Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
Those of you here who have read Taoist and Tantric Buddhist scriptures know that Tantric Buddhism emphasizes the left, central, and right channels, while Taoism emphasizes the Conception, Governing, and central channels. One speaks of front, center, and back; the other of left, center, and right; and so the two traditions argue about it fiercely!
Let us not worry for now about what each school says; they have one thing in common, namely that both place great importance on the “central channel.” Whether your aim is “attaining enlightenment and becoming a buddha” or “attaining the Tao and becoming an immortal,” the central channel must be open!
Why must the central channel be open? The central channel is the pivot, the central axis, of the human body, like the stalk of a lotus. If the lotus at the crown of our head is to bloom, the stalk must draw in ample nourishment and keep sending it upward. It sends it up day and night until the lotus bud is swollen full, fully swollen—then all at once the lotus opens, and it goes out!
This is our head (the master gestures with his prayer beads), this small string of beads is our central channel, and the tassel at the bottom is the male or female sexual organ. If you have desire, this energy cannot rush upward and will leak out from below; if you have vigor and no desire, then once the vigor is full, this energy is sent up this central channel and delivered to your brain.
As energy keeps being sent up the central channel, you naturally achieve “returning the essence to replenish the brain,” and the head becomes full and round. The energy rushes up into the lotus bud of the head, and the bud swells fuller and fuller until it can hold no more and—pop—it opens! When the energy is sufficient, it bursts out.
Look at this apple: it has a stem at the back, a hollow at the front, and a core in the middle (the apple core). Our body is exactly like this apple. The whorl of hair at the crown of our head corresponds to the apple's stem; the Huiyin point below—between the genitals and the anus—corresponds to the hollow at the front of the apple; and our central channel corresponds to the apple's central axis.
The stem at the top of the apple is where it joins the great tree. Without this stem, the apple cannot return to the tree. Our body is a complete apple, and your practice is about how to make the apple that has fallen to the ground return to the apple tree. Because this apple originally fell from the tree, we have every reason to make it return to the tree.
The universe is an apple tree, and each of us is an apple that has fallen from it. Why did it fall? Because the earth's pull is too strong: when the apple is ripe and its energy full, it drops down. But we have not managed, once our energy is full, to spring back up. So “cultivation” means raising the full energy in the body up the back, sinking it down the front, and bringing it back up through the central channel. Once it comes back up, the apple naturally returns to the tree and is again one with the universe.
Once this energy is full, it first rises up the back (the Governing Vessel); after reaching the crown, it descends down the front, passing the space between the eyebrows, the bridge of the nose, the chin, and down to the chest (along the Conception Vessel), until it reaches the “Three-River Mouth” (the Huiyin point).
Tantric Buddhism and Taoism call it the “Three-River Mouth” and “the gate of my birth, the door of my death,” meaning that we are born from here and we die because of here.
If you subdue the “Three-River Mouth,” you transcend birth and death! If you cannot subdue it, you are born from here and you die from here! Once you have subdued it, the energy that comes down the front no longer goes up the back again. Because it has already completed a circle—the union of yin and yang is complete—it begins to enter the central channel directly.
When the energy enters the central channel, the whole person loses strength, because the energy is no longer in the muscles but has entered the central channel. At this time the practitioner feels unable either to die or to live!
After it enters the central channel, you continue practicing, and now you need to “nurture and preserve” it: do not speak, keep your eyes closed all day—in short, “open your mouth and spirit and qi disperse; stir your intention and the fire grows cold.” If you give rise to a thought, the energy goes out; as soon as you open your mouth to speak, do anything, or think about a problem, the energy is completely consumed. Then it will not enter the central channel, and will go downward instead.
At this time, if you can shut down the six sense faculties, so that eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind no longer function, the energy grows every minute and every second, rising and rising (gestures). It reaches the crown, but the crown will not open; with your eyes closed, there is light inside, there are thunderclaps, headaches, dizziness, and vomiting! Because the energy cannot get out, it turns everything upside down inside!
At this point you must rely on a certain method. Once you have mastered the method, the energy below keeps replenishing upward, and when it reaches a certain point, the lotus bud (the head) can bear no more. Then on some chance occasion—say, when you trip and fall, or get a fright—the lotus bud pops open! Suddenly you are awakened.
The venerable monk Xuyun, during a seven-day Chan retreat in the meditation hall, was pouring tea when the attendant splashed it on his hand. It scalded his hand, and the cup fell to the ground and smashed. Xuyun was in that kind of meditative absorption every day, and receiving this sudden shock, he was enlightened at once! On the spot he spoke two verses of awakening: “The cup falls to the ground, the sound rings clear and crisp; empty space is shattered, and the mad mind stops at once.” And: “The hand is scalded, the cup is broken; the home is destroyed and the person gone, hard to put into words; spring comes, flowers are fragrant, beauty is everywhere; mountains, rivers, and the great earth are the Tathagata.”
The body is a house (a home): “The home is broken, the person has gone out—words can hardly describe it!” From then on the monk Xuyun no longer practiced seated meditation but went out to spread the Dharma. This is how the venerable Xuyun attained enlightenment.
Why is it that so many people were startled by the sound, yet only Xuyun was enlightened? Because his energy had already reached his crown and was about to break through, so with one start he was enlightened—he broke through. Others may not yet have had energy even below, while he was nearly there; that is the reason. In the past there were many such cases: struck by a stone, tripping and falling, jolted by a sound—and enlightened.
The patriarchs of old compared the central channel of the body (the spine) to a “bamboo root,” referring to our physiological structure. These are all technical terms, jargon; if you are not in this “trade,” you will not understand even if told, and you may slander it; if you are in the trade, nothing needs to be said, for you will understand naturally.
This is also why people in the Chan school of old did not speak of it. Because you do not understand, if they told you, you would slander it. People are like that: the less they understand, the more boldly they speak up and slander; the more they understand—those inside the trade—the less they say. So “language” is used only when there is no other way; if people can understand each other heart to heart, there is no need for language.
Look at those who have attained the Tao: they rarely speak; a glance between them is enough to understand. If they still do not understand, they do not speak, because if hearts cannot communicate, words can communicate even less! But people today do just the opposite: when their hearts cannot communicate, they keep communicating with words; when words fail, they keep adding hand gestures to help!
Those who have attained the Tao make no gestures and say no words; one look and they understand. Language is a poor method, gesture a poorer one still, and communication of the heart the best! Why can beings of the formless realm communicate without language and without images? Because they dwell long in deep meditative absorption and communicate with a kind of true intention.
Our head is round, and in it are four places through which things can leak: eyes, ears, nose, and tongue. On our head there is also a prior-heaven passage, the fontanel—where the skull bones have not yet grown together in infancy—also called the “crown gate.” In small children this spot still moves when they cry, and it closes at about one year old. This spot is a passage for coming and going between oneself and heaven, earth, and spirit.
Look at the lotus bud: before it opens, its petals are wrapped layer upon layer, and at the tip of the bud there is an opening. When there is not enough energy, it does not open; as energy keeps being delivered and becomes sufficient, it slowly, slowly opens. If the bud did not have this prior-heaven crack, then when its energy became full it might open somewhere else on the bud, not necessarily at the tip.
Anyone who studies Buddhism knows that after a person dies, the crown of the head stays warm—the consciousness leaves through the crown and is reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. That being so, why do we Buddhist practitioners tell people to keep their awareness on the lower dantian, or on some middle dantian? Keeping one's awareness at the crown is correct in the first place; if you move your awareness to the lower elixir field, at the moment of death your consciousness will leave through the navel—into the realm of hungry ghosts! If in life you habitually keep your awareness at the crown, then at the end your consciousness will easily leave through the crown, and will it not then be in accord with what lies beyond the Three Realms?!
Many people are hunched because the energy in their body is insufficient; when the energy in the body is full and has entered the central channel, the back naturally straightens. So whether you have the “Tao” or not can be known by looking at your back and your skull, and by listening to the sound of your voice! If your central qi is insufficient—if there is no energy in the central channel—your voice sounds like a eunuch's; if your central qi is ample—if the energy is in the central channel—your voice sounds as if it comes from the bottom of the sea, humming in the air!
Chan Master Dahui Zonggao said: Whether you have attained the Tao or not, just stand before me—no need to speak; what level your practice has reached, I will know as soon as you open your mouth. He was not the least bit wrong! For every degree of attainment you have, there is a degree of physiological expression; with two degrees of attainment, there are two degrees of physiological expression.
Our spine is made of vertebrae joined one to another, with a hollow tube in the middle filled with marrow—put plainly, vigor. If the marrow is ample, it keeps being sent upward, upward… and as you keep practicing, it condenses, condenses, and when enough has condensed, it goes out through the head!
Here is a lotus (gestures), with the lotus root below. If you cut this lotus stalk with a knife, what happens? The sap flows out at once. By the next day the lotus flower withers, or stops growing. This is why we practitioners must restrain desire and refrain from marital relations.
The Buddhist tradition says: “To transform the mind, first subdue the body; to subdue the mind, first transform the body.” That is, if we want to subdue physiological desire, we must first change our state of mind; and if we want to change our state of mind, we must first subdue physiological desire. Body and mind pull on each other, influence each other, and act on each other. You cannot transform the body without subduing the mind, or transform the mind without subduing the body; you must work on both at once. To transform the physiology you must transform the psychology; to subdue the psychology you must transform the physiology.
As for the so-called “mind being able to transform things,” only those who have attained the Tao can do this, and only then can the mind change the body. We ordinary people are usually transformed by the body! If we trip today, or even get a splinter, when the body is ill the mind ought not to be ill, yet our mood sinks along with it.
For us ordinary people, the body transforms the mind; that is, ordinary people are all transformed by things and cannot transform things. Sages all transform things with the mind and are never transformed by things. For example, if a sage cuts his hand, he can say it does not hurt, and it will not hurt! Why? He can transform things with his mind. How does the “mind transform things”? He enters meditative absorption and goes away, and so he can transform the body!
Everyone knows the story of the venerable Xuyun entering absorption. In the 27th year of the Guangxu era (1901), Xuyun was cooking taro in his thatched hut at Lion Cliff in the Zhongnan Mountains. Heavy snow had sealed the mountain, and the bitter cold cut to the bone. He sat cross-legged waiting for the taro to cook and, without realizing it, entered absorption and went away. It was the twelfth lunar month. When the master from the neighboring hut came in the first lunar month to offer New Year greetings, he struck a chime to bring him out of meditation and asked whether he had eaten. Xuyun said: “Not yet. The taro is cooking in the pot; it should be done by now.” When they looked, the taro was covered in mold an inch high and frozen hard as stone. Counting the days, he had been in absorption for half a month! At that time he was “transforming things with the mind.” He had been hungry and had come to cook something to eat, but once he entered absorption and went away, if he said he was not hungry, he was not hungry! He could enter such a state at any time.
These days, when we are terribly hungry, we cannot even sleep at night! Let alone enter absorption—we are all transformed by things. As for practitioners today, never mind that you cannot condense your energy: even if you can condense a little, desire arises.
Why does desire arise? The body has not been transformed, the mind has not been transformed, and in addition the Weilü point and the spine at the back are not open. Once the energy is full, it cannot rise, so it is held in below, and desire arises. Once physiological desire arises, the mind stirs with thoughts; once the mind stirs with thoughts, physiological desire grows heavier. They influence each other.
How can you have no desire in the mind? First you must let the physiological energy become full and then turn it upward. How can it be turned upward? The set of moving exercises I taught you is for transforming physiological energy! If your body lacks energy, it can activate your physiological energy, making you youthful and full of vigor; once you are full of vigor, it can send your physiological energy upward so that it does not stay in the lower body and go downward.
Especially the third section, “The River Stops and the Great River Turns Back.” Why is it called that? This is a term from the Chan school: the water in the river has stopped and no longer flows! Ordinary people all have physiological cycles. Not only do women have a monthly cycle; men do too. Every month men have a few days when physiological desire is especially strong.
Why do people have physiological desire? Precisely because once there is later-heaven desire, “spirit” turns into qi and qi into essence; where there is “essence” it must leak, becoming later-heaven sperm and eggs, which must be released and leak away. If you have no desire, it preserves prior-heaven essence, qi, and spirit.
“The river stops and the great river turns back” means that the body will never leak again. The water in a river flows all year round and never stops (always leaking); now the river's water has stopped, halted, no longer flowing! “The great river turns back”: the water of the great river was below, and now it has all turned back upward—not below, but up in the air! “The river stops and the great river turns back” means that the body's energy no longer leaks, but turns back upward from below.
In the Chan school, fellow practitioners greet each other with: “Have you subdued the ‘cypress tree in front of the hall’?” “I am ashamed, ashamed—not yet subdued!” Or: “Has your bamboo root gone through?” This bamboo root refers to our spine. You ask me whether my bamboo root has gone through, and I say: “Oh, I am ashamed, ashamed—my bamboo root has not gone through yet; it has not fully grown!”
Outsiders hearing this cannot make out what we two are talking about; this is called speaking “the jargon of the trade.” Outsiders do not understand it, so they will not slander it; if they did understand, they would say: “Oh, I admire you! Your bamboo root has gone through! You have subdued the cypress tree in front of your hall!” These are all physiological states. What is a “state”? It is a psychological and physiological phenomenon. It has nothing whatever to do with theory or Buddhist doctrine!
Why did creation give us six sense faculties? Because if you are not cultivating the Tao, when your energy becomes full you have no way of dealing with it, so creation lets it leak out through the six faculties. That is, when creation made human beings, it gave you a place to store energy and also had to give you channels for it to leak away. If you could only condense it and not let it leak, and you did not cultivate the Tao either, you would certainly die!
If your energy is full and you do not let it leak through the six faculties, it leaks through the crown (the crown is also a kind of leak), going out from the top and radiating away as a kind of light! So when a Taoist master blesses many beings, he also consumes his own energy.
For practitioners in the past, the very first step of practice was to cut off physiological desire and not let the energy leak away. Once the energy is full, a person enters meditative absorption very easily. When energy is insufficient, it is like a cup with only a little water: there is plenty of room for the water to slosh back and forth, and it is hard to enter absorption.
When primordial qi is full, it no longer flows in the body, and it is easy to enter absorption. Just as leaves keep swaying as long as the wind does not stop, if you want the leaves to be still you must first stop the wind; only then will the leaves be still. To enter absorption, you must first make the body's primordial qi full; once the primordial qi is full, there is no room left in the body, and it no longer flows. In other words, the “wind element” in the body stops, the “earth element” becomes stable, and there is no more turbulence.
When the earth element is turbulent, it shows that there is room enough in the body for the wind element to flow. Once the wind moves, the “fire element” starts up; once the fire element starts, the four great elements fall out of harmony, and you cannot enter absorption.
People today have no idea of the principles of practice; all they know is to worship the patriarchs, burn incense, and chant scriptures every day. I can tell you that doing this for ten great kalpas will not bring success! It can only plant causes. Having planted this cause, when will you attain the Tao? When will you be enlightened? In the next life, the next, and the one after that… If you want in this very life to have “the flower open and see the Tao,” you must have enough energy continually sent upward; only then will the flower open.
When the flower opens, that which was originally there from prior heaven, complete in itself, goes out; you see it, and it sees you. This is called old friends meeting again. Otherwise, if the energy all leaks away below, then even though you have this lotus stalk and this prior-heaven lotus bud, it will not open, and it is of no use.
Because this thing is already there, we do not need to cultivate it; we need only store up enough energy and send it up, and we will see it. The physiological structure of our body is like a complete rocket-launch system. Our four great elements—the body—are the launch frame, the central channel is the launch passage, and the essence, qi, and spirit in the body are the gunpowder piled up before launch and ignited at launch.
When you are given a subtle method to ignite the essence, qi, and spirit in the body, that is igniting the “gunpowder.” Once the gunpowder burns, the rocket's head is sent—whoosh—into outer space!
Whether we call this “rocket head” within us “self-nature,” “wisdom,” “soul,” or our “original nature,” we will not debate its name here. In any case, whether Eastern or Western, ancient or modern, Taoist or Buddhist, Christian or Muslim, human or animal, all have this “rocket head,” all have this spiritual essence, all have this thing that is neither born nor dies!
The question is whether you have condensed enough energy in the body and can also ignite it. Only when the energy burns can this “rocket head” be sent through the launch frame into the sky. Once the rocket head is flying in the sky, it no longer needs energy (gunpowder); it runs along its orbit by itself. Once our spirit-body goes out and flies into space, it accords with space and cannot fall back down; it circles in the sky and can go wherever it wishes!
What we need now is to burn the essence, qi, and spirit in the body to send the “rocket head” up; once it has been sent up, the essence, qi, and spirit in the body are no longer needed. What bursts out of us originally came down from the void. When we come, it is the first to arrive; when we go, it is the last to leave. When we are conceived it arrives first, and when we die it leaves last.
Where does it go? Because this thing once came down from above, anyone whose crown has been opened, who has been out before, will find that as soon as it leaves the body, a force above responds to it and becomes one with it. Tantric Buddhism says that at this point celibacy is no longer necessary. Before the crown is opened, celibacy is necessary.