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saliva while chanting invocations to the original Qi of the
four cardinal directions. Then adepts face the direction in
question, usually beginning with the east, and in their minds
visualize the Qi of that direction in its appropriate color. A
general mist in the beginning, it gradually forms into a ball,
sort of like the rising sun, then through further
concentration shrinks in size and is made to come close to
the adept. Eventually the size of a pill, the sprout can be
swallowed and guided mentally to the organ of its
correspondence. A suitable incantation places it firmly in its
new receptacle, and gradually the adept's body becomes
infused with cosmic energy and partakes more actively of
the cosmos as a whole.
The sprouts, as Isabelle Robinet points out, are
originally the “germinal essences of the clouds” or “mist.”
They represent the yin principle of heaven—that is, the yin
within the yang. They manifest in human saliva, again a yin
element in the upper, yang, part of the body. They help to
nourish and strengthen the five inner organs. A Highest
Clarity scripture known as On the Code of the Dao
(Daodian lun) explains that they are very tender,
comparable to the fresh sprouts of plants, and that they
assemble at dawn in the celestial capital, from where they
spread all over the universe until the sun begins to shine.
Turning like the wheels of a carriage, they ascend to the
gates of the nine heavens, from where they continue to the
medium level of the world—to the five sacred mountains
ruled over by the five emperors of the five directions—and
finally descend into the individual adept. They thus pass
through the three major levels of the cosmos (Robinet 1989,
166).
The virtue of these sprouts is twofold. They are
“emanations of the highest poles” and as such full of the
power of far-off regions, the fringes of civilization where
the Dao resides in a rawer state. At the same time, they are
“tender like freshly sprouted plants” and as such contain the
entire potential of being in its nascent state. This growth
potential, the small and imperceptible Qi in a state of pure
becoming, is the main objective for the Daoist practitioner.
“Sprouting” means inherent creation, purity, newness,
return to youth. It also implies the prevalence of the soft
over the hard and the power of yin over yang that Laozi
describes in the Daode jing . Here yin is represented by the
saliva that adepts absorb. The practice is undertaken at
dawn, the time when everything awakens to life, yet another symbol of creative, unstructured potential. By ingesting the
sprouts, the Daoist partakes of the inherent power of celestial bodies and feeds on the pure creative energy of the
universe its most subtle form. It is thus not surprising that the absorption of the sprouts is also used as a preparatory
practice for the “abstention from grains.” By and by the sprout intake replaces adepts regular nourishment and allows
them to identify with the germinal energy of the sprouts. They thus can become lighter and freer, appear and disappear at
will, overcome the limitations of this world, and attain immortality in the heavenly realms (Robinet 1993).
Another Daoist practice that has made its way into modern Qigong is inner observation or neiguan, the active,
conscious introspection of one’s body and mind. As documented in texts since the Tang dynasty, and in particular in the
January, 2012 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) 19