Daoist Methods of Dissolving the Heart-Mind

March 28-29 in Asheville, N.C.

Fusion 1: Cultivating “Original Feeling” in the Emotional Body. This is the beginning of the true inner alchemy work. Register with my office: Jan Gillespie healingtaousa@bellsouth.net  or call 888 999 0555

Topics covered:

Emotional alchemy ? science of changing your feelings.
Take charge of your psychic inner weather.
Clear & center feelings with a body-centered process.
Fusion meditation = “Taoist Depth Psychology”.

? Transmute negative emotions into positive feelings
? Talk with your 5 vital organ intelligences
? Fuse your soul essences into a radiant Pearl
? Spiral Love in Creation Cycle Qigong
? Cultivate virtue, hidden power of your True Self.

Meet your 5 Organ Spirits
What causes Resistance?
Nature of our Dark Side
Dissolve Negative Emotions
Fuse Soul Essences into One
Secret of Cultivating Virtue
Spiral Love Creation Cycle qigong

Prerequisite: Qigong Fundamentals 1&2, live or homestudy course.

for more information on Fusion of the Five Elements: https://healingtaousa.com/fusion1.html

April 3 & 4: Inner Smile (evening 7-10 pm ) and Primordial Qigong (day long April 4 from 10a – 5:30 pm). NY Open Center 212 219-2527

for more information on this amazing form, visit www.taichi-enlightenment.com

It’s not too late to catch the China Dream Trip
2009. We had two more signups in the last week, and there may be a few
other last minute China dreamers out there.

Visit www.healingdao.com/chinatrip2009.html for
full itinerary at Tao Garden with Mantak Chia Pole Star training, two
fabulous qigong forms to practice in sacred mountains, and visits to
ancient Tao temples in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. A fabulous group of
Taoist adventurers has gathered, and you are welcome to join them!

Extended payment financing at no interest is available for those who need it.

There are 25 Amazing Tao summer retreats awaiting you at www.HealingTaoRetreats.com

As I wrote in my essay in the last newsletter, each retreat is a
potential peak experience waiting to happen: the right people, in the
right place, at the right time. That’s the spontaneous alchemy of the
Tao.

Register before April 15 with only a $100 deposit and get a free
bonus $45. DVD (at time you arrive at the retreat). Refer a friend who
hasn’t attended before and get a $50. credit for yourself at any retreat
or any of Michael Winn online products.

Contact registrar Tynne Clifford at 828-450-8521 (mobile) or email: retreats@healingtaousa.com with questions. But read the website first, you may find your question already answered.

On Monday evening April 6, from 9 to 10 pm EST,
you may call in with questions at (347) 327-9635 during the show in
which I am interviewed about the secrets of qigong and inner alchemy, by
host Lama Tantrapa.

www.blogtalkradio.com/qigongmasters  is the web address to listen in on.
listen
to the show live or later download it for enjoyment – from the databank
of interviews with other qigong masters. Last month it was Ken Cohen;
there are many others that may be of interest to my readers.

Lama, the show host, is a family lineage holder of a Tibetan style of
qigong he calls Qi Dao. There is information about this style on his
blog site.

For a digital copy of JDS 2009, it is only $12. For a hard copy it’s $26.50.

To order, please visit Livia Kohn’s site: www.threepinespress.com/journal/index.shtml

I think Livia’s books give the best contemporary overview of Taoism,
which is why I am selling most of her other titles on my site at www.healingtaousa.com/toptaoismbooks.html. I still have a few extra bonus copies of her Health and Long Life, which you get for free if you order any of her other books (excluding the latest release Internal Alchemy).

Livia is also sponsoring a High Mountain Dao retreat Sept. 12-19, 2009 in Magdalena, NM. For more information, please email liviakohn@gmail.com

— Table of Contents of Journal of Daoist Studies 2009

Articles
Taehyun Kim,    “Reading Zhuangzi Eco-Philosphically”
Shawn Arthur,   “Eating Your Way to Immortality: Early Daoist Self-Cultivation Diets”
Louis Komjathy, “Mapping the Daoist Body (2): The Text of the Neijing tu ”
Volker Olles,      “Lord Lao’s Mountain: From Celestial Master Daoism to Contemporary Daoist Practice”
Wan-li Ho,          “Daoist Nuns in Taiwan: A Case Study of the Daode yuan”

Forum on Contemporary Practice
Brian L. Kennedy, & Elizabeth Nai-Jia Guo,  “Taiwanese Daoist Temple Parades and their Martial Motifs”
Yang Lizhi, Todd Stoll, & Chen Mei,    “Mt. Wudang and Daoism”
Charlotte Furth,                                  “Exploring Daoist Women’s Meditation”
Michael
Winn,                                    “Daoist Methods of Dissolving
the Heart-Mind”                   Harrizon
Moretz,                                 “The Dao Is Not For Sale”

News of the Field
Publications, Research Projects, Dissertations, Conferences, Web Resources, Science on Qi

Facilitators:
Russell Kirkland, Livia Kohn, Ronnie Littlejohn

Editorial Board:
Shawn Arthur, Friederike
Assandri, Stephan-Peter Bumbacher, Suzanne Cahill, Alan Chan, Yi Hsiang
Chang, Shin-yi Chao, Chen Xia, Kenneth Cohen, Donald Davis, Catherine
Despeux, Jeffrey Dippmann, Ute Engelhardt, Stephen Eskildsen, Norman
Girardot, Jonathan Herman, Dominique Hertzer, Adeline Herrou, Jiang
Sheng, Paul Katz, Sung-Hae Kim, Russell Kirkland, Terry Kleeman, Louis
Komjathy, Liu Xun, Lu Xichen, Victor Mair, Mei Li, James Miller,
Harrison Moretz, Mori Yuria, David Palmer, Fabrizio Pregadio, Michael
Puett, Harold Roth, Robert Santee, Elijah Siegler, Edward Slingerland,
Julius Tsai, Robin Wang, Michael Winn, Yang Lizhi, Robin Yates, Yen
Hsueh-Cheng, Zhang Guangbao, Zhang Qin

by Michael Winn

I smash up my limbs and body, drive out perception
and intellect, cast off form, do away with understanding, and make
myself identical with the Great Thoroughfare.   — Zhuangzi 6

In the Daoist tradition, there are medical, martial, and spiritual
ap-proaches to dealing with imbalances arising in the heart-mind (xin).
The Chinese notion of heart-mind is roughly equivalent to what new age
Westerners call the body-mind, implying an integrated continuum between
the two. This is opposed to purely psychological mainstream Western
notions of mind, ego or personality which tend to separate thinking and
feeling functions of mind from what are considered autonomic
body-sensory perceptions.

Broadly speaking, these methods have in common that they
involve a process of dissolving resistance to change in the heart-mind.
This commonality of dissolving is matched by a great divergence as to
how far the dissolving process goes, and the degree of personal will or
sagely intention that is cultivated in order to shape the qi-field
afterwards or even while imbalances in the heart-mind are being
dissolved.

I offer a quick survey of some Daoist approaches to the heart-mind
that have become popular in the West. These include standing and moving
qigong (subtle breath skill); neigong (inner mind skill) meditation
techniques such as the Inner Smile and zuowang (sitting and forgetting);
and neidangong (elixir skill) inner alchemy methods.

What does it mean to dissolve the heart-mind, and why would
Daoists even want to do that? The simplest answer is that the heart-mind
has become rigid or dysfunctional in some way, and this obstructs the
free flow of qi within the individual. In the medical model of
dissolving the stuck patterns using acupuncture, herbs, or massage, the
qi can flow more easily, improving both mental and physical health. In
the martial model, repeated training of the heart-mind using movement
supports the qi to be expressed more powerfully in relation to others.

In the spiritual model, excess fixity of the heart-mind may
obstruct the unfolding of ones spiritual essence or moral power (de).
Heart-mind rigidity prevents exchange of qibetween the individual as
microcosm and the collective macrocosm of Nature and Humanity. Zhuangzi
advocates getting rid of the mind of everyday life (sheng zhi xin) in
order to fly on the wings of the Dao. So dissolving the heart-mind
allows spontaneous change to happen between the individual and the
environment. The dissolving process is a spiritual prerequisite to
cultivating a wu wei attitude of openness that promotes effortless
change, a fundamental value of Daoists.

In qigong (including taiji quan and other internal arts), body
movement and breath lead the process. Moving qigong is the most
comfortable for Westerners, as its dynamic approach satisfies their need
to do something with their mind at the same time their bodily energies
are being productively directed. As a teacher, I have found qigong
movement and breathing practices to be the quickest and most effective
way to tame the monkey mind, i.e., any mind that is easily distracted or
fragmented. People who claim they are unable to meditate find
themselves moving spontaneously into a space of tranquility and
stillness after practicing qigong.

In most moving qigong there is no direct focus or intention to
dissolve the heart-mind, it just happens after the mind achieves a deep
entrainment with body movement and regulated breathing. The resultant
benefits to both physical health and psychological health have been well
documented in thousands of scientific studies.

Standing forms of qigong are more challenging, as the mind is
forced to wait in stillness and give up its impatience to physically
move, while it is simultaneously challenged by gravity. What happens
eventually is the qi within the vertically aligned body begins to create
micro-movements between the poles of Heaven and Earth. This produces an
energetic detoxifying effect that gradually intensifies and breaks up
old heart-mind patterns. Standing still also allows the ordinary mind to
observe and release tension within the layers of the body’s vital organ
and muscular-skeletal structure, which in busy everyday life it would
not do.

Dissolving-while-standing has been a central focus of both
Daoist schools in the West (Frantzis 1992) and Buddhist schools of
qigong such as Zhangzhuan. Even this school incorporates Daoist channel
theory. At higher levels of practice, it goes far beyond standing
empty-minded, using the vertical stance to absorb qi from the earth into
the heels, which is then circulated in the Microcosmic Orbit. The
historicity of this practice dates back to Laozi: The Sage breathes
through his heels. The standing method of dissolving is also useful in
resolving ancestral issues stored in the bone marrow and blood. In
Chinese theory, many heart-mind imbalances may in reality be ancestors
seeking expression and completion. (Winn 2003)

Daoist meditation methods (neigong) often employ a more focused
intention than qigong to dissolve the emotions, mental projections,
judgments, and habitual or forced perceptions of the heart-mind. One of
the most popular and powerful methods to take root in the West is the
Inner Smile, transmitted in the 20th century by One Cloud, a Daoist
hermit on Long White Mountain in northeast China, through Mantak Chia.

The Inner Smile is the meditative heart-glue that binds together One
Clouds Seven Formulas for Immortality. Each formula begins and ends with
the spontaneous practice of the Inner Smile. It is the default wuwei
practice of utter simplicity.

The Inner Smile is based on the Daoist principle that the very
density and resistance of the ordinary heart-mind provides an authentic
ground for immortality. This is another way of saying that within human
suffering and resistance to change is hidden a gift – the spiritual
essence of its own salvation. The Inner Smile is a method for uncovering
that gift. The outer smile suggests the Chinese notion of face that one
shows the world to control it. Thus the smiling face of the ordinary
heart-mind tends to be reactive to or manipulative of people and
situations.

The Inner Smile is a method of dissolving this false outer layer
of the heart-mind and opening the spontaneous spiritual joy of the
inner heart (ling), perhaps best translated as soul. Ling is frequently
mentioned in the Laozi text of the 5th century bce. The Inner Smile
dissolves the conditional heart-mind patterns so they do not interfere
with the soul expressing its will. In this way, it allows ones destiny
to be more effortlessly completed. Inner Smile helps induce a state
where you forget the little self, and gradually dissolve the dense
physical body into the qi-field, where it functions as a more expanded
energy body, the higher vessel for expressing the ling.

Inner Smiling is a simple and practical method of cultivating
Daoist tong, defined as a state of unconditional openness and
all-pervading great spirit (dashen). By smiling to and accepting every
aspect of self unconditionally, all polarized perceptions of self simply
disappear. The boundary between self and other gradually dissolves. A
sense of peace and unity spontaneously arises, by opening perception of
the deeper non-dual consciousness underlying all yin-yang creative
tension.

Inner Smile was originally taught only with a yin phase,
systematically focusing heart-centered unconditional acceptance on the
brain, spine, three elixir fields (dantian), five vital organs, their
qi-channels, and all other physical tissues (Chia 1985) One first allows
a seed feeling of acceptance to effortlessly penetrate as a gentle,
loving and warm radiance into ones biology (the underlying jing). The
blood, bones, skin, and spine are all infused with the Inner Smile until
they begin to pulsate as one. This radiant feeling is then spread to
the vital organ spirits (jingshen), which in turn control the channels
of qi-flow and psychology.

In my own teaching I began adding a yang phase, i.e., reversing
direction, and radiating from the heart a smiling wave beyond the body.
(Winn 2003) This yang version of the Inner Smiles embraces everything
outside the body, layer by layer: ones aura, the room, ones family,
village, one’s enemies, the country; the planets, moon, sun, stars, and
the blackness beyond. Smiling outwardly to ones community and natural
world offers a context for unconditionally accepting ones worldly
destiny. The adept then flips this perspective, reversing again the
direction of the flow of acceptance, smiling through layers of the outer
world back into the physical body. Finally this smiling wave dissolves
back into the pre-natal formless sea of qi in the dantian.

The Inner Smile is a simple basic practice, easily learned by
anyone. While smiling itself is effortless and natural, the Inner Smile
takes a lot of practice for the heart-mind to stay present at higher
levels of cosmic qi that emerge once the heart mind is dissolved into
the larger field of qi.

The historical origins of the Inner Smile are not clear, as it
was transmitted from a mountain lineage of wandering Daoist hermits. It
may be an evolution or variation of sitting in forgetfulness (zuowang),
the Daoist practice of emptying or fasting the heart-mind.

Unlike the Inner Smile, which employs a positive embrace to dissolve
fixed perception, zuowang initially employs a negative method in the
sense of releasing what is unwanted. The main difference is the Inner
Smile stays heart-centered, whereas zuowang does not use ongoing
heart-focus. The phrase fasting the heart-mind was made famous by
Zhuangzi in 2nd century B.C.E. and later popularized by Sima Chengzhens
classic Zuowang lun in the 8th-century (Kohn 1987). Today zuowang’s
“sitting in forgetfulness survives as a staple of modern Chinese Daoist
meditators and their acolytes in the West (Rinaldini 2008; Phillips
2008).

Zuowang practice helps the adept to surrender to the impersonal
qi-field of heaven and earth. But it does not necessarily integrate
human heartedness. Zuowang likely inspired Chan Buddhist sitting in
emptiness, which can feel a bit cold, too mental or impersonal for some
Westerners. Yet Daoist zuowang differs from Chan methods and their
Japanese Zen Buddhist offspring in that attaining absolute emptiness is
not the goal.

In zuowang the emphasis is more on process, on cultivating
spontaneity and openness to ever-changing currents of the qi-field. The
dissolving of the heart-mind is achieved by allowing each thought,
feeling or sensation to manifest without resistance, and then surrender
it to the larger flow of the qi-field to be creatively transformed.
Eventually an unperturbed yet engaged state of mind is achieved. So
zuowang ultimately shifts from release of the negative to a positive
embrace of spontaneity and wu wei.

Robinet astutely points out in her preface to Kohns translation
of the Zuowang lun that the process goes beyond qigong, which grants
only longevity. Zuowang is a method of salvation, and as such is
actually preparatory for higher alchemy practice. Zuowang is a double
dissolving, first of the contents of the heart-mind and then of the
minds method of dissolving itself. She first quotes Sima Chengzhen:

Zuowang means to forget the myriad projections, it
consists in cutting out all delusions and firmly fixating ones mind.
Once the mind is firmly fixated, there is nothing beneath it but the
One, and nothing above it but emptiness. It will never stir, even when
it is shaken.

  At this stage, [Sima] adds, one is not yet
delivered from yin and yang, rather one must take recourse to gold and
cinnabart alchemy to finally become free by means of the transformation
of wings. Here we find an affirmation of the superiority of alchemy. . .
over the meditation and absence of thought, i.e., over the meditations
informed by Buddhism.(Kohn 1987,14)

How can inner alchemy dissolve the fundamental yin-yang force that
controls the heart-mind, and re-shape it? This brings us to our final
model of dissolving the heart-mind using inner alchemy. That Daoists had
a sophisticated model of the mind in the 6th century bce – before the
Daodejing was written – has been well established by analysis of early
texts such as the Internal Training scripture or Nei Ye (Roth 1991,
1999). These early Daoists were well aware of the jing, qi, and shen
aspects of the heart-mind emptying and dissolving into each other. This
is the fundamental basis for the model of alchemical dissolving of the
heart mind that survives into the 21st century.

Later neidangong lineages, such as One Clouds Seven Formulas for
Attaining Immortality, claimed the secret of dissolving the heart-mind
was to accelerate transformation of the jing, qi, and shen by coupling
ever higher potencies of cosmic yin-yang forces. The adept uses these
polarities to capture the Original Breath (yuanqi) hidden within the
post-natal or physical qi-ield. For this, a vessel or dan is needed to
hold the higher vibration of the primordial yuanqi. The ordinary
heart-minds vibration is too slow and too polarized to hold such potent
primal force.

In the inner alchemy model, this is why the ling, or inner heart
essence, must be cultivated by the adept and imbued into the elixir or
dan. In Western terms, this is roughly equivalent to saying the soul of
the Sage is the true intermediary between Heaven and Humanity. The soul
or ling must be perfectly attuned to higher forces above it, forces
which must be smoothly communicated to the ordinary heart-mind
perceptions and decision-making process below it.

Both Chinese medicine and neidan theory map out these forces
below as the yin-yang and five phases qi-flow that regulate the
heart-mind. They are the vital organ orbs of the heart, spleen, lungs,
kid-neys, and liver and their partners the bowel spirits who comprise
the twelve officials. They behave much like real politicians and
bureaucrats. Collectively their job is to regulate the heart-mind, yet
paradoxically they embody the very patterns of resistance and corruption
that need to be dissolved when they block healthy change. But the
heart-mind lacks the will to completely dissolve itself. Thus the deeper
level of ling or soul must first be accessed. This view of the soul is
becoming in-creasingly popular with modern Daoist healers in the West
(Sha 2006).

In the Daoist alchemy model the human ability to concentrate qi
to dissolve obstructive patterns in itself doesnt require perfection or
absolute emptiness of mind in order to be successful. Dissolving is a
process, not an end goal or fixed state. The heart-mind needs enough
integrity to hold the center while absorbing higher cosmic forces, even
if it is not yet physically, morally or spiritually perfected. In fact
it may be the very flaws in the adepts heart-mind that guide the
alchemical method of internal refining that is most successful.

These imperfections and the suffering they cause may inspire the
adept to discover completely new ways to alchemically shape the
qi-field. This model of flawed humans becoming immortal is well depicted
in the Chinese legends surrounding the Eight Immortals. The flaws are
what make each Sage a unique and loveable individual rather than
spiritual clones of some borrowed ideal of absolute perfection or
emptiness that may not be attainable nor even desirable while in human
form.

The alchemical model integrates the souls unconditional
acceptance of its human imperfections with the heart-minds ability to
concentrate yin-yang forces. In One Clouds system, this allows the
dissolving power of the Inner Smile to become the most advanced
practice. When a sage or immortal merges the essence of their
concentrated heart-mind into the heart of the Dao, it signals they have
surrendered to a process of total service. They now smile on behalf of
the Dao, radiating a feeling of unconditional acceptance from the
primordial qi-field. This smiling radiates a neutral force that
lubricates the yin-yang qi flowing in all dimensions of Heaven, Earth,
Humanity, and personal heart-mind.

This is a merger of the sages personal heart-mind with the mind
of Dao. It implies that humanity’s highest destiny is to elevate Heaven
and Earth with its purity of heart and the unique human ability to feel
personal love/acceptance of the myriad beings. For Westerners, the Inner
Smiles heart-centeredness and unconditional openness offers a bridge
between Daoism and Christian teachings of unconditional love.

In this light, dissolving the heart-mind in all of the models
considered is not meant to get rid of the heart-mind, but to replace the
old patterns with a more expanded, all-embracing mode. The dissolving
process is designed to make the heart-mind pliable enough to respond to
the qi-field, thus empowering it to serve the Dao of Humanity in its
ceaseless creativity and self-exploration.

References

Chia, Mantak. 1991. Taoist Ways of Transforming Stress into Vitality. Huntington, NY: Healing Tao Books.

Frantzis, Bruce. 1993. Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body.Berkeley: North At-lantic Books.

Kohn, Livia. 1987. Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhens Zuowanglun. St. Augustin: Monumenta Serica Monographs.

Phillips, Scott P. 2008. Portrait of an American Daoist: Charles Belyea/Liu Ming. Journal of Daoist Studies 1:161-76.

Rinaldini, Michael. 2008. How I Became a Daoist Priest. JDS 1:181-87.

Roth, Harold D., 1991. “Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early
Taoistic Thought,” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 51:2:599-650.

_____. 1999. Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the
Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Press.

Sha, Zhi Gang. 2006. Soul Mind Body Medicine. New York: New World Library.

Winn, Michael. 1999. Way of the Inner Smile: Tao Path to Self-Acceptance and Peace. www.HealingTaoUSA.com

_____. 2003. Internal Chi Breathing and Bone Rooting. Qigong Fundamentals 3 &4.Home Study Course. www.healingtaousa.com/ckf3.html

May your Heart-Mind dissolve and re-appear as Soul,

Michael Winn

ox ox ox ox ox ox ox

“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change — is a
Sage.” — Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters

“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
— Taoist Sage, 200 B.C

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