The Golden Elixir Blog

These two books bring together a collection of fifteen studies on the doctrines, practices, and history of Taoism and Taoist alchemy. Entirely based on original Taoist sources, the essays support their discussions with a large number of quotations from texts belonging to different schools and historical periods, providing access to the language and ideas of the tradition. The subjects covered in the two books include: a general introduction to Taoist alchemy the history and methods of Waidan (External Alchemy) the relationship between the Daode jing and Neidan (Internal Alchemy) the foundations of Neidan in the Book of Changes the role of meditation practices in the rise of Neidan the main Chinese alchemical text, the Cantong qi (Seal of the Unity of the Three) the teachings of Liu Yiming (1734–1821), one of the greatest Neidan masters the views of ordinary and inner time in the alchemical traditions the Neidan doctrines on human nature and its embodiment the ways of “doing” and “non-...

The Yellow Emperor (Huangdi), traditionally ascribed with the authorship of the Book of the Hidden Agreement Despite its brevity, the Yinfu jing (Book of the Hidden Agreement) is one of the most obscure and difficult Taoist texts. Within Neidan (Internal Alchemy), this work is especially well-known for its idea of "stealing the mechanism", which Neidan adepts understand as meaning inverting of the process that leads from the precelestial to the postcelestial domains. Read three sections of the Yinfu jing  on the Golden Elixir website. A complete translation of the text, with the commentary by Yu Yan (1258-1314), is found in a chapter or  Taoist Internal Alchemy: An Anthology of Neidan texts (Golden Elixir Press, paperback), and in a Kindle ebook, entitled  The Book of the Hidden Agreement: A Taoist Text on the Harmony between Heaven and Humanity .

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of a new book: Taoist Internal Alchemy: An Anthology of Neidan Texts Translated from the Chinese, introduced, and annotated by Fabrizio Pregadio Paperback, US$ 24.95 ● € 24.00 (incl. VAT) ● GB£ 20 ● JP¥ 5000 (list prices) ISBN 978-0-9855475-5-4 This anthology presents complete or partial translations of sixteen major works belonging to the Taoist tradition of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy. While the selections are far from covering the whole field of Neidan — a virtually impossible task, given its width and variety — they are representative of its main lineages and branches. Texts have been selected in this perspective and are arranged chronologically, in order to provide an overview not only of Neidan, but also of the history of its discourses and practices. Four of the sixteen texts are integrally translated. Six texts and two commentaries are translated here (entirely or partially) for the first time into En...

Many Taoist lineages bestow "ordination names" or "lineage names" using the characters found in a specially-written poem. Each generation of disciples receives their names using in sequence one character of the poem. Thus the name of a first-generation master includes the first character; the name of a second-generation master includes the second character; and so forth. These poems are known in general as "lineage poems" ( paishi ). The most famous "lineage poem" in Taoism is the one of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage. Known as the "Longmen Lineage Poem" ( Longmen paishi ), the "Hundred-Character Lineage of Ancestor Qiu" ( Qiuzu baizi pai ), or in other similar ways, it is made of 20 verses of 5 characters. The 100 different characters of the poem should suffice to assign lineage names for about two and a half millennia, and perhaps even longer. Below is a translation of the poem. Each word is translated with a diffe...

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of a new occasional paper: The Longmen Lineage: Historical Notes (PDF, 25 pp., free download) This essay contains a short history of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage, to which many masters of Neidan (Taoist Internal Alchemy) claim affiliation. It presents the main stages of development of Longmen, and briefly describes its main branches and its main masters. The essay is translated from the chapter "Longmen pai" (The Longmen Lineage) in Zhongguo daojiao (Chinese Taoism), ed. by Qing Xitai (4 vols; Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1994), vol. 1. • Click the picture or here for the download page in the Golden Elixir website .

▶ Quoted from  Cultivating the Tao: Taoism and Internal Alchemy , by Liu Yiming, page 155 —  Read more about this book . . . Therefore being connected with companions who have the same mind is the most important thing in the cultivation of the Tao. However, companions who share the same mind are very difficult to discern. They have no form and no image, no sound and no color, no front and no back. Facing evil, they transform themselves into yakshas; facing goodness, they transform themselves into bodhisattvas. (1) Their transformations have no limit: they conceal or manifest themselves in unfathomable ways. Everyone has them in front of their eyes, but misses them. If you are unwilling to discern the true, day after day they increasingly separate from you. When all of a sudden an intimate friend appears, you become of one mind with him: walking, standing, sitting, or lying, neither of you separates from the other for a single instant. . . . Those who intend to cultiva...

The stage of "refining Breath to transmute it into Spirit" constitutes an advanced stage of the alchemical work, in which one's practice progresses from "doing" to "non-doing." The Great Medicine is called Embryo of Sainthood ( shengtai ) or Infant ( ying'er ). Both terms are actually metaphors for Spirit and Breath coagulating and coalescing with one another. Wu Shouyang explains the meaning of these terms saying: "Metaphorically it is called 'embryo,' as if there is truly an embryo. In fact, however, there is no embryo. Why is it so? Because according to the principle of giving birth, one generates the embryo of a child in the womb; and according to the principle of cultivating immortality, one generates an embryo of Spirit in the Heart. The worldly people hear the word 'embryo' and say that within the womb there is truly an embryo, which then leaves and becomes 'a body outside the body' ( shen wai shen ). This i...

▶ Quoted from  The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir , by Fabrizio Pregadio, pages 78-79—  Read more on and from this book Qian ☰ the firm and Kun ☷ the yielding join and embrace one another; Yang endows, Yin receives, the masculine and the feminine attend         one to the other. Attending, they create and transform, unfolding their Essence and Breath. Kan ☵ and Li ☲ are at the fore: their radiance and glow come down         and spread out. Mysterious and obscure, this can hardly         be fathomed and cannot be pictured or charted. The sages gauged its depth; one with it, they set forth its foundation. These four, in indistinction, are right within Empty Non-Being. Sixty hexagrams revolve around them, outspread like a chariot. Harnessing a dragon and a mare, the bright noble man holds the rein...

"Know the white, keep to the black," (*) and the Numinous Light will come of its own. White is the essence of Metal, Black the foundation of Water. Water is the axis of the Dao: its number is 1. At the beginning of Yin and Yang, Mystery holds the Yellow Sprout; it is the ruler of the five metals, the River Chariot of the northern direction. That is why lead is black on the outside but cherishes the Golden Flower within, like the man who "wears rough-hewn clothes but         cherishes a piece of jade in his bosom," (**) and outwardly behaves like a fool. (*) This sentence is quoted from the Daode jing, sec. 28 (**) This sentence is quoted from the Daode jing, sec. 70 ▶ Quoted from  The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir , by Fabrizio Pregadio, pages 78-79—  Read more on and from this book Subscribe to the free  Golden Elixir Quote of the...

▶ Quoted from  Cultivating the Tao: Taoism and Internal Alchemy , by Liu Yiming, pages 78-79—  Read more about this book Now I will not hesitate to speak, and I will give a true reflection of the spirit our ancestral masters, bringing forth what they did not bring forth and disclosing what they did not disclose. Joining them by means of my Spirit, being one with them by means of my Intention, I say to my companions: This Opening has a shape similar to Penglai: outside it is small, inside it is large, and its depth cannot be fathomed. It is not round and it is not square; within it, "the black and the white tally with each other," (1) and darkness and light pervade one another. Its gate is fifty feet high and four feet wide, and has two panels: once they open, once they close. On its left coils a green dragon, on its right is couched a white tiger, above flies a vermilion sparrow, below rests a black turtle. Vague and indistinct! Dim and obscure! (2) A Tr...