Principles in Taoist Alchemy

[Daeluin]

 

There are a special methods which can activate your Ling and the Teacher can also activate it in ones students.

 

Thank you. This notion of activation puzzled me at first, and then it became the key I was looking for. I now comprehend how my school's curriculum is subtly designed to lead to this activation. Further it is apparent why these methods are kept hidden - such activation is a personal process and is not easy for one to comprehend and realize unless they are meant to and ready to. It would appear this activation is inherent within specific stages of the pre-celestial arrangement of the ba gua, and is also more detailed within the King Wen sequence of the yijing, and is directly related to the firing process, and the types of fire.

 

These are all principles, and may be applied in different ways to achieve the same results. Some schools use the waterwheel, some use martial arts, some use other methods, but all are able to achieve the same results by applying their own unique methods at the appropriate stages. I would venture to say the principle here is that a method which produces the desired result at the appropriates stage is a true method, and that a false method is one which does not produce the necessary result for the stage one is at.

 

In terms of activation, I would cautiously speculate that many people today use artificial methods to activate their Ling for recreational purposes. Perhaps this is a sign of our yearning for collective evolution to the next stage, and thus is important to acknowledge and address. However this is unfortunate, as this does not allow appropriate control over the alchemical process, nor have the prerequisite stages been accomplished in order to allow harnessing and making use of the substance to create the appropriate medicines and elixirs at their respective stages, and so people merely burn up their precelestial xing. I imagine it is more finely nuanced than this, but seems to add up. Liu Yiming says: Although Numinous (靈) Mercury is the treasure of Heaven, by its nature it loves movement: "When it sees Fire if flies away." Unless you obtain True Lead to control it, it roams away without leaving traces. (tl Pregadio, Cultivating the Tao, chapter 8). So people need to avoid using artificial means and learn to activate their Ling on their own, after the necessary preparations have been made. It would appear there are different types of Ling that need to be activated at the appropriate stages in the alchemical process, and that they all follow the same cosmological principles, and are all influenced by one's timing within the celestial mechanism.

 

These are my unrefined speculations. Am I on the right track here?

Edited January 22, 2015 by Daeluin

[Vitalii]

Wang Liping, Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu, pg 384:

"Your Yuan Shen is the true Ling (soul), which has no life or death, and can not perish or be damaged"

 

This is a very simplified description without explaining the essence of the term.

[Wells]

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Edited February 11, 2015 by ZOOM

[Vitalii]

So people need to avoid using artificial means and learn to activate their Ling on their own, after the necessary preparations have been made.

 

yes, you are right.

 

 

It would appear there are different types of Ling that need to be activated at the appropriate stages in the alchemical process, and that they all follow the same cosmological principles, and are all influenced by one's timing within the celestial mechanism.

 

To say more precisely, there are different aspects of manifestation of Ling and their activation depends on the student level and his/her alchemical experience.

The more alchemical experience a person has, the more radiance of Original Nature, the more Ling can be manifested.

The key to achieve this state is Xing gong, because if the heart-mind is not cleansed from obscurations then even if person has a lot of energy, ones Original Nature can not be awakened and manifested.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Vitalii

[dawei]

Wang Liping, Ling Bao Tong Zhi Neng Nei Gong Shu, pg 384:

"Your Yuan Shen is the true Ling (soul), which has no life or death, and can not perish or be damaged"

 

I agree in the sense that there is an inseparability to Shen and Ling.

 

Laozi said from DDJ39: The spirits (Shen) attained One and became divine (Ling). Others translate Ling as powerful as in efficacious.

 

"Let us go back to the Beginning: Before the Beginning was the Tao. Let uscall the Tao zero, neither negative nor positive: pure potential (ling)." -- The Returned Spirit (Gui Ling) of Traditional Chinese Medicine By Lonny S. Jarrett

 

But one still has to ask: Powerful/efficacious to do what?

 

Before I mentioned the Shaman could intercede about something... due to their completeness (they possessed the power to do something).

 

So it is about achieving a level or something?

 

I would simply say it the fulfilling of one's destiny; this is not about physical immortality as much as spiritual fate. When one has obtained The[ir] original spirit, they have activated Ling (The[ir] original power). The power of completion.

 

I know that some equate Yuan shen as synonymous with Dao to say: Dao is powerful but I don't mean this.

 

To me, they all are a part of the original spark which illuminated into space/matter.

 

I personally don't hold that practiced alchemy is the only way this occurs.. I've seen too many exceptions to know that there are many paths to this ascension. I think there are alchemic processes which some experience but we won't find it written in books.

[Vitalii]

I personally don't hold that practiced alchemy is the only way this occurs..

 

Alchemy is transformation process of yourself, and of course transformation process can be achieved not only with Daoist alchemy.