204: Chapter 201 Guiding Exercises Along the Meridians (Part 1)

After running for a while, not even finishing a round trip across the Golden Gate Bridge, Li Changsheng turned back halfway and hurried home.

Back inside the house, Li Changsheng began to flip through the Traditional Chinese Medicine book he had purchased.

This Traditional Chinese Medicine book focused on explaining knowledge related to various Meridians and acupoints.

Li Changsheng read it with extra care this time, especially the section on the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

"It seems that opening the Ren and Du Meridians is not a necessary condition for stepping into the realm of Huajin, but it is indeed one of the physical conditions that increase the success rate."

Li Changsheng muttered to himself.

"However, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Ren and Du Meridians are not difficult to open. If what is stated above is correct, every time I Cultivate the Eight Brocades, it should be equivalent to clearing the Ren and Du Meridians once. But why haven't I been able to achieve Meridian Guidance?"

"Meridian Guidance... Meridian Guidance..."

Li Changsheng kept muttering, beginning to ponder the meaning of these words.

"Meridian Guidance means following the flow of the human body's Meridians and, in coordination with breathing, performing physical movements according to a certain pattern, gradually reaching the state where Xingyi follows the body and Qi follows the movements."

Once at this level, even without deliberately practicing the Eight Brocades movements, the breath continues to circulate with daily activities, repeating in a cycle.

How does one reach this step?"

Li Changsheng became a bit confused and subconsciously picked up his phone to search for the Daoist explanation of the Ren and Du Meridians.

He wanted to see if his current state of 'clearing' actually met the requirements for Meridian Guidance, since he did, after all, manage to clear the Ren and Du Meridians once every day.

Even clearing a toilet isn't as diligent as he is.

After searching and reading for a long time, Li Changsheng combined this with the explanations from various Daoist practitioners online, and a faint understanding began to dawn on him.

"So, this still doesn't count as being cleared; it can only be called a small clearing, while a major clearing is still lacking."

Through his research, Li Changsheng understood that the 'Ren' in Ren and Du Meridians actually refers to the 'Ren' (pregnancy) in giving birth, the Du Meridian governs all Yang Meridians, and the Ren Meridian governs all Yin Meridians.

The Ren Meridian, in particular, is easier for women to open.

What does it feel like to open the Ren Meridian? It means tucking the chin and hiding the forehead, and the neck must not be stiff; move it gently, as if holding a small ball under the neck. After that, if you feel a sensation similar to needing to urinate but not quite, that counts as the Ren Meridian being opened.

As for the explanation of the Ren and Du Meridians and how to open them, the ancients had descriptions; among them, an ancient Daoist priest once wrote a book titled 'Original Meaning of Journey to the West'.

This book can be considered an interpretation of Journey to the West from another perspective using Daoist knowledge.

What is Sun Wukong? The Monkey King is the 'Heart-Monkey'. Among the 'Six Consciousnesses' mentioned in Daoism—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness—the Heart-Monkey is the 'consciousness'.

In Daoism, consciousness represents the wild thoughts of a person, called distracting thoughts; in modern terms, this is internal friction.

That is why Sun Wukong reaches the Western Heaven in one somersault; whenever we think of going somewhere, we are there; if we think of the moon, we land on the moon.

What is the Golden Cudgel?

Originally called the 'Ocean-Stabilizing Needle'.

And the man's rod usually resides in the lower groin, which is also called the 'seabed', so this is the 'bottom' of the sea.

So, combining the former, the Ocean-Stabilizing Needle, which can be large or small, is actually that thing.

As for the Ruyi Golden Cudgel being able to be hidden in the ear when not in use, this is also explained in that book, which aligns with Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge: the kidneys open into the ears, so isn't it just being placed in the kidney orifice?

And when a person's consciousness, the Heart-Monkey Sun Wukong, is always prone to wild fantasies and likes to play with the Golden Cudgel, what should be done?

Regarding this, the 'Original Meaning of Journey to the West' explains that the Bodhisattva's Tight-Fillet Spell is the key.

There is a secret method in Daoist practice called 'Expanding the Wisdom Center'. Once the Wisdom Center is expanded, the wild thoughts stop.

The action is to lift the scalp and stretch it, not with force, just slightly, and then smile with your eyebrows and mouth; thus, the Heart-Monkey is subdued. (It seems useful for internal friction too. But it depends on the situation; after all, one can't keep smiling all the time. What if you can't fall asleep?)

Actually, reading this, Li Changsheng was shocked.

"So the 'cutting off to purity' in Internal Alchemy Meditation, which makes me have no desires or cravings, actually aligns with this!"

At this moment, Li Changsheng was truly impressed by Daoist studies; how profound the wisdom of the ancients really is.

The Du Meridian starts at the lower abdomen, near the lower groin, runs up through the spine, and connects to the brain before descending from the spine. The brain is the Sea of Marrow, and the Mingmen is the Sea of Essence; both are governed by the Du Meridian. — 'Collected Commentaries on Zhuangzi'

Therefore, opening the Ren and Du Meridians by expanding the Wisdom Center is key; this is called opening the Upper Dantian orifice. It is also called opening the Spirit Orifice.

However, expanding the Wisdom Center is not enough; one must also expand the shoulders and the hips.

According to that Daoist priest, Journey to the West was originally supposed to have three Tight-Fillet Spells; at the very least, his analysis shows that the author of Journey to the West had studied the Daoist Canon and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The three Tight-Fillet Spells are expanding the Wisdom Center, expanding the shoulders, and expanding the hips.

This is opening the Upper Dantian orifice; afterwards, one must open the Central Meridian. At this juncture, the Crown Orifice is key. Zhang Sanfeng once said that opening the Crown Orifice is called 'the whole body is light and agile with the head suspended', and there is another term called 'empty, spiritual, and suspended energy'.

Opening the Crown Orifice, the Empty Orifice, and the Intention Orifice is done by expanding the Wisdom Center to open the orifice between the eyes and eyebrows. Once these three orifices are opened, it is called 'Spirit and Intention meet to rush the Niwan'.

Finally, once the Spirit and Intention meet and the Qi returns to the center, one can then rush the Meridians.

After reading this information, even with the System's memory, Li Changsheng felt his head swelling a bit.

Because to achieve the meeting of Spirit and Intention and the return of Qi to the center, one needs to pass through several orifices during the process, and finally pass through some more orifices to succeed.

The general process is as shown in the image below.

[ image ]

Du Meridian diagram; according to this theory, I haven't opened it myself either. I have looked up the information; these theories exist within Daoism, while the 'clearing' in Traditional Chinese Medicine is relatively simple.

"So my previous direction wasn't entirely wrong. At the very least, Internal Alchemy Meditation did indeed save me a lot of time, and I have already cleared many orifices, so what follows should be simple."

Li Changsheng nodded to himself.

Moreover, the Eight Brocades itself also has the effect of clearing the Ren and Du Meridians, though it just hasn't thoroughly opened these Meridians.

It is equivalent to a minor clearing, not a complete opening.

Li Changsheng exhaled softly and began to practice the Eight Brocades again. However, this time he pulled up the Ren and Du Meridians diagram, began to cross-reference these acupoints, and guided the Qi slowly through these acupoints as specified.

The speed was very slow; this feeling was as difficult as practicing Internal Alchemy Meditation before.

Bit by bit, strand by strand, the Qi flowing through the acupoints and Meridians was like running through a riddled pipeline, full of pits and bumps. The Qi flowing through needed to slowly fill in these pits, so the efficiency naturally couldn't be fast.

Before long, hot sweat broke out all over Li Changsheng's body, and wisps of steam rose from his skin, especially when the Qi flowed through the Crown Orifice—that is, the state of 'the whole body is light and agile with the head suspended'—the heat from the top of his head was even more intense.

Anyone who didn't know would think that if he shaved his head and placed a fried egg on top, it would cook.

With his consciousness highly focused, he began to arduously guide the Qi forward; this feeling was like a hardworking old farmer cultivating a piece of wasteland.

Time slipped away bit by bit. When he had finished one pass and Li Changsheng opened his eyes, he looked at the time and found that five hours had passed.

His stomach was growling loudly.