Master Lii Tzu said: Yu Ch'ing has left behind him a magic spell for the Far Journey: Four words crystallize the spirit in the place of power. In the sixth month the white snow is suddenly seen to ly.

At the third watch the disk of the sun sends out shining rays. On the water blows the wind of gentleness. Wandering in Heaven, one eats the spirit-power of the receptive. And the deeper secret within the secret: The land that is nowhere, that is the true home....

These verses are full of mystery. The meaning is: The most important thing in the Great Meaning is the four words: non-action in action. Non-action prevents a man from becoming entangled in form and image (substantiality). Action in non-action prevents a man from sinking into numbing emptiness and a dead nothingness. The effect depends entirely on the central One; the freeing of the effect is in the two eyes. The two eyes are like the pole of the Great Wain which turns the whole of creation; they cause the poles of Light and Darkness to rotate. The Elixir depends from beginning to end on the One; the metal in the middle of the water, that is, the lead in the water-region. Heretofore we have spoken of the circulation of the Light, indicating thereby the initial release which works from without upon what lies within. This is to aid one in obtaining the Master. It is for the pupils in the beginning stages. They go through the two lower transitions in order to gain the upper one. After the sequence of events is clear and the nature of the release is known, Heaven no longer withholds the Meaning, but reveals the ultimate truth. Disciples! keep it secret and hold to it strictly!

The circulation of the Light is the inclusive term, The further the work advances, the more can the Golden Flower bloom. But there is a still more marvellous kind of circulation. Till now we have worked from the outside on what is within; now we tarry in the centre and rule what is external. Hitherto, it was a service in aid of the Master; now it is a dissemination of the commands of this Master. The whole relationship is now reversed. If one wants to penetrate the more delicate regions by this method, one must irst see to it that body and heart are completely controlled, that one is quite free and at peace, letting go of all entanglements, untroubled by the slightest excitement, with the Heavenly Heart exactly in the middle. Then let one lower the lids of the two eyes as if one received a holy edict, a summons to the minister. Who would dare disobey? Then one illumines the house of the abysmal (water, K'an) with both eyes. Wherever the Golden Flower appears, the true Light of polarity goes out to meet it. The principle of that which adheres to (lightness, Li), is light outside and dark within; it is the body of the creative. Darkness enters and becomes master. The result is that the heart (consciousness), becomes dependent on things, is directed outward, and is tossed about on the stream. When the rotating light shines within the heart, it does not become dependent on things, the power of the Dark is limited, and the Golden Flower shines with concentration. It is then the collected Light of polarity. Things which are related attract each other. Thus the polarity Light-line of the abysmal presses upward. It is not only the Light in the abyss, but it is creative Light meeting creative Light. As soon as these two substances meet each other, they unite inseparably, and unceasing life begins; it comes and goes, rises and falls of itself, in the house of the primordial power. One is aware of e fulgence 60 and infinity. The whole body feels lighter and would like to fly. This is the state of which it is said: Clouds fill the thousand mountains. Gradually it [life] goes here and there quite quietly; it rises and falls imperceptibly. The pulse stands still and breathing stops. This is the moment of true creative unity, the state of which it is said: The moon gathers up the ten thousand waters. In the midst of this darkness, the Heavenly Heart suddenly begins a movement. This is the return of the one Light, the time when the child comes to life.

But the details of this must be carefully explained.

When a person looks at something, listens to something, eyes and ears move and follow the things until they have passed. These movements are all underlings, and when the Heavenly ruler follows them in their tasks, it means: To live together with demons.

If now, during every movement and every moment of rest, a person lives together with people and not with demons, then the Heavenly ruler is the true man. When he moves and we move with him, the movement is the root of Heaven. When he is quiet and we are quiet with him, this quietness is the cave of the moon. When he continues to alternate movement and quietness, one ought to go on with him unceasingly in movement and quietness. If he rises and falls with inhaling and exhaling, we must rise and fall with him. That is what is called going to and fro between the root of Heaven and the cave of the moon.

When the Heavenly Heart still preserves calm, movement before the right time is a fault of softness. When the Heavenly Heart has already moved, the movement that follows afterwards, corresponding with it, is a fault of rigidity. As soon as the Heavenly Heart is stirring, one must immediately mount with all one's feeling to the house of the creative. Thus the Light of the spirit sees the summit that is the leader. This movement is in accord with the time. The Heavenly Heart rises to the summit of the creative, where it expands in complete freedom. Then suddenly it wants the deepest silence, and one must lead it speedily and with one's whole being into the yellow castle. Thus the eyes behold the central yellow dwelling place of the spirit.

When the desire for silence comes, not a single thought arises; he who is looking inward suddenly forgets that he looks. At this time, body and heart must be left completely free. All entanglements disappear without trace. Then I no longer know at what place the house of my spirit and my crucible are. If a man wants to make certain of his body, he cannot get at it. This condition is the penetration of Heaven into Earth, the time when all wonders return to their roots.

The One is the circulation of the Light. If one begins, it is at first scattered and one tries to collect it; the six senses are not active. This is the care and nourishment of one's own origin, the illing up of the oil when one goes to receive life. When, one is far enough to have gathered it, one feels light and free and need take no further trouble. This is the quieting of the spirit in the space of the ancestors, the taking possession of former Heaven.

When one is so far advanced that every shadow and every echo has disappeared, so that one is quite quiet and firm, it is safe within the cave of power, where all that is miraculous returns to its roots. The place is not changed but divides itself. It is incorporeal space where a thousand and ten thousand places are one place. The time is not changed, but divides itself. It is immeasurable time when all the aeons are like a moment.

As long as the heart has not attained complete peace, it cannot move itself. One moves the movement and forgets the movement; this is not movement in itself. Therefore it is said: If, when stimulated by external things, one is moved, it is the instinct of the being. If, when not stimulated by external things, one is moved, it is the movement of Heaven. The being that is placed over against Heaven, can fall and come under the domination of the instincts. The instincts are based upon the fact that there are external things. They are thoughts that go on beyond their own position. Then movement leads to movement. But, when no idea arises, the right ideas come. That is the true idea. If things are quiet and one is quite firm, the release of Heaven suddenly moves. Is this not a movement without purpose? Action in inaction has the same meaning.

As to the beginning of the poem, the two first lines refer entirely to the activity of the Golden Flower. The two next lines are concerned with the mutual interpenetration of sun and moon. The sixth month is the adhering (Li) fire. The white snow that lies, is the true darkness of polarity in the middle of the fire sign, that is about to turn into the receptive. The third watch is the abysmal (K'ari) water. The sun's disk is the one polar line in the sign for water, which is about to turn into the creative. In this is contained the way to take the sign for the abysmal and the way to reverse the sign for the adhering (ire Li). The following two lines have to do with the activity of the pole of the Great Wain, the rise and fall of the whole release of polarity. Water is the sign of the abysmal; the eye is the wind of softness (Sun). The light of the eyes illumines the house of the abysmal, and controls there the seed of the great Light. " In Heaven " means the house of the creative (ChHen).

Wandering, in Heaven, one eats the spirit-power of the receptive. This shows how the spirit penetrates the power, and how Heaven penetrates the Earth; this happens so that the fire can be nourished.

Finally, the two last lines point to the deepest secret which cannot be dispensed with from the beginning to the end. It is the washing of the heart and the puri ication of the thoughts; it is the bath. The holy science takes as a beginning the knowledge of where to stop, and as an end, stopping at the highest good. Its beginning is beyond polarity and it empties again beyond polarity.

Buddha speaks of the transient, the creator of consciousness, as being the fundamental truth of religion. And, in our Taoism, the expression " to produce emptiness " contains the whole work of completing life and essence. All three religions agree in the one proposition, the inding of the spiritual Elixir in order to pass from death to life. In what does this spiritual Elixir consist? It means forever tarrying in purposelessness. The deepest secret in our teaching, the secret of the bath, is confined to the work of making the heart empty. Therewith the heart is set at rest. What I have revealed here in a word is the fruit of decades of effort.

If you are not yet clear as to how far all three parts can be present in one part, I will make it clear to you through the threefold Buddhist contemplation about emptiness, delusion, and the centre.

Emptiness comes as the first of the three contemplations. All things are looked upon as empty. Then follows delusion. Although it is known that they are empty, thiiigs are not destroyed, but a man attends to his affairs in the midst of the emptiness. But though one does not destroy things, neither does one pay attention to them; this is contemplation of the centre. While practising contemplation of the empty, one also knows that one cannot destroy the ten thousand things, and still one does not notice them. In this way the three contemplations fall together. But, after all, strength is in visioning the empty. Therefore, when one practises contemplation of emptiness, emptiness is certainly empty, but delusion is empty also, and the centre is empty. It needs a great strength to practise contemplation of delusion; then delusion is really delusion, but emptiness is also delusion, and the centre is also delusion. Being on the way of the centre, one also creates images of the emptiness, but they are not called empty, but are called central. One practises also contemplation of delusion, but one does not call it delusion, one calls it central. As to what has to do with the centre, more need not be said.

The way leads from the sacrum upward in a backward- flowing manner to the summit of the creative, and on through the house of the creative; then it sinks through two stories in a downward- lowing way into the solar plexus, and warms it. Therefore it is said: Wandering in Heaven, one eats the spirit-power of the receptive. Because the true power goes back into the empty place, in time, power and form become rich and full; body and heart become glad and cheerful. If, by the work of the turning of the Wheel of the Doctrine, this cannot be achieved, how otherwise should one be able to enter upon this Far Journey? What it amounts to is this: The crystallized spirit lows back to the spirit-fire, and by means of the greatest quiet, one fans the " fire in the middle of the water which is in the middle of the cave. Therefore it is said: And the deeper secret within the secret: the Land that is nowhere, that is the true home.

The pupil has penetrated in his work into mysterious territory; but, if he does not know the method of melting, it is to be feared that the Elixir of Life will not be produced. Therefore the Master has revealed the secret strictly guarded by the former holy men. When the pupil keeps the crystallized spirit fixed within the cave of power, and, at the same time, lets greatest quietness hold sway, then out of the obscure darkness, a something develops out of the nothingness, that is, the Golden Flower of the Great One appears. At this time the conscious Light is differentiated from the Light of the essence. Therefore it is said: To move when stimulated by external things, leads to its going downward and outward and creating a man. That is conscious Light. If, at the time the true power has been copiously gathered together, the pupil does not let it low downward and outward, but allows it to flow backward, that is the Light of Life; the method of the turning of the waterwheel must be used. If one continues to turn, the true power returns to the roots, drop by drop. Then the water-wheel stops, the body is clean, the power is fresh. One single turning means one Heavenly cycle, that which Master Chiu has called a small Heavenly cycle. If one does not wait to use the power until it has been collected suflBciently, it is then too tender and weak, and the Elixir is not formed. If the power is there and not used, then it becomes too old and rigid, and also the Elixir of Life will hardly be produced. When it is neither too old nor too tender, then is the right time to use it with intention. This is what Buddha means when he says: The phenomenon flows into emptiness. This is the sublimation of the seed into power. If the pupil does not understand this principle, and lets the power stream away downward, then the power forms into seed; this is what is meant when it is said: Emptiness finally lows into the phenomenon. But every man who unites bodily with a woman feels pleasure first and then bitterness; when the seed has flowed out, the body is tired and the spirit languid. It is quite different when the adept lets spirit and power unite. That brings first purity and then freshness; when the seed is transformed, the body is healthy and free. There is a tradition that the old Master P'eng grew to be 880 years old because he made use of serving maids to nourish his life, but that is a misunderstanding. In reality, he used the method of sublimation of spirit and power. In the Elixirs of Life symbols are generally used, and in them the adhering fire (Li) is frequently compared to a bride, and the water of the abyss to the boy (puer aeternus). From this arose the misunderstanding about Master P'eng having restored his virility through femininity. These are mistakes that have forced their way in later.

But adepts can only use the means of overthrowing the abysmal and the adhering (Li) when their purposes are sincerely in the work, otherwise a pure mixture is not produced. The true purpose is subject to the Earth. The colour of the Earth is yellow; therefore in books on the Life Elixir, it is symbolized by the yellow germ. When the abysmal and the adhering (Li) unite, the Golden Flower appears; the golden colour is white, and therefore white snow is used as a symbol. But worldly people who do not understand the secret words of the books of the Life Elixir, have misunderstood yellow and white in that they have taken it as a means of making gold out of stones. Is not that foolish?

An ancient adept said: Formerly, every school knew this jewel, only fools did not know it wholly. If we re lect on this we see that the ancients really attained long life by the help of the seed-power present in their own bodies, and did not lengthen their years by swallowing this or that sort of elixir. But worldly people lose the roots and cling to the tree-tops. The Book of the Elixir also says: When the right man (white magician) makes use of wrong means, the wrong means work in the right way.

Here the eyes are the chief thing. The two eyes are the handle of the polar constellation. Just as Heaven turns about the polar star as a centre point, so among.men the right intention must be the master. Therefore the completion of the Life Elixir depends entirely on the harmonizing of the right intention. Then, if it is said that the foundation can be laid in a hundred days, irst of all the degree of industry in work must be taken into account, and the degree of strength in the physical constitution. Whoever is eager in the work, and has a strong constitution, succeeds more quickly in turning back the water wheel of the river. When a person has found the method of making thoughts and power harmonize with one another, he can complete the Elixir within a hundred days. But whoever is weak and lazy will not produce it "even after the hundred days. When the Elixir is completed, spirit and power are pure and clear; the heart is empty, ' the essence manifest, and the light of consciousness transforms itself into the Light of the essence. If the Light of the essence is held permanently, the abysmal and the adhering (fire Li) have intercourse spontaneously. When the abysmal and the fire mix, the holy fruit is borne. The ripening of the holy fruit is the e fect of a great Heavenly cycle. Further elucidation stops with the method of the Heavenly cycle.

This book is concerned with the cultivation of life and shows at first how one takes hold of it by looking at the bridge of one's nose. The method of making firm and letting go is in another book, the Hsu Ming Fang (Methods of Prolonging Life).