The Camaldolese Institute
for East-West Dialogue

Chaos: A Thematic Continuity Between Early Taoism and Taoist Inner Alchemy

by Paul Crowe

Chaos is a theme of central importance in the Zhuangzi and the Daode jing and is also a concept that served to inform the metaphorical imagery comprising the texts of Golden Elixir alchemy which reached its full development in China through the Song (960-1280) and Yuan (1280-1368) dynasties.

In this paper “chaos” serves to translate the Chinese term hundun which, in the context of Taoism, fulfills a very positive function. Chaos is understood as the state of unity and completeness which precedes and makes possible the creation of the world. In many foundational texts of Western culture a much different understanding of chaos is often presented. Rather than being an internally harmonious and potentially creative state, chaos is described as something which requires the imposition of order to make way for creation. These very different views of the state prior to the emergence of the universe serve to highlight culturally divergent understandings of the world. In Western culture the tendency has been to see creation as an external “pulling together” of the world against the gravity of chaos while for the Taoists it was viewed more as a self contained and organic process of development.

Inner alchemy is a path of training which combines the cultivation of nature (xing) and life (ming). These are sometimes described as corresponding to mind and body. While such a description is not entirely inaccurate it does oversimplify the relationship of these concepts and also imports categories which are incommensurate with the Taoist view of the person assumed by these terms. Suffice it to say here that inner alchemy is a way of training which addresses the entire person including what in modern Western parlance might be called the mental, physical and spiritual facets of the individual.

Inner alchemy draws upon Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist strains of thought. The result of this syncretic tendency is a method of training which involves a variety of activities such as performing various exercises and breathing techniques as well as including an element of moral training achieved, at least in part, through the practice of good works and, finally, at the center of the practice is meditation. The language used to describe this process of transformation employs terminology borrowed from the way of outer alchemy (waidan) which sought to transform the individual by means of the ritual production of elixirs consisting of a variety of ingredients such as minerals or herbs. Thus, for example, the body is described in Golden Elixir alchemy, as containing lead and mercury, a stove and a reaction vessel. Golden Elixir texts are also full of references to the sixty-four hexagrams of the Yijing [Classic of Changes] and the eight trigrams (bagua) as well as the system of the five phases (wuxing) and frequent references to the dynamic interaction between yin and yang.

These various sets of metaphors are employed to describe a process of realization or enlightenment which, rather than being the achievement of a static culmination of efforts, tends more toward the achievement of a kind of inner trajectory of return. This return is from an inward state of complexity, reflected in the multitude of judgements and categories routinely imposed upon experience, often in the service of desires, to a state of stillness and enduring composure.

Chaos is a symbolic axis around which much of this way of training revolves. Often described as a cosmic egg, chaos is complete within itself. It is stable and internally harmonious. It is also a simple, unified form which holds within itself the potential for a bursting forth of life which takes shape through successive phases of division and gradually emerging complexity. The alchemist makes use of this egg metaphor on two levels which draw on important ideas found in the Daode jing and the Zhuangzi.

Firstly, the image of chaos as a self-contained egg describes a method of cultivation for the adept of the Golden Elixir. To be closed like the egg means that one’s strength and resolve are not sapped by surrounding influences. There is no leaking out of the forces which sustain health and inner stability. Hence, the life of the adept tends to be one of simplicity with few desires and a constant awareness of the body’s state of being including fluctuations of emotion. This enclosed and complete state serves as a foundation for meditation and describes the practice of meditation in which the physical posture provides a vessel within which stillness can abide. The gates of the senses become closed and the qi of the adept is free to flow naturally.