Thanks Albert : )
As most of you know I am a practitioner who is an avid disciple of the conventional JING QI SHEN route of transformation, so I am really looking forward to experiencing the method by which the essence is extracted from the JING without having to cook it.
To illustrate my thinking, please consider the following:
JING is not semen, but the essence of semen contributes to the complex of JING energies.
The JING complex includes other energies originating from places like the Kidneys, Testicles, Prostate, Bladder, Liver etc.
You may have strong sexual JING, but you may have a failing Liver or a failing Kidney and thus be in bad health.
Having JING is the condition of being in general health and maintaining a system whose organs are in balance and functioning optimally.
Everything is vibration. The way we and things within and without us vibrate defines how are classified and how we classify.
When we gather JING in the LDT it is akin to dropping grains of rice and drops of water, one at a time, into an empty pot.
When there is enough rice and water to cook in the pot, we place the mind mind/heart under the pot. The water is a necessary ingredient, because without the water we cannot extract the essence from the coarse JING.
The fire of the mind/heart is a necessary ingredient because without the fire we cannot begin to heat the JING to a boil.
If we perform strenuous physical activity that tolls the bodys' organs and energy reserves, then we deplete JING. By doing this we continuously scoop out some of the rice water and never get what we need to meet the requirements of this recipe.
This is body celibacy. It does not just mean celibacy of the sexual activity, but celibacy of physical activity in order to maintain optimal energetic capacity in all areas, not just testosterone.
If anyone has ever been on a long term water fast, you'll be familiar with the profound effects of conserving ones energy.
This type of body celibacy conserves and compounds JING, but it does not necessarily refine it into QI, because energy continues to leak out of the system from other outlets preventing the JING from accumulating to max capacity.
There is a saying. When the body is still it produces JING, when the breath is still it produces QI and when the mind is still it produces SHEN.
One can accumulate JING, but still deplete QI. One can accumulate QI, but still deplete SHEN.
And we must not forget that san bao interact with each other JING QI SHEN and SHEN QI JING.
One nourishes the other, but one can also deplete the other since they are in a constant process of transmutation.
One can sit still and be celibate of the body and thus accumulate JING, but can deplete QI through incorrect breathing or excessive talking. If the QI is depleted the JING and SHEN will support it and thus the JING and SHEN will also be lost.
Please bear in mind that when I use the word LOST, I do not mean that capacity drops from 100 to 0, but rather a percentage is transmuted up or down the vibrational ladder in order to support the other energy and achieve balance in the body again.
This means, you can still lose energy regularly, but progress, albeit slower.
If JING becomes too weak, it cannot support the QI and the SHEN will disperse causing death.
One can also accumulate QI faster through Qigong practices, without even being celibate, one can do so. You can have sex and practice Qigong, and you will have more QI, but the QI will also transmute downwards to support the JING and thus you will deplete the accumulated QI in order to bring the system to balance.
One can absorb high vibrational energies to nourish the SHEN, yet deplete the QI and the JING with other activities and thus force the SHEN to transmute down to support them.
In other words, what I'm trying to say is that a disciple with the right method, can begin and support the alchemical process from either JING or QI or SHEN. It's a delicate balancing act.
The most effective practice will be that which conserves energy on all three of the planes simultaneously for maximum efficacy.
You don't necessarily have to start from JING or from SHEN or from QI specifically.
Each will support the other and vice-versa.
Here is a little diagram on the interrelationship of the San Bao:
So, the pot is filled with rice and water, what now?
This RIGHT HERE, is the point at which a lot of conflict arises with different schools.
If you keep filling the pot with rice, one grain at a time and with water one drop at a time, soon you will just get raw rice and water spilling up and out the pot and unto the stove and you'll make a mess.
Ha, does that remind you of anything? Maybe? What's normally messy, watery and white?
That's right, man juice! Millions of future babies!
Keep accumulating JING and sooner or later the energy complex will reach the maximum capacity of the pot and when you go to sleep one night, you will wake up with wet pants in the morning : )
The crude, unrefined physical form of the rice and the water can only be contained so much until it starts looking for the point of least resistance to exit from. Normally that is the penis and the anus.
This reminds me of a time when I was having a debate with a friend of mine whose religious practice claimed that you must not have sex for around 90 days, after which when you go to sleep, God (of all things) will come to you at night and grant you the bliss of orgasm while you sleep. A gift from God he said. SMH!
All I could think to myself as a Taoist was... man.. what a waste haha.
I tried to make him understand that this is a crucial phase during which he needs to practice the proper meditation methods to help refine the accumulated JING energy in order to transmute it to QI, but he screamed BLASPHEMY. GOD he said, the wet dream is GODS gift! How dare I even entertain the idea of interrupting the divine process of God coming to your bed at night and giving you a helping hand? God after all is a loving God is he not? lol : )
Fair enough. I let it be as there was too much resistance.
THIS PHASE, really is crucial, because this is where the celibacy of the body reaches its peak. The JING reaches capacity.
The pot is full of raw rice and water. But now we must intensify another aspect of the practice in order to bring this alchemical process to it's next step of progression.
What is that?
MIND celibacy. (You like that one do you Drew )
Mind celibacy is crucial.
The heart mind is the element FIRE. The spirit resides in the heart and manifests through the eyes.
This is why when the eyes attach to beautiful things, the heart is stirred, the spirit attaches to the desire of the visual formation and leaks out of the eyes. This is one way to deplete SHEN energy.
Ok, Ok. But what does this have to do with the JING in the Lower Dan Tien that is about spill over because of the tiny pot we have down there?
Well... This is what happens.
The Qi follows the Mind and the heart mind is FIRE.
At this time we have one imperative goal. Stop the rice and water in the pot from overflowing and making a mess.
How? BY COOKING THE RICE and changing its property!
Ok. So we have rice and water in a pot. What do we do now?
Well, what do you normally do to make a deliciously yummy bowl of rice? - You turn the stove on and apply FIRE.
Have a look at this image:
Can you see the JING in the pot? It's just staying there, like our rice and water, just filling up, soon to spill over.
Now, look at the heart. Can you see the fire? THAT's what we need to get our RICE and Water cooked!
But, how do we get that fire down under the pot, it seems like quite a distance?
Remember what I said before? - The FIRE of the spirit resides in the Heart, but manifests through the two eyes!!!
Where the eyes go the fire of the heart follows and passions arise. We see something sexy and our heart beats, we see something beautiful and it skips a beat. When the eyes attach, the heart moves and the passions stir, giving birth to desire and emotions. The KEY are the EYES. That is how we get the FIRE to sit below the pot so we can get cooking!
Ok, so what do we do that? Simple! Relax the eyes, look down gently with both your intention and your eyes, right under the pot, and the gaze will lead the FIRE from the heart under the pot.
VOILA! You now have LI under KAN.
Whats so magical bout this?
It's important because, once the FIRE starts to heat the pot the WATER will begin to boil, once it boils the rice transformed and it's essence is extracted and carried up into the steam.
As long as the FIRE of the heart/mind is kept under the Lower Dan Tien, the WATER will boil and the JING will not SPILL.
THIS, is the crucial effect of MIND CELIBACY.
Without restraining the mind, you cannot guide the FIRE of the heart, as Spirit will constantly leak out of the eyes to chase worldly images.
Without Mind Celibacy, the JING will overflow and sooner or later you will make a mess.
The FIRE is needed to cook the WATER and make it EVAPORATE to prevent the ingredients from spilling out of the pot. Kan needs Li to produce Qi.
It is as simple as that.
No Fire = Spilled JING and a waste of time.
Fire = Transmuted JING into QI
The process by which the fire heats the water and the water boils and transforms into STEAM or Yang QI is the process of TRANSMUTATION.
JING transmutates to QI and QI transmutates to SHEN and vice versa.
So what happens to the Steam we have just created?
Well. It too will seek to find an outlet for release.
If you do apply the mind incorrectly at this stage, the hot steam can shoot through the wrong meridians in the leg, through the Hui Yin or out of the Penis or out of the Anus or up the Central Channel or Up the Ren Mai or Up the Du Mai.
So what must you do?
This is debatable. You can often not do anything and the Steam will find the correct path on it's own or you can gently guide it along the right path.
How do we know when the water is boiled and ready to be moved?
Well, you will experience heat in the Lower Dan Tien, you will then afterwards also experience Vibration and you will then experience the sensation of movement in the LDT.
Once you feel that property of movement in the LDT after the vibration occurs this means the cooked JING has began to steam up and needs to rise.
At this point, you must gently use the mind to direct it down to the Hui Yin followed by the tip of the Tail bone where it can pass through the first gate and proceed up the Fire path of the Microcosmic orbit along and up the DU Meridian of the spinal chord.
This is the first phase of the JING QI SHEN transformation process.
What is really important here is to realize that the essence of the JING can be extracted by other methods OTHER than cooking it with FIRE in the Lower Dan Tien.
It is extraction we are looking for regardless of the process.
I would like to submit the theory that it may be possible to extract the essence from the JING by other methods, different than what we are used to.
If we do not eat or drink or breathe our body and organs will become weak and our JING will become weakened and we will die.
In other words we need YIN nourishment to support our organs in order to produce, accumulate and transmute JING along the conventional JING > QI > SHEN route. And once we have enough JING we need to use mind celibacy to transmute that JING to QI.
Now.. Look at the picture again. Can you see how the arrow goes up the back, but down the front as well? Remember how I said you can start the process from any of the three treasures?
Some systems rather than using Yin nourishment, absorb higher vibrational Yang nourishment from the moon, sun, stars, planets or other sources of energy which vibrate faster than JING and even QI.
This type of energy nourishes and builds the SHEN, just like eating food, drinking water or breathing nourishes the JING, but there is no COOKING process required here as the energy being accumulated is already of a high vibration and does not require to move up any higher at this point.
We don't have to work to build up the JING we simply let the SHEN energy naturally transmute down into QI and then into JING in the REVERSE order of transmutation.
Building JING to transmute it into QI and SHEN is like picking up a rock and using physical force to throw it up into the sky. It requires more Gong.
Building JING out of QI derived from SHEN, is like dropping the rock from a roof top, no force is required, you needn't throw it down. You simply let go and gravity will do the rest of the work.
Jumping requires force, Falling requires that you let go.
Everything that comes from the heavens and above can reach the earth without any effort. While everything on earth takes effort to reach above and into the heavens. (Heavens from a cosmological stand point not religious or spiritual)
I have studied and practised the conventional method of transmutation from JING to QI to SHEN for a long time. In fact, to me it is blasphemous for someone to claim anything otherwise. Yet, how can I call myself a Taoist if I don't investigate these claims?
I've received several different viewpoints that have challenged my beliefs and I'm eager to investigate them and looking forward to sharing my finds here after I put the Xiao Yao Pai system to practice.
