The Complete Circulation of the Light: A Guided Meditation
by Dennis William Hauck. Read by Barry Moore.
Chinese alchemists became proficient at spiritual Distillation thousands of years ago. In a discipline called “Circulation of the Light,” the aspirant is taught to concentrate on the light of the inmost region and, while doing so, to free himself from all outer and inner entanglements. The basic practice in the Circulation of the Light is known as “The Microcosmic Orbit” or “The Lesser Heavenly Cycle” (as opposed to the greater cycle of the rotation of stars and constellations). The “light” that is circulated is the chi (or lifeforce), guided by thought and imagination through three inner cauldrons or vessels (known as tan tien or “elixir fields”).
The first of these inner cauldrons is the Lower Tan Tien, which is situated in the abdomen between the pelvis and navel. It is where the alchemist gathers, blends, and cooks their sexual, vital, and spiritual essences. In Western alchemy, the operations carried out there are Calcination, Dissolution, and Separation, which are equivalent to energizing the Tantric chakras muladhara (or base), svadhisthana (or genitals), and manipura (or solar plexus) or the Wheel of Emanation in the Buddhist tradition.
The next cauldron is the Middle Tan Tien, which is between the solar plexus and diaphragm. The energies there are associated with the heart, lungs, and throat. This is where the essences from the purification in the Lower Tan Tien are stored and where the soul finds expression. The Tantrists saw this vessel as activating the anahata (or heart) and vishuddha (or throat) chakras. In Western alchemy, it is where the operation of Conjunction takes place.
The final cauldron is the Upper Tan Tien, which is known as the "Crystal Palace." This precious cauldron at the center of the brain is also called the Sacred Square Inch, the Heavenly Heart, the Mysterious Gate, or the Cavity of Spirit. It is where the higher self or spirit from Above dwells. Sufi alchemists call this spirit the “ruh,” while Jewish alchemists refer to it as “ruach.” Tantrists see the Upper Tan Tien as an activation of the ajna (or brow) and sahasrara (or crown) chakras. In Western alchemy, it is where the operations of Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation take place. In the cabala, this spiritual center corresponds to the Sefirah " Daat ," located on the Middle Pillar (or spine) between Binah (at the back of the head) and Hokmah (in the forehead area).
In physiological alchemy, the Upper Tan Tien is associated with the center of the brain where the light-sensitive pineal gland is located. When this gland is activated, it is said to become illuminated like thousands of shining crystals, able to receive light (as energy and knowledge) from the universe. In Tibetan Buddhism, this is the source of the “White Drop” that descends from Above to the heart center, where it mixes with the ascending “Red Drop” of condensed sexual energy from Below to coagulate a Body of Light or subtle body.
All this activity is seen as a cosmic sex act in the head. The phallic-shaped pineal gland releases a pure white liquid light that impregnates the nearby bi-lobed pituitary gland, which then releases hormones in the blood that inaugurate a Second (or Spiritual) Puberty in the body.
This final stage is not accomplished in just a single round of operations but must continue until all impurities have been eliminated, and the light is in its most concentrated form. The overall operation is alchemical Distillation, which purifies and transforms the energy. The vapors of the boiling sexual energy in the lower Tan Tien are directed up the Governor Channel along the dorsal side of the spine or back of the body. The Chinese call this solar channel of ascending masculine yang energy the “tu mai,” while Tantrists refer to it as the “ida”.
The vapors condense or sublimate in the Upper Tan Tien, and any unpurified remains are returned to the Lower Tan Tien down the secondary Functional Channel along the ventral spinal cord on the front of the body. The Chinese called this descending lunar channel of feminine yin energy the “jen mai,” which is called “pingala” by the Tantrists. So, essentially, the Circulation of Light is a Distillation process in which the mercurial light of the life force is progressively concentrated. This purified energy is eventually directed inward to the center of the body, where it can be stored in the heart or chest area.
Try a session of the following guided regimen and see how it feels. In practice, the initiate repeats the Circulation of the Light daily for months or even years, until enough of the “light” collects to crystallize in the cauldron within the brain. According to Chinese alchemists, the subtle matter distilled through this process congeals into a Golden Pill (or Golden Embryo) which is the adept’s passage to perfect health and enlightenment. Western alchemists would call the liquid light collected in these repeated distillations the “Mother of the Stone.” But the goal is the same in both systems: to create an immortal spirit body (or Philosopher’s Stone) through which the adept can function on a more evolved plane of existence than possible in the ordinary physical body.
GUIDED MEDITATION: The Complete Circulation of the Light
To begin the Circulation of the Light, you need to fully relax and disengage from all worldly attachments, including mundane thoughts and emotions. Put all your attention into your breathing. Slow it down and get control of it. Follow your breath, in and out. This will control this process. Breathe in, breathe out. Inhalation should be deliberate, quick, and full, while exhalation is a slower release of air. Just let your lungs deflate fully on their own. When the exhalation is longer than the inhalation, it automatically relaxes the body and reduces heart rate and blood pressure.
Now, during the long exhalation, focus your attention on the pelvic area in the Lower Tan Tien cauldron, and direct the expelled breath there. Your rhythmic exhaling is experienced as kind of a tension or melting sensation between your legs. Cultivate that warm, tingling feeling, that uniquely powerful force of Nature that is your sexuality.
This is one of the strongest energies in your body, and we want to be careful in working with it. There is nothing nasty going on here. We are in our own private, inner alchemical laboratory working on spiritual chemistry. Whatever we do here cannot be seen by others or judged in any way—nor should we feel guilty about accessing it.
The warmth in your groin is created by the friction between the active descending vital energy in air and the static vessel in your pelvis that holds your sexual energy. While exhaling fully into your pelvic area, try to generate a sexual glow there. Feel the tingling between your legs and let that warm glowing energy pour up into the Lower Tan Tien vessel in your stomach area. Focus on the velvety warmth growing in that area below the navel. Keep the energy there; keep regenerating it from the genitals. This is “ching,” pure sexual energy with no direction or purpose. Just the unfettered energy of sex. The raw energy has lost its sexual aspect and is now just pure warm glowing tingling liquid.
Continue building the sexual tension and heat and accumulating it in the Lower Tan Tien cauldron. Now take another deep breath in, and as you exhale, let the exhalation melt down all the way past the belly into the pelvis. Feel it melting down into the area of the genitals. The chi (or pranic energy) in the breath flows downward as you exhale. Just relax and let the breath melt down into your groin.
There are two similar bowl-shaped bones in the body. These are the sphenoid bone in the head, which cradles the brain, and the sacrum (literally, the “sacred bone”) in the pelvis, which cradles the sexual organs. The sexual ching energy peaks at the Mound of Venus, the bone prominence along the perineum between the anus and the base of the sexual organ. That is the focal point for feeling ching.
The opposing chi of spirit and the sexual ching of soul, mix together and heat up by the friction of their contact. The heavy ching energy and the light and airy chi are polar opposites and generate much heat when mixed. Eventually, a boiling sensation of liquid fire will begin. The hot pelvic ching naturally begins to rise and pour into the Middle Tan Tien vessel, below the bellybutton.
This is the beginning of the alchemical operation of Fermentation. The liquid fire of Fermentation is referred to as “vitriol” in western alchemy and “kundalini” in the Tantric tradition. It represents your activated sexuality. It should be easy to detect; you have felt it many times before. We know what this is and how it feels. With alchemy, we can control it. We are sublimating this powerful energy to fuel our spiritual transformation.
To begin circulating the light, press your tongue against the roof of your mouth to complete a pranic circuit to the upper vessel. Otherwise, the energy all falls back down. Breathe in and force the breath all the way upwards into the sphenoid container of the brain. Keep your tongue touching the roof of your mouth and then forget about it.
Breathe in and visualize the tingling sexual energy rising up in a circuit along your dorsal spine, that is, on your back. Breathe out and visualize this vaporous energy raining downward in a circuit along your ventral spine, that is, on your front in the chest area, into the lower vessel. Remember to let go as this vital breath energy drops down into the pelvic bowl to mix with the sexual energy there.
Now, continue the circulation by inhaling and bringing the energy up from below into the upper tan tien or brain cauldron. Inhale briskly and bring it up from the lower cauldron into the brain cavity. Direct the energy from below by visualizing the vapors condensing into a cool, mist in the brain.
Try to feel the vapors rising from the boiling cauldron in the lower tan tien. Bring the unified ching-chi energy up by inhaling along the Governor channel on your back into the Upper Tan Tien in the head vessel. Suck it up vigorously into the brain and let any excess fall back down along the Functional front channel into the lower cauldron. This is the basic circulation of the light.
Keep the fire burning below. Recharge the ching and chi, and their friction will cause the heat that drives this entire process of distillation. The continued fueling of sexual energy is absolutely required now. Keep feeling the conscious chi energy coming down from Above mixed with the heavy darker ching energy of the unconscious sexual forces Below. The ching and chi are mixing, churning, heating, boiling. As the circulation continues, more and more glowing steamy vapors are rising that begin condensing in the brain as liquid light. This new state is half-matter and half-energy.
Follow this inner circulation guided by your natural breathing pattern. Continue on your own. Make this as real and as concentrated as possible. Feel it all the way up and all the way down. Fill the vessel below as you exhale. Chi and ching—they are both there, boiling in that lower Tan Tien cauldron.
With the next breath in, you want to bring it in forcibly and direct the steamy vapors up into the brain cavity in a forceful way. So, a deep hard rapid breath is required. Suck the energy up. Then, exhale slowly and let anything left fall back into the lower Tan Tien cauldron.
Inhale again and suck up the energy in the form of luminous vapors from the lower vessel. Now hold the breath, and keep it in the head long enough to condense. Drops of solidified light are dripping out of the vapor into the upper cauldron. Exhale and return what is leftover into the sexual lower cauldron, as the overflowing ching begins to spill into the Middle Tan Tien vessel. This is the circulation pattern to follow now, as the process of distillation continues.
Inhale deeply again, and direct the light into the brain vessel, behind the eyes. See that light. It is there physically and spiritually. You can see it there. Keep it there by holding the breath. And then exhale, relax and let it fall back into the lower vessel. Feel it mixing in and how it changes the energy in the lower Tan Tien vessel bit by bit—how it is actually purifying the sexual energy, spiritizing it.
Breathe in, bring up the light. Hold it in the brain. Hold the breath. Feel the light condense behind the eyes. Breathe out any excess and let it fall back below. The dark energy below is becoming pure liquid light. Inhale—hold this treasure. Condense it, see it, let it go. Feel it below, the dark heavy energy becoming lighter and lighter.
Follow the exhaled energy returning to the lower tan tien cauldron and overflowing into the Middle Tan Tien vessel. Down there this liquid sex energy is changing. This process is actually purifying the heavy ching. The reddish light of ching is becoming pure white in color in the Middle Tan Tien.
It is there, a spiritized body is starting to form; it is really there. Down below, this liquid light will eventually become less heavy and less powerful. When the energy below begins to subside, and the boiling sensation lessons, you need to quicken the process and increase your pace . Breathe in and breathe out faster and faster.
Strong breath in, see the light. You have to suck up all the vapor you can. Don’t let any of the precious vapor go to waste or be reconverted into ching. Now hold the breath and let all the vapor condense. Hold the breath until all of the light condenses and drips out. Breathe out.
Finally, after repeated practice, everything will be sublimated above. All that is left is this liquidy light in your brain, and you can feel the weight of it behind your eyes. The light is not as white anymore. It has taken on a golden hue in the Upper Tan Tien. You can see the heavy light and you will see it again if you continue in this practice. The heavy sexual ching energy Below has transferred its essence-- (its weight) --to a solidifying spiritbody forming in the heart.
And one last breath now. Suck it up, anything remaining below. Hold it in the brain, let all this remaining material condense. Exhale partially, hold the breath halfway at the heart level. While holding the breath charged with the heavy liquid light distillate, open the chamber of the heart.
Open your heart chamber. This is difficult for some people. It helps to think of times you were hurt, times you were embarrassed, and your heart opens again. Most of us have learned how to close our hearts but not open them on demand. Now just let the light in. Simply direct it in with a gentle lateral breath in towards the storage vessel of the heart.
The energy we store in the heart is sometimes called the “Heart Tincture” in alchemy. As the golden energy settles there, some people see it develop a green hue (a signature of copper, the metal of love). The intelligence of the heart has set its own signature.
Now seal or close the door to the heart chamber. Closing the heart is easy for most people. That’s our standard response. So, just let it close; no problem. In fact, the door to the heart will usually slam shut by itself. It is how we protect ourselves. We naturally feel the urge to protect this energy we have stored in the heart.
Now relax deeply. The work is done. The boiling sensation below subsides, and the purified potential energy is safely locked away. No one can get at it but you. No one can control what happens in your inner lab but you.
Stop the distillation operation by moving your tongue away from the roof of your mouth. Relax but pause before opening your eyes, since the contrast between the gray harshness of physical reality awaiting you and the subtle warm environment of the Inner lab will be very pronounced.
You have successfully transmuted dark sexual energy into glowing white hot light and then into pure golden light, the so-called “golden flower.” In terms of the Emerald Tablet, you have returned it to earth in the living green light of the heart. You can add to the spiritual tincture in the heart or direct it to heal any part of your body or to other people if you open your heart in compassion.
To heal actively, you simply repeat the circulation of light meditation, and keep the heart chamber open to release compassionate energy to revivify or re-animate your organs, personality, or in other people. Bring the highly purified energy to life and direct it with the breath to any organ or disease (mental or physical)—wherever there is imperfection in your body or someone else’s. You can now answer the call to perfection with the perfected, unified and grounded, healing energy of the heart.
As you practice the Circulation of the Light more, you will learn how to store more energy in the heart and how to open your heart easily to others. This will bring many wondrous applications into your life. The more work you do in the inner lab, the purer this environment becomes and the easier it is to generate and store this energy. You will also be able to know what your body is telling you—how to understand what the emotion or moving energy in your body means, why your organs are crying out for attention, and what your cells need from you.
