[转帖]The Chapters on Awakening to the Real

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The Chapters on Awakening to the Real

Written by Tzerng Tzee Yerng during Sorng Dynasty

(Literally, "Tzee Yerng" means "Purple Sun-energy")
(Tzerng Tzee Yerng is also known as Tzerng Buc Dhiun )


Translated into English by Paul Crowe, University of British Columbia, 1997

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Caution:

This translation is inaccurate.

An ordained Taoist monk or nun does not have sex with any one, and does not have any intimate relationship with anyone of the opposite sex -- This is a very important Taoist precept.

The true alchemic practice does not violate any Taoist precepts.

One must keep the precepts firmly and accumulate enough merits and virtues to understand the alchemic scriptures correctly.

If anyone misinterprets the alchemic scriptures due to his lack of merits, and even use his misunderstanding to mislead more people, or even persuades others to carry out evil practices, he will accumulate enormous sins -- This is not joking!

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(The prologue written by the original author is omitted)


The Begining Chapter


1.
[If you] do not seek the great way to leave the path of delusion,
although [you] maintain virtue and ability are [you] a worthy man?
One hundred years is the flash of a spark;
a whole lifetime is a fleeting bubble.
Simply coveting profit and favour, seeking honour and fame,
not caring for the body and suffering the distress and decay of ignorance.
Let me ask, if [you] piled up gold as high as a mountain peak,
at the end of [your] life could [you] pay enough to prevent death from coming?

2.
Although the [regular] span of human life is one hundred years
[one has] no foreknowledge concerning longevity or premature death, failure or success.
Yesterday [you] rode [your] horse along the street,
today [you are] already a sleeping corpse in a coffin.
[Your] wife and property all abandoned, no [longer] your possessions;
[your] sinful karma will go into effect; it will be difficult for you to cheat it.
[If you] do not search for the great medicine how will [you] be able to encounter it?
To encounter it but fail to refine it is stupid and foolhardy.

3.
[If you are going to] study immortality then it must be celestial immortality,
[which] alone is the most superior doctrine of the golden elixir.
When the two things come together [then the] emotions and inner nature coalesce,
the dragon and tiger entwine where the five phases become complete.
From the beginning rely upon jueji to be the matchmaker;
then cause the husband and wife to be calm and joyous.
Simply wait until the work is completed [then] pay court to the Northern Palace;
amidst the brightness in nine rose-coloured clouds [you will] ride the auspicious luan bird.

4. (9)
This method, among all the marvels of perfection, is the most true;
everything accords with me alone being different from others.
I am aware of inversion [which] proceeds fro Ley and Hum;
who recognizes that [their] floating and sinking establish host and guest?
[If one] wishes to retain the mercury within the vermilion in the golden cauldron,
then the silver in the water of the jade pool [must first be caused to] descend.
The work of the spirit and the circulation of the fire does not require a whole evening [before the] single orb of the sun manifests, emerging from the deep pool.

5. (11)
The tiger dances; the dragon mounts the wind and waves;
the principal seat of the true centre generates the mysterious pearl.
Fruit produced on the branch will, in time, ripen;
could the baby in the womb be any different?
South and north accord with the Source [through] inversion of the signs of the trigrams;
at daybreak and dusk the fire phases [of the adept's body] accord with the celestial axis.
[You ]must be able to understand this great mystery [while] dwelling in the chaotic marke place;
what need is there [to retreat] deep into the mountains to preserve peaceful solitude

6. (7)
All people have [within them] the medicine of long life;
[yet,] self assured, stupid, and deluded, [they] vainly toss it away.
When the sweet dew descends heaven and earth unite;
[at the] place where the yellow sprouts grow, kan and li interact.
The well frog responds saying there is no dragon's lair;
how can the quail on the fence know that there is a phoenix nest?
[Once the] elixir is cooked, the roo is filled with gold;
why bother seeking herbs and learning how to cook water mallows.

7. (10)
It is important to be aware of the place which is the well-spring of the medicine;
simply put, its home place is in the southwest.
When it happens that lead is produced fro gui [you] must quickly gather it up;
whenever the moon is full gold will be far away and [you will] not be able to taste it.
[You must] send it back to the earth cauldron and securely seal it up;
next put in the flowing pearl; together they are a suitable match.
The weight of the medicine is one jin [which] must [be comprised of] two times eigh [ounces];
adjust the fire phases [in order to] suppor YUM and yang.

8.
Stop refining the three yellows and the four spirits;
[even] if [you] search through the multitude of medicines, still none are real.
When YUM and YERNG obtain their proper categories, they return to mutual interaction;
the two eights being properly suited are naturally harmoniously joined.
The sun glows red at the bottom of the pool and YUM mysteriously disappears;
the moon over the mountain top is white and the medicine flourishes anew.
[My] contemporaries must recognize true lead and mercury;
[these] are not ordinary sand and mercury

9. (6)
Do not take hold of the solitary YUM in order to have Yerng,
to simply cultivate the one thing only perpetuates weakness.
Labouring the body [by practising] massage and gymnastics, these are not the way;
refining the qi and swallowing morning clouds, both are madness.
[Even if they] search [their] whole lives for the secret of lead and mercury;
when [will they] be able to witness the descent of the dragon and tiger
[I] exhort you to carefully ascertain the place where the self is born;
reverting to the root, returning to the origin, this is the superior medicine.

10. (14)
Grasp well the true lead and search attentively;
do not allow time to slip by
Instead make the earthly PUG soul seize the vermilion mercury;
so the heavenly Whun soul spontaneously governs watery gold.
It may be said that when the Tao is exalted the dragon and tiger will yield;
[one] can say that [when] virtue is taken seriously the ghosts and spirits [will be] respectful.
[If you] yourself comprehend [this way of achieving] long life equal to heaven and earth;
[then] annoyance and grief will have no way to continue stirring up the mind.

11. (13)
It is not difficult to search for the yellow sprouts and white snow;
those who have ability must rely upon the profundity of virtuous conduct.
The four signs and the five phases completely rely upon earth;
the three primes and the eight trigrams, are they far fro YIUM?
It is difficult for people to recognize the completely refined noumenal substance;
[once] all of the malignant YUM spirits are dispersed the ghosts will not invade.
[Though I] desire to pass on to others these explanations of the mysterious,
[I ] have not yet heard a sound from a single person who understands this.

12. (5)
The YUM and YERNG of grasses and trees are indeed paired equally;
if one is lacking, [they] will not [become] fragrant.
[When] green leaves begin to open YERNG first leads;
next, [when] red flowers bloom, YUM later follows.
[As for] the mundane way, it is simply this which is used in daily life;
who understands reversion of the true source?
I have some words for all superior persons who wish to learn Ta
If you do not truly understand YUM and YERNG, do not practice mistakenly.

13. (12)
[If you] do not recognize the turning over of inversion within the mysterious,
how [can you] understand the careful cultivation of the lotus within fire
Drag the white tiger back home for nourishment;
produce a bright pearl like the orb of the moon.
Gradually guard the medicine stove and observe the fire phases;
attentively observe the spirit and the breath and let them be natural.
[When] all YUM has been entirely stripped away and the elixir has been completely prepared;
you leap from the cage of the mundane and live a long life of ten thousand years!

14. (4)
Three, five, one, all of these three numbers;
from ancient times to the present, those who understand [them] are truly rare.
East is three, south is two and together they make five;
north is one , the direction west being four, completes it.
The natural dwelling of wuji gives rise to the number five;
the mutual recognition of these three households forms the baby boy
[Thus] the baby boy is unified and embodies the true qi;
in ten months the foetus is complete; it is the foundation for entering the sacred.

15.
If you do not recognize the true lead genuine ancestor;
employing the ten thousand kinds [of false methods will cause you to] employ effort in vain.
Divorcing [your] wife, [who is] dishonoured and banished, [will merely cause] YUM and
yang to separate;
follow the vain teaching of cutting off grains and [your] stomach will be empty.
Grasses, trees, gold and silver, all are dregs;
things such as morning clouds, and sun and moon are deceptions.
Furthermore, [you should] overlook spitting out and drawing in and concentrating the thoughts;
all of these various techniques are not the same as golden elixir activities.

16.
The words of the ten thousand scrolls and scriptures of the immortals are all the same;
the golden elixir, only this is the foundational teaching.
Rely upon that position of KWUN to enliven and complete the body;
plant it in the house of KIN, the palace of mutual interaction.
Do not blame the intelligence bestowed by heaven for complete leaking out and exhaustion;
all this is due to the complete delusion of students.
If people understand the meaning within these verses;
then [they] will immediately see the Three Pure Ones, the Most High Elders.


(The succeeding four chapters and the epilogue of the original author are omitted)