The Camaldolese Institute
for East-West Dialogue

Taoist Tradition of Meditation: History, Transformation, and Comparison

by Liu Xiaogan

In order to reveal main features of Taoist meditation traditions for religious dialogue and comparative studies, this paper attempts to survey the historical development and transformation of Taoist meditation from antiquity to modern China, with exemplary investigation of the method and theories of keeping the One, a basic spiritual practice of Taoism.

As a necessary preparation, the foreword discusses the definition and usage of the terms meditation and contemplation, and the difficulty in the usage of concepts.  Taking the difficulty of term usage into account, the author decides temporarily to follow most Taoist scholars to use meditation as a general term in both broad and narrow meanings.  To solve the difficulty depends on deeper and broader research on Taoist traditions of meditation.

The second part of the paper demonstrates the history and transformation of Taoist meditation focusing on the origin, development, and divergence of “keeping the One”.  The essence of keeping the One is to keep the harmony of body and mind, and to emphasize the totality as the primordiality of human life and the foundation of longevity.  The concept One and the idea “embracing the One” were created by the Laozi, which was dated back to the fourth century BCE or earlier.  Zhuangzi’s disciples developed its essential theory in the expression “keeping this One”, and laid a great emphasis on the primordiality of human life and the fundamentality of the combination of the physical and the spiritual in human life, as well as in the universe. 

While this essential principle runs throughout all methods and theories of Taoist meditation, it is embodied in different forms and directions.  The term “keeping the One” was formed in Taiping Jing, and was presented as the fundamental method of longevity and meditation.  In the meanwhile, a derivative method, i.e. “keeping the one light” was introduced.  In Baopuzi,  the author Ge Hong explicates that the One is a kind of an interior god and names it the True One.  He incorporates the inner visualization of gods into the theories of keeping the One, and claims the method keeping the One is the most effective among various other methods.  In addition, he presents another similar method, namely keeping the Mysterious One. 

The divergence of keeping the one continued after the fourth century.  The third part of the paper presents that Shangqing School significantly developed the theories and techniques of meditation from the fourth century and merged with other schools into Zhengyi (Correct one) Taoism in southern China in the 14^th century.  In Huangting Jing, keeping the One means preserving the spirit (cunshen), along with other new forms and theories in Shangqing Taoism.  During the same period, inner alchemy took its shape in the ninth century and grew into main stream of Taoist meditation.  In inner alchemy, keeping the One is the first stage of the complete practice named foundation-building (zhuji).  Sometimes, it also indicates keeping the “mysterious pass and one key”(xuanguan yiqiao), which is highly esoteric. 

In the 20^th century, since the challenge of the movement of modernization and the pressure from the Communist revolution, Taoism as the only indigenous religion withered dramatically, especially from 50s to 70s.  Nevertheless, the meditation traditions are carried on in some Taoist monasteries, and in the meanwhile, Taoist traditions cultivate popular movements and methods of meditation, usually named as “still exercise” (jinggong), “inner exercise” (neigong), or a more popular and all-embracing name “breath exercise” (qigong) created in 50s.  Most of them have little religious meaning.

In the conclusion part, the author presents five features from surface to essence of Taoist meditation.  The first feature is the continuity and endurance of Taoist meditative tradition, which enjoys a history of two millennia. 

The second is its divergence in coherence.  For example, while the essence of keeping the One is commonly accepted and repeated, its form and concrete content have been varied.  Taoist traditions of meditation are a union of coherence and divergence, of tradition and transformation, and of conservatism and creativity.  Either aspect, namely, the consistency of essential principle of meditation, and the divergence of the methods and theories, is remarkable and outstanding comparing with other traditions.

The third is its introversion.  Different from Christian meditation, which means to appeal to God, Taoist meditation is essentially inward even the final end is the union with the Tao.  In other words, Taoist purport of pursuing transcendence must be reached through one’s concentration on mind or internal organs to purify one’s heart and body, and the practitioner has to forget selfhood through inside conscious and subconscious activities, including concentration, oblivion, visualization, imagination, reflection, and intuition.

The fourth is the combination and harmony of the physical and the spiritual in Taoist meditation.  The spiritual aspects include transcendent experience, being in union with the Tao, purifying mind and heart, promoting morality, improving psychological health, and correction of one’s thought and indirectly of one’s behavior.  The physical aspect as the orientation of Taoist meditation is more remarkable, perhaps unique feature.  It indicates eliminating ailments and diseases, improving physical health, promoting vitality, prolonging life, and even pursuing physical immortality in early age and spiritual after the medieval period.  Thus, Taoist meditation is more practical, and easy to be incorporated into modern life.

The last but most important one is the relationship of human beings and gods and polytheistic belief in Taoist traditions.  There is no absolute gap between gods and human beings, and between the transcendent and the secular.  The universe, including the world of deities and that of creatures, is continuous and total without separation.  Taoist meditation is essentially not to report to the uppermost gods or to receive instructions from them.  In contrast, meditation could be a way to visualize deities, and some times to keep some gods or expel spirits according to human’s interest.

To sum up, some of the features are significant and helpful for modern people, for example, the unity of the physical and the spiritual, the harmony of the sacred and human, the emphasis on primordiality of human vitality, and the belief that human being may prolong their life by their own effort.  These may provide spiritual nutrition and inspiration for all human beings.  This is plausible and needs our effort and contribution. The paper includes four parts:

I.  Foreword: Clarifying the Terminology

II.  Keeping the One: Forming and Transforming in Early China

III. Mergence and divergence: Trends in Medieval and Modern China

Conclusion: Features in Comparison