Those who are highly cultivated use the pure energies of the external five elements to nurture pure energy inside the body, opposing the operation of nature to rise above it, combining water and fire, producing and culling medicine, crystallizing the alchemical elixir and incubating it, thus becoming immortals.
The Hundred Character Tablet by Ancestor Lu (Dongbin) says,
Nurturing energy, forget words and guard it.
Conquer the mind, do nondoing.
In activity and quietude, know the source progenitor.
There is no thing; whom else do you seek?
Real constancy should respond to people;
in responding to people,
it is essential not to get confused.
When you don’t get confused,
your nature is naturally stable;
when your nature is stable,
energy naturally returns.
When energy returns,
elixir spontaneously crystallizes
in the pot mating fire and water.
Yin and yang arise,
alternating over and over again,
everywhere producing thunder.
White clouds assemble on the peak,
sweet dew bathes the polar mountain.
Having drunk the wine of long life,
you wander free;
who can know you?
Sitting listening to the stringless tune,
you clearly understand the workings of creation.
The whole of these twenty verses
is a ladder straight to Heaven.
When the sun rises at dawn, the air of the eastern direction rises in temperature, exposed to the sunlight; its volume expands, and it slowly rises. This is considered the productive energy of minor yang. At noon, the hot sun is overhead; the temperature of the air increases, its volume expands, and it rises rapidly. This is when things grow most strongly; this is considered the growing energy of major yang. At dusk, the sun sets, the heat in the air disperses, its volume contracts, and it slowly descends; now things begin to withdraw. This is called the gathering energy of minor yin. At midnight, the sun is gone and the night is deep; the air cools, contracts, and sinks. This is called the storing energy of major yin.
The energies inside the human body correspond to this process. Liver energy is the productive energy of minor yang. Heart energy is the growing energy of major yang. Lung energy is the gathering energy of minor yin. Kidney energy is the storing energy of major yin. At midnight, energy arises in the kidneys; at dawn, it reaches the liver. At noon, energy reaches the heart; accumulated energy in the heart produces fluid, which reaches the lungs at dusk and gets to the kidneys by midnight. Kidney energy is like water, heart energy is like fire, liver energy is like wood, and lung energy is like metal. Water is wet and flows downward; fire flames upward. When fire and water do not balance each other, we do not live long. When the work of human refinement is mastered, water is above and fire is below; water and fire balance each other, so life is extended.
When Wang Liping worked on the minor cycle, or the cycle of the moon, by inner concentration and plenitude the energy broke through the three passes in his coccyx, midspine, and the back of his head. When it reached the “gate of heaven” at the top of his head, however, he needed a mentor to attend him.
Around the aperture on top of the head there are always four flashing points of brightness; the ancients called these the “four great spirits of the gate.” Their adamant guardianship makes it hard for the pure energy inside the body to burst through here. It is necessary for a teacher to move these “four great spirits of the gate” before the “gate of heaven” can be opened.
What impressed Liping as most novel in his new experience came after completion of the minor cycle, when he could feel something warm and moist inside his body slowly rising up his back to his head, then descending slowly from his face downward. The whole process took exactly one lunar month, corresponding to the cycle of the moon, this occurring completely naturally and spontaneously. Even if he was shut up in a dark room for several days and nights, he could still determine the trajectory of the moon accurately and know what day of what month it was.
The earth revolves around the sun once in a year. The Chinese divide this into twenty-four seasonal energies. For the purposes of Taoist exercises, the four points considered most important are the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. Heaven and earth are represented by a human being: the heart is heaven, the kidneys are earth, the liver is the position of yang, the lungs are the position of yin; “energy” is yang, “fluid” is yin. On the winter solstice, the sun, coursing in the south, begins to turn north; people in the Northern Hemisphere of earth perceive this as yin culminating and yang arising, with the kidney energy in the body beginning to grow. On the spring equinox, kidney energy rises to the liver. On the summer solstice, the sun, coursing in the north, begins to shift south; people in the Northern Hemisphere perceive this as yang culminating and yin arising, with the yang energy in the body rising to the position of the heart, where accumulated energy produces fluid, and the fluid begins to descend. On the the autumn equinox, the heart fluid reaches the lungs, thence to reenter the kidneys on the winter solstice.
On the key days of transition of seasonal energies, the solstices and the equinoxes, Wang Liping closely examined the subtle changes in his body, under the careful guidance and protection of his mentors.
Lao-tzu says, “The valley spirit undying is called the mystic female; the opening of the mystic female is called the root of heaven and earth. Though subtle, it does exist; its use is not strained.” This opening of the mystic pass fits cosmic