1. The Basic Relationship between Qigong and Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism

Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are shortened in Chinese as Ru Shi Tao.

The close relationship between qigong and Ru Shi Tao is only known to some qigong personnel and researchers on Ru Shi Tao who happen to know about qigong. This relation explains why among gong methods are some methods of Confucianism, of Buddhism and of Taoism. But this relation is denied and derided by many scholars. Atheists believe religion to be a kind of outlook on life, worldview and philosophical system of ethical morals. Even some theists would not regard qigong as having any actual connection with Ru Shi Tao, for they do not know the essence and principles of qigong.

Yet qigong practitioners and people who have studied qigong theory would know that qigong has a deep relationship with Ru Shi Tao. The reasons are simple: First, Ru Shi Tao theories and qigong theories are similar or completely identical in many aspects. Second, many of the gong methods practiced have originated from these three religions. Practitioners of them get great help from the philosophical thoughts and detailed qigong theories of these three religions. Hence, they have concluded that qigong and these three religions have the same origin. Confucianism has the lightest qigong coloring of these three, and this is why Confucian gong methods are almost lost and are seldom known by people today.

Why do the Ru Shi Tao all have their own qigong methods? Is this a coincidence? What are the purposes of these gong methods? What connections do they have with the philosophical theories of these religions?

This is a very natural question. The answer to this question is the key to understanding the spiritual background of these religions. We will here clarify our views about this topic and then elaborate and prove our views in the next three sections.

Generally speaking, the spiritual background of Ru Shi Tao is the activity of evil spirits, just like that of qigong. The goal of Ru Shi Tao is exactly the same as that of qigong, which is also the purpose of the evil spirits.

We all know that the purpose of religion is to enable human beings to know about spiritual reality and get close to spiritual beings. Human beings have a natural tendency to worship God. God has placed this desire within the human soul. The purpose of the devil, however, is to prevent people from knowing God, to keep them far away from God so that they will turn to the worship of evil spirits. Henceforth, it is the purpose of the devil to set up various religions in this world so that people will believe and worship the devil and his evil spirits.

However, there is only one religion that God has set up through man. It is based on the Holy Bible and is called today Judaism before the coming of Christ and Christianity after the coming of Christ. Its purpose is to know and worship God. We will discuss this spiritual reality in Chapter seven.

Evil spirits try to tempt man through various religions with the purpose of destroying man's soul and life. Let us stick to Ru Shi Tao for an illustration. These religions are means to make people voluntarily get close to the devil, who can then control and enslave them. First, Ru Shi Tao all offer views on life and death and philosophical theories of ethical morals. Yet these theories are very obscure regarding their views of life and death and the meaning of life and unable to survive any examinations by logic and analysis. But like almost all the rest of the religions in the world, their theories of ethical morals advocate the beauty of the humanities. No one will say to this: This is wrong. We will not because God has put the standard for right and wrong, goodness and evil, in the human heart. After people have endorsed these views, they start to accept the rest of the theories in Ru Shi Tao. If ever any theory contradicts the common morals of human kind, it will be rejected instantly. The evil spirits are not stupid. Though the motivation of the devils is vicious, they will resort to means not easily noticeable to people to dupe them step by step.

The evil spirits adulterate dangerous lies with easily accepted theories in order to catch people off guard and make them accept those views partially or wholly. This is the half-true, half-false lie that we have talked about in Chapter 4.2. Having people agree directly with the theories and then attracting them into practice are these religions' characteristic means of deceiving people.

Among Ru Shi Tao, Confucianism is the religion that has ethical morals as its main preoccupation. So it is not easy for people to discern its spiritual background. Up to the present, except for the few qigong personnel and Christians who know its spiritual background to be evil spirits, most people, especially Chinese, take Confucian culture as one of man’s highest treasures. Yet modern Chinese history has not seen success but rather suffering and shame brought about by this mainstream element of Chinese culture.

The major aspects of Taoism and Buddhism are concerned with ghosts, gods, and determinism. They have distinctive qigong theories and gong methods. Their contact with the spiritual world is relatively more direct. It is easy for people to see that their theories are about ghosts and gods; hence atheists, in particular, reject them very readily. This is also why Buddhism and Taoism have declined much more quickly than Confucianism in modern times.

Like that of qigong, the purpose of all religions with the activity of evil spirits as their background is to have people believe, worship and be manipulated by evil spirits. The means of Ru Shi Tao for direct contact with evil spirits and for getting assistance from them is qigong gong methods. It is only that they are not called "qigong". In Confucianism such methods are called cultivation in ethical morals and cultural arts for the sake of becoming a righteous gentleman; in Taoism, such methods are called "unity of man with heaven, which is unity of man and with Tao"--in order to become immortals; in Buddhism, such methods are called cultivation of the heart and character for reaching nirvana and becoming Buddha. These gong methods are practiced by people everywhere. After the rising up of Chinese new culture (communist atheistic culture), Ru Shi Tao, especially Buddhism and Taoism, declined rapidly. Yet communist atheism is also a religion, having man himself as its god. This is why it is very easy for atheistic people to worship personages. Celebrities and the so-called "great man," or even popular singers or ball game stars or one's lover, can be made fetishes. Since the most recent decade, communism has been declining rapidly in China, but atheism has already taken root strongly in the hearts of intellectuals. At the same time religions of ghosts and gods have received overall recovery among the much less educated people in the vast country areas. Confucianism is greatly advocated throughout the nation. This time is the blank faith period for Chinese intellectuals. But since these intellectuals do not believe in Ru Shi Tao's essential theory of ghosts and gods, the evil spirits have promoted as a timely strategy the new way of qigong so as to delude knowledgeable intellectuals. In qigong evil spirits have taken off all their coverings in the forms of various religions and have presented directly their essential contents. They used to guide people timidly through the means of the various religions, but now teach people the most direct meanings of dealings with the evil spirits through qigong. Convinced by tons of facts, intellectuals accept qigong and study qigong as a new life science of the human body as an aspect of their atheistic mode of thinking. They set up a lot of qigong theories and propagate them to people from all walks of life. Hence in a very short period of time, the intellectuals have formed a brand-new religion. The religion of qigong has already brought painfully miserable costs to the whole nation and will continue to do so. Woe to you, Chinese intellectuals!

We can see now that qigong comes from Ru Shi Tao and has been developed at the present time, trapping more and more people into its practice. Its dissemination overseas can no longer be ignored. In order for people to have a better understanding of the deep relationships and the principles, we will now discuss them separately.

2 . Qigong and Confucianism

Why is there a Confucian gong method among qigong theories? What relationship does this gong method have with Confucian culture?

Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, lived in the Spring and Autumn Period, approximately between 552 and 479 B.C. His most important work is Lun Yu (The Analects), which consists of over 12,700 characters. Confucius was a theist who worshipped the "sky", which is an obscure concept of God. In Lun Yu it is said, "Death and life are controlled by the fate; wealth and rank are decided by the heaven." Confucius also worshipped humans as deities. In Chapter 23, the Five Emporers' Virtue, Kong Zi Jia Yu (Sayings from the School of Master Confucius), we read that Confucius regarded the ancient Emperor Xuan Yuan as "born to be a deity, being able to speak very soon after birth." He also thought that the Huang Emperor's grandson was able to "administer righteousness as guided by ghosts and gods, teach the commonality through cultivation of personalities and characters, make offerings with sincerity and cleanness, and make inspection tours all over the country to pacify the subjects." Confucius called emperors and kings "sons of heaven" and worshipped ancestors as ghosts and gods. The Chinese traditional belief in ghosts and gods was thus incorporated into Confucian culture. The Chinese traditional gods include the god of thunder, the goddess of lightening, the god of wind, the town god, the god of plague, star of intelligence and music, Emperor Guan, the god of wealth, the door-god, the kitchen god, Mazu (guardian of navigation), the Father of Medicine, Emperor Yu, the silkworm god, etc.

Though there have not been found up to the present time any training methods like qigong in Confucius' works, his principle of "the origin of life" is completely identical with that of Taoism, qigong and Chinese medicine. In Chapter 26, On Life, Kong Zi Jia Yu (Sayings from the School of Master Confucius), Duke Lu asked Confucius about principles of life and death. Confucius regarded life as consisting of the two parts xing and ming, which, when put together, form a synonym of the word "life" in Chinese. He explained this, saying, "Fen yu dao wei zhi ming, xing yu yi wei zhi xing, xiang xing er fa, wei zhi sheng, hua qiong shu jing, wei zhi si. Gu ming zhe, xing zhi shi ye; si zhe, sheng zhi zhong ye." (What has come from Tao is called "Life Ming"; what is shaped from Tao is called "Life Xing"; different shapes thus develop and this is called "Birth"; when shapes exhaust their capacity for change, it is "Death". Therefore, life Ming is the beginning of life Xing and death is the ending of life.) "Yi ying yi yang, qi ou xiang pei, ran hou dao he hua cheng, xing ming zhi duan, xing yu ci ye." (Yin and yang combine as odd and even intertwine with each other, together abiding by the Tao. Their combination is the beginning of life which has all its forms herein.) From these words we can see that Confucius' view of life is also about "Tao", taking Tao as the origin of life, which came into being through the interplay of yin and yang. This is a hundred-percent Taoist view of life, which holds that Tao gave birth to one, one gave birth to two, two gave birth to three, three gave birth to everything. Qigong and Chinese medicine also have this same view of the origin of life.

The disciplines Confucius taught his disciples were odes, history, human-heartedness, righteousness, ceremonials and music. His disciples were as many as three thousand, with seventy-two of them adept in all these subjects, which are typical of the Chinese cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic spheres. Confucian qigong is a qigong gong method that the scholars discovered and summarized during the process of their reading, penmanship and painting practice and playing of music. Or it was inspired in them in a state of spontaneous gong? When they were engaged in these activities, they entered into a qigong state, having all their thoughts concentrated on their reading, calligraphy, painting and music to the extent that they reached a selfless realm, just like qigong practitioners entering into a void state through sitting in meditation. The effect of Confucian qigong is mainly to upgrade the level of artistic creativity and at the same time to enhance physical health. This is a different phenomenon from common artists' being intoxicated with self-satisfaction. Confucian gong practitioners took qigong practicing as a foundation, emphasizing meditation, breathing and imagination, with the purpose not of improvement of skills but mainly of endowment of their artistic works with an effective vibrating power, giving them a sense of "energy," and in the meantime achieving the effects of physical healing and the enhancement of health. Please notice that this is not the same as the usual benefits people get from art for their health and mind.

There is in "Tian Fang Zi," Zhuang Zi, the following story about a Confucian gong practitioner. "Monarch Song asked for painters to paint pictures for him. A lot of painters came, and all prepared their brushes and ink except one—who took off his coat and sat in meditation. At this Monarch Song said, 'This is a true painter!'" This is a Confucian qigong practitioner. This story was found to be out of place, without any context in the book, but it was described earlier in this book that Duke Lu lamented that the State Lu had no one who knew Tao as Zhuang Zi had. This is because Confucian theories are, on the surface, ethical, political, and philosophical and have no obvious training content. It is the so-called "Ming hu li yi er lou yu zhi ren xin," meaning that Confucianism is much about superficial ritual, and little about knowledge of man's own "mind and consciousness." (Note: In ancient times it was believed that "xin zhi guan ze si", i.e. the function of mind is thinking, while the practice of qigong is exactly the training of mind and consciousness.) But later Duke Lu found that Confucius was "the great Confucian" who knew about "Tao." That is to say, Confucius was a man who knew the way of training. (We will discuss later in detail that the training of "Tao" is actually the Taoist qigong method of practice.) In this context it is natural to relate a story about a Confucian qigong practitioner who was a painter knowing about "Tao." Zhuang Zi, Duke Lu, and Confucius lived during different periods of history, and the story from Zhuang Zi is only a fabrication, but Zhuang Zi was trying to illustrate thereby the point that the ideal state that Confucian culture, with Confucius himself as its leading figure, was seeking to achieve was actually that "Tao" taught by Taoism.

What is typical of Confucian qigong is the practitioner's seeking for external power and inspiration. It has its own method of practice. Usually, artists endeavor to improve their inspirational and artistic level through drills, thoughtful research, and comprehension. The difference between Confucian artists and other artists is like that between wugong and physical training, with the first having the spiritual background and the other without it. We can understand this through the fact that some Christian artists are inspired by the Holy Spirit in their artistic creativity.

Confucian qigong is nearly lost, due to its method of practice that involves cultural and art forms such as reading, penmanship, painting and music playing. Being suitable only to scholars, it was very much limited in propagation. Today, there are Confucian qigong "salons" only in the very high-level qigong realm, where a very few qigong personages are still working hard to unearth this "national treasure" called Confucian Qigong.

According to the Kong Zi Jia Yu (Sayings from the School of Master Confucius), "Kong zi wan er xi yi." (In his later years, Confucius studied the I-Ching.) And Confucius said, "Jia wo shu nian, rou shi, wo yu yi ze bin bin yi." (If I were a few years younger, I would come to a perfect knowledge of the I-Ching.) Confucius liked reading the I-Ching (The Book of Changes) in his old age and was regretful that he was not a few years younger, for he would otherwise have made a thorough research of the I-Ching, from which he was sure to learn a lot. What is the I-Ching about? What did Confucius find in it?

Confucius greatly admired the I-Ching. He made a considerably deep research into it during his lifetime and left behind great volumes of his views and theories as a result of this research. This is why the I-Ching is regarded as a classical theoretical work for Confucianism, high on top of the whole list of Chinese classics. Textual research has been unable to uncover the identity of the author of the I-Ching, but it was probably someone from the Zhou dynasty. The I-Ching consists of two parts: "Jing" and "Zhuan." "Jing" is mainly about divinations and fortune telling through the Eight Trigrams. And the essence of true divinations and fortune telling is to enter into a qigong state. The I-Ching uses obscure and enigmatic language to describe the basic principle of everything in the world. The fundamental theory it teaches is that of yin and yang and can be illustrated by the taiji eight trigrams. The logo on South Korea's national flag is a very inexact design of the taiji eight trigrams.

Confucian theories and the essential meaning of the I-Ching are identical. The I-Ching provided Confucius with higher theoretical guidance especially with regard to his view of life and worldview. During his later years his philosophical views further matured, and he realized that in his own views were the same connotations as in the I-Ching. And the I-Ching is the book with the most obvious background of evil spirits. It is the highest theoretical authority of Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese Medicine, wugong, divination and qigong. What Confucius had wanted to make a deeper study of in the I-Ching would be its theories with their very strong spiritual coloring. It is very difficult to understand the profound mystery of the I-Ching without practical experience in qigong. Some qigong personages believe that the I-Ching was written during a qigong state. In other words, it was written by a man who had the guidance of evil spirits.

After one is clear about qigong, it will be easy to understand the principles of all kinds of religions, supernormal ability training, divination and the I-Ching that have the activity of evil spirits as their spiritual background. But only after we know God through Jesus and understand the Holy Bible can we know the essence of all kinds of religions, supernormal ability training, divination and the I-Ching that have the activity of evil spirits as their spiritual background. Even if evil spirits raise up more things in any new guises, Christians will be able to see exactly what they are.

3 . Qigong and Buddhism

The highest realm of Buddhism is nirvana, which is entering into bliss through training so that there will be no death and no more pain of reincarnation. The "eightfold path" and "eight commandments" in Buddhism regulate principles of training and also of wrong deeds that are not to be performed. They are the basic Buddhist worldview of life and moral ethics. Many people easily accept Buddhist views, but many of them do not carry out training according to its regulations because it is training that requires a lifestyle of escape from the world and because its taboos and commandments are all contradictory to human nature. Buddhist scripture is obscure and hard to understand. People's knowledge of Buddhism today is not obtained from their own reading of its scripture. Instead, their understanding of Buddhism is based only on what they have heard about it, not on understanding through direct study of its theory. Buddhists today do not train themselves like the Buddhist monks, but go directly ahead to acquire and to worship Buddhist idols in order to receive blessing.

Buddhist practice includes two parts: the first is abstinence, abiding by the taboos and commandments; the second is sitting in meditation and imagination. The former binds human nature and one’s consciousness, subduing human souls and making them weak; the latter consists of typical qigong practices, which are standard means of the evil spirits to captivate human beings.

There are many Buddhist books offering philosophical and theoretical guidance on life and the world. Buddhist training is mainly the training of the human heart and nature. Many Buddhist terms and concepts are not easy to understand. They can be understood only after they have been experienced. For example, "chan" is a general term of Buddhism, just like "tao" in Taoism. "Kong" (emptiness) and "wu" (nothingness) are the selfless state of the practitioners. "The one self" and "the true self" are terms meaning that the practitioners find a "true self" while endeavoring to forget "the one self." Both qigong practitioners and Buddhists who have reached this level know exactly what this "true self" feels like. The essence of this "true self" is the evil spirits that have become one with the soul within. Qigong practitioners at this level have acquired many supernormal capabilities. Buddhist monks at this level can also experience a special "wisdom," capabilities, and "the blissful feeling" of the body and soul. This feeling indicates that the practitioner has entered into an "empty" state, in which the practitioner feels self satisfied and then empty, no longer feeling one's own existence. Temporal and spatial senses begin to become different at this time. Practitioners at this level feel that they have already attained the highest state of enlightenment, and for them sitting in meditation has become an enjoyment. The so-called "chan ji" (chan strategies), an abstruse, mysterious, and comprehensible but unspeakable mode of thought, has taken shape in them. It is a kind of combination of learning, feeling and experience. It is a kind of inexplicable thinking carried out spiritually by the evil spirits now residing in them.

In Buddhism there is a "six-word true verse", which is actually an incantation. There is an incantation that Buddhist monks never quit saying, "a mi tuo fu", which has the effect of worshipping evil spirits. There are many qigong practitioners who like very much to hear these words. People who are sensitive to spiritual affairs have a direct feeling of the energy in these words. Some uneducated old ladies who believe in Buddha devotedly, even though they do not know any "chan ji," simply repeat these words every day, over ten thousand times sometimes, and strange things happen. For example, they can see and hear strange things. They can also have very comfortable feelings, enjoy good health, and feel the great and dreadful power of "Buddha." They will thus respect the "Buddha" even more. Yet the "Buddha" is an evil spirit. Now there are even audiotapes of "a mi tuo fu." Pious devotees of Buddhism listen to them repeatedly and very effectively enter into qigong state in this way. Hence we see that such a level can be arrived at without strict practice, or theory, or logical processes. Just as is said in Buddhism, "Law is without set rules, all laws point to the same one goal." "Giving up the one self brings forth the chan strategies." These theories expose the motivations and means of the evil spirits thoroughly. As long as humans worship these evil spirits, they will let them reach the highest realm because the purpose of the evil spirits is to have people give up their souls and bow down willingly before them.

It is recorded that before Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, yuanji (which means "died"), he said to his disciples, "Wu you zheng fa yan zang, nie pan miao xin, shi xiang wu xiang, wei miao fa men, bu li wen zi, jiao wai bie chuan, fu zhu yu ru, ru dang hu chi, chuan fu jiang lai." The meaning is approximately: "The 'fa' (the truth, the law) that I preach indeed exists but is hard to comprehend. It is an experience very subtle and inexplicable through any words and languages. I impart it to you now, and you should continue to spread it to future generations." These words by Sakyamuni reflected his experience, which is the experience of a human dealing with evil spirits. It does not have fixed patterns, for the goal of evil spirits is to use the most suitable means to captivate and enslave deluded human beings.

The training principle of Buddhism is for humans to suppress and give up their souls and consciousness and to accept Buddhist practice and learning with a sincere heart. After Buddhists have realized this principle, they discover that all scripture teaches the same principle and aims at the same goal. They hence find it no longer necessary to study any scripture, but proceed immediately to sit in meditation and just experience it to reach a very high level, or state, in which evil spirits and human souls unite as one. This is also described by Buddhism as follows: after one's "dunwu" (attaining sudden enlightenment), one will discover that "I am Buddha and Buddha is I." This Buddha is evil spirits; the abstruse and mysterious "chan" is the experience, views and modes of thinking that the evil spirits living in humans engender in them. This is all of the "truth" of Buddhism.

Some qigong gong methods, especially those of high levels, extract exactly the essence of Buddhism for practice so that practitioners no longer have to experience the perplexity of "endless bitterness," but rather discover very soon the "limitlessness of power of Buddha." Practitioners of these gongs can in a few days, or months or years learn the "chan" and "fa," both of which Buddhists in the past had to spend a whole lifetime to learn or could learn only through the endeavor of several generations. They thus acquire shocking supernormal capabilities and unusual modes of thinking with very abstruse views. When they talk about their practice, the deeper they understand the gong, the less they speak, and the more confused the listeners become. This is why many old Buddhist monks with "very profound training" used gestures but seldom used words to answer questions. According to some records, before Sakyamuni entered into nirvana, his disciple Wenshu asked him questions, and he reprimanded Wenshu severely, "I have practiced in this world for forty-nine years, and I have not said a word, Wenshu." For forty-nine years he did not give a word to of instruction to his disciples. From this one is to see that Sakyamuni had "thoroughly awakened to truth."

After Buddhist qigong practitioners have reached a certain level, their heart's desires will become light and unimportant, just like a totally exhausted person lying on the bed, desiring nothing. They can smell strong fishy smells in meats, so they do not want to eat them. Even if they eat any by chance, they will have an upset stomach or even throw up. Soon they begin to hate to see any meat on sale and start to have pity for and cherish the lives of animals. In addition, Buddhist practitioners have receding sexual desires, sleep and eat less, and engender in followers an emotional attachment to and respect for the ferocious and ugly idols of Buddha.

If researchers into Buddhism do not understand the practice of qigong and hope to make a study of the principles of Buddhism through the numerous Buddhist works, they will be like one trying to swim across the Pacific Ocean depending on his own power. The best thing for him to do is to return to the place he has set off from. Buddhist qigong is indeed the highest level of qigong. After one has understood qigong, he/she understands Buddhism and will therefore renounce Buddhism. Once one knows about Jesus Christ, he/she will give up qigong quickly like escaping from a poisonous arrow.

Former Buddhists and qigong adherents who have become Christians have deep experience as to how those evil spirits of the "unlimitedly powerful" Buddha are incompetent and unintelligent before God. A little prayer will render the work of the evil spirits through man ineffective.

While worshippers of the evil spirits can only get a few pitiful "good feelings," they get no help for either their physical health or their lives or fates. The price they pay is not only the heavy bondage they have to endure for the rest of their lives in this world, but also their loss of eternal life. Though they may not believe this yet, they will have to come to face God's Judgment someday.

4 . Qigong and Taoism

Taoism was founded by Lao Zi (also called Li Er) who lived during the Spring and Autumn Period, and it was fully developed by Zhuang Zi into a systematic philosophical theory. Lao Zi's most important work is Tao Te Ching, which has five thousand characters. Zhuang Zi's most important book is Zhuang Zi. As the classical work of Taoism, the teachings of Tao Te Ching cover life, the world, politics, military affairs and qigong practices. Tao Te Ching is also a classic of qigong theory and gong methods. The major Taoist training method is sitting in meditation.

The highest realm of Taoism is "Tao," which is living forever and becoming immortal through " the union of Tao and man." Lao Zi explained in Tao Te Ching what "Tao" is. He said, "You wu hun chen, xian tian di sheng; ji xi liao xi, du li er bu gai, zhou xing er bu dai, ke yi wei tian xia mu; wu bu zhi qi ming, zi zhi yue dao." What he means is: "there was something undifferentiated which has existed before the sky and earth were formed. It is hard to describe its features, but it is still and silent, independent and never changing. It does not have a beginning or end, but moving in endless cycles, and is everlasting. This thing is the origin of everything in the universe. I do not know its name, and call it 'Tao'." (Some people mistake this "Tao" as referring to Jesus Christ. We will discuss this topic in Chapter 7.27.)

Lao Zi further explained the principles of "Tao" as begetting everything. "Tao gave birth to one, one to two, two to three, and three to everything." This principle is simple but very abstract. Taoism uses the taiji eight trigrams to illustrate this principle. The whole circle symbolizes "Tao," and two half circles symbolize yin and yang, which interplay with each other. The whole circle goes round and round, moving in endless cycles. This logo, together with the principle it symbolizes, becomes the theoretical foundation for Taoist qigong, Chinese medicine and divinations.

Lao Zi holds that human beings should seek for the realm of "Tao." He explains that it is a realm of "doing nothing." And the realm of "doing nothing" is "heaven and man united as one," and "Tao and I united as one." "Tao" then is "I" and "I" am "Tao." Though different in approach, this achieves the same result as the Buddhist "Buddha is I and I am Buddha." The realm of Tao's "doing nothing" is the same as the realm of the "void" in Buddhism. Their essence is becoming one with the evil spirits.

Lao Zi proposes "Tao" as the essence of the world. He says "Tao can be described, but not as the eternal Tao; it can be named, but not by an eteranl name." Lao Zi's understanding of Tao has come from meditation and experiences as in qigong. Just as Sakyamuni learned about "Buddha," he has learned about the existence of "Tao." In Tao Te Ching Lao Zi not only talks a lot about politics, the humanities, and military affairs, based on the principle of Tao, but he also elaborates very deeply and in much detail on a large number of training methods in the style of qigong that many contemporary scholars, especially Westerners, are at a loss to comprehend when they research these qigong theories. Lao Zi says in the twenty-first chapter of Tao Te Ching, "Tao's becoming things is very dim and evasive; evasive and dim, yet it seems to have images in it; and dim and evasive, there is something there." All qigong practitioners who have reached a high level have experienced this realm of meditation. This is a state of super-level qigong. It is an actual method and a real experience.

The sixteenth chapter of Tao Te Ching, says: "Zhi xu ji, shou jing du, wan wu bing zuo, wu yi guan qi fu. Fu wu yun yun, ge fu qi gen. Gui gen yue jing, jing yue fu ming. Fu ming yue chang, zhi chang yue ming." This means: "After I have attained the climax of my soul's emptiness and kept myself in the realm of peace and quiet and doing nothing, I observe the return of all things which act in concert. For though they are in their multiple forms, each of them returns to its roots. Returning to the root is called stillness; Having this stillness is called return to the essence of life; return to the essence of life is the principle of nature; knowing the principle of nature is enlightenment."

The above words are a high-level instruction of qigong, revealing the highest level of entering into quiet in qigong, which is being indifferent to fame and gain, and nothingness and which leads to the state of "heaven and man united as one and return of man to nature."

In the forty-eighth chapter of Tao Te Ching, Lao Zi illustrated another Taoist principle of "the realm of doing nothing": "Wei xue zhe ri yi, wei dao zhe ri sun; sun zhi you sun, yi zhi yu wu wei, wu wei er wu bu wei." These words mean: Learning knowledge is beneficial, while you lose by practicing Tao. When more and more is lost, nothing needs to be done in the end. Then the practitioner will obtain "Tao," and there is nothing that is not done.

Zhuang Zi, (approx. 369-286 B.C.) lived in the Warring States Period. He further developed Lao Zi's Taoist theory, equating "Tao" with "non-being" and holding that the world comes from "the non-being which gives birth to something." Later, people refer to this Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi as "Lao Zhuang".

In Zhi Bei You, Zhuang Zi elaborates: "Tao bu ke wen, wen er fei ye; Tao bu ke jian, jian er fei ye; Tao bu ke yan, yan er fei ye." Tao cannot be heard, for what can be heard is not Tao; Tao cannot be seen, for what can be seen is not Tao; Tao cannot be conveyed by words, for what can be conveyed by words is not Tao. How similar and inter-linked this is to the Buddhist principles of "fa" and "chan" that Sakyamuni taught.

Also, according to the Zhi Bei You, "The Emperor said, 'Wu si wu lu shi zhi dao, wu chu wu fu shi an dao, wu cong wu dao shi de dao.'" ("When you have no selfish desires or concerns, you will know Tao. When you are bound to no place or duty, you will feel at home with Tao. When you follow no rules or methods, you will obtain Tao.") This describes the process of practicing. When you have given up all selfish desires, you then begin to know "Tao." When you are not bound by anything and yet do not do anything, you can keep "Tao." When you do not seek "Tao" through any means or ways, you have obtained "Tao." This process is the same as that of Buddhist and qigong training. From the Buddhist cutting off of "the six roots" (six human desires) to the relaxing, diving into quiet, and getting rid of distracting thoughts taught by qigong, from Buddhist attentive and willing training to the renouncing of worldly affairs and long-time practice encouraged by qigong, finally from the Buddhist "realm of void" after "sudden awakening" to "man's twenty-four-hour connection with the energy of the universe," which is actually staying in a qigong state twenty-four hours a day—these are all completely identical processes of principles, even though from different approaches. They all have the same result, which is reaching the realm of union with evil spirits.

During the process of Taoist training, a lot of things will happen to destroy the happiness of life. Such things happen often. And because the practitioners do not have time and the mood to do things that should be done, they lose more and more in life, so that they can desire less and less and have a quiet heart, having really nothing much to do. This is so-called the "realm of doing nothing." If practitioners continue their training, they may obtain "Tao" and reach the highest realm of "heaven and man united as one, Tao and me united as one." At this time the practitioners will begin to acquire powerful supernormal capabilities for performing magical signs of all sorts, as if there is nothing that cannot be done. This shows that the evil spirits have become one with the practitioner. Qigong practitioners, especially of very high levels, have deep experiences of this phenomenon.

In his important work the Levelling All Things, Zhuang Zi described Nan Guo Zi sitting in meditations. Nan Guo Zi exhaled and inhaled, with a stupefied look on his face, as if his soul had left his body, and he had entered into a selfless realm. His friend was compassionate with him and said, "Why do you torture yourself like this? You look like you are dead! You were not as such when you sat in meditation before!" Nan Guo Zi replied, "I have renounced all worldly gain. You can hear only what common ears can hear, but I can hear the sounds of all objects in the world." Nan Guo Zi was exactly the type of Taoist qigong practitioner who had "lost" something. But he had obtained supernormal hearing ability, for which he would rather think that he had lost little but gained a lot. He was sure that he would soon reach the realm of nothing impossible (i.e. nothing cannot be done).

In the first part of Zhuang Zi's famous work the Autumn Floods, the conversation between the river god and the god of sea describes how all rivers flow into the Yellow River and how the Yellow River flows into the sea. It says, "Wan chuan gui zhi, bu zhi he shi zhi er bu ying; wei lu xie zhi, bu zhi he shi yi er bu xu." This means: "All rivers flow into it without stopping, yet it never overflows. Wei Lu (one of the three gates of the spine) releases it unceasingly, yet its own supply is never diminished.” The work also says, "Zi yi bi xing yu tian di er shou qi yu yin yang." (This is an analogy of heaven and earth and the provision of qi from yin and yang.) If we consider only the philosophical meaning of this book, it will be very hard to understand the implicit meaning of qigong practice in "wei lu xie zhi" (wei lu releases it) and "shou qi yu yin yang" (provision of qi from yin and yang). Qigong personages and doctors of Chinese medicine know that the rivers here are paralleled with the "seven main channels, eight veins, and twelve collateral channels." The Yellow River symbolizes the ren artery and the du artery. The opening up of xiao zhou tian (the smal microcosmic orbit) is to let "the qi of yin yang" run through all the channels. The route of xiao zhou tian begins from dan tian (also called qihai, the sea of qi), through the perineum to the coccyx, runs up to the du channel over the top of the head, and goes down to the ren artery into dan tian (qihai). Sometimes the qi easily leaks out of the acupoint of the coccyx and other acupuncture points below it and debilitates the gong power. But this happens only when the practitioner's gong level is low. When it gets higher, "heaven and man unite as one, and human qi is connected with the yin and yang of the universe," then "bu zhi he shi zhi er bu ying; bu zhi he shi yi er bu xu." (it never overflows and it is never diminished.) Qi is continuously refilled into dan tian (qihai), and it never overflows or lacks. Though I think the main point of these words by Zhuang Zi may be to illustrate his philosophical views, we can also find out about Zhuang Zi's "theory on qi operation" in qigong practice.

Now, let us discuss Taoist "alchemy."

The aim of alchemy is to give humans immortality. There are two kinds of alchemy; one is the "internal elixir," and the other is the "external elixir," which is made in stoves through chemical means. The latter is said to have been the cause of the invention of gunpowder.

The making of the "internal elixir" is a Taoist qigong method of practice. The way to make an internal elixir is to imagine there is a bright little ball at the dan tian under the belly button. Meditate and breathe according to some detailed steps. There is in the beginning none at all or a very little and dim elixir. Gradually, it grows bigger and bigger, brighter and brighter. It can help to keep out the cold in winter and prevent sunstroke in summer. Usually it takes many years, even decades, to "plant by imagination" an elixir. The hard "Buddhist relic" left after a Buddhist monk' body is cremated is this type of elixir. The method of practice for producing internal elixir is a qigong method of imagination, which is "one idea superseding thousands of ideas." Once a person has the internal elixir formed, this person will have very good health and a long life. Taoist practitioners believe that after they have attained the highest state of enlightenment, they will never die.

The "external elixir" is produced by using sources in the material world through chemical means. An elixir is made in this way, using a stove and other utensils. Taoists hope that this kind of elixir will make people immortal.

Why did Taoists ever try to make external elixir? In some Taoist books, some metaphors like stove, fire and herbs, etc. are used to describe the making of internal elixir. If ever some people misunderstood the true meaning of them, they might quite possibly use real stoves to make elixirs. The alchemy that is talked about often nowadays refers to the making of external elixir. The Taoists who produced external elixirs also practiced qigong, having only a different view as to the meaning of elixir and the methods of producing it. Emperors during some dynasties in Chinese history had great interest and hope in external elixirs.

Because of the yin-yang supplementary principle of Taoism, practitioners of Taoist gong are allowed to get married. There is a special practicing method called "fang zhong shu" (method inside the chamber). It is a Taoist gong method that produces very strange signs: A phenomenon called "ma yin cang xiang" happens to some male practitioners. Their genitals can be contracted so as to be like those of little children and can get normal at the practitioners' will. Their sexual ability will be enhanced. "Zhan chi long" happens to female practitioners. Their menstruation is stopped, and their breasts are contracted so as to become smaller, never to recover their normal size again.

There are also in Taoism external practicing methods. People no longer have to take the internal practice method, which is qigong practice, but directly start dealings and communications with evil spirits through some means. It is similar to the performance of supernormal capabilities and special signs. The following is the fu lu shu method: the drawing of some word-like signs, which are the so-called "words of immortals" to suppress the demons and heal diseases. The following is the nian zhou shu method: incantations for healing diseases, expelling disasters and ferocious animals, etc. There are also divinations. And qi rang shu is pleading to the evil spirits for blessings and for the avoidance of disasters. Bu dao chang is more complex. Altars have to be built, incense burnt, offerings made, gods invited and seen off, scripture read, and ceremonies chanted, with decoration with candles lit on candlesticks and also accompaniment by music. The priests have to bathe and change and abstain from meat, fish and liquor. The purpose of these external methods of practice are for the practitioners to help the common folk to cross the sea of bitterness in this life, to do good deeds and cultivate all kinds of virtues, and to become immortals. They are in essence types of qigong training, having the same goal as qigong, which is to become immortal and never see death.

Furthermore, the Chinese traditional belief in ghosts and gods is also incorporated into Taoism, just as it has been incorporated into Confucianism. This is natural, for all these phenomena are all the same in essence, being cultural phenomena with the activity of evil spirits as their backgrounds.

In a word, all the Taoist practicing methods are actually the present-day qigong practicing methods. Their spiritual background is the activity of evil spirits, which intend to lead people astray from the true meaning of life toward destruction and death.

5. A Brief Summary: the Scheme of the Devil

Why do the Ru Shi Tao have different gong methods and phenomena, even though they achieve the same results and have the same purpose intended for them by evil spirits?

What evil spirits want to do is to delude, destroy and enslave human beings. And they hope to destroy more and more people. So they raise many different religions in the world at different times. Each of these religions seems on the surface to have its own traditions, individual theories and training methods. The Ru Shi Tao are exactly religions as such. A plurality of religions can involve more people. Different people may have different religious tastes. One may not like Confucianism, but he/she may have an interest in Buddhism, or he/she may willingly accept Taoism. Whichever among these religions is chosen, the evil spirits achieve their purpose. The reason that evil spirits provide each of the Ru Shi Tao with different practicing methods, theories, and phenomena is to maintain the special characteristics of these religions. But once the practitioner's level of knowledge of theory and practice of it reaches the highest realm, he/she will discover that all methods have the same origin and all ways lead to the same destination. Then their worldviews and views of life are formed, stabilized and hard to change. The evil spirits, at this time, will let these people see the same results of Ru Shi Tao and all other heathen religions in order for them to respect each other for the religion each has and to be all jointly used by the evil spirits.

Why do the theories of the Ru Shi Tao and of contemporary qigong all relate to a philosophical elaboration of politics, view of life, worldview, ethical morals, and qigong training methods? (Even though there have not been discovered, up to the present time, any explicit qigong theories of practice in Confucianism.)

Scholars who do not know about the principles of qigong take the theories of the Ru Shi Tao as philosophical systems of theory regarding politics, military affairs, culture, ethical morals, view of life and worldviews. This understanding of Ru Shi Tao is very incomplete and unilateral, for the purpose and training methods of qigong are very important parts of Buddhism and Taoism.

Some people who are modern qigong practitioners regard Buddhist and Taoist theories mainly as the elaboration of qigong theory. I cannot agree with them. The philosophical systems of the Ru Shi Tao are also very important theoretical parts that these religions want to explicate.

The reason why the evil spirits raised up the Ru Shi Tao is that they wanted more people to believe in and worship themselves. Because the training methods of Buddhism and Taoism are not easily promulgated to society, only few believe in either Buddhism or Taoism. But through the supernormal capabilities and strange signs performed by a few, the evil spirits prove to people that the theories of these religions are truthful. And since Buddhism and Taoism have their own complete philosophical systems, many more who do not like to make any efforts in training can accept these philosophical theories as a kind of cultural belief. The evil spirits try to support the beliefs in ghosts and gods in these religions. For example, they try to make people believe in and worship idols, the devil, and evil spirits by performing magical signs in various ways through people who believe in these religions. Hence the evil spirits are more than happy to set up erroneous philosophical systems for more people to accept as their cultural beliefs so that these evil spirits can achieve the purpose of having people worship the idols and the evil spirits themselves.

The greatest characteristic of Confucian theories is that they avoid talking about qigong-like training methods directly so that these theories can form a complete philosophical system, with ethical moral theories as its major component. This religion does not have qigong-like training methods for direct contact with its spiritual background. It is not through physical or spiritual experiences that this religion's theories are proved. Hence it must be through logical thought and practice that this religion's folly and spiritual background is discovered as a general rule.

We have discussed in the second section of this chapter the similarities between Confucian worldviews and values and those of Taoism and qigong. They all use the same theory as their theoretical classic, which is I-Ching. In "Tian Fang Zi," Zhuang Zi, the following is recorded: Confucius met with Scholar Wen Bo and Lao Zi, both of whom were Taoists who had "obtained Tao." He asked questions about Lao Zi's "soul travel" (i.e. the "soul leaving the body" in qigong) and witnessed it. He thus then had a deep understanding and experiential knowledge of Tao. He highly praised "Tao" and had great reverence for it. Zhuang Zi, on the other hand, highly praised Confucius and regarded him as the only person who knew about "Tao" in the State Lu. We can see that it was the Taoists who proved Confucius' philosophical theories through their training methods and that his theory is exactly about "Tao." What Confucius lacked was the practical experience of "Tao." The apex of his philosophical view is exactly "Tao." Hence we know that the highest realm of Taoism and the highest realm of Confucianism are one.

Besides, Confucius’ belief in ghosts and gods and his ethical views which encourage inequalities between humans (such as "male superior, female inferior" and "monarchs have unlimited authority over their subjects, as do fathers over their children") all expose the fallaciousness and the evil background of Confucian culture.

Now qigong, as a newly raised religion, is being used to carry out the devil's plan throughout China and even throughout the whole world through a "fact first, theory second" plan. When tons of shocking facts came about, people having materialistic and atheistic thinking modes started to research qigong theories from scientific angles. But they were disappointed and set about to find theoretical proof in the Ru Shi Tao. They did find what they needed but without real satisfaction. Now as a result of the research and reflection of a few qigong theoretical representatives, with Ke Yun Lu as the foremost figure, a qigong philosophical system has been formed, which has incorporated all the essential theories of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Communist atheism.

For thousands of years the Chinese people have suffered deeply under these erroneous cultural systems engendered by religions with their backgrounds based on the activity of evil spirits. The Chinese have paid a heavy price for their fallacious beliefs, yet, up to the present, when we analyze these erroneous cultural systems, we always emphasize that we should look at them dialectically and that there is still some good and truthful content in such cultural systems. This is true of these systems, but just as we have discussed in the first section of this chapter, all religions and philosophical systems in the world teach the basic ethical morals of human beings, the goodness of humanity, and wonderful expectations. Otherwise, they would have been rejected the moment they appeared. But why have most of them actually led to the degeneration of human societies and of individual human beings? Why have they been inescapably unsuccessful and discarded? Because their essence and purpose are wrong.

In Chapter 4.2, we talked about types of lies, among which the "half-true half-false" lies are the most dangerous. Therefore, when we analyze our traditional philosophical culture or contemporary philosophical culture, we should analyze it as a whole. Our direct motivation should be to find out about its essence and purpose. What we really need to do is to seek the truth. This is reality and is also wise.

During the most recent years, the gospel of Christ has been spread throughout China with shocking speed. The number of Christians is increasing by exponential numbers. Millions upon millions of Chinese are enthusiastically coming to know about Jesus Christ, the most famous and the greatest figure in human history, the Savior of all human beings, and the all-powerful representative of God. The Bible says that "the truth will set you free." People accept Jesus, get to know the truth, and witness God's doings in their lives. Then, joyfully, they share the Gospel, the most wonderful news in the world, with their family, friends, and even strangers around them.

May all Chinese understand that only God can liberate the Chinese people and endow all who believe in Jesus Christ with blessings.

Chapter 4 | Table of Contents | Chapter 6