The Tao produces one energy From open nonreification;
Who affixes labels,
Distinguishing phases of formation?
The one energy dichotomizes, Producing two modes;
The clear rises, the opaque sinks, Forming sky and earth.
The warp and woof of yin and yang Is like a working shuttle;
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THE BOOK OF BALANCE AND HARMONY
The opening and closing of HEAVEN and EARTH Is like a pumping bellows.
With the subde combining of the two modes There are the three components;
Seven apertures open, Producing myriad species.
The infinite reality is a single whole, Always present in daily activities;
Creation after creation,
'liansformation after transformation, Hundreds and thousands of workings
None of them are beyond This present mortal being.
If you can truly plumb The root source by yourself, The four signs and five forces Are inherendy complete within you.
Introspecting thrice day and night, The will is undivided;
In the single source of eliminating materialism, Accomplishment is multiplied a hundredfold.
Getting through the pass of vitality And then the pass of energy, One gains occult communication With the pipes of heaven and earth.
In the groove everywhere, One has guidance;
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THE BOOK OF BALANCE AND HARMONY
Every opening illumined,
There is no suffocating obstruction.
If you can perceive this,
You then make two faces into one die:
Raising your head,
You knock over the polar mountain;
Taking a step, you overturn The blockade of the mystic wonder.
The unique design, simply evoked, Expresses the true source;
It harmoniously combines myriad differences, Resolving them in correct alignment.
Having refined the luminous spirit, Emanate this spirit of light;
'franscend from the realm of form Into the formless realm.
I see many practitioners today concocting wonders;
Arrogant and presumptuous, they show off and boast, Claiming to have understanding.
A sharp wit and glib tongue Are artificial brilliance;
Domineering talk of voidness Is useless intellection.
Beginners are subject to cl.eception;
Learned mystics are not liked.
Those who just show off strength for now Are heedless of their final destmction;
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THE BOOK OF BALANCE AND HARMON 'i
Those who talk a lot in front of others Are like selling water by a riverside.
Producing smoke and fire, Their thoughts are off;
Pursuing objects, following fashions, Their minds are narrow.
Toiling frantically at religious exercises,
They struggle madly to circulate vitality and energy;
Counting their breaths and massaging themselves, They vainly aim for pleasant sensations.
Sinking into torpor, Or rising in excitement, They cannot extend attention;
Now torpid, now distracted, What can be done?
When the spirit wanes away And the energy dissipates, How can this be cured?
When the body is exhausted, Regret is useless.
If you see the straight path Out of confusion,
To escape the burden of payment Of the debt of harmful practices, Then collect your scattered mind And overturn your arrogant attitude.
Extend familial duty to serving teachers;
To get the teaching, first maintain discipline.
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THE BOOK OF BALANCE AND HARMONY
Extend sympathy for yourself to sympathy for all;
Not attacking or blaming others is based on generosity.
Without illuminating yourself, You make your illumination complete;
Without aggrandizing yourself, You make your greatness complete.
With no problems, No cravings, no concerns, Get rid of extremes,
Get rid of both arrogance and fawning.
To work on setting up the foundation Requires strict discipline;
Carry out further refinement ln encounter with situations.
Use the sense of real knowledge
And the essence of conscious knowledge To make the elixir pill;
Don't take mud for jewels.
Don't get mired in solipsism, And don't think it's a matter Of intellectual knowledge Or learned understanding.
Raising a child within ultimate nonreification, When the heaven of meditation
Is completely purified, There's not the slightest wisp.
The mechanism of nine-restoration and seven-reversion Is not inside and not outside:
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The original nature of reality is ultimately formless;
The eternal open awareness is never obscured.
Embrace the basic, keep to the One, store it in openness;
Practice this seriously and diligently, don't be lazy.
Combine the four signs, unite the three bases;
Assemble the five forces, join the eight trigrams.
Cooking in the beginning Of movement of positive energy, P_..:fining at the culmination, There's extraction and addition;
Know when to proceed actively, And when to withdraw into passivity.
Profoundly calm in open nonreification, Operate the mechanism;
Deeply absorbed in ecstasy, Spin the process of creation.
When the two medicinal ingredients Enter the central chamber,
One stream of golden light illumines the four quarters.
The essence of consciousness And the sense of reality Are united by the go-between Of the true and steady will.
Yin and yangjoin together, Wife and husband in blissful union;
Like rain and clouds, They forget day and night.
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THE BOOK OF BALANCE AND HARMONY
Energy stabilizes, vitality congeals, Forming the spiritual embryo.
On producing the mystic pearl, There is great amazement;
The four directions all at once Are pervaded with great light.
Crystal clear everywhere, Without seams or gaps,
All
is one round sphereWhich no amount of money can buy.
I bow my head to students of Complete Reality;
Remember what I say-If you will take this up directly, It is the bridle to take hold o£
When the bridle of speech Is put into practice, what then?
The true human without fixation Rides upon a crane.
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XIX.
POEMS
Sense must be recovered, essence is always there.
VERSES ON MEDITATION WORK