Healing Self and Healing the World: Embodied Practices Integrating Our Physical, Energy and Spiritual Bodies

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Embodied practices and transformative dialogues for social justice and healing

Proposal

In this paper, I propose a Qi-verse theory which is based on the understanding that the whole universe is created and sustained by a vital life force, the primordial energy called Qi. Qi exists in everything, including people, animals, plants, mountains, rivers, and stars. It ensures the vitality of life. According to Laozi in Dao De Jing, this energy can be called Dao, which is preserved by virtues, and which forms into things by brought to life by the joining of various factors in an environment (Laozi, chapter 51). Laozi states: All existence respects the Dao and upholds virtues. All existences are connected by the Qi and must follow the universal laws of virtues which are love, compassion, cooperation, humility, service and reconciliation. All beings have energy, information, and spirit, making all divine and intelligent. The Dao virtues ensure that all people and things are engaged in supporting each other. For example, we receive oxygen from plants, while the carbon dioxide we breathe out is a nutrient for plants. Following the virtues of love, compassion and humility, among other virtues, we support and enhance this Qi, or if we violate the laws, we deplete it.

In this Qi-verse, we not only have a physical body but also a subtle energy body. Qi flows in our meridians like electricity powering a machine. The meridians wired throughout the body nourish all the organs and protect the body, as well as connect us to the energy of the larger environment including people and nature. The energy normally flows smoothly and harmoniously and brings us health and longevity, but it can be depleted by negative emotions leading to mental problems and physical diseases. For example, according to traditional Chinese medicine, anger can severely damage the liver, and sadness can harm the lungs. More importantly, we also have a spiritual body which is a conscious energy field that connects us to the divine and governs the overall well-being of a person. When we have high spiritual energy, we have high awareness of the spirit and divinity in all beings; we have direct and intuitive knowledge of what matters in our life; we have high aspirations and good health. Spirit, acting as a higher teacher, is accessed through calming down the body and the mind, and contemplative practice tuning into our energy and aligning our innermost self with our actions. Meditation, called Xiao Dao or cultivating Dao in Chinese philosophy, is crucial to the integration of the three bodies. Meditation allows one to enter a quantum state, which opens access to the invisible realms of energy and spirit and modify the body’s conditions. It opens the door to feeling the spirit and intelligence in all existence. Laozi said this in Dao De Jing (chapter 21): Dao operates in a quantum wave state. Between thinking and unthinking, when we enter such a quantum meditative state, we sense its existence as images, things, spirits, and intelligence (which are invisible and beyond three-dimensional). Hence, we live in a physical but also a quantum meditative energy world that although invisible, gives rise to what we can see. We see trees growing in a forest without someone planting them. They have manifested from a Dao energy field with spirits and intelligence. In a Qi-verse where everything is energy that affects each other, meditation can lead to healing the self and can lead to healing the world because we are energetically and spiritually entwined and interdependent.

Education as Cultivation and Integration of our Body, Energy and Spirit

Our education has focused on the material and physical aspects of our reality but neglected the more subtle and more fundamental dimensions of the energy and spiritual dimensions of our being and reality. The current form of education lacks an understanding of our body and neglects our subtle energy and spirit; we lack theories and practices that teach that our body is intelligent and capable of self-healing and that All That Exists must follow virtues as universal laws that govern the universe. Sadly, so many young people are deprived of the opportunities to turn inward for self-knowledge and grow profound wisdom about their life and the universe. The dominance of a positivist paradigm that sees people as separated from each other and nature, and that the rational mind is the only trusted tool for learning, according to Bai (2001, 2015), has caused disembodiment of education and is behind many of the crises.
To heal self and the world, schools and universities must mainstream meditative inquiry and holistic education. Young people should learn life-enhancing knowledge and virtue techniques, maintain their wellness, and expand their awareness through practicing breathing, visualization, mindfulness, concentration, refining their vital life energy, and simultaneously doing good for others. In my presentation, I will use several practices to help the participants feel qi and know that we are wired by the vital energy of qi in our body, which connects us to the larger world and elevates our spiritual force and development.

Data Sources

The author has done meditation for more than 25 years, focusing on Daoist meditation that integrates breathing and visualization, with conscious, mindful adjustment of one’s mind and heart to align with Dao, which manifests as virtues of love, compassion, humility, gratitude, cooperation, tranquility and peace. Data source comes from the author’s embodied experience and reflection, and decades of studying and exploring embodied cultivation methods in Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and all spiritual traditions.

Relevance to the 2025 CIES Conference

Related to the theme of the 2025 CIES conference, focusing on how the digitalization of our world impacts education, the paper highlights that now is an even more crucial and critical time for us to turn inward, to know who we truly are. Seeking wisdom by accessing the knowledge we have deeply within ourselves, and elevating the vital life energy that determines our consciousness level and ability to interbe and indwell each other and nature as One, we have hope for the future we want to see.

Author

• Jing Lin, University of Maryland, College Park