6. Yuan qi, 元氣 and Yuan shen, 元神

Yuan qi

元氣

There are several formulas for practice that generate progressive experiences towards that of yuan qi, 元氣, as the mover behind all cycles of change, but what really is this yuan qi, 元氣, that the ancient Chinese spoke of? Some like to call it paradoxically undefinable energy, but that leads to talking in riddles that help little the understanding.

Qi we know is energy with all the properties that science has discovered and named, and in doing so generated, although useful, dual conceptualizations of this energy. We cannot really speak of a third force being present behind the scenes for that leads also to easy transcendental cloud-bearing dialogue, full, as the great bard declared, of sound and fury signifying nothing.

It is equally useless conceptually to create its image as a central node where yin and yang meet, as the crossing point of the corpus callosum, which gives it a pysiological image or as the central undestructble love fulcrum of lovers. Neither does the unification of two poles of duality generate it. 

Without getting into verbal baggage at least let us accept that the original idea of yuan qi was that it is the cosmic parent that births yin and yang, and yet remains within them in their qi states as yin and yang.

Getting down to the core, we can say that yuan qi is the energy force that moves all things devoid of any properties used to describe it. That seems to put it back once more as the undefinable energy, but it is not quite that, for we can determine that it is the ENERGY EXPERIENCE, boundless and with an unlimited conscientability (new word) and is not the PRODUCT or CONSEQUENCE.

It is then the language core of nature and is responsible for all Life Force programs as the Mother not as the male expression.

If you can find and stay centered in the unconscious awareness of this experience then you have the freedom to enter every moment of your life the effortless state of wu wei.

Alright, getting right to the very core itself, Yuan qi is the experience of Awaken¡ing itself, the undifferentiated light of all energy birth.

It is what generates through function, essence and undifferentiated form all that is known to consciousness and all that consciousness can ever generate. That idea makes itself evident in the etymological analysis of yuan, which means "original or beginning", when we know that there was no beginning to energy nor an end. The etymology declares that the character is that of a man with the head accentuated. We may say that it is from the expanded mind of man himself that yuan qi arises and can be recognized.

It is the unconditional fount of the Life Force.

Yuan shen, 元神

"Yuan qi, 元氣," is made known by "yuan shen, 元 ", the spirit of Transformation Shen itself. For those advanced in our meditations we can say that the unified experience of Yuan shen, 元神,  at the first moment of its discernment is the experience of that transformation.

The traditional superstitious view of Zhenqi (Authentic Qi).

dicha conocida como el Tao Chi o Tao chi Shench´iching para el máximo despertar de los Tres Tan Tien 三丹田 o san Dāntían, y sus Tres Tesoros 三宝 Sānbǎo.  A partir de aquí se inicia la verdadera Transformación de la Esencia (meditativamente).

Formula 1: Open the Orbit, Five Phases of Spirit and Eight Extraordinary Qi Vessels. How to communicate harmoniously with the qi field inside he human body. These foundational energetic practices encapsulate the entirety of classical Chinese medicine, and are the main practices used for self-healing. Students often spend several years learning them.

The Six Healing Sounds clear the stuck qi cycling through the five phases and three burners (head/upper chest, solar plexus, belly). The Microcosmic Orbit balances yin-yang flow of the spine and front chest and alchemically mixes the adept's qi and blood. Fusion of the Five Elements (Phases) I, II, and III is emotional and psychic alchemy.

It helps one to absorb innate virtue and dissolve negative emotional qi, which is then crystallized into a pearl made of post natal yuan qi (source qi in TCM). The Macrocosmic Orbit circulates the clarity of this pearl in the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, which opens communication between the trunk (spine, waist & core channel) to all limbs/directions.

Formulas 2, 3, and 4 are the Lesser, Greater, and Greatest Enlightenment of Water and Fire (kan & li). This division of enlightenment into three levels is traditional. (20) These are three levels of the reversal (ni) phase, where the adept begins the internal sexual coupling of fire (yang body spirits) with water (yin body spiirts), then progresses to internally coupling sun with moon, and finally to a fusion of planetary spirits and coupling of inner earth with inner sun (yang within the yin and yin within the yang).

Reversal means the adept's desires to pursue outer physical life in Later Heaven is reversed and all one's desires begin dissolving and flowing back into Early Heaven and the Origin. The Lesser formula completes the 5 phases of human qi (vital organ spirits), the Greater completes the 5 phases of earth qi (geomantic forces), and the Greatest completes the 5 phases of planetary qi (astrological forces that shape human destiny). The net effect of completing all three levels is to fulfill one's soul purpose, which dissolves fear of death and the unconscious drive to incarnate. This enlightenment of completing the qi of the individual's post-natal self is thus the requisite to attaining immortality in the following three formulas.

This alchemical "coupling" or "cooking" process reunites post natal jing-qi-shen and allows the adept's Later Heaven self to open a portal for communication with her Early Heaven self. These three formulas focus on opening an inner space where the adept can talk to core body intelligences (jingshen), the intelligences within the Earth, and the Sun/planetary intelligences. This allows the adept to absorb progressively greater powers of yin and yang qi. The second formula, sexual inner alchemy, is essentially an advaced practice of the Microcosmic Orbit. It involves self-intercourse within the adept of yin (inner female) and yang (inner male) body spirits, and variants of this nei dan practice are described in a number of Dao canon texts translated into English.

Formula 5 is Sealing of the Senses. it seals the Later Heaven senses/mind of the adept inside the crown to open up and refine communication between the adept's personal soul (ling) and the Great Spirit (da shen) of the star intelligences. Thus it is also called Star alchemy. This engages the collective stellar level of nature's intelligence, defined by the Big Dipper and Polestar, and opens the portal of the central axis (chong qi, or cosmic yuan qi) of Later Heaven into Early Heaven. Formula 6 is the Congress of Heaven and Earth. It couples, as an act of cosmic sexual self-intercourse, the adept's Later Heaven soul essence with his formless androgynous Early Heaven essence. This final coupling opens communications with the chaos/original unity of Primordial Heaven. The circulation of qi between the three heavens is the True Macrocosmic Orbit. Formula 7 the Union of Man and Dao, has not yet unfolded for me. One Cloud did not claim to master it or teach it. He described it as the cosmicized human's jing-qi-shen merging spontaneously into the wuji, the Supreme Unknown, portal to the unknowable Dao.