Finding a Life of Harmony and Balance. Chen Kaiguo
work of collecting the mind to nurture its essential nature was completed in one year. Wang Liping emerged from the dark room, the earth pit, the giant urn, and the graveyard, heading toward Nature itself.
Everything in the triple world of heaven, earth, and humanity is a partner in cultivation in the process of realizing the Way—sun, moon, stars, and plants; mountains and rivers; flowers, plants, and trees; birds and beasts; wind, rain, thunder, and lightning; heat and cold; spring, summer, fall, and winter; east, west, south, and north. Everything contains creation and evolution; everything conceals subtleties. Now, under the tutelage of the three old wizards, Wang Liping began intensive cultivation of the triple world.
The sun rises and sets, the moon waxes and wanes, the poles revolve, and the stars shift; spring gives birth, autumn kills, summer grows, and winter stores; seas dry up, and rocks emerge; dynasties change, and eras pass. The triple world of heaven, earth, and humanity, the middle of the three realms, fluctuates, one thing waning while another grows, alternately emptying and filling, with countless changes and transformations always going on. And yet all of it forms one single, complete system, wherein oppositions tend toward balance from imbalance and nurture imbalance within balance, producing regular and harmonious movement. Humanity, being in the midst of this, lives and acts in conformity to the commands of Nature, subject to many pressures from both Nature and society.
The forces not only differ in direction; they are also unequally distributed in time, and are of countless different characteristics. Some people’s senses can perceive them, while others’ cannot; some are beneficial to the human body, some are harmful. Modern science has made minute analyses of those forces that can be perceived, but it does not recognize the existence of countless imperceptible forces. Yet the effects of these forces on the human body and human life are even greater than are those of perceptible forces.
This shortcoming does not exist in the ancient cultures of China and other peoples. First of all, these cultures accepted the existence of such forces; what is more, they investigated these forces, using different methods, testing them and learning to operate them. The excellence of traditional Chinese culture is in its totalistic view, in which heaven, earth, and humankind are united into one; this view avoids partiality and bias. When it comes to the issue of what degree of perception they attained, and how they expressed it in words, that is another question.
Taoist culture is one of the main pillars of traditional Chinese culture. Its methodology and degree of attainment in perception of the universe and the human body is truly amazing to modern man. It may even be that Westerners appreciate its value more than the Chinese themselves do, seeing it as a lustrous jewel of human civilization.
Heaven, earth, and humanity are one continuity, one totality, one system, with humanity living in the middle. The Great Way works throughout the universe, unresisting harmony balancing itself.
Taoists have cleaved to this Way for thousands of years, using it to perceive the universe and to cultivate and refine the human being, leaving behind them an inexhaustible treasury of countless writings. The three old Dragon Gate Taoist wizards from Mount Lao were using the teachings transmitted by their spiritual ancestors to train their young disciple Wang Liping. Liping’s mentor now taught him an equilibrium exercise from the Spiritual Jewel techniques of inner exercises to master mental capacities.
This equilibrium exercise, one of the Spiritual Jewel Power exercise methods, is in the category of external exercises; it developed from elaboration of even older breathing techniques. The practitioner combines harmonic physical movements with strictly regulated breathing patterns, then goes on to use intent, energy, and the whole system of sensitive spots in the body to exchange energy masses with plants, animals, human beings, and other natural entities. It is called an equilibrium exercise because it enables the practitioner to attain a state of balance or equilibrium in the mutual opposition and antagonism of energy masses in the interaction between humanity and plants, between humanity and animals, among human beings, and between humanity and other natural entities.
This practice, in name, principle, and method, actualizes a kind of deep philosophical thinking. Considering the relationships between humans and other beings within the context of the total system of the universe, handling these relationships seriously in a comprehensive manner, the premise is to avoid disrupting the equilibrium of the total system while maximizing the expression and employment of useful energy in oneself to establish a new equilibrium between the self and the external world, with the purpose of nourishing life, strengthening the body, and increasing longevity.
The Wayfarer of Pure Serenity began this lesson by facing a huge pine tree. “See this tree?” he said to Liping, “Today we’re going to work with this tree. It is an enormous tree. It has been through years of fierce heat and bitter cold, blown by the wind and beaten by the rain. Its life force is truly powerful, containing something useful to our cultivation.
“In the human body are routes of energy circulation, routes of blood circulation, and routes of waste elimination. The tree also has routes of energy circulation, routes of water circulation, ways of absorbing nutrients, and ways of eliminating waste products. Equilibrium exercise mainly consists of methods of radiating and absorbing auras of ethereal force. Working with a tree involves exchanging energy with the tree to attain an equilibrium of yin and yang and the five elements in the human body.
“Trees have different color bases, associated variously with the five elements. The color base of this pine tree is green. Among the five elements, this corresponds to wood. In the human body, it corresponds to the liver. If people have liver disease, it comes from water weakness. When water is weak, wood does not grow. The kidneys manage water, and the color associated with water is black. The tree associated with black is the cedar. So to cure liver disease you first work with cedar to replenish kidney water, then you work with pine after that.
“Liver disease can also come from excessive fire energy, which causes a leakage of wood energy, so control of fire energy is needed to cure the liver effectively. Liver disease can also come from an excess of metal energy, which causes tension in wood energy. So it is also necessary to control metal energy to cure the liver. In any case, it is necessary to find a corresponding tree to work with. Only then can you harmonize the yin and yang and five elements in the human body, getting rid of sickness and strengthening the body.”
Wang Liping had already heard about this principle of the five elements fostering and overcoming each other from the Wayfarer of the Infinite, so now he took in the explanation of the Wayfarer of Pure Serenity with perfect clarity. He even knew what the Wayfarer meant by an “aura of ethereal force.”
The Wayfarer of Pure Serenity continued, “There are altogether nine kinds of equilibrium exercise. Starting today, we will study them one by one.” Then the Wayfarer walked over to the huge pine tree and stood about half a meter from it. “Watch what I do,” he said to Liping.
Standing with his feet at shoulder width, knees slightly bent, the mentor held his upper body in an erect position. Raising his arms, he extended them in front of him, straight but not stiff, his sides open, his palms toward the tree. Gazing straight ahead with his eyes nearly closed, the old wizard slowly bent and straightened his legs, moving up and down while maintaining his torso upright, both hands slowly sweeping up and down along the trunk of the tree. As he demonstrated the movements, the Wayfarer explained, “Pay attention to the attunement of the breathing. When you move upward you breathe in, and when you move downward you breathe out. As the physical movements are performed slowly, the breathing must be slow, subtle, deep, long, and even. At the same time, certain conscious thought needs to be added to this combination. The attention is placed in the palms of the hands, and you imagine the tree to be an enormous pillar of energy of a particular color. In this case, the pine tree I am using is a pillar of green energy. Imagine your palms emitting a mass of energy of the same color, exchanging it with the tree’s energy mass.” Now Wang Liping began the exercise, imitating the teacher. The old wizard stood by watching carefully, alerting him where he needed to pay attention, stopping Liping when he had gotten to the point where he could execute the movements correctly and had clearly experienced certain feelings.
In the mountains of that region, there are many varieties of trees, making it a good place to practice this exercise.