Month: January 2017

My first foray into the world of Chinese tea really started with Tieguanyin.
Under advisement from my mother, who had seen lovely advertising for a yoga hostel in Xiamen, Fujian, I set out to the South Eastern tip of China in search of a nice vacation away from my job at the time, which was as custodian of a particularly rowdy gaggle of Canadian university students. In Xiamen, I went to explore the local tea markets, which had always interested me. The first year in China, before the year under discussion, I had visited the Shanghai tea market many times, and also began to experiment with Japanese green teas during my many months spend travelling in that country.
I liked tea, but you would have been hard pressed to call it a passion at that time.
When I went to xiamen, things changed a lot, as I was exposed to the tremendous abundance of different varieties of Tieguanyin tea. I had known beforehand that tea in China was graded into quality levels, but nothing really can prepare one for Tieguanyin, which is such a tremendously diverse tea, not only in production method, but also in range of tastes and smells that this unusual Oolong leaf can make.
The first time I was in Xiamen, I must have purchased about twenty different samples from various tea stores, each one totally different.
It was that year that I met my tea teacher, He Caitong, a very patient and sophisticated Taiwanese woman in Shanghai who taught me a great deal about the nature of Chinese and Taiwanese teas. One thing she said to me was that her feeling about Tieguanyin was that it was a problem cultivar and she did not enjoy drinking it, since it made her feel cold.
During this time, while learning about what real Taiwanese tea was under teacher He, I also travelled to Xiamen several times in search of tea, and then later to Quanzhou and the surrounding tea fields and porcelain districts in the area.
I think the first tea farm that I ever visited was Long Jing, but the first tea farm I tried to understand was in Fujian and it produced Mao Xie Oolong, a sister of Tieguanyin.
One thing that particularly stuck out to me at that time was the farmer there, old man Zhang, had a special stash of half finished tieguanyin that he kept in a freezer.
The half finished tea was a green Tieguanyin style tea that was lightly curled, but had not been baked or finished in post production. He had to keep it in the fridge because it would go bad within a few days otherwise.
This was my first inkling that something special was up with the Tieguanyin scene in South Fujian.
One day, my teacher gave me a box of Tieguanyin that she said had won an award in Anxi. She said that this particular tea was as close to traditional Tieguanyin as was still available in China and that I should go home and compare it against what I had tried before. Tasting the tea, I could understand why it is called “Iron” goddess of mercy. The perfume of the tea was of deep orchid flowers, the bake was heavy but not burnt, and there was a strong, cold, steely aftertaste which was delicious and stayed in my mouth and throat for hours after. I believed at the time that I had finally tasted the “real” Chinese Tieguanyin.
Not long after, on a trip to Taiwan, I met with tea farmer Zhang Mingfeng, who runs the Zishan tea garden at Muzha in Taipei. His family is one of the oldest producers of Tieguanyin on the mountain and are originally from Anxi China, having gone to Taiwan four generations ago to plant tea for the British. Zhang spoke well of Wuyi tea, which he felt was the real traditional Oolong in China, but explained that he was not a fan of Chinese Tieguanyin, preferring his family’s own deeply baked and oxidized variant of the famous tea. I began a long, beneficial relationship with him and his farm and have had a chance to try and to retail most of the teas he grows at some time or other in my store.
Certainly Taiwanese Tieguanyin is excellent tea and much better than the average Chinese version of comparable price.

Last December, I went back to Xiamen, at the request of a family friend, and was introduced to multiple tea hobbiests there who tasted the local teas with me and helped me contextualize the Tieguanyin cultivar much more carefully.
It turns out that one of the reasons that we don’t see so much heavily baked Tieguanyin in Fujian anymore is because there is a prevailing opinion that the highest rung of Tieguanyin leaves are to be processed in such a way that they are not brought into completion of post production through a deep firing process. This means that the highest grades of Tieguanyin in the area are very green in nature, and must be kept in a refrigeration or else they will spoil and lose their flavour and perfume.
Having said that, there are also many types of Tieguanyin in Fujian which are not often seen outside of the area, and I was very surprised to find a “Mi Xiang” honey scent Tieguanyin grown in Anxi, which was very similar to the Taiwanese one I sell at my store.
I remarked to the person giving me the tea that I would not know how to buy this particular tea and he said “of course you wouldn’t, they wouldn’t be willing to sell it to you,” it seems that there is much more to learn about tieguanyin and that my journey is far from over.
I also discovered that there are a few people in Xiamen who still make Tieguanyin in the old fashioned way, and I was lucky enough to meet old Mr.Chen, an ex sports coach who’s love for baking tea was so great that he quit his job and opened up a coal firing house in Anxi to make baked tea each spring. One big difference between Anxi and Taiwan Tieguanyin is that in Taiwan, the best baked tea is made in the winter, while in Anxi, it is only made in the spring, since there is a prevalent local belief that tea baked in the fall will come out tasting bad (that isn’t to say that tea isn’t baked in the fall, but that there are many people who do not approve of this practice).

I also had the good luck in 2016 to meet the owners of a local shop in Hong Kong who still produce old fashioned Tieguanyin in their own way at their facilities there. The tea is sent down half finished to their store and they do the post production with the old Shifu there, whose tea knowledge was passed down through the generations to him via his ancestors.

My tea journey thus far has been really splendid, and I’ve had a chance to drink many different teas, visit many different growing regions, and come to understand the Oolong field, especially in Taiwan quite well, but there is one tea, my first big interest, Tieguanyin which seems to be like an endlessly deep pool of water. I look into the translucent yellow, or red, or brown liquid, sweet perfume rising in the steam, and I’m transported somewhere, on the side of a mountain in the fresh air. I look out forever into the distance and the sky has no final junction, it is just an expanse of colour and mystery. The tea in my cup is also a mystery because every time I think I’ve perceived its bottom, it simply changes and becomes deeper, and more elusive.

January 17
2017

Meditation is something which can take a long time to cultivate.
It can take between a few weeks and a few years to get the first tangible results and the process can either seem very easy or very difficult.
This, paired with the fact that many teachers do not like to share openly with new students about the goals and results of meditation makes it possible for new students to feel confused and unclear about what stage they are at and what they need to do next.
This problem, coupled with the problem of impatience so common among new students, can lead to the result that the new student begins to attempt to skip stages.
It is important to recognize here that there are many schools of meditation, and each one has a different basic method. Some of them are more simple and some are more complex. The method I practice for instance is fairly simple, but requires a certain amount of attention to detail and supervision so that new students don’t go off on the wrong track.

The current literature on meditation in the west is full of complicated ideas like “mindfulness” “chackras” “energy body” “third eye” “kundalini” “Qi” and many other terms and for people who do not have one teacher who teaches a single, proven method, it is easy to want to put all the ideas together and just invent ones own unique practice.
This is a tremendous trap in meditation and is genuinely dangerous for people who practice in this way.

A new student might be confused about why their teacher has simply told them to count their breaths, or to observe the space under their belly button and inside their body, or they might receive conflicting information from their friends or senior students who tell them to focus on different things.
This can make people very confused and it is important to first become clear about what the purpose of meditation is and then go about setting down the foundation required to achieve it.

The purpose of meditation is different at different levels of practice, but for new beginners and intermediate students, the most important purpose is to quiet the mind and calm the thoughts. No matter what style of practice you do, meditation should never make you excited or nervous, and if your practice is making you excited, it is a wrong practice, since it won’t allow you to calm down enough to begin perceiving reality and seeing what is directly in front of your eyes.

Meditation also requires an anchor, usually something to focus on such as placing the attention on a certain area of the body, or counting the breaths, or some simple visualization. The anchor is different in all styles of meditation but the principle remains the same, to draw the mind into silence and the body into stillness, calm and relaxation.

Meditation also requires you to relax and calm down your focus. If you can’t soften your focus, you will never become calm and silent, and the positive results of meditation will forever elude you.

Many new students, especially young people raised in cultures which prize the acquisition of goods as a measure of ones material wealth, often have a problem in sticking to the basic concepts of meditation long enough to learn the method correctly. They want to move from putting their mind in the lower abdomen to focusing on the third eye, to opening the heart centre, and allowing the spirit to move outside of the body, and they want to do it now. A wise teacher will try to help them understand why they should focus on just one thing at first. It is already very difficult to do one thing well, and in meditation, the goal must always return to the singular, because if you can achieve that one thing, then its effect in the long run will allow you to understand many things.
If meditation is used to stop the wandering of the mind, then you must stop the mind from wandering before you do anything else. Focusing on the energy meridians of the body, of out of body transcendental wanderings or anything else are all secondary to the base requirement of first achieving and maintaining stillness and silence. Any of the great effects of meditation come from that root and return to it, so if you can’t achieve it, then all other practices are futile imaginings and useless mental gymnastics.
It is much better to really learn the basics before trying to move on to more advanced material.
In order to avoid the illness of impatience, make sure you take the teachings of your teacher seriously and don’t deviate from the correct path they lay down for you.

January 18 2017

If you like my articles, please consider joining our weekly online lessons, which are an ongoing email list that discusses the classics of Daoist meditation and how to practice and implement it in daily life. I ask for a monthly donation for the classes of between $30-50 on a pay what you can basis, you are only asked to pay once a month, like a regular in person class, and can drop out at any time.
If you would like to study Daoist Internal Alchemy methods, please contact me at neidandao@hotmail.com
Thank you.

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.

the above photo is was taken at San Jing Gardens, one of the main providers of Oolong tea to my store. The important thing to take note of is that the leaf that farmer Li is holding between his fingers is unhealthy in comparison to the other leaves on the tree.

here is a comparison:

These leaves are healthier and fuller.

One problem that comes up in tea harvesting on many farms is that both healthy and unhealthy leaves are taken and mixed into the same batches of tea. There are two major reasons why it is better not to take the unhealthy leaves from the tree.
1: unhealthy leaves don’t taste as good as healthy leaves. They are usually more astringent, bitter, and have less perfume than fully developed, healthier leaves.
2: an unhealthy leaf means that that section of the tree is experiencing a minor health problem. This is the same is with our own bodies. If you were to break your toe, you would be careful about walking until it healed, and most people certainly wouldn’t go and run a marathon. A slightly unhealthy leaf on a tea tree, if allowed to develop by itself will ultimately fall away to be replaced by better growth eventually. If farmers harvest all the leaves indiscriminately, then it means that the trees have no chance to get healthy on their own, and are exposed to a massive shock.

This is one of the main reasons why hand harvesting of tea is more sustainable than machine harvesting. Machine harvesting takes all of the leaves from the tree, meaning it can’t grow big and healthy, and most machine harvested tea fields die within a decade, having to be left fallow for a certain period of time until the soil recovers.
Hand harvested tea, and tea fields which have sustainable hand harvesting practices, such as those of San Jing farms, end up with healthier trees that can be used for the entire life of the tree, which can be much longer than a human life.

Unfortunately, not many farmers are doing this type of ecologically sustainable farming, and instead go for large yields and what is sacrificed in quality and tree life is made up in profit and short term gain.

People like Li Minghan of San Jing farms are tea production pioneers, because they are combining the newest research into sustainable agriculture with traditional tea farming and processing techniques to create an entirely new genre of bio tea, which is healthy, delicious, and good for the local environment.
That is why Chayo Tea cooperates with Li and others like him, in order to bring more good into the world, one cup at a time.

This thread is to introduce ongoing weekly classes by email correspondence.
Each week will cover different material related to Nei Dan practice and will rely on classical documents to help you master the basics and then get the benefit from a daily meditation practice.
Each week, one email will be sent with a classical piece of writing from the internal elixir meditation school, translated and explained by myself.
After you read the document, you will practice it in meditation and then contact me with questions, observations, and to get assistance to help you in your practice.

The first month will consist of the following pieces of text, each with annotation and notes for practice:

– Week one: Commentary on the Jade Emperor Embryonic Breathing Classic from the “Qi methods” section of the small Daoist Canon.
– Week two: “Qing Xing” on emotions and the natural mind, a section from the small Daoist Canon which is relevant to our later study of the famous book “understanding reality.”
– week three: 100 days basic practice from “Da Cheng Jie yao” with complete notes introducing how to practice properly in order to get the best results.
– week four: method of cultivating the mind from Wang Chongyang’s Ten Discussions.

the second month will deal mainly with Da Cheng Jie Yao and Li xiyue’s Eastern school Nei Dan method.

The fee for the course is a sliding fee of $30-50 on a pay what you can basis, the same as a local meditation or martial arts course, but instead of showing up for class in person every week, you show up electronically.

If you would like to take the class, please email neidandao@hotmail.com to register.

百日筑基
hundred days basic practice:
　　初节炼精化气功夫，名日小成筑基。
The beginning stage of changing essence to qi is called “small achievement basic practice”
　 　夫筑基之功，调药补精，炼精化气。
This basic practice is how to adjust the medicine and repair the essence, refine the essence and change it to Qi.
收心以还虚，即收神固精养气之诀也。
It is the method of concealing your mind and return it to emptiness, and then conceal your spirit so that the essence is nurtured and becomes Qi.
身内精气充实，骨髓坚强，方可入室下功，而求返还之道也。
Inside the body, essence and Qi when full enough will make the bones and marrow hard and strong, then you can enter the room and begin your work, and summon turning over into the Dao.
养气固精，及止念方敬， 观心存诚之功。
To Nurture the Qi and make the essence strong you must stop your thoughts and focus on reverence. It is the work of observing the mind and maintaining sincerity.
从晨至暮，涤滤洗心，退藏于密，回风混合，心目内观，主静立极，不使有一毫之累，留于方寸。
From morning to night, purify the thoughts and wash the mind, withdraw and hide in mystery. Return the wind so it mixes chaotically together. The mind’s eye looks within, command quiet and maintain this to the utmost. Do not allow even a thread of action to affect you, and remain firm in place.
涵养于不有不无之中。
Nurturing in concealment meets in the centre of “not present” and “not void.”
外无所着，内无所思，空空 洞洞，虚虚灵灵，心不得随缘而放驰也。
The outside affects nothing, the inside contains no thoughts, most empty, and wide open, utterly void, and completely illuminated, the mind does not follow its destiny and must stop from galloping away.
昔日逢师传口诀，只教凝神入气穴，正谓此也。
In ancient times, the teachers passed on these poems, and taught how to collect the spirit in the “Qi cave.” This is the correct way:
气穴即命门，正在脊骨第七节之下，脐后肾前，前七分，后三分，两肾中 间，左属水，右属火。
The “Cave of qi” is also the “life gate.” It is under the seventh vertebrae of the spine, behind the navel and in front of the kidneys. In front by seven measures and behind by three measures, in the centre between the two kidneys. Left represents water, right represents fire.

其中空悬一穴，上通泥丸，下贯涌泉，为先天大道之祖，逐日生气之根，产铅之地。
In the centre there is one cavity hanging in emptiness which connects above to the brain and below passes to the “eternal spring.” It is the ancestor of the way of Pre heaven. It chases the sun and is the root from which energy is born. It is the earth from which lead is born.
而千变万化之道，神妙莫测之机，尽从此出。
And the thousand changes and ten thousand transformations of the Dao, the subtle mechanism of the spirit which cannot be fathomed, come completely from this place.

故日：此窍 非凡窍，乾坤共合成，名为神气穴，内有坎离精。道家曰气穴，
　　医家曰命门。
It is said: this oracle is not a normal oracle, it is where heaven and earth both come from and harmonize with one another. It is called the “Spirit energy cavity.” Inside it has the essence of water and fire. Daoism refers to this as the “Qi xue,” and Chinese medicine calls it “the life gate.”
命门旺，十二经皆旺。命门衰，十二经皆衰。命门生，则人生。命门绝，则人死矣。
The life gate illuminated, illuminates the twelve channels. If the life gate collapses, the twelve channels also collapse. The life gate born gives rise to the birth of people. Losing the life gate means you will perish.

服气论第二
Discussing “swallowing breath” part two:

夫气者，胎之元也，形之本也。
Qi is the origin of the foetus, and is the root of the body.
胎既诞矣，而元精已散；形既动矣，而本质渐弊。
After birth, the original essence is scattered, and the body has already begun to move, thus gradually injuring the “original nature.”
是故须纳气以凝精，保气以炼形，精满而神全，形休而命延，元本既实，可以固存耳。
So that is why you must draw in breath and collect essence. Protect energy and cultivate the body. When the essence is full, the spirit will be complete. Stopping the use of the body can lengthen life. When you access the original root, you can contain it in your core.
观夫万物，未有有气而无形者，未有有形而无气者。摄生之子，可不专气而致柔乎?
Observing the myriad beings, there is none who breathe and do not have a body, and there is none who has a body and does not breathe. Of those who are born, which may not “focus the breath and achieve softness?”

Editor’s note: I use Qi interchangeably as energy and breath where appropriate. In this document, breathing is considered as the means by which essence and spirit are joined, so although it has a different meaning from later works of the Neidan school, I have tried to keep the original meaning intact.
It is interesting to compare this against Zhang Boduan ‘s “returning to the root and going back to the origin is the king of medicine,” since these two concepts are not mutually exclusive .

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.

Considerations of How to Remove Problems of Cultural Fetishism from Daoism in the West:

This article is somewhat of a divergence from my usual translation and commentary work in order to discuss a topic which I think is very important to those of us studying Daoist thought from a European perspective.
That topic is the issue of the ongoing cultural essentialism surrounding the study of Daoism in the west.
Essentialism refers to a form of reductive reasoning which implies that a topic may be defined by its function. In the Social Sciences, the concept of Essentialism is often applied to ideas about the fixed nature of race, culture, sex and so on. In regard to Daoist studies, there are three major forms of Essentialist thought, which can be broadly categorized using the rubric of three categories of Daoist ideas. They are:

– Philosophical Essentialism: The philosophical Essentialist argument seems to have been first posited by Karl Jung and then later by the likes of Allan Watts. It suggests that the real essence of Daoism is to be found in its ideas which might be broadly categorized under the banner of philosophy, rather than religion. People who follow the Philosophically Essentialist view of Daoism are often under the incorrect impression that Daoism mainly occurred during the short period of development toward the end of the Zhou Dynasty (aprox 500 BC) and that all ideas following the works of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Liezi are not Daoist in nature, but rather, fraudulent religious concepts which simply advertised themselves as Daoism in order to capitalize on the popularity of the Daoist philosophers of antiquity.
Generally speaking, these groups of people could mainly be classified as those who are influenced by the writings of Allan Watts in the post Hippie era.
It is common for people who hold these opinions to also practice Asian Martial arts or other similar pseudo-esoteric lifestyle practices.

– Mystical Essentialism: This group makes a markedly different reading of Daoist documents and tends to view Daoist ideas through the lens of a foggy notion of Oriental mysticism mixed with Western Occultism. This group is also highly susceptible to Orientalist Fetishism and seems to spawn out of the New Age movement of the 1980s and although being a relatively non invasive group (especially when compared to the other two Essentialist Classes) in regard to their use to propaganda to promote their world view, do publish with greater frequency than the Philosophical Essentialist group. These groups of people may or may not have real connections with the religious Daoist community, and often practice esoteric arts such as Qi Gong and various forms of meditation, although it must be stressed that the extent English language writings from this group on these subjects are rarely sophisticated or accurate. This group is also related to the business of spirituality and there are varying levels of authenticity and popularity from teacher to teacher and group to group. These groups can range in knowledge anywhere from having an understanding of the core concepts of the Daoist schools they are affiliated with, to having no understanding of authentic Daoism and simply branding their own invented practices as being of the Daoist tradition. This particular movement in Essentialist Daoism is highly susceptible to spiritual Capitalists from the Orient, and bombastic martial arts teachers from the Americas and Europe, but also has certain core groups of more honest and dedicated people who are trying to understand the particular aspects of Daoism that they are studying.

– Academic Religious Essentialism: This group is contained within the academy and often also consists of members of the larger religious Daoist community. People who belong to this group posit that the only way to understand Daoism is through the lens of its religious tradition and that other views to Daoism are invented modern forms of culture, mainly stemming from the United States.
This particular world view of Daoism is both successful and disturbing, in that while being very successful in creating a large and very accurate body of work on Daoist thought, it capitalizes on the misbegotten notion that Daoist thinking existed in a monastic bubble during Chinese history and misses much of the larger cultural development of Daoist ideas which occurred in the extremely complex cultural framework of Chinese literary and bureaucratic society. This particular group snubs its nose at the Philosophical Essentialists, and views them as being misinformed, while both tacitly welcoming and ridiculing members of the Mystical Essentialist group (the view is that Mystical Essentialists are quaint, but a common practice is for these groups to be in contact with each other on internet forums, popular publications and so on).

Each of these groups has certain problems associated with them and it seems fair to suggest that the problems are mainly to do with selective reasoning. That is, each group chooses to include items from Daoism (and western literature) which are useful to their message, while excluding concepts which are not useful.
It is very important here to make the caveat that there is also a large and flourishing community of people who do not fall prey to Essentialist conceptualizations of Daoism, and make an honest and open enquiry into the nature of traditional Daoist literature, customs, and practices which are both extant and extinct in modern times. These groups of academics, lay people, and members of the Daoist clergy are not united by any substrate, but rather belong to diverse groups and hold diverse views, but views which can mostly be typified as being open minded and curious in contrast to the decided views of the three groups I have defined here as being Essentialist in nature. Holding an Essentialist world view about a cultural force as large as Daoism and not being open to the possibilities of narrative variance within the much more grand narrative context of Daoism in Chinese history and modernity ought be be viewed as Fetishistic and generally opposed to the goals of enquiry, which are to posit questions which allow us to delve more deeply into the subject in order to discover more accurately what it actually is.

So what can be done to remedy Essentialist and Fetishistic views in Western interpretations of Daoism?

In short, there is no remedy for Essentialism and there is no way to prevent people from taking on either irrationally reductive, or Orientalist world views in their approach to Daoist studies. It is perhaps a universal desire of all people to fancy themselves as being privy to uncommon knowledge, and as a result, in group, out group dynamics are maintained through the creation of False Alternatives.
What we should do instead, as interested, sceptical, and open minded people is to avoid personally falling victim to Essentialist world views in our research of Daoist topics, while at the same time developing a broad enough knowledge of the scriptural, historical, and practical development of Daoism that we are able to separate the wheat from the Chaff and promote a broad and comprehensive understanding of this wonderful tradition through publication, inter-group interaction, and ongoing discussion in order that we may fill up the current gaps which allow Essentialist attitudes to flourish with a strong body of knowledge from many sources which may serve to challenge the already existing Essentialist Axioms of Daoism in the West.

问曰：“何谓神气？”
what is “spirit energy”
　　答曰：“神是火，火属心。气是药，药属身。神、气，子、母也。虚静天师云：‘气者，生之元也。神者，生之则也。持满驭神，专气抱一，神依气住，神气相合，乃可长生。’三茅真君曰：‘气是添年药，心为使气神。若知行气主，便是得仙人。”
spirit (shen) is fire, the mind is categorized as fire,.
the qi is medicine, the body is categorized as medicine.
The spirit and qi are the mother and child.
Xu jing tian shi said: qi is the origin of life. Spirit is the requirement for life.” 　　when it is grasped fully it drives the spirit, focus on holding the qi as one. The spirit covers, the qi resides, the spirit and qi harmonize together. Then you can lengthen life. San mao zhen jun said: qi is the medicine which can be increased over the years, the mind is where qi and shen move from. If you know how to command the qi to move, you can begin to grasp immortality.