Last week we briefly explored a couple of translations of verse ten of the Tao Te Ching. Here's a more extended commentary on the same verse, which suggests, in various ways, an integration of Congenital Nature and Life Force, which have a way -- once we're born into human form -- of playing hide-and-seek with each other, until we make some kind of effort or surrender in the direction of re-membering their original unity.
What are your experiences with this kind of practice?
I have heard of the life force part the practice, but not the other.
It seems like the life force energy is over abundant with me sometimes. What is meant by the conciousness of the practice?
“What is meant by the conciousness of the practice?”
Hi Steven,
Yes, this is a good question, and the answer pretty much depends upon how the terms are defined. In Hu Xuezhi’s translation & commentary of verse ten of the Tao Te Ching — which is the focus of this post — he uses various terms to (from what I can tell) point to the same thing: Congenital Nature, Congenital mind-will, Congenital Shen. Oscar Hsu uses the term Consciousness.
The basic idea is that we can think of human beings as being composed of two basic “substances”: one that is “pre-natal” — i.e. somehow transcending a specific bodymind form — and one that is “post-natal” — i.e. the product of particular bodymind experience.
Once we incarnate, the pre-natal aspect takes up residence in middle dantian (heart-center) and/or our upper dantian (center of the head); while the post-natal aspect takes up residence in the lower dantian (kidney-center).
The “problem” — from a qigong perspective — is that the two aspects of ourselves have ceased to be in conscious communication with one another. The goal of qigong practice, then, is to re-establish this communication — so that the personal and transpersonal aspects can arise, moment by moment, in a way that is non-dual.
This is a process that can be approached both at the level of mind and at the level of energy. It’s described using all kinds of different metaphors (which support us in accessing the cognitive & energetic transformations) — so can be rather confusing, with all the various terms.
I certainly haven’t figured it out completely, myself — and feel that the support of a flesh-and-blood teacher is necessary for most, to begin to access the non-conceptual experience of this kind of re-union.
Life on a daily basis is definately differant, when you choose to do your qigong or taichi or mediatation on your own. I definately, felt that when i was with an instructor and classmates, everything lasted longer. Maybe, I put more time into the excercises; I have not kept track. But, when i spend time with others, it is almost like more energy as group is generated. Maybe, this energy is shared between all the practicioners. I definately do not get the same benefits i did when i went to class. There are so many things to weigh in, living in a large metro area. I do not get to choose my classmates, or anything else. Sometimes, I think i would not even suggest learning qigong or taichi, in a metro area. It is not the same as in china. Maybe i should think it is like learning taichi in a garbage dump, no?
Not very pleasant, like it should be.
thanks for the comments. My experience with qigong is that due to difficulty to find a master, have always practised by myself and in the course of my slow development, have sometimes felt the energy merging from outside to inside, a feeling of connection to the outer yet warm on the inner. I don’t know if this means anything and I always “pretend” to be meditating when I do qi gong, ie have an attitude of “no mind”, being consciously unaware or unconsciously aware.