Proposed paths of immortality: The Dao Yin path from antiquity to modernity

and the true mind

Preamble:

We mostly talk about Neidan here,

this is because I am mainly a Neidan practitioner,

I feel a calling to the Dao, but not as an ordained Daoist,

at the same time there is a need to discuss the Great Dao,

which has always existed, even before the times of Laozi.

Today's article is about the Dao Yin path to immortality,

and how it was conceived to be a path to immortality.

We can't cover everything, so I rely on the most relevant snapshot

of its theory.

Just remember there is more to it than what is presented here.

Main article:

No one knows how old Dao Yin is, but its creation was attributed to the legendary Pengzu who is said to have lived between 1900 -1066 B.C.

We do not know if Pengzu actually existed, but the story of his longevity was already popular at the time of Zhuangzi's writing of the Nan Hua Jing where he takes several cracks at Pengzu, noting he does not live as long as an old tree or even some tortoises even though his followers venerate him and bend their backs while stretching side to side.

Dao Yin predates Daoism, but it is a way of following the Dao nonetheless.

Remember that Confucius also followed the Dao, as did Sunzi and many others.

The Dao is not a term which exclusively belongs to Daoism and can be used in many contexts as is evidenced in the popular Japanese habit of using “Do” as a suffix to the names are arts such as Karate Do, Sa Do etc... implying a path toward merging with nature and the Great Dao.

If you say this is a Japanese and not a Chinese habit, I point out to you that the application of the term Dao as a suffix is quite popular in Taiwan where it often replaces the term Yi, which means art.

For instance Taiwanese flower arrangement is called Hua Dao rather than the Mainland Hua Yi, Tea ceremony is called Cha Dao rather than the mainland Cha Yi and so on. East Asian culture involves a great flowing between cultural centers and is not only restricted to the bounds of individual countries (much like the Western world which has always had washing back and forth from all directions).

Dao Yin follows a Dao, perhaps some Daoists believe it is a small Dao side door, but that is not for me to say.

Before and during the Han Dynasty Dao Yin was the primary most popular art of the Immortals and was widely disseminated throughout China, beginning to appear in texts perhaps as early as the Warring States period and becoming mature around the Sui Tang era and flowering in a strange way for hundreds of years after.

There are many perspectives on Dao Yin from medical to magical, but today I would like to talk about the core means by which a Dao Yin practitioner can become an immortal (for the new readers, an immortal may refer to a number of varieties of high level practitioners, not automatically inferring a person's body does not die). We will also discuss what it at meant at the times when Dao Yin was the most popular and the Neidan response.

1: How to become an immortal by stretching the body and sealing the breath:

It is difficult to make accurate statements about Dao Yin during the Warring States or before since there is only a small amount of available documentation on the subject.

During the Han and through the Sui Tang period there is more information and into modern times we can see a definite consolidation of what Dao Yin is supposed to do to make people immortal.

I'm going to give the most brief examples of how Dao Yin was discussed during important generations, then draw a big picture to attempt to provide a map to how a person might undertake such a process.

1a:

Pre and Early Han:

There are four relevant documents:

• Xing Qi Ming: the inscription of moving Qi, a carved tablet explaining important features of Qi practice as breath work following the framework which would eventually become Tu Na,

• the Dao Yin Tu: an illustration of postures found in the Ma Wang Dui funerary complex with no added notes about how to practice,

• cessation of grains and eating the breath: a Bi Qi breath sealing and fasting text found in the same funerary complex during an excavation there in the twentieth century,

• Yin Shu: the book of stretching found in the Zhang Jia Shan funerary complex. It has explanations for Dao Yin exercises similar to the pictures in the Dao Yin Tu.

These texts while historically quite interesting do not tell us everything we need to know about how people understood Dao Yin, but some bits and pieces can allow us to know that people believed breath control to be a means to extending life, stretching and lengthening the body to be a means of relieving illness, and fasting to be a means of reducing illness.

The texts as Ma Wang Dui and Zhang Jia Shan were also found alongside Chinese Medicine texts which in the case of Ma Wang Dui predate the concept of the Twelve Meridians and postulate an eleven meridian view of the body in which each meridian passes the heart and meridians are referred to as vessels rather than paths (inferring the network of blood vessels as the meridian network). This may be important to understanding the early physicalized view of Dao Yin and breath practice as being relevant preventative exercises from the medical perspective.

Later Han through the Three Kingdoms:

During this period many texts come about, but a couple of significant note are:

• Sun Simiao's Yang Xing and Qi Fa chapters: these documents show us how specific methods of nurturing lifestyle and mental habits as well as circulating Qi through physical techniques, breathing practices, meditations, and even visualization were used as a means of strengthening the body and becoming immortal.

• Tao Hongjing's Yang Xing Yan Ming Lu: this collection of texts about nurturing character and Dao Yin/Tu Na describe a path to longevity which uses post-heaven Yin and Yang to strengthen the body and mind.

Sui:

• Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun: a compendium of Dao Yin as Chinese medicine prescriptions to treat all major illness categories.

Later dynasties up to the Qing:

Too many texts to mention, many of them are a recapitulation of older texts, but some unique ones also exist. Dao Yin becomes mixed with other Daoist genres including visualization and Neidan, and even martial arts and begins to be treated as a systematic set of practices which might improve longevity, lead to enlightenment, and maybe even confer immortality on the practitioner.

1b: a sketch of the approach:

Each method has its own ideas and not all of them claim to allow transcendence, those that do offer various levels of transcendence from the Earth Walking Immortals (a way to describe realized Daoist practitioners who extend their years of health in the world) to higher levels.

My belief is that without the Golden Elixir or Chan Sitting the Earth Walking Immortal is the highest level of Dao Yin. This is based on personal research and the thought of figures such as Hu Fuchen who have deep research in the Daoist world.

Early Dao Yin thinkers believed that by fasting and making the body light it could eventually ascend with its own Qi to the heavens and thus make practitioners immortal.

This is not a very realistic take, so I will mainly focus on the Dao Yin approach of the late Qing Dynasty to illustrate what I feel is a more realistic method:

Exercises tend to begin with a posture such as the famous Wo Gu/Firm Grip meditative method, sometimes incorporating Tu Na deep breathing, or breath sealing, and sometimes taking Wo Gu as a form of Quiet Skill meditation.

After this the methods tend to diverge into physical methods such as clicking the teeth, collecting and swallowing the saliva, visualizing energetic movement within the body and so on, or a more subtle form of energetic cultivation where Qi is led to different parts of the body to collect there before moving to other parts.

There are also various physical stretching exercises involved such as stretching the legs, holding up the sky etc...

Finally most of the Qing methods I've seen end with quiet sitting while focusing on the Dantian.

Here is how the structure of a daily practice might look:

• introductory mind calming, breath centering, or meditative exercise,

• internal physical exercises to improve specific body parts such as eyes, throat, brain, etc,

• external stretching, rotation, and adjustment exercises to open the spine, relax the gates of the body etc...

• breath holding and visualization exercises to develop Qi paths and Dantian Qi,

• returning to stillness and maintaining seated meditation for a long time,

• potentially including self massage at various points including the end.

The basic idea is to center the body and mind in stillness, then use this calm state to work on various inner aspects or subtle body parts to improve their function and release stress, then focus on opening larger sections of the body such as the back, shoulders, waist etc... eventually this moves on to storing and moving Qi exercises and ends in seated meditation.

Important methods used are:

• posture keeping (Wo Gu, various mudras, lotus sitting, bowing, squatting, lying positions etc),

• breath holding,

• saliva collecting and swallowing,

• visualization,

• use of mental intention,

• self massage,

• stretching and opening the body,

• quiet meditation,

The purpose:

• calm and balance the mind and body and breath,

• attain physical opening,

• relax and smooth the body,

• attain energetic movement,

• attain energetic storage,

• return to Wu Wei state,

Frequent practice of such techniques can have a wonderful effect on the longevity of the body and help practitioners enter a profound state of energetic well-being, physical relaxation and mental calm, even spiritual clarification in some cases.

In this way an Earth Walking Immortal (Lu Di Xian) is a person who works for many years to attain and maintain these qualities and ultimately becomes partially energetically transformed as a result.

Hu Fuchen posits in his book Dan Dao Xian Shu Ru Men that the view of Dao Yin from the Han to Tang Dynasties was that these exercises culminated in Embryonic Breathing which was viewed as the highest level of practice.

In order to verify his claims one might choose to make an extensive review of texts such as Yun Ji Qi Qian, and Dao Shu since both propose paths to immortality which prominently feature such exercises.

2a: Neidan critique of Dao Yin:

The central Neidan critique of Dao Yin is that even though Dao Yin arts benefit the body and mind, they do not lead to final enlightenment to true nature since they are absorbed mostly in post heaven exercises and do not touch the pre heaven Dao.

The operation of Nei Dan emphasizes the pre heaven and uses pre heaven energy to both achieve enlightenment to true nature and protect the post heaven.

2B: synthesis:

Sometimes it is the case that harmony can be found between two opposing ideas and I believe there is a good synthesis between the Dao Yin and Neidan view which everyone can enjoy and make use of.

It is quite easy, there are three big ways to practice:

• Sometimes do Dao Yin on its own: Dao Yin is great for physical, mental and energetic well-being and has benefits even beyond those things, so sometimes you could practice for half an hour up to two hours and do specific exercises which help you in the ways you want to progress.

• Sometimes do Neidan by itself: setting times to meditate after waking and before bed as well as other times when you feel you can grasp the energy is a great way to cultivate the pre heaven Dao without the incursion of other thoughts, affairs and activities, you should do that.

• Sometimes do Dao Yin followed by Neidan (followed by Dao Yin): just because you stretch your body, do self massage, or even perform an energetic circuit using visualization doesn't mean you can't meditate successfully. Most of the Dao Yin books advise seated meditation after practice, the only thing is they tend to stop there and do not teach a full Neidan method. Just learn the full Neidan method and then do it after your Dao Yin. As long as your Dao Yin ideas don't bleed into your Neidan practice there should be no problem. At the same time Zhi Yi tells us that doing a little stretching, self massage and sounding after meditation is a good way to avoid injury directly after getting up from practice, and in my view it is also a good way to introduce the mind back to the post heaven.

There, synthesis achieved!

It isn't that Zhang Boduan was wrong, Dao Yin isn't Neidan, but you can still use it to achieve longevity and there is nothing stopping you from also studying Neidan to go deeper into the matter of spiritual cultivation.

You probably aren't going to become as light as air and float away like they thought you would in the Han Dynasty, but you do stand a pretty good chance of improving your physical, mental and spiritual condition and transforming yourself into something you hadn't previously imagined possible.

Thanks for reading this article!!!

Paid section: the true mind is the totality of Neidan practice:

In this section I want to touch on the most important aspect of Neidan, the way we focus and unfocus our minds to achieve the mystery gate and transformation of energy.

In Neidan we use the terms matchmaker, yellow aunt, and true mind interchangeably, they refer to the mind as a product of the perceptual spirit which interacts with material reality and the mind as a product of the pre heaven essence which is empty and can view the primordial spirit.

There are so many things we could say are the most important ideas in Neidan such as Xing and Ming, Qian and Kun, or even just the Dao, but all these things exist on a taxonomic chain and are entirely presided over by the true mind for the entirety of one's Neidan career.

The true mind is made up of two parts:

Wu: emerges from pre heaven, empty, formless awareness,

Ji: post heaven, attaches to form, ability to form intention,