Daoist Meditation Lesson Four Theory:

Returning to Emptiness Wu Ji

POSTED ON NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Contents [hide]
1 Chinese Cosmogony and Wu Ji
2 Wu Ji and Daoist Meditation
3 The Wu Ji Posture & the Martial Arts
4 The Wu Ji Posture
o 4.1 Notes:
o 4.2 You might be interested in:
Lesson Four of Nine Lessons on Daoist Meditation: Wu Ji Meditation
Returning to Emptiness.
Chinese Cosmogony and Wu Ji
In Chinese cosmology there was originally hun-tun, an undifferentiated
luminous cloud, a void with no boundary, emptiness, a potential state.
The hun-tun is sometimes considered a state of chaos in that is undivided,
whole, a state where everything is mixed together. This potential,
undifferentiated primordial state is also called Wu Ji. Wu Ji means literally
no limit or no polarity. It is the One, the place we are trying to get
close to in meditation.

Movement occurs within the undifferentiated matter, the non-polarized

stuff that is the Wu Ji. This movement is like wind, like a breath, an
inhalation and an exhalation. This movement is the primordial Qi/Breath,
the true Qi/Breath. With movement (Dong), there is also stillness (Jing).
With movement, things begin to divide and separate. The lighter
transparent Qi rises and the heavier opaque Qi sinks down. The polarity of
Heaven and Earth is created. Heaven is yang and Earth is yin. Qi that is
influenced by yang floats, rises and moves so it can be characterized
as Yang Qi. Qi that sinks, falls and is quiescent is influenced by Yin and
can be characterized as Yin Qi.
1

This polarity created by the Qi/Breath is called the Tai Ji, the great pole,
or extreme polarity, represented as Heaven and Earth as diagrammed
above. The Tai Ji represents the division of things into Yin Qi and Yang
Qi , movement and stillness, up and down, right and left, etc.

The polarity represented by the Tai Ji is not fixed, but relative. Something
is only yang relative to yin, something is said to be up, only in relation to
that which is said to be down. Additionally, yin contains yang and yang
contains yin this is represented by the white circle within the black fish
and the black circle within the white fish. Therefore nothing can be
completely yin or yang; yang contains the seeds of yin and yin contains the
seeds of yang. This means that yin and yang can transform into each other,
creating an interplay of stillness and movement; of light and dark; of the inbreath and the out-breath.
An alternative Tai Ji Diagram, attributed to Chen Tuan of the Song
dynasty, visually conveys the spiraling, circular movement of Qi/Breath in
the center initiating the movement which creates polarities of light and
heavy; clear and turbid; movement and stillness; yang and yin.

The Qi/Breath moving in the center connects yin and yang, forming three
modalities that complete and compliment each other. From these three,
other forces are created. Chen Tuans larger Wu Ji diagram illustrates
how Wu Ji and Tai Ji are the foundation of forms and their interaction.

Reading downward, the diagram starts at the top with Wu Ji, which
generates Tai Ji. The movement (Dong) implicit within the Tai Ji results in
the Five Elements (Wu Xing). The Wu Xingare actually not so much fixed
forms as much as dynamic, interacting forces. Thus they are often called
the Five Agents, Five Activities or the Five Phases. They are also know as
the Five Powers (Wu Te).[1] The nature of Water is to moisten and
descend; of Fire to flame and ascend, of Wood to be crooked and
straighten; of Metal to yield and to be modified, of Soil[Earth] to provide
for sowing and reaping.[2]
Wu

Xing
Wu is the number five. Xing is generally used to mean to appear; to
look; form; shape. However Xing can also mean to act or to
do.[3] In the 11th Century, Zhu Dan Yi described the interaction of
the Tai Ji and the Wu Xing as follows:
Tai Ji moves and produces yang. When the movement reaches its limit it
comes to rest. Tai Ji at rest produces yin. When the state of rest comes to a
limit, it returns to a state of motion. Motion and rest alternate, each being
the source of the other. Yin and yang take up their appointed positions to
establish the two forces (Liang Yi). Yang is transformed by combining with
yin, producing Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth. Then the five Qi
diffuse harmoniously and the Four Seasons take their course.[4]
The Five Powers are intimately connected with the life of human beings on
Earth. The interaction of Heaven and Earth, is a fixed, unchanging polarity.
It is timeless, and immutable. In human beings and the natural world, the
breaths of heaven and earth are experienced through the five powers
because it is through the them that life takes on material form and shape.
Our senses, tastes, sounds, the power of discrimination, and even our
internal organs are all considered to be expressions of the Five Powers.
Within the concept of the Five Powers there is the notion of time, cyclical
movement and change. The Five Powers operate within us in the same way
that they operate in the world around us, reflected in the seasons, the
weather, and the movements of the planets. The cyclical movement
inherent in the Five Powers can be seen in the diagram below:

The movement inherent in the Five Powers also contains the seed of
quiescence and stillness. There is dynamic action but there are also forms
and shapes that change and transform. In addition, Earth is the still,
receptive center around which the other powers revolve and interact.
Therefore as we follow Chen Tuans diagram to the bottom there is a return
or reversion to quiescence and Wu Ji (represented by the two empty circles
at the bottom). This reversion comes about through the practice of the Wu
Ji posture discussed in the practice section of this lesson.
From Wu Ji , Tai Ji and Qi/Breath everything else (the ten thousand
things) comes into being. In the Dao De Jing this dynamic is described as
follows:
The One gave birth successively to two things, three things up to ten
thousand.
These ten thousand creatures cannot turn their backs to the shade without
having the sun on their bellies,
and it is on this blending of the breaths, that their harmony depends.[5]
This idea is often illustrated by using Yi Jing (I Ching) diagrams to show
how yin and yang change and re-combine to create complex forms and
interactions.

Wu Ji and Daoist Meditation

The Wu Ji, the place of stillness where the breath begins, is the state we
desire to return to in meditation. Standing or sitting with the mind void
without thought, without intention is the place to experience the
spontaneous stirring of a movement; a place to experience the interplay of
stillness and movement. The Wu Ji in meditation is not only a mental state,
but a posture where the body is like a central pole connecting heaven and
earth. The body posture is unified and undivided. It can be likened to a
string on a musical instrument. If it is strung too tight, or if it is too lax, it
does not resonate and produce the correct pitch. Similarly, if the physical
and mental posture are correctly aligned with the poles of Heaven and
Earth, then it will vibrate in harmony with them. In Lesson Two we saw
how human beings are between Heaven and Earth. Yin and yang interact
and unite within us. By understanding how they interact we can experience
that unity.

The Wu Ji Posture & the Martial Arts

In the Chinese internal arts, the standing Wu Ji ( or void) posture is the
place that movement begins. In the martial arts, when one practices the
movements of the Tai Ji Quan form, Ba Gua Zhangs eight palm changes,
or Xing Yi Quans five fists they all begin from the Wu Ji; the void; the
still place where the breath initiates movement. Each time these movements
and forms are practiced, Chinese cosmogony is invoked. The practitioner
starts by standing in the void and experiences the first stirring of movement
through the breath and the Tai Ji. All of the other movements are said to
emanate from this posture.
The Wu Ji Posture
Standing in the Wu Ji posture, with the head toward Heaven and the feet
on the Earth, we can feel the head and the upper torso reaching upward to
heaven and the tailbone and the lower body sinking downward toward the
earth. In this way there is a separating force in the body. This separation is
clearly felt at the Ming Men acu-point which lies opposite the Dan Tian, at
the 2nd and 3rd lumbar vertebra (see Lesson Two). The bones are heavy and
want to sink toward the earth, so by lifting them up, stacking them one
upon the other, a movement toward heaven is created. The flesh is lighter
and wants to rise and float, so by letting the flesh sink, by letting it hang
off the bones, a movement toward earth is created. Tail sinking and head
lifting, while bones lift and flesh sinks, creates a dynamic tension that fully
engages the yin-yang dynamic of Heaven and Earth within us.
Notes:
[1] A Short History of Chinese Philosophy: A Systemic Account of Chinese
Thought From Its Origins to the Present Day, by Fung Yu-Lan. New York;
London: The Free Press, 1948 and 1976, p. 131.
[2] Ibid, p. 132.
[3] Ibid, p. 131.

[4] Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China,

by Ho Peng Yoke. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987, p. 12.
[5]The Way and Its Power, A Study of the Tao Te Ching and its Place in
Chinese Thought, by Arthur Waley. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1958, p.
195.
All material 2012. Excerpted from the upcoming book, Decoding the
Dao, Nine Lessons on Daoist Meditation, by Tom Bisio. All rights
reserved.