Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter Seven: Chan Samādhi and the Qi Channels of the Physical Body
1. Why is it said that sitting quietly for a single moment surpasses building stupas of seven treasures as numerous as the Ganges sands?
The saying that if a person sits quietly for a single moment, it surpasses building stupas of seven treasures as numerous as the Ganges sands, has a certain validity. Why is this so? Because building stupas of seven treasures as numerous as the sands of the Ganges is merely material giving (dāna). Although it can bring immeasurable merit beyond description, only the giver personally obtains that merit; it does not involve other sentient beings, and moreover, merit is eventually exhausted. Furthermore, this is only pure merit, within which there is no wisdom-merit; it cannot eradicate ignorance and afflictions, and thus cannot lead to liberation and great liberation. Merit is the accomplishment of wisdom; it can eradicate ignorance and afflictions and attain liberation and great liberation. Only when both merit and wisdom are perfectly accomplished can omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) be attained; lacking either one, one cannot become a Buddha.
Meditative concentration is the most effective path for cultivating the body and mind. Sitting quietly itself can not only generate the merit of concentration, but also has the beneficial function of merit; not only does the person sitting in meditation receive the benefit of merit, it can also influence other people around, and all connected people who come into contact will receive the benefit of merit. Because between sentient beings there is a certain magnetic-field effect of body and mind, capable of mutual permeation and influence—like the relationship between cold water and hot water, with the final result being that the cold and hot water blend together, the heat of the hot water permeating into the cold water, warming it, and even melting hard ice. A person with meditative concentration and cultivation is like hot water; a person without meditative concentration or cultivation, or one whose cultivation is very shallow, is like cold water and hard ice. As a result, the merit of the person with concentration is imperceptibly transmitted to those without concentration, so that those without meditative concentration or cultivation can also feel physical and mental joy, reduced afflictions, and a softened mind, and can even eliminate karmic obstacles and distress.
Of course, when the heat of the hot water is transmitted to the cold water and hard ice, the heat will be somewhat dissipated and it will become colder. The person with meditative concentration and cultivation will feel physically and mentally tired, afflictions may increase, and illness and suffering may also increase, so that the power of cultivation is weakened, and greater price must be paid to maintain the original state of body and mind, or to deepen concentration and cultivation further. Therefore, practitioners must choose their place of practice well and choose well the people they associate with, staying away from places heavy with karmic obstacles; if one can avoid crowds, that is best. Everyone needs good spiritual friends; if there are none, one can only remain alone.
But this does not mean that by leaving the crowd, sentient beings are no longer influenced by one's merit—the influence remains. It is only that previously the merit was transmitted to the very few people nearby; once these people are no longer around as obstructions, one's magnetic field and energy will be transmitted farther, and more people will benefit. There is no need to let a few people block the sunlight and warmth needed by the many. A person with very great cultivation power can influence the surrounding hundred li, thousand li, ten thousand li; can influence a city, a province, a country, and can even influence the whole world and the entire Buddhist community, bearing on the rise and fall, the survival and extinction of Buddhism. In a group, whether large or small, as long as such a person is present, the group will be harmonious and flourishing; once such a person is gone from the group, the karmic obstacles can no longer be suppressed, and then disputes and conflicts appear frequently, and the group gradually declines.
Sitting quietly for a single moment stills disputes, conflicts, and scattered thoughts; body and mind both become still, purifying one's own and the surrounding magnetic field. Humans, animals, birds, and ghosts and spirits will all feel a moment of harmony and peace, and in that instant burning vexation is stilled. Such merit is beyond description; building stupas of seven treasures as numerous as the Ganges sands cannot compare with it. Especially in today's Dharma-ending age, when sentient beings universally have blazing greed, hatred, and delusion, with karmic obstacles flowing constantly and disasters arising everywhere, if one can still afflictions for a single moment, the merit is beyond description. Of course, this refers to right samādhi; wrong samādhi only has a negative influence, because when the mind is deviant, the mind's influence is also imperceptibly very great.
2. The Principle of Reciting from Memory
When the Śūraṅgama mantra has been chanted to a very fast speed, reciting it from memory basically becomes no longer difficult. Why is this? Because chanting is the function of the mind consciousness, while memory is the function of the manas. When the mind consciousness can chant very skillfully, the manas has also been perfumed by it to a considerable degree. At this point, if one can chant the mantra at a very fast speed, not only does the mind consciousness have no scattered thoughts or wandering discursion, the manas also has no scattered thoughts or wandering discursion, and can single-mindedly perfumate the mantra; naturally the mantra will be memorized, so that the mind consciousness can recite it skillfully, reciting naturally without deliberately practicing recitation.
And single-mindedness is precisely meditative concentration. Removing scattered thoughts and discursive thinking, concentrating all one's energy on one thing without interference, that thing can be accomplished successfully. Therefore, with meditative concentration one can accomplish all things, and wisdom will then appear. The manas and meditative concentration, the two combined, can accomplish all things; the accomplishment of all dharmas is inseparable from the manas and meditative concentration. Therefore, meditative concentration mainly refers to the concentration in which the manas is the commander-in-chief, and the six consciousnesses, as attendants, must advance and retreat with the commander, entering concentration and stillness together. When encountering a problem, if the manas can deeply and single-mindedly deliberate (manasikāra), disregarding all other dharma conditions and realms, the power of concentration rapidly intensifies, and it becomes possible to reach the root of the problem, with wisdom welling forth.
Speed can give rise to meditative concentration, and slowness can likewise give rise to meditative concentration. Reciting the mantra slowly, even extremely slowly, one will also be very single-minded: the mind consciousness has no wandering thoughts, the manas has no wandering thoughts, and can attentively receive the perfumation of the mind consciousness; the mantra slowly enters the manas's mind, and the mantra is memorized in the mind, after which it can be recited from memory. Very fast chanting of mantras and sutras, and very slow chanting of mantras and sutras—both methods have advantages and disadvantages: with speed, scatteredness may arise; with slowness, dullness may arise, requiring adjustment at all times. The two methods apply to different situations; whatever the situation, that is the method to use. Each person must personally experience and flexibly master them to achieve the best results.
3. Conditions That Arise When Deep Meditative Concentration Is Cultivated
Question: In recent days when I go out, I cannot bear noise. For more than half a month now, whether at home or out, if I am not careful I get badly startled by sounds. The first two days were especially severe: I felt as if this body were about to float away, unable to keep balance, as if the body were out of my control, and the top of my head felt as if there were a hole with wind drilling into it. Usually I dare not go out, fearing fright. My daughters say I ignore them now, and that I look as if my soul has departed, listless. They took me to the hospital for a checkup, and nothing was found to be wrong. Sitting in meditation in my room contemplating the meaning of the Dharma is much better, but sometimes my heart feels panicky. This has never happened before. Is something wrong with me?
Answer: You may not understand the movement of the body's qi channels, nor know whether the qi has passed through the Conception Vessel (Ren meridian) at the front of the body and the Governing Vessel (Du meridian) along the back, and finally, after circulating one full loop front and back, entered the central channel of the body, with the qi about to burst out through the crown of the head. When the Baihui acupoint at the crown is about to open, the top of the head is very soft and sensitive to cold, and one will feel wind pouring into the crown. The feeling of lightness in the body is because meditative concentration has transformed the coarse and heavy four great elements of the human body, making them more subtle, approaching the physical body of the devas of the desire realm. After the first dhyāna is cultivated, the four great elements of the body become even more subtle, the body even lighter, approaching the physical body of the devas of the form realm. When the fourth dhyāna is reached, because the four great elements of the body become extremely subtle and one feels especially light, one can fly through the heavens and into the earth, gaining the supernormal power of psychic travel, and at the same time the mind also becomes extremely subtle, and the knowledge of others' minds appears.
Your present state is one of extreme inner stillness, paying no attention whatsoever to the external; the realms outside the mind and outside the body can no longer be attended to, and you abide only in the inner mental world, so any movement outside startles you. At this time, try not to go out and avoid people, so as not to be frightened. After the crown opens, there are still some matters that require avoiding people; at such times you must carefully protect yourself from being startled, and let others handle errands as much as possible.
Your meditative concentration (samādhi) is already very deep, and it will deepen further. As long as you know these are all states of meditative concentration and the mind does not attach to marks, just abide in concentration according to conditions; take nothing to heart, and there will be no problem. Because you are unclear about these matters and feel uncertain inside, you feel panicky.
4. How to Reduce Demonic Obstacles?
Question: In meditative concentration one has already escaped the bondage of the physical body, quietly contemplating the false nature of all dharmas, letting go of emptiness and consciousness, transcending the two realms of inner and outer, and conditioning on the sphere of nothingness; within the mind there is empty nothingness to rely on, no perceptions arise, stable and tranquil—this is the typical sphere-of-nothingness samādhi of the four formless samādhis, the seventh level of meditative concentration! How profound! Has anyone here reached such a holy state?
Answer: This is purely the realm of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, not a holy one's realm, because it does not involve the wisdom of liberation: there is neither the wisdom of the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) nor the wisdom of seeing the mind and realizing one's nature. Pure states of meditative concentration still lie outside the gate of Buddhism, and are therefore called non-Buddhist (tīrthika) samādhi. In the Buddha's time, quite a few of the non-Buddhists had this samādhi; meditative concentration was not at all rare then. Today's non-Buddhists long ago became unable to cultivate even somewhat deeper meditative concentration, which is why the present is called the Dharma-ending age. In the Dharma-ending age even the non-Buddhists are no longer professional—how can Buddhism flourish? The reason the Buddha descended in India two thousand years ago was that sentient beings' roots of goodness had matured. Many people sought liberation but did not know how to attain it, all believing that only meditative concentration could liberate one from the suffering of birth and death, so they all cultivated concentration diligently without cease, becoming non-Buddhists outside the Buddha's Dharma. Out of pity for the people of the world, the Buddha was born into the world, sprinkling the nectar of immortality to eliminate sentient beings' suffering.
If someone today cultivated the four formless samādhis of the formless realm and displayed supernatural powers, sentient beings, upon learning of it, would worship him madly. And if that person, with ulterior motives, wanted to dominate Buddhism and do other things to win over sentient beings, ordinary people truly could not resist and could do nothing about it—they could not even see through him, let alone have the ability to refute him. If in later ages such a demon comes to disturb the Buddha's Dharma, only a bodhisattva possessing the four dhyānas and eight samādhis and great supernatural powers can refute him, to protect sentient beings from entering the demonic path. The Buddha said in the sutras that among all non-Buddhists, none can be refuted except by a great bodhisattva who has attained the bhūmis; an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva can refute all non-Buddhists, while bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi up to below the eighth can only refute some of them. Ordinary beings can only prostrate and worship the non-Buddhists and demons, lacking the wisdom to see through them.
5. The Relationship Between Afflictions and Meditative Concentration
Question: Is it that when one has cultivated to a certain level, one becomes more sensitive to the external world, easily perceiving others' subtle ill will, and thus easily loses one's temper?
Answer: Because your own body's qi mechanism is not smooth, with qi and blood blocked and not flowing freely, your emotions are constrained, producing negative emotions; you look at others and mistakenly believe they have ill will, which in fact may not be so—this is the projection and reflection of your own inner emotions. Because your emotions are constrained, when meeting people or situations you cannot help wanting to vent your emotions, and so you easily lose your temper. For some people at some times, temperament is easily affected by physical health; when the body is healthy and the mood is comfortable, all bad emotions and afflictions disappear.
By the same principle, only in happiness can a person be open-minded and broad-hearted, and only then can afflictions be eradicated, and meditative concentration precisely produces happiness, making body and mind comfortable and joyful, and thus afflictions can be eradicated. Different depths and levels of concentration produce different degrees of happiness, and the levels of afflictions eradicated differ accordingly. Preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) and the first dhyāna are concentrations of different levels: one is attained in the desire realm, the other in the form realm. The happiness attained in the desire realm's preparatory concentration is low, so the afflictions eradicated are shallow; the happiness attained in the form realm's first dhyāna is high, so the afflictions eradicated are deep.
Why is it that only after sentient beings realize the fruits and cultivate to the first dhyāna can they eradicate the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion? This is because the first dhyāna is a concentration of single-minded joy and bliss. When a person is in this concentration, the mind is extremely joyful and happy, and because of that bliss transcending the greed of the desire realm and the human world, the human-world afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are all cast off and eradicated, and thus the third fruit, anāgāmin, is attained.
Although the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion cannot be eradicated in preparatory concentration, a portion of the afflictive delusions of views and thoughts in the desire realm will be eradicated; one can eradicate the view of self and attain the first fruit (srotāpanna) and second fruit (sakṛdāgāmin). Therefore, the fruits of the Small Vehicle are related not only to the wisdom of no-self, but also to meditative concentration and the eradication of afflictions. Having both concentration and wisdom determines that afflictions can certainly be eradicated; afflictions are closely related to whether one has concentration and wisdom—with concentration and wisdom there are no afflictions; without concentration and wisdom, delusion gives rise to afflictions. Therefore, when the view of self is eradicated and the fruits realized, those afflictive delusions of views and thoughts are also eliminated, bodily, verbal, and mental actions become pure, and one no longer commits relatively major unwholesome karma, much less major grave karma. As long as a person still commits relatively major afflictive unwholesome karma in the world, with defiled bodily, verbal, and mental actions, one can conclude that this person has not eradicated the view of self, has not attained the fruits of the Great or Small Vehicle, and even less could be a bodhisattva on the bhūmis. No matter how dazzlingly and eloquently he expounds the Dharma, as long as his words and deeds are deficient and his defilement is somewhat heavy, one can conclude that this person is an ordinary being. Therefore, refuting the false and revealing the true is not something ordinary people can do; the general masses lack the ability to refute the false and reveal the true—it is already quite good if they do not become accomplices. Sentient beings can only broaden their knowledge, increase their rationality, have fewer emotions and less mindless worship; then there will be less opening for demons, and sentient beings will have fewer demonic obstacles. Five.
6. How to Deal with the Body's Qi-Channel Problems
When the qi channels are in the head, causing headaches, toothaches, and eye pain, how should this be resolved?
Yao Ling's answer: If the qi truly will not sink, you can place your attention on the pit of the heart, or on the Mingmen point on the lower back between the lumbar vertebrae, contemplate the white bones at the lumbar vertebrae, or place your attention on the big toe of the left foot. In fact, if you genuinely practice the white-bone contemplation, the mind naturally relaxes, and the qi will certainly sink. Afterward, it is best to hold only the right mindfulness that "All marks are false and illusory," and hold nothing else; naturally all conditions are laid down, not a single thought arises, and the qi channels will open very quickly. When you completely let go of this body, it will quickly recover on its own.
If you harbor the desire "I want my body to feel a bit more comfortable," it shows you are grasping at the body's sensations, discriminating and grasping (upādāna). What you need to do is contemplate "All marks are false and illusory": this bodily sensation is empty and unobtainable; then let go of the bodily sensation, no longer grasping at it or discriminating it, and do not let the mind stick to the body's sensations. This is called letting go of the body's sensations. By the same token, toward other various realms, such as external sounds, let go in the same way, and do not let the mind stick to them. At this time, your own mind is still perfectly clear, knowing that you are not sticking to these realm-marks and giving rise to discrimination. In this way, the qi will quickly sink down, and the body will quickly achieve the harmony of water and fire.
Of course, it is best not to skip the contemplation of impurity and the white-bone contemplation; otherwise, if you cling to the people around you as truly existing, you cannot possibly let go of your grasping at them. When the mind returns to the source and the qi returns to the source, any realm you take as real will become a demonic obstruction, preventing you from returning to the source. Therefore, contemplate "all dharmas are without self," to break through inverted clinging.
7. The Principle of "When Essence Is Full, One Does Not Think of Lust"
The disciple asked: One morning while doing walking meditation, contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness, a thought suddenly arose saying to relax the dantian. When the dantian relaxed, a stream of warmth filled the dantian, warm and hot, and to this day the dantian is still warm. As the warm current appeared, the disciple noticed something special: seeing members of the opposite sex no longer gives rise to thoughts, and I no longer use counteractive methods; it is just like looking at people of the same sex or ordinary objects, and the dantian area no longer stirs. (Ordinarily, seeing the opposite sex would trigger uncontrollable improper attention, with a physiological stirring in the dantian area, requiring a second thought to counteract it.) Please, Master, guide me regarding my situation.
Answer: Through sitting meditation and walking meditation to cultivate concentration, you have opened the flow of qi and blood in the dantian area, and the sign of warmth has manifested: the dantian is warm, the qi and blood of the whole body flow freely, body and mind become soft and pliant, so that the dantian is full of qi, full of spirit, and full of essence; no external energy replenishment is needed, so physiological needs have diminished, to the point of eating less, sleeping less, and no longer needing sexual desire. Only when essence, qi, and spirit are insufficient is external energy replenishment needed, and physiological needs are relatively many.
And these physiological needs all belong to the necessities of life in the desire-realm human world. When cultivation transcends the human realm's state, the five hindrances—food and sleep, desire, and so on—are gradually removed, and one ascends to the states of the desire-realm heavens and form-realm heavens; that is to say, the desire realm's preparatory concentration is complete, and the form realm's first dhyāna is close at hand. After a person's desires are subdued, concentration will rise to the first dhyāna, and in the first dhyāna, greed is eradicated.
The devas of the form realm from the first-dhyāna heaven upward, having no male-female desire, have no gender, no division of male and female; because they do not need food and drink, they have no nose consciousness to smell scents and no tongue consciousness to taste flavors; they have only the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, body consciousness, mind consciousness, and the manas. Thus, consciousnesses are set up according to sentient beings' needs; without needs, the consciousnesses need not exist. For example, in the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), only the manas exists, with no six consciousnesses, and moreover the manas has also extinguished the two mental factors of feeling and perception.
That your dantian area no longer stirs shows that essence and qi are full, so sexual desire is naturally unnecessary, and you have lost interest in lust. When essence and qi are not full, it is like a half-full bottle of water that always sloshes, needing more water poured in from outside; when the water is sufficient and full, it no longer sloshes. When the dantian's essence and qi are full, it no longer stirs, and no replenishment through lust is needed. When the World-Honored One spoke in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra of the state of eradicating desire, he said that for a person who has eradicated desire, sexual intercourse feels like chewing a candle—utterly flavorless, a feeling of humiliation that must be endured, done only to complete a task.
You are currently at the stage of eradicating the five hindrances' obstructions; preparatory concentration is complete, and the first dhyāna is about to arise. In this concentration, the conditions of meditative concentration for eradicating the view of self and for seeing the mind and realizing enlightenment are complete; the conditions of merit and wisdom still await perfection. If, after eradicating the view of self and seeing the mind, you additionally have the foundation of first-dhyāna concentration power, you can eradicate the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion and become a Small Vehicle third-fruit person, an anāgāmin. The road ahead is bright—keep up the effort!
For people without desire or with little desire, part of it is their own physiological and psychological makeup, and part is related to cultivation in past lives. Those who were anāgāmins in past lives have already eradicated desire; in this life, whether or not they study Buddhism, they have no desire, or their desire is extremely faint, almost nonexistent, though they may have some worldly affection, but not much. Those who in past lives were between the first fruit and before the third fruit also have faint desires in this life, and their cultivation is easy and rapid.
If meditative concentration does not keep up, all of this belongs to mind-consciousness control; the afflictions subdued in concentration will reappear as concentration regresses, let alone the subduing of afflictions without concentration, which is even less stable. Only the eradication of afflictions after eradicating the view of self is permanent eradication, never to reappear.
8. The Qi-Channel Circulation of the Microcosmic Orbit of the Conception and Governing Vessels
Lantian's account of the qi-channel movement during his cultivation of concentration and breath observation: In recent days while sitting in meditation observing the breath, the breath has strongly struck the perineum, and the warmth at the perineum, the Weilü point, and the lower back has noticeably intensified. Around February of last year, when the qi channel was passing through the supreme faculty (indriya) at the back of the brain, my left ear had already been ringing with tinnitus for more than five months; after the qi channel finished passing through the brain, the tinnitus in my left ear was cured. In May of last year, during sitting meditation, because the tip of my tongue was not fully touching the upper palate and front teeth, when the qi channel passed between the upper right teeth and lower right teeth, it inflamed the entire upper gum and damaged three upper teeth.
These are phenomena arising when the qi channel enters the Governing Vessel. As the qi channel moves through the Governing Vessel along the back, it also has a regulating effect on the five zang and six fu organs in front and the whole body. When the qi channel enters the back from the Weilü point, there will be a certain obstruction when it pushes up to the back of the neck; breaking through this point and entering the supreme faculty at the back of the brain, the obstruction here may be somewhat greater, but the faculties of eye, ear, nose, and tongue will be effectively regulated, resulting in sharp ears and clear eyes; eye diseases and diseases of the ear, nose, and tongue will be eliminated. Once the qi channel reaches the back of the brain, one must intensify sitting meditation so the qi channel becomes more abundant and can quickly pass through the Baihui acupoint at the crown; the healing effect will then be better. When the qi channel moves to the back of the brain, one can contemplate karmic-obstacle qi exiting through the Baihui acupoint at the crown; this also helps eliminate disease, letting the qi channel pass through the back of the brain as quickly as possible and reach the junction of the Conception and Governing Vessels, so as to open the two vessels.
The gum inflammation was the qi channel forcibly blocked at the gums, the heat scorching the gums and causing inflammation. If the Conception Vessel at the tip of the tongue and the Governing Vessel at the gums are well connected, the qi channel will smoothly pass through the gums into the tongue and thereby enter the Conception Vessel, completing one microcosmic orbit circulation, and such things will not happen. Among the three channels, the qi channel first opens the Conception Vessel, then the Governing Vessel; after the circulation of the two vessels is opened, it then enters the central channel. The central channel is the hardest to open; once opened, all illnesses vanish.
9. The Relationship Between Nourishing Qi and the Path
Nourishing qi is nourishing the Path. When qi is abundant, the mind is in concentration; when the mind is concentrated, wisdom arises and afflictions subside, and seeing the Path becomes easy. Nourishing qi consists, first, in replenishment, and second, in protection, not casually expending it. Second, preventing leakage is most important, because if one replenishes qi while at the same time consuming and leaking it, the replenishment is meaningless, and one may even replenish wrongly, producing 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 are difficult. Thus, the more frequent the eliminations, 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 disciples to know moderation and sufficiency in eating: one meal at midday, no eating after noon, so as to avoid, first, consuming merit; second, wasting time for cultivation; 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 Path.
The second easiest way to leak qi is sexual desire, which also consumes much of the body's qi; people who engage in lust 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; taking too many tonics also harms the body, and ultimately the body's depletion led to early death. Only emperors with restraint could possibly live long, but they were few. The Buddha established the precept requiring the cessation of lust because lust is the root of the cycle of birth and death; without lust and desire, one exits the desire realm. The Buddha said in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 以淫心行道犹如蒸沙成饭，终不成就，因为沙非饭本，以淫欲心行道，则为魔行，终不成道。Therefore the Buddha established the precept to cease lust. A person single-mindedly making vows to attain the Path should, for the sake of his own liberation, consciously subdue the affliction of lust.
The third easy way to leak qi is speech. Speaking consumes dantian qi. When the manas stirs a thought to speak, dantian qi arises, the qi moving 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, during which much qi from the various organs runs out with the speech. Therefore, people with deficient qi speak weakly, and may even be unable to produce a voice. Some people feel weak and drained after talking too much; people who must talk a great deal every day consume too much qi, and such people generally have no meditative concentration; even if they have it, it will regress. Therefore, Buddhist disciples cultivating the Path generally like silence, not speaking unless there is something important; doing so, first, gathers qi, and second, keeps the mind from scatteredness.
The fourth easy way to consume qi is unrestrained, wild daydreaming. With too many mental thoughts, inner mental friction consumes the qi away as well, so meditative concentration does not easily arise, and if it arises it will vanish. "When the mouth opens, spirit and qi disperse; when the mind stirs, the fire of cultivation grows cold"—as soon as one speaks, the qi in the body scatters and disappears; when the manas stirs a thought, the fire cultivated in the body dissipates, and after the sign of warmth disappears, the body grows cold. Thoughts also consume energy; a person whose body is extremely weak cannot concentrate on thinking through problems, and the brain may go completely blank. People who think and worry too much tire easily and get hungry easily; those who use their brains frequently easily develop spleen deficiency and get hungry easily; as energy dissipates, meditative concentration also disappears.
The above are the main channels through which the body leaks and consumes qi. The nine apertures all easily consume qi and blood: prolonged looking scatters liver qi, causing insufficiency of liver blood; prolonged listening scatters kidney qi, causing 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 too long or with water temperature too high will cause the loss of qi and blood. If one wants to cultivate the Path well, all worldly dharmas must be practiced with restraint, stopping at what is appropriate. Not craving form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas, the Path is easily accomplished.
