Taoist meditation (, ), also spelled Daoist (), refers to the traditional meditative practices associated with the Chinese philosophy and religion of Taoism, including concentration, mindfulness, contemplation, and visualization. The earliest Chinese references to meditation date from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE).
Traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese martial arts have adapted certain Daoist meditative techniques. Some examples are Daoyin "guide and pull" breathing exercises, Neidan "internal alchemy" techniques, Neigong "internal skill" practices, Qigong breathing exercises, Zhan zhuang "standing like a post" techniques. The opposite direction of adoption has also taken place, when the martial art of Taijiquan, "great ultimate fist", became one of the practices of modern Daoist monks, while historically it was not among traditional techniques.
Terminology
The Chinese language has several keywords for Daoist meditation practices, some of which are difficult to translate accurately into English.
Types of meditation Livia Kohn distinguishes three basic types of Daoist meditation: "concentrative", "insight", and "visualization".
Ding literally means "decide; settle; stabilize; definite; firm; solid" and early scholars such as Xuanzang used it to translate Sanskrit samadhi "deep meditative contemplation" in Chinese Buddhist texts. In this sense, Kohn renders ding as "intent contemplation" or "perfect absorption". The Zuowanglun has a section called .
Guan basically means "look at (carefully); watch; observe; view; scrutinize" (and names the Yijing Hexagram 20 Guan "Viewing"). Guan became the Daoist technical term for "monastery; abbey", exemplified by Louguan "Tiered Abbey" temple, designating "Observation Tower", which was a major Daoist center from the 5th through 7th centuries (see Louguantai). Kohn says the word guan, "intimates the role of Daoist sacred sites as places of contact with celestial beings and observation of the stars". Tang dynasty (618–907) Daoist masters developed guan "observation" meditation from Tiantai Buddhist "cessation and insight" meditation, corresponding to śamatha-vipaśyanā – the two basic types of Buddhist meditation are samatha "calm abiding; stabilizing meditation" and vipassanā "clear observation; analysis". Kohn explains, "The two words indicate the two basic forms of Buddhist meditation: zhi is a concentrative exercise that achieves one-pointedness of mind or "cessation" of all thoughts and mental activities, while guan is a practice of open acceptance of sensory data, interpreted according to Buddhist doctrine as a form of "insight" or "wisdom". Guan meditators would seek to merge individual consciousness into emptiness and attain unity with the Dao.
Cun usually means "exist; be present; live; survive; remain", but has a sense of "to cause to exist; to make present" in the Daoist meditation technique, which both the Shangqing School and Lingbao Schools popularized. It thus means that the meditator, by an act of conscious concentration and focused intention, causes certain energies to be present in certain parts of the body or makes specific deities or scriptures appear before his or her mental eye. For this reason, the word is most commonly rendered "to visualize" or, as a noun, "visualization." Since, however, the basic meaning of cun is not just to see or be aware of but to be actually present, the translation "to actualize" or" actualization" may at times be correct if somewhat alien to the Western reader.
Other key words Within the above three types of Daoist meditation, some important practices are: was first recorded in the (c. 3rd century BCE) Zhuangzi. involves ding "concentrative meditation" on a single point or god within the body, and is associated with Daoist alchemical and longevity techniques. The author, Dr. and Master Zhi Gang Sha says shouyi means meditational focus on the a "golden light ball" in his own words.Zhi Gang Sha (2010), pp. 135, 257. is visualizing inside one's body and mind, including zangfu organs, inner deities, qi movements, and thought processes. , best known as the Chuci poem title Yuan You, was meditative travel to distant countries, sacred mountains, the sun and moon, and encounters with gods and xian transcendents. was a Quanzhen School communal meditation that was linked to Buddhist zuochan (Japanese zazen) "sitting meditation"
Warring States period The earliest Chinese references to meditation date from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), when the philosophical Hundred Schools of Thought flourished.
Guanzi and Neiye Four chapters of the Guanzi have descriptions of meditation practices: (chapters 36 and 37), (38), and Neiye "Inward training" (49). Modern scholarsE.g., ; . believe the Neiye text was written in the 4th century BCE, and the others were derived from it. A. C. Graham regards the Neiye as "possibly the oldest 'mystical' text in China"; Harold Roth describes it as "a manual on the theory and practice of meditation that contains the earliest references to breath control and the earliest discussion of the physiological basis of self-cultivation in the Chinese tradition". Owing to the consensus that proto-Daoist Huang-Lao philosophers at the Jixia Academy in Qi composed the core Guanzi, Neiye meditation techniques are technically "Daoistic" rather than "Daoist".
Neiye Verse 8 associates with acute hearing and clear vision, and generating . However, thought, says Roth, is considered "an impediment to attaining the well-ordered mind, particularly when it becomes excessive". If you can be aligned and be tranquil, Only then can you be stable. With a stable mind at your core, With the eyes and ears acute and clear, And with the four limbs firm and fixed, You can thereby make a lodging place for the vital essence. The vital essence: it is the essence of the vital energy. When the vital energy is guided, it [the vital essence] is generated, But when it is generated, there is thought, When there is thought, there is knowledge, But when there is knowledge, then you must stop. Whenever the forms of the mind have excessive knowledge, You lose your vitality.Tr. .
Neiye Verse 18 contains the earliest Chinese reference to practicing breath-control meditation. Breathing is said to "coil and uncoil" or "contract and expand"', "with coiling/contracting referring to exhalation and uncoiling/expanding to inhalation". For all [to practice] this Way: You must coil, you must contract, You must uncoil, you must expand, You must be firm, you must be regular [in this practice]. Hold fast to this excellent [practice]; do not let go of it. Chase away the excessive; abandon the trivial. And when you reach its ultimate limit You will return to the Way and its inner power. (18)Tr. .
Neiye Verse 24 summarizes "inner cultivation" meditation in terms of and . Roth says this earliest extant shouyi reference "appears to be a meditative technique in which the adept concentrates on nothing but the Way, or some representation of it. It is to be undertaken when you are sitting in a calm and unmoving position, and it enables you to set aside the disturbances of perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and desires that normally fill your conscious mind." When you enlarge your mind and let go of it, When you relax your vital breath and expand it, When your body is calm and unmoving: And you can maintain the One and discard the myriad disturbances. You will see profit and not be enticed by it, You will see harm and not be frightened by it. Relaxed and unwound, yet acutely sensitive, In solitude you delight in your own person. This is called "revolving the vital breath": Your thoughts and deeds seem heavenly. (24)Tr. .
Tao Te Ching Several passages in the classic Tao Te Ching are interpreted as referring to meditation. For instance, "Attain utmost emptiness, Maintain utter stillness" (16) emphasizes and , both of which are central meditative concepts. Randal P. Peerenboom describes Laozi's contemplative process as "apophatic meditation", the "emptying of all images (thoughts, feelings, and so on) rather than concentration on or filling the mind with images", comparable with Buddhist nirodha-samapatti "cessation of feelings and perceptions" meditation.
Verse 10 gives what Roth calls "probably the most important evidence for breathing meditation" in the Tao Te Ching. While you Cultivate the soul and embrace unity, can you keep them from separating? Focus your vital breath until it is supremely soft, can you be like a baby? Cleanse the mirror of mysteries, can you make it free of blemish? Love the people and enliven the state, can you do so without cunning? Open and close the gate of heaven, can you play the part of the female? Reach out with clarity in all directions, can you refrain from action? It gives birth to them and nurtures them, It gives birth to them but does not possess them, It rears them but does not control them. This is called “mysterious integrity.” Three of these Tao Te Ching phrases resonate with Neiye meditation vocabulary. compares with (24 above). is (19).Tr. . and (13) have the same verb chu "eliminate; remove".
The Taodejing exists in two received versions, named after the commentaries. The "Heshang Gong version" (see below) explains textual references to Daoist meditation, but the "Wang Bi version" explains them away. Wang Bi (226–249) was a scholar of Xuanxue "mysterious studies; neo-Daoism", which adapted Confucianism to explain Daoism, and his version eventually became the standard Tao Te Ching interpretation. Richard Wilhelm said Wang Bi's commentary changed the Tao Te Ching "from a compendiary of magical meditation to a collection of free philosophical aperçus".Tr. .
Zhuangzi The (c. 4th–3rd centuries BCE) Daoist Zhuangzi refers to meditation in more specific terms than the Tao Te Ching. Two well-known examples of mental disciplines are Confucius and his favorite disciple Yan Hui discussing and zuowang "sitting forgetting". In the first dialogue, Confucius explains xinzhai. "I venture to ask what 'fasting of the mind' is," said Hui. "Maintaining the unity of your will," said Confucius, "listen not with your ears but with your mind. Listen not with your mind but with your primal breath. The ears are limited to listening, the mind is limited to tallying. The primal breath, however, awaits things emptily. It is only through the Way that one can gather emptiness, and emptiness is the fasting of the mind." (4) In the second, Yan Hui explains zuowang meditation. Yen Hui saw Confucius again on another day and said, "I'm making progress." "What do you mean?" "I sit and forget." "What do you mean, 'sit and forget'?" Confucius asked with surprise. "I slough off my limbs and trunk," said Yen Hui, "dim my intelligence, depart from my form, leave knowledge behind, and become identical with the Transformational Thoroughfare. This is what I mean by 'sit and forget'." "If you are identical," said Confucius, "then you have no preferences. If you are transformed, then you have no more constants. It's you who is really the worthy one! Please permit me to follow after you." (9) Roth interprets this "slough off my limbs and trunk" () phrase to mean, "lose visceral awareness of the emotions and desires, which for the early Daoists, have 'physiological' bases in the various organs". Peerenboom further describes zuowang as "aphophatic or cessation meditation." One does away with sense perceptions, with all forms of cognition (thoughts, knowledge, conceptions, idea, images), with all valuations (preferences, norms, mores). Cognate to and a variant of wang (—to forget) is wang (—to destroy, perish, disappear, not exist). In the apophatic meditative process, all distinctions and ways of distinguishing are "forgotten" in the sense of eliminated: they cease to exist.