The Tao of Stress: How to Calm, Balance, and Simplify Your Life (20 page)

to something else or saying good- bye and leaving. The point is to recognize when you’re starting to feel stressed and then stop the situation from escalating.

In any case, don’t engage in negativity, sarcasm, and so on toward yourself or the other person. Simply use your mind like a mirror and respond to whatever occurs without holding on to it. Be empty.

Note how you feel when you successful y practice Mind Like a

Mirror. What do you discover about yourself and your stress? Notice how long you’re able to practice, and also note the difference in your experience when you aren’t able to approach situations from this

stance. You may wish to write about this in your journal. Remember, this practice is new, so it may be a challenge. It takes time to develop Mind Like a Mirror. This is normal.

Heart and Mind Fasting

In a sense similar to the cleansing effect caused by fasting from food and drink in order to detoxify the body, the practice of Heart and Mind Fasting is focused on removing selfishness and excessive desires associated with the senses and thoughts, which all give rise to and maintain chronic stress. Thus, Heart and Mind Fasting is about cleansing both body and mind of toxicity and chronic stress.

While it is perfectly normal to desire a comfortable life, replete with wealth, status, tasty food and drink, beautiful things, fine clothes, pleasant sounds, enjoyable interpersonal relationships, health, and long life, these desires may give rise to and maintain chronic stress (Guo 1974). If
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you find yourself continually stressed- out because you haven’t obtained these things, it will be detrimental to your physical, psychological, and interpersonal health and well- being. If you find yourself continually stressed- out because even though you have obtained them you’re afraid you’re going to lose them, it will be detrimental to your physical, psychological, and interpersonal health and well- being. If you find yourself continually stressed- out because you aren’t satisfied with what you have and constantly desire more (in other words, your desires are excessive or you simply don’t know when enough is enough), it will be detrimental to your physical, psychological, and interpersonal health and well- being. If you find yourself continually stressed-out because you’re entitled, self-

centered, or selfish, it will be detrimental to your physical, psychological, and interpersonal health and well- being.

The practice of Heart and Mind Fasting focuses on the link between your senses and your thoughts in regard to problematic or otherwise excessive desires that create stress and then helps remove these desires.

In the Taoist view, sensory experiences and thoughts in relationship to desires can cause people to be fragmented and lose their center and root.

When this happens, people are scattered, dispersed, and easily distracted.

They aren’t grounded or focused. Mind, body, and environment aren’t in harmony, and the result is chronic stress.

The first step in Heart and Mind Fasting is to unify your attention, concentration, and intention (Guo 1974). Focus simply and only on the practice of Heart and Mind Fasting. Don’t get distracted, pulled, or controlled by your senses, their objects, and the desires generated by them.

Don’t listen to your senses or follow where they attempt to lead you. They will cause you to get stuck, dwelling upon and desiring their objects.

They will bring you to a standstill. They only provide you with a limited and fragmented viewpoint. If you find yourself being pulled by your senses and their objects, don’t make any judgments about them and don’t dwell on them. Don’t let them entrap you.

Also, don’t get distracted, pulled, or controlled by your thoughts, their objects, and the desires generated by them. Don’t listen to your thoughts or follow where they and their objects attempt to lead you. They will cause you to get stuck, dwelling upon and desiring their objects.

They will bring you to a standstill. They only provide you with a limited and fragmented viewpoint. If you find yourself being pulled by your
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thoughts and their objects, don’t make any judgments about them and don’t dwell on them. Don’t let them entrap you.

When you’re practicing Heart and Mind Fasting, listen with and

attend to your qi, or breath. Unlike your senses and thoughts, qi doesn’t have an object for you to desire or to distract you. It won’t cause you to get stuck and stop. Qi continually changes as you inhale and exhale, moving through cycles, in and out, in much the same way that existence itself cycles through a process of continual change.

Because qi, or breath, is essentially emptiness, it simply waits for things to occur. Because it has no object, it isn’t controlled by objects.

Our senses and thoughts, however, do not wait. They attempt to control us and pull us toward their objects. They are continually occupied and thus not empty. They have the potential to create chronic stress.

The Tao, the source of everything, has no object. It is empty.

Therefore, the practice of Heart and Mind Fasting is to cultivate emptiness within ourselves through our qi, or breath. In so doing, we experientially realize that the emptiness within ourselves is the same as the emptiness of Tao. This is the heart of Taoist spirituality.

Practice Heart and Mind Fasting

While Heart and Mind Fasting can be practiced anywhere and in any

position, I’ll introduce you to it using a position that you’re familiar with: of Sitting in Stil ness. After taking this position, remember guan, smile, and close your eyes. Then unify your mind by simply focusing on breathing deeply, noticing your abdomen going out and in as you inhale and exhale. After ten repetitions, shift your focus to the breath entering and leaving your nostrils. Don’t focus on your abdomen.

After ten repetitions, keep your focus on your breathing, open your eyes, and welcome the present.

After opening your eyes, try to practice Heart and Mind Fasting

for five minutes. Even though your senses may be bombarded, see if you can keep your encounter with your world based in qi, or breath.

See what you see, hear what you hear, and so on, but do it based

in your breath. Don’t let your senses or thoughts take over, control, fragment, or distract you. Don’t let them disrupt your breath- based focus. If you find yourself being pulled by your senses or thoughts,
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don’t make any judgments about this or dwell on it; just return your attention to your breath.

Afterward, reflect upon what happened when you practiced

Heart and Mind Fasting. When you first opened your eyes, what

did you notice? How did you feel? During the five minutes after you opened your eyes, what happened? What did you notice? Did you

have any desires or thoughts? Did you get any sense of the emptiness associated with Heart and Mind Fasting? Were you ful y engaged in

an integrated present, with no sense of a separate and distinct self?

In other words, was your mind still and empty of any thoughts and

desires, including thoughts and desires about yourself? Did you feel part of the world around you? Or was your mind agitated and galloping about with thoughts and desires, especial y about yourself?

Did you feel fragmented, distinct, or separated from the world around you? You may wish to write about this in your journal.

Sitting in Oblivion or

Forgetfulness

Whereas Heart and Mind Fasting is concerned with the elimination of excessive, stress- producing desires and selfishness and the sense of an absolute self associated with and generated by them, Sitting in Oblivion or Forgetfulness is concerned with the elimination of absolute distinctions, concepts, values, and judgments and the sense of self associated with and generated by them. Both are concerned with stilling the mind and body and emptying them of barriers and restrictions. Therefore, both help eliminate chronic stress and promote health and well- being.

The primary focus of Sitting in Oblivion or Forgetfulness is imme-

diacy, as this practice involves being completely absorbed in the here and now (Kohn 2010). This practice is quite spiritual in nature, culminating in the experiential realization that we are the same as Tao. This is achieved through a process in which all knowledge, sensations, forms, distinctions, concepts, values, judgments, and partiality and the sense of a separate self are forgotten (Guo 1974). They are forgotten in the same sense that the fish are oblivious to the water they swim in, we are
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oblivious to the air we breathe, we are oblivious to the comfortable shoes we are wearing, and so on.

In this practice, there is no inner awareness of a distinct, separate body, or outer awareness of a distinct, separate world. Everything is simply forgotten. There is just the vastness where the continual and unobstructed process of change becomes form. There are no distinctions or judgments. All things are the same.

Of the various types of meditation, Sitting in Oblivion or

Forgetfulness has the greatest focus on proper body alignment and

posture, although proper alignment is clearly important in the other types of meditation. Proper sitting may be compared to a growing plant.

The top of the plant reaches upward (yang) toward the sun, while its roots move downward (yin) to stabilize itself in the ground. This stretches the stem of the plant, allows it to be flexible, and opens it up to nourish-ment from the sky and the earth (Guo 1974; Karlgren 1975).

Using the plant as an example, proper sitting gently stretches and straightens the spine as the head smoothly moves upward and the lower half of the body sinks and roots downward. As a result, the body is naturally aligned and centered.

Once the body is properly aligned, the practice is simply to sit quietly, let go of any concerns, and not dwell on or think about anything. When you don’t dwell on or think about anything, you won’t be affected by anything. Chronic stress is eliminated. You will be aligned, rooted, and centered. Being centered, you will naturally become still and empty and merge with Tao.

Practice Sitting in Oblivion or

Forgetfulness

Once again, take the posture Sitting in Stil ness. Gaze forward with your eyes gently and partial y shut. Focus your attention on your

abdomen expanding and contracting as you inhale and exhale. Con-

tinue to focus on your abdomen while inhaling and exhaling until

you feel a sense of calmness. At this point, don’t focus on anything.

Without any thoughts, judgments, or distinctions, just experience the present.

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If you find yourself getting distracted, don’t make any judgments.

Simply refocus on your breathing until you once again feel calm. Initial y, practice this meditation for about ten minutes.

Upon finishing this meditation, note how you feel. Is your mind still and empty of thoughts and judgments? Were you able to embrace

the present during the process? Is your sense of self more fluid and less rigid or fixed? Do you feel more integrated with the world around you? Do you have any sense of being stressed? You may wish to write about this in your journal, Again, the key is consistent and regular practice. It takes time to develop.

Interlude

I hope you practiced all of the techniques described in the first part of this chapter, and that your exploration of these practices gave you a deeper, fuller experience and understanding of the Taoist meditative core and its benefits. I also hope it gave you a more complete appreciation of the qigong practices you’ve learned throughout this book. No matter what you do, a still and empty mind is fundamental if your interactions are to be free from chronic stress.

Qigong

We will now turn our attention to the eighth posture in the Baduanjin and Yijinjing sequences. These are the last moving postures in these sequences. Both focus on the arms and legs.

Upon finishing each sequence with the new movements, reflect

upon your experiences while performing it. What were your body and mind telling you about yourself? Take some time to write in your journal about what you experienced while performing these movements.

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Practice Posture 8 of the Baduanjin

Sequence: Touching Your Toes

Continue on from the previous posture, Rowing a Boat, where you

are sitting up straight with your legs extended out in front of you, toes pointing up, and hands resting in your lap. Begin by taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. Take another deep breath and scoop your hands inward, palms facing up and middle fingers slightly touching. Pause in front of your belly button. Then, as you slowly exhale, slowly raise your hands, palms still facing up and middle

fingers touching, keeping your elbows down. Raise your hands until they’re in line with the base of your neck. At this point, rotate your hands inward, downward, outward, and upward until your palms are

facing up. Continue the motion, pushing your palms upward until

your arms are extended, but without locking your elbows. Visualize your palms are pushing against a ceiling. Then, still exhaling slowly, bend forward at your waist, keeping your back straight and rotating your hands outward so that your fingers point toward and are in line with your toes. Gently touch your toes with your fingers. If you can’t reach your toes, that’s okay. Just let your fingers touch your ankles, shins, or knees. Pause for a moment.

Slowly take a deep breath, and then slowly let it out. Then let

your hands slide down the sides of your feet or legs until they are on the floor next to your legs. While slowly inhaling, slowly sit back up, focusing on and using your abdomen and letting your palms slide