Serge Augier - Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan: A Manual for Working with Mind, Emotion, and Internal Energy

Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan

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SHEN GONG
and NEI DAN
in DA XUAN

A MANUAL FOR WORKING WITH MIND, EMOTION, AND INTERNAL ENERGY

SERGE AUGIER

With translations by ISIS AUGIER
Foreword by DR. YANG, JWING-MING

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2015

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright Serge Augier 2015

Front cover image: painting by Isis Augier

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Augier, Serge.

Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan : a manual for working with mind, emotion, and internal energy /

Serge Augier ; with translations by Isis Augier.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-84819-260-7 (alk. paper)

1. Taoist meditations. 2. Meditation--Taoism. I. Title.

BL1942.8.A84 2015

299.514435--dc23

2014036289

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 260 7

eISBN 978 0 85701 208 1

To my wife Isis, my true love

Do not be fooled by nebulous, complicated writings.

It should be simple, because this practice has been developed by very practical people.

It should be usable and easy to understand.

You will discover through this tradition, as it is presented here, the infinite possibilities that are within your reach.

Contents

Foreword

I have known Serge for so many years now that I cant believe just how long it has been. When I met him for the first time at one of my seminars in London, he was maybe only 16 or 17 years old and I was in my 40s. He struck me as an enthusiastic young man filled with many dreams and a delightfully happy attitude towards life. I found him to be very humble and eager to learn, even though he already had great abilities. For many years after, he continued exchanging with me every time I traveled to Europe. Since then, we have built a lifelong friendship. Whenever I am in France, I always look forward to meeting with him and his family.

I am very pleased to see the progress that Serge has made over his many years of study, practice, research, and travel. In the time I have known him, I believe he has always continued to gain a deeper, more insightful understanding of health and life, year by year. He has traveled to China, Hong Kong, Japan, and other locations around the world to study Qigong, massage, and healing. I am happy to see how open-minded he is about both learning and sharing his knowledge. It is invaluable that such knowledge is constantly taught and made available to the world, such that all people can learn, improve, and enjoy a higher quality of life together.

I still remember Serge as an ambitious young visionary. Today he has succeeded in making his dreams come true. Through persistence, patience, and humility, he has set a very good example for the new generation to follow. A disciplined mind can accomplish anything. His work and influence will surely help pioneer a stronger and more promising future for the development of healthy, well-balanced living. Traditional Chinese medicine and complementary medicine are still not as widely accepted by the Western world as I have been hoping. We need more pioneers to plant seeds, to enable people to heighten their own self-awareness and capabilities. I sincerely believe that if all of us join in sharing what we have learned about life, together we will undoubtedly bring the world to a higher level of peace and harmony.

I sincerely wish Serge all the very best for his new and continued dreams, as he continues to write, publish, teach, and travel.

Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming

Director, YMAA California Retreat Center

November 27, 2014

Part One

Basic Principles and Theory

Introduction

The Mountain Practice and the Five Arts

In our traditionDa Xuan, or the Big Secretwe talk about the Five Arts that make our system complete: Mountain, Destiny, Divination, Medicine, and Observation.

As students of the Way, we mainly focus on one of themthe practice (the Mountain)and it is on this aspect that this book concentrates. It is helpful to understand all five arts to see the full picture, and in future volumes of this series we will explain the theories and practices relating to the other four. In this book, however, we focus on the first aspect and particularly on the training of the mind, ego, energy, and emotions.

In China, when the system was developed, students were given key words because this was an oral tradition in which everything was learned by heart. Around the key words there were many long stories. Each story had a key word and the key word enabled the students to remember all the detail of the long story.

Mountain

The mountain is the symbol of personal cultivation. When you train, you go to the mountain. Typically, however, our tradition is in the world; you do not retire into the mountains. You have a family and a job. So even though you go to the mountain when you train, you stay in the city. We are not a tradition of retirement from the world.

Going to the mountain is more a symbol, comprising the five aspects of practice:

Wai Gong (external training)

Nei Gong (internal training)

Nei Dan (inner alchemy)

Shen Gong (mind training)

Xin Yi Dao Yin Fa (emotion training).

The five aspects are aspects of the interaction of the Three Treasures (mind, body, and energy). When you train the body (Wai Gong) and then train the breathing (Nei Dan), you come to realize that there is a missing link. When you train the body, the mind focuses on the exercise to correct the motion. When you start the breathing exercises by sitting still, the body does not necessarily adapt. It can be painful and the first reflex is the desire to move. Training the body is called external training.