Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
The “six paths” are those of heavenly beings, asuras, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. This is one of the core cosmological ideas of ancient Indian religion (such as Brahmanism) and of Buddhism, used to describe the six realms through which all living beings are endlessly reborn according to their karma.
The native Taoism of China had no fully corresponding concept in its early cosmology. Taoism laid more stress on “inherited burden” (chengfu—the idea that the deeds of ancestors are repaid upon their descendants, which differs from individual karma) and on the “cycle of yin and yang.” Later, as Buddhism entered China during the Han dynasty and spread widely, its idea of “cause and effect and reincarnation” was gradually absorbed and blended into Taoism, giving rise to distinctively Chinese ideas such as “hell” and “King Yama.” Yet the ultimate aim of Taoism has always remained its own.
Taoists hold that ties arise and ties dissolve, and that meeting and parting follow the flow of affinity. By going along with affinity, we gradually settle our worldly ties and free ourselves from the six paths of reincarnation. Affinity is a kind of “qi” by which heaven and earth ceaselessly generate and transform (not the “air” in the ordinary sense), and it shows itself through the gathering and scattering of qi. This qi is not a gas with substance as commonly understood, but the source energy of prior heaven, the root of the creative work of yin and yang.
In the Taoist view of reincarnation, this qi gives rise to all kinds of affinities as it gathers and scatters. Affinity may be called the later-heaven form of this qi. The gathering and scattering, meeting and parting of affinities cannot be controlled by any person, god, or immortal; this is the rule by which the six paths operate, and it lies beyond human power.
Karma arises because it is driven by the various desires of the human heart. Suppose, for example, that a person, for the sake of some gain, conceives the thought of killing someone. In fact, there is no need to wait for the actual killing: the moment the thought arises, karma has already arisen with it. Even so, once the thought has arisen, the seed of karma has been sown. Once there is a seed, it will sprout as soon as conditions allow, and the karma will grow with it until it bears fruit.
Therefore, whether one calls it cultivating the Tao or spiritual practice, one must first still one's thoughts. This is the first step toward escaping reincarnation. Next, one must resolve one's ties. When the ties of the world have gradually been exhausted, one has already escaped the six paths of reincarnation. Of course, escaping the six paths does not mean longevity. But the qi of one's whole body is no longer entangled with karmic ties. At that point, one may be counted among the Perfected.
Resolving one's ties is not simply a matter of leaving home to live in seclusion. Merely leaving home to live as a recluse can at best be called cutting off ties. Resolving ties means slowly settling, strand by strand, all the ties of past lives, while producing no new threads of affinity. Otherwise, as old ties go, new ties arise, and one can never escape reincarnation. New ties can be severed by stilling thoughts, but old ties must be repaid and dispersed through one's own actions.
Taoists practice through particular methods. If one reaches the state of union with the Tao—the “unity of heaven and humanity”—one is no longer bound by the rule of the “six paths of reincarnation.” Naturally, the six paths of reincarnation no longer exist for such a person, who can then live as long as heaven and earth.