The white-faced young gent rides the white tiger The green-clad girl straddles the green dragon
Lead and mercury meet in the cauldron And, for a period, interlock in its midst
“The dragon exhales into the tiger The tiger inhales the dragon essence They are one another’s food and drink,
They both crave union”500
“Men and women need each other
500 This stanza is from Cantongqi, chap. 60.
They kiss deeply501 in order to nourish one another Female and male intertwine
In order to find a match”502
The tiger is in the West, the dragon is in the East
The eastern dragon and the western tiger each contend for dominance
As if comprehending that to take possession of one another means return to a single place [One becomes a] divine transcendant in an instant, without onerous effort
The Infant and the Comely Maiden emerge side by side Lead by the Yellow Grannie into the room
The clouds soar and bestow rain
One doesn’t notice that the sun has already risen in the East
Method of Copulation of the Dragon and the Tiger
As for people, when Kan and Li connect there is life; when they separate, death.
There is no one who doesn’t know the inviolability of this principle.
So Li is yang and resides in the South. Because its outside is yang its inside yin, it is called “True Mercury.” Kan is yin and resides in the North. Because its outside is yin and its inside yang, it is called “True Lead.” For this reason, the Perfected Purple Yang said: “The sun, which resides in the Li position, returned, is woman. Kan resides in the
501 Han tu 含吐. Lit.: “Holding in the mouth and spitting out.”
502 Yi lei xiang qiu 以類相求. Lit.: “Seek each other according to type.” This stanza is also from Cantongqi, chap. 74.
Toad Palace,503 yet is man.”504 That is to say Kan is man and Li is woman, just like:
father is essence, mother is blood, sun is the raven, moon is the hare, sand is mercury, lead is silver, the sky is mysterious, and earth is yellow.505 The enumerated all show the two qi of the dragon and the tiger.
Cantong qi says: “Li-ji [central yang] daylight. Kan-wu [central yin] moon essence.” Therefore Li’s ji is like the dragon’s new moon qi, while Kan’s wu is like the tiger’s new moon qi. For wu and ji are the substance of the Yellow Court-True Earth.
Because the Supreme Polarity divided they separately occupy the two substances of the dragon and the tiger.
The elixir-cultivating noble conducts himself as if desiring to return to his origin, to recover his initial qi, causing the dragon and the tiger to return in the caldron, and emotion and innate disposition to harmonize in the apertature. One should use the paired instructions: “the dragon emerges from fire; the tiger is born of water.”506 Then the peerless dragon flies out of the scorching fire and the voratious tiger leaps from the deep lake. Beginning to achieve the mutual combination of dragon and tiger, face the Great Mist and surreptitiously return to Primordial Chaos. Continue, then husband and wife combine their bodies, from indistinctness entering into the Void, together they arrive at the Yellow Chamber where, mutually consuming, the two bodies (qing情) are reluctant
503 I.e., the moon. See: I. 20.
504 Cleary renders this: “the sun, in the position of fire, turns into a woman; water, in the moon palace, turns out to be a man” (Clearly 2003: 80 v. 2).
505 These last two pairings come from the Thousand Character Classic (Qianzi Wen 千字文), an ancient reader for students, which begins: “Heaven and earth, mysterious and yellow.” Earlier the Yijing characterized dragon’s blood as “mysterious yellow.”
506 Quote from I. 12, the meaning of which is elaborated in I. 14.
to part, the two qi combine, and it is as if Heaven and Earth were copulating,507 the sun and the moon combining their light, circling in the Ancestral Cavity, spontaneously restoring undifferentiated atemporal qi, and completing the essence of the Perfect Unity of Primordial Origin, which is the root of the Great Pharmacon, forming the foundation of the Reverted Elixir.
507 Var.: Ding gou搆 for homophonous 媾.
13. Four Ways of Meditating 13a. Moving Meditation
Ten thousand dharmas return to the One To whence does the One return?
Something is here Where does it go?
One can meditate moving as one can meditate sitting. Sages can do this, but in all cases it is not to be discussed casually with people. While walking one mustn’t hasten. If you’re in a great rush then the movement of breath injures the embryo. One must move composedly and without haste in order to maintain a state of harmonious qi and fixed mind. Going or coming, sometimes moving, sometimes pausing, the eyes look down and the mind is recessed deeply. For this reason Wang Chongyang508 said:
508 The moniker of Wang Zhe, the founder of the Complete Perfection school.
The two feet [are permitted to] go from the place of movement The spirit (ling) and the qi constantly follow one another Sometimes when you’re509 slightly inebriated you might ask the azure skies
“Who am I?”
Bai Letian 白樂天 said:
“The mind doesn’t choose a suitable moment The feet don’t choose comfortable ground The extreme point connects with the near and the far
A thread without endpoints”
Bao Zhigong 寶誌公 said:
“If you can drop everything and be nothing Then you are moving in the Tathāgata storehouse”
The Vimalākīrti Sūtra510 says:
“Raise and lower your feet All comes from the field of the Dao”511
The Dharma Storehouse Collection 法藏集 says:
“The day mind and the night mind constantly travel in the dharma garden”
509 The identifier of the person here is “the Four Greats” (si da 四大), a reference to the Indian four elements (earth, water, fire, wind) indicating the body-mind.
510 Weimojing yishu 維摩經義疏 (T. 2186).
511 T. 2186 0041c03-0046c26: 舉足下足皆從道場來.
13c. Sitting Meditation
The “peace”512 of Emperor Yao The “harmony”513 of King Wen
The “ease”514 of Confucius The “stopping” 515 of Zhuang Zhou
Sitting for a long period forget what you know Suddenly become aware of the moon[light] on the earth
A cool celestial wind blows in, arriving suddenly at the liver and lungs Lean over to examine a deep water: there is nothing hiding in the clear depths
512 An 安. Each of these four lines contains an allusion to a well-known passage in the classical canon. This first is a description of Emperor Yao, a sage king of yore (accession c. 2356 BCE), from the Canon of Documents (Shujing 書經).
513 Yong 雝. A description of King Wen from the Canon of Poetry (Shijing 詩經).
514 Shen 申. An allusion to Lunyu 7.4: “In his leisure hours the Master’s manner was very free-and-easy, and his expression alert and cheerful” (Waley 1989: 123).
515 Zhi 止. An allusion to the passage on the “fast of the mind” (xinzhai 心齋) in the fourth chapter of Zhuangzi. In explaining the concept of the fast of the mind to Yan Hui Confucius explains that “listening stops at the ears, the mind stops at what tallies with it” (translation adapted from Graham 2001: 68).
In it swim minute fish, silently creating an understanding with you516
Without affairs in this quiet-sitting one day is like two If you live 70 years, then it is [really] 140 Quietly sitting there is little thought and scant desire
Darken the mind, nurture the qi, preserve the spirit This is the essential oral secret of cultivating perfection Those who study it can write it down (for other gentlemen?)
It isn’t requisite to sit cross-legged; one should sit as one ordinarily would. For although the sitting is the same as that of ordinary people, with it one can grasp the Confucian mind method,517 thus differing from ordinary people. As to that which is called the Confucian mind method, it is only that one must preserve in the true place of departure. The ear and the eye orifices are my body’s gates. The ground of one square cun518 is my body’s hall. The establishing life force orifice is my body’s room. Therefore everyone’s mind is located in the ground of one square cun. As people’s place is in the hall, sounds and colors agitate the center by way of the doors. The mind of the utmost person is stored in the establishing life force orifice. As people’s place is in the room, then sounds and colors are without means to enter and look upon what is inside.
Therefore those who are good at serving their own minds [use] the concealed room to
516 A Zhuangzi allusion.
517 Kongmen xin fa 孔門心法. The technique developed by Lin Zhao’en.
518 Fangcun zhi di 方寸之地: i.e., the heart-mind.
nourish in darkness,519 then the eyes and ears are empty. Approach the room520 in order to hear political matters, then the eyes and ear are the means (yong 用). If when sitting you don’t grasp the Confucian mind method, then you’re [practicing] “unbridled horse sitting,”521 you’re “letting the mind go.”522
The Altar [of the Sixth Patriarch] Sūtra says: “When thoughts of the mind don’t arise, this is called ‘sitting,’ when your disposition doesn’t move, this is called
‘meditation’ (chan禪).” The wondrous meaning of sitting, its end is not beyond this.
519 Yi hui 頤晦 is a neologism. The first character comes from the Yijing, the second from the Daodejing.
The meaning is something like “don’t show off,” or “nourish humility.”
520 Yu tang 御堂. Ascend the dais?
521 Zuo chi坐馳. A phrase from the fourth chapter of Zhuangzi.
522 Fang xin 放心. A phrase of Confucius’, as quoted by his disciple Mengzi.