Download PDF - Yang-Sheng

About the eternal Dao, the Book of the Dao and Its Virtue says:
Look at it and do not see it: we call it invisible.
Listen to it and do not hear it: we call it inaudible.
Touch it and do not feel it: we call it subtle. . . .
Infinite and boundless, it cannot be named;
It belongs to where there are no beings.
It may be called the shape of no‐shape,
It may be called the form of no‐form.
Call it vague and obscure.
Meet it, yet you cannot see its head,
Follow it, yet you cannot see its back. (ch. 14)
This Dao, although the ground and inherent power of the human being, is entirely beyond ordinary perception. It is
so vague and obscure, so subtle and so potent, that it is beyond all knowing and analysis; we cannot grasp it however
hard we try. The human body, senses, and intellect are simply not equipped to deal with this Dao. The only way a person
can ever get in touch with it is by forgetting and transcending ordinary human faculties, by becoming subtler, finer, and
more potent, more like the Dao itself.
The Dao at the periphery, on the other hand, is characterized as the give and take of various pairs of complementary
opposites, as the natural ebb and flow of things as they rise and fall, come and go, grow and decline, emerge and die.
The Book of the Dao and Its Virtue says:
To contract, there must first be expansion.
To weaken, there must first be strengthening.
To destroy, there must first be promotion.
To grasp, there must first be giving.
This is called the subtle pattern. (ch. 36)
Things develop in alternating movements as long as they live. It is the nature of life to be in constant motion. It is
the nature of things to always move in one direction or the other, up or down, toward lightness or heaviness, brightness
or darkness. Nature is a continuous flow of becoming, whether latent or manifest, described as the alternation of
complementary characteristics and directions that cannot exist without each other. This becoming can be rhythmic and
circular or it can move back toward the source of life in the ineffable Dao, which at the same time is a forward
movement toward a new level of cosmic oneness
In this larger cosmic vision, healing and longevity involve either the recovery or the maintenance of harmony with
the visible and tangible patterns of the Dao, while spiritual attainments of enlightenment and immortality mean the
overcoming of the natural cycles and the ultimate return to the Dao at the center of creation, the uncreated void at the
base of all. The practice of Qigong and gymnastics can serve all three, supplementing, enhancing, or transforming the Qi
that makes up both the body and the universe.
Seen in terms of the body’s Qi, the three levels of practice involve different scenarios and trajectories of Qi
management. As is well known, the body consists of two forms of Qi: a basic primordial or prenatal Qi that connects it
to the cosmos and the Dao; and a secondary, earthly or postnatal Qi that is replenished by breath, food, and interaction
with objects and people and helps the body survive in everyday life. Both forms of Qi are necessary and interact
constantly with each other, so that primordial Qi is lost as and when earthly Qi is insufficient, and earthly Qi becomes
superfluous as and when primordial Qi is complete (as in the case of the embryo in the womb). People, once born, start
this interchange of the two dimensions of Qi and soon begin to lose their primordial Qi, especially through interaction
with the world on the basis of passions and desires, sensory exchanges, and intellectual distinctions—the very same
features considered most harmful for cosmic interaction in the classical texts.
16 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) Volume 2, Issue No. 1