Neidan is Chinese internal alchemy. It’s a Taoist practice originally, and has played a fundamental roll in their traditional medicine up to the present day. It could be viewed as a meditative practice, as opposed to waidan, which relates to medicines as we commonly think of them these days, herbs and such.

The primary concern of neidan is preserving the balance of energy in the body/mind. We commonly hear of the terms yin and yang, but these are not their own forces or energies. They’re more like our phases or states of matter, yin being the resting state of all existence, yang being the active dynamic state.

Ah, kinetic and potential.

If either of these states become too predominant, the result is destructive. Too much yin and the body and mind lose their ability to adapt and recover from outside influences. Too much yang and the innate substance of the body and mind breaks down, is over strained and decays, collapses under the weight of entropy so to speak.

Like in survivor if someone plays it too safe, they will get picked off, but if someone is too paranoid, they can sabotage themselves. Indeed, excess in nature is equivalent to a void and is certain to be eliminated.

The actual energies dealt with in neidan, are chi, jing, and shen.

Chi is universal energy. Perhaps more simply stated, environmental energy, internal or external environment. The unity between those two fields of chi is an important step in understanding neidan. Everything that exists exists not as a closed system, but in interaction with and supported by everything else that surrounds it.

This mutual connective tissue of energy arises from everything, and by itself shows the characteristics of no single thing. There is no such thing really as, say, your chi and the chi of the celery stick. It’s all just chi, and as they say, it’s gathered by water and dispersed by wind.

That’s why Chinese geomancy is called feng shui. It means water/wind.

So chi isn’t like the soul, it’s more like the force. Indeed, it’s also why they recommend building a home behind the shelter of a hill if you can, as well as by a body of water.

Maybe that’s why I hate wind more then any other weather condition.

My mother hates wind too. She thinks a tree will fall on her house. I personally love storms.

It’s not an impossible assumption.

Yea, you see trees fallen on houses a lot in the news.

A lot of ancient power spots are on top of a hill or mountain… dispersing the chi arising from there? Windy spots.

To answer that question requires exploring the concept of shen. Shen is the innate energy of mind. In neidan it is a force that’s considered to be present all throughout the body. They mention some key organs of course. The seat of the mind was thought to be the heart, but other structures were thought to have their own character and personalities, and a harmony between these is sought in practice of neidan, eliminating contradictions between any set of conscious patterns.

Sort of like the chakras. Perhaps the Chinese equivalent of chakras, yes. The term chakra being of Indian origin.

So in the high places, the tops of hills and such, you have an opportunity to equalize the influence of each of these “minds” so to speak. You put the inner gods on equal footing though still many traditionally saw the top of a mountain and someone who lived there as being suspicious, negative or maybe even crazy. The opposite view was taken in India.

Yes, wind can feel very invigorating but only if you relax and let it pass through you.

I love the feel of wind.

And some mountains do have coherent wind flows, rivers of wind, though most actually just disperse it in a wild disordered sort of way.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~