The Three Hearts of Internal Alchemy:
Hi friends,
today I'm in a pretty straight forward mood so nothing fancy, just an article about Internal Alchemy theory which I hope will help you.
This article is about Xing/Innate Nature and the Three Hearts concept.
I've mainly seen this concept in the writings of Min Yide, and since one of our classes is going back to review his annotation of the He Pi Jing (we read it a few years ago and are once again reading a few chapters, giving it a new flavor with all the stuff we've learned since then) I've decided I'll grab his version of the concept to discuss today.
The public part of this article will be about the concept of the Three Hearts and what they mean in Neidan, then the part of paid subscribers will explain the core theory of how to practice without having to radically change your meditation practice, so if you'd like to understand how Nature and Life Dual Cultivation work from a practical perspective, today's post is a good intro.
1: What are the Three Hearts?
The Three Hearts/三心 are:
照心 Zhao Xin: Illumination Heart,
道心 Dao Xin: Dao Heart,
天心 Tian Xin: Heavenly Heart,
Let's look at what each of them represents:
1a: Illumination Heart:
In ancient manuscripts such as the Ding Guan Jing the concept of Illumination Heart is already used, but it was appropriated into Neidan by Li Daochun in the Anthology of Central Harmony, the first book of the Neidan Middle School.
Zhao means illuminate, but according to Li it does not mean to create a false internal visualization of light, instead it means to make the mind stable and silent.
Li said “the silent heart is the illuminated heart,” (I'm paraphrasing), but why is this?
When the mind and awareness are totally at peace they can rest in one place without moving, this causes our spirit to congeal and become stable, when it is stable it does not get carried away in thought and sensation, thus it is called illuminated because it is possible to experience the basic root of our awareness (Post Heaven in this case).
1b: Dao Heart:
The Dao is hidden and intangible, it is not available to our regular perception, it exists before Heaven and Earth, and it creates all things, thus the Dao Heart is a way of saying the Pre-Heaven spirit which exists beneath any conscious perception.
Do you think there is any level of consciousness which is not available to us in our regular awareness?
What is the unconscious or subconscious? We shouldn't psychologize Neidan too much, but it can be useful to borrow those concepts in order to explain that there is more to consciousness than the things we perceive in waking life every day, there is a foundation to consciousness which is always hidden from our view but still serves as the root of our experience, this is the Dao Heart.
1c: Heavenly Heart:
The Heavenly Heart is the conscious manifestation of the Dao Heart, in other words when a person meditates and passes through the barrier between deep meditation and waking reality the Dao Heart manifests and generates a little bit of True Yang Energy which causes our regular awareness to be modified and become clear, at ease, peaceful and without Post-Heaven affect such as inner monologue, identification with self, or identification with physical sensation.
The Heavenly Heart is the product of the Dao Heart in Neidan practice.
2: Is there any other heart?
These things are compared against the Human Heart, which in Neidan thinking is the Post Heaven awareness mainly concerned with day to day executive functions in life, it is also the aspect of our awareness which experiences desire and aversion, thought, sensation, regular perception etc...
The idea of meditating and achieving the Heavenly Heart is that we effectively tame the Human Heart so it goes away during our meditation. Li Daochun said “The Human Heart must die so the Dao Heart can Live,” this is the basic meaning.
3: How the practice works in theory:
What we have to do first is direct our mind to stillness in order to generate the Illuminated Heart, then over time the Dao Heart will naturally manifest without us knowing, then when the Dao Heart is mature enough to send its True Qi it will generate the Heavenly Heart and we will experience mental clarity and peace. This is the Xing/Innate Nature aspect of Neidan and there is no other. It simply gets stronger and stronger over time, eventually leading to genuine spiritual transformation. This is why the idea of trying to create an unbroken awareness in Neidan practice is considered a mistake, the Illuminated Heart must give way to the Dao Heart in order for the Heavenly Heart to be generated, so how will you practice the Dao if you always keep your mind in the Post-Heaven State.
Another way to understand this is that the mind is the leader of the six perceptual roots (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and that if it isn't put to rest then one will always be stuck in the realm of mind, even if they seal off the other roots. Even the mind has to disappear and that means we can't always try to maintain total focus in meditation, it needs to transform and become emptiness at least for a while.
4: What is the benefit of this practice?
It is the only way to gradually transform your Qi to Spirit so if you want to practice Daoist energy work in a spiritual way you will need to eventually experience and maintain the Heavenly Heart, otherwise it is just moving Qi around. Qi Gong is great for your health and well-being, but direct experience of the innate nature of being is how spirituality works in these arts, it isn't a product of the body, it is the most core nature of one's own reality.
You'll notice that people who have experience in this practice will tend to use words like clarity, stillness, tranquility, openness, emptiness etc but often cannot clearly explain the state they feel when they achieve these things. This is because it is very difficult to explain the experience of simultaneous non-being and being, it can only be explained qualitatively with terms like inner peace, calm, clarity, void, inner and outer merged as one etc... Since the experience is not a phenomenon and has no discernible characteristics it is hard to explain.
Nonetheless it is very real and worthwhile as it has great effects in repairing the body, improving one's mental experience in life, and showing much hidden wisdom not available to us when we are always navigating reality using our thoughts, feelings and senses.
From here on out the rest of this article is paid content and will feature:
How to practice the Three Hearts,
What to expect,
How this relates to the cultivation of Ming/Innate Life Energy,
Common mistakes people make when they try to congeal the spirit,
If you would like to read this lesson as well as all the other excellent content behind the paywall, why not avail yourself of a free seven day subscription and then if you like it you can sign up for either monthly payments of $7 or yearly payments of $70. Subscribing the IS costs about the same amount as going to your favorite cafe once a month for a latte and a muffin, but you get so much more, so make sure to subscribe if this work interests you and you want to learn more about Internal Alchemy and Daoist Qigong!!
How to practice the Three Hearts:
Illuminated Heart:
Step 1: Congealing the Spirit
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