The original preface of the Wuzhen Chapter

Zhang Boduan from Tiantai expressed his deep appreciation to his uncle! Human life is hard to come by, time is fleeting, and life is short. How can one escape the retribution of karma? If one does not realize it early on, one will only be willing to part with it until the end. If there is a momentary lapse in thought and one falls into the evil realms of the three evil paths, there will be no escape from the cycle of countless eons. Master Shi opened up a convenient way with the study of life and death, teaching people to cultivate and escape the cycle of life and death. Buddhism takes emptiness and stillness as its fundamental principle. If one suddenly realizes and becomes enlightened, one will directly reach the other shore. If one's practice is not completely eradicated, one will still follow the path of life. Lao regarded refinement and nourishment as the true essence. If one grasps the key points, one will ascend to the position of a sage. However, if one fails to understand one's original nature, one will remain stuck in an illusory form. Secondly, the I Ching contains the phrase "exhausting the principle, exhausting the nature, and causing death", and the Lu language includes "wu Yi", "bi", "gu", and "I". This is also Confucius' ultimate pursuit of the essence of life and nature. Then why is it that his words are often brief rather than detailed? Because of the desire to rectify human relations and impart the teachings of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and music, the way of non-action has never been explicitly stated, but rather the various images of the I Ching and the laws of nature have been mixed into the subtle words through the art of destiny. As for Zhuangzi's exploration of the free and easy nature of all things and Mencius' cultivation of a noble and upright spirit, both are discussed. Later, Wei Boyang of the Han Dynasty wrote "Cantongqi" by citing the style of the Yi Dao Jiao Gou to demonstrate the effect of the Great Pill. In the preface of "Yulu" by Tang Zhongguo Shi, Laozi and Zhuangzi's words were presented to show that the true nature of the Supreme Dao is like this. Isn't it true that although the teachings are divided into three parts, the Dao is unified into one? Alas, the monastic and the Yellow sects of the world, each specializing in their own fields and opposing one another, have led to the three sects having to be free from any wrong distinctions and cannot unite as one. Moreover, nowadays people think that the Taoist school is more about cultivating one's life, but they do not know that the principles of cultivating one's life come from two extremes: there are those that are easy to encounter but hard to achieve, and there are those that are difficult to encounter but easy to achieve. Such as refining the qi of the five buds, taking the light of the seven rays, concentrating thoughts and massaging, taking in the clear and expelling the turbidous, chanting sutras and mantras, using the water of the mouth to strike talismans, clenching teeth to gather the spirit, parting from one's wife and cutting off food, concentrating the spirit and closing the breath, exercising the thoughts between the eyebrows, nourishing the brain and restoring the essence, practicing the arts in the room, and even refining gold, stones, grass and trees, all these are easy to encounter but difficult to achieve. All the above-mentioned methods are often destroyed and broken in the path of self-cultivation. Therefore, even if one exerts a lot of force, the effect is often not verified. If one is diligent and persevering, and practices day and night, one can avoid illness and prevent it from becoming rampant. Once it doesn't work out, all previous efforts will be wasted. This is just a waste of time and the matter is bound to be difficult to achieve. Desire, once obtained, is always there. To return to infancy and old age, yet to transform and ascend, isn't that also difficult? Among them, only the method of closing the breath, if one can forget the opportunity and eliminate worries, is quite similar to the two vehicles of sitting meditation. If one practices diligently, one can enter a state of meditation and absent-mindedness. However, due to the Yin nature of the spirit, it is inevitable that the method of migration is often used. If one has not obtained the way to return the gold and mercury, how could one return to the Yang body to transform one's bones and fly to the sky in broad daylight? Those who refine the elixir of alchemy are hard to come by but easy to achieve. They must have a deep understanding of Yin and Yang and a profound grasp of nature, so as to follow the two qi in the Yellow Path, master the three natures in the primordial palace, gather the five elements, and harmonize the four images. The roar of dragons and the roar of tigers, the support of husbands and the support of women, the boiling of jade cauldron and the burning of golden stove, can all be achieved in a short while, maintaining endless joy and ease. As for imitating danger and considering danger, one should be cautious in the use of extraction and addition, cultivate the right and maintain the right. One should preserve the female and embrace the one, naturally restore the Yang energy and eliminate the Yin and kill form. When the solar terms come to an end, one is transformed into a divine being, with the title of "Immortal" and the title of "True Man". This is the time when a true man achieves success and fulfillment. In modern times, those who practice are deluded by attachments and fail to grasp the true essence of the wonderful Dharma, yet they blame the immortals for their slander. Little do they know that those who achieve enlightenment all attain it through the refinement of golden elixirs. The sage was afraid of revealing the secrets of heaven, so he named it after several events. Today's scholars take lead and mercury as the two qi, refer to the internal organs as the five elements, the heart and kidney as the Kan and Li, the liver and lung as the dragon and tiger, the spirit as the mother and son, and the body fluids as lead and mercury. They do not recognize the floating and sinking, and would rather distinguish between the main and the secondary? Why would he recognize his wealth as his own and call someone else by another surname as his own son? How could one know the subtle mutual restraint between metal and wood and the profound interplay of Yin and Yang? All the sun and the moon lose their way, lead and mercury are in different furnaces, desires condense into the elixir of return, isn't that far away? Since childhood, I have been fond of the Tao and have delved into the scriptures of the three religions, as well as criminal law, calculation, medicine, divination, battle strategies, astronomy, geography, auspiciousness and inauspiciousness, life and death, all of which I have paid close attention to and studied in detail. Only the method of golden elixir, having read numerous scriptures and various schools of poetry, prose, and treatises, all claim that the sun, soul, moon, spirit, tiger, tortoise, dragon, mercury, cinnabar, white gold, black tin, and the man and woman can all be transformed into golden liquid and elixir. However, they never mention what true lead and true mercury are. Nor does it mention the proper control of heat or the warming and nurturing of the fingers. In addition, later generations of bewilderment, indulging in wild speculation, have carelessly annotated the teachings of the ancient sages, making all kinds of misinterpretations. This not only disrupts the immortal scriptures but also confuses and misleads later learners. I have never met anyone, nor have I come across any incantations. As a result, I have been unable to sleep or eat well, and my spirit has become exhausted. Although I have sought advice from all over the world and from both the wise and the foolish, I have not been able to understand the true teachings and enlighten my heart. Later, in the year of Jiyou of the Xining era, as he followed Longtu Lu Gong to Chengdu, with his long-held aspirations unwavering and his initial sincerity growing more resolute, he was taught by a true immortal the key to the heat control of the golden elixir. His words are very concise and not complicated. It can be said that he knows the source of the flow, one word enlightens a hundred, the fog clears and the sun shines, the dust is cleared and the light is clear. The collation of the immortal scripture is as if it conforms to the standard. Among those who study immortality out of concern for the world, nine or nine out of ten have truly grasped its essence, but only one or two have been heard of. If a servant has met the true interpretation, how could he remain silent? After exhausting all his gains, he composed ninety-eight poems, titled "The Chapter of Enlightenment". There are sixteen seven-character rhymes inside, representing the number of two or eight. Sixty-four quatrains, according to the hexagrams of the I Ching. A five-character poem, symbolizing Taiyi. Continue to fill in the twelve poems of "Xijiangyue", following the annual rhythm. It is like the hierarchy of tripods and vessels, the weight of medicines, the timing of heat, the order of host and guest, the presence or absence of existence, good or bad fortune, regret or stinginess, all of which are contained within it. Regarding the nature of the original true enlightenment, there are some omissions, which are attached at the end of the volume as praises of the Yuefu and miscellaneous remarks, etc. This is the end of reaching the path of inherent clarity. I hope that all comrades will read this so that they can see the details and understand the essence, abandon falsehood and follow the truth.