It Starts with a Smile

It's almost a joke – an absurdity. Let's discuss and explore the deeper meanings of a smile. What could there be to say? What could there be to learn? A speechless baby does it without thinking. Is there anything simpler?

We also breathe without thinking – we begin that, too, as speechless babies, and never stop until we leave this life. Yet, if you've been doing Qigong, you already know that there's a lot more to the simple breaths we take than we might suppose at first. So again, we come back to the beginning, to what Master Lin learned and to what Spring Forest Qigong teaches: the simplest is usually the most powerful.

The whole world knows it.

What's in a smile? It's like the mystery of James Joyce's "word known to all men." What's the word known to all men? The answer to both questions? Love.

For half the world and many of those reading this, we've just moved deep into the cold, dark season of winter. Many of us are also coming out of the Christmas season, which somehow seems to bring as much stress with it as joy. Either way, you might see (or have seen) the season getting to the people around you. Bundled up, buttoned down, bustling around, and grumbling. Where's the love? Don't they seem like dark houses? Where's the light?

It's more than metaphor.

Master Lin says, "The heart is the place where our soul lives." In this body that houses the soul, the heart is its hearth and joy is its fire. From fullness of joy, our eyes' light shines forth; a smile in that light, we feel as the warmth of love. It's warm enough to melt sadness. It's strong enough to kindle the same joy in another. It's healing.

Didn't you already know that? Haven't you always known that? But maybe you didn't know that this same love that moves from heart to heart with a smile is the beginning and the end of Qigong practice. It's the secret of Qigong healing. And it's the most powerful force in the entire universe.

That's why we say: SMILE means Start My Internal Love Engine. Have you heard Master Lin say he wants all his students to be love radiators? Well, a simple smile is what flips the switch and gets the engine humming. That's all the mechanics you need to know!

Of course, there's a rich library of modern scientific literature, cheerfully oblivious to the ancient understandings that Qigong masters developed and refined into their own science of healing and longevity. In that same modern library of scientific literature, you might read that a smile stimulates the brain to release a flood of endorphins, one of the body's "feel-good," pain-relieving chemicals.

Or, you might learn that the eyes are linked to the autonomic nervous system, which in turn, through its parasympathetic and sympathetic aspects, govern excitation and relaxation in the body and connect to every major organ-system in it.

And you must have heard, even without cracking a single book in that library, that the constant, low-grade excitation of the "fight-or-flight" response of that same sympathetic nervous system ("stress") is the number-one contributing factor to almost every kind of sickness.

Well, on the other hand, it turns out modern science also already knows that tapping into the calming, restorative parasympathetic half of our autonomic nervous system is the body's natural, balancing response to stress. Did you know that part? All the puzzle pieces are there, but, for the most part, modern science and medicine are still scratching their heads, puzzle pieces in hand, trying to figure out the big picture that Qigong-science solved long ago.

But... do you really need to know all that? Does a smiling baby know that? Or, can you trust what you've known all along – that a heartfelt smile with shining, gentle eyes feels good, both when you give one and when you get one. That it's relaxing. That it makes you wonder, "What was I feeling so bad about, anyway?" That is the power of simplicity. That is the power of the wisdom and intelligence that is in every single one of us, both to draw from for ourselves, and to share with others.

What Master Lin says about love is just as true of a loving smile:

"When you love people, you will feel joy to live in the world, no matter if life seems up or down. In this world, we have enough stress, worries, struggles, and hatred... Only love can bring us hope and true happiness. Give your love to others. Share your love with others... That will make you feel even more joyful. And, because of this, the energy in your body will flow much better and blockages in the body will open much faster."

Doesn't that make so much sense? Share your smile with others. Even that is enough – the light in your eyes says everything, and says it in a moment. It speaks so much more beautifully than any word you can say.

And this is why we begin our Qigong practice with a smile. This is why Master Lin guides us into his meditations by asking us first to "wear a smile" on our faces. If a smile can do so much for others, don't you think it can do the same for you?

Even as we begin practicing the healing techniques in Level 2 and beyond, still we begin with a smile – especially if we're helping someone to heal their heart. Again we see the intimate connection between the heart, love, a smile, and healing. As Master Lin says, in "doing healing on the heart, you must wear a smile on the face, and this smile must come from your heart. Once you smile, the quality of the healing energy will totally change. It becomes more healing, and the soul of your friend can feel your healing energy right away and open a door for you to come in and help him."

And – most beautiful of all...

If you follow the lives of some of the world's greatest spiritual seekers, the lives of those saints, sages, and masters who had longed for liberation from suffering, those whose hearts ached to know the divine, those who passed through the tortures of the "dark night of the soul" to find enlightenment... Again and again, when they find what they were looking for... what do they do? They laugh!

Nothing left but joy! Nothing left but love.

Spring Forest Qigong can save you a little of the time and trouble in getting there, though, if you'd like.

Would you like to know?

The journey begins like it ends – with a smile.