The famous “Marrow Washing 洗髓經” and “Tendon Changing 易筋經” Qi Gong is commonly misunderstood. These are Taoist Qi Gong, which means you must be a Taoist to practice them, and they will not help you get stronger or live longer; it is not for that purpose. If you are looking for answers, there are many similar ones out there, flooded all over the internet with people who claim to “know” it; that is one option for you. However, you are expected to see something different if you are here. We are Taoists, the people who do this stuff, and that is why I can tell you it is NOT about those things people praise out there. In this article, I will also teach you how YOU can do it yourself without following the “exercise” in the “ancient” books.
What are the “Marrow” and “Tendon”?
In many articles here, we have already emphasized countless times that Taoist text always speaks in metaphors and codes. When we say sun and moon, it is not about the actual sun and moon. It’s a metaphor. When we talk about marrow and tendon, it is NOT about the physical things you see in your body when you cut it open.
The bone marrow we talk about is the structure and alignment of your whole system in the three bodies in three realms, including your Yuen Sun, Ghost Altar, the Local bodies etc. If you don’t know what I am talking about, click the links to learn about it.
When we say a Taoist has cultivated its “immortal bones” 修仙骨, they have cultivated a set of rules or disciplines to align themselves with the Tao, becoming their core values and rules to follow. You can also relate to law enforcement, like the police and military; they have many rules to follow and cannot break. The stronger they keep to their rules, the tougher their “bone” is. Sloppy police would easily give in to the bad guys or even be crooked police who commit crimes. Police with strong bones will always be righteous and live by the rules and values they swore. In our lineage, newbies’ disciples also have rules to follow and a mindset to tune in, such as the five virtues and ten commandments. You can read about it in our eBooks. If a disciple has a weak bone structure, they would give in to evils and fail to heart devils easily, which can ruin their Tao heart and cause withdrawal from the Tao.
“Marrow Washing” is to wash the “blood” in the bone, which means setting rules for yourself, making it something you live by and stand strong for. Washing means you must REMOVE your old ones and set new ones in. What you have learned in the past must be let go, then you learn from the new rules to re-program your values and rules into the bone. To do so, you must memorize the rules and values so that it goes back to your Yuen Sun and become part of your life’s alignment method. The essence from the “sun”(metaphor), which is the Yuen Sun, will create that bone for you, and the “blood” from the Yuen Sun is going to be the marrow inside this bone, which are all non-physical things.
Tendons, that a metaphor for the power in the “meat” layer, which refers to the soul’s power. The word for tendon is 筋, which means the power in the moon, as in the “ghost altar” or the soul. Simply put, it means changing your thinking logic, which creates power for your soul. You must embrace a certain logic or system of thinking to make your soul strong. For example, police always have a system to do things; hospitals also have a system to think and diagnose things, and you can’t go by feeling only and trust your intuition. By having a system or logic of thinking, you will have the power to process information without being misled, distracted or tricked into the wrong path. Kids don’t have that, so they often act based on feelings, which will always lead you to nothing but trouble.
Knowledge will help you build stronger tendons; learning more about things and the logic behind them will make you stronger. Imagine you don’t know anything about cooking, and you try to pretend to be a chef, people can debunk you, and you will not be able to fight anymore. If you have stronger tendons, you have a good amount of knowledge in the soul; you can break down things and explain them well, then you are like a PRO in everyone’s eyes. With that kind of tendon, you won’t be crushed easily.
How to Do it?
You might think you must do some Qi Gong and exercise to achieve this. No, sorry. All that exercise stuff is useless and wastes time because it’s not even for the physical body, just like we said in the Qi Gong Misunderstanding post.
To cultivate these, you can go from washing marrow first to changing the tendons.
To wash the marrow, you need to find a set of rules to go by. Everyone does it for a purpose. For example, you must go to work daily, arrive at nine and off at 5. That’s a rule you have set; then you must DO IT to witness yourself sticking by it. That means unless the boss says there is no OT or early leaving by yourself. Marrow is being washed over the days. You stick to the rule and fight the hurdles to make it happen. As you WITNESS what you have done, the memory will go back to your Yuen Sun, and eventually, it WASHES the Yuen Sun with the new memory and teaches your Yuen Sun to change and adjust to what you are following now. For example, you can set a daily schedule to live by and say you will wake up at 5 pm, and sleep at 10 pm, then keep doing it daily to show yourself this is a rule you will never break.
Once you can keep it up, your bone is being toughened. No matter what happens, you still want to strive to stick to the rule, with no exception and no breaking of the rule.
Marrow is washed by “seeing” yourself doing it over time.
To change the tendon, you must make up more reasons for supporting your rules. For example, why you should wake up at five and sleep at 10, and list some benefits and reasons. The more you think about it, the more it burns the soul and the more power the soul will have, which results in stronger tendons. It’s very simple; everyone can do it. Whenever you have time, think about what you go by in life, reason them out, and give them more supportive points and power, “brainstorming” is a good word for this. After you have reasoned it out, talk to yourself to convince yourself why the rules you go by are GOOD. Anything against you is called “evil” thoughts; fight it inside yourself and kill those devils.
Thinking and pondering helps you build this tendon.
For Taoists
For Taoists in our lineage, it’s simple. You see the doctrines and rules you must follow at your stage, then live by them. Recite it daily, know them well, and then go live by those rules. The more you try to stick to them and never give in to anything that leads you to break them, the stronger your bone and the better your marrow is.
Then you should think about those rules you are following and ask yourself why this is good if you understand it and how it will help, and then ask your Cia Juan (me) for teachings, bring it up on LINE etc. After you have learned and worked out your soul by pondering and thinking, your tendon will also change.
So, what about Qi Gong or exercise? They are just metaphors that tell you a pattern. If the “real” changes aren’t made and learned, doing those exercises doesn’t do anything for you. The GOAL is cultivating your bone and tendon as a Taoist to have better alignment and soul power to defend yourself against evils. It’s not about working out and exercising. Even if you do those exercises for 60 years, it won’t do much for you, don’t waste your time doing something like that.
The goal for a Taoist to cultivate marrow washing and tendon changing is to make them more aligned with their Tao, which helps them fight through hurdles that might come their way to shake their heart and get them to give up cultivating. Evils and devils will be there waiting to challenge a Taoist, and if your immortal bone is not forged yet, you could fail and end up quitting, just like a bunch of failed disciples I have seen. It’s very common to see disciples quitting after a while, and it all has to do with their bones being weak, not following or living by the rules the Tao has set for them, and then they will fail and get seduced by the evil forces.
Virtue and morals are important things to focus on, but they are not "exciting" for newbies; that is why newbies often quit within the first three months and give up because forging the immortal bone is VERY HARD and BORING. Did I tell you that not everyone can be a successful Taoist? Many people might be a "Taoist" or just a "fan" of it on the surface level, but not many can cultivate it for real. I have seen many failed cases myself, and I warn you that if you are about to step into the door of Taoism, prepare to face this hurdle.
Ordain today to learn more, especially the real stuff you crave. Don’t waste your time doing useless practice; life is too precious. You have better things to learn and do here.
