Huang yuanji was a master of Nei Dan meditation sometime during the late Ming or early Qing dynasty in China. He developed a set of unique concepts in the middle school of internal alchemy, which is one of the most important schools of meditation in Daoism because of its clear and well thought out writing and methods, as well as its popular appeal to people outside of the Doaist clergy.
Huang wrote several documents, the two most famous being “Dao De Jing Chan Wei” which was a meditation based commentary on the Dao De Jing, and “Le Yu Tang” which is a recording of his teachings passed on by his students.
in these documents, Huang discusses a meditation based on a very important concept: “The single opening of the mystery gate.”
To give context to this phrase, the mystery gate comes from the Dao De Jing, which says “the gate of the mystery bird is the root of heaven and earth.” This phrase in the Dao De jing has long been discussed by Daoists of every dynasty, but it is important to understand a few key concepts in regard to meditation:
The term mystery in Daoism refers to the colour black, or more importantly, that which is dark and although it can’t be seen, has something real contained within it.
In Daoism, the term bird refers to deep female or yin energy, and so the mystery bird is often believed to refer to the darkness of the depth of yin energy, which is used as a metaphor for the womb of a mother.
This womb concept was carried on by later generations of Daoist thinkers, and they began to develop early “Embryonic breathing” practices based around the idea of containing the spirit inside of the body and developing a spiritual embryo which would allow the practitioner to eventually become enlightened and leave the mortal realm as an ascended being.
This concept later developed into Nei Dan meditation, which uses this imagery as well as other concepts to instruct people how to meditate more effectively and develop this “body within the body.”
Huang yuanji’s teachings came at a time when Nei Dan practices in Daoism had already been developing for more than 1000 years, and his addition to Nei Dan is based on a comprehensive knowledge of previous methods, as well as Buddhist and Confucian ideas about meditation and enlightenment.
Huang’s idea of the “mystery gate” is the central basic method of his practice, but it is not a technique which can be achieved through invocation of the will or movement, rather it is a way to make the mind enter a deep state of silence and emptiness, into which the practitioner does not even recognize the environs of the world around them, much less their own body. After spending a certain time in this state of profound silence and stability, yin will exhaust itself and even though the person meditating does not know it, the yin energy will naturally click over to yang. This period of time is what Daoists believe to be the same as the original creation of life, seemingly by magic, when the most basic physical foundations of life are formed.
Huang used earlier Daoist literature to point out how to return to this mysterious origin of all things, and that is his concept of “the single opening of the mystery gate.”
This mystery gate is not in a place or time, but rather, exists outside of our conscious ability to perceive it. Even though we don’t know we have passed through it, there is a trace left behind, which is the movement of Qi to the body. Huang discussed the Qi as moving in one great block to the entire body. this movement of Qi to the whole body is what Jiang Weiqiao later referred to was The blood carrying more oxygen and making people aware of the surface of their skin.
Regardless of what this transition between being, non being, and return to being is, or how it is caused, the subtle opening of the mystery gate is one of the most important meditation techniques to emerge in the Nei Dan school, and it represents a finalization of a certain aspect of Daoist theory. Although the mystery gate has been discussed in Daoism for a long time, it was really Huang Yuanji who discussed it the most clearly, and many schools of Daoism which emerged after him also took influence from this important concept.
Hopefully in future posts we will have a chance to discuss Huang’s method further and gain more insight from it as we progress in our knowledge of what makes meditation work in the Daoist imperative.