[TaiChiJohn]

Hello!

Well, I am a new member here but I thought I would add in a comment even though the moment at which it would have been most pertinent to this discussion has past (once).

I haven’t read Michael’s e-book yet but I have downloaded it – just trying out the forum for the first time!

So, question one: is Taoist practice necessarily Taoist – that is to say, ‘natural’? My answer to this would be, quite simply, to forget the “Taoist” part and concentrate upon the ‘practice, asking oneself: “Is it practical”?

Arguably, one can never “be” a Taoist but can only ever embrace Taoism as a ‘becoming’; and so that particular question must be left for those with a penchant for infinite discussions, I think.

The question then becomes: is the “Inner Smile” practice, well, practical?

My own experience with this would have me answer with an unhesitating “YES”!!! I would also SOMEWHAT agree with sly’s above observation by noting that, while I began my practice with the prescribed “Smiling Energy”, I now (I must admit) practice bathing my internal organs with whatever refined energies seem appropriate: from a nice big pine tree, for example.

So, while one certainly can not go wrong in starting this meditation with the positive energy of a heart-felt smile, I think that it can certainly become something else once one has attained a certain degree of proficiency and understanding. One might, for example, draw upon the teachings of the classical “Golden Flower Meditation” (I would recommend the Thomas Cleary translation) and cultivate a sense of restfully open, alert awareness.

So for myself, I think that, above all else, the “Inner Smile” meditation serves as a way to expand the advancements which one can attain through the Microcosmic Orbit meditation into something which begins to include the entire body. As such a practice, it is VERY practical!

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