The Dao
Out of all the worlds’ religions, Daoism is probably the most mysterious and difficult to understand. Dao means the Way, and is said to be China’s original religious practice. Daoism tries to explain the natural laws of the Universe, physical and spiritual. It is said that China’s ancient immortals discovered, and could utilize these laws of the Universe, to miracle levels by realization of these Truths, learned in deep meditation. These laws of the Universe include all forms of energy, matter, time, space, and the cycles of life. Daoist teachings are said to be the wisdom of how to best live in the spiritual and material realms is the art of Life. Daoism tries to reduce the infinite different things in life to their simplest form. From the many to the few, and from the few into One. The spiritual and physical goal of Daoism is to connect to the Source of all Creation, to re-unite with the Origin and to Awaken to Reality.
Another constant in Daoism is that everything changes, but with certain predictability. The greatest and oldest Daoist text, the Yi-Jing (or I-Ching), which translates to ’the Book of Changes’, describes the cyclical changes which drive our world through the revolutions of time. The Yi-Jing is a book of wisdom which tells how the macro and micro cycles of Life revolve. The Yi-Jing describes layers of personal and societal changes on the surface, but its has also been recognized to reveal the knowledge of how the energies of the Universe operate, the Laws of the Universe. The balances and opposites of the world are constantly changing and shifting in and out of balance, and the Daoist goal is to help influence the system back towards balance. Daoism has many different ways to explain how creation is divided into smaller qualities, and the Book of Changes tells of 64 different degrees in the revolution of the wheel of Life, through symbols and analogies of common life examples like the family structure and the seasons of the year. The Yi-jing, once understood, also reveals different cycles of energy within and without the body. In the body the energy is described as stored and distributed by our organs and meridians. Once the symbology of the Yi-Jing is understood, these energies and our body systems can more easily be recognized and utilized.
Most everyone has seen the Chinese Daoist Yin-Yang, or Ba-gua, symbol represented by a circle containing white and black swirls, with smaller circles of opposite colors. This symbol captures the big picture meaning of the ever changing and dual nature throughout the Universe. The circle’s parameter line represents an individual ‘container‘ of an object, creation, creature, system, idea or any other individual thing. The black and white represents the inseparable duality and balances of qualities or aspects like; good and evil, hot and cold, light and dark. Everything in the Universe can be viewed as some sort of quality, with a relative counterpart, and unending lesser qualities within those main qualities. Daoism says that Nature wants these qualities to exist in balance and in their simplest form. In Daoist philosophy, there is no material existence without recognizing a spiritual aspect too. In the biggest picture, the circle represents the Universe and the black and white represent the material qualities uniting with the spiritual.
Every individual container in existence can be viewed as a system, sometimes holding a smaller system within, sometime part of a larger system. Our solar system is a container of the planets and their smaller systems, and our bodies hold our organs, organs old different fibers, and the fibers contain the cells. It is the balance of the smaller containers which balances the larger, and the larger tries to balance the smaller. There are different sized ‘containers’ which hold the different balances of yin and yang, but all containers are divided and naturally fluctuate in and out of balance, as described by the Yi-Jing. Our solar system is made of smaller container planets, and our planet is divided into ecosystems, and further into zones, but in the reverse, each individual division together makes up a larger system and a more complex container. The systems for larger and smaller containers go in infinite directions and are all inseparable from the picture of existence. This can be seen with the example of an individual ant as part of a larger colony, which then acts as a whole super system which can conquer most any environment. This philosophy is a fundamental reason why China’s population works so well as a whole. But imagine if humanity could work together and focused on the good, what kind of planet and future we could accomplish… It can never happen by the authority of a few.
The ‘container’ which holds the entire Universe’s entire changing phenomenon, is called by many religions God or the Universe, Daoism calls this super-ceding force the Shen, the Primordial Force. It is said tat Shen is so complex that it cannot be understood or observed by our feeble human minds. But, as these different energies decrease in size and completeness, as things divide further away from Shen, they appear in the world we can observe. The container of Shen has both a Yin-Yang duality to it, but is the most spiritual and least material level of existence. In the duality of the ‘spirit realm’ and the ‘material world’, Daoism tells us that it is the Spirit side which is the energy of all motion, or Yang, including our spirit soul within all of us.
The Yin side of existence is the dominantly physical aspect of reality, observed as the body, the earth, or any physical aspect. The spiritual goal of Daoism is to recognize and return balance to the Source of Creation. Unlike the intangible nature of Yang energy or the mostly Yin energy of inanimate objects, conscious creation is the perfect balance of the material and spiritual realm, and is regarded in many teaching to be the miracle of Life.
As Daoism degrades from Shen into lesser forms, there are three main levels of resolutions of the Yang, spirit or intangible world. Shen or Source is the largest resolution of existence which humans cannot comprehend, and is considered to be considered to be pure Spirit Consciousness. In the West, Shen might be compared to Dark Matter/Energy, a concept which humanity cannot measure, but we ‘know’ is there. Shen itself is said to be wholly self-existing, but according to Dao, it is because the Shen divides and then further divides into everything we can imagine.
The first division from the omnipotent Shen, and into the realm of material existence, is into Xi. Xi can be imagined in modern western terms to be similar to the energy world studied in physics and quantum mechanics at the greatest extremes, but in the non-physical spirit realm. Quantum mechanics with all of its divisions of nuclear, gravitational and electro-magnetic energies, are the building blocks of our physical world, but are clearly in a different resolution of matter and energy in everyday life. In Daoist tradition, Shen is almost wholly spirit and conscious, Xi is that pureness degrading into other forms and spinning the Universe into existence.
The second and last change of the Yang Spirit Realm, after Xi, is Jing. Jing, or Essence, can be imagined as the finer spirit-conscious energy of Xi degrading further into the material world, but still mostly Yang spirit energy. Jing can be imagined as the atoms of the spirit realm, which modern science still does not understand its motion. In western physics, this can be imagined by the way that an electron has seemingly random possibilities in tests like the double-slit experiment, which shows that electrons behave in very different ways when exposed to our conscious observance. Does this imply that our observations have physical power to enable electrons have a consciousness, which can choose direction/form?
Shen, Xi and Jing are on the ‘spirit realm’ side of Yin-Yang, the spirit side being Yang. The material side of existence is Yin, and represents the receptive vehicle for the Yang to express its energy. This Yin-Yang and spiritual-material existence is unbreakable and does not exist one without the other, and balance determines the results of stability. This ideas is in many religions and practiced around the worlds by bowing down to the Earth in respect and praying up to Father Sky for answers.
On the Yin side of material existence, there is a corresponding hierarchy of energy levels like Shen, Xi and Jing, but are in our physical world. For the animate material world, these energies are in a reverse order, starting with the simplest level of Jing. The Yin material side the body starts again with Jing, but the actual physical sense. Our Yin-Jing is the energy we are born with, often translated as ‘mortal energy’. The Jing of the Yang Spirit, before it becomes Yin-Jing of physical energy is called our primordial energy. Our Essence were Jing and Jing meet is the crux were the Yin and Yang dimensions collide into existence, and is the energy we are born with and can be related to our body’s metabolism or natural energy level. People born with high natural energy are said to have a lot of Jing.
The familiar energy term, Chi is the next level of energy in our body and the physical world in general. Chi is more complex and physically tangible part of our bodies, and comes from converting the air we breathe and the food we ingest as our daily energy supply. The quality of Chi in the things we consume result in the quality of Chi in our body.
The third or highest level of energy in our bodies in the Yin dimension is the Shen. Shen is considered the mental strength we create with our thoughts, which effects reality. Shen is the functions and complex body processes, the chemical reactions and multitude interactions between the brain, nervous, organ and endocrine systems. Our Jing and Chi feed or mental Shen.
The Dao is a fundamental concept for all of China’s martial arts. They study and meditate on the Dao to strengthening the body and to utilizing the Universal energies in and without our body. The training and focus is to understand, then gain and maintain these energies, to use in daily life. the higher goal of Daoism is to observe and follow the energies to get closer to the Source of All, Yang-Shen. In the natural cycle of these energies, our Jing facilitates the absorption of the Chi, which combines to strengthen our Shen. The goal of Daoist meditation and spiritual practice is to utilize these energies for our total spiritual, physical and emotional balance and wellbeing.
Neidan is China’s esoteric art of inner alchemy. The practice transforms these energies to work backwards. It uses our mental Shen to work with our Chi, to strengthen our Jing (prenatal mortality). Our prenatal Jing reverts back to the Jing of the spirit realm, then back to Xi, and finally realizing original Shen. The final goal is to feel, differentiate, strengthen and then utilize all of the energies. It is said that with this reversal, we physically turn on our body’s superpower with the super-juice of all our hormones, which is called the golden Elixir. With this realization we reunite our consciousness back with the original Shen, and become Immortal Beings.
These energies of heaven and earth, or Yin and Yang are not well recognized by western traditions, but can be seen in our environment, our health, and our attitudes. When the systems of our body, environment, society, or world are out of balance, then our consciousness tells us through our emotions. Our emotions are controlled by our endocrine system. Once our emotions are understood, we can adjust our attitudes and emotions to control our glands and organs. Most of our bodies are filled with stress, which if left untreated becomes the cause of most disease.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, most illness is attributed to stagnated blood and Chi, caused by injury or disease; spiritual, physical or mental. Stagnated blood is a symptom of stagnated energy, and an out of balance mind, body, and soul which can only be cured by balancing all three. When the blood does not flow strong enough to carry the blood and oxygen to each cell in our bodies, then things get bad. If there is stagnation and oxygen doesn’t react the cells, the cells starts to make energy without oxygen, or anaerobically. The anaerobic process burns sugars instead of oxygen and then excretes lactic acid which causes more inflammation, starving more cells of oxygen.
Massage and exercise feel so good and works so well because rubbing the muscles pushes new blood into stagnant tissue. With energy work like Reiki, stagnate energy is being replaced with the other persons new energies as well. For self-healing if you watch the breath during exercise, you can regulate the oxygen flow to force the body to perform better. The same physical effect as using ice on an injury, were the ice constricts the blood vessels, squeezing the lactic acid from inflammation, and lets new fresh blood into the cells. All of the physical practices are to correct the balance of Yin Yang in the blood.
The earth is Yin, but conceived from the celestial energy Yang. She provides the ‘material’ substance for the world’s creations. The heaven’s energy, provide the Yang ‘spirit’ or conscious spirit energy, which provides the invisible spark of life and sets the physical Yin world in motion. These energies work in unexplainable ways, with the Yin Yang forces of Shen, Xi, and Jing overlapping, and those same forces emitted from every other object… Quantum entanglement is the effects of these energies bound to each other in an interconnectedness that all emanates from Shen.
At each level of Shen there are Yin and Yang energies, each being the inverse of the other, and similar to electrical and magnetic energy forces. When an electric current is in motion, there is a very weak magnetic force radiating outwards from that electrical flow. That magnetic force is inseparable from the electric and vice versa. Tesla created electricity by capturing the minute electrical energy radiating from the Earth’s magnetosphere. So, with six changes of Shen, each having Yin and Yang, there are 12 major energy forces which are the wheelwork of the Universe.
In the Yi Jing (Book of Changes), a major component to the system is the energy cycle of Yin turn into Yang and vice versa. Very little is said about these changes except in the Yi Jing, but the study of the hexagrams and the reading of images stacked on top of each other, have been used to understand how the Yin and Yang energies decayed from old new to old, and then reborn as the other. In mediation, the energies are tied in with the inhale and exhaust of our breath, and the expansion and contraction of our internal systems. The energy is always flowing, but is too difficult to feel unless your attention is very sharp. But, if the body is let loose from the mind to act naturally, and the mind is surrendered to observe without influencing the body, then the mind can follow the body’s lead to feel how the energies flow.
The changes that both the Yin Yang energies transform is from as new into old, and then reformed into the opposite as new again. All of these energies are all simultaneously in constant change and rebirth and radiating from and into every object in the Universe. In every creature, with each systolic beat of the heart, the consciousness body systems transform each form of energy in the four cycle engine of Life. Each creature is basically an antenna and generator which channels and transforms the new in to old and old recreated into the new opposite.
Everything in the universe is the center of the universe; from the point of how quantum conscious energy which affects the Universe with the energies we radiate or encounter. Consciousness is receiving and expelling these energies from each individual point of view/ consciousness, which is why it appears that the entire universe is expanding. It only depends on which side you observe it, as to which way the energy is flowing. At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about the Great Banyan Tree, which is an analogy to utilizing the energies of yin and yang. The Yi-Jing and Dao De Jing explain all principals of this Yin/Yang cycle within life, civilizations, relationships, and our growth as souls. They are truly an oracle and guide to perfection. Some of China’s greatest philosophers spent their lifetimes studying these principles of Life. Daily study of the Dao can answer many questions about our lives and Life around us. Possibly, the mysteries of the Universe can be understood. In Chi Gong, Tai Chi, Nei Kung and other techniques, we can harness these two energies to stimulate our bodies, matter and time in ‘super-natural’ ways. It is this spirit energy that connects us together.
Basically, to heal yourself you receive and utilize the old Yin and Yang energies carries and transform it into new Yin and Yang. Good air in / bad air out type of thing. The old and new Yin and Yang we receive and utilize with our bodies is similar to energy stored in a battery. The breathing cycle expands and contracts our organs, exciting and strengthening those bodily processes. With the proper skills, the forces of Yin and Yang can be stored in our dantian and utilized to activate the chakras, and much much more. These two energies working cooperatively together is the wheelwork generator of energy Nikola Tesla talked about. When these energies are controlled with breathing, we can utilize them for health, increasing our skills, and connecting to the spirit realm. With practice we can store both of these energies to utilize in times of excess or exhaustion. If our bodies are physically tired, we can use stored yang energy, and strengthen our yin to absorb the stress of effort along the Way. Or, if we are too hyper then we can meditate to release Yang energy, by opening the Yin. Or strengthen the Yin energy to handle the tough Yang energy work. It is the secret to balancing our Shen and Jing and can only be discovered by quiet meditation.
