Cosmic CON-Fusion: The Muddled Mysticism of Mantak Chia

A fan of my Amazon reviews sent me not one, but six Mantak Chia books. The fan appreciates my deep and detailed reviews, but opined that I needed to consider the Light or Rainbow Body (held out to be the Summum Bonum of spiritual evolution by some Tibetan Buddhists and Taoists). In the fan’s opinion, while the Tibetans are “unclear about techniques” that enable a yogi to attain a Light or Rainbow Body, renowned Taoist master Mantak Chia has (finally, after decades of teaching) “made these techniques public.” While the fan appreciates the (Ramana-Maharshi-inspired) emphasis I place on the “cutting of the Heart-knot” (as the doorway to full En-Light-ennment) in my reviews, he maintains that the cutting of this knot “is not the final level,” but merely a prelude to getting a Light or Rainbow body, which enables a yogi’s physical body to dematerialize into pure energy.

The timing of his email and books could not have been better. I had just finished my (two-star) review of the “The Natural Bliss of Being,” wherein the author (Jackson Peterson) and I, along with a few others, had engaged in a spirited debate (over the course of 250 + comments) regarding the importance of attaining a Light or Rainbow Body and other related matters. Now, after considering the Light or Rainbow Body in a Tibetan context, I was ready to do so in a Taoist one.

I was already very familiar with Mantak Chia before I received the books. Not only had I read three of his texts 30 + years ago, I had participated in an all-day seminar with him in Marin County (circa 1980), which centered on the Microcosmic Orbit meditation he was emphasizing at the time. I experimented with the Microcosmic Orbit meditation for a while, but found it reductive and remedial (compared to the Daist and Buddhist meditation I was practicing), and eventually Mantak Chia was just a distant memory and another ex-teacher for me.

I quickly zipped through the six books I was sent (I’m a speed reader), and three things became apparent to me: 1) Mantak Chia was guilty of the “Suze Orman syndrome,” of rewriting essentially the same book over and over again and repackaging it under a different title; 2) Mantak Chia was a metaphysical and mystical moron, about as Enlightened as uber-popular “Bieber Buddha” Bentinho Massaro; 3) since “Cosmic Fusion” was the best of the six books (which isn’t saying much) and the only one with any real information on attaining a Light or Rainbow Body, it would be the only one of the six books that I would review. With that in mind, I reread it, took copious notes, and am now ready to discourse on it.

The word “Tao,”means the Way, but the teachings of Mantak Chia have nothing to do with the “Way” expounded by legendary original Taoists Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, and everything to with the “path” -- endless (literally hundreds upon hundreds) exclusive, reductive, remedial practices or methods. Chia covers a lot of ground with his practices, but it’s all surface-level smoke and mirrors.  As soon as he attempts to dig beneath the surface, he reveals himself as a metaphysical meathead.

First off, the claims that this book makes are laughable – unless, of course, you realize that Chia is peddling a long and winding “Stairway to Heaven.” (A shrewd businessman, he estimates it will take “thirty-five books” to convey the totality of his Universal Tao System. Cha-ching!)

Regarding physical immortality, Chia writes:

“One can simply transform the physical body into the immortal body and leave this world or return to it at will. This is the state of complete physical immortality. It takes from eighty to a few hundred years to complete the practices and transfom all the material elements of our body into the immaterial. The final goal is ascending to heaven in broad daylight is reached.

“There are records in Chinese history of many thousands of Taoist immortals who reached the level of daylight ascension in the presence of many witnesses.”

Pure hokum, I say. First off, if it takes eighty to a few hundred years to get an immortal (“rainbow,” according to the Tibetans) body, how did the Tibetans (putatively) accomplish it, since none of them lived that long? Second, people don’t live a few hundred years (let alone eighty years after beginning spiritual practice).Third, the two greatest (original) Taoists, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu,  and none of the great Chinese Zen masters ever mentioned this immortal body, yet “thousands of Taoist masters supposedly attained it. Why is that? Fourth, although Chia (or whoever composed this book for him) talks about the immortal body, it’s just a tease. No detailed practice is provided, and what’s alluded to doesn’t at all mesh with the Tibetan Togal teachings that are said to lead to an immortal, or rainbow, body. For example, Chia has nothing to say about rainbow colors in conjunction with attaining this “immortal” body.

Mantak Chia has come a long way (a long way down, that is) since the early eighties, when he began with just the Microcosmic Orbit meditation and didn’t venture into low-level mystical mumbo jumbo. He now produces bubble-gum-level spiritual books (which he probably doesn’t even personally write). A large portion of this book consists of oversized “feel-good” comic-book type illustrations to glamorize the rudimentary and repetitive visualization and affirmation exercises he teaches. He’ll have you concentrating on one organ after another, and imagining groovy positive changes happening. But there are also some physical exercises. And he informs us, “If you do not strengthen your anal muscles, you will not progress far in the Universal Tao System’s practices.” In other words, forget about getting an immortal body in this incarnation if you suffer from weak rear-end sphincters.

The writing is slipshod. New terms are introduced and not defined. For example, I was confronted with terms such as “pearl” and “pakua,” without their meaning being provided. We are told that there are three bodies – physical, energy, and spiritual – and then later, without explanation, a fourth one, a soul body, is added to the equation. The term ”Higher Self” is also introduced without explanation. Chia writes:

”At this stage of practice, we learn to digest inceasingly higher-grade  energies of the Higher Self and Universal Forces from the sun, moon, planets, stars, and galaxies, and from the mind of the Tao itself. An awakening to that which is eternal and enduring occurs through this practice. Conscious of our true nature as spirits, we experience the ability to leave the physical body and travel in the immortal spirit body, which leads to the inner worlds of spirit.”

If anyone is able to digest Universal Forces from the sun, moon stars and galaxies, let me know; I say it’s poppycock. Also let me know how you are able to differentiate these from each other as well as from the energies of the Higher Self. What’s particularly funny is that Chia uses the term “the mind of the Tao itself. The term “Tao” simply means “Way.” How can a “Way” have a mind? Finally, the “travel in the immortal spirit body” and “inner worlds of spirit” are just a tease. Nothing more is said about them in the book.

Regarding the cutting of the Heart-knot, Chia has nothing to say. He identifies two minds in addition to the one in our head – the Heart Mind and the Abdominal Mind – but he places the Heart Mind on the left side of the chest rather than the right, where it properly belongs. Moreover, there is nothing about how the attainment of an immortal body relates to the Heart Mind.

According to Chia, the spirit body is the immortal body, is the Light or Rainbow Body, is the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is the Light or Rainbow Body, why don’t the great Christian and Jewish mystics speak of a Rainbow body and the dematerialization of one’s physical body? And since the Holy Spirit is a synonym for Shakti, why don’t the great Hindu tantric traditions, such as Kashmir Shaivism, talk about physical dematerialization and the Rainbow body?

In the end, all that Chia leaves us with regarding the attainment of a Light or Rainbow body is an unelaborated-upon reference to uniting Kan (Water) and Li (Fire). If you’re looking for detailed specifics regarding this esoteric alchemical attainment, you’ll have to look elsewhere, or else wait for yet more Mantak Chia’s books in the hopes of eventually getting the secret formula.

Mantak Chia informs us that there are three minds: the regular mind, the heart mind and the abdominal mind. I say there is a fourth mind -- Chia’s, the Muddled, Money-Grubbing Mind selling a “Stairway to Heaven.”