The Wayfarer of Pure Serenity was very serious about teaching, and his requirements were strict. For this exercise, he decided to add an extra challenge. Rigging a pulley up in the tree, he attached a rock to a rope and ran the rope through the pulley so that the rock could be raised and lowered by pulling on the rope. As Wang Liping performed the exercise, the old wizard held onto the rope in such a way as to keep the rock right over the youth’s head, thereby forcing him to control the speed of his movements accordingly, while keeping his upper body consistently erect. The old mentor worked the rope so that it took fully half an hour to go up and down once, so the movement was extremely slow, even more difficult than standing still; and since the breathing has to be matched to this pace, that added yet another degree of difficulty to the exercise. Over a period of four hours, Liping made the excruciatingly slow movement up and down just a few times. His knees burned with pain, his thighs turned to jelly, and his sacroiliac became numb. There was that rock over his head, however, and the sternest of his teachers there watching, so no matter how hard or painful it was, he had to continue steadfastly.
When the exercise period was over, Liping’s clothes were soaked with perspiration. He didn’t have the strength even to walk. The old wizard, his mentor, was pained by the sight, but how could he foster exceptional attainment in his disciple without such training? The aged Wayfarer half carried his youthful apprentice away, but in fact he himself had also had quite a workout.
After he got used to doing this exercise under the stone, Wang Liping had already achieved more than usual skill in tuning his body and breath and exchanging energy with trees in this exercise. Even without his mentor there, he was able to do it quite well.
Liping’s mentor wanted him to establish a solid foundation once he started working on equilibrium exercises, so he pursued a new tack with this subject. The three old wizards had discovered an extremely good place on the mountain. It was not a large spot, but it had five huge trees of different species, one in each of the four cardinal directions and one in the center. In the east was a pine tree, in the south was a paulownia, in the west was an aspen, in the north was a cedar, and in the center was a willow. Felicitously, they formed a natural array of the five elements and their associated directions, so it was a natural place for using the external five elements to refine the five elements within the human body.
When the three old wizards discovered this spot, they spontaneously looked at each other in amazement. The grand master, the Wayfarer of the Infinite, clapped his hands and said, “This is a boon from heaven!” Subsequently they rigged up a rope net among these trees, about half the height of a man; then they had Wang Liping walk under the net, his legs crouching but his upper body erect, the crown of his head just touching the net, so he could neither stand tall nor squat too low.
After practicing like this for two months, Liping could walk in this “horse step” all around the area within the five trees. He could even carry a bowl of water on his head, prancing about at a rapid pace without spilling a drop, keeping the surface of the water level as a mirror.
With the five trees arrayed around the spot, as one walked among them, the five elements in the human body corresponded to the external five elements in the trees. Liping’s mentor had him walk along a certain prescribed route, based on the interrelations of the five elements to tune the internal five elements within the human body, using the external five elements to exert a pull on the internal five elements, so as to arrive at equilibrium of the internal five elements, in order to get rid of diseases and prolong life. By varying the route, and adding different hand positions and matching breathing patterns, it was also possible to bring out latent capacities hidden in the human body and cultivate extraordinary powers. From these very ordinary trees in the natural world, Wang Liping was ultimately able to elicit and to absorb unusual capacities.
Trees are the largest of plants; just as trees can be classified according to affinity with the five elements, so it is with other plants, which also contain vital energy and can be used for Taoist exercises. Depending on their own physical condition and need for power, practitioners use a specific form of equilibrium exercise to take in that vital energy, exchanging energy bodies.
Animals, like plants, can also be differentiated in terms of the five elements, and humans can use a relationship with them to cultivate themselves. Wang Liping’s mentor gave him specific instructions on exercising with each species.
One day the Wayfarer of Pure Emptiness called Liping to him. Pointing to a basket on the ground, he said, “There’s something in the basket. Take a good look!”
Peering through the slats, Liping saw a long snake coiled up in the basket, creeping up the side. Unconsciously he started. People of the north aren’t used to snakes and are likely to be frightened if they see one. Wang Liping asked his mentor what the snake was for. The old wizard replied that it was for doing exercises. Liping didn’t understand what he meant.
The teacher explained that the subtlest equilibrium exercise is paired cultivation, which requires a partner of some sort. There is nothing in the triple world that cannot be an object or a partner in paired cultivation. The snake is a kind of animal that usually lives in places that are shady, cool, and moist, so its nature is extreme yin. Paired cultivation with a snake makes it possible to develop extraordinary capacities in the human body.
When the old wizard had finished this explanation, Liping saw the wizard’s lips convulse, emitting an eerie sound much like the hissing of a snake. The snake in the basket immediately lay down quietly, completely immobile. Directing his disciple to have no fear in working with the snake, the old wizard taught Liping a method of paired exercise. After several days of practice, Liping noticed extraordinary sensations.
One moonlit night the Wayfarer of Pure Emptiness led Wang Liping to the mossy opening of a small mountain cave. Ordering his apprentice to stand a ways back from the cave, the old wizard began to make a sound with his mouth. Before long, snakes of all sizes came out of their hiding places, slithering toward the mouth of the cave from all directions. Liping saw the snakes stop near the cave, glistening with a cold light under the moon, coiling on the mossy ground, their tongues darting out every now and then.
No longer afraid, Wang Liping first steadied his spirit. His mentor told him to exercise in the manner he had been taught, so Liping took up the appropriate posture and began to work. Closing his eyes, he relied on only inner sensations to exercise in tandem with the snakes.
The snakes, a dozen or more of them, began to circle Liping, all moving in the same direction, following the movement of his hands and the movement of his energy. Slow at first, they speeded up, then gradually slowed down again; and then they began to dance and frolic about, shimmering in the moonlight.
Liping then switched the technique he was employing. Immediately the snakes stopped cavorting and lay motionless on the ground, finally becoming so still they virtually seemed dead.
When four hours had passed and it was time for Liping to conclude his exercise, the snakes revived and left, each going the way it had come. Seeing that Liping had mastered the techniques of this exercise, his mentor, who had been there watching over him all along, felt a surge of happiness in his heart.
Later the Wayfarer of Pure Emptiness also taught Liping methods for working with other animals, such as badgers, weasels, rats, and so on. Liping practiced each one of them in the fields at night until he had mastered them all. All the exercises with small animals are practiced at night because the animals are pure yin entities and are mostly nocturnal. Yet these little bundles of vital awareness have a lot of spiritual energy; sometimes they can be seen worshiping the moon on quiet, windless nights, and some of them have attainments in developmental exercises.
According to the Taoist theory and practice of three realms, every living thing with form and substance has an aura of ethereal force. But this is still viewing the issue from the level of the lower three realms— people, events, and things. If we rise higher to the level of the middle three realms—heaven, earth, and humanity—the mode of existence of events and phenomena rises to a higher level, and we encounter this issue