Daoist Internal Alchemy as a Model for Understanding the Buddhist
Monastic Three-fold Training of Precepts, Concentration and Insight
By John Freese M.Div., Claremont School of Theology
For American Academy of Religion Western Region Conference
2018 Berkeley California
1
[SLIDE ONE]
Introductory Remarks
Good afternoon everybody. John asked me to start by thanking Michael Reading for
giving him the opportunity to present this paper today at the AAR WR and to also thank
him for his flexibility in allowing me to read this paper for him. He wishes his back was
a flexible as Michael’s mind. John would also like to thank Dr. Josh Capitanio who John
took classes from at University of the West during his M.Div. degree. It was his class on
Chan Buddhism, which is Zen Buddhism in China, in which this paper first started
coming into manifestation.
Introduction to the Paper
The research for this paper is based on Daoist texts on neidan which translates as
“internal alchemy,” Buddhist texts on the threefold training of sila, Samadhi, and
prajna which translates as “precepts, concentration, and insight,” and my own
experience training as a Buddhist monk for 12 years between 1998 and 2010. I found
that correlating the teachings of internal alchemy and the threefold training helped me
understand my practice better and do it better. I also found that it helped me
understand fundamental principles in the teachings of Daoism and Buddhism better. So
I offer this comparative study in the hopes that it may help other practitioners,
especially Buddhist monks and nuns, in their practice, and that it may stimulate
discussion among religious studies scholars and theology scholars about possible deep
correlations between Daoism and Buddhism.
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Overview of the Internal Alchemy Model of Spiritual Practice
The internal alchemy model of spiritual practice is based on the cosmology of the
Daode Jing which sees the physical world of the “ten-thousand things” as a
manifestation of the Dao.
[SLIDE TWO]
The Dao is the primordial ground of undifferentiated being or Emptiness from which
the cosmos comes into manifestation through a forward flow of cosmic stuff that goes
from subtle energy and awareness to dense matter. This forward flow is called
“following the course” (shun). According to internal alchemy, the human physiocosmology is as follows: “Emptiness transmutes itself into Spirit, Spirit transmutes itself
into Vitality, Vitality transmutes itself into Essence, Essence transmutes itself into form,
and form becomes a human being.”1 Essence, Breath, and Spirit (ching, chi, and shen,)
known collectively as the Three Treasures (sanbao,) are how the Dao manifests as a
human.
[SLIDE 3] PAUSE TO LET PEOPLE TAKE IN THIS SLIDE
Ching, chi, and shen each have a coarse and subtle form within humans. The
following chart by Buddhist/Daoist scholar John Blofeld describes these coarse and
subtle forms as well as their general cosmic representation.
1
Pregadio and Mu, kindle 256
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[SLIDE 4] READ THE SLIDE TO PEOPLE
The Three Treasures2
Ching (Essence)
Ch’i (Vitality)
Shen (Spirit)
Coarse Form
Subtle Form
Cosmic/Yang Form
Not precisely identical
but closely associated
with and conveyed by,
male and female sexual
fluids.
Not precisely identical
but closely associated
with and conveyed in,
the air breathed in
through lungs, kidneys
and pores.
Spirit not yet cleansed
of the impurities of the
senses and of
erroneous thought.
That within the body
which gives matter
tangible form and
substance.
That within the cosmos
which gives tangible
form to what was
originally
undifferentiated void.
Cosmic vitality seen as
Te, the virtue of the
Tao with which each
object is imbued.
Vitality
indistinguishable
(except by temporary
location) from its
cosmic counterpart.
Unsullied spirit
released from the
contamination of
passion and sensuous
longing.
Cosmic spirit, void,
pure, undifferentiated
being.
Chi can also be thought of as life force or prana in Sanskrit, pana in Pali. Shen can also
be thought of as awareness itself based in the heart and not the conceptual mind. In fact
the word shen is literally translated as heart-mind. In Buddhist terminology the
Sanksrit and Pali the word is citta which also translates as heart/mind. Western
scholars of Chan Buddhism have translated shen as “Mind” which can confuse Western
readers into confusing shen with the conceptual mind. In addition, Western
epistemology has tended to not even be aware of the deeper level of intuitive awareness.
The Western consciousness has been fused with the conceptual mind.
[SLIDE 5]
In internal alchemy the practitioner undergoes a process of “inverting the course”
(ni) of the forward flow of manifestation from the Dao. This is done by replenishing his
2
Bloefeld 1978, p.132
4
or her ching, chi, and shen, and sequentially sublimating them back into each other.
This results in a unified shen which can be merged with the Dao or “returned to
Emptiness.” According to the alchemical text Wuzhen pian this process is laid out in
four stages: “(1) Laying the foundations; (2) Refining Essence to transmute it into
Breath; (3) Refining Breath to transmute it into Spirit; (4) Refining Spirit to return to
Emptiness.”3
Overview of the Threefold Training Buddhist Model of Spiritual Practice
[SLIDE 6]
The Buddhist tradition summarizes the Noble Eightfold Path as the “Threefold
Training” of precepts, concentration, and insight (Skt. sila, samadhi, prajna). This is
the path leading to the cessation of suffering, which is nirvana, which is liberation from
samsara, the endless cycle of rebirth. The mechanics of samsara are described in the
teachings on the links of dependent origination. In the Pali canon there are different
suttas that describe chains with different numbers of links in them.
[SLIDE 7]
For this paper the focus will be on five links of the chain, namely contact, feeling tone,
craving, grasping, and becoming. Contact means contact between one of the six sense
bases and one of the six sense objects. This is the experience of seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking. Thinking is the contact between the conceptual
mind and an object of the conceptual mind such as a thought or an internal image.
Contact gives rise to a feeling tone. A feeling tone is a pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral
sensation in the body. A pleasant feeling tone can give rise to craving. An unpleasant
Pregadio and Mu, Foundations of Internal Alchemy: The Taoist Practice of Neidan 2011, kindle location
229
3
5
feeling tone can give rise to aversion. Aversion is the craving to get rid of something so
it falls under the category of craving. Grasping is acting on the craving. The action can
be of body, speech, or mind. Once a person acts on craving then becoming happens.
The person is reborn. In addition to each lifetime, rebirth happens moment to moment
within a single lifetime.
To give an example of dependent origination, say I am at work and someone yells
at me. There is contact between my ears and a sound. This gives rise to unpleasant
feeling tones in my body. This give rise to the craving to yell back at that person. If I act
on that craving and yell then I am reborn as an angry person and I have to suffer the
consequences of that action. When the link of grasping happens becoming
automatically follows. It like an arrow that has left the bow. It cannot be brought back.
Buddhist practice is based on breaking out of this cycle at the place where a person has
agency, namely the zone between feeling tones, craving, and grasping.
[SLIDE 8]
So when I am at work and someone yells at me I practice being mindful of my body
sensations and mindful of the craving or aversion that arises from those sensations. I
come back to my breathing and practice being with the intense feeling tones. This
allows me to abandon the craving or aversion. I am not overwhelmed by them. By
being aware of the feeling tones and having equanimity towards them I can abandon the
craving or aversion. Eventually they subside. They go into cessation.
The Buddha described this path of practice as “going against the stream.” One is
going against the flow of samsara. Thus even though samsara does not provide a
cosmology of the creation of humans, it functionally correlates with the Daoist notion of
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the forward flow. The Buddhist practice of going against the stream functionally
correlates with the Daoist internal alchemy practice of “inverting the course.”
Correlation Between Internal Alchemy Ching Replenishment
And Buddhist Monastic Celibacy Practice
[SLIDE 9: LOOK AT BOTTOM UP]
As mentioned above the coarse form of ching is connected with male and female
sexual fluids, namely semen and menstrual blood. In order to replenish his ching a man
must first and foremost keep his semen in his body by not ejaculating. In addition he
must not even arouse sexual energy because that causes ching loss as well. If the semen
is kept in the body and sexual energy is not aroused, then that will help the ching be
replenished. Women obviously cannot keep their menstrual blood from being released.
Since there is no direct connection between the arousal of sexual energy and menstrual
blood, my sense is that as long as they do not engage in sexual relations or arouse sexual
energy within themselves that is sufficient to replenish their ching.
The only exception to the rule in internal alchemy of not arousing sexual energy
to replenish ching are those adepts who are engaged in a Daoist version of Tantric
practice known as “dual cultivation.” While engaging in sexual intercourse these
practitioners bring themselves close to genital orgasm but do not have genital orgasm.
Instead they allow their subtle ching to mix with their partner’s, and then pull the mixed
ching back up into their system. This is considered to be a very difficult and dangerous
practice to engage in however and so the majority of practitioners are encouraged to
practice celibate internal alchemy.4 In addition to celibacy, the practitioner is
4
Bloefeld 1978
7
encouraged to get the right amount of sleep and exercise as well as have a proper diet to
replenish ching.
The Buddhist monastic precepts and mindfulness practice related to sexual
energy help monks and nuns replenish their ching. The precept on celibacy prevents
monks and nuns from engaging in sexual relations with others. The precept on not
masturbating obviously prevents masturbation. There are also precepts that prohibit
speaking or touching another person in a sexual way and another that prohibits being
alone with a member of the opposite sex.5 In Thich Nhat Han’s revised version of the
Pratimoksha monastics are prohibited from taking in pornography.6 In addition to not
engaging in outer behaviors that arouse sexual energy, it is common for Buddhist
monastics to practice mindfulness in order not to intentionally arouse sexual energy
internally. In the Pali Canon lust is seen as one of the five hindrances. The five
hindrances are five mental formations (samskaras) that a monastic is not supposed to
indulge. In the “Four Foundations of Mindfulness” sutta, the Buddha teaches that when
lust arises, a practitioner should recognize it and be mindful of it until it goes back
down. If lust is not arising a practitioner should not do anything to make it arise. In
Thich Nhat Hanh’s monasteries today he teaches monks and nuns to come back to their
breathing whenever sexual energy arises within and maintain awareness of it until it
goes back down into the ground consciousness.7
The exceptions to the rules of celibacy in Daoist internal alchemy and Buddhist
tantra are “dual cultivation” and tantra respectively. In dual cultivation the
The precepts and monastic life tend to be heteronormative; I have yet to see a monastic sangha openly
integrate homosexual members.
6 Hanh 2004
7 based on my experience as a monk with Thich Nhat Hanh
5
8
practitioners engage in sexual intercourse and bring themselves close to genital orgasm
but do not have genital orgasm. Instead they allow their subtle ching to mix with their
partner’s, and then pull the mixed ching back up into their system. This is considered to
be a very difficult and dangerous practice to engage in however and so the majority of
practitioners are encouraged to practice celibate internal alchemy.8 In Vajrayana
Buddhism there are tantric monks and nuns who visualize having sex and sublimate
that energy and there are tantric yogis who have actual sex and sublimate the energy.
The practice of dual cultivation can be seen in the context of dependent
origination.
[SLIDE 10]
For example, a man is having sex with a woman so there is contact between his penis
and her vagina. As the man goes along he feels increasing intense pleasurable feeling
tones in his body. He has the craving to ejaculate. He recognizes that craving, comes
back to his breathing, slows down, and abandons that craving. If his partner is also a
practitioner they can both sublimate the forward flow that is leading to genital orgasm
into an experience of what is called a “valley orgasm” in Daoist terminology. This is
experienced as a more blissful and satisfying experience. One could say that they have
been reborn into a more blissful state. The experience of dual cultivation practice can be
seen as symbolizing the overall practice of inverting the flow or going against the
stream. A dual cultivator abandons the craving for genital orgasm and sublimates that
raw sexual energy into a more blissful release. A celibate practitioner abandons the
craving to arouse the sexual energy in the first place and sublimates the ching into a
8
Bloefeld 1978
9
deeper experience of peace and bliss. The practice of nurturing and sublimating the chi
and shen can be seen as higher octaves of the same process.
Correlations Between Internal Alchemy Chi Replenishment and Ching
Sublimation with Buddhist Mindfulness of Breathing Practice
The coarse form of chi is connected with the breath. The subtle form is life force or
prana. Chi is depleted by irregular breath and also by being caught up in extreme
emotions. According to John Blofeld:
[SLIDE 11]
All powerful stirrings of the mind are harmful to the accumulation of ch’i. All
emotions, whether violent, joyous or woeful must be kept within bounds. The
mind must retain unwavering calm, the breathing must at all times be even, for
even the coarse ch’i (very nearly identifiable with breath) must be preserved
from being tainted by the ch’i of temper, the ch’i of vengefulness, the ch’i of cold
rage and so on.9
In addition to avoiding extremes of anger, sadness, and joy the practitioner avoids
arousing sexual energy because in addition to losing ching, it also results in the loss of
chi.
Contemporary Zen Master Shodo Harada Roshi also makes the connection
between breath and emotion.
[SLIDE 12]
Shortness of breath often leads to shortness of temper…You become overly
affected by what people say and are easily swayed by the events around you
leading to further disturbance and delusion. All of this signals that your
breathing is not in order.10
9
Bloefeld 1978, p.145
Shodo Harada Roshi 2,000, p.57
10
10
In the context of dependent origination one would say that contact that gives rise to
an intense feeling tone gives rise to an intense emotional reaction. If one falls into
that emotional reaction one loses one’s chi. If one can come back to the breathing
and stay with the feeling tone, one can preserve their chi.
The Buddhist monastic precepts against killing, using false or harmful speech, or
creating divisions in the sangha prevent acting on hatred. The precepts against stealing,
engaging in sexual activity, ingesting intoxicants, and accumulating wealth prevent
acting on craving. Internally the practice of mindfulness is used to recognize and
embrace the five hindrances of lust, hatred, sloth and torpor, restlessness and agitation,
and doubt with the energy of mindfulness. They are allowed to go back down into the
ground consciousness. Thus the precepts and mindfulness practice functionally
correlate with chi replenishment practice in internal alchemy.
In addition to not losing chi, internal alchemy practitioners generate chi through
chi gung practice. This is the equivalent to pranayama practice in Indian yoga. Space
does not allow for a detailed examples of this practice. However one important point
needs to be made. When engaging in this chi gung practice, the ching is sublimated into
the chi. A mixing of the ching and chi takes place in the “lower cinnabar field” or “sea of
chi” which is an energy point in the abdomen. In Chinese this point is called the
“dantien,” in Japanese it is called the “hara.”
An example of chi gung practice in Buddhism can be seen in the Zen practice of
susokkan, counting the breath while focusing on the hara. According to the
contemporary Rinzai master Shodo Harada Roshi, sitting meditation or zazen (lit.
seated zen) requires alignment of body, breath and mind. The body is aligned through
proper posture, which allows one to be in touch with the hara. The breath is aligned by
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focusing on the hara while counting the breath. This allows the chi to settle into the
hara. According to Shodo Harada Roshi this
in turn gives rise to a sense of strength and stability in the area between the
lower back and the lower abdomen, drawing the consciousness there and filling
it with relaxed energy.11
In my own sitting practice I have found that counting the breath while focusing on the
hara does indeed generate chi and it does feel like the ching sublimates into the chi. It
feels like playing a drum and getting into the groove only in this case the groove is the
rhythm of the breathing and hitting the drum is the counting of the breath right on time
with the natural rhythm of the breath.
To summarize this part,
[SLIDE 13 LOOK AT BOTTOM UP]
Chi retention in alchemy is accomplished by even breathing and not getting caught up in
strong emotions. This correlates with the Buddhist practice of mindfulness of breathing
and mindfulness of the five hindrances.
[SLIDE 14 LOOK BOTTOM UP]
Chi generation and ching sublimation are accomplished by chi gung practice in
alchemy. This correlates with the Zen practice of counting the breath while focusing on
the hara.
[SLIDE 15 LOOK BOTTOM UP]
Correlation Between Internal Alchemy Shen Replenishment and Chi
Sublimation, and Buddhist Practices of Mindfulness and Hua T’ou.
11
Shodo Harada Roshi 2,000, p.58
12
According to internal alchemy, shen is depleted by movements of the conceptual mind
and shen is nourished by stillness of the conceptual mind. Again shen is synonymous
with awareness itself. John Bloefeld distinguishes between coarse shen is and refined
shen. Coarse shen is when the mind is carried away by thinking or when it is identified
with something. Refined shen is when the mind is settled and one is resting in the open
awareness of the heart/mind. Some of the internal alchemy texts by Wang Mu and
Zhang Boudain describe different meditation practices to achieve this goal. One
involves watching the mind and letting go of a thought as soon as it arises. Another
involves focusing on a single point to keep the mind from wandering. In describing
what point to focus on Wang Mu says, “collecting the Heart and the Spirit in one point,”
“Guarding the Cinnabar Field,” and “guarding the ancestral opening.”12 So to sum up,
shen replenishment has to do with ending the outflow of thoughts by looking inward to a
point of origin. Since the result of looking at this origin point results in the ceasing of
thoughts, this origin point is either the origin point of thoughts or the focusing on it
directly relates to the outflow of thought.
Buddhist mindfulness practice in general has to do with bringing the mind
back into the present moment by focusing on the body, feeling tones, and the mind. So
in general it has to do with not being carried away by thinking and thus can be seen as
shen replenishment practice. The Chan practice of hua t’ou which in Zen is the practice
of koan can be seen as a specific practice of shen replenishment. A hua-t’ou is a key
phrase of a kung an (encounter dialogue) between a Chan master and student that
points to enlightenment. The 20th century Master Hsu Yun boiled the hua-t’ou down
12
Pregadio and Mu, kindle location 642
13
even further by saying that a practitioner should not focus on the words of a hua-t’ou or
their meaning—which he called the tail of the hua-t’ou—but rather the practitioner
should focus on head of the hua-t’ou which he saw as the origin of thought. In the quote
below the word “Mind” with a capital “M” should be thought of as the heart/mind and
not the conceptual mind.
[SLIDE 16]
All of these hua t’ous have only one meaning which is very ordinary and has
nothing peculiar about it. If you look into him ‘Who is reciting a sutra?’, ‘Who is
holding a mantra?’, ‘Who is worshipping a Buddha?’…the reply to “Who?’ will
invariably be the same: ‘It is Mind.’ Word arises from Mind and Mind is head of
(i.e. ante-) Word. Thought arises from Mind and Mind is head of Thought.
Myriad things come from Mind and Mind is head of myriad things. In reality, a
hua t’ou is the head of a thought (i.e. ante-thought). The head of a thought is
nothing but Mind. To make it plain, before a thought arises, it is a hua t’ou.13
Correlation Between Shen Sublimation into the Dao and Buddhist Nirvana
[SLIDE 17]
According to both internal alchemy and most Buddhist traditions, the final stage cannot
be brought about by an act of will or as a one to one direct result of a specific practice.
In internal alchemy refined shen is identical with cosmic shen. This correlates with the
Chan teaching that Buddha is Heart/mind. Through the practice of focusing the mind
on the origin of thought and stopping the outflow of the conceptual mind this leads to a
peace, harmony, and clarity in which the Dao or the experience of nirvana naturally
uproots the deeply rooted identification with and attachment to the body/mind as self.
According to internal alchemy, the nourishment of the shen sublimates the chi into
the shen which in turn sublimates the ching into shen. One could ask then why one
13
Master Hsu Yun 1970, p.23
14
wouldn’t just start out with shen replenishment practice. Apparently the ching and chi
practices make the whole process go faster and gives more power to the shen practice.
This correlates with the story of how Japanese Zen developed susokkan as a foundation
for koan practice. The monk Hakuin made himself sick by contemplating a koan just
using his conceptual mind. He depleted all of his chi and became unbalanced. To
restore himself he went to visit a Daoist sage named Hakutu who lived in a cave. The
sage told him
False contemplation is contemplation that is diverse and unfocused. You
contracted this grave illness by engaging in diverse contemplation. Don’t you
think now you should save yourself by means of noncontemplation?14
The sage gave him the practice of susokkan. According to Shodo Harada Roshi
“when the susokkan has thoroughly deepened—both the breath and the mind—you can
settle into your koan directly with everything you have.”15 The practitioner then uses the
koan “as a sword for cutting all thoughts.” He/she goes at it day and night until they
finally reach the point where they “have to die to the place from which the universe was
born. And if we realize this, then we are reborn—our purified consciousness is
reborn.”16
14
Master Hakuin 1999
Shodo Harada Roshi 2,000, p.121
16 Shodo Harada Roshi 2,000, p.122
15
15
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