Mysterious Scripture of the Heart Seal of the Highest Jade Emperor

The three superior medicines are spirit, qi, and essence—in a haze and a daze, in deep obscurity.

Guard nonbeing and keep to being; in an instant it is complete. Whirlwind back and blend them; in one hundred days the work becomes effective.

In silent audience to the High Emperor, in one ji one ascends. The wise easily awaken; the benighted find it hard to practice.

Tread the heavenly radiance; breath nurtures the clear. Exit the mysterious, enter the female; as if lost, as if remaining.

Continuous without end, firm in the calyx, deep in the root. Each person has essence; essence joins its spirit.

Spirit joins its qi; qi joins its truth. Without obtaining the truth, all is forced naming.

Spirit can enter stone; spirit can fly in form. Entering water it does not drown; entering fire it is not burned.

Spirit depends on form to arise; essence depends on qi to fill. Never withered, never damaged, like pine and cypress forever green.

The three medicines share one principle—wonder beyond hearing. When they gather, there is being; when they scatter, there is zero.

The seven orifices intercommunicate; each orifice is bright. Holy sun and holy moon illuminate the golden court.

Once gained, forever gained; naturally the body is light. Great harmony overflows; the bones scatter cold jade.

Obtaining the elixir, one is effective; not obtaining it, one collapses. The elixir is within the body—neither white nor blue.

Recite and hold it ten thousand times; the wondrous principle becomes clear of itself.

 

The three superior medicines are spirit, qi, and essence—in a haze and a daze, in deep obscurity.

    The method of internal alchemy imitates external alchemy: it does not gather medicines from outside, but trains within. Alchemy requires medicaments; the medicaments within the human body are essence, qi, and spirit. Thus the three superior medicines are essence, qi, and spirit—referring here to prenatal essence, prenatal spirit, and prenatal qi, not postnatal essence, qi, and spirit. When they can merge in the prenatal state, one enters a haze and a daze, deep obscurity. As Master Cui says in the Mirror of the Medicine Entrance: “Prenatal qi, postnatal qi—those who obtain it are ever as if drunk.”

    “Prenatal essence” is innate, the root of life; essence is also the root of forming. In the Huainanzi it was earliest called “form, qi, and spirit”—but form here does not mean the physical body; in antiquity it referred to the art of “refining form,” that is refining prenatal essence, not training the flesh. Do not confuse the two. The Highest Clarity school's internal-mist practice often chants: “Great mist issues radiance, numinous mist shifts in four directions; qi coils and knots, five colors pierce heaven. Spirit smoke opens and joins, gold and stone flower with truth; thick purple void, refining form preserved complete. Emerging scenes hide in the depths, five spirits transform and divide; combining brightness fan the empty, riding the six clouds in season; harmonize and gather my body, ascending to the Nine Heavens.” Then one clicks the teeth seven times and swallows seven times downward—this is a method of regulating the misty qi within the body to refine form, hence also called the art of combining qi.

Guard nonbeing and keep to being; in an instant it is complete. Whirlwind back and blend them; in one hundred days the work becomes effective.

    Although cultivation is like a hen brooding eggs—constant in doing—the attainment actually occurs in an instant. Daoist methods, once practiced according to the formula, open at once and are gained forever. The key formula for entering is “guard nonbeing and keep to being,” so it can be done in an instant. The four words “guard nonbeing and keep to being” are extremely refined: seeming both present and absent, both remaining and lost, complete in an instant. “Whirlwind back and blend them” means using inner breath for the blending; thus within one hundred days the work becomes effective.

    This again matches the Mirror of the Medicine Entrance: “Raise the wind of Xun, operate the fire of Kun, enter the yellow chamber, complete the ultimate treasure.”

Silent audience to the High Emperor; in one ji one ascends. The wise easily awaken; the benighted find it hard to practice.

    “Silent audience to the High Emperor”—here the High Emperor refers to the Highest Jade Emperor. Silent audience uses the secret aperture of the Daoist mind method; once the silent-audience method is mastered, the rite is performed within a single mind—no talismans, incantations, or diagrams are needed. As Celestial Master Xujing said: “The original spirit directly holds a letter; a cold light shoots through the void, reaching straight to Jade Capital and Golden Palace; numinous grace like sparks descends the heavenly street. Golden light blazes, illuminating the cloud city; a million thunder soldiers receive the command and move. No need for diagrams or incantations—even in drought can bring rain, and can clear when raining.” Always practicing silent audience, accumulating merit and diligently working, only one ji—twelve years—and one may ascend. This principle and method are actually very simple; the wise grasp it easily, while the benighted and uncomprehending find it very difficult.

    In the Dao枢 (Pivot of the Dao), scroll 10, Huayang chapter: “What is inner observation? Observing self, not things; observing within, not without. I have a method of observing mind: not a single thought arises, like holding a basin of water, always clear. I have a method of observing heaven: sitting quietly all day in silent audience to the High Emperor. I have a method of observing the nose: ever as if a hanging thread above the nose, rising and re-entering, descending and re-rising. When inner observation reaches its height, qi enters the mud-pill palace and spirit soars beyond the inner court. Those shamans enter samadhi and grow dull in silence, stopping only at the yin spirit leaving the shell. Daoist sitting-forgetting, if prolonged, becomes hard and attached—how could spirit and qi achieve completion? Therefore the method of inner observation takes purifying mind as its root and cutting off discursive thought as its function; sinks the heart's fire to the elixir field, without counting the effort. As Bodhidharma said: 'With not a single thought leaking, inner concentration naturally settles and the original spirit congeals.' Why is qi embryo-breathing easy to practice but hard to accomplish? Because there is still a deluded mind. Why is true embryo-breathing hard to practice but easy to accomplish? Because there is a pure and quiet nature. The formula of embryo-breathing: close the qi you take in, keep the breath that is transmitted; continuous as if present, use it without strain—this is enough.”

Tread the heavenly radiance; breath nurtures the clear. Exit the mysterious, enter the female; as if lost, as if remaining, continuous without end—firm in the calyx, deep in the root.

    Tread the heavenly radiance—what is heavenly radiance? The three lights of sun, moon, and stars. What is treading? The stars are the Gang and Dipper—that is, treading the Gang and arranging the Dipper. The accomplished practitioner, walking, silently accords with the Dao, and naturally treads the stars and steps on the three lights. Breath nurtures the clear—the key is the word nurture; clear means the clarity of heaven. Exiting the mysterious and entering the female, xuan and pin are the Qian–Kun aperture: “This aperture is no ordinary aperture, Qian and Kun jointly composing it; named the spirit-qi cavity, within is the essence of Kan and Li”—the best explanation. “Continuous without end”—people often take this to mean external breathing, which is wrong. What is continuous without end is not external breath but breath within the body. Only this one breath can connect with the prenatal; every breath returns to the root, deepening day by day, so one can penetrate into the prenatal; and thereby one can firm the calyx and deepen the root.

    From Patriarch Chen Tuan's thirty-two-character formula: “Dragon returns to the origin-sea; yang hides within the yin. People call it the coiled dragon—I coiled the heart. Silently store its use; breath, deep and profound. Lie on white clouds above; the world has no kindred spirit”—one may contemplate and verify.

    One may also verify with the Dao枢, scroll 27, Taibai Returning-Elixir chapter: “The method of embryo-breathing: quiet the intent, guard the will, remove noise and clutter, single-minded without confusion. Then sit as before in the method of swallowing sun and moon; next imagine above the spleen there is earth, on the earth a golden cauldron, in the cauldron an infant of our form, kneeling in the cauldron. Rest the left and right hands on the shoulders, face upward and open the mouth; then the essences of sun-hua and moon-hua—the body of golden liquor and jade liquor—swallow them in count as before. At night, if there is no moon-hua, swallow golden and jade liquor thirty-six times. When sun and moon are both timely, apply fire by the hours. Every seven days the infant turns once; twenty-eight days make four turns; then apply fire once. Fire is beneath the cauldron; imagine earth covering above; the fire is within the earth furnace, whose base is founded on the cauldron. Practice the one-hundred-and-eight count daily; when the fire-person descends, it passes beside the cauldron's hearth. In this way, after four turns one moves the fire; when the fire-nurturing method is fulfilled ten times, embryo-breathing is accomplished. One great firing—first remove the jade cover—and the infant becomes the son of long life. If subjected to fire, it must rise above; so naturally it is at the crown and flies—this is the completion of the great elixir.”

Each person has essence; essence joins its spirit; spirit joins its qi; qi joins its truth. Without obtaining the truth, all is forced naming.

    The way of cultivating perfection lies in truth: qi joins the true. Within the human body, true essence arises; this true essence joins human spirit, and spirit joins qi. All three refer to true essence, true qi, and true spirit—not postnatal things.

    As the saying goes: “True wonder is wonder; true origin is origin; true spirit is spirit; true truth is truth; true Dao is Dao. Dao and virtue, virtue and things—all ten thousand things are obtained.”

Spirit can enter stone; spirit can fly in form. Entering water it does not drown; entering fire it is not burned. Spirit depends on form to arise; essence depends on qi to fill. Never withered, never damaged—like pine and cypress forever green.

    Here spirit means the yang spirit, which can fly, transform, enter water without drowning, and enter fire without being burned. Spirit can arise by depending on form; essence fills by depending on qi; therefore one can never wither or be damaged, ever green like pine and cypress.

    In the Supreme Mystery Precious Canon, upper scroll: “Spirit, refined, can exit form. What is refining spirit? Guarding mind. Guarding mind alone can stabilize spirit and prevent aging, but cannot release spirit beyond birth and death. Releasing spirit beyond birth is in the completion of spirit. Through the ages people only speak of completing qi and preserving truth, not of completing spirit and refining truth. To complete spirit and refine truth: first imagine mind as bright moon; within the form, vaguely someone sits; refine and complete without fixation, rising to the mud-pill, sinking to the elixir sea. Long after, the body has radiance, emerging from within oneself; following its radiance one emerges beyond form—no physical body, abiding and penetrating naturally. Because spirit exits spirit, it is called spirit exits spirit.”

The three medicines share one principle—wonder beyond hearing. When they gather, there is being; when they scatter, there is zero.

    The three medicines are essence, qi, and spirit. Though different, their principle is shared: all come from the one qi; gathered, they form form; scattered, they become qi. Thus essence, qi, and spirit, though divided into three, are in fact one—this is called the way of three-in-one.

    As the Commentary on the Scripture of the Primordial Commencement Explaining Prenatal Virtue and the Dao says: “No thing does not receive the Dao's one in order to live; what it receives, when separated, dies. Though called living, it receives the Dao's scattering arrival. The so-called Dao has never lived and never died. Because things cannot obtain the Dao's entirety, they are circumscribed by life and death. Yet depending on the Dao they are not destroyed; therefore living and dying, gaining and losing arise together, entering and exiting with the Dao as one.”

The seven orifices intercommunicate; each orifice is bright. Holy sun and holy moon illuminate the golden court.

    The human body has seven orifices; each must be bright, with sun and moon illuminating the golden court. Here “golden court” metonymically means the head, because the heavenly court is within the human head.

    One may verify with the Lingbao Infinite Salvation Highest Classic Great Method, scroll 46: “Whenever lying down, first spread out hands and feet and lie face up, then contemplate the five viscera; when done, again contemplate the Celestial Worthy seated凝 in the yellow court, radiating great light, illuminating all ten directions. At such times, forget body and mind, attend to inner observation: how the spirit first born in me was凝 and clear, how daily it directs my form, how the spirit lodges, how another day one migrates the spirit, how one sinks in meditation. At first one feels dim and benighted; after a short while the mind-ground opens all at once, and one senses the four qi calm, sun and moon hanging light, double-shining within the dark palace—the contemplated Celestial Worthy sits clearly upright, with not a speck of dust; one distinctly hears the wondrous music of the immortal palace, and sees all manner of strange and splendid things in the world. One must not cling to images, lest the spirit wander. This is the clarity of original nature, the so-called 'luminously seeing the jade situation' spoken of in the scriptures. Still one must daily practice the method of blending sun and moon, which can nourish original nature. What is valued is that the yang spirit becomes strong, so one can span ten thousand li in a flash. When first beginning to observe, one must steady body and mind. If body and mind are unsteady, inverted winds arise.”

Once gained, forever gained; naturally the body is light. Great harmony overflows; the bones scatter cold jade.

    Although cultivation requires effort, once accomplished it is a matter of once gained forever gained; the body is naturally light and at peace within.

Obtaining the elixir, one is effective; not obtaining it, one collapses. The elixir is within the body—neither white nor blue. Recite and hold it ten thousand times; the wondrous principle becomes clear of itself.

    If one cannot cultivate and obtain the elixir, one cannot claim cultivation success, nor attain long life. The elixir is within the human body—neither white nor blue. These principles, recited and held more than ten thousand times without cease, will of themselves become clear.