All Things, Qi-Energy, and Too : Lao-tzu's body and universe

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the cosmology of Lao-tzu (Laozi) not as an abstract philosophical theory, but as a psychological experience in his meditation practice. Lao-tzu's "Non-Being (Wu)" is the innner reality of "All things (Wanwu)" in our ordinary world and nothing other than the inner reality of the practitioner's consciousness itself. Thus, Lao-tzu purifies the "Qi-energy (Qi)" of his body through a kind of self-cultivation and proceeds to the source of the universe that is beyond subjective/objective distinction. Consequently, while unifying himself with the realm of "Tao (Dao)" or "Spirit (Shen)" that possesses mysterious power, he achieves a spiritual state in which he can reflect over the whole process as one flow of growth and return of the universe-consciousness, arising in his body as a field. Then the practitioner's identity expands and the usual divide between Being and Non-Being dissolves into the flow of this cyclic process. In such a state and when encountering "All things" of our ordinary world face to face, Lao-tzu still could do things as act of "non-action (wuwei)", while following the "spontaneous (ziran)" work of the invisible "One (Yi)" world behind the "All things," work that fills the universe beyond the distinction between self and other.