Daoist Neidan: Lineage and Secrecy Challenges for Western Adepts

195 Daoist Neidan Lineage and Secrecy Challenges for Western Adepts MICHAEL WINN October, 2002. I’m sipping tea with Chen Yuming, vice abbot of Mt. Hua. We’re in Qingkeping monastery; above us sheer granite cliff rises up three thousand feet to West Peak. It’s my fourth visit in four years to this sacred Daoist mountain, and we are now good friends. He’s arranged hidden caves for me and my neidan students to meditate in, but I’ve care‑ fully avoided ever asking him about his personal practice of internal al‑ chemy. Today, I casually ask if he would like to meditate with me. Chen Yuming flips open his cell phone. He must get permission, he informs me. He calls his teacher, and after an animated discussion, per‑ mission is finally granted. I ask him if the concern is that meditating with a “foreign devil” might pollute him spiritually. He smiles, and replies, “I am not allowed to meditate with anyone outside of our very small circle of initiates. It’s to avoid any disturbing influences”. We meditate for several hours in silence. The qi field, in my percep‑ tion, is “cooking.” Afterwards, Chen Yuming says with obvious surprise: “That was fantastic!” I share with him the Seven Dao Formulas for Im‑ mortality of hermit One Cloud I’ve been exploring for twenty years. He shakes his head. “Those are very deep secrets. Very few in China know these methods”. He had difficulty grasping that these internal alchemy methods are being offered to anyone in the West who wishes to study them. On 196 / Journal of Daoist Studies 1 (2008) Huashan, outside of small private circles, there is little public discussion of the deeper aspects of Dao. As a small example, I am told that Daoist cosmology is not something that would be casually discussed or debated at meals amongst the monks. Daoist internal alchemy lineages are amongst the most secretive in Chinese culture. They rely on one‑to‑one or small group transmission and loyalty to lineage. Many Daoist adepts belong to what is called the “School of Seclusion” or “Hidden Secrets.’ The premise: after admission to a tiny club of initiates, the adept is taught most people are not worthy nor capable of receiving the transmission. Because each adept must pass on their knowledge to only one worthy student – which is a lengthy process that doesn’t always happen – neidan within China is in danger of being slowly strangled into extinction by the School of Seclusion. Secrecy is a huge barrier to the appropriation of Daoist spiritual technology by Western seekers. Westerners are considered untrust‑ worthy, and face cultural racism as well. I once heard a Chinese teacher declare: “Westerners are incapable of experiencing qi, because they can’t speak Chinese.” But learning Chinese does not improve your chances of piercing the veil of secrecy. Chinese texts describe secret practices of in‑ ternal alchemy, but they are “protected” by an obscure code, words only initiates can understand. Only close friendship and trust opens the doors of neidan. Why all the secrecy? Ostensibly, to protect the purity of the lineage and prevent corruption by selfish people who might abuse the spiritual power gained. “Do not leak the secrets of the universe” is an ancient ad‑ age. One fear is that the secret methods will be used by power‑hungry demon immortals to obstruct the will of Heaven. Other Daoists in China tell me: “We don’t know why the ancients kept it so secret. We just imi‑ tate them.” If this secrecy poses a steep challenge to ordinary Chinese, it is a quadruply high barrier for Westerners. The most visible counter‑force to this secrecy has come from Thai‑ Chinese teacher Mantak Chia, the most prolific modern appropriator and publisher of Daoist esoteric methods. (Ni Hua‑Ching, based in Los Ange‑ les, has published more books than Chia’s thirty‑plus works, but rarely gives away detailed methods). I was editor of Chia’s Healing Dao Books for fifteen years, and ghostwriter or co‑author of the first seven books that established his fame. Looking back, I was culturally very naïve. I Winn, “Lineage and Secrecy...