Making a careful examination of Wang Liping’s eyes and skin, the old wizards realized that his body had undergone a fundamental change, inwardly and outwardly. Now they considered conditions ripe to transmit the fourth step of the work to their apprentice, abstention from grain.
Wang Liping was unusual from birth in having been naturally vegetarian without even having been taught about it. His diet was plain, consisting of grains and vegetables. Now that Liping had learned some of the techniques of the Spiritual Jewel capacities, he was able to absorb power directly from Nature. His teachers had planted cereals and vegetables around their camp, and their garden yielded enough to sustain them. Sometimes when he was engaged in exercises, moreover, Liping didn’t even think of eating for days on end. When his mentor began teaching Liping how to abstain from grain, he got into it gradually, so it wasn’t terribly hard. He hadn’t realized, however, how much there was to be explained about this practice.
Taoists say there are three harmful morbidities in the human body. One morbidity is attached to material wealth; another is attached to fine flavors; the third is attached to sexual pleasure. Taoists also say there are three parasites in the body: one lives in the brain, one in the chest, and one in the belly. These are also harmful to the human body. The three parasites live on the energy of grain, so if you want to get rid of them it is necessary to stop taking in energy from grain. If you want to destroy the three morbidities, it is also necessary to abstain from grain.
The practice of abstention from grain evolved from the ancient Qin dynasty practice of ingesting energy. In his Elegies of Chu, the famous Taoist poet Qu Yuan wrote, “Eating the six energies and drinking the fog, I gargle with the first sunlight and swallow morning mist. Preserving the clarity of spiritual luminosity, vital energy is absorbed and coarse pollution ejected.” Qu Yuan was already practicing energy ingestion when he left court to live a life of freedom.
By the end of Han, and on into the Wei and Jin dynasties, the arts of spiritual immortality flourished, so the practices of ingesting energy and abstaining from grain became very popular. There are many references to abstention from grain in the dynastic histories. The chapter “Traditions of Methodology” in Documents of the Latter Han Dynasty says, “Mengjie could ingest date stones and go without eating for five or ten years. He could also freeze his breath and remain immobile as death for as long as a hundred days, or even half a year.”
In the inner chapters of The Simpleton, it says, “I have seen a number of people who abstained from grain, many of them for as long as two or three years. Their bodies were light, their complexions were good, and they could endure wind and cold, heat and humidity. None of them were fat.” Also, “There is someone who relies on Life itself, who only ingests energy and has abstained from grain for three years already. He can climb a mountain with a heavy load and never get tired all day. From time to time he practices archery, but he hardly speaks. When he does speak, he won’t raise his voice. Questioned about this, he says that when abstaining from grain one should utterly avoid losing one’s vitality and wasting one’s breath.” Nowadays there are still sometimes news reports of people who can do without grain.
The method of grain abstention transmitted by the Dragon Gate wizards to Wang Liping is divided into three successive stages of training.
The first step is not eating grains, just consuming enough fruit and vegetables to maintain life. This practice greatly reduces the burden of the digestive tract and purifies the internal organs; it must be continued for at least two months, preferably longer. While working on this step, Liping went to school and pursued ordinary activities as usual. He used to go off to a densely wooded area rich in flowering plants to do his regular inner exercises at dawn, noon, dusk, and midnight, in order to strengthen the true energy in his internal organs. He carried out this step in ninety-eight days, just over three months. Afterward he felt physically comfortable and mentally clear.
The second step is fasting, or abstention from all food, just drinking a cup of cool water in the morning and evening. When practicing this exercise, there is no filth in the body; there is hardly even any urine. With the mind already clean, the body is purified. One only exchanges true energy with Nature, feeling as if the body has been put in a totally different realm. Wang Liping persevered in this exercise for more than fifty days.
After completing the first two steps, Wang Liping’s body had a rosy glow and a crystalline sheen, as if he had just come from a bath; his spirit was clear, his mood refreshed, thoroughly clarified from inside out. The old wizards were overjoyed to see him like a reborn infant, having refined his flesh and blood into a body pure as ice and jade, cleared of years of accumulated worldly pollution. They had spent four years of total devotion to raising this resplendent flower, completely absorbed in carving and polishing a raw jade into a gem.
Liping was now ready for the third step, “suspended animation.” The day they started this step, the wizards told Liping, “Just sit here without rising, and without even drinking water. Just do the inner work properly.”
At this time, it was autumn of the year 1966, when turmoil arose throughout China. The Dragon Gate wizards and their apprentice paid no mind to the unrest, but they made more urgent use of what time they had to practice their exercises. Every day at dawn, noontime, and in the evening, a mentor poured some pure water on the floor to humidify the air in the room somewhat. Wang Liping was supposed to moisten his whole body with this little bit of water vapor, while using true energy to sustain his life. Both mentors took turns watching over him.
One day passed, then another. A third day passed, then a fourth and a fifth. Liping sat like a stone statue, completely immobile, his mind as still as death. The sun, moon, stars, and planets; the mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas; the flowers, plants, and trees; his parents and siblings, his teachers and classmates, the grand master and the mentors; the four seasons; day and night; north and south; up and down; right and left; heat and warmth, cold and cool, birth, old age, sickness, and death; joy and sorrow, sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and piquancy—everything he had ever seen, heard, felt, or imagined in his life in this world disappeared from Liping’s brain and body. In a state of profound abstraction, he gradually lost all sense of himself. There was no more time and space; all was empty, utterly void.
Ten days passed. Wang Liping remained stable. Seeing his complexion rosy and moist, and noting that the other changes in his body were right, the grand master and the mentors were much relieved. The two mentors still took turns pouring the water on the floor every day and watching over the youth.
Fifteen days passed. Twenty days passed.
Wang Liping seemed completely normal; he sat there quietly like an immortal, mentally and physically calm and composed. The three wizards observed him carefully.
The twenty-fifth day passed. That night, there was a fierce rainstorm, with lightning and thunder. The wizards hurriedly shut the windows; aware of the emergence of an abnormal condition, they changed into Taoist garb, took up ritual swords, burned incense, and performed a rite. The senior master conveyed a spiritual message to Liping: “Since ancient times the Transmitters of our Dragon Gate sect of Complete Reality Taoism have sought the Way with their minds and accepted the Way with their bodies. Fasting and suspended animation is the border pass between life and death. As a Transmitter of the Dragon Gate sect, you should do as our ancestral teachers did, and put life and death out of your mind, and do not distort your own future.”
In a trance, Wang Liping saw a vision of a realized man instructing him. Remembering everything, he continued to sit silently, spirit and soul clinging to their abode.
The twenty-sixth day passed. The twenty-seventh day passed.
The twenty-eighth day passed. It stormed again that night, with frightening ferocity. In the mountain shack there was only a dim lamp. The atmosphere was