7 Secrets of the Small Universe Qigong

November 27, 2012 By Sifu Anthony Korahais 16 Comments

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Throughout most of the long history of qigong, the following techniques were kept a well-
guarded secret.

The techniques were kept alive mainly through an oral tradition, from master to disciple. But
typically, you would have to wait years before a master would teach you advanced techniques
like these.
Some ancient manuscripts recorded the techniques. But these manuscripts were incredibly hard
to get.

Even if you got your hands on a manuscript, it wouldn’t have done you much good. Qigong
classics were intentionally vague. This was known as “Hiding Secrets in the Open”.

The secret was there for all to see, but they were impossible for the uninitiated to decipher.

In this article, I’ll break with traditional and reveal the actual techniques of the Small Universe in
a clear and intelligible way.

In part 1 of this series, I talked about the risks and the benefits of an advanced Qigong
technique called the Small Universe. If you haven’t read it, then do so now before continuing.

Seriously. Go read the other article first. It’s important. I’ll wait.

So why do it? Why reveal the secrets now, especially after highlighting the dangers of practicing
them without a master?

Everything on the Internet is True, Right?

We live in the information age. It’s an amazing time to be alive. With a few clicks, we can get
information on virtually any subject.

But is it quality information?

We all know that the Internet can sometimes provide awful information. This is especially
true with esoteric arts like Qigong, Tai Chi, and meditation. If you go searching for information
about the Small Universe (also called the Microcosmic Orbit), for example, you’ll find a ton of
terrible advice out there. (I covered this subject in part 1 of the article.)

So my goal is to contribute quality information on this subject, not for self-instruction, but for
education, edification, and also for posterity. Of course, those who have already learned the
Small Universe from me will benefit greatly from this page, which will serve as a valuable
review. And those who hope to someday learn the Small Universe from will be inspired by
reading these secrets.

Now, on to the techniques.

The 7 Techniques
In my school, we use a series of Qigong techniques to open the Small Unviverse. Practicing them
in the correct series allows us to safely and effectively induce the breakthrough of the Small
Universe in a relatively short period of time. If the student has already laid a solid foundation by
practicing basic Qigong techniques like the 18 Luohan Hands, Flowing Breeze Swaying Willow,
Sinew Metamorphosis, and/or Bone Marrow Cleansing for 2-3 years, then the Small Universe
breakthrough can be induced in a matter of days (with my help, of course).

This is quite remarkable. In the past, if a master had the breakthrough in a decade, it was
considered amazing. To do it in a few days, even after 2-3 years of diligently practicing the
basics, was unheard of. But then again, maybe we never heard of it because they kept it secret?
Who knows?

The series of techniques are as follows:

1. Belly Breathing
2. Dan Tian Breathing
3. Path Breathing
4. Submerged Breathing
5. Long Breathing
6. Forceful Small Universe Breathing
7. Gentle Small Universe Breathing

1. Belly Breathing
Before we can do any of these techniques, we need to master Belly Breathing. Actually, Belly
Breathing is not a Qigong technique. It’s just mechanical. It involves breathing from the belly as
opposed to the chest. Good singers do this even if they’ve never heard of Qigong.

If you’re like most people, you’ve spent years breathing incorrectly. To correct this, you need to
practice two preparative exercises. The following two exercises are safe for everyone to
practice, even from this website:

Preparative Exercise #1 – Book Breathing

Lie down and place a heavy book on your lower belly, just below your belly button. Breathe
naturally, but gradually allow your breathing to come from your lower belly. The book should
rise as your breathe in, and fall as you breathe out. Practice this for 5 minutes a day, separate
from your normal Qigong practice.

Preparative Exercise #2 – Sitting Belly Breathing

Sit upright (but relaxed) on the edge of a chair with your back straight. Place both hands, one on
top of the other, gently over your dan tian. Try to recreate the feeling of the Book Breathing
exercise. If you cannot feel your breath coming from your belly, then go back to the Book
Breathing.

All future progress depends on your ability to do Belly Breathing easily and smoothly. If you
can’t do it well, then you won’t benefit from any of the other stages. Spend time with these
preparative exercises. You’ll be glad that you did.

For those who know the following exercises, Three Levels to Earth and Lifting Heels are also
excellent for helping to pave the way for future progress. These two exercises from the 18
Luohan Hands help to bring the energy around the Ren and Du meridians. So if you want to
prepare yourself before learning the Small Universe, you may emphasize these techniques as
well.

Warning: If you skimmed down to here, then let me be absolutely clear: Don’t try the
following exercises on your own. You’re going to hurt yourself. You can practice the
preparative exercises listed above, but not these. If you want to understand why, then read part 1
of this series.

2. Dan Tian Breathing

Dan Tian Breathing is a fundamental Qigong technique where, not surprisingly, you breath
energy with dan tian. Whereas Belly Breathing is mechanical, Dan Tian Breathing is energetic.
The difference may seem minor, but it’s not. It’s the difference between tapping into a flow of
Cosmic energy, or just standing around and breathing for 20 minutes.

Dan Tian Breathing Technique:

1. Stand Upright.
2. Relax.
3. Smile from the Heart.
4. Clear your mind of thoughts.
5. Gently place both palms over your dan tian, one on top of the other.
6. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, gently press the palms and help the belly to
“deflate”. Gently visualize letting go of negative energy, stress, tension, etc.
7. As you breathe in gently through the nose, gently release the palms and help the belly to
“inflate”. Gently visualize taking in fresh cosmic energy from all directions toward dan
tian.

Closing visualization:
At the end of the session, gently visualize a golden pearl of energy, full of vitality, at dan tian.
The energy from dan tian radiates out, in all directions, like the light from the sun.

The technique is simple, but the skill is extremely subtle, and thus easy to miss. Remember that
everything must be super gentle — the breathing, the pressing and releasing of the hands, and the
visualization. If you’re forcing any of these, then you’re doing it wrong.

A heart-to-heart transmission is useful to acquire this skill. Once you get it, you’ll have the
ability to tap energy from the cosmos. As I tell my students, I honestly don’t know how it works,
but I know from experience that it does work. It’s an incredible technique, and I hope that you
get the opportunity to learn it one day.

3. Path Breathing
With this technique, we breathe energy down and up the Ren meridian (see part I of this
article). So we bring energy down to dan tian as we breathe in, and then back up as we breathe
out.

Path Breathing Technique:

1. Stand Upright.
2. Relax.
3. Smile from the Heart.
4. Clear your mind of thoughts.
5. Gently place both palms over your dan tian, one on top of the other.
6. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, gently press the palms and help the belly to
“deflate”. Visualize negative energy flowing up the Ren Meridian, and out the mouth.
7. As you breathe in gently through the nose, gently release the palms and help the belly to
“inflate”. Visualize fresh cosmic energy coming in through the nose, down the Ren
Meridian, and down to dan tian.

Closing visualization:
At the end of the session, use the same visualization as in Dan Tian Breathing.

This is the first time we are focusing the Qi along a path. In Dan Tian Breathing, the flow of Qi
was general. Here, it’s more specific. Because we are directing Qi to a specific channel, the
technique is much less forgiving of mistakes, which is yet another reason to learn it from a
master.

4. Submerged Breathing
With Submerged Breathing, we sink the energy from dan tian down to hui yin, the energy point
at the perineum. This must done gently. It can’t, and shouldn’t be forced.

Again, I’ll sound a warning. If you try to do this on your own, you’re likely to mess up your
energy system. What’s worse is that it may take months for you to realize that anything is wrong.
Don’t practice this without direct instruction from a good teacher. I don’t know how to be any
clearer than that.

Submerged Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for a few breaths.

2. Then shift to Submerged Breathing as follows.
3. As you breathe in, gently bring the energy down the Ren channel from your nose to dan
tian.
4. As you breathe out, gently “sink” energy down the Ren channel from dan tian to hui yin.

Closing visualization: At the end of the session, gently visualize a beautiful, full, silvery moon at
the bottom of a lake at hui yin. Let the pleasant moon energy gleam up at your body. At an
advanced level,you may feel a coolness at hui yin.
When you finally get the hang of Submerged Breathing, when you first feel the energy sinking
down to hui yin, it’s a wonderful feeling. But if you don’t have enough energy at dan tian, then
you probably won’t feel much. In that case, you need to continue building energy at dan tian so
that you have something to sink down to hui yin. You can build energy using Dan Tian
Breathing, or other techniques like the Warrior Postures, One Finger Zen, Lifting Water, or the
Three Circle Stance.

5. Long Breathing
In this technique, we “breathe” energy from hui yin all the way up to bai hui at the top of the
head. It’s a long way, hence the name. The technique is as follows:

Long Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for breaths.

2. Then shift to Submerged Breathing for a few breaths.
3. Then shift to Long Breathing as follows.
4. As you breathe in, gently bring the energy down the Ren channel from your nose down to
dan tian.
5. As you breathe out, gently bring the energy from dan tian, down to hui yin, and then up
to bai hui.

Closing visualization: Gently visualize energy pulsing at ming men, the vital point opposite your
navel. When this has been accomplished after some training over a few (or many) sessions,
gently focus at ling tai (opposite tanzhong, or solar plexus).

In the learning stage, you’ll first breathe energy from hui yin up to ming men rather than bai hui.
Then, once you get the hang of that, you’ll breathe the energy from hui yin up to ling tai, the
energy point in the middle of the back. Then finally, you’ll breathe it all the way up to Bai Hui.
It’s a bit like the mercury (or whatever they use these days) gradually rising in a thermometer.

6. Forceful Small Universe Breathing

This technique “forces”the full connection of the Small Universe. The Small Universe, as I
described in part 1 of this series, is a continuous flow of energy in an orbit down the Ren
Meridian and then up the Du Meridian. But there are two gaps in the flow — one at the
perineum, and one between the upper and lower jaw. With this technique, we connect the upper
gap by lifting the tongue to the upper palate, and the lower gap by lifting the muscles near the
anus.

The breathing mode for this technique is called “Reverse Breathing”. It’s the opposite of Belly
Breathing (sometimes called Natural Breathing because babies do it naturally), hence the name.

Forceful Small Universe Breathing Technique

 1. Start with Path Breathing for a few breaths.
2. Then shift to Reverse Breathing as follows.
3. As you breathe in gently through the nose, your abdomen deflates and your chest inflates
gently (the reverse of what we’ve been doing so far). The energy flows from hui yin up to
bai hui. Gently grip your toes, lift your perineum, and touch the tongue to the roof of the
mouth while breathing in.
4. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, your abdomen inflates and your chest
deflates. The energy flows from bai hui down to dan tian. Lower the tongue while
breathing out. The perineum and toes should be relaxed now.
5. As you are breathing out, you should also save 30% of your breath. So you breath in
100%, but breathe out 70% and save the other 30%. As you “save” the breath, swallow
your saliva, and feel as if it is dropping all the way down to hui yin.

Closing Visualization: Gently feel a beneficial, glowing sun at bai hui. Later you may experience
what they call The Opening of the Five Petals.This opening is spontaneous, but may be gently
induced with gentle visualization. Meanwhile the flow of the Small Universe continuously round
the ren and du meridians is realized.

Compared to the previous techniques, this one is much more complicated. It’s hard to remember
all the steps, let alone do them. This can lead to some serious energy blockages if you do it
incorrectly. A master’s supervision is critical. Even with a master’s supervision, it’s still
challenging!

I typically have students practice Reverse Breathing for a while without worrying about the
perineum, toes, or tongue. Once they can do that well, then they can add those details one by
one. I also encourage them to leave out the “swallow” until they are ready. Another secret is to
practice the technique called “Gathering Qi from the Cosmos”, which helps to teach Reverse
Breathing in a very gentle way.

This method is relatively forceful, but it’s also very, very powerful. For some masters, this is the
only method they had, and it worked well. We are lucky to have both the Forceful and the Gentle
Small Universe, which is as follows.

7. Gentle Small Universe Breathing

With this technique, we go back to Belly Breathing (rather than Reverse Breathing). The
technique is much gentler, and also simpler, than the Forceful Small Universe. I spent years
practicing this technique — mainly because I was terrible at Forceful Small Universe Breathing.
But hey, it worked!

If you’ve done the other stages well, then this one should be easy.

Gentle Small Universe Breathing Technique

1. Start with Path Breathing for a few breaths.

2. Proceed to Submerged Breathing for a few breaths.
 3. Proceed to Long Breathing for a few breaths.
4. Proceed to Forceful Small Universe Breathing for a few breaths.
5. Proceed to Gentle Small Universe Breathing, as follows.
6. As you breathe in gently through the nose, the tip of your tongue touches the upper
palate, your abdomen inflates, and the energy flows in to dan tian.
7. As you breathe out gently through the mouth, your tongue relaxes, your abdomen
deflates, and the energy flows from dan tian down to hui yin, up to bai hui, and out your
mouth.

Closing Visualization: Gently visualize a smooth, continuous flow down the Ren meridian and
up Du meridian. Later just enjoy the realization of the Small Universe.

What is the “realization” of the Small Universe? It’s when it flows automatically, and you just
enjoy it. You no longer need to actively visualize because the Small Universe has its own
momentum.

Putting It All Together

Once you’ve been through all of the techniques, it may not be necessary to continue using each
of them. This depends on your developmental stage. If you succeed in opening the real
breakthrough of the Small Universe, then you may only need to continue practicing one of the
final two techniques.

At an advanced level, you can add the Goat-Riding Stance. The techniques are done exactly the
same, except for the addition of the stance. Adding the stance magnifies the power of the
technique, but also magnifies the risks. Both your stance and your Small Universe better be
really good before you even attempt this!

Closing
So that’s it. We’ve talked about the risks and rewards of learning the Small Universe, and we’ve
talked about all 7 techniques. I hope that I’ve succeeded in educating you about this amazing
Qigong technique. I also hope that you’re excited to learn it — not so excited that you try to
learn it from a website, of course, but excited enough to keep practicing the basics. In a future
article, I’ll talk about the Big Universe, and how it relates to the Small Universe.

Drop me a comment below if you have questions. Or if you haven’t already gotten your free
ebooks and free lesson, then make sure to grab them here. If you liked this article, then please
share it using the Facebook, Twitter, and Email buttons below.

Best regards,
Sifu Anthony
 I’m Anthony Korahais, and I used qigong to heal from clinical
depression, low back pain, anxiety, and chronic fatigue. I’ve already taught thousands of people
from all over the world how to use qigong for their own stubborn health challenges. As the
director of Flowing Zen and a board member for the National Qigong Association, I'm fully
committed to helping people with these arts. In addition to my blog, I also teach online courses
and offer in-person retreats and workshops