Wind (Qi) is Soundless and functions as Jing-Shen: The excellent Master Nan, Huai-jin translations at Serious Buddhism

https://seriousbuddhism.wordpress.com/

Thanks to a regular reader, who, as I noted, now provides us with amazing translations of Master Nan, Huai-jin's lectures.

As I read through these commentaries - Master Nan says that at first the body channels have to be opened up with qi purification - through the pranayama meditation. Of course I am paraphrasing. But he emphasizes that holding the breath on inhale causes problems while instead if someone is counting the breathes, each count should be on the exhale.

But then as the qi energy builds up - then Master Nan says the meditation should be based on the mind. But this is where things get interesting - because he doesn't mean "mind" as we typically think of mind - he means Mind as in our "innate mind" - the eternal mind of reality.

And so the example he gives is that when the body channels are filled with qi, then the bliss and joy is so great that we actually don't feel the body anymore and the physical breathing appears to vanish - instead the "qi" is what is pulsating or breathing. And he says this is very much like in deep dreamless sleep. He says that you can tell this - he gives the example of when he was a military leader - and he checked on his soldiers while they slept. If they snored - then he knew they were dreaming and not getting good enough sleep. So the deep dreamless sleep is only about one hour of the total sleep - and this is what is really necessary and happens when the breathing is more subtle.

So then in good meditation with the body full of qi - a yogi can then go into the equivalent of deep dreamless sleep and therefore not need to sleep as much.

So what Master Nan is describing is something I did achieve but only for a couple weeks - and the energy was so strong that I did not know how to control it or maintain purification - or even why was purification really necessary. And this is what Master Nan means by the need to then switch to the mind as the focus of meditation.

In other words - the focus should then be who is meditating - and to go to the source of the mind. But he says the problem is if you think too much or concentrate the mind too much - this stresses out the nerves and so then you also lose the qi. And so the mind can not be located in any one place - nor is it any one element.

There is one point in the translation that intrigued me - where our friend - a regular reader of this blog - he comments that Master Nan did not correctly describe Vipassana meditation.

 However, in typical cultivation of Shamatha-vipasanya, cultivating of Anapana exhaling-and-inhaling, you let the exhaling-and-inhaling of the nose subconsciously be led downwards, being directed all the way down. And then you concentrate on the Yi-consciousness, feeling that you no longer have a relation with the nose anymore. (T/N: Master Nan is explaining the wrong way to do it)

I found this intriguing. But actually there is an earlier point in the translation (see below) - where Master Nan does give the proper understanding of Vipassana - I know this because my Burmese refugee friend had told me how Vipassana is actually the highest level of meditation. And since I had been studying Theravada texts then I knew he was correct as well - but this take on Vipassana is not normally recognized in its teaching.

In other words - it is easy for people to think that in Vipassana we just let the thoughts go and this is o.k. as long as there is no attachment to the thoughts. But Master Nan emphasizes - the thoughts do need to be stopped indeed. Often I read Westernized versions emphasize - oh it's impossible to stop the thoughts. But there are visions and then there are thoughts with words - and they are not necessarily the same at all.

 If at any point, instead of counting, the mind has wandered to a distraction or thought, restart the count from zero....

 Because you start to cultivate guan (watching; can be translated as vipasanya), cultivate zhi-guan (cessation-watching), now these two are spoken of seriously. Even when you succeed at cessation-watching, it is not counted as samadhi, because samadhi is proper, genuine steadiness. Because you are unclear about the dharma-door of cultivating watching, therefore your wisdom cannot develop at all. When you do the White Skeleton Visualisation and cannot watch (or visualize) it, you need to be able to visualize it, then your wisdom power can develop.

 O.K. so that is the difference I am talking about. Have I developed this ability? No. But when I did 8 hours a day of full lotus meditation then I was definitely increasing this ability. here

20. The error where … there is still no cultivation of vipasanya to increase wisdom, there is no happiness.
Thus are the 20 laws, which can be treated by samatha-vipasanya to enter the one-mind alambana (realm).

So there are 19 errors before that which also need to be overcome!

  Xi is not just stopping of qi (moving breath), breathing quietens and stops, without using the Yi (意) to hold it. All the thoughts in the mind must be let go of, peaceful resting, this is called Xi.

 .....

Master Nan: Four elements! Material form. Correct! The wind element transforms into Xi. Just now from what we studied, what were the types of this phenomena?
Male student: 3 types. Initially it is Wind, secondly it is Qi (气), lastly it is Xi (息).
Master Nan: Correct! You must be clear on this! If you are unclear, it is useless if you think you are meditating, do not waste your time. The Wind element is a function of the Material, in the function of our body’s life, it belongs to the four elements! Wind! It is soundless, colourless and not matter. It is not jing-shen (vitality-spirit), however it has this function. Fundamentally, it is called wind. When wind moves, it is soundless. When you hear sounds, it is the wind bumping into other things. Sounds are created by friction between the wind and matter.

 Xi can be felt as if the body’s insides and outside are all moving.

To quote a master's thesis, 2017:  pdf link
 

Yes this is what I experienced for those 2 weeks in 2000. haha.

 Therefore the real abiding by Yi is the watching of heart-mind in the Mahayana dharma....Yi is clean and bright.

.........

 When you put your two legs up and close your eyes, this is already being peaceful, there is no need to seek another method, no need to add on methods to train your breath, open your channels and whatever else – this is already no longer being peaceful, the Yi is chaotic, this is not samadhi. The important point is on abiding by the Yi. The Buddha teaches us Anapana, in the beginning we recognise Yi as the mind’s capability and function, but we have not recognised the entire thing, so we need to work hard and enter samadhi. What is the hindrance to entering samadhi? It is the flesh body. In order to let it transform and adjust, we need to use anapana’s chu-ru-xi. When your ideas are swept away, in peacefulness, do not add on your exhalations and inhalations. Sit your body straight without straining and in a relaxed manner. Relax the head area down to the entire body, completely let go. Do not care about the breathing, just put everything down. Here, do not have false-thoughts.

 https://seriousbuddhism.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/nan-huai-jin-anapana-lecture-compilation-section-3/

 Because your brain already knows, this is called Watching/Vipasanya, it is not using your eyes to see, it is using the Xin (heart-mind) to watch! It is the Yi-consciousness that knows.

 So then Master Nan mentions how in the advanced level your mind has visions but inside your body and yet the visions are also externally as well - there is a merger of the astral realms with inside your body....https://seriousbuddhism.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/nan-huai-jin-7-day-chan-chapter-13/

This is a genuine alambana (realm) where psychology and physiology, or mind and material are unified and combined. You say you learn the Chan sect, you say I see the mountain as not the mountain, see the water as not the water, the ghosts as not the ghosts, then you have really seen a ghost. This is still a alambana (realm) of external form, a realm inside of you. It is a science, the power of the mind and material combining is here, therefore the opening of the middle channel is like this. It is very difficult.

 To go back to the 2017 master's thesis:






O.K. so the Qi as Heaven emanates out of the pineal gland as Yuan Qi along with the Yuan Shen. This is "pre-Heaven" qi - which means that the third eye has to be opened as the "ancestral cavity" via the Yellow Sprouts - the middle Tan t'ien.

So to do that - the Mind is the emotional heart with thinking - and so after puberty this causes the Yang qi - with substance - to get lost as the Po Soul energy. This is a  2017 pdf that explains how the Shen is perceived as a transformation of qi rooted in the jing.

So the oldest definition of Qi is actually the alchemical process of putting the Shen or Fire underneath the Jing or Water to create Air - or literally put the Fire into the Earth to turn Water into Air. This is Bronze Age alchemy - so it is found across Asia - from the Levant to India to China - but it originates from the original human culture - the San Bushmen - that taught to visualize fire at the base of the spine so that the water rises up as steam that is electrical charge out of the skull.

O.K. so the Lung as the Po Soul is then created by the Earth as the Spleen with the Proper Intention - only the Spleen is directly connected to the Yang Sympathetic Nervous system. So with deep reverse breathing - Quick Fire - this ionizes the neurohormones - the Jing - so that the Water gets ABOVE the fire. And with the eyes closed in meditation - and the deep reverse breathing - this uses the Lung energy to pull DOWN the Fire of the spirit (the biophotons) - along with the Liver qi.

So the Po Soul has Substance but it alchemically requires the proper intention of the Spleen - so that the substance is ionized - so the Yang within the Yin is brought out - and this Yang is then the Earth as the Qi.

Heaven has Virtue as the Yang Shen but it has yin within it as the yin qi without substance - but the Hun Soul as this yin qi is the proper function that then descends down - to bring the Po Soul lung energy then down the front.

This is how the Tiger and Dragon "copulate" or mix together to form the lower tan t'ien at the base of the spine - in the small intestines.

So the lower tan t'ien does not exist - unless the meditation as alchemy is practiced.

So the Yuan Qi is only activated once the third eye is fully open - with the Yuan Shen - which means you go deep into the Emptiness after you yang qi is restored - back to the moment of your own conception. So this is very rare - it means to get beyond chapter 11 in the book Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality.

But you can still get a "taste" of the Yuan Qi activated - and this is up to Chapter  Six in the book Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality - it is the T'ai Chi experience. I had this - but you have to rotate the eyes to maintain celibacy to keep building up the energy.

So the left eye is the Hun soul and the right eye is the Po Soul.  But only when they rotate and turn the light around - then does the light and qi return back to its source back in the body. Otherwise subconsciously when you see form as beauty - this triggers the Yuan Qi emanating out of the pineal gland to send the qi - via the shen as a biophoton or photon signal - it signals the kidneys to then signal the prostate - all through the sympathetic nervous system. This then triggers the "gate of mortality" and causes the Yuan Qi to then separate back into Yang Qi with substance and then during sleep it deconverts back into generative fluid and the sympathetic nervous system then, since it's already been triggered by the shen signal - then causes the loss of the qi via the essence lost.

So we can think of the Po Soul as the Vagus nerve - because the vagus nerve "restrains" - and so this is detailed in the book Taoist YOga: Alchemy and Immortality. The Lung as Metal is the emotion of Passion - and so seeing the beauty as form - this is a subconscious trigger of the Shen - a photonic signal as science calls it.

So you have to do standing active exercise to reverse that sympathetic nervous system that got triggered subconsciously at the gate of mortality. This is the Quick Fire breathing. Again the pdf link as the Idiot's Guide explains this.

If not then the qi of the body is used up via no celibacy and so the Po Soul is White because it is the Lunar psychic energy as the yang qi - the White Tiger that has to have its power restrained - but also it is the white of the bones after death - as the Ghost that remains with bones. So this is just a residual light. In ancient times - the bones would be dug up after the body had wasted away and then the bones as energy would be "contained" in an alchemical cauldron and worshipped - if the person had been a powerful ancestor. And this way the person's Hun Spirit could reunite with its Ghost at the bones - and feed on that energy of the current living family worshiping it, and potentially restore it's Yuan Qi again - as the Yang Shen golden body.

So due to the five elements - it is all interconnected alchemically. And so unless the Yuan Shen is activated with the third eye fully open - then the easiest way to error in the training - as the book Taoist YOga explains - is that once the third eye is activated - then it is very easy for the Hun Soul to go out the eyes at forms of beauty - as this is the sympathetic nervous system as the willful attention. Then the Po Soul will "grab onto" the Hun Soul - and so then this creates a lowering of the frequency of the shen in the person. You have a Shen exchange with the form of beauty - so you take in their lower frequency jingshen while your higher frequency qishen goes into them. So then this uses up your own jingshen as it gets pulled up the front of the body, instead of the going up the back of the body via the proper intention of the spleen with the Quick Fire breathing.

So if the third eye is fully open then you can recharge your jing energy - as the Yuan Jing - through the yuan qi and the yuan shen. This can be done only with the proper intention as I explained above. Otherwise you keep just separating out of the yang qi and the yin qi - as the yin qi goes out of the body and pulls up the yang qi - up the front. And so you don't have the alchemical purification of the yang qi going DOWN the front via the heart - as the ambrosia saliva of the cerebrospinal fluid - after the yang qi has first gone up the spine. So it is only with the tongue against the roof of the mouth and the shen as below the jing - that the qi in the body is built up with Green Dragon as the lower tan t'ien creating the proper intention as the Earth - the shen of the green dragon is then the Universe as the Emptiness via the lower tan t'ien that once the yang qi is restored to a 16 year old - then activates the yuan qi of the middle tan t'ien as the Yellow Sprouts - which is the ancestral cavity of the heart that opens up the mysterious gate of the third eye - the upper tan t'ien.

So only if you store up lots of Jing then can you build up enough qi to then build up enough Shen to fully open the third eye. But if you use the qi to then burn of the jing - this burns of the ionization of the lecithin (the yang qi is from that sympathetic nervous system of the lecithin being activated from the yuan qi of the pineal gland signal - as external shen signal). So normally a person's yang qi is regulated subconsciously by their organs - so by 16 the thymus and pineal gland shrink as the lecithin production instead is focused in the prostate as the "ocean of yin qi" - so that each time you see beautiful form - your yin qi as the WRONG intention then triggers the loss of the yang qi. That is the reverse of the alchemy - and so that is "post-heaven" since it is caused by breathing through the lungs - which also closes off the shen from the qi in the heart - via the pericardium and the ventricle and atrium.

So the Tiger channel as the vagus nerve then restores the connection between the shen and the qi in the heart - with the proper intention - to then restore the Yuan Qi - which itself is the impersonal soul energy. So the Po Soul then - it stores the holographic spirit exchanges - it is astral energy - but lower frequency then the Hun soul. This is why the chakras are the different colors. So a male who is addicted to evil - this is the black color of the frequency. They may have strong will power as kidney black color - but their intention is to just steal everyone's energy for their own constant sympathetic nervous system discharge.

Similarly when we send qi energy out of the body this also is a sympathetic nervous system discharge - and to store up energy it has to stay in the Vagus nerve - and that is the "restraining nerve" - with deep relaxation - as deep breathing - the vagus nerve controls the lungs. So again Qi creates Shen because Light has no rest mass due to time-frequency uncertainty (as it is called in science) - it is actually the T'ai Chi as the undivided yin-yang as the Yuan Qi. So light has relativistic mass which means that the Emptiness as spacetime is the curvature force that guides the light - from the future. So this means that in deep meditation then the Shen can have visions of the future as precognition - this is the shen interacting with its own "yin matter" or yuan jing - from the future. So the energy keeps cycling like that - the yang shen is from the yuan jing - the golden body - is the shen of the yin qi with the proper intention of the yang qi. So the yang qi has the yin shen as the golden body combined with the yuan shen of the yin qi of the heart.

So the Po Soul and Hun Soul are both yin shen - the yuan shen is still a yin shen - because it has no substance. This is why Daoists made fun of Buddhists - stating that even if you go past death via the heart of the Yuan Qi - unless you ALSO transform the shen of the Po Soul - the Jingshen - then you still turn into a spirit as a ghost after death. But the Buddhists realize that the Yuan Shen is impersonal and so there is no ego of the mind as a lower emotional "joy" of the heart attached - the Hun Soul still has this lower emotional joy of the heart.