The Taoist path of practice: essentials of cultivation, the microcosmic orbit, the Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection, the Laozi as a method, and pitfalls to avoid.
The “six paths of reincarnation” began as an Indian and Buddhist idea later absorbed by Taoism. This article explains how Taoists understand the gathering and scattering of karmic ties and how karma arises, and argues that by first stilling thoughts and then resolving ties, one merges with the Tao and escapes the cycle.
Those cultivating the Tao should guard against six deviations: laziness, infatuation, illusion, arrogance, confusion, and demonic delusion. This article describes each—using practice to escape life, rejecting other faiths, taking illusions as real, conceit, and a jumble of methods—and urges rational practice and fidelity to one's original aspiration.
After years of the Rejuvenation Exercise, the ageless Li Xuanzhen explains its essence to a young scholar: perseverance, dual cultivation of nature and life, and attaining emptiness and stillness. He introduces companion practices such as beating the heavenly drum, dry face-washing, and combing the hair, and hints at a key line of the Scripture of the Yellow Court.
Li Xuanzhen explains to the scholar the Scripture of the Yellow Court line on the mouth as the Jade Pond and Palace of Supreme Harmony, sets out the finer points of clicking the teeth and swallowing saliva through the meridians, midnight-noon ebb and flow, the number of the Heavenly Ladle stars, and the Triple Burner, and concludes that nurturing life depends on perseverance and a still mind.
In the Kaiyuan era of the Tang dynasty, the aging Master Li Xuanzhen of Qinghua Temple in Chang'an learned the “Rejuvenation Exercise” from a wandering Taoist: clicking the teeth 36 times each morning and swallowing saliva in three gulps. After a hundred days his hair darkened and teeth regrew. This part tells its origin and principles.
Drawing on the Laozi, this article distills three steps in cultivating the Tao—concentrating qi to attain softness as the entry gate, attaining emptiness and keeping stillness as the advanced technique, and acting through non-action as the ultimate method—illuminated by commentators such as Heshang Gong, Wang Bi, and Wang Anshi and by The Secret of the Golden Flower.
An explanation of the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits in inner alchemy: the first is qi circulating, the second spirit circulating. It distinguishes circulation opened by qi from circulation opened by the elixir, describes the intense reactions of the latter, and contrasts both with popular qigong.
The Ten Books on Cultivating Perfection is a sixty-scroll collection of inner alchemy works in the Zhengtong Taoist Canon, mostly by the Zhongli–Lü lineage and the Five Southern Patriarchs. This article explains its title and introduces each of its twelve parts, from Pointing to the Mystery to Awakening to Perfection.
The fourth talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series, on the transformation between later-heaven and prior-heaven essence, qi, and spirit, how the three channels correspond to the four dhyanas and eight samadhis, sinking qi to the dantian and the “Three-River Mouth,” and the signs as energy opens the back, throat, and chest.
The sixth talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series explains the auspicious lying posture and the seven moving exercises, such as Guanyin Invites the Sages, The Crane Spreads Its Wings, and The River Stops, and stresses that practice begins with the body: only with full essence, qi, and spirit and closed senses can the crown lotus open.
The eighth talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series describes the reactions and “scenery along the way” as energy rises and falls, how the time a spirit dwells in the womb shapes a person's spiritual acuity, and how physiological desire vanishes once one's energy unites with the force above and returns to its source.
The fifth talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series, on entering the central channel and opening the crown after the Conception and Governing Vessels open, celibacy and mental health, hidden illnesses surfacing in meditation, the “River Stops” exercise, and why a person, like a tree, withers when energy stops rising.
The second talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series. Using a lotus bud and an apple as analogies, it discusses opening the Conception, Governing, and central channels and subduing the “Three-River Mouth,” cites the enlightenment of the monk Xuyun, and explains how body and mind transform each other.
The ninth talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series uses a rocket launch and an apple returning to its tree to explain how habits decide one's destination, cultivating the energy below and training the spirit to leave the body, and why devotion, incense, and chanting alone are not cultivating the Tao.
The third talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series, on celibacy and the storing of energy, closing the six senses to condense energy, cultivating each of the three elixir fields for a hundred days, the auspicious lying posture, and the supple, warm, rejuvenated body that full essence, qi, and spirit bring.
The seventh talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series explains why prior-heaven primordial qi sinks into later-heaven essence, the reasoning behind restraint and celibacy, how the body governs an ordinary person's mind, and why practice must harmonize body and mind and follow scriptures or a true teacher through the four dhyanas and eight samadhis.
The first talk in the Essentials of Taoist Practice series, on grain avoidance, essence, qi, and spirit, and the energy of cultivation: not eating after noon, the unity of the Three Treasures, rising energy and the opening of the crown, and why practitioners must understand physiology.
The Golden Light Incantation is the core of Taoism's Eight Great Incantations. This article describes its uses, explains the incantation line by line, details the practice of facing the rising sun, silently reciting, drawing the Golden Light talisman, and breathing in deeply, and closes with precautions and three common misconceptions.