There are two main methods of Taoist meditation: fire and water.<\/span><\/p>\n The fire method emphasizes force and pushing forward. The water method is known for not forcing things, for literally allowing things to happen in their own time, yet it is far from passive.<\/span><\/p>\n The water method is a practical way of releasing blockages throughout the mind\/body, so that one can be totally transformed and ultimately experience conscious harmony with the Tao, right down to the bone marrow. Water practices are based on a philosophical perspective that is relevant to everyday life: in everything you do, you should feel comfortable. The central and most essential practice of the water meditation method is to “dissolve” or release the energy trapped in the body to make it free to merge with the Tao and be able to perceive it.<\/span><\/p>\n Taoists believe that since you live on this planet and are a physical being, you need to deal completely with the fact of your physicality, that is, your ability to feel and be fully aware of all the sensations that exist within the body.<\/span><\/p>\n Thus begins the water method meditation in Taoism, training the mind to focus its attention fully on the energy sensations in the body and consciousness. <\/b><\/p>\n When you start to feel deeply within yourself, you often find places where your energies have frozen; within some form, the physical body, the qi, in the emotions and so on, since something has frozen, closed the channels and points through which energy flows in the body.<\/span><\/p>\n All the energy within the human being, if it is free (i.e. unblocked) is like a flowing river. Condensed or blocked energies take on a real or recognizable form. These condensed energetic forms block the normal flow of Qi in your various energetic bodies, and such a blockage can then make you sick, dysfunctional or diminished in some way. Two ways to Dissolve<\/b>The aim of dissolving is to release any energy that has solidified into a specific form – to make that energy neutral and limitless.<\/span>The practice of external dissolving: turning ice into water, and water into steam<\/b>To dissolve externally, you need to use your mind to examine your body from head to toe, until you locate a place in your body where energy is blocked or frozen, identified by a sensation of force, tension, discomfort or contraction. <\/span> <\/p>\n As your awareness becomes more sensitive, you may begin to feel or experience the outer contours of this frozen energy space. This is the transformation of ice into water. As the frozen energy in the body becomes soft or flowing (like the water in the pot), it must maintain attention in that place and consciousness continues to cause that energy space to expand until there is a sensation of trapped energy expanding beyond the skin, perhaps up to 30 or 60 centimeters outside the surface. This dissolving technique must be carried out by feeling it, not just imagining it with the mind’s eye. The Taoist meditation practice of inner dissolution: the transformation of ice into water in space<\/b><\/p>\n The main concern of qigong is to develop physical health and strength. Taoist meditation, in contrast, is primarily concerned with discovering Universal Consciousness itself. The process of inner dissolution is extremely useful for resolving the temporary and long-term emotional, mental and psychological stress that can take so much of the joy out of life. The now-free energy can fulfill its natural function, part of which is to heal any illness that the original blockage caused. Lao Tse Tao Te Ching, verses 53 and 81<\/strong>The Great Tao is not difficult<\/span>However, people choose side doors <\/span>and turn away from the truth<\/span>Pay attention when things get out of balance<\/span>Focus on the Tao<\/span>The Tao supports and promotes everyone<\/span>by not forcing or using force.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>
\nIt has the characteristics of flames, always advancing to consume more fuel.
\nThe water method, on the other hand, <\/span>believes in effort without strength<\/b>It’s about relaxation and detachment.
\nIt displays and highlights the characteristics of water: softness and flow. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nIn this way, one acts naturally according to the principles of the Tao Te Ching. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nYou must learn to exert all your effort without overexerting yourself.
\nTo do this, you must refine a certain edge in your mind.
\nExerting all your effort and yet not using force, not infringing the real limits of body, mind and spirit, this is the gentle path of Lao Tse, which allows you to understand the Tao. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nBecause of countless conditions and circumstances, we begin to block energy channels, yet we generally don’t retain the free-flowing energies that are ours from birth. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nInstead of the energy flowing freely, it becomes like a water barrier that stagnates and putrefies. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nThis is why the practice of qigong (or inner energy work) almost invariably begins with techniques to dissolve blockages and move them out of the body. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nYou should always be alert to the more subtle energy that exists behind the energy that is obviously felt (for example, the layer beyond the one that is dissolving at the moment).
\nConsciousness begins to enter the obvious solid mass, causing the frozen energy to begin to soften, until it reaches the center of the blockage. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n(If you put an ice cube in a pan and heat it on the stove, you will see that the outside of the ice cube melts first, with the melting slowly progressing towards the center of the cube). <\/span><\/p>\n
\nIt’s the transformation of water into steam.
\nLike the water in the pot, which doesn’t turn to steam until the ice cube is completely liquefied, the dissolution of a block of energy takes place in stages. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nMany people are extremely visual and today visualization techniques are very common.
\nThe process of external dissolution, however, is not a visual experience at all; it is a felt sensation, just as you feel an ice cube or a candle in your hand. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nTo achieve this, it uses the technique of external dissolution to release externally trapped energy away from the body and into “outer space”. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nThus, the initial practices of inner dissolution use the energy trapped in the blockages as fuel to move into an unbound “inner space”, ultimately imploding the dissolved energy into the inner core of your being (i.e. Consciousness itself). <\/span><\/p>\n
\nThrough this process, the defined mass of frozen energy that was totally immobile becomes relaxed and fluid. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nYou can then move your mind deeper and deeper into your field of energy and consciousness, dissolving layer after layer, until you find each block of energy back at its source.
\nFinally, the blockages are gone, never to return, and you will be freed from the prison of energy blockages and become one with the Tao. <\/span><\/p>\n