Page 397 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

T H E ENCYC LOPEDIA O F TAOISM A- L

outer or inner elixir to their precosmic state. Once the elixir is obtained, the
whole human being and the whole cosmos are transmuted.

Fabrizio PREGADIO
III Chen Guofu 1983, 192; Needham 1976, IOO and pa sim; Pregadio 1995

* yuanqi; neidan; waidan

ding

concentration

The word ding means "to settle," "to stabilize," "firm," "solid." It is first used
in a meditative context in translations of Buddhist texts, where it appears as
one of the technical terms for samiidhi or the full and intense concentration
of the mind on one object. In this sense, ding has been rendered as "intent
contemplation" or "perfect absorption." In Buddhism, it moreover commonly
occurs in two combinations, sanding ~lE which indicates a "scattered" or
general form of concentrative meditation; and chanding fff!lE, including the
term later used for the Chan school, which indicates a specific and highly
abstract form of meditation, whereby the mind is fully concentrated on one
object that either has form or, in the higher stages, is formless.
In Taoism, ding first occurs in the context of the ancient *Lingbao sctiptures,
in a text known as Zhihui dingzhi tongwei jing ~ ;~ lE 'I:.,:li![ ~ ~~ (Scripture for
Penetrating the Subtle through Wisdom and Fixing the Will; CT 325). Here
the compound dingzhi used in connection with zhihui or "wisdom" indicates
the firming up (ding) of the practitioner's will or determination (zhi), his
set intention to "penetrate the subtlety" (tongwei) of the Dao. Rather than a
technical term for a meditative state, ding functions thus as a verb indicating
the adept's firm commitment and signifies the equivalent of the bodhisattva
vow in a Taoist context.
Later a more technical, meditative use of ding became common. The
locus classicus for this usage is found in *Sima Chengzhen's *Zuowang lun
(Essay on Sitting in Oblivion), which has a section entitled "Taiding" ~ lE
or "Intense Concentration" (I2a- 14a). This term denotes a stage of complete
and utter absorption that comes right before the final attainment of the Dao.
Like other terms in this text, the expression taiding is a mixture of Buddhist
notions (samiidhi) and ideas found in ancient Taoist scriptures, in this case the
*Zhuangzi where the term appear in chapter 23 (see trans. Watson 1968, 254).