The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.We sit together, the mountain and me,
– Li Bai
until only the mountain remains.
Descriptions of apophatic practices can be found across many Taoist writings and traditions. This term, “apophatic”, refers to finding realization of the transcendent through negation. These approaches to cultivation have been called by many names:
- Returning to the source
- Guarding the one
- Sitting and forgetting
- Fasting the heart-mind
- Circulating
- Entering stillness
- Quiet sitting
- Inward training
- Etc.
Though the methods of entry may appear to vary, these radical and formless practices of release each lead naturally into direct experiencing of the Tao.
Returning to the source
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
– Tao Te Jing
returns to the common 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,
kindhearted 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.
Return to simplicity
Clarifying their eyes, they do not look; quieting their
– Wenzi
ears, they do not listen. Closing their mouths, they do not
speak; letting their minds be, they do not think. Abandoning
intellectualism, they return to utter simplicity; resting their
vital spirit, they detach from knowledge. Therefore they
have no likes or dislikes. This is called great attainment.
Sitting and forgetting
“I’m making progress,” said Yen Hui.
“What do you mean?” asked Confucius.
“I have forgotten rites and music.”
“Not bad, but you still haven’t got it.”
Yen Hui saw Confucius again on another day and said, “I’m making progress.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have forgotten humaneness and righteousness.”
“Not bad, but you still haven’t got it.”
Yen Hui saw Confucius again on another day and said, “I’m making progress.”
“What do you mean?”
“I sit and forget.”
“What do you mean, ‘sit and forget’?” Confucius asked with surprise.
“I slough off my limbs and trunk,” said Yen Hui, “dim my intelligence, depart from my form, leave knowledge behind, and become identical with the Transformational Thoroughfare. This is what I mean by ‘sit and forget’.”“If you are identical,” said Confucius, “then you have no preferences. If you are transformed, then you have no more constants. It’s you who is really the worthy one! Please permit me to follow after you.
– Zhuangzi
Another similar version is found in the Huainanzi:
“I am making progress,” said Yan Hui.
“What do you mean?” asked Confucius.
“I have forgotten Rites and Music.”
“Not bad, but you still haven’t got it.”
Yan Hui saw Confucius on another day and said, “I am making progress.”
“What do you mean?”
“l have forgotten Humaneness and Rightness.”
“Not bad, but you still haven’t got it.”
Yan Hui saw Confucius again on another day and said, “I sit and forget.”
“What do you mean ‘sit and forget’?” Confucius asked with surprise.
“I slough off my limbs and trunk,” said Yan Hui, “dim my intelligence, depart from my form, leave knowledge behind, and immerse myself in the conduits of transformation. This is what I mean by ‘sit and forget’.”
“If you are immersed,” said Confucius, “then you have no preferences. If you are transformed, then you have no more constants. It is you who is really the worthy one! Please permit me to follow after you.”Therefore the Laozi says: “When nourishing your ethereal soul and embracing the One – can you not let them go?
– Huainanzi
In concentrating your qi and attaining softness, can you be like an infant?”
Sitting and forgetting is allowing everything to slip from the mind, not dwelling on thoughts, allowing them to come and go, simply being at rest. It is important to take a good posture to still the body and calm the mind. Otherwise qi disperses, attention wanders, and the natural process is disturbed. Just remain empty and there is no separation from Tao. Then wisdom will arise and bring forth light, which is the clear qi of the person. Do not think too much about the theory of this, otherwise you are sure to disturb the mind. It is like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. To think about stopping it halfway is a futile exercise. Just trust the inherent natural process.
– Liu Xingdi
This term can also be translated as ‘Sitting in oblivion’
Sitting in oblivion–what could one not be oblivious of? First one abandons outward manifestations, then one becomes oblivious of that which causes these manifestations. On the inside one is unaware that there is a body-self; on the outside one never knows there are Heaven and Earth. Only thus can one become fully vacant and unify with the changes, and there will be nothing that is not understood.
– Guo Xiang
The five energies returning to the source
When the eyes do not look, the ears do not listen, the tongue doesn’t speak, the nose doesn’t smell, and the limbs do not move, this is called the five energies returning to the source.
– Zhang Boduan
Mind nourishing
Just take the position of nonaction and all things unfold naturally. Let your body and limbs fall away, expel perception and intellect, leave relations and things behind in oblivion. Become mystically one with the immense and boundless, release your mind and free your spirit. Be silent and without an active spirit soul [that interacts with the world], and the ten thousand things will each return to their root. Each return to their root and rest in unknowing—dark, obscure, chaotic: they remain like this for the rest of their days. However, the moment you try to know this state, you have already effected a separation from it. Don’t ask its name, don’t measure its foundation—it’s the spontaneous life of each being.
– Zhuangzi
But to attain loftiness without constraining the will; to achieve moral training without benevolence and righteousness, good order without accomplishments and fame, leisure without rivers and seas, long life without Induction; to lose everything and yet possess everything, at
– Zhuangzi
ease in the illimitable, where all good things come to attend—this is the Way of heaven and earth, the virtue of the sage. So it is said, limpidity, silence, emptiness, inaction—these are the level of heaven and earth, the
substance of the Way and its virtue. So it is said, The sage rests; with rest comes peaceful ease, with peaceful ease comes limpidity, and where there is ease and limpidity, care and worry cannot get at him, noxious airs cannot assault him. Therefore his virtue is complete and his spirit unimpaired.
Chaos complete
This means being oblivious of Heaven and Earth, doing away with beings. On the outside not examining time and space, on the inside never conscious of one’s body-self. Thus one can be boundless and unattached, going along with beings and fully according with all.
– Guo Xiang
Inward training
When your body is not aligned,
– Guanzi
The inner power will not come.
When you are not tranquil within,
Your mind will not be well ordered.
Align your body, assist the inner power,
Then it will gradually come on its own.
If you can be aligned and be tranquil,
– Guanzi
Only then can you be stable.
With a stable mind at your core,
With the eyes and ears acute and clear,
And with the four limbs firm and fixed,
You can thereby make a lodging place for the vital essence
Fasting the heart-mind
In her book Sitting in Oblivion, Livia Kohn speaks about out some of the finer points of how the terms ‘mind’ and ‘heart-mind’ are used here:
The mind in this context appears in two forms: as the ordinary evaluative mind which matches perception; and as the purified mind of qi which goes along with all…Words referring to ordinary mentation in the Zhuangzi tend to be written with the ‘heart’ radical, while those expressing the workings of the perfect mind use the meaning ‘water’. Thus all of the various emotions, whether fear, anger, joy, even love are expressions of ‘heart-mind’ as much as the word for feeling or emotion itself.
Sitting in Oblivion by Livia Kohn
Fasting the heart-mind may be thought of in part as fasting that which stirs into reactivity based on emotion, words and concepts.
You must fast! I will tell you what that means. Do you think that it is easy to do anything while you have a heart-mind? If you do, the luminous cosmos will not support you…Make your aspirations one! Don’t listen with your ears; listen with your heart-mind. No, don’t listen with your heart-mind; listen with qi. Listening stops with the ears, the heart-mind stops with joining, but qi is empty and waits on all things. The Tao gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the heart-mind.
– Zhuangzi
I always fast in order to still my mind. When I have fasted for-three days, I no longer have any thought of congratulations or rewards, of titles or stipends. When I have fasted for five days, I no longer have any thought of praise or blame, of skill or clumsiness. And when I have fasted for seven days, I am so still that I forget I have four limbs and a form and body. By that time, the ruler and his court no longer exist for me. My skill is concentrated and all outside distractions fade away
– Zhuangzi
Having a sit
Now, to “have a sit” (to practice meditation) does not refer to the act of assuming the proper posture and closing the eyes. Such is but false sitting. To practice true sitting you must throughout the twelve [double-] hours, whether staying, going, sitting, or lying, throughout all your motion and stillness, make your mind be like Mt. Tai—unmoving and unwavering. Grasp and cut off the four gates of your eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Do not allow outer scenery to enter in. If there is any stirring of thought even the size of a silk thread or a single fine fur, it cannot be called “quiet sitting.” One who is able to be like this already has his/her name recorded in the ranks of the immortals, even though his/her body resides in the dusty world. He/she need not travel afar to consult another person. In other words, the wise sage (the Real Nature with its intuitive wisdom) is in his/her very own body. In a hundred years his/her merit will be full; shedding his/her shell, he/she ascends to Realization. The single pill of cinnabar is completed, and his/her spirit wanders the eight surfaces.
Now, in speaking of the ways of the mind: Always serenely the mind is kept motionless. Darkly, silently, you do not look at the myriad objects. Dimly, murkily, without an inside nor an outside, you have no thoughts even the size of a silk thread or a single fine fur. This is the stability of mind; it should not be subdued. If you follow your surroundings and give rise to thoughts, stumbling and falling while seeking now the head and now the tail, this is called the disorderly mind. You must cut it off immediately, and you must not follow its whims. It damages and destroys your Tao-virtue and it diminishes your Nature and Life. Whether staying, going, sitting, or lying down, you must diligently subdue it. What you hear, see, know, and understand is but a disease and [an] ailment to you.
– Wang Chongyang
Embracing the one
“With your mind think of your spirit residing lengthily in your Elixir Field, embracing and guarding the primal qi, without letting it get scattered and lost. This is the Method of Embracing the One.”
– Wang Chongyang