And the ears cannot listen to.
It is that by which we cultivate the mind and align the physical form.
When people
lose it they die;
When people
gain it they flourish.
When endeavors lose it they fail;
When they gain it they succeed.
The Way never has a root or trunk,
It never has leaves or flowers.
The myriad things are generated by it;
The myriad things are completed by it.
We designate it “the Way.”42
It is important to also note that these profound states of experience of the Way are quite often linked with preserving the spirit internally or becoming spirit-like (shén / rú shén) in “Inward Training” (see, for example, verses 9, 12, and 13), “Techniques of the Mind,” Lǚshì chūnqiū 3.4, and the Huáng Lǎo bóshū (Jīngfǎ 6). They are further associated with a highly refined and concentrated form of vital energy called the Vital Essence (jīng) in “Inward Training” verses 5 and 19, and these latter three sources.43
RESULTANT TRAITS
As the direct result of the experience of these various dimensions of union with the Way—which, if we understand them correctly, are internal experiences attained in isolation from all interactions with the phenomenal world—adepts develop a series of what are best thought of as traits, more or less continuing alterations in one’s cognitive and performative abilities that were highly prized by rulers and literati subjects alike for obvious reasons.
Perhaps the most famous of these is the idea that one can take no deliberate or willful action from the standpoint of one’s separate and individual self, and yet nothing is left undone (wúwéi ér wúbùwéi). This works because adepts have so embraced and embodied the Way that their actions are the actions that are perfectly harmonious expressions of the Way itself in a given situation. As one of the most famous phrases in the Lǎozǐ, we find it in many of the other early sources of “Inner Cultivation,” including the Outer Chapters and Miscellaneous Chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ and in the Lǚshì chūnqiū 25.3.44 While the specific phrase is absent from “Inward Training,” Edward Slingerlands argues that this text shows a definite awareness of the idea: “We see all of the standard metaphors of wu-wei in the short text of the ‘Inner Training.’”45 A very similar idea to efficacious nonaction is the concept of being able to respond spontaneously and harmoniously to whatever situation arises. We find this discussed in several sources, but none as directly as this passage from “Techniques of the Mind” 1:
The cultivated [jūnzǐ] are not enticed by likes
Nor oppressed by dislikes.
Calm and tranquil, they act without effort,
And they discard wisdom and precedent.
Their responses are not contrived.
Their movements are not chosen.
The mistake lies in intervening directly oneself.
The fault lies in altering and transforming things.
Therefore the ruler who has the Way
At rest seems to be without knowledge,
In response to things seems to fit together with them.
This is the Way of tranquility and adaptation [jìng yīn zhī Dào].46
The commentary to this includes mention of the important concept of resonance (gǎnyìng), a cosmic principle that the cultivated are able to manifest in their interactions:
“Their responses are not contrived,
Their movements are not chosen.”
This says that they are adaptable [yīn]. To be adaptable is to relinquish the self and take other things as standards. To respond only when stimulated [gǎn ér hòu yìng] is not something you contrive to do. To move according to inherent patterns [lǐ] is not something you [deliberately] choose to do.47
These traits of immediate and uncontrived responsiveness describe well one of the ideas for which the Lǎozǐ is famous: spontaneity (zìrán). A quality of the Way, the phenomenal world, and the cultivated sage in chapters 17, 23, 25, 51, it refers to their natural, instantaneous and nonreflective responses.
In a fundamental fashion, this almost magical ability to spontaneously accomplish all without seeming to exert any deliberate action is frequently associated with a great deal of potency (dé), an idea often associated with charisma. Potency is a kind of aura of spontaneous efficacy that develops in a person and is visible for all to see through repeated experiences of tranquility, emptiness, and merging with the Way. We find it in all of the early sources of “inner cultivation” theory, often in conjunction with apophatic techniques. For example, in “Inward Training,” verse 11, we have:
When your body is not aligned
Potency will not come.
When you are not tranquil within
Your mind will not be in order.
Align your body, summon your potency
Then it will come cascading on its own.48
Among the significant traits that result from apophatic practice is dramatically improved cognitive abilities. In “Inward Training,” verse 16, we read,
If people can be aligned and tranquil
Their skin will be ample and smooth
Their hearing and vision will be acute,
Their muscles will be elastic and the bones strong …
They will mirror things with great purity
And will see things with great clarity.
Diligently attend and do not waver,
And you will everyday renew your potency.49
Perceptual acuity and general cognitive accuracy are two main results of apophatic practice. Notice the phrase “mirror things with great purity” (jiàn yú dà qīng), which uses the metaphor of the mirror found in Lǎozǐ 10 and Zhuāngzǐ 4, indicating a special kind of unerring cognition of the world. It is the kind of instantaneous knowledge of the world that we find in the Jīngfǎ of the Huáng Lǎo bóshū as the direct result of being aligned, tranquil, even, serene, pure, and numinous: “Seeing and knowing are never deluded” (jiàn zhī bú huò). The more physical of the resulting traits that the cultivated develop in “Inward Training” are reminiscent of the qualities of the sage in the Lǎozǐ: being supple (ruò) and pliant (róu).50
Each of the main “inner cultivation” tradition sources details additional cognitive and personality traits that derive from apophatic practices. “Inward Training” says such practices create mental stability and psychic order (dìngxīn in verse 8; zhìxīn in verse 10). The Lǎozǐ speaks of becoming impartial (gōng) in chapters 16 and 42; selfless (wúsī) in chapters 7 and 19; and simple (sù) and whole (pú) in chapters 19 and 38. These qualities are a direct result of experiencing a reduction or elimination of desires that were listed above. Zhuāngzǐ 3 and 19 detail a number of different knacks or skills that derive from “inner cultivation” practice: Cook Dīng trusts the numinous within, does not look with his eyes, and realizes the limits of perception as he relies on the patterns of Heaven to guide him through the interstices of the ox.51 The bell-stand carver must first make his mind tranquil until he eventually reaches a point where he forgets he has four limbs and a body (wàng wú yǒu sìzhī xíngtǐ).52 Then he can go into the forest to choose a tree to carve. Finally, the Zhuāngzǐ collection is, in many ways, devoted to the cultivation of perhaps the most comprehensive of all of these character traits, one that encompasses all of the others discussed to this point: a mode of cognition called yīnshì. Angus C. Graham translates this in a very literal fashion: “The ‘That’s it’ which goes by circumstance.”53 The concept is really that of flowing cognition, totally changing and transforming to whatever the situation, and it is exemplified in many of the narratives of the Zhuāngzǐ, the “free and easy wandering” of chapter 1, the monkey keeper handing out nuts in chapter 2, Cook Dīng in chapter 3, Cripple Shū in chapter 4, Wáng Tái in chapter 5, Master Lái in chapter 6, Húzǐ in chapter 7, and many other examples in the rest of the text. All of these respond without egotism, without selfishness, without insi
sting on any one fixed point of view: that is how they survive and flourish. This kind of indifference to fortune or misfortune and creative spontaneous responsiveness to all situations is characteristic of people “in whom potency is at its utmost.”54
So the basic contours of “inner cultivation” are these: apophatic practices of sitting still and concentrating on, and paying attention to, one’s breathing lead to gradual reductions in desires, emotions, thoughts, and perceptions. States of experience result from these reductions that make one feel tranquil, calm, still, and serene, states in which one’s consciousness is empty of its usual contents, and in which one feels unified with the Way. These states lead to a series of beneficial cognitive changes and the development of new traits, such as acute perception, accurate cognition, selflessness and impartiality, the ability to spontaneously be in harmony with one’s surroundings no matter what the situation, and the ability to be flexible and adjust to whatever changes may come one’s way. Table 10.1 summarizes these practices and results.
Despite the lack of precise identities among the specific terms assembled and discussed here, there is a remarkable consistency in their basic interrelationships and relatively focused range of meanings.55 This indicates the presence of a distinctive intellectual tradition. The lack of identical terms being used for similar ideas across this wide body of texts supports the notion that the early Daoists were a tradition of practice, first and foremost, and secondarily a tradition of texts. If there were an explicit core text or texts, then one would expect a lesser variety in the technical terms used and the appearance of identical phrasing, which is rare in this “Inner Cultivation” material until the Lǎozǐ.
In his pioneering study of the stability of a Chinese medical lineage over a period of more than 350 years, Volker Scheid finds an analytical framework for his data of seemingly disparate texts and practices in the writings of the philosopher Alistair MacIntyre on the nature of traditions: “A tradition is constituted by a set of practices and is a mode of understanding their importance and worth; it is the medium by which such practices are shaped and transmitted across generations.”56 When we see an intellectual tradition based on practice first and foremost and not only on ideas, the types of terminological variation among the core ideas of the “inner cultivation” tradition starts to make sense. Scheid explains,
Table 10.1. Summary of “Inner Cultivation” Ideas
Cultivation practices
Posture
aligning the body (zhèng-xíng, zhèng sìtǐ)
keeping body still (xíng’ān ér bùyí)
Breathing
concentrate (zhuān qì)
order (qì lǐ)
guide (qì dǎo)
Attention
focus on one (shǒuyī)
focus on center (shǒuzhōng)
Apophatic techniques
restricting desires (guǎyù, jiéyù, wúyù)
restricting thoughts (chū cōng míng, qūzhī, qìzhī, qùzhī)
restricting perceptions (sāi qí duì bì qí mén, yí qí ěrmù, duò zhī tǐ, lí xíng)
Apophatic metaphors
mind fasting (xīnzhāi)
sitting and forgetting (zuòwàng)
casting off mental fetters (jiě xīnmiù)
sweeping clean numinous lodge (sǎo chú shénshè)
cleaning off the profound mirror (dí chú xuánjiàn)
the Way of stillness and adapting (jìng yīn zhī dào)
Cultivation results
States
tranquility (jìng)
emptiness (xū)
calmness (ān)
equanimity (qí)
repose (níng)
stillness (jì)
silence (mò)
serenity (tián)
detachment (dàn)
refined/concentrated (jīng)
spirit-like (shén)
hold fast to the One (zhíyī)
attain empty Way (dé xū dào)
halting the Way (zhǐ dào)
guarding / returning to the ancestor (shǒu zōng / fǎn zōng)
Traits
nonaction (wúwéi)
nothing unaccomplished (wúbùwéi)
potency (dé)
resonance (gǎnyìng)
spontaneity (zìrán)
perceptual acuity (jiàn yú dà qīng)
instant knowledge (jiàn zhī bú huò)
suppleness (ruò)
pliancy (róu)
psychological order (dìngxīn, zhìxīn)
selflessness (wúsī)
impartiality (gōng)
simplicity (sù)
wholeness (pú)
flowing cognition (yīnshì)
A practice relies on the transmission of skills and expertise between masters and novices. As novices develop into masters themselves, they change who they are but also earn a say in defining the goods that the practice embodies and seeks to realize. To accomplish these tasks human beings need narratives: stories about who they are, what they do, and why they do it. Traditions provide these narratives. They allow people to discover problems and methods for their solution, frame questions and possible answers, and develop institutions that facilitate cooperative action. But because people occupy changing positions vis-a-vis these narratives, traditions are also always open to change.57
This then allows for the possibility that the relatively rare use of meditation practices in political contexts that we find in early China is simply a natural development within the early Daoist intellectual tradition, not an incursion of ideas from without.
Political Applications of Inner Cultivation
One of the primary areas of change in the “inner cultivation” tradition is the application of its practices to the fundamental concern of the late Warring States Chinese thinkers: rulership. The Lǎozǐ (e.g., chapters 37 and 46) begins to address how some of the traits derived from “inner cultivation” practice are beneficial for rulership. For one, they give sage rulers a distinct lack of attachment to themselves and their own desires that leads to making better decisions in governing (e.g., chapters 22 and 49). Later texts, such as “Techniques of the Mind” 2 and Zhuāngzǐ 13 and 33, demonstrate thinking aimed at applying the techniques, states, and traits of “inner cultivation” to governing. They developed catchphrases for these applications: for example, “the Way of tranquility and adaptation” (jìng yīn zhī Dào) in the former; “tranquil and sagely, active and kingly” (jìng ér shèng, dòng ér wáng) and “internally a sage, externally a king” (nèi shèng wài wáng) in the latter.58 This trend continues into the Huáinánzǐ, which embellished this unlikely mix of apophatic “Inner Cultivation” practices and results and political thought into a sophisticated new synthesis.
While the Huáinánzǐ’s ideas on governing can be found in many of its twenty-one chapters, its most explicit advice to the ruler of how to incorporate the meditative tradition of “inner cultivation” into the practice of governing are found in chapter 9, “The Techniques of the Ruler” (Zhǔshù). This chapter outlines the essentials of governing through nonaction and discusses the need for the ruler to attain states of experience that can be derived only from “inner cultivation” practices. It opens with the following passage:
The ruler’s techniques [consist of]
Establishing non-active management
And carrying out wordless instructions.
Quiet and tranquil, he does not move;
By [even] one degree he does not waver;
Adaptive and compliant, he relies on his underlings;
Dutiful and accomplished, he does not labor.
Therefore,
Though his mind knows the norms, his savants transmit the discourses of the Way;
Though his mouth can speak, his entourage proclaims his words;
Though his feet can move forward, his master of ceremonies leads;
Though his ears can hear, his officials offer their admonitions.
Therefore,
&
nbsp; His considerations are without mistaken schemes,
His undertakings are without erroneous content.
His words [are taken as] scripture and verse;
His conduct is [taken as] a model and gnomon for the world.
His advancing and withdrawing respond to the seasons;
His movement and rest comply with [proper] patterns [xúnlǐ].59
The remainder of Huáinánzǐ 9 lays out in considerable detail the philosophy of government by the enlightened Daoist ruler and is the single longest chapter in the entire book, an indication of its significance. Its theory of rulership is completely reliant on the personal development of the ruler, which is the direct result of the apophatic “inner cultivation” practices outlined in chapters 1 and 2 and in the earlier sources of this tradition. According to this work, the ruler must cultivate himself through apophatic inner cultivation techniques. These include the reduction of thoughts, desires, and emotions and the gradual development of emptiness and tranquility. The ruler able to accomplish this is able to develop his potency and perfect his vital essence (zhì jīng), and through this to penetrate through and directly apprehend the essences of Heaven and Grand Unity (Tàiyī), another metaphor for the Way.
This connects the ruler directly to the invisible cosmic web of the correlative cosmology of qì, and its various types (yin and yang) and phases (wǔxíng) and refinements (jīng). With this connection, the enlightened ruler can invisibly influence the course of events in the world and affairs among his subjects through the types of resonance (gǎnyìng) detailed in chapter 6, which we also saw as developing in the later works of “Inner Cultivation,” such as “Techniques of the Mind” 2. Experiencing the most profound states of inner cultivation also enables the ruler to develop many of the traits envisioned in earlier sources, such as reducing desires to a minimum, impartially designating responsibilities within the government hierarchy, having a cognition devoid of emotions, and being able to spontaneously adapt to whatever situations arise, without hesitation:
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