The Golden Elixir Blog

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)

The Elixir as Embryo The picture shown here is very well known. It was first made popular in the West, I believe, by Richard Wilhelm's translation of the Jinhua zongzhi , or Secret of the Golden Flower . (The picture itself comes, however, from another text, the Xingming guizhi , or Teachings on the Joint Cultivation of Nature and Life .) 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 ima...

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)