Broad Strokes on Meditation and… 4 primary uses for it.

From a Taoist point of view there are 4 postures/ways of meditation:

1. Moving- The Arts, Wei Wu Wei, Tai Chi, Moving Qigong, Breath walking/moving, Exercise w/ proper focus, Martial Art practice- basics, tokens, and applications
2. Standing- Standing Stake, Temple stances, Ko stances, Tai Chi Postures, Golden Buddha, Micro + Macrocosmic orbit, many others
3. Sitting- Chan/zen, Golden Buddha, Healing smile, Micro + Macrosmic orbit, many others
4. Laying- various Sleeping and visualization meditations/ self and assisted hypnosis.

Below are my thoughts and philosophy on meditation that are of particular importance to our life as a whole and to that of our tai chi, qigong, and kung fu practice.

Being that meditation can have a religious focus I’ll touch on this briefly, although, I firmly hold that a person’s spirituality is completely up to them. Because of this I’ll never strive to convert anyone to any belief over another as long as it doesn’t contradict the student's goals to live a healthy way of life. This chapter isn’t meant to be a theological dissertation, "witness" nor a letter for conversion. That being said I’ll include how I’ve come to evolve within the practice of meditation through different belief systems and share with you my overall understanding of meditation as I apply it in and outside of a healing and martial context. I’m constantly evolving in this pursuit as meditation is a very deep practice and some would say a lifelong process of uncovering. 

Some of these practices I've been doing for my entire adolescence into adult life.

These flow from 4 main traditions: ...

 Catholic, Buddhist, Taoist and Native American. As master Ong used to say, “When you drink a glass of water remember where it came from.” and so I’m including their roots for that reason. 

If it inspires you to return to the source you can follow the river I’m providing back to it. The methods of thought that stem from various mystical traditions within these religions have greatly aided and informed my practice of meditation. Before we dive into the weeds I want to make my point clear. I want to clarify how meditation can be a tool to enrich your life, and live as full, free, healthy and vibrant life you can. If you find anything I am saying that doesn’t fit or make sense to you please reach out to me via email at [email protected] let's chat about it, and with your permission I may use our explorations for material to help others. I cannot stress this enough, always, always, always do what is best for you personally, love yourself, have mercy on yourself and honestly live your life. Enjoy.

Throughout my entire life I have never completely subscribed to any viewpoint. My process and main focus in all disciplines, meditative or otherwise, is finding what works, and then practicing it enough for it to become an efficient tool to help me be more loving and merciful to those around me. For this reason I consider myself a Taoist Catholic in the loosest sense of those terms. Taoist=one who follows the way Catholic= Universal. As Chuang Tzu once said, “Small knowledge encompasses one thing, great knowledge encompasses many things.” and as Christ said “I am the way, the truth, and the light.” Meditation is to live by the way, the truth, and the enlightenment of our lives, to take that knowledge and apply it as broadly as possible until shown the need for a more specific focus.

It is important to look at meditation and indeed every facet of any practice as a tool with which to expand the skills you gain there into the rest of how you live your life. To that end it is important to have a meditative life, not just a meditation practice. 

Embody the skills you get from silent sitting or wei wu wei (doing non-doing) I.e. getting into the flow state. There are many ways to do this running and cardio can be meditative. Painting, drawing, writing, crafting, dancing, gaming, yoga, qigong, tai chi, kung fu, jiu jitsu, boxing, weightlifting etc. can be meditative. Doing strenuous activity followed by letting yourself let go and relax is very beneficial to our overall health. Whatever you can do, establish this shifting of yin and yang as a regular habit, and strive to learn how to embody it without an external stimulus. Still and silent forms of meditation have many great and deep benefits to relaxation and all things we decide to do or not do.

Any time you’re looking at meditation it is important to outline what is actually meant by the word. IMOp meditation as the word is used here in the west fits best with the culture it originated in. In other words when looking into western religions meditation is used in a very different way than it is when exploring the outlooks and philosophies of the far east. So the word itself when talking about Ch’an, Zen, and Taoist practices doesn’t really describe the practice or any aspect of what your ‘goals’ are within it. The classical western view on meditation is to ponder something deeply. To a practitioner of Ch'an, Zen or the Tao this is not correct for many reasons, the big one being that meditation is a tool to peer through the illusions of our existence into what is more stable and some would say eternal.

I look at our practice of meditation as all encompassing and at a minimum double fold. On the one hand, the Yin method is through deep ponderance, study followed by testing its application then looking into the root of demonstrated findings deeply. In other words, studying all things to reveal their way, truth, and light. In a moral sense this is to study how to live life by “love and mercy” as St. Maria Foustina Kowalska used to pray…

On the other hand, the Yang method is in uncovering the body and mind to deeply unify every aspect of our being, then transferring this into placing ourselves at the service of others. Unity of body and mind while giving of oneself leads to a settling of the spirit which comes to mix jing, qi and shen into the lower dan tien. The more we practice this full form of giving, it will draw qi from the Tao into and come to engulf our being. This in turn brings the healing potential of our body into fruition cycling back into living an innately loving and merciful life.

So in both cases the focus is to engender love and mercy toward oneself and others whether the focus is on studying how to do that or listening and letting the universe/Tao/God show you how to do it.

In short, Meditation and study alone does not make us good people. How this deeper thought, ponderance and inner unity overflows to positively affect all around us is what helps us take beneficial action. That leads us to be good people. 

Treat others as you would treat yourself as if you truly loved and genuinely cared for yourself. How do we truly love and genuinely care for ourselves? I pose that the answer to this question lies in learning internally (silent sitting, journaling on the things you uncover) and externally directing those findings toward practicing goodness toward oneself and others, then adjusting as feedback allows you to learn more.

In a physical sense, training to be fully centered and unified in our approach is the ultimate goal of everything we do in tai chi and kung fu. Breathwork coupled with Dan Tien centering and developing solid structure  through tendinomuscular alignment supports all aspects of Chinese Martial Arts, this is what's meant by moving meditation. These three things are the focus and point for many standing meditation methods. There are many layers and the 4 different types noted above evolve as the practitioner progresses through the particular practice, which we’ll elaborate on in later posts. For now it is enough to keep in mind these 4 primary uses for meditation.

In short I hold four primary goals for the practice of meditation regardless of posture.

1. Discernment
2. Facing existence
3. Preparing yourself for right action 
4. Healing oneself
5. Providing space for the creative, Tao and unifying all things