《内炼金丹心法》

On Life and Death

Life and death are the great matters of human existence. Since life inevitably ends in death, people should learn how to face both. As for the three sages, who truly endure alongside Heaven and Earth without end, we can set aside for now those who bustle about and drift with the current. From time to time, people repeat the sayings of their predecessors, claiming that life is the ordinary course of death and death the ordinary course of life, and so there is no need to give the matter any thought. Yet they do not understand that merely calling life and death ordinary transformations is no different from never having truly lived or truly died.

“When Qi gathers, life arises; when Qi disperses, death comes”—this is the Confucian account. People are born when Qi gathers, but from the age of fifteen onward, they wear themselves down and damage themselves day by day until they die. This is simply a matter of using up and losing Qi, not of Qi dispersing naturally. Thus, no one in the world escapes death, yet no one truly knows how to face it; and if no one knows how to face death, then no one knows how to live a whole life well.

Alas, how generous is Heaven and Earth in bringing people to life and nurturing them! Yet people themselves do not know how to live well or how to face death well. In this, they are unlike true human beings. If they are unlike human beings, they are like plants and animals, whose spiritual awareness is inferior to that of people. After death, some animals grow wings and ascend; others turn to ash, following the transformations of Qi. Plants wither and flourish, flourish and wither, changing in cycles according to the movement of Qi. People receive the most refined and spiritually potent Qi between Heaven and Earth, and should therefore possess the greatest spiritual awareness. Yet they instead disperse it with their own hands. They neither cultivate themselves while Qi still remains in them nor make themselves appear again after Qi has dispersed. Is this not to be inferior even to animals and plants?

The three sages did not cling to life or flee from death. They simply lived at ease while alive and faced death at ease when it came. So I cannot say that the three sages exist, but neither do I dare say they have vanished. As for their teaching, “Let what exists endure, and let what has vanished return to disappearance,” how could we go even one day without seeking to understand it?

Confucius promoted the “work of the uncrowned king”: governing the world through moral teaching, without relying on royal authority. This was a doctrine directed toward secular society. Confucius also spoke of nature and life, but in veiled terms. As for Buddhism, I cannot presume to comment. Nor would I dare say that the three sages are gone. But how could the teaching of the three sages—“letting what exists continue to exist, and letting what perishes return to perishing”—ever cease to be discussed?

Confucius advocated the work of the uncrowned king, which concerns the way of engaging with the world; when he spoke of nature and life, his words were guarded. The Buddhist master, called the Brahma King as an honorific, spoke of nature but not life, and did so in profound and subtle terms. The Five Classics of our time may be called the Confucian “Great Treasury,” while the Buddhist Great Treasury may be called the Buddhist “Five Classics.”

The Book of Changes stands at the head of the Five Classics. It says, “Plumb the principles of things, fully understand human nature, and thereby reach the Mandate of Heaven.” It also says that the great person’s De accords with that of Heaven and Earth, their brightness with that of the sun and moon, their order with the succession of the four seasons, and their judgments with the auspicious and inauspicious signs revealed by spirits. These are the key points in the study of nature and life. Among Confucius’s disciples, no one after Yan Hui could glimpse their subtleties in that age. It was not until the next generation, with Zisi, that the opening of the Doctrine of the Mean declared, “What Heaven has mandated is called nature,” and praised the way that “upholds the Way of Heaven and responds to the myriad things below, like the succession of the four seasons and the alternating illumination of the sun and moon.” In this way, the learning Confucius had kept deeply concealed came to light in the Doctrine of the Mean.

Yet Confucius’s followers believed that he rarely spoke of life, and that nature and the Way of Heaven were difficult to hear and understand. If people of that age could not grasp these subtleties, how much less could those of later generations presume to discourse on methods of textual interpretation from their shallow understanding? The Buddhist Great Treasury comprises 5,048 volumes, and all of its teachings take nature as their foundation.

Confucius spoke little of nature, while the Buddhist master discussed it in fine detail. Yet within that subtle teaching lies a still deeper layer, recorded only in various incantations. The Buddha alone proclaimed the incantations, and only the Buddha could explain their meaning; beings below the level of the bodhisattvas could not truly comprehend them. Thus, those who recite the Cundi mantra simply say, “I follow the Esoteric teachings.” In truth, they do not understand the mantra’s meaning.

“Esoteric” refers to using spells as a method of teaching, but spells are not the fundamental meaning that the teaching seeks to convey. If we follow the teaching and ask after its true purpose, does it not concern, perhaps, nature and life? If practitioners themselves have not yet attained the World-Honored One’s state, on what grounds can they speak of the school’s true teaching? Thus Buddhist disciples say that “seeing one’s nature is becoming a Buddha,” while the learning devoted to cultivating life is considered lost.

Laozi’s teaching, however, is different. The Yinfu Jing, the Daode Jing, and other classics, as they unfold their teachings, speak continually of life and of nature. Moreover, to speak of nature necessarily involves life, just as to speak of life necessarily involves nature.

I often put it this way: Confucius, in speaking of nature and life, discusses only their outward signs, not their essence. The Buddha’s teaching treats nature as the essence and life as its shadow. Laozi, in speaking of nature and life, discusses both their outward signs and their essence.

After Laozi, many branches of thought developed. I dare not trace the teachings through those branches; I would rather go straight back to the source and investigate according to my own inclinations. In my spare time, I take up the alchemical texts and read them. There I find that their discussions of nature and life address both their outward signs and their essence.

After Laozi, teachings on cultivating the Dao gradually split into many schools. I do not presume to seek out each of these numerous theories one by one. Instead, because I love this Way, I go straight back to its source. In my leisure, I have pored over books on the Elixir (works on Neidan cultivation) and found that they all take “attaining the One” as their central aim. The “One” is the Elixir, and the Elixir is precelestial Qian Metal (the essence symbolizing primordial Qi). Qian Metal is concealed within postcelestial Kan Water. Taking the “one” from the Kan trigram to replenish the “two” in the Li trigram is called cultivating nature, and also cultivating life: in other words, it is the dual cultivation of nature and life.

I also worried that people might not know how to cultivate, so I set out methods for laying the foundation and refining oneself, as well as techniques such as drawing out lead and adding mercury, and shifting the furnace and changing the cauldron. In sum, these involve using the intent of Shen to guide Qi, refining Jing into Qi, refining Qi into Shen, and refining Shen until it returns to emptiness. Once cultivation is complete, there is nothing more that needs cultivating. One simply restores life to its original truth, through birth and death, without straying from the right path.

The teachings of emptiness hold that emptiness transforms into Shen, Shen into Qi, and Qi into Jing. Understand this principle, they say, and one can understand everything; what need is there for cultivation? Yet people of the highest capacity are rarely encountered in this world. Cultivation can only use Jing to preserve Qi, and Qi to preserve Shen. When Shen and Qi endure, a person can live; when they do not, a person dies. Whether Shen and Qi are preserved and nurtured depends on oneself, not on Heaven. Life and death belong to Heaven’s mandate, and people should not interfere recklessly. Everyone possesses this innate nature, and everyone can cultivate. This is unlike the Confucian and Buddhist traditions, in which some teachings are spoken and others withheld.

After reading Xu Xun’s (a Daoist of the Jin dynasty) Record of Repentance, I understood that the period of “eight hundred years” had its own reason. Though a guiding power arranged this span of eight hundred years, dispelling ignorance and opening what is blocked must begin with the words of sages and worthies. These words, however, are extensive and difficult to understand. I read the scriptures of the various schools but still found no point of entry. I then read their commentaries, only to find that beyond the scriptures themselves, the schools’ explanations often differed and lacked a common standard. In their commentaries, each school tended to cling to obscure doctrines to conceal its own shallowness, so that the sages’ original meaning became even more obscure. Who can say whether this opportunity of eight hundred years came about precisely because I pursued it so earnestly?

From this we can see that a rare opportunity does not come easily. If you wish to ride a crane into the heavens, you must first prepare the travel money. Shallow-minded people will laugh when they hear this; that too is why the highest sages are reluctant to speak freely. A hair’s breadth of error can lead a thousand miles astray. If one carelessly divulges Heaven’s secrets, the patriarchs may incur guilt; if the utmost Dao is prevented from being passed on, one will leave behind a deep regret. I was about to speak, then stopped; I tried to give it up, but could not bring myself to do so. Rather than keep these subtle and hidden principles concealed, I will first clarify their broad outline.

So, following my teacher’s guidance, I have written this book on the Elixir, explaining as fully as I can the subtle workings of alchemical cultivation and setting out, point by point, the methods for nurturing the Elixir. May readers thereby grasp the supreme essentials and fully realize true primordial awakening. In motion, one is free and at ease, as if at play; in stillness, one enters Nirvana, the state of tranquil liberation. One attains a state free of constraint and obstruction, returning forever to the origin of origins. Bringing together the warnings given earlier and the path of returning to the origin described later, I have compiled this straightforward treatise to connect beginning and end and distinguish what is true from what is false. I ask readers to study it carefully. I do not presume to offer it as a model for those who have already attained understanding; I leave it simply as a reference for practitioners to examine and verify.

The Song of the Water-Tuned Lyric says: Before meeting an enlightened master for guidance, one is anxious and unsettled day and night. After meeting such a master and receiving the oral instructions, one puts what one has learned out of mind. This is truly regrettable. Time slips by, one pays no heed as Jing and Qi decline, and one drifts through life in a daze. Why not turn back and examine oneself, and begin gathering and refining in time?

Some people in the world understand the principles but cannot put them into practice. This is truly lamentable. Why do they still not wake up? They talk about it with their mouths, but have no inner experience; they merely leaf through the alchemical scriptures. The gates of hell have already opened, so they should quickly discern the road ahead.

Chapter One: On the Precelestial and Postcelestial

When speaking of Shen and Jing, one should use only the precelestial Shen and Jing, not their postcelestial forms. The precelestial are the Original Shen, a person’s primordial spirit, and the Original Jing, a person’s primordial essence. They are fundamental substances endowed with numinous awareness and transformative power. The postcelestial, by contrast, are the cognitive spirit produced by thought and deliberation, and the Jing produced through the union of man and woman. They lack the numinous awareness and transformative power attributed to the precelestial Original Shen and Original Jing.

Qi has both precelestial and postcelestial functions. Together, these are the basis for cultivating longevity and transcending the cycles of tribulation. Precelestial Qi is called Original Qi; postcelestial Qi is the breath. They are also called, respectively, the mother Qi and the child Qi.

Precelestial Qi cannot by itself accomplish the work of transcendence; it must rely on the breath to exert its function. Therefore, with precelestial Qi but without postcelestial Qi, one cannot gather and refine; with postcelestial Qi but without precelestial Qi, one cannot realize true longevity, transform spirit and essence, or attain the practice of entering meditative absorption. Only by using both kinds of Qi together can one establish the basis for longevity and transcendence of the cycles of tribulation.

Practitioners must gather the original, primordial Qi (the vital energy at life’s beginning) and use it as the foundation for forming the Golden Elixir. If they do not gather it, they will gradually become depleted and decline. When the breath flows continuously and Qi returns to its root, this is the source of the Golden Elixir. Those who have not yet experienced the loss of essence can gather Qi to settle the mind and enter meditative stillness. Those who have experienced such loss should gather Qi according to the methods of cultivating youthful innocence, replenishing what has been depleted so that the body regains the wholeness it had at birth and can once more receive the primordial Qi.

Practitioners must prevent primordial Qi from turning into acquired Qi. They must also recover primordial Jing and transform it into original Qi, so that it returns to the root of nature and to the place where the root of life resides. Original Qi means reaching a state of utmost emptiness and stillness. One must therefore discern the true movement of Qi through the acquired breath. At the point where the primordial and acquired meet—when the hour of Hai is ending and the hour of Zi is beginning—one uses the acquired breath to find the breathing of the True Person, the practitioner’s inner, true breath. Primordial Qi must be reversed, and the acquired breath must also be reversed. Without this reversal, how would it differ from the ordinary, natural flow of a common person’s breath?

Practitioners must gather the Jing and Qi dissipated in daily life and unite them as one Qi, using it to restore what is primordial. Once the movement of inhalation has gathered and settled, I direct it to the position of Qian—the Niwan, a place of cultivation in the head—and guide it upward. This is advancement, and originally it is the moment for gathering. Then I direct it to the position of Kun—the Yellow Chamber, a place of cultivation in the abdomen—and guide it downward. This is withdrawal. When Qi rises to the position of Qian, it is the moment for gathering; when it descends to the position of Kun, it is the moment for refining. Yet the refining done now is also the first opportunity for gathering in the future. This is a secret method transmitted orally through the lineages of past generations.

As long as practitioners thoroughly understand the principles of gathering and opening—the closing and opening—of the breath, the Golden Liquid, the Jing and Qi spoken of in internal cultivation, can return and condense into the Elixir. This, too, is the first opportunity for gathering in the future, a secret method transmitted orally through the lineages of past generations.

A practitioner who truly understands “opening and closing” (he and bi)—the changes of opening and closing, rising and descending—can cause the Golden Liquid to return and condense into an elixir. Without understanding opening and closing, one cannot gather true Qi. The great medicine cannot be refined, and no amount of talk about cultivation is of any use. The most important thing is to recognize the right moment for true movement and true stillness; otherwise, one will likewise fail to gather true Qi.

True stillness has not been reached until Qi attains utmost emptiness and profound quiet, with awareness entirely absent. From this state of unawareness, a subtle perception arises amid a haze: this is called true movement. If unawareness has not yet been reached, and a questionable semblance of perception appears only amid delusive thoughts, that is not true movement. Without true movement, there is no true Qi to gather.

One cannot form the elixir without understanding the stages of cultivation. These stages consist in recognizing the true moment when the medicinal substances—such as Jing and Qi in Neidan practice—begin to emerge, and then proceeding in sequence through gathering the medicine, cooking and refining it, sealing and securing it, advancing the Yang Fire, withdrawing the Yin Talisman, circulating it through the orbit, and the methods of dividing the residual images and nourishing. The key to gathering the medicine lies in the mechanism of rising and descending. Only by mastering its principles can one gather true Qi; otherwise, true Qi will remain beyond reach. Even if one applies formulas for regulating the firing process, it is like boiling an empty pot with water and fire. How could that refine and subdue true Qi?

Yuan Tiangang’s Fetal Breathing Instructions says: “Primordial Qi is the root of the Great Dao and the mother of Heaven and Earth. Yin and Yang unite and transform, giving birth to the myriad things. In the human body, it manifests as the breath; in Heaven, as the forces of cold and heat. The forces that regulate the Qi of the four seasons are Wu and Ji—the Heavenly Stems that represent the central Earth Qi and also the power that harmonizes Yin and Yang. Spring Qi resides in the Xun direction and brings forth the myriad things; summer Qi resides in the Kun direction and enables them to grow; autumn Qi resides in the Qian direction and brings them to maturity; winter Qi resides in the Gen direction and enables them to be stored and nurtured.”

Thus, practitioners should take in the upright Qi of the four seasons and receive it into the embryo as the true seed of cultivation. With the passage of time, the heart, breath, and Shen will naturally settle. The Dragon and Tiger draw close and unite, forming the sacred embryo. This is called the fetal breathing of the perfected person: an internal cultivation method that uses the breath to nourish primordial Qi and nurture the inner elixir.

Chapter Two: On the Medicinal Substances

Chongxu Zi says that the Great Way of the Celestial Immortals—the method of cultivation for attaining celestial immortality—is represented by the Golden Elixir, while the foundation of the Golden Elixir is represented by medicinal substances. What, then, is the medicine itself represented by?

In making Waidan (external alchemy), one extracts true lead, white metal, and other ingredients from black lead and refines them into the Golden Elixir. Neidan (internal alchemy), by contrast, draws on the true Qi hidden in the water of the kidneys. Because this Qi has a nature akin to metal, it can be refined into the inner elixir, which is also called the Golden Elixir. In Waidan, white metal is the medicinal substance and cinnabar the primary ingredient; in Neidan, true Qi is the medicinal substance, and one’s original nature and primordial Shen—the spirit innate to a person—are primary.

The Supreme One says, “In a hazy, indistinct state, there is something within.” “Hazy and indistinct” describes the subtle state in which one’s original nature and primordial Shen are no longer drawn along by thought or perception: awareness seems present, yet is difficult to put into words. Within it, there must be “something.” This “something” is a point of true Yin essence in the body, also called the “ancestral Qi of the pre-heaven”—the primordial energy that precedes birth and serves as the root of life.

Since it is called ancestral Qi, it is within the body and is the root of life’s Qi. Why, then, is it also called “external medicine”? The ancients said, “The inner medicine of the Golden Elixir comes from outside.” Ancestral Qi lies hidden in the Dantian (the area in the abdomen used in cultivation) from the moment a person is born, yet it also moves outward. Seeing, hearing, speaking, moving, and desire all arise through the transformation of this Qi. When thoughts arise in response to the external forms, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and mental objects—categories commonly used in Buddhism for what the senses encounter and the mind conceives—Qi likewise carries and gives rise to them. The practitioner gathers this outward-moving Qi back in and guides it to return to the body. Though it originates within, it moves outward and then returns; for this reason, it is called “external medicine.” Once refined into the returned elixir, it becomes “inner medicine,” also called the “great medicine.” The great medicine is, in fact, still this same Qi; it is simply that now it has become manifest.

Zhenyang says, “The Great Medicine does not arise on its own. It must first be gathered and drawn in; only then does it arise. This differs from the way the subtle Yang naturally appears when it first stirs.” The Great Medicine does not depend on anything external. It changes only within the inner state of stirring and manifestation. Because it remains within the body, it is called the “Inner Medicine.” Since Inner Medicine and Outer Medicine are distinct, the methods of gathering them also differ: Outer Medicine arises first and is gathered afterward; Inner Medicine is gathered first and arises afterward. The “heavenly secret transmitted orally for seven days,” passed down from generation to generation by the sages and masters of old, refers to the method of gathering the Great Medicine. The Perfected Person Ziyang says, “If the mind and spirit are unsettled, Yang Qi cannot arise. Once Yang Qi has arisen, if the mind and spirit remain unsettled, the Elixir cannot congeal.” This is precisely the point.

Although the changes of the initial pass appear as a reversal in the movement of Qi, the true force governing this reversal is Shen (spirit). This is what is meant by the saying, “When Shen returns within the body, Qi turns back of itself.” If thoughts arise and awareness rushes outward, directing the movement of Qi toward the realm of desire, then the prenatal Original Shen and Original Qi transform into postnatal, tangible Jing and Qi, becoming useless for refining the Elixir. One must therefore take the prenatal, thought-free Original Shen as the governing principle, turn Shen’s light inward upon the body, and settle it in the Qi cavity—the place used in alchemical practice to concentrate Shen and gather Qi. In this way, the prenatal true medicine returns from emptiness to the Qi root within the crucible, becoming the foundation for refining the Elixir. The ancient phrase “coming from outside” refers to this process, which is also called Outer Medicine. Next, the medicine must be kept within the crucible and refined through the firing process of the microcosmic orbit, an internal practice that guides the movement of Qi along a specific route.

Yu Yan says, “Knowing that there is medicine, but not knowing the firing secrets for refining it, one can only warm the lower region and cannot bring the Returned Elixir to completion.” This refers to refining the Outer Elixir. It is precisely what the Scripture of the Mind Seal says: “The returning wind blends and contains; in a hundred days, the work becomes effective.”

Only when the fire of external alchemy (Waidan, elixirs refined with a furnace) reaches the proper intensity and the substances are fully refined can one be said to have obtained an ample supply of true Yang spirit Qi. If Qi does not transform into Yin essence, it remains pure Yin Qi; only then can it be called “fullness within Kan” (the middle line of the Kan trigram is full, indicating that the Qi needed for internal cultivation is abundant). In the past, the Perfected One who returned to Yang orally passed on the secrets of cultivation, explaining the signs that arise when gathering the great medicine and how to gather it. This was precisely the purpose.

Only when one gathers a great and pure Yin Qi can it be called “fullness within Kan.” When the great medicine arises, it becomes the inner medicine after it has been nurtured. Gathering and refining this Qi can illuminate the original spirit (a person’s fundamental spirit). The Perfected One Ziyang called this “taking Kan to fill Li,” while the Patriarch Zhengyang called it “drawing out lead to replenish mercury.” Both expressions refer to obtaining this inner medicine.

To refine this Qi into spirit, Qi and spirit must be joined and cultivated together. This is what the ancients meant by “refining Qi into spirit.” Today, some people do not understand how to refine Qi into spirit. A person’s innate Qi is depleted through sexual desire, and the spirit is also confused by sexual desire. As a result, both Qi and spirit gradually grow deficient, and the person slowly moves toward decline and death.

When a Perfected One cultivates, they first use the mind’s intent to guide Qi, making it abundant, bringing it toward pure Yang, and allowing it to become stable. Then they use stable Qi to assist…

When a perfected person—a practitioner who has attained the Dao—cultivates, they first use Shen (spirit and mind) to assist Qi (vital energy), refining until the Qi is abundant, purely Yang, and able to settle. They then use the settled Qi to assist Shen, bringing both Shen and Qi to rest. When Qi reaches a state of emptiness, Shen naturally becomes purely Yang. Settling the mind while remaining aware is called “Qi transforming into Shen.”

Refining Shen into a purely Yang spirit also involves the timing and measure of the Great Heavenly Circuit—the stages and rhythms of internal cultivation. Daoist adepts call this stage “gestation” or “embryonic breathing,” meaning that, like an embryo in the womb, one no longer depends on ordinary breathing. As breathing passes from presence to absence, Buddhist teachings call this the “four dhyanas.” The Avatamsaka Sutra says: “In the first dhyana, thoughts come to rest; in the second, the breath comes to rest; in the third, the pulse comes to rest; in the fourth, one enters the samadhi of complete cessation.” This describes a cultivation state of this kind.

At this point, the fire passes from presence to absence, and the elixir ingredients—the Jing and Qi on which cultivation depends—also pass from presence to absence. Pure Yang Qi no longer dissipates, and Shen is refined into a purely Yang spirit. Only upon reaching a state in which nothing leaks away and Shen is still, quiet, and clear does the Way of the Immortals truly come to fruition. These are the actual circumstances in which the “elixir ingredients” arise twice and undergo refinement twice. The ingredients must be identified by the states attained through cultivation. This is the most important secret of the immortal arts; how could practitioners fail to learn to discern them?

Yet the ancients spoke only of the ingredients, without explaining how to identify or use them, or when and how to gather them. The so-called “ingredients” are merely an empty name; they cannot be found directly among things perceptible to the eyes and ears. For this reason, later generations have struggled to recognize the true ingredients.

The patriarch Shi Jianwu said: “The methods within Qi do not discuss how to use them, nor do they explain the timing and method for gathering the ingredients. The so-called ‘ingredients’ are merely an empty name, beyond the range of what the eyes and ears can perceive, so later generations have difficulty recognizing them.”

Patriarch Shi Jianwu says that cultivation means adding to Qi the medicine that prolongs life. This medicine is the innate Qi, without shape or form. I believe it is utterly real, yet has no physical body. In a state of hazy indistinction, one uses the wondrous function that arises from nothing; one gathers and refines it in the depths of obscurity. This is the true Dao of emptiness.

The mind is the spirit that directs Qi. Fire can originally take the visible form of breath. If one works with it solely through the form of breathing, one will nourish excessive, deviant fire. But if one works with it without relying at all on visible breathing, it is as though there were no fire. The key lies in “the return of the first Yang”—the moment when Yang Qi begins to sprout again. With the intent of Shen, guide Qi so that it returns to the central palace, the center of the body in Neidan practice. This is the marvel of bringing something forth from nothing; hence it is said to be as if present and as if absent.

One may understand the way of directing Qi yet fail to understand this marvel of its being as if present and as if absent. Then the intent of Shen will fall into dead emptiness, becoming a doctrine of isolated Yin. When Heaven and Earth give life and nurture the myriad things, there must be a moment when Yin and Yang unite and Qi stirs and mingles. How could the myriad things come into being without a time when life force fills them and conditions are right for gestation? Each time the circuit is completed, a moment of stirring and mingling occurs on a certain day. Following the ordinary course gives rise to an embryo; reversing that course and gathering the substance can form the Golden Elixir. This is the way to become an immortal.

Once the Neidan has formed, it naturally has an inner form of its own. It therefore does not depend on the body’s outer form, but is generated and put to use within the body. The practitioner perceives it through the intent of Shen: it passes from the tailbone through the Three Passes, rises to the Muddy Pellet at the head, then descends to the Towering Chamber in the throat and enters the Yellow Chamber, the internal chamber of the Elixir. These movements, too, can be perceived and understood. The outcome concerning life and death comes from this, and from here one can attain true awareness.

Chapter Three: On the Vessel

The vessel discussed here is the fundamental place to which the ancient sages and immortal masters referred when explaining the refinement of Jing, Qi, and Shen. Shen and Qi are compared to lead and mercury, while the Dantian is compared to the vessel. All of these are within the human body.

The ignorant do not know that cultivation must first take place within the body. Instead, they interpret the vessel as referring to the ingestion of Waidan. They fixate on refining lead, mercury, metals, and stones as external medicines, believing that swallowing them will bring immortality. In the end, they lose their own lives, beyond rescue. How pitiful.

Lu Zu said, “How lamentable that Minister Zhang of Jiujiang went blind after taking medicine, and that his spirit was also damaged. He practiced the Waidan (external alchemy) method of ingesting elixirs, took talk of the cauldron as literal, and believed only that burning and refining lead, mercury, gold, stones, and other external substances, then swallowing them, could bring immortality. In the end, he not only failed to become immortal but injured his body, with no time left to remedy the damage. It is truly tragic!”

Lu Zu also said, “How lamentable that Minister Zhang of Jiujiang went blind after taking medicine, and that his vital energy and spirit were depleted. He did not know that the returned elixir has no form or substance, yet he ingested mineral drugs instead. How foolish!” To understand the “cauldron” as a vessel for burning and refining external substances is a serious mistake.

People who follow perverse and deluded ways recklessly call women “cauldrons” and describe defiling, wanton acts as “gathering the medicine.” They take men’s semen, women’s menstrual blood, and the like as substances to ingest, deceiving others and themselves while falsely claiming that this can nourish the body and prolong life. Thus Patriarch Zhongli said, “If foreign substances were things that could so easily be ingested, then even inferior wine and mutton could make people ascend to immortality.” The Hermit of Jinggu also said, “Though lead and mercury are said to let people live a hundred years longer, how many truly understand them, and how many truly practice? If even dull-witted people could understand, would immortals not be as numerous as flowing water?” These words all address those who misunderstand the teaching of the “cauldron.”

The “cauldron” is a metaphor of two kinds: the “inner cauldron” and the “outer cauldron.” The “outer cauldron” refers metaphorically to the physical form of the Dantian (energy center). An ancient saying goes, “Opposite the navel in front, opposite the kidneys behind, there is a true golden cauldron in between.” This uses the body as a metaphor to explain refining the body, in the stage of practice known as “refining Jing (essence) into Qi (vital energy).”

The “inner cauldron,” by contrast, refers metaphorically to the Qi within the Dantian. An ancient saying goes, “First take white metal as the cauldron vessel.” These are the words of Perfected Lord Jingyang. The ancients used “black lead” as a metaphor for the kidneys, and the true Qi that arises within the kidneys as a metaphor for “white metal.” Only by taking up this Qi can the original spirit be brought to rest. That is why they said, “First take white metal as the cauldron vessel”: it is so that the spirit may return to its root. It is also said, “Clearly, the inner cauldron is gold.” Whether it is called “white” or “yellow,” both terms metaphorically refer to the Qi that returns after cultivation.

This point can be explained further: anything that can serve as a metaphor for the “cauldron vessel”—the place or function where one preserves and nurtures, or refines and transforms, things in cultivation—can be understood in this way. At the beginning of cultivation, during the initial stage of “refining Jing and transforming it into Qi,” the primordial true Qi can be brought back only through the use of the Original Spirit (the person’s fundamental spirit and governing awareness). The Original Spirit therefore guides the true Qi, and together they return to the lower Dantian (the Dantian below the navel). The breath acquired after birth also follows the Original Spirit, helping restore the true Qi. At this point, the Original Spirit may also be called the “inner cauldron.”

Without the Original Spirit, the true Qi cannot be gathered and held. The lower Dantian, where the true Qi settles, may be called the “outer cauldron.” But the outer cauldron itself has no fixed place for containing the true Qi, so there must also be a true vessel, like a golden cauldron, in which the Qi can be placed. Since the Dantian can be called the outer cauldron, the Original Spirit can likewise be called the inner cauldron. One must concentrate the Shen and enter the Qi cavity (the place where true Qi is preserved and nurtured), so that the Original Spirit returns within the body; then the Qi will naturally return.

When the true Qi stirs and Yang Jing arises, they often rush outward and disperse, so they must be brought back. When the Shen perceives that the Qi is outside the body, the Shen too follows it outward. To bring them back, the Shen must take control. Following the route described in the text, the Shen and Qi pass from the Great Mysterious Gate (a passage in cultivation) through the Tail Gate (the passage at the base of the spine) and the Spinal Clamp (the passage in the back), then ascend to the Muddy Pellet (the passage in the head). They then pass through the point of reconnection and are guided back to the Earth Cauldron (a place of preservation and nurture, similar to the Dantian). Thus it is said: “When the Shen returns within the body, the Qi returns of itself.” This is why the Qi can return to its root.

Once this stage is complete, continue nurturing the “fetal immortal” (the primordial Shen cultivated through Neidan) until the “supremely numinous primordial Shen” settles. This is the middle stage’s “refining Qi into Shen,” whose key is Qi. Let Qi bear Shen, and use innate Qi settled in the middle Dantian as its restraint and protection. Only then can Shen remain deeply settled within for a long time. To bring Shen into stillness, Qi may also be called the “inner cauldron,” as mentioned earlier. Without this Qi, one falls into what is called “solitary Yin,” and Shen cannot stay. With no support, Shen comes and goes unpredictably, and deluded thoughts arise. The middle and lower Dantian that are kept as the outer cauldron are where Shen originally resides. Thus, when Shen grows quiet, it can be still and unmoving while remaining clearly illumined.

At the initial stage of “refining Jing into Qi,” Shen is the refuge of Qi. At the stage of “refining Qi into Shen,” Qi in turn becomes the refuge of Shen. Shen and Qi depend on and safeguard each other, joined closely together like a cauldron and its vessel fitting seamlessly. The ancients used various paradoxical names to explain this principle. As Lü Dongbin said, “The true furnace and cauldron, the true bellows—only those who truly understand them can use them correctly; only after using them correctly can one attain the true fruit.” Where is there really a physical cauldron for refining the Returning Elixir? This principle must be understood deeply and investigated with care. Why, too, would one need to seek a cauldron outside the body? The earth, metals, cauldron, and woman mentioned here are borrowed terms for the cauldron; they cannot be trusted as literal things. Believing such claims will surely bring harm to one’s nature and life. Someone in the past said, “Shen is always within Qi; from this come sage nature and numinous clarity.” This too gets to the heart of the matter.

Bai Yuchan said, “Take only Wu and Ji (the two Heavenly Stems associated with Earth among the Five Phases, here referring to the central Earth Qi in internal cultivation) as the alchemical furnace; refine them into a red pill, and it will transform into jade cream.” This means using the Qi within the body as the furnace and cauldron for cultivating Neidan.

Bai Yuchan says, “Use only Wu and Ji as the alchemical furnace, refine them into a red pill, and in the end transform it into something soft and lustrous like jade.” Here, “Wu and Ji” refer to the body’s fundamental Qi and its innate nature. Wu belongs to Yang and Ji to Yin; together they are called Earth. Hence they are also known as the “Earth cauldron,” another name for the vessel used in alchemy. When the Zhenren of Ziyang says, “Send it back to the Earth cauldron and seal it securely,” he is describing the return of what has been refined and cultivated to the Earth cauldron, where it is firmly sealed.

The key to refining Shen and gathering Qi lies in reaching emptiness. “Emptiness” here refers to the state in which innate Shen and Qi blend together: Shen gives rise to no distracting thoughts, and Qi is undisturbed by desires or impurity. To reach this state, Shen and Qi must first come to rely on one another. Shen rests upon Qi, and Qi rests upon Shen; the two illuminate and support each other. At the same time, one must rely on the inner vessel in the lower part of the body in order to enter a profound and stable state of meditation. This “supreme meditative absorption” is the highest level of concentration, a state of utter stillness and emptiness, free of attachment. An old saying goes, “When the mind and breathing rest upon each other, in time supreme meditative absorption can be attained.” The teaching about the vessel should therefore not be overlooked.

The Avatamsaka Sutra says that the World-Honored One, Shakyamuni Buddha, sat beneath the Bodhi tree and later ascended to the summit of Mount Sumeru, then to the Trayastrimsha and Tushita heavens to teach the Dharma, yet never left his original seat beneath the Bodhi tree. By showing that the Buddha could ascend to the heavens to teach while remaining at his original seat, this passage illustrates how, amid activity and change, one remains grounded in a fundamental support.

The Great Collection Sutra says that the Buddha attained perfect enlightenment between the Desire Realm and the Form Realm, manifesting a jeweled hall adorned with the seven treasures. Its vastness matched the Buddha lands in the ten directions throughout a great thousandfold world. There he taught the bodhisattvas the profound Dharma, allowing it to endure and spread. The Commentary on the Avatamsaka Sutra says that the Buddha Dharma is the worldly Dharma, and the worldly Dharma is the Buddha Dharma; one should not make an artificial distinction between worldly affairs and the sacred within ordinary circumstances. It also says that all worldly phenomena can, by their very nature, be the Buddha Dharma, for the Buddha Dharma is not some separate teaching existing apart from the world.

Yingchanzi says in the Hundred-Character Command: “The Golden Elixir and its great medicine are not difficult to understand. The key is to act promptly when Yang Qi first arises. In daily life, be cautious and self-possessed; do not let the mind and spirit, or Jing and Qi, move recklessly and become scattered. Keep the mind peaceful and at ease, the body upright and steady, and gather and hold your thoughts inward. Persist without slackening, and naturally you will reach the Mysterious Female, the hidden source of inner transformation. There are subtle points here that are easy to get wrong, so I will point them out directly: pay attention to the rumbling activity within the body, like thunder. Setting up the cauldron and establishing the furnace—symbols of using the inner body for inner refinement—is no small matter. The cycle of movement and regulation must follow the celestial rhythms symbolized by the handle of the Northern Dipper. Human nature is originally whole and clear, and the foundation of life can also be made firm. See through the wondrous principle by which being arises from nonbeing, and you will manifest a state of wholeness like the old toad, a symbol of successful cultivation, with a lifespan equal to Heaven and Earth.”

Chongxuzi says: “Heavenly Immortals cultivate the spirit of the life-root; the Immortal Way is attained by cultivating nature and life and realizing one’s original nature. Thus, the initial stage concerns cultivating life, while the middle stage concerns cultivating nature. Without the Golden Elixir, one cannot return to one’s original nature. To attain the Golden Elixir, one must have true Yang Jing and Qi, the pure Yang vital essence spoken of in inner cultivation. Without the firing times, one cannot gather, refine, and cook them until they congeal into the Elixir. Thus it is said that success depends entirely on the firing times.”

The Perfected One of the Empty Hermitage once said: “Even if you obtain true Yang and are determined to cultivate, without understanding the firing times your aspiration will still be hard to fulfill. The method of cyclically refining and circulating the Qi must be transmitted by an Immortal Master. Among those who discuss this method in the world, who truly understands it?”

An ancient saying goes: “If foolish people were all to know these principles, those who became Immortals throughout the world would be as numerous as flowing water.”

Later, I read Xue Daoguang’s words: “The sages transmit the medicine, but not the firing times.” I therefore said: “Who says the firing times cannot be transmitted? If they truly could not be transmitted, why would there be mention of the six hundred chapters of the Fire Record? The key is to adapt to circumstances, to circulate the process in silence, and to enter deeply into the Mysterious. Survey the sages of past ages: once the principles of regulating the breath are clearly understood, the Way of becoming an Immortal can be realized.”

Chen Xubai says: “To understand the subtlety of the firing-time formulas, one should seek it especially in the true breath—the naturally deep and subtle breathing of cultivation.”

Cao Xiangu said in The Song of the Numinous Source and the Great Dao: “I will tell you all where the key lies: since ancient times, the root of life has been in the True Breath—the inner breathing spoken of in Neidan practice.” This makes clear that the timing and measure of refinement in cultivation depend on the True Breath. The True Breath is the breathing of the “Realized Person,” not the breath entering and leaving through the mouth and nose.

Chen Zhixu said: “The formulas for regulating the fire phases are the most secret. They cannot be treated as one general rule, for they contain specific instructions for each stage.”

Passed down through lineages over the generations, the fire phases include gathering the medicine, sealing and securing it, beginning the Lesser Celestial Circuit, advancing and retreating through inversion, bathing, bringing the fire phases to fullness and stopping the fire, gathering the Great Medicine, ingesting it after obtaining it, circulating the Greater Celestial Circuit, perfecting the Shen, and emerging in spirit. Should these fire phases and stages not be carefully distinguished? In Neidan practice, the Lesser and Greater Celestial Circuits name different processes of refinement and cultivation, while “bathing” refers to a specific method of regulating the breath and adjusting the fire phases.

The Perfected Master Ziyang said, “At the beginning of cultivation, one must engage in deliberate practice. Others find this stage difficult to understand; only when one reaches the state of Wuwei (non-action) do people come to understand. Those who believe only that Wuwei is the key to cultivation—who among them knows that deliberate practice is its foundation?” Here, “deliberate practice” refers to the Lesser Celestial Circuit, an initial method of internal cultivation in which intention and breathing work together. “Wuwei” refers to the Greater Celestial Circuit, a deeper stage of internal cultivation.

The firing process—the regulation of breathing, intention, and the rhythm of cultivation—takes place where the breathing of the True Person occurs, though there is no breathing there in the ordinary sense. Bringing Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy) together in a state beyond breathing, and forming the Great Medicine, an important result of Neidan (internal alchemy), through long-term cultivation, requires deliberate practice. Without this cultivation, one has not truly followed the Dao (the Way). What others cannot see is the secret celestial principle, which must be put into practice in secret. The Perfected Immortals of antiquity warned: “Once you know it, do not boast about it to others.” This is what is meant by “transmit the medicine, but not the fire”: the medicine may be transmitted, but the firing process is not readily taught.

Before this comes the passage from nonbeing to being; after it comes the return from being to nonbeing. Yet the firing process and breathing are originally present in everyone. First, external breathing is gathered back within the body; at this point, the inner process still belongs to the realm of “being.” Thus, the firing process of the Greater Celestial Circuit must ultimately reach “nonbeing.” Here, “nonbeing” does not mean that the firing process is abandoned altogether. It means that the process operates with such subtlety that it reaches the state of Wuwei.

This firing process is extremely perilous. Deliberate practice is easy to carry out, while the firing process of Wuwei is hard to master. Failing to apply the firing process brings danger; introducing even the slightest deliberate effort also brings danger; and allowing the firing process of Wuwei to falter midway is equally dangerous. For this reason, the Perfected Master Ziyang warned: “Foolish and shallow people in the world hear only of Wuwei and suppose that no firing process is needed, so they follow their own preferences and let themselves drift. Others think that Wuwei means practicing only Wuwei from beginning to end, without first undertaking deliberate practice at the outset.” That is why he said: “Those who believe only in Wuwei—who knows that deliberate practice is also required?” In this way, the Perfected Master Ziyang made clear the principle of cultivating both being and nonbeing.

The Patriarch Chunyang said, “The entire process of cultivation, in the end, requires only following Wuwei (non-action). There is no need to cling to the question of why, at the beginning, one must still act.” He also said, “If you trust in Wuwei, who would deliberately contrive anything?” What Master Ziyang said expresses the essential principle of cultivation: giving due weight to both action and non-action.

The Patriarch Chunyang also said, “When the Qi of Yang first stirs, it is the middle of the night, and the hours stretch long.” From this point onward, the discussion concerns the timing and measure of the fire in the living Zi hour. In Neidan (internal alchemy), the living Zi hour is a technical term for the moment when Yang Qi begins to stir within the body; it does not necessarily correspond to midnight on a clock.

Master Wei Boyang said, “At the end of the month, as the new month begins, the Zhen trigram comes to receive its command.” This uses the changes of a month as a metaphor. “Darkness” is like Yin Qi in the body reaching its extreme. The transition from the last day of the month to the first day of the next symbolizes Yang arising when Yin has reached its limit. “Zhen” refers to the Zhen trigram: its first line becomes Yang, a metaphor for the True Qi within the body beginning to stir. Once the substance—the True Qi spoken of in Neidan cultivation—comes into being, the fire’s timing and measure must also be set in motion. Once Yang Qi has stirred, one should grasp the proper timing, gather it in, and refine it.

The Patriarch Chunyang’s words in the preceding passage use the changes of a day as a metaphor. “Midnight” means the middle of the night, or the Zi hour; “the long clepsydra” refers to the duration of the fire as measured by a water clock. The ancients said, “Sometimes one uses a day as a comparison, sometimes a month, sometimes a year; all kinds of comparisons may be used.” These metaphors explain the timing and measure of the fire, which are difficult to put into words. Practitioners must not mistake the metaphors for actual things or fixed times. They are only approximate ways of describing what happens within the body, and are not exact likenesses.

Chen Chaoyuan said, “When refining the Elixir, kindle the fire as Yang Qi rises at the Zi hour; only then is the fire’s power sufficient. Kindling it at any other hour will not work, because then there is no substance.” “There is no substance” here is like “using water and fire to boil an empty pot.”

Yingchanzi said, “Always kindle the fire at the Zi hour in the middle of the night; through this, the Way of Heaven and the human mind cycle and begin again. To refine one’s nature and cultivate the Real, one must seize this moment. Only those who continually strengthen themselves are true gentlemen. If you make yourself toil in life so that you may find ease after death, then what purpose is served by face-the-wall practice and walking meditation?” “Face the wall” means cultivating through seated meditation; “walking meditation” means cultivating while walking.

Chen Niniwan said, “Within the twelve double hours of the day, one must discern the Zi hour.”

When circulating the alchemical process through one full cycle, one must wait for the truly flexible “Zi hour” before applying the fire. The Way of Heaven moves through twelve double-hours, one of which is the Zi hour at midnight. Though the Way of the Elixir borrows the term “Zi hour,” it should not be fixed to mean the midnight Zi hour among the twelve double-hours. A moment when Yang Qi begins to arise and the firing process starts may occur at any time of day. It is therefore called the “living Zi hour,” to distinguish it from the “dead Zi hour” fixed at midnight. Practitioners should discern, within the natural course of time, the living Zi hour suited to beginning the fire. This is the moment referred to in the phrase, “When it is time for life to arise, attend to the Star Lord of the Original Spirit of one’s innate destiny.” If one does not understand how to seize the living Zi hour, one will miss the opportunity at hand. Bai Yuchan said, “The waxing and waning of the moon clearly reveals the timing; the heart-to-heart transmission about the living Zi hour is indeed without error.”

Peng Helin said, “The fire and the medicine are originally in the same place. When you look for them, they seem to be there; when you truly seek them, no trace can be found.” Here, “medicine” refers to the primordial Qi of the precelestial state—the fundamental Qi that precedes Heaven—which is inherently formless. Practitioners trust that it truly exists within the formless, gather it through the wondrous workings of the formless, and refine it. This is the immortal Way that truly takes emptiness and nothingness as its Dao. “Fire,” by contrast, is originally the tangible breath. If one clings to the visible traces of breathing to apply the fire, one may easily intensify an excessive, deviant fire. If one does not fixate on the tangible breath but instead apprehends its seemingly formless function, one can understand why the fire and medicine are said to be “in the same place”: one senses the wondrous workings of presence within absence, so they seem to be there and yet seem not to be.

My teacher said, “Where the One Yang stirs, the fire begins to move; at the Mao and You hours, the furnace is sealed, and the fire is just as strong.” The “stirring of One Yang” is related to the teaching of “Pure Yang.” Gathering and sealing, as well as bathing and nurturing with warmth, are all arrangements of the firing process in alchemical cultivation. Practitioners must also forget both thought and intention, and let body and mind become like the Great Void. These words all mean that the medicine arises at the same time as the fire, and explain how to grasp the right moment to gather the medicine and start the fire.

This passage is Chongxu Zi’s summary of the long discussion above. “Gathering the medicine” means collecting the medicine before kindling the fire at the hour of Zi, around midnight in the traditional system of timekeeping. “Kindling the fire” means beginning to circulate the fire at the hour of Zi. These two things must be clearly distinguished. Bodhidharma said, “At the second interval, gather the Muni; at the fourth, distinguish the spiritual work”—this is the principle he had in mind. Master Zhengyang said, “The firing times for forming the Elixir are set.” What follows here all concerns kindling the fire at the hour of Zi.

The firing times of the Small Circulation of the Heavenly Circuit, as it runs through the twelve double-hours, are precisely the time for refining the Golden Elixir. Hence the saying, “There are set times for forming the Elixir.”

Xiao Zixu said, “The bellows of Heaven and Earth beat to a measured count.” Bellows are tools that fan the fire; here they are a metaphor for the breath moving back and forth: Heaven exhales and becomes Earth, while Earth inhales and becomes Heaven. “A measured count” refers to the numerological principle of nine for Heaven and six for Earth.

He also said, “The knife and measure of Li and Kan come at their appointed time.” Li refers to the spirit in the heart, called Ji Earth; Kan refers to the Qi in the kidneys, called Wu Earth. The two “Earths,” above and below, together resemble a gui. When Wu Earth and Ji Earth unite, this is called “knife and measure,” a metaphor for the unification of spirit and Qi. The knife and measure must be formed by refining these two “Earths” together. One must therefore first understand when to gather them so that they can unite; without knowing the right time to gather them, the knife and measure cannot be refined.

Perfected Jade Cauldron said, “If there is no water clock when entering the cauldron, the numinous sprout will not grow.”

Zhenyang explains: “Entering the cauldron” refers to the action of the essence of true Yang returning to the Qi cavity, the place where breath and vital essence converge in cultivation. After it returns to the Qi cavity, one must circulate the fire and refine it according to the times indicated by the water clock; only then will the yellow sprout appear. Here, the “water clock” is a timekeeping device that serves as a metaphor for the need to follow the proper timing of the firing process. If one does not refine at the appointed times, the numinous sprout will not grow.

True Yang said: “What is placed in the cauldron—the process of bringing the results of cultivation into the Dantian—is the True Yang essence and Qi that has returned to the Qi Cavity, the place where breath gathers in cultivation. It must then be refined over a measured period of ‘clepsydra fire’ for the Yellow Sprout, the subtle sign of the Golden Elixir’s first emergence, to appear. As for the clepsydra, if one period is considered complete, then two periods should be used for refinement. The six periods of Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, and Si belong to Yang, and the movement of Qi should rise; the six periods of Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai belong to Yin, and the movement of Qi should descend. This accords with the rules of cultivation. One must also understand how Shen and Qi unite and remain in balance with each other, like half a jin matching eight liang. Likewise, when using one period of the clepsydra for cultivation, there must be clear rules for when to rise, when to descend, and when neither rising nor descending is appropriate.”

The Orthodox Lineage of Xuan Learning says: “The clepsydra means the breath moving in and out.” Here, the clepsydra is used as a general term for breathing. In ancient times, a water clock measured time: day and night were divided into twelve periods, and each period was further divided into smaller units called ke. The sound of dripping water marked each ke, and a set number of drops made up one period. The ancients said: “Count softly the breaths of the heavenly cycle; each drop accords with the cold sound of jade dew.” This means to count the breaths of the heavenly cycle quietly, listening to them as though cold dew were dripping. The ticking of the water clock is used here as a metaphor for breathing; in Neidan cultivation, the subtle breath called the True Breath is used to count and measure time.

Guang Chengzi also speaks of counting breaths and compares them to the sound of jade dew dripping. Here, too, the sound of dripping water illustrates the breath. He says that clepsydra counts are used to determine the ke—that is, in Daoist alchemical cultivation, periods of time are calculated by counting the True Breath.

Guangchengzi said, “The movements and transformations within the human body are the breath circulating through the Qi cavity, the place where the Qi mechanism is rooted in Neidan practice. With each inhalation, the Qi of Heaven descends; with each exhalation, the Qi of Earth rises, and my own true Qi joins with them.” The “movements and transformations” here refer to the cyclical circulation through the upper, middle, and lower Dantian, the three places where Qi is cultivated within the body. “Breath” means the breath of the True Person—that is, the movement of the inner Qi mechanism—not breathing through the mouth and nose. “Circulating through the Qi cavity” means that the Qi mechanism moves into the Qi cavity.

At first glance, the ascent and descent described here seem contrary to the usual account: the upper Dantian returns to the middle Dantian, the middle returns to the lower, and the lower then returns to the upper; the upper Dantian in turn returns to the Qi Sea and joins with true Qi. The coordination of these three aspects is called the “circulation of the Heavenly Cycle and its firing times,” the cyclical movement of the Qi mechanism in Neidan practice. Daoist alchemical texts often describe things in this inverted way. Examining both the principles and the actual workings closely, I have found that they all describe the Qi mechanism descending during exhalation and rising during inhalation. Only when this accords with nature can one apprehend its subtlety, which seems at once present and absent.

The Immortal Master Yu, returned to life, said, “The four times Zi, Mao, Wu, and You fix the true mechanism; invert Yin and Yang and circulate for three hundred breaths.” Zi, Mao, Wu, and You refer to the four cardinal directions and also correspond to four two-hour periods. The Mirror for Entering the Medicine uses them to explain the firing times for shedding the embryo and the Great Heavenly Cycle. The Mirror of Fire and Medicine says, “At the end, shed the embryo; observe the four cardinal points,” referring to these same four periods. The Mirror for Entering the Medicine discusses the firing times of the Great Heavenly Cycle, while this passage discusses those of the Lesser Heavenly Cycle. The practices differ, but the principles applied are the same. This is because the Classic of the Mind Seal says, “The three grades follow one principle,” meaning that the three levels of cultivation follow the same underlying path.

The Realized Person Ziyang said, “Only through constant regulation can true Qi condense.” “Constantly” means that all three hundred and sixty breaths must be regulated and brought into accord with nature. Even a moment of faulty regulation makes it impossible to enter stillness, and so the embryo’s foundation cannot form.

Bai Yuchan said, “Fire belongs to the southern trigram Li.” Li corresponds to the heart, and the heart is Shen (spirit); Qi (vital energy), in Daoist terms, is the medicine. When Shen remains undistracted, Qi returns to Shen. What is called refining the medicine with fire and forming the Golden Elixir is using Shen to direct Qi, thereby cultivating the Great Dao.

Chen Xubai said, “The essentials of the oral instructions on the firing process should also be sought in the true breath.” The true breath is the deep, steady breathing cultivated in practice. Breathing arises from the heart: when the heart is still, the breath becomes even. When every inhalation and exhalation returns to its source, this is the true breath, and it is the foundation for forming the Golden Elixir. The Jing of the Heart Seal says, “Reversing the wind and blending them together, the work bears fruit in a hundred days.” This describes precisely that principle.

Xue Daoguang said, “When applying the firing process, the intention behind withdrawing and adding should rise above the ordinary world; as one line passes, another comes into being.” Withdrawing and adding refers to adjusting the advance and retreat of the practice. “Free of worldly dust” means that the mind does not become caught in deliberation and stays clear of delusive, distracting thoughts. “A line comes into being” means that the movement of Qi in practice continues without interruption.

Chen Niniwan said, “Throughout the day and night, the greatest danger is sinking into dullness and losing awareness.” Whether one falls into sleep or the mind and spirit grow scattered, one may miss the crucial moment in practice; therefore, one must be vigilant.

Chen Xiyi said, “The Zi and Wu hours may both serve as firing times; they must be handled flexibly, without distinguishing between day and night. The Zi hour corresponds to the Return trigram, symbolizing the first emergence of Yang; the Wu hour corresponds to the Encounter trigram, symbolizing the first emergence of Yin. The Qian trigram uses nine, and four nines make thirty-six; the Kun trigram uses six, and four sixes make twenty-four. These correspond to the measures of the circuit of Heaven. At the Mao and You hours, one should bathe and regulate the breath. Once the firing process has reached its proper strength, one should stop and must not add fire at will.” Cui Gong’s Mirror for Entering the Medicine also says, “When the firing process is complete, do not damage the Golden Elixir.” This means that the fire must not be applied arbitrarily; one must know when to stop.

The Hermit of Jinggu said, “As the circuit of Heaven proceeds, count the breaths with subtle precision; the cool breath, like jade dew, continues without break, like the sound of dripping water.”

The True Explanation says: “Fire timing really consists only in guiding and moving a single current of Qi; there is no other mystery in regulating its advance and retreat. The key to fire timing is not to apply the mind too tensely: too much tension makes the fire dry. Nor should it be too slack: too much slack makes the fire cold. To neither lose awareness nor deliberately force growth, there is no fixed rule. The greatest danger is a scattered mind: if it can neither rise nor descend, the Great Elixir cannot congeal.” These words explain the principle to beginners. Even those who do not yet understand the Great Dao can use them to glimpse the way into the practice.

Wang Guoqi says: “The mouth does not exhale, and the nose does not inhale; like the bellows and reed pipes between Heaven and Earth, they gradually come to rest. Use the Xun wind and Li fire to cook and refine within the cauldron, until the body is at ease and life is established.” “The mouth and nose do not breathe” here means circulating Qi according to the breathing method of the perfected person; it does not mean stopping the breath altogether.

Chen Nilüan says: “Whether walking, sitting, sleeping, or eating, keep the mind unmoving and thus as it is; worry only that the fire may grow cold and the Elixir’s power may advance too slowly.” “Walking and sitting” here means sitting to practice, not walking. The mention of sleep and eating shows that the practitioner has not yet reached the point where the body is at ease and life is established. This stage consists only of the inner cultivation of refining Jing into Qi and laying the foundation. Upon entering the stage of cultivating the “ten-month embryo spirit,” one will forget sleep and food. “As it is” refers to the subtle state of entering stillness. Only by remaining in this state can the fire timing accord with the subtlety, so that the fire does not grow cold and the Elixir’s power does not lag.

The Patriarch Chunyang says: “Set up the cauldron and furnace to refine the Mysterious Root; to advance the fire and retreat the talisman, one must understand the gates of Mao and You.” “Cauldron and furnace” refers to the Qi cavity, where Qi is circulated and condensed during cultivation; the “Mysterious Root” refers to original Yang Jing and Qi returning to their root to be cooked and refined. Both the cauldron and furnace and the Mysterious Root refer to the place where the fire is used for refinement and nourishment. Practitioners cannot merely advance the Yang fire and retreat the Yin talisman; they must also harmonize the two in their alternation and practice bathing—that is, regulating the breath and resting in stillness. If there is only advance and retreat without bathing, the advance and retreat come to nothing. If there is only bathing without advance and retreat, one cannot attain balanced harmony. This is why one must understand the principle. The Chan master Mazu says: “There is no advancing all the time without stopping, nor stopping all the time without advancing.”

The Ancestral Master Zhengyang said, “The firing process must be carefully regulated at the hours of Yin and Shen, and the two hours of Mao and You must be used for bathing.” The Elder Chunyang had already explained this plainly. Master Zhengyang clarified: “The hour of Mao follows Yin, and the hour of You follows Shen. Even when cultivation reaches the firing process of Yin and Shen, one must not forget to bathe during Mao and You.” He also said, “Bathing and shedding the mortal body correspond respectively to the hours of Mao and You.” To distinguish Mao and You when shedding the mortal body means that the state of cultivation first seems to manifest, then appears to fade away.

The method of refining Qi and transforming it into Shen—the stages of Neidan cultivation that include refining Jing into Qi and refining Qi into Shen—has rarely been explained openly. Master Zhengyang, however, revealed its key. He also said, “During bathing, withdraw and gather yourself, returning to emptiness.” Reaching true emptiness after bathing is regarded as a secret of the immortals. If one cannot return to true emptiness, one will fall into heterodox paths. Forcing control over the cultivation process can also bring serious harm.

The Annotations and Commentary on the Wuzhen Pian says, “At the hour of Zi, advance the Yang fire; when the firing process is paused, this is called bathing. At the hour of Wu, withdraw the Yin tally; this too is called bathing.” It also says, “Even so, within the hundred days one must guard against danger.” In the small celestial circuit, there is both advancing and withdrawing the fire, as well as times when neither is advanced nor withdrawn. If advancing and withdrawing do not follow the proper measure and timing, if one fails to observe when to proceed or stop, or if one does not know when the firing process is complete and should cease, these are all dangers to be wary of.

Xiao Zixu said, “Guard against errors in the firing process, and remain alert to confusion caused by dullness and obscurity during sleep and dreams.”

The Jing on the Celestial Worthy Attaining the Dao and Transcending the Body says, “Regulate the breath so that it is long, fine, and gentle, as though present and yet as though absent.” The Elder of Ziyang says, “Do not deliberately keep watch over the medicine furnace to observe the fire’s timing. Simply settle the mind and spirit, even out the breathing, and let things follow their natural course.” What is meant here by “letting spirit and breath follow nature” resembles the timing of the fire in the macrocosmic orbit; the preceding phrase, “keeping watch over the medicine furnace,” refers to the timing of the fire in the microcosmic orbit. Although the fire used to refine the medicine is applied deliberately, in the end it should accord with natural ease. Without this, it is not the true timing of the fire, but the fire described in heterodox and erroneous teachings.

The Perfected One of Xinglin says, “Only when the mind and spirit are tranquil can the fire be set in motion; only when the breathing is steady can true lead be found.” Xinglin’s teacher, the Elder of Ziyang, says, “Only by becoming settled can one refine the elixir; when the mind and spirit are unsettled, the elixir cannot congeal.” These words are exceptionally concise and important.

The Elder of Ziyang says, “In applying the timing of the fire, one need not be bound by the hours; nor need the winter solstice be fixed at the hour of Zi. When it is time for bathing, compare it to the hours of Mao and You.” The phrase “make a notional comparison” runs through these statements: it means using the names of the hours as metaphors, not following the times set out in the calendar. “Not using the hours” means not relying on the twelve periods of the day as marked by the calendar, but silently turning the process within the mind and using those twelve periods as analogies. “Winter solstice” refers to the moment when Yang Qi begins to arise within the body. At that point one sets the Zi-hour fire in motion, so the arising of Yang Qi is called “the hour of Zi”; it does not mean the Zi hour in the Zi month at midwinter. In any of the twelve hours of the day, the time when Yang Qi arises may be called “Zi.”

When it is time for “bathing,” the hours of Mao and You serve as comparisons. Mao falls among the six Yang hours, and You among the six Yin hours. When breath regulation reaches the stage where Yin and Yang meet, the process called “bathing” may be carried out.

He further says, “There is no need to be constrained by hours and quarter-hours in dividing the day into Zi and Wu periods, nor to distinguish Qian and Kun according to the lines of the trigrams.”

A day is divided into twelve double-hours, each of which can in turn be divided into eight quarter-hours. “A time without quarter-hours” means a moment that is not measured by a fixed count of quarter-hours, but is silently set in motion within the mind. “Treating Zi and Wu as empty divisions” means there is no need to confine them to the actual clock times of midnight and noon. Each hexagram has six lines, according to the Book of Changes. Here, Qian and Kun symbolize the vessel of the cauldron—the inner container of the human body used as a metaphor in alchemical practice. Calling it “without lines” means that it is not divided according to the formal lines of the hexagrams.

These statements all concern refining the elixir and directing the firing process—that is, the stages of the Small Heavenly Circuit, a cultivation process that uses the circulation of internal Qi as its metaphor. This sentence is Chongxuzi’s summary of what the various perfected sages said earlier about methods for directing the fire during the hundred days of cultivation.

A disciple asked, “The perfected sages of old often spoke of directing the fire. Why is this method specifically called the Small Heavenly Circuit, and why is it said to be used in the hundred days of cultivation to refine Jing into Qi?”

The reply was, “The Small Heavenly Circuit includes advancing the fire, withdrawing the fire, bathing, inversion, and the degrees of the heavenly circuit. All discussions of refining the medicine and the elixir, guarding and observing the cauldron, the medicine reaching maturity, and the elixir being completed concern the hundred-day Small Heavenly Circuit cultivation. Accordingly, on the basis of this method, materials from later perfected sages who were adept at learning it were gathered and arranged by topic, and the parts not recorded in the Great Canon were compiled one by one as a reference and means of verification for later generations.”

The Jing of the Heart Seal says, “When the returning wind blends and joins, the work bears fruit in a hundred days.” Here, “returning wind” means making the breath circulate; “wind” is a metaphor for Qi. “Blending and joining” means that the original Shen (the person’s governing spirit) resides in the heart, while original Qi (primordial vital energy) resides in the kidneys, and they are originally far apart. Once generated, original Qi is also easily dissipated outward. Although original Shen can perceive it, it cannot directly put it to use. Shen and Qi therefore need to be brought together.

The breath is used to set Qi in circulation and guide Shen and Qi back to their roots: Qi rises to the Niwan (a cultivation site in the head), then returns to the Mingdi (the root of life below the navel). In this way, original Shen governs original Qi, bringing Shen and Qi into unity. Without the action of the “returning wind,” even if original Shen can govern original Qi, there is no way to know whether the Qi is truly responding to regulation. This is an important secret of Golden Elixir cultivation. With continued practice for about a hundred days, the effects become apparent. Someone who has not yet reached sexual maturity practices for about a hundred days; someone who has lost that state needs ten years, though a period of less than a year can also make up the deficiency and restore the wholeness of primordial Qi. Qi must be abundant before it can be settled, and Shen can settle only after long practice. For this reason, the returning-wind method of the Lesser Celestial Circuit should stop at this point. What follows describes the signs that the Lesser Celestial Circuit’s fire phase is complete and should be stopped.

Master Zhengyang says, “Once the elixir has matured, there is no need to continue directing the fire. If you keep directing it, you will certainly damage the elixir.” When the fire phase is complete and the medicine has matured, there is no longer any need to apply fire. This is the sign that the “correct fire” has been reached. Once it is time to stop the fire, there is no need to keep directing it; continuing brings no benefit. “Damaging the elixir” means that, once mature, the elixir should be taken out of the furnace and cauldron and transferred to another cauldron. If it is not removed and stored elsewhere, the elixir has nowhere to go—would it not then be harmed? Jing becomes Qi in the Qi cavity, and Qi becomes Shen in the chamber of Shen; this is why it is said to transfer the elixir to a “separate cauldron.”

Cui Gong’s Mirror of Entering the Medicine says, “When the received Qi is abundant, guard against danger; when the fire phase is complete, do not damage the elixir.” When cultivation reaches the point where the Yellow Sprout (a subtle medicine in Neidan cultivation) no longer leaks away and White Snow (a sign of refined essence in Neidan cultivation) fills the space, the Infant (a symbol of the Neidan formed through cultivation) takes shape. Qi becomes Shen in the chamber of Shen; this is why it is said to transfer the elixir to a “separate cauldron.”

Cui Gong says in the Mirror for Entering the Medicine (Rujing): “When the medicine’s Qi is sufficient, guard against excessive firing, which can lead to trouble; when the firing process has reached its proper measure, do not damage the elixir.” In cultivation, if one attains “yellow sprouts spilling from the cauldron”—the yellow sprouts being a sign that Neidan has just begun to form—and “white snow filling the sky,” a description of an inner cultivation scene that is cool and pure, then the infant-like Neidan has appeared, showing that the firing process has reached its proper measure. At this point, one should only bathe and gently nourish it: stop forcing the circulation of the fire and continue nurturing it calmly. If one does not know when to stop and still recklessly urges the firing process onward, one may damage the Neidan. Once the elixir is complete, the Qi of Heaven and Earth come together, and Shen and Qi move with spontaneous vitality. The “emptiness giving birth to radiance, and the spirit becoming manifest of itself” spoken of by the immortal masters describes precisely this state. That is why it is said, “Heaven and Earth are numinous.”

Ziyang Weng says: “Before the Returning Elixir has been formed, one should cultivate it with urgency. After it is formed, one must also know when to stop. If you know that the firing process is complete yet refuse to stop and stubbornly press on, sooner or later you will suffer danger and harm.”

Liaozhenzi says: “Remember: never force the fire when the firing process should not be carried out. If you do not know when to stop, you will inevitably fall into danger.”

The commentary also records two accounts of cultivation by Perfected Qiu and Perfected Cao.

Perfected Qiu said: “Once, while observing purification and practicing in the Commandery Governor’s residence in Chang’an, I had not yet managed to stop the firing. That night, I lost the Elixir three times in succession. This is called ‘losing the Elixir.’ All the work I had done before was wasted, and I had to begin cultivating again. Only later did I attain the status of a Celestial Immortal.”

When Perfected Cao first refined Jing, an inner vision appeared, but he did not recognize it and was simply startled. After he settled into stillness again, the vision appeared once more, and he suddenly understood: “My master said that I should stop the firing at this point. Alas, the opportunity before me has just slipped away.” Later, when he practiced again, he did not miss the vision’s first appearance, but was still startled. He settled into stillness once more, and when the vision appeared again, he remembered his master’s words. As he continued practicing, he no longer missed the moment when the vision first appeared. He stopped the firing in time, without waiting for the vision to appear a fourth time.

Practitioners must stop the firing neither too soon nor too late. Only then can they obtain the medicine, pass through the gates and apertures, and transform the Yang Spirit—the yang aspect of consciousness in Daoist Neidan practice. Becoming a sage and Perfected One takes immense effort. How could anyone treat the refining of the Golden Elixir carelessly and risk falling into danger? This, moreover, is the crucial passage from the ordinary to the sacred. The signs described here concern stopping the firing after the Elixir has formed, and apply to the cultivation of the Celestial Immortal’s Nine Cycles of Returning Elixir and Firing. The stage of refining Jing and transforming it into Qi has also been completed.

Chongxu Zi summarizes the preceding discussion of collecting, cooking, and stopping the firing during the hundred-day period. He includes it here so that students may study and reflect on the teachings of the Perfected Ones of earlier generations. The text that follows is the author’s own account, so he says: “The opening section ends here.”

Chongxu Zi explained the essential methods for refining Jing and applying fire during the “Hundred-Day Pass.” He summed them up this way: once practitioners perceive that the medicinal substance has formed, they must gather it promptly and seal it in place, then circulate fire through the microcosmic orbit. This process includes different methods—advance and retreat, inversion, bathing, breathing, and the techniques of movement, stillness, rising, and stopping. Its true subtlety lies in using one Qi to carry the true Qi through without letting the mind wander, and using one Shen to govern the two energies without straying toward other views.

Even when circulating through three hundred cycles of the microcosmic orbit, subtle differences remain along the way. Yet the mysterious principle contained in a single stage of firing corresponds to that in all three hundred. When practice brings Qi back to a single Qi and Shen becomes wholly focused as one Shen, Jing rests in place and Qi gathers. Once the firing process is complete, the fire should be stopped. This lays the foundation for the “human medicine” and establishes a basis for preserving Shen. “Human medicine” is a term in Neidan practice for the medicinal substance refined within the human body. “Microcosmic orbit” refers to the practice of guiding intention and breath through the body’s meridians.

This passage sets out the detailed steps Chongxu Zi describes for refining Jing and applying fire during the hundred days, while also emphasizing the true intent of the practice. The small heavenly circuit is a general term for the firing process during the stage of refining Jing, and it contains many principles. Earlier sages described its function as providing “a dwelling place for preserving Shen.”

This passage discusses the subtle details of the Lesser Celestial Circuit’s firing times within what Chongxu Zi calls “refining Jing for one hundred days,” as well as the essential principles of cultivation it conveys.

“Lesser Celestial Circuit” is a general term for the movement of firing times during the refinement of Jing. It encompasses many different stages and principles. Earlier practitioners offered various explanations: gathering the medicine was counted as one stage, and sealing and securing it as another. Bodhidharma, too, discussed only these two stages. “Gathering the medicine” is sometimes used to refer to both stages together. Another account divides the process into four stages, each with its own subtle function, as part of the firing-time arrangement within the Lesser Celestial Circuit’s three hundred days. Here, the author follows the Immortal Elder’s account and explains it in just two stages.

As for “advancing and retreating the fire” during the circuit’s operation, the actual practice may not literally resemble advancing and retreating; the author uses these terms as an analogy. In the lead-and-mercury alchemical method—a Neidan practice that uses lead and mercury as symbols—advancing and retreating means applying fire to the furnace when advancing, then stopping the fire and withdrawing from the furnace when retreating. This explanation is concrete and easy to understand. Advancing and retreating can also be described in terms of increasing or decreasing the fire: an increase counts as advancing, and a decrease as retreating. The firing times for refining Jing, however, do not fully accord with these explanations. “Advancing and retreating” is therefore used here only as an approximate analogy, not as a claim that the processes are exactly the same.

When directing intention toward the “six Yang,” the count is gradually increased, following the Qian hexagram’s “Use of Nine”; this is called advancing. When in the “six Yin,” the count is gradually decreased, following the Kun hexagram’s “Use of Six”; this is called retreating. These terms are borrowed to describe advancing and retreating within the Lesser Celestial Circuit. Since the circuit includes advancing the Yang fire and retreating the Yin tally—the Yang fire refers to the ascending firing times, and the Yin tally to the descending firing times—the process can only be explained in terms of increasing and decreasing amounts. To explain it in terms of its actual function would lead to substantial differences.

The “reversal” discussed here refers chiefly to a reversal in the firing times, in addition to the reversal involved in combining the medicines. Lü Xiānwēng (Lü Dongbin) said, “The most important secret lies in reversal.” At the outset, when the teacher explained the six Yang, the firing times were chiefly used for ascent, while descent followed along. During the six Yin, the tally times were chiefly used for descent, while ascent followed along. “Chiefly responsible” means that a process primarily governs ascent and is used in gathering, or primarily governs descent and is used in cooking. “Following along” means that the other process occurs in conjunction with it. Movement back and forth in the firing times is essential, but the accompanying process should not be treated as equal to the primary one. This is the secret mechanism of reversal in the firing times, transmitted privately by the sages of earlier generations.

“Bathing” is a metaphor drawn from the times and directions used in Neidan cultivation. Since the Five Phases are commonly used to explain things in the world, Neidan cultivation also uses them as metaphors. This is a formula handed down by the sages of earlier generations through inverted and concealed language.

Each of the Five Phases has a position of birth: Yin, Shen, Si, and Hai. Fire is born at Yin, Water at Shen, Metal at Si, and Wood at Hai. Mao, You, Zi, and Wu are the positions of bathing. The timing of the alchemical fire in the Dao of the Elixir moves with the hours: after passing through Chou and Yin, when it reaches Mao, the position of bathing is used to regulate the fire, hence the term “bathing.” The same applies at You. People commonly give mistaken explanations, without understanding where the name “bathing” comes from or what it means and does. Here I have only outlined the essentials; for a fuller account, see the recorded sayings in The Joined Lineage of Immortals and Buddhas (Xianfo Hezong).

“Walking, dwelling, rising, and stopping” are also terms used in cultivation. “Walking” and “dwelling” serve respectively as metaphors for the cultivation methods of the Immortal tradition and the Buddhist tradition. “Rising” means that, after the stages of gathering the medicine and sealing it in, the Small Celestial Circuit begins to operate—a method in Neidan cultivation by which Qi circulates through the body. “Stopping” means ceasing to apply the fire once the Small Celestial Circuit’s fire timing has reached its appointed moment.

“One Qi” means that the breath runs through and coordinates with True Qi, the inner primordial energy spoken of in cultivation, without interruption from the gathering of the medicine until the fire is stopped. If it is interrupted and then resumed, effort is divided between two points and the mind and spirit become scattered. This happens when the mind is dull or distracted. In severe cases, the effort splits into two, three, or four separate streams, making success in the fire timing difficult. This calls for great care. For the breath to run through True Qi, it must be directed by a focused mind and spirit, without dispersal. Letting another thought arise in the mind, or changing one’s thinking under the influence of outside opinions, can both scatter the mind and spirit. Once they are scattered, the fire timing cannot be sustained, and Qi cannot be made abundant enough to generate transformation.

Why is a celestial cycle said to span 360 degrees? It may also be reckoned as 365 and one quarter degrees. The surplus in the celestial measure forms the intercalary remainder—the amount used to adjust the calendar so that the calendar year accords with celestial phenomena. Does this not show that the heavens truly complete one full circuit? Once you understand the intercalary remainder, you understand the actual length of the celestial cycle. When you can truly grasp this complete cycle, Qi (vital energy) is more readily stabilized, the Elixir is more readily refined, and the first medicine is more readily produced.

The key to the mystery is a secret method not readily taught. Every aspect of managing the firing process must follow this principle. Without this method, the breath cannot accord with the proper measure, and the True Breath—the natural, subtle breathing cultivated in practice—will be obstructed. It will instead approach the coarse mouth-and-nose breathing of ordinary people, and illness may follow. Without this method, Shen (spirit) cannot govern the two Qi of Yin-Yang, allowing them to move or rest naturally. This holds true for a single breath and for all three hundred breaths. The perfected sages of antiquity who attained the Dao only hinted at these essentials; they dared neither to speak plainly nor to reveal everything. Without this method, even if one claims to have completed the circuit of the heavens, it is only a “celestial circuit” verging on heresy, and serves no purpose.

Thus, the three words “mysterious pivot” are also the key to the hundred-day refinement of Jing (essence) into Qi. None of the stages in managing the firing process—gathering, sealing, refining, and stopping—can be omitted. If the mind and spirit pursue the realm of desire, where sensory cravings hold sway, Jing becomes the essence of sexual union between man and woman. Fixation on seeing, hearing, speaking, and moving also feeds this desire. If you can keep from straying outward and return to unity, Shen can enter deep samadhi, a state of profound stillness in cultivation. This is what it means for the firing process to reach its completion, the fire to stop, and the foundation of cultivation to take shape. In this way, it becomes forever the basis for future use as medicine, and the place where Shen can abide and enter samadhi. This is what is meant by “first take white metal as the vessel.”

During the Daoguang era, Perfected Xue set forth the guiding principle of “settling the breath and using its lead”: after obtaining True Lead, one then takes in the Great Medicine. Master Zhengyang called this process “drawing out the lead.”

The “Great Medicine” is the Golden Elixir formed when Yang essence transforms into Qi. Where does it come from? It, too, arises from the Qi cavity in the Dantian. Its formation begins before Yang essence has transformed into Qi. When it emerges from the Dantian, it is only a faint, formless energy. Clinging to the surface of the body, it becomes an outward form.

When Master Cao encountered the later term “Great Medicine,” he called this subtler energy the “Lesser Medicine.” Only once the Golden Elixir has been refined and Yang essence has transformed into Qi does the Great Medicine arise and become manifest in the Dantian. It has a perceptible form, like a fiery pearl, and likewise changes from formlessness into form.

The “Mysterious Pearl of the Red Waters” mentioned by the Yellow Emperor, along with “the Water of the One,” “the Feeling of the One,” “the Qi of the True One,” “the Flower Pond,” “the Lotus Pond,” “Golden Lotus Rising from the Earth,” “the Celestial Maiden Offering Flowers,” “the Dragon Maiden Offering a Pearl,” “the Precious Pagoda Rising from the Earth,” “the Knife and Measure,” “the Yellow Sprout,” and “True Lead,” are all different names used by immortals and Buddhas for the same thing: the true Qi that arises in the Dantian.

Once the true Qi takes on its own form, it no longer clings to the surface of the body. Instead, it forms and operates within the body, where one’s own spirit and awareness can perceive it. It can therefore be sensed and seen. It can also be perceived and seen as it passes through the second bridge and the three passes. The scripture regards this as the result of escaping life and death, from which point one can obtain genuine proof.

This is where the fire phase is used to refine the spirit, a process called “adding Mercury.” Here, the fire phase refers to the Great Circuit, a major cycle of movement in Neidan cultivation. “Mercury” refers to the original spirit within the heart-mind. In ordinary people, mental activity is bright and active for half the day, then quiet and dim for the other half, at night. Yang Qi symbolizes vitality, while Yin Qi symbolizes decline. Practitioners must gradually dispel this dim, murky state: for every portion of darkness removed, a portion of Yang brightness is added. As two, three, and then five portions of darkness are removed, two, three, and then five portions of brightness are added accordingly. Through this gradual cultivation, darkness is eventually dispelled completely and Yang brightness becomes abundant. This is called “pure Yang.”

Once pure Yang is attained, even sleep is free of the dim, Yin state. This is called the embryo being complete and the spirit being whole. The ancients said, “So long as Yin Qi is not entirely gone, one cannot become an immortal.” These are all ways of describing “adding Mercury.” However, adding Yang must be done with the fire phase of the Great Circuit. The fire phase nurtures original Qi, keeping the original spirit from separating from the two Qi of Yin and Yang. In this way, one gradually reaches empty stillness, until the cultivation of the Yang spirit is complete.

If one does not add Mercury and apply the fire phase, using the original spirit to guide it, the original spirit cannot become clear, and the fire phase cannot operate. Only when Yang brightness has increased by three or five portions can the fire phase be run for three or five portions accordingly. Only when the original spirit is clear can one harmonize the two Qi of Yin and Yang, nurture the original spirit, and help awareness grow.

If true Qi is cut off and cannot arise, this shows that the heart-mind and spirit are not settled and the medicine has not yet formed. Only when true Qi arises continuously can one be said to have attained the fruition of long life and immortality.

If one does not refine the spirit, Yang brightness cannot be brought to completion, and ultimately one can attain only corpse liberation, the Daoist form of release in which one leaves the body behind.

Refining Shen (spirit) means refining away its darkness until it reaches a purely Yang state, without the slightest trace of Yin sleepiness or torpor. Only when the firing process is complete, the breath is settled, and Shen has settled along with it can the Yang spirit be said to have been cultivated. The method of refining Shen depends entirely on the Yin and Yang Qi settling together in stillness, reaching a state like entering extinction. If the two Qi deviate even slightly from the prescribed methods of cultivation, Shen cannot be refined, Yang cannot become pure, and one cannot leave the body as spirit. Yet if one remains in concentration without emerging from it for the full ten months, the result is only corpse liberation. Why? As long as ordinary people retain ordinary breathing, they remain subject to ordinary life and death. The greatest danger is encountering calamities such as water, fire, or weapons, which can separate the physical form from consciousness.

Corpse liberation remains within the way of life and death. It also occurs because the process of cultivating the Great Celestial Circuit has not been completed, and the Yin and Yang Qi, along with Shen, have not entered concentration. Since the Golden Elixir has already been refined and life has been prolonged, how could one fail to enter a state of great concentration? Those who come after and cultivate the sacred Way should strive diligently in their practice.

Thus, the Treatise on the Nine-Turn Jade Elixir says: “One must also fear that resting the breath for too long will obstruct the transformation of the divine elixir.”

These three sentences express the meaning of the preceding five sentences, as cited by Chongxu Zi. From “From this, the Way reaches…” through “transformation,” the passage contains thirteen sentences; Chongxu Zi is mentioned again later. In citing this passage, Chongxu Zi connects what came before with what follows, explaining the distinction between sages and ordinary people and revealing the crucial secret of Heaven.

“Resting the breath” means stopping the circulation of the firing process through the Celestial Circuit. The practitioner obtains the true Qi from Kan and uses it to transform the Yin Qi within Li, continuously refining the Yin in Li into pure Yang. After obtaining the fullness of Kan, if one does not immediately set the firing process of the Great Celestial Circuit in motion, that fullness will not continue to arise, and so it cannot transform the Yin in Li. Even if one sets the firing process of the Great Celestial Circuit in motion, failing to follow the subtle secret of Heaven is equivalent to not setting it in motion at all; the fullness of Kan will likewise fail to arise continuously and transform the Yin in Li. This delays the transformation of the Yin spirit in Li into pure Yang.

The “divine elixir” referred to here is the fullness of Qi within Kan, also called the Golden Elixir. After it transforms the Yin Qi within Li, the Yin and Yang Qi gradually turn into Shen. When the two Qi have gradually disappeared, only Shen’s luminous awareness remains. This process is therefore also called “refining Qi to transform Shen.”

The Patriarch Pure Yang said, “From now on, play instead a qin without strings.”

“Play instead” refers to changing over to the Great Circulation, a more advanced stage of internal alchemy practice, and shows how it differs from the Small Circulation. The “stringless qin” is a metaphor for a state beyond form and sound. The methods of circulating the fire in the Small and Great Circulations are not the same. Their differences must first be understood before one can discuss how to circulate the fire.

The Realized Person Ziyang said, “What is usually called the timing of the fire refers to the Great Circulation stage. This stage carries great risks, so never apply to it the method of circulating the fire during ordinary morning practice.”

Guangchengzi said, “There is no need to labor over the turning of the Elixir Furnace and River Chariot; the crane’s embryo and the tortoise’s breathing continue naturally, without end.”

This means that turning the River Chariot belongs to the hundred-day practice of the Small Circulation. Once that stage is complete, there is no further need to use the River Chariot. One then enters the ten-month practice of the Great Circulation, simply maintaining a breath as long and subtle as that of a crane in its embryo or a tortoise at rest. The Shangqing Yuzhen Taixi Jue says, “I take Shen as my chariot and Qi as my horse; I drive them all day without tiring.” During the first hundred days, Yang Jing drives the River Chariot. In the Embryonic Breathing stage, one instead gathers Shen and settles into stillness, using Shen as the chariot and Qi as the horse to guide the spirit chariot. This is a metaphor for refining Qi into Shen. Later practitioners should understand the distinction.

Bai Yuchan said, “When the mind enters the realm of emptiness, one can then practice the timing of the fire.”

“Emptiness” here means that Shen and Qi settle into stillness without attachment to appearances; this is what Master Qiu called “true emptiness.” Though one practices the Great Circulation, one does not sense a spirit chariot turning. Even while practicing the Great Circulation, no visible signs of its movement appear. This is the subtle wonder of emptiness.

Fan Dezhao said, “Internal Qi does not disperse outward, and external air does not enter the body; this is not breath-holding.”

What people call “breath retention” means forcibly suppressing the breath. The way of the immortals has a different inner method, unlike the coercive practices of heterodox schools. The claim that the breath neither goes out nor comes in does not mean holding it in by force. Rather, the inner True Breath—the natural breathing spoken of in cultivation—accords with the workings of nature, and so one can enter meditative stillness, a state of quiet concentration.

Bai Yuchan said, “The highest-grade methods of the Elixir have no hexagrams or changing lines.” When Qi is transformed in the Lesser Circuit of Heaven, a method of cyclical circulation in Neidan cultivation, the process follows the sequence of hexagrams and changing lines. This is the timing and regulation of the Fire at an initial level of attainment. The Greater Circuit of Heaven does not regulate the Fire according to that sequence; its timing and regulation belong to a higher level. Since the Greater Circuit of Heaven is used to transform Shen, it is called “the highest grade.”

Peng Helin said, “When the Elixir is complete, one must enter the bathing phase.”

Here, “the Elixir is complete” refers to the Golden Elixir formed in the preceding stage, while “bathing” is a metaphor for the Greater Circuit of Heaven. After the Golden Elixir is formed, continuing to transform Shen requires entering the Greater Circuit of Heaven. At this point, there is no need to use the timing and regulation of the Lesser Circuit of Heaven. Once one enters the stage of nurturing the embryo for ten months, one should use the Greater Circuit of Heaven.

Patriarch Zhengyang said, “Bathing for a year is meant to guard against danger.”

Wu Zhenyang explained, “‘Bathing’ is a metaphor in the Lesser Circuit of Heaven, and it is likewise a metaphor in the Greater Circuit of Heaven. In accounts of the Lesser Circuit of Heaven, bathing is compared to periods such as two double-hours or two months; here, the Greater Circuit of Heaven is compared to a year. The Lesser Circuit of Heaven can be described by smaller measures, while the Greater Circuit of Heaven calls for larger ones. The dangers to be guarded against are those inevitably encountered in cultivation. If the workings of the immortal way involve advancing and withdrawing, the timing of bathing cannot be fixed. If the Buddhist Dharma cannot abide for long, its bathing period cannot be fixed either. The most important thing in bathing is to keep the mind settled. Guarding against danger means preventing the spirit and mind from becoming unsettled, or the bathing from being carried out incorrectly.”

It is also said, “There is no need to deliberately regulate the Fire; in the furnace, it is naturally warm and gentle.”

This means that during the ten-month stage of nurturing and refining, one need not use a Fire governed by set periods. Instead, one should use a gentle Fire without deliberate arrangement: neither cold nor overheated, attached neither to being nor to nonbeing. This is what it means for the Fire to be warm and gentle, and it also prevents the bathing from being done improperly.

After entering the “tenth month” stage of nurturing the embryo, one no longer uses a fire with clear signs of its intensity. Instead, one uses a gentle, subtle fire with no fixed signs. It is neither cold nor dry, and seems both present and absent. This is the true state of a gentle firing process.

The Ancestral Master Wang Chongyang said, “Once the sacred embryo has congealed, nurture and protect it with a gentle fire. Settle the mind and spirit, regulate the breath, and let things proceed naturally.”

Daoguang said, “During the year of bathing, guard against danger; throughout the tenth month of harmonizing, be careful and maintain restraint.”

“Bathing” here refers to a state of cultivation without obvious signs of the firing process—that is, the Great Circulation, the stage in Neidan (internal alchemy) in which Qi circulates throughout the body. “Maintaining restraint” means carefully following the principles of bathing. “Guarding against danger” means preventing the mind and spirit from wandering outward and losing their composure during bathing. If a year of cultivation brings one to a state of composure, one should maintain that composure at all times, year after year, for the long term. In this way, “one year” and “ten months” no longer refer merely to stages of limited duration.

Chen Xubai said, “In using fire, one must understand its timing, yet need not be bound by the hours. I know the subtle workings within.”

“Having signs” refers to the firing process of the Great Circulation. Though this process has signs, it is not bound to fixed times; hence it is called “the timing without timing”—a state that seems to follow discernible signs yet is not constrained by the passage of time. “Need not follow the hours” means there is no need to arrange the firing process according to the twelve double-hours. One can therefore enter a state of Wuwei (non-action), without deliberate contrivance. “The subtle workings within” refers to its extremely fine inner details. Cultivation may seem to involve bathing, yet one does not become attached to bathing. The mind and spirit remain composed while clear awareness is maintained; this is why he says, “I know.” Without awareness, one sinks into dullness, the firing process grows cold, and progress in the alchemical work slows.

Zixu said, “Settle the mind and intention, and let the firing process unfold in a state of suchness.”

“Suchness” means seeming to exist without clinging to existence, and seeming not to exist without clinging to nonexistence. Only when the mind and intention are settled in this state of seeming presence and absence can one attain the true firing process of the Great Circulation; only then is one truly carrying out the firing process.

He also said, “When observed, it seems to be there; when sought, it is nowhere to be found.”

When one enters deep absorption in the Great Circulation, one naturally enters a state of emptiness. But if one suddenly clings to “nothingness,” one falls into vacant stillness. That is why it is described as seeming both present and absent: one does not cling single-mindedly to emptiness, yet can settle within stillness. This is true emptiness and the state of absorption.

He also said, “It lies neither in breathing nor in counting the breaths; the natural mother and child will draw close of their own accord.”

Counting the breaths is a method of deliberate practice. Now that one has entered the state of meditation, there is no longer any need to act deliberately. Simply regulate the breath naturally, allowing the prenatal “mother-and-child” Qi (vital energy) to unite on its own.

It is also said: “Hold fast to the True One, and there will be no more coming and going.”

The “True One” here refers to the true Jing (essence) obtained earlier through refining Jing. In refining Qi, the Qi of true Jing unites with true Shen (spirit), and the Qi of the true breath sustains them. When the three merge and return to Shen, this is called the “True One.” Once all three are settled and still, the breath too returns to silence. What coming and going could remain?

The ancients said: “There are six hundred chapters recording the firing times; every chapter describes a similar method for gathering and refining true lead.”

The Cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three) also says: “There are six hundred chapters recording the firing times; every chapter is similar.” But it does not explain the subtlety of gathering and refining true lead. The phrase “seemingly gathering true lead” here refers to a further stage within the mysterious. What Xue Daoguang called “gathering the true through settled breathing” is this method. Though the chapters are alike, they all ultimately return to great stillness.

Ma Danyang said: “When practice continues without interruption, settled breathing is called the spirit embryo.”

Settled breathing abides in emptiness, while Shen naturally remains with the breath; this is fetal breathing, the state in which cultivated breathing returns to inner stillness. The state of meditative stillness must remain unbroken, and Shen must stay awake and aware throughout, so that the spirit in the womb becomes luminous.

Xinglin said: “There is no need to apply the firing times any longer, for fear of harming the infant.”

When first reaching the threshold of ten months, one must apply the firing times to refine Qi and transform it into Shen, forming the “infant” embryo. The infant here is a metaphor for Shen in its subtle, newly formed state. Once the embryo has formed and the infant has matured, and is about to manifest outwardly, there is no need to apply the firing times any longer. Continuing to apply them would be a practice suited to an earlier, unfinished stage and could instead harm the infant.

The Zhonghe ji says: “To deliberately hold on to it is to fall into delusive thought; to let it run wild is also wrong. Neither deliberately hold on to it nor forget it; neither gather it in nor let it run wild. Investigate this: what is it that persists?”

When entering meditative absorption in the Great Microcosmic Orbit, the state seems both present and absent. “Present” means that Shen and Qi have settled. “Absent” means that although Shen and Qi are in absorption, there is no sign that one is aware of entering it. If you deliberately try to hold on, you become attached to “presence”; once attached, the thought arises, “I am holding on to it.” But if you let it run wild without awareness, Shen and Qi will separate, which is also contrary to the principles of absorption. As long as even the faintest sense of continued presence remains, Shen and Qi are both there. When Shen and Qi settle together in absorption, they ultimately return to emptiness. This is the supreme, wondrous state.

Helinzi says: “When refinement and practice have become wholly integrated, one may well ask whether anyone understands: if there is neither increase nor decrease, what is there to draw out or add? If nothing departs and nothing arrives, what is there to advance or retreat?”

When Shen and Qi unite and settle together as one, there is no longer any use of the firing process. Unlike the Small Microcosmic Orbit, an internal cultivation method that follows a set sequence, this state has no increase or decrease and requires no drawing out or adding. The breath does not come and go, so how could there be advance or retreat? This means that cultivation returns to unity and then gradually returns to nonbeing.

Zhang Jingxu says: “The true firing process has nothing to do with the nine and six line images; it is neither an inverted circulation nor a cycle of advance and retreat. Its key is like bathing, yet it is not bathing. By abiding in emptiness for a long time, one can give rise to spiritual powers and wisdom.”

The “true timing” spoken of here is the firing process settling and returning to emptiness. It no longer uses the nine and six line images of the Small Microcosmic Orbit, nor its methods of inverted circulation and bathing; one simply settles in emptiness. Prolonged absorption and prolonged return to emptiness bring spiritual powers and wisdom’s illumination, bright and clear. This state resembles the Buddha’s Nirvana, the transcendence of birth and death, and also the cessation attainment, a meditative state in which mental activity comes to rest.

Qiu Changchun says: “As long as the breath is even slightly unsettled, one cannot yet say that one truly has command of one’s nature and life.”

Once the breath begins to move, there is life, and with life come birth and death. When the breath ceases completely, birth and death come to an end as well. Once the mind and spirit are settled, the breath naturally disappears. In this way, the fate of one’s life is placed in one’s own hands, and the Way of immortality is attained. If even a trace of breath remains unsettled, life is still governed by the breath and cannot be directed by oneself; instead, it is governed by the Yin-Yang of Heaven and Earth and by the King of the Underworld. This passage describes the firing times for refining Qi into Shen, nurturing the embryo for ten months, and the Great Circulation. It is also how Chongxu Zi sums up the Great Circulation firing times described earlier by the various perfected sages.

I have also said: “Cultivating the Great Circulation without following the numerical sequence of the hexagram lines is, by its nature, not something deliberately contrived. Yet to sustain it gently and continuously does not mean sinking into utter emptiness and stillness. At the beginning, it seems to rest in neither being nor nonbeing; in the end, it returns wholly to great stillness. Never mistake it for nothingness. If you think you have already attained the goal, you will fall into a lesser state of liberation. Nor should you cling to the operation of the fire, believing it must circulate forever; otherwise, you will lose the state of returning to great stillness. From being, one returns to nonbeing. Once one enters great stillness, the practices of transcending the ordinary, emerging in spirit, and ascending to immortality are all encompassed within it.”

Chongxu Zi further explains the aim of the Great Circulation and repeatedly cautions against clinging to the firing times, as though they must operate forever; otherwise, one will lose the state of returning to great stillness. From being, one returns to nonbeing. Once great stillness is attained, the practices of transcending the ordinary, emerging in spirit, and ascending to immortality are accomplished through it.

“Without counting the hexagram images” means cultivating through Wuwei (non-action), unlike the Lesser Circulation. “Gently and continuously” indicates that this is not complete emptiness: at the outset of the Great Circulation, the state is truly both present and absent. When the Great Circulation first begins, it is like being one, two, or three months pregnant. To say that something “seems to be present” means that something remains within; to say that it “seems absent” means that it has not yet truly returned to nonbeing. Thus, a trace of ordinary people’s appetite and sexual desire still remains, and the breath has not yet ceased completely. Only upon returning wholly to great stillness do the breath, appetite, and sexual desire disappear. The Jing of the Golden and Jade Blue Dragon and White Tiger says, “The essential principle of the natural process is to be present first, then to disappear.” Yu Yan’s commentary explains: “First, settle Shen in the Qi Cavity; afterward, Shen and the breath return together to emptiness. Shen naturally gathers and settles, and the breath naturally comes to rest.”

One must also understand that Fire—the skill of regulating and applying it in inner cultivation—arises from nothingness. If you do not understand that you must first begin by working as if something were there, but insist, “If it is originally nothing, why make use of something that only seems to be there?” you will fall into a single-minded pursuit of emptiness. You will fail to attain true nothingness, and in the end achieve only the lesser art of corpse liberation, a method of cultivation that seeks release by leaving the physical body.

One must also understand that Fire arises from what only seems to be there, yet in the end must return to nothingness. If you do not know that being is not the final goal of cultivation, and cling to it—remaining in being and never returning to nothingness—you will also fall into a single-minded attachment to being. How, then, can you pass from what only seems to be there to ultimate nothingness, attain great stillness, a deep and stable state of meditation, and remain deathless through ten thousand kalpas? In the end, you would be no more than a ghostly guard at the gates. This too belongs to the art of corpse liberation, and leaves you within the cycle of birth and death. Think of how much hardship and suffering you endured in refining Jing to replenish Qi, refining essence and vital energy to nourish primordial Qi, before you could realize and receive this secret method, so rare as to be encountered only once in countless kalpas, and attain a lesser accomplishment. How, then, could you neglect the greater accomplishment and fail to seek complete fulfillment?

I further instructed: “By returning from being to nothingness, attaining true stillness, and abiding for a long time in the realm of nothingness, you can transcend the body, emerge in spirit, and ascend through flight. The Way of cultivation that leads to ascension will then be complete. This is the essential principle of the Great Orbit Fire, the cycle of Fire that circulates throughout Neidan cultivation, for becoming an immortal, becoming a Buddha, and realizing the Dao.”

I then gave an overall account from the perspective of transforming Qi and transforming Shen: “During the first hundred days, refining Jing into Qi requires active effort—that is, proceeding from nothingness into being.” The Way of cultivation that leads to ascension will then be complete. This is the essential principle of the Great Orbit Fire for becoming an immortal, becoming a Buddha, and realizing the Dao.

I will summarize the cultivation process as “transforming Qi into Shen.” During the first hundred days, one refines Jing into Qi and must use active methods—that is, moving from nonbeing to being. This corresponds to what Buddhist teaching calls “all teachings returning to the One.” Then, during the next ten months, one refines Qi into Shen, gradually moving from being back to nonbeing and to stillness. This corresponds to the Buddhist practice of the “fourth meditation and cessation of all perception and feeling,” returning the One to nonbeing. These are essential secrets shared by the Immortals and the Buddhas; neither tradition can do without this stage. Chongxu Zi now explains it anew for later Daoist practitioners, so that they can receive guidance and verify the teachings passed down by the Immortals. This also keeps students from becoming attached to active or inactive methods, to timing or the absence of timing, arguing over schools, or making groundless conjectures.

This is the Heavenly Secret.

From the phrase “from this point” to the end, Chongxu Zi sums up the timing and stages of the entire process, and further points out the higher secret of refining Shen and returning to emptiness, for later practitioners to verify.

“Direct words of the gathered Immortals” means that the Immortals of old all left straightforward teachings, though people in the world were unable to understand them.

This does not mean that every secret method has been made public.

Many people have discussed the timing and stages of cultivation since ancient times, yet no one has ever explained them in full. They often offer only a sentence or two. If the account is incomplete, how can later generations practice or understand it? Thus ordinary people can only make groundless guesses; only those with an affinity for the Immortals will be guided by them.

Yet when these instructions are scattered, each gives only a general outline. Gathered together, they can be explained fully and in sequence.

The complete method of timing and stages need not necessarily be spoken in its entirety by me. Once this book has circulated, it will become a vital foundation for the cultivation practices of the myriad perfected beings in later generations. Anyone who reads it will naturally gain understanding from it, and will no longer be confused or stray into heterodox paths.

Heterodox paths refer to methods that cling to outward forms in manipulating the fire—for example, forcibly holding the breath or fixating on appearances, then calling this “directing the fire.” Those who understand the Immortals’ natural course of fire and timing will no longer use such wrongly forced fire.

In this way, the Yang Spirit—the pure Yang spirit spoken of in cultivation—will come to completion naturally, enabling one to transcend the cycles of tribulation and leave heterodox paths behind.

The cultivation of heterodox methods relies on fire timing with outward signs. It stirs the fire by suppressing the breath and clinging to external techniques. Once one understands the principles of the natural fire timing used by the immortals, there is no need to use a deviant fire forced into control.

In this way, the Yang Spirit (the manifestation of the original spirit described in cultivation) comes to fruition naturally, and karmic calamities are naturally transcended.

Practicing concentration, entering concentration, and attaining concentration are all necessary stages on the way to emerging from the body in spirit and surpassing the ordinary spirit. They are also indispensable practices for realizing the fruit. That is why the scripture says these states must be cultivated and realized over many years.

After emerging from the body in spirit, one must continue refining the spirit until it returns to emptiness. The author does not presume to speak rashly about the mysteries of nine years of cultivation. Yet the Zhonghe Ji says, “For nine years and three years, remain constantly in concentration.” This shows that even the immortals directly discuss this period of cultivation.

The first emergence of the Yang Spirit is like an immortal just beginning to attain completion, or like a child newly born from the womb. Though the child already has a human form, it has not yet grown, and is therefore called an “infant.” An ancient saying goes: “The child is young, not yet grown; it must rely on Mother Kun’s nurturing grace.” This means the infant still depends on “Mother Kun”—a symbol of the power that nourishes and sustains it. The scripture compares this to three years of nursing; earlier sages said one or two years could suffice, referring to the same stage.

Nursing means that the spirit and Qi have become stable, but must still be nurtured further through concentration and wisdom. One remains continually in a state of concentration without deliberately seeking to emerge from the body in spirit. This is like repeatedly nursing an infant until it grows into an adult. Once the spirit-consciousness has matured, one may proceed directly to refining the spirit until it returns to emptiness. The nine years of practice described refer to the time spent cultivating this return to emptiness.

If one’s wish to help the world and save others has not yet been fulfilled, one may set aside the completion of the nine years for a time and remain in the world to act. But when one wishes to transcend the mundane world and ascend to emptiness—a Daoist state beyond outward forms, returning to stillness and Wuwei—one must undergo nine years of refining the spirit until it returns to emptiness.

Ordinary learning can scarcely grasp these principles. If they are applied carelessly, one must await someone who has truly attained the Dao to put them into practice through the real presence within emptiness.

A person who has attained the Dao refers to an immortal who has emerged from concentration. Attaining concentration is only the initial foundation for entering emptiness. One must then reach the utmost depth of emptiness before putting it to use in the realm of true presence.

Those who have realized the Dao are immortals who have attained fulfillment through meditative stillness. Attaining a state of stillness is only an initial foundation for reaching emptiness; one must then reach the utmost emptiness before one can understand and put this state into practice.

Never assume that cultivation is complete as soon as you attain it. Unless you continue all the way to the final stage of “returning to emptiness,” you cannot establish yourself in the realm of spiritual powers.

At the “transforming Shen” stage, Shen is already spiritually responsive and unobstructed. At the “returning to emptiness” stage, it becomes even more so. The spiritual powers spoken of here are only those first attained; they have not yet reached full realization, so you must not remain at this level. If you stop here, you will become only an earthbound immortal. By continuing to return to emptiness, you may reach the realm of the celestial immortal.

Later practitioners should all encourage one another in this work.

Chapter Five: On Refining the Self

“Self” refers to the true nature that appears when a person is still and settled, and the true intention that acts in the course of activity; it is another name for the Original Shen. The true nature within a person originally governs Jing and Qi: following its ordinary workings, one is born as an ordinary person; cultivating in accordance with the Dao, one is ultimately made a sage by that same true nature. How, then, could one fail to refine the self first and cultivate one’s own heart and nature?

When the medicinal substances—the Jing and Qi referred to in Neidan practice—begin to stir, one must grasp the right moment. After refining them, one must also attend to the corresponding firing times. Just as the medicine is about to be refined, it may be lost again through one’s thoughts; just as Shen is about to emerge, it may likewise recede through one’s thoughts. If Qi is to become pure, the heart and nature must first be purified; until they are pure, Qi cannot become pure. If Shen is to become quiet and stable, the heart and nature must also first be purified; until they are pure, Shen cannot settle. How, then, can one transcend habitual tendencies and attachments, restore Qi to its prenatal state, and bring Shen to full concentration?

The ancients said, “Before refining the Return Elixir, first refine one’s nature; before cultivating the Great Medicine, first cultivate the heart.” This is precisely the principle.

Ma Ziran once said, “To refine the medicine, first learn to refine the heart. When facing external things, if the heart remains unmoved, that is the Great Return Elixir.” Zhang Xujing said, “If you want the Shen within your body not to wander outward, leave nothing in the numinous terrace”—that is, the place where the heart and Shen reside.

Those who cultivate must practice inward observation as their eyes pursue the forms and colors of the outer world, without being drawn along by what they see. As their ears pursue sounds, they must practice listening without being drawn along by what they hear. Ordinary people, too, should cultivate in this way in their daily lives, allowing thoughts that have already arisen to settle gradually and their original nature to become pure and still. The Scripture of the Primordial Heavenly Worthy on Attaining the Dao and Transcending the Body says: “When sounds and forms never cease, emotions and intentions, along with vital energy, cannot remain whole; when all manner of attachments never cease, the spirit cannot be at peace.” One must therefore cultivate in this way first, refining Qi and spirit, so as not to be confused and led astray by external things. Then the medicinal substance can be obtained when gathering it, the foundation can be established when laying the groundwork, and the embryo can be formed. This is the beginning of returning to one’s original nature, and a sign that the work of refining oneself has borne fruit.

The sages of earlier generations initially spoke of “refining oneself” in terms of how one’s nature and temperament operate amid worldly affairs and thoughts when facing all manner of things. They explained cultivation as a way of reversing this operation. In its final stage, “refining oneself” means that all distinctions between opposites have fallen away, and one returns alone to emptiness and stillness, reaching a state of quiescence and settled calm. Throughout, what is being refined is the original nature; the aim of cultivation is to realize one’s true nature. Those who preserve their innate nature are immortals; those who cannot preserve it are not.

Foolish people in the world do not understand that the ways of immortals and Buddhas are connected. They assume that the teachings of immortals and Buddhas must have different aims. Consider what the Lotus Sutra says: “The celestial immortal way of the Tathagata is so subtle that it is difficult to fathom.” If they do not believe the Buddha’s words, why speak about the Buddha at all? They understand neither immortals nor Buddhas, nor their own true nature. They only make arrogant, absurd claims to mislead the world, while sinking into the vast sea of the teachings of immortals and Buddhas, unable even to tell whether they are rising or sinking. How pitiful.

Chapter Six: On Laying the Foundation

Chongxuzi said: “Cultivating the foundation is the first step in cultivating immortality. ‘Cultivating’ means accumulating gradually and continually replenishing; the ‘foundation’ is the basis for refining the Yang spirit—the yang aspect of the spiritual essence—and the support that steadies the mind and harmonizes the breath. The foundation must be cultivated first because the Yang spirit usually depends on Jing and Qi to function as it matures, reaches completeness, and reveals its clarity.

The spirit is originally yin, while Jing and Qi are yang. Only by relying on pure Yang Jing and true Qi can one refine the Yang spirit. Without them, one cannot refine the Yang spirit and will instead form the Yin spirit, a yin aspect of the spiritual being. When Jing and Qi are abundant, the spirit grows strong and its powers increase; when they are depleted, the spirit weakens and its light of clarity dims. This is precisely how it works. For the original spirit—the person’s innate spiritual essence—to endure and remain aware, Jing and Qi must also endure as its firm foundation.

Before the foundation is cultivated, the original spirit is constantly stirred by external circumstances, causing original Qi to disperse and original Jing to diminish. The foundation is thereby further weakened. Jing is depleted through sexual intercourse, and over time one grows deeply attached to desire. Later, can one really prevent Jing from leaking away and transform it into Qi? Qi moves ceaselessly in and out with the breath. Later, can one really stop the breath and transform Qi into spirit? The spirit is pulled along by thoughts and concerns; thoughts keep changing without pause. Later, can one really steady the mind for a long time and return the spirit to emptiness and stillness? These things are difficult because there is no foundation.

Therefore, the Three Treasures—Jing, Qi, and spirit—must be cultivated together: replenish Jing with Jing, Qi with Qi, and spirit with spirit, accumulating gradually to build the foundation. The foundation can be established only when the three are brought into unity; if they cannot be unified, it cannot be established. This is what is meant by ‘forging them into one.’”

Once the foundation has been established, Jing can be kept secure, and Qi naturally returns. In this way, one can attain the fruit of the human immortal. This is the foundation for leaving the Realm of Desire and ascending to the Realm of Form, as well as the basis for cultivating ten months of settled awareness. During those ten months, one does not fall into dull sleep precisely because this foundation is in place. Only when the spirit remains undistracted by external things for ten months can one enter deep stillness and attain the fruit of the human immortal.

Thus, after refining Qi, the Qi settles and breathing nearly ceases. After refining Shen, the Shen becomes empty and still, yet one does not sink into drowsy sleep. This is what is meant by the foundation on which the Yang Spirit—the pure Yang spirit that appears through cultivation—depends. This foundation forms because Yang Jing, pure Yang essence free from loss, does not leak outward. Hence it is called the “supernatural power of ending leakage,” which cuts off loss so that Jing and Qi are no longer depleted. Without this foundation, there is no supernatural power of ending leakage. There is only the nature of the Yin spirit, which yields no more than the Five Supernatural Powers.

The Five Supernatural Powers belong to the Yin Spirit, a Yin nature of awareness that has not reached pure Yang. The Yang Spirit has six powers: the Five Supernatural Powers plus the power of ending leakage.

The six powers are: the heavenly eye, which sees what ordinary people cannot; the heavenly ear, which hears what ordinary people cannot; the power of spiritual transformations, which allows one to change one’s form and travel without hindrance; knowledge of past lives; knowledge of the thoughts of others; and the power of ending leakage. The power of ending leakage is the one supernatural power the Yang Spirit has beyond the Yin Spirit; both may possess the other five.

If one cannot escape birth and death, then after dying one will perish here and be born again elsewhere. One’s dwelling place in body and mind will remain insecure. What benefit, then, is there in the Yin Spirit? How could one fail to establish the foundation of the Yang Spirit promptly and investigate it deeply? Those who sink into lust and squander their Jing instead deceive others with talk of “gathering and replenishing to build the foundation”—taking another person’s Jing to nourish oneself and establish a foundation. This deceives the foolish and gravely violates the right Dao. How could it not call for warning?

People do not understand that “prior to Heaven” refers to the original state of utmost purity and stillness. When it transforms into post-Heaven, visible Jing, that is the prior-to-Heaven state. When it stirs and becomes prior-to-Heaven, formless Jing, it is still prior to Heaven. When it further divides into post-Heaven, visible breath, that too has its source in what is prior to Heaven. This is the principle of transformation through the course of the ordinary way.

Original Qi is the root of life. Everything within a person’s body is generated through the transformation of Original Qi. “Reverse cultivation” means preventing Original Qi from following its ordinary course and turning into tangible, acquired essence; therefore, one must first discern its prenatal state. One must also keep it from stirring recklessly into formless prenatal essence, thereby stabilizing this prenatal essence; and prevent it from differentiating into acquired, tangible breath, allowing prenatal Qi to remain latent. Only when a cultivator enters the prenatal state can it be called “the One Qi.” This “One” can divide into three, and the three can return to the One. It has many names and corresponds to many functions. Thus, without understanding the distinctions between the prenatal and acquired, and between the clear and turbid, one cannot gather and refine the true Original Qi.

Chapter Seven: On Refining the Medicine

Chongxu Zi said: “The Immortal Way takes the Three Primordial Treasures—Jing, Qi, and Shen—as its proper medicine. Original Jing, Original Qi, and Original Shen are collectively called the ‘Three Primordials’; all belong to the prenatal. Refining the three together into one is like refining medicine.” Guiguzi said: “The Dao takes the utmost Shen as its root, the utmost Jing as its medicine, harmonious Qi as its function, and Wuwei as its method of governance. By refining medicine in this way, one can attain longevity and long vision.” Guiguzi also said: “The Dao takes the utmost Shen as its foundation, the utmost Jing as its medicine, harmonious Qi as its function, and Wuwei as its method of governance; thus the Way of longevity and long vision can be accomplished.” Without this, one has no method for refining the “Great Return Elixir of Golden Liquid.”

The principles are exceedingly subtle, and the methods profoundly secret. In the past, Patriarch Zhongli tested Patriarch Lü with ten trials; Patriarch Qiu endured countless hardships under Patriarch Chongyang. I, Wuzi, sought instruction in the Dao under Cao Huanyang for twenty years.

I met my teacher in the third month of winter in the guisi year of the Wanli reign, and in the third month of the renzi year I received the complete Dao teachings. Counting by the ren and gui years, twenty years passed in all before I gained some understanding. Thus, those in the world who study the Dao in confusion, and those who happen to speak of its methods, do not know what constitutes the true medicine or the true method of refinement. They merely speak empty words about seeking it within their own body and mind, without knowing that the true moment appears only when body and mind are utterly still.

The “true moment and true pivot of utmost stillness” refers to the point when body and mind are still to the extreme, like the end of the Hai hour and the beginning of the Zi hour. When Yin stillness reaches its utmost, Yang Qi must stir. Then…

The “true mechanism” within “utter stillness” refers to what happens when body and mind become completely quiet: as at the end of the Hai hour and the beginning of the Zi hour, when Yin stillness reaches its extreme, Yang Qi begins to stir. Qi naturally tends to circulate and turn back, and the inner true mechanism stirs again along with it. At this point, the formless, precelestial original Qi is about to move and become formless, precelestial original Jing. This formless original Jing is the “medicine” spoken of in cultivation.

Once the medicine Qi and the impulse of life appear, the body will inevitably become aware of having received the medicine in its precelestial state. The practitioner should let numinous awareness guide the refining of the medicine, use calmness and harmonious adjustment as the method, and gather the medicine when the timing for kindling the fire is right. In gathering it, one must also distinguish whether the medicine Qi is still young or has grown old. If gathered too early, its Qi is too weak to take effect and cannot form the Elixir. If gathered too late, its movement has already dispersed, and it likewise cannot form the Elixir.

Only after confirming that the true medicine has been obtained and gathered back into the furnace should one kindle the fire at the proper time to refine it—that is, circulate the fire of the microcosmic orbit. If one kindles the fire before the medicine has returned to the furnace, Lü Dongbin, the Pure Yang Patriarch, warned that practicing embryonic breathing without the medicine, and forcibly keeping Qi in the abdomen, may cause cold Qi to accumulate and bring illness; the medicine dissipates outside and does not belong to oneself. To operate the fire recklessly before the medicine has entered the fire cauldron is like saying, “If there is no true seed in the cauldron, one is merely boiling water and fire over an empty vessel.” In the end, one cannot refine the great medicine.

Conversely, if the medicine has returned to the furnace but the fire is not kindled in time, the true Qi will be interrupted, and the great medicine again cannot be refined. While the medicine is outside, the firing process is needed to gather it back into the furnace; once it enters the furnace, the same process is needed to cook and refine it so that it can undergo transformation there. If the medicine has returned to the furnace but the firing process is interrupted, the true Qi cannot continue. Kindling the fire again later, even if one completes a full circuit of the microcosmic orbit, cannot reconnect with the Qi movement that came before, and the great medicine cannot be refined. In this case, the outer fire is circulating, but the inner timing and signs do not correspond: the Heavenly Soul and Earthly Po are not joined.

If one attends too deliberately to the firing process, one becomes attached to the fire, and the medicine will consequently dissipate. Fixating on the firing process can easily give rise to outward signs and sudden agitation. This resembles the visualization practices of heterodox paths and is not the subtle function of following the natural workings of Heaven.

If one becomes lax and negligent, with no awareness at all of the firing process, one will instead fall into dullness and confusion.

When applying the fire—that is, using the intention of Shen (spirit) to regulate the process of refinement and cultivation—if the mind is not focused and sincere, the firing process will be difficult to bring into accord, and one may also lapse into dullness and confusion. For example, within the twelve double-hours—the ancient division of a day and night according to the twelve Earthly Branches—one may sometimes forget that one is practicing; mistake the time indicated by a clepsydra or other timekeeping device; forget the bathing phase, a period of regulated breathing and quiet cultivation; fail to know how many counts to make as the circuit of the heavens proceeds; or continue after that circuit has already been completed.

All these are errors in the firing process, and the medicine will dissipate. If the firing process cannot preserve the medicine, how could the medicine fail to dissipate? This is like the intention of Shen failing to preserve Qi (vital energy).

In this way, the great medicine cannot be refined. All the dangers described above arise from an imbalance of Yin-Yang, from leaning too far toward either presence or absence.

If the firing process is intermittent and the practice cannot be sustained, then even when the medicine is close to being refined, it will be spoiled again.

The fire’s function is to refine the medicine. An old saying puts it this way: “Fire and medicine dwell in one place.” In applying the fire, the longer the practice continues, the finer and more meticulous it becomes; the finer it becomes, the purer it grows. Only in this way can the great medicine be refined and Neidan (internal alchemy) fit for ingestion be brought to completion. If, at times, the mind and spirit chase after what is seen and heard, or lustful thoughts scatter outward and lead one astray, one departs from the proper path. When the fire leaves the medicine, the practice can no longer be sustained—how then can the great medicine be refined? Even if it is nearly complete, it remains at risk of retreating and dispersing.

If one applies the fire for a long time without knowing when to stop, the medicine will be spoiled again even if it has already been refined.

Once the firing process has reached its proper point, the great medicine is complete. How could one then continue the fire? At this time, one should gather the medicine—that is, collect and use what has been refined—so that it is no longer postnatal, tangible essence and Qi. If one neither stops the fire nor gathers the medicine, the great medicine fit for ingestion cannot be formed.

When the timing and intensity of the firing process—the force and timing of cultivation—are just right, the Great Medicine, formed from refined Jing and Qi in Neidan practice, will take shape. How could the firing then be allowed to continue? Gathering the medicine at this point means that what is obtained is no longer the postnatal, tangible essence of semen. If the firing is not stopped and the medicine is not gathered, no Great Medicine fit to be ingested can form. Instead, it may move along with the activities of life and become erratic.

Cultivating the Dao requires Shen and Qi to be brought into harmony and joined, with the firing process and the medicine properly matched. The breath serves as the fire; the movement and stillness of true Qi serve as the medicine. From the movement and stillness of true Qi, one then determines the foundation of the true breath—the fine, deep, and sustained breathing of internal cultivation.

When true Qi returns to its root, the true breath also settles at that root. Shen and Qi unite there, forming the foundation for the embryo spirit, the original Shen that coalesces through internal cultivation.

In this way, the fire and medicine are applied without the slightest deviation, neither misapplied through forced control nor through leaving things to run unchecked. Only by gathering the medicine in this way can one grasp the subtle principle of the Lesser Celestial Circuit, in which the Qi mechanism of Neidan circulates along the Ren and Du meridians, and refine the Great Medicine that enables longevity. This is what is called completing the External Golden Elixir. Ma Danyang said, “Because the flame descends when the elixir is fired, the waters of the Yellow River flow upstream.” The Book of Jade Zhi says, “If the dark and yellow do not undergo literary union, how can they…”