Mysterious-Female

* You should know that the One Opening at the center of

the person is the Mysterious-Female. This Opening is
not the heart or the kidneys, is not the mouth or the
nose, is not the spleen or the stomach, is not the anus,
is not the bladder, is not the [lower] Cinnabar Field, and
is not the Muddy Pellet. If you are able to know this
Opening, then the winter solstice, the Medicine, the Fire
Phases, the “bathing”, and the coalescing and the
delivery of the embryo are all found there.67

Liu Yiming describes this point devoid of physical

location by using several terms that allude to the
conjunction of Yin and Yang:
What we call Mysterious Barrier is the place where the
four elements do not stick.68 Neither it is, nor it is not; it
is neither form nor emptiness; it is neither inside nor
outside. It is also called Gate of the
Mysterious-Female, Dwelling of Giving and
Taking Life, Opening of Yin and Yang, Barrier
of Birth and Death, Cavity of the Inchoate,
Altar of the Dragon and the Tiger, Opening of
the Turtle and the Snake, Village of the Vague
and the Indistinct, Land of the Dim and the
Obscure, Door of Entrance and Exit, and Gate
of wu and ji. It has many different names, but
in general it is called Opening of the
Mysterious Barrier. ….......(Centre of Sun-Yoni)
Let me tell you one thing. You should know that this
Opening is in the land where the six senses do not
stick, in the place where the five agents do not reach.
Vague and indistinct! Within there is an opening. Dim
and obscure! Within there is a gate. It opens and closes
by itself. If you call out, it replies. If you knock, it
responds.69
LAOZI AND INTERNAL ALCHEMY,P-291

Cultivating the Tao Taoism and Internal Alchemy

* InChapter 20, Liu Yiming lists several practices that
can be mistaken as forms of “doing” or “non-doing.”
These practices include traditional forms of Taoist
meditation—for instance, inhaling the essences of the
Sun and Moon, ingesting the breaths (qi) of “the clouds
and the mist,” and concentrating “on the tip of the
nose”—as well as Waidan (External Alchemy)..........
Among them, however, Liu Yiming also mentions
methods that belong to Internal Alchemy itself: to
mention a few, circulating breath (qi) between zi and
wu,joining the breaths of the heart and
the kidneys to one another, and “causing the
Essence of Metal to ascend on the back of the body.”15
Accor
According to Liu Yiming, these practices which he does
equate with the way of inferior virtue, but recommends
to all those who cannot follow the way of superior virtue
two ways can lead
(Non Doing), adding that the
to the same degree of realization. His point,
rather, is to remind that one should not restrict oneself
to the way of inferior virtue: in “doing”(neidan-practice)
one’s practice, one should be able to “stop when it is
sufficient” (Chapter 12) and then proceed to the way of
superior virtue, where “non-doing” takes up a meaning
different from the practices he mentions.
Cultivating the Tao Taoism and Internal Alchemy,P-21
 The other major focus of criticism is sexual practices.
Liu Yiming constantly advices against “using
women” for one’s practice (Chapter 15), and
against taking women “as furnaces and tripods”
(Chapter 11) in order to collect the ingredient of the
Elixir, under the wrong belief that the term “other
house”—the Yin containing True Yang—refers to
“actual people” (Chapter 8). According to Liu Yiming,
this error is even worse than the one made by those
who practice alchemy by identifying formless principles
with the “illusory body,” or by “relying on furnaces and
stoves” and practicing External Alchemy.
Cultivating the Tao Taoism and Internal Alchemy,P-22
If men should cultivate the Tao using women, then
women too should cultivate the Tao using men.” To my
knowledge, no master of Internal Alchemy before Liu
Yiming had ever made a similar remark in writing.
Cultivating the Tao Taoism and Internal Alchemy,P-22

* White Moon on Mountain Peak

The Alchemical Firing Process of Neidan
By Dammo Mitchell
 Starting out in Nei Dan ( 內 丹 ) or ‘internal alchemy’ is
much like building a campfire. In the beginning we must
prepare the ground and collect together firewood. The
fire must be laid out in the correct way and only then
can it be lit. The kindling is burned first to produce a
small flame and from here we tend to the fire until it is
burning brightly, producing the warmth and light we are
seeking. The fire still cannot be left alone, though; now
it needs constant feeding of small amounts of firewood
to keep it going. If we neglect the flame for too long, it
will go out and our work will have been for nothing; we
must start over again.
The practice of Nei Dan must be approached
in the same manner. We prepare our body and set up
the correct internal conditions for our practice. From
here we begin to ‘light the fire’ through the use of our
breath and very precise methods until we have a
healthy degree of energetic warmth in the
lower abdomen.
Our daily practice from here on keeps this fire lit, and
thus keeps the internal change process inherent within
Daoist alchemy going. If we ignore our practice for too
long, then the skill of Nei Dan is lost and so we must
begin anew.
White Moon on Mountain Peak
The Alchemical Firing Process of Neidan
By Dammo Mitchell P-2

* COMMENTARY ON THE MIRROR FOR

COMPOUNDING THE MEDICINE
translated by Fabrizio Pregadio
Precelestial Breath,
postcelestial Breath.
Those who obtain them
always seem to be drunk.(Amrit,Elixir-nks)

Precelestial Breath= Heat of Lower Dantein in

Thrusting Channel

Postcelestial Breath= Ordinary Breath

The postcelestial Breath is the Breath that

circulates internally: one exhalation, one
inhalation, once coming, once going.
“Exhaling touches onto the root of Heaven,
inhaling touches onto the root of Earth . On
exhaling, ‘the dragon howls and the clouds rise’; on
inhaling, ‘the tiger roars and the wind blows.’”3

When [the postcelestial Breath] is “unceasing and

continuous,”4 it returns to the Ancestral Breath (Pre
celestial). The internal and the external inchoately
merge, and coalesce to form the Reverted Elixir
(huandan). Then you become aware of a
burning fire in the Cinnabar Field that
spreads to the four limbs. You look like a fool or
like drunk( Elixir), but “its beauty lies within.”5 This is
why it says, “those who obtain them always seem to be
drunk.”
P-7
“Precelestial” (xiantian) and “postcelestial”
(houtian) refer to the states before and after
the generation of the cosmos. The precelestial
Breath (qi) is the One Breath of the Dao. Once the
cosmos is generated, it is permeated by the
postcelestial Breath, which manifests itself in
the multiplicity of the directions of space, the
cycles of time, and all the entities and phenomena that
exist and occur within space and time. In the human
being, in particular, the postcelestial Breath is the
breath (qi) of ordinary breathing . In any of its
forms, however, the postcelestial Breath hides and
preserves the precelestial Breath, or one “particle” of it.
In the strict sense of the term, the purpose of
Neidan is the recovery of the precelestial
Breath—represented as the Elixir—and its
reconjunction with the postcelestial Breath.

When you kindle the Fire, you

become aware of the Breath
ascending without interruption
(Automaticaly,Sponteneasly in Middle and
Upper Dantein-NKS). Similar to the initial
rise of a tide, it goes upwards by inverting its
flow; therefore it says, “in Heaven it responds to the
stars, on Earth it responds to the tides.”

This is what a scripture on the Elixir means

when it says:
 The practice is easy, the Medicine is not far
away.6
P-17
* Secretes of the Golden Flower - By Thomas,Cleary
In Wilhelm's own introduction to his translation of The
Secret of the Golden Flower, he notes that Taoist
organizations following this teaching in his time included
not only Confucians and Buddhists but also Jews,
Christians, and Muslims, all without requiring them to
break away from their own religious congregations. So
fundamental is the golden flower awakening that it
brings out inner dimensions in all religions.
P-4
From the point of view of that central experience, it
makes no more dif!erence whether one calls the golden
flower awakening a relationship to God or to the Way,
or whether one calls it the holy spirit or the Buddha
nature or the real self. The Tao Te Ching says, "Names
can be designated, but they are not fixed terms."
P-4
The image of the opening up of the golden
flower of the light in the mind is used as but
one of many ways of alluding to an ef!ect that
is really ineffilble. The pragmatic purpose of Taoist
and Buddhist teachings is to elicit experience, not to
inculcate doctrines; that is why people of other
religions, or with no religion at all, have been able to
avail themselves of the psychoactive technologies of
Taoism and Buddhism without destroying their own
cultural identities.
P-4
However immature his rendition may have been, I am
deeply indebted to Richard Wilhelm for introducing this
extraordinary text to the West, for it could otherwise
have gone unnoticed for decades, even centuries,
amidst the hundreds upon hundreds of Taoist and
Buddhist treatises awaiting translation.
P-5
3 Since ancient times, those who realized spiritual
immortality all communicated their teaching verbally,
transmitting it from individual to individual.
4 Thishang appeared magically to Donghua, and the
Way was handed on through a succession to Yan, then
to the southern and northern schools of
Complete Reality( Unmuni Mudra), which can be
considered its full flourishing.
P-9
13 The light is easily stirred and hard to stabilize. When
you have turned it around for a long time, the light
crystallizes. This is the narural spiritual body, and it
steadies the spirit above the nine skies. This is what is
referred to in the Mind Seal Scripture as "silently paying
court" and "soaring upward."
P-11
4 What is most wondrous is when the light has
crystallized in a spiritual body, gradually becoming
consciously effective, and is on the verge of moving into
action. This is the secret that has not been transmitted
in a thousand ages.
P-13
6 Now steadily keep to the chamber of the origin,
(Sunya house above head) . turning the light around
to look back, and thiS IS lIke having a heroic leader on
top With great mlllisters helping.
P-14
18 Once the celestial mind stirs, then use pure attention
to raise it up to the chamber of the creative, with
the light of spirit focused on the crown of the head
to guide it. This is acting in time.
P-42
20 Once about to enter utter quiescence, not a single
thought is born; when gazing inward, suddenly one
forgets the gazing. At that time body and mind are in a
state of great freedom, and all objects disappear
without a trace. Then you don't even know where the
furnace and cauldron in your spiritual room are; you
can't even find your own body. This is the time when
"heaven enters eatth" and all wonders return to the
root. This is solidifying the spirit in the lair of energy.
P-43
16 Just persist in this method, and naturally the water of
vitality will be full, the fire of spirit will ignite, the earth of
attention will stabilize, and thus the embryo of
sagehood can be solielified.
P-15
3 Only after a hundred days of concentrated work is the
light real; only then is it the fire of spirit. After a
hundred days, the light is spontaneous: a
point of true positive energy suddenly
produces a pearl, just as an embryo forms
ftom the intercourse of a man and a woman.
Then you should attend it calmly and quietly. The
turning around of the light is the "firing process."
P-17
8 This is what is meant in the Yin Omvergence C/arsic
when it says, "The mechanism is in the eyes;' and the
Plain QuestUms of the Yellow Emperor when it says,
"The light rays ofthe human body all flow
upward into the aperture of space (Above
Head Gagan Mandal-kabir):' If you get this, long
life is herein, and so is transcendence of life.
P-19
The higher soul resides in the eyes during the day and
lodges in the liver at night. When it resides in the eyes,
it sees; when it lodges in the liver, it dreams.
P-15
The higher soul is in the celestial . mind; this is yang,
energy that is light and clear. This is obtained from
cosmic space and has the. same form as the
original beginning. The lower soul is yin, energy that is
dense and opaque. This sticks to the ordinary mind that
has form.
P-16
If learners refine the dark lower soul completely, then it
will be pure light.
P-16
Only after a hundred days of concentrated work is the
light real; only then is it the fire of spirit. After a hundred
days, the light is spontaneous: a point of true positive
energy suddenly produces a pearl, just as an embryo
forms ftom the intercourse of a man and a woman.
Then you should attend it calmly and quietly. The
turning around of the light is the "firing process."
P-17
"The light rays ofthe human body all flow upward into
the aperture of space:' If you get this, long life is herein,
and so is transcendence of life.
P-19
11 The light rays are concentrated upward
into the eyes; this is the great key of the
human body. You should reflect on this. If you do not
sit quietly each day, this light flows and whirls, stopping
who knows where. If you can sit quietly for a while, all
time-ten thousand ages, a thousand lifetimes-is
penetrated from this. All phenomena revert to stillness.
Truly inconceivable is this sublime truth.
P-19
13 What has been communicated through

successive sages is not beyond

reversed gazing. Confucians call it "reaching
toward knowledge.» Buddhists call it "observing mind?'
Taoists call it "inner observation."
P-20
Buddha said "Place the mind on one point,
and every thing , can be done:'
P-26
26 Listening means listening to the soundless; looking
means looking at the formless.
P-28
27 When the eyes do not look outside and the ears do
not listen outside, they are closed in and have a
tendency to tace around inside. Only by inward looking
and listening can you prevent this inner tacing as well
as oblivion in between.
P-28
Authenticating Expenences of Turning the Light Around.

Once "myriad pipes are all silent" and "the bright moon
is in mid sky;' you feel the whole earth as a relam of
light. This is the opening up of the luminosIty that is the
substance of mind, the proper release of the golden
flower.
P-33
18 Once the celestial mind stirs, then use pure attention

to raise it up to the chamber of the creative ,

with the light of spirit focused on the crown

of the head to guide it. This is acting in time.
P-42
Note that here "long life" and "transcendence of/ife" are
presented as rooted in psychological experience. It is
common among Complete Realiry Taoists to
understand immorraliry as higher consciousness, with
no necessary relation to the longeviry of the physical
body as measured in terrestrial time.
P-89
13. "Reversed gazing" means tllrning attention to the
source of awareness; it is one of the standard
expressions of the golden flower technique. Reaching
towards knowledge is a special Taoist usage of a
Confucian term. Originally it meant attaining knowledge
by assessment of things. Here it is used to stand for the
exercise of "turning the light around" and reaching
toward the source of knowing.
P-90
"Inward breathing"'is the rhythm of consciousness,
"outward breathing" is the rhythm of respiration.
P-95
Zhang Boduan (Chang Po-tuan), fOunder of the
Southern School of Completely Real Taoism
P-101
 "the chamber of the
18. In Thoist energetics,
creative' is the head: energy is drawn by
attention upward from the lower torso (the chamber of
water (the chamber of water) through the spine and into
the head. In purely spiritual Taoism, the energy of the
initial stirring of the "celestial mind" of unconditioned
awareness is fostered until it becomes complete
awakening, as symbolized by the creative. Focusing
on the crown of the head is a method of
enhancing alertness (to prevent quiet stillness from
slipping into oblivion) and is only ror temporary use at
appropriate times.
P-111
The main difficulty of the original work is that It uses
Taoist alchemical language mixed with several types of
Buddhist Chinese. This undoubtedly caused Wilhelm
confusion, because there were no facilities for teachmg
these languages and symbol systems to Westerners at
that time. On comparison with the canomcal version of
the original Chinese text, it became clear that Wilhelm
had misconstrued the text on many points, and his
translation was unreliable.
P-134
The golden flower practice is not primarily a therapeutic
method for severely unbalanced people; it is a way of
higher development for ordinary people.
 The reason why the golden flower method is not
particularly recommended for severely neurotic people,
or for people with schizoid or psychotic tendencies, is
that the enhanced receptivity and sensitivity fostered by
the practice might exacerbate feelings of illness and
fear.
P-152
* Secretes of the Golden Flower (Abstact) - By
Richard Wilhelm

The heavenly heart lies between Sun and moon (i.e.

between the two eyes).
The Confucians call it the centre of emptiness; the
Buddhists, the terrace of living; the Taoists, the
ancestral landt or the yellow castle, or the dark pass, or
the space of former heaven. The heavenly heart is
like the dwelling place, the light is the master.

Ifit is made to circulate long enough, then it

crystallizes itself; that is the natural spirit-body.
This · crystallized spirit is formed beyond the nine
heavens.
P-22
Whcn both eyes are looking at things of the wodd it is
with vision directed outward. Now if one closes the
eyes and, reversing the glance, directs it
inward and looks at the room of the
ancestors (Squre Room)(Trikuti-nks), that is the
backward-flowing method.
P-31
The Book of the Yellow Castle says: ' In the square
inch field of the square foot house , life can be
regulated.' The square foot house is the face. The
square inch field in the face: what could that be other
than the heavenly heart? In the middle of the square
inch dwells the splendour.
P-22
In the Simple Questions of the Yellow Ruler it is said:
''Ihe seed-blossoms of the human body must be

concentrated upward in the empty space.' This refers

to it. Immortality is contained in this sentence. This is
the common goal of all religions.
P-22
To concentrate the seed flower of the human body
above in the eyes, that is the great key of the
human body.
P-33

Figure-Meditation, stage 3: Separation of the spirit-body

for independent existence
P-47
 It seems difficult to remain sitting; one feeb as if drawn

upward. This. is called.: 'The spirit returns and

touches heaven. • In time, one can experience it in

such a way that one really :floats upward.
P-51

* THE HUI MING CHING The Book of Consciousness

and Life
COMMENTARY BY C. G. JUNG P-66

A metaphysical assertion of this kind is the idea of the

'diamond body', the indestructible breath-body
which develops in the Golden Flower, or in the
square inch space.1

Secretes of the Golden Flower - By Richard Wilhelm

P-130

* The_Way_of_the_Golden_Elixir.-Book
Abstact
BY-FABRIZIO PREGADIO

Inhalation and exhalation are first regulated, but are

then replaced by the spontaneous circulation of the
“internal Breath,” called “embryonic
breathing” (taixi). (નાભી કમલમેં સ્વાસ
ઉસ્વાસા-કબીર)

કુંભકમાં ખટા શબ્દ સાથે દાનતેનમાં

નીચે ઉપર સુરતા ફેરવો.જેથી નાભીમાં
ઘંટીનો અવાજ ચાલુ થઈ જાશે. અને કેવલ
કુંભક લાગી જાશે.સ્થુળ સ્વાસ
સરક્યુલેટેડ
એનર્જીમાં(એમ્બ્રોયોનીક
બ્રેધીંગ) માં ફેરવાઇ જાશે.
નાભી

ગો ઓ રૂ મ
Front વિં Back

દ મ ગુ રા

તેજ પ્રમાણે બાકી નાં ત્રણ શબ્દ

ફેરવો

નાભી કમલમેં વેદી રચી હે, બ્રહ્મ

વીચાર ઉચ્ચારા-કબીર ગુ.ગ્ર.સા.
નાભી કમલમાં વેદી હોય તો ફેરા
હોયજ.
P-60

. In the second stage of the Neidan process, the Elixir

is moved from the lower to the middle Field
and is nourished there.
P-61
10.4 Fire Phases

POEM
The Seal (*) and the treatises, the scriptures and the

songs expound ultimate Reality,

but do not commit the Fire Phases to writing.

If you want to know the oral instructions

you must discuss them in detail with a divine immortal.

*) The Seal is the Cantong qi, or Seal of the Unity of the

Three
it will be useless if you do not know the Fire Phases.
* Taoist Internal Alchemy An Anthology of Neidan
Texts
By-Fabrizio Pregadio
Being of itself as it is is the Way of Heaven; revolving
to the left and turning to the right, without
interruption day and night, is the operation of
Heaven.
P-24

* essay on resolving doubts in the cultivation of

immortality
Bai Yuchan, who came from Hainan, had been a
disciple of Chen Niwan since his young age. All of a
sudden, nine years had already passed. One day, they
were both under a pine on the clif of a mountain. The
wind was clear and the moon was bright; the night was
calm and the air was cool. Thinking of the great matters
of life and death, and of the fast pace of impermanence,
Yuchan bowed down twice and asked: I have not been
your disciple for a long time, and I reckon that my
fortune and destiny are flimsy and shallow. Yet, I dare
ask you: Is my destiny to become an immortal in this
life?

Chen Niwan said: Anyone can do it, and this is even

more true of you.
Yuchan said: I cannot avoid the obligation of showing
respect to you, but I will ask a presumptuous question.
How many gateways are there to the cultivation of
immortality? How many methods are there to refine the
Elixir? I am like one who cannot distinguish jade from
the ordinary stones, but I wish to attain realization1
through your word.

Chen Niwan said: Come here, I will tell you. In the

cultivation of immortality there are three degrees, and in
refining the Elixir there are three accomplishments.

In the Way of Celestial Immortality, one can undergo

transmutation and ascend in flight to Heaven. Superior
Lead is the body
persons can study this Way.
(shen) and Mercury is the mind (xin);
Water is concentration (ding) and Fire is
wisdom (hui). In the blink of an eye, one
can coagulate [the Elixir], and in ten months,
one achieves the birth of the embryo. This is the
There
alchemical method of the higher degree.
are no trigrams and no lines
(Hexagram), no pounds and no
ounces. Its method is simple.
Therefore it is transmitted through the Heart and is
extremely easy to achieve.

In the Way of Water Immortality one can enter and exit

the manifested and unmanifested domains. Median
persons can study this Way
P-110
Wang Mu
Foundations of Internal Alchemy The Taoist
Practice of Neidan Translated and edited by
Fabrizio Pregadio

“Refining Essence to transmute it into Breath” is also

called the Barrier of the Hundred Days (bairi guan).
This is only a conventional term, and does not mean
that this stage necessarily requires one hundred
days.
P-66

The Embryo is nothing but Spirit and Breath .

First the Spirit enters the Breath, then the Breath is
embraced by the Spirit. It is like an embryo in the
womb. It is like the coming to life of an actual embryo;
this is why we use the metaphors of pregnancy
(huaitai), “moving the embryo” (yitai), and delivery
(chutai).4 “moving the
embryo” from the middle to the upper
Cinnabar Field
P-101

4 Refining Spirit to Return to Emptiness

“Refining Spirit to return to Emptiness” is the highest
ideal of the all chemical doctrines. This stage is also
called Higher Barrier (shangguan) and Barrier of the
Nine Years (jiunian guan). The term “nine years”
does not refer to the time required to achieve the Great
Elixir; it alludes, instead, to the story of Bodhidharma
who sat facing a wall for nine years, taking this as a
metaphor for the stage in which one enters the practice
of Xing (Nature). In constant stability and constant
silence, all things return to the Origin. Therefore
another name of this stage is “refining Spirit to join with
the Dao” (lianshen hedao), where Dao means
Emptiness and Non-Being (xuwu).
P-109
As shown by the explanation given in the poem quoted
above, “reverting to Emptiness and Non-Being” is
equivalent to “returning to the Dao.” Therefore the

alchemical texts often use the symbol ○ to represent

Emptiness—the state in which all things enter
Emptiness and become entirely clear. One reverts to
the fundament and returns to the root, enlightens one’s
mind and sees one’s Nature. This is the highest goal of
Awakening to Reality.
P-110
One should move the Infant from the lower to
the middle Cinnabar Field, where it is further
refined and nourished. Then the Infant is moved
from the middle to the upper Cinnabar Field ;
this is called “moving the embryo” (yitai). Finally one
obtains the Yang Spirit, which exits from the Gate
of Heaven (tianmen); this is called “delivery
of the embryo” (chutai), and is also called
“nourishing warmly” (wenyang). This is not mentioned
in any of Zhang Boduan’s works.
P-112