Hello,
Welcome to this edition of the Nüwa Newsletter!
Daoism is difficult to understand due to its complexity and diversity, and also because it developed within a socio-cultural environment far removed from the West. Since starting the Nüwa and beginning to share Daoist practice with others, one of the things that has constantly been on my mind is how to communicate it clearly and in ways that convey its relevance and beauty.
With that in mind, I want to share with you a short extract from a piece I recently wrote for Level 1 students on the Nüwa Foundations Program. The purpose was to explain that Daoism can be understood as systems of inner cultivation, designed to take practitioners through certain processes of change. From this perspective, belief and speculative thought are secondary to the disciplined application of method.
The methods we use cultivate the physical body, energetic system and mind.
In the physical body, tissues are restructured to alter muscular-skeletal alignment.
In the energetic system, the dantian is cultivated and the channels are opened.
In the mind, release of passion, aggression and delusion uncovers original nature.
Practise without attachment to belief and the results will be clear and discernible.
This piece offers a commentary on the first two lines of this extract. In particular, I explain the process of change that we seek to move through on the level of the physical body, and how this lays the ideal foundation for work with the energetic system.
Commentary:
“The methods we use cultivate the physical body, energetic system and mind.”
A hallmark of Daoist practice is the holistic cultivation of body and mind, including particular attention to the energetic system. There are intra-Daoist debates about whether to begin with cultivation of mind or cultivation of the physical body and energetic system. In my experience, it is better to begin with the cultivation of the physical body. This is a necessary foundation for energetic work, which is then an excellent foundation for effective and sustainable cultivation of mind.
“In the physical body, tissues are restructured to alter muscular-skeletal alignment.”
Cultivation of the physical body centres around the sequential application of three principles: structure (zheng, 正), listening (ting, 聽) and release (song, 鬆). Structure (zheng, 正) means getting the skeletal structure into the right position. We then soak the mind through the tissues of the area of the body being worked with, which is the principle of listening (ting, 聽). Having soaked the mind through the tissues, intention is used to release unnecessary tension (song, 鬆).
Through the sequential application of these three principles, large muscle groups switch off and muscular-skeletal alignment comes to be maintained by smaller connective tissues. Tension and knots to drain away from large muscles, allowing them to become supple and soft. By working smaller connective tissues, which lie closer to the bones, they become stronger and knit together to form a coherent, integrated network stretching across the entire body. You could think of them as becoming a kind of wetsuit lying underneath relaxed large muscle groups. The development of smaller connective tissue is the foundation for generating power within Chinese internal martial arts. It is an incredible method for developing strength and physical integrity that does not suffer the deterioration that affects large muscles via the aging process.
This process of development within the physical body is the best foundation for energetic practice. There are two main reasons for this.
Firstly, as tension is released from large muscle groups, gravity acts more strongly upon them. This makes the body heavier and creates a quality of sinking within the body. The more the tissues are able to release and sink, the more a corresponding process of filling take place within the body. Filling means that an increasingly strong force pushes from the inside of the body outwards. This makes the inside of the body spacious. Cavities of the body expand, the joints expand, spaces between bones expand. All with a high degree of connectivity and integrity. The result is that blockages to the flow of blood and qi are cleared. Their circulation improves and takes place more efficiently.
The second main reason why this process of physical development is the best foundation for energetic practice is related to the way in which smaller connective tissues knit together. Qi does not conduct efficiently through large muscles. Instead, it flows well through smaller connective tissues and, especially, the fascia system. By cultivating and kitting together the smaller connective tissues lying closer to the bone, we create a highly efficient framework through which qi can move. We’re developing the physical ‘power grid’, through which we will later be able to send increased amounts of qi, and at faster speeds.
I hope you now have an understanding of the essential processes we are looking to move through in the physical body when it comes to Daoist practice. You should also now have a better idea about how these processes create the ideal foundations for work with the subtle-energetic body. In the next piece I’ll explain the energetic process that takes place, and also how it’s an ideal foundation for work with mind.
道炁長存,
Oscar
Thank you
Thank you for this. Really interesting. How do you recommend cultivating the physical body?