Taoist Meditation Methods

Taoist meditation strategies have many points in common with Hindu and Buddhist systems, however the Taoist method is much less abstract and way more down-to-earth than the contemplative traditions which advanced in India. The primary hallmark of Taoist meditation is the technology, transformation, and circulation of inner energy. Once the meditator has 'achieved energy' (deh-chee), it can be utilized to selling health and longevity, nurturing the 'spiritual embryo' of immortality, martial arts, therapeutic, portray and poetry, sensual self-indulgence, or whatever else the adept wishes to do with it.
The 2 main tips in Taoist meditation are jing ('quiet, stillness, calm') and ding ('focus, focus'). The purpose of stillness, each psychological and physical, is to show consideration inwards and lower off exterior sensory input, thereby muzzling the "5 Thieves". Inside that silent stillness, one concentrates the mind and focuses attention, normally on the breath, with the intention to develop what is known as 'one-pointed consciousness', a totally undistracted, undisturbed, undifferentiated state of mind which allows intuitive insights to come up spontaneously.
Taoist masters suggest that when you first start to practice meditation, you'll discover that your mind is very uncooperative. That's your ego, or 'emotional mind', fighting in opposition to its personal extinction by the upper forces of religious awareness. The very last thing your ego and feelings need is to be harnessed: they revel within the day-to-day circus of sensory leisure and emotional turmoil, although this game depletes your vitality, degenerates your body, and exhausts your spirit. While you catch your mind drifting into fantasy or drawing attention away from inside alchemy to exterior phenomena, listed here are six ways you should utilize to 'catch the monkey',
make clear the thoughts, and re-set up the interior focus:
Shift consideration back to the inflow and outflow of air streaming by way of the nostrils, or power streaming out and in of an important point, akin to between the brows.
Focus attention on the rising and falling of the navel, the enlargement and contraction of the abdomen, as you breathe.
With eyes half-closed, focus vision on a candle flame or a mandala (geometric meditation image). Give attention to the middle of the flame or picture, but also take in the edges with peripheral vision. The focus required to do this normally clears all different distractions from the mind.
Practice a few minutes of mantra, the 'sacred syllables' which harmonize energy and focus the mind. Though mantras are normally related to Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist practices, Taoists have also employed them for many millennia. The three handiest syllables are 'Om', which stabilizes the physique, 'ah', which harmonizes energy, and 'hum', which concentrates the spirit. 'Om' vibrates between the brows, 'ah' in the throat, and 'hum' within the coronary heart, and their associated colors are white, pink, and blue respectively. Chant the syllables in a deep, low-pitched tone and use lengthy, full exhalations for every one. Different mantras are equally effective.
Beat the 'Heavenly Drum' as a cool-down power-assortment technique. The vibrations are inclined to clear discursive ideas and sensory distractions from the mind.
Visualize a deity or a sacred image of private significance to you shining above the crown of your head or suspended in house before you. When your mind is once again still, secure, and undistracted, let the vision fade away and refocus your mind on whatever meditative approach you had been practicing.
Taoist meditation works on all three levels of the 'Three Treasures': essence (body), power (breath), and spirit (thoughts).
The first step is to undertake a snug posture for the physique, steadiness your weight evenly, straighten the backbone, and pay attention to bodily sensations equivalent to heat, cold, tingling, trembling, or no matter else arises.
When your body is snug and balanced, shift attention to the second level, which is breath and energy. You may focus on the breath itself as it flows in and out of the lungs via the nostrils, or on vitality streaming out and in of a particular point in tune with the breath.
The third stage is spirit: when the breath is regulated and energy is flowing easily by the channels, focus consideration on thoughts and feelings forming and dissolving in your mind, consciousness increasing and contracting with every breath, insights and inspirations arising spontaneously, visions and pictures showing and disappearing. Ultimately you may even be rewarded with intuitive flashes of perception relating to the ultimate nature of the thoughts: open and empty as house; clear and luminous as a cloudless sky at dawn; infinite and unimpeded.
Simply as all the foundations of chee-gung observe may be boiled right down to the three Ss - slow, soft, clean - so the details of meditation apply may be summed up within the three Cs: calm, cool, clear.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor in 'half-lotus' place, with the buttocks elevated on a cushion or pad. Some great benefits of this methodology are that this place is extra secure and encourages energy to movement upwards towards the brain.
Sitting erect on a low stool or chair, feet parallel and shoulder width aside, knees bent at a 90-degree angle, spine erect. The benefits of sitting on a stool are that the legs do not cramp, the soles of the feet are in direct contact with the vitality of the earth, and inner power tends to flow more freely all through the decrease as well as the higher torso.
Most meditators who observe Taoist Meditation use both methods, depending on conditions. When sitting cross-legged, Western practitioners, whose legs are likely to cramp extra easily than Asians', are suggested to sit down on thick firm cushions, maybe with a phone book or two underneath, in an effort to elevate the pelvis and take stress off the legs and knees. This also helps keep the backbone straight with out straining the decrease back.
The best way the hands are positioned can be important. Probably the most pure and comfortable place is to rest the palms evenly on the thighs, just above the knees. Nonetheless, some meditators find it more practical to use one of the conventional 'mudras', or hand gestures. Experiment with different combinations of posture and mudra until you find the model that suits you best.
Taoist meditation masters educate three primary ways to control the Hearth mind of emotion with the Water thoughts of intent, in order that the adept's objectives in meditation could also be realized.
The first methodology known as 'cease and observe'. This includes paying close consideration to how ideas arise and fade within the thoughts, learning to let them cross like a freight practice in the evening, without clinging to any explicit one. This develops consciousness of the essential emptiness of all thought, in addition to non-attachment to the rise and fall of emotional impulses. Steadily one learns merely to ignore the intrusion of discursive thoughts, at which level they stop arising for sheer lack of attention.
The second method is known as 'observe and imagine', which refers to visualization. The adept employs intent to visualise an image - similar to Buddha, Jesus, a sacred image, the moon, a star, or no matter - in an effort to shift mental focus away from thoughts and feelings and stabilize the thoughts in one-pointed awareness. You may also visualize a selected vitality center in your physique, or take heed to the real or imagined sound of a bell, gong, or cymbal ringing in your ears. The purpose of focus just isn't important: what counts is shifting the main target of your attention away from idle ideas, conflicting emotions, fantasies, and different distracting antics of the 'monkey thoughts' and concentrating attention as a substitute on a stable level of focus established by the thoughts of intent, or 'knowledge thoughts'.
The third step in cultivating control over your own mind is known as 'using the mind of intent to information power'. When the emotional mind is calm and the breath is regulated, focus attention on the interior energy. Discover ways to information it by the meridian community so as to energize vital organs, increase vitality from the sacrum to the head to nourish the spirit and mind, and trade stale power for recent power from the external sources of heaven (sky) and earth (floor). Begin by focusing attention on the Lower Elixir Discipline under the abdomen, then moving vitality from there down to the perineum, up by way of the coccyx, and up alongside the spinal facilities into the top, after which consideration shifts to the Higher Elixir Field between the brows. Although this sounds somewhat imprecise and esoteric to the uninitiated, just a few months of observe, especially together with chee-gung and correct dietary habits, often suffices to unveil the swirling world of vitality and consciousness hidden inside our our bodies and minds. All you must do is sit nonetheless and shut up long enough on your thoughts to turn out to be conscious of it.
It's at all times a good suggestion to heat up your body and open your vitality channels with some chee-gung workout routines before you sit right down to meditate. This facilitates inner vitality circulation and lets you sit for longer periods with out getting stiff or numb. After sitting, you should keep away from bathing for no less than twenty minutes with the intention to stop lack of power via open pores and vitality points. In case you stay in the northern hemisphere, it is best to sit down going through south or east, within the normal path of the sun; in the southern hemisphere, sit dealing with north or east.
Given under are three Taoist meditations which can be helpful for beginners.