The Center

The Tai Chi (Supreme Ultimate) symbol comprises of Yin and Yang to represent Dark and Light; Earth and Heaven; respectively to depict what Laozi said (about the Gate) in Chapter 6 of Tao Te Ching; and within yin there is yang and within yang there is yin to depict the law of changes. The Ancients (Daoists, Buddhists and Confucians) exhorted in their writings or teachings to cultivate both the circle (heaven) and the square (earth) to achieve this center. Later adepts promoted the need to cultivate essence (heavenly/hsing/human nature) and bodily life (earthly/ming/ life) to attain Tao. They also emphasized the need to study and learn from the Book of Changes (Yi).

In the Yi, the dragon is used to depict the entire Hexagram 1 Qian (The Creative, Heaven) and the mare to depict Hexagram 2 Kun (The Receptive, Earth) because the dragon belongs to Heaven and the mare to Earth. Both follow their own nature. Heaven represents the Light (Yang) and Earth represents the Dark (Yin). Heaven leads and Earth follows. Heaven creates and Earth receives. (Understanding their deeper significance can assist in the progress of one’s cultivation consequently the ancients share more thoughts on these two hexagrams than other hexagrams.)

Qian and Kun together with Hexagram 29 Kan (representing water and Moon) and Hexagram 30 Li (representing fire and Sun) form the Cauldron, Furnace, and Medicines in neidan practice. After Kan and Li copulate, the Golden Flower appears. Once the Golden Flower crystallizes the embryo is formed. The embryo needs daily nourishment and warmth to grow. This is where the washings (on the control path) and the baths (on the function path) become warm. If one is the right person, after ten months of sustained nourishment the embryo will finally appear on top of the head. This state is what Daoists termed enlightenment and where Buddha named the embryo, the Son of Buddha. Upon full enlightenment (Nirvana), the Daoist adept becomes a heavenly immortal and the Buddhist adept becomes a Buddha.

In their writings, none of the holy men and adepts disclose the location of the center. Over the thousands of years, numerous metaphors were created to describe it and its location. This invariably confused many ‘not so bright’ students and self taught practitioners as only the right person(s) can locate the center. What can be said with certainty is that the center is not located outside but within; the only way to locate the center is through qigong meditation, as indicated by Laozi, Guan Yinshi, Zhuangzi, numerous neidan adepts and immortals in Daoist texts throughout the ages.

Not forgetting about cultivating bodily life, fellow travelers will do well to practise qigong meditation earnestly and diligently if they want to locate the center.

Notes:
1) As the meditation skills improve, the heat generated by the Qi flows and circulation of the Light can sometimes be unbearable hot. (Softer skin along the path of the flows/circulation can occasionally get singed.) The heat created is to melt the so called medicines. Perhaps neidan adepts’ use the metaphoric terms Cauldron and Furnace, compared to physical ones used in Waidan practices, to better represent the fire process and levels in qigong meditation.

2) The copulation by Kan and Li, because of their various attributes and metaphysic meanings in Daoist texts, is sometimes misinterpreted by neidan practitioners to represent physical sexual intercourse between a male and female. This incorrect concept may have been further exacerbated by the Eastern Sect (Ming Dynasty) and later by the Western Sect (Qing Dynasty).

3) It appears that both sects disbanded shortly after the demise of their respective founders who claimed that they had met Lu Dongbin and that it was he who taught them. Both founders had also capriciously written and rewrote the life history and works of Lu Dongbin. [More information on the two sects can be found at the Taoist Culture and Information Centre by clicking on the 'Taoism' link provided under Resources.]