ers. A person who has attained full command of this cosmic en-
ergy is said by the Hindus to have attained a state of “samadhi”.
The Buddhists call it “nirvana”, while the Chinese refer to it as the
“Tao”. In the west it might correspond with what Freud alluded to
as an “oceanic feeling”, but among the prophets of the New Age it
is known as “superconsciousness”. None, of course, agree as to
the best path to achieve this awakening, but the parallel among
them is distinct.
In India, the kundalini is symbolized by a serpent awakening from
a deep slumber and rising up from the base of the human spine in
a spiralling motion through the seven energy centers (chakras) of
the body, purifying and unblocking the powers of each center as it
rises. For millenium this same serpent has been a universal sym-
bol for wisdom and healing. Nearly every Egyptian pharoah is de-
picted in statues with a serpent emerging from the third eye in the
forehead.
Today, modern western doctors wear on their white laboratory
coats the Greek symbol of healing energy, two serpents spiralling
up a staff. The Taoists in China revered the snake as a wise ani-
mal, but symbolized the Tao more abstractly, with the yin and yang
symbols spiralling into each other. It is important to note the Taoist
yin and yang spiral was contained within a circle, while the tradi-
tional Hindu kundalini serpent spiralled vertically up to the crown
chakra atop the head.
The Taoists referred to in this essay, are the masters of Taoist
Esoteric practices, whose traditionally secret methods were stud-
ied by Master Mantak Chia. This is not to be confused with the
Taoist religions, whose priests combined elements of Buddhism,
Esoteric Taoism, and Chinese culture (folk beliefs, confucianism)
in order to maintain a popular base.
The symbolic difference translates into a real difference in terms
of the meditational approach aimed at awakening the release of
this cosmic energy. The Hindu yogis emphasized raising the
kundalini energy up to a higher transcendant level, while the Taoist
masters emphasized harmonious circulation of this energy between
chakras. The Taoist emphasis was on achieving perfect balance
between yin and yang forces within the body rather than on leaping
beyond human form into divine states.
It was not enough for the Taoist masters to simply know that the
Tao, the highest state of oneness existed; the problem was how to
Observations on Higher Taoist Practices