YES, TAO IS BEYOND DEFINITION. However, it helps to have some idea of what it means. The Chinese word Tao literally means “way” or “path.” Tao can be called the way of nature, the natural order of the universe. It may also be known as the Source of all that is, the ineffable, or God. It is infinite, eternal, and continually changing. The presence of Tao is within us and outside us. It is the unity of all beings and all things. It is the path of direct, divine experience. Unconditional love, harmony, and balance are its essence. Intuitive knowledge and spontaneous actions are its forms of expression. As the one force that governs the whole universe, Tao is not a religion, but it embraces all religions.
Tao will always be a mystery, greater than we can ever fathom. However, we can name, study, and practice the five-thousand-year-old Chinese philosophy Taoism, which has had a profound influence on Chinese culture. Taoism seeks to align us with the sacred in our daily lives. Its basic focus is on how to live long, happy, healthy, productive lives that are in harmony with nature, of benefit to humankind, and conducive to spiritual growth. Its principles are presented in the twenty-five-hundred-year-old classic spiritual book Tao Te Ching, written by Lao Tzu, who lived in about the sixth century BCE.2 This ancient treasure offers profound, succinct “poems” illustrating and inspiring wisdom in daily life. Written at a time of wars, materialism, and corrupt rulers, its lessons are especially relevant for our complex, turbulent society today.
Tao Te Ching is the most frequently translated book of all time. There are more than one hundred translations worldwide, and more than forty of these are in English. Lao Tzu’s classic form of the Chinese language is enigmatic and evocative. One word can have many meanings and can be used as a noun, verb, or adjective, depending on the context. As a result, no single translation is the definitive one. We compared eight different translations of the book and chose selections from the three that we felt were clearest, were most relevant to our times, and which conveyed the poetic nature of the original.
A later Taoist philosopher, Chuang Tzu, who lived in about the fourth century BCE, supports and elaborates the ideas of Tao Te Ching in stories and parables. We’ve used references from The Essential Chuang Tzu, translated by Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton.
The two practical branches of Taoism are chi kung — that is, meditations and physical exercises — and its offspring, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which includes acupuncture and herbology. Both chi kung and Chinese medicine work with refining, balancing, and raising a person’s life-force energy for maximum health, happiness, creativity, longevity, and spirituality.
There is one small branch of Taoism that is an organized religion with rituals and hierarchy. However, at its core, Taoism is opposed to hierarchy and rigid structure. Our book does not deal with religious Taoism. Instead, it presents practical tools for self-healing painful emotions. Many practitioners of chi kung find it compatible with Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, as well as with agnosticism. Conversely, its celebration of individual experience, intuition, and freedom of expression make it incompatible with dogmatic religions or cults. In Taoism, no master or guru is set above others. Teachers are certainly respected, but everyone is equal before Tao. Universal Love is directly available to all.
The ancient Taoist masters were intuitive scientists of nature and of mystical states. They lived simply, patiently and carefully observing themselves, the animals, plants, and minerals, the moon, stars, and planets — and all without even a telescope. What they concluded was that there are definite patterns, rhythms, and cycles recurring in all forms of life: we humans are a microcosm of the macrocosm that is the universe. They discovered how to live in harmony with the patterns, rhythms, and cycles they observed, this natural order. They also created exercises and meditations to maximize their life-force energy by mimicking the movements or qualities of animals, trees, mountains, water, wind, and sun. And they chose to share their wisdom and knowledge with those who were receptive.
The intuitive, scientific investigations of Taoists created TCM, as well as the martial arts. Taoists also invented metal alloys, porcelain, dyes, the compass, and gunpowder.3 They had a major influence on Chinese cuisine, classical painting, and poetry.
Some Taoist masters lived as hermits; some lived in the thick of Chinese society. In a few enlightened regimes, Taoists were given responsible positions in the government, where they taught and advised the rulers. Lao Tzu himself was head of the national library of the Zhou dynasty. In despotic regimes, Taoists were feared as rebels and were persecuted. Regardless, at all times, Taoists were noted for living very long, extraordinary lives, remaining healthy and productive through their advanced years. Even in today’s complex, turbulent, and polluted world, chi kung practitioners reap the same benefits.
Let’s consider some of the basic principles of Taoism. Being aware of them can deepen the effects of the Emotional Wisdom techniques.
Our Divine Origin
The ancient Taoists believed that all life originated from the Primordial Void, or Wu Chi in Chinese, also known as Tao. Something stirred within the Wu Chi, creating the positive and negative poles of yin and yang. The interactions of yin and yang created all universal processes and all matter. Western science calls the stirrings of Wu Chi that created life the big bang, the cosmic explosion that occurred 15 to 20 billion years ago.5
All beings are children of Tao, also called the Way. We all have a direct connection to Tao in our hearts: our Original Spirit, a spark of the divine, lives in our hearts. Original Spirit is our private line to the Source of all things. And it contains all the maternal qualities of Tao: unconditional love, devotion, patience, tenderness, gratitude, trust, generosity, intuition, and joy. These benevolent qualities match the position for the heart as perceived in Chinese medicine: it is the chief, or director, of the body. In other words, Tao, or the Divine, is not a separate, remote, superior being but is within our hearts, guiding, nourishing, protecting, and fulfilling us.
Life — Continual Self-Evolvement
So, if we all have a magnificent, powerful, loving heart, then why do we become aggravated, sad, or distressed? All these painful emotions are opportunities for growth, and they need to be addressed, to be learned from and transmuted. They are the result of being alienated from our Original Spirit and our Soul. In the process of becoming “civilized” and “mature,” we learn to distrust, ignore, and harden our authentic selves and lose our childlike innocence and trust. We buy into society’s promotion of materialism and the manipulation of others. We revere intellect, past knowledge, and authority more than our own intuitive wisdom. And in losing touch with our true selves, we lose a significant amount of our self-esteem. As author D.H. Lawrence recognizes, this alienation from our true divine nature is “the mistake” that makes us ill. He writes, “I am ill because of the wounds to the soul, to the deep emotional self.…Only time can help, …and the freeing oneself from the endless repetition of the mistake which mankind at large has chosen to sanctify.”6
A crucial goal of chi kung is to reopen the heart: to recognize and release the false idols of greed and egotism and reconnect to our Original Spirit and our Soul. It’s fascinating that the Chinese word Shen means “heart” or “mind” or “spirit.” Chi kung and many Chinese medicine texts locate the mind and the Spirit in the heart. True Taoists follow their heart-minds when making decisions. The Six Healing Sounds, Inner Smile, and Releasing One Emotion practices are extremely helpful in our lifelong self-evolvement. They return us to our true essence and our self-esteem.
Chi = Energy, Internal and External
The unique genius of Taoism lies in its understanding and management of chi (pronounced chee), or energy. No other spiritual system is as clear, comprehensive, and sophisticated in its use and enhancement of chi. Chi is the activating energy of all movement in the universe; it is the life force of all formations, creatures, and things. In Japanese, it’s called ki; in Sanskrit, it’s prana; in Hebrew, it’s ruach; in Tibetan, it’s lung; in Lakota Sioux, it’s neyatoneyah; in Arabic, it’s barraka.7
The ancient Taoists recognized two main forms of chi that create and sustain life: internal and external.
Some in Western medicine call the energy inside us bioelectro-magnetic energy. Ancient Taoists classified this internal chi into five subcategories: Hereditary or Original Chi, Life Force Chi, Sexual Chi, Internal Organ Chi, and Emotional Chi. In performing the Six Healing Sounds and Inner Smile, we improve all five forms of chi. We directly balance and increase our Emotional and Internal Organ Chi; this increases our Life Force Chi and our Sexual Chi, and enhances our Hereditary Chi. The ancient masters also mapped out the energy routes of the body that are identified as the meridians in acupuncture. The arm movements in the Six Healing Sounds activate the meridians connected to specific internal organs.
FIGURE 1: The Three Forces of External Energy
Tao masters divided the external energy — the energy that occurs outside the body — into three forces: the Universal or Heavenly Force, Cosmic or Higher-Self Force, and Earth Force. Universal or Heavenly Force includes the presence of Universal Love and the energies of all the galaxies of planets and stars. We receive Universal Force through the crown point at the top of our skulls. Cosmic or Higher-Self Force is made of the dust particles of stars and planets. It forms our human bodies. It’s received through the third eye, the point between our eyebrows, and through the nose. Earth Force includes the energies of Mother Earth: all animals, plants, minerals, and natural formations (oceans, mountains, and so on) on the planet. We receive this energy directly through the soles of our feet and our sacrum. We receive it indirectly as well, by eating plants and animals that have predigested Earth Force for us. All three forces, Universal or Heavenly, Cosmic or Higher-Self, and Earth, are regarded as sacred, and are called the Three Pure Ones. They work together harmoniously to sustain all life-forms. Humans receive some of these three external energies directly, in a limited way; meditation allows us to increase our supply of external energy and store it in our bodies.8 Chi kung teaches us how to store it safely, balancing it with Earth Force.
We lose much of our natural connection to these external forces when we hold on to negative emotions, eat a diet lacking sufficient nutrients, don’t exercise regularly, deplete our Sexual Chi with excessive sexual intercourse, or are frequently exposed to environmental toxins. The Healing Sounds and Inner Smile can help to restore our connection to all three external forces — assuming we improve our emotions, our diet, and our environment, moderate our sexual activity, and exercise wisely and regularly.
The third force is a special concern in Taoism, in grounding our energy and connecting to Mother Earth. Most of us Westerners have a learned energy imbalance in our bodies; we live in our heads, ungrounded in our physical bodies and disconnected from the earth. The majority of our energy is concentrated in our heads and necks. We spend most of our time thinking with our brains, looking with our eyes (at computers, TV, films, video games), listening (to telephones, radios, TVs, iPods), and speaking with our voices (in conversations face-to-face or by phone). We ignore our feelings and our bodies’ messages of discomfort. This neglect shows first as stress or as aches and pains and mild dysfunctions; eventually, it develops into serious diseases.
Another energy imbalance results from spiritual methods that emphasize our connection to Universal or Heavenly Force (celestial energy), but which slight or negate our earth connection. This unbalanced focus can result in mild to severe energy blockages, manifesting as dizziness, spaciness, headaches, or “kundalini syndrome” (runaway energy) in the head or elsewhere. Unless they’re reversed, these blockages can lead to physical or mental illness or to being accident-prone. Unfortunately, there are many spiritual seekers today who struggle with these difficulties.
Chi kung cures and prevents both headiness and runaway energy with five practices: Six Healing Sounds and the Inner Smile (which transform painful emotions), Microcosmic Orbit Meditation (which circulates and stores chi), and tai chi and Iron Shirt chi kung (which “root” our bodies to the earth). “Head in the clouds, feet on the ground” is the Taoist ideal for a spiritual practice and for being in the now, fully present in the body, in this moment of time, on this planet Earth.
Yin and Yang: Opposites Create Movement and Life
A fundamental pattern recognized by the ancient Taoists is that every part of the universe is in constant motion, continually changing and transforming. Every organism is either contracting or expanding at any given point in time. In addition, energy can never be created or destroyed; it can only be changed.
FIGURE 2: Yin/Yang Symbol
This leads us to the next basic principle: the dynamic interplay of opposites creates all movement and life in the universe. All organisms have both yin and yang energies within them. The original, ancient meaning of yin is “the shady side of the hill,” and the original meaning of yang is “the sunny side of the hill.” Yin is the feminine aspect, and yang is the masculine. Yin is darkness, stillness, and contraction. Earth and water are yin. Yang is light, activity, and expansion. Heaven, sun, and fire are yang.
In our bodies, the front is yin and the back is yang. Each of our major internal organ systems functions as part of a pair of organs, with one yang and the other yin. Each yin/yang pair interacts with all the other pairs and contributes to balancing the whole body.
In our activities, yin is the feminine aspect of inner states: receptivity, quiet, acceptance, intuition, nurturing, planning, and integration. Yang is the masculine aspect of outer states: forward action, rational thought, assertiveness, competitiveness, and manifesting. Look at the tai chi symbol in the illustration: the black area represents yin; the white area represents yang. These two energies are interdependent and continually interacting with each other. Neither can exist without the other. Each has a seed of the other in its center and, if carried to an extreme, will change into its opposite.
The practical meaning of the yin/yang relationship is that we must always seek balance in our bodies, our minds, our emotions, and our activities. We must learn to balance our compact, quiet, inner processes with our expansive actions in the outer world. If we only stay at home, thinking and planning, we become insular and never act on our plans. If we only act and interact out in the world, we can’t hear our inner wisdom or plan our actions carefully. We become too susceptible to other people’s agendas and emotions and get burned out from so much activity. In the business sphere, if we expand our business too quickly and too much, it will falter and become small. Listening to the messages of our body and our emotions will help us maintain the balance between contracting and expanding.
Tai chi is a Taoist moving meditation that perfectly balances yin and yang. We begin and end the exercise at center. We alternate between moving out from the center of the body (yang) and returning to the center (yin). The movements are circular, slow, and continuously flowing. Although tai chi looks almost effortless (yin), it feels both powerful and relaxing (yang and yin balanced).
The Five Processes and Elements
Yin and yang interactions follow five different energy patterns: energy rising, energy gathering and sinking, energy expanding, energy solidifying, and energy stabilized. These processes operate and interact in all movement of energy — all life — in the universe.
Each of the Five Elements in nature incorporates one of these patterns. Note that Taoism configures the Elements somewhat uniquely: Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth. Fire is energy rising. Water is energy gathering and sinking. Wood is energy expanding. Metal is energy solidifying. Earth is energy stabilized.10 When we work with the Six Healing Sounds, the Five Elements relate to particular emotions. For instance, depression is Metal energy, or solidifying energy. Fear is Water energy, or gathering and sinking energy.
The Creation Cycle and the Controlling Cycle
Each of the Five Processes and Elements interacts with and influences the others, according to particular sequences. The most important sequences are the Creation Cycle and the Controlling Cycle. The Creation Cycle expands energy; the Controlling Cycle contracts it. Together, they balance and check each other.
The Creation Cycle follows the order of the seasons: autumn, Metal; winter, Water; spring, Wood; summer, Fire; late summer, Earth. The Six Healing Sounds follow this order. Each of the Elements of the Creation Cycle creates or generates the next one. Thus, Metal creates Water; Water creates Wood; Wood creates Fire; Fire creates Earth; Earth creates Metal.
Each Element is also the child of the previous one. For example, Wood is the mother of Fire, and also the child of Water. The mother element nourishes its child element. We make use of this relationship later, when we suggest foods to alleviate specific negative emotions. If one organ and its Element in your body is weak, you can strengthen it with foods from both its mother and its child Elements.
FIGURE 3: Creation Cycle
In the Controlling Cycle, each Element controls or checks the next Element and is controlled or checked by the previous one. Thus Wood controls or inhibits Earth and is controlled or inhibited by Metal.
FIGURE 4: Controlling Cycle
Moderation
The balance of yin and yang is the golden mean, the wisdom to observe moderation in all areas of life. Extremes are exhausting and unhealthy. Too much or too little emotion, food, physical activity, mental activity, sexual expression, or socializing is harmful. Even too much joy, coming too suddenly, can be too much of a good thing. Our bodies know the importance of moderation. If we engage in too many activities in one day, we feel the need to slow down the next day. If we eat too much, we have little appetite for the next meal. The reverse is also true: very little activity, or a severely restricted diet, also distresses our bodies. The golden mean concept teaches us to take all triumphs and failures with a grain of salt. Since any circumstance in life could turn around in a second, it’s best not to get deliriously happy or clinically depressed over the ups and downs we’re likely to encounter. So-called misfortunes can turn out to be bridges to inner growth and great achievements. For example, illness can be the catalyst for healthy quantum leaps in our emotions, diet, and work life. Losing a job can motivate us to find a better job, to get new training and a more fulfilling occupation, or to start our own business.
Body Wisdom
Taoism teaches some unique wisdom about the body. All parts of our body interact and are interdependent. Therefore, an imbalance in one organ or part adversely affects the entire body. So chi kung practices and TCM work to strengthen the whole body, as well as to restore that ailing organ or part. Another important tenet is that the body has an amazing ability to heal and restore itself as long as we support this healing with the appropriate food, adequate rest, moderate exercise, elimination of toxins, moderate sexual relations, and positive emotions.
Chi kung practitioners are in tune with their bodies. They consciously develop awareness of their internal organs, which give them kinesthetic messages of harmony or imbalance. Most importantly, they’ve learned to use their hearts and abdomens as additional “brains”; these organs receive and express emotions — often more truthfully than the rational left brain in the head. And when we use these lower brains, the head brain can rest and rejuvenate itself.
FIGURE 5: Our Three Brains
Western science is beginning to acknowledge the existence of the abdominal brain. Dr. Michael D. Gershon, in his book The Second Brain, presents the results of studies that prove that the enteric nervous system (the esophagus, stomach, and large and small intestine) has a vast supply of nerve cells that receive and send messages and respond to emotions independently of our head brain. He notes too that the “gut brain” can be more accurate than the head brain in emotional responses.11 So pay attention to your “gut responses.”
Unlike some other spiritual systems that consider the body to be inferior, or even sinful, Taoism honors the body as the temple of the Spirit. The body has to be kept healthy and vital in order to have a fruitful, joyous life, and in order for us to live long enough to develop spiritually. All functions and needs of the body are regarded as holy; therefore, sex, coupled with love, is a spiritual act. When we take loving care of our body, our emotions, and our environment, we are attuned to receiving Universal or Heavenly Force. As Tao Huang has observed, “In its natural state, our body is in resonance with the universe and nature through the very crystalline structure of the bones,… as well as through its glands and organs.”12
1. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching (New York: Vintage Books, 1972), chap. 1.
2. Wang Keping, The Classic of the Dao: A New Investigation (Beijing, China: Foreign Languages Press, 1998), i. The exact dates of Lao Tzu’s birth and death are not known, but this recent scholarly book from China examines the evidence and concludes that he lived from 580 to 500 BCE.
3. Daniel Reid, The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity (London: Simon & Schuster, 1996), chap. 25, p. 34, chap. 51, p. 66.
4. Ursula K. Le Guin, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (Boston: Shambhala, 1997) pp. 34, 66.
5. Mantak Chia and Maneewan Chia, Awaken Healing Light of the Tao (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, Bear & Co., 2008), pp. 15,16.
6. D. H. Lawrence, The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence. Ed. Vivian de Sola Pinto and Warren Roberts (New York: Viking Press, 1971), p. 620.
7. Chia and Chia, Awaken Healing Light of the Tao, p. 34.
8. Ibid., pp. 19–23.
9. Le Guin, Lao Tzu, chap. 2, p. 4.
10. Chia and Chia, Awaken Healing Light of the Tao, pp. 17, 18.
11. Michael D. Gershon, The Second Brain (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), p. xiii.
12. Tao Huang quoted in Dennis Huntington, introduction to Door to All Wonders, by Mantak Chia and Tao Huang (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, Bear & Co., 2001), p. 13.
