WISDOM'S CORNER

The Goal of Taoism

     Taoism differs from Buddhism in one important way. The goal of Buddhism is Nirvana, together with the complete and final death of the ego, the ego being seen as mere illusion. The Taoist, on the other hand, "seeks, with all his might, the fixed pole in the whirl of phenomena, where the adept can attain eternal life." (The Secret of the Golden Flower, Translated by Richard Wilhelm, p. 7.) For the Taoist, the goal "is to preserve in a transfigured form, the idea of the person, the 'traces' left by experience." (p. 18.)

     This is similar to ideas expressed by Castaneda's Don Juan. For him, the goal is to develop an awareness independent of body. To this end, he elucidates the notion of the "dreaming double," an immortal body that can exist in all realities, hence can exist even after the death of the body. And clearly, for Don Juan, together with the Taoists, the goal is for this immortal body to retain the traces of the individual's life experience.

The Dreaming Double and the Diamond Body

     Although Don Juan's dreaming double and the Taoist's diamond body are similar, each being bodies of consciousness that exist independent of the physical body, the ways of creating them are different.

     For Don Juan the dreaming double is created when we are able to be awake in our dreams. Once we can do this, our dream consciousness acquires an independence and a power of its own. It becomes us, although not us of the flesh. But it can operate in physical reality, and it will survive the death of the physical body.

     The Taoist uses meditation to achieve this same end. In meditation, the Taoist circulates the light of awareness between the two poles, the one of Spirit that is centered between the eyes and the one of Earth that is centered in the solar plexus. In this way, awareness begins to circulate between spirit and body, and, from this circulation, an inner child is born, a diamond body that will continue to exist after the death of the physical body.

The Circulation of the Light

     The place of power, also called the Hara or the one-point, is an important focal point for both the Don Juan and the Taoists. It is located physically at the solar plexus, the spot just below the navel. It is one of the seven chakras.

     For Castaneda's Don Juan, it is a place of a mysterious power called Will that can directly affect the outer world. Once Don Juan was being attacked by a mountain lion that had him cornered on top of a large rock. Focusing his attention upon his solar plexus, Don Juan rubbed the big cat's belly with his Will until it lay down and went to sleep. Then he climbed down from the rock and quietly hurried away.

     The place of power is especially important for the Taoist too, but not for its effects upon the outer world. For the Taoist, any energy spent on the outer world is wasted energy. Instead, it should be conserved and used to fuel the circulation of the light.

     The essence of Taoist meditation is this circulation of the light, by which is meant the circulation of the focused attention. In meditation, the Taoist first focuses his attention upon the space between his two eyes. He attends to his breathing with his inner hearing. Then he allows the "light of the eyes" to descend to the place of power, to the solar plexus. The meditator's attention, his directed awareness, once focused between the eyes, now moves down to the solar plexus. This attention, begun at the eyes, descends to the solar plexus, stirring up energy, which further increases the intensity and power of the attention. This enhanced attention is then returned to the focus at the eyes and back again, a continuous circulation of attention, building in power and light.

Inaction Through Action

     All the instructions for the various Taoist meditations focus upon the actions of breathing, quieting the heart with the breathing, inner seeing and hearing, and circulating the attention between the two poles and back again. However, none of these actions are important in and of themselves, and none of them would lead to the goal of the immortal diamond body.

     Yet by continuing to perform these actions, there comes a time when they finally become automatic. As the Taoists say, the circulation of the light becomes fixated. At this point, it takes on a life of its own and no longer needs our attention to make it turn and turn again. Once this has happened, we are continually recharging and renewing ourselves. Our physical and our spiritual consciousness are continually interacting, with the result that our bodies become conscious and our spirits become grounded.

     The Taoist adept, once his meditation has become fixated, becomes in himself a true marriage of nature and spirit. Because his body has become conscious and pregnant with meaning, he will remain physically healthy and enjoy long life. And because his consciousness has become infused with power and is pregnant with life, he will continue to exist as a conscious being even after the death of his body.

Conserving Seed

     The tao of love teaches that we must conserve seed. "The ancients really attained long life by the help of the seed-power present in their own bodies." (p. 69.)

     Taoism is spiritually wide and includes many differences, but all Taoists would agree that we must conserve our seed. It is written that "every man who unites bodily with a woman feels pleasure first and then bitterness; when the seed has flowed out, the body is tired and the spirit languid. It is quite different when the adept lets spirit and power unite." (p. 69.)

     The legend of Old Master P'eng, although ambiguous in this regard, is often recounted to support this view. He reputedly lived to be 880 years old. However, it is also said, as the writer of The Secret of the Golden Flower ruefully admits, that he lived to this age, "because he made use of serving maids to nourish his life." The author, greatly influenced by Buddhism, says that this must be a misunderstanding - Master P'eng must have lived that long by using "the method of sublimation of spirit and power." (p. 69.)

     Other Taoists agree that we must conserve the seed so that we can power the circulation of light, but they argue that we can do this without denying lust. They agree that lust in a man, when stirred, desires women and if unchecked would create new life. But they also say that if we retain our energy instead of allowing it to flow outwards into the woman, it "penetrates the crucible of the creative and refreshes and nourishes heart and body." (p. 35.)

     Old Master P'eng knew exactly what he was doing with those serving maids, making love often, getting off seldom or never. He knew that making love has little or nothing to do with getting off unless you're trying to create new life. It's no wonder that he lived so long, using all his turned on energy from all that love play to fuel the circulation of his light.

     By Eugene Marks