Chi and Meditation = Good Life

The Chinese believe that the age of seventy is the time of rejuvenation, the period at which we get a second breath, so to speak. This is only possible, however, if we have cultivated ourselves. What do I mean by cultivation? We must develop the “Chi Posteriori” (not that which we have brought to our birth but Chi we have accumulated through practice). Then, if we meet one who can teach us, we must learn to “rest in the Turiya state”, which is done by certain meditative practices.

T’ai Chi Chih is an easy way to accumulate Chi, and it also balances the Chi. The Chinese sages cautioned that regular practice such as this tends to intensify the sexual urge, and this should not result in excessive sex practice. Actually, this new Chi can be transmuted into spiritual energy and taken to the top of the head. At an Ashram in which I once stayed, there was a young Yogi who was having nightly emissions, which gave him great feelings of guilt. The Yogi is not supposed to let the semen, or Ojas, escape from the body, but being twenty-one years of age, he could not prevent it. I taught him to set his mental alarm for 1:00 a.m., at which time he would awaken and do a special practice I had given him. The emissions ceased, but he then awakened with so much energy every morning that he took to riding a bicycle from one town to another before anyone else had awakened! He also experimented with going on a 48-hour life cycle, rather than the 24-hour one to which we are used. So Chi practice that leads to excessive sexual indulgence can be harmful.

I only teach a few [students] the meditation that will take them to the Turiya State, which Indians also call “Samadhi”, though not the ultimate Samadhi without “perfume” (vashana). When we have had Meditation retreats with large turnouts, all seemed to get benefits, but they failed to follow up with continued practice after the retreats, pleading that they were “too busy”. I have given up these retreats, just teaching a very few privately, and I am not sure all of them are sincere enough (“earnest” is the word Nisargadatta Maharaj uses) to justify sporadic cultivation. If you want to live “Truth”, then you must put aside other less important activities and entertainments.

T’ai Chi Chih is so complete (as hospitals and prisons are slowly learning) that regular and correct practice can accomplish wonders, and many feel it will greatly lengthen lives. There are other things that can be added to it. I have rejected the request to develop a mail-order course in “Turiya-type” meditation, which should be taught personally.

In writing as serious a piece as this I am assuming that the reader is a serious type who takes such things seriously. I believe that T’ai Chi Chih teachers are usually very superior people.