How to recognize the wrong dan dao?

[awaken]

且今人以道門尚于修命，而不知修命之法，理出兩端：有易遇而難成著，有難遇而易成者。如煉五芽之氣，服七耀之光，注想按摩，納清吐濁；念經持咒，巽水叱符；叩齒集神，休妻絕粒；存神閉息，運眉間之思；補腦還精，習房中之術，以至服煉金石草木之類，皆易遇而難成者。以上諸法，于修身之道，率多滅裂，故施力雖多而求效莫驗。若勤心苦志，日夕修持，止可以辟病，免其非橫。一旦不行，則前功漸棄。此乃遷延歲月，事必難成。欲望一得永得，還嬰返老，變化飛升，不亦難乎？深可痛傷。蓋近世修行之徒，妄有執著，不悟妙法之真，卻怨神仙謾語。殊不知成道者，皆因煉金丹而得，恐泄天機，遂托數事爲名。其中惟閉息一法，如能忘機絕慮，即與二乘坐禪頗同。若勤而行之，可以入定出神。奈何精神屬陰，宅舍難固，不免長用遷徙之法，既未得金汞返還之道，又豈能回陽換骨，白日而升天哉？

 

Can anyone find the English version of the article ?

 

It is from wu-gen-pian, Chang bou duan.

[awaken]

Chang (987-1082) lived in one thousand years ago.

 

The problems of dan dao he met is the same as we meet today.

 

Why?

 

Because the desire of people

 

Many 大師master as Chang told us to be careful about these wrong dao.

 

Don't let us go the wrong way.

 

These wrong dao usually has big schools.

 

We must be very careful to keep these schools away to prevent us from cheating.

[damdao]

this is the Preface of Zhang's Awakening to Reality. 

I didn't found an english translation but what Zhang Boduan stresses in his work is not the size of the school but if it has a True Teacher and Minggong. 

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Awakening to Reality, Translated by Fabrezio Pregadio

[damdao]

Awakening to Reality, Translated by Fabrezio Pregadio

 

If I am not mistaken Pregadio (as well as Crowe and Bertschinger) begins with the first poem there is no translation of the Zhang's preface.

[Mudfoot]

So how do you recognize the wrong dan dao?

[awaken]

易遇難成者

 

Easy to find, but difficult to succeed

[awaken]

練五芽之氣

 

Practice the chi of five bud

 

https://m.facebook.com/notes/林群傑/古老的養生功法卻穀食氣五芽服氣法/712430618794391/

[words]

what is the wrong dan dao?

[Taoist Texts]

且今人以道門尚于修命，而不知修命之法，理出兩端：有易遇而難成著，有難遇而易成者。如煉五芽之氣，服七耀之光，注想按摩，納清吐濁；念經持咒，巽水叱符；叩齒集神，休妻絕粒；存神閉息，運眉間之思；補腦還精，習房中之術，以至服煉金石草木之類，皆易遇而難成者。以上諸法，于修身之道，率多滅裂，故施力雖多而求效莫驗。若勤心苦志，日夕修持，止可以辟病，免其非橫。一旦不行，則前功漸棄。此乃遷延歲月，事必難成。欲望一得永得，還嬰返老，變化飛升，不亦難乎？深可痛傷。蓋近世修行之徒，妄有執著，不悟妙法之真，卻怨神仙謾語。殊不知成道者，皆因煉金丹而得，恐泄天機，遂托數事爲名。其中惟閉息一法，如能忘機絕慮，即與二乘坐禪頗同。若勤而行之，可以入定出神。奈何精神屬陰，宅舍難固，不免長用遷徙之法，既未得金汞返還之道，又豈能回陽換骨，白日而升天哉？

 

 

      Moreover, nowadays people think that the Taoists schools value the cultivation of Ming, yet little they know that there are two kinds of Ming cultivation: one is easy to find but hard to succeed in; the second is hard to find but easy to succeed in.

 

      So they melt the 5 sprouts qi, intake the 7 rays, direct attention and massage themselves, take in the pure and spit out the filth, recites sutras and read spells, whisper the water and yell  out the talismans, knock teeth and gather spirit, abandon spouses and cut off grains, shelter the spirit and shut the breath, think of the point between the eyebrows, mend the brain by reverting the semen, practice the bedroom arts, and so on, even melting the metals, minerals, herbs and trees – all of this is easy to find but hard to succeed.

 

      All of the above are mostly the ways of a crude body cultivation, one expends a lot of effort with a nil result. If you practice those with assiduous heart and bitter determination, keep going at those day and night, then you will only keep the illnesses and misfortunes at bay. It is enough not to practice those for one day only, for all the previous merit to come to naught.

 

 

      And as to extending the years and moons of your life, those are hardly possible to succeed. And perhaps you are hoping to grab the only chance  once and for all, to come back to childhood and to revert the old age, but  to transform and to ascend, would not that be even harder using those methods?

 

      Amongst them there is only one method of shuttering the breath, forgetting action and cutting off thoughts, which is quite alike to the sitting Chan of the Two Vehicles. Practicing it assiduously one can enter Samadhi and exit in spirit. Yet this essential spirit will belong to yin, and inevitably will have to move residence forever.

 

     So without obtaining the Dao of the reverted gold and mercury, how can you return the Yang and renew your bones, and then ascend to Heaven in the broad daylight?

[awaken]

七耀 is 七曜，means the light of the sun, the moon, and five stars(金木水火土星）

Edited December 19, 2016 by awaken

[mvingon]

What are the five stars, please?

[Arkady Shadursky]

It would be good to mention here also the other classics: 

Zhong Lü Chuan Dao Ji:

(Translated from Russian, original Chinese-to-Russian translation by D.A. Artemiev.)

Lü Dongbin asked his teacher Zhongli Quan: "Why is Great Dao difficult to understand and realize?"

Zhongli Quan answered: "Because false methods of minor schools are considered efficient and widely spread among the laity; they are passed from one to another and until death the true awareness does not come; they subsequently become customary and discredit the Great Dao.

These are such methods as:
1. Fasting.
2. Starvation.
3. Gathering of qi.
4. Saliva swallowing.
5. Sexual abstinence.
6. Forgoing tastes.
7. Chan meditation.
8. Silence.
9. Awareness.
10. The Art of the inner chambers.
11. Inhaling much, exhaling little.
12. Maintaining purity.
13. Quieting (thoughts stopping).
14. Avoiding fatigue.
15. Opening of the heads crown.
16. Puckering genitals into ones body.
17. Symptoms disappearance.
18. Canons reading and recitation.
19. Outer alchemy.
20. Breathe restraining.
21. Dao Yin practices.
22. Tu Na gymnastics.
23. Gathering and replenishing.
24. Charity and donations.
25. Sacrifices.
26. Giving help.
27. Retreating into mountains.
28. Innate wisdom (analytical mind).
29. Immobility.
30. Formal maintaining of the teaching lineage.

Its not possible to fully recite all the minor schools and inconsistent methods. To the extent that (they):

Gather essence of sun and moon and accumulate Qi of Heaven and Earth.
Think endlessly, hoping to produce cinnabar.
Bend the body, exhausting it, trying to break free.
Inhale a lot, but exhale a little, in attempt to cure diseases, considering it a true embryonic breathing.
Halt thinking and forget the words, that correspond to nurturing the nature of xing, but this just points to cultivation of the true of qi contained in the Great Fundamental.
Practice the art of inner chambers, but this is just a lower cultivation method of the fate - ming.
Immobilize the body like a withered tree, and make the mind calm like cold ash - and this is a small art of spirit concentration.
What to do if in antiquity and today the men cultivating the Dao were trying hard and constantly care (only about it), but since the saliva was believed to be the cure, how was it possible to carry out the creation?
Thickening qi as the elixir is it possible to achieve its conservation? Considering liver to be a dragon, lungs to be a tiger how is it possible to unite them? Assuming Kan to be lead, and Li to be mercury is it possible to prolong the life? Based on the year seasons sought to cultivate yellow sprout.
Not letting intention to dissipate, coveted to find a Great cure.
Comparing years and matching months wasted days and got confused over time.
Without understanding Wu Xing basics how could they perceive the creation of three principles?
Acquired only a superficial and fooled the descendants. This led for the Great Dao to become disregarded over the time; (they) rose and become a custom of heresy and false teaching. In this way the original meaning of the ancient Masters was lost.

Exactly because of Dao were listening empty jabber and superficial teachings; pointed followers, who understood nothing, to them as secret methods of practice; passed each other forms of instruction and interpretations, but in due time decent into the netherworld, causing the hearts of men to numb with fear!

Under no circumstances wanted to cultivate and fulfill the Great Dao, outshone their contemporaries, only cared about the happiness and avoidance of failures, did not believe in innermost secrets and only multiplied the wealth and neglected their fate, thus heading to turn into devils (ghost)!

Originally posted here: 
http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/35815-minor-schools-and-inconsistent-methods-from-zhong-l%C3%BC-chuan-dao-ji/
Thank you.
---
Arkady
 

[[email protected]]

Execuse me, is there anything about MCO?

 

I have tried MCO as well as some other methods. The issue was that I felt qi rising through the back to the head, but never felt that qi goes down through the front into dantian.

 

Rgrds, Ilya

[awaken]

Execuse me, is there anything about MCO?

 

I have tried MCO as well as some other methods. The issue was that I felt qi rising through the back to the head, but never felt that qi goes down through the front into dantian.

 

Rgrds, Ilya

You need to get into the first layer of Hun-dun to let the chi go down.

[awaken]

It would be good to mention here also the other classics:

 

Zhong Lü Chuan Dao Ji:

 

Originally posted here:

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/35815-minor-schools-and-inconsistent-methods-from-zhong-lü-chuan-dao-ji/Thank you.

---

Arkady

 

呂曰：所謂大道者何也？鍾曰：大道無形無名，無問無應，其大無外，其小無內，莫可得而知也，莫可得而行也。呂曰：古今達士，始也學道，次以有道，次以得道，次以道成。而於塵世入蓬島，升於洞天，升於陽天，而升三清，是皆道成之士。今日尊師獨言道不可得而知，不可得而行，然於道也獨得隱乎？鍾曰：僕於道也固無隱爾，蓋舉世奉道之士，止有好道之名，使聞大道而無信心，雖有信心而無苦志。朝為而夕改，坐作而立忘，始乎憂勤，終則懈怠。僕以是言大道難知難行。吕曰：大道難知難行之理如何？曰：以傍門小法易為見功，而俗流多得互相傳授，至死不悟，遂成風俗敗壞大道。有齋戒者，有休糧者，有採氣者，有漱咽者，有離妻者，有斷味者，有禪定者，有不語者，有存想者，有採陰者，有服氣者，有持冷者，有息心者，有絕累者，有開頂者，有縮龜者，有絕迹者，有看讀者，有燒鍊者，有定息者，有導引者，有吐納者，有採補者，有布施者，有供養者，有救濟者，有入山者，有識性者，有不動者，有授持者。傍門小法，不可備陳。至如採日月之華，奪天地之氣，心思意想，望結丹砂，屈體勞形，欲求超脫，多入少出，攻病可也。認為真胎息、絕念忘言，養性可也。指作太一含真氣，金鎗不倒，黃河逆流，養命之下法。形如槁木，心若死灰，集神之小術。奈何古今奉道之士，苦苦留心，往往掛意。以咽津為藥，如何得造化？聚氣為丹，如何得停留？指肝為龍而肺為虎，如何得交合？認坎為鉛而離為汞，如何得抽添？四時澆灌，望長黃芽，一意不散，欲求大藥，差年錯月，廢日亂時，不識五行根蒂，安知三才造化。尋枝摘葉，迷惑後人，致使大道日遠日疏，異端並起，而成風俗，以失先師之本意者，良由道聽塗說，口耳之學，而指訣於無知之徒，遞相訓式，節序而入於泉下，令人寒心。非不欲開陳大道，蓋世人業重福薄，不信天機，重財輕命，願為下鬼。呂曰：小法傍門既已知矣，其於大道可得聞乎？

2 鍾曰：道本無問，問本無應，及乎真原一判，大朴已散。道生一，一生二，二生三。一為體，二為用，三為造化。體用不出於陰陽，造化皆因於交媾。上中下列為三才，天地人共得於一道。道生二氣，二氣生三才，三才生五行，五行生萬物。萬物之中，最靈最貴者人也。惟人也，窮萬物之理，盡一己之性，窮理盡性以至於命。全命保生以合於道，當與天地齊其堅固而同得長久。呂曰：天長地久，一旦千古以無窮，人壽百歲，至七十而尚稀，何道之獨在於天地而遠於人乎？鐘曰：道不遠於人而人自遠於道矣。所以遠於道者，養命不知法。所以不知法者，下功不識時。所以不識時者，不達天地之機也。

 

This is the original Chinese classic

 

 

 

一意不散，欲求大藥

 

The sentence is very important

 

一意，the focus of ego Shen

不散，don't disappear

欲求，want to have

大藥，big medicine , means golden dan

Edited December 19, 2016 by awaken

[mvingon]

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Chinese_Customs/taoism.htm

 

I still don't understand.

[awaken]

What are the five stars, please?

Golden star

Woden star

Water star

Fire star

Earth star

[Arkady Shadursky]

Hello, Ilya.
The Teacher of Single Yang (Patriarch of WuLiupai School) has very clear position about practicing MCO in alchemy and in qigong.
It's a GREAT difference.
Here are the key points about that:
 

 

After the All-Wise will make a Basis of the elixir Danmu (this is precisely the True Sperm), then in the body a True Water stream naturally arises and it becomes possible to verify the words of Mr. Qui. This True Water rises through the channel Dumai, passes Nivan, reaches Magpie Bridge, gets down to the Many-tier Tower and through the channel Renmai directly sinks into the lower dantian. This stream through two channels, Ren and Du is called an alchemical Heaven of small circle. And this is always happened in such a way with to each man who was melting the elixir and perfecting the Tao, it has a scientific repeatability.
 

On the other hand in Qigong there is not anything, of what can be called " a medicinal substance Yao, oven and a tripod Lu Ting, periods of Fire Hohou" and in the flow through two channels, Ren and Du only the movement of qi is present, there is no True Water, True Sperm and moreover it is meaningless to talk about production of elixir. Also in qigong every practitioner is guided only by their own subjective experience of feeling the flow of qi in the small heaven circle, and each of them has different reactions in the body. There is no repeatability.

Please refer to the full article:
http://all-dao.com/difference-qigong-alchemy.html
---
Best Regards,
Arkady
 

[awaken]

Water , yao, oven, these dao nouns , only the one who open the emptiness can really know it.

 

A normal Qi goung teacher can not now what it is.

 

Qi goung is totally different from dan dao.

 

Qi goung is the first part of dan dao.

 

功夫分兩段

 

So Chang bou doub and Lu don bin told us what the wrong dan dao are.

 

The wrong dan dao schools has a common point. -- they 修命不修性

 

The dan dao is always 性命雙修

 

命功is easy to teach

 

性命雙修 is very difficult to teach

Edited December 19, 2016 by awaken

[mvingon]

Thank you, awaken. A cursory search didn't seem to turn up much, but I've got to start mundane tasks, soon. I'll try again, later.

 

If you have time and want to do so, can you please give a brief introduction to these? Here, PM, email, anywhere is fine, with me.

 

Thanks again.

[awaken]

For example , we can see Chang and Lu, they do not talk about Mco.

 

Because mco is not a methods.

 

It is a short time process.

 

Some one use some methods to let the chi go circle.

 

I know many people get sick from these methods.

 

Truely hope , knowing the rules of Ying Yang is more important than practice Mco.

[awaken]

Thank you, awaken. A cursory search didn't seem to turn up much, but I've got to start mundane tasks, soon. I'll try again, later.

If you have time and want to do so, can you please give a brief introduction to these? Here, PM, email, anywhere is fine, with me.

Thanks again.

If the answer is not related to personal, I hope more people can learn .

 

I hope I can help more people go the wu Wei dan dao.

[Cheshire Cat]

I think that if an immortal wants to teach the Dao of immortals, he doesn't need to talk so much about what it's not.

 

He just tells the secret to the worthy, and hides oneself from the profane.

Edited December 19, 2016 by Cheshire Cat

[[email protected]]

You need to get into the first layer of Hun-dun to let the chi go down.

Thanks for the reply, awaken, but I'm confused I didn't get what you mentioned - the terminology is a bit unclear for me.

All I did is tried to make a simple qi circle.