Keep it simple and easy

The first time when I saw how a neidan student relate yin yang to his practice and the Book of Changes but fumbled, I had wanted to comment but I said nothing. Later the same student perhaps after checking with his teacher from a lineage in China tried to tie up the relationship between yin yang, earth and heaven but still could not convinced the audience (some discerning or skeptical Tao Bums) why a neidan practitioner cultivates towards yang instead of yin.

A few months after that, I see Yi aficionados discussing yin yang in relation to interpretations of prognostications in an I Ching Forum.

Nothing wrong with that too, except that it could complicate our studies and our explanations to self and others, if we try to be sophisticated instead of keeping it simple and easy.

The holy sages who made the Book of Changes also made it simple and easy. That is why they determined the Tao of Heaven to be the dark and the light. And they determined the Tao of Earth to be yielding and firm.

We can easily substitute yin yang for the dark and the light, yielding and firm, earth and heaven respectively. But is that what the ancients taught? And can we or others see yin yang or understand the concept with ease?

If the particular neidan student or his teacher had given it a deeper thought, it could have made understanding for both the transmitter and the receiver(s) a bit easier.

Is it not easier for the audience to understand that a neidan practitioner cultivates Tao to become a light being (an immortal, a divinity), instead of a yang being (even though the term light is often substituted by the term yang by Daoist adepts)?

If we learn to keep our Yi and/or neidan studies and practices simple and easy, we may one day emulate earth and heaven. But how would I know?

Too deep for many

What the two great sages, Laozi and Confucius, know about the Book of Changes can be too deep for many Yi students. Therefore their thoughts on this ancient Chinese classic are often missed even by those who considered themselves scholars of ancient Chinese philosophy.

Over the years, Yi students have tried linking up the Tao Te Ching to the Book of Changes without much success. It will be difficult if we do not know both the profound classics well. Another drawback would be the lack of neidan knowledge and practice.

If we are discerning enough, we may find several chapters in the Tao Te Ching relating to neidan and the Zhouyi. This means that the Book of Changes also contains layers on neidan practice which Laozi and some renowned Neo Daoists know about. But many down the ages do not.

If we look clearly at Confucius’ commentaries on certain lines of hexagrams, we may understand how deep his knowledge on the Book of Changes was. But then if we are not earnest in our Yi studies, we may not know why he interpreted those lines as he did.

As to whether he consulted the Book of Changes on occasions is another story altogether. So far I have not come across any evidence of his Yi consultation(s) in the four Confucian books.

Yet I read of a modern scholar, a fellow Malaysian, claiming that Confucius do not use the nuclear trigrams and the changed hexagram for interpretations. And that those who used them, do not or did not know their Yi studies well.

While I verily agree with the scholar that Confucius’s interpretations of the lines are based on the trigrams, we cannot conclusively determine that nuclear trigrams and changed hexagrams cannot be used for interpretations of Yi consultations, unless we have examples of consultations performed by the great sage, Confucius and his interpretation of them to form such an opinion.

Though my knowledge of the Yi is minimal compared to the two great sages, I do use the nuclear trigrams on occasions to provide more clarity to the prognostications or omens. And I use the changed hexagrams more often than not.

But does this mean that the particular modern scholar know the Yi better than me? Nope. Since down the ages, the Yi has been too deep for many.

Immortality

For thousands of years, people have searched for immortality.

The best recorded example of such a search was that of Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. According to Sima Qian, the Grand Historian of the Han Dynasty, this emperor sent large groups of young girls and young boys to accompany the Daoists on two separate occasions in search for the mythical Peng Lai Island where immortals are rumored to live, and to bring back the elixir (of immortality or life) for him to drink.

For many including the Chinese, immortality means long life and not getting old, for others, immortality means having their (good) names etched into history or legacy.

Immortality conveys a deeper meaning to those who cultivate Tao and/or practise neidan (inner alchemy). It is not only about having a long life and not getting old, it is also about living on forever.

To live on forever is a difficult concept for people to understand and accept. Since everyone will eventually die, how can anyone live on forever, they wonder or ask?

To have a better understanding of this living forever, we turn to a definition of immortality and how one can achieve it by the great sage, Laozi in Chapter 16 of his Tao Te Ching and my simple translation follows:


Tao Te Ching Chapter 16


Achieve utmost emptiness, guard assured stillness.

(Even if) myriad things no longer active, I continue to observe return.

Man and things flourish, each will return to its root.

To return to the root require stillness, stillness brings return to destiny.

Returning to destiny is the principle; knowledge of this principle means understanding.

Not knowing this principle, delusions and disasters arise.

Know and accept the principle, upon acceptance one can be impartial, impartiality accords with completeness. Completion accords with Heaven. Heaven accords with Dao.

Dao last forever, without body, no death.
[Allan Lian]



In case, some readers still do not get it, Laozi defined celestial immortality in the final verse of Chapter 16.

Of students and masters (11)

It could be worthwhile for those who cultivate Tao or practise neidan to spend some time to read the Taobums forum. Especially on threads started by those taught by real masters in China, and where readers may pick up some knowledge on what cultivation or neidan entails. At times, although rare, what is written therein can provide a confirmation of various minor signposts of the Way.

For example, in a recent questions and answers session in Nov / Dec 2010 between Wang LiPing and some students in the West, he was asked what the first signs of success were for an average normal practitioner of his practice. Wang LiPing of Quanzhen is a real neidan teacher recognized by the Chinese government and has gained quite a number of students in China and recently in the West.

According to his official website in English and copied over to the Taobums forum by his students, this was what he said (extracts):

“The first thing following this practice is health improvement. Your energy level increases steadily. This sign is important but is not the most important.

The most important thing is when you transform your XIN LING, when you change your soul, so that you have more wisdom and more faith.....

In a next phase the practice will change your body internals, your organs and internal functions so that your immunity will increase. You'll never get the flu again. “

While it is good that a well respected teacher like Wang Liping confirms in public that a neidan practitioner will have his or her immunity increased in the next phase; from experience, it could be circumspect to say that never to get the flu again is conditional upon continual meditation practice.

Of course if neidan practitioners still have 24/7 Qi flows even without continual meditation over a period of time, they can cure the oncoming flu with heat from their palms before the flu gets full blown. Those so interested can refer to my older entries on Thermal healing [in 2005]; and on how the Shi (masters) can help cure Swine Flu or H1N1 posted both in this blog and in the Taobums forum in 2009, to gain a better perspective on the matter.

Even if we managed to get our immunity up in this next phase and not likely to get flu again one way or other, it can be considered only a minor achievement for neidan practitioners since the ancient classics, the great masters and the Zhen Ren did not mention the immunity to Flu in their teachings. But how would I know?

Friends come (Peng Lai) (2)

It is always good to have friends whether we live in the mountains, the valleys, the countryside, towns, or cities. Even if we happen to be hermits, we may need some help from friends now and then.

So would a cultivator of Tao, and sometimes his or her friends could be special in the spiritual sense. These special or true friends may come to help if the need arises.

If we understand certain layers of meaning in Hexagram 39 Jian / Obstruction, we may know why in the midst of the greatest obstructions, friends come. (Refer to previous entry and study the entire hexagram in detail, if interested)

In case scholars and cultivators think otherwise, take at look at what the Judgment of Hexagram 24 Fu / Return say about friends:

Friends come without blame. To and fro goes the Way. (Tao)

The questions, we may need to ask are: why do these friends come, and without blame; who are these friends; and what has the occasion anything to do with Tao?

Perhaps cultivators of Tao or neidan practitioners who read this blog may know the real answer. How would I know?


Cheerio!

Friends come (Peng Lai)

The West has an adage that says, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” The Phrase Thesaurus if you Google for the proverb, indicates that a version, “a sure friend is known when in difficulty” translated from Latin was known by the 3rd BC.

True friends come to help when we are in need, sometimes even without asking.

The ancients also knew about this, if not more, and embedded this adage in the fifth line of Hexagram 39 Jian / Obstruction in the Book of Changes for posterity:

In the midst of the greatest obstructions, Friends come. [W/B]

The pinyin for this line reads and I like it when it jumped at me at Yijing Dao before reading the Chinese characters: Da Jian Peng Lai.

No, the great did not see the mythical Peng Lai Island of the celestial immortals (Xian) as I had initially thought. And the Chinese character for the first name of the island differs from that of a friend (Peng). Therefore the W/B translation is correct.

But that is not what this short discussion is about.

This discussion is something about true or special friends that come to help in the midst of the greatest obstructions.

For deep thinkers and cultivators, does this ninth in the fifth place of Jian have anything to do with Tao?

Cheerio!

Quieten your mind

Those who meditate often find that arising thoughts tend to disrupt their every effort to quickly reach a tranquil and quiet state of mind for meditation. The more they try to stop them, the more, thoughts will arise.

To quieten the mind, so to speak, is a basic and fundamental requisite for a fruitful meditation no matter what level we are at, or try to achieve.

Therefore let us turn to a real master of neidan, Lu Dongbin, a renowned Quanzhen celestial immortal, no less for the relevant advice on how to quieten the mind:

“Only one must not stay sitting rigidly if worldly thoughts come up, but one must examine where the thought is, where it began, and where it fades out.

Nothing is gained by pushing reflection further. One must be content to see where the thought arose, and not seek beyond the point of origin; for to find the heart (consciousness, to get behind consciousness with consciousness), that cannot be done.

Together we want to bring the states of the heart to rest, that is true contemplation. What contradicts it is false contemplation. That leads to no goal.

When the flight of thoughts keeps extending further, one should stop and begin contemplating."

[The Secret of the Golden Flower translated by Wilhelm / Baynes]