by Kidada N. Fields, M.Ac, L.Ac
Do you know the power of sexual energy? Well, Taoist and Kundalini students do, and they practice building, moving and storing this powerful energy, or qi, in their organs for better health and vitality. Imagine giving your kidneys internally harvested healing energy; sounds powerful because it is!
Master Taoist Mantak Chia shares ancient, once highly guarded, secrets in his series of books focused on helping women and men use their sexual energy, or jing qi, for higher purposes. Sex for pleasure is either “losing-energy pleasure” or “gaining-energy pleasure.” Most of us are experienced in the former. Men in particular lose a sip of their jing or life force with each ejaculation. Ancient Taoist texts teach men to experience the pleasure without letting their fluid leak out. Chia’s book, Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy is a great resource for further detail.
Women can benefit highly from healthy sex where orgasm is reached and orgasmic energy circulated throughout the body. With ongoing practice, women report feeling more vibrant, experiencing smoother menses and relief of amenorrhea, increased sexual pleasure and increased or balanced libido. This practice is also said to prevent uterine cancer and increases fertility.
In Healing Love Through the Tao: Cultivating Female Sexual Energy, Chia provides step by step tools that allow you to learn the different techniques that build on one another . It begins with opening what is called your microcosmic orbit. This is a loop of energy that moves from the area of your anus up the back midline, over the head, down the front midline, and back to the area of its starting point. This circuit of energy is present in all of us, even if it is not felt. Chia encourages you to become aware of sensations moving along the circuit while sitting in meditation or while conducting daily activities.
Opening your microcosmic orbit takes time, but once you feel it you are one step closer to cultivating your sexual energy. You cannot begin this exciting process until the flow of energy is open. Begin by paying attention to your body and the flowing circuit of energy. At first you may not notice a thing. Then with more attention, you may notice warmth along the circuit, or tingling. It is important that you are not trying to make the energy move, but just notice it. In my own practice that I began years ago, I found this difficult yet obtainable. It called me to practice more being and less doing.
As an acupuncture student, I learned of this circuit as two meridians – the Governor Vessel, which flows up the back midline and the Conception Vessel, which flows along the front midline. They are two of the three first meridians to form in a fetus. Once developed, CV and GV meridians feed the other twelve main meridians. They are key meridians in a person’s core foundation. A block in the flow of these meridians can cause an array of health issues. So this practice of opening your microcosmic orbit is more important than one would initially think.
Once the circuit is open, you are ready for ovarian breathing which involves using your muscles and breath to move transformed sexual energy through the body.
In my next article I will provide some steps to start this process. In the meantime, practice noticing your microcosmic orbit!
As always, I welcome any comments or questions and can be reached at kidada@womeninwellnessmd.com
