I smash up my limbs and body, drive out perception and intellect, cast off form, do away with understanding, and make myself identical with the Great Thoroughfare. — Zhuangzi Inner Chapters 6
In the Daoist tradition, there are medical, martial, and spiritual ap-proaches to dealing with imbalances arising in the heart-mind (xin). The Chinese notion of heart-mind is roughly equivalent to what new age Westerners call the body-mind, implying an integrated continuum between the two.
This is opposed to purely psychological mainstream Western notions of mind, ego or personality which tend to separate thinking and feeling functions of mind from what are considered autonomic body-sensory perceptions. Broadly speaking, these methods have in common that they involve a process of dissolving resistance to change in the heart-mind. This commonality of dissolving is matched by a great divergence as to how far the dissolving process goes, and the degree of personal will or sagely intention that is cultivated in order to shape the qi-field afterwards or even while imbalances in the heart-mind are being dissolved.
I offer a quick survey of some Daoist approaches to the heart-mind that have become popular in the West. These include standing and moving qigong (subtle breath skill); neigong (inner mind skill) meditation techniques such as the Inner Smile and zuowang (sitting and forgetting); and neidangong (elixir skill) inner alchemy methods. What does it mean to dissolve the heart-mind, and why would Daoists even want to do that? The simplest answer is that the heart-mind has become rigid or dysfunctional in some way, and this obstructs the free flow of qi within the individual.
In the medical model of dissolving the stuck patterns using acupuncture, herbs, or massage, the qi can flow more easily, improving both mental and physical health. In the martial model, repeated training of the heart-mind using movement supports the qi to be expressed more powerfully in relation to others. In the spiritual model, excess fixity of the heart-mind may obstruct the unfolding of ones spiritual essence or moral power (de). Heart-mind rigidity prevents exchange of qi between the individual as microcosm and the collective macrocosm of Nature and Humanity.
Zhuangzi advocates getting rid of the mind of everyday life (sheng zhi xin) in order to fly on the wings of the Dao. So dissolving the heart-mind allows spontaneous change to happen between the individual and the environment. The dissolving process is a spiritual prerequisite to cultivating a wu wei attitude of openness that promotes effortless change, a fundamental value of Daoists.
In qigong (including taiji quan and other internal arts), body movement and breath lead the process. Moving qigong is the most comfortable for Westerners, as its dynamic approach satisfies their need to do something with their mind at the same time their bodily energies are being productively directed. As a teacher, I have found qigong movement and breathing practices to be the quickest and most effective way to tame the monkey mind, i.e., any mind that is easily distracted or fragmented. People who claim they are unable to meditate find themselves moving spontaneously into a space of tranquility and stillness after practicing qigong.
In most moving qigong there is no direct focus or intention to dissolve the heart-mind, it just happens after the mind achieves a deep entrainment with body movement and regulated breathing. The resultant benefits to both physical health and psychological health have been well documented in thousands of scientific studies. Standing forms of qigong are more challenging, as the mind is forced to wait in stillness and give up its impatience to physically move, while it is simultaneously challenged by gravity.
What happens eventually is the qi within the vertically aligned body begins to create micro-movements between the poles of Heaven and Earth. This produces an energetic detoxifying effect that gradually intensifies and breaks up old heart-mind patterns. Standing still also allows the ordinary mind to observe and release tension within the layers of the body’s vital organ and muscular-skeletal structure, which in busy everyday life it would not do. Dissolving-while-standing has been a central focus of both Daoist schools in the West (Frantzis 1992) and Buddhist schools of qigong such as Zhangzhuan.
Even this school incorporates Daoist channel theory. At higher levels of practice, it goes far beyond standing empty-minded, using the vertical stance to absorb qi from the earth into the heels, which is then circulated in the Microcosmic Orbit. The historicity of this practice dates back to Laozi: The Sage breathes through his heels. The standing method of dissolving is also useful in resolving ancestral issues stored in the bone marrow and blood. In Chinese theory, many heart-mind imbalances may in reality be ancestors seeking expression and completion. (Winn 2003)
Inner Smile Dissolves Struggle by Embracing It
Daoist meditation methods (neigong) often employ a more focused intention than qigong to dissolve the emotions, mental projections, judgments, and habitual or forced perceptions of the heart-mind. One of the most popular and powerful methods to take root in the West is the Inner Smile, transmitted in the 20th century by One Cloud, a Daoist hermit on Long White Mountain in northeast China, through Mantak Chia.
The Inner Smile is the meditative heart-glue that binds together One Clouds original Seven Formulas (now re-organizied into Nine) for Immortality. Each formula begins and ends with the spontaneous practice of the Inner Smile. It is the default wuwei practice of utter simplicity. The Inner Smile is based on the Daoist principle that the very density and resistance of the ordinary heart-mind provides an authentic ground for immortality. This is another way of saying that within human suffering and resistance to change is hidden a gift – the spiritual essence of its own salvation.
The Inner Smile is a method for uncovering that gift. The outer smile suggests the Chinese notion of a friendly outer face that one shows the world to control it. Thus the smiling face of the ordinary heart-mind tends to be reactive to or manipulative of people and situations. The Inner Smile is a method of dissolving this false outer face of the heart-mind and opening the spontaneous spiritual joy of the inner heart (ling), perhaps best translated as soul. Ling is frequently mentioned in the Laozi text of the 5th century bce.
Inner Smile Connects Personality to Soul
The Inner Smile dissolves the conditional heart-mind patterns so they do not interfere with the soul expressing its will. In this way, it allows our destiny to be more effortlessly completed. Inner Smile helps induce a state where you forget the little self, and gradually dissolve the dense physical body into the qi-field, where it functions as a more expanded energy body, the higher vessel for expressing the ling (soul). Inner Smiling is a simple and practical method of cultivating Daoist tong, defined as a state of relaxed, unconditional openness to the all-pervading collective qi field, the great spirit (da shen).
By smiling to and accepting every aspect of self unconditionally, all polarized perceptions of self simply disappear. The boundary between self and other gradually dissolves. A sense of peace and unity spontaneously arises, by opening perception of the deeper non-dual consciousness underlying all yin-yang creative tension.
Inner Smile Yin Phase: Dissolve Insides of Body-Mind
Inner Smile was originally taught only with a yin phase, systematically focusing heart-centered unconditional acceptance on the brain, spine, three elixir fields (dantian), five vital organs, their qi-channels, and all other physical tissues (Chia 1985). One first allows a seed feeling of acceptance to effortlessly penetrate as a gentle, loving and warm radiance into ones biology (the underlying jing). The blood, bones, skin, and spine are all infused with the Inner Smile until they begin to pulsate as one. This radiant feeling is then spread to the vital organ spirits (jingshen), which in turn control the channels of qi-flow and psychology.
Yang Phase: Dissolve Boundary Between Self & Other
In my own teaching I began adding a yang phase, i.e., reversing direction, and radiating from the heart a smiling wave beyond the body. (Winn 2003) This yang version of the Inner Smiles embraces everything outside the body, layer by layer: ones aura, the room, ones family, village, one’s enemies, the country; the planets, moon, sun, stars, and the blackness beyond.
Smiling outwardly to ones community and natural world offers a context for unconditionally accepting ones worldly destiny. The adept then flips this perspective, reversing again the direction of the flow of acceptance, smiling through layers of the outer world back into the physical body. Finally this smiling wave dissolves back into the pre-natal formless sea of qi in the dantian.
The Inner Smile is a simple basic practice, easily learned by anyone. While smiling itself is effortless and natural, the Inner Smile takes a lot of practice for the heart-mind to stay present at higher frequenciess of cosmic qi that emerge once the heart mind is dissolved into the larger field of qi.
The historical origins of the Inner Smile are not clear, as it was transmitted from a mountain lineage of wandering Daoist hermits. It may be an evolution or variation of sitting in forgetfulness (zuowang), the Daoist practice of emptying or fasting the heart-mind.
Zuowang: Fasting of the Heart-Mind
Unlike the Inner Smile, which employs a positive, heart-centered embrace to dissolve fixed perception, zuowang initially employs a negative method in the sense of releasing what is unwanted. The main difference is the Inner Smile stays heart-centered, whereas zuowang does not use ongoing heart-focus. The phrase fasting the heart-mind was made famous by Zhuangzi in 2nd century B.C.E. and later popularized by Sima Chengzhens classic Zuowang lun in the 8th-century (Kohn 1987).
Today zuowang’s “sitting in forgetfulness survives as a staple of modern Chinese Daoist meditators and their acolytes in the West (Rinaldini 2008; Phillips 2008). Zuowang practice helps the adept to surrender to the impersonal qi-field of heaven and earth. But it does not necessarily integrate human heartedness. Zuowang likely inspired Chan Buddhist sitting in emptiness, which can feel a bit cold, too mental or impersonal for some Westerners.
Yet Daoist zuowang differs from Chan methods and their Japanese Zen Buddhist offspring in that attaining absolute emptiness is not the goal. In zuowang the emphasis is more on process, on cultivating spontaneity and openness to ever-changing currents of the qi-field. The dissolving of the heart-mind is achieved by allowing each thought, feeling or sensation to manifest without resistance, and then surrender it to the larger flow of the qi-field to be creatively transformed. Eventually an unperturbed yet engaged state of mind is achieved.
Zuowang is Preparation for Inner Alchemy
So zuowang ultimately shifts from release of the negative to a positive embrace of spontaneity and wu wei. Robinet astutely points out in her preface to Kohn’s translation of the Zuowang lun that the process goes beyond qigong, which grants only longevity. Zuowang is a method of salvation, and as such is actually preparatory for higher alchemy practice.
Zuowang is a double dissolving, first of the contents of the heart-mind and then of the mind’s method of dissolving itself. She first quotes Sima Chengzhen: Zuowang means to forget the myriad projections, it consists in cutting out all delusions and firmly fixating ones mind. Once the mind is firmly fixated, there is nothing beneath it but the One, and nothing above it but emptiness. It will never stir, even when it is shaken.
At this stage, [Sima] adds, one is not yet delivered from yin and yang, rather one must take recourse to gold and cinnabart alchemy to finally become free by means of the transformation of wings. Here we find an affirmation of the superiority of alchemy. . . over the meditation and absence of thought, i.e., over the meditations informed by Buddhism.(Kohn 1987,14)
Inner Alchemy Dissolves the Deep Stuff
How can inner alchemy dissolve the fundamental yin-yang force that controls the heart-mind, and re-shape it? This brings us to our final model of dissolving the heart-mind using inner alchemy. That Daoists had a sophisticated model of the mind in the 6th century bce – before the Daodejing was written – has been well established by analysis of early texts such as the Internal Training scripture or Nei Ye (Roth 1991, 1999).
These early Daoists were well aware of the jing, qi, and shen aspects of the heart-mind emptying and dissolving into each other. This is the fundamental basis for the model of alchemical dissolving of the heart mind that survives into the 21st century. Later neidan lineages, such as One Clouds Formulas for Attaining Immortality, claimed the secret of dissolving the heart-mind was to accelerate transformation of the jing, qi, and shen by coupling ever higher potencies of cosmic yin-yang forces.
The adept uses these polarities to capture the Original Breath (yuanqi) hidden within the post-natal or physical qi-ield. For this, a vessel or dan is needed to hold the higher vibration of the primordial yuanqi. The ordinary heart-minds vibration is too slow and too polarized to hold such potent primal force. In the inner alchemy model, this is why the ling, or inner heart essence (soul), must be cultivated by the adept and imbued into the elixir or dan.
In Western terms, this is roughly equivalent to saying the soul of the Sage is the true intermediary between Heaven and Humanity. The soul or ling must be perfectly attuned to higher forces above it, forces which must be smoothly communicated to the ordinary heart-mind perceptions and decision-making process below it. Both Chinese medicine and neidan theory map out these forces below as the yin-yang and five phases qi-flow that regulate the heart-mind.
They are the vital organ orbs of the heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and liver and their partners the bowel spirits who comprise the twelve officials. They behave much like real politicians and bureaucrats. Collectively their job is to regulate the heart-mind, yet paradoxically they embody the very patterns of resistance and corruption that need to be dissolved when they block healthy change. But the heart-mind lacks the will to completely dissolve itself. Thus the deeper level of ling or soul must first be accessed.
This view of the soul is becoming in-creasingly popular with modern Daoist healers in the West (Sha 2006). In the Daoist alchemy model the human ability to concentrate qi to dissolve obstructive patterns in itself doesn’t require perfection or absolute emptiness of mind in order to be successful. Dissolving is a process, not an end goal or fixed state. The heart-mind needs enough integrity to hold the center while absorbing higher cosmic forces, even if it is not yet physically, morally or spiritually perfected. In fact it may be the very flaws in the adepts heart-mind that guide the alchemical method of internal refining that is most successful.
Conclusion: True Purpose of Dissolving is Not Dissolving
These imperfections and the suffering they cause may inspire the adept to discover completely new ways to alchemically shape the qi-field. This model of flawed humans becoming immortal is well depicted in the Chinese legends surrounding the Eight Immortals. The flaws are what make each Sage a unique and lovable individual rather than spiritual clones of some borrowed deity-ideal of absolute perfection or emptiness that may not be attainable nor even desirable while in human form.
The alchemical model integrates the soul’s ability to unconditionally accept its human imperfections with the heart-minds ability to concentrate yin-yang forces. In One Clouds system, this allows the dissolving power of the Inner Smile to become the most advanced practice. When a sage or immortal merges the essence of their concentrated heart-mind into the heart of the Dao, it signals they have surrendered to a process of total service.
They now smile on behalf of the Dao, radiating a feeling of unconditional acceptance from the primordial qi-field. This smiling radiates a neutral force that lubricates the yin-yang qi flowing in all dimensions of Heaven, Earth, Humanity, and personal heart-mind. This is a merger of the sages personal heart-mind with the mind of Dao.
It implies that humanity’s highest destiny is to elevate Heaven and Earth with its purity of heart and the unique human ability to feel personal love/acceptance of the myriad beings. For Westerners, the Inner Smile’s heart-centeredness and unconditional openness offers a bridge between Daoism and Christian teachings of unconditional love.
In this light, dissolving the heart-mind in all of the models considered is not meant to get rid of the heart-mind, but to replace the old patterns with a more expanded, all-embracing mode. The dissolving process is designed to make the heart-mind pliable enough to respond to the qi-field, thus empowering it to serve the Dao of Humanity in its ceaseless creativity and self-exploration.
References
Chia, Mantak. 1991. Taoist Ways of Transforming Stress into Vitality. Huntington, NY: Healing Tao Books.
Frantzis, Bruce. 1993. Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body.Berkeley: North At-lantic Books.
Kohn, Livia. 1987. Seven Steps to the Tao: Sima Chengzhens Zuowanglun. St. Augustin: Monumenta Serica Monographs.
Phillips, Scott P. 2008. Portrait of an American Daoist: Charles Belyea/Liu Ming. Journal of Daoist Studies 1:161-76.
Rinaldini, Michael. 2008. How I Became a Daoist Priest. JDS 1:181-87.
Roth, Harold D., 1991. “Psychology and Self-Cultivation in Early Taoistic Thought,” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 51:2:599-650. _____. 1999.
Roth. Original Tao: Inward Training (Nei-yeh) and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Sha, Zhi Gang. 2006. Soul Mind Body Medicine. New York: New World Library.
Winn, Michael. 1999. Way of the Inner Smile: Tao Path to Self-Acceptance and Peace. www.HealingTaoUSA.com _____. 2003.
Winn, Michael. Internal Chi Breathing and Bone Rooting. Qigong Fundamentals 3 &4. Home Study Course. www.healingtaousa.com/ckf3.html
