內業 NeiYe (Internal Cultivation)
NeiYe focuses on Daoist cultivation (Xiu 修) of the heartmind (Xin 心), which involves the cultivation and refinement of the Three Treasures 精氣神: 精 Jing (Vital essence), 氣 Qi (Spirit), and 神 Shen (Mind).
內業 NeiYe or Internal Training is the oldest Chinese received text describing Daoist breath meditation techniques and Qi circulation.
先天一炁 XianTianYiQi, a form of primordial energy, and its relationship to acquiring 德 De (Virtue) was very influential for later Daoist philosophy. Similarly, important Daoist ideas such as the relationship between a person's 性 Xing (Inner nature) and their 命 Ming (Personal destiny) can be found in another lesser known text called the LuShi ChunQiu. In these texts, as well as in the DaoDeJing, a person who acquires 德 De (Virtue) and has a balanced and tranquil heartmind is called a XianRen 賢人 (Sage), ZhenRen 眞人 (True Man), ShengRen 聖人 (Holy Man), or XianRen 仙人 (Divine Man).
The “heart/mind” is the ruling agency within an individual’s bio-spiritual nexus --- in the entire personal complex of body/mind/heart/spirit. The NeiYe’s principal teaching is that a person should work constantly to ensure that his/her “heart/mind” is balanced and tranquil — without excessive cogitation or emotion. If one maintains a tranquil “heart/ mind,” one will become a receptor of life’s wholesome energies, and will be able to retain them and live a long life.
Traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese martial arts have adapted certain Daoist meditative techniques. Some examples are DaoYin (guide and pull) breathing exercises, NeiDan (internal alchemy) techniques, NeiGong (internal skill) practices, QiGong breathing exercises, ZhanZhuang (standing like a post) techniques. The opposite direction of adoption has also taken place, when the martial art of Taijiquan became one of the practices of modern Daoist practitioners, while historically it was not among traditional techniques.
GuanZi 管子 and NeiYe 內業
Four chapters of the 管子 GuanZi have descriptions of meditation practices:
XinShu 心術 "Mind Techniques" (2 chapters),
BaiXin 白心 "Purifying the Mind", and
NeiYe 內業 "Internal Training".
The NeiYe is possibly the oldest 'mystical' text in China, and can be described as a manual on the theory and practice of meditation that contains the earliest references to breath control and the earliest discussion of the physiological basis of self-cultivation in the Chinese tradition.
NeiYe Verse 8 associates DingXin 定心 "Stabilizing The Mind" with acute hearing and clear vision, and generating Jing 精 "Vital Essence". However, "Thought" is considered an impediment to attaining the well-ordered mind, particularly when it becomes excessive.
If you can be aligned and be tranquil,
Only then can you be stable.
With a stable mind at your core,
With the eyes and ears acute and clear,
And with the four limbs firm and fixed,
You can thereby make a lodging place for the vital essence.
The vital essence: it is the essence of the vital energy.
When the vital energy is guided, it [the vital essence] is generated,
But when it is generated, there is thought,
When there is thought, there is knowledge,
But when there is knowledge, then you must stop.
Whenever the forms of the mind have excessive knowledge,
You lose your vitality.
NeiYe Verse 18 contains the earliest Chinese reference to practicing Breath meditation. Breathing is said to "coil and uncoil" or "contract and expand"', "with coiling/contracting referring to exhalation and uncoiling/expanding to inhalation".
For all [to practice] this Way:
You must coil, you must contract,
You must uncoil, you must expand,
You must be firm, you must be regular [in this practice].
Hold fast to this excellent [practice]; do not let go of it.
Chase away the excessive; abandon the trivial.
And when you reach its ultimate limit
You will return to the Way and its inner power.
NeiYe Verse 24 summarizes "inner cultivation" meditation in terms of ShouYi 守一 "Maintaining the one" and YunQi 運氣 "Moving the Qi". The earliest ShouYi reference "appears to be a meditative technique in which the adept concentrates on nothing but the Way, or some representation of it.It is to be undertaken when you are sitting in a calm and unmoving position, and it enables you to set aside the disturbances of perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and desires that normally fill your conscious mind."
When you enlarge your mind and let go of it,
When you relax your vital breath and expand it,
When your body is calm and unmoving:
And you can maintain the One and discard the myriad disturbances.
You will see profit and not be enticed by it,
You will see harm and not be frightened by it.
Relaxed and unwound, yet acutely sensitive,
In solitude you delight in your own person.
This is called "revolving the vital breath":
Your thoughts and deeds seem heavenly.
Types Of Meditation
The Breath Meditation mentioned in NeiYe Verse 18 is not the normal breathing exercise. It is absorbing the XianTianYiQi, much like the Prana in Yoga practices, or Anapanasati in Buddhist practices.
ShouYi 守一 mentioned in NeiYe Verse 24, translated as "Maintaining the One", refers to developing a "One-Pointedness of Mind", much like Dharana in Yoga practices, or Ekaggata in Buddhist practices.
GuanZhi 觀止 "insight and tranquility" meditation, corresponding to Vipassana & Samatha – the two types of Buddhist meditation: Vipassana "clear observation; analysis" and Samatha "calm abiding; stabilizing meditation".
Guan 觀 is a practice of analysis and discernment, interpreted according to Buddhist Vipassana that leads to "insight" or "wisdom".
It is much like the Dhyana in Yoga practices.
Zhi 止 is a concentrative exercise that achieves the "cessation" of all unwholesome thoughts and mental activities. Unwholesome thoughts and attention lead to loss of energy, and may cause night emission leading to depletion of Yang Qi.
Ding 定 literally means "stabilize" and early scholars such as XuanZang used it to translate the Sanskrit word Samadhi, meaning "union", in Chinese Buddhist texts. In this sense, Ding can be understood as "mastery of composure or equanimity".
In the ZuoWangLun 坐忘论, there is a section called TaiDing 泰定 "intense Samadhi".
Cun 存 means "to be present; to store" in the Daoist meditation technique, which both the ShangQing School and LingBao Schools popularized. It thus means that the meditator, by an act of conscious concentration and focused intention, causes certain energies to be present in certain parts of the body. For this reason, the word is most commonly rendered "to visualize" or, as a noun, "visualization." Since, however, the basic meaning of Cun is not just to see or be aware of but to be actually present, the translation "to actualize" or "actualization" may at times be correct if somewhat alien to the Western reader.