Question
Through practice, I feel increasingly connected to this energy deep within us that seems beyond all karma, infinite, immensely powerful, inexhaustible... And although my body is often tired, I feel it truly sustains me... All right, but I wonder: what is the ancestral energy the Taoists speak of in relation to that energy? Is it an energy of, let's say, lesser quality? Does it act independently of the other? Does the arhat, who is supposed to become completely one with the first, toss the second aside? Thank you.
Gassho
Laurent Costamagna
Master Kosen’s answer
Energy is everywhere, in everything. The ancestral energy you mention, jing in Chinese, is quite particular: we have a certain amount at birth and use it up until there is none left. It is supposed to be able to keep us alive until around age 120. That is why the ancients who wished to live long lives conserved their sexual energy. As human beings, then, we function thanks to this ancestral energy, but also thanks to the food we eat each day and the air we breathe at every moment. We are therefore in constant exchange with cosmic energy in all its forms. When we practice zazen, the sitting of Buddha, everything returns to its proper place: bones, tendons, vertebrae, blood circulation, the brain's ergonomics, the right tone of internal and external muscles. Energy, too, is channeled and centered. The feeling of strength and serenity comes from this process.
Kosen