Cleanse the Heart of All Desires and Passions

[dao zhen]

Cleanse the Heart of All Desires and Passions

 

Disciplining the Heart --- much akin to preaching devotion and devoutness as do many schools of religions ---

is the process critical to the successful pursuit of Tao.

 

The heart, we all know, is accustomed to yielding to the reckless actions of multifarious thoughts.

 

So the process to rid oneself of stray thoughts, should proceed step by step, and the idea of rooting out all stray thoughts in an instant should be dropped.

 

Seat yourself in the posture like the many Buddha statues.

 

---the legs crossed and the fingers of two hands interlocked, let the tongue touch the roof of the mouth, teeth lightly touching, breathing gently and softly in and out of the nose ---

 

Compose your heart and purge it of all disorderly thoughts.

 

Then gently settle your Mind-Will in the Lower Elixir Field.

 

The Lower Elixir Field or the Lower Dantian (Tan Tien) is located in the empty space below the navel in the middle place between the kidney and navel -- a sphere of around 3.8 cm. Let the internal vision gaze upon that place; looking yet not looking.

 

That is to say, persistently rest your mind in this vague space, with no time spent on pondering over other things.

 

This is a gradual process.

 

You should be patient with its dullness at the beginning.

 

Only with both patience and persistence will you succeed.

 

After an appropriate length of time when your Heart has assumed equanimity,

it is the time for you to pay attention to inhaling and exhaling.

 

Knowing where the Lower Elixir Field is but not putting your full attention there merits the great reward.

 

Yet, settling the Mind-Will elsewhere is bound to bring about a great mistake.

 

In brief, you should transform the heart from Existence to Nonexistence in your mind, and empty and expand the Mind Realm to be more spacious and quiescent till all seems to have passed away.

 

To be free from any ideas and thoughts for a long time can bring about the state of No Dreams whatsoever emerging in your sleep; which indicates that the Congenital Mind-Will or Shen is in the process of coming on the scene.

 

If the heart is not disciplined enough, the Congenital Mind-Will or Shen shall always be unsettled and the Psychical Rays shall flicker continuously.

 

Similarly, if the stray thoughts have not been given up thoroughly, the passions will always be in the growth phase and the Life Force will still be subject to all temptations.

 

Only with your Mind-Will settling gently in the Lower Elixir Field, yet touching nothing at all, can the Heart become purer and purer.

 

To cleanse the heart of its addiction to stray thoughts, there exists another measure Sitting in Forgetfulness, which is advocated by Lao Tzi and Zhuang Tzi.

 

At the beginning, settle the Mind-Will in the Lower Elixir Field --- which was always compared by ancient men to the process of pouring fire into water, as the heart occupies the position of the Brightness Hexagram with the nature of the fire element while the kidney the position of the Dangerous Pit Hexagram with the nature of the water element. For a long time in this state a whiff of Yang Vita-Vapor will appear after "interaction" between the water and the fire.

 

Assume the Buddha-sitting posture, with the chest slightly drawn in and the back or the spine moderately upright, the head elevated so that the two eyes can see levelly forward, the shoulders relaxed, both eyes slightly closed and the tongue tip leisurely raised against the hard palate, you can regulate the acquired respiration by the way of slowing the rate of breathing to such an extent that you can feel nothing at all coming in or going out.

 

Certainly, this stage can be reached only through the long-term training.

 

The above-mentioned preparations, you know, should be carried out moderately lest some overdoing should bring about constraints and uneasiness.

 

The proper attitude should be to deal with them naturally and moderately and there should be no exertion in excess and no efforts in deficiency.

 

Generally speaking, the Heart operates in a constant style of permanently diffusing all sorts of ideas and thoughts and intentions --- speeding outwardly, in a word. However, in Disciplining Heart the operation fashion is utterly contrary to that of daily thinking, that is to say, reduce itself to Inward Stillness and Emptiness.

 

Reposing the Mind-Will gently in the region of the Lower Elixir Field and setting your eyes down inwardly upon the same region. Little by little slowing the breathing, you can perceive some minute changes have taken place in the region of the Lower Elixir Field as the time passes away --- initially, it is a black and opaque space, afterwards a slight light begins to flicker, then the darkness fades away by degrees and brightness fills up the space. After a period you can obtain the feeling that there seems to be a wave of warm Qi, which is slowly diffusing and then, of its own accord, it begins to be circling round the Lower Elixir Field. This is the time of the initial sprouting of the Yang Qi, and also of the Existence Arising from Nonexistence.

 

So in a persistent way you rest your Mind in the Lower Elixir Field, the breathing slowly begins to die out --- which in a way, resembles the quiet state of a tortoise or the winter sleep of a frog.

 

Of course, the Mind-Will should perch upon nothing, nor should one free them utterly to their own freedom --- which means that the Mind-Will seems to exist yet meanwhile to pass away. So with the flight of time the Mind-Will and the breathing will be more familiar with each other and later afterwards they begin to attach to each other, becoming one in a State of Unification of Heart-Mind and Breathing, and at last the Mysterious Pass begins to present itself.

 

- Combination of the Heart Mind and Breathing / Heart Mind Fasting -

 

~ Above taken from Eternal Way by Wayfarer Will to Learn Emptiness ~