"The Dao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty."
--Daoist Sage, 200 B.C

To view Nature's qi field as a deep language that one speaks with one's entire being is very liberating and fun. Nature comes alive, you bathe in its intelligence and love each moment. It's a refreshing change from spoken languages using head-centered concepts or symbols to manipulate things. Qi can only be spoken in the present tense, an interactive dialogue between one's personal qi field and the subtle levels of Nature's mind. One can have mental thoughts about qi experiences in the past or future, but those in reality are only memories, sustained as a standing wave form in the present moment qi field. By reminding ourselves that the qi field of the present moment is alive and continually re-shaping or re-expressing itself as our body-mind process, it's easier to keep our perceptions fresh and transform habitual ego patterns or disease states.

In learning to engage in the simultaneous two way conversation between Origin and Creation, one can fully commit to living in the physical world without feeling one's inner journey to the Origin must take one away from physicality. This two way communication is expressed in daoist alchemical teachings as the simultaneous cultivation of one's inner essence (xing) and one's worldly destiny (ming). Ultimately, it seems the very reason Original Spirit continues to incarnate into human form is in the hope of retrieving something valuable from our life experience that was lost at the moment our original androgynous self was split into male and female. It doesn't want to wait until our physical death to get that information or essence, it wants a report every moment if possible. That continuous conscious mutual exchange is wu wei, the ultimate state of grace marked by open communication, surrender and trust between Dao and humans.

The other benefits of approaching both qigong and neidan as part of an ongoing natural language process are many fold. It breaks down the rigidity of cosmological or religious belief systems, and may encourage an open exchange between different daoist traditions. It opens the possibility that as the Dao unfolds itself as Heaven, Earth, and Beings that a wholly new cosmology may birth as the polarized tension within the physical plane resolves itself.

I see the potential for nei dan to be recognized globally as a deep language offering a practical way to experience Nature's aliveness. Acceptance of internal alchemy will parallel Chinese medicine's becoming globally recognized as having the most sophisticated language in the emerging field of energy medicine. The west is still acquiring the surface level of TCM language in accepting acupuncture needles and herbs. As the meridian and vital organ systems become more accepted, the influence the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and three core channels (the left, right, and center pathways of the thrusting vessel or chong mo) that cannot be needled with acupuncture will grow. The reality of subtle bodies of layered qi and direct communication with and healing of body spirits will be next in line. Deep language theory also allows a feng shui practitioner to talk to an acupuncturst, because both speak the language of qi. They can cooperate and work together on improving patient health from different angles using the same language.

A surface spoken language like Chinese or English evolves and adapts to the changes of culture over time. The Daoists' grasp of deep language has allowed neidan to evolve and spontaneously absorb new and useful surface language expressions from Confucianism and Buddhism without threatening their integrity. The deep language appraoch offers neutral ground for different streams of Daoist expression to recognize each other as sharing core principles, even though the lineage or organization of groups may appear very different. Focus on the Dao as a deep language process may diffuse tendencies of religious groups to grow rigid and for their leaders to become self-important.

With the tranmission of Daoist internal alchemy formulas to the west, a new phase of integrating western scientific, cultural, and spiritual ideas into the cosmological language of Daoism will inevitably occur. Daoist alchemy could radically alter the psychological understanding that humans have of themselves, and help alchemically inclined schools, i.e. Jungian psychologists, to more deeply embody their process. The surface languaging of alchemy in English may evolve somewhat differently than neidan has in China. But the deep language structure of yin-yang-yuan unity, 3 Treasures, 5 Phases, 8 Forces should remain recognizable and endure these changes, as they are built into Nature's mind.

Modern people have been led to believe by science that the best way to communicate with the deep workings of nature is through the microscope, the telescope, the stethescope, the chemical spectrometer, the superfast computer and the super-collider. This has weakened people's power of direct communication with nature. The ruling religion of modern science is stuck in its exploration of nature because its mechanistic paradigm of empirical materialism does not permit the presence of an unmeasurable field of intelligent energy such as Original Spirit connotes.. Nonetheless, scientists recognize in their theories of neutrinos and cold dark matter that some binding or original force must exist.

Physicists acknowledege a desperate need to unite theories of the microcosm (quantum mechanics) and the macrocosm (general relativity), as these theories do not currently mesh with each other. It is essentially the same problems faced by the ancient daoists: "how does a tiny human communicate with the stars?" Now it is "how do subatomic particles simultaneously influence each other across time and space?" Physicists have invented superstring theory with a multi-dimensional super-conducting medium to solve this problem. This is bringing them perilously close to Daoist theory of yuan qi as the "fifth" force that will unite the other four forces.

I love the human spirit of adventure and search for cosmic origin hidden within the drive to advance technology. But how can we prevent this powerful deity Technos from destroying the balance of Nature on earth? Consider the greatest of modern scientists, staring at their computer screen, waiting for the "right" numbers to be spit out. Are they more accomplished than an uneducated simple daoist adept of internal alchemy sitting in a mountain hut, unafraid to peer deep into the heart of Nature with her naked inner vision? The odds against the adept finding their original self in the immensity of the cosmos may seem overwhelming, but that does not erase the strangely radiant smile on her face.