The Six Healing Sounds



The Six Healing Sounds in Taoist practice also known as the Six-Syllable Secret or the Six Basic Soundless Sounds for Health.The Six Healing Sounds are used for clearing, releasing, and purging the internal organs and other tissues of bad, surplus or stagnant Qi. These specific tones clear out blocks and excesses, release negative emotions, and purge toxic Qi from each organ. It is important to clear your organs of excess Qi and toxic Qi, before adding in fresh Qi. The 6 organs of this set are the Yin organs of Chinese medical theory. Each of these organs is thought to be a master organ that controls several other organs, systems, and functions in the body. By working on each of these organs, the whole body is helped.

“One should take air in through the nose and let it out slowly through the mouth… There is one way of drawing breath in and six ways of expelling breath out. The six ways of expelling breath are represented by the syllables hsüherhoossschwayshee. The six ways of exhalation can cure illness: to expel heat, one uses chway; to expel cold, one uses hoo; to relieve tension, use shee; to release anger, use her; to display malaise, use hsü; and to regain equilibrium, use sss…”.

The following table lists the sounds as explained by several Tao Teachers. For example, some teachers suggest visualizations to accompany the sounds. Also, some of the teachers below (Cohen, Davis and Reid) provide suggested movements to perform while making the sounds.

Phase Wood Fire Earth Metal Water N/A
Organs Liver, Gallbladder Heart, Small Intestine Spleen, Stomach Lungs, Large Intestine Kidneys, Bladder Triple Burner
Emotional Excess Anger Joy (Excitement) Brooding Sorrow Fear N/A
Teacher Chia Shhhhhhh, sub-vocally. Hawwwwwww, sub-vocally. Whoooooo, “made sub-vocally and felt in the vocal chords.” Ssssssss, subvocally. “Round the lips and silently make the sound one makes in blowing out a candle.” Heeeeeee, sub-vocally.
Teacher Cohen Sh, “as though saying ‘Hushhh, be quiet.’ At the end of the sh, form your mouth into the U shape.”  Ho, “identical to hoo in the word ‘hook’.”  Hooo, “just like the word ‘who’.” See-ahh, “a barely audible prolonged chant” Chrroooeee, “low chant”  Seeee “While making the sound, form the mouth into a smiling shape.”
Teacher Dantao  Xu (pronounced Shew, vocalized)  Ho (vocalized)  Fu (vocalized) Xi (pronounced See, vocalized) Chu (pronounced Chew, vocalized)  Hey (vocalized, rhymes with “play”)
Teacher Davis  Shoo (same as sound for Metal, but with lips rounded) Khe (initial consonant is between K and H, with lips shaped as if to make the “uh” sound in “put”) Hoo (like blowing out a candle) Shhh (like telling someone to be quiet) Chway (whispered)  Sssssss
Teacher Olson Shoo  Haa Hoo Sss Foo Shee
Teacher Ni Shu Ho Hu Szz Fu Shi (relates to gallbladder rather than triple burner)
Teacher Reid Hsü, “as ‘shoo,’ with lips pursed, but softened by the umlaut over the vowel.” Her, “as ‘her,’ but without the final ‘r,’ with mouth open, tip of tongue pressed against lower teeth, and syllable aspirating in the top of the throat on exhalation.”  Hoo, “‘who,’ with the lips rounded and the tongue suspended in mid-mouth, as if blowing out a candle.”  Sss, “as in ‘hiss,’ without the initial ‘hi-,’ with your tongue behind the lower teeth and the upper and lower lips slightly parted.”  Chway, “as in ‘way’ with a ‘ch’ in front. Lips slightly pursed on the initial ‘ch,’ then relaxed and open on the final ‘way’.”  Shee, “‘she,’ with the teeth slightly parted and lips formed in a small smile.”
 The entire set of sounds and their accompanying movements takes about 20 minutes to perform. The sounds can also be practiced seasonally to help the body harmonize with the changes of climate particular to that season. For example, the heart sound releases heat form the body in the summer, and the kidney sound drives out winter’s cold.





The five major organ systems and their associated emotions and properties







Inner Smile Practice

Front Line

1. Sit comfortably near the edge of your chair with your feel flat on the floor. Keep your back straight, but not stiff. Stay relaxed, and clasp your palms together in your lap. Press your tongue against the upper palate of your mouth.



4. Become aware of the midpoint between your eyebrows through which you will draw this abundant smiling energy in front of and around you. Let your forehead relax; as the smiling energy accumulates at the mid-eyebrow, it will eventually overflow into your body.

5. Allow the smiling energy to flow down from the mid-eyebrow through your face, relaxing the cheeks, nose, mouth, and all the facial muscles. Let it flow down through your neck. You can roll your head slowly and gently from side to side as you do this. 6. Let the smiling energy continue to flow down to your thymus gland, which is located behind the upper part of your sternum, and picture it glowing with vibrant health. Feel the thymus gland become warm as it begins to vibrate and expand like a blossoming flower.

7. Let the warm, smiling energy spread from the thymus gland into the heart. Draw more smiling energy through the mid-eyebrow, and let it flow like a waterfall down into the heart. When you smile inwardly to the heart, it will generate the virtues of joy and happiness. Spend as much time here as you need to feel the heart relax and expand with loving energy. Try to remember your best experience of love and fill your heart with that same feeling again. Love your heart. The heart is associated with the negative emotional energies of hastiness, arrogance, and cruelty. When you smile into the heart, these energies will dissipate, creating the space for the virtuous energies of love and joy to expand.

8. Let the joy and happiness generated in the heart expand outward to your lungs. Feel the lungs open as the happy, smiling energy flows into them. The lungs may appear to be pink and spongy, or they may feel abundantly full. If there is anything you see or feel in the lungs that is unpleasant to you, get rid of it. You can clear the lungs of energetic, emotional, and physical pollution by smiling into them. Feel the air flow from the tip of the nose down into the lungs, following it all the way out to the tiny air sacs where oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide. Thank your lungs for breathing and helping sustain your life. You should feel your entire chest cavity filling with smiling, loving energy. The lungs are associated with the negative emotional energies of sadness and depression and the virtuous energies of courage and righteousness. When you smile into the lungs, you will dissolve any sadness or negative feelings, creating space for courage and righteousness to expand.

Note: Remember you can go back to the source of smiling energy in front of you-your vision or memory of a happy moment-to get more energy any time during the meditation, If you feel your attention wandering, or it you feel the effect of the Inner Smile becoming weak or diluted, just gather more smiling energy from the source. The Chinese say,” If you want water, you should go to the well. “

9. Next you will direct the smiling energy to the liver, the largest internal organ, located just below the right lung. Feel the liver become immersed in smiling, loving, joyous energy. The liver is associated with the sense of sight, as it controls the energy of the eyes. Use your inner vision to see the liver and determine its condition. Its surface should be smooth and glossy, and it should feel relaxed and uncongested. You can use your eyes to smooth out any part of its surface or to relax any area that seems tense. Feel gratitude for the liver’s work in detoxifying the body, helping to store blood, and producing bile.

The liver is associated with the emotion of anger and the virtue of kindness. When you smile to the liver, you will dissolve any anger and allow the kindness energy more space to expand. The Chinese suggest this also helps strengthen your decision-making power.

10. Let the smiling energy flow from the liver across the abdomen into the pancreas, located directly beneath the left lung. Thank the pancreas for making digestive enzymes, producing insulin, and regulating blood sugar. As you smile into the pancreas, see that it is healthy and functioning smoothly.

11. Continuing around to the left, smile into the spleen, which is just next to the left kidney. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly where it is. If you smile in that direction, you will gradually get in touch with it. If you need to, return to the source of smiling energy in front of you, and let the smiling energy flow in through the mid-eyebrow and down to the area of the spleen.

12. As smiling, loving energy builds up in the spleen, let it flow into the kidneys. Smile down to the kidneys and feel them expand with radiant energy. You can use your inner vision to inspect the kidneys to be sure their surface is smooth and glossy and that they are filtering properly without any congestion. The kidneys are associated with the emotion of fear. As you smile into them, fear melts away, and the virtue of gentleness can grow. Keep smiling into the kidneys, and let the smiling energy build up until they are full.

13. Next, send the smiling energy down into the urinary bladder, urethra, genitals, and perineum.

Women: The collection point for female sexual energy is located about three inches below the navel, midway between the ovaries. Smile the accumulated energies into the ovaries, uterus, and vagina. Thank the ovaries for making hormones and giving you sexual energy. Bring the combined sexual, smiling, and virtue energies up to the navel, and visualize the energies spiraling into that point.

Men: The collection point for male sexual energy is located one-and-a-half inches above the base of the penis in the area of the prostate gland and seminal vesicles. Smile, and visualize the accumulated energies spiraling down into the prostate gland and testicles. Thank them for making hormones and giving you sexual energy. Bring the combined sexual, smiling, and virtue energies up to the navel, and spiral them into that point.

14. Return the attention to the source of smiling energy in front of you. Be aware of the mid-eyebrow point, and allow more smiling energy to flow in through it like a waterfall pouring down into the organs. Once again immerse the thymus, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, urinary bladder and sex organs in smiling energy. At this point you should be feeling calm and peaceful.

Middle Line

1. Become aware once more of the smiling energy in your eyes. Let it flow down to your mouth. Become aware of your tongue, and make some saliva by working your mouth and swishing your tongue around. Put the tip of your tongue to the roof of the mouth, tighten the neck muscles, and swallow the saliva hard and quickly, making a gulping sound as you do. With your Inner Smile, follow the saliva down the esophagus to the stomach, located at the bottom and below the left side of the rib cage. Thank it for its important work in liquefying and digesting your food. Feel it grow calm and comfortable. Sometimes we abuse our stomachs with improper food. Make a promise to your stomach that you will give it good food to digest.

2. Smile into the small intestine in the middle of the abdomen. It is about seven meters long in an adult. Thank it for absorbing food nutrients to keep you vital and healthy.

3. Smile into the large intestine: the ascending colon, starting at the right side of the hipbone and passing upward to the undersurface of the right lobe of the liver; the transverse colon, which passes downward from the right liver region across the abdomen to the left beneath the lower end of the spleen; the descending colon, which passes downward through the left side of the lumbar region; and the sigmoid colon, which normally lies within the pelvis, the rectum and the anus. The large intestine is about 1.5 meters long. Thank it for eliminating wastes and for making you feel clean, fresh and open. Smile to it and feel it be warm, nice, clean, comfortable and calm.

4. Return to your eyes. Quickly smile down the Middle Line, checking for tension. Smile into the tension until it melts away.

Back Line

1. Bring your attention back to your eyes again.

2. Smile inward with both eyes; collect the power of the smile in the third eye (mid-eyebrow). With your inner eyesight direct your smile about three to four inches inside into the pituitary gland, and feel the gland blossom. Smile into the thalamus, from where the truth and power of the smile will generate. Smile into the pineal gland and feel this tiny gland gradually swell and grow like a bulb. Move your smile’s eyesight, like a bright, shining light, up to the left side of the brain. Move the inner smiling eyesight back and forth in the left brain and across to the right brain and cerebellum. This will balance the left and right brain and strengthen the nerves.

3. Move the inner smiling eyesight down to the midbrain. Feel it expand and soften and go down to the pons and medulla oblongata and to the spinal cord, starting from the cervical vertebrae at the base of the skull. Move the inner smiling eyesight, bringing this loving energy down inside each vertebra and the disc below it. Count out each vertebra and disc as you smile down them: seven cervical (neck) vertebrae, twelve thoracic (chest), five lumbar (lower back), the triangular bone called the sacrum, and the coccyx (tail bone). Feel the spinal cord and the back becoming loose and comfortable. Feel the discs softening. Feel your spine expanding and elongating, making you taller.

4. Return to your eyes and quickly smile down the entire Back Line. Your whole body should feel relaxed, The Back Line exercise increases the flow of the spinal fluid and sedates the nervous system. Smiling into a disc keeps it from hardening and becoming deformed so it cannot properly absorb the force and weight of the body. Back pain can be prevented or relieved by smiling into the spine.

The Entire Length of the Body

Start at the eyes again. Direct your Inner Smile’s eyesight. Quickly smile down the Front Line. Follow the smiling down the Middle Line and then the Back Line. When you are more experienced, smile down all three lines simultaneously, being aware of the organs and the spine. Now, feel the energy descend down the entire length of your body, like a waterfall-a waterfall of smiles, joy and love. Feel your whole body being loved and appreciated. How marvelous it is!

Collecting the Smiling Energy at the Navel

It’s very important to end by storing the smiling energy in the navel. Most ill effects of meditation are caused by excess energy in the head or heart. The navel area can safely handle the increased energy generated by the Inner Smile.

To collect the smile’s energy, concentrate in your navel area, which is about one and a half inches inside your body. Then mentally move that energy in an outward spiral around your navel 36 times; don’t go above the diaphragm or below the pubic bone. Women, start the spiral counterclockwise. Men, start the spiral clockwise. Next, reverse the direction of the spiral and bring it back into the navel, circling it 24 times. Use your finger as a guide the first few times. The energy is now safely stored in your navel, available to you whenever you need it and for whatever part of your body needs it. You have now completed the Inner Smile.

Six Healing Sounds Practice

Lung Exercise: First Healing Sound







Kidney Exercise: Second Healing Sound






Liver Exercise: Third Healing Sound






Heart Exercise: Fourth Healing Sound





Spleen Exercise: Fifth Healing Sound






Triple Warmer Exercise : Sixth Healing Sound






Related to Inner Smile & Six Healing Sound: Basic Practice with Master Mantak Chia at Tao Garden Retreat
“Inner Smile and Six Healing Sounds Practices is by Master Mantak Chia (or Teacher Chia),      
Universal Healing Tao Center and Tao Garden, Thailand
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