I hadn't seen the website of the Fung Ying Seen Koon in Hong Kong for quite a long time. Their "Daoist Culture Centre Database" is now arranged in Wiki format, with many entries available both in Chinese and in English.
The English translations are often problematic, but the website as a whole provides a good overview of Taoism as seen in present-day China.
There are several entries on alchemy in the section "Religious Practise".
The website is here:
English: FYSK Daoist Culture Centre Database
http://en.daoinfo.org
Chinese: 道教文化中心資料庫
http://zh.daoinfo.org
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Two More Pictures
Two more versions of the same picture (see the previous post), taken from different editions of the Xingming guizhi (Teachings on the Joint Cultivation of Nature and Life).
(Click to enlarge)
(Click to enlarge)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The Elixir as Embryo
The Elixir as Embryo |
This picture gives a different representation of the Elixir compared to the one given by Liu Yiming (see the previous post). Here the Elixir is shown as an embryo.
One of the interesting points about this and similar pictures concerns the "actuality" of the embryo. With regard to this, Wu Shouyang (1574-1644) says in his Tianxian zhengli zhilun (Straightforward Discourses on the Correct Principles of Celestial Immortality — I have italicized a few sentences):
The Embryo is nothing but Spirit and Breath. It does not mean that there is truly an infant; it does not mean that it is something provided with a form and an image. . . . It is like an embryo in a womb: it does not breathe but cannot be without breathing; existence and extinction coexist with one another, coming and going are together with one another. It is like the coming to life of an actual embryo, therefore one uses the metaphors of "becoming pregnant," "moving the embryo," and "delivering the embryo."
The three expressions at the end of this passage refer to the three main stages of the Neidan practice.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The Golden Elixir
To begin, a quote on the Golden Elixir:
Golden Elixir is another name for one's fundamental nature. . . . There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. All human beings have this Golden Elixir complete in themselves: it is entirely realized in everybody. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of the Immortals and the Buddhas, the root of the worthies and the sages.
Liu Yiming (1734-1821)
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