Why would we want to do these practices?

 

These are powerful methods of cultivating health, longevity, and immortality (spiritual awakening)

Longevity is the ability to attain youthfulness within old age, living healthy to the end of your days. Taoists prized older people who were still vital in body and young in mind far more than they valued just being young in years. Their goal was to combine the benefits of youthful vitality with the wisdom of age and apply both toward developing the elixir and attaining “immortality,” not getting derailed by lack of vitality and sickness. 

Immortality has a variety of meanings within Taoism. The most accepted meaning is that upon death, the mental and spiritual energies remain intact; in other words, the cultivator remains completely conscious during the death experience. In Taoist terms, the hun (heavenly spirit) remains, while the po (earthly spirit) is shed.

Three endeavors dominate the Taoist quest for health, longevity, and immortality:

• One, the ingestion of nutrition and herbal medicines 
• Two, the performance of physical and respiratory exercises to gain breath control and mobilize the Qi
• And three, the achievement of mental and physical tranquility through meditation. 

If one or more of these three practices can be maintained in your daily life, you will restore greater vitality and stamina (to cultivate youthfulness in old age). 

Depending on the depth and sincerity of your efforts, you could attain longevity (living to over one hundred years of age in good health), or you could actually realize the internal elixir of immortality.

The practices we will do together in this retreat will provide means of cultivating the latter two of these three endeavors.

 

How do these practices cultivate health and longevity?

All schools of Taoism begin with cultivating Jing (essence), Qi (vital energy), and Shen (spirit). We consist of these three things—when they come together we have a human being 

• The Jing gives us a body
• The Qi allows that body to be animated
• The Shen allows that body to be conscious

These three things are cultivated in Taoism to make sure we maintain health and longevity. The state of these three treasures determine the state of health we are able to enjoy and the length of our life. 

These practices help us develop the Qi and the flow of Qi in the body

The first key to health and longevity is strong Qi and good Qi flow. You could say the source of all disease is low Qi and bad Qi flow. If your Qi is good and flowing well, you won't suffer bad health. 

So in Eight Brocades and these three other practices, we build our Qi and increase our Qi flow through: 

1. The breath. Taoist utilize many types of breathing, and Eight Brocades utilizes many of them. 
2. A relaxed mind. Taoists do meditation to cultivate this state of mind. Eight Brocades is a form of Taoist meditation because it uses exercises in a focused & one pointed manner, in a way that leads to tranquility.
3. Physical movement in conjunction with the breath. In these types of nourishing life practices, called by many names, including Tao Yin and Qigong, we mobilize the Qi throughout the body, which involves two components:

• Developing softness, the elimination of tension, so that Qi is able to freely move about the body and 
• Using our breath, movement, and mind intent to lead the Qi through the meridians, Qi centers, and organs. 

These practices help us develop the Jing and flow of Jing in the body

Taoists call the regenerative force in human beings Jing, and they equate it with the body’s physical strength and vitality. Jing is the body’s natural life energy and is acquired through nourishment and is dissipated through exertion, both physical and mental. Jing can be seen as the water element of the body, including sexual secretions, saliva, tears, blood, marrow, lymph, etc.  

The methods we will be doing together have the aim of restoring the Jing closer to the condition it was in childhood. If we get these healthy fluids in our body to the optimum amounts and quality, we will not suffer illness and premature aging. 

When we do these exercises we will be working with properly, we develop the Jing. For example in Eight Brocades we swirl the tongue in the mouth to develop the saliva, and we pat the meridians to stimulate and move the lymph and interstitial fluid. And Eight Brocades also focuses in many ways on restoring our kidneys, which is where our Jing is created and stored. 

Having well-developed, good flowing Qi and Jing leads to healthy bone marrow which is key to health and youthful vitality

Through these practices, you develop good Qi concentrated low in the abdomen, which warms the blood, and blood that is warm circulates more completely. If we have good Qi flow, we have good blood flow, which all Western medical doctors agree is crucial for every aspect of health. This warm blood travels through the arteries in all the muscles of the body, and likewise is transported into all the sinews and tendons that surround the bones. 

From here the increased circulation and supply of blood reaches not only the skin but the actual bone through the capillaries. All the muscles, tendons, sinews, and skin are nourished by this warm blood. Importantly this warmed blood contains Qi and when this enters the bone, it creates more marrow. When this occurs the body again feels light, nimble, and active. 

This process restores the body, flesh, and bones to the pliability of a child. Taoism is about going back. If you can restore your bone marrow, you can reverse the aging process and heal yourself from many if not most things.

 

How do these practices help awaken our spirit?

The goal of Taoism is the state of external expression called Shen Ming (Spirit Illumination), which means that the Spirit (Shen) can function and be utilized as readily as the body.

The process Taoists use to achieve spiritual illumination is Internal Alchemy 

Jing, Qi, and Shen, or Spirit, are interdependent. When one becomes strengthened, the others benefit as well. When one is weakened, the others are likewise weakened. For this reason, a person needs to regulate the body, breath, and mind. 

When both the Jing and Qi are made strong, the Shen is likewise strengthened, and when the Shen is strengthened, it strengthens the Jing and Qi.

So in Eastern thought there are two approaches to spiritual awakening. “First in the mind, then in the body” or “First in the body and then in the mind.”

Buddhism mostly utilizes the first approach, and the tradition of Taoism we follow utilizes the latter approach. 

In Taoist cultivation, we first undergo a period of Wei Dan (external alchemy) to replenish the Three Treasures. 

We focus first on restoring the energies of Qi and Jing in the body and getting them to flow through our body through:

• Replenishing the Three Treasures through nourishing life arts such as meditation, Dao Yin, Taijiquan, Qigong, massage, acupressure, acupuncture, nutrition, herbs, etc. 
• Opening the Three Passes (which is like “uncrimping the hose” or opening the channels so energy can flow)

The outcomes of this stage are: 

• Acquiring Free Circulation of Qi 
• Sensations of the three elixir fields on the front of the body, and
• To be able to sit quietly without dullness or confusion. 

In this retreat we will be using Qigong, Tao Yin, and Self-Massage to replenish the Jing and Qi and help them flow throughout the meridians, organs and Qi centers, as well as Opening the Three Passes to further unblock the flow of energy from the places where they are most likely to be “crimped.”

Our goal is to restore our Qi and Jing to optimum levels, quality, and flow, which then stimulates and strengthens the Spirit, or Shen. 

Once the Three Treasures, Jing, Qi and Shen, are replenished, this creates the conditions in the body that are necessary for the process of Internal Alchemy. 

At this point one has cultivated Jing (fluids) and Qi (heat). And just like heat can turn water to steam which can move an engine, heat causes the fluids to move through our body. It’s not just Qi, it’s turned to a sensation of water fluid moving through the body, and this awakens our Shen, or Spirit. 

It is then Shen that forges the mixture of Jing and Qi into the elixir, and moves the elixir in nine revolutions, whereby a drop of yang Shen (pure spirit—in analogy, these revolutions purify and forge the essences of Jing, Qi, and Shen into an elixir, a pill, or a seed-like substance) can then be deposited into the tan-tien (field of elixir), and creates the spiritual embryo. In other words, this is how the awakened Spirit is able to emerge and develop within a person.