Some general notes about "Ming Gong"

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

http://daoistmeditation.com/2016/11/18/ming-gong-the-practice-of-pre-natal-qi/

 

 

Ming Gong (the practice of pre natal Qi)

Posted on November 18, 2016by james

It occurred to me recently that it might be a good idea to make a post or two about xing and ming gong in order to introduce some general concepts about them and why their practices work in the way they do. I will probably make three posts in total over the next week or so, starting with this one, moving next to xing gong, and finally to xing and ming dual cultivation.

Ming Gong,

The practice of pre natal Qi:

Ming in Daoist thought is the idea of life energy.
This concept of life energy has been thought about in various ways throughout Daoist history, but I personally like Wang Chongyang’s interpretation of Ming as Pre Natal Qi energy. Some other texts identify Ming as Pre Natal Jing essence, which is also a fine interpretation. The reason I like Wang’s interpretation is because he understood that pre heaven Qi has the innate prerequisite of pre heaven Jing already existing, so his assertion that Ming is pre heaven Qi also means that it uses Jing, which is the building block of life in order to manifest itself and give animation to the body.
So basically, regardless of who’s interpretation you like, it is fair to say that Ming is the essential “Animus” which gives rise to our ability to take action as living beings.
Chen Yingning and Hu Haiya (20th century Daoist reformers) believed that Ming was like the oil in an oil lamp, it gives people the fuel that they need to live.
My own concept that Ming is the basic building material and animus of the body is basically a consolidation of these concepts into a working theory which recognizes that Ming is a principle used to explain how the central systems governing the body function in order to bring life to us.

Just like any major idea in Daoism, there are practices associated with Ming and this post will attempt to illustrate some basic ones.

Early Daoist books separated Ming gong and Xing gong (the practice of consciousness) quite clearly and there are many different schools of thought on how each of them are cultivated.
Usually Ming gong is practiced by quieting the mind and causing the consciousness to seem to vanish. In a sense, this is like sleeping while awake, and only enough intention is required to keep the mind from drifting off, but not so much attention is needed that the mind would be artificially made alert. This natural quieting of the mind, such as that practiced in “Zuo Wang” sitting and forgetting meditation is believed to allow the body to move to the maximum of yin energy, ultimately causing the jing essence transform into Qi and circulate in the body. The explains much about the reason why so many early meditation texts in Daoism advocate that the body and mind must be kept completely still during meditation. This complete stillness is believed to convert the body and mind completely to Yin energy and mimic death. Because Daoism follows the reverse course, instead of the typical concept that life is the origin of death, Daoist meditation masters who focused on ming gong believed that imitating death could be the root of life, so therefore that assuming an unmoving, unthinking, and totally still and silent attitude in meditation could stir the life energy of the body and cause the body and mind to become illuminated and bright with vitality. In effect, this type of Ming gong is the opposite of Qi Gong, which requires the body to be in movement in order to cultivate post heaven Qi.

In the next post, we will discuss Xing gong, or consciousness practice, and in the final post we will discuss Xing and Ming dual cultivation, so please stay tuned.

[SeekerOfHealing]

"Usually Ming gong is practiced by quieting the mind and causing the consciousness to seem to vanish. In a sense, this is like sleeping while awake, and only enough intention is required to keep the mind from drifting off, but not so much attention is needed that the mind would be artificially made alert"


Where did you get that?

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

"Usually Ming gong is practiced by quieting the mind and causing the consciousness to seem to vanish. In a sense, this is like sleeping while awake, and only enough intention is required to keep the mind from drifting off, but not so much attention is needed that the mind would be artificially made alert"

 

 

Where did you get that?

 

The theoretical framework comes mainly from the Southern school, specifically Understanding Reality and associated texts, but it dates back at least to Ge Hong's "Embryonic Breathing" classic, which in effect is the first classical document clearly defining nei dan as a separate entity from wai dan.

The main concept is "not entering, not leaving," but can also be explained by this passage from jade emperor subtle heart inscription classic "

上药三品，神与气精，恍恍惚惚，杳杳冥冥。

存无守有，顷刻而成，回风混合，百日功灵。

默朝上帝，一纪飞升，智者易悟，昧者难行。"

"the great medicine has three levels, spirit meeting with qi and jing,

obscure and distant,  dark and deep,

maintain emptiness and protect fullness,

it seems to turn over and change in no time,

the returning wind is mixed together,

one hundred days to temper the spirit.

in the dark morning shang di in one epoch flew above,

the who is wise will easily understand,

he who is unclear will find it hard to advance."

 

This early document is a very good gateway into understanding some fundamental concepts of how ming gong works.

Keep in mind that Ming gong is primarily concerned first with turning jing to qi, so it is mainly concerned with tempering the inner line of the kan trigram with the two solid lines of the fire trigram, thus causing that inner line to change places, causing the body to revert to the kun trigram.  This allows the movement of yin to be completed and give birth to the fu hexagram (one solid line on the bottom of five broken yin lines) and start the movement of qi in the body moving back toward yang and eventually the qian trigram.

Ming gong works by using the pre heaven state (no seeing, no hearing, no speaking, no feeling etc) to revert the corporeal body completely to the yin state and then give birth to yang, so that is why the mind is meant to be made 恍恍惚惚，杳杳冥冥 "obscure, distant, dark, and deep."

This is the basic method of achieving Wu Wei as written in Lu Zu Bai Zi Bei and Wu Zhen Pian.

the Northern school takes a direct departure from this theory by adding in Chan Buddhist theories of cultivating Xing during all activities, so that is where you get the concept of cultivating while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down the most prominently (although it shows up in many documents), since Xing Gong can be done without the body going completely into the yin state.   I personally believe that this is why Wang Chongyang put in "Zuo wang lun," into his essays, since the Zuo Wang method helps to balance the xing gong and make energy cultivation a bit faster.

Basically, the benefit of Ming Gong is that it cultivates Qi very quickly, while Xing gong tends to cultivate consciousness faster.  I personally use the middle school method of Xing Ming Shuangxiu, and I will be discussing both xing gong and xing ming dual cultivation in my next two posts on the subject  :) :)

[Taoist Texts]

 

默朝上帝，一纪飞升， 

 

in the dark morning shang di in one epoch flew above,

 

Almost but not quite). The line says 默 in trance 朝 visit an audience 上帝 with the God on High，一纪 in 10 years飞升 fly up for good. 

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Almost but not quite). The line says 默 in trance 朝 visit an audience 上帝 with the God on High，一纪 in 10 years飞升 fly up for good. 

 

Hi, thanks for this.

Here is the commentary I'm working from (Hu Haiya/Cheng Yingning commentary):

默朝者:

即静中存想飞谒也...

 

一纪飞升:

 

一纪,

十二月也...

 

 

 

Just so we are clear that we are working from different interpretations.

 

I wrote that translation on the fly, I would prefer to have written it "in the dark morning, in one epoch he flew away," which would have been closer to the interpretation I'm working from.   Either way, the context Chen Yingning et al. uses is that in the deep darkness is where Jing is found and if used properly, it can be turned to Qi within one year.   It is the same meaning as   杳冥有精而泰定发光 from 上清大洞真经  :) :)

[SeekerOfHealing]

What appears right before turning yin into the yang? What sensations and experiences in this case?

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

What appears right before turning yin into the yang? What sensations and experiences in this case?

 

This is what Huang Yuanji called "Xuan Guan Miao Qiao," or the subtle opening of the mystery gate.  It is a really important topic in Daoism and is the non physical manifestation of the change from the post heaven to the pre heaven state.   Laozi called the time directly after this as "Dao ji," or the trace of the Dao.  Actually, at that time, there is no clearly discernible feeling, but instead just mixed in chaos.  The feeling directly after is when Qi goes to the body, and that is knowable.   So technically, the moment that kun turns to fu you won't know what is happening, but after the Qi moves to the body, then you will be aware of it.   That is a very subtle aspect of neidan training that takes a bit of time to get used to 

[Daeluin]

Is kun turning to fu related to when a body part falls asleep and then begins tingling?

[Rocky Lionmouth]

Now this is really something! You cook pretty delicious food Bear!

 

If you dont mind i have a question that might seem weird:

 

I do something that is very very close to the ming gong you describe when i cant sleep. Is that even possible?

Like tonight: falling asleep was very difficult so when i felt it was too late (three hours of sleep in one night is more like salting the wound for me) i took a position i have learned as a lying down qigong exercise and just "rested" for two hours more or less, mind quieted soon and even though i was just about awake enough to notice i wasnt asleep i stayed almost completely immobile. Breathing was almost imperceptible, no real effort was put in this immobility. Used a small trick of thinking of something very pleasant and complicated to bridge into a resting heart rythm at first, but when stillness came it just stayed without struggle..

 

When i came out of my "rest" i noticed i had some time before my alarm goes off, went to the loo and decided to see what my fellow bums had been up to tonight, found this immediately so i thought i'd chime in a question. I dont know if you think this even remotely related with what you describe in your post SBHHE but when i read it i felt it described the state i was in until just a few minutes ago with an almost eerie accuracy

Edited November 20, 2016 by Rocky Lionmouth

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Is kun turning to fu related to when a body part falls asleep and then begins tingling?

 

In short, no.

 

You might want to shake it off before it gets too sleepy to use again 

[idquest]

Usually Ming gong is practiced by quieting the mind and causing the consciousness to seem to vanish. In a sense, this is like sleeping while awake, and only enough intention is required to keep the mind from drifting off, but not so much attention is needed that the mind would be artificially made alert. This natural quieting of the mind, such as that practiced in “Zuo Wang” sitting and forgetting meditation is believed to allow the body to move to the maximum of yin energy, ultimately causing the jing essence transform into Qi and circulate in the body. The explains much about the reason why so many early meditation texts in Daoism advocate that the body and mind must be kept completely still during meditation. This complete stillness is believed to convert the body and mind completely to Yin energy and mimic death. Because Daoism follows the reverse course, instead of the typical concept that life is the origin of death, Daoist meditation masters who focused on ming gong believed that imitating death could be the root of life, so therefore that assuming an unmoving, unthinking, and totally still and silent attitude in meditation could stir the life energy of the body and cause the body and mind to become illuminated and bright with vitality. In effect, this type of Ming gong is the opposite of Qi Gong, which requires the body to be in movement in order to cultivate post heaven Qi.

 

While being in this state of stillness, we can experience something. When we come out of this state, do we retain memories of those sensations or do the memories disappear in a trans-like state of mind? Is there any kind of synchronization of the two states of mind or they start diverging  wider and wider?

 

Thank you for the topic, it is rich.

[Daeluin]

In short, no.

 

You might want to shake it off before it gets too sleepy to use again 

 

Thank you.

 

My question stemmed from hearing about something in Wang Liping's seminar meditation sessions. As one gets uncomfortable, one is allowed to move the upper body, but is not to move one's legs, even after they fall asleep. I suppose different methods can work for different schools.

 

I had an experience which resonates more with what you are describing here. During a particularly empty period in cultivation, it was as though my emptiness was guarding against contamination of the fullness of yin. Then in class one day we were doing some standing meditation during which it felt like my emptiness/fullness were coming into a completion. The energy of yin was full, yet as nothing, and the stillness with which I rested upon it permeated throughout my whole. As we transitioned from standing into taijiquan, I moved from this place, and the entire form was an exploration of stillness within movement that is beyond my ability to convey in words. Nothing blocked, nothing forced. After this my meridians seemed to have opened up into a continuous flow of qi which continued for months day and night.

 

Edit: Perhaps it is unusual to experience predominately yin cultivation in qigong practices, I don't know. Of course it was the standing in stillness where yin culminated and perhaps I entered the gate... and then the taijiquan was very trance-like. In bazi I lack wood and fire, and in early cultivation stages I tend to be more yin. After experimenting with caffeine my qigong experience changed considerably; there was a more natural balance of yang with the yin, and the yin did not naturally come to completion.