>Roy, could you expand on this (lethargically of course & at your
>leisure). I assume you are confirming that the Taoists place great
>stock in "lethargy." I think many would be interested in a longer
>treatment of this whole thing. Do you know anything about Taoist
>techniques of life extension & their efficacy?
Hi Doug,
My knowledge of Taoism is restricted to the martial arts aspects.
(Of the Taoist martial arts, I focus exclusively on Baguazhang,
which, by the way, is an ancestor of Aikido)
My background in Yoga is slightly deeper. I'll try to address this
from both viewpoints, which are really quite similar. I'll start
with the Yogic explanation, which is easier for me to understand,
and more comprehensive in it's framework (in my personal opinion).
Yoga believes that the human has several layers (koshas), starting from
the physical body (annamaya), proceeding through the breath body (pranamaya),
the mental body (manomaya), inward to subtler bodies. (The innermost is
the bliss body (anandamaya), which is equated with "God" in the monoist,
saivite Yoga school.)
[annamaya = "body created from food"
pranamaya = "body composed of prana"]
The objective of the Asana and Pranayama sections, which are the third
and fourth parts (or "angas" or "bodies") of the eight-part (ashta-anga)
Yoga, is to make the body fit for meditation (the sixth to eighth angas).
That is it. Health and longevity are purely interesting side effects,
and are not the objectives of Ashtanga Yoga.
[Asana = "posture"
Vinyasa = "dynamic posture", is the advanced, dynamic version
of Asana, which is static.
Pranayama = "prana cultivation"]
Yoga believes that all the koshas have to be integrated into the Yogic
practice, and subsequently into all every day movement, in order to
make the body fit for meditation.
It believes that exercising purely the annamaya kosha (which is what
most western exercise is) is improper and harmful. (Mr. BKS Iyengar
believes that jogging "irritates the heart.") Valuable prana (there
are several sub-components to prana, somewhat similar to the types
of chi in Taoism) is squandered by living or exercising in an
annamaya-centric way.
[Mr BKS Iyengar is a well known teacher of Yoga who
lives in Pune, India.]
The proper method of "exercise" is to integrate all the koshas into the
movement. Typically most Yoga students spend their entire lives
perfecting the first step, which is to get proper mascular-skeletal
alignment, which is an essential pre-requisite (Mr. BKS Iyengar
bypasses this mascular-skeletal alignment step with the skillful
use of props - chairs, etc- to help align the body sufficiently
for people who are sick, so that the following effects may proceed.)
Following this, mascular-skeletal alignment stage, where most of us
Yoga students are stuck, there are subtler levels of practice.
One deeper step is an attempt to directly effect the organs,
particularly the liver. This is still in the area of annamaya kosha.
Next, the diaphragms of the body are synchronized with the breath
in the pose. This segment straddles the annamaya and the pranamaya
koshas. (There are multiple diaphragms in the body, including the
well-known abdominal diaphragm. The most important diaphragm is
around the brain.)
Successive levels of practice bring the inner levels of the koshas
into play. The ultimate goal is to bring this Yoga, or yoking of
the body to the breath to the mind to the infinite (or more precisely
the yoking of annamaya kosha to the pranamaya kosha to the manomaya
kosha ... so on .... to the anandamaya kosha) into everyday life
and movement, rather than just during the Asana/Pranayama practice.
In order to access/involve the subtler koshas, you have to quieten
or restrain the activity of the outermost, and most dominent
kosha, the annamaya or the physical body. You are preventing the
kosha from being totally restless and active (rajasic), as well
as totally lethargic (tamasic), but in an equilibrium of
efficiency (sattvic).
The ultimate goal of Ashtanga Yoga is articulated as "chitta
vritti nirodaha" (removing the modifications of the mind) in
Raja Yoga, and "prana vritti nirodaha" (removing the modifications
of the prana/chi) in Hatha Yoga. But these are deficient translations
of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and the Yoga Sutras of Pattanjali
into English. The modifications, or perturbations, or movements are removed
from all the koshas.
Clearly "Lethargy" would be a small but superficial component,
but the goal is "cosmic lethargy" in a sense.
Or more accurately, "cosmic, integrated efficiency".
[Pattanjali is some dude who lived around 300 BC,
and wrote a collection of sutras (threads, or
information distilled to it's bare minimum syntactically
and semantically) on Ashtanga Yoga.
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is one of the text books on Hatha
Yoga, written around 800 AD by an individual named
Svatmaram.]
Similarly, Taoist Martial Arts works with the annamaya and the
pranamaya koshas. (No reference to subtler koshas.)
It believe that muscle tension (annamaya emphasis) restricts the free
flow of chi (pranamaya kosha).
In both TMA and Yoga, annamaya has to be properly aligned, placed
or moved, with a minimal expenditure of effort, with complete
efficiency of movement, with absolute mental relaxation.
The magic (chi, or leverage, or ground strength, or whatever
you choose to believe) is then free to do it's thing, either
to help you defend yourself, or to help prolong your life
through better health.
There is a traditional Chinese method of describing Taoist "Internal"
martial arts in terms of chi, jing, peng, etc.
But I found it easier to understand by first translating it into
Yogic language, then comparing the two explanations.
Regards,
Roy
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