Is the Yang Shen Golden Immortal Body the true goal of Neidan alchemy? Yes and No. Rather it is a byproduct of the process as the goal of Emptiness

 So the goal of the "immortal body" or yang shen in Daoism is actually just a byproduct of deeper levels of turning the mind around as meditation. So the thinking mind is the yin qi and normally this is also the Hun Soul with our eyes open. 

With the eyes open we disconnect the Heaven from Earth. So the astral body as the Yuan Shen has to be CREATED through meditation and so then with the eyes closed and with focusing our attention as yin qi as internal listening or Ting - this concentrated thought then CREATES the Yang Shen as "positive spirit." At first the "absolute void" is still the yin shen. As Nathan Brine explained recently - the Yuan Shen is made of both the yin shen and yang shen. 

So the first half of the alchemy training is the yin shen of the yuan shen. So this is the moon light and even though it is the Absolute Void that radiates light outside the body - it is still from the yang qi having yin shen blockages. So there is a reversal because the yang qi is blue light and the yin qi is red light with the eyes open. 

But when the yin qi is reversed as yang shen then it is the golden light from the yang qi of blue light turning into Yuan Qi. So therefore this is called "yin matter" as the Yuan Jing - as the immortal body. So the physical body has to be vaporized in order to achieve the true immortal golden body. Yet when the Yang Shen is not concentrated through the yin qi as virtual phonons or "yin matter" - (reverse time energy) then it is the nonlocal Yuan Qi that is impersonal and "scattered." So Yuan Qi is everywhere and in everything but it is based on the concentration of the energy that then enables creating new matter from the yuan shen.

So yes Master Nan, Huai-chin emphasizes that for most Zen masters and even Ch'an master - that unless the body is filled with Yuan Qi then otherwise the MIND can not maintain the emptiness as death. So then this is NOT "supreme complete enlightenment." So if the body is sick from yin qi blockages that means the yang shen still has externally focused red light low frequency blockages. 

 

So in the Advaita tradition they teach that this Yang Shen golden immortality training is NOT necessary because in reality ONLY the Yuan Qi is real whereas in Mahayana Buddhism they teach that the Advaita tradition just leaves the physical body sick. So if the body is sick then the mind can not empty out back into the Yuan Qi and then the spirit wanders in delusional dreams - and has some kind of rebirth process.

 

So there is a big book about this called "Measuring Meditation" by Bill Bodri wherein he promotes the view of Mahayana Buddhism and Master Nan, Huai-chin while arguing against the view of Advaita Vedanta. Still the goal of Advaita Vedanta is equivalent to an "Arhat" in Buddhism and it's still difficult to achieve for anyone practicing meditation. 

 

So if we consider that the yang qi is the vagus nerve and the fear is the "freeze" reaction that causes trauma as nerve damage - and then death is the right side vagus nerve causing a heart attack - then the Jnana or Arhat has turned the light around as consciousness so deep into the Ether - that the Ether then powers the body directly while "cutting the knot" or detaching the yang qi blockage between the heart and the spirit. 

 

So then the person's body is essentially like a zombie and with each breath as each thought then the person's Yuan Qi is directly from the Emptiness or God itself speaking through the body. The person "embodies the Emptiness" - as the original qigong master stated

 

So as Mahayana Buddhism teaches there are "different levels of Emptiness" just as there are "different levels of consciousness" for the Realm of Bliss, Realm of Form and Realm of the Formless (basically equivalent to the three tan t'iens of Neidan). So Master Nan, Huai-chin emphasizes that a person needs to STABILIZE at each level whereas any individual at any moment could potentially experience any level of consciousness or emptiness.

So as Westernized modern minds - this is VERY difficult for people to accept. We can not SEE the Emptiness and yet it is eternally already that which we are. And since we can LISTEN to it then going deeper into the Emptiness does require a process of purification and harmonization (as yoga meditation). 

 

So as Poonjaji states - the modern world is actually too POLLUTED - physically and emotionally - to achieve the type of body purification required for the level of the immortal spirit bodies as new matter. Sri Yukteswar appeared as a Yang Shen and so did Ramana Maharshi but Poonjaji said that was just for him to learn the real truth of reality that is beyond all the astral realms. 

 

So in other words a "Yang Shen" can be experienced but that does not mean a person has "stabilized" at the level of the Yang Shen. In fact I would argue that it is impossible to "stabilize" - as Sri Aurobindo argued as well. This is the SAME limitation as Time-Frequency uncertainty in quantum physics. So listening is noncommutative phase but light as energy can not be converted to new matter except at the limitation of the speed of light. 

 

  In addition to being a particle, light is also a wave. This allows it to carry momentum, and therefore energy, without having mass.

https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/04/01/light-has-no-mass-so-it-also-has-no-energy-according-to-einstein-but-how-can-sunlight-warm-the-earth-without-energy/ 

 since it definitely carries momentum and energy, it has non-zero inertial mass. Hence, by the principle of equivalence, it must have non-zero gravitational mass, and so, light must be heavy.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1508.06478.pdf 

 

 

 

 

So the Yuan Qi is before the creation of new matter. In the Universe matter is actually a small part of the Universe energy and yet if light changed directions to reverse the entropy of matter - this change of the time would not be KNOWN to the light itself. 

 

 

 

The net energy of the Universe is actually zero as the Emptiness is pure information (future and past time). So the Yuan Shen is called the "light of no light" because light on its own (having a zero rest mass) does not experience time nor space. 

 

So then in the Yuan Qi of the Yuan Shen for a qigong master then the future and past (of Yang Shens) are all happening at the SAME time. Whereas for energy outside the Yuan Qi then we exist in matter - whether that matter is from the future or slower than the speed of light - the matter is still experiencing spacetime.

So the goal of the Yang Shen is a byproduct of the process as the goal and the process is this harmonization of listening as the Emptiness resonates from itself as noncommutative phase or what Ramana Maharshi called "the three in one unity." So it's not that the creation of a yang shen should not be striven for but only that it can not be attached to and so it is not the goal in itself. This is true for all spiritual abilities of Nirvikalpa Samadhi - levitation or real astral travel, etc.