Chatting about the Zhouyi Cantong Qi (12): Sudden Death by Heavenly Mandate, Bones Exposed and Flesh Rotten

Is this right or wrong? The method of reviewing the five stores. Inner vision has what is contemplated. Inner vision means during cultivation turning the light to illuminate within; at a certain level one can perceive the qi of the five zang and six fu organs in the body, and this perception further produces a visualization-like presentation. This refers to the method of inner vision of the five stores; "store" (zang) is the zang-image of the organs, representing the images of the five zang. The Qianjin Yaofang says: "One should always practice the Yellow Emperor's inner-vision method, visualizing and remembering, making the five organs appear like suspended chimes — the five colors distinctly clear, never ceasing." The Danzi Zishu Sanwu Shunxing Jing says: "When sitting, always close the eyes and inner-vision; visualize seeing the five stores and intestines and stomach. Practiced long, they will naturally become distinct and clear." Although inner vision is a minor method, in many schools' cultivation it is one of the basic foundation skills — for without inner vision, many inner landscapes cannot be discussed. After this minor method is accomplished, the five organs seen in the inner landscape are zang-images, not the real positions of the five organs. Its principle is simple: linking perception and feeling within one's body with visualization — a very useful technique. Of course building this sometimes has side effects: things normally perceptible but invisible may also become visualized. Because a human is not a simple mechanical construction, but many organs working organically and coordinately to maintain life activity and guarantee thinking capacity. Dealing with one's body this way is like an ordinary person using a smartphone: you deal always with systems like iOS or Android, not the circuit boards or parts behind. Many methods can treat disease because the body has strong self-healing function; guiding the body to successfully heal itself is the principle of keeping people healthy. So acupuncture, Chinese medicine, and many other treatments all follow this principle. If Western surgery and transplants only replace hardware like circuit boards and parts, without understanding the body's software nature, one can understand why patients often have various sequelae after surgery. Cultivating deep, becoming familiar with qi perception: whenever a person has illness, a qi field forms and shows in corresponding behavior. So by drawing on one's inner-vision experience flexibly, one can easily judge where others' illnesses lie. But if only for self-cultivation, inner vision is actually not necessary — even without such ability, one can still know qi movements within, just without linking them to brain visuals. And this has advantages: when demonic interference arises in cultivation, without visualized manifestation it is easier not to be disturbed. The reason Perfected Wei considers inner vision a minor method and criticizes it — note the background: as a grandmaster of external alchemy, he can naturally overlook such minor methods. But this does not mean such minor methods are meaningless; one should actively recognize the practical significance of inner vision. Treading the Dipper, pacing the gang stars, resting on the day-chambers of the six jia. The six jia refer to selecting day-chambers among the sixty stem-branch combinations. This means arranging celestial stars on earth, then according to different directions, pacing the gang steps in a certain order, and visualizing oneself touring in Heaven — a method some schools believe grants special power acting on oneself. This is a form-refining method, like: "White qi chaos bathes my form; Yu's steps follow, ascending to yang brightness. Heaven turns, earth rotates, stepping the seven stars; treading gang, walking Dipper, ascending to the nine numinous. All gods help me slay demons and spirits; all groups of demons are destroyed; ten thousand evils do not touch me — I live long." Step by step an incantation, foot on the seven stars, drawing chaos qi to fill the form — this belongs to the seven-star form-refining method. Inner vision mentioned earlier, beyond simple inner vision, actually has higher methods — it can become form-refining by inner vision, that is, spirit-thought. Inner-vision form refinement commonly moves qi movements in the body, various color changes, etc. — an important spirit-preservation art. Some modern scholars mistakenly take inner visualization of qi changes as deliberate imagining with intention — naturally making the method hard to verify. In the Xingming Guizhi Quanshu · Zhen Ji, form-refining methods are classified into six gates: Jade Liquid form-refinement, Golden Liquid form-refinement, Greater Yin form-refinement, Greater Yang form-refinement, Inner-vision form-refinement, True Vacuum form-refinement. Actually this classification is completely wrong, misleading many later people. And taking True Vacuum form-refinement as most advanced — generally using "the emptier the better" as standard — is also thoroughly bad. Even more so the Ming Xuanfu Lun's "Golden Liquid form-refinement is completing life; Jade Liquid form-refinement is completing nature" — basically Confucian obsessive-compulsive disorder acting up. Song-dynasty Confucians were basically in a spasmodic state, especially suffering severe OCD, completely not knowing what objective meant. First they imagined a set of things themselves, then imposed it on the target; if it did not match expectations, they thought it wrong. From the Song, Neo-Confucianism flourished: forcing women to bind feet; by the Ming the foot-binding custom entered its heyday — one can see how it went. Fortunately modern information is developed, massive historical texts easy to obtain, able to cite common ancient books for evidence — lest people say Master Sanfu also imagined things. First, according to the Song Lingbao Bifa, Golden Liquid and Jade Liquid form-refinement are actually one body. The Jin'gao says: "Accumulated yang becomes spirit; within spirit is form; form is born of the sun, sun of the moon. Accumulated yin becomes form; within form is spirit; spirit is born of metal, metal of jade. Rising and setting with yin and yang are the light of sun and moon; light arises from numbers, numbers rooted in Qian and Kun. Rising and falling with yin and yang are the qi of metal and jade; qi arises from time, time rooted in Heaven and Earth." The Zhenyuan says: "The light of sun and moon: after dawn use nine, before dark use six — six and nine are the numbers of Qian and Kun. The qi of metal and jade: in spring and summer rise, in autumn and winter descend — rising and falling are the times of Heaven and Earth. Metal is born of jade, jade of stone, stone of earth; seen in form and below is thus. In the sun is the golden crow, in the moon the jade rabbit; the moon awaits the sun's soul for light; seen in spirit and above is thus." This is the basic principle of Golden Liquid form-refinement: spirit is born of metal, metal of jade, jade of stone, stone of earth; the light rising and falling with yin and yang is the light of metal and jade. One can see Golden Liquid and Jade Liquid form-refinement are paired: Golden Liquid corresponds to metal, Jade Liquid to jade; one to Wu, one to Ji. From this one can see they should be called metal-jade form-refining art — not divided. The so-called Jade Liquid: kidney qi rises to the heart to join heart qi; the two qi intersect and pass the heavy tower; mouth closed not releasing, saliva fills the jade pool; swallowing it is called jade-liquid returning the elixir; raising it is called jade-liquid form-refinement. The so-called Golden Liquid: kidney qi joins heart qi without rising, steaming the lungs; lungs as the canopy cover the two qi; that day, take lung fluid, from the lower field rise from the tailgate point — this is called flying golden crystal into the brain, to supplement the muddy-pill palace; from above descend again into the lower field — golden-liquid returning the elixir; after returning to the lower field rise again, filling the four limbs, then rise again — golden-liquid form-refinement — also the saying metal is born of earth. Jade Liquid: kidney qi directly rises to the heart, then must pass the heavy tower rising, walking the front of the body; after saliva fills the mouth, swallow, then from the lower field fill the four limbs. Golden Liquid: kidney qi rises to the heart and stops there, until lung fluid is produced then descends, passing the back of the body and rising to the brain, then descending from there to the lower field, then filling the four limbs. So the difference is the route: one from the front of the body, one from the back; both must descend to the lower field, then steam the limbs. As for Greater Yin form-refinement, the Yunji Qiqian's Zhen'gao says: "If a person at death briefly enters the Greater Yin, temporarily passing the three officials — flesh already ash-burnt, blood sunk, pulse scattered — yet the five zang still generate themselves, white bones like jade, the seven po guard, the three hun keep the residence, the three origins protect the breath, the great spirit closes within. Or thirty years, twenty years, exit as one wishes. When due to be reborn, immediately collect blood and nurture flesh, generate saliva and become liquid; the substance originally formed in the womb transforms form and washes the countenance — better than before death. The true persons refine form in the Greater Yin and transform appearance at the three officials — this is what is meant. The Taiwei Heavenly Emperor sang: 'Refining form and body in the Greater Yin is better than taking the nine-turn elixir. Form and bearing upright and solemn, face color harmonious as numinous clouds. Thus able to ascend the Great Ultimate, golden palace become a true person.' Also: Zhao Chengzi, five or six years after death, woodcutters entering Mount Hua saw him — having attained the way of refining form in the Greater Yin." Also the Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian records: "Hu Yinyao was a Daoist of Dongting Mountain, calling himself grandson of Master Jiaoli. In that mountain is Jiaoli village and Jiaoli temple, many generations attaining the Dao. Yinyao dwelt at Jiao Mountain, studying the Greater Yin form-refinement method, and died in a cave. He instructed his disciples: 'Always watch my body, do not let anything disturb it. After six years if I am reborn, dress me again in clothes and cap.' The disciples watched: flesh and body rotted and decayed, only the five zang unchanged. They closed and guarded again; when the time came, he was indeed reborn. So they prepared soup for bathing and added new clothes. His hair was loose and black, his beard thick and straight. Later for sixteen years, died as before; after seven more years reborn again. Thus three times in all; about eighty years old, his appearance like someone of thirty. Emperor Yang of Sui heard of this and summoned him, with exceptional favor and courtesy. In Tang Zhenguan, Taizong summoned him into the inner hall and asked about the way of nourishing life. He replied: 'What I cultivate is the ambition of a common man; merit does not extend to things. When emperors cultivate the Dao, a single word's benefit brings blessing to ten thousand states; the effect of attaining the Dao is especially swift. My humble learning is not something for the ninefold palace and ten-thousand chariots to cultivate.' He requested to return to the mountain; later his whereabouts were unknown." The Shenxian Jian comments: "In the immortal Dao there are those who transform marrow and change bone without needing to shed the body; those who nurture an infant and draw spirit out to be seen; those who refine form in the Greater Yin and become true through corpse liberation — all sufficient to prove the Dao. And the perfect jade's nurturing of the fetus-grandchild; Sanfeng's flight to the golden palace — without re-setting the nine tripods and re-establishing Qian and Kun, how could this be attained? Looking at the alchemical Dao from this, how can one speak of it lightly?" The Greater Yin spoken of here means the place of darkness where people dwell after death — the most orthodox Greater Yin form-refinement. Why say so? Because in Song classics, in Lingbao school texts it is described: "Attaining the way of Greater Yin form-refinement, hun-spirit temporarily extinguished, not passing hell, immediately returns to form, roaming the great void." And the Lingbao Lingjiao Jinshu also says: "Greater Yin refines form, Greater Yang returns numineity. Dark corpses sunken and hidden, receive yang's essence. Primal qi re-spreads, gathering back the myriad gods. Hundred bones restore their former state, five zang record the true. Nutritive and defensive fresh and flowing, hun and po return to brightness. Circling the gate of life, high they rush to the imperial court." Later Greater Yin form-refinement had two major branches: one draws light from above to pour into the body — actually ghost-immortal cultivation, similar to Buddhism's Cundi method as a variant; the other, later cultivation forcibly divided male and female methods, requiring women to first "cut the red dragon" — breasts gradually flattening, outer form becoming like a man — then cultivating. This female method is called Greater Yin form-refinement. This requirement for women to change to male form is not actually needed by the Great Dao, but it catered to popular need. Because in Indian culture women's status was extremely low, many Buddhist scriptures similarly described women as defiled, exhausting every means of belittling — yet large numbers of women not only did not feel shamed but believed more fervently. Because most Chinese women, though not as severe as India, after the Song faced growing oppression, quite heavy — so the spirit needed some reliance. Many women hoped to be reborn as males in future lives, and cultivation provided such transformation methods. But times have changed; no need to cultivate such methods. In ancient alchemy, women's bodies need not transform toward men. The most obvious evidence: ancient female cultivators who attained success were many — how many became male? So the so-called Greater Yin form-refinement for women after Ming-Qing is completely unnecessary today. Back to orthodox Greater Yin form-refinement: though the theory seems simple, conditions are rather strict. First ensuring soul and spirit do not scatter is a big problem. So the ancients designed the jade burial suit — used for Greater Yin refinement, because metal and jade qi can seal the soul and spirit within the body. Thus even after the corpse bones rot, as long as soul and spirit do not leave, decades later flesh will regenerate and the person will revive — though the appearance will change. After the Han, except some Daoists practicing specially, basically no one used Greater Yin form-refinement. One speculation: Greater Yin form-refinement has conditions. Before the Celestial Master, China had no ghost realm, much less a hell bureaucracy. When the Celestial Master divided human and ghost residences, humans and ghosts could not mix — so for ordinary people Greater Yin form-refinement no longer worked. This can also be described in more sci-fi terms: when a person dies, information on the body aggregates without dispersing — this mass is called soul and spirit. Because they leave the physical body, they temporarily fall into another dimension's spacetime; and because that spacetime did not then exist, the soul and spirit got stuck in this interlayer. So ghosts can sometimes appear in this spacetime, then return to the interlayer — also why humans and ghosts cannot directly touch each other. If soul and spirit and the corpse could always remain coincident at one spatial point without separating, then for decades the soul and spirit would constantly manifest in this spacetime; through some unknown effect, something like flesh would be remolded according to the previous form. After dividing the ghost realm — equivalent to establishing a new spacetime, the yin underworld of later Daoism — this spacetime was constructed from the incense-offering dharma realm. So the soul and spirit after death fully fell into another spacetime, no longer in the interlayer. So for ordinary people Greater Yin form-refinement became largely impossible, unless one could break through another spacetime's boundary into the interlayer. Hence later only some Daoists specially practiced this method. The above explanation is pure brainstorming — just listen if you like. As for the Six-Jia form-refinement, it is actually another form of Greater Yin refinement. According to texts: The Zhengyi True Person said: What is form-refining? Its states are three. Those cultivating the Dao of long life must all clearly understand vital qi, connecting and continuing decline. Each jiazi is sixty days as one jia; among humans are sixty jia, called yin jia; in Heaven are sixty jia, called yang jia. When one ten-day jia ends, at midnight yang jia of ten days descends from Heaven, continuing the yin jia. Yin and yang are not solitary; vital qi continues — then people have no illness. If when one ten-day jia ends, at midnight yang jia does not descend, people fall ill, entered by evil. The Liuren Jing says: On jia and ji days at midnight jiazi is born; sixty days all complete, cycle and restart; sixty years is one great period. Practicing Zhengyi, court-request vital qi, no evil disrupts. At sixty years extend another sixty, to one hundred twenty — slightly different from before. Because true qi accumulates solidly, qi and spirit join, all works succeed. From one hundred twenty extend three jiazi to one hundred eighty years, until five-six three hundred years — yin and yang thirty-six thousand — spirit and qi gather unscattered, able to become corpse-liberated: dead by day, reborn by dusk; the flesh body tours the Five Peaks and seventy-four directions, each matter completed; then able to ascend in daylight, flying without support — all Zhengyi's way. Or some practice Zhengyi, merit complete and accomplished, washing the black registers, removing the name; dew-shadow yang-refining — though merit complete and Dao manifest, before knowing the Dao, accumulated crimes and calamities destroyed skin and flesh, damaged bones and sinews. After accomplishment obtain the cicada molt, leave skin and change bones, hide traces in caves, nourish marrow, moisten skin and flesh; a thousand days before court, receive affairs at the Five Peaks — merit equal to the above. Or have hidden accumulations for generations without flowing good, all evils gather; drinking, eating, greed and lust damage the five zang; only realizing late. Diligently practicing, though accomplished and named in the immortal registers, the body perishes, corpse heavy; when the Dao time nears the body cannot be excellent — then the Greater Yin Lord descends into the body; five zang six fu three hundred sixty yin gods attend and guard; darkly dissolve muscle, expose bone leaving five zang, hundred gods guard. Or one year, two years, or ten years — depending on prior fortune's depth — then descend the Grand Medical Doctor, re-fatten bone and flesh, slowly as before, revive and rise again, body like a jade person. Or for worldly affairs in caves, hide and nourish form-body; after a thousand days roam the Greater Yin Water Emperor's court; affairs completed become a water-repository clerk, dwelling in four seas and famous mountains as sealing-pillar officials. Accumulated merit accomplished, transfer to Five Peaks official ranks; gradually slowly see the way of true immortals. Perfected Wang said: These three states of refining methods are all in the lower scroll — no need to elaborate further." This is what the Cantong Qi means by "the six jia according to the day-chambers." Form-refining methods' goal is generally to solve one problem: what to do when the physical body ages and rots? Like Golden and Jade Liquid form-refinement: continuously increasing the physical body's vitality and renewing vigor — but the problem is this process cannot be repeated forever; energy is always consumed, so the body always has times of decay. And methods like Greater Yin or Six-Jia form-refinement try to revive even after the physical body has rotted. Of course in Perfected Wei's view these are all methods not worth mentioning — as himself a grandmaster of external alchemy, these methods were far less simple and direct than taking external elixir medicines. The yin way loathes nine-one; turbid chaos disturbs the primal fetus. This refers to sexual alchemy. The Dao has nine-one, Heaven nine-one, Earth nine-one, human nine-one; four nines combine to thirty-six — a microcosm of the thirty-six heavens. Sexual arts usually use related concepts. Its practice process is complex: generally entering the altar, visualizing troops, contemplating qi, opening matters as beginnings; then contemplating various qi, involving incantations and stem-branch calculations; finally ending with spirit-calling, returning to infancy, severing death, treading the times, thanking life, and recounting merit. The primal fetus refers to where the root of spirit and qi is — the place formerly named the seed-pearl. The Cantong Qi holds that cultivating this way not only does not purify and harmonize the body, but lets turbid qi further disturb oneself. We will not elaborate. Swallowing qi gurgles the intestines and stomach; exhaling the true, inhaling external evils. Swallowing qi first means directly swallowing air — usually used during bigu (grain avoidance). When hunger appears, swallowing external air can reduce hunger and protect the intestines and stomach. For example the recent noisy "grain-avoidance decree" incident involving Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan — many think a week without food is making a fuss; actually a normal person drinking water can go two or three weeks without food. If the body can undergo more reasonable grain-avoidance cycles, one or two months without food is also fine. Western research generally thinks the body can last at most three weeks without food. Actually when a person dies of starvation, the first danger is death from gastric perforation. If gastric perforation can be avoided, after a time the body produces a substance called ketone bodies; guiding this out takes about four to six weeks. The key to producing it is no intake of starch and sugar — during this period the person is extremely uncomfortable. Once past this month or so, ketone bodies work; the sugar and water the body needs mainly come from fat decomposition. Combined with taking qi and medicine, this can far exceed three weeks. Currently grain-avoidance specialists are mainly two types: one drinks only water for two or three months as a cycle, then resumes eating briefly, then continues grain avoidance; the other eats only extremely small amounts daily with water, living long this way — some do quite well. Grain avoidance helps regulate body and mind; some hard-to-cure diseases can be healed with grain avoidance's assistance — e.g. someone with severe cervical spondylosis recovered through grain avoidance plus meditation. Some might think cervical spondylosis is a pathological bone change impossible to self-heal — actually a past mistaken view. Humans have astonishing self-healing power; immune cells can treat materials like herniated cervical discs as foreign bodies, then break them down with enzymes, achieving self-healing. Modern research keeps advancing, discovering things previously unrecognized in the body — like the human microbiome, which can itself be a primitive natural "pharmacy." Nearly a third of real drugs come from microorganisms or plants; the human body has thousands of bacteria of different kinds in different locations, forming microbial ecosystems. Based on this, University of California researchers, through new data-analysis software studying bacteria samples from the human body, identified many bacterial gene clusters; switching these clusters on can control production and secretion of active molecules. Researchers identified 3,118 gene clusters encoding proteins forming a giant "molecular factory" that can produce special drug molecules to help treat human diseases. In ancient China many things that "seemed unscientific" have gradually been verified one by one with modern science — especially many Daoist concepts, continuously proven. This is a very beneficial progress. Day and night not lying asleep; dark and new moon never resting. Body grows daily weary; trance-like as if mad. Hundred vessels boil and gallop; no place for clarity and stillness. Day and night not sleeping, staying up through new and full moons — the result is a body increasingly weary, the person dazed as if demented; hundred vessels boiling without rest, completely losing the way of clarity and stillness. The Zhen'gao says: "Learning the Dao, first restrain the hun and po, eliminate ghost corpses. Often on dark and new moon days, gengshen and jiayin days, purify the mind and bathe; sit upright properly; best not to sleep. With a true cinnabar brush dot below the left eye corner; with a realgar brush dot below the right nose, slightly entering the hollow. After dotting, first click teeth three times and slightly incant: 'Upper scene flies mysterious, cinnabar-yellow scatters smoke; qi gathers empty evils, corpse filth sinks and annihilates; harmonize hun, refine po, raise form and join true; make me undying, ten thousand ages forever complete; intelligence pierces vision, long enjoying beneficial rivers.' After reciting, click teeth three times, swallow liquid three times; then with the right hand's third finger press below the right nostril, left hand's second finger pinch below the left eye, each seven times until finished. Pressing these two places yin-wise — these are the gateways of the seven po's wandering corpses. Iron essence, thieves of evil, the bridge — so receiving cinnabar-yellow's essence blocks the path of corpse ghosts. This is the supreme method of Taiji; constantly practiced, hun and po become harmonious and soft, corpse filth disperses and is cut off — long life and immortality." The Zhen'gao teaches a method of restraining hun and po: on dark and new moon days, gengshen and jiayin days, purify the mind and bathe, then sit upright properly — best not falling asleep. What is "sitting upright properly" (weizuo)? The ancients knelt with both knees on the ground, upper body erect — proper upright kneeling, showing seriousness and respect. Sixty days is about two months; new and dark moon days in two months total four days; among the sixty jiazi there are two more days — six total in sixty days, roughly once every ten days. This method of restraining hun and po: anyone who has long knelt for incense knows upright sitting greatly improves one's spiritual bearing — this is one expression of the hun-po restraining effect. It resembles the Confucian "restraining the self" — can be understood as a form of ascetic practice — yet it is for beginners in the Dao, though it also has many unexpected effects. But it is not a method of the Great Dao — only early-stage restraint of hun and po. Also for Daoist schools, it is not a bad way to test a beginner's perseverance and willpower. Heaping earth to erect altar and hall; morning and evening reverently sacrificing. Ghosts and spirits appear in form and image; in dreams moved by them. Heart joyful and mind pleased, thinking longevity assured. Sudden death by heavenly mandate — bones exposed, flesh rotten. Every move thus violates; perverse, losing the pivot. There are also those who specially set up altars, sacrificing to ghosts and spirits morning and evening, trying thus to obtain their blessings for longevity. Sensing ghosts and spirits in dreams, or seeing their forms in reality, they are very pleased — then suddenly die, thinking longevity assured, but sudden death remains, only a rotting corpse left. In this world there are many sayings that merely chanting scriptures and worshipping gods all day brings longevity. But according to the concepts of our Yinfu school's learning, this set is basically not accepted — so reading the Cantong Qi feels especially intimate. Of course nothing is absolute: if one has mastered Daoism's secret scripture-reading methods, that is another matter. This method is rarely mentioned in this age. Generally it involves different visualizations while reading scripture, coordinated with the seven luminaries and stars' changes; each reading is equivalent to one practice session. Different from ordinary worldly chanting — another matter. In Daoism there are many arts believed to ward off calamity, eliminate disaster, prolong life, and pass through hardship; various life-prolonging and fortune-blessing rituals are also many. But if carefully studied in depth, one understands that "life-prolonging" in the methods is completely different — mostly first-aid methods, not arts for longevity and health. As the Wusheng Santian Yutang Dafa's Life-Prolonging chapter says: The Master said: Fallen into numbers, one cannot escape numbers. Bound by form, one cannot leave form. Thus the Lingbao scriptures say: Sun, moon, and five planets also have waning and waxing; the most holy spirits also have rest and adversity; late learners also have illness and injury. All these fall into numbers and are bound to form. Then arise the methods of passing hardship and prolonging life. If form is in formlessness, numbers in numberlessness; things without blemish, ghosts without numinous response — what hardship is there to pass? Although people are covered by the dusty net, dyed by illusory glue — without the power of methods to avert, how to escape disaster's hardship? Moreover there is hunger and fullness, toil and service; summer heat, damp, wind and cold — once contrary to regulation, easily injuring primal qi. Meeting year-calamity stars shining, month-hardship meetings on the body; yearly fortune clashing, residence unfavorable. Setting vows to Heaven, mouth promising mind opposing. Cursing others, cursed oneself. Demons and specters occupying women; flying earth, flying calamity startling infants. Slight loss of moderation, disaster follows. Without relying on the mysterious subtle, who can transcend? So especially in this chapter, detailed is the way of saving people." Even the most holy spirits have rest and adversity; so late learners' illness and injury are also unavoidable — due to destiny. Thus arose the methods of passing hardship and prolonging life. But numbers without numbers, form without form, ghosts without response — how can hardship be passed? Because people are covered by the dusty net and acquire many habits; without relying on method-power to avert, disaster and hardship cannot be avoided. Moreover people have food, drink, daily activities, climate changes — if regulation is improper and health not attended to, primal qi is often injured, causing illness. Also there is inauspicious fate, bad annual fortune, calamity stars shining, month-hardship stars on the body, yearly fortune clashing, or unfavorable residential feng shui; also random vows to Heaven; or mouth promising others mind rebuking; or cursing others; or being cursed; or evil demons possessing bodies; or flying earth and calamity affecting children — any slight problem easily brings disaster. Without mysterious and subtle methods, hard to solve. And the Mibao Doudu E Fa further says: Alas! Late learners' minds lost in dusty toil; market and court scholars buried in profit's path. Wanting to cling to life with no way to prolong; wanting to escape hardship with no method to pass. All these are fixed by numbers; trouble comes from having form. Since the body has not penetrated the true, naturally hard to guard against kalpa's fortune. Whenever there is the hundred-six's disaster and danger, secretly report to the high firmament's Dipper-pole — the secret of preserving life and completing the body, the mystery of averting disaster and apologizing for faults. This method is ordinary people's emergency doorway, the main road of saving the living. If he cultivates the higher Dao, attains penetration of true vacuum, qi complete and spirit whole, body peaceful and calm — why rely on others' strength to cultivate and avert?" The meaning is clear: clinging to life cannot prolong; escaping hardship is also impossible — these are fixed numbers. The method of secretly reporting to the high firmament's Dipper-pole is for emergencies, not for clinging to life or escaping hardship. If one sincerely cultivates the higher Great Dao, penetrates and awakens to true vacuum's ultimate, qi complete and spirit whole, body peaceful and calm — one needs not rely on others to help cultivate and avert. So the true way of longevity and health is still finding a good environment and solidly nourishing health and cultivating. Myriad arts are many; a thousand paths with ten thousand. Advancing and retreating violate Huang and Lao; twisting and turning oppose the Nine Capital. These arts are many, thousands and tens of thousands of paths, yet all violate Huang-Lao's intent and also oppose the Nine Mysterious Way. Following them, one naturally cannot seek the Great Dao. "Huang-Lao" means the Yellow Emperor and Laozi; the ancients jointly called it the art of Huang-Lao. "Nine Capital," according to the Lingbao Yinyu: "The Nine Capital is the nine-layered terrace, sitting on Yujing Mountain, radiant above the Mysterious Capital." The Dengzhen Yinjue says: "Taiji's Nine Mysterious Terrace, the azure-bi simple writings are within." The Neiyin Yuzi says: "The nine-layered terrace sits on Yujing Mountain, radiant above the Mysterious Capital. Flying heavens often scatter lily's fragrance, flowing five clouds' flowers. On the terrace is the True Jade郎 of Great Truth; thrice daily a ten-cut banner; one circuit then all heavens court, circling the terrace three times, reciting the cavern chapters." The Nine Capital refers to the nine-layered jade terrace on Yujing Mountain, also called the Nine Mysterious Terrace. Within, Danxiao and Bixu refer to the divisions of Yujing Mountain — hence jointly called "xiao-bi," and called the azure-bi simple writings. The Daoyin Sanguang Jing says: "Three lights illuminate the eight assemblies; the scattered Nine Mysterious Terrace." — also referring here. Within are more cultivation secrets: when sun, moon, heart, and kidney each return to one place and breathe out as one body, this is called three lights illuminating the eight assemblies — like the dharma master standing on the Nine Mysterious Terrace, able to issue commands.