Building a foundation part 2: "Huo Zi Shi"

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

When people start to learn meditation, it is important to recognize the individual phases of practice and how to get the best result from them.

Huo zi shi is a concept used especially often by Huang yuanji which refers to the time when the latent energy of the water trigram first springs to life.

"Zi Shi" in traditional Chinese time means the two hour period between 11 PM and 1 AM and is symbolized by the water element and the rise of the moon.  Usually in meditation practice, it is considered one of the best time to practice, because the energy of the moon can help bring out the energy of the body more abundantly.  I also suspect it is related to the circadian rhythm and the body being better at going into a deep meditation state at that time, since usually people will rest around this time of night.

Daoists used the term "zi shi" to describe the time when the inner yang line appears inside of the kun trigram, changing it to Kan, or water.   "Huo zi shi" means the time when "Zi" comes to life and it is a specific idea in meditation, especially in the middle school.

Huo Zi appears during the turbid, chaotic silence of deep meditation.   It is when yin changes and yang emerges.  It is the chaotic energy of the pre heaven and is the time when the pre heaven "three treasures" of yuan jing, yuan qi, and yuan shen are all mixing together.   During this time, even though your mind and body are present, it seems like you have no body, and no mind.  Huang Yuanji says it is like not knowing one's home village,  in other words, it is when the mind goes into the void state.

Because of entering into the void, the body begins to follow its own natural cycle and the conscious mind or "Shi shen" (the mind that looks) has been replaced by the pure mind, or "Yuan Shen" (the original mind).   This theory can be very complicated, but to put it in simple terms, the "Shi shen" is polluted by emotions (Qing) and when you are in deep mediation, the emotions disappear and are replaced with clarity.  Therefore, it is at this time that the mind enters into a state of pure yang energy and the body enters into pure yin energy.   Li Daochun said that this is the time when the inner line from the water trigram moves to the inner line of the Li trigram, clearly changing water and fire to earth and heaven, thus propping up and making clear the separation between the pre heaven, unmixed Yin and Yang, and thus allowing the spirit to emerge as pure yang energy.

This kind of practice has many stages and it isn't a one time thing, nor does it always manifest the same way.  The easiest way to understand it is as a concept about how to swap yin for yang so that the broken yin line in your consciousness is repaired by the solid yang line of your body.   This is the way that "Xing" and "ming" merge together, at least in the theory of the middle school of Nei Dan.

 

As always, thoughts and questions are welcome, and if you feel I made any mistakes, please let me know and we'll talk about it more.  hopefully this threat produces an interesting conversation.

[Ormus]

Good tread as privious one.

 

Does Zhong Pai start with sitting metitation to build foundation?

 

Did it start first with Ming Gong or Xing Gong?

 

How looks Ming Gong?

 

Ormus

[LaoZiDao]

You mentioned "meditation", which words in Chinese do you mean here? (That can be checked in classics about Neidan).

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Ormus,

the middle school starts with seated meditation.

 

LaoZiDao,

the middle school doesn't use the word meditation, that was my word for simplification of the subject.

[Ormus]

Thank you for reply.

 

What is considered Ming Gong in Zhong Pai?

 

Regarding meditation did they use Zuowang or Jingzuo?

 

Ormus

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Thank you for reply.

 

What is considered Ming Gong in Zhong Pai?

 

Regarding meditation did they use Zuowang or Jingzuo?

 

Ormus

The whole style uses Ming Gong, but the practice is Xing Ming Shuangxiu.

We can say that the active aspect of the practice is essentially the same as Nan Zong, but the attention to consciousness is from Bei Zong, and then the unique aspect of allowing the energy to move naturally is a unique idea developed by Li Daochun.

 

They don't use either the words Zuowang or Jingzuo.

Zuowang is an old, pre neidan term for meditation, which Wang Chongyang brought into Quanzhen practice in order to illustrate a certain point he wanted to make about the relationship between seated meditation and other physical postures of meditation such as walking, standing, and lying down.

Jing zuo is a Neo Confucian term which really didn't make its way into Daoism in a big way until the 20th century when reformers such as Jiang Weiqiao started using it as a way to emphasize their belief that meditation should be done while seated.  Wang Chongyang used that word a little bit, but he also used words like Chan, and he clearly wasn't teaching Chan Buddhism.

Back to the time of the early Nei Dan schools, there was no Chinese word to describe the process of internal alchemy specifically as a seated process, and I think people would be very hard pressed to find any evidence that any of the early Nei Dan people specifically suggested people should sit in meditation rather than simply affecting the meditative state at all times.

[thelerner]

What I appreciate about S-bear is he is taking the time to explain foreign terms, and explaining the dynamics without relying on the often poetic and flowery language in so many of the classics.  Striving to link the classics with actual practices. 

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

thank you.

Now I just wish I hadn't picked such a stupid posting name (originally just picked the first thing that came to mind because I figured I was mostly going to lurk and not post). 

[thelerner]

thank you.

Now I just wish I hadn't picked such a stupid posting name (originally just picked the first thing that came to mind because I figured I was mostly going to lurk and not post). 

No, no, no it's a great name.  Down in the hood we got the P-Bear,  the Q-bear, the R-bear but nothing gets more respect then the S-bear