Commentary on the Great Way - Part 2 (15)

It is easy to restore the elixir, but it is the hardest to refine it. With a wise sword, he cuts through the primordial chaos ①; with a craftsman's hand, he chisels through the chaos ②. However, by using the method of reversing Yin and Yang and the way of balancing water and fire, one can achieve harmony between earth and heaven. When Yang is placed at the bottom, fire will surely illuminate the top; when Yin is placed at the top, water will moisten the bottom. As long as one practices asceticism and endures humiliation, with the body and mind remaining still, if one's own nature fades away, the energy of the other will naturally return. If a person can do this, he will achieve the effect of "keeping the female from the male, remaining still and still, and being enlightened and enlightened". When the Taiji is about to be divided, stillness reaches its peak and has not yet reached movement, and Yang begins to return and has not yet left Yin. At this time, the true primordial 炁 descends, and the Dharma is used to capture it and send it to the Yellow Court ⑦. During the daily transportation of mercury, the surrounding area was tight. The mercury vapor gradually increased and the lead vapor gradually dissipated, merging into the cauldron ⑧. It is also necessary to regulate the true breath ⑨, circulate the six void ⑩, until the sound is silent and the mind is in harmony ⑾, then the qi is even and the pulse is stable, and the elixir begins to condense. Only when the holy fetus is full of energy, the ten months of practice are complete, the incarnation is divine, and a baby is born. With consummate proficiency, one can move freely and unobstructed ⒁, and will not be lured by demons ⒂. Just wait until the nine Transformations are accomplished, when facing the wall ⒃, refine the essence to transform into 炁, refine the spirit to transform into a tiger, both form and spirit are wonderful ⒄, in harmony with the truth of the dao. This is the time when a great man achieves success and fame. [Note] (1) "Hongmeng" refers to the physical and mental condition that is blocked and unblocked after birth. Hong, meaning infinite darkness and ignorance, is like the universe that has not yet been created. ⑵ Chaos: It refers to the natural primordial state of the boundless void. ⑶ Ascetic practice and patience: This has two meanings: one refers to the painstaking patience and patience during the process of self-cultivation, being able to undertake humble tasks and withstand slander and abuse; In the state of two-finger skill, the mind remains calm and still in the lower position, just like a gentleman who humbly endures humiliation. The term "patience" in "enduring humiliation" is merely a conventional expression. It is not true patience but rather endurance, that is, not regarding humiliation as humiliation. ⑷ Adhere to the female rather than the male, remain silent and motionless, and then be enlightened: Quoted from the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching. In Chapter 28 of the Tao Te Ching, it is written, "Know its might, hold onto its might, and you will be the stream of the world." ……” The male refers to the masculine repelling force, while the female refers to the feminine absorbing force. The male is strong while the female is gentle; the male is dynamic while the female is still. To remain female rather than male means to maintain a gentle and quiet absorbing posture and not to display a vigorous and repelling posture. In the "Xici Shangxue" of the "Yi", it is stated: "There is no thought, no action. One remains still and still, and through perception comes enlightenment." For the sake of the world, who else but the supreme god of the world can compare with this? It refers to the fact that the universe naturally has the supreme and greatest master - the primordial spirit. When human beings exhibit the dynamic consciousness spirit, they deviate from it. If the subjective, selfish and restless consciousness is removed, and there is no thought or action, remaining still and motionless, communication with the primordial spirit will be achieved. My stillness is the perception of my primordial spirit. When the primordial spirit arrives, it will have a perception of me. What is perceived is perceived by the other, and what is connected is connected with the other. ⑸ Reach the ultimate stillness: To achieve the ultimate stillness. (6) The initial recovery of Yang: The true Yang energy has just begun to accumulate. To recover means to regain what has been lost. Huang Ting: According to Huang Ting, ancient alchemists, due to their different sects and application methods, referred to a wide range of parts. It refers to the upper, middle and lower dantian. There is one that specifically refers to the dantian. Those with a specific purpose; Some refer to the spleen; It refers to the empty area below the navel. According to Mr. Mitutoyo's usage of reversing Yin and Yang in this passage, this yellow court should refer to the clay pill being placed on the dantian. However, this Yellow Court must also be integrated with the great Yellow Court of heaven and earth, with the existing and the non-existing, in order to be legal. Ding: In a narrow sense, it refers to clay balls; in a broad sense, it refers to the entire body; and in a vast sense, it refers to heaven and earth. All three are in harmony within. True Breath: It is the breath without breath that is united with heaven and earth. There is only a clear and misty atmosphere, but no pulsating frequency or form. If you don't understand this, just look up at the clear blue sky and you will know what it looks like. ⑽ Six Void: That is, a chaotic void without any up or down, front or back, left or right. ⑾ To silence but unity of mind: "Sound" refers to breathing and formal expression. Silence, that is, breathing has no form at all. "Yi" refers to the true meaning. "Yi he" refers to the unity of true intention and true breath, both of which have no form to be expressed. It is the uniform flow of qi and the stable pulse: Qi refers to the innate primordial qi. The qi is even, the physical emptiness is mixed with the great void, and the innate primordial energy is evenly distributed without hindrance. The pulse stops, which refers to the phenomenon where the blood vessels in the body lack frequency characteristics. The pulse is the frequency of the blood flow impulse, and this specifically indicates that this frequency has ceased. 13. Infant: It refers to the initial form of the Yang spirit obtained through cultivation. Youdaoplaceholder0 The proficiency of the tone, moving freely and unobstructed in all directions: It refers to the initial formation of the Yang spirit, which requires training, starting from near to far, from temporary to long-term, gradually enabling it to have the ability to act independently. As the Yang spirit is the condensed body of qi and the most spiritual spirit, it can transcend the limitations of three-dimensional time and space, moving freely and unobstructed. For instance, within a second in the consciousness of an ordinary person, he can walk a thousand miles and penetrate any substance without any hindrance. Youdaoplaceholder0 Lured by demons: The alchemists believe that when training the Yang spirits, the internal Yin demons or the ghosts and gods in the universe will change various scenes to test the magic, either luring them with beautiful views or threatening them with terrifying scenes. As long as one remains unmoved, one can defeat the demons, each fading away and no longer causing disturbance. Youdaoplaceholder0 When facing the wall: that is, when entering a state of great concentration and stillness. At this point, self-awareness has completely vanished and is left in the state of natural creation. The term "facing the wall" is derived from the Buddha Bodhidharma's "ten years of facing the wall". Youdaoplaceholder0 Both form and spirit are wonderful: It refers to the fact that the physical body has also been completely transformed into qi and combined with the Yang spirit into a unified gas spirit. When dispersed, it becomes qi; when gathered, it takes shape, thus it is called both form and spirit are wonderful. In the cultivation of the Great Way, it is easy to return the elixir, but the practice before returning it is already very difficult. It is precisely because the cultivation is already difficult that we need to hold high the wisdom sword of true intention and right mindfulness, and ruthlessly cut off the culprit that seriously hinders our body and mind from flowing smoothly and keeps us in a state of confusion for a long time - evil thoughts and distractions, so that the great master of true intention, this great wisdom of cultivation, can exert his ability to carve out the primordial energy for the creation of life from the chaos and the boundless. Having laid a solid foundation in this step, we will not follow the common practice of using Yin and Yang as ordinary people do, but will use them in reverse. The common use of Yin and Yang by ordinary people is to divide the Yin and Yang that were originally in one place into two ends, gradually diverging from each other. The so-called Yin and Yang refer to the spirit. Essence is like water and spirit is like fire. When water and fire are separated, they cannot form the nutrients that nourish life. In the I Ching hexagram, this situation is manifested as the "Fu" hexagram, which is called the deficiency of water and fire. However, our method of inversion should transform it into the "Tai" hexagram of water and fire complementing each other, so as to better produce nutrients and nourish life. For instance, essence and spirit are like heaven and earth. Spirit represents heaven, Yang and fire. Essence represents earth, Yin and water. Our inversion method is to enable the divine and the spirit to interact with the earth and the heaven to achieve the best performance. This method involves having the Yang and fire spirits reside at the bottom, allowing their heat energy to dissipate from the bottom up. Let the essence of Yin and water ascend, and let its rain and dew nourish from top to bottom. If there is water on the fire, the fire will not become dry and scorched. If there is something beneath the water, it will not be cold. In the middle, it will evaporate into a misty gas to nourish everything within the body. The adoption of the Yin-Yang Inversion method first creates a favorable internal circulation environment, transforming the inner essence, energy and spirit into internal medicine. Then, it attracts the external natural void primordial energy, which is the external medicine, and combines them to form the golden Liquid Great Pill. As long as we can persistently cultivate ourselves first, adapt to all kinds of hardships and humiliations, and skillfully apply the method of inversion, our body and mind can remain in a state of tranquility, and our acquired nature returns to the natural innate nature. Then, the external natural void primordial energy will return to our lives just as it did when it created our lives. If a person who practices Taoism can achieve this, he will also obtain the aforementioned benefits as described by the ancients, such as "adhering to the female rather than the male" and "remaining still and motionless, and then attaining enlightenment through perception". What I just said was the major principle. In the specific practice, there are some key details that must be mastered. For instance, when the body and mind remain still, one first returns to the state of Infinity. But returning to the boundless is a means, while pursuing the Taiji born of the boundless is the ultimate goal. Because it is extremely pure Yin, it is not until the Taiji that it moves and generates Yang. When Tai Chi is about to occur but has not yet, the state of stillness has reached its peak, movement is brewing but has not yet emerged, and Yang shows a tendency to recover, but it is still wrapped in the stillness of Yin. At this point, one should patiently maintain stillness; eventually, stillness will come to life. As soon as the movement occurs, it indicates that the true innate primordial energy has arrived. After that, there must be a way to collect it, nourish it, and refine it to make it constantly pure and vigorous. Then, move the canal cart and perform the method of the "Zhou Tian" technique to send it into the clay pill yellow court. Every day, use one's own primordial spirit to enclose this innate primordial energy and refine it again. The purpose and effect of this refinement lie in consolidating and strengthening the spiritual and wisdom components of the divine, reducing and digesting the material components of the qi until they are completely absent, and ultimately forming the elixir that serves as the foundation for new life. The clay pills are like the tripods for forming elixirs, so this acupoint is very important. During the process of forming the elixir, it is also necessary to regulate the true breath; otherwise, success cannot be achieved. True breath is the breath without breath, the breathing of the natural essence of the universe. When a person attains true breath, the physical body and the void are indistinguishable, and only then can the innate primordial energy be universally and unobstructed. The criterion for judging true breath is that all forms of breathing cease to exist, the true mind is tightly integrated into the breath of no breath, there is no pulsation of the pulse, and the body and mind are evenly distributed with a clear and bright primordium. Only in this state will the Great Pill condense. Only when the elixir continues to condense can the holy womb of the Yang God be produced. But this process must go through a mature cycle of spiritual concentration like a mother's ten-month pregnancy before it can leave the body and become an external body. This initially detached Yang spirit is called an infant by immortals. He has to undergo long-term and repeated training before he can exist independently from the physical body. When mature, the Yang God can transcend the temporal and spatial limitations of ordinary people, act without obstacles and freely. However, during the training process, the Yang spirit often transforms into various beautiful or tragic illusions due to the unrefined Yin demons within its body and those created by external ghosts and gods to lure or intimidate. All of this must stand the test of time, remain unmoved, and then be able to defeat all the demons. The attainment of the Yang spirit is not the final effort. One must also enter a state of great concentration and stillness, further exercise the physical body with the true fire of the Yang spirit, and undergo high-level refinement of essence into qi and spirit into emptiness, so that both the physical body and the Yang spirit become the body of qi transformation, achieving a state of both form and spirit being wonderful and in harmony with the truth of the Dao. This is the greatest undertaking that a true man has accomplished in his life. This is the greatest success and the highest fame. [Understanding] This passage mainly explains the key points for formal practice after one has mastered the practice. Although it is not a key point among the key points, the sequence of practice is already very clear. "Shu Jiang Yu chisel through the chaos" means that when starting work, one must trace back to the source from stillness and composure, and perceive the Taiji from the boundless. However, the passage "Using the method of reversing Yin and Yang" followed by "above water and below fire" refers to the situation where, after a person is calm, the spirit is lowered to illuminate the dantian, and the principle and function of this method of reversing Yin and Yang are explained. This section of the ritual is called "concentrating the Mind and regulating the Breath". Overall, this period of practice should last for a long time, that is, until the fetal breath appears. The ancients often did not provide any time indication for this period of practice, because the purity they had cultivated was beyond the imagination of modern people. Therefore, the ancients were already highly proficient in alchemy and could easily enter the state of fetal breathing. Nowadays, people follow the ancient method of first refining oneself and then returning the elixir. Due to the limitations of conditions, it is difficult to achieve such a clear step-by-step approach. Therefore, the practical method is to refine oneself and return the elixir simultaneously. Thus, the process of concentrating the mind and regulating the breath must and is bound to be long. The stage of concentrating the mind and regulating the breath, I call it the "Heaven and Earth Positioning" stage. Because a person lags behind heaven, the innate procedures are gradually disrupted. The meridians throughout the body are blocked, the orifices are impeded, the qi and blood are not active, and the circulation of heaven is not smooth. By concentrating the mind and regulating the breath in this way, the disrupted innate program can be restored and improved. Therefore, it can be called "Heaven and Earth positioning". At this stage, the flow of qi gradually transitions from breathing through the mouth and nose to fetal breathing, while the use of spirit begins with the use of consciousness and gradually transitions to true intention. In conclusion, the key lies in the rear realm, and thus the adjustment and agitation of qi mainly depend on the qi of the camp and the defense. During the process of "heaven and earth positioning", the successive heaven and earth undergo major adjustments, so the phenomena of qi and fortune are the most diverse and rich, and the feelings they give people are also very strange. There will be some abnormal reactions in both physiology and pathology. Some people with a shallow understanding of the truth, when they are at this initial stage of practice, often do not know the essence. Some think they have gone astray, some think they have developed supernatural powers, some think they have attained the supreme path, and some mistake the illusory for the real, either claiming to have encountered immortals or demons. Some people are at a loss and can't make up their minds, eventually becoming the blind army of Qigong. This situation is very similar to abnormal natural climate. At a certain time, in order to adjust the balance, nature will experience fierce and peculiar meteorological symptoms such as heavy rain, strong wind, hail and earthquake. Once this meteorological sign passes, the natural climate returns to normal, which is nothing strange. The passage, "As long as one practices asceticism and endures humiliation, with the body and mind remaining still, if one's own nature fades away, the energy of the other will return on its own," is the stage after concentrating the mind and regulating the breath, when the "heaven and earth" have been positioned, only waiting for the initial emergence of the natural and Yang energy. In the previous stage, concentrating the mind and regulating the breath focused on intense fire, while in this stage, only gentle fire is used. "Between the stages of Taiji, stillness reaches its peak but has not yet reached movement, and Yang begins to return but has not yet left Yin." This is the continuous flow of gentle fire. "Wait for the true weather to descend. Chase after it with the Dharma and send it to the Yellow Court." This is the practice of collecting, refining and circulating the Dharma, using both civil and martial arts skills. The daily movement has accumulated mercury, the encapsulation is meticulous, the mercury vapor gradually increases, the lead vapor gradually dissipates, and it converges in the tripod. This fire is classified as a gentle fire due to its stillness and as a vigorous fire due to its concentration. "Wen" is "wu", and "wu" is "wen". It is also necessary to regulate the true breath, circulate the six deficiencies, until the sound is silent and the mind is united, then the qi is even and the pulse is stopped, and the elixir begins to condense. This is the fire without fire, or it can be called the natural fire. Although the skills to be mastered in the future can be generally described, they actually require the oral instruction and personal guidance of a true master. Merely presenting them in words is in vain. Foolish skills are limited. Those who have not experienced it dare not make hasty explanations. The author, Mr. Kong De, authorizes this website for exclusive publication and recording. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use for other purposes is prohibited.