Kan and Li

The valley spirit does not die,
It is called the mysterious female.
The gate of the mysterious female
Is called the root of heaven and earth.

                                                                                                              Daode jing 12 Kohn trans.

Cauldron meditation formulas

The next formula we will discuss is called the "lesser enlightenment of water and fire" and it consists of a series of exercises combined with the meditation. It is called "lesser enlightenment" because it is the enlightenment of the body and how it works. It is important for us to understand the mysteries of the body. It didn't come with an owner's manual and we need to learn to manage it effectively and not to damage it. We need to understand how our native intelligence formed itself into this body and how that body interfaces with the mind.

This meditation formula is a method of communicating more directly with your chi on a deeper level. The Chinese have a saying, "When fire is beneath water there is peace…" This practice brings peace to the relationships between you internal organs and the balance of the whole system.

In this meditation you learn to help the body heal itself by reversing the Creative Cycle of the Five Phases and putting the fused yang pearls [red and green] beneath the yin pearls [blue and white]. They meet and couple in the "cauldron" which is the yellow, or spleen pearl that represents the will. When the unified mind [the will] orders it the five elements must obey and there is no need for any sickness.

This advanced level of fusion of yin and yang produces a third force, the neutral or empty force, which is the "original chi." It is capable of neutralizing everything in the body and sending it back to its original nature. This cooking and neutralizing process rids the body of stagnate energy and false yin and yang and allows deep healing to take place. This practice allows you to achieve direct control over aspects of your bodily functions that are normally considered unconscious and this is the key to the supernormal feats that Taoist masters have always been known for over the centuries. In other words this is a method for communicating directly with your chi and thereby reaching far more of your true potential for healing your body and defending it. This practice is not difficult to learn with a competent teacher and it has a lot of practical uses.

According to the Taoist Canon, "the kidney shen was pictured as a tortoise, the liver shen was depicted as tiger, the heart shen as a phoenix, and the lung as a dragon."With this level of meditation a mudra was introduced using a special hand position to enhance the chi flow during the meditation. When you feel the energy in your hands and feet it is the shen telling you that they are participating in the practice. They actually greatly enjoy the practice once it becomes a regular discipline. They signal their participation at first with a warm feeling of chi in the hands and feet.

The hand position or mudra; in this case from the Zhenyi tradition, is interlacing the little fingers and ring fingers of both hands and then folding the first two fingers over each other and bringing the thumbs together. This hand position allowed for another level of communication with the shen and balancing and channeling of the energy during extended meditation. When the energy level increases during the meditation practice the feeling will be that the hands are no longer there when you use this mudra. Deeper into the practice the perception of the entire physical body will cease as all of the awareness will be centered on the energy body during the meditation period.

Greater Kan and Li formulas expand the practice out to pull in essence and chi from natural surroundings, flowers, stars and planets. The energy body is expanded out from the body. The shen prefer to be ten feet tall, when they expand out from the physical body there is less resistance energetically and they can connect to the higher realms more easily.