Turning the Light Around Meditation with Salala Tauler This practice comes from an ancient Taoist text called The Secret of the Golden Flower Taijinhua Zhangshi,
Which uses the image of the golden flower of true awakening.
Here we are taught how to close off our outer sight,
Which is the prime way we interact and receive information from the world around us,
And instead rely on our inner sight.
In other words,
Not putting our attention to the outside world,
But turning that light inward and paying attention to what's going on in our inner world.
The knowledge and experience we receive from this practice is called illumination,
Or lit from within.
It is in only relying on our outer sight that we often get deeply entangled with the world of duality,
Or even what some people call illusion.
This practice turns our attention and intention inward so we can experience what in Taoism is called the original mind,
Or the mind within the mind.
So sit on the edge of a chair or on your cushion,
Closing your eyes,
What in Tao is called letting down the shades.
And here we'll be doing natural breathing,
Meaning as we breathe in,
Our lower abdomen expands to the front,
To the sides,
And to the back,
And we're also filling our lungs totally up.
And as we exhale,
Our abdomen contracts and our lungs empty.
We also place the tip of our tongue on the roof of our mouth,
Connecting the big super highway of qi that goes up the back and the one that goes down the front.
So let's spend just a few moments practicing this,
Breathing slowly,
Deeply,
Gently,
In and out of our nose,
But we imagine the breath is not only filling our lungs,
But going all the way down to our lower abdomen and filling our dan tian,
Our field of elixir.
Allow the wild horse of your mind to slow down until you're able to keep one thought in your mind at any one time.
Taoist practice,
This is described as substituting 10,
000 thoughts with one thought.
A simple way to do this is put your focus on your breath.
Imagine each inhalation and each exhalation as one breath.
Then you can count up to 10 breaths or even 36,
But any more will be hard to focus on.
Allow your breath to become so deep and natural that it feels as though you are being breathed.
Now turn the light of your focus around and onto your inner self,
That the Taoists call internal shining or nei jiao.
It is when we turn our focus from the outside world with all its entanglements and instead focus on our inner world,
We can sometimes receive guidance and information from our higher or deeper self or even guiding spirits.
And in this way,
By letting go one of our senses,
We can sometimes strengthen another one,
Which is why many people who are blind have more acute hearing ability.
So keep deepening your gaze in a relaxed and open manner and gently explore what worlds may lie within you.
See what experiences or inspiration may light themselves up in this way.
You may get an image or perhaps a feeling,
Or see actual lights when you do this practice.
By closing off your connection,
At least visually,
From the outside world,
A whole inner world may show itself to you.
When we go through the world with our eyes open,
It's like having a flashlight lighting up our way forward.
This practice is like having an inner flashlight lighting our way on our inner journey.
It can be like walking along a tunnel in a dark cave,
Our inner eye lighting our way as we wander deeper and deeper into the sacred cavern.
At times,
It will be like noticing beautiful and powerful cave art created thousands of years ago,
Which are still full of energy and majesty.
It is also like discovering words and poems left there by the ancient achieved ones for us to discover on our own journey into the sacred cave.
It is just as important,
If not more so,
Than your outer journey through life.
In practicing this way,
You will reach what the Taoists call Living Midnight,
A state of profound mental stillness and quietude that allows our original or celestial mind or spirit to come forth,
Learning how to become inner explorers,
Explorers of the inner realms.
In ancient times,
This is how the Taoist practitioners created what we think of today as Chinese medicine or qigong or dao yin.
They were going deep within and tracking where their organs were and how they were working and how they were paired with other organs,
And then tracking these what we call meridians or channels,
How the energy of our kidneys,
Say our kidney adrenals,
Are fed by the point on the very bottom of our foot called yong chun or bubbling wells point.
There were no books in ancient times to just go and look this stuff up.
You had to do your inner exploration and you had to go and learn from teachers who had done their inner exploration.
So that's what we're doing right now.
We're becoming inner astronauts,
Inner explorers.
Usually it would be good to spend at least 20 minutes doing this practice,
Not forcing anything,
Not trying to make anything special happen,
Just relaxing and enjoying the view of your inner world.
And then to end the practice,
Rub your palms,
Your laogong together briskly 36 times,
And then place your palms over your eyes and breathe in that warmth into your eyes and then deep into your brain.
You can also rub up and down your face a few times to bring yourself out of the meditative state.
Now when you open your eyes into the world around you,
Continue to stay in the meditative state for at least a little while.
Take a few moments to gather yourself before re-entering the world of outer vision after spending this time in inner vision.
