Chapter 1
Energy in your Body
The Taoist interception of body energy is explained simply and dearly in this chapter. It will change your view of how your body functions. Everything that we experience is created from Yin and Yang forces (see pp. 22-3), and the more refined Five Element theory (see pp. 24-5) explains the interconnectedness of all phenomena. The energy, that flows through our bodies under the influence of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, and which connects us with the universe, is described on pages 26-9.
The theory behind Taoist sexual massage is based on the role of sexual energy in the body (see pp. 26-33). As sexual energy circulates around the body (see p. 34), it is transformed into other types of energy, including spiritual energy. The massage sequence in Part Two helps this circulation and transformation of the energy. Ultimately, you can control this energy, not only during the massage, but while making love, turning this union into a deeply spiritual experience (see pp. 35-7).
Chapter One ends by describing some advanced Taoist practices for using your powerful spiritual energy as a healing force (see pp. 38-40), and techniques for enhancing its availability.
The Yin and the Yang
According to Taoist cosmological belief, all existence, whether manifest or nonmanifest, evolves from the eternal struggle of two opposing forces: the Yin -- female, dark, inward-moving, and receptive; and the Yang -- male, bright, outward-moving, and active force.
One of the most fundamental philosophical achievements of the ancient Taoist sages was the realization that existence cannot be observed beyond the duality of these two opposing cosmic powers. The forces of Yin and Yang are seen to permeate all existence. Existence, both manifest and nonmanifest, is made possible by the interplay of these two polar forces, travelling through all dimensions in opposite directions. It is the friction between these two energies, as they constantly pass through each other, that generates our manifest existence, the material world and everything that we experience, or what Taoists sometimes call the "Ten Thousand Things" (see p. 24).
Yet the velocity with which the forces of Yin and Yang permeate each other, as they pass in opposing directions, is not consistent. There is a tidal motion: an ebb and flow. k is in this cross current that you are born and live, subject to the ever changing powers that surround you.
The forces of Yin and Yang operate within your physical form as well as around it. It is the earth-bound, inward-moving, imploding Yin energies within you that give substance to your body. It is the space-bound, outward-moving, exploding Yang energies within you that give motivation to your body. Substance without motivation is inert mass, and motivation without substance goes nowhere.
Yin and Yang, like light and shadow, are mutually interdependent. Any cessation in the ebb and flow between them leads to a Yin illness, when the body fluids coagulate, or a predominantly Yang illness, in which the body fluids overheat and dry up. When the ebb and flow stops for long enough, you no longer conduct the two energies, and you die.
Any rigidity or stiffening in your physical body or mental attitude blocks the flow of Yin and Yang energy (see Chapter Two) and will in time speed the ageing and death processes.
The Five Elements, and the creation of the Ten Thousand Things
The Tao is the indivisible. For creation to occur, the indivisible must divide. The One -- the Tao -- becomes Two, the Yin and Yang (see p. 22). The interplay of Yin and Yang, also known as "The World of Opposites", creates a force composed of five mutally supporting, controlling, and inter-checking elements. These are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal (see illustration, facing page). The movement of this combined force produces the manifest world of phenomena, or what Taoists call the "Ten Thousand Things". Every phenomenon of existence encapsulates this creative process.
In human affairs, women and men are personifications of the basic Yin and Yang dichotomy. The actions of both sexes are coloured by the interplay of five basic emotions, each of which corresponds to one of the Five Elements. These emotions are: fear (Water), anger (Wood), excitement (Fire), sadness (Earth), and longing, or grief (Metal). The combined result of this is the life and world you live in.
Normally, in a healthy, balanced individual, these five emotions rise and fall continuously, in various combinations, producing a richness and variation of emotional experience. When two such balanced and healthy people interact in a relationship together this interplay of the five emotions becomes synergistic; their relationship is happy and creative. In most people, however, one of the emotions will dominate. This both arises out of and causes a block in the body's energy. Such a block diminishes the ability for friction-free and easy socialization. Needless to say, if two people with such energy blocks try to make a partnership, the relationship will not be an easy one.
The sexual massage that follows in Part Two works on the basic energy field and, by clearing it, reconstitutes the balance between the five emotions and elements. This in turn balances the interplay of man and woman, Yin and Yang.
The human energy field
To understand the full potential of sexual massage, it helps to know something about the Taoist notion of the energy field, which permeates human beings and all existence. According to Taoist belief, a fundamental life force, or Chi, supplies the energy for life. Chi refers both to the breath and to the energies within the body and the surrounding world.
The ancient Taoists, being masters of observation, were able to chart the workings of Chi energy within the human form, as well as in the universe. They mapped the energy field in the human body as a network of channels, or meridians (see pp. 28-9). The unimpeded flow of Chi through the channels was seen as being essential for good health.
Fundamental energy
In Taoist medical practice, Ching Chi, or sexual energy, is the most basic energy in the body and the source of all your energy. By clearing the path of this energy through massage, you can restore the subtle flow of Chi within the channels. In effect, you will be using your sexual energy as a form of medical elixir, to heal illnesses or to increase wellbeing.
Channels of energy
The twelve channels, or meridians of energy that mn through the body, create an endless, interconnecting loop. Both Kirlian photography, which produces an image of the body's electromagnetic field, and methods for testing electrical resistance have recently suggested that such a network of energy exists. But no-one knows exactly how the ancient Taoist sages were able to map the meridians so accurately.
The complexity and sophistication of the system precludes the development of its form by trial and error. The most respected living Taoist masters say that their predecessors could see the meridians as they observed the patient.
The four planes of existence
Sexual energy, the fundamental energy in the body, circulates throughout the energy channels and has an impact on all aspects of our existence. To the Taoist there is no separation between the social, spiritual, mental, and physical planes of existence. They simply represent different levels of energy in the body. From a Taoist viewpoint, the harmony of these four aspects is essential to health. Conflict in the social, mental, spiritual, or physical body manifests as illness.
The aim, the path, and the quest of Taoist sexual practice is to integrate all these aspects of consciousness and the physical functions of the body, to work as a unified being. If yo
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