Wu Chi - Our Original Source
The Taoists observed what was happening inside their body in relation to the outside in nature and in the universe. They found that the laws of nature and the universe exist equally in the inner body system and in the universe.
In their meditations they came back to their origin and discovered a primordial emptiness, a state of nothingness, and recognized this as the state at the beginning of all creation. They called it Wu Chi. This is depicted in Taoist art as an empty circle, Wu Chi, the great emptiness, the beginning, the nothingness, the Tao.
You can compare this to the emptiness before our own creation. Who knows or can say how we came into being? Trace yourself back as far as you can and you will come across the same mystery that has impressed all the ancestors. Once upon a time we were in a state of nothingness and were born from it with all our diversity and strength.
Yin and Yang
Yin and Yang are the two great polarities that arise from the original Chi to form all matter, including the human body. In order to assess and evaluate the chi in the human body, it is first necessary to distinguish whether it is yin or yang.
Yin shows up as emotionally passive, receiving, empty, mental, night, earth, inner, persistent, cold, gathering, water, dark, resting, and moon. Yin usually contracts, flows downwards and inwards. Yin is hidden deep inside the body. Intelligence is yin in composition. Yang is defined as creating, referred to as full, active, day, moving, hot, external, fire, sky, and sun. Yang expands, flows upwards and outwards. Yang is on the surface, it is what you see. It is the expression of intelligence.
Although opposite in their characteristics, yin and yang are not separate forces. They exist in relation to each other, having a constant and perpetual influence on each other. Each contains within itself a seed of the other, which develops and eventually becomes the other. They are the two sides of the same coin. They are like two poles on a bar magnet, functioning in an energy field. Taoists describe everything in terms of the degree of distribution of yin and yang. Human beings are conceived in a harmonious balance of these forces. One can stay healthy and live long if one can keep them in harmony. Perfect harmony means perfect health. Taoists practice mainly to achieve this perfect harmony.
Taoists have always tried to understand their bodies by comparing and contrasting what happens inside the body and what happens outside in nature. They always found the exact counterpart because the laws of nature are identical inside and outside on all levels and in every situation. When the Taoists found the exact correspondence between the inner body systems and the outer system of the universe, they understood that they had an energetic connection they could rely on.
The Taoists believed that the beginning of human life must be similar to the beginning of the universe. The birth of a new human being is an evolutionary process that follows certain universal laws, simply like the evolution of the universe. Here, the universe is understood in such a way that everything is mutually reflective and interrelated. In this sense, the five elements reflect both, on the one hand, the change of seasons in the macrocosm and on the other hand the inner circulation of energy through the organ systems.
The influence of disharmonious emotions on our health
Emotions are a type of energy that can either flow freely or be congested in our organs. Emotional problems can arise from lifestyle circumstances such as overwork, stress, accidents, surgery, drugs, toxins, poor food and posture, shallow breathing. Whatever their origin, disharmonious feelings of fear, anger, impatience, worry, and sorrow cause the most damage to the body. If these disharmonious feelings and toxic energies do not find a release in the organs, they get stuck in them or accumulate in the energetic center of the body. Fear stresses the kidneys and causes genital and bladder impairment, anger stresses the liver and can lead to migraines and impaired vision. Impatience, hatred, and cruelty stress the heart and can lead to irregular heartbeat and higher blood pressure, worry stresses the spleen and causes impaired digestion, and constant grief stresses the lungs and can lead to irregular breathing and constipation.
Establish a strong connection to your own energy sources
The Taoists discovered that most diseases can be cured if the underlying causes, toxins, and disharmonious forces are removed from the body. They developed a self-healing art of recycling and transforming disharmonious energies through meditation, exercises and various healing practices. In order not to deplete one's personal energy balance, it is first necessary to become aware of one's connection with one's own energy sources and the energies of the universe. If one can connect with these energies, one is strong and the energy that flows through us will be of the right quality and quantity, one does not exhaust one's resources so easily.
Daily practice
Once one has begun to reconnect one's own energy (chi) with the universal forces of the surrounding universe through regular meditation, thus burning off sick, unwanted emotional chi (energy), stronger and positive chi begins to develop within us. Start the day with the Inner Smile to your vital organs, and they will thank you for it. As you expand your meditations and practices into more and more complex, alchemical processes, you develop more strength and self-confidence. This kind of inner work with body alchemy also involves gentle attention to the whole body and mental systems. This is one of the principles of Taoist energy work, according to Grand Master Mantak Chia.
Become your own therapist in the 5 Element System of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Taoist alchemy - the "Chymical Wedding" in ancient China
The "Fusion of the 5 Elements" is one of the most important practices of inner alchemy. It is considered the “jewel” of Taoist meditations because of its great effectiveness in transforming disharmonious emotions. The exercises promote inner strength and self-determination. Nothing knocks us down so quickly - calmness and centeredness come more easily. It is a powerful mental training that increases our ability to remember and concentrate, the act of balance. Fusion also serves as energetic self-protection and is especially useful for those who work a lot with other people.
In the alchemical practices of fusion, various Pakua (Ba Gua) and collection points are used to extract, bind and harmonize attached emotional energies from the organs. The collection of organ energy does not weaken the organs in any way. Each time you practice fusion, what actually happens is that the essence energies collected from the organs are fused, purified and transformed into a life energy of enhanced quality. At the end of each practice, the energy is collected in bead form and returned to the body to strengthen all organs and glands, but especially those that need extra energy.
The West also knows comparable traditions, such as the 'Chymical Wedding' as the title of one of the basic writings of the Rosicrucian's. It was an instrument of the inquiring adepts who had the hermetic keys of 'alchemy', the Kabbalah and astrology. In alchemy, the chymic marriage signifies the union of opposites and reveals the gradual path of initiation into the ultimate great mysteries of our existence. In the alchemists' masterpiece, the production of a philosopher's stone with which gold can be made and an immortality elixir obtained, one of the necessary acts is the coagulatio of matter, the coagulation of incompatible substances in a chymic marriage. In the erotic symbolism of alchemy, this refers to the climax of the great work (opus magnum), when the white queen (symbol: mercury, silver or moon) unites with the red king (symbol: sulphur, gold or sun). The union of the polar opposites, however, is not only an external process, but also an allegory of the inner, spiritual process of change of a human being. The change of the human being itself was one of the most important goals of alchemy.
FUSION practice
The tantric lineages of Tibetan Buddhism and the Vedic yoga traditions have known and practiced comparable practices for centuries. The Taoists also charge their mandala - the Pakua - through the meditation sustaining toning: A particularly deeply touching part of fusion practice. Oscillations, vibrations, resonances, and tones play a major role in Taoist traditions in general. During thousands of years of study of philosophy and psychology, the Taoists recognized the need to explore people's basic feelings. They observed that certain actions attract unwanted emotions unless they are understood and managed. Disharmonious emotions can be transformed into beneficial life energy. Therefore, to repel or suppress unwanted, negative emotions is to repel or suppress life force. Instead, in the Taoist system, it is considered better to harness their experience.
That is, you let them come out without allowing them to go crazy or trigger other negative emotions. You can take control so that you can transform them not only into beneficial life force but also into a form of higher consciousness, your spiritual energy.
The whole exercise of fusion is a systematic process of self-purification and control over your own inner powers. By forming a pearl of pure energy and fusing the forces of the Five Elements into a new, improved and purified form of life force, you will gain the power of self-control. With the help of this power, you can also directly invoke the Cosmic Force to grant you strength and protection.
The practice of fusion is a meditation system consisting of formulas (techniques).
Fusion of the Five Elements I
In the first stage of fusion, one learns how to transform the disharmonious emotions of worry, sadness, cruelty, anger, and fear into pure energy. This is done by locating the source of negative emotions in the five main organs. With the help of the vibrating essences of the Eight Creative Forces of 'Pakua', the stressful blockages of the organs can be released. After the excess emotional energy has been filtered out of the organs, the organism can find its way back to a state of psycho-physical balance. The pure energy freed from disharmonious emotions crystallizes into a luminous pearl or crystal ball. This pearl plays a crucial role in the development and nourishment of the soul or energy body, which is fed exclusively by the pure energy of the five organs.
Fusion of the Five Elements II
In the second stage of fusion, one learns how to circulate the pure energy of the five organs once they are cleansed of disharmonious emotions. Once the organs are cleansed, the positive feelings of kindness, gentleness, respect, balance, justice, and compassion arise as a natural expression of inner balance. The practitioner can monitor this state of balance by observing the nature of the emotions that spontaneously form.
The energy of the positive emotions is used to open the three channels running from the perineum (under the sexual organs) to the apex, which are called the ascending channels. In addition, one opens the belt channels surrounding the nine main energy centers of the body.
Fusion of the Five Elements III
In the third stage of fusion, the practitioner completes the purification of the energy pathways in the body by activating the Bridging and Regulating Channels. With the opening of the Small Circuit, the Ascending Channel, the Belt Channels and the positive and disharmonious channels in the arms and legs, the body now becomes fully permeable to the circulation of life energy. The unhindered flow of energy forms the basis for perfect physical and mental health. In this stage you build up an extraordinary psychic protective field and learn procedures to release energy blockages that preferentially attach themselves to the spine and other parts of the body.
The method of fusion represents one of the greatest achievements of the Taoist masters, as it enables the person to free the body from disharmonious emotions and at the same time allow the pure light of positive forces to shine.
Excerpts from publications by Mantak Chia
Wolfgang Heuhsen UHT Inner Alchemy Senior Teacher
A complete 5-days workshop video instruction from Mantak Chia himself, you can find under: FUSION of the Five Elements - Emotional Transformation