Organized Daoism & Internal Alchemy (Neidan)

the taoist tradition is a deep and diverse one it has played and continues to play a decisive role in the religious landscape of china and in spite of this fact a lot of the material we find on taoism especially in non-chinese language is often hugely oversimplified there's a tendency to focus only on the earliest taoist authors like lao tzu and the dao de jing and dranza and the well dranzer these sages only one of whom probably existed historically is often exalted as the true representatives of pure taoism and any later developments in the sort of post-classical period is often either downplayed or outright ignored even i in my earlier episode about taoism lean very heavily into the classical period in particular i did promise then that i was going to deliver more episodes about the later developed taoist tradition and finally today i am going to deliver on that promise [Music] it is indeed true that most people are familiar only with the classical taoist text like the dao de jing and dranzel partly because scholarship on the topic has almost exclusively focused on that period these texts were composed somewhere between the 4th to 2nd centuries bc but after all most of the history of taoism and its development takes place after this and some of its most fundamental features only appear in these later periods as mentioned in the earlier episode many have tended to divide taoism into philosophical taoism or doujia and religious taoism dao zhao the former being associated with the classical texts and their authors and the latter with the more organized forms of taoism that developed in later centuries thankfully scholars today have begun to heavily criticize this division and in my opinion it is for the most part untenable today as pointed out by louis come jethy this division of philosophical versus religious taoism is a colonialist and orientalist legacy that has stuck and pervades the discussion even today a highly inaccurate interpretation that views quote unquote philosophical taoism as the original or pure version that was later forgotten or replaced with religious superstition in later periods in comedy's own words quote such a bifurcated interpretation of taoism is flawed and inaccurate it involves a systematic misunderstanding and misinterpretation of classical taoism usually through selective readings of inaccurate translations of classical taoist texts reference to so-called philosophical taoism and or religious taoism should be taken ipso facto as inaccuracy and misunderstanding with respect to the taoist tradition this inaccurate view of taoism is not only based on misreading the ancient or classical taoist text but also leads to further misunderstandings and skewed interpretations that do not line up with the perspectives and interpretations within the taoist tradition itself with that said however there is no denying that there was a change in the way that taoism was organized from the classical periods and into later periods of the more organized forms of taoism and of course developments took place in terms of beliefs and practices we often talk about this period of the early taoist writers as classical taoism which was very loosely organized now it wasn't completely unorganized as many have assumed previously instead we see evidence in text like the drones that the so-called taoists of his time belong to lineages of teacher student initiation and that similar ideas and practices were observed by these groups scholars have opted to call these inner cultivation lineages that existed around china the primary practices of these classical taoists were perhaps more centrally a kind of apophatic meditation where one emptied oneself completely in order to become united with the tao to experience the oneness of the tao that underlies all reality as well as other related practices and things like asceticism for example and there seems to be a direct line connecting these classical taoists with the organized forms of the religion that appeared later in history that thing that so many have called quote-unquote religious taoism indeed the more formally organized forms of this religion only appeared in the later han dynasty specifically around the second century a.d and by then some significant developments had already taken place what is often considered the first form of organized taoism was called tianxi dao or the way of the celestial masters it was founded by the figure zhang dao ling who after receiving a revelation from lao joon or lao tzu in deified form established a taoist movement where he was given the title and role of celestial master a leadership role that was then inherited in a patrilineal succession until today by this point as we saw the figure of laozi attributed as the author of the famous dao de jing had become seen as a deity and would come to hell a central position in the pantheon of taoist gods we can see that being given a revelation from lao tzu as zhang dao ling did give him a very high status and similar revelations would play a major role in later taoist movements across history the way of these celestial masters also called jengi orthodox unity and wudumi dao the way of the five packs of rice became one of the cornerstones of the taoist tradition and today it remains one of the two main schools of taoism in china but that's the thing over the coming centuries during the han and tang dynasties there continued to appear many different forms of organized taoism taoist movements distinct from tianxi or the way of the celestial masters that nonetheless play that important role and some of the most prominent of these include tai ching chang ching and ling bao and as already mentioned by this time new practices and ideas had emerged and continued to emerge and develop the concept of the dao was always a kind of unifying factor as well as the general world view that goes along with it for more on that you should watch my earlier episode on taoism in terms of practice as we saw earlier the classical taoist had primarily focused on a kind of apophatic meditation as well as different grades and levels of asceticism you could say but by the later periods new perspectives new practices new ideas had emerged surrounding things like death and the afterlife for example judging by classical texts like the dranzer the perspective that these earlier texts have towards the individual self and death seem to be one where the self is made up of a bunch of composite parts and that upon death the individual simply dies and is absorbed into the totality of the universe everything is the dao of course including our innermost reality and as the dao we will always survive as the one totality of all things when the practitioner has reached a mystical union with the dao he realizes the illusory nature of separate existence but as an individual person there is no clear postmortem life quote once one attained disappearance of self and abided in the dao one came to understand that death and life are part of the same transformative process nonetheless death was still the end of personhood and terrestrial being one dies and death is nothingness on a personal level as an example in response to his wife dying and some companions asking why he isn't mourning anymore drunca says quote when she first died do you think i didn't grieve like anyone else but i look back to her beginning and the time before she was born not only the time before she was born but the time before she had a body not only the time before she had a body but the time before she had a spirit in the midst of the jumble of wandering mystery a change took place and she had a spirit another change and she had a body another change and she was born now there has been another change and she's dead it's just like the progression of the four seasons spring summer fall winter death is as natural as the turning of the seasons and one should accept that fate as part of the way of the tao but later on new perspectives seem to have developed they never strayed from this original perspective of course but the taoist also started to conceive of different ways that one might be able to bring together the different aspects of the compass itself and through that reach a kind of immortality the word used for a person reaching this state is tian ren which is most often translated as immortal but it can also mean something like ascendant or transcendent there is some disagreement on how this concept has been understood by the taoist as either an earthly immortality or as a more kind of spiritual abstract postmortem existence but this cult of immortality nonetheless became one of the key features of later organized taoism it is from this that the fung shi the formula masters and different forms of daout alchemy appears as such an important part of taoist practice which it remains to this day taoist alchemy very famous and yet often deemed as part of the less admired category of religious taoism is key to understanding the tradition as a whole this quest for immortality wasn't unique to taoism of course but became a trend in china from the early han dynasty there are stories of emperors who sent people to the far shores of the world to find the secret to immortality and many other such stories but in taoism it would develop into a very complex and significant tradition the earliest form of alchemy was the external kind called why don in other words the kind of alchemy that most people think of when they hear the word alchemy this consisted of the concoction of various elixirs and other substances that were thought to lead to immortality in any case external alchemy like this continued to play a major role and there was a lot of fascinating stuff to explore there but later another form of alchemy would prove even more popular in what is often called the period of late organized taoism including in the later tang dynasty song ming and qing dynasties we see more significant changes in the religion the appearance of buddhism in china proved very influential not only on society at large but on taoism as a religion as well while there were periods of animosity between these two religions we can also see how the two traditions would greatly influence each other chan buddhism known in japan as zen buddhism is greatly influenced by taoist ideas and in the later middle ages we also see how taoism becomes increasingly influenced by buddhism as well it is for example here that taoism developed a form of monasticism similar to the monks and nuns of buddhism and thus encouraged further change in its organization taoist priests and monks started practicing things like celibacy and communal monastic living something that was not the norm in earlier periods in this later period we also see the emergence of more organized taoist movements most prominently the tron chen the way of complete perfection a highly monastic form of organized taoism heavily influenced by buddhism which today makes up the majority form of taoism in china followed by the way of the celestial masters mentioned earlier and it is also in this period that we see the development of internal alchemy nadan which would become one of the primary forms of taoist practice going forward it is this very fascinating and deep tradition that we will focus on for the rest of this discussion internal alchemy or naidon is just like external alchemy a set of ideas and techniques with the ultimate aim of transforming the inner self so that it can reach immortality but here it isn't done through elixirs and other external means but instead through what we could broadly call spiritual practices the alchemical change does not come from the outside but from a transformation from the inside out this practice is part of the wider spiritual techniques of taoism and strongly connected and related to other practices like the apathetic meditation that i mentioned earlier various forms of visualization dietary restrictions and general asceticism the tradition of internal alchemy has always been kind of esoteric it is highly dependent on being taught the proper techniques of internal alchemy from a qualified teacher and the language that is used is often highly symbolic mysterious and even occult it uses symbolic terms taken from external alchemy and uses these external alchemical terms to explain different inner states and aspects of the self for example the lower abdomen is referred to as the elixir field the heart is called the scarlet palace and so on this language is probably partly a conscious way of keeping the teachings esoteric but also has a very nice poetic ring to it thankfully though we get writings from the late imperial era of china that actually explain and provide detailed descriptions of some of the techniques of internal alchemy from this it becomes clear that it is a tradition that is again strongly connected to other currents within taoism in particular but also within chinese culture and religion in general there are elements from classical taoist texts meditation techniques external alchemy chinese medicine and even symbology from the yi ching or book of changes what these practices of internal alchemy is all about is once again to reach that state of immortality through uniting the different elements of the human self in order to fully grasp these techniques and the theories surrounding them we have to try to understand three key concepts in the psychology of taoism and chinese cosmology referred to as the internal three treasures these are jing vital essence qi and shen i'm sure that you've heard some of these words in different contexts before and if that context is in hollywood movies like mulan then you basically need to forget everything that you know jing is often translated as vital essence it is as the name suggests the basic vitality of the person associated with things like sexual reproduction chi is probably the most famous word and often most misunderstood it is sometimes translated as vital breath as energy or even as pneuma or spirit and none of these are very accurate it is a kind of subtle animating force that which gives everything life which is why many have understood it as a kind of energy qi exists everywhere in all things and in all people everything is chi in a way so it's not something that you can get with something that is always part of your constitution but there are different kinds of chi and different grades of chi some qi that is much more coarse and substantial and qi that is more subtle and thus associated with things like deities and other subtle realities it comes from a word that also literally means breath as in the as in breathing which is why some people have also connected it to the greek term pneuma which also means breath but also means something like a spirit but we should be careful to draw too many comparisons like this right but it's important to know that qi well it means this essence and this life-giving force that exists everywhere also can mean literally regular breath and lastly there is shen which is often translated as spirit this is the most subtle part of the human being even more subtle than qi and thus it is the part that can connect with other subtle divine realities and is associated with consciousness itself these three treasures are central to the practice of naidan indeed at its most general level it is said that internal alchemy consists of a three-stage process first transforming vital essence into qi two transforming qi into shen and three merging spirit or shen with the void so as you can tell internal alchemy consists of cultivating the three treasures of uniting these different aspects of the self into an increasingly more subtle unified whole and then finally merging that unity with the absolute oneness of the void or the tao pretty poetic stuff and the language used in many texts describing naidon practices uses that very poetic and esoteric language that i talked about earlier just listen to this section from the wu zheng pyang the awakening to perfection written by zhang bodwan quote harmonize your inner lead and mercury to produce the elixir whether big or small there is no harm both areas are quite safe if you wonder what the true lead may be it is moonlight shining every day on the western river before you have refined the reverted elixir do not enter the mountains since on the mountains in and out there is no lead for you rather the supreme treasure is in everybody's home it's just that folk are ignorant and never recognize it when bamboo breaks use bamboo to repair it to hatch a chicken use an egg to match up different species is a waste of effort much better add to your spiritual potential with true lead the white tiger in the western mountains begins to go wild the green dragon in the eastern sea is no match for him both beasts interlock and fight hard to the death they turn into a mass of purple golden frost on the peak of sacred flower mountain the male tiger roars at the bottom of sun mulberry ocean the female dragon howls the matchmaker of the center spontaneously knows how to join them together they become husband and wife sharing the same core when the half moon rises bright over the horizon and you hear the dragon howl the tiger roar immediately apply your mind well to cultivate the two for eight more cycles within an hour you can see the elixir take shape inside what does any of this mean no idea but it shows you the kind of poetic and very symbolic language that is often used to describe these different internal alchemical techniques and and ideas but how is this naidan done on a actual practical level well luckily as i said earlier we do have writings from the later imperial period in china that actually describe some of these practices in great detail even though for most of history they have been quite secretive and esoteric two of the most significant figures of late taoism include leo yiming and leo hua yang who both give us significant writings about internal alchemy the latter figure was also strongly connected with buddhism and wrote a work called scripture on wisdom and life destiny in which he divides the alchemical process into eight stages one the cessation of outflow two the six phases of the dharma wheel three connecting the governing and conception channels four coalescing the embryo of the dao or immoral embryo five sending out of the fetus six manifesting the transformation body seven facing the wall and eight disappearance into the void now notice the buddhist influences here it's very clear in some ways this is a more elaborate version of the three-step process mentioned earlier which goes through the entire process the first step is to conserve qi and spirit by abstaining from various things like emotional attachment sensory stimulation and sexual activity this stores qi and spirit in the abdominal region aside from this the body is thought to have various different energetic pathways or meridians and organs connected to each other the following steps are complex and i'm better off just leaving it to our friend comedy to explain it himself quote then one must activate the water wheel or microcosmic orbits that is connect the governing vessel along the center line of the back with the conception vessel along the center line of the torso this is done by circulating qi up the back and down the front of the body so that the body becomes an integrated energetic hole so that one activates the taoist subtle body through this process in concert with the cultivation of stillness one becomes a spiritually integrated and transformed being this whole thing is often described very poetically and symbolically through the fetus of the dao once one starts the alchemical process the embryo of immortality is born in the womb which eventually grows into a full fetus which is then sent out in the fifth stage listed liu hua yang then describes the final stage of the process in various ways using both taoist and buddhist language as called completing the immortal fetus as attaining buddha form as returning to the source and even as disappearing into the void in other words one becomes united with the tao all of these practices are done often while sitting down in a kind of meditation position the illustrations suggest that the lotus position was the common posture to use and that one should ideally sit in a quiet and empty place quote your meditation room should be located in a place where you will not be disturbed when you meditate forget form after entering stillness forget the heart mind return the radiance and revert illumination let original nature enter the palace of life destiny in this way original nature and life destiny will be cultivated simultaneously in general the esoteric practice of naidan or internal alchemy has remained a cornerstone of daoist practice since it first emerged in the late tang dynasty and the song dynasty in the middle ages up until this very day it sits alongside other practices of taoism like the more ritualized and ceremonial offerings to the gods by taoist priests to more individualized practices like apathetic meditation visualization techniques dietary restrictions and even the fascinating practice that is known as guarding the one which we should probably dedicate a future episode to and indeed there will be further opportunities to discuss these different practices and other aspects of taoism both early taoism and later organize taoism in future episodes in this episode we have primarily focused on two topics number one we have discussed the in a very general sense the organized forms of taoism that developed from the later han dynasty and forward as well as critiquing a lot of the orientalist and colonialist perspectives on taoism and the difference between philosophical and religious taoism for example to give a better more nuanced view of this deep and very fascinating tradition and secondly we have explored the world of internal alchemy or nadan in chinese which has at least from the later middle ages from the song dynasty or so been one of the main features and main practices in taoism until today i hope you are as excited as i am to keep exploring this deep and colorful tradition as well as to dispel some of the many misconceptions about it i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 70,070

Keywords: Daoism, What is daoism, daoism explained, Internal alchemy, Inner alchemy, neidan, daoism neidan, taoism, what is taoism, taoism explained, organized daoism, alchemy, religious daoism, philosophical daoism, chinese religion, chinese philosophy, eastern religion, eastern philosophy, eastern wisdom, religious studies, china history, daoism history

Id: XcuNwDyFmkc

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 13 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Professor_Spectacles]

Excellent addition. Thank you.