– Thomas Cleary
Some ask what crystallization of the elixir is. Qing-an said, ‘When body and mind are united, spirit and energy merged, essence and sense as one, this is called crystallization of the elixir, symbolized by the sacred embryo’.
A master wizard said, ‘The original real essential nature is called the gold elixir pill’.
Ding-an asked, ‘When the elixir crystallizes, is it visible?’
Qing-an replied, ‘Yes’. ‘
Does it have a form?’ ‘
‘No’.
‘If it has no form, how can it be visible?’
Qing-an said, the Gold elixir is just a name – how could it have a form? That it is visible does not mean it can be seen with the eyes. The Tao Te Ching says, ‘When you look at it you cannot see it; when you listen for it you cannot hear it – this is called the Way’. But even though you cannot see it when you look, never are you not seeing it; even though you cannot hear it when you listen for it, never are you not hearing it. It is not within reach of ears and eyes. It is like the wind shaking trees and raising waves – you can hardly call it non-existent, but when you look at it you cannot see it, and when you grasp for it you cannot apprehend it, so you can hardly call it existent. The substance of the Gold Elixir is also like this.
Wang the Cloud Dweller said, ‘The substance of the gold elixir is like space, without resistance inside or out. Nothing hangs on it, nothing stains it; brilliantly luminous, it illumines infinity.’
Devotees of life science all talk of cultivating vitality, cultivating energy, producing beings from nothingness, forming an infant that, born of the energy of sacred father and spiritual mother, is empty and effective, unlike a living human being. This doctrine is false.
Zhang Huangju said, ‘Creation gives life to people; its coming is subtle and simple, its ultimate extension vast and stable. If the infant actually had physical solidity, it would shortly be as solid as a living person – how could it be a spiritual subtlety?’
The Master of Eternal Spring said, ‘The infant is our individual soul, our true essence, pure positive energy without adulteration. It is not that there is actually an infant in the belly.’ He also said, ‘If there is the slightest confusion of thought, the spirit is not purely positive.’
The Master of the White Jade Moon said, ‘As long as people have no mind in mind and no thought, this unadulterated clarity, immaculate, is called pure positivity.’
Wizards originally just taught people to nurture the spirit, but people get lost and drown in desires and are unable to cut right through, so the notion of eternal life was set up to induce people to cultivate refinement. When worldly people crave immortality, only then are they willing to put down habitual desires and single-mindedly refine vitality and energy; so they have inner focus and think less of externals. When they have cultivated refinement to the point where energy rises and descends through the three chambers in the torso and head, the bliss felt in the body is indescribable; then they develop such a huge craving for this that they disregard everything. Here the mind has focus and gradually attains peace and quiet, so the original basic spirit gradually becomes manifest. This is the appearance of the infant. From there, you enter into absolute non-resistance, where your mind has no attachments, myriad cogitations melt, and the basic spirit appears, coming and going freely, unobstructed by the physical body. This is transcendent liberation. In reality, this is just a matter of temporarily using a refinement of vitality and refinement of energy to focus the mind and nurture the basic spirit so that it is effective.
Li Qing-an said, ‘Embodiment beyond the body is called release from the matrix.’ He also said, ‘When the positive spirit leaves the shell, this is called release from the matrix.’
Some ask about the transcendent release. The Master of the White Jade Moon said, ‘Transcendence means the emergence of the spirit; release means liberating change of the ordinary body.’
These sayings all talk about leaving aside the ordinary body, just refining the basic spirit back into emptiness, not about maintaining a physical presence in the world. So obviously the advanced wizards did not concern themselves with immortality. Why are people today so eager for eternal life?
The following question has been posed: those who attained the Way in ancient times made even this ordinary body non-resistant, so they could enter water and fire, penetrate metal and stone, walk in space without falling, and not be blocked by contact with solidity. This is what is called the preservation of pure energy. As it is said, in dispersion it is energy; in concentration it is form. This is called the sublimation of body and mind, uniting with the Way. Now if one would have to relinquish the ordinary body to attain the constitution of wizardry, how could this not mean one had failed to reach sublimation of body and mind?
Master Gan of the Pure Wind said, ‘Before you have reached true emptiness, the yang spirit is hard to free.’ The Master of Eternal Spring said, ‘Before you have reached true emptiness, the yin spirit is also hard to free.’
The ancients’ liberation from the matrix and spiritualization was in every case based on the climax of emptiness and stillness, the attainment of selflessness. When people today go anywhere in dreams, it is because they are not stayed by the physical body; when they wake up, they are stuck here and cannot remove themselves to great distances because the physical body stops them. Therefore liberation from the matrix and spiritualization is possible only after true emptiness and selflessness.
It may be asked why refinement of vitality into energy does not result in transcendent liberation. Fan Dezhao’s work Accord with Reality says, ‘Those who cultivate energy to take on the form are yogins; even after a thousand years they still have the same old bodies and never attain the Way.’ Thus our Celestial Teacher said, ‘Even if you are long-lived as a tortoise or a crane, you are not a spiritual wizard.’
In ancient times, master Qingjing, who lived for three thousand years, questioned Pengzu about sexual energetics. Asked if Qingjing were a wizard, Pengzu said, ‘No. A celestial dragon can form a pearl; when the pearl is done, the body spontaneously withdraws, so it is called a celestial dragon. What that adept practices is like the dragon. If you refine your body, then your spirit and energy may change to manifest the unfathomable, but this is still limited to the transformation of energy. On Royal House Mountain there are accomplished Taoists of the Bone Removing Cavern who leave behind their physical bodies because whatever has physical form cannot ascend.’
Now if even a body produced by cultivation is still limited in its energy transformations, what about the physical body inherited from your parents? Even if you have cultivated refinement to the point where you ascend to the highest heavens and live for countless years, you are still within the domain of transmutations of yin and yang and have not been able to enter into formlessness. As long as you have not entered into formlessness, you are still enslaved by the polar energies of the universe; how can there be any transcendent liberation?
Meng Yin said, ‘What can compare to the uncontrived entry into reality? With one leap you enter directly into the realm of enlightened.’
If there are still creative evolution after liberation from the matrix? Qing-an said, ‘There is still creative evolution. An Ancient said: embodiment beyond the body is not yet wonderful; when cosmic space itself is shattered, only then is complete reality revealed. So after liberation from the matrix, it is essential to tread solidly on the real ground; when you are one with cosmic space, that is perfect attainment.’
This subject is something wizards had long left unspoken until Qing-an gave this unexpected explanation. His vision may be said to have gone beyond that of other masters. In overall terms, when you reach this stage, you have to take everything you’ve realized, everything you’ve attained, and banish it all at once to the land of birthlessness. Only then will you be in accord. If you retain any personal view of transcendent liberation, then as before you will drift into emotional consciousness, far estranged from the Way – how can you attain union with cosmic space?
Master Zhang Ziyang said, ‘If you start with essence, it’s hard to apply it in practice; if you start with life, there’s a concrete way of approach. Even if the achievement is one, nevertheless there is something better about starting with essence.’
Li Qing-an said, ‘The best people have already planted roots of virtue and have inborn knowledge; once they directly comprehend essence, they naturally comprehend life.’
Essence and life are one matter. The reason people die is that the body and spirit separate. The reason the sense organs are useless after death even though they are still there is that there is no spirit to manage them. Obviously, the spirit is the manager of the body; when the spirit departs, energy dissipates, so how could life exist outside of essence? If you divide them into two for twin cultivation, differentiating them into prior and latter, that is not quite right. Why? When you cultivate essence, life is therein. As the Celestial Master of Open Serenity said, ‘When the spirit is restored to the body, energy returns of itself.’ No one has ever been able to accomplish intercourse to produce the elixir without being outwardly non-resistant and serene. Indeed, first refining vitality into energy – thus cultivating stabilization and liberation from the matrix – is roundabout and difficult to achieve fully. If you can realize the body of reality, why worry that the physical body will not be sublimated?
The three passes from effort to effortlessness constitute the gradual method; cultivating the upper pass so as to include the lower two passes is the sudden method. Now you should directly practice refinement of spirit back into emptiness: when you reach the state of utter emptiness and silence, vitality spontaneously evolves into the spirit. The handle is in your grip; your destiny is up to you. This is penetrating the three barriers with one shot. This is simplest and easiest, most direct and quick; those on the Way should thoroughly appreciate this.