The Infinite and the Eternal

A Reflection of Space and Time

By Roshi Teja Fudo Myoo

 

The Eternal and Infinite in QigongDharma Practice

Wittgenstein’s profound insight from the Tractatus—’If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present’—points directly to the heart of QigongDharma practice. Through breath, posture, intention, and awareness, we discover timelessness not as philosophical abstraction but as an immersive dimension of being, accessed through practice itself.”

To practice QigongDharma is to enter the eternal through the ordinary, to recognize in each breath and gesture the complete presence that transcends both space and time.

Timelessness as Non-Temporal Present

The Tibetan Buddhist concept of shicha (literally ‘timeless time’), the Eternal Now, describes a dimension that “includes the three relative times of past, present, and future” yet exists beyond the flow of time itself.  In QigongDharma, this isn’t reached by thinking about the present moment but by sinking into the depth of sensation as breath moves through the body.  When standing in Wuji (the standing meditation posture),breath descending, body releasing, duration dissolves.  There is no waiting, no counting of moments.

The breath breathes itself.  In this presence, the eternal now manifests as form and flow, only this breath, only this moment.

As Mingyur Rinpoche notes, if you examine the present moment carefully, “you find that there is no present moment that exists either.”  The conventional present is too swift to grasp.  But the timeless present, the depth dimension of now, is always already here.  It is not a slice of time but verticality: the infinite depth available in any instant of full embodiment.

Wu Wei and the Timeless Flow of Action

The Daoist principle of wu wei (無為) reveals the eternal within movement itself.  Wu wei is described as “formless, motionless, changeless, timeless, and uncreated,” yet it manifests as perfectly appropriate action: perfectly responsive, action without the actor, movement without mover.  This apparent paradox dissolves in practice.  In QigongDharma forms, when breath, structure, and intention unify, movement becomes both temporal and eternal: happening in time, yet arising from what is complete beyond time

Wu Wei is, in fact, the optimal use of qi, a seamless alignment of perception and action.  The eternal is not something to reach; it is the completeness of this very gesture, this breath, this moment.

The eternal is not elsewhere; it is the quality of presence brought into form.

The Infinite as Boundless Here

Where Wittgenstein describes eternity as timelessness rather than endless duration, we can also understand infinity as boundless presence rather than endless extension.  In seated meditation or standing Zhan Zhuang, the body becomes not a confined object in space but a field of sensation without fixed edges.  Breath moves through this field; qi circulates; awareness permeates.

This is not imagination but direct experience: when attention rests in the body without contraction, the sense of being “inside” a bounded form dissolves.

There is intimate totality, not reaching toward something distant, but recognizing that here contains all of here, now contains all of now.

This aligns with the Daoist concept of wuji (無極), described as “limitless,” “boundless and formless existence,” and “undifferentiated potentiality” that “precedes all creation.” In classical Daoist texts, wuji “always refers to the infinite and the boundless,” with the paradoxical insight that “there is nothing limitless outside what is limitless.”

Distinguishing Eternal from Infinite

While QigongDharma is an integrated system, the practice itself reveals a useful differentiation grounded in the temporal versus spatial dimensions of awakened awareness.

Eternal: The Temporal Dimension

Eternal refers to timelessness, the vertical depth of the present moment rather than horizontal extension through past and future.  This aligns with the Buddhist concept of dharmata (dharma nature), “unchanging aspects like space and nirvana” and “the dharma nature that is eternal, irrespective of the existence of Buddhas.”

The eternal is accessed through:

• Breath as portal: Each complete breath cycle revealing non-temporal presence
• The now without becoming: Standing in Wuji or seated meditation, where there is no “waiting for” or “moving toward”
• Dharmadhatu as temporal stability: “The fundamental element, which is one and the same, without differences, for the present, past, and future”

The eternal is not endless duration but the cessation of duration, vertical rather than horizontal, depth rather than length.

Infinite: The Spatial Dimension

Infinite refers to boundlessness, the dissolution of edges, centers, and spatial limitations.  In practice, the infinite is accessed through:

• Body as field: Dissolving the sense of being contained “inside” a bounded form
• Qi as pervasive: Awareness of energetic circulation without fixed borders
• Wuji as boundless space: The primordial state that is “empty yet full of potential” and captures “the fluid and dynamic nature of reality”

The infinite is not endless extension outward but the recognition that “here” has no edges.

QigongDharma unites these dimensions in embodied practice:

Eternal + Infinite = Presence

• Eternal (timeless now) + Infinite (boundless here) = Complete presence
• No waiting in time + No reaching in space = Wu wei (effortless action)
• Depth of moment + Openness of field = Dharmadhatu (the ultimate realm)

Eternal and Infinite in QigongDharma Practice

In Breath Practice: The embryonic breathing methods I teach illustrate this perfectly.  Each breath cycle is complete in itself, not part of an endless series marching toward a specific goal.  The inhalation isn’t trying to become exhalation; it is fully itself, and then exhalation arises, fully itself.  This represents both temporal flow (breathing continues) and timeless completion (each breath whole) simultaneously.

In Movement Forms: Whether practicing Dao Yin sequences, Crane forms, or Lumbering Bear, each gesture can be an arrival rather than a transition.  Not rushing through the form to finish, but recognizing that raising the arms is the practice, lowering the arms is the practice.  The eternal is not at the end of the form; it is the quality of presence in each phase.

In Stillness Practice: When I teach recognizing “tension that prevents true stillness within movement,” I’m pointing to this.  True stillness is not muscular freezing but the timeless quality that can be present even as the body moves.  It is not achieved through duration (sitting longer) but recognized through depth (settling into this breath).

 The Five Wisdoms and Timeless Awareness

In the QigongDharma practice with the Buddhist Five Wisdoms, each wisdom reveals an aspect of non-temporal awareness :

• Mirror-like Wisdom: Not accumulating reflections across time, but the timeless capacity to reflect whatever arises
• Equality Wisdom: Not comparing past and future, but recognizing the immediate sameness of all phenomena in their essential nature
• Discriminating Wisdom: Not sorting through memories, but direct knowing of distinctions in this moment
• All-Accomplishing Wisdom: Not working toward future completion, but spontaneous efficacy arising from presence
• Dharmadhatu Wisdom: Not moving through space or time, but the boundless dimension in which all arising and passing occurs—the eternal ground of awareness itself

Each wisial movements) to discover the eternal.  This is not a contradiction but integration: relative time becomes the vessel for absolute timelessness to manifest.  As the Buddha is quoted as saying, “Let go of the past, let go of the future, and let go of what is in between, transcending the things of time.”  A paraphrase, no doubt 

Teaching Applications

QigongDharma practices to consider:

• Breath as Portal: “This single breath, not the next one, not a better one, this breath is the gateway to timelessness.”
• Form as Completion: “Don’t practice this movement to perfect it someday. Practice it as if it is already the fullest expression of presence available right now.”
• Sensing the Depth: “Notice: you are not in a moment passing by. You are presence itself, with moments flowing through you.”

The eternal and infinite are not mystical attainments reserved for advanced practitioners.  They are the basic nature of awareness that QigongDharma practice reveals through the simple technologies of breath, posture, and embodied presence.  As Wittgenstein suggests, eternal life belongs to those who live in the present, and this is exactly what our QigongDharma teaching invites.

The Integration in Practice

QigongDharma unites these dimensions in embodied practice:

Eternal + Infinite = Presence

• Eternal (timeless now) + Infinite (boundless here) = Complete presence
• No waiting in time + No reaching in space = Wu wei (effortless action)
• Depth of moment + Openness of field = Dharmadhatu (the ultimate realm)

In Buddhist metaphysics, the dharmadhatu includes both:

• it is “a fundamental element, which is one and the same” (eternal)and “the realm of all phenomena” or “spaceless Awareness, the universal Context” (infinite).

Practical Distinctions for Integration

Consider these points:

Eternal Practice (working with time):

• Releasing past and future mental fixation
• Settling into the depth of this breath
• Recognizing completion rather than progression
• Not practicing to “get somewhere” temporally

 Infinite Practice (working with space):

• Dissolving body boundaries in awareness
• Sensing qi beyond skin edges
• Releasing the sense of “inside” and “outside”
• Opening to pervasive, boundless presence

Both Together (working with presence):

• Standing in Wuji: timeless (eternal) and boundless (infinite) simultaneously
• Breath-structure-intention integration: eternal quality, infinite field
• Wu wei movement: no temporal striving, no spatial grasping

Here is a Refined Framework from classical sources:

• Eternal = dharmata (unchanging dharma nature)
• Infinite = wuji (limitless, boundless)
• Both = dharmadhatu (spaceless awareness, timeless reality)

This gives us, as QigongDharma practitioners, a clear conceptual framework while in practice, remaining grounded in direct experience: eternal is what meditation reveals about time (its absence), infinite is what energy work reveals about space (its openness), and both together constitute awakened presence.

Buddhist and Daoist Views of Eternity in QigongDharma

QigongDharma emerges at the intersection of two vastly different yet complementary approaches to eternity, blending them into an embodied practice.

The Buddhist Paradox: Impermanence as the Gateway to the Eternal

Buddhism presents a seeming contradiction that serves as QigongDharma’s first key insight. Buddhism highlights anicca (impermanence), “all that exists is impermanent; nothing created lasts” as its foundational teaching.  At the same time, it points to nirvana as “unconditioned” (asaṃskṛta), “beyond all forms of conditionality, not subject to change, decay, or the limitations of time and space.”

Nirvana as a Timeless Here-Now: Lama Chime expresses this perfectly: “Nirvana is not another place and time. It’s here and everywhere, a timeless present in which past and future are included.” This is not “eternal death” but the recognition that what is unconditioned has always been present, that it is awareness itself discovering its own timeless nature.

For QigongDharma Practice: When you guide students through breath awareness or standing meditation, you’re teaching this paradox directly.  Each breath arises and passes (impermanent), yet the awareness that knows the breath is unconditioned, timeless.  The practice is not to create something eternal but to recognize what was never born and never dies, the awareness prior to temporal experience.

As Norman Fischer writes, impermanence “is also to be lived and appreciated, because it reflects the ‘all are’ side of our human nature”.  Every loss deepens the capacity to love; every change reveals the unchanging ground. This exemplifies non-duality: the eternal is not separate from the impermanent but is the very nature of impermanence fully realized.

 The Daoist View: Chang (Constancy) and the Eternal Dao

Daoism views eternity through chang (常), meaning “constancy” or “permanence”—but with a crucial twist.  The Dao De Jing states: “The Dao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Dao.”  The Dao is described as “self-existent, formless, eternal, omnipresent, and the source of all existence.”

Constancy Within Transformation: While “the Ten Thousand Things” are subject to continuous change, “the Dao itself remains constant”. This constancy (chang) is not static but represents “the unbroken continuity of the Dao’s process of creation and transformation”—the underlying pattern that endures even as forms fluctuate.

The Process is Eternal: Zhuangzi teaches that “while specific forms may change, the underlying process remains constant.”  The cycles of nature, seasons, breath, birth, and death follow predictable patterns that reflect the Dao’s enduring nature.  This is what Daoists mean by chang: “the constancy of transformation.”

For QigongDharma Practice: In our Dao Yin sequences and qigong forms, this manifests as recognizing the eternal pattern within each movement cycle.  Opening and closing, rising and sinking, gathering and releasing, these are not merely physical actions but participations in the Dao’s eternal rhythm.  The specific gesture is temporary; the principle of yin-yang alternation is eternal.

The Synthesis in QigongDharma

What makes QigongDharma distinctive is the simultaneous embodiment of these two eternity-teachings:

Buddhist Eternity = Transcendent timelessness (unconditioned awareness)
Daoist Eternity = Immanent constancy (eternal pattern in flux)
QigongDharma = Both at once, in the body

Standing in Wuji posture becomes both:

• Recognition of nirvana’s unconditioned nature (Buddhist)
• Participation in the Dao’s eternal stillness-within-change (Daoist)
• Embodied realization that these are not two (QigongDharma)

The eternal in QigongDharma is neither escaping change (a misreading of Buddhism) nor just continuing patterns (a shallow interpretation of Daoism), but recognizing that awareness itself, embodied, breathing, moving, has never been limited by time. This is what practitioners discover as their practice deepens: not that they attain eternity, but that they have always been eternal and simply forgot.

From Buddhism: Unconditioned Awareness

Nirvana as a Practice Ground:  The Buddha described nirvana as “unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed”—if such a realm did not exist, “no escape would be possible from the born, originated, created, formed.”  In QigongDharma, each moment of pure awareness, resting in breath, sensing qi, releasing tension, is a taste of the unconditioned.

Unlike traditions seeking “eternal union with a deity,” Buddhism (and thus QigongDharma) concentrates on “ending craving and achieving inner freedom.” The eternal is not elsewhere but in the quality of non-grasping presence available right now.

From Daoism: The Pattern That Endures

Wu Wei as Eternal Action: Daoist ethics highlight a “flexible, adaptive approach that responds to ever-changing circumstances” yet remain “grounded in a deeper constancy, the enduring values of simplicity, humility, and harmony with the Dao.”

My teaching of wu wei in movement embodies this: the form adapts to the moment, but the principle of effortless alignment with natural flow remains eternal.

Non-Attachment Through Recognition:  By recognizing chang as “the constant process of transformation,” Daoism fosters “an ethic of non-attachment.”  In QigongDharma, this means practicing not to fix or preserve forms but to flow with the eternal process of transformation itself.

 Practical Integration

For QigongDharma, these perspectives shape the way you practice.

Breath Work:

• Buddhist lens: Each breath is impermanent (arises and passes), revealing the eternal awareness that witnesses all breathing
• Daoist lens: The breath cycle is temporary, but the pattern of inhalation-exhalation reflects the eternal rhythm of yin-yang
• QigongDharma integration: Breathe with both recognition of impermanence and participation in the eternal pattern

Movement Practice:

• Buddhist lens: Forms arise and dissolve; recognize the unconditioned awareness that is never caught in form
• Daoist lens: Each gesture is temporary, but manifests the eternal principles of opening-closing, gathering-releasing
• QigongDharma integration: Move with full presence (Buddhist) aligned with natural pattern (Daoist)

Meditation:

• Buddhist lens: Thoughts/sensations are impermanent; rest as the timeless awareness prior to content
• Daoist lens: Mental activity follows natural cycles; align with the Dao’s spontaneous arising-settling
• QigongDharma integration: Sit in the paradox—everything changing, nothing disturbed

The Unique QigongDharma Contribution

What makes QigongDharma distinctive is the simultaneous embodiment of these two eternity-teachings:

Buddhist Eternity = Transcendent timelessness (unconditioned awareness)

Daoist Eternity = Immanent constancy (eternal pattern in flux)

QigongDharma = Both at once, in the body

 

Standing in Wuji posture becomes both:

• Recognition of nirvana’s unconditioned nature (Buddhist)
• Participation in the Dao’s eternal stillness-within-change (Daoist)
• Embodied realization that these are not two (QigongDharma)

As I teach, the Five Regulations and Seven Principles become vehicles for this integration.  Regulating the body, breath, and mind uncovers the Buddhist unconditioned.  Moving with intention, alignment, and natural rhythm expresses Daoist constancy.  Together, they reveal what your tradition uniquely offers: eternity as a lived experience rather than just a philosophical concept.

The eternal in QigongDharma is neither escaping change (a misreading of Buddhism) nor just continuing patterns (a shallow interpretation of Daoism), but recognizing that awareness itself, embodied, breathing, moving, has never been limited by time.  This is what practitioners discover as their practice deepens: not that they attain eternity, but that they have always been eternal and simply forgot.

QigongDharma’s Practical Definition of Eternity

In QigongDharma, eternity is not a philosophical idea to contemplate but a quality of presence to embody.  It is understood through direct experience in three primary domains of practice.

 Eternity as Depth, Not Duration

The foundational understanding of QigongDharma is that eternity is verticality, representing the limitless depth available in any present moment rather than horizontal extension through time. As one meditation teacher describes it:  “The eternal present is the space of awareness beyond time… the entire realms of past, present, and future are all contained within the context of the eternal.”

In Practice: When you guide students to settle into a single breath cycle, fully inhabiting the inhalation, the pause, and the exhalation, they’re not trying to lengthen the breath to make it last longer.  They’re dropping into the depths of that breath, discovering that even a three-second cycle contains timelessness when met with complete presence.

This is what sets QigongDharma apart from fitness-oriented qigong: the practice isn’t about accumulating repetitions over time but about deepening into presence with each repetition.

Three Practical Gateways to Eternity

1. Breath as Eternal Portal

In QigongDharma, each complete breath cycle provides immediate access to the eternal.  The practice instruction might be:

Breathe in deeply and fully, being sensitive to your entire body…

Breathe out completely and fully, remaining sensitive to your whole body.

Notice the language: not “aware of” but “sensitive to”—grounding consciousness in the living texture of embodied experience.  This shift from mental observation to somatic sensitivity creates the conditions for timelessness.

The Eternal Quality: Each breath is complete on its own. The inhalation isn’t turning into exhalation; it simply is, fully. Then exhalation arises, fully. This represents temporal flow (breathing continues) and timeless completion (each phase whole) at the same time.

As practitioners, we learn through embryonic breathing and diaphragmatic breathing techniques: there is no place where the breath needs to “get to”, it is already complete, already perfect, in its natural arising and passing.

2. Movement as Eternal Gesture

When teaching Dao Yin sequences, Wudang forms like Lumbering Bear or Crane, or Radiant Heart Qigong movements, QigongDharma reframes motion from progression to presence .

The Shift: Instead of “doing the form to finish it,” practitioners learn to recognize that raising the arms is the practice, lowering them is the practice. Each gesture is not a transition but an arrival .

Embodied Qigong Principle: I have often expressed that the practice involves “knowing the things that you don’t know you already know,” recognizing autonomic balance, natural alignment, and the body’s innate wisdom.

When you stand in Wuji or move through opening-closing sequences, you’re not creating something new but recognizing what is already eternally present: the body’s natural intelligence, gravity’s constant invitation, and breath’s rhythmic perfection.

Stillness Within Movement: My teaching on “recognizing tension that prevents true stillness within movement” directly points to this.  True stillness is not muscular freezing but the eternal quality that can be present even when the body moves, the unchanging awareness within which all movement arises.

3. Awareness as Eternal Ground

The third gateway is the direct recognition of awareness itself as unconditioned and timeless.

The Practice: In seated or standing meditation, rather than trying to achieve a timeless state, practitioners learn to recognize that awareness has never been bound by time.  Thoughts come and go (temporal), but the knowing of thoughts is timeless.  Sensations arise and pass (temporal), but the field in which they arise is eternal.

Another way of saying this is:  There is simply this eternally unfolding present moment.  There has only been this timeless present.  There is nothing to hold on to, there is nothing to let go of, and there is nothing to resist.

 The Breath-Structure-Intention Integration

The QigongDharma teaching of breath-structure-intention integration becomes the practical method for embodying eternity:

Breath = The rhythmic flow of time (coming, dwelling, passing)

Structure = The spatial field (body as presence, not object)

Intention = The quality of awareness (timeless, unconditioned)

When all three integrate, practitioners experience what meditation texts describe as “the profound presence of peace.  The timeless present is not the passing moment; it is perfectly what it is.”

Distinguishing Eternal from Flow States

QigongDharma makes an important practical distinction that many traditions conflate:

Flow State: Time seems to “fly by”; you lose track of how long it lasts; hours feel like minutes. This is valuable but temporary, still operating within the framework of measured time.

Eternal Present: Time doesn’t fly or slow; it dissolves.  There is no sense of “how long” because you’re no longer relating to experience through temporal measurement.  Seconds can feel infinitely rich, not because they’re longer but because you’ve dropped into their vertical depth.

In my teaching, this distinction helps students identify when they’re in a pleasant altered state (flow) versus true timeless presence (eternity).

Practical Guidance

Based on QigongDharma principles, consider this:

Let go of the past.  Let go of the future.  Simply be fully in the present moment. It’s kind of like surfing the wave of the present moment.  This is the essence of mindfulness practice, and dropping into the vertical nature of NOW.

During Breath Practice:

This breath — not the next one, not a ‘better’ one — is the gateway.  Drop into its depth, not its duration.

During Movement:

Feel the internal sensations in your legs and feet.  Let your awareness rest in the living texture of standing and moving.  Your mind can relax in the present while your body unfolds awareness of balance.

During Stillness:

Recognize that every thought, sensation, and emotion arises in the eternal present.  Even memories are not gateways to the past but simply phenomena emerging now.

The Integration with Five Regulations and Seven Principles

The Five Regulations (body, breath, mind, qi, spirit) serve as progressive access points to eternity.

• Body:Release contraction and return to present embodiment.
• Breath:Recognize completeness in every cycle.
• Mind:Rest in timeless awareness.
• Qi:Sense the boundless field beyond boundaries.
• Spirit:Abide as the eternal witness.

And within the Seven Principles of Radiant Heart Qigong, each principle becomes a doorway from temporal striving into eternal being.

 What Eternity Is NOT in QigongDharma

To clarify through negation:

Not: Spacing out, dissociation, or mental blankness
Is: Heightened presence, full embodiment, vivid clarity

Not: Achieving a special state that lasts forever
Is: Recognizing the timeless quality already present in ordinary experience

Not: Escaping change or impermanence
Is: Meeting change so fully that you discover what never changes

Not: Accumulating duration (sitting longer to “get” more eternity)
Is: Deepening presence (settling into this moment’s infinite depth)

The Unique QigongDharma Contribution

What makes the QigongDharma approach distinctive is the somatic gateway: eternity is not accessed by transcending the body but by fully inhabiting it.

Qigong’s gentle, meditative movements help the mind connect with the body’s natural rhythms, promoting a deeper awareness of the full, living experience of being, beyond just physical sensations.

Some meditation traditions can become “head-centered,” and some qigong traditions focus solely on physical cultivation.  QigongDharma integrates both:

When we feel overwhelmed by stress or sadness, our bodies tense up.  Similarly, neglecting our physical health makes it harder to feel calm and emotionally balanced.  By paying attention to breath, structure, and intention simultaneously, practitioners connect with the eternal through embodied wholeness.

In QigongDharma terms: Eternity is what you discover when you stop trying to get somewhere in time and instead fully drop into where and when you already are.  This is not just philosophy, but a repeatable, transmissible, embodied realization.

To stand in Wuji is to realize:
You are not moving toward eternity.
You are eternity, remembering itself in movement and stillness,

in breath and silence.

Eternity is not endless duration, but immeasurable depth.
Infinity is not endless space, but boundless openness.
Together they reveal the luminous field of awakened presence

this breath, this body, this now.

 

The Breath That Has No Beginning

Stand in Wuji, the great emptiness,
not empty of anything,
but full of what has never been born.

The breath descends like evening light
through mountain valleys,
finding its way home.

This moment isn’t a point
between before and after
it’s the vertical depth,
the eternal now wearing the robes of form.

In shicha, the timeless present,
there is no one waiting to arrive.
The breath breathes.
The body knows itself as gesture,
as wave, as a momentary aperture
through which eternity looks at itself.

Wu wei, the action that acts not,
but like water finding the lowest place,
like your hand rising in the form
before you think to lift it.

Past and future collapse
into this single breath,
this opening, this closing,
this standing in what has always been here:

The infinite folded into each gesture,
the eternal flowing through
these temporary hands.

You are not practicing to reach timelessness,
you are timelessness
briefly pretending to practice,
briefly forgetting,
then remembering again
in the space between heartbeats.

Shicha.  Now.  This.
The only moment that exists
is the one that has never left.