The Relationship Between Nourishing Qi and the Dao

Cultivating qi is cultivating the Way. When qi is sufficient, the mind abides in meditative concentration (samādhi); when the mind is concentrated, wisdom arises and afflictions are subdued, making it easier to see the Way. Cultivating qi involves, first, replenishing it, and second, protecting it and not squandering it lightly. The second point—preventing leakage—is the most important, because if one is replenishing qi while at the same time consuming and leaking it, the replenishment becomes meaningless, and one may even replenish incorrectly, giving rise to illness and obstructions.

In what aspects is the qi in the human body most easily leaked? First, urination and defecation leak qi, consuming liver qi, lung qi, spleen qi, stomach qi, and so on. If these qi are insufficient, urination and defecation become difficult. The more frequently one urinates and defecates, the more qi is leaked; a person with a weak body will feel a sense of powerlessness after urinating and defecating. Therefore, the Buddha instructed his disciples to know moderation and contentment with food and drink: one meal a day at midday, and abstaining from food after midday (vikālabhojanā veramaṇī), so as to avoid, first, depleting merit, second, wasting time for practice, third, fostering greed, and fourth, avoiding frequent urination and defecation. Thus the Buddha's precepts all have a certain scientific rationale and are conducive to cultivating the Way.

The second easiest way to leak qi is sexual desire, which also consumes a great deal of the body's qi. Those who indulge in sexual desire frequently have poor physical constitution. Emperors of the past needed to regularly take tonic medicines, yet the replenishment could not keep up with what leaked out, and taking too many tonics also harms the body; in the end, the body became depleted, leading to early death. Only emperors with restraint could possibly live long, but there were few such. The Buddha established the precept requiring the elimination of sexual conduct because sexual desire is the root of birth-and-death in saṃsāra; without lust and desire, one can leave the desire realm. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said: to practice the Way with a lustful mind is like trying to steam sand into rice—it will never succeed, because sand is not the basis of rice. To practice the Way with a lustful mind is the conduct of Māra, and one will never accomplish the Way. Therefore the Buddha established the precept to eliminate sexual conduct. Those who single-mindedly make vows to accomplish the Way should, for the sake of their own liberation, consciously subdue the affliction of sexual desire.

The third easy way to leak qi is speech. Speaking consumes the qi of the dantian. When the manas stirs a thought to speak, the dantian qi arises and flows upward along the chakras, passing through the throat chakra to the root of the tongue; the mind consciousness and body consciousness arise, and language is produced. In this process, much qi from the various organs runs out along with the speech. Therefore, people with deficient qi speak weakly and may even be unable to produce a voice. Some people feel weak and exhausted after talking too much. Those who must speak a great deal every day consume too much qi; such people generally have no meditative concentration, and even if they have it, it will recede. Therefore, Buddhist disciples who cultivate the Way generally like silence, not speaking unless there is something important. This serves, first, to gather qi, and second, to keep the mind from distraction.

The fourth thing that easily consumes qi is wild, unrestrained daydreaming. With too many mental thoughts and internal friction of the spirit, the qi is also exhausted, and meditative concentration does not easily arise; even if it arises, it will disappear. "When the mouth opens, the spirit-qi scatters; when thought stirs, the fire-work grows cold"—as soon as one speaks, the qi in the body disperses and vanishes; as soon as the manas stirs a thought, the fire originally cultivated in the body dissipates, and after the vital warmth/warmth and touch (of life) disappears, the body grows cold. Thoughts also consume energy. A person whose body is extremely weak cannot concentrate on thinking through problems; the brain may go completely blank. Those who think and worry too much are prone to fatigue and also to hunger. Those who frequently use their brain tend to have a weak spleen and are also prone to hunger. As the energy dissipates, meditative concentration also disappears.

The above are the main channels through which the body leaks and consumes qi. All nine orifices easily consume qi and blood: prolonged looking scatters liver qi, leading to insufficiency of liver blood; prolonged listening scatters kidney qi, leading to kidney decline; prolonged smelling, tasting, and touching all cause the loss of qi and blood, making meditative concentration unsustainable. The pores on the body's surface can also radiate energy; bathing for too long or in water that is too hot will cause the loss of qi and blood. If one wishes to cultivate the Way well, all worldly dharmas must be practiced with restraint, stopping at what is appropriate. Without craving for form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas, the Way is easily accomplished.