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Introduction
To explain the roots of DYC Teaching we
should start with the first chapter of Laozi’s Daodejing,
a text that predates Chinese Daoism by 500 years. This chapter,
like many in this amazing text, describes the authors (the text
was collectively written) understanding of the spiritual wisdom
that informed the animism of China in the formative 4th century
BCE.
True Dao is not a way that can be conceptualized.
Its true name has no identity.
Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth.
Name is the mother of the ten thousand.
We are told, at the very start of the Daodejing,
that Dao, as a model for life and the human spiritual path, is fundamentally
non-conceptual and/or non-dualistic. We are told implicitly that
we (the reader [de]) are inherently an inseparable part of true
Dao whose activity (wuwei) is ungraspable – names, concepts
and words fail to capture “it” (Dao) or “us”
(de) in an enduring way. We are invited to embrace the paradox that
unknowing is wisdom. Our path is natural and inherent - not something
we are mandated to search for, discover, struggle with or master.
The title of this text is the Daode classic. The fundamental teaching
of wuwei is that Nature (Dao) and self (nature: de) are arising
naturally and resolving naturally.
The True Dao (big “d” Dao) is not
a way (small “d” dao) that can be conceptualized. All
life paths and/or spiritual paths, based on concept (self-improvement,
morality, transcendence, clarity, transformation, healing), can
be given names, described easily and are, therefore, not Laozi’s
true Dao. In a very important sense, all philosophical and spiritual
teachings are constructs - vain conceptual exertions. Dao as an
immortal Other or de as an abiding Self are simply concepts - fantasies.
Daoist cultivation or wuweidao, according to Laozi, is, therefore,
a natural mode of expressing our true nature and not an investigation,
evaluation and improvement process. The spiritual life Laozi recommends
is a matter of naturalness not industry.
Expressing our true nature (de) is a moment-to-moment “naturalness”.
Effort, in all its forms, is useless in the maintenance of this
natural present. We are invited to simply stay with the situation
as-it-is. Wuwei is not “non-action” in the sense of
renouncing or controlling our actions. It is acknowledging the way
in which action arises of itself spontaneously – strictly
without compulsion. Any dao that is associated with the compulsion
to do is riddled with desire, pride, effort and construction. Such
strenuous action serves to uphold the false notion of an abiding
self and, is therefore, not the Dao of wuwei – what, in this
chapter, is called the true Dao.
Its true Name has no identity. Chang ming, translated
here as “true name” can also be translated as true nature
– each thing/being has its authentic nature – an authentic
name. But this authentic nature is not an individual identity. What
is true about the true nature of each being and thing is its commonality
with the true nature of all beings/things. This common nature could
be called their naturalness.
Here is the first of a series of cautions in the Laozi about the
use of words and names. According to Laozi, it is not that words
are “bad” or something to be renounced. Words must simply
not to be mistaken for hard, accurate assessments of reality. Laozi
suggests that we use words softly and names provisionally. Words
and names do not identify or ‘capture’ what is real.
If we call what is ungraspable, by the name Dao – we have
not truly grasped it or truly made a mistake. If we use words softly
and names provisionally, we allow language to float around and between
concept and non-concept. This sort of language is easy to “forget”.
Laozi’s Dao has no role to play or job to
do – it is not creative. Nameless (wu ming or nameless also
means non-conceptual and/or non-being) is the origin of Heaven and
Earth (also yang and yin). The nameless and non-conceptual (Dao)
appears in the world of words and perceptions, as Heaven and Earth.
Yet creation of particularity is not really the activity of Heaven
and Earth it is simply the appearance of the relationship between
Heaven and Earth (dualism: yang/yin). Here Laozi is saying that
Dao, in sense is the unknowable, non-interactive environment in
which the dualism called Heaven (yang) and Earth (yin) dance. Heaven
and Earth represent Dao as the limitless permissiveness of concept
at play with non-concept. It is the constant tendency towards creation,
arisal or appearance.
Name is the Mother of the ten thousand. All things
arise of themselves – if we give this tendency to appear a
name, it is called the Mother (name/being). Things arise, are nourished,
supported and completed by the Mother (the tendency in beings/things
to be [arise and resolve]). Self-arising is not an act of creation
or the act of a creator. In reality, neither creation nor creator
exists. Heshang Gong describes Heaven and Earth as the Mother by
saying: The Nameless spits out qi, and the ten thousand things swallow
it.
Constantly
Renewable Animism
The inspiration behind the various classes taught
at DYC is animism. For a long time the term animism exclusively
referred to what might be called aboriginal religions of the world
– religions found by European explorers in their “discovery”
of the “new” world in the last four centuries. The term
referred to a common belief that Christian Europeans found everywhere.
This common belief was the understanding that every being and every
thing was “animated” or alive. Animists also assume
that every thing and every being is interconnected by this “animation”,
that is, life itself is “shared”.
Up until quite recently the term animism was thought
to summarize the primitive “cults” that preceded the
world’s great civilizations and their religions and philosophies
or “isms”. What had been missed in this superficial
analysis was that “animism” was indeed a profound philosophy
and a universal religion that was everywhere without the need for
heroic missionaries and without the trappings of hegemony.
The teachings at DYC suggest that the tables have
turned. DYC teachings are part of a more mature worldview that is
emerging. This new or renewed vision suggests that not only is animism
the precedent for the world’s great religions it may also
be at the heart of all these religions. None of the great religions,
with their “unique” revelations, history and culture
can survive in the new “opened up” world. At the heart
of DYC teachings is the mandate of the cycles of time that indicate
that human beings are returning to their animist roots.
Imagine for a moment that the screen in front
of you is a fire surrounded by all our living and dead ancestors.
Feel the animating force of your ancestors and the animating force
of the flickering screen as one animating force. The fires, the
lights, the songs, the dreams and the people are all alive in this
moment. It is so easy. This is the great liberation, this is the
great awakening and this is immortality!
Animism and Shamanism
The term “shaman” (taken from a Central
Asian language) describes the people who journey along the “rivers
of animation”. They find means to travel up and back along
the river of time and space. They practice science and religion
as a single path. Their jobs in the world were to heal their communities
and converse with the spirits for purposes of divination. Their
journeys are the meaning of the word “epic”. The spirits
that they converse with are aspects of the constant animation that
is central to all life. The catalog of these spirits differentiates
various shamanic traditions but the “journey of communication”
has a similar path everywhere in the world and throughout time.
At DYC we differentiate three streams of shamanism.
The first stream we call “fresh or white
shamanism”. This form of shamanism comes from the recognition
that all life forms are simply mediums of life’s animation.
The white shamanic journey is universal – a journey that all
beings and things are on. The white shaman experiences all things/beings
as naturally arising mutually enabling all things to naturally return.
Spontaneity and uninhibited energy characterize but do not identify
the teachings of the white shaman. For them divination is discrete
and ordinary.
The second stream we call “death or black
shamanism”. Though the name may sound morbid, occult or frightening,
the black shaman’s journey is not truly different from a white
shaman. Their fundamental views are only slightly different. The
black shaman’s vision is focused on return and the inevitable
losses (voluntary and involuntary) experienced while journeying.
The black shaman’s path is an apprenticeship that requires
transformation skills and intermediary spirit helpers. Secrecy and
empowerment characterize the teachings of black shaman. Funeral
and healing rites play a significant part in their lives.
The third stream blends the first two and is called
“fire or red shamanism”. The red shaman often lives
in the midst of turmoil and practices eclecticism as a means of
spiritual survival. This form of shamanism is most widespread in
the world today. The lineages of red shaman often die out in a matter
of a few generations, but the dynamism is its greatest natural strength.
In Asian history Tantrikas are red shaman who have created new versions
of Bon (in Tibet), Daoism (in China) and Shinto (in Japan).
All three shamanic streams arise and return to
the same oceanic animism.
The teachings that serve as a base for the Da
Yuan Circle are derived from a variety of streams that arise from
the great sea of animism – most notably Daoism. Defining Daoism
is not actually possible. It may be that the only legitimate Daoists
are those who are content with the paradoxical notion that a hard-and-fast
definition of Daoism is irrelevant.
If we use the historical approach to find a provisional
definition of Daoism, it appears first in the animism of the Mongoloid
aboriginals of North and Central Asia. This earliest form should
not be understood as a coherent school or sect, but the world-famous
anthology entitled Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), is widely accepted
as its primary document. The teaching found in this text is called
“wuweidao” by later Chinese Daoists. Throughout its
history Daoism has taken many shapes but its animist roots were
never lost.
About this, Liu Ming has said:
“As human beings, we can create and overcome our dualistic
tendencies – there is no greater teaching or power than this.
The basis and inspiration of our practice and our teaching is the
unsullied animism found lingering in Daoism and Buddhism. This animism
is based on the view that the experience of our non-abiding self
(de [nature]) and the total environment (Dao [Nature]) are animated
by a single pervasive force. In the case of Daoism this force is
called Qi. In the case of Buddhism it is called the enlightened
Mind.”
Wuweidao
Wuweidao, in the truest sense, is not a religious
or spiritual tradition with a history and canon; it is not the transmission
of a god, prophet or philosopher. It has no fixed national, racial
or ethnic identity. It is the natural and spontaneous way in which
Dao (the unnamable cosmos) interacts with itself. It is also the
dynamic dance of substance (jing, space) and energy (qi, time) that
is found in all forms of animism. For human beings it is the continuous
and effortless expression of our true nature (de, shen) spontaneously
revealed by the way-things-actually-are.
Laozi (a name given to compiler of the text) refers
to wuwei as “cultivating Dao according to Dao”. Any
and all implied spiritual cultivation in this text points directly
to an appreciation of a non-dual reality – a continuity of
life referred to by Chinese Daoists as Qi. The heart of such cultivation
is found existing-of-itself (ziran) in non-conceptual meditation
(zuowang).
Laozi’s Daodejing suggests that all religious
history, all hagiographies, all the various traditions and their
many sects are expressions of a single human effort to make the
unknowable Dao, something knowable – a thing or idea ungraspable
by our narrow, human limitations (shen or de). This paradoxical
effort is a gateway to wisdom and the resolution of Fate (Daode).
It is also the shamanic journey.
Liu Ming adds: “As radical as this may sound,
in some very basic sense, of course, there is no intrinsic value
to religion, sermons, scriptures, prayers or meditation. Only when
the great religious systems inspire us to directly engage in overcoming
our limitations do we find their value. For Laozi, paradox is the
sublime teaching. What is profound about being human is that we
create AND overcome our dualistic limits. Wuweidao suggests that
we acknowledge and honor that profundity first and then use the
heritage of our chosen dao (system/path) to play with our remarkable
capacity to “uncreate” dogma and overcome our personal
and collective limits. This is classic white shamanism.”
Chinese Daoism
Chinese Daoism is the native religion of the river
valleys of what is today central northern China. In its very long
history it has culled the spiritual practices and cultural expressions
of innumerable “daos”.
It is the revelations of Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Han Daoist
movement called the Tianshidao (Way of the Celestial Masters [2nd
century CE]) that formed the basis of (Han) Chinese Daoism. In synthesizing
animism (teachings and practices of the fangshi “formula masters”
[black shaman]) and Wuweidao (white shaman), this formative movement
created a cosmology and formal education (ordination curriculum
of daoshi [Daoist priests]) that is still the basis of the orthodox
Chinese Daoist spiritual path.
Between the Han and the Tang dynasties Daoism played an important
role in the extraordinary cultural/spiritual synthesis that would
become the Golden Age of China (Tang/Song dynasties). During this
time Chinese Daoism inspired articulate and elaborate practices,
at once scientific, spiritual and artistic. These new expressions
reached a pinnacle in the inner alchemy (neidan) of Shangjingdao
or the Way of the Highest Clarity.
The Tianshidao and Shangjingdao eventually integrated into Zhengyidao
or orthodox Daoism. The successive generations of the Zhang family
have been the most prominent custodians of this tradition to the
present day.
The Practice of
Chinese Daoism
What makes orthodox Chinese Daoist practices unique
is the underlying notion that spiritual practice is not remedial
– we are not ‘lost’ or flawed by nature. “Cultivating
Dao” is not a matter of obliterating personal problems, transcending
the mundane or renouncing the world. True Daoist cultivation is
best thought of as the myriad ways we can express our true living
nature (Daode).
The central formal practice of Daoism is the non-conceptual
meditation called “zuowang”, sitting and forgetting.
A sublime expression of animism and wuwei, zuowang is the relaxed
posture of non-conceptual meditation. A conceptual practice, called
jindan (golden elixir), using “visualization” and the
analogy and vocabulary of alchemy has always been its counterpoint.
These two primary practices have inspired many other practices and
observances that inform a Daoist daily life – the selection
and preparation of food, a contemplative approach to sleep/dream,
breathing and sexual techniques. All these, in the case of ordained
daoshi (priests), inform the practice of elaborate calendar rituals.
These rituals, consistent with their animistic roots, continue to
be the main expression and transmission of Chinese Daoism.
In Northern Asia the influences of Daoism are
uncountable. Daoism informs the strokes of art and calligraphy,
the movements of taiji and the mechanism of shamanistic exorcism.
It has inspired China’s poetry tradition as well as the design
of its homes, irrigation channels and burial sites. It is in the
savory recipes of Chinese cuisine and in the balance and language
of its traditional medicine. Yet, despite its pervasive influence
on Chinese culture, science and religion, Daoism is not captured
or defined by any one of these expressions.
Chinese Daoism Today
Today, after innumerable encounters with Confucianism
and Buddhism and dozens of sectarian reforms, Chinese Daoism continues
to defy definition. Though sectarian differences can be found and
studied, the Chinese tradition of Daoism has always maintained its
inner vitality through the personal transmission of teachings between
individual teachers and their students.
Today, though much is owed to Chinese Daoist lineages,
they are neither the origin nor the only expression of Daoism. Scholars
and practitioners are now found all over the world continuing the
tradition of rewording and reevaluating its canon and practices.
This apparent pandemonium and confusion about legitimacy and continuity
only proves again that the true nature of Daoism is not a thing
to be mastered or defined.
THE FIVE PRACTICES OF THE LIU FAMILY
The Liudao (path teachings) are important not because they tell us what we ought to DO but because they reveal what we ARE. The practices are not just choices or spiritual options but a remarkable vision of life itself.
In routine disciplined practice it is assumed that the practitioner will “cross over” from one practice to the “ great field of 5 practice”. Those who enter this “great field” are called xian (adepts/immortals).
Several of the Liudao practices have parallels in the later developments of the Tantric forms of Buddhism found in Tibet.
ZUOWANG
“Sitting and Forgetting” is non-conceptual meditation. The View, taken from early sources (Laozi), is that all beings/things are fundamentally nameless, self-arising and resolving. This “nature” of things (de, shen) is none other than Dao. The formal practice is the direct experience of Reality that “appears” when the practitioner relaxes the de/Dao distinctions that foster the notion of separation (body [jing], energy [qi] and totality [shen]). This practice is independent of “teachings” as such.
Zuowang is the ancestor of the Chinese Buddhist Chan form of meditation called zuochan.
NEIDAN
“Inner Elixir” is the practice of Daoist alchemy based on the physiology/cosmology of Daoist yoga/science/medicine. The View is based on the resolution/sublimation of the bi-directionality of existence/becoming (chemistry) and non-existence (alchemy). The formal practice is the “backwards following” of an internal map of “becoming” (blood/flesh to jing to qi) that returns to the root of becoming (totality/shen/Daode). This practice is the ancestor of all “hygiene-macrobiotic” practices (medicine).
Neidan may be the called the “inner vision” of zuowang.
LING XU
“Spiritual Protocols” is the performance of orthodox ritual. It uses sound (music and voice), dance (internal/external movement) and a sense of empowered imagination (visualization) with a View to resolve the apparent “external” deities and spirits of Daoist iconography with the practitioners “internal” alchemy. The formal practice is the perfection of detailed orthodox performance that is transcendent mediumship. This practice pre-dates Chinese Daoism and has roots in all systems of “shamanism”.
Ling Xu closely parallels the Tibetan Buddhist and Bon practice of Tantric sadhana.
DAO YIN
“Originating the Way” is the solitary practice of Daoist yoga (neigong). This practice directly stimulates and recalibrates the points, channels and convergences (dantian) of qi at the crux of our physical/spiritual existence (de), providing the direct and lucid experience of Daode. The practice is most commonly used in solitary retreat. It is the ancestor of all neigong, qigong and gongfu (external).
Dao Yin closely parallels the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist and Bon practice of tsa-long.
YUN GONG
“Dream Workings” is the practice of the Night and the “dream world”. It works directly on the resolution of the dichotomy of waking and sleeping that mistakes the continuity of being (immortality). The formal practice normalizes sleep (medical/healing), empowers dreams (symbolic content) and opens up dreams (path dreaming) to reveal the parallel nature of sleep and “death”.
Yun Gong arises in the Night and in the moment of “death” – it is therefore parallel to Dream Yoga in the Six Yogas of Naropa (including bardo experience [transition] and phowa or transference) in Tantric Buddhism.
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