Meditation

The I-Ching says that all information is available in the present moment. Meditation is a way to focus the mind in the present moment by stopping the internal dialogue. The Taoist meditation formulas went one step further and used visualization to work directly with the agents who run the physical body and the energy body. This process harmonized the ancient sage's brainwaves and internal energy with the forces of nature.

The "old boys" learned how to communicate with, and to varying degrees control, their chi by working directly with the usually subconscious aspects of themselves that actually controlled the chi flow in the channels. This unifying of mind and body through meditation allowed them to reach further into their true potential and achieve supernormal feats. This ability to "get past it" was used to perform austerities such as living in trees or caves for years at a time, or more famously, Chen Tuan laying down in a cave and putting his body into a state of suspended animation for weeks at a time..

For well over a thousand years the Taoists developed extraordinary abilities in many fields of science, psychology, martial arts and supernatural inquiry. At the root of everything they did was this amazing meditation discipline and its ordered, step by step progression through the formulas. There are numerous types of meditation, below is an overview of several Taoist meditation methods.

Chi Kung, (pin yin QiGong) is the forceful expelling of toxins that increases circulation of blood and chi by using special breathing, posture, and stretching.
Chi is the vital breath, the bioelectric energy that gives life to everything in nature. Chi Kung is a system of breathing that expels toxins and negative energy from the body and helps balance and improve the flow of internal energy through the body. These Taoist inspired exercises all use a special yoga technique that relaxes the muscles, especially of the arms, and stretches the tendon, by extending, to activate the energy channels.

Chi-Kung emphasizes a more forceful expelling of the breath than in nei kung [neigung] exercises such as standing meditation and T'ai Chi Chuan. In nei-kung the breath is felt but not heard. The effect of Chi Kung training is more dramatic for the beginner, as he or she feels energy blocks dissolve with the forceful expelling of breath. Through a coordination of breath movement, vibration, and awareness it works to purify each of the major organs that are connected to the acupuncture channels. [The "Healing-Sounds" form of Chi-Kung is a good example of this. It was developed in the Hua Shan tradition and popularized in America by Sai-hung Kwan and Ken Cohen.]

The practice of these powerful exercises on a daily basis is very beneficial because it provides a foundation of improved body awareness and energy flow for the subtler exercises in Tai-chi and related arts. The first step in Tai -Chi practice is to loosen each joint in the arms and legs and this external Chi Kung practice is an important tool for this process. Half of the battle is to gain awareness of where your body is stiff and also to be able to feel the chi and direct it to specific areas at will. Regular Chi Kung training helps to prevent over training and enhances any strenuous exercise routine.

"The space between Heaven and Earth,

Isn't it like a bellows?"

Nei kung is the internal circulation and refinement of chi using Taoist meditation formulas, quiet breathing, and slow motion movement. The first of the formulas is fusion of the five elements which is the oldest recorded Taoist meditation formula.[ The document is the Taiping Ching. A first version of the text was presented to the Emperor Cheng of the former Han in 32 B. C. E. see Kohn]

The basic Taoist theory is that by balancing yin and yang there is created a third force, a neutral force that the Chinese called the Yuan Chi or Original Chi. In Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM] this energy is termed primary chi. We will stick with the Chinese term yuan chi ,or yuanqi. In the basic TCM textbook Chinese Acupuncture and Moxabustion it says:

"Yuanqi is derived from congenital essence and inherited from the parents. Yuan chi needs to be supplemented and nourished by the post natal chi obtained from food essence. The more abundant the yuan chi is the more vigorously the zang fu organs will function."

This energy has the potential to heal the entire body and is distributed throughout the body by the Triple Warmer Channel [Sanjiao]. According to Taoist tradition yuan chi, original chi, is the chi of the void from which yin and yang sprang. It is the glue that holds yin and yang in balance. There is force, counter force, and a third force that becomes evident when you balance the first two. This is the original chi and the Chinese study of Tao was a study of this "mysterious force." They sought the balance point, the empty spot, where the extremes were balanced and then sought to flow with it in meditation.

There are several terms which need to be introduced here;xing- is the chi you were born with, your essence. Ming is how it unfolds in your life, your destiny. In other words, the unfolding of your place in time or, to fulfill your spiritual destiny in this life cycle. This internal cultivation process was termed neikung or neidan [inner skill or, inner alchemy] and was contrasted to the to external practices of which even practices such as Chi Kung were considered waigung [external cultivation ].Tai chi is categorized as neigung because it uses this inner alchemy practice.

The Taoists believed that life was a series of experiences, which streamed from their own consciousness [in five streams on eight paths]. Thus they accepted full responsibility for these experiences and learned to heal themselves from the inside. By stopping the internal dialogue and dissolving energy blocks the practice healed people regardless of what their story was. No amount of talking about it achieved the same results. They learned, through direct experience, that if you focus on something you make more of it. They chose to focus on their chi so that they could make more.

The Taoists developed a method of communicating directly with the chi. No language or verbalization could communicate directly with this involuntary aspect of the body. However, over the course of many generations it was found that this could be accomplished with meditation. Meditation is a discipline used to silence the internal dialogue. With this achieved they used visualization that they found could work directly with functions of the organ's energy system normally controlled by the autonomic nervous system.

The basic visualization was of a cauldron at the center, just below the naval, where the female and male [yin and yang] energies of the body could be brought together and coupled. Yin and Yang are coupled in the cauldron and the resultant steam is the Original Chi. Through this method they were able to greatly improve their health by gaining some control over the involuntary body functions like blood flow, increased lymph function, and chi flow in the channels.

In advanced Taoist meditation practice it is important to clear the eight extraordinary channels before you can circulate the steam from the cauldron to all parts of the body. There are eight of these channels and they are different from the regular channels because apart from the Du and Ren channels that have points on them the other extraordinary channels share their points with other regular channels. "The extraordinary channels strengthen the connections among the channels and assume responsibility for joining, controlling, storing and regulating the chi and blood of each channel." Chinese Acupuncture and Moxabustion

The oldest tradition using these methods has come down to us as the Five Agents or Five Phases school. The five phases theory is derived from ancient Chinese cosmology and has been applied to many disciplines. The five zang fu organ's energy collection points were visualized as colored lights in the body. The five agents, later called the five shen, were seen as parts of the person's total personality. It is necessary to fuse the parts into one whole with none of the parts being left out. This reduced fragmentation of the person's energy and will.

These intangible parts of the person are easily damaged by emotional trauma, especially in childhood. When they are damaged the energy becomes stuck and they don't participate in the mutual support of the other organs and so part of the system stagnates. If every aspect of your self doesn't participate you cannot meet your true potential, some of the parts will sit on the "bench"[the subconscious] and drain energy from the rest. You have to use child psychology, a "gentle discipline," to get all parts to participate. Fusion of all five colors and one point meditation on the fused whole has been practiced in China for over 2000 years.

The second formula is usually called the "lesser enlightenment of Kan and Li" today. However, in the meditation manual "Instructions for Xing and Ming" [from the 1600's reprinted by the Baiyun Quan] it puts this type of practice under the heading of "Practice of the Great Cinnibar Elixir nei-dan."

The specific practice was called "Practice of the of the greater and lesser cauldron [ding] and furnace [lu]." This is a method of communicating more directly with your chi. The manual goes on, "All those who practice the Great Cinnibar Golden Elixir must first secure the furnace and set the cauldron. As a vessel, the cauldron is neither gold nor iron, it is earth." p. 12 In Taoist art this was popularly represented by a dragon with beams of light coming from his eyes down into the pearl in the cauldron.

According to the Taoist Canon, "One of the important roles of Zhenwu in the celestial hierarchy was to protect against and defeat evil spirits. During a great battle against the demon kings of the north, they caused the energies (yin/water and yang/fire) of the trigrams Kan and Li to manifest as a giant tortoise and snake. Using his spiritual powers, Zhenwu subjugated the tortoise and the snake under his feet, symbolizing his mastery of the Kan and Li meditation."

Cauldron meditation was the primary practice at places like Wudang Shan and Hua Shan and this was the aspect of Taoist practices that was combined with martial arts to create the neijia chuan.

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