Taoist Energy Maps

Taoism and the Jade Egg

I have included here some of the ancient Taoist energy maps and knowledge here. Super fascinating and informative, and certainly I believe we can take a lot from these principles in order to help our own practice.

Remember – all tantric practices, whether they are based in Indian philosophy and lineage or within the Taoist tradition, utilise sexual energy as a part of the path towards enlightenment and human awakening. The Taoists would therefore take sexual energy, and refine and alchemise it into other forms of energy within the body in order to attain full body and mind nourishment and ultimately spiritual realisation.

Three Fundamental Energies

There are three fundamental energies within the Taoist tradition as follows:

Jing

Jing is known to be the most dense and heavy of these three energies – it is liken to having the density of candle wax. It lives in the lower Tan Tien – one of the three main energy centres. The Tan Tien lives just below the navel and right in the centre of the body and is really akin to our sexual essence. People often lose Jing energy through trauma, over ejaculation or exhaustion. It is said to be the power centre of the body. A place of fearlessness and power.

Qi

 Qi is more like the flame of the candle in it’s density. It contains the energy of thoughts and emotions, aura and charisma in its field and is located in the Middle Tan Tien – around the heart and lung centre.

Shen

Shen is the lightest form of energy in the human body and is compared to the actual light of the candle. It is the centre of our human presence and consciousness and can be found in a truly quiet mind. It is located in the Upper Tan Tien – or the Crystal Palace. A sphere of energy that lives around the pineal gland or third eye in the centre of the brain.

The Process of Enlightenment

Much like in Indian tantra, the sexual essence of a human being – or here in Taoism the Jing – is worked through the different energy centres of the body in order to alchemize, refine, boost energy and achieve enlightenment. The directions go both upwards and downwards.

 As above, so below

Moving the sexual energy upwards, or moving the Jing up into Qi and Shen, nourishes your capacity to love and to feel and then to be fully conscious in the present moment. Moving the energy down from Shen into Qi and then to Jing brings your presence and also the loving centre of your heart down into your sexuality.

The essence of tantra is holistic in this way. It does not get trapped in the position that the body is not holy, but only the clear presence of the Shen. It finds holiness and enlightenment in the sexual, gritty Jing centre, within the open heartedness of Qi, and in the full compassionate presence of Shen.

Each type of energy is equal and feeds into and nourishes the others. 

Storing Sexual Energy

One of the things you will notice in our practice this week is that we pack and store all energy generated in your Tan Tien before we finish.

Because using the jade egg can generate a lot of sexual turn on, it’s important that we use it and store it appropriately. You may find that if you have trouble getting to sleep, feel very restless or like there is an excess of energy running around your system after a practice, that you revisit these storing exercises in order to help calm things down.

The Chinese believe that the Lower Tan Tien is where we can store sexual energy for use later. Although you can also move the Jing energy through each of the Tan Tiens and back down again if you want to go through the refinement process described above. But for now, I will lead you through the specific way to do store energy in the Lower Tan Tien in this week’s live call.  I also recommend that you try the following too if you feel the need:

Drinking the Energy into Your Cells

Once energy is properly packed back into the Tan Tien, you can imagine your very cells drinking nourishment from it. Imagine every cell in your body opening up and replenishing from this yummy sexual energy that you have cultivated. This is a gorgeous practice.

Packing the Energy into your Bones

You can also imagine the sexual energy circling and spiralling around every bone in your body and gently infusing into the bone matter. This is also very delicious, grounding, and energetically nourishing for your body.