Walker

Probably more my interpretation. In the practice, one follows an excedingly simple instruction, and continues to follow it, though not with extreme rigidity (ie, 似守非守，不要死守). Whatever changes may arise, one does not manage or interfere, even if the changes seem just like something described in this or that alchemy text. This statement makes sense in lieu of what I was told. Although it was explained to me as xingmingshuangxiu, in fact the Daoist at other times referred to its use as minggong and said that xing could be cultivated generally, without using this practice; not so for ming, though. Yes, initiates are rare. Whatever similarities there might be and without speculating as to what your practice might or might not result in, what I am describing is not this.

There is also a teaching in the Quanzhen tradition in which xing and ming cultivation are one and the same practice. As it was explained to me, this teaching is true 性命双修, because it triggers both processes at once, and they unfold naturally without the interference of the human mind being necessary... wuwei. This idea is very different from what I generally see being discussed by Daoism enthusiasts, both here and elsewhere. It is also very clearly not believed to be appropriate for "mass consumption," and is rather reserved for those with great natural affinity, "root" (根基、善根、慧根, etc), and virtue. To this date I have never seen more than hints of its existence creep into the writings. Though, truth be told, I am not very well-read. I am curious if any of you fellows have come across such teachings.

Andrew Nugent-Head's piece above in post #24 strikes me as an incredibly honest, balanced, generous, and wise assessment, written by a man who's really paid his dues, and then some. It also reflects what I've personally seen while pursuing the study of Chinese medicine in China since 2008. I know that this is a thread more about the situation in the US, but two segments stick out to me... My deciding to pursue my studies in China in 2008 and then deciding to stay here several years later after strongly considering transferring to NCNM, hinges on what Andrew talks about above... especially the last sentence. This point also indirectly relates to the question of what "classical" Chinese medicine is. Ultimately, it doesn't matter how well you read the Shanghanlun and its 1,000 +++ commentaries: if you haven't got teachers, you really aren't doing CCM, because Chinese medicine's vast forest of poetic and arcane theory is a place that it's extremely easy to get totally lost in. Yasjua, you say you were disappointed by the lack of proficiency evidenced by 3rd and 4th year students at NCNM. In my opinion, although, a young, brilliant person taught in intensive apprenticeship for three years definitely could launch into the profession and be a good or even great doctor from a very young age, we would probably be talking about a genius who had a very accomplished and strict teacher. For most people, to expect them to have a really deep, profound understanding of TCM in such a short period of time is highly unrealistic. Thus it is that in the Tang Dynasty no lesser doctor than Sun Simiao said, "the world has idiots who study the formulas for three years and then declare that there are no incurable diseases. Then they work at curing illness for three years, and come to know that under heaven there are no useful formulas." (世有愚者，读方三年，便谓天下无病可治；及治病三年，乃知天下无方可用.) To illustrate the point, several years ago in southern China I attended several lectures on the Shanghanlun delivered by a young doctor who had attained some minor fame online. He liked to say, "to learn Chinese medicine, you only need three years," with something of a sneer for those who take longer. He was a very mysterious-yet-charismatic sort of character with claims to some sort of Daoist lineage or other, and many people became his patients. I never heard of any actual healing results, even though he was definitely a hard-working and sincere fellow. Eventually a woman I knew with late-stage breast cancer came under his care. He wrote herbal prescriptions for her and every day compassionately changed the bandages on her tumor, which was festering so terribly as to smell like rotting flesh. Sadly, under his care the woman's condition only worsened and she soon after passed away. Her daughter, whom I also knew, later went to go visit the physician in his mid-80s whom the patient had previously been seeing. Although the results with the elderly doctor's prescriptions had been positive, for whatever reason, the woman with cancer decided to switch doctors more than once, going not only to the young doctor, but yet another elderly herbalist in Shanghai. The doctor with decades of experience and lineage teachings (I'd also met him at one point down the line) only sighed when he saw the prescriptions that the daughter brought him. He said, "ai, the older doctor's prescriptions were never going to be able to cure your mother, but at least they weren't harming her. I'm sad to say that in my opinion, the young doctor's choice of herbs basically killed her." My points is that it takes a lifetime to master Chinese medicine and, furthermore, beware of any young doctor who tells you with too much confidence that he or she really knows the medicine! One can think that one's grasped Chinese medicine in four years of college, and one is probably fooling oneself. I say this despite the fact that one might actually be a pretty good practitioner at that stage; even though one might be getting pretty good results at clinic, really being a high-level practitioner is probably still a long, long, long way away. The NCNM students you met might be flaky, they might not be getting a great education, or they might be honest and realistic. Perhaps a mix. Either way, in my opinion, getting deep into Chinese medicine takes a convergence of years of apprenticeship, book study, clinical practice, and personal qi cultivation. And one never stops learning. This point is absolutely key. To learn Chinese medicine, one has got to pound the pavement to the point of "breaking iron shoes." There is no other way.

Yeah, STOP! And don't start back up! Please! I _did_ translate everything. ChiDrag's retranslation is an atrocious, confusing mess that reads like the instruction manual for a cheap digital watch bought in the 80s. His name ain't even Wu, it's HU!!! It's about time somebody says it: { Insulting comments removed by Admin as thread is now locked/closed} I only pray that those with the sincere wish to study Stillness Movement, Daoist xing-ming cultivation, and other topics this poor, delusional fellow will eternally lift his leg on will not be sidetracked. It would be nice if the mods could do something. How many posts have to degrade like this? Already bracing myself for his fusillade of responses. ChiDragon apparently lives on his computer. Sighhhhhhh, 我的妈呀.

ChiDragon, the documents in that link do not include most of Hu's writing. You should obtain 《胡耀贞动静气功》 (Hu Yaozhen's Stillness-Movement Qigong). It is for sale here. This text is a reprint of Hu's main writings, and it was published in 1986. I really hope you will read this stuff carefully instead of reinterpreting its content to suit your own tiresome agenda. However, ultimately, my hopes are not high, and I took the time to painstakingly transcribe the following passages and then translate and annotate them not so much for your benefit, ChiDragon, but to help out the newbies on this board who I don't want to be led astray your prolific (7,442!?) and all-too-often very misleading posts. In this book, Hu is very clear about breathing. Below I give numerous examples. I bolded three passages: 1) Hu Yaozhen is including the type of tu-na which you promote and practice in the category of later heaven breathing. 2) Hu Yaozhen agrees with you--your practice is capable of helping people heal from illness and prevent illness. Wonderful! However, although it may be true that your breathing technique is responsible for your good health, if you really are a scientist, you should accept that other factors may be at work--I know lots of people who "hardly get sick" but don't practice anything like tu-na. 3) Here, ChiDragon, you can see clearly that the breath must be forgotten in Stillness-Movement qigong. That includes the abdomen's movements. Below I include a passage that shows that when Hu Yaozhen used the word "breathing" (呼吸, a compound of two characters which literally breathe out-breathe in), he was not necessarily referring to anything involving the nose, lungs, and air. To clarify, the practice described above, although it uses the Chinese characters most often translated as "breathe in" (吸) and "breathe out" (呼), is not describing a "breathing method." It is describing a way of initiating movement in the dan tian, which then might or might not create spontaneous internal and/or external movements. If one uses this kind of practice, an almost infinite variety of breathing patterns could arise, spontaneously. These could include breathing patterns that are deep, shallow, fast, slow, etc, including all manner of physical accompaniments. One simply allows what arises to arise, naturally, without interference. If you are not clear about what Hu thinks about practices that require intentional controlling of the breath, refer to the first translated passage. In case you don't believe me, see the below: Now, in case ChiDragon or anybody else still thinks that Hu Yaozhen was "very vague" about breathing, there is the following: Finally, let me take you back to the very first page, where we see how from the get-go Hu Yaozhen warns us that not breathing naturally is dangerous: Whew, I don't think Master Hu could have been any clearer! In the interest of full disclosure, I will add that Hu Yaozhen does include very precise instructions for post heaven tu-na breathing in this book, but they are included in the chapter entitled "Supplementary Exercises for Lengthening One's Years;" this method does not represent the main thread of Stillness-Movement practice. True, he does attribute it to Zhuangzi, but I can say with 100% surety that the meat of the Zhuangzi tu-na practice passed on in the oral teachings is not this method. Again, it involves "subtle energies" and its instructions regarding oral-nasal breathing and the movements of the belly are exactly in terms of everything I translated above. I don't have time to sit and make posts like this on anything resembling a regular basis, so I won't go tit-for-tat nitpicking my translation. I hope that these translations are of benefit to the many teachers and practitioners of Stillness-Movement Qigong as well as people who might be interested in it. I also add that I have been given teachings about breathing by two Dragon Gate Daoists with many decades of practice and study under their belts each; what they says precisely echoes Master Hu's words. All manner of changes to the breath can happen, up to and including no breathing at all. This is natural.

If you count me amongst the readers, then yes. I have been taught this method by one of Master Hu's daughters. If your mind is open to the possibility that you might be wrong about what qigong is, then I suggest you find a way to read some of Master Hu's actual writings, instead of reading these kinds of articles. You would find out that Hu Yaozhen was not interested in what you call "the ultimate method of breathing." In fact, he wrote explicitly and repeatedly that people should not concern themselves with how they are breathing, because this kind of focus is the wellspring of deviations. The "tu-na" practice passed on by Master Hu is the same way. It is a practice concerned strictly with subtle energies--not breathing.

I am no master but I have trained baguazhang since 2008 with four teachers, two in Beijing, one in Shanghai, and one Chinese teacher in the US. I have lived in China for almost all of that span in time. My only substantial breaks in practice over these years have been due to illness or injury. I generally train movement practices about two hours a day, sometimes much more, and rarely less than an hour. I give this background info so that you can adjust the size of your salt grain accordingly. The question of how to protect the knees is very important. It also relates to what, in my opinion, is one of the best instructions I have received in baguazhang: below the waist, one should only be creating scissor-like movements (ie, the legs only move forwards and backwards like scissors, with almost no twisting coming out of the ankles, knees, or hips). Horizontal movements should only come from the waist and up (thus, one's twist at the waist is only correct if, no matter how far one twists, the kua does not turn with the waist; in standing practice, even the knees should not be affected by your waist twist). To be sure, if one practices in this way, this means that movements do not come from the kua, meaning that this instruction goes against much of the "conventional wisdom" that's out there. It was not until I began training with my current teacher that I even got a clear answer as to what, exactly, one should be doing with the kua. His answer contradicted much of what I had been told before, as the teacher I was with previously was all about moving from the kua. However, under my current teacher's tutelage for the last 14 or so months I have watched my body become both far more powerful as well as the most pain-free it has been since before I started puberty. Given that few of us need to worry about hand-to-hand combat unless we have big-ass chips on our shoulders that get us into fisticuffs, the latter point is very important. I would also ask anybody who thinks what I have been told is wrong a simple question: are you pain-free, or going in that direction? If so, then I see no reason to believe that your way is not, also, a good way. If they answer is no, then I suggest caution. The whole point of Daoism-derived martial arts is healthy longevity. Other than that, though it's been said before and will be said again and again, I'll throw my two cents onto the beaten horse, too: having a good, in person teacher who can give you oral instructions and use his/her hands to help you find proper posture is essential. I don't believe that anybody, even a so-called "athletic genius," can find proper posture without hands-on instruction. I just don't buy it, and I've got a childhood buddy who's a multiple gold medal Olympian--even though I remember that he could become competent at any sport with far less practice than the rest of us, he still needed coaching, including countless thousands of hours of it in the sport he medaled in. Now, if you try to practice from books or videos but you're essentially just walking/dancing around in a circle while doing some hand movements, of course you're not likely to hurt yourself (I personally don't oppose anybody practicing baguazhang as a walk-dance, as I believe doing so can contribute to deep relaxation and improved health--more power to whomever finds these things!). However, it is those who love to practice with discipline and yet lack proper instruction who suffer most. Their good intentions, sincerity, and practice ethic, etc. won't save them unless they've got some very lucky stars shining down on them. Indeed, it ain't fair... but, whaddyagonnado?

Wowzers, he sure does Talk about blind leading the blind. 扯淡!

11.阴阳生返复 阴阳二字由元始无极化分而为阴阳。大而天地， 细入微茫，无非阴阳结合而成，即上文所释配坎离之意。那么生返复呢?亦即水火既济，龙虎交合，阴阳返复，真阳上升，神水下降之真意也。《阴符经》云：“观 天之道，执天之行尽矣”，这就说明应当观察天的法象规则而行之可也。天地本来就是元始无极太空一气，静极则动，变而为二。轻清上浮为阳为天，重浊下凝为阴 为地，即分为二。静不能久静，因天气先动，降下以合地气，到了至极复升。地气本不升，因天气混合引动带之而上升，到了至极复又下降。上下相须往复不已，所 以才化生万物呢! 天化日月星辰斗枢，地化江河湖海山岳，次第而万物生。盖万物得阴阳升降之气，方能化生日月精华，锻炼成宝。而日月运行周回，自有规适，如不得斗柄中枢斡旋则不转。斗经云：“天罡所指，昼夜常轮”是也。所以天地升降日月运行，不失其时，万物化生无有穷尽是至理也。 盖 人与天地秉受一同，始因父母二气交感混合成珠，内藏一点元阳真气，外包精血，与母气命蒂相连。母受胎后，自觉有物，一呼一吸皆与相通。人先生两肾与心，余 藏腑次第相生。十月胎圆气足，胎儿双手掩面，九窍未通，受母气滋养，混混沌沌，纯一不杂，是为先天之气。至气满神具精足，脐内不纳母之气血，与母命蒂相 离，神气向上，头转向下降生。一出母腹，双手自开，其气散于九窍，呼吸从口鼻出入，是为后天也。 人之脐内一寸三分， 存元阳真气，更不曾相亲，不知用道功修炼之故也。所以迷忘本来真面目，逐时耗散真气，以致病夭忧愁思虑喜怒哀乐。但脐在人之正中，自此以下用修道丹语解 释。脐内正中名曰中宫命府，混沌神灵，黄庭丹田，神气穴、归根窍、复命关、鸿蒙窍、百会穴(此处亦名百会穴)、生门、太乙神炉、本来面目，异名甚多。此处 包藏精髓，贯通百脉，滋养一身，赤裸裸净洒洒，无可把握。常人不能亲近者，被七情六欲所牵，迷失本来去处。呼吸之气，止到气海(上隔肺腑也)，即不能与中 宫命腑元气真气相接而金木间隔，如何得龙虎交媾化生纯精，故不知运动之机。《阴符经》云：“天发杀机”是也。 那么如何是气液流转以炼形神呢?盖心 属火，藏正阳之精，名曰汞，木龙也。肾属水，中藏元阳真气，名曰铅，金虎是也。先使水火二气上下相交，升降相接，用真意勾引混合于中宫。以神火烹炼，使气 周流一身，气满神壮，结成大丹。非特长生益寿，若功行兼修，可跻圣位。总而言之，是即阴阳返复之大道也。 12.普化一声雷 《功课经》内有八句偈云：“祖气氤氲满太虚，元始天尊九天居。驱雷役雨飞金篆，活物生人备玉枢。三界有情皆得度，十方无路不通车。大哉普化明元始，日月齐光信不诬”。借助经典以说明普化一声雷之真意。 上 文说明阴阳返复之道，也阐明了神气、阴阳、水火、龙虎大丹的奥秘，才能得到普化一声春雷震动，重开开周身关窍，名曰开关展窍。周身气血百脉流通，无丝毫滞 碍之隐，就如宇宙间一声春雷震动，大地通畅、阴凝冻解。谚云：“不开春雷地气不通”，由雷声震动计算，雷打一百八，此何意也?这就是说，由第一天雷鸣算 起，三个六十天共一百八十日，过去这一百八十日的天气中，一般农作物都能成熟。过此，天气就要冷起来了，就要下霜了。农民的经验代代相传，以至于今。予注 解此段恍然大悟。啊，比喻人修道用功，不得普化一声雷人身的阴气不能除净，即不能升仙得道。凡人身中有一分的阳气在，就不能成鬼，所以说纯阳之体成仙，纯 阴之体为鬼，此乃一定之至理也。 长春真人告诉我们说，要想炼成纯阳之体，先炼五气朝元，炼神之顶乃大成法，弃壳升 仙。不许传给不道德的匪人，传者有横灾祸，须择德行人授之。此法炼气成神，用子午卯酉时。如甲、乙日用卯时炼肝气，丙丁日用午时炼心气，庚辛日用酉时炼肺 气，壬癸日用子时炼肾气。脾不受炼，气寄四脏，所以戊己日不下功，此为炼五脏时也。 以上所言，择幽静室，静坐上香一 炷，叩齿二十四通，把腰挺起来，平坐内观所炼之脏。鼻息绵绵，静极气生，气极神现，如梦非梦，暗中神气上升。所言前件，日辰干支不可有差，盖以神随日。当 真气随时运转，当审日察时，炼之百日，气足神现，将欲升仙，非止长生不死。口诀：“应日随时自不差，五神会处起河车。静中真气朝元后，犹恐阴魔作外邪。” 华 阳真人曰：“以丹中有纯阳之气，随日定时炼肝气。二十四日青气现，至二十日阳神自出。气为神体，神为气王也”，所以炼心肾肺皆如之。其脾神脾气，随四时正 气亦以共升。在静中内观，壶中自有山川。物象成形,两昧分胎(即阴阳水火两昧真神火)，防其阴鬼外魔七魄三尸相随，杂天真以乱阳神不能得入天宫。自有内观 起火之法，推以炼气，气聚为神，不可差其时也。所以自然气现神出，五方真气合出本色五气阳神，出真形升上入天宫内院，是为合神入道之时也。若修士三百日行 火候足，不炼还丹、不炼形、不既济，直行此法，以丹中纯阳之气，随日应元气所传而炼五脏亦是捷径，号曰夺功并法，以上抄写这段功法以作修士的参考。 有此捷径并能夺功并法，乘此普化一声雷震，周身阳气充溢，在世长年的时期，遇此捷径妙法，何乐而不为之者乎。予也常说过，老天爷不给道，我们应当奋勉，绩功累德，抽空用功，使神不知鬼不觉，偷夺天地之造化不为过矣。 13.白云朝顶上 何为白云?白为金之本色，是水之母。水遇晒火灼腾为气，上升成云。云层浓厚，遇冷空气袭击仍凝为细小水珠。凝聚重多，下降为雨，有甘露细雨，有倾盆大雨。今者科学进化，乘飞机入云层撒放药物可以人工降雨，此外说也。 那么内功修养呢?“白云”指的是肾宫命宝，精气充盈，得到性光元神照耀，使神气凝结，性命合一。乘此“活子时”不老不嫩，以河车运转，趋过三关，上朝于顶。至玉京泥丸上丹田，化为至宝、甘露，号曰玉液金浆、长生美酒，此正是金液大还丹。 长 春真人曰：“三岛紫烟龙凤彩，九天红日炼龙精。”《中黄经》曰：“肝生东方其色青，炼之青气出身腾。肾脏壬癸真气上，炼之应时精足盈。”华阳真人曰：“炼 身纯阳气满五脏，元神升腾上朝玉京。”此是内观起火，炼神合道，超凡入圣。纯阳气举，达于四肢，号曰焚身，真气入于五脏，号曰练神升顶，上朝玉京。这就是 内观起火，回光返照。本无定时，每日有暇举(即活子时)，宜静坐，神识内守，一意不散，升身(把腰板挺起来)端坐，默观五脏，唯分别真伪，勿令阴魔乱真为 要。诀云：“丹成五气自芳芬，气真方可现元神。炼形换骨非凡客，自是长生物外人。”以上口口相传，正是白云朝顶上之真诀，下接甘露须弥云。 14.甘露洒须弥 上 文白云真气上朝于玉京泥丸宫，经午之沐浴，白云真宝化为甘露，亦名长生美酒，又名金丹玉液。那么这个玉液啊，非同一般的甘露，而是来自肾宫的真宝，曰铅 光。受心内的真神离火之真宝，曰汞光，由中黄丈人之真意把这铅汞二光(即圣日圣月也)照耀于金庭。再乘河车运上乾顶，上朝玉京，化为甘露玉液，洒在须弥山 下。须弥大地，发育成金鼎黄芽，日日生长，越攒越足，越积越多，是曰纯阳真气。由五脏真气，气附神像，上入乾顶，往返循环，达四肢百骸，一切关窍相通，窍 窍光明，迸出金光，外出而有神体。神气相合而成道脱胎，神化升仙矣。 15.自饮长生酒 自饮长生酒分三等说法：第一，长生美酒者，珊瑚、甘露，即金丹玉液也，极为高尚的长生美酒，价值万金未可买得；第二，中等说法，世俗上常说的无酒不成礼仪。 比 如筵席多么丰盛，如果没有酒招待则不成为礼仪，似乎不恭敬之意；第三，下等说法则视之为穿肠毒药。说的是歹徒之辈，借酒耍疯，做那不道德败坏人伦的坏事， 把坏事做了而不承认，说是酒醉后不知做了坏事。酒多乱性，把人烧的胡迷颠倒，甚至有性命之忧。醉死者有之，以酒色误国者有之，以酒而妄杀人者有之。所以世 人评价目之为穿肠毒药，奉劝世人戒之为要! 更有三等说法，以酒居首位之说不妨谈谈，使世人引以为戒。一云：酒是穿肠 毒药，色是刮骨钢刀，财是下山猛虎，气是惹祸根苗，看来四般有害，劝人戒之为妙。二是中等说法，云：无酒不成礼仪，无色世上人稀，无财生活困难，无气又被 人欺，看来四般有益，劝人量体裁衣。三是高尚说法，云：好酒不是凡间酒，甘露如茶不离口。好色并非凡间色，婴儿姹女相配合。好财不是王石富，养成至宝无价 物。此言说的是修道之人把自身的真精化成元炁，修成至宝无价之物，化神还虚以成大道，比世上的金银财宝胜强万万倍矣。所以称之为至宝，无价之物矣。内功修 道之士必须自饮长生美酒，此酒称之为无价主宝。哈哈，有志之士，请君试尝之可乎? 16.逍遥谁得知 予 是这样想的，抱着度尽世人之心做道德善事，真心情愿与人同甘共苦，千方百计度人成真而决不辞劳。在世长年，以身作则，可使世人共趋圣域，以完成吕祖他老人 家的度世婆心，终日逍遥快乐足矣。愿使世人在不知不觉中改过迁善，不止世人不知而且神不知鬼不觉都成其大道，逍遥快活，达到飘飘然而皆欲仙矣。使世上即天 堂，天堂在世上矣。 诗云：“伟哉大道君，大道即天心，我心通天地，度尽世间人。”太上爷他老告诫我等，施恩不求报，与人不追悔。所谓善人，人皆敬之，天道估之，福禄随之，众邪远之，所作必成，神仙可冀，逍遥物外，证圣成真，此正是逍遥谁得知者也。 庄 子《逍遥游》说过，北冥有条大鱼，其名叫鲲，它的身体非常大，大得不知有几千里。变化成一只大鸟，名字叫鹏，鹏的脊背大得不知有几千里，它的翅膀振动飞 起，翅膀就像天边的云。这只鸟当海动风起时就飞到南溟去了，南溟就叫天池。鹏鸟飞往南溟的时候，它的两翅激起海水浪花就有三千里。它飞翔时，就像旋风一 样，直上九万里高空。 说这么大的玄话，不过是比喻而已。如人内功修养，北溟有鱼者，下丹田内之真精充盈，比喻为鲲。 是说人之真精盈动为情，这个力量比什么都大。那么真功实行之修士，能把它化为大鹏鸟，展动双翅而飞腾于空。“空”者，此时不要有丝毫杂念，高空的纯洁。鹏 程九万里，表示为纯阳也。飞往南溟天池，此即子进阳火，行的是督脉，必须用阳九，通过三关九窍，即尾闾、夹脊、玉枕三关也。直至昆仑顶，降至天池，即玉京 山泥丸宫也。内修简称名曰还精补脑，可以逍遥物外，长生不老。 此即真正达到“逍遥谁得知”者欤。 17.坐听无弦曲 参禅静坐要听无弦之曲，何谓无弦曲呢?说的是我们的呼吸气，来回往返哪有弦呢?修行打坐之士，必须把呼吸调和均匀，如同唱曲一样唱得好听，悠扬悦耳，尺句顿挫，宫商音调找的准确，听其自然。邱祖《清天歌》云： 云散虚空体自安(一真常存)，自然现出家家月(通身是道)。 月下方堪把笛吹(癸生急采)，一声响亮振华夷(回风混合也)。 惊起东方玉童子(水府求玄)，倒骑白鹿如星驰(取坎填离)。 常巡别转一般药(出有入无)，也非笙兮也非角(无象之象)。 三尺云璈十二徵(三花聚顶)，历劫年中混元断(五燕朝元)。 玉韵琼林绝郑音(天无浮翳)，入地上天超古今(应化由我)。 纵横自在无拘束(不被形缚)，心不贪荣身不辱(内外俱忘)。 闲唱壶中白雪歌(道大冲虚)，静调世外阳春曲(超出三界)。 我家此曲皆自然(形神俱妙)，管无孔兮琴无弦(与道合真)。 得来惊觉浮生梦(虚空粉碎)，昼夜清音满洞天(独露全真)。 此真达到“坐听无弦曲”也。 18.明通造化机 真修之士必须深明造化真机，把唯物辩证法好好辩证辩证。我命由我掌握，常抱乐观，使我本身这个假壳，好比草舍茅庵，保持坚固，以寓我之元神天性，安居其内。用其智慧，注述道经，觉醒世人，致于至善，共趋圣域，吾愿足矣。 修士应时时刻刻努力奋勉，多用静功，返本还元，复命归根。万神皈一，无所不包，无所不容。自然心火下降，肾水上升，口里津液自然而生，烹煎煅炼，久久不散。 自 然体中血脉如风行，时而腹中如雷声鸣，无弦之曲不抚而自声。冲和气透，甘露洒心，精神自足，昼夜无眠。如三千日足，则功圆果满，阴尽纯阳，圣胎成就，身内 有身，神成真圣。真圣自然，合太虚真空，合乎虚无自然，是即元始真一，是吾真身也。这才真正达到返本还元，找到先天老祖呢。先天而生，生而无形无体。虽然 无形无体而大道常存，永劫不朽不坏、万圣同居。得观内景，神自言语，与天地齐寿、日月同年，脱离生死，方成全真道果。到此地步，才称得起明通造化机呢。 19.都来二十句 每句五个字，二十句共一百个字，全部逐句解释注解完毕，百分之百完成任务。精细研究吕祖百字碑，可使修士通达其意义，增进道学知识，弘扬大道，振兴我中华成为道义、伟大、文明的祖国，以弘扬吕祖度世之婆心。 愚按数理计算，二十者是阴阳也，阴阳二字从繁体写共二十一划，二十者即阴阳也，余一者即一元复始乃太极图。吕祖之姓上口为阳，下口为阴，阴阳二口是一太极。 四个阴阳两层天地，正是大衍数理。简写的阴阳都是六笔，加在一处为十二，以宏观言之即为十二会元，亦即周而复始。岂不是都来二十句，内含真意至深，一元复始自然万象更新矣。 予注吕祖百字碑是在今岁甲戌年，注成又在九、十月，是即戌、亥月也，戌亥月又为一年的一个混沌之月，如是再仔细校对检查完备，即在十一月内。十一月为冬至月，冬至即为阴尽阳生之初，正应在一元复始万象更新之时也哉。 20.端的上天梯 端为端正，的为就是，此言这篇百字碑，就是上天的一个梯子。梯子乃有形之物，在此无非虚比而已。这本百字碑本来是有形物质，为什么说成是上天的梯子呢? 是的，如果世人把百字碑注解一遍一遍地读熟看懂，明白了内中的意义，这完全是一本悟道成真、修成大罗金仙的道书，就如同上天的梯子一样，应当对它珍惜尊重。句句解释详细，字字如同珠玉。 愚不敏，时时苦思冥想，寻章择句，多用于古圣先贤典籍，句多重复，免不了舛错之处，尚希高儒哲士给以斧正是荷! 贯顶诗二首云： 吕帝慈悲救世船，祖师妙蒂度有缘。 百日筑基益寿果，字字行行有真传。 碑记铭刻发诚心，震撼众等悟道真。 阳生镇静需纯九，注释觉醒澄天君。 五、跋吾 师 震阳子向抱度世化人之志，行常居处，非耕耘道田、出神入静、参礼三清，即埋首穷经、精研道义、注疏经典，以使先圣之垂训广为流传，化行人间。其治学精神， 即使风雪寒夜、炎夏酷暑亦从不稍怠，数十年如一日，始终持恒如此。如今，吾师年届九旬，犹注吕祖百字碑以度救世人，裨益世道人心、社会安定和国家兴旺。 震 阳师曾数任道职，德高望重，声誉所至，闻及海内外。平日，不仅国内各界人士常常慕名而至，拜师、求道、解惑释疑，即归国侨胞及各国友人亦常为座上客，向师 顶礼膜拜者亦时时有之。师皆善为接待，诚而答之，使来访者心情愉悦满意而去。如是者，终日络绎不绝、座无虚席。问答内容遍及大道和社会人生，范围十分广 泛，其劳累之状可想而知!然吾师从不惮烦，更无倦容，谆谆教诲，以道化人，多年来受教者何止千百!吾师为人正派、刚直不阿，爱国爱教、公而忘私，热心公 益、助人为乐，严于律已、宽以待人，心胸开阔、视界高远。他老人家弘扬大道，从不迷信，诚可谓品格高尚、悟真得道之高人也。如是种种，皆有事实可鉴，其同 观道众和俗家众多善士，远近皆知，至其功行善举多不胜书。近年来曾先后向白云观等道教丛林，赠其自注之《道德经》和《道学皈元》等书凡万余册，为提高道众 水平、培养道教新人作出重要贡献。此次《吕祖百字碑注》之出版，为师度世化人又一著作。希有缘得识此书者，珍之宝之，并力行之，吾师有厚望焉! 俗家弟子：玄照、仁义、崇宗敬跋 公元一九九五年一月二十二日

Any old bum can read a Daoist book, feel soothed, and call himself a Daoist if he likes. He could also find a Stephen Hawkings book soothing and call himself a physicist, too. If you want to enter the teachings to any degree of depth and have teachers feel it is worth their time to teach you, you you will invariably have to make major lifestyle changes. If entering the teachings and yielding to deep changes in your lifestyle and worldview does not seem necessary or likely to you, that is great, but why, dear physicist, use a label you do not really understand?

In 2007 I once hoofed up a mountain in Tibet carrying crates of Red Bull for two nuns on their way home. In thanks we got to have tea with the abbot. His cell was well-stocked with Red Bull, too haha. I DEFINITELY don't say that to encourage drinking that stuff, I hasten to add...

The purpose of my post is to point out that there are no herbs which can be consumed by all people all the time. Including tea. To think otherwise is to be in denial of extremely fundamental and important TCM principles. For example, if you think that there are no contraindications for green tea and goji berries (as well as many other herbs in the supermarket), then you need to keep studying. A person with stomach cold should not be drinking green tea. A person with excessive dampness or phlegm and insufficient spleen yang should think twice before consuming goji berries, which are very yin-moisturizing. And we haven't even begun talking about quantity, which is a fine art unto itself. There is not really any such thing as a "general remedy" in TCM herbal medicine. One size does not fit all. Herbs work because their qi is imbalanced--thus, in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, they are referred to with a two-character compound, 毒药, "poison-medicine." Doctors use the herbs' imbalances to correct patients' imbalances. Taking herbs when you don't have an imbalance or taking the wrong herbs can and often enough does create illness. For this reason, the thinking represented by four characters 辨证施治 has constituted the cornerstone of herbology from the Han Dynasty to the present. For this reason, also, all Chinese people know the colloquialism, "是药三分毒": all medicines are three-tenths poison. That goes for ginseng, it goes for astragalus, and it even goes for your Lipton green tea. Good manners and courtesy? You should hear the words that'd fly out of some of my teacher's mouths if they heard you say that there are herbs with no contraindications. 简直是胡说八道.

P.S. I hereby prescribe one grain of salt to all those who read this thread. You may throw it over your shoulder, put it in your pipe and smoke it, or drop it in your belly button to strengthen your kidneys, depending on what floats your boat.

Sorry, but I do not see how throwing this information up here without major disclaimers is helpful. Looking just at the last entry, chenpi, we see information that is nearly incomprehensible to the layman. However, and this is a huge however, because the words in use *seem* familiar to laypeople, then you're gonna have people potentially thinking, "oh, I feel a little tired all the time, maybe I need more qi, and, oh, well my tummy aches and I get shortness of breath--maybe I should just be drinking chenpi tea." Maybe they get lucky and things get better or nothing happens at all, maybe the mess themselves up. The latter happens ALL the time in China, even amongst Chinese people who have reasonable understandings of TCM vocabulary. Here copying and pasting for the English-speaking masses is just contributing to the half-baked tendency that I daresay rightfully gives herbal medicine a bad name, inasmuch as this kind of post runs the real risk of making TCM herbology seem like a DIY hobby--it ain't!! So let's apply some rigor to dispel the fog in this thread. First, we are told that chenpi is "perceived" as being pungent and bitter. This one statement alone presents three major problems: 1, the assignment of TCM herb flavors actually often has nothing to do with perception, ie, something may taste one way and be named another. This brings me to point 2, namely that the five flavors (which, in confusing and important actuality, number seven in total) refer to effects onthe body, not the tasted flavor. Therefore, the untrained eye which reads the above information as a simple list of sensations the tastebuds will undergo when taking chenpi has no way of decoding what is really being listed, ie, effects on the holistic qi mechanism of the body--effects which could be quite deleterious if brought about at the wrong time in a body that doesn't need this medicine. 3, even the simple assignment of "flavors" is a matter of centuries of debate, with various ancient texts all disagreeing about each herb's actual properties. Next, we have "warm property." If you have followed my harangue thus far, then you can surely guess that this one statement could take years, yes years, of hard study to understand at a level where one can safely and responsibly write herbal prescriptions. Rather than write a textbook, I'll ask a series of rhetorical questions: Daoism and its progeny, Chinese medicine, are both famous for encouraging balance between yin and yang. If you agree that balance is key to health, then do you know how to find this balance by using this herb in a human body? Do you know how to find this balance by combining this herb with others? If the answer is no, then does the possibility of overusing or misusing a warm herb not seem far off? Next, there is the statement that this herb interact with various meridians. Aiya wo de ma ya, what a mysterious term! Alack, even amongst studious TCM graduate students in Beijing or Taipei or Oregon or bloody Oz, how many can tell you what it really means?! Does it mean that some ethereal energy zooms into the lines on your acupuncture chart when you drink this? Does it not? Is there not huge discrepancy text to text on the correspondence of herbs to meridians? Alas, these questions and more loom large over Gerard's posts. I offer just this tidbit: "meridian" here is a translation of 经／經. Indeed when speaking of the acupuncture meridians, that is a correct translation of 经. But 经 in TCM does not always refer to the acupuncture meridians--see 《伤寒论》 for starters. Next, the reference to spleen, stomach, and lungs is 150% useless to anybody who is not thoroughly versed in TCM zang-fu organ terminology, because what we grow up learning about the organs a la modern allopathic medicine and anatomy/physiology has almost NADA to do with what TCM is talking about, even though the same exact words are used. Confusing? Fuck yes. So think twice, nah thrice, nah make that... fice? Anyway, think hard before you take the "facts" you see here and go hogwild with your.spice rack, word is bond. Nexxxxtttt... we have the functions. Sigh. Looks like I can't stop writing yet. I'll do them in order. Function 1: First problem, do you know what "qi" means in TCM terms, especially vis a vis a herb that operates on the spleen-stomach zang-fu organ pair? No!? Put down that orange peel, then, sonny--that there is a Drug with a capital D. Again, because this is not TCM university and Gerard does not pay me nearly enough, I will drop a tidbit on you all and nothing more: "qi" here is NOT NOT NOT (triple negative＝very serious nugatory) a synonym for "energy." Ergo, reading this and thinking "taking chenpi will give me energy" is WRONG WRONG WRONG (＝mad dumb). Beyond that, there is the problem that all of the listed symptoms can be caused by factors that contraindicate this herb! All of them! What does that mean in English? Your nausea might be due to a condition that chenpi could (most likely in combination with other herbs chosen by an expert) alleviate. Or, your nausea could be due to something that has absolutely nothing to do with chenpi. You might think I'm being Chicken Little here, but wrong herb at the wrong time can kill you. A single herb like 巴豆, a formula like 大青龙汤, or even misuse of licorice, the keystone of hundreds of formulas--all have killed countless unlucky souls. Function 2: True, but this statement refers to chenpi's role in complex formulas containing up to twenty or more ingredients. Dealing with phlegm is a "sticky" question requiring expertise, not a gung-ho attitude and access to WikiHerb. Function 3: See above. Also, there are countless varieties of.stagnation in TCM. "I feel stagnant" ≠ "time to visit Chinatown and buy orange peels." Function 4: I fail to see how this fact could bring anything but confusion to the average Jane/Joe/Taneisha. But it reminds me of a final important consideration that hopefully will quash any lingering irrational exuberance created by this thread: the precise location where a herb was grown, the season and even time of day it was picked and prepared, its age, etc... all vastly alter effects. Fakes and poor quality herbs are rampant. Be aware. Whew. Battery almost gone. Take it easy, yall.

You'll have seen by now that answers to your simple questions run a huge gamut, and yet, in spite of the seeming contradiction, we mostly don't argue too much over these differences in belied/practice/opinion/etc. Disconcern with central dogma is a common trait of most Daoists. Thus, while Daoism, like other religions/traditions, has many sects, they are important more because knowing one another's lineage allows us to.respect one another's spiritual ancestors and understand one another's backgrounds. Sects exist, but sectarianism, schisms, and the like are basically unheard of in Daoism. Regarding your.questions, Worship: mostly prayers of gratitude, occasionally requests for subtle guidance, to ancestral masters in Daoism with whom I have affinity. Some practitioners do not worship, while for others it is truly an art--learning how to pray properly can take ten years, or more. Meditation: Yes, learning to still the mind is an important way to allow principles such as the wuwei ChiDragon mentioned become palpable in our lives. Much more can be said, as any semi-serious research attempt will quickly show you. World's genesis: Clear, subtle yang qi and heavy, turbid yin qi separated and yet constantly interact with each other. After death: Recycling,of all components in the body, physical and subtle, according to their qi. The heavy elements disperse into the physical world, the subtle/energetic elements disperse in the non-physical level of existence, and the original spirit eventually emerges in a new life somewhere in the vast Dao, in accord with its karma and affinities. However, again, there.is no dogma, much disagreement on this point, and a general contentment with most Daoists to say, "well, that's what the theory says, anyway, but of course, nobody can say 100% for sure, right?" And with that, the conversation usually reaches its natural conclusion, and like Steve said, time for more real practice with a still mind has arrived. Speaking of which, I need to go stand. 无量天尊。

No seeking seeking, no obtaining obtaining; just returning, but never left; taste one drop, and the ocean of everybody's suffering empties by ten thousand gallons; you will have convinced yourself. 返璞归真；虽名的得道，实无所得。

Thank you for your long and detailed reply--it is informative to see more background to these stories, which on the surface basically read like other zifagong journals; without your clarification, I would find it very hard to see what the difference is. The kind of connection between Heaven and humanity which you speak of is certainly the subtext involved in much of Daoist lore in the oral tradition, and not unlike stories I have heard directly from Daoist masters in China and out of it. To clarify, I said "even the most 'spiritual'-sounding," referring obliquely to the possibility that some people may well interpret such things as being "spiritual" events. I was unclear in my writing; to be sure, I have not heard teachers refer to such things as being direct evidence of a practice being at the level of 神/shen. In other words, what I have heard regarding such manifestations from other Daoists accords with your comment. When reading testimonials like the ones in this thread, newcomers to cultivation benefit by knowing that there are many unscrupulous and/or themselves-deluded teachers who dress up ultimately quite normal manifestations like zifagong as evidence of divine intercession; such is an easy mystique for some eager personalities to become mired in, so it is good for people to be aware of the possibility. It is kind of you to provide more of a context to the stories. Ultimately, of course you are right in saying that there is no way for anybody layperson who has not personally tried know what will happen as a practice unfolds, but I thank you for nevertheless taking the effort to explain the apparently very unique factors which produce such responses in your fellow practitioners. For the record, I also should state that my words do not contain insinuations about Xiao Yao Pai... I don't know yall...

Other than talking to spirits, these testimonials sound exactly like 自发功/zifagong/"spontaneous skill" that develops in multitudes of qigong practitioners as well as meditators. Even the most "spiritual"-sounding stuff like yoga asanas or spontaneous mudras and things like full-body sexual arousal all happen of their own course in many people, without initiations. Yin Shih Zi's "Tranquil Sitting" (in English) reads very like these testimonials; my own years of zifagong had me experiencing just about everything mentioned here but talking to spirits. I post this not to suggest I don't believe that initiation links practitioners with certain spirits--as that kind of initiation has long been a part of Daoism--but to share with unfamiliar readers the simple fact that all the unusual-sounding experiences above are actually pretty commonplace in the worlds of qigong and Chinese spiritual cultivation.

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Indispensable. The words used in the teachings are all merely pointers, but in spite of their mereness, it is important to look deeply into them, lest we mistakenly assume that they are used to point in one direction, instead of another. Seekers should never forget that in Daoism, common words are often used in very uncommon ways. We all know that the confusing talk of things like water and fire and various metals and fantastic animals needs to be carefully studied, but it is all too easy to forget that even the most simple-seeming word may refer to something altogether different from what we would normally assume. Thus, despite the fact that the true teaching is a wordless teaching, we must be very meticulous in our reading. So, it is true that the "nei" of neidan and neigong is in fact best translated as "inner" or "internal," as you will see most writers do. But one must ask, the character points us to the inside of what? It is very easy to prematurely conclude that we are talking of something inside of the body, or "beneath the surface"--some kind of hidden but somehow solid and tangible mystery, perhaps including such as things as qi meridians which most of us are unable to experience directly, but which adepts perhaps learn to see and feel. Working with "subtle energies" doubtless has its place, but in fact, when the character "nei" is used by Daoists in the context of neidan and Daoist neigong, it can be understood as pointing the practitioner to beyond duality--in fact, well beyond the very dichotomy of "inner" and "outer" that a superficial understanding of the vocabulary would suggest. This understanding can be found both in the textual tradition and in the oral tradition, but, unfortunately, it is lost on many enthusiasts, practitioners, writers, and teachers. From certain standpoints, one might go so far as to consider this misinterpretation a truly dangerous obstacle; miss the truth by a fraction of an inch and you will miss your destination by a thousand li. With this in mind, it can be no surprise that the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra (which Thich Nhat Hahn calls The Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion, reminding us that the sutra's title does not refer to diamonds' glittering prettiness, and rather to the idea of an unsurpassably sharp weapon capable of piercing directly through our ignorance of the reality that all compounded objects are both transitory and totally empty of separate self-existence) are considered to be indispensable reading by a great many Daoists. How indispensable? Lu Dongbin quotes the Diamond Sutra in his Stele of One Hundred Characters and Wang Chongyang installed the Heart Sutra as one of only three keystone texts in Complete Reality Daoism. It is most wise indeed for the aspiring practitioner of Daoist "inner skill" to contemplate the contents of those sutras. Adepts of Daoism just like many Buddhist teachers are quick to remind us that whatever "it" "is" that we are working "towards" in our cultivation, "it" "is" beyond time and space. Beyond even beyond. Awake--so be it!

Hi Exorcist... Can you please explain to us in more detail what these criticisms entail? Do they mean that the abrupt appearance of an erection during a mindless state is unlikely to occur, or that such an occurrence does not indicate the birth of yang? Which, if any, texts contain these criticisms?

The translated passage in the original post is not just a random selection amongst the vast corpus of Daoist writings. It is a well-known text containing a discussion between Lu Dongbin, generally recognized as the originator of extant alchemy schools all over China, and his master. The same admonitions seen there resurface in later writings and in oral teachings. Its contents are considered very important amongst people whose affinity for internal alchemy teachings is great enough for them to have started to realize that qigong, martial arts neigong, traditional Chinese medical ideas, and so forth are not the same thing as inner alchemy. I do not know the original poster's reasons for posting. Whatever the reasons may be, the information is worthy of contemplation for all of us on this board. It reflects some of what you might hear in the rare chance that you get a chance to talk to an adept in China or even a person who's simply well-versed in neidan literature. Also, Daoists have much respect for Zhuangzi's teachings, but the teachings are not invoked a la "whatever you do is right for you and nobody else can tell you what would work or doesn't," when it comes to practice instructions transmitted master to disciple. Edit: added "medical ideas"

This topic has become most interesting. I thank you guys for taking so much time to write. Three questions about the photo: -Are these actually all Quanzhen priests? One has his hat off and clearly has short hair--he is also wearing jeans. Two others wear headgear that I have observed more on Zhengyi priests and laymen who participating in Daoist ritual. -How do you know that they specialize in neidan? The majority (perhaps vast majority) of Quanzhen priests do not. -Didn't you say elsewhere that the Daoists in this photo had asked you not to post it online?

Amazing. This incorrigible 半吊子, ChiDragon, has the nerve to speak for Wang Chongyang, and act as though he has offered us the definition of xing and ming, when his definition of xing and ming, not to mention his assertion regarding accumulating knowledge, does not even square with Wang Chongyang's shortest and most succinct piece of writing, Which any Complete Reality practitioner ought to have read: Fifteen Discourses to Establish the Teachings (《王重阳立教十五论》). I can only resort to onomatopoeia to express my dismay, so forgive in advance me if any spittle hits anybody in the face: Pffffffffffffft.

I know little about shamanism, but offer a few scattered notes that might be interesting to you guys: -Tea that comes from sufficiently clean environments; is picked, prepared, packed, stored, and transported properly (a mix of love and knowing the techniques); is steeped by one with skill and then drunk by a person who is open and ready in a conducive environment, can yield effects that border on hallucinogenic. This has led me to believe that perhaps all plants are entheogens, but with varying levels of potency and different personalities. Last week I drank 水仙 (Water Immortal) prepared by a master of substantial accomplishment. The visual effects, including of a pale blue cloud full of tiny white stars blooming in the lungs, were seen both by myself and a friend I had brought, who is an American Indian healer trained in peyote and tobacco ritual. Additionally, we soon found that Water Immortal is often drank in summer precisely because it cools the lungs--a fact neither I nor the medicine woman knew before drinking. -A lot of Chinese preparations, including those known to induce visions, were mineral and not plant-based. A now-diseased Daoist master once told me that he had led a student into a heavenly realm, where the man could only see blazing, overpowering light. Taking a mineral pill was necessary so that the student could continue the journey and make out forms.