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MOVEMENT-INDUCED MICROCOSMIC ORBIT - Dr. Bingkun Hu

Technically speaking, to learn the practice of MCO, one should first learn how to gather and circulate the qi in the “ren” and “du” channels, (or the conception and governing channels) and then gradually learn how to purify the “jing”, “qi”, and “shen”, so that eventually they can be condensed and forged into “elixir”. In this short article, however, whenever I mention MCO, I am only referring to the first stage of this practice, which is the stage of circulating qi in the “ren” and “du” channels.

Medical benefits of practicing MCO

When we practise the First and Second 64 Movements of Wild Goose Qigong, we immediately feel our hands turn warm and our whole body feel energized. This is the effect of the MCO. Since our blood circulation has a close relationship with the qi circulation, MCO can increase our blood flow to the peripheral blood vessels, and make our hands warm. In the same way, when we feel our mind is clearer and sharper after practising the Wild Goose Qigong, it is because MCO has brought more oxygen to our brain cells.

After practising Wild Goose Qigong for a longer period of time, we may even notice that our immune system has been strengthened. As you know, our pineal, pituitary, thyroid, thymus, adrenal , and gonad glands are all located in close proximity to the conception and governing channels . So, while MCO causes qi to circulate within the conception and governing channels, it also stimulates all the glands, thus giving our immune system a needed boast.

Aside from its great health benefits, MCO practice is technically indispensable in the training of the following qigong attributes:

1) Deepening one’s relaxation through enjoying the natural rhythm of the MCO and also through shifting our body weight for relaxation.

2) Heightening one’s sensory-motor awareness through feeling again and again the moving up and down of qi in the “ren” and “du” channels.

3) Developing one’s reverse abdominal breathing while trying to make one’s MCO

movements smaller and smoother.

Movement-induced MCO

MCO has long been a Daoist secret to health and longevity for over a thousand years. Before the late Grandmaster Yang, Mei-jun decided to make public the Wild Goose Qigong, people who wanted to learn MCO could only learn it through long years of meditation. It took quite a while for qigong masters to realise that all kinds of MCO can be learned much faster through the movement-induced approach. And, to many people’s surprise, all the relevant forms of movements, or sets of movements, which can induce the MCO are already included in the 11 sets of Wild Goose Qigong.

Different forms of MCO

To conclude this short article, let me list the eight often used forms of MCO which are used in Wild Goose Qigong.

1) The Small MCO - Qi circulates within one’s “ren” and “du” channels, as in the ending of WG-1.

2) The Reverse Small MCO - Qi also circulates within one’s “ren” and “du” channels, but in the reverse direction, as in movement 44 of WG-1.

3) The Mini-MCO - Qi circulates from the “dan-tian”, perineum, “ming-men”, navel to “dan-tian”, as in movement 6 of WG-2.

4) The Reverse Mini-MCO - Qi circulates from “ming-men”, perineum, “dan-tian” to navel.

5) The Big MCO - Qi circulates not only within one’s “ren” and “du” channels, but also through the 12 meridian lines, as in movement 51 of WG-2.

6) The Reverse Big MCO - Same as the Big MCO, but qi circulates in the reverse direction;

7) The Big MCO with a figure “8” - as in the ending of WG-4.

8) “Ti-wai-zhou-tian” - Qi circulates not only within one’s own body but also includes an object (i.e., a tree) or your patient, as in WG meditation-1.

What is Microcosmic Orbit ( MCO)?

MCO is one of the most natural and effective qi pattern trainings used in Wild Goose Qigong and other Daoist qigong, as well as in many kinds of meditation practices.

The Daoist philosophy behind the concept of MCO was that human beings could create an “elixir” inside their own body and live to eternity, if they cultivated their own “jing-qi-shen” in the right way - the way the sun, the moon, and the earth exist. In other words, the Macro-Cosmic Orbit is the best model for human beings to follow. Just like the moon orbits around the earth, and the earth orbits around the sun, human qi should always orbit around our crown and our perineum. Thus, the coined term: Micro-cosmic Orbit.