Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
In the past, all five great schools of Chan Buddhism—Guiyang, Linji, Yunmen, Caodong, and Fayan—spoke of this matter. But they spoke of it in very veiled and subtle terms. The usual phrases, such as “the cypress tree in front of the courtyard” and “the bamboo-root staff,” are things people would never connect with this subject even in their dreams! Or they used the metaphor of “the water of the three rivers”—how could you possibly guess that this is what they were talking about? Especially someone who has not awakened to the Tao would never think in this direction.
Once the essence, qi, and spirit in your Conception and Governing Vessels are full, they no longer circle around the whole body, no longer travel the chest and back, but enter the central channel directly and go out through the head, and the head begins to emit light! The head opens like a lotus flower. Opening the Conception and Governing Vessels is still only the beginning; once the stage of opening them is complete, the energy enters the central channel, comes straight up, and goes straight out through the head.
Only when the central channel is truly open, the lotus at the crown has opened, and something has gone out, does cultivating the Tao begin; everything before that is laying the foundation. Do burning incense and bowing to the patriarchs have anything to do with this? Do you know when burning incense and bowing to the patriarchs began? Practice in early Taoism (apart from sacrificial rites) involved none of these things.
Once a person's Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and central channel are open, even when they are very tired from work, lying down to rest for half an hour is enough to recover. Even at the slowest, one double hour—two hours—is enough to recover; the energy is replenished at once!
Where has the energy of us ordinary people gone? It has all turned into later-heaven things and leaked away below. If you want to keep it from leaking away below, you must first make it turn from the tailbone to the back, rise up the spine to the crown, then descend down the chest, enter the central channel, and go out through the crown.
If you do not let it go out below, you must let it go out above; if you have no way of letting it go out above, you must let it go out below. Otherwise you will go mad or become deranged! There is no other way. This is why people say that those who practice celibacy are not psychologically healthy! Unless you have subdued this body, completed the four dhyanas and eight samadhis, and opened these three channels physiologically—then your mind will definitely be healthy and not deranged.
The reason for psychological derangement is that a force in the body compels you to think this way and act this way, while a force in the mind forces you not to think this way or act this way (that is, celibacy); body and mind fall out of balance, leading to psychological derangement. So before subduing the mind, one must first subdue the body. For an ordinary person is always pushed along by the body; it is impossible for them to let the mind influence the body—it is always the body that influences the mind. Only sages can influence the body with the mind and lead the body with the mind. Ordinary people are always led by the body!
Having said this, do not become attached to cultivating the body. I have just said very clearly: it is only a foundation for cultivating the Tao. If you do not complete this foundation and make it solid, it is absolutely impossible to truly cultivate the Great Tao (refining spirit to enter emptiness)!
What we now call “cultivation” is at most refining this body while also cultivating this heart along the way. But if your body is not open, the lotus has not opened, and nothing has gone out, then the mind you refine is not ultimate either. It fluctuates with your moods: in a good mood today, and tomorrow your mood plummets! The reason a sage has an ordinary, even mind is that the foundation has been firmly laid and is already calm; the body no longer fluctuates, so the state of mind can be calm.
In a person attaining the Tao, once the energy in the body is full it rises, causing the lotus to open and the original face to burst out. A person who is about to die has no energy left and cannot send their consciousness upward at all. Because the energy has gone out and scattered below and can no longer hold the consciousness, the consciousness also leaves the body and escapes. When a person's energy is full, it can cause the consciousness to fly out, but this is definitely not like a dying person, whose four great elements come apart, whose primordial qi is gone, and whose consciousness can no longer be held; it is different from that kind of leaving the body.
When I teach you seated meditation, I tell you to put a cushion two cun high under your buttocks, so that the tailbone at the back forms a half-circle and the qi and blood flow easily. If you sit flat here, the tailbone folds at ninety degrees, and the qi and blood do not rise easily. All this is very important for beginners in meditation; for someone who has meditated for a long time, these problems do not exist at all.
Because such a person has long since completed the “four great elements” (earth, water, fire, and wind) and already emptied them. Let me ask you: how could the qi, blood, and energy of a person whose four great elements have been emptied not flow freely? It is precisely because the four great elements are not open that you cannot forget your body or empty it!
Which of the great patriarchs and eminent masters of the past was not imposing and full of inexhaustible strength? Their heads were like big watermelons or big balls! Compared with the heads of the patriarchs, our heads today are all shriveled! Why is this? As I once said by way of analogy, our head is like a lotus bud: if the energy below is ample, it grows plump; if there is not enough energy below sent upward, the bud is shriveled and cannot open at all! Even if it opens, it is tiny.
Taoism emphasizes “dual cultivation of nature and life,” but because of differences among schools, the focus of practice also differs somewhat. Some emphasize cultivating the state of mind, but if you do not take care of the body, the mind cannot become still at all. Taoists know the importance of the body for cultivating the Tao, because without the body as a foundation, the nature of the mind cannot be cultivated either. Moreover, in the past practitioners had simple thoughts and single-minded intention, so cultivating the body was hardly worth mentioning; they completed it without even noticing.
Today we cannot finish cultivating the body even when we focus on it exclusively; we do not know how to cultivate it, and have no idea how, having completed the body, to go on to cultivate the nature of the mind! The patriarchs of the past said, “The Great Tao is not apart from body and mind.” Though we now keep saying we are cultivating the body and the nature of the mind, it is very hard to lay this foundation firmly.
The Chan school of Buddhism places special emphasis on “never lying down” (budaodan), though few people mention it nowadays. But if you want great achievement and want to pass this barrier of the body, you must still have a period of training in “never lying down”! During this period, every illness in your body will appear.
At this time, never think these are illnesses produced by practice. In fact they were already latent in your body but had not yet broken out. Through seated meditation you are now detecting the illnesses hidden in your body, as if with a detector, letting them release early in stages and batches, so that small illnesses do not accumulate into a great one that suddenly erupts one day and gets beyond control!
Some friends of mine died within half a year of discovering they were ill. I came back from Guangzhou yesterday afternoon; the day before, I went to Guangzhou to see off a disciple of mine who died of leukemia. In his last two days, while in a coma, he kept calling out for his master. Guangzhou is fairly close to here, so the afternoon before last I took a coach there. By the time I reached Guangzhou it was evening, and when I arrived he had already died. I chanted scriptures for him and patted and tapped his head.
He died not long after discovering he was ill. Why does this happen? Because by the time one discovers the illness, it is already at a late stage. Why do people who practice seated meditation so easily fall ill? In fact, the illness was already latent in their body. When a person practicing seated meditation generates primordial qi—energy—in the body, wherever it flows, if there is illness there, there is a reaction; if there is no illness, it passes through quickly.
Where there is illness, it cannot pass through and is held up there. Once it is held up there, the illness soon breaks out. You mistakenly think the meditation made you ill, but in fact the illness was already hidden inside. It is like a detector finding bombs and landmines underground: we cannot say the detector put the bombs and mines there; someone had already buried them there. The detector merely finds them early and removes the hidden danger!
As primordial qi flows through the body, if it reaches the upper abdomen and you develop a stomach ailment, you think the “qi” caused it, but in fact your stomach was not very good to begin with; the primordial qi flowed there, could not pass through, and produced a reaction. If you then treat it with a series of methods and let the qi pass through, you will not have stomach trouble again.
Almost no one today can awaken this force in the body; sometimes after great effort one cultivates a little energy, and then it leaks away again. Where does it leak? Not only through marital relations, but also through the six sense faculties. Looking too much with the eyes is a kind of “leak,” listening too much with the ears is a kind of “leak,” and talking too much with the mouth is even more of a “leak”! All six faculties leak. Why is it stressed that the very first step for a practitioner is to close the six faculties?
Only when your six faculties are closed will this force in the body automatically enter the Conception and Governing Vessels and return to the central channel. When a person restrains or even gives up desire, their energy (in plain terms, essence, qi, and spirit) is all stored in the Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and central channel. When a person indulges in desire, it means that all the energy in their Conception Vessel, Governing Vessel, and central channel has gone down and been discharged below.
Among the seven sections of moving exercises I have taught you, the main purpose of the third, “The River Stops and the Great River Turns Back,” is to open your tailbone. The Tailbone Pass (Weilü) is very hard to get through; once the tailbone is opened, energy rises along the spine. “The River Stops and the Great River Turns Back” is to keep energy from leaking out the front and instead turn it from the front to the back.
“The river stops”: the water in the river halts and no longer flows. “The great river turns back”: how much water there is in great rivers and seas! Yet however much water there is, it can turn back from below to above. The river in front stops forever and no longer leaks away; it all goes to the back and turns upward. That is the real meaning of “the river stops and the great river turns back”! “The river stops, the great river turns back, and the water flows in reverse”: those who go against the current are sages, those who go with the current are ordinary people. Even if we complete all this, at most we have completed the four dhyanas and eight samadhis—and we can hardly complete even this foundation.
Some of you here have practiced the “Goddess Method,” haven't you? Why is it that people practicing the Goddess Method, when they take a breath and hold it in the elixir field (dantian), see light before their eyes? In fact they too take a deep breath through the nose, hold it in the dantian, and press down; the qi at the back comes up and reaches the space between the eyebrows, and the space between the eyebrows begins to emit light.
Some take a breath, press down, and it goes directly into the central channel and rushes to the space between the eyebrows and to the crown, and they too emit light. This merely uses later-heaven breath to stir and ignite prior-heaven primordial qi; what truly emits light is not the later-heaven breath but the primordial qi originally present from prior heaven.
Why does qigong place so much emphasis on “gathering qi” and on “expelling the old and taking in the new”? It is all to serve as a match for ignition; it is an early stage of the “Tao.” “Light” is not the Tao either; it is only a sign of entering the Tao.
If you practice the seven sections of moving exercises well, these three channels of yours will be completed and opened within a year. Even if you have no religious faith, practicing these seven sections will strengthen the body and prolong life; driving out illness and keeping fit are no problem. If you are cultivating the Tao, using them to raise your energy is easy!
Why does a tree wither? Because energy is no longer sent upward. Why does a person wither? Also because energy is no longer sent upward. If energy is abundant and keeps being sent upward without interruption, the human body does not wither easily, and neither do trees.