniques, it will naturally and spontaneously bubble upwards. You could move that up the back vessel and continue with the microcosmic orbit, front and back.

Natural Variety
At different times, emphasis with the orbit varies.  Sometimes alchemy will naturally emphasize du (back channel), sometimes ren (fr.ch.), sometimes the dynamics of a center (tan tien), or of how a center helps to refine the energy running through du and ren, and/or how du and ren start to share straight across through centers.  This is all good and fine, and is just a matter of gaining familiarity with du, ren, tan tiens.

Chinese medicine describes the microcosmic orbit as a reservoir: As there is a surplus of energy in the body, it is filled, and as there is need energy comes from it.  I've found that the above techniques fulfills both functions nicely.

The inclusion of, and interaction with, core vessel energies has cascading benefits to various of the deeper vessels in the body.  The thrusting routes, and the leg routes (very important for standing postures), often open spontaneously after doing this method of the orbit for some little time.

Energetically and psychologically, it is the establishment of this deep-center neutral space that provides stability: the neutral space is senior to polarities (though polarities are generally found first).  Consider the polarities in motion (the yin and yang of the front and back vessels, in this case) as the rim of a wheel.  In alchemy, it is the clear space of the hub that provides coherence to the entire wheel.  Without that... take any kind wheel with weak general structure: add weights, power, speed, the varying pressures of life - and you'll start to get an idea of incorrect alchemy.  Excessive attention to the polarities, without knowledge and practice of resolution into the center, risks progressive instability.  Correct emphasis of the neutral space needs to be taught in the beginning.

In traditional literature, it is the core vessel (and the center-dynamics that reside along it) that provides the link to the primordial aspects of Light and Emptiness (which "gentle radiance" and "gentle openness", described above, provide very accessible steps towards).  It is the connection, and gradually increasing integration, with these deeper truths that gives the alchemical process its Natural Support.