Our tradition emphasizes the importance of View-Method-Fruition.\u00a0 This trinary mechanism functions as a circle of \u201cGreat Completion\u201d (\u5927\u5713).<\/p>\n
View is our perspective \u2013 how we see ourselves and how we see reality.\u00a0 The character gu\u00e0n (\u89c0) shows a heron watching something, meaning to keenly perceive \u2013 this character also means Daoist temple.\u00a0 Our view informs how we relate to the world, how we approach our formal practice methods, and what we expect to \u201cget\u201d out of our practice.<\/p>\n
Method refers to our various formal practices of hygiene, meditation, & ritual, as well as our informal conduct.\u00a0 The character sh\u00f9 (\u8853) suggests the growth of a tree.\u00a0 Methods are essentially processes of transformation \u2013 like a tree growing through its life-cycle.<\/p>\n
Fruition refers to the ripening experience resulting from practicing methods with a view.\u00a0 The character gu\u01d2 (\u679c) shows a tree bearing fruit \u2013 the full expression of the process, the tree reaching full maturity.<\/p>\n
View-Method-Fruition correspond to Heaven, Earth, & Humankind \u2013 Heaven being the primary inspiration, Earth being the field of activity, and Humankind being the resulting fruit of the union of Heaven & Earth.<\/p>\n
From this perspective, we can see the importance of looking into our view \u2013 what am I?\u00a0 What is reality?\u00a0 If method is a process, view is what directs that process \u2013 if we apply different views to the same process,\u00a0it\u2019s not going to have the same result.\u00a0 Our practice needs to align view & method in order to ripen the fruit.<\/p>\n
In the broad suite of spiritual or energetic practices out there, each is inspired by a particular view.\u00a0 In the West today we have many opportunities to learn practice methods, but their transmission doesn\u2019t always include the underlying view \u2013 the view is actually often stripped out in order to make the method more palatable to our existing views.\u00a0 For example, we can learn yoga, meditation, or taiji by people who tell us we are free to apply our own beliefs to them.\u00a0 This is the American way \u2013 show me what you\u2019ve got, but don\u2019t tell me how to think.\u00a0 Wonderful.\u00a0 But practicing Daoist methods without the corresponding view does not lead to the intended fruition.<\/p>\n
This is particularly important when approaching the non-conceptual contemplative meditation & qi-cultivation of Laozi.\u00a0 The method is simple but the view is paramount.\u00a0 If we are pushing for results, Laozi\u2019s method is futile.\u00a0 If we are looking to get saved or to become a superhuman being, his method is worthless.\u00a0 So in our school we study Laozi\u2019s text as a \u201cview\u201d manual for meditation & qi-cultivation.\u00a0 Laozi may not include many technical points, but his view-teaching deeply informs the correct method of contemplative meditation & qi-cultivation.<\/p>\n
As far as I can tell, not all Daoist texts and practice methods are aligned with Laozi.\u00a0 Alchemical Daoism has a great deal of complex concepts that are important to understand in order to practice its methods effectively. \u00a0And the methods\u00a0may be quite complex & elaborate.\u00a0 Laozi\u2019s contemplative Daoism by comparison doesn\u2019t rely on many concepts so much as an atmospheric qi-quality shared between mentor & disciple in the context of Laozi\u2019s teaching.\u00a0 The corresponding method is simply abiding in that atmosphere.<\/p>\n
My Daoist teacher was a view-teacher; he didn\u2019t spend much time on method instruction.\u00a0 Just enough to initiate a natural process.\u00a0 If you\u2019re studying a Daoist art, I encourage you to tap your teacher to ask about the underlying view of the practice.\u00a0 In our tradition, when our practice starts to ripen, the view becomes ever more clear and the method becomes ever more effective.\u00a0 This is the circle of Great Completion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our tradition emphasizes the importance of View-Method-Fruition.\u00a0 This trinary mechanism functions as a circle of \u201cGreat Completion\u201d (\u5927\u5713). View is our perspective \u2013 how we see ourselves and how we see reality.\u00a0 The character gu\u00e0n (\u89c0) shows a heron watching something, meaning to keenly perceive \u2013 this character also means Daoist temple.\u00a0 Our view informs … Continue reading “View-Method-Fruition”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}