by Guan Zi
As the Nei Ye points out, the thriving energy of this perfect symphony brings about ling qi , the energy of spiritual potency. Ling qi, in turn, brings about health, and protection from both inner and outer afflictions, [298] whether by nourishing the mind and spiritual intelligence or though its symbiotic relationship with the Heavenly phases. [299] When ling qi enters “the spacious emptiness of calm cheerfulness” it restores and assures an internal balance [300] that is free of anxiety, sorrow, anger, euphoria, attachment, lust, and confusion (see Nei Ye lines 327-340), thereby further protecting people from foolish, erratic, actions and the emotional turmoil that upsets the internal organs and their harmonious exchanges or “communications.” [301]
The Bai Xin , Xin Shu , Nei Ye , and Dao De Jing are filled with guidance on returning to the state of inner calm and faith (xin), as are the Buddhist excerpts quoted in The Thread of Dao . Finding a quiet place to sit and practice the ‘art of the heart-mind’ is an accessible means to accomplish this, for most people at some point during their day. Once caught up in the frantic pace of modern life, however, it is important to remember that stress does not increase our effectiveness, and that focus and calm are more conducive to efficiency and competency. If we can’t afford to slow down our bodies, we can at least slow down our breath and, thereby, our heart-rates, making them both peaceful and even until we can find a way to enjoy our place in life as we are living it in the given moment, stressful as it may seem at the time. This will assist in bringing about an inner stillness that improves our responses to whatever requires presence and attention. In doing so, we reclaim self-determination and further discover Lao Zi’s words from DDJ47, “Without going out the door, know all under Heaven. Without glancing out the window, see Heaven’s Way. The further out one goes, the less they know.” Seeking peace and transformation in ourselves – cultivating ourselves and our world from within rather than seeking to change everyone and everything around us – our internal-cultivation will express itself as external-cultivation as it improves our relationships and communications with the people and world around us.
When is there no benefit from my affairs?
When there is no benefit in my heart-mind.
When is there no peace where I reside?
When there is no peace in my heart-mind.
(Xin Shu Xia , lines 109-112)
A Meditation, inspired by the material in Thread of Dao
This meditation is one way in which the material in Thread of Dao can be adapted for practice. It includes techniques that I have encountered on my own journey of Daoist and Buddhist teachings and practices, and is not meant to represent or replace teachings of a Daoist lineage teacher. If you have the good fortune of personal study with such an instructor, I would advise to continue with their instructions, or otherwise, present them with this meditation and ask if it would benefit what you are learning before changing your practice. Please also see the disclaimer at the beginning of this book. It is recommended to read over the instructions below, in full, before beginning.
If you are new to meditation, the first several sessions should be devoted to simply learning to sit, or even lie down, and do nothing without any simultaneous activities such as listening to music, reading, watching television, talking to someone, driking, eating, etc. This, in itself, is difficult for most people who are not experienced meditators, and so you must first find comfort in simply doing nothing for 10 minutes. When this is accomplished, in the next session do nothing for 15 minutes. Then the next time for 20 minutes, then 25 minutes, and then 30 minutes. Only when you are comfortable just “staring at the wall,” or doing nothing, for 30 minutes, should you begin with the following techniques. For this preliminary meditation, you are free to ponder whatever you like. The goal is simply learning how to do nothing, comfortably.
There is one activity that can done during this stage of “doing nothing” to help prepare for meditation: put your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your stomach. As you breathe, breathe into your diaphragm so that only your left hand (stomach) moves up and down, with your chest relaxed and not moving. When this can be done naturally and effortlessly (which may take minutes or weeks), allow your breath to subtly fill your entire torso, with your stomach, by far, having the most noticeable movement.
Please note that the “preparation” and “closing” sections of this meditation can be followed as though part of a guided meditation. The “techniques” section, however, is meant to be read and absorbed beforehand, and simply taken into consideration following the “preparation” stage. It is not meant as a step by step guide in the same way that the preparation and closing are.
Preparation
The following meditation can be done while sitting on a folded and rolled-up towel, or firm cushion, in cross-legged, half-lotus, or full-lotus position. It can also be done while sitting near the edge of a medium-height chair with your feet flat on the floor. Begin by placing your hands on your thighs, and finding your posture. Your back should be straight, yet relaxed – finding that position where the muscles, structural alignment, and circulations return to their effortless functions.
After sitting in this balance for a moment, thank the spirits of your current environment for allowing your practice to be fulfilling, by clasping your right fist in your left hand and giving a gesture of thanks, salutation, and respect in front of your bowed forehead. After bringing your hands down, circle them up to the sides and, using your intent, gather heaven-qi down in front of you, over and through your body, and into the earth. Bring down this heaven-qi three times.
Now, in a similar motion as when gathering heaven-qi, gather the qi to the lower dantien. Circle your arms from your sides to gather qi in front of you, and place your hands over your lower dantien: place your right palm over the lower-dantien, about 2.5 inches below the navel, and place your left palm over your right hand, lining up the lao-gong points at the center of the palms with the dantien.
Finally, circle the torso from the waist in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, three times, and then in the opposite direction three more times. Next, gently bend the torso forward and then back to alignment three times. Lastly, take three deep breaths, beginning with an exhalation to clear the lungs of carbon-dioxide. Following the third inhalation, meditation begins.
As the saying goes, “it takes 20 minutes before water starts to boil.” Do not expect immediate immersion. Allow the mind to sit, undisturbed. Let it relax and find balance, just as you did earlier with the body. Put your awareness to the centering oneness that resides behind your mind, and allow everything to settle until your will and intention becomes genuine. This, in itself, is enough to guide your entire meditation session; however, the following guidelines are also helpful to bring you back to this point.
Techniques
Quieting the mind
A common and helpful technique to calm the mind and abide in openness is to count your breaths from one to ten, counting on the exhale of each breath. When you get to 10, start again from one. By the second (or third) round do not engage any thoughts between the numbers. The only word you should create in your mind is the number of the breath, and maybe an internal “ahhhh” or “mmmmm.” To take the place of thoughts, you can also allow the mind to open up to the sounds of your environment, and to a general awareness of where you are at the present moment, just being where you are while looking straight ahead at a chosen spot on the floor. Your central focus should not be disturbed by sounds, but simply aware of how sound-and-silence passes through your consciousness without any disturbance, like clouds passing through the sky: “Abiding nowhere, let the mind arise.” As you go deeper into internal silence, all of this may disappear as well.
The big exception to this exercise, especially for those new to it, is as follows: Consider thoughts as nouns and verbs. Thoughts will spontaneously pass through your mind and occur to you – consider these as nouns. The trick is not to follow these thoughts and turn them into verbs
– thinking. As the mind clears, like the sun shining through a clearing sky, things will occur to you; they will become apparent; you will have realizations. This is fine. Just let the realization pass through your mind, like you would watch a cloud pass through the sky, and then move back into the open clarity of not-thinking. If you begin to add to, and expand on, this realization, rather than moving back to open clarity, this is the thinking. When you notice this happen, begin again from 1. If thoughts rise up in your mind but you then return to open clarity (not-thinking) before the next number, continue counting your breaths up to 10, and then begin from 1 again. After some time, these spontaneous thoughts will stop rising up and you will simply abide in the present moment. Without thoughts, where else can you be but in the present, right there, staring at the floor, or gazing internally – pure awareness. Continuing to practice like this, as your mind occupies itself with experience rather than thoughts, you can eventually stop counting, like a space shuttle releasing its rocket boosters. When you realize your mind has gone off track again, simply begin again from 1, or focus on the breath as though every breath is the first breath.
Body and self as the nation
Lao Zi says
Those who (govern) the self as the world
And cherish it as such
On them the world can rely
Those who (govern) the self as the world
And love it as such
To them the world can be entrusted
This means to love oneself as all things and all things as oneself, yet it also means to first bring order to oneself before trying to bring order the world. Much as in the Bai Xin , Xin Shu , and Nei Ye , Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing teaches the way of governing the body according to the same principles by which the Sage governs the nation. This is largely the focus of Heshang Gong’s commentary. Consider this in light of the Sage’s method of non-doing and non-interference, and the application of these methods in meditation.
Chapter 37 of the Dao De Jing states:
The Dao is always effortless yet without inaction
When lords and kings can guard this within
The myriad things eventually transform themselves
Transforming, yet desiring to do so intentionally
I pacify this desire with the simplicity of the nameless
The Xin Shu Shang begins by stating: “In the body, the heart-mind is the throne of the emperor.” From his throne, the emperor brings peace and harmonious stability (order) to the nation and its people, just as the heart-mind effortlessly brings harmonious order to the domain of the body and self, governing through “non-action.” As the Xin Shu Xia and Nei Ye suggest, the stability of the heart-mind can be effected by bringing peace and alignment to the body. As this peace and alignment of the body can effect the same in the heart-mind, the heart-mind can effect this peace and alignment throughout one’s entire being. Cultivate quiet stillness, both externally and internally, to bring order “without doing.”
“For what is above, study the heavens. For what is below, study the earth.”
It is said that when the nation is peaceful and harmonious, the heavens will bestow natural abundance through harmonious weather and seasons. The Nei Ye begins by explaining:
It is invariably the essence of things that gives them life
Below, it gives birth to the five grains
Above, it aligns the stars
Circulating between Heaven and Earth
We call them ghosts and spirits
Collected within the bosom
We call them Sages
Heshang Gong comments on Lao Zi’s “chapter one”:
Returning to the center of Heaven, there is another Heaven. It dispenses energy-breaths which can be potent or weak. Obtaining harmonious fertile fluid from its center, this gives birth to the worthy and wise.
When peace and harmony endure, the heavens bless the nation with jing – life energy. This mirrors the operations of the mind and body:
Who, by the power of their stillness
Can make clouded water slowly become clear?
Who, by the power of their serenity
Can long sustain this progress, until life slowly arises?
(DDJ15)
With a clear mind, the clouds of thought part, and the sun-energy (attention) of the mind and spirit can shine on the Earth (lower dantien), and nourish it. Just as the primordial jing is needed to fertilize the fields, it is also needed to develop the body and self. Invite it. Open the heart-mind and intention to it.
Thoughts may rise up, like steam forming clouds. Allow the energy of these thick clouds to rain down into the Earth (dantien). Just forget everything, and let everything settle like earth and gravity. Eventually, clarity will return.
Wu Wei
Dao De Jing, chapter seven states:
Heaven has longevity, Earth has continuit y
Heaven and Earth have the power of longevity and continuity because they do not live for themselves
This is how they can live for so long
Therefore, sages leave themselves behind
And they end up in front
They do not cater to themselves
Yet they persist
Is it not because they are without selfishness and wickedness
That they are able to fulfill themselves?
Chapter seven of the Dao De Jing is one of the best, yet least understood, descriptions of wu wei. Wei (為 ) can be translated as effort, and so wu wei as “effortless.” In Daoism, this effort is meant in contrast to “zi ran” – the spontaneity of nature. Heshang Gong comments on DDJ1, “The path that can be told is not the Eternal Path”:
It is not the Path of natural spontaneity (zi ran) and long life. The Eternal Path nourishes the spirit with effortlessness (wu wei). Taking no initiative, it brings peace to the people.
As can be understood from DDJ7, wu wei is action taken from the ego, rather than the action of Dao. Learning wu wei is to recognize and reject egoic interference in what Dao is better able to take care of. This is why Daoist texts warn against emotions such as euphoria, anger, pleasure, sorrow, and fear – because they make it almost impossible to act from Dao rather than from ego. Training in Daoist meditation teaches the cultivation of this power, showing the way to handle worldly obstructions the same way as we do our own emotional obstructions – without wei. This cultivation is therefore also intrinsically a cultivation of effortless virtue as we learn how to act from Dao, the greater principle, rather than the limitations of our own desires. These egoic impulses hamper our ability to act in ways that will foster a harmonious inter-being with the world, and so cultivating wu wei in our behaviour may even seem, from the outside, an effort to cultivate “moral behaviour.” This is not the case, however, as the resulting “morality” is as natural to wu wei as sweetness is to a pear. DDJ65 speaks to this simultaneously internal and external cultivation:
The ancient masters who aligned society with Dao
Did not do so by enlightening the people
But rather, fostered their simplicity
Difficulty in governing people
Comes from a wealth of wisdom
Hence, when knowledge is used to govern the nation
This results in thievery from the nation
Not using knowledge to govern the nation
Blesses the nation
Understand the broader application of these two principles
There is an infinite understanding
Which can be found in these principles
This is called Fathomless Virtue
Fathomless Virtue, profound and far-reaching
Following it, things return back to their nature
Arriving at great submission
The Bai Xin also speaks to this in saying:
Knowing oneself is called “investigating” (jì);
Knowing others is called “helping across the river” (jī).
By knowing what is frivolous and what is necessary, one can bring
the world into unison.
Internally, solidifying oneself into a unified whole, one may lengthen their lifespan.
Discussing the application of this principle reveals the way to rule all under Heaven.
(BX163-167)
This principle can also be found DDJ48:
The pursuit of learning requires daily accumulation
The pursuit of Dao requires daily reduction
Reducing and reducing
Until arriving at effortlessness
Effortless, yet without inaction ( 無為而無不 為 )
Reduce excessive taxes
Consider the Daoist governmental practice of eliminating excessive taxes. Do not ask of the body. Let it be. Let the jing waters absorb into it.
“Do not rely on rewards and punishments”
Not thinking also relates to Daoist warnings against relying on rewards and punishments. Do not think about the potential benefits and losses of sitting practice. Rather, allow the natural process to unfold. While Virtue, “ 德 De,” is synonymous with “ 得 de, attainment,” this attainment is of Dao and zi ran – the simplicity of nature.
“When achievement is attained, the Sage withdraws”
When all is well, the Sage does nothing; when the body is enriched, thoughts may cease to arise. These thoughts no longer need to direct the ruler – the heart-mind, though a little thought here and a little thought there may be helpful to steer the kingdom back to this state of self-sustaining harmony. Once this state is arrived at, allow Dao – allow nature to flow along undisturbed.
When thoughts stop, oneness with the present can arrive. The mind is not scattered, and thoughts of future and past return to present awareness. “Ming/enlightenment” most often refers to “clear sightedness” – a clear awareness of the present in relation to the future and past. Oneness in awareness brings comfort and balance, or having a place in given circumstances rather than resisting them. Oneness in the self becomes oneness in, and with, a person’s environment and circumstances, both internally and externally.
