I’ve often toyed with creating a CD for martial artists on how to get to the pre-samadhi state of ching-an. I’ll probably do it this month.

Why?

Because martial artists seem to be the people who religiously practice. You need consistent, devoted discipline to succeed in cultivation, and this group seems to have it.

To improve their skill level, most martial artists who practice eventually realize they must go from just wai-gong (external practice) to chi-gong (breathwork practice) to nei-gong (internal martial arts) to Tao-gong (cultivating samadhi and the Tao) practice. The first step is breathwork, and you can hear countless MA masters who said they reached a plateau in their skill level, but finally went to the next level when they turned to breath work. For this I recommend the Hatha Yoga Pradipika pranayama methods, nine-bottled wind practice, and some pranayama techniques taught in just a few monasteries in India.

As to the regular meditation methods one should practice, I’d include the skeleton method visualization from the bottom up, and the Hakuin soma cream method from the top down. One famous martial artist from China never practiced martial arts at all, but was able to become flexible enough to jump 12 feet from standing positions, could turn his head 180 degrees to look backwards, and even developed superpowers of controlling others’ chi just from the skeleton method alone!

Now what happens if you eventually do this CORRECTLY? Your chi channels start to open up…you’ll feel a coolness run up and down your body, your saliva will become sweet like wine ( a new pituitary hormone will be secreted), and the neatest thing is that your bones seem to disappear. Your body feels like a sack in that you can feel the width of the skin, but everything inside it feels "empty" or gone because those chi channels have opened through. It’s the neatest feeling. Imagine all those "tubes" filled with chi … finally  after so much practice of letting go … and now the body is soft and pliant. Softness and pliancy is the early stage; feeling empty like a sack is higher.

Congratulations — that’s a mini-description of ching-an. Most cultivation schools describe it. Everything from Confucianism, to Western alchemy, yoga schools, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, … you name it. It’s non-denominational, for sure. You let go of thoughts, cultivate hard, and you reach this. 

This is the pre-samadhi stage that many religious functionaries finally cultivate  when they can’t reach dhyana. Martial artists who reach this can improve dramatically. Now they’re at the stage of nei-gong, and soon Tao-gong. You still haven’t opened up the central channel, or sushumna (zhong mai), but you’ve opened up the back channel and are working on opening up the front channel fully.

When that happens, you’l experience yet another different type of gongfu. You’ll feel like the chi rolls like a ball down the front of your body when the front chi channel (jen mai) is opening. Rolling is the only word I can use to describe this stage, and the chi feels like it’s in a ball doing the rolling, or dropping. Your stomach will change, too.

When the central channel opens, that only happens if you really, really, really continue to work hard at this stage. WHen the jing-chi finally hits the brain, it seems as if the inside of the skull turns white. Later you’ll experience some of the signs of the central channel opening described by TIbetan Buddhism. For just a flash — maybe a tenth of a second becaus eit’s that quick — you’ll see a ball or disk appear in front of various chakras of the body. It’s only about 2 inches in diameter, and then the image disappears. You can go look up what these stages are in various Esoteric school yoga texts. This is also when you have to be particularly careful about losing your jing, as now you;’ve attracted the attention of yakshas and other beings who want to steal from you. The method of protection? Mantra…. and lots of wisdom as to how to act.

But of course, this is all impossible without first reaching the state of ching-an, called pliancy in Tibet, Springtime in Confucian cultivation, "the washing of the feet" in Christian cultivation, the opening of the left and right chi channels in yoga schools (they talk about left and right nadi/mai instead fo front and back), and so forth. How to do so? DEVOTED cultivation, meditation efforts.

I don’t care about the meditation technique you select to calm your mind and learn detachment as long as it’s virtuous and doesn’t hurt anyone. That’s up to you … I’ve already supplied suggestions according to what has historically worked best and fastest amongst cultivation schools. What I do worry about is that you’ll lose your jing through sexual activities and then have to start all over again. What a bummer, but that’s just the way it is. That’s one of the reasons people would go into retreat in olden times, because in isolation the temptation becomes less.

As to ching-an, it doesn’t take much to get to this stage except practice. The hard part is resisting the sexual desire / extra vitality increases that comes with this stage, because succumbing to a loss of jing will send you back to the starting point all over again. Another problem for martial artists is to resist the tendency to cling to their body and feelings in order to get to this state to begin with.

That’s a lot to deal with…

It only takes the effort of applying  a meditation technique religiously, over time, consistenly, deeply, with discipline. But that’s what martial artists who practice do anyway.

Related posts:

1. Martial Arts Kung-fu