NO.5 Reading · ZhongDaoTaiChi & QiGong & TCM

NO.5 Reading

“In Buddhist practice, the cultivation of the Four Dhyanas and Eight Samadhis also requires conscious awareness to function from beginning to end. In the First Dhyana, when one starts practicing and gradually becomes calm, one becomes aware of the inner body, feeling very comfortable. After comfort arises, a sense of joy and delight emerges within the mind. By amplifying this joy, allowing it to fill the entire body, every part of the body becomes joyful, as if every pore is radiating bliss—happy and comfortable.

This, in fact, is a sign of sufficient qi. When genuine joy arises, it corresponds to the ‘living zi hour’(活子时） in Daoist practice. However, the Buddhist ‘living zi hour’ is different from the Daoist one. In Daoist practice, the ‘living zi hour’ emphasizes kidney qi and kidney yang, which can easily lead to sexual arousal. In contrast, Buddhism focuses on filling the entire body with qi, making every part comfortable. Sometimes, practitioners may even laugh during meditation out of sheer bliss—a genuine, heartfelt desire to smile.

Once this kind of feeling arises, one should ‘discard it’—let it go and not cling to it in the mind. Isn’t this an active use of consciousness? If one does not abandon it, progress in practice becomes difficult, and there is a risk of falling under the influence of ‘demonic joy’ (the demon of delight). Some practitioners of spontaneous qigong may feel joyful and start laughing during practice. If this laughter continues uncontrollably, they may become ‘possessed by the demon.’

In Buddhist practice, at every stage of cultivation, whenever a sensation arises, one should not cling to it but actively discard it. This continues all the way to the stage of ‘neither perception nor non-perception’—where there is neither active thought nor absence of thought. Even at this stage, there is still some subtle mental activity.”

3 comments