https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanzhen_School
This
exciting new work translates two 12th-century texts associated with the
legendary immortals Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, founders of the Zhong
Lü tradition of internal alchemy. First, the Zhong-Lü chuandao ji,
in dialogue format, outlines the cosmological parameters of the
practice, then describes various methods of attainment. Second, the Lingbao bifa, assembling various revealed sources and commentaries, presents similar concepts and adds more specific practices.
In addition to the translations, The Zhong-Lü System provides
a discussion in five chapters: Historical Unfolding, The Workings of
the Universe, The Human Condition, Stages and Processes, and Key
Practices. It makes both the underlying cosmology and the practical
transformation accessible and understandable in plain, straightforward
language. Beyond providing an in-depth understanding for modern
practitioners, the work is essential for anyone concerned with Daoist
history, cosmology, and internal alchemy.
https://journeytothewestresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Zhong-Lu-System-of-Internal-Alchemy.pdf
This book was inspired by editorial work on Mark Bartosh’s translation of
the lectures and practice instructions by Wang Liping (b. 1949), a major
figure in internal alchemy in China today as well as the leader of several
practice organizations in the West (www.dragongateacademy.com;
www.longmen.eu). His work, which was published in 2019 by Three Pines
Press under the title Daoist Internal Mastery, claims to rely closely on the
Zhong-Lü system and repeatedly cites its core texts.
"ghost immortals, at the bottom of the
ladder, have escaped the cycle of reincarnation but are stuck in the realm of yin. This happens because “they make their physical form like a withered tree and their mind like dead ashes, keeping their spirit consciousness contained within and their will unified, never letting it scatter. In deep stability
[samadhi], their yin spirit emerges, so they become ghosts of plain life force rather than immortals of pure yang” (ch. 1). That is to say, according to the
Zhong-Lü vision, the Buddhist practice of motionless sitting meditation and complete absorption in deep trance states does not lead anywhere except to a realm of deep darkness."...spirit immortals are earth immortals who take
their work to the next level. “Reverting jade fluid to the elixir field, they refine their physical form into qi” and create an immortal embryo within.
“Their yin all gone, their yang is utterly pure: beyond this body they have yet another body.
The
Chuandao ji asserts, “There is also yang contained in water and yin in qi”
(ch. 3). This leads to a dynamic internal process:
The kidneys are water, which also contains fire and ascends as qi to move to-
ward the heart. The heart is yang, and yang fuses with yang. When it reaches
its great ultimate, it generates yin. The accumulated qi then generates fluid,
which naturally descends from the heart and reverts to the kidneys. (ch. 6)
The traces of yang within yin and vice versa, moreover, are there on
the basis of essential cosmic workings, that is, they form part of a deeper
and subtler level of existence and are accordingly described as “true” or
“perfect” (zhen 真). As the Chuandao ji notes:
Qi tends to ascend, yet it also contains perfect water. Water tends to descend,
yet also contains perfect qi. Thus, perfect water is perfect yin and perfect qi is
perfect yang. Perfect yang descends as it follows water. (ch. 3
These two are further described in terms of lead and mercury, so that
“perfect qi hidden deep within the internal kidneys is lead” and “the water
of perfect oneness within this qi is the perfect tiger, alternatively called sil-
ver within lead.” Similarly, fluid generated in the heart on the basis of qi
contains the qi of rightful yang or cinnabar, that is, the root of mercury.
“Mercury is the qi of rightful yang within heart fluid” (ch. 10).
Here the yellow court is a
divine palace in the center of the abdomen, housing the core deities and
essential potencies of life. In later works of internal alchemy, on the other
hand, it is an open cavity between the heart and the kidneys, a positive,
non-empty void that forms the lodge of spirit and qi (Neswald 2009, 38).
The process of mating and impregnation is envisioned quite like the
first joining of a newly-wed couple. As the Chuandao ji describes it, adepts
imagine kidney water and heart fire as two deities: the perfect father is a
young man dressed in red, the color of fire, who stands above; the perfect
mother is a young woman dressed in black, the color of water, who rests
below. They move toward a yellow hut where they encounter an old woman,
the matchmaker, who invites them to enter the nuptial chamber where they
become husband and wife. “Just as in a wedding ceremony among people,
they have a great time, full of joy and delight.”
Working in a rhythm of
twenty-four or thirty-six repetitions at a time, they also hold the breath in,
up the count of 108, to increase heat in the body and raise the fire that
much higher so they can retain more and more primordial qi (Baldrian-
Hussein 1984, 91-94; see also Pregadio 2013, 28). As they do so, the energy
transforms:
Steam and nurture it without stopping. First use yin to retain yang, then use
yang to refine yin. Qi thus turns into essence, essence turns into mercury,
mercury turns into cinnabar, and cinnabar turns into the golden elixir. Once
the golden elixir is produced, perfect qi naturally grows. Refine this qi into
spirit and attain transcendence and liberation. (Chuandao ji 10)
‘Dan 丹 means the elixir
field (dantian 丹田), fluid means the fluid of the lungs. Since the fluid of
the lungs reverts to the elixir field, it is called golden fluid reverting to the
elixir [field]” (Fabrizio Pregadio, personal communcation).
minor reversion to the elixir field is the
alignment of the five phases mentioned earlier, the systematic guiding of qi
through the five organs in both the generating and control cycles, always
directing the energy back to the lower field and strengthening its presence
there (ch. 13), matching the level of minor accomplishment. As Wang
Liping points out, the system works like a three-dimensional Taiji structure
with “connecting lines from the kidneys to the bladder, forming both sides
of yin and yang. After reaching the bladder, they rotate diagonally, connect-
ing to the liver and the heart. The heart then connects to the stomach and
moves on to the lungs, where there is also a rotating diagonal line” (Wang
and Bartosh 2019, 325). He also notes that the Complete Perfection founder
Wang Chongyang—in the wake of the Zhong-Lü texts—called this minor
reversion, leading to the merging of water and fire. More specifically, the
process works by using external as well as internal and cosmic forces to
push qi to circulate through the five organs (2019, 325)
In internal practice, golden fluid is associated with the lungs, gold
being a primary metal, and thought to hold the core powers of lead and
mercury. As the Chuandao ji notes, “It forms the womb that contains the
dragon and tiger and protects their transmutation once it has been sent to
the yellow court” (ch. 13). Th work here involves the rotation of kidney qi to
the heart and thus into the lungs (Baldrian-Hussein 1984, 139, 147, 153). The
Lingbao bifa specifies,
What we call golden fluid is kidney qi ascending and fusing with heart qi,
then steaming into the lungs. The lungs are the Flowery Canopy. From here,
condense the two qi downward and thus obtain lung fluid, which you then
store in the lower field.
the womb of the universe. . . . Primordial union has been reestab-
lished, and the practitioner partakes of the unlimited supply of original,
primordial, ever-circulating qi” (Jackowicz 2006, 82-83; Kohn 2012, 78).
Always on inhalation slightly lift up the
anus and contract the front genitals and lower abdomen, so the qi keeps on
rising into the lower field” (Wang and Bartosh 2019, 207). Not unlike the
three locks in yoga—at the perineum, abdomen, and throat—the yang barrier represents the power to close off the body and prevent leakage of energy.
Moving away from the image of the chariot, central
to the Daoist vision, this is yet technically correct, since the device is indeed a “water-raising machine” (Needham et al. 1983, 60) and the word che is
The most basic or minor
mode is “reversing the flow of the five phases” in preparation for the “mat-
ing of dragon and tiger to transform into the yellow sprout.” The second,
major mode, is “quickening the gold crystal by pulling back the elbows and
reverting it into the Niwan,” thereby to “reduce lead and augment mercury
and produce the great medicine.” The third, called the “purple” mode, in-
volves “transporting the spirit to enter the physical organism. Thus, one
merges with time and flows along; transforming into a sage and leaving the
ordinary behind, one become a feathered guest” (ch. 12).
For example, as qi circulates,
“ascending toward heaven, it enters Kunlun [in the head] above; fully satu-
rated [jiji] there, it rushes to the phoenix towers [kidneys] below” (Chuan-
dao ji 12). On a more complex level, the term refers to a meditation practice
of filling the mouth with saliva, the body with qi, and the mind with har-
mony (Baldrian-Hussein 1984, 87
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