Cultivation Practice: Where to Start?

[Taeguk]

Hi!

 

I've been into Taoism for some time now! As I said in my intro post in The Lobby forum, I've always been something of a "Tao Bum" at heart (even before I knew what "Taoism" was all about!).

 

But while I've definitely integrated Taoist philosophy into my life, I've yet to take up any kind of Taoist cultivation practice---I don't do Tai Ch'i, or Qi Gong, or Inner Alchemy, or any sort of practice that could be termed "Taoist". (wow, I feel like a poser! ha! )

 

I do practice vipassana meditation on a regular basis, and while I've had a fair amount of success with this practice, I would definitely like to add some Taoism to my meditation/spiritual life.

 

I guess my quesgtion to you is, where's a good place to start? Is there anything I should be aware of in finding a teacher, perusing ancient texts, etc?

[thaddeus]

Hi!

I would definitely like to add some Taoism to my meditation/spiritual life.

Taoism is about daily decrease..not being a ball buster..but you can't 'add' taoism. Just be natural.

 

But I get what you're asking..Start with the Tao Teh Ching. I found that eva wong's books are more accessible than thomas cleary. Deng Ming Dao's Scholar Warrior gives alot of practical information on the physical practices. Just jump in.

T

[Taeguk]

Hi, thaddeus!

 

You wrote:

 

Taoism is about daily decrease..not being a ball buster..but you can't 'add' taoism. Just be natural.

 

Maybe I should've said "Taoist physical practices" as opposed to "Taoism"

 

As you pointed out, "In the pursuit of knowledge, something is added every day. In following the Way, something is dropped every day."

 

I'm already pretty familiar with the Tao Teh Ching and the Zhuangzi, but I'll check out the Wong translation. I'm not a huge fan of Thomas Cleary's Tao Teh Ching, but some of his commentary on other texts has been helpful.

 

Thanks for the Den Ming Dao suggestion!

[thaddeus]

Hi, thaddeus!

 

You wrote:

 

Taoism is about daily decrease..not being a ball buster..but you can't 'add' taoism. Just be natural.

 

Maybe I should've said "Taoist physical practices" as opposed to "Taoism"

 

As you pointed out, "In the pursuit of knowledge, something is added every day. In following the Way, something is dropped every day."

 

I'm already pretty familiar with the Tao Teh Ching and the Zhuangzi, but I'll check out the Wong translation. I'm not a huge fan of Thomas Cleary's Tao Teh Ching, but some of his commentary on other texts has been helpful.

 

Thanks for the Den Ming Dao suggestion!

i can't remember if wong did a tao teh ching translation, but she has loads of other things published. good luck and remember to report back in on what you decided to try out!

T

[Trunk]

I guess my quesgtion to you is, where's a good place to start?

AlchemicalTaoism.com is a mix of my own essays, plus archived "greatest hits" from this community (somewhat biased by the fact of my choosing), compiled over the last 6 yrs +. Though it's way too extensive for a single read, it's a good intro to the progressive work that's been going on in this discussion community, re: theory and practice.

(Of course, everyone has their favorite resources, and this is just one suggestion.)

[Yen Hui]

Hi there 'Taeguk' ~

 

As you may (or may not) know, the I Ching is the most ancient of all the Taoist sacred writings. It was and

is the Chinese sage's main source of philosophical and practical inspiration. We would do well to make it the

foundation of our own Taoist practice too. The essence of all Taoist alchemical teachings are embedded in its

64 Hexagrams. Several excellent editions are now in print, but Wilhelm's edition is widely regarded as the

best, and two thirds of it are freely available online. The following quote is from Wilhelm's Introduction to it:-

 

"Of far greater significance than the use of the Book of Changes as an oracle is its other use, namely, as a

book of wisdom. Laotse knew this book, and some of his profoundest aphorisms were inspired by it.

Indeed, his whole thought is permeated with its teachings. Confucius too knew the Book of Changes

and devoted himself to reflection upon it. He probably wrote down some of his interpretative comments and

imparted others to his pupils in oral teaching. The Book of Changes as edited and annotated by Confucius is

the version that has come down to our time.

 

"If we inquire as to the philosophy that pervades the book, we can confine ourselves to a few basically

important concepts. The underlying idea of the whole is the idea of change. It is related in the Analects that

Confucius, standing by a river, said: 'Everything flows on and on like this river, without pause, day

and night.' This expresses the idea of change. He who has perceived the meaning of change fixes his

attention no longer on transitory individual things but on the immutable, eternal law at work in all change.

This law is the tao of Lao-tse, the course of things, the principle of the one in the many." (@

http://www.iging.com/intro/introduc.htm )

 

Carl Jung wrote the Preface for Wilhelm's I Ching, and in the following quote, corroborates the fact of Lao

Tzu's fundamental reliance upon it:-

 

"It is by no means easy to feel one's way into such a remote and mysterious mentality as that underlying

the I Ching. One cannot easily disregard such great minds as Confucius and Lao-tse, if one is at all able to

appreciate the quality of the thoughts they represent; much less can one overlook the fact that the I Ching

was their main source of inspiration." ( @ http://www.iging.com/intro/foreword.htm )

 

The Confucian School wrote a series of commentaries on it, which came to be known as the Ten Wings; the

largest of which is called 'The Treatise' or 'Great Treatise'. Wilhelm's I Ching is divided into Three Books, and

the Ten Wings are located specifically in Books 2 and 3. 'The Treatise' is part of Book 2, and I recommend an

intensive study of it, as it will help to clarify your understanding of and approach to the I Ching. In addition to

this, I'd highly recommend a close or careful study of Cleary's translation of The Huainanzi or (Huainan Tzu),

which he entitled The Book of Leadership and Strategy. My reason for that is summarized in the words of

Cleary himself :-

 

"In the Huainan masters' teachings on peace are contained the foundations of what later came to be called

the science of essence and life, or the way of spiritual alchemy. This is the individual inner teaching of

Taoism on grooming the three treasures of vitality, energy, and spirit.

 

"The masters present a wide variety of techniques for this process of enhancement, from ways of managing

time, handling resources, and establishing priorities, to ways of attaining deep rest and peace of mind.

 

"These Taoist arts of living are held to be capable of producing an evolutionary change in the individual,

resulting in what classics call the complete person, the real human being, or the sage." (Cleary, Taoist

Classics, Volume 1, p. 305)

 

However, The Book of Leadership and Strategy is only a very partial and select translation of the Huainan

Masters, and is about as far from a critical edition as it gets; but it serves a practical purpose in building a

necessary foundation for Taoist Alchemical studies. In addition to this, Cleary's edition of The Wen Tzu

(entitled Understanding the Mysteries) should be studied in conjunction with the Huainan Tzu. Both are

available in the first volume of his Taoist Classics series. In addition to these two, I'd also recommend

Cleary's Practical Taoism, Taoist Meditation, Secret of the Golden Flower, and I Ching Mandalas.

 

With regard to the Taoist practice of turning the light around, which is the theme of The Secret of the Golden

Flower, Cleary's second volume of Taoist Classics contains the following collection or anthology of sayings

(which is merely a partial sampling):-

 

BEGINNING WORK ON TURNING THE LIGHT AROUND TO ILLUMINE INWARDLY

 

The Tao Te Ching says: "Concentrating your energy, making it supple, can you be like an infant?"

 

The Master of Eternal Spring said, "It is just a single spiritual efficacy, without any mixed thoughts, like an

infant with no conception of externals."

 

The Preserver of Truth said, "Concentrating energy and making it supple is a matter of forgetting emotional

consciousness. The shortcut to forget emotional consciousness is in mind and breathing resting on each other.

If the mind and the breathing are always resting on each other, then emotional consciousness is naturally

forgotten without trying to forget."

 

Immortal Sister Ho said, "The stem of life is in the true breath."

 

The 'Womb Breath' section of the Jade Classic of Supreme Purity says, "When you are in your mother's belly

before being born, you breathe along with your mother without seeing or hearing; there is just breath there.

Then when you are born and the umbilical cord is cut, the point of real basic energy masses under the navel.

Day after day the spirit goes out, energy shifts, and eventually you no longer preserve the breath that was

there in the womb."

 

The Collection of Transmissions of the Way says, "What you exhale is your own basic energy, emerging from

within; what you inhale is the wholesome energy of heaven and earth, coming in from outside. If the root

source is stable and the basic energy is not diminished, then the wholesome energy of heaven and earth can

be absorbed in the interval of a breath. If, however, the root source is not stable, vitality is exhausted and

energy weak, your basic energy leaks and your chamber of the fundamental goes unrepaired. The wholesome

energy of heaven and earth you breathe in leaves with exhalation, while the basic energy in your body does

not remain your own but is taken away by heaven and earth."

 

The Treatise on the Womb Breath says, "If you breathe out without having spiritual mastery, then the one

breath is incomplete; if you breathe in without mastering spirit, the one breath is incomplete then too."

 

Yu Yuwu said, "Throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, just cause the mind to drive the energy at all

times, so that energy and spirit combine; then the physical body will survive." He also said, "The essential

thing is to keep the spirit and the breathing resting on each other, with energy and spirit keeping each other at

all times." He also said, "The method of alchemy is to have creative active energy descend to mix with

receptive passive energy, cause the out-breath and inbreath to unite, and make firmness and flexibility match

and mate as husband and wife, making them a unity. Then spirit and energy return to the root, essence and

life join as one, and the ultimate elixir is conceived therein." He also said, "After all, it is no more than a matter

of mind and breath resting on each other, such that there is inner sensing of yin and yang and the combining

of spirit and energy."

 

The Four Hundred Words on Alchemy says, "When spiritualized energy enters the root, if closure is extreme

you err on the side of intensity, while if relaxation is extreme, you err on the side of carelessness. Just bring

about a fine continuity, not allowing interruption. After that the spirit will eventually congeal on its own, and the

breath will eventually settle on its own."

 

Su Dongpo said, "The method of following the breath is to go out with the breath and in with the breath; follow

it continuously, and one breath abides. You may feel this breath coming from the pores; clouds evaporate, fog

disperses, illnesses disappear, obstructions vanish, and you spontaneously realize clear understanding."

 

Zhu Huai's Guide to Tuning the Breathing says, "When quiescence reaches a climax and you are empty, this is

like a spring pond in which the fish become still after movement, like insects in hibernation; with living energy

opening and closing, the wonder is inexhaustible."

 

Chao Wen said, "When mind and breath rest on each other, the mind becomes calm and the breathing regular;

eventually this can produce superior concentration. When spirit and energy combine, spirit is harmonious and

energy is clear; harmony and clarity eventually can bring about prolongation of life."

 

Point to the Mystery says, "Just manage to be aware, breath after breath; this will exchange the physical body,

a flow of liquid jade."

 

Chen the Blank said, "Breath after breath returning to the root is the matrix of the pill of gold."

 

The Preserver of Truth said, "When the breath makes a sound as it goes in and out, that is called carelessness;

when exhalation and inhalation are not thorough, this is called stagnation. When there is repeated shortness of

breath, this is called panting. Not careless, not stagnating, not panting, continuously present, working without

strain - this is called breathing. Carelessness results in scattering; stagnation results in binding; panting results

in laboring; maintaining 'breathing' results in stabilization. So-called tuning the breathing simply means seeing

to it that you are not careless, not stagnating, and not panting.

 

"Tuning the breath is beginner's work. Ordinarily people's minds and thoughts have rested on things, both

abstract and concrete, and have been stuck to them so long that if they were to detach from objects, they

would be unable to stand on their own; and even if they can stand on their own temporarily, before long they

revert to a state of distraction and scatteredness. That is why the method of mind and breath resting on each

other is used: to control the mind in order to refine away its coarseness. Once you get the mind detached from

objects, then just be empty; you don't need to tune the breathing any more.

 

"If you manage to reach the state where there is no sky and no earth, no self and no other, then what breath

is there to tune? This method is the most rapid shortcut, the easiest and most benign, unlike methods

such as keeping the mind on the 'elixir field' in the lower abdomen or the 'central yellow' in the thorax.

It is a reliable basis of practice. The Meditation Master of Essential Emptiness said, "In people of the highest

potential, if thoughts do not arise, it is not even necessary to pay attention to the breath. But if you notice a

thought arising, just tune the breath once, paying attention to it for the moment and stopping when there is no

thought. Don't focus attention too intensely!" ( Taoist Classics, Volume 2, pp. 531-534 )

 

One version of The Secret of the Golden Flower can be accessed online @:-

 

1 - Secret of the Golden Flower, or ...

 

2 - Secret of the Golden Flower

Edited April 15, 2007 by Yen Hui

[Taeguk]

Hi!

 

Wow, thanks for the links, Trunk and Yen Hui! Quite a bit of material here....can't wait to get started!

 

Thanks again

[...]

I would say.. don't 'start' anything... just 'f*ck around' with things as you please.

 

and I would like to guarantee that the philosophy will prove far more important than the orbit or any stupid organ animals/babies.

 

you shoud score the 'secret of the golden flower,' definately

Edited March 9, 2007 by ...