Xinzhai, Zuowang

“…my intellect is discarded, all form left behind, split from ‘knowing’ as I find identity in the Great Connection.”
“Open yourself to the Tao, then trust your natural responses, and everything will fall into place.”

– Zhuangzi, 6.8; Tao Te Ching, 23

The Tao Te Ching – best thought of as a book of poetry about Tao and the possibility of opening oneself to its influence – often provocatively hints at meditative practice, while stopping short of providing an explicit method.  An aspirant is encouraged to keep their mind at one with Tao (TTC 21), reside in Tao (22), open themselves to Tao (23), be at one with Tao (23), allow themselves to be shaped by Tao (39), center themselves in Tao (32, 35, 37, 53), be immersed in Tao (16):

“The Master keeps her mind always at one with Tao; that is what gives her her radiance.”

“The Master, by residing in the Tao, sets an example for all beings.”

“If you open yourself to the Tao, you are at one with the Tao, and you can embody it completely.”

“Stay centered within the Tao.”

Other metaphors used in the Tao Te Ching to (seemingly) describe the direct experience of Tao include: Keeping to Original Oneness (10), Stepping Back from One’s Own Mind (10), Realizing the Source (16, 14), Drinking from the Great Mother’s Breast (20), Returning to One’s Primal Self (28), and Using One’s Own Light to Return to the Source of Light (52). 

“Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness? …
Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?”

“Returning to the source is serenity.  If you don’t realize the source you stumble in confusion and sorrow.”

“I am different from ordinary people.  I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.”

“Know the personal, yet keep to the impersonal: accept the world as it is. 
If you accept the world, the Tao will be luminous inside you and you will return to your primal self.”

“Use your own light and return to the source of light.  This is called practicing eternity.”

For the Tao Te Ching, this opening of oneself to the direct experience of Tao is a process which seems to be available primarily through intuition.  The Tao is always present within us (6).  An aspirant must simply look inside themselves and see (21, 54, 67, 70).

While much of the Tao Te Ching consists of short, poetic descriptions of Tao and allusions to opening oneself to Its influence, there are also several extended passages which are sometimes pointed to as describing more formal meditative practice:

“Can you coax your mind from its wandering and keep to the original oneness?  Can you let your body become supple as a newborn child’s?  Can you cleanse your inner vision until you see nothing but the light?  Can you love people and lead them without imposing your will?  Can you deal with the most vital matters by letting events take their course?  Can you step back from your own mind and thus understand all things?”

“Empty your mind of all thoughts.  Let your heart be at peace.  Watch the turmoil of beings, but contemplate their return.  Each separate being in the universe returns to the source.  Returning to the source is serenity.  If you don’t realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow.  When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kind-hearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king.  Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.”  

Even if there may be passages such as those above which hint at formal instruction in meditative practice, broadly, the Tao Te Ching simply points an aspirant toward their own direct experience of Tao through a variety of metaphor.  It is up to an individual to look inside themselves and find their own way to open themselves to the ever-present Tao.  

While the Tao Te Ching leans on broad metaphor, in the Zhuangzi there are several passages which do give more detailed descriptions of meditative practice from the Classical Taoist period.  In these passages, two terms emerge as designators for Classical Taoist apophatic meditative practice – Xinzhai (“Fasting of the Mind”) and Zuowang (“Sitting in Forgetfulness” or “Sitting in Oblivion”).  Both terms are set in passages which imaginatively portray dialogue between the Chinese teacher Confucius, and a disciple, Yen Hui:

“‘I can’t get any farther,’ Yen Hui said.  ‘May I ask what methods you’d employ?’  ‘Fast,’ Confucius said, ‘and then I’ll tell you.  But having the method is one thing, carrying it out is another.  Will it be easy?  Whoever thinks it might be easy is surely unsuited to the task.’  ‘My family is practically penniless,’ Yen Hui said.  ‘I haven’t tasted wine or spiced meat in months.  Does that count as fasting?’  ‘That’s fasting for a sacrifice, not the fasting of heart and mind.’  ‘May I ask then about the fasting of heart and mind?’  ‘Set your heart and mind on the One,’ Confucius replied.  ‘Don’t listen with your ear; listen with your heart and mind.  Then stop listening with your heart and mind and listen with your ch’i, the very energy of your being.  Hearing stops with the ear.  Heart and mind stop with words and symbols.  The ch’i is empty.  Being so, it is able to attend upon all phenomena.  Tao comes to roost in emptiness.  This emptiness is the fasting of the mind.’”


“‘I’m getting filled with it,’ Yen Hui said.  ‘What do you mean?’ Confucius asked.  ‘I’ve gotten all the way to forgetting benevolence and righteousness.’  ‘Well done.  But you’re not there yet,’ Confucius said.  Meeting Confucius again on another day, Yen Hui said, ‘I’ve gotten to forgetting all about ritual and music.’  ‘Well done.  But you’re not there yet.’  Yen Hui said, ‘I’m getting filled with it.’  ‘What do you mean?’  ‘I’m sitting forgetting.’  ‘What do you mean by sitting forgetting?’ Confucius asked, shifting from foot to foot.  ‘My limbs and trunk fall away,’ Yen Hui replied, ‘my intellect is discarded, all form left behind, split from ‘knowing’ as I find identity in the Great Connection.  That’s what I mean by ‘sitting forgetting.’’  ‘If you identify,’ Confucius said, ‘you can be without preferences, ever changing, beyond even constancy.  So you have born fruit as a sage.  I beg permission to follow behind you.’”

Both Xinzhai and Zuowang here refer to the direct experience of Tao “beyond thought.”  As in other contemplative traditions, the concept of emptiness is also invoked to describe this cultivation of openness to the Absolute, in this case conceived of as Tao.  

Along with Xinzhai and Zuowang, other terms from the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi which are sometimes used to describe Classical Taoist meditation are Baoyi (“Embracing the One” – translated as “Keep(ing) to the Original Oneness” above) and Shouyi (“Guarding the One”).

Meditation, as described in Classical Taoist texts, is, above all, an intuitive, personal opening to the direct experience of Tao – the Great Creative Source and Ground of All Being.  In the most explicit texts, this direct experience of Tao is conceived of as taking place “beyond thought,” or at a level deeper than the mind.   


Interpretations


Interpretations of what takes place in and through Classical Taoist meditation are as diverse as the images used in the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi.  Among other images, a “Master” is commonly portrayed as one who has achieved harmony with, or Oneness with, Tao.

The following are brief portions of the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi which allude to achieving harmony, or Oneness, with Tao. 


Oneness With Tao

“You can’t know it, but you can be it.”  (TTC 14)

“The Master, by residing in the Tao, sets an example for all beings…Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.”  (22)

“If you open yourself to the Tao, you are at one with the Tao and you can embody it completely.”  (23)

“If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go.”  (24)

“If powerful men and women could remain centered in the Tao, all things would be in harmony.”  (32)

“The Master… lets himself be shaped by the Tao…”  (39)

“In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped.  Less and less you need to force things, until finally you arrive at (wu-wei) non-action.”  (48)

“The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings… He doesn’t think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being.”  (50)

“Let the Tao be present in your life and you will become genuine.”  (53)

“...being one with the Tao, when you seek, you find…”  (62)

“The one who’s made it there has no self; the spiritual leader does no deed; the true sage has no name.”  (Z 1)

“Why not let it be a tree?… Sit beneath it and master the art of (wu-wei) non-doing.”  (1)

“Forget years!  Forget judgments!  Flap your wings and fly to the palace without boundaries and live there!”  (2)

“All I care about is the Way.  I find it in my craft, that’s all.”  (3)

“Before I tried it, I was still Hui.  Now that I’ve gotten it, I’m not sure there’s a beginning to be a Hui.  Is this what you call emptiness?”  (4)

“‘He’s done it!’  Ch’ang Chi exclaimed.  ‘He’s used his knowledge to get to his heart and mind, and his heart and mind to get to the Constant Heart and Mind.”  (5)

“...I find identity in the Great Connection.  That’s what I mean by sitting forgetting…”  (6)

“‘Fish were created with the waters,’ Confucius said.  ‘People were created together with the Way.  What is at one with water goes deep in a pool and finds all its needs fulfilled.  What is at one with the Way, having no duties, lives a settled life.”  (6)

“So great people don’t hurt others.  But they don’t concern themselves too much with benevolence or mercy either.  Profit is never their motive, but they’re not bad tippers.  They don’t compete for property or wealth, but they don’t make a big show of turning it down, either.  They don’t recruit helpers for their work, but they don’t show off their independence.  They don’t despise the mean and greedy, and while they stay clear of those bad habits, they don’t make a display of their difference.  They go along with the crowd and don’t look down on its glib, fawning leaders.  The rank and rewards of the world can’t move them.  The punishment and blame of the world can’t shame them.  They know ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are not so easily divisible – no more than ‘big’ and ‘little.’  I’ve heard it said that those with the Tao will not be heard of, that getting the Power of Virtue is not ‘getting.’  Great people have no selves.  They find their parts in life.  Now that’s being there.”  (17)

Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi

The following are extended excerpts from the Tao Te Ching, Zhuangzi, and modern commentators on the Classical Taoist Tradition.  



Not-Doing

If you overesteem great men, people become powerless.

If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal.

The Master leads by emptying people’s minds and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition and toughening their resolve.

He helps people lose everything they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion in those who think that they know.

Practice not-doing, and everything will fall into place.

– Tao Te Ching, 3

Step Back From Your Own Mind

Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child’s?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things?

– Tao Te Ching, 10

Like a Well

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.

It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.

It is hidden but always present.

I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.  

– Tao Te Ching, 4

Eternally Present, Mother, It Flows Through All Things

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.

It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the Mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.

It flows through all things…

– Tao Te Ching, 25

Just Realize Where You Come From

Form that includes all forms,
Image without an image,
Subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.

You can’t know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.

Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of all wisdom.

– Tao Te Ching, 14

Your Root

The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is the source of all movement.

Thus the Master travels all day
without leaving home.
However splendid the views,
she stays serenely in herself.

Why should the lord of a country
flit about like a fool?

If you let yourself be blown to and fro,
you lose touch with your root.

– Tao Te Ching, 26

At One With Tao

The Master keeps her mind always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her her radiance.

The Tao is ungraspable.  How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn’t cling to ideas.

The Tao is dark and unfathomable.  How can it make her radiant?
Because she lets it.

Before time and space were, the Tao is.

It is beyond is and is not.  How do I know this is true?

I look inside myself and see.  

– Tao Te Ching, 21

Open Yourself to Tao

If you open yourself to the Tao,
you are at one with the Tao
and you can embody it completely…

Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural responses,
and everything will fall into place.

– Tao Te Ching, 23 

Use Your Own Light

Use your own light and return to the source of light.

This is called practicing eternity.  

– Tao Te Ching, 52

Fasting of The Mind

“‘I can’t get any farther,’ Yen Hui said.  ‘May I ask what methods you’d employ?’  ‘Fast,’ Confucius said, ‘and then I’ll tell you.  But having the method is one thing, carrying it out is another.  Will it be easy?  Whoever thinks it might be easy is surely unsuited to the task.’  ‘My family is practically penniless,’ Yen Hui said.  ‘I haven’t tasted wine or spiced meat in months.  Does that count as fasting?’  ‘That’s fasting for a sacrifice, not the fasting of heart and mind.’  ‘May I ask then about the fasting of heart and mind?’  ‘Set your heart and mind on the One,’ Confucius replied.  ‘Don’t listen with your ear; listen with your heart and mind.  Then stop listening with your heart and mind and listen with your ch’i, the very energy of your being.  Hearing stops with the ear.  Heart and mind stop with words and symbols.  The ch’i is empty.  Being so, it is able to attend upon all phenomena.  Tao comes to roost in emptiness.  This emptiness is the fasting of the mind.’”

– Zhuangzi, 4.1

Sitting-Forgetting | Sitting in Oblivion

“‘I’m getting filled with it,’ Yen Hui said.  ‘What do you mean?’ Confucius asked.  ‘I’ve gotten all the way to forgetting benevolence and righteousness.’  ‘Well done.  But you’re not there yet,’ Confucius said.  Meeting Confucius again on another day, Yen Hui said, ‘I’ve gotten to forgetting all about ritual and music.’  ‘Well done.  But you’re not there yet.’  Yen Hui said, ‘I’m getting filled with it.’  ‘What do you mean?’  ‘I’m sitting forgetting.’  ‘What do you mean by sitting forgetting?’ Confucius asked, shifting from foot to foot.  ‘My limbs and trunk fall away,’ Yen Hui replied, ‘my intellect is discarded, all form left behind, split from ‘knowing’ as I find identity in the Great Connection.  That’s what I mean by ‘sitting forgetting.’’  ‘If you identify,’ Confucius said, ‘you can be without preferences, ever changing, beyond even constancy.  So you have born fruit as a sage.  I beg permission to follow behind you.’”

– Zhuangzi, 6.8

From Whom, Such a Breath?

“Nan-Kuo Tzu-Ch’i leaned on his armest while sitting in meditation.  He looked out toward the heavens.  His breath came softly, steadily.  He appeared to have lost himself.  His attendant, Yen-ch’eng Tzu-yu, standing beside him, asked, ‘What sort of concentration is this?  Can you really turn your body into a withered tree?  Your heart into cold ashes?  The man who leans here is not the one who did before.’  Tzu-ch’i replied, ‘Dear Yen, it is good of you to ask.  Just now, I lost myself.  Could you tell?  You’ve heard the piping of people, but not yet the piping of earth; when you know the piping of earth, you will not yet have heard the piping of the heavens.’

‘I dare ask their secrets,’ Tzu-yu stated. 

Tzu-ch’i smiled.  ‘Well.  Hmm.  When the Great Clod belches, a prompt response may squelch it.  But once begun, ten thousand holes emit an angry wail.  Are you the only one who hasn’t heard the roaring?  In the high mountain forests there are huge trees – a hundred feet around – ringed with cavities, holes like noses, mouths, ears, like sockets or goblets, like mortars.  Like babies, they begin with grunts and ‘wah-wahs’ and such.  And then there are roars like the surf’s, sounds like shouted orders, raging screams, growls and snarls.  When a breeze comes up they call, ‘Hooo,’ and as the breezes pass they cry, ‘Yooo.’  Small cold breezes make small harmonies; whirlwinds make great harmonies.  And when the great winds pass, all the cavities and holes are filled with emptiness again.  Have you alone not heard it, not seen things wavering, quivering, only to return to rest again?’

Tzu-yu said, ‘So the piping of the earth comes from its many holes, just as the pipes and flutes we play come from varieties of bamboo.  But may I be so bold as to inquire about the piping of the heavens?’ 

Tzu-ch’i said, ‘It blows upon the ten thousand things, yet blows upon no two the same.  It permits each to become itself, each choosing to be itself.  But from whom, such a breath?’”

– Zhuangzi, 2.1

The Man of Tao

“The secret of the way proposed by Chuang Tzu is therefore not the accumulation of virtue and merit taught by Ju, but wu wei, the non-doing, or non-action, which is not intent upon results and is not concerned with consciously laid plans or deliberately organized endeavors… If one is in harmony with Tao – the cosmic Tao, ‘Great Tao’ – the answer will make itself clear when the time comes to act, for then one will act not according to the human and self-conscious mode of deliberation, but according to the divine and spontaneous mode of wu wei, which is the mode of action of Tao itself, and is therefore the source of all good… For Chuang Tzu, the truly great man is therefore not the man who has by a lifetime of study and practice accumulated a great fund of virtue and merit, but the man in whom ‘Tao acts without impediment,’ the ‘man of Tao.’”

– Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

Wu-Wei

“A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will.  This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action.  The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can’t tell the dancer from the dance.

Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left undone.

Nothing is done because the doer has wholeheartedly vanished into the deed; the fuel has been completely transformed into flame.  This ‘nothing’ is, in fact, everything.  It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way that an athlete or a dancer trusts the superior intelligence of the body.  Hence Lao Tzu’s emphasis on softness.  Softness means the opposite of rigidity, and is synonymous with suppleness, adaptability, endurance… Lao Tzu’s central figure is a man or woman whose life is in perfect harmony with the way things are… The Master has mastered Nature; not in the sense of conquering it, but of becoming it.  In surrendering to the Tao, in giving up all concepts, judgments and desires, her mind has grown naturally compassionate.  She finds deep in her own experience the central truths of the art of living, which are paradoxical only on the surface: that the more truly solitary we are, the more compassionate we can be; the more we let go of what we love, the more present our love becomes; the clearer our insight into what is beyond good and evil, the more we can embody the good.”

– Stephen Mitchell, Tao Te Ching (Introduction)

Like Water

“Suddenly Alan jumped to his feet and joyously danced a t’ai chi improvisation, shouting, ‘Ah-ha, t’ai chi is the Tao, wu-wei, tzu-jan, like water, like wind, sailing, surfing, dancing with your hands, your head, your spine, your hips, your knees…with your brush, your voice…Ha Ha ha Ha…La La Lala ah ah Ah…”

– Al Chung-liang Huang, Tao: The Watercourse Way

For more on Taoist practice in the West, see the Daoist Foundation.