Zen Meditation and the Daoist Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life-Force

You have probably heard the saying "simple-minded, with well-developed limbs"!But this is actually not an insult.In theory, the human diaphragm is a power plant, and the taller and bigger a person's body, the farther the heart usually is from the diaphragm.Of course, some people are not like this.The abdominal cavity below the diaphragm carries a negative charge, and above the diaphragm a positive charge; the greater the distance between positive and negative, the slower the magnetic field they produce, and the closer, the faster it runs, which is true in scientific theory as well.So the great theory of practice of the ancient Daoists, the dual cultivation of nature and life-force, is correct!The upper part of the human body is "nature" and belongs to yang; the lower part is "life-force" and belongs to yin.Dual cultivation means shortening the distance between nature and life-force (as mentioned earlier, when a baby is born and cries out, the shaking of the lungs pushes the diaphragm apart from the heart).This is also why people become less active as they age: the distance between them keeps growing [in fact the separation is only about 5 centimeters].Zen meditation can shorten the distance somewhat, because there is still a difference between standing and sitting.Many people who have meditated for years notice that when they meditate they can see light or feel a stream of heat moving inside the body; those whose concentration is not strong enough let their imaginations run wild and fantasize this light into images (driven by thought-force), and so terms such as "demonic trials" and "qi deviation" come to mind frequently for meditators.If, before you start your practice and meditation, you know that this is just the sparks generated by the meeting of positive and negative charge, I believe you will not give rise to fear.And the meditator must concentrate his attention and use intention to lead this soul-light to be stored in the dantian, so the first priority of meditation is not to be disturbed.People who have meditated for many years mostly know what qigong is, and qigong is in fact spiritual power, which moves with intention; so-called qigong healing is likewise because the qigong master channels his own spiritual power into the patient's body and harmonizes the balance between the patient's spiritual power and five elements, and thus can cure illness.If, while spiritual power is moving with the meditator's intention, someone suddenly makes a sound or touches his body, "qi deviation" results, that is, the qi goes astray; this qi will run wild inside the body and upset the body's balance, and in serious cases may even reach the brain and make the practitioner suddenly go berserk or even insane.This is absolutely not alarmism, but fact.What does the Daoist dual cultivation of nature and life-force cultivate?In a single sentence: it combines positive-charge soul-light with negative-charge soul-light.That is, the two converge toward the center of the body, and that point is the heart chakra.How do you cultivate it?I am sorry, I cannot mention it here, because I fear someone who knows only the theory may try it out for himself.As mentioned before, a genuinely knowledgeable good teacher is needed to lead the way, in order to raise soul-light effectively and to avoid things like qi deviation.And the breathing and expulsion-intake exercises the Daoists emphasize are the most important principle of nurturing life.In the character "丹" (dan) of the Daoist elixir, the top is the sun and the bottom the moon, that is, yin and yang; the horizontal stroke in the middle stands for the diaphragm, and the dot in the middle is the heart chakra, that is, a point of soul-light.We who exist between sun and moon, between yin and yang, have this point of soul-light that truly needs to be well raised.All the great classics, Buddhist teachings, medicine and fate studies speak of the connection between humans and heaven and earth, and also of the wonder of yin-yang and the five elements interwoven within it.This is truly the wisdom of the ancients, yet later practitioners seem to have lost the true method between the lines of text, and lost the direction of their self-nature within the vastness of the universe.After many years of studying the central essence of each religion and school, our school, the Vajra Dharma-Eye Lineage, has found many commonalities: in rituals, ritual implements, symbolic images, and even mantras there are different tunes with equal skill, differing only in terms and gestures.It has also found that, in truth, the various schools and religions, under human management, have some improper aspects; our school does not find it fitting to explain more on this, and once you understand the central ideas of this school, I believe you will be able to discover the differences and subtleties for yourself.