A question very pertinent to our exploration of meditation in Daoism and other traditions is the one of why there happen to be so many diverse and often completely different styles of meditative practice and how to organize our understanding of them so that they benefit, rather than confusing us.
Within the realm of seated meditation alone, there are at least 5 major schools of thought and within each of these schools of thought, there are countless schools, branches, and sub-branches, each with their own unique approaches to the art of meditation.
Within the Nei Dan school alone, there are at least Seven major schools which came into being after the writing of the book Understanding Reality (the most important manuscript in Nei Dan in terms of the organization of the school into a coherent way of thinking about practice) with multiple branches and sub-branches emerging from each of these schools.
Generally speaking, these schools are divided among five major conceptual lines of practice:
– schools which first cultivate Qi and then go on to cultivate the awareness (the Southern school makes this its primary focus)
– schools which first cultivate awareness and then cultivate Qi (the Northern school focuses on this)
– schools which cultivate both Qi and awareness together (Zhang San Feng’s school, The Middle school, the Wu Liu School, The Western school and the Eastern school do this),
– Schools which attempt to first enter practice from the point of pre heaven practice (IE: schools which begin from a focus on emptiness and spontaneity and non being and then develop further from that point)
– schools which begin from the post heaven and gradually refine to the pre heaven stage of practice (schools which place an early emphasis on the conscious development of channels of Qi which run through the body and then eventually work toward a more spontaneous practice)
So why is there so much radical variation between schools of meditation and why don’t they all follow the same principle?
Surely the answer to this question is complex and variable, but there is one major point which can help us understand the major variations between schools, that is that each major master developed a method of meditation which worked for themselves and their students.
Neidan, just like all traditional cultures of China, is strongly based on historical and literary precedent. The precedent set by past teachers has served to leave behind information to future generations about how to properly organize and structure their practices and activities, but because of the difference in circumstances between individual people, there is a dissonance in transmission of cultural ideas from generation to generation, and culture is always undergoing a process of change and development.
The Neidan school is no different in this regard, and it is possible to trace the development of this school from very early Daoist philosophical concepts, to the various meditative classics left behind by the first Daoist cults, and onward to the further research and development of multiple types of practice under the banner of Daoism.
Not only were diverse practices researched, but all of them have been in historical competition with one another and entire schools have gone in and out of fashion due to the development of new ideas which were more beneficial than the ones preceding them.
Even the earliest conceptualizations of practices which would ultimately become Nei Dan relied strongly on the already extant bodies of theoretical knowledge, philosophy, and alchemical and meditative traditions of that time in history.
While some practices like external alchemy went mostly extinct, other practices such as Nei Dan survived, and this is due to the strength and value of the method in helping people achieve higher levels of realization than the methods previously available to them.
To put it simply, each major school of meditation was created because the masters who developed it found their method to work successfully, first in their own development, and then later with their disciples and grand-students.
An interrogation of documents in the Small Daoist Canon (A Song dynasty collection of popular Daoist documents) shows us that some methods were difficult and hazardous to practice. A major work on “swallowing breath” instructs that people practising the method may find themselves peeing blood after several months of working on it, but that they should not be alarmed and that the colour would disappear from the urine after sufficient time. Other articles suggest against eating at all during times of greater practice, since the interaction of practice and a full stomach could injure the practitioner severely.
It would seem that many early methods of Daoist practice were quite physically demanding and dangerous to practice if not following a very careful lifestyle regimen.
Compared to Neidan practice, which is relatively simple and non invasive, it is no surprise that many older methods of meditation went out of style or at least became less popular after the development of the internal alchemy school.
On the other hand, the progression of Nei Dan theory is not completely linear, nor are modern interpretations of the practice any more valuable than older interpretations. Among most schools of Nei Dan, the most valued document is still Understanding Reality and it is the document from which most schools draw the majority of their theory. This timeless classic is so rich in information that scholars of meditation have been puzzling over it and trying to refine its meaning for more than 1000 years.
Ultimately, the ability of an individual to gain the benefits of Neidan practice are largely related to their luck in finding a skillful teacher and their own ability to carry out the rigorous theoretical research and practice that is needed to become fluent in the methods of meditation of this Daoist tradition.
There are virtually no extant schools of Nei Dan operating today whose method is not some form of synthesis of major historical schools of the art, and it seems fair to hazard a guess that there is no such thing as an ideologically “pure” Nei Dan school currently in existence. This should suggest to us that the best possible approach to take in understanding this art is to perform a review of all major literature associated with it and not to be excessively concerned with the comparative efficacy of one ancient lineage over another, but rather to understand as many approaches to it as possible and then practice the one which is both available to us and best suits our needs.
Early twentieth century writers such as Chen Yingning attempted to create synthetic schools of meditation which combined and elucidated all major methods of Nei Dan, and were in large part successful. We can take a page from their book and use the utmost of our abilities to make an advanced study of this excellent art, hopefully reaping its full benefits and improving ourselves and society in the process.