Awaken the “Chi” Life Energy

Meditation, properly speaking, is the stilling of the mind. Most of the

meditation techniques taught today still the mind using one of two

basic approaches. The first is the Zen approach of “silent sitting”,

facing a blank wall until the mind becomes blank. You sit until the

moment of pure awareness arrives, even if it takes twenty years.

The second is the Mantra approach, in which the mind is rhythmically

lulled to sleep with sounds or images. After thousands of repetitions

the body begins to vibrate at a higher frequency, and the

meditator becomes aware of the higher energies operating beyond

the sensory process functions of our daily mind.

The Esoteric Taoist approach is different. It does not depend on

total absence of the flux of thought. Instead, this system stresses

the circulation of energy called “chi” along certain pathways inside

the body. These pathways help direct the “chi” — also known as

prana, sperm or ovarian power, the warm current, or kundalini power

— to successively higher power centers (chakras) of the body.

The secret of circulating this “chi” has been transmitted for thousands

of years in China, where it brought extraordinary improvements

in health and life.

But what is this “chi”, and where does it come from? The chi is

the primordial life force itself. It begins in human life with the piercing

of an egg by a sperm cell. From this original fusion an enormously

complex new human being develops. “Chi” is the continuous

flow of energy linking the various tissues, organs and brain

functions into a unified whole — a person. Chi also links this person

to his environment.

The main channels of “chi” energy flow in the body were discovered

by sages meditating upon the human fetus inside the womb.

They observed the baby grows up around its mother’s navel point,

and that through the navel the fetus absorbs nutrients and expels

waste. The fetus literally “breathes” through the umbilical cord from

the mother into its own navel down to the perineum and up to the

head and down from the tongue to the navel again. The navel point

is thus said by Taoists to be the starting point for the flow of the primordial life energy, or “chi”, and remains the point of strongest energy storage and circulation in the adult.

“Awaken Healing Energy Through The Tao” is a method for an

adult to return to that state of dynamic energy circulation which

existed inside the womb. In this sense this esoteric Taoist meditation

is a rebirth process, a return to one’s original, primordial self.

What happened after birth that caused us to lose that original, perfect

equilibrium that was so nurturing and permitted such healthy

growth?

After a baby enters the world, his/her energy slowly “settles out”

into hot and cold parts of the body. In the fetus this “yin” and “yang”

energy was perfectly balanced in a kind of “lukewarm” mixture. But

by the time a baby has grown to adulthood the hot or “yang” energy

has gradually risen to the upper part of the body containing the vital

organs such as the heart, liver, lungs and brain. The cold or “yin”

energy has tended to settle in the legs, genitals, kidneys and lower

abdomen.

Fig. 1.1 Energy enters the human fetus at the navel and circulates in

Microcosmic Orbit, harmonizing yin and yang energy.

As we age, the energy routes which bring vital power to our

internal organs and enable them to function become progressively

more blocked by physical and mental tension. The result is general

fatigue, weakness, and poor health. A young person usually

has sufficient energy to keep the routes less obstructed so that the

power still flows. The organs are thus nourished, and there is little

sickness. But if we do not live healthily and practice to keep the

energy routes open, they will gradually close and cause emotional

imbalances, premature sickness and old age.

The perfect energy circulation we enjoyed as babies was not

aired by the daily stress of living. Simply by re-establishing that

same strong flow of lukewarm chi — mixed yin and yang energy —

our vital organs will begin to glow with radiant health. When this

healing power of the Tao - the life energy in its original, pure, undivided

form — flows through our bodies, we regain the exuberant

energy and rosy glow we once had as babies. Our true task is only

to “re-awaken” this undivided healing power that was once an accepted

fact in our being.