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Chapter 9: Fusion as a Bridge
Here’s what distinguishes the Taoist vision from most others:
enlightenment is not understood as a process which happens “in
the mind”, in separation from the body, but the process takes place
in and through the body and its progressive transformation.
Thus a true process of spiritual growth in the Taoist vision implies
the “enlightenment” of the body. The progression process of
illumination is a bodily process, visible to the eye and tangible in
the quality of energy which a person manifests and radiates in her/
his body. This emphasis on transformation as a bodily process is
a principal characteristic of the Taoist tradition. In that respect it
differs from other ones, marked by the duality of body and mind
and in which the body is viewed as a stumbling block; a hindrance.
This also explains the Taoist insistence on the central importance
on rooting and grounding the body in the process of selftransformation.
The more one advances in the higher practices,
the greater the need to root and ground so that the energies in the
body remain in balance. Equally important is centering; the balance
between heaven and earth, the energies from above and below
are maintained and enhanced.
It is precisely for this reason Taoist practice gives the highest
priority to the creation of a healthy and strong body through a healthy
and relaxed life style and an intelligent natural diet thanks to which
the body can continuously regenerate and rejuvenate itself.
These insights had their basis in a new view on the nature of
electromagnetic waves as particular forms of energy and in the
insight that light is an electromagnetic field which takes on the form
of waves which can travel through empty space as very light vibrations,
also called ether. This energy is seen, in both the Chinese
and Indian cosmologies, as the mother energy from which the other
elements originate and of which the universe, the cosmos and
nature are composed: fire and water, wood and metal and water.
In the Taoist system, these elements correspond to the five seasons,
temperatures, senses, colors, sounds and positive and negative
emotions. They form the theoretical and practical starting point
for the Fusion Practices.
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