(1) In the Wild

Troubled by all kinds of thoughts and desires, people are liable to get nervous anal disturbed in daily life and with their natural character con-fused and the ability to sustain themselves lost, they are quite ill with vari-ous worries and diseases. The poem reads:
Displaying its horns, the buffalo bellows aloud,
Running along the mountain path into the distance.
A patch of black clouds overhangs the valley,
The buffalo tramples wheat seedlings wherever it goes.

(2) Initial Training

When you start qigong practice, place your mind under control and set strict demands on yourself, as if fastening the buffalo with a rope. Af-ter persistent practice, you will become disciplined and avoid unnecessary losses. The poem reads:
Controlled by a rope through its nose,
The buffalo runs swiftly under the whip.
It is no easy thing to overcome a willful temper,
As the boy struggles hard to lead the buffalo.

(3) Under Control

After some practice, you will find yourself calm and stable gradually. But you cannot slacken your efforts at this moment, anyway. Be sure to forget fatigue and feel at home. The poem reads:
Under constant training the buffalo stops dashing,
Following the boy across streams and through clouds.
Not daring to loosen the rope in his hand,
The boy tends the buffalo all day in spite of his fatigue.

(4) Turning Back

When you reach a certain stage in practice, a turn for the better will take place and the destination of your life’s voyage will appear before you. In so doing, you can grow out of recklessness and act in conformity with nature. At this juncture, keep your mind steady and consolidate the origi-nal ring and strengthen the original qi. The poem reads:
A long time has passed before the buffalo turns back,
Its reckless temper has gradually grown gentle.
Not trusting the buffalo completely to itself,
The boy has not yet unfastened the rope.

(5) Tamed

When you return to the true nature, you will enter a state of freedom; and when you combine the inside with the outside, you will not find yourself shrouded in dust any longer but see the light. Now that you have found your true character, you can do away with those strict demands. The poem reads:
Under the green poplar, by the ancient stream,
The buffalo moves in harmony with nature.
Returning at sunset over the fragrant meadow,
The buffalo follows the boy, who has dropped his rope.

(6) Getting Free of Hindrance

Getting free of hindrance is a state of penetration and evenness, and real control of both the body and the mind. Then try to enter a state of void through qi and shen practice and you will feel the inherent rhythm of life. The poem reads:
Sleeping contentedly under the sky,
The buffalo needs the whip nevermore.
The boy, sitting under the pine tree,
Starts to play a peaceful, happy tune.

(7) In Control

A man’s potential is boundless, and exploiting and making use of it will lay groundwork for the distillation of life. As the “buffalo” has been tamed and is free from worldly hindrance, it is time for you to enjoy the power of freedom and stroll in the realm of life. The poem reads:
Bathed in sunset, the river floats past the willow tree
Under the fragrant meadow in light mist.’
Totally at ease, the buffalo drinks when thirsty, eat when hungry,
And the boy is lying on a rock, deep in sleep.

(8) False Reality

What is above everything is the true reality and observing various things in the world with a tranquil mind. Attaining the “union of man and heaven,” an advanced state in qigong practice, you will be in harmony with yourself and with nature. The poem reads:
The white buffalo stays in the white clouds;
The boy is free of concern, and so is the buffalo.
Penetrated by moonlight, the white clouds grow whiter;
The moon goes its way, and the clouds drift by.

(9) Single Light

With the buffalo and its master in perfect harmony, there is not any difference between the outside and the inside. Shen merges with the body and willpower with qi. Whenever illumination comes, you will feel at ease and full of go and vigor. The poem reads:
After the buffalo has vanished, the boy enjoys leisure;
A solitary cloud drifts across the hill.
Clapping his hands, the boy sings under the moon,
Though he has another portal to cross before reaching home.

(10) Rest in Sleep

The mother of nature is formless, and everything may be back to the original purity and simplicity. The circle in the diagram shows a state of purity and perfection so that existence is non-existence and vice versa. Re-maining quiet and still, you will gain ultimate wisdom and enlightenment and the purification of your life will draw to an end. The poem reads:
Both the boy and the buffalo are nowhere to be found,
The moon illuminates the vast void.
If in search of the meaning of all this,
Look at the wild flowers and fragrant grass.

Chan (meditation) is a state in which you gain wisdom and enlight-enment through self-cultivation. There are many methods of achieving this state, including zuochan, xingchan (walking quietly)and wuchan (con-templation). Self-cultivation is an advanced skill in Buddhist qigong. Bojo Guksa, a Buddhist monk living in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), wrote ten poems and drew ten pictures to describe the steps to enlightenment through contemplation. The buffalo in the pictures stands for the natural character of man or the source of life.

The Ten Chan Pictures ( 十禅图 , shí chán tú ) also known as The Ox Herding Pictures originally comes from China.

Reference: Chinese Qigong Illustrated by Yu Gongbao

Links:
Ten Bulls – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Books:
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Sensaki

Reference: The Tai Chi Boxing Chronicle by Kuo Lien-Ying p. 139

Reference: A Complete Guide to Chi-gung by Daniel P. Reid p.81

Then preserve your spirit and stabilize your intent. The mouth and lips are mutually locked up; The teeth should be lightly touching. Your eyes do not see a single thing;
Your ears do not hear a single sound. Unified, the heart-mind is guarded within.

Continually harmonize your breathing. Subtle, still more subtle, make a light exhale. It is as if the breath exists, as if it does not exist. Nothing is allowed to separate or interrupt.

Then the fire of the heart naturally descends; The water of the kidneys naturally ascends. Inside your mouth, the sweet dew arises of itself. The numinous Perfected support your body
And you spontaneously know the path to long life.

During the twelve double-hours of the day, Constantly seek clarity and stillness. The numinous tower of the heart emptied of all things: This is called clarity. Not allowing even a single thought to arise: This is called stillness.

The body is the dwelling place of qi. The heart is the residence of spirit. When intent moves, spirit is agitated; When spirit is agitated, qi is dispersed.

When intent is stable, spirit remains settled; When spirit remains settled, qi gathers. The perfect qi of the Five Phases Then gathers together and forms a pinch of elixir.

Then naturally in the body a sound can be heard. Walking and standing, sitting and lying down, One constantly practices awareness. In the body, it is as if there is the movement of wind. In the belly, it is as if there is the sound of thunder.

Infusing and harmonizing qi fully, A rich liquid pours into the top of the head. When you drink from this pinch of elixir, Your ears begin to hear the tunes of the immortals. These are the sounds of the stringless melodies Sounding spontaneously without any strumming, Reverberating naturally without any drumming.

Spirit and qi then combine together Like a child being cherished in the womb. If you can observe the inner regions, Spirit naturally begins to communicate. This is the residence of emptiness and nonbeing, The place where you can reside with the sages.

If you refine the combination through nine revolutions, You will bind and complete the great cinnabar elixir. Spirit then spontaneously enters and leaves.
Your years will match those of heaven and earth; Your radiance will join with that of the sun and moon. Then you will cast off arising and passing away.

Each day that you cease to practice this, Surely there will be injury and disease. So, during all the twelve double-hours of the day, Constantly seek clarity and stillness.

Qi is the mother of spirit; Spirit is the child of qi. Like a hen incubating an egg, Preserve spirit and nourish qi. Then, you will never be separated from the Wondrous.

Mysterious and again more mysterious; In the human body, there are Seven Treasures. Use them to support the country and pacify the people. Then your essence, qi, and blood will be abundant.

Essence is quicksilver; Blood is yellow gold; Qi is beautiful jade; Marrow is quartz;
The brain is numinous sand; The kidneys are jade rings; And the heart is a glittering gem.

These are the Seven Treasures— Keep them firmly in your body, never letting them disperse. Refine them into the great medicine of life. Then with all of the ten thousand spirits, You will ascend to the immortal realms.

Reference:
Wondrous Scripture for Daily Internal Practice of the Great High Lord Lao (pdf) pathofzero.com translation and commentary by Louis Komjathy.

5 Rely in the first place on wu and ji
that act as go-betweens,
then let husband and wife
join together and rejoice.
7 Just wait until your work is achieved
to have audience at the Northern Portal,
and in the radiance of a ninefold mist
you will ride a soaring phoenix.

Notes on Poem 3
In this poem, Zhang Boduan uses traditional images to describe the main features and benefits of the Golden Elixir. There are several grades of transcendence, but for the very fact of being graded, they pertain to the realm of relativity in which we live. Only “celestial immortality,” says Zhang Boduan, grants complete transcendence, the removal of distinctions between the precelestial and postcelestial domains. Fulfilling the Way of the Golden Elixir is analogous to ascending to Heaven as an immortal and having audience with the highest deities.

1 If you study immortality.
The word translated as “immortality” (xian) means, more precisely, “transcendence.” In the view of the Awakening to Reality, celestial immortality is the highest degree of realization. Taoist texts contain several descriptions of the grades of transcendence. For example, the Zhong Lü chuandao ji (Records of the Transmission of the Dao from Zhongli Quan to Lü Dongbin), a work probably dating from the tenth century, states in the section entitled “On True Immortality”: “Immortality is not of one kind only. . . . There are five degrees of Immortals, namely, the demon immortals (guixian), the human immortals (renxian), the earthly immortals (dixian), the spirit immortals (shenxian), and the celestial immortals (tianxian).”

3 When the two things meet, emotions and nature join one another.
The “two things” are, fundamentally, True Yin and True Yang. Inner nature (xing) is essentially pure and unaffected by phenomena or events of any kind. Emotions (qing, a word also translated as feelings, sentiments, or passions) are often impure and tend to disjoin from one’s nature, to the point that they may become uncontrolled. According to many Neidan texts, the separation of inner nature and emotions is a feature of the conditioned state in which we live. Only when True Yin and True Yang merge can one’s inner nature and emotions be not independent of one another, but in agreement with one another.

The Chinese view of “emotions” is more complex than it might at first seem. Emotions are not seen as merely psychological phenomena, but rather as pertaining to the sphere of existence, of one’s being in the world as an individual entity. For this very reason, emotions are often at odds with one’s inner nature, which is inherently transcendent. When emotions and inner nature join one another, emotions turn into qualities — personality, temperament, attitudes — that allow a person to express his or her inner nature in life, according to his or her individuality.

4 Where the five agents are whole, Dragon and Tiger coil.
The five agents are Wood, Fire, Soil, Metal, and Water (see tables 2 and 3). They represent the differentiation of the One into the many, and the diverse qualities taken on by Original Breath (yuanqi) in the conditioned state. Soil is an emblem of the original unity of the five agents. “The five agents are whole” refers to the reversal to unity, which is performed first by reducing the five agents to three, and then to one (see Poem 14). Therefore the undividedness of the five agents is analogous to the joining of Yin and Yang.

The Dragon stands for True Yin within Yang, also symbolized by the inner line of the trigram Li , and the Tiger stands for True Yang within Yin, also symbolized by the inner line of Kan . They are the “two things” mentioned in the previous line. Kan and Li are born from the union of Qian and Kun , the True Yang and True Yin of the precelestial state. To generate the world, Qian entrusts its creative essence to Kun, and becomes Li; Kun receives the essence of Qian to bring it to fulfillment, and becomes Kan. In Neidan, Kan and Li newly join together (“coil”) and return their essences to one another. Symbolically, this liberates True Yin and True Yang from their residences in the conditioned state, and reestablishes the original pair of trigrams, namely Qian and Kun.

5 Rely in the first place on wu and ji that act as go-betweens.
Wu and ji are the two celestial stems related to the agent Soil (see table 4). Soil, which is placed at the center, is an emblem of the One giving birth to multiplicity. To generate the “ten thousand things,” the One first divides itself into the Two, or Yin and Yang. The stems wu and ji respectively represent the Yang and the Yin halves of Soil, or the One.

In the human being, Soil is associated with the intention (yi), the faculty of focusing the mind on a goal or an object. In Neidan, the True Intention (zhenyi) brings about the union of Yin and Yang. This is possible because intention, just like Soil, embraces both Yin and Yang, or wu and ji. For this reason, wu and ji are often said in Neidan texts to be the “go-betweens” (meiping) that allow the conjunction of Yin and Yang.

6 Then let husband and wife join together and rejoice.
Husband and wife respectively stand for the Yang and Yin principles, which join to generate the Elixir.

7-8 Just wait until your work is achieved to have audience at the Northern Portal, and in the radiance of a ninefold mist you will ride a soaring phoenix.
The expression gong cheng, translated above as “your work is achieved,” can also mean “your merit is complete.” — The Northern Portal (beique) is the gate of Heaven, and an emblem of the Center: the symbolic center of Heaven is at due North.

The imagery of these lines is similar to the one found in this passage of the Cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three, chapter 8):

With the Way completed and virtue fulfilled,
withdraw, stay concealed, and wait for your time.
The Great One will send forth his summons,
and you move your abode to the Central Land.
Your work concluded, you ascend on high
to obtain the Register and receive the Chart.
The last line of the Cantong qi passage refers to receiving consecration as an Immortal.

Commentary by Liu Yiming

[Commentary on line 1: "If you study immortality, you should study celestial immortality."]

Those who fulfill both their nature and their existence, who have a body outside their body, whose form and spirit are both wondrous,(1) who are joined in their reality with the Dao, are celestial immortals. . . . Only the celestial immortals shed their illusory body and achieve a dharmākaya (fashen, the body of Buddhahood), go beyond creation and transformation,(2) and are without birth and without death. Being able to shed life and death, their longevity equals that of Heaven, and they last eternally without decaying.

(1) As remarked above, this expression — which authors of Neidan texts use often — refers to the state of non-duality between formlessness and form, the Dao and the world, the absolute and the relative.

(2) I.e., they go beyond the manifested cosmos, which is ruled by change and impermanence.

[Commentary on line 2: "Only the Golden Elixir is the highest principle."]

Human beings receive this Golden Elixir from Heaven. It is perfectly good with nothing bad in it, it is innate knowledge (liangzhi) and innate capacity (liangneng).(1) It is the Numinous Root, entirely achieved and with nothing lacking. It is the Breath of precelestial Perfect Yang. . . .

Golden Elixir is another name for one’s inchoate fundamental nature (xing).(2) There is no other Golden Elixir outside one’s fundamental nature. Every human being has this Golden Elixir complete in oneself: it is entirely achieved in everyone. 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.

However, when it is not refined by fire, Yang culminates and necessarily becomes Yin, completion culminates and necessarily becomes lacking. One falls into the postcelestial state. . . . Therefore the sages of antiquity established the Way of the Return [to the original state] through the Golden Elixir, so that everyone could go back to one’s home and recognize one’s ancestor, and revert to what one fundamentally and originally has in oneself.

(1) The terms “innate knowledge” and “innate capacity” derive from one of the main Confucian texts, the Mengzi (chapter 7): “What one is able to do without learning is called innate capacity; what one knows without pondering is called innate knowledge.”

(2) By using the adjective “inchoate” (hun), Liu Yiming immediately suggests the affinity between one’s original nature and the Dao. “There is something inchoate and yet accomplished, born before Heaven and Earth. . . . I do not know its name, but call it Dao” (Daode jing, chapter 25).

[Commentary on lines 3-4: "When the two things meet, emotions and nature join one another; where the five agents are whole, Dragon and Tiger coil." This passage provides an example of how Liu Yiming explains the relation between the precelestial and the postcelestial states of being.]

The Way of Cultivating the Elixir (xiudan) is nothing more than harmonizing the firm and the yielding, making strength and compliance match one another, and making nature and emotions join with one another. When nature and emotions join, Yin and Yang meet and the five agents are whole. This is the boundless norm of Heaven.

The five agents are the five breaths of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Soil. In the precelestial state, these five breaths are the five origins,(1) namely Original Nature, Original Emotions, Original Essence, Original Spirit, and Original Breath. In the postcelestial state they are the “five things” (wuwu), namely the wandering hun-soul, the ghostly po-soul, the Yin essences, the cognitive spirit (shishen), and the errant intention.(2)

The five origins include the five virtues, which are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity.(3) The “five things” include the “five thieves” (wuzei), which are pleasure, anger, grief, joy, and lust. When the five agents are whole, the precelestial and postcelestial are gathered together, and the five origins control the “five things.”

(1) I.e., the basic constituents of the human being in their original, uncorrupted state.

(2) On the hun-soul and the po-soul see above the note to Poem 10, lines 3-4. On the Yin essences see above the note to Poem 9, line 1. The “discriminating spirit” is the thinking mind. The “errant intention” is the common intention, different from the True Intention that makes the joining of Yin and Yang possible; see above the note to Poem 3, line 5.

(3) These are the five so-called “Confucian” virtues.

[Commentary on lines 5-6: "Rely in the first place on wu and ji that act as go-betweens, then let husband and wife join together and rejoice."]

After the original fundament of the precelestial state is lost and scattered, nature goes east and emotions go west,(1) and the firm and the yielding do not respond to one another. If there is no harmonizing thing that goes back and forth and mediates,(2) “that” and “this” separate and do not know one another.(3) What harmonizes is the two Soils, namely wu and ji.(4) The wu-Soil rules on movement and pertains to Yang. The ji-Soil rules on quiescence, and pertains to Yin. . . .

Within the five virtues, the two Soils, wu and ji, are true sincerity. When true sincerity is in the center, one’s nature is stable. When true stability functions on the outside, one’s emotions are harmonized. When nature is stable and emotions are harmonized, nature and emotions go back to the root: husband and wife join together and rejoice.

(1) These words should be understood in a quite “literal” sense. See table 3, which shows that nature corresponds to the agent Wood (east), and emotions to the agent Metal (west).

(2) The term translated as “mediate,” tongxin, literally means “to transmit a message,” and refers to the function of Soil in bringing Yin and Yang to join one another (see the note to Poem 3, line 5). At the same time, xin also means “sincerity,” the virtue associated with Soil mentioned by Liu Yiming in the next paragraph.

(3) “This” (ci) and “that” (bi, lit. the “other”) are conventional terms in Neidan for the postcelestial and the precelestial, the “ten thousand things” and the Dao, the relative and the absolute, and other analogous pairs of notions or entities.

(4)See the note to Poem 3, line 5.

[Commentary on lines 7-8: "Just wait until your work is achieved to have audience at the Northern Portal, and in the radiance of a ninefold mist you will ride a soaring phoenix."]

When benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom go back to the oneness of sincerity, and when nature, emotions, essence, and spirit meet in the One Breath, “the three families see one another,”(1) and “the five breaths have audience at the Origin.”(2) You return to the origin and revert to the fundament, and the Golden Elixir coalesces; some call it the Embryo of Sainthood.

Continue to advance in your practice, passing from “doing” into “non-doing.” Nourish [the Embryo] warmly for ten months, keeping it tightly closed [within the womb].(3) Lessen the excess of strong emotions, and augment the insufficiency of compliant nature.(4) Using the celestial True Fire, and relying on the hexagrams Zhun in the morning and Meng at night, smelt away the postcelestial Yin breaths.(5) Generate the immaterial from the material, passing from the subtle to the apparent. When the Breath is complete and Spirit is whole, “with a peal of thunder the golden cicada sheds its shell,”(6) and you have a body outside your body.

When the work is completed and your name is recorded,(7) you will have audience at the Northern Portal and will ride a soaring phoenix. You will fly and rise in the broad daylight,(8) and will become a Celestial Immortal of Pure Yang, free from death. Wouldn’t that be pleasant?

(1) These words are quoted from Poem 14, line 6.

(2) This expression is found in many Neidan texts.

(3) Note the emphasis given on “closing,” also found in texts of external alchemy where it applies, in a literal sense, to hermetically sealing the crucible.

(4) “Lessen” (chou) and “augment” (tian) are two other technical terms used in many Neidan texts. At this stage of the practice, Lead should be “lessened” and Mercury should be “augmented.”

(5) This sentence refers to one of the ways in which the “fire times” are represented in internal alchemy. Sixty of the sixty-four hexagrams are associated with the thirty days of the lunar month. One pair of hexagrams, therefore, rules on each day; the first hexagram rules on its first half, and the second one, on its second half. Zhun and Meng are the first two hexagrams used in this cosmological pattern.

(6) This is another expression found in many Taoist texts. It alludes to achieving an “immortal self,” which Liu Yiming refers to at the end of the present sentence by saying, “you have a body outside your body.”

(7) That is, one’s name is entered in the “registers of immortality,” according to the classical Taoist image for the achievement of transcendence.

(8) This sentence, which is frequent in Taoist texts, alludes to attaining the highest state of transcendence.

Reference: Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian) Poem 3 translated by Fabrizio Pregadio www.goldenelixir.com

No. 52 – Cultivation Formula
The essential formula of cultivation practice:

Serene and radiant, radiant and serene—I am utterly effortless.
To become enlightened, turn into a patriarch: there is no other secret.

Essential requirements for healing the body: Do not allow any part to use even a bit of effort. Fully control your thoughts, breath, and limbs. The eyes do not see, the ears do not hear, the tongue does not taste, the mouth does not ingest, the mind does not think. This is the only thing.

As soon as there is anything you think, hear, or feel—this is effort. Even a slight movement of arms or fingers—this is effort. Making the breath softer or harder—this is effort. Practicing like this, soon your breath will be naturally calm and it will feel as if it is not moving at all through nose and mouth. Then the 84,000 pores of the whole body will work actively, expanding and contracting. At this point there is no I, no self, no qi, no mind. The mind of heaven has returned to its original position. This is what we call the fire returning to the prime, or fire and water in complete balance. It is the key mode for curing the hundred diseases.

Please rethink the above rule, maybe you forgot it since you read rule no. 20

No. 53 – Attachment and Fear
Among people who nourish life, thirty percent die anyway. Why is this? It is because they are overly attached to their bodies. On behalf of this stinking bag of skin, they fear being embarrassed, they fear being imprisoned; they fear being defeated, they fear reaching the top. They scan in all directions, looking forward and turning back, looking left and turning right, nervous and terrified of fear itself, troubled by success, troubled by failure. . . .

In this state their pure mind and heavenly connection shrivel to the size of a plum pit and they look like they have been bitten repeatedly by nasty dogs—how can they not end up dying? The more you fear death, the faster death comes. If you want to nourish life, you cannot ever feel fear of death. If you just don’t fear death, you can easily get farther away from it.

No. 54 – Awarness
When people are sick but think they are fine, this is the worst kind of sickness. How many people really are there who know they are sick?

People who truly have no fear of death will never encounter wild tigers on the road or, if they do get close to one, it won’t devour them; they will not encounter knives and guns when in a fight or, if they are attacked by those, won’t suffer harm. Why is this? It is because they do not make death their reference point. Not fearing death, death has no power over them. In nourishing life, what could be more important? Thus people who practice cultivation attain long life with ease. They don’t think about long life, and paradoxically they can live long. Thinking constantly about long life, on the other hand, only makes death come that much faster. Long life is not the goal of cultivation; it is only a secondary phenomenon on the way.

No. 55 – Disconnection
People who surf the web in the middle of the night day after day do great harm to their bodies and chances for long life. The so-called famous great doctors are just like this. Their mind-and-hearts are totally involved in measurements and comparisons of all sorts and trying to ask them to connect to their selves for life-preservation is impossible. What kind of doctors are they?

No. 56 – Bargaining
Don’t crave for anything to be a bit cheaper or even a lot cheaper. Even a bit of craving holds the evil of attachment. Craving is being troubled by gain and loss until one gets a serious heart disease. Craving is being troubled by gain and loss: this means one has no clue about nature or the ways of Dao.

No. 57 – Food
Don’t spend your days thinking about what you could eat to supplement yin or what you could take to enhance yang. Just remember in all activities you give rise to yang; in all quietude you give rise to yin. Yin is the mother of yang; yang is the son of yin.

No. 58 – Precedence
When your qi is deficient, don’t enhance it blindly. This may have a negative impact on the whole body. If it is because blood is deficient, then you should first enhance the blood. This is because blood is the mother of qi, and if you don’t treat it first, you run the danger of drying and overheating the blood vessels and burning up the inner organs. If it is because there is an obstruction and the qi cannot flow freely, enhance both blood and qi by working on them equally. This way you will succeed in enhancing qi.

No. 59 – Environment
The importance of the environment for people’s health cannot be overemphasized. This is why people who live in deep mountains and ancient forests with clean air and fresh qi heal so much more easily. The subtle particles and high oxygen content of the air in these places get into the deep breath when people are in a relaxed state. They thus are absorbed by the body, where they moisturize and nurture the five organs and six intestines and give people new life energy. Another point people are not usually aware of is that even if they do not breathe deeply through nose and mouth, every pore of their bodies breathes in and out all the time—a feature that is essential in our connection to nature and heaven.

No. 60 – Heaven and Earth
When people are relaxed and breathe slow and deep, their body achieves a state of subtle energetic exchange with heaven and earth. Upon inhalation, they in fact expel the inhaled breath in the lungs and the whole body moves to push internal qi out. This is how the qi of humanity moves toward heaven and earth. During exhalation, they in fact absorb the subtle energy of heaven and earth through every pore of the body. This is what Laozi refers to when he speaks of “Between heaven and earth, it is like a bellows.”

No. 61 – Avoid in Exercising
Two things to avoid in exercising:

Do not exercise when blood and qi are deficient.
Do not exercise in a dirty or defiled environment.

No. 62 – Do in Exercising
Two things to do in exercising:

Increase the speed of blood and qi circulation, so the toxins inside the body can come to the surface.
Open the body’s pores wide and breathe in deeply, so you absorb the essence and qi of heaven and earth.

No. 63 – Simplicity
What is “awakening to inner nature”? What is “wisdom”? Both mean to regard all beings from a position of greatest simplicity. However, most people and especially those who are frustrated with themselves tend to take even the simplest thing and see it as highly complex, thus creating complexity. Intricate and straightforward are really the same thing; they are just different sides of the same coin. Smart and perceptive people choose to look at things from the simple side; stupid and ignorant people tend to see them from the complex side.

No. 64 – Incurable Diseases
If people have a incurable disease, they have to rely on the spirit for a cure. If the disease does not respond to reliance on the spirit, they have to rely on the Buddha. What is the Buddha? The Buddha is the mind-and-heart.

No. 65 – Hospitals
In the modern world hospitals and prisons have a lot in common, especially when we think of patients as having received a death sentence. Also, in both situations, many people who do not deserve a death sentence receive one anyway. Why am I saying this?

Let’s think of cancer for a moment. Cancer for many people today equals a death sentence. That is to say, as long as we don’t actually call it “cancer,” we give the patients a sense of hope and a new chance at life. So what I am saying is that the vast majority of cancer patients today are dying of their fear, of the ill treatment of their spirit, of the harsh treatment in the hospital. You may be diagnosed with cancer one day, but you should immediately assume a position of no fear, because if you get well and don’t die, it is your destiny to do so, and if you don’t get well and in fact die, it is because you are the cancer.

In actual reality, there is no disease that cannot be cured, there is only your mind-and-heart that can or cannot let go. All diseases arise from the mind-and-heart, all diseases heal from the mind-and-heart. You only need to return to active living and you will soon have your chance at life. Finding this chance at life means the cure of cancer and your return to full health.

No. 66 – Competition
Any form of competition will turn order into disturbance and lead people into evil [immorality]. What is competition? Competition is anything that pulls people into the world of craving and desire.

No. 67 – Pure and Turbid
From the perspective of the mutual interchange of yin and yang, pure and turbid attract each other. Therefore, any pure and fresh things people eat inevitably get mixed with the turbid juices inside the body and are expelled accordingly.

No. 68 – Overeating
A dominance of turbid juices arises because people eat unclean things, but more importantly because they overeat. The body cannot digest all this matter and it accumulates inside, creating barriers.

No. 69 – Spontaneity
Smoothly following one’s natural course (inherent so-being, spontaneity) is the highest level of nourishing life. Each human being from birth has a set pattern that forms the foundation of his or her destiny. What he or she should or should not do, should or should not eat—as long as he or she follows this inherent pattern of destiny, he will encounter peace and be free from trouble.

Some people are very much aware of their inherent nature. They can specify the details and know exactly what their pattern of destiny is. They will be very clear about what they should and should not do. For this reason, nourishing life definitely has no simple one-fits-all system to follow—people are as different and as fluid as the clouds. Never go after what you admire in others, but always from the depth of your own mind-and-heart look for realizing your own inner nature.

How, then, do people know whether or not they are actually following their own natural course? If in actual life, you find dead-simple things that don’t work out, you get sick a lot, you are not comfortable, and you cannot be at rest with yourself—these are signs that your are going against your natural course. You need to start moving along with the great course of nature on the outside and follow the natural course of your destiny on the inside. Don’t miss out on either one!

No. 70 – Sensitivity Levels
A lot of people, when they hear that a doctor can help with their serious health issues, often assume an attitude of innocence and expect him to eliminate their disease by cutting, excising, poisoning, or otherwise killing it. But after that, does the disease really not have a place from where to resurface? There really is no such thing in the world as a “suddenly arising disease.”

Let me take the common cold as an example. If a patient really came to examine himself carefully, he would find that the various symptom all first gave some subtle indication and that he could have, before actually getting the cold, dispersed its building blocks in the different parts of the body. Thus, some people will find that they were recently exposed to some cold wind or drenched in a rainstorm. Others will discover that they had a great deal of stress at work, suffered from headaches and could not sleep. In reality, all these phenomena are elements that eventually lead to the common cold. In conclusion, if patients’ personal sensitivity and inner awareness were increased to a sufficient level, one could easily reach the goal of “blocking afflictions before they arise.”

No. 71 – True Science
What is true science? It is the law of cause and effect. If it does not work with cause and effect, it is not true science.

No. 72 – Failures
Do not fear failure [defeat, loss] in your mind. Do not take advantage of others in your mind. In other words, only you can suffer failure. Other people are part and parcel of your destiny, so you should give to them and never develop a craving to take advantage of them. You cannot get your mind to stay stable? Who in the world can get it there? Only the Buddha has that power.

No. 73 – Self-Assurance
Once people have taken charge of their health-related thoughts and practices, they develop perfect self-confidence in their entire being that eliminates any need of worrying about disease. This kind of feeling is fabulous. I wish we could all have this kind of powerful self-assurance.

No. 74 – Examination
In intense study, intention and qi are balanced. When the mind is stable, qi is balanced. Thus, for anyone who has attained Dao, examining another person is not a terribly difficult task but just the effect of yet another turning of the mind.

No. 75 – Five desires
Among the five desires, fame [feeling important] is hardest to overcome. Next comes sex [sensual pleasure, having fun], third is wealth [material stability], then food [eating and drinking], and finally sleep [rest and recreation]. As long as the mind-and-heart for fame is not dead, there is no way one can enter Dao.

No. 76 – Disease Inception
The hundred diseases begin when wind and heteropathy enter the body. If the body’s qi is vacuous and weak, the defensive and constructive energies lose their balance. Then worry and speculation, fright and anxiety arise, and wine [intoxication] and sex [distracting sensory pleasures] exhaust one’s strength. Perfect qi is minimal, and outside heteropathy comes in.

No. 77 – Rule 29
This is a circular rule, go and remember rule no. 29

No. 78 – Rule 30
This is another circular rule, go and see again rule no. 30

No. 79 – Side Attack
In the past, when hearing about how Hitler resolved breaching the extremely well defended and highly armed Maginot Line in France, I understood the following: when faced with strong and resistant diseases, you cannot overcome them with a frontal attack. Rather, to destroy it, you must get at it from a variety of angles. Kidney and liver problems, for example, tend to be highly resistant. You get best results when you approach them by balancing the lungs or spleen.

No. 80 – Centering
Being well centered is the root source of nourishing life. Qi and blood in people’s bodies form a pair of yin and yang. Blood is yin and substance; qi is yang and function. Blood is the mother of qi; qi is the master of blood. If qi is insufficient, one easily gets accumulation disease, such as swellings, tumors, blood clots, and the like. If qi is excessive, one easily gets diseases where blood flows too fast from the brain. Thus, as long as you keep blood and qi in even balance, you can stay very healthy.

No. 81 – First Steps
When people just have awakened to some kind of feeling for their “natural course” [inner spontaneity], they already reckon that they have attained Dao. But knowing the natural course is only the first step; going on and following it is what makes people spirit men. Understanding and matching yin and yang, understanding and following one’s natural course, this is the great inner power needed to be a good healer.

No. 82 – Natural Course
What is this “natural course”? It is the fact that each and every thing has the two sides of yin and yang, that each and every being undergoes the same life process of birth, growth, decline, and death. Following this process, you can use the production and conquest cycles of the five phases to enhance someone’s inner balance. Then what disease could not be cured?

No. 83 – Simple and Complex, Hard and Soft
Simple and complex form a pair just like yin and yang. The more an affair is complex, the more often it can be resolved by the simplest means. In the same way, if you look at what seems to be a simple issue, you often find that the solution is not easy at all and you cannot resolve it even by exerting utmost efforts.

The same also holds true for hard and soft. Extreme softness can overcome the hardest substance; against extreme hardness softness stands no chance. For this reason, whenever we are faced with solving an issue we should use this kind of thinking: when encountering a complex problem, look for the simplest way of resolving it; when meeting with a simple question, do not disregard it, but make sure to give it sufficient importance. It is just like Chairman Mao used to say: The strategy of war take lightly, the art of war take seriously. In other words, the state of the issue take lightly, the process of resolution take seriously.

No. 84 – Today
Let us see whether the following is true in the world today: people follow their natural patterns of eating and sleeping; people honor their natural course of life. Not really. If they can’t do so, why? Because that is way too simple. So they don’t just rest at ease and honor their course. Such is the honest truth.

No. 85 – Balance
What does “balance “mean? Balance is the state when yin and yang depend on each other and control each other in equal measure. Any form of excess or sufficiency means a loss of balance. All sorts of things may harm primordial qi, loss of balance certainly injures it. Always resting in a state of balance, primordial qi is well preserved and people age and decline only very slowly.

No. 86 – Yin and Yang
The way of yin and yang means two opposing forces depending upon, and changing into, one another. Thus, in any kind of oppositional situation, if one side distances itself from the other, it will never be controlled by it. Thus if one lets go of all loss, destruction cannot reach one.

You see, the leaders in modern society do not like constraints; they want to come and go as they please, following their whims, their own modes, greedy to obtain more goods. The result of this is that there are more rules than one can possibly think of.

Yin and yang are like that. In the great course of life, when one being arises, it becomes the cause of the birth of other beings, but at the same time some other being comes into existence that starts to limit them. This in essence is how the production and conquest cycles of the five phases work, the way yin and yang depend upon and check each other.

For this reason, the way of nourishing life also works like this. If you get sick, there is always one cause that brings it forth. At the same time there is also always a factor that controls it and makes it go away. Just like in the natural world, in any place that has poisonous snakes, there will be plants that cure snake bite.

No. 87 – Body Oblivion
What is self-realization through body oblivion? It means giving up control, giving up secret schemes.

Note: we are unsure of at least some part of the translation. If anybody has a better insight please relay it to us.

什麽叫人得意忘形？他失去控制了，失去陰的制約了，所以其下場畢竟是……，同樣人也不能一味消沈下去，這就是失去陽對他的制約了

No. 88 – Great Wisdom
Any so-called great wisdom, if it is without heartfelt feelings, what great wisdom is that?

No. 89 – Learning
Ordinary people talk about living to old age and learning to old age. But learning also has its time and what you learn in each phase of life needs to match what need most at that time. Otherwise you are not in harmony with the flow of life and fail to follow your natural course. However, looking at education in the world today, from kindergarten to university, how many things do the children learn that they actually need at their age?

What do you need to learn as a child? Most importantly, you need basic ethics and a sense of reverence for your parents. Only learning to read and write, what good does that do after you leave school? Once you get to adolescence, you need to learn how to be good at living in harmony and raising children, focusing on family happiness. In middle age, you need to work on nourishing life. Eventually, when you get to be old, you need to learn how to relax your mental disposition and be at peace in your last years. Whatever else you choose to study, these are the essentials of learning.

No. 90 – Emotions
Emotions and sickness are closely interrelated: all diseases come from emotions. You may use medications for a cure, but whether you do in fact remove the symptoms or not, underneath you are still not well. When you deal with this kind of disease, after you deal with the outer signs you still have to deal with the person inside. The five emotions can bring about disease; the five emotions can also cure them.

No. 91 – Courage
Nourishing life centers on one thing only: do not fear death! As long as you fear death, your yang-qi is insufficient, and when that happens, the power of death can defeat you. That’s what the Daoists keep talking about: the heroic energy found in people who practice cultivation and refinement. Kindness, wisdom, and courage: you must have all three!

No. 92 – Samadhi
Take any subject of study or practice and work on it until it becomes utterly easy and simple: this is the point where you reach an essential state of samadhi. As long as you still feel that the subject has some parts that are great and profound, sections that you cannot fathom, you still have not fully mastered its ultimate essence. You are still only seeing its outer leaves and branches and have not yet reached the root.

At this point you are still in the stage of “being” and have not yet attained the stage of “nonbeing.” All things for you still are enmeshed in the realm of yin and yang, all the myriad affairs and myriad things are still part of yin and yang. You need to find the root is of yin and yang: “Know the one and the myriad affairs are done!”

No. 93 – Nourishing Life
Concentrate your spirit and stabilize your qi, forget both yourself and all beings. This is the ultimate core of nourishing life.

No. 94 – The Center
The center bright and clear, peace will result. Nourish life this way and you will live long, die and not perish, and become a great light in the greater universe. The center not bright and clear, the twelve organs are endangered; they block the Dao and prevent it from flowing freely, so that the body is greatly harmed. Nourish life this way and you will endanger the powers of the greater universe. Be very, very careful!

No. 95 – Proper Cycles
How to apply the five phases’ cycles of production and conquest: if a disease is due to an excess in the five organs, use the conquest cycle to remedy it; if it is due to a depletion, use the production cycle. This is the fundamental principle of using the five phases.

No. 96 – Materialism
People nowadays often pursue an expensive material life-style and put all their efforts toward that. But the result of this kind of pursuit is really scary. What you need to realize is that people’s desire for material goods is inexhaustible. Once this desire can no longer be controlled, it does nothing but create inexhaustible suffering.

In fact, material goods can bring happiness but so can the spirit. Medications can cure diseases, but so can psychological healing. For this reason, spending all our life in the pursuit of material wealth is no where near as good as using our entire life to nurture a good mental disposition, which alone will allow our spirit to attain transcendence.

No. 97 – Rule 73
This is the fourth and the last (re)cycled rule, please read again the rule no. 73

No. 98 – The Sentinels
Our bodies are mechanisms full of wisdom: they have excellent sentinels that guard over our health: the teeth, the appendix, the tonsils, and so on. Originally, any time our bodies enter an exceptional situation (such as, most commonly, “fire rising”), these various sentinels immediately react and communicate the disturbance to the brain. Smart people at this point harmonize their minds-and-hearts and inspect themselves, making sure to restore inner balance.

However, what do Western-trained physicians do these days? “You hurt?” they say. “I will make your pain go away.” Even worse, they have developed some kind of scientific instrument, so they say: “You have a serious nasal infection and sneeze a lot? Let me cauterize the nerves inside your nose, so that you won’t be able to sneeze, no matter how strong the provocation.” The result of these treatments by Western doctors is that, if we ever fall ill, we won’t know until the disease affects our five organs and six intestines.

No. 99 – Benign Symptoms
Just remember: if we have sudden diarrhea, sneezes, coughs, or fever, these are signs of our bodies working at comprehensive recovery. There is no need to take medicines for these symptoms.

No. 100 – Terminal Diseases
Most serious diseases and terminal growths have only one cause: resentment [hatred, discontent]. Once resentment is gone, all ailments dissolve. What is hardest to resolve in this world is continuous and unstoppable resentment. As long as there is such unresolved resentment, there will always be incurable diseases.

Reference: http://yijinjing.ro/health-rules/

No. 2 – Medication
All the various medications used to cure diseases work on the surface and don’t penetrate to the root, no matter whether they are Chinese herbs or Western drugs. Because all the different diseases arise from basicmistakes in living and are the result of such mistakes, as long as you do not remove the cause of the mistakes,their result cannot be eliminated at the root.

Now, the root of health is the mind-and-heart and all life factors and experiences originate from there. If themind-and-heart is pure, the body is pure. So, if you get sick, don’t look for a cause outside, but rely on the innatepowers of your own body and self to recover. This reality applies equally to human beings and animals; ifanimals can recover from diseases relying on their own powers, so can people.

No. 3 – Correct Behavior
The right understanding is to stay far away from expensive drugs and dangerous surgery in helping patients to get rid of their diseases. Based on this, you tend to make the right decisions and follow the right patterns of behavior. This will also allow you to ward off the arising of numerous diseases.

No. 4 – Innate Wisdom
People all have innate wisdom, which definitely does not come from book learning. Rather, it comes from their own true mind-and-heart, their pure and clear mind-and-heart (what Daoists call “Dao nature” and Buddhists call the bodhi-mind).

No. 5 – Inner Regulatory Abilities
Among all living beings, people have the most beautiful and complex body, but the degree of its health is determined at birth. Their level of health, then, depends on their original body’s innate regulatory and recovery abilities; it has nothing to do with outside elements. Outside factors can only aid in its functioning.

No. 6 – Purification
The vast majority of symptoms people develop are signs of their bodies ridding themselves of internal toxins in the process of adjustment and purification, conditions that appear as part of the body’s automatic regulation and balancing process. You should therefore take them as signs of the proper functioning of life and never forcefully get rid of them, thinking that they are the beginning of a disease and should be eliminated.

For this reason, when you are sick, by all means avoid developing a mind that is full of resentment, hatred, anger, and anxiety. Rather, make sure there is peace and stability in your mind-and-heart. When the mind is stable, the qi flows properly; when the qi flows properly, the blood is vibrant: the hundred diseases will dissolve.

No. 7 – Qi and Blood, Meridians
People’s heath is closely connected with two factors: sufficient qi and blood; free and open meridians (including blood vessels and the digestive channels).

No. 8 – Good Living Habits
Having sufficient qi and blood depends on sufficient food + bile + good sleep at the right time—from dusk to 1:40 a.m. when the brain does not work at all and we are guided by plants and spirits— + good living habits.

No. 9 – Clear and Pure Mind
To have free and open meridians you most of all need to have a clear and pure mind. The seven emotions and six desires all harm you’re your mind-and-heart, which in turn causes harm to the proper circulation in the meridians.

No. 10 – Enhance and Control Qi
To maintain a healthy body, you need not only to enhance (increase qi and blood) but also to control (diminish the loss of qi and blood).

No. 11 – Control Food
A massive increase in food intake not only will not increase qi and blood but will produce a greater burden of toxins in the body. To return to normal, rely on the purifying powers of digestive blood and qi. The five organs and six intestines all work due to the efforts of blood and qi. Food is their raw material, but there is a limit to how much their work capacity can be increased. Since there is no limit to available food stuffs, we must establish control over the amounts we eat.

No. 12 – Relaxation
Appropriate exercise can aid people’s blood and qi circulation, but it can also contribute to the loss of blood and qi. The energetic cycles in the human body should most of all be approached in a state of relaxation: never compromise on this rule of health!

No. 13 – Detoxify, Open Meridians, Increase Blood and Qi
The greater the amount of toxins in people’s bodies, the more they need to purify their blood and qi. However, people’s blood and qi are reduced because of this increase in toxins and blockages in the arteries. This creates a vicious circle and becomes the main mechanism of aging and decline. For this reason, people who want to be healthy and stay young should do three things: reduce the amount of toxins in their bodies; increase the open passage in their blood vessels and meridians; and increase the blood and qi in the body.

No. 14 – Own Intuition and Awarness
Having faith in the efficacy of medications and diagnostic measurements is not as good as trusting your own intuition and the adequacy of your body’s regulatory abilities. However, these presuppose that you have attained the Dao or opened your inner wisdom and live from that perspective.

No. 15 – Study Buddhism
Health begins with regulating the mind-and-heart and inner nature. So, for the sake of your health, start to study Buddhism. Finding happiness through the practice of Buddhism is the highest fortune among humanity.

No. 16 – False Symptoms
Speaking of someone with an old disease, as long as his blood and qi are kept full (by using the qi-replenishing methods introduced here and by having him do quiet sitting to open the qi nodes), the feelings of the disease may come out in full force.

For this reason, people who practice various forms of cultivation may experience all kinds of “disease-like” symptoms when they reach a certain level. At that time they should intensify their qi-work and firmly stick to their practice of quiet sitting, thereby to increase qi and blood. This way they will move quickly through this situation.

No. 17 – Endangering Life
People who go against the basic rules of nourishing life, even though they may not get obviously sick, as they get habituated to this unhealthy life-style, set themselves up for major disease. It is quite like the basic rules of traffic: if you go against them, you may not have an accident immediately, but the danger of having one is easily obvious.

No. 18 – Emptiness
Why is it beneficial in nourishing life if people maintain a certain level of hunger and thirst? In fact, this is the wonderful application of “emptiness.” Daoists say that emptiness leads to numinosity. This together with humility allows people to make progress, while being full in themselves just makes them drop back to square one. For this reason, one should always maintain an attitude of “empty numen.” This way one can constantly maintain inner clarity and awakeness which in turn allows one to maintain health.

No. 19 – Food Quality
People who want to live a healthy life need to make sure that they take enough qi-bringing and qi-transforming foods. Just by doing this you will avoid accumulating lots of toxins in the body. You will also prevent having too much food releasing a roving “empty fire,” which will deplete your inner organs. Plus, this “empty fire” can turn around and deplete your internal qi. For this reason and speaking from this perspective, when people today get sick, it is for the most part because their intake of food and drink is not properly regulated.

No. 20 – Quiet Sitting
To nourish life by quiet sitting, sit (or lie) on your bed, completely relax body and mind, let your whole body melt without using even a tiny bit of effort, so that you feel as if there was no body. Breathe naturally and exert not even a trace of effort in the mind-and-heart—when a thought arises, this is already using effort. Place your mind calmly on the soles of your feet and from there guide fire down and water up, so that qi and blood in the entire body flow vibrantly.

No. 21 – Turning Point
There is a common saying: “When the turning point is right, a good plan will come.” To properly understand this idea of “turning point,” you need to open your sense of intuition. A teacher giving instructions, a physician curing diseases—these are turning points that fall into your lap and open new chances for you. This “turning point” at times also may be a key opportunity.

Naturally this “turning point” needs to be properly used in the right circumstances which merge with the atmosphere around you to create a certain energetic density, just like by getting ahold of fire one can set off fireworks.

Just to make sure: other people’s activities and events are outside causes; your own talents and tendencies are proper insight causes. If they come together in the right way, this is what we mean by “turning point.” The arrow in the bow ready to be released: you must find the right “point” for your shot. All affairs are ultimately like this—they each have their specific turning point.

If you just connect to this, all kinds of things will evolve. If you don’t connect to it and are involved in too many other affairs, there is no way things will start moving. The turning point is just like this: it is the central element and key opportunity for things to develop. It is a core point, not just a surface appearance. But by setting this core point in motion, you can also move the surface appearance along with it.

For this reason, the turning point of any disease is the central element and key opportunity when the disease arises, develops, and changes. In other words, reaching a turning point of disease, people’s condition becomes openly manifest and they enter a vicious circle of “being sick.” Responding to the turning point of disease opens the “turning point of life.” Once this is opened, people enter a positive circle of health. In fact, these two turning points of disease and of life are two sides of the same coin, a matching yin-yang pair. As the turning point of disease opens, that of life closes, and vice versa, as the turning point of life opens, that of disease gradually begins to close. Such is the honest truth.

No. 22 – Book Learning
The fact is, to appreciate numerous good discoveries and inventions there is no need for book learning. At the proper time, even someone without any kind of traditional education who has a highly developed sense of intution and can completely let go of conscious thinking will be able to arrive at enlightened truth.

No. 23 – Disturbance
The thing people need to be most wary of is something called “disturbance.” If the mind-and-heart is disturbed, it will get entangled in affairs on the outside and cause harm to blood and qi on the inside. All vexations, anger, fear, anxiety, joy, worry, confusion, and doubt mean disturbance. They are the root cause of many diseases and shortened life expectancy. Thus it is not only during times of healing diseases that one should avoid all disturbance but one should keep the mind free from it throughout everyday life.

No. 24 – Excesses
Much sadness harms the lungs; much pleasure (sex) harms the kidneys; much food harms the spleen and stomach; much worrying harms the spleen; much anger harms the liver; much labor harms the spirit. In all cases it will lose its proper course.

No. 25 – Craving
If disease arises in the body, it is in all cases from the mind-and-heart being vacuous empty and the qi being weak. This state makes it possible for outside heteropathies to enter. The mind-and-heart being vacuous and the qi being weak always comes from the mind and the spirit soul(s) being disturbed and agitated, the body structure not being full, and all sorts of anxieties arising: craving for food, for success, for wealth, for happiness—all these are quite enough to produce disease.

Then, when these cravings are not fulfilled, they turn into aversion (anger). Craving and aversion make the mind-and-heart agitated and the qi tense, the gall bladder nervous and the liver excited, the six meridians tremble and the five organs boil. When some outside heteropathy enters at that time, disease results.

No. 26 – Long Life
When people want to reach long life, they first must get rid of diseases. To get rid of diseases, they must first understand the proper application of qi. To understand the application of qi, they must first nurture their inherent nature. The way to nurture inherent nature is to first balance the mind-and-heart.

No. 27 – Five Elements
People receive the five phases to come to life, thus the physical body is dominated by qi. If qi is deficient, there is disease; if qi is obstructed, there is disease. Thus, to cure any disease, first remedy the qi.

No. 28 – Attaining Balance
Qi moves blood; blood enhances qi. They are two yet only one. If people do not sleep for a long time, they harm their blood; if they sleep for a long time, they harm their qi. If they stand for a long time, they harm their bones; if they walk for a long time, they harm their muscles. If they engage excessively in the seven emotions and six desires, they harm their primordial qi as well as their heart and kidneys. As these body aspects increase in fire, perfect yang energy is depleted.

No. 29 – Five Organs
To cure the diseases of the five organs, one must first enhance qi. The kidneys are particularly important in this. One best enhances qi by not moving the mind-and-heart, because whenever the mind-and-heart moves, the liver gets excited and the meridians agitated. Then perfect water is depleted. The mind-and-heart is like a fan: it moves with the wind. When the wind blows, fire rises; when fire rises, water dries; when water dries, the earth is depleted.

No. 30 – Unified Mind and Spirit
When the mind is stable and the spirit unified, one can be cured. Faith strong and the mind concentrated, the two minds [of healer and patient] are in harmony and one can cure the hundred diseases. None is not ultimately the effect of spirit.

No. 31 – Two Kinds of Diseases
People’s diseases are of two kinds:

1. The meridians are vibrant and open, but the qi is deficient. Symptoms include various pains here and there. This is so, because when the qi is deficient and cannot properly digest the food, it brings forth apparent fire (also called false fire or empty fire), and the meridians in the body get agitated. Then energy flows every which way until it hits some obstruction which then manifests as pain. People like this can take some medicines and get better.

2. The meridians are blocked and the qi has no place to go in the body. Symptoms include nothing specific on the outside for the longest time, then all of a sudden a major crisis. People like this may take medicines but the cure will be very slow. They may even be affected at the root and cannot be helped.

No. 32 – Nourishing Life
The highest field of Chinese medicine is nourishing life. The highest field of nourishing life is nourishing the mind-and-heart. For this reason, when speaking about nourishing life, the lowest type of practitioner nourishes the body, the medium type nourishes the qi, while the highest type nourishes the mind-and-heart. Examining people is the same way: looking at outside features is not as good as looking at qi; looking at qi is not as good as looking at the mind-and-heart

No. 33 – Mind at Peace
When mind and spirit are not at peace, feelings and inner nature are rushed and hectic—the ultimate cause of disease and death. Thus calming the mind-and-heart is the first step in guarding life. The mind-and-heart can control all other aspects. Thus, when the mind is stable, the qi is harmonious. When the qi is harmonious, the blood circulates well. When the blood circulates well, essence is sufficient and the spirit is bright. When essence is sufficient and the spirit bright, all internal parts are strong and vigorous and the various diseases dissolve naturally. Thus in curing diseases managing the mind-and-heart is the first priority.

No. 34 – Personal Resistance
Wind and cold, yin and yang, heat and dampness all can cause disease in people. If your resistance is weakened, they can take advantage of your inner vacuity and enter the body. This is why, if the body is weak, there are many diseases.

Rich people have some protection through clothing, food, shelter, and so on. Poor people also have some resistance if their qi is sufficient, their spirit bright, their skin thick, and so on, making it hard for these outside factors to enter. On the other hand, rich people tend to eat heavy food and sweetmeats, thus harming their stomach and hurting their teeth. Poor people often suffer hunger and there is no variety in their diet, so they tend to be free from intestinal disease.

Rich people have many obligations (and avoidances), so they have many irritations to their qi. Poor people work very hard, so they don’t get sick so fast. If rich people don’t produce wealth, they become unhappy. As their wealth diminishes, they eventually become poor. Poor people, on the other hand, work hard and save, and thereby create wealth and good fortune. Then, once they have the protection of wealth through clothing, food, shelter, and so on, their resistance against outside invasions of essence, qi, and spirit lessens. Thus, as the protective devices diminish, personal resistance grows.

No. 35 – Baths
When one first recovers from a grave illness, it is best to avoid washing the feet and taking baths.

No. 36 – Inner Stability
To pursue long life and freedom from disease, one should strengthen the physical body. To strengthen the physical body, one should balance essence, qi, and spirit. To do so one must eliminate all impact of frustration and agitation.

To control them, first work hard to manage the mind-and-heart and transform the three poisons of craving, aversion, and ignorance. Once you have gotten rid of these, you must learn to control the mind-and-heart with the help of precepts. However, just talking about precepts without using them in actual practice and yet hoping to develop wisdom is no different from remaining ignorant. If you really want to develop wisdom, you first must pursue inner stability. And to do so, you need to practice quiet sitting.

No. 37 – Benevolence
Once quiet, you are benevolent; once benevolent, you can live long. Living long is perfect happiness.

No. 38 – Let Go, Look Back
All the various methods of cultivating body and mind have two key aspects: let go and look back. Let go of the butcher’s knife, stand firmly on the earth, and become a buddha. The ocean of suffering has no end, so look back to the shore. All you need to do is let go and look back for once and your diseases will suddenly be healed—which erroneously is called sudden awakening. This really is unlimited life.

No. 39 – Mind Overwork
In people who overwork their mind, the heart is tired and the liver excited. An overworked mind means that it is too full and not empty enough. In this situation, it cannot control the fire generated by the liver (wood), and if that is the case, liver-qi accumulates and overflows.

Now, liver-wood moves on to earth, and so the spleen and stomach get sick next. Then the digestion is not good and one cannot sleep at night. Earth in turn controls water, which leads to the depletion of kidney-water. If the water is not sufficient, this will once more incite fire. The heart and kidneys are closely linked, thus the heart-qi is weakened even more and the lung-qi is affected.

The various parts of the inner body are closely interrelated: if one moves, all move; if one gets sick, all suffer. However, the beginning lies in the mind getting distorted, so the cure lies in calming it. As the mind gets clearer, it finds spontaneous awareness. So, all key efforts for health lie in quiet sitting.

No. 40 – Achieving Liberation
Quiet sitting is a way of giving rest to the mind-and-heart. When it is at rest, the spirit is at peace. When the spirit is at peace, the qi is sufficient. When the qi is sufficient, the blood is bright and both blood and qi flow vibrantly. Then, even if there is some ailment, one can get rid of it easily. If there is depletion, one can enhance qi to fullness; if there is sufficiency already, one can enhance it to greater increase. One can get rid of diseases now and prevent the arising of all future ailments. This is the least of it.

Also, when the mind-and-heart is at rest, the spirit is radiant. When the spirit is radiant, the turning point is numinous [inner center is connected to heaven]. Resting in quietude, the mind-and-heart becomes more wondrous and one can observe the turning point in its full truth. All outside phenomena are clear and one sees cosmic order as being just right. Then one creates no more detachment to ordinary affairs and is no longer alarmed by random disturbances. Seeing the mental projections for what they are, one remains unaffected and can pervade all, naturally achieving a state where there is no subject of observation or one-sidedness of any kind. Then one can greatly apply the numinous pivot and achieve liberation.

No. 41 – Resents
When people get sick, they often resent it and develop a great deal of anger and frustration in their mind-and-heart. At this time it is essential to calm all mental input and allow the mind-and-heart to find peace and stability. Doing so, one can slowly balance it, and health will soon be restored. Only when the mind-and-heart is calm can the qi flow properly; and only when it does so can disease be eliminated. Otherwise, the mind-and-heart gets hectic and fire rises, liver qi is depleted, and the disease gets worse. When mind-and-heart and spirit are restful and unified, the blood and qi that circulate through the body are naturally healthy and whole, and bring forth a glow.

As regards the mind, there are two: one is the perfect mind; the other is the distorted mind. The true mind is like water; the distorted mind is like waves. Waves move because of wind, and when the wind stops the waves rest and the water no longer moves. Being serene and without thoughts: this is the mind of no-mind.

No. 42 – Insomnia
If you can’t sleep in the middle of the night, it is because your kidney water is deficient. Heart and kidneys are closely interrelated, so when water is deficient, fire rises. This may well harm the spirit.

No. 43 – Mental Unrest
If you have a lot of thoughts when trying to sleep at night and cannot calm down, do not toss and turn on your pillow, pursuing these thoughts. This will seriously diminish the spirit.

No. 44 – Noon Hour
The noon hour matches the mind-and-heart. Thus it is good to sit in meditation for a quarter of an hour around this time. Close your eyes and nurture the spirit. This will strengthen mind and qi.

No. 45 – Getting Up
In the morning it is best to get up between 3 and 5 am. If you do so, be careful to avoid all sadness and anger. Otherwise you will cause harm to the lungs and liver. Be very careful.

No. 46 – Stable Spirit
All the various affairs of human life have their root in the spirit. All declining and rising, strength and weakness of spirit, moreover, completely depend on the mind-and-heart. Thus spirit should be quiet, stable, and without agitation. Even a small measure of agitation is enough to obstruct all the good work.

No. 47 – Qi and Blood
In human life, the free flow of blood and qi is most important. If there is an obstruction of qi, this may cause a stoppage of blood which can develop into all sorts of poisons. These in turn can cause clots, swellings, ulcers, cancers, and the like. All these come from blood and qi not flowing freely.

In qi, the right circulation is most important; in blood, openness means vibrancy. All the hundred diseases come from an obstruction of qi. When the qi is blocked within, the first organ to be affected is the liver. The solution to this lies in transforming and releasing it.

To do so, there are two ways: 1. Seek out its root, which is in the mind-and-heart; when the mind-and-heart is empty, all transforms naturally. 2. Use medication and massage to help it release, allowing the qi to regain its free flow.

No. 48 – Craving
Nurturing and curing diseases cannot be hastened. This is because any rushing in inner nature supports fire and rising fire diminishes qi. Turn away from the world and give up outside beauty. Go your own way and do not crave for much. Any craving means lack of constancy and thus rushing inner nature. Thus the hundred diseases all arise from craving and any increase in craving means an increase in disease and suffering.

No. 49 – Steam of Qi
The heart belongs to fire; the kidneys belong to water. Heart and kidneys are closely interconnected. Fire has a tendency to sink down; water has a tendency to rise up. When fire and water are evenly balanced, a steam of qi arises within. Each part of the body then moves appropriately and can be fully healthy.

One can tell whether this is the case from examining the tongue. Without water the tongue cannot live, thus the word for “tongue” combined with the three strokes signifying water is the word for “life.” On the tongue one can see each body part’s state of disease—whether light or serious—and even judge the presence of life and death.

No. 50 – Healing from Serious Disease
The way to heal yourself from serious disease:

Do not fear death and firmly believe not only that this disease can be completely cured but also that the body can attain exceptional good health and can reach great longevity. This is so because at the core of the body is a very special faculty. These are not just empty words of consolation.
Trust that even without any medicinal drugs or relying on special nurturing foods, there is without yourself a great and wonderful method of eliminating disease and extending the years.
Say to yourself: “From today on, I will not be frustrated by my sick body, I will not keep thinking about what kind of disease I have, and I will under no circumstances compare myself to others.”
During the period of recuperation, don’t let yourself think about work or regret lost time and opportunities. Keep your mind-and-heart completely focused. Otherwise you will delay or derail your healing.

Reference: http://yijinjing.ro/health-rules/

2. Let the qi motivate the body without hindrance, so that it will effortlessly follow your xin (mind/heart).

3. If the shen (spirit) is raised, there will not be any sluggishness. This is the meaning of the crown being suspended from above.

4. There should be agility in the interaction of the yi (mind intention) and qi, so that it [the qi] will be circular and lively. This is what is meant by, ‘changing substantial and insubstantial’.

5. When executing fajin (releasing the force) the body should relax and sink. Focus on the one direction.

6. When the body is upright, loose and tranquil, the feet will support all eight directions.

7. Direct the qi like threading the ‘nine bend pearls’, by flowing continuously it reaches everywhere unrestricted.

[When the qi flows throughout the body] the jin (relaxed force) is like tempered steel, overcoming all solid defences.

8. Have the appearance of a falcon preying on a hare. Concentrate the shen (spirit) like a cat stalking on a mouse.

9. Be calm like a mountain and move like a river.

10. Store up the jin (relaxed force) like drawing a bow, discharge the jin (relaxed force) like releasing an arrow.

11. Seek the straight in the curve, first store then discharge.

12. Force is released through the back, the steeps change with the body.

13. To receive is to release, if it disconnects then reconnect.

14. In moving forwards and backwards, there should be folding. In advancing and retreating, there should be changes of direction.

15. Extreme softness yields to extreme firmness and tenacity.

16. Only with the ability to inhale and exhale, will there be agility.

17. When qi is cultivated naturally, there is no harm. When jin (relaxed force) is stored, there will be a surplus.

18. The xin (mind/heart) is the commander, the qi is the flag, and the yao (waist) is the banner.

19. First seek exspansion while opening then seek contraction while closing. It will lead to perfect refinement.

20. Its said: “If the other does not move, I do not move. If the other has the slightest movement, I move ahead”.

21. The jin (force) seems song (relaxed), however it is not song (relaxed), it is about to expand, although it has not yet expanded. The jin (relaxed force) might disconnect, but mind must not.

22. It is also said: “First the xin (mind/heart), then the body”.

23. When the abdomen relaxes, the qi sinks into the bones. When the shen (spirit) calms, the body becomes tranquil.

24. Keep this in xin (in your heart). Remember; when you move, every part moves. When you settle every part settles.

25. When moving forwards and backwards, the qi sticks to the back and permeates into the spine.

26. Internally be acutely aware of the shen (spirit), externally appear calm and relaxed.

27. Step like a cat. Transmit the jin (relaxed force) like reeling silk from a cocoon.

28. The yi (intention) should be on the jingshen (spirit), not on the qi, otherwise the qi will stagnate. With qi, extra-ordinary power will develop. Without qi there will only be li (brute strength). Qi is like a cart wheel and the yao (waist) is like the axle.

Reference: Taijiquan Wuwei: A Natural Process translation by Wee Kee Jin 2003
ISBN: 0473097818

p. 104 – 112

2. Trial of Strength:
Strike out the hand is like a steel file,
Pull back, the hand is like an iron hook.
The intent aims at the surroundings of the body
Yet never goes away from it.

3. Mocabu (friction steps):
With the body erect and head upright,
He walks like a chicken but with the torso a bit inclined.
Advance or retreat at will as the hip and shoulder move,
Waves rise and fall as the leaps and the foot circles.

4. Fali (excerting force):
The whole body as soft as cotton,
The intend reaches finger tips.
Explosive force is discharged continuously,
Like a catapult shooting out pellets.

5. The trial of Breath:
Sound is produced from “Dantian” ( a spot 1,968 inches beneath the umbilicus.),
But comes out the mouth,
While the cheast is free and relaxed,
The sound is like that of a ringing bell is a quiet valley.

6. Tuishou (push-hands):
Single Hand
Attaching forearms they act as in trial of strength,
Touching, slicking, connecting, following,
all are guided by intention.
Rolling and turning the perform with “point of force” as the axis;
Jerking and discharging, an elastic force is produced and threatening.
Double Hand
With four arms closely attached,
The two turn and shift following steps.
Try to control the other side as if to bind him with a robe,
Be natural in all moves,
whether it be wrestling, shriving, striking or releasing.

7. Actual Manoeuvring:
When actual confrontation begins,
See that you have an easy posture.
With space appropriately set,
You hit out surely, accurately, relentlessly and severely.
Meeting attacks from all directions,
You must respond with alert and flexibility.
Advance, retreat or intercept,
All depends on circumstances and opportunity.
What’s the use of fixed postures and methods?
As under such circumstances everyone acts on his instinct.

Reference:
Dachengquang
by Wang Xuanjie
ISBN 9622381111

p.  46 – 54

It is not disturbed by the mind.

The heart is the mind which has no thought.

The mind is the heart after it falls into contemplative activity

and engages in busy thinking.

Chen Tunan

Reference:
Strength from Movement: Mastering Chi by Hua-Ching Ni
ISBN 0937064734

p. 126